1. A shopping apparatus comprising: a program storage device comprising machine-executable instructions for: establishing a collaboration between a shopper and at least one consultant; automatically determining a shopping interest of the shopper; automatically determining at least two consultants from a database of consultants that are likely to provide to the shopper information relevant to the shopping interest; ranking each of the at least two consultants based on the likelihood of providing the relevant information to the shopper; and presenting to the shopper a ranked list of consultants; and a user interface associated with the shopper configured to: select a consultant from the at least two consultants from the ranked list; and establish communication between the shopper and the selected consultant for soliciting and obtaining advice from said selected consultant.