Patent ID: 7542924

Claim:
A method comprising: creating a primary online shopping basket having an associated basket ID and a first unique customer ID; creating at least one secondary online shopping basket having a second unique customer ID; associating said at least one secondary basket with customer-defined rules that define purchasing requirements for items assigned to each of the secondary online shopping baskets; allowing entry into said at least one secondary online shopping baskets for selected items that satisfy the customer-defined rules; automatically merging by a programmed computer the at least one secondary shopping baskets into the primary online basket to create a merged online shopping basket and displaying contents of the merged online shopping basket on a single web page and being viewable at one time, before checkout of the items corresponding to the contents of the merged online shopping basket; and grouping the selected items in the merged online shopping basket according to customer IDs and displaying contents of the merged online shopping basket with the selected items in lists grouped according to customer IDs and being viewable at one time.