The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 11, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 27, 1999
James J. Toohey, Boca Raton, FL (US);
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method for processing multiple store-level electronic shopping carts in an E-commerce mall extends the electronic shopping cart concept and increases processing flexibility for mall participants by the creation of an electronic shopping basket for an E-commerce mall that contains within it the virtual ledgers of the E-commerce stores which, in the aggregate, embody the E-commerce mall. A method for processing virtual ledgers in a virtual mall enables implementors to process all virtual ledgers at the mall-level without sacrificing the collection of purchase data for each store-level transaction, typically associated with the processing of the virtual ledger at the store-level. This scheme results from modern business processes, such as monetary transactions and inventory tracking, which are dependent upon the electronic shopping cart paradigm and are triggered upon a store-level checkout. Thus, a particular advantage of the present invention is that electronic commerce shoppers are provided with the convenience of the single payment transaction for all shopping in the virtual mall and the virtual stores can receive data to update respective point of sale systems.