A system, method, computer program, and online computer site is provided for designing and displaying a realistic bouquet from selected images and/or photographs to allow viewing of a custom designed bouquet thereby facilitating the selection process for bouquets, especially wedding bouquets and communicating this selection to a florist Preferably, the invention is operated in conjunction with an interactive web site or stand alone software program.

A computerized merchandising system useable by a corporation associated with a group of stores selling goods, the system acting not only to induce a consumer to purchase these goods, but also to induce this consumer to buy shares of stock issued by the corporation, for either choice is to his possible advantage. On the site of each store is a satellite computer which prints out and supplies a certificate to a buyer who pays its face value. The certificate is redeemable within a specified period, and when redeemed then entitles the buyer either to acquire from any one of the stores, goods whose total sales price is equal to the face value of the certificate, or to acquire shares of stock in the corporation whose market value at the time the certificate was purchased was then equal to its face value. If therefore the market value of the shares at the time of redemption has appreciated above the face value of the certificate, the buyer stands to gain by acquiring the shares. But the buyer cannot suffer a loss, for he has the option of acquiring the goods in lieu of the stock.

A method and apparatus identifies an appropriate gardening based upon user responses to a plurality of inquiries. Inquiries may include location of the gardening need (lawn, vegetable, house, pet, etc.), as well as type of pest (insect, weed, etc.). In a preferred embodiment, the method is practiced as an Internet site that provides the user with the opportunity to purchase identified gardening materials through the Internet. In a preferred embodiment, the gardening materials are identified based at least in part upon the geographic location of the user, which may be specified by zip code, state, region of the country or any combination of these. The product label, which may differ from state to state, is also displayed in a preferred embodiment based upon the state indicated by the user.

A system and a method for designing an accessory are disclosed. Upon selection by a user of a commodity including an accessory such as a necklace, a pendant, a finger ring, an earring or a bracelet which he/she wants to design, a multiplicity of photographic images of various types of parts making up the particular accessory constituting the commodity are displayed in order to enable the user to design the accessory by himself/herself. The user repeats the simulation of selecting a preferred one of the multiplicity of parts of various types on display, moving the selected part to a specified area in the display screen and appropriately combining each part thus moved. The user thus decides to produce an accessory of his/her own originality to his/her liking.

A user of services is enable to utilize a highly value-added service employing secret data of the user without presenting the data to the service provider side. In a system in which a server is coupled with a client via a communication network, the client inputs and sends a service identifier to the server, receives a program to execute the service from the server, inputs secret data as client controlled data from an input device and sends a server control data request to the server, and then receives the requested data from the server. The input data is irreversibly processed by use of the program and received data such that the client sends results of the process to an expert on the server side to receive an advice of the expert. By referring to the advice, the service user inputs evaluation of the outputted results. The steps beginning at the data request input are repeatedly conducted until the evaluation becomes satisfactory, thereby transmitting the process results to the server.