Commerce System and Method of Acquiring Product, Assortment, and Pricing Information to Control Consumer Purchasing

摘要

A commerce system has retailers offering products for sale. Product information associated with the products is collected by retrieving the product information from a website of the retailer through a consumer computer system and by confirming and updating the product information, including per unit pricing and price multiples, through electronic communication with the consumers while in a store of the retailer. The product information is stored in a database. A website is provided for consumers to create a shopping list with weighted preferences for product attributes. The shopping list is optimized based on the product information in the database and the weighted preferences for the product attributes. The optimized shopping list is made available to the consumer to assist with purchasing decisions. The purchasing decisions within the commerce system are controlled by enabling the consumers to select the products for purchase based on the optimized shopping list.