Shared shopping basket management system

A computer implemented method in an interactive medium for conducting commerce, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a website, the website adapted for electronic communication with a plurality of users;
• (b) providing on the website an electronic shopping basket being selectively actuatable into a plurality of states, the states providing selected levels of access to the users;
• (c) enabling the plurality of users to access the shopping basket when the shopping basket is disposed in any of the states;
• (d) assigning each user to a shopping group, wherein each member of the shopping group has at least one of a plurality of hierarchically distinct abilities to affect the state of the shopping basket;
• (e) enabling the users to become members of a plurality of shopping groups;
• (f) enabling each shopping group to have a plurality of shopping baskets;
• (g) automatically notifying each of the members of a shopping group of any change of state of a basket;
• (h) providing a selectable persistence function to purge the cart upon expiration of a pre-selected time period;
• (i) providing a selectable security function to nominally prevent individual ones of the members from accessing the cart;
• (j) providing a search engine to look up items for placement into the shopping cart;
• (k) wherein the members of a shopping group are permitted to simultaneously view the status of the shopping basket and sequentially affect the state of the shopping basket to collectively select and approve items for purchase;
• and
• (l) interfacing the website with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, by generating an order for the approved items and sending the order to the ERP system.

A computer system in an interactive medium for conducting commerce, said computer system comprising:

• a website adapted for electronic communication with a plurality of users;
• an electronic shopping basket disposed on the website, the shopping basket being selectively actuatable into a plurality of states, and being accessible by a plurality of users when the shopping basket is disposed in any of the states;
• and
• a hierarchy table coupled to the shopping basket, wherein the state of the shopping basket is selectively affectable according to hierarchically distinct abilities assigned to each of the users;
• wherein the users are permitted to view the status of the shopping basket and sequentially affect the state of the shopping basket to collectively select and approve items for purchase.

An article of manufacture for conducting commerce in an interactive environment, said article of manufacture comprising:

• a computer usable medium having a computer usable program code embodied therein, said computer usable medium having:
• computer readable program code for providing a website, the website adapted for electronic communication with a plurality of users;
• computer readable program code for providing on the website an electronic shopping basket being selectively actuatable into a plurality of states;
• computer readable program code for enabling the plurality of users to access the shopping basket when the shopping basket is disposed in any of the states;
• and
• computer readable program code for assigning to each of the users at least one of a plurality of hierarchically distinct abilities to affect the state of the shopping basket;
• wherein the users are permitted to view the status of the shopping basket and sequentially affect the state of the shopping basket to collectively select and approve items for purchase.

A computer implemented method in an interactive medium for conducting commerce, said method comprising the steps of:

• a. providing a website, the website adapted for electronic communication with a plurality of users;
• b. providing on the website an electronic shopping receptacle;
• c. enabling at least two of the plurality of users to access the shopping receptacle, the at least two of the plurality of users including a first user and a second user;
• and
• d. assigning to each of the users at least one of a plurality of unequal abilities to interact with the shopping receptacle, the abilities including enabling the first user to select items for placement into the shopping receptacle, and enabling the second user to purchase the items wherein the items are shipped to the first user.