Computer system and method for electronic commerce

A system for facilitating commercial transactions, between a plurality of customers and at least one supplier of items, over a computer driven network capable of providing communications between the supplier and at least one customer site associated with each customer and including an input means and a display, the system comprising:

• a. means for causing at least one supplier to be represented on the display for selection by the customer using the input means;
• b. means for effecting presentation of items on the display for customer observation;
• c. an item database associated with a supplier and including information on presented items;
• d. pricing means for receiving information from the item database to determine the cost associated with a presented item;
• e. a customer information database for storing information relating to a customer;
• and
• f. means for creating a customer monitoring object for each customer by referencing information, relating to that customer, which had been stored in the customer information database and upon the customer selecting at least one supplier such that the customer monitoring object is configured to operate by
• i. responding to customer enquiries, communicated through the input means, regarding a presented item by accessing the item database to retrieve information relating to said item and to present said information to the customer by means of the display,
• ii. receiving a customer's selection of a presented item through the input means,
• iii. communicating with the pricing means to have the cost of the item determined,
• iv. presenting the cost to the customer by means of the display,
• v. receiving customer communications, through the input means, indicating a desire to receive the item,
• vi. passing a delivery initiation communication to initiate the delivery of the item to the customer;
• and
• g. a means for accessing the customer information database and for creating a participant program object including information specific to the customer retrieved from the information database and in communication with and for passing customer specific information to the customer monitoring object.