User interface and methods for recommending items to users

• US 20030105682A1
• Filed: 10/07/2002
• Published: 06/05/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jacobi, Jennifer A., Benson, Eric A., Linden, Gregory D., Dicker, Russell A., Brownell, Jeffrey T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,723 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

An improved user interface and method are provided for presenting recommendations to a user when the user adds an item to a shopping cart. In response to the shopping cart add event, a page generation process generates and returns a page that includes a recommendations portion and a condensed view of the shopping cart. The recommendations portion preferably includes multiple recommendation sections, each of which displays a different respective set of recommended items selected according to a different respective recommendation or selection algorithm (e.g., recommendations based on shopping cart contents, recommendations based on purchase history, etc.). The condensed shopping cart view preferably lacks controls for editing the shopping cart, and lacks certain types of product information, making more screen real estate available for the display of the recommendations content. A link to a full shopping cart page allows the user to edit the shopping cart and view expanded product descriptions.

Claims

1. A method of recommending items to users of an electronic catalog system that provides electronic shopping carts for users to hold selected items, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a user to add a selected item to a shopping cart;

in response to the request, selecting a plurality of recommendation sections to present to the user in response to the request, wherein each recommendation section displays a different respective set of recommended items selected using a different respective selection method, and wherein at least one of the recommendation sections displays a set of recommended items selected based at least in-part on current contents of the shopping cart; and

generating a first page that includes the plurality of recommendation sections together with a condensed shopping cart section, wherein the condensed shopping cart section includes a link to a second page that provides an option to edit contents of the shopping cart via a set of editing screen elements, at least some of the editing screen elements not being included in the condensed shopping cart section so that screen real estate is preserved on the first page for the display of the recommendation sections; and

returning the first page in response to the request to add the selected item to the shopping cart.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein at least one type of product information that is displayed on the second page for items in the shopping cart is omitted from the condensed shopping cart section.

3. The method as in claim 1, wherein at least one of the recommendation sections displays a set of items selected based at least-in part on a purchase history of the user.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein at least one of the recommendation sections displays a set of items that, based on purchase histories of a population of users, are deemed to be similar to the selected item.

5. The method as in claim 1, wherein at least one of the recommendation sections displays a set of items that, based on item viewing histories of a population of users, are deemed to be similar to the selected item

6. The method as in claim 1, wherein the plurality of recommendation sections are selected based at least in-part on a profile of the user.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein the condensed shopping cart section occupies less than one half of the width of the first page, and at least some of the recommendation sections are displayed on the first page adjacent to the condensed shopping cart section.

8. The method as in claim 7, wherein the condensed shopping cart section occupies less than one third of the width of the first page.

9. The method as in claim 1, wherein each recommendation section displays at least two, and no more than five, recommended items.

10. The method as in claim 1, wherein each recommendation section displays three recommended items.

11. The method as in claim 1, wherein the condensed shopping cart section displays, for the selected item, at least one type of product information that is not displayed for other items in the shopping cart.

12. A web site system that embodies the method of claim 1.

13. A method of recommending items to users of an electronic catalog system that provides electronic shopping carts for users to hold selected items, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a user to add a selected item to the shopping cart; and

responding to the request by generating and returning a first page that includes a condensed shopping cart portion and a recommendations portion;

wherein the condensed shopping cart portion includes a link to a second page that provides an option to edit contents of the shopping cart via a set of editing screen elements, at least some of which are not included in the condensed shopping cart portion so that screen real estate is preserved on the first page for the display of the recommendation portions;

and wherein the recommendations portion displays a plurality of recommended items.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the condensed shopping cart portion identifies the selected item among a plurality of items in the shopping cart, to thereby highlight items just added to the shopping cart.

15. The method as in claim 13, wherein at least one type of product information that is displayed on the second page for items in the shopping cart is omitted from the condensed shopping cart portion.

16. The method as in claim 13, wherein the recommendations portion includes a plurality of recommendation sections, each of which displays a different respective set of recommended items selected based on a different respective selection algorithm.

17. The method as in claim 16, wherein at least one of the recommendation sections displays a set of items that, based on purchase histories of a population of users, are deemed to be similar to the selected item.

18. The method as in claim 16, wherein at least one of the recommendation sections displays a set of items that, based on item viewing histories of a population of users, are deemed to be similar to the selected item

19. The method as in claim 16, wherein the plurality of recommendation sections are selected based at least in-part on a profile of the user.

20. The method as in claim 13, wherein at least some of the recommended items are selected based on current contents of the shopping cart

21. The method as in claim 13, wherein the condensed shopping cart section occupies less than one half of the width of the first page, and at least some of the recommendation sections are displayed on the first page adjacent to the condensed shopping cart section.

22. The method as in claim 21, wherein the condensed shopping cart section occupies less than one third of the width of the first page.

23. A web site system that embodies the method of claim 13.

24. A computer implemented method of recommending items to a user, comprising:

identifying a plurality of items that are currently in the user'"'"'s shopping cart;

using the plurality of items in the user'"'"'s shopping cart to generate a list of additional items that are predicted to be of interest to the user, wherein an additional item is selected for inclusion in the list based at least in part upon whether that additional item is similar to more than one of the plurality of items in the user'"'"'s shopping cart; and

recommending at least some of the additional items to the user.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the method comprises recommending at least some of the additional items to the user when the user adds an item to the shopping cart.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the method comprises recommending at least some of the additional items to the user on page that display contents of the shopping cart but does not include controls for changing said contents.