Patent ID: 6868392

Claim:
An electronic shopping system comprising: a customer interface for enabling receipt of a customer-specific merchandise or service request; a customer database system for storing a plurality of customer records, each record including customer profile data and merchandise and service request history data for a plurality of past and present merchandise and service requests submitted by the customer; a retailer database system for storing a plurality of retailer records, each record including retailer merchandise or service data; an electronic shopping agent having access to the customer database system and the retailer database system, the electronic shopping agent being configured to locate a customer record corresponding to the requesting customer from the customer database system, and further being configured to identify a retailer from the retailer database system based on the received request, and generate a request for proposal based on the customer-specific merchandise or service request, customer profile data, and merchandise and service request history data; means coupled to the electronic shopping agent for transmitting the request for proposal to a computer system of the identified retailer; means for performing a search for a product or service based on the merchandise or service request, customer profile data, and merchandise and service request history data; means coupled to the electronic shopping agent for receiving from the identified retailer, in response to the request for proposal, information on a product or service selected during the search; means for updating the customer record in response to the receipt of information on the product or service; and means coupled to the electronic shopping agent for forwarding to the requesting customer the information on the product or service.