Virtual world support for electronic commerce

An apparatus, comprising:

• virtual world having at least one object;
• vendor template database having at least one object template;
• vendor template server operatively coupled to the vendor template database and to the virtual world;
• and
• at least one profile that contains at least one descriptive characteristic of one of an avatar and an object, the at least one profile stored in at least one of the virtual world and the vendor template database.

A method, comprising:

• creating a product template for each product of a plurality of products;
• sending the product templates to a vendor template server;
• transferring the product templates from the vendor template server to a vendor template database for storage therein;
• receiving a request for a predetermined product from a virtual world server;
• retrieving from the vendor template database a predetermined product template for the predetermined product;
• using the predetermined product template to obtain profile information;
• forming a virtual product from the predetermined product template with the profile information;
• and
• sending a real world order based on the virtual product to a vendor ordering system.