DISTRIBUTED ELECTRONIC COMMERCE SYSTEM WITH VIRTUAL SHOPPING CARTS FOR GROUP SHOPPING

摘要

An electronic commerce system includes a broker that enables third parties to create their own independent shopping carts including items from one or more merchants and/or items for group shopping. An agent, customer, or merchant can create and store a shopping cart containing one or more items. One or more customers can view the shopping cart to determine whether to purchase the item(s). To make the purchase, the customer(s) are transferred to a broker for the checkout. Where there is more than one customer, the customers can pledge to pay a portion of the total price for the cart. The customer(s) can purchase the items in the shopping cart in a single purchase transaction with the broker, rather than having to deal with each of the merchants. The broker interacts with the merchants to complete the transaction and can charge the customer(s) the appropriate amount or portion pledged.