An electronic shopping server formats and sends an electronic page, having
an integrated shopping basket with drag and drop functionality, from a
virtual catalog to a plurality of clients. The server includes an
e-sessions controller that manages and tracks each session with the
clients, profile generator that identifies and authorizes each consumer
to engage in the sessions, catalog selector responsive to on-demand
requests for the contents and supporting data of each catalog page, and
order processor that supports purchase requests. The e-sessions
controller manages the sessions by causing each client to launch an
electronic sessions application. The resident application includes a
local sessions controller that brokers all client communications with the
server and implements the instructions from the e-sessions controller.
The resident application also includes an image generator for displaying
an image of each item from the catalog page, descriptive data generator
for displaying supporting data for each item, and an order panel
generator for displaying a shopping basket that remains on the same page
with the image at all times. An order initiator can be included to send a
request for the server to create a facsimile of the shopping basket. An
item adder and item remover cause items to be added/removed from the
client's basket and, if included, server's basket upon executing a web
page function. An order executor synchronizes the two shopping baskets
and/or sends a request to purchase the items listed in the shopping
basket. The shopping basket can be configured to travel with the consumer
to receive input from various servers hosting different web sites.