Patent ID: 7099833

Claim:
A method for conducting electronic commerce, comprising: electronically visiting, by a customer interested in shopping for an item, a preselected comparison shopping site, and inquiring about the item and comparative prices thereof; running, by the preselected comparison shopping site, a query on a plurality of electronic stores carrying the item, and asking for a price of the item, the plurality of electronic stores including at least one smartStore; determining by the at least one smartStore that the query is received from the preselected comparison shopping site; and selectively determining, by the smartStore, an offer price of the item and selectively returning one of a static price and a modified price, wherein the modified price and selectively returning, by the smartStore, of said one of the static price and the modified price result from: (i) the smartStore sending a request to the preselected comparison shopping site asking for comparison prices of the items from the plurality of electronic stores other than the smartStore; and (ii) the smartStore learning a best offer price received by the preselected comparison shopping site from the plurality of electronic stores other than the smartStore.