METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

摘要

In a method for electronic commerce, a telephone call is received from a customer (200). Customer identification information is collected. A request for a product, service or information is received from the customer via the telephone call (205). Credit or debit card information is received from the customer. The request is received by a human operator. The Internet is searched for the requested product, service or information. The search result are reported to the customer. An authorization is from the customer. An order for goods or services is placed with a vendor found by the search. Customer identification information and information characterizing the order is stored in a database. The goods are shipped directly from the vendor to the customer. The customer identification information may be sold to third parties. In another embodiment, telephone answering services are sold to a customer. Telephone calls are received on behalf of the customer, wherein the telephone calls are launched by a caller selecting an icon or hypertext link in a web browser of the caller. The icon or hypertext link may appear on a web page of the customer. The received telephone calls are answered by a human operator.