Patent ID: 7117178

Claim:
A method for managing a noncredit transaction for a sale of goods between a customer located in a first country and an Internet merchant having the goods in a second country, the method comprising: receiving, by a provider computer operated by a provider affiliated with a plurality of geographically distributed provider offices, from the Internet merchant over a communications link between the Internet merchant and the provider computer, a communication relating to the transaction that includes a cost for the goods; determining, by the provider computer, a shipment of the goods from the second country to the first country as part of an aggregate shipment, wherein the aggregate shipment contains goods associated with a plurality of sales of goods; recording, by the provider computer over a communications link between the provider computer and an input device at one of the plurality of provider offices, confirmation of noncredit collection of the cost from the customer at the one of the plurality of provider offices in accordance with the communication; authorizing payment, by the provider computer, of the cost to the Internet merchant from the provider after receipt over the communications link between the Internet merchant and the provider computer of confirmation that the Internet merchant has initiated shipment of the goods directly to the customer.