Pre-qualifying sellers during the matching phase of an electronic commerce transaction

A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodied with software providing seller pre-qualification during the matching phase of an electronic commerce transaction, the software embodied in a computer-readable medium and when executed using one or more computers is configured to:

• provide a directory structure comprising a plurality of hierarchically organized product classes, each product class corresponding to a plurality of products having in common one or more product attributes, each product in a product class being defined by a product attribute value for each product attribute for the product class, each product being further defined by a seller attribute value for each of one or more seller attributes, the seller attribute values for a product being associated with a particular seller from which the product may be purchased;
• communicate to one or more seller databases a search query for product data in response to selection of a product class, specification of one or more product attribute criteria, and specification of one or more seller attribute criteria;
• and
• communicate search results in response to the search query, the search results comprising product data for one or more products within the selected product class with product attribute values matching the specified product attribute criteria and with seller attribute values matching the specified product attribute criteria.

A method of pre-qualifying sellers during the matching phase of an electronic commerce transaction, comprising:

• providing, by a computer, a directory structure comprising a plurality of hierarchically organized product classes, each product class corresponding to a plurality of products having in common one or more product attributes, each product in a product class being defined by a product attribute value for each product attribute for the product class, each product being further defined by a seller attribute value for each of one or more seller attributes, the seller attribute values for a product being associated with a particular seller from which the product may be purchased;
• communicating, by the computer, to one or more seller databases a search query for product data in response to selection of a product class, specification of one or more product attribute criteria, and specification of one or more seller attribute criteria;
• and
• communicating, by the computer, search results in response to the search query, the search results comprising product data for one or more products within the selected product class with product attribute values matching the specified product attribute criteria and with seller attribute values matching the specified product attribute criteria.