| abstract |
Distributed electronic commerce is conducted over annetwork by substantially separating transactionnfunctionality from merchant content. Electronic commercentransaction functionality is provided by a commerce servernhaving a commerce database. The commerce server storesnmerchant and purchaser profile data and merchant contentnsummaries on the commerce database. The purchaser browsesnand searches for product and merchant information usingnthe commerce server, and is provided with more detailedninformation stored at a separate merchant content servernsystem. The purchaser selects products to purchase, and anpurchase order is sent to the commerce server. Thencommerce server initiates the settlement of accountsnbetween the merchant and purchaser, and initiates ordernfulfillment for the selected product. The separation ofntransaction functionality and merchant content ontonseparate servers under the control of a commerce servicenprovider and a merchant, respectively, provides a morenefficient and effective way of carrying out electronicncommerce over a network. |