WO2001065450A1

WO2001065450A1 - Real time electronic commerce facilitator

Info

Publication number: WO2001065450A1
Application number: PCT/US2001/006574
Authority: WO
Inventors: Erik Stephen Arnold; Loren Karl Siebert
Original assignee: Clickreact
Priority date: 2000-03-02
Filing date: 2001-03-01
Publication date: 2001-09-07
Also published as: AU2001243356A1

Abstract

A system and method for facilitation an electronic commerce transaction are disclosed herein. The sellers can upload a vast number of products onto a homogeneous website and be able to communicate with individual or multiple buyers about individual or multiple products simultaneously. The website provides a search engine (200) that buyers (105a) can utilize to find sellers of a predetermined product, who are currently online within the website forum (235) and ready to discuss the product, negotiate over the price of the product, and execute the final sale of the product.

Description

REAL TIME ELECTRONIC COMMERCE FACILITATOR

PRIORITY STATEMENT

This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/186,446, entitled "Real Time Electronic Commerce Facilitator", by Erik Stephen Arnold and Loren Karl Siebert, filed March 2, 2000.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates to the facilitation of electronic commerce in a real time communication environment .

BACKGROUND

Sellers and buyers of goods try to find the best way of targeting one another to capitalize on their respective interests: A seller's goals include maximizing the number of buyers that can be reached, maximizing inventory turnover, maximizing profits, cutting costs, and ensuring the security of transaction. A buyers' goals include finding the lowest price, finding the most convenient location, finding the best service, finding the most convenient means of executing the transaction, and insuring the security of transaction.

Presently sellers of goods advertise via a number of means to attract as many potential buyers as possible.

The venues of advertisement include among others, television, radio, newspapers, yellow-pages, billboards, and flyers. Further, sellers open up storefronts where increasingly large inventories are carried to give buyers the choices needed to drive business. Countless other expenses exist. The buyer, on the other hand, searches through these venues of advertisement to try to find the best deal with respect to price, service, and convenience .

With the advent of the internet, many sellers and buyers have been able to meet under much more efficient circumstances. The seller can potentially save on storefront cost by not having to secure property in a commercial zone and can cut the number of staff. The seller can also reach a far broader group of potential buyers . The buyer can utilize search engines to quickly locate sellers and leap from internet site to internet site looking for the best deal. The buyer saves the time and expense of travel by shopping in this manner. The buyer can also find the best price from a large sample of sellers, all from the convenience of a home personal computer. Clearly the internet offers a medium for exchange that empowers both sellers and buyers. It follows that many internet sites have emerged in the form of portals, stand alone vendor sights, auction sights, each of which try to capitalize on the convenience of internet commerce .

However, many problems of inefficiency still exist. Portals send the buyer to stand alone websites that lack homogeneity, thus requiring the buyer to acclimate themselves to each site. Conversely millions of dollars have been spent by sellers in the design and launch of internet websites, only to find an inability to attract the necessary traffic required to make it worth the expense. 'Auction fatigue' is an ever increasing problem as buyers are outbid at last moment, are unable to purchase a good on the spot, and must deal with settlement and delivery risk. Sellers on auction sites also face bad bids, settlement risks, and inability to move large amounts of inventory quickly.

At one portal website, merchants set up their own website and obtain merchant accounts for credit card transactions. The portal aggregates all merchants products via their websites. However, a problem from a consumer's perspective is that the portal does not have a homogeneous look and feel because vendors create their own website. Additionally, a number of on-line sites have emerged which are ideal for the person-to-person exchange of a product. However, the auction format does not cater to the business-to-consumer transaction. Furthermore, the length of the auction and the cash settlement does not provide immediate purchase satisfaction to the buyer. These characteristics along with the increasing incidence of fraudulent representations has led to the growing sentiment of "auction-fatigue" among internet consumers. Other websites have originated the concept of taking extra inventory from manufacturers and selling it to buyers via a business-to-consumer auction. This format works well with large inventories of commodity-type goods (computers and computer peripherals are very popular on these auctions) , however, it becomes a cumbersome and time consuming process as the number of product and variations in product lines grow. Another website service provides merchants with the ability to set up a website, take credit card orders, and sell products for a fixed rate per transaction fee. The problem is that this service does not aggregate merchants. Accordingly merchants still have to generate adequate traffic on their own.

SUMMARY

A system, method, and apparatus are disclosed wherein buyers and sellers on the Internet at the same time may communicate with individual or multiple buyers about individual or multiple products simultaneously. The website aggregates users of the service through a search engine that buyers can utilize to find sellers of a predetermined product, who are currently online within the website forum and ready to discuss the product, negotiate over the price of the product, and execute the final sale of the product .

The Internet service also provides a way for the buyer to send an instant message to the seller, inviting the seller to an established chat room to negotiate a transaction involving the product. The buyer and seller communicate through a dialogue box within the chat room into which either party may enter a price, and both parties then have the ability to agree to the price entered into the dialogue box. If an agreement is reached, the details of the agreement are stored as a bill of record in a transaction server. This transaction server verifies the buyers credit card number and sends email confirmations of the transaction to both buyer and seller.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGURE 1 is a block diagram of a computer network for facilitating a transaction;

FIGURE 2 is an illustration of an exemplary merchant web page; FIGURE 3 is a block diagram of a transaction platform server;

FIGURE 4 is an exemplary merchant inventory database listing; FIGURE 5 is an illustration of an exemplary interface of a customer chat/dealing client;

FIGURE 6 is an illustration of an exemplary merchant's chat/dealing client;

FIGURE 7 is an illustration of an exemplary merchant's make offer page interface;

FIGURE 8 illustrates a customer's view of the merchant's pending offer;

FIGURE 9 is a flow diagram describing the process whereby the transaction platform server facilitates a purchase of goods from a merchant.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIGURE 1, there is illustrate a block diagram of a computer network for facilitating a transaction, wherein a transaction platform server 100, a buyer at terminal 105a (buyer's terminal) can purchase goods or services from a merchant at terminal 105b

(seller's terminal). Terminals 105a, 105b comprise any electronic data input/output interface such as a computer system, notebook, notepad, electronic organizer, or palm top. The terminals 105a, 105b and the transaction platform server 100 communicate to each other over a communication medium 110. The communication medium 110 includes any combination of communication media, such as, but not limited to, a coaxial cable, a fiber optic link, a wireless radio link, or a connection within the public switched telephone network. Another type of communication media is known as the Internet. The Internet comprises any number of local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs) , from corporations, educational institutions, the military, and government agencies from around the world, connected together by means of high capacity data links.

In many cases, the client computer 105 and the transaction platform server 100 are both directly connected to the Internet. The client computer 105 and transaction platform server 100 communicate by addressing and sending data packets in accordance with the protocols of the Internet, thereby establishing client/server connections. Alternatively, the client computer 105 can establish a connection using connection media (usually a connection within the public switched telephone network) with an internet port known as an internet service provider (ISP) and then use the internet to establish a connection from the ISP to the client computer 105.

A server, such as transaction platform server 100, is a computer which centralizes various resources for usage by any number of client terminals, such as the buyer's terminal 105a, and the seller's terminal 105b. The resources centralized by the transaction platform server 100 can include, for example, application program 115 and databases 120. Additionally, the server 100 can provision email service for the client terminals 105. The application program 115 comprises a series of executable instructions stored in memory (such as Random Access Memory, hard disk, floppy disk or optical disk) at the transaction platform server 100 and is preferably a multi-user program which can be simultaneously used by large numbers of client terminals 105. The client computers 105 access the centralized resources by establishing an input/output connection with the transaction platform server 100, known as a client/server connection, using the communication medium 110.

It is noted the computers, such as transaction platform server 100, buyer's terminal 105a, and seller's terminal 105b execute low level machine specific instruction known as machine code. With the world-wide reach of the internet, problems of incompatibility between application programs 115 at the transaction platform server 100 and the buyer's terminal 105a, and seller's terminal 105b can arise. To alleviate the foregoing problem, a program known as a browser 130 is used at the buyer's terminal 105a and merchant terminal 105b. The browser 130 is a program which executes application programs, such as application program 115, written in a high-level programming language. Therefore, the application program 115 need only be written in a high-level programming language, such as Java, which is universally enabled by browser 130.

The browser 130 provides a graphical user interface, known as a web page wherein the buyer's terminal 105a can interact with the transaction platform server 100_. and seller's terminal 105b by entering a web page ^* address therein. The web page can be programmed to receive user input and to output data through the use of objects, such as buttons, menus, and text boxes, to name a few. The programming of the objects occurs through the use of object-oriented programming, supported by the high-level programming language, e.g. Java. The foregoing objects are associated with the web page and spatially arranged through the use of a markup language, such as HyperText Markup Language (HTML) . Referring now to FIGURE 2, there is illustrated a block diagram of the transaction platform server 100. The transaction platform server 100 provides a homogenous interface environment for any number of merchant terminals 105b. The transaction platform servers 100 includes a database 205 accessible by application program 115. The database 205 stores a plurality of records 210, each one of which is associated with a particular merchant. The application program 115 at transaction platform server 100 includes a web page program 215 for providing a transaction platform web page displayable at the buyer's terminal 105a. The application program 115 also includes a search engine 220 for querying database 205, wherein the buyer can selectively access record (s) 210 in database 205.

Additionally, the transaction platform server 100 includes a number of chat rooms 235. Each chat room 235 is dedicated to a particular merchant terminal 105b, wherein buyer's at buyers' terminals 105a can have a chat session with the merchant. A chat room 235 provides a graphical user interface wherein a user at a guest terminal, such as buyer's server 105a, can enter a typewritten message therein, and have the message displayed in a graphical user interface at a selected other guest terminal (s), such as merchant terminal 105b, and vice versa in real time. The foregoing graphical user interfaces will be described below. The chat room 235 operates by maintaining a socket connection between the transaction platform server 100 and any number of guests, e.g. buyer's terminal 105a and merchant terminal 105b.

The merchants utilize a client/server connection between the merchant terminal 105b and the transaction platform server 100 to communicate the goods or services in an electronic format consistent with the format of the records 210 in the database 205. This can be achieved by a special merchant inventory web page provided by web page program 215 and displayable on a browser 130 at the merchant terminal 105b. The merchant inventory web page can provide a graphical user interface wherein a merchant at merchant terminal 105b can enter the information and have the information encapsulated as a database record object and forwarded to the database 205 at transaction platform server 100. Alternatively, a merchant inventory software program 240 executed at the merchant terminal 105b can receive the information and encapsulate the information as a database record object and forward the database record object to the database 205 at the transaction platform server 100. Referring now to FIGURE 3A, there is illustrated an exemplary transaction platform web page 305. The transaction platform web page 305 includes objects for assisting a user in locating particular records 210 from the database 205. The objects include a hierarchy subject folders 310 which start with general subjects and progress to more specific subjects. The user can begin by selecting a general subject folder 310a and traverse the hierarchy with more specific folders 310b to arrive at a search term. The foregoing is known as drilling down. The objects can also include a text box 315 wherein the user can type a search term. The search term, either received from the subject folders 310 or text box 315 is used by the search engine 220 to select particular record (s) 210 from the database 205. The particular records 210 are listed in a table 320 and the buyer can select a particular record 210.

Alternatively, a record 210 can be selected from a web page associated with the merchant terminal 105b. Referring now to FIGURE 3B, there is illustrated an exemplary merchant web page 355 associated with the merchant terminal 105b which would appear at client computer 105a. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the web page 205 is accessed by insertion of a web address into the browser 130 at buyer's terminal 105a. The merchant web page 205 includes a hypertext link 360 to the transaction platform server 100. A hypertext link 360 is an object wherein a particular web address associated therewith, e.g., the web address transaction platform server 100, is placed into the browser 130, and the record 210 associated with the merchant is selected, responsive to the user's selection. Additionally, the merchant's web page 355 can also include additional objects and advertisements. When a particular record 210 is selected either through the transaction server web page 305 or the merchant terminal web page 355, the application program 115 displays the information contained in the record 210 in a merchant inventory database listing. Referring now to FIGURE 4, there is illustrated an exemplary merchant inventory database listing, referenced generally by the numeral 400. The merchant inventory database listing 400 includes a list of goods 405 the merchant has listed to sell within the transaction platform server 100 which are retrieved from a record 210 in database 205. Associated with the list of goods 405 is a corresponding set of chat icons 410, wherein each of the goods 405 listed is associated with a particular one of the chat icons 410. The buyer at buyer's terminal 105a selects a specific good 415 from the list of goods 415, e.g., good 420, to discuss with the merchant by clicking on the chat icon 410 associated therewith, e.g., chat icon 425. Once the specific chat icon 425 is clicked, the application program 115 links the buyer's terminal 105a as a guest to the particular chat room 330 associated with the merchant. The chat room 330 then provides a customer chat/dealing client which appears on the screen of the buyer's terminal 105a through which the buyer can then have a chat session with the merchant . During the chat session, the buyer and merchant exchange text string messages which are input and displayed in chat/dealing clients provided by the chat room 330.

Referring now to FIGURE 5, there is illustrated an exemplary interface of the customer chat/dealing client 534. The interface of the customer chat/dealing client 534 enables the customer to discuss in text the specific good 420 with the merchant. The buyer enters text into a text entry bar 536. By typing on the keyboard of the buyer's terminal 105a, text is entered into the text entry bar 536. When the buyer is ready to send the text to the merchant, he clicks a text send key 538. Once the text send key 538 is clicked, the text in the text entry bar 536 is sent to and appears on a customer text box 540 of the customer chat client 534. Text dialogue that appears in the customer text box 540 appears simultaneously in the merchant's chat client.

Referring now to FIGURE 6, there is illustrated ■ an exemplary interface of a merchant chat client 642. The merchant chat client 642 appears on the screen of the merchant terminal 105b, when the merchant enters the chat room 330 associated therewith. The merchant can enter the chat room 330 associated therewith by, for example, establishing a client/server connection with the transaction platform server 100 and providing certain predetermined authentication information. The merchant chat client 642 includes a merchant product listing text box 644, a merchant product customer listing text box 646, a merchant public chat box 648, and a merchant private chat box 650. The merchant product listing text box 644 includes a merchant product alert column 652, a merchant product itemization column 654, and a merchant product total visitor column 656. The merchant product itemization column 654 lists goods the merchant is offering to sell on the transaction platform. The merchant product total visitor column 656 lists the total number of customers chatting with the merchant with respect to the good in that row. The merchant product alert column 652 alerts the merchant to product rooms for which there are customers who have sent text to the merchant but have not yet received a response from the merchant. For instance, if a customer has sent text to the customer text box 540, and has not yet received a reply from the merchant, a red alert bullet point 658 will appear in the merchant product alert column 652 in the row next to the good 420 the customer is discussing.

The merchant product customer listing text box 646 includes a merchant customer alert column 660, a merchant customer identification column 662, and a merchant customer rating column 664. The merchant customer identification column 662 lists all the customers for a specific good 420 in the merchant product listing text box 644. Each row in the merchant customer identification column 662 is dedicated to a specific customer. The merchant customer rating column 664 lists a customer rating for each customer in that specific row. The customer rating can include, for example, a score indicating the credit-worthiness of the customer. The merchant customer alert column 660 informs the merchant which customers within that room are waiting for responses to text they have sent .

The merchant public chat box 648 displays text dialogue between the merchant and all the customers listed in the merchant identification column 662. Text that customers send from the text entry bar 536 of their customer chat client interface 534 appears in the merchant's merchant public chat box 648. When the merchant wants to respond to any of the text dialogue in the merchant public chat box 648 the merchant types text into the merchant public chat text entry bar 666 and then clicks the merchant public chat text entry send icon 668. By clicking the merchant public chat text entry send icon 668, text in the merchant public chat text entry bar 666 is sent to the merchant public chat box 648. All customers in the selected product's public chat box 648 will simultaneously see the text the merchant sends from the merchant public chat text entry bar 666.

If the merchant wants to engage in private chat with a specific customer so as other customers do not see the text, the merchant does so in the merchant private chat box 650. To utilize the merchant private chat box 650, the merchant selects a specific customer to have a private chat with and enters text into a merchant private chat text entry bar 670. The merchant then clicks a merchant private chat text entry send icon 672. By clicking the merchant private chat text entry send icon 672, text in the merchant private chat text entry bar 670 is sent to the merchant private chat box. Only the selected customer will see text sent from the merchant private chat text entry bar 670. The operation of the (merchant product listing text box 644, merchant product customer listing text box 646, merchant private chat box 648, and merchant private chat box 650) of the merchant chat client interface 642, are best understood in view of the following example. The merchant using the merchant chat client 642, selects a product from the merchant product listing text box 644. To exchange text with a customer, the merchant would only want to select a product from the merchant product text box 644 for which there are customers listed in the merchant product total visitor column 656. Further the merchant would want to go to a product with a red alert bullet point 658 in the merchant product alert column 652 of the products row. The preceding would indicate to the merchant that at least one of the customers in that products room is waiting for an answer to a text entry. The merchant selects a product, for the purposes of this example, a "DVD player" 674 from the merchant product listing text box 644. The merchant does this by clicking on product "DVD player" 674 row. When the row is clicked, the row is highlighted in yellow informing the merchant that product DVD player 674 is what he will be exchanging text with customers in the ensuing chat . The "DVD player's" 674 row indicates there are 6 customers in that room. This is indicated by the "6" in the merchant product total visitor column 656 of product DVD player's row. When the 6^th row is highlighted, those 6 customers appear in the merchant product customer listing text box 646. Also, when product DVD player's 674 row is selected the text from the 6 customers in that products room appears in the merchant public chat box 648. To speak to a specific customer in the merchant product customer listener text box 646, the merchant clicks on one of the customers listed in that box. In this example's case, the merchant has clicked on customer "AlftheCat" 676. This is indicated by the yellow highlighting of said customers row. Since customer "AlftheCat" 676 has been selected, dialogue between this selected customer and the merchant appears in the merchant private chat box 650. All text data exchanged in the merchant public chat box 648 between the 6 customers of product "DVD player's" 674 room and the merchant appear simultaneously in each customer's individual customer text box 540 and the merchant public chat box 648. All text data exchanged in the merchant private chat box 650 between customer "AlftheCat" 676 of product "DVD player's" 674 room and the merchant appear simultaneously in customer "AlftheCat' s" customer text box 540 and the merchant private chat box 650. The other 5 customers in product "DVD player's" 674 room do not see the text exchanged in the merchant private chat box 650 between customer

"AlftheCat" and the merchant.

When the merchant and a customer are ready to discuss terms and haggle over price, the merchant may want to do this with the customer in private away from the other customers in the merchant public chat box 648. To do this, the merchant would take his discussion with the selected customer to the merchant private chat box 650. Once the merchant and customer feel they are ready to formally agree on a price, the merchant clicks on a make offer icon 678 of the merchant chat client interface 642. This will bring up a make offer interface.

Referring now to FIGURE 7, there is illustrated an exemplary make offer interface 780. The make offer interface 780 includes a make offer product select column 782, a make offer products listing column 784, a make offer list price column 786, a make offer inventory available column 788, a make offer quantity select column 790, and a make offer deal price column 792. The make offer product listing column 784 lists all the merchants products in the record 310 associated with the merchant. The make offer product select column 782 has a product select box 794 in each of its rows. The make offer list price column 786 has the list price in each of its rows for the corresponding products. The make offer inventory column 788 lists the number of units the merchant has in inventory for the product in that row. The make offer quantity select column 790 includes rows, wherein the merchant enters the number of units in each of the product's rows of the make offer quantity select column 790 for which the merchant is going to include in the formal offer to the customer.

Continuing with the previous example, the merchant will make an offer to customer "AlftheCat" 676. From text that would have been exchanged between customer "AlftheCat" 676 and the merchant, the merchant has learned the customer is interested in one "DVD player" and two "monster cables." To make the formal offer from the make offer page 780, the merchant clicks on the two product select boxes 794a and 794b of the make offer product select column 782. This selects the "Sony DVD player" and the "monster cable." Next a merchant quantity select box 796a of the "DVD player" row is clicked and the merchant enters the number 1. The merchant does the same for the quantity select box 796b of the "monster cable" row but enters the number 2. Next, the merchant clicks on the deal price box 98a and enters the price 550.00 (the $' sign will default) indicating he will sell 1 "DVD player" for $550.00. He does the same for the deal price box 798b indicating he will sell 2 "monster cables" for $140.00. The total deal price offer 700 is displayed in the bottom right of the make offer page 780. To approve this offer for formal submittal to the customer the merchant clicks on the offer approve OK icon 702. By clicking the offer approve OK icon 702 this formal offer is sent to the customer.

Referring now to FIGURE 8, there is illustrated the formal offer as it appears to the customer after the merchant has sent it by clicking the offer approve OK icon 702. The formal offer as seen by the customer is called a pending offer 804. The pending offer 804 is associated with an interface which includes a pending offer quantity column 806, a pending offer product column 808, a pending offer list price column 810, and a pending offer price column 812.

The products offered in the pending offer 804 are listed in the pending offer product column 808. The number of units offered for each product is listed in the rows of 806. The list price of each product included in the pending offer is listed in the rows of 810. The product of the price of the product, multiplied by quantity offered, is listed in the pending offer price column 812. The total pending offer price 814 (note this is always identical to the total deal price offer 700) is at the bottom of the pending offer price column 812. A total pending offer price 814 is the sum of all prices above it in the pending offer price column 812.

For the customer to reject the terms of this pending offer 804, the customer clicks the pending offer reject icon 816. This would return the customer to the customer chat client 534. To accept the terms of this pending offer 804, the customer clicks a pending offer accept icon 818. This closes the deal and negotiation for the customer and merchant. By clicking the pending offer accept icon 818 customer "AlftheCat" 776 would have just purchased 1 "Sony DVD Player" and 2 "monster cables" from the merchant for $690.00. The details of this transaction are then sent to the transaction server 822 for processing. Referring now to FIGURE 9 there is illustrated a flow diagram describing the process whereby the transaction platform server 100 facilitates a purchase of goods from a merchant. A client server connection between the buyer's terminal and the transaction platform server is established at step 901 causing the web page program 215 to display the transaction platform web page 205 on the buyer's terminal 105a (step 905). At the transaction platform web page 205, a search term indicative of the particular good the buyer is looking for, is received, via the text box 315 or subject folders 310 web page program 215 (step 910) . A search with the search term received during step 910 of all records 210 in the database 205 is performed by the search engine 220 (step 920) . The results of search during step 920 are displayed on the buyer's terminal 105a with an indication of which merchants are online by the web page program 215 (step 925) . At step 930 a selection of a particular record 210 is received by the web page program 215 and an instant message (step 940) is sent to the merchant terminal 105b associated with the record 210 selected by the application program 115, indicating that the buyer is interested in discussing the listed product. The chat room 330 associated with the merchant terminal 105b then provides chat clients 534, 642 to the buyer's terminal 105a and merchant terminal 105b, respectively (step 945) . At step 950, the chat room 330 transfers communications between the chat dealing clients 534, 642, until either an offer is made or the chat session is terminated from either the merchant terminal 105a or buyer's terminal 105b (step 955) .

If during step 955, a make offer selection is made from the merchant at merchant terminal 105b, the chat room 330 displays a make offer interface 780 at merchant terminal (step 960) . At step 965, an approval is received from the merchant terminal 105b and a pending offer 804 is displayed at buyer's terminal by the chat room 330 (step 970) . If at step 975, a rejection is received from the buyer's terminal 105a, the chat session

(step 950) continues. If at step 975, an acceptance is received, the terms of the accepted offer are recorded at the transaction platform server 100 (step 980) and confirmations are sent to the buyer's terminal 105a and merchant terminal 105b (step 985) by the application program 115 and the deal is complete. If during step 955, the chat session is terminated from either the buyer's terminal 105a or merchant terminal 105b, no deal is made and the process is completed.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method for facilitating a transaction, said method comprising: establishing a client/server connection with a buyer ' s terminal ; receiving a selection, the selection selecting an object associated with a product sold by a merchant; and linking the buyer's terminal to a chat room responsive to receiving the selection, wherein the chat room is associated the merchant.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: retrieving a record from a database, the record comprising information associated with the merchant and the product sold by the merchant; and displaying the information on the buyer's terminal responsive to establishing a client/server connection.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying a first chat client on the buyer's terminal .

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: receiving a first string of text from the first chat client on the buyer's terminal; and displaying the first string of text at a second chat client displayed at a merchant terminal .

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: receiving a second string of text from the second chat client; and displaying the second string of text on the first chat client.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: receiving an offer from the merchant terminal ; sending the offer to the buyer's terminal; and receiving an acceptance of the offer from the buyer ' s terminal .

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: storing a transaction record in a database.

8. A transaction facilitation system for facilitating a transaction, the transaction facilitation system comprising: a server for receiving a selection from the buyer's terminal, the selection selecting an object associated with a product sold by a merchant; and a chat room for transferring the strings of text from the buyer's terminal to a server associated with the merchant responsive to receiving the selection.

9. The transaction facilitation system of claim 8, further comprising a database for storing a record, the record comprising information associated with the merchant and the product sold by the merchant; and wherein the plurality of executable instructions comprise means for displaying the information on the buyer's terminal responsive to establishing a client/server connection.

10. The transaction facilitation system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of executable instructions comprise means for: displaying a first chat client associated with the chat room on the buyer's terminal responsive to receiving the selection, wherein the first chat client receives the strings of text; and displaying the strings of text at a second chat client displayed at the server associated with the merchant .

11. The transaction facilitation system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of executable instructions further comprise means for: receiving an offer from the server associated with the merchant ; sending the offer to the buyer's terminal; and receiving an acceptance of the offer from the buyer ' s terminal .

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising a database for storing a transaction record.