Effortless and automated reordering

• US 10,296,964 B1
• Filed: 08/26/2014
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rausch, Daniel Benjamin, Jayaraj, Nagendra Bage, Bozarth, Bradley James, Lee, Anna Kim, Lee, Michael Martin, Mader, Thomas Bruno, Pelleg, Amir, Ridlehoover, Laura Allison, Young, Richard David
• Primary Examiner(s): Garg, Yogesh C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Duraisamygurusamy, Lalith M
• Application Number:
  US14/469,336
• Time in Patent Office: 1,729 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2681
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3833 Hand-held transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile

Abstract

An effortless and automated reordering system includes a dedicated electronic device with a simple button interface that, upon depression of the button, initiates a process of ordering (or reordering) a product associated with the device and a button on that device. The electronic device may store in memory a device identifier and button identifiers for each button as the basis for order request information. The stored data may be communicated to a fulfillment service (e.g., an online merchant, fulfillment center, etc.) for order identification processing. In some cases, an application provided by the fulfillment service may be executed on a secondary management device to allow a user to configure the electronic device to map the buttons to different products, and even different vendors, to facilitate reconfigurable order management.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an electronic device having a device identifier and comprising an actuatable button, a wireless interface, a memory and a controller;

one or more servers comprising;

a device registry that includes information linking the device identifier to a particular product and a corresponding particular customer identifier; and

a customer account database that includes information linking the particular customer identifier to customer account information;

wherein the electronic device is configured to send, via the wireless interface, to the one or more servers, the device identifier in response to actuation of the actuatable button;

wherein the one or more servers are programmed to;

determine the particular product based on the device identifier;

determine the particular customer identifier based at least in part on the device identifier;

determine the customer account information from the customer account database based at least in part on the particular customer identifier, the customer account information including an address;

generate an order based on the particular product and the customer account information; and

communicate the order to a fulfillment service to initiate shipment of the particular product to the address.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the device registry further includes information linking the device identifier to a shipping quantity to include in the order, and wherein the one or more servers are programmed to determine the shipping quantity based at least in part on the device identifier.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more servers are further programmed to:

determine an average quantity of the particular product ordered over a first period of time;

determine a quantity of the particular product ordered over a second period of time, wherein the second period of time is of a same duration as the first period of time; and

determine that the quantity of the particular product ordered is less than or equal to the average quantity of the particular product ordered.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more servers are further programmed to:

determine an average amount of money spent by a customer associated with the customer account information over a first period of time;

determine an amount of money spent by the customer over a second period of time, wherein the second period of time is of a same duration as the first period of time; and

determine that the amount of money spent by the customer is less than or equal to the average amount of money spent by the customer.

5. A method comprising:

detecting, by an electronic device, actuation of a button of the electronic device, wherein the electronic device is associated with a particular product;

sending, by the electronic device, an order request to an external server, wherein the order request includes at least one of a product identifier that identifies the particular product, or a device identifier that identifies the electronic device, and the external server uses the at least one of the product identifier or the device identifier to determine the particular product and further determines user account information associated with the electronic device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the order request represents a first order request, the particular product represents a first product, and the electronic device comprises multiple buttons, wherein each of the multiple buttons is associated with a different product, the method further comprising:

detecting operation of a particular one of the multiple buttons; and

sending a second order request associated with the particular button, wherein the second order request includes a second product identifier that identifies a second product and the device identifier.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving a notification indicating that the order request has been received by the external server; and

outputting, by the electronic device, at least one of an audible sound, a textual message, or a visual indication in response to the notification.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the notification further indicates whether the order request has been accepted, suspended or denied by a fulfillment service.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the order request further includes a product quantity.

10. A method comprising:

receiving an order request from an electronic device that is configured to order one or more items, wherein the order request includes a device identifier that identifies the electronic device;

determining information about a particular item based on the device identifier;

determining a quantity of the particular item to be shipped; and

causing shipment of the quantity of the particular item.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein causing shipment further comprises:

determining a particular customer identifier using the device identifier;

determining customer account information using the particular customer identifier; and

sending the customer account information to an external server.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

determining a quantity of the particular item ordered over a period of time; and

denying the order request if the quantity of the particular item ordered exceeds a threshold amount.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

determining an average amount of money spent by a customer associated with the customer account information over a first period of time;

determine an amount of money spent by the customer over a second period of time, wherein the second period of time is of a same duration as the first period of time; and

denying the order request based at least in part on the amount of money spent by the customer exceeding the average amount of money spent by the customer by a threshold amount.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

determining an average quantity of the particular item ordered over a first period of time;

determining a quantity of the particular item ordered over a second period of time, wherein the second period of time is of a same duration as the first period of time; and

denying the order request based at least in part on the quantity of the particular item ordered exceeding the average quantity of the particular item ordered by a threshold amount.

15. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the customer account information includes at least one of a bank account information, credit card account information, or rewards account information, the method further comprising initiating a payment process with a financial institution associated with the customer account information.

16. A device comprising:

one or more processors;

a device registry;

a customer account database;

a communication interface;

one or more computer-readable media; and

processor-executable instructions maintained on the one or more computer-readable media which, when executed by the one or more processors, program the one or more processors to;

receive, via the communication interface, an order request from an electronic device, wherein the order request includes a device identifier that identifies the electronic device;

determine a particular product associated with the device identifier based at least in part on information stored in the device registry;

determine a particular customer identifier associated with the device identifier based at least in part on information stored in the device registry;

determine customer account information from the customer account database based at least in part on the particular customer identifier; and

generate an order based on the particular product and the customer account information.

17. The device as recited in claim 16, wherein the processor-executable instructions further program the one or more processors to:

determine a validity of the order request based at least in part on the customer account information;

determine a shipping address associated with the particular customer identifier based at least in part on the customer account information; and

communicate the order to a fulfillment service to initiate shipment of the particular product to the shipping address.

18. The device as recited in claim 17, wherein the processor-executable instructions further program the one or more processors to:

determine a shipment quantity associated with the device identifier based at least in part on information stored in the device registry; and

communicate the shipment quantity to the fulfillment service.

19. The device as recited in claim 17, wherein the processor-executable instructions further program the one or more processors to:

determine a financial account associated with the customer account information; and

initiate a payment process with a financial institution associated with the financial account.

20. The device as recited in claim 17, wherein determining the validity of the order request includes:

determining a quantity of the particular product ordered over a period of time; and

denying the order request if the quantity of the particular product ordered exceeds a predefined threshold.