Patent ID: 8738458

Claim:
An e-commerce based system comprising: a centralized manufacturer server system hosting a manufacturer's website and a plurality of dealer's websites and structured and arranged to view real-time dealer level inventory, product descriptions and pricing; and a consumer purchasing arrangement structured and arranged to allow consumers to purchase products electronically from a dealer through the manufacturer's website and through an intermediary of a middleware application system on the manufacturer server system without the consumers having to interface directly with the dealer's websites thereby providing reduced dealer costs, increased dealer security, increased dealer control, and in a low-maintenance manner for the dealer, wherein the manufacturer server system is configured to: collect information from the consumer regarding a machine; identify one or more systems of machine parts in the machine; identify one or more components of machine parts in the one or more systems; identify one or more groups of machine parts in the one or more components; receive a selection of: one of the one or more systems of machine parts; one of the one or more components of machine parts; and one of the one or more groups of machine parts, from the consumer; and provide information to the consumer regarding machine parts included in the selected one of the one or more systems of machine parts, the selected one of the one or more components of machine parts, and the selected one of the one or more selected groups of machine parts.