Apparatus and method for facilitating the selection of products by buyers and the purchase of the selected products from a supplier

摘要

A method is disclosed for managing the sale of a plurality of items from a plurality of corresponding suppliers to at least one buyer, wherein the one buyer determines a description of the item to be purchased. The method enables each of the plurality of suppliers to store at least one catalogue of its items in a database and responding to a search request of the one buyer to identify any item in the catalogues stored in the database with a description that matches the item description of the buyer.