摘要 |
Shopping, the examining and purchase of goods or services from retailers is considered a leisure activity and an economic one with some people considering it recreational and therapeutic and others a task of inconvenience and vexation. Except for the advent of the Internet the fundamentals of shopping have not changed for centuries. However, at the same time the Internet provides unprecedented access to information such as maps, inventory, and pricing to users with fixed and portable electronic devices. Embodiments of the invention allow users to define needs and preferences against which the software application and software system establish results which may be presented to the user in a variety of formats allowing users to plan shopping activities to meet their preferences which may include visiting minimum number of outlets, travelling minimum distance within shopping environment, lowest cost, and stock of outlets as well as comparing Internet and "bricks-and-mortar" retail outlets. |