Automated system and method for selection and procurement of products and services

摘要

An automated system and method for the selection and procurement of products and services by at least one customer from one or more of a plurality of merchants over a general purpose computer network, such as the Internet. The method comprises the steps of: transmitting information about a plurality of products/services offered for sale by each of a plurality of merchants to a database; and organizing the transmitted information for each of the plurality of products/services into a hierarchical categorization in the database based upon a predefined set of categories such that all of the transmitted information for each of the plurality of products/services offered for sale by each of the plurality of merchants is organized in the database in a similar manner. Because of such hierarchical categorization of the database, a customer can perform one search for a desired product/service from the transmitted information for the plurality of merchants and compare the transmitted information from each of the plurality of merchants.