Patent ID: 7707090

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for assisting a customer in choosing a combination of commodities, wherein a combination is composed of one commodity selected from each of N categories, and wherein N is an integer greater than one, the method comprising: (a) ranking the commodities within each category based, in part, on at least one optimization parameter; (b) creating a first combination for a first category by: (i) selecting a highest ranked commodity from the first category; (ii) automatically selecting any commodities in other categories that are linked to the commodity selected in step(b)(i); (iii) selecting a valid commodity for each of the categories from which a commodity has not already been selected for the first combination; (c) repeating (b) for the other N−1 categories to create N−1 other combinations; (d) calculating a total cost of each combination; and (e) presenting the combinations to the customer, wherein steps (a) through (e), inclusive, are executed on a computer device.