Patent ID: 7610218

Claim:
An improved method for an e-commerce retailer to display and sell items of a third party comprising: identifying, by a processor, each item of a third party supplier with a unique identifier, wherein a particular third party supplier provides photo-finishing services; associating, by a processor, the unique identifier of the item with an image for the item, said image residing on a computer maintained by the third party supplier, wherein the unique identifier is further associated with a user, at least one of the images corresponding to user photographic images; in response to a product request from the user to the e-commerce retailer, the e-commerce retailer presenting at least some of the images of third party supplier items to the user for on-line commerce, said images being retrieved from said computer maintained by the third party supplier in response to the product request, the product request being a user-initiated request for at least one specific item of the third party; and in response to an order request from the user to the e-commerce retailer, for one or more items, identifying, by a processor, based at least in part on said unique identifier, each item requested, the user, and an appropriate third party supplier for each requested item, automatically generating, by a processor, an order for each requested item to be transparently sent to the third party supplier, and when the order includes items from the e-commerce retailer and user photographic images, splitting amongst the retailer and appropriate third party suppliers.