The present invention contemplates a variety of improved electronic catalog techniques including client generic broadcast of electronic catalog data, incremental electronic catalog updates, and regional processing (e.g., local distribution) of customer requests. The client generic broadcast of electronic catalog data de-couples bandwidth requirements from the number of serviced clients. Incremental catalog updates further minimize bandwidth requirements as catalogs can be updated without distribution of an updated catalog in its entirety. Through localized processing, the present invention inherently provides the customer a better mechanism for purchasing and receiving product via an electronic catalog, and provides the vendor a better platform for tracking and allocating resources. Although these several aspects of the present invention are described below as a complete, homogenous system, those skilled in the art will recognize that each aspect of the invention has significant individual benefits and may be implemented separately as desired by the system designer and/or called for by the specific application.
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