Subclass 3	Subclass 4	Subclass 5
Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Global electronic commerce system

7013289

Abstract

A comprehensive system effectuates global electronic commerce on the Internet across frontiers of nations, cultures, and languages. Referral Websites serving various locales offer Buyers the opportunity to view products for purchase. A Buyer selects categories of products for viewing by using drop-down menus that organize products into a clear taxonomy that can be expressed across all languages. Having selected a category of products for viewing, a Buyer receives, from a multi-version relational database, a version of marketing information about each product. The version is one automatically sent from the database to match the Buyer's language, culture, and nationality, as deduced from the use of a particular Referral Website. A shopping cart allows Buyers to select a product for purchase in an interactive way that encourages completion of the purchase. Products can be offered with custom options and in wholesale quantities. Personalized Web pages allow comprehensive customer service after a sale.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for effecting global e-commerce marketing and sales of manufacturers' products, the method comprising:

placing, on Web pages of referral Websites that use a variety of languages and serve geographic locales throughout the world, embedded HTML forms that are submitted by buyers to request information about products from at least one manufacturer;

storing one locale identifier value at each referral Website among said referral Websites, where said locale identifier is a numerical value that is unique among many numerical locale identifiers that are assigned to the pairings of specific geographic locales and specific languages commonly used in those geographic locales, and where the geographic locale is the country served by said referral Website and where the referral Website is rendered in the language commonly used in that one geographic locale among said geographic locales;

storing in a relational database more than one natural language, locale-specific version of marketing information about each product of said products, where each stored version of marketing information is related to a stored value that is one of said locale identifier values and where said value identifies the language of the stored version of marketing information;

storing identifier values for each said product so that each said product in said database is identified by a product identifier value, a category identifier value, a family identifier value, a group identifier value, and a department identifier value;

storing a set of SQL procedures in said database, where each procedure can be used to retrieve one locale-specific language version of said stored marketing information about a product;

storing, in a server, a set of locale-specific server scripts and style sheets that are selectively used to generate locale-specific e-commerce Web pages that display said translated marketing information;

displaying to a Buyer, who is using a Web browser and is connected by the Internet to one referral Website of said referral Websites, one HTML form of said HTML forms that is manually activated to send a request to receive marketing information about a department of products, where the request comprises, first, a department identifier value that identifies the products that are a subject of the marketing information request by said buyer, and, second, a locale identifier value for a specific locale that is served by the referral Website;

receiving at said server, connected to said database, said request from said Buyer, where said request includes said department identifier value and said locale identifier value;

delivering in response to the buyer's request a series of interactive menus by which the Buyer drills down through a hierarchy of department, group, family, and category to select for viewing product information about a particular product;

processing, by said server, said request for said marketing information about said product, where a product identifier value and said locale identifier value are used to select one SQL procedure of said set of SQL procedures to retrieve said one locale-specific language version of marketing information from said database;

generating an e-commerce Web page by using said one locale-specific language version of marketing information in conjunction with using one server script and one style sheet from said set of locale-specific server scripts and style sheets;

transmitting from said server said e-commerce Web page for display on said Buyer's said Web browser from which said request originated, where the Web page contains marketing information that includes an offer to sell said product for a certain price as expressed in a currency that is commonly accepted in the locale identified by said locale identifier value and also contains an interactive link that is manually activated by said Buyer to order a purchase of said product;

transmitting from said Web browser to said server said purchase order;

collecting payment for said purchase of said product at a Website enabled for processing of e-commerce purchase transactions; and

notifying said manufacturer that said purchase of said product has been made by said Buyer.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of invention Disclosure Document No. 473206, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Apr. 27, 2000, entitled DYNAMIC, INTERACTIVE PERSONAL WEBSITE AUTOMATICALLY CONSTRUCTED AS A CONSEQUENCE OF A PURCHASING ACTION—THE WEBSITE PROVIDING TIMELY AND COMPREHENSIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE TO AN INDIVIDUAL BUYER.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The field of this invention is global sale of products and services using electronic means of (a) communications, (b) data storage and retrieval, (c) taking of orders, (d) fulfillment, (e) transfers of payments, and (f) providing customer service after the sale. Both business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales are effectuated.

The present invention is a system for use by even small manufacturers to meet a long-felt need to sell their products to Buyers around the world. The term "manufacturers" is meant to include manufacturers or authorized distributors for manufacturers; and the term "Buyers" is meant to include both individuals and organizations, including other manufacturers.

A complete system, termed a Global Store, is disclosed, a system that overcomes barriers to global trade of language, culture, and nationality. The Global Store integrates communications and database software technologies, hardware infrastructure, and operating methods to market and sell products from manufacturers around the globe to Buyers in a multitude of locales around the globe. Stated another way, The Global Store assembles and operates various subsystems to provide the infrastructure for manufacturers to use a new channel of global commerce, a Virtual Channel.

2. Discussion of Prior Art

Overview of the Legacy Channel and of Conventional E-Commerce

Typically, manufacturers, working on their own, market their products effectively only to one specific population of Buyers defined by a country, language, and culture. There are obvious exceptions seen in giant international companies such as Coca Cola (RTM) or Adidas (RTM), but those exceptions represent a tiny fraction of what could be done, and will be done, as even small manufacturers surmount barriers to international trade.

For manufactures who do not have their own giant global marketing system, a presently available "Legacy Channel" for global commerce is manned by an array of players (e.g., exporters, importers, wholesalers, and retailers) who provide a multitude of necessary functions of marketing, sales, payment processing, delivery, and customer service. Manufacturers could conceivably market their products to Buyers around the world by performing all of the above necessary functions themselves, but practical considerations usually cause the manufacturer to outsource many functions of global commerce to the Legacy Channel.

In the future, however, the Legacy Channel will be largely replaced by the new Virtual Channel. That revolutionary change will provide ready access to global markets for even small manufacturers. Furthermore, those manufacturers will be able to maintain control, like never before, over the marketing of their products.

Revolutionary changes come about by a confluence of events. For example, a revolutionary use of rocket ships for manned exploration of space in the mid-Twentieth Century resulted from a confluence of political motivations and technological advances that included, but were not restricted to, international competition between superpowers and advances in rocketry. Improvements in space-age materials, rocket engines, computers, and other technologies also set the stage for the revolutionary change.

A similar situation now exists in the area of global trade. A confluence of recognized needs and new technologies now sets the stage for a revolutionary change in how manufacturers bring their products to markets around the world.

Advances in communications and information technology and their associated standards have made geography a much less salient factor in trade than in prior years. Electronic communications at the speed of light enables one to purchase a product on the other side of the world as quickly as across the street—even more quickly should one decide to walk across that street to make the purchase. Furthermore, increasing use of English as a de facto language of commerce and increasing access to good, real-time translation technology will inevitably lower language barriers.

The Global Store system, described here, is a method that integrates revolutionary and evolutionary developments into a new system of global trade in the Virtual Channel. Only in the very recent past have the following compelling trends and powerful developments conjoined to permit the construction and operation of a complete and integrated system of global trade to meet long-felt needs:

1) a quickly growing population of Internet users around the world who are ready to shop online 24 hours per day and 365 days per year,
2) Websites to provide specialized functions such as online payments, online currency conversion tables, universal tax tables, and parcel tracking,
3) third-party fulfillment services to support regional and global distribution,
4) "pull" online marketing that allows customers greater opportunities to customize the products they purchase, as compared with the "push" marketing of ready-made products that is characteristic of brick-and-mortar retail channels,
5) international agreements to eliminate tariffs on imports,
6) globalization of sources of supply,
7) efficiencies and economies of scale resulting from consolidation of marketing functions across markets,
8) establishment of ubiquitous delivery services,
9) availability of escrow services to assuage concerns of online Buyers about completing purchases after shopping baskets are filled,
10) growth in telecommuting to work and in home-based internet businesses, allowing participants to avoid driving and, thereby, less occasion to stop at brick-and-mortar stores to shop,
11) increased global travel and increased access to information from around the world using wide-band communications, thereby increasing interest in products from far-away locales,
12) consolidation of warehousing and distribution centers for quicker and more efficient fulfillment of orders,
13) manufacturers' need to retain brand control by offering increasing levels of customer support from a single point,
14) technology to implement Web-based multi-language global marketing systems using newly invoked international standards, locale-specific stored SQL procedures, integrated multi-locale Web-based relational data bases, and Unicode, and
15) integration of manufacturers' Business-to-Consumer sales with their Business-to-Business strategies for procuring supplies, offering a means to couple direct online customer sales with procurements, thus completing the transition to a completely integrated "Pull" model: A custom product is created to satisfy a Buyer's needs, and suppliers are enabled to provide necessary Business-to-Business products and services on a timely basis.

Pent-up pressures for globalization have produced numerous examples of conventional e-commerce businesses attempting to expand globally. These businesses generally meet the challenge to provide information in multiple languages and across cultures by cloning Websites from one locale to another—reproducing some of the design of the original Website and some of the content. This multi-headed e-commerce approach is a crude interim step that fails to meet the emerging needs of manufacturers who desire global sales. Loss of the efficiencies and economies of a truly global approach make the prices of their products less competitive than should be possible, and there is the additional problem of entering and maintaining current and accurate information across multiple databases.

In conventional e-commerce it is not uncommon for the unscrupulous to sell brand name goods through Websites when they are not authorized to do so. In response, manufacturers desire to maintain better control of prices, marketing information about their products, sales, fulfillment, and customer service—all in a global context and, ideally, from a single integrated site.

Buyers are reluctant to make international purchases when they fear that they will have no practical recourse if they pay for a product but either do not receive it or find the product is not acceptable. What is needed for a hesitant Buyer is an escrow service that will complete settlement only after the product has been successfully delivered and the Buyer is satisfied.

Many conventional e-commerce Websites have sought to sell products globally, but few if any have made a serious commitment to globalization by providing good translations in multiple languages. (So far, machine translations are so lacking in accuracy and idiomatic expression that they are likely to inspire mirth rather than confidence in a Buyer.) Furthermore, no site offers products of a multitude of manufacturers along with customer support across more than one language, support that is needed for Buyers to be well informed about international shipping, duties, warranties, currency conversion, repair centers, and other issues important to Buyers.

Conventionally, for both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar businesses, separate databases are established to support production, marketing, sales, and accounting. Information changes in one business database often are not reflected in all of the other databases. Further information vital to a customer, such as parcel tracking, would require leaving the e-commerce site to access such a service on yet another system. Customer support is critically lacking in brick-and-mortar businesses and also is missing in most e-commerce businesses. What is missing is the ability to place in the hands of the customer the ability to go to a single location and, interactively, to obtain an answer to a question pertaining to a product or to an order.

Departing from conventional e-commerce approaches, the ideal e-commerce model, from the manufacturers' viewpoint, is to sell globally using a system allowing

1) a single database of product descriptions in common format to be translated for Buyers across different languages,
2) Buyers to come to a single, authorized Global Store with a single Web URL address,
3) global sales across many locales using an information system operating in a multitude of languages to provide product information assembled for each specific locale,
4) a generalized, reliable approach to shipping, currency conversion, settlements, and customer support,
5) global sales without losing brand control,
6) minimal delays in bringing new products to market or old products to new markets,
7) the manufacturer to take orders for custom-made products, using a "pull" method,
8) fulfillment from a plurality of strategically-located fulfillment centers around the Globe, and
9) Buyers to get information on the Buyers' transaction history and to find links to manufacturer's support from a single Website.

Prior art in the area of electronic commerce has not yet provided a flexible system to use a single, central database to support sales to Buyers around the world. Rather, prior art is exemplified by the design of large international e-commerce companies like Amazon and eBay that clone existing non-global electronic systems of marketing (e.g., Amazon.com) into similar but separate systems that serve various locales (e.g., Amazon.co.uk). Products are separately catalogued and inventoried in the separate, cloned online businesses serving a particular language and locale. Efficiencies and economies of scale are largely lost when marketing becomes thus fragmented. Furthermore, Buyers lose the benefit of an expanded selection of products coming from all locales.

In summary, the Legacy Channel of global trade is not practical for most businesses. Furthermore, as will be described below, the promise of global e-commerce in a Virtual Channel of global trade to supplant the Legacy Channel has not yet been realized; efforts have thus far failed sufficiently to integrate existing art and new art to capitalize on new trends and developments. The invention disclosed here overcomes the shortcomings of prior art by making e-commerce a viable method of global trade for even small manufacturers.

E-Commerce and Database Technology

The Global Store system uses a multi-version database to provide a new way of providing language/locale-specific marketing information and sales of products to Buyers around the globe. Prior art, as seen in patents cited below, provide opportunities for Buyers to (a) view a product and be referred to a seller or (b) view and purchase a product over the Internet, with or without use of a referrer Website. However, no prior art takes advantage of (a) multi-version, locale-specific innovations in marketing, (b) use of Referral Websites from a multitude of locales, combined with (c) other Ancillary Resources to offer truly global sales over the Internet.

Single-Point Global E-Commerce

Prior art has not solved the problem of marketing globally from a single-point. Major players in global e-commerce (e.g., AOL, Yahoo, and Amazon) have adopted a country-by-country or a region-by-region strategy in order to adapt to Buyers' languages and cultures.

In a statement quoted in a Wall Street Journal article, Aug. 01, 2000, a Yahoo executive declared that Yahoo would consider itself unsuccessful if Yahoo were considered an American company two years from then. Yahoo and other e-commerce companies have discovered that their widely recognized brand names are, in themselves, not sufficient for attracting global e-commerce business. Buyers have been found, however, to be attracted to e-commerce sites that cater to local interests and culture. Stated another way, Buyers are more comfortable and confident about buying from a business they do not perceive as foreign.

Needed is a system to provide culture-sensitive and language-adapted marketing, sales, and customer service content to Buyers, doing so in a way that takes advantage of the efficiencies and economies of using a single point of operations. Prior art, described as follows, fails to meet that criterion:

Chelliah et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,887"Computer System and Method for Electronic Commerce," 1998) disclose a multi-vendor shopping system. They describe a method for a presentation to a customer of at least one supplier for selection. Similarly, items from a supplier or suppliers can be displayed for the customer to view. Associated with a supplier of such items is an item database including information on presented items. A pricing means allows reception of information from the item database to determine the cost associated with a presented item. In addition, a customer information database stores information relating to the customer. The system also comprises means for creating a customer-monitoring object for each customer. The Commerce Subsystems include: an Incentives Subsystem; an Observations Subsystem; an Order Fulfillment Subsystem; a Participant Subsystem; a Payment Handler; a Pricing Subsystem; a Product Database; a Promotions Subsystem; a Sales Representative Subsystem; a Redemption Registry; a Security Subsystem; a Shipping Subsystem; and a Tax Subsystem.

The patent by Chelliah et al discloses a relatively comprehensive e-commerce system operating from a single point, but still it fails to meet a basic need of global commerce to provide alternative versions of marketing information for Buyers across linguistic and cultural groups; it can only accommodate Buyers who speak a given language.

The same limitation is seen in the recent patent by Wong (U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,690 "Integrated business to-business Web commerce and business automation system," 2000). Wong makes a strong case for the advantages in efficiency and speed of using a single, integrated database for businesses, and especially Web-based businesses. However, his patent makes no accommodation to differences in language or customs for users of the database. The Global Store system disclosed here overcomes that limitation. Also disclosed are other innovations not seen in the Wong patent, the Chelliah et al patent, or in other prior art:

(1) a clear and efficient way to categorize products to be displayed to Buyers,
(2) an order-taking shopping cart subsystem that encourages Buyers to complete a purchase transaction by keeping products selected for purchase in the Buyer's view and by interactively involving the Buyer in a purchasing process, and
(3) a means to provide comprehensive customer service information from a single convenient point.

Accommodating Buyers using a diversity of languages and additional needed innovations are discussed below in the context of related prior art.

Prior Art Using a Single Multilingual Database

Prior art has not provided a solution for global e-commerce from a single point, but several patents have described innovations in database technology that might be used to accommodate visitors to an e-commerce Website when they speak a diversity of preferred languages:

1) Pet's patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,912 "Method of Efficiency and Flexibility Storing, Retrieving, and Modifying Data in Any Language Representation," 1998) discloses a method of storing, retrieving, and modifying multilingual data in a database by creating data records in a user-definable language representation. Each data record has an identifier, where each data record includes data fields and attribute fields, where each data field and attribute field is identified by a name. Each data field and attribute field is stored on a separate line in a data item table along with the data record identifier, the field name or attribute name, and a language representation identifier. A data record, data field, or attribute field is retrievable in the language representation used to store the same. Modifying, adding, or deleting the data record, the data field, or the attribute field may be accomplished using a user-definable language representation where the language representation may be different from the language representation used to store the item.
2) A patent by Malatesta et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,782 "Providing Information from a Multi-Lingual Database of Language-Independent and Language-Dependent Items," 1995) discloses a method of internationalizing a database by storing data in one language, referred to as a base language, along with copies of the data in one or more languages other than the base language. The base language is relative to the user. That is, a base language for one user may be different from the base language of another user.

The above two patents suggest the feasibility of providing from a single database information to users who speak different languages. However, in neither of these patents is there disclosed a system that comprehensively accommodates to the needs of a Buyer to view, purchase, and receive products from around the world, using the Buyer's own language in a manner that will not seem foreign to the Buyer. Needed is a method for multiple versions of marketing information to be automatically and transparently delivered from a single database. That database, when incorporated into a complete system for global e-commerce, would thereby accommodate Buyers from around the world

Determining a Visitor's Preferred Language at a Multilingual Website

In a recent patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,598 "Method of Providing One of a Plurality of Web Pages Mapped to a Single Uniform Resource Locator (URL) Based on Evaluation of a Condition," 2000) Danneels suggested that various language versions from a single source on the Web could be delivered selectively to viewers. The selection is based on information transferred from the viewers' Browsers along with a request to view Web page content. Unfortunately, that approach is not valid unless a viewers' Browser is programmed to send preferred language and preferred character set information along with a request. Given that Browsers are not uniformly programmed to send that information, the Danneels' approach is not a strong contender as a general solution for automatically and transparently identifying a preferred language for a viewer.

Another approach is suggested in a patent by Levy (U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,790 "Method and Apparatus for Providing a Web Site Having a Home Page that Automatically Adapts to User Language and Customs," 1999). Levy presents a system whereby a generic home page is delivered in various language versions based on the location code of the viewer's node address. Thereafter, the viewer is given the opportunity to specify the language to be used for viewing other Web pages. There are several problems with this approach, as follow:

1) An extra step requiring the visitor to specify a language choice is introduced prior to the viewer accessing the content desired by the Client.
2) No provision is made to determine the character set used by the viewer's Browser.
3) This approach is not transparent with respect to language usage determination. Because the viewer is involved in language selection, there is an obvious limitation to making the viewer comfortable that the site is not foreign.
4) Levy fails to show how the viewer's node address is actually used to determine the viewer's presumed locale and preferred language.

The limitations seen in the patents by Danneels and Levy could be overcome when a preferred language is determined by a Buyer's use of a locale-specific Referral Website.

Use of Referral Websites

Prior art, described below, has described use of referral Websites, but none has used the locale of Referral Websites to determine a viewer's locale and preferred language.

Harrington (U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,454 "Integrated Interface for Vendor/Product Oriented Internet Websites," 1999) describes a referral Website that has access to a database of products/services that are available from a multitude of vendors in remote locations. Buyers can access and purchase products in the database, doing so via an interface provided by the referral Website to the vendors' remote Websites. After the Buyer interactively connects with one or more of the remote vendor network sites, the user selects products/services from the information provided on the remote vendor network site. The selection of a particular product/service triggers a transaction notification that records the Buyer's selection and associated financial transaction data, which is transmitted to the database and associated database interface. Harrington's design does not allow for global sales because her referral Website only puts Buyers using a single language in contact with a vendor using the same language. Thus, there is no attention paid to even the first step necessary for global sales.

Bezos et al (U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,141 "Internet-based Customer Referral System," 2000) describe an Internet-based customer referral system that allows referral Websites to receive commissions on sales made to Buyers when they refer those Buyers to an e-commerce Website. These referral Websites are not identified, however, by the language and locale with which they are associated. Therefore, this design does not allow Buyers to get customized treatment that caters to their language or culture. All Buyers coming to the e-commerce Website from referral Websites see a site that is oriented toward a single language and culture. Needed is a system whereby a Buyer's use of a Referral Website (among many Referral Websites serving multiple locales) is used to determine and accommodate to the Buyer's preferred language and to the customs of the Buyer's locale.

Use of Shopping Carts for E-Commerce Websites

Buyers use shopping carts on e-commerce Websites to store a list of products selected for later purchase. There is a significant problem, however; very often, a Buyer places one or more items in a shopping cart but then abandons the cart without completing a purchase. In a study described in the Dallas Morning News, page 4 D, Oct. 2, 2000, Datamonitor, a New York-based market research firm, found that 78% of all online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout.

Any improvement made in the percentage of shopping cart users who go on to complete a purchase would have tremendous positive influence on the success of an e-commerce site.

Unfortunately, prior art has failed to incorporate good, common sense sales techniques into the design of shopping cart functions.

The following patents are discussed in light of certain failures in support of the sales process—limitations that are overcome in the present invention:

Levine et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,681 "Stateless Shopping Cart for the Web," 1998) disclosed a shopping cart system that allows a hidden shopping cart file to be placed in a page sent to a Buyer that displays products for purchase. The Buyer can toggle the hidden file into view. This elegant technological design allows use of a shopping cart without opening a new window. Though Levine et al show technical innovativeness, the use of a hidden file is exactly the opposite of what is needed to stimulate payment for selected items. It is actually better to keep a shopping cart file displayed in an open frame to remind the Buyer about the products selected. Hidden from view, the selected products are more easily forgotten and abandoned.

Yonezawa et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,973 "Shopping Basket Presentation Method for an Online Shopping System," 1999) provide a persisting open shopping cart window from the outset of a Buyer's viewing of products, but there is a failure to provide total cost, including shipping. This is a significant failure because not knowing total cost means that a Buyer does not have the information needed to make a buying decision. It would actually be an advantage to involve the Buyer in a purchasing process by asking the Buyer to provide a destination for a purchased product, thereby allowing the calculation of shipping costs and total costs. That sort of interaction would help to cement in the mind of the Buyer the Buyer's interest in buying the product.

Use of a Personalized Web Page for Comprehensive Customer Service

Relevant prior art to this invention would describe comprehensive customer service from a single point with one or more of the following features:

1) Access by a Buyer to a customer service Web page in the Buyer's own language and in the proper character set,
2) Dynamically current, event-driven provision of information from a single, integrated database,
3) Personalization by allowing a Buyer to access information about past transactions, current orders, and parcel tracking,
4) Access to after-the-sale information about purchased products, including recalls, repair centers, accessories, warranties, and instructions,
5) Information about contacting customer service representatives, and
6) Opportunities to participate in any current customer retention programs.

In totality, the above features would serve to enable the Buyer with a personalized Web-based Customer Information System, a level of service and integration that exceeds prior art. The following patents touch on one or more of the above features. No one patent describes a comprehensive approach.

Providing Buyers' access to a Web-based business' database system is a step demonstrated in a patent by Purcell (U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,807 "Automated and independently accessible inventory information exchange system," 1999). Purcell discloses a method for controlling the collection, processing and dissemination of information by a host regarding product and service availability. The method includes the step of establishing a host-operated information management system. Electronic communication connections to host-approved sellers of products and services are granted limited electronic access to the information management system. Each approved seller has a self-initiated, exclusive capability to access that seller's inventory information that is maintained on the information management system for adding, amending and deleting portions of the seller's inventory information. The seller's inventory information is analyzed and assimilated into a Buyer's listing of products and services available through the information management system to potential Buyers. Host-approved Buyers of products and services are granted limited electronic access to the information management system so that each approved Buyer may access the Buyer's listing for reviewing products and services of interest to that Buyer.

Perkowski (U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,979 "Method of and System for Finding and Serving Consumer Product Related Information Over the Internet Using Manufacturer Identification Numbers," 2000) discloses a Web-based method for finding and displaying consumer product-related information. A database serving subsystem stores manufacturer identification numbers assigned to manufacturers of consumer products, home-page specifying URLs symbolically linked to the identification numbers, universal product numbers (UPNs) assigned to consumer products made by the manufacturers, and product-information specifying URLs symbolically linked to the UPNs. During operation, a Client subsystem transmits to the database serving subsystem a request for information that includes the UPN assigned to the consumer product on which product-related information is being sought. The database serving subsystem automatically compares the UPN against the stored manufacturer's identification numbers and automatically returns to the Client subsystem one or more of URLs symbolically linked to the UPN if URLs have been symbolically linked to the UPN within the database serving subsystem. However, if no URLs have been symbolically linked to the UPN, then the database serving subsystem automatically returns the home-page specifying URL symbolically linked to the manufacturer's identification number contained within the UPN in the request. By virtue of this novel search mechanism based on manufacturers' identification numbers, Client subsystems are automatically provided with the home-page of the manufacturer's World Wide Web (WWW) site in situations where product-information specifying URLs have not yet been symbolically linked with the UPN on any one of the manufacturer's products. By this method, consumers may gain product information or, at least, information about a manufacturer when the consumer has the UPN code for a product of interest and the UPN and linked information has been made part of the database accessed by the consumer. Though this system makes clever use of UPNs and the Web to find information about some products, it does not enable a consumer with a guaranteed way of accessing product information for any given product that a consumer may have purchased. Furthermore, there is no provision to make information available in a language understood by the consumer.

Wong (U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,690 "Integrated Business to-Business Web Commerce and Business Automation System," 2000) argues convincingly for the benefits of ready access to a single, integrated database for all workers inside a Web-centric business; and he includes the customer in the list of beneficiaries. Furthermore, a purchaser is allowed access to the database to check out important information: "Customers can retrieve previous quote records and view order and shipment status via the Web. . . . Parts tracking saves employee time that would otherwise be spent responding to customer inquiries, and also contributes to customer satisfaction through the convenient availability of timely information."

Though Wong describes an integrated business system in many respects, neither he nor others have yet described a system that optimizes a customer's access to relevant information. That is especially true when customers may vary in the languages they understand. Still needed, for either a business-to-business Buyer or an individual Buyer, is ready access to pertinent information at a language-compatible, single point. Pertinent information would include order status, shipment status, histories of prior transactions, warranties, return policies, and other information that could answer many questions for a Buyer without the Buyer ever needing to contact a customer service representative. That access would reduce both aggravation to the Buyer and costs to the seller. Furthermore, that information should be offered in the Buyer's own language. When a Buyer does contact a representative, any questions are likely to be resolved most quickly and with least misunderstanding when the Buyer and the representative are both able to review the same records on their respective computer screens.

Prior Art of Product Organization and Selection Using Menus

Zellweger (U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,125 "Method and apparatus for information management using an open hierarchical data structure," 1998) discloses a method for finding products for purchase, using an open hierarchical data structure. The invention includes an Application Generator, the Distribution files generated by the Application Generator, and a Retrieval system that accesses the Distribution files. The Retrieval system uses data in the Distribution files to configure an Information System that runs stand-alone on a desktop computer. The information management system of the invention uses an open hierarchical data structure for classifying information objects and providing a menu access to them. The open hierarchical data structure of Zellweger's invention includes multiple pathways to the same information object. Multiple paths can be used to support synonyms and to clarify word meanings within a context, thereby overcoming retrieval problems associated with conventional word-matching technologies. The Distribution files include data related to the menu system and the configuration of the Information System as well as data associated with the information objects. The Retrieval system guides an end-user to information objects in the Distribution files by generating successive selection menus in accordance with the open hierarchical data structure. Also disclosed is an embodiment of the invention that can be used to manage and distribute product information to Buyers in the form of an electronic catalog. Buyers use the custom features of an Information System generated by the Application module to locate products, generate orders for the products, and transmit orders electronically to a vendor of the products.

Zellweger's patent provides suppliers of products with a lot of flexibility when authoring hierarchies to be used by Buyers to find products. However, that same flexibility can cause confusion when applied across suppliers. When a plurality of suppliers could organize product information in a plurality of ways, the resulting structure of a combined hierarchy would not lend itself to efficient finding of products. Furthermore, should different suppliers present their products in a combined hierarchy but in different languages, the Buyer would be truly confused and lost. Therefore, Zellweger's patent cannot be readily applied to the problem of helping Buyers find products offered by a myriad of manufacturers; and, furthermore, Zellweger does not attempt to deal with the problem of presenting menus in various languages to accommodate Buyers around the world.

Consentino et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,515 "Enhanced tree control system for navigating lattices data structures and displaying configurable lattice-node labels," 1991) describe a display and navigation system. That system presents hierarchical data in an enhanced tree presentation control that blends the ease-of-use character of the familiar "tree presentation control" with a technique for navigating more complex lattice data structures. At the same time, the system provides more node information by displaying configured lattice-node labels along with the node's name. A primary objective of the invention is to facilitate building, maintaining and using a multiple inheritance taxonomy such as a product catalog data base by means of a multi-navigation path browsing system, which is made possible through the capability of this system's multiple inheritance capability.

The patent by Consentino et al provides an efficient and clear method of displaying a very limited number of products for selection, too limited a number to efficiently organize and display the thousands of products that would be offered at a Global Store. Furthermore, no provision is made in this patent to accommodate Buyers wanting to use a variety of native languages to find products.

Character Sets and Use of Unicode

Shakib et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,213, "Multilingual Storage and Retrieval," 1998) describe a method for storing and retrieving information in multiple languages and multiple character sets in a computer system. Each language has at least one character set, or code page, that is required to display information. Each character set can include all of the characters used by the respective language (e.g., the letters of the English alphabet or the symbols of Kanji). However, more than one language may use the same character set. Consequently, each language also has language-specific rules for displaying information. The language-specific rules are used for sorting the information.

In some existing computer systems, each processor/storage device only supports a single character set. For example, a server in a Client/server network stores and supports a database. The database is stored in a single character set. A Client requesting information from the database may receive the information only in the single character set. Also, a sort of fields in the database may be created only in the single character set.

In other existing computer systems, all of the information is stored in a universal character set. Using the Client/server example, all information on the network is stored in a universal character set, e.g., Unicode. When a Client requests information, it is converted from Unicode into the Client-selected character set.

Unicode, and other universal character sets, use two bytes to represent each character. Many character sets that support specific languages use only one byte to represent each character.

The method invented by Shakib et al and made available by the Microsoft Corporation has yet to have been adapted and extended for use in a comprehensive global e-commerce system.

Art of Internet Communications for E-commerce Transactions

In general, Web servers are stateless with respect to Client transactions. In other words, at the HTTP protocol level, each transaction (e.g., request for an HTML file) is separate from all others. In other common networking system protocols, a Client might initialize a connection to the server, conduct a series of requests from the server and receive information for each request, and then terminate the connection from the server; and the entire exchange, from the initialization to the termination of the connection, would be considered a session which may comprise a transaction. In such systems, the Client/server connection may be considered to be in one of several different states at any instance, depending on the nature of the requests and responses and their order. Such systems require state information to be saved by the server and also, usually, by the Client. Furthermore, time outs and other connection-failure strategies are required. The stateless nature of the Web simplifies the server and Client architectures.

The Internet has developed into a convenient medium by which consumers can purchase goods and services. The ability to purchase goods over the Internet is sometimes provided by software applications known as a "shopping basket" (or "cart"). A shopping basket application, which commonly executes on a World Wide Web (WWW or Web) site of a product manufacturer or retailer, generally provides a virtual store in which a customer can view descriptions of and purchase various products electronically. A shopping basket application generally allows a customer to add products to or delete products from a virtual shopping basket and specify various attributes, such as quantity, size, color, etc. The customer's selections are generally stored in a database associated with the Website. When the customer is ready to purchase the contents of the shopping basket, he may click on a hypertext link labeled "Purchase Contents of Shopping Basket", for example, which causes the customer to be prompted to enter billing information (i.e., name, address, and credit card number) and to confirm the transaction.

Conventional Art for Use in Global Electronic Commerce

Certain art used in electronic commerce is conventional and well known. Prior art, however, does not encompass a comprehensive global electronic commerce system that combines both innovative art and the following conventional art:

1) Automated Communications: Interfaces for E-Mail notifications,
2) Cookies,
3) Payment Processing,
4) Tax Computing Service,
5) Parcel Tracking,
6) Currency conversion, and
7) Calculation and Display of Shipping Costs

OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES

The primary object of this invention is to lower the bar for manufacturers to engage in global trade by augmenting or replacing the costly, slow, and inefficient Legacy Channel with a "Virtual Channel" of global trade. Recently invented and improved elements of information technology (both hardware and software) and the Internet provide the building blocks and the opportunity for a revolutionary use of the new Virtual Channel for global trade by even small manufacturers.

Using the multi-language, single, logical database approach described here, an international marketing agent called a "Global Store"—working with e-marketer Referral Websites and integrating other Ancillary Resources—provides a multitude of manufacturers a timely and accurate way to spread their marketing efforts worldwide in the Virtual Channel of global trade.

The present invention makes use of the diversity of locales served by a multitude of Referral Websites serving Buyers around the world. A Buyer at a Referral Website is assumed to be ready and interested in buying a product after that Buyer clicks on the category name of products available for sale. The name of the category is in the same National Language as the language used on the Referral Website. The Global Store is enabled to conduct e-commerce in that particular language as well as the National Languages used at all the other Referral Websites that refer Buyers to the Global Store.

By placing marketing information about products in the Global Store with its multi-language, single, logical, searchable database, a manufacturer can engage in marketing efforts worldwide on the Internet in a multitude of different languages and adapted to various cultures and countries. It has become obvious during the past several years that manufacturers around the world need a global marketing method in order to stay competitive and to optimize their profitability. Use of the Global Store will allow manufacturers advantageously to meet their long felt need to tap into the global market to expand their customer bases, increase sales, and benefit from economies of scale.

Furthermore, use of marketing resources in the Global Store meets the objective for manufacturers to access global marketing efforts without losing control over their marketing—place, presentation, price, promotions, and policies of service. Thereby, manufacturers may build a worldwide brand name based on authentic products, ethical representations, fair prices, and good service to Buyers.

Another object of this invention is to provide manufacturers with a much more efficient and responsive feedback mechanism for adjusting marketing and production schedules. For example, immediate feedback that a new line of skis was selling briskly in South America during May would prompt a ski manufacturer to start adding marketing and production resources for the new line's introduction to Buyers in North America in October.

Another object of the Global Store is to provide better controls over quality of products and services. A complete system of controls spans the Virtual Channel from start (adding a manufacturer's product into a global, multi-version product database) to end (the expiration of an escrow period during which a Buyer may request a refund if a delivered product is not satisfactory).

Another object of the Global Store is to help manufacturers satisfy Buyers' needs for customer service. In order to serve as an alternative to use of the Legacy Channel, the Global Store matches and, where possible, exceeds the level of service that Buyers find in the Legacy Channel. For example, a Buyer in the Legacy Channel may need to call a retail store to inquire about returning a purchased product. In order to find out about return policies and procedures, it is a common experience that the Buyer will

1) need to maneuver through a maze of switchboard options,
2) have a lengthy wait "on hold," and
3) be transferred at least once before (possibly) getting accurate answers from a customer service representative.

In the Global Store, the answers are readily available within the Virtual Channel information system at the same virtual location where the product was purchased.

Another object of this invention is for manufacturers to be able to provide Buyers with adequate information to make buying decisions. Many prospective Buyers will not complete a transaction unless they know not only the cost of the item but also the total price, including shipping fees, etc. The present invention overcomes this barrier by providing a comprehensive, integrated system whereby Buyers from all over the world can get complete information about product, price (stated in the Buyer's currency), and delivery prior to making the buying decision. Furthermore, the use of a single marketing information database allows the manufacturer easily to control and communicate accurate information about product availability in inventory, service availability, warranties, and return policies.

Another object of this invention is to improve the probability a Buyer will complete a purchase transaction after the Buyer has selected a product for purchase. With conventional art, products are placed in a "shopping cart." Unfortunately, that cart often is later abandoned with no purchase made. The invention disclosed here includes an improved shopping cart design, an improvement that facilitates a Buyer's decision to complete a purchase transaction by

1) establishing immediately an interactive relationship with the Buyer by opening a new frame that shows a shopping cart (titled "Open-Frame Interactive Shopping Cart") and asking the Buyer to answer certain questions that appear in the frame before the Buyer proceeds to checkout or returns to shopping,
2) maintaining interactive contact by with the Buyer by keeping a minimized, restorable shopping cart visible on the Buyer's computer screen during the entire time when the Buyer is viewing products after a product has been selected,
3) providing total costs for a purchase, including shipping charges, immediately after the Buyer has selected a product, and
4) prominently offering the option for the Buyer of making an immediate purchase.

An important advantage here is the immediate assumption that the purchase will be made plus the visual reminder that the Buyer has made a selection and that the product is ready for purchase. This approach overcomes the disadvantage of prior art in which the Buyer is implicitly told that the Buyer need only "think about" completing the purchase "later." That implicit message is poor sales technique. It is best to have the Buyer complete the transaction as soon as possible, before the Buyer forgets about the perceived benefits of the product, gets distracted, or hesitates because of second thoughts.

Another object of the invention is to provide Buyers from around the world with an improved way of finding and selecting a desired category of products to view. Conventional art presents the Buyer with (a) a limited selection of categories (e.g., Amazon.com) or (b) an overly large and confusing array of categories (e.g., eBay.com).

The invention disclosed here includes an efficient universal method of organizing and displaying product categories for selection by Buyers. Using sequential drop-down menus and a clearly organized hierarchy, a Buyer quickly and intuitively navigates among thousands of possible categories of products to select a desired category. The process is easily understood, powerful, and efficient.

Furthermore, the above method is a manifestation of a powerful underlying architecture that is independent of locale—a multi-level, hierarchical, logical taxonomy that can be implemented throughout the world. The logical taxonomy provides a framework for locale-specific navigation and categorization that is itself independent of locale and language. The same underlying technology can be used advantageously to construct hierarchical taxonomies that are customized for different locales and languages, allowing categorization of the same products in a way that is available for use by Buyers across various locales. Stated another way, the same technology provides an architectural framework that can be used to construct a multitude of independent locale-specific hierarchical taxonomies. The taxonomies are consistent in design and function for finding products, while still accommodating differences among locales in language and in how products are customarily categorized.

Based on the taxonomy, a hierarchy, conveniently and concisely presented in drop-down menus, allows a Buyer quickly to step down through hierarchical levels with a multitude of nodes at each level. For example, an English-speaking Buyer would sequentially select among nodes listed under (a) Departments, (b) Groups, (c) Families, and, at an end, (d) Categories of products to view. A possible list of sequentially selected nodes might be "Apparel," "Women's Apparel," "Women's Outerwear," and "Women's Jackets." Because unique numeric values are used to identify the nodes of the hierarchy, no dependence on any one language is made in specifying the nodes. The same products might be found by a German-speaking Buyer looking under a Category node with the same numeric value as "Women's Jackets" but labeled "Damenjacken." A Buyer anywhere in the world may use his or her own language to find a category of products to view regardless of the countries of origin of those products.

Another advantage of the disclosed method for organization and display of products is that a product may be assigned to more than one category. This will aid Buyers looking for certain products when the Buyers have different motivations for looking. For example, one Buyer might look under the Category "Survival Equipment" to find "Snowshoes," while another Buyer might look under the Category "Winter Sports Equipment."

Another object of this invention is to increase Buyers' confidence in buying products from foreign manufacturers by providing an escrow system to guarantee delivery and Buyer satisfaction. Thereby, manufacturers will be more likely to sell their products across international boundaries when Buyers feel thus protected.

Another object of the Global Store is to allow manufacturers to provide customized and personalized service to Buyers. Buyers, at the time of ordering, can be given the option to specify attributes for customized manufacturing of some products. (In that case the Buyer is told the number of extra days prior to delivery that will be needed to produce the customized product.) Manufacturers thereby have the advantage of being able to deliver exactly what the Buyer wants without having to keep a large inventory of completed products.

There are social implications to new ways to facilitate global trade. No nation can afford to be left out of the global economy. Use of a public communications system like the Internet to enable global trade inevitably gives access to a nation's citizens to new information and new ideas. Broader implications of the use of the Internet should not be ignored. A benefit of an increase in global trade is that citizens of different nations become exposed to basic humanness in their trading counterparts. They see other citizens of the world as much like themselves and not to be despised or feared. Having access to information that is not controlled by any one government makes citizens less vulnerable to manipulations by despots.

The technology represented here will change the world. Just as tribes have integrated into nations, nations will integrate into global organizations. An analogy to that integration is seen in the evolution of biological organisms. Individual cells became colonies of cells. Those colonies evolved into highly integrated living systems that are well suited to survive in their environment. Just so, mutual interests and instantaneous communications allow nations of the world to evolve new methods of organization to meet global threats to peace and the environment.

Though the invention disclosed here focuses upon trade of physical products, it also, inevitably, facilitates movement of information and ideas because digitalized products are included. What will it mean when citizens of the world have easy access to information and ideas across barriers of nations, cultures, and languages? With respect to the invention disclosed here, it can be seen that a powerful, language-neutral taxonomic system is part of the Global Store. That system lends itself finding not only tangible products but also digitalized information (books, software, tapes, films, etc.). For example, it would be possible to adapt the taxonomic system to make available online the about 100,000,000 items in the Library of Congress, representing approximately 500 languages. And each item could be found by using no more than six or seven mouse clicks.

Other aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon referring to accompanying drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a method and apparatus for overcoming barriers of nation, culture, and language between manufacturers and Buyers. Using their computers to visit selected Websites on the Internet, Buyers are able to access a common multi-language database of marketing information about a manufacturer's product. The marketing information about the product occurs in a multitude of versions adapted to Buyers in various local markets, depending on nation, culture and language.

Buyers in a local market are offered the opportunity to view products for purchase, said offer made at a Referral Website that serves their particular locale. Having selected a category of products for viewing, a Buyer then sees a version of marketing information about each product, said version adapted for the language, culture, and nationality as indicated from the Buyer's use of the Referral Website.

The Buyer, using his or her preferred language, then orders the product, tracks delivery, and has access to customer service.

An innovative system of controls guarantees a high quality of product and a high level of service for the Buyer. The controller apparatus of the invention allows proactive control over (a) selection of manufacturers who provide products, (b) selection products to go into the common database, (c) selection of Websites from which Buyers are referred, and (d) quality of service standards, including the availability of products in inventory for immediate shipment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram of the Virtual Channel of global trade, illustrating the hardware and software used by Buyers, Referral Websites, the Global Store, and Ancillary Resources.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the sequence of operations followed by the Global Store to provide information and products from manufacturers to Buyers across barriers of language, culture, and nationality.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

While the preferred embodiment of this invention is shown and described here, the invention is not thereby limited to the specific embodiment disclosed. The following description is merely illustrative, having been presented by way of example only. Numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions may be made within the spirit or scope of this invention by one skilled in the arts to which this invention pertains. These and other embodiments are considered to be within the scope and spirit of the present invention. For example, the invention is not limited to use on the Internet or using the Web or private web such as an internal corporate web or using the HTTP communication protocol. Other protocols and usage variations, using messages communicated over TCP/IP connections, are also possible. Another example is the use of scripts other than those specified, e.g. Javascript. Markup languages other than HTML may be used, or a mixture of markup languages may be used. The client and server may be connected by the Internet or a private intranet. Other server platforms, operating systems, gateways, SQL servers, locale definitions, and locale-specific character-sets (rather than UTF-8) may be substituted. The method of client-server interoperability interface may be rearranged and reconfigured and still be within the teachings of the patent. For example, the menu navigation/product selection/shopping cart panel can be implemented with a Java plug-in. For scalability, in other embodiments, additional servers may be used and routers added. Functions may be combined on one server or dispersed onto multiple servers. The scope of the present invention is defined by the claims that are appended.

Glossary: Vocabulary of the Virtual Channel

Technical descriptions and specifications are written at a level that assumes the reader has skill in arts of Web Servers, Browser/Client, SQL Database Servers, e-commerce, and internationalized Internet protocols and markup language standards. The following glossary describes how selected technical terms are used in this document. It is included here to make following sections easier to understand for a non-expert.

Active Server Pages (ASP) script technology facilitates simplified creation of interactive Web pages in this invention that allow a Buyer to make selections from Web pages sent for the Buyers inspection and use. A dynamically created Web page with an ASP extension utilizes ActiveX scripting. When a Browser requests an ASP page, the Web server generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the Browser.
ActiveX Server Component is an ActiveX Component designed to run on the server-side of a Client/server application.
ActiveX (RTM) Data Objects (ADO) are a collection of data access objects within a hierarchical object library. ADO enables Client application access to data in SQL 2000 server from Internet Information Server 5.0 and ASP. The Microsoft Web-based object technology enables intelligent objects to be embedded in Web documents to create interactive pages, thus facilitating the Buyers access to information stored in the central marketing database.
ActiveX Scripting is using a scripting language to drive ActiveX Components. ActiveX Scripting is made possible by plugging a scripting engine into a host application. A scripting engine enables the processing of a specific scripting language such as VBScript, as included in IIS with Active Server Pages.
ADO Active Data Objects are a set of object-based, data-access interfaces within ASP for optimized Internet-based, data-centric applications.
Ancillary Resource Websites are Websites accessible via the Internet suite of protocols that provide specific informational or processing services, generally on a subscription basis. Examples include (a) credit card and general payment processing, (b) currency conversion quotations, and (c) tax computing services. Each of these requires an Application Programming Interface (API) software to match the host application to the external service via the TCP/IP protocol.
Architectural Design specifies framework and components that provide independence of database schema and database information from applications and queries used to select information. This independence allows for flexibility in (a) adding to or maintaining the database and (b) accessing and displaying information from the database.
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a standard definition for character sets, using 7-bits.
Bind refers to putting an object into its running state, allowing the operations it supports to be invoked. Objects can be bound at run time—called late binding or dynamic binding. Binding at compile time is called static binding. Binding is the process that enables dynamic Web page generation by IIS at run-time. Binding is also performed at development time on a development system to produce the locale-specific ASP scripts stored and used in the server.
Cache is temporary, local storing of Web pages, precluding need of the server to regenerate them.
Call is to transfer program execution to some other section of code, usually a subroutine, while saving the necessary information to allow execution to resume at the calling point when the called section has completed execution.
Category Name Table is an alphabetical list of all product categories in Unicode for National English and other national languages plus a unique numerical value, the CatID associated with each product category name. The same CatID is associated with the same set of products, independent of the national language used to name the category. This table also includes LCID values as an index associated with category names as expressed in the respective national languages.
CatID is the unique numerical value assigned to each category. Use of this table and the numerical value of the categories allows ease of translation and access of data across different locales.
Category System allows products to be described and found by category. This is part of a four-tier system going in declining inclusiveness from department, to group, to family, to category, to product. (See Taxonomy)
CGI Common Gateway Interface is a server-side interface for initiating software services. CGI allows scripts and executable programs to access the user requests and server responses in order to create dynamic pages with ASP (Active Server Pages).
Character is the smallest component of written language that has semantic value. A character has a single abstract meaning and/or shape, but not a specific shape.
Character Set is a collection of characters, numbers, punctuation, symbols, and special characters for a particular national language. Using a process called encoding, each character in a national language (plus each special character used) is assigned a numeric value called a code point.
Character Encoding Scheme (CES) enables transmission or storage using byte-oriented devices.
Charset is a method of mapping a sequence of (8-bit) octets to a sequence of abstract characters. A Charset is, in effect, a combination of one or more CCS with a CES. Charset is used in HTML and HTTP specifying UTF-8, in the invention. Document Charset, or encoding, is defined by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority). IANA is dedicated to preserving the central coordinating functions of the global Internet for the public good. Charset names, e.g. UTF-8, are defined and registered by the IANA according to procedures documented in RFC 2278. The Charset is used in the HEAD portion of the HTML document and tells the Browser how the text in the document has been encoded.
Client Browser is a program running on a Client's PC operating system that interprets HTML and displays text and graphic information on a computer screen for viewing. A person uses a Browser to view the contents of network Websites and to navigate among them. Popular examples include Microsoft Internet Explorer (RTM) and Netscape Navigator (RTM). Newer versions can browse HTML with multiple frames.
Client-Server. A model of interaction in a distributed system in which a program at one site sends a request to a program at another site and waits for a response. The requesting program is called the "Client," and the program that responds to the request is called the "server." In the context of the WWW, the Client is a "Web Browser" (or simply "Browser") that runs on a computer of a user; the program which responds to Browser requests by serving Web pages is commonly referred to as a "Web server." The Browser-Client portion of the application is optimized for user interaction, whereas the server portion provides the centralized, multi-user functionality.
Code Page is a coded character set, often referring to an ANSI coded character set used by a personal computer.
Code Point is (a) A numerical index (or position) in an encoding table used for encoding characters or (b) Synonym for Unicode scalar value.
Coded Character Set (CCS) means that each character in a repertoire is associated with a non-negative integer, the code point (also known as a character number). The coded character set (CCS) is the result of a mapping from the repertoire to the set of non-negative integers.
Communications Protocol is a set of rules or standards designed to enable computers to connect with one another and to exchange information with as few errors as possible. Internet Protocols are engineered and developed by the Internet Society (ISOC).
Control is an object on the display screen that can be manipulated by a user to perform an action. The most common controls are buttons that a user can click to select an option and scroll bars that a user employs to move through a document or position text in a window.
Cookie is a small file created on a Client's computer to indicate prior registration of the Client (Buyer) and the Referral Website. The cookie is used to track repeat visits defining a buyer's session.
CSS Cascading Style Sheet is a simple mechanism for adding style to Web documents, e.g. fonts, colors, spacing, and text direction. Text direction can be LTR (Left to Right) or RTL (Right to Left). HTML 4.01 provides a LINK tag that enables CSS to be stored on the server to be downloaded by the Browser during rendering of the Web page. CSS is stored in locale-specific folders on the Web server. Web pages are generated using server scripts that use common CSS for the locale. Streaming Fonts are facilitated by CSS to overcome any "missing font" conditions in the Browser. (See Fonts—Streaming)
Cursor enables forward and backward navigation in a recordset returned from the SQL Server. A cursor also enables column-by-column navigation of a record selected.
Cursor Engine is a mechanism in IIS for managing data retrieved from a database and for updating of server-based data.
Currency Ratio Table contains the ratio of the various locales' currency for use in translating amounts from one currency to another. Daily updates for currency conversion ratios is obtained and stored. Conversion ratios are then applied daily in a maintenance cycle to all prices in the product price fields in each version. The manufacturer's locale currency is used as the base currency used to calculate prices in other product record versions.
Database Management System (DBMS) is a software application used to build a database and to operate on data within the database. The DBMS stores, retrieves, and modifies data associated with the database. Lastly, to the extent possible, the DBMS protects data from corruption and unauthorized access.
Database Table is a collection of information in a relational database that is organized into fields and rows. Individual rows (records) are selected using an SQL Statement invoked from a Stored Procedure.
Date/Time Stamp is a text string used to format a date and time, for example, "MMMM dddd yyyy". A locale-invariant format is used in all locales as a date/time stamp in data base tables.
Department is the topmost level of product categorization in the Global Store product Taxonomy. (See Taxonomy.)
Design-Time Control (DTC) is an ActiveX control designed to generate runtime text and insert it into a document while the document is being edited. The control is "live" only at design-time when the document is open in the editor.
DLL (Dynamic Link Library) (RTM) is a feature of the Microsoft Windows (RTM) family of operating systems that (a) supports executable routines—usually serving a specific function or set of functions—to be stored separately as files with the extension .dll and (b) load only when called by the program that needs them. This saves memory during program execution and enables code reusability.
Domain Name is a name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages.
Dynamic WebPages. (See Active Server Pages.)
Event-driven status monitoring is used by Client-Side JScript procedure, for example, to initiate an action upon the event of a user. Typical events include pressing a keyboard key, choosing a button using a mouse click, and other mouse actions.
External Gateway is a link to access information for functions such as parcel tracking. A Website where parcel tracking is available for use by the Global Store would be considered an Ancillary Resource.
Font is a collection of glyphs used for the visual depiction of character data. A font is normally associated with a set of parameters (for example, size, posture, weight, and serifness), which, when set to particular values, generate a collection of imagable glyphs. The fonts are stored on the Browser's computer. (See Streaming Fonts.)
Form is an HTML element that allows users to fill in, or select from a menu, information and submit it to a server for processing.
Form Processing with ASP pages occurs when ASP server script files are the targets of Client HTML form requests submitted from an HTML Web page in a Browser. An HTML FORM tag is used The FORM request is for a dynamically generated HTML response that, in turn, may contain yet another similar HTTP request. These requests include Tokens sent with the submission to convey to the server script parameters to get the proper response, such as a product category.
Frame is a rectangular subspace within a Frameset document. Each FRAME must be contained within a FRAMESET that defines the dimensions of the frame. If HTML sent to the Browser by a server-script does not include <FRAMESET> and <FRAME> tags, the display uses a single frame occupying the entire screen.
Frameset defines the dimensions of the frames and their names.
Fulfillment is a function whereby a purchased product is delivered to a Buyer from a Manufacturer's Fulfillment Center. A Manufacturer may choose to employ multiple Fulfillment Center's in different locales. A Fulfillment Center is designated for each locale.
Fulfillment Center receives product orders from the Global Store through Email messaging using UTF-8 Unicode Transformation. The Global Store issues the Fulfillment Order to the Fulfillment Center and the Fulfillment Center sends back the Carrier's Tracking number.
GIF Graphics Interchange Format is a computer graphics file format for use in photo-quality graphic image display on computer screens.
Global.asa is a file which specifies event procedures and declares objects that have session or application scope. It is not a content file displayed to the users; it stores event information and objects used globally by the application.

This file must be named Global.asa and must be stored in the root directory of the application. An application can have only one Global.asa file.
Global Store Marketing Database is a language-neutral database for storing and sharing multi-version marketing, sales, and customer service information across frontiers of countries, cultures, and languages.
Global Store is the part of the Virtual Channel that controls information flow between Buyers and the database and between Ancillary Resources and the database and Buyers.
Global System is a Client-server application for global trade that uses Unicode and achieves integration of operating subsystems while allowing locale-specific communications.
Globalization "G11N" describes the business management process and infrastructure necessary to support the development, marketing, and distribution of a company's goods and services worldwide. Globalization seeks to achieve the goal of maximum resource utilization and return on investment.
Glyph is an abstract form that represents one or more glyph images. In displaying Unicode character data, one or more glyphs may be selected to depict a particular character. These glyphs are selected by a Browser's rendering engine during composition and layout processing. The actual shape (bit pattern, outline, and so forth) of a character image is a glyph. For example, an italic "a" and a roman "a" are two different glyphs representing the same underlying character. A glyph is one specific shape that a character can have when it is rendered or displayed. A single glyph may correspond to a single character, or it may correspond to many characters; for example, the same glyph is used to represent the Latin capital letter "P" and the Greek capital letter "Rho."
Hidden Fields are embedded in a form in a Web page sent to a Web Browser. The field does not appear in the Browser. The Hidden Field can be used to identify the particular session or transaction identity.
Host is any computer that provides services to remote computers or users.
Hot Link is a connection to a document, image, or other file on the Internet that generally appears as a highlighted word or image on a computer screen (also Hypertext Link or Link). The hot link, when clicked by a mouse pointer, causes a request to be issued via HTTP for a Web page to be sent from the embedded server URL. The Web page is then sent to the Client using HTTP.
Hot Spot is an image that, when clicked, initiates a Hypertext Link.
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a text description language; it mixes text format markup with plain text content to describe formatted text. HTML is ubiquitous as the source language for Web pages on the Internet. Starting with HTML 4.0, the Unicode Standard functions as the reference character set for HTML content.
HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) is a standard World Wide Web Client-server protocol used for the exchange of information (such as HTML documents, and Client requests for such documents) between a Browser and a Web server over the Internet using the TCP/IP suite of protocols. HTTP is a member of the TCP/IP suite of protocols because it uses TCP/IP for its transport and IP for routing. HTTP includes a number of different types of messages that can be sent from the Client to the server to request different types of server actions.
HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP protocol, approved by the IETF, using digital certificates that can uniquely identify the server and Client, and encrypt all communication between them. This extension to the HTTP protocol supports sending data securely over the World Wide Web.
Hyperlink is a navigational link from one document to another or from one portion (or component) of a document to another. Typically, a hyperlink is displayed as a highlighted word or phrase that can be selected by clicking on it using a mouse to jump to the associated document or documented portion.
IAB (Internet Architecture Board) is the body that helps define the overall architecture and design of Internet protocols. The IAB is the technical advisory group of the ISOC.
Include Script directive provides a way to insert the content of an "Include" ASP file into an ASP file before ASP.dll processes it.
Internationalization of a site means that will be viewed in countries other than the United States, you can use the CODEPAGE tag within the ASP's <% %> delimiters to specify the proper code page.
IETF or Internet Engineering Task Force is a protocol engineering and development organization focused on the Internet. The IETF is a large, open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is now under the auspices of the ISOC.
Internet (Abbreviation for Internetwork) is a set of dissimilar computer networks joined together by means of gateways that handle data transfer and the conversion of messages from the sending network to the protocols used by the receiving networks. These networks and gateways use the TCP/IP suite of protocols.
IIS (Internet Information Server) supports applications that use CGI, ASP, IDC and ISAPI; and interfaces with Windows (RTM) NT/2000 and other services running on the server machine.
International Standards Organization (ISO) sets standards for key technologies like networking and universal methods of language encoding.
Internationalization, "I18N," is the process of engineering locale-neutral systems. The core functionality of internationalized software is designed to operate independently of language and locale-specific conditions.
Internet Mail is defined by IETF RFC 822 "STANDARD FOR THE FORMAT OF ARPA INTERNET TEXT MESSAGES". This standard was defined for encoding 7 bit, 128 character ASCII, later updated by MIME specifications for 8 bit characters and to Internationalize Internet Mail.
Internet Mail Standards Internet mail is defined by a large number of standards and recommendations that are codified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
ISAPI (Internet Server Application Programming Interface) is a broadly standardized interface that allows server-side programs to create dynamic Web pages, in a similar way to CGI.
ISOC (Internet SOCiety) is a professional membership society with more than 150 organizational and 6,000 individual members in over 100 countries. It is a non-governmental, non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining and enhancing the Internet. Through its committees, such as the Internet Advisory Board (IAB) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Society is responsible for developing and approving new Internet standards and protocols including HTML, HTTP, MIME, FTP, and TCP/IP.
ISO 10646 is the International Standards Organization's encoding that is code-for-code equivalent to Unicode.
Join is a database operation in which related rows from two or more tables are combined to form a single result table. Use of joins between tables allows data to be stored in a way that minimizes duplication.
JScript is the Microsoft (RTM) open implementation of JavaScript. JScript is fully compatible with JavaScript in Netscape Navigator (RTM). JScript is included in the HTML Web pages dynamically produced by the ASP server scripts. The Web Browser includes a JScript engine for processing. HTML 4.01 is designed to interoperate with JScript. For example, when clicking on an HTML Menu selection, a JScript procedure can monitor the event of that mouse pointer click and implement the Form's submission Request using its Post method.
Key Field is a field in a relational table used to support indexing and in relational joins with other tables in an SQL statement.
Key Index in a table allows fast sorting and selecting of records in the table.
LCID (see Locale ID)
Locale has a greater meaning than Language Code, but Language Code is used to identify a Locale. The language code definition for each locale is specified by RFC 1766—language codes which in turn references ISO-639 (language codes) and ISO-3166 (country codes). For example, French-Canadian becomes "fr-ca" string. All locale strings contained in ISO-639, HTML, and HTTP 1.1 are in US-ASCII.
Localization, L10N, is a generic term indicating a set of attributes related to language and other national/cultural preferences and the process of customizing all user elements of an application to conform to the requirements of a given locale. Examples include currency formats, date and time format, calendar type, number formats, sentence word order, directionality, and punctuation. Localization may include translation of locale-dependent text, graphics, and data.
Locale ID (LCID) is a 32-bit numeric value in hexadecimal that identifies a locale. Locale values are specified by constants programmed within the Microsoft (RTM) server. The LCID value associated with a Referral Website serves to identify the locale-specific country/language pair.
Manufacturer's Product Identifier is the Manufacturer's identifier used in a product record.
Meta Character is the charset tag used to designate to the Browser the character set of the Web page through its use in the META statement contained in the Header of the Web page. For UTF-8 (Universal) one would see, for example:
- <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is an extension of the Standard Internet mail protocol that enables sending 8-bit based e-mail messages, which are used to support extended character sets, voice mail, facsimile images, and so forth. MIME is a standard that allows the embedding of arbitrary documents and other binary data of known types (images, sound, video, and so on) into e-mail handled by ordinary Internet electronic mail interchange protocols. (RFC's 2045-2049 define the MIME standards.)
Multilingualism in HTML involves creating and maintaining versions in multiple languages.
Named Stored Procedure is a name given to a Stored Procedure for identification purposes. (See Stored Procedure.)
National language is the language ubiquitous to a locale.
Object Oriented Programming (OOP) provides a way for digital information to be packaged in a manner that enables re-use of software code and, thereby, simplifying programming.
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is Microsoft's interface that translates vendor-specific relational database to a common SQL standard to allow processing using Windows (RTM) applications.
Open-Frame Interactive Shopping Cart (OFISC) is the function performed the Global Store after a product is selected for purchase by a Buyer. A new frame opens in the bottom of the window to display information about which products have been selected for purchase. The frame remains viewable throughout the time the Buyer continues to view products and prior to the time that the purchase is completed or the Buyer leaves the product viewing process.
Parser comes from "parts of speech" in Latin. It means to part or break down into component parts. An ASP parser, ASP.dll, is a specialized software program that recognizes the different parts of the ASP script and processes the parts.
POST method message in an HTML Form, when triggered, submits an HTTP request to the server to return a requested document or file.
Products Category Display Panel is the Web page that is sent to the Buyer for viewing after the Buyer has selected a category of products for viewing. Only those products are available to the display panel in the page that are available for sale in the Buyers locale (as determined from the locale's LCID). Panels have drop-down menus and a product description result sets. This Web page is sent to Buyers for their interactive selection of a category of products to view.
Product Category is a subset of products in a taxonomic grouping of products. All the product categories are organized within a smaller number of Product Families.
Product Category Display is a display of products in a Frame where the products can be individually selected without losing the display.
Product Department is a subset of products in a taxonomic grouping of products. This is the most general level of a taxonomic structure for organizing products that contains Departments, Groups, Families, and Categories.
Product Family is a subset of products in a taxonomic grouping of products. All the Product Families are organized within a smaller number of Product Groups.
Product Group is a subset of products in a taxonomic grouping of products. All the product groups are organized within a smaller number of Product Departments.
Product Version is provided for each locale and identified by a different LCID. Each Product Version has a separate record containing the products description appropriate to the locale's customs and National Language. Each unique product is identified by a ProdID identifier and is ordered from Manufacturer's Fulfillment Center.
Query is an operation on a database table to select and process information that is then reported back in a result set. Use of queries that are triggered by Buyers' selections result in the appropriate information being sent to the Buyer's Web Browser to be displayed as a Web page.
Recordset is a set of records returned for processing from an ADO Call in to a Stored Procedure on an SQL Server.
ReferID is a unique identifier assigned to a Referral Website. That identifier is transmitted to the Global Store via a URL string when the Buyer initiates a request to view products. It is contained in the cookie that is stored in the Buyer's computer.
Referral is the function performed at a Referral Website when a Buyer selects a department of products to view. That selection causes an http request for information to be sent to the Global Store, thus establishing communication between the Buyer and the Global Store.
Relational Database is a type of database where information is organized into tables.
Rendering is (a) a Browser's process of selecting and laying out glyphs for depicting characters or (b) the process of making glyphs visible on a display device.

Repertoire is a specified set of characters that are each represented by one or more bit combinations of a coded character set.
Result Set is the records returned when a stored SQL query is invoked.
RFC (Request For Comment) is the primary mechanism used by the IETF to publish authoritative documents, including Internet standards including TCP/IP, HTML, HTTP, MIME and others.
Schema is a collection of tables in a database used to organize and manage the information.
Script is a kind of program that consists of a set of instructions for an application or utility program. Scripts are included in the Web pages sent to a Buyer, thus increasing the usefulness of the page in displaying information and allowing interactivity.
Server Side ASP Scripting is used to enclose, within the ASP script (server-side <SCRIPT> tag), that script that is to be run on the server-side. The server-side script is braced with the lead statement: <SCRIPT RUNAT="Server" Language=VBScript"> and the end of server-side script is </SCRIPT>. The script type can include other script type allowed by ASP.
Session is an interaction between a Client and a server that transcends multiple scripts.
Session.LCID is a parameter set at the beginning of any ASP script segment including a write statement for (a) currency, (b) date, (c) time, and (d) number formats. The LCID value is specified in the URL string from the request initiated from the Buyer's Browser. After the Session.LCID is set, the written statements will be formatted correctly for the Buyer's locale.
Settlement is the function of providing payment to a manufacturer after a purchased product has been satisfactorily delivered to a Buyer.
SQL (see Structured Query Language)
SQL Stored Procedures are pre-compiled software functions that are managed and run within a remote database management system (RDBMS). Stored procedures provide reusable services that can be shared by multiple applications and users. They typically capture business processes and data manipulation functions that are part of the server-side of a Client/server application. Stored procedures are written in SQL.
Status Code is a language neutral way to track changes in status by an event monitoring system.
Status Code Table is a table that contains status codes.
Stored Procedures Pre-compiled software functions are managed and run within a remote database management system (RDBMS). Stored procedures provide a reusable service that can be shared by multiple applications and users. They typically capture business processes and data manipulation functions that are part of the server-side of a Client/server application. Stored procedures are written in SQL. The stored procedure is assigned a name that can be referenced by a calling ASP script.
Streaming Fonts are used, in conjunction with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), to overcome "missing font" conditions where local fonts are inadequate to properly render the Web page.
Strip is an HTML Product Description containing an embedded Form that submits a Product identifier to a server for processing when checked.
Structured Query Language (SQL) is the international standard language for defining and accessing relational databases. Implementations may have slight variations.
Taxonomy is comprised of four levels, and top to bottom: Department, Group, Family, and Category. The Taxonomy is independent of locale and thereby facilitates product database integration across locales. Products are found through a drill-down process, navigating unique paths through the structure and in four decisions arrive at a selected category of products assigned ready for display in the language version of the locale.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is a combined set of communications protocols that are used to connect hosts and perform the transfer of data between them. TCP monitors and ensures correct transfer of data. IP receives the data from TCP, breaks it up into packets, and sends it to a network within the Internet. TCP/IP supports higher level communications protocols such as HTTP, FTP, and FTP.
Text String is a sequence of letter, number, and other characters that is digitally encoded and can be decoded by an appropriate software application. Text strings are stored in table record's fields.
Tracking Number is the numbered assigned to a purchase item that is used to allow access to information about where the product is in the delivery process.
Transaction is a set of two or more database updates that must be completed in an all-or-nothing fashion.
Trigger is an event that is scheduled to occur upon the change in a certain parameter in a database table.
UCS (Universal Character Set) is specified by International Standard ISO/IEC 10646.
Unicode is a fixed-width, 16-bit worldwide character character-encoding standard. This standard was developed and is maintained and promoted by the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit computer industry organization. Windows 2000 (RTM) uses it as the default at the system level for character and string manipulation. Unicode simplifies localization of software and improves multilingual text processing. Unicode defines semantics for each character, standardizes script behavior, provides a standard algorithm for bi-directional text, and defines cross-mappings to other encoding standards. Unicode is compatible with ASCII characters. The first 128 Unicode characters correspond to the ASCII characters and have the same numeric value. ASCII's 0×41 is the same as Unicode's \u0041. While ASCII's 128 characters support just the Latin alphabet, Unicode's over 65,000 characters can support many different languages. Unicode is fully compatible with ISO's 10646-1 and UCS-2 standards. JavaScript programs will still be written in the ASCII-set characters. You can use non-ASCII Unicode characters in the comments and string literals of JavaScript/JScript.
Unicode Bidirectional (Bidi) Algorithm is the Unicode standard that defines a complex algorithm for determining the proper directionality of text. The algorithm consists of an implicit part based on character properties as well as explicit controls for embeddings and overrides.
Unicode in the Global Store Information in the Global Marketing Database is stored in Unicode, thus accommodating all national languages. Unicode use is maintained exclusively until the prepared Web page is ready to send to the Buyer's Browser. At that point the character set is converted to the character set specific to the locale of the Buyer.
Unicode Normalization is a process to transcode source text from a legacy code to Unicode that is normalized. (for details see Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0, W3C Working Draft 26 Jan. 2001)
Unicode Standard, version 1.1 [UNICODE], and ISO/IEC 10646-1:1993 [ISO-10646] jointly define a 16 bit character set, UCS-2, which encompasses most of the world's writing systems, reference RFC 2044.
Universal Character Set (UCS) ISO/IEC 10646-1 defines a multi-octet character set that encompasses most of the world's writing systems. (See Unicode)
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a unique address that fully specifies the location of a file or other resource on the Internet.
UTF-8 UCS Transformation Format (RFC 2279, "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646") is an 8-bit character encoding scheme. UTF-8 uses all bits of an octet, but has the quality of preserving the full US-ASCII range: US-ASCII characters are encoded in one octet having the normal US-ASCII value, and any octet with such a value can only stand for an US-ASCII character, and nothing else. UTF-8 serializes a Unicode (UCS-2) scalar value as a sequence of one to six bytes, depending on the value of the character.
VBScript is a scripting language developed by Microsoft and is based on Visual Basic programming language. VBScript is supported by ASP, which invokes a VBScript engine to process VBScript procedures. A VBScript procedure is used to invoke ADO parameterized Calls to the SQL Server to obtain locale-specific product Record Sets. VBScript procedures convert UCS-2 information obtained from the server into written HTML, including MIME, using UTF-8 encoding.
W3C World Wide Web Consortium was founded in 1994 to develop common standards for the World Wide Web. The W3C is an international industry consortium. W3C (http://www.w3.org) develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. A key effort is to embrace Unicode and extend existing standards to include UTF-8. Unicode now serves as a common reference for W3C specifications and applications.
Web Application is a software program that uses HTTP for its core communication protocol and delivers Web-based information to the user in the HTML language.
Web Browser is the Client in the Client/server network.
Web Server is a computer on the Web that shares HTML-tagged text and graphics files with Clients.
Website is a computer system that serves informational content over a network using the standard protocols of the World Wide Web. Typically, a Website corresponds to a particular Internet domain name, such as "microsoft.com," and includes the content associated with a particular organization. As used herein, the term is generally intended to encompass both (a) the hardware/software server components that serve the informational content over the network, and (b) the "back end" hardware/software components, including any non-standard or specialized components, that interact with the server components to perform services for Website users.
Windows 2000, Server Edition (RTM), is the server upgraded from Windows NT 4.0 (RTM). This system runs the Internet Information Server and hosts the SQL 2000 server for the SQL relational database tables and associated stored SQL procedures.
World Wide Web (Web or WWW) is a set of services that run on top of the Internet, providing a cost-effective way of publishing information, supporting collaboration and workflow, and delivering business applications to any connected user in the world. The Web is a collection of Internet host systems that make these services available on the Internet using the HTTP protocol.
Writing Direction is the direction or orientation of writing characters within lines of text in a writing system. Three directions are common in modern writing systems: left to right, right to left, and top to bottom.
Writing System is a set of rules for using one or more scripts to write a particular language. Examples include the American English writing system, the British English writing system, the French writing system, and the Japanese writing system. XML (extensible Markup Language) is a simplified subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML, ISO 8879) that provides for interchange of a file format for representing data, a schema for describing data structure, and a mechanism for extending and annotating HTML with semantic information.
Overview of the Global Store System within the Virtual Channel

The diagram seen in FIG. 1 provides an overview of components of a Virtual Channel of global trade—including the Global Store System 1500, which knits together components of the Channel. This section describes technical characteristics of the system and its relationships with other components of the Virtual Channel. In the description of FIG. 1 that follows, as well as in following sections, indented Technical Notes are interspersed that provide details sufficient to enable one skilled in the art, without undue experimentation, to construct and implement a Global Store system.

HTTP-requests and other communications over the Internet between the Buyer and the Global Store are routed via a Local Area Network 1580 and an Internet Information Server—the IIS Web Server Platform 1520. The Global Store also connects to various Ancillary Resources 1400 that enable the Global Store to provide information and services that support marketing, sales, and delivery processes. The connections to these Ancillary Resources are supported by Interfacing Applications for Use of Ancillary Resources 1530. Software technology used to access those supportive resources over the Internet are provided by the purveyor of those services. That technology is well understood, widely available, and needs little exposition for the purposes of the present application.

Internationalization and localization are key concepts in the embodiment of the Global Store system—a system that responds to Buyers around the world in locale-specific ways from one integrated system that accesses information from a single, multi-version database. The technical description of how that is done, using system locale-identifier numeric values (LCIDs), is explained in detail below by documenting the use of LCIDs with ASP server scripts, stored SQL procedures, and externally-linked Cascaded Style Sheets (CSSs). Server Folders (1524) store locale-specific ASP Server Scripts and linked CSSs.

To accommodate the storage, retrieval, and display of information across a multitude of National Languages, certain sophisticated technologies are employed to create an integrated processing environment. Active Server Pages (ASPs) are used selectively to produce cultural, locale, and linguistic differences in Web pages. Those pages are constructed by automatically using National Language designator names to select correct text fragments and graphics from a plurality of such items in a table. Selection of proper text and graphics is enabled by use of LCIDs to differentiate database and server-script versions.

Different versions of records containing product information appear in the Database SQL Server Platform 1550. Different versions accommodate differences in Buyer's languages/locales. Appropriate selective access to those records is enabled by the using locale-identifier values of LCID to identify the various versions. LCID is a key field in records of product information, and the values in that field vary from version to version.

Similarly, LCID values serve to differentiate the various Server Scripts 1522 that generate content for Buyers in different locales. Those scripts are essentially identical in generating Web pages, but they differ as to using (a) different locale-specific versions of product records and (b) content that is invariant as to meaning from page to page but where the expression of that content varies from locale to locale (e.g., labels for navigation, fonts, etc.). The mechanism whereby scripts are accessed is aided by storing the Server Scripts 1522 on the IIS Web Server Platform 1520 in Server Folders 1524 that are named with the values of the various locales that are served. Thus, the server folder named "1031" contains a script named Disp.asp that is used to display product information from the database where (a) the LCID field of pertinent records has a value of "1031," and (b) HTML script is properly configured for labels, fonts, etc. for a Buyer in locale 1031. By contrast, the server folder named "222" contains a script named Disp.asp (same name), but the records accessed and the labels, fonts, etc. used are specific to locale "222." Similarly, Cascaded Style Sheets (CSSs), described below, are stored in locale-specific folders. The CSSs are designed to provide the style appropriate for the locale including font specifications.

Technical Note: In the preferred embodiment, the Global Store system provides a Client-server interface to the Web Browsers of Buyers around the world using the Internet. (Other communications means may also be used.) Using ASP VBScript write statements, served HTML pages are encoded in UTF-8, mapping from database information in 2-byte Unicode. Whenever information is to be stored for a particular National Language, it is required that the desired glyphs of that language be encoded in Unicode. UTF-8 is a variable multi-byte mapping of 2-byte (16-bit) Unicode.
Cascaded Style Sheets are linked to the server from within written HTML pages' headers, using a "LINK" element. They provide information needed by Client Browsers to render Web pages using a consistent style of display characteristics from one page to another in a given locale. Cascaded Style Sheets also provide streaming fonts when a Client (e.g., a Browser) does not have a particular font that is needed for rendering text on an HTML page.
In the implementation of the above technologies, a communication standard is HTTP, version 1.1. The standard for rendering Web pages is HTML 4.01.

The Global Store 1500 acquires a global network of Referral Websites 1600 having HTML Web pages 1610 that display Global Store "Department" names in the language of a Buyer. The preferred language is deduced from the Buyer's visit to a Referral Website serving a particular language/locale. Buyers are invited to click on a Department (e.g., "Women's Fashions") to view selected products that are for sale. Referral Websites are paid commissions on sales. A Referral Website identifier (ReferID) is a numerical identifier used during a settlement process to allocate commission credits for product sales. A ReferID value is forwarded to the Global Store as part of a visit to the Store by a Buyer who requests Web pages served by the Global Store.

A Buyer, who has TCP/IP access to the Internet 1300 by the Buyer's Computer 1200, views Web page displays rendered by the Buyer's Web Browser 1210. A Web page 1610 that comes to the Buyer's Browser over the Internet from a Referral Website 1600 contains an embedded HTML Form which allows the Buyer to send an HTTP request to the Global Store 1500 to request Client/server function-specific and locale-specific responses.

Options for a Buyer to submit requests to the Global Store System 1500 are designed to transmit to the Global Store parameterized information that enables great power and flexibility of the Global Store to respond to Buyers. System parametric values, called Tokens, are passed along with a Buyer's requests. Locale-identifier Tokens (LCID values) trigger the Global Store System 1500 to accommodate to the Buyer's language and locale. Other Tokens, as described below, allow the Global Store to offer the Buyer choices for viewing information about many thousands of products for sale, those choices conveniently and clearly arranged in drop-down menus in the Buyer's language.

Passing of Tokens allows major components—platforms—of the Global Store System to interoperate in a multitude of system states. Use of Tokens allows Global Store platforms to have interoperable congruency and also to have congruency with the platform of a Buyer—the Web Browser 1210 that operates on the Buyer's Computer 1200. Interoperability is achieved between platforms because Tokens, when passed across interfaces between platforms, set states that affect a particular function that is realized by parameterized operations taking place across those platforms.

Interoperability between platforms in the Global Store System is shown, for example, to result even from the first contact of the Buyer with the Global Store System 1500, when the Buyer clicks on a Department name. The role of Tokens is shown, as follows:

1) A Node1ID Token identifies a particular product Department selected by the Buyer. It is contained as a hidden value in an HTML Web page 1610 served to a Buyer over the Internet 1300 from a Referral Website 1600. It is passed to the Global Store's IIS Web Server Platform 1520 via the Internet 1300 and a Local Area Network 1580.
2) An LCID Token is made available by a SetLocale statement used in a locale-specific server script in the IIS Web Server Platform 1520. As described in detail below, the server script is contained in one of a plurality of locale-specific Server Folders 1524, a folder which is named with the LCID value of the Buyer's locale.
3) The LCID Token and the Node1ID Token are passed by the IIS Web Server Platform 1520 to the Global Store's Database SQL Server Platform 1550. The Node1ID Token, in conjunction with the LCID Token, allows the Database SQL Platform to retrieve the proper information and in the proper language to populate a menu for the Buyer's use. That menu helps implement the first step of a four-step, menu-driven process that the Buyer uses to select a Category of products for viewing. That process is described in detail in a later section.

Technical Note: The HTML body of the Referral Website Web Page 1610 includes an embedded FORM container that includes an "action" attribute to the "Form" HTML element. An abbreviated example of a Form container is shown as follows:

<FORM method="post"
action="http://www.firstglobalstore.com/3081/Frameset.as p" lang="en-au" ACCEPT-CHARSET="UTF-8"


	<table><tr><td><p>
	<input type="hidden" name="ReferID"

value="1056">

<input type="hidden" name="LCID"

value="3081">

	<select name="Node1ID" size="4">
	<option selected> Department </option>

	<!-Comment:
	An abbreviated list of name
	option pairs is as follows: >

	<option value="100"> Electronics </option>
	<option value="110"> Health </option>
	<option value="120"> Women'Fashions </option>
	</select>
	<input type="submit" Name="Submit Selection">
	</p></td></tr></table>
	</form

Regarding the above example:

1) The use of the Form's "Post" method enables an associated server script, identified as "Frameset.asp" in the URI, to access the Form container information for use by an ASP server script in the IIS Web Server Platform 1520. The Form container information is transmitted to the server via an HTTP Form-submitted request that also invokes the ASP script through the URI-indicated file Frameset.asp that is located in a "3081" folder on the server, the folder that is specific to the locale identified by the value 3081.
2) When the Buyer clicks on a selected name (e.g., Women's Fashions), the numeric value (Node1ID) of the selected name/value option pair is included in the Form information that is sent to the server. The numeric value is locale-invariant in identifying a node value for the first level of a taxonomy that is used for categorizing products. Name labels associated with the values are in English for use in an English-speaking locale. The name labels would be expressed in other languages in other locales. The taxonomy is described in detail in a later section.
3) The Form container also includes "hidden" variables, Tokens, that have numeric values that do not vary even while displayed text strings in the Form vary according to the National Language of the Buyer's locale. Hidden variables include LCID and ReferID.

The IIS passes the HTTP request to the ASP parser (Asp.dll) for parsing the URI and creating a new session for the indicated server script, Frameset.asp. The Frameset.asp server script first establishes the locale parametric value of the server-script session via a "SetLocale" statement in Frameset.asp. For example, a set value of "1031" for the session would be the same LCID value used for the "3081" name of the server folder containing the "3081" version of Frameset.asp. A separate method is used to set a locale for a session when a Cookie 1220 is installed on a Buyer's computer during a product-purchasing process, as described below.

The Global Store responds to a Buyer's request for product views by dynamically writing and sending a Locale-Specific Category Selection Panel. The panel is sent via a sequence of HTML frames that include HTML embedded Forms (one for each of four drop-down menus used in navigating through a taxonomy to select a Category). The Buyer interacts with the Global Store using HTTP protocol whereby the information is conveyed by an integer identifier associated with a name in the Buyer's National Language. The Buyer's HTTP requests are assisted by a separate Client-side JScript for each menu in the four frames. Having received the Locale-Specific Category Selection Panel, the Buyer selects a Category of products to view, that selection being a culmination of using a series of four drop-down menus. (The selection process involves the Buyer navigating a four-level hierarchal taxonomy that is used for organizing products. That taxonomy is described in detail in a later section.)

At the end of the Category selection process, a Buyer selects a nodal value (Node4ID) from a menu showing choices at the fourth level of the hierarchal taxonomy. That modal value is used as a Token, a value that will be passed (along with the Buyer's LCID) by the IIS Web Server Platform 1520 to select appropriate product records from Relational Database Tables 1554 in the Database SQL Server Platform 1550. That process, using Named Stored Procedures 1552 to select product records for display, is described in detail in a later section.

Should the Buyer select a product for purchase, the purchasing process is supported by a Payment Processing Service 1440, one of the Ancillary Resources 1400 in the Virtual Channel. When the purchase is completed, e-mail messages are sent to (a) notify the manufacturer that a product has been purchased and the product needs to be shipped and (b) confirm the order with the Buyer. The e-mail messaging is supported by the SMTP E-Mail Server 1560. In the preferred embodiment the e-mail server is the Microsoft (RTM) Exchange Server.

A Global Store application script that provides a means to collect any taxes that are due for the purchase of a product operates in conjunction with an external Tax Computing Service 1450, one of the Ancillary Resources 1400. The interface with the Tax Computing Service is provided by one of the Global Store application programs included under the rubric "Applications for Interfacing of Ancillary Resources" 1530.

Other Ancillary Resources Allow the Global Store to Access

1) Currency Rates Information Service 1430,
2) Payment Processing Service 1440,
3) Manufacturer's Shipping 1460, and
4) Carrier Website for Shipping Rates and Parcel Tracking 1470.

The art that is used to access the above sources of information is well known and easily implemented by one normally skilled in the art of using services made available on the Internet.

Taxonomy: Metaphorical Layout of Products in the Global Store

The Global Store is visited by a Buyer at the invitation of a Referral Website. The invitation is accepted when the Buyer clicks on a link that the Buyer sees on a Web page at the Referral Website. That click causes a request message to be sent from the Buyer asking that information be sent from the Global Store.

The request message automatically also contains information about the locale where the Buyer is assumed to reside, based on the primary locale served by the Referral Website. The information about locale allows the Global Store, metaphorically, to direct the Buyer to the proper linguistically compatible and culturally compatible "floor" in the "multi-storied" Global Store. The Buyer is sent to a virtual floor matching the language and culture represented on the Referral Website.

All virtual floors of the Global Store are similar with respect to the products that may be viewed and purchased, but the virtual floors are different in respect to language and custom. Stated another way, the Buyer gains automatic access, via the Referral Website and the Buyer's computer, to a virtual floor of the Store on which all business is conducted in a way to accommodate to the language and customs of the Buyer's locale.

The layout of products is essentially the same on the various virtual floors within the Global Store. Products are organized in a way that manifests an underlying taxonomy, a taxonomy which is not dependent on the use of any certain National Language. The taxonomy of product organization is represented on each virtual floor, still metaphorically speaking, by the following layout:

1) the virtual floor is sectioned into a number of product Department virtual areas;
2) each Department virtual area is sectioned into a number of product Group virtual spaces;
3) each Group virtual space is sectioned into a number of product Family virtual aisles; and
4) along each Family virtual aisle are a number of product Category virtual display cases.

Having navigated his or her way to the proper Category display case, the Buyer then views the products for purchase. Help is given to the Buyer for navigating and purchasing in the Buyer's National Language.

Thus, the Global Store System provides a drill-down, four-step navigational process to a buyer, allowing the buyer to find a Category of products to view. The process involves the sequential use of a series of four linked menus, and the choices available in the menus are dynamically determined from each prior choice. After the first menu, showing Departments and allowing a buyer to choose a Department, the item choices shown in subsequent menus are those items that are in a "child" relationship to the "parent" that was the choice in the prior menu. A buyer chooses:

1) a specific Department of products from among a multitude of Departments,
2) a specific Group of products from among a multitude of Groups that are children of the parent Department that was chosen,
3) a specific Family of products from among a multitude of Families that are children of the parent Group that was chosen, and
4) a specific Category of products from among a multitude of Categories that are children to the parent Family that was chosen.

The clarity and convenience of the taxonomy is shown above. Its power is seen by looking at the number of products that could be conveniently found if there were only 20 divisions at each level of the taxonomy. Twenty Departments, times 20 Groups per Department, times 20 Families per Group, times 20 Categories per Family, times 20 products per Category equals 3,200,000 products. Furthermore, the number of products that could be viewed would be twenty times larger than that (i.e., 64,000,000) if another level of "Subcategory" were added to the taxonomy.

Following are characteristics of the taxonomy:

1) There is but one taxonomy serving all the locales, the linguistic versions being functionally equivalent with respect to organizing products into a four-level hierarchy that is useful for Buyers in their respective locales around the world. Therefore, this taxonomy, while localized in presentation to each locale, provides a standardized and internationalized way of accessing the same database tables.
2) There is a unique path down the hierarchy to arrive at a selected product Category on the fourth Level. That is, one, and only one, set of four nodes is used to navigate down the hierarchy from a Department level to a Category level. However, an individual product may be assigned to more than one Category level node, thereby allowing flexibility in how products are found.
3) Nodal numeric identifiers are created in the ISO-8859-1 16-bit character set and faithfully mapped into ISO1036 Unicode-equivalent code for storage and use. Because nodal numeric identifiers are numeric values and not language-based labels, they are language/locale-independent.