Patent ID: 7386476

Claim:
A method for an operating entity to offer a buying club to its customers over a network, operating entity aggregation purchases by the customers in the buying club in order to enable volume discounting for the buying club, the method comprising: providing membership in the buying club to a customer of the operating entity, the membership implemented at a website of the buying club over the network; and associating at least one selling entity with the buying club, the at least one selling entity providing items available for purchase through the buying club over the network; and associating a discounted price to an item available for purchase from the at least one selling entity through the buying club, the discounted price reflecting an amount commensurate with a number of members in the buying club; and providing a tool for searching items available for purchase, selling entities associated with the buying club, and categories of items; and receiving an order via the network from a registered member of the buying club to purchase the item; and implementing user preferences selected by the member, the user preferences including a listing of favorite items, wherein the implementing user preferences further includes sorting and filtering orders by submitted and unsubmitted, and reviewing a current status of orders resulting from the sorting and filtering; providing reports to members, the reports including details of activities conducted via the buying club; and automatically generating a purchase order on behalf of the registered member; and transmitting the purchase order to the selling entity via the network; and transmitting confirmation of the order to the registered member.