Affiliate commerce system and method

• US 20040148366A1
• Filed: 06/11/2003
• Published: 07/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DDR Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: DDR Holdings LLC
• Inventors: Ross, D. Delano Jr., May, William R., Ross, Daniel D., Michaels, Joseph R., Anderson, Richard A.
• Granted Patent: US 6,993,572 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0274 Split fees
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders

Abstract

The present invention is directed to an e-commerce outsourcing system and method that provides hosts with transparent, context sensitive e-commerce supported pages. The look and feel of a target host is captured for future use. The look and feel is captured by receiving the identification of an example page on the target host, retrieving the page, identifying the look and feel elements of the identified page and storing the identified elements. The host is provided with links correlating the host with a link for inclusion within a page on the host website for serving to a visitor computer, wherein the provided link correlates the host website with a selected commerce object contextually related to material in the page. The commerce object can be a product, a product category or a dynamic selection indicator. Upon activation of the provided link, the visitor computer is served with an e-commerce supported page with the look and feel of the host website associated with the activated link and with content based upon the commerce object associated with the activated link. Where the commerce object is a dynamic selection indicator the content is selected at the time of activation based upon an analysis of the page containing the activated link.

Claims

1. An e-commerce outsourcing process providing a host website in communication with a visitor computer with context sensitive, transparent e-commerce support pages, comprising the steps of:

a) capturing a look and feel description associated with a host website;

b) providing the host website with a link for inclusion within a page on the host website for serving to a visitor computer, wherein the provided link correlates the host website with a selected commerce object; and

c) upon receiving an activation of the provided link from the visitor computer, serving to the visitor computer an e-commerce supported page with a look and feel corresponding to the captured look and feel description of the host website associated with the provided link and with content based on the commerce object associated with the provided link.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the selected commerce object is a selected product.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the selected commerce object is a selected product category.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the selected commerce object is an indicator for dynamic content selection.

5. The process of claim 4, wherein the content within the served page is dynamically selected according to contextual information derived from the page on the host website including the provided link.

6. An e-commerce outsourcing system providing a host website in communication with a visitor computer with context sensitive, transparent e-commerce support pages, comprising:

a) a data store including a look and feel description associated with a host website;

b) a communications link to a visitor computer; and

c) a processor for executing instructions that perform the steps of;

i) capturing a look and feel description associated with a host website;

ii) storing the captured look and feel description in the data store;

iii) providing the host website with a link for inclusion within a page on the host website correlating the host website with a selected commerce object; and

iv) upon receiving an activation of the provided link via the communication link, serving an e-commerce supported page via the communication link with a look and feel corresponding to the captured look and feel description of the host website associated with the provided link and with content based on the commerce object associated with the provided link.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the data store further includes a product record and wherein the selected commerce object is a selected product record.

8. The process of claim 6, wherein the data store further includes a product category record and wherein the selected commerce object is a selected product category record.

9. The process of claim 6, wherein the selected commerce object is an indicator for dynamic content selection.

10. The process of claim 9, wherein the content within the served page is dynamically selected according to contextual information derived from the page on the host website including the provided link.

11. A look and feel description capture system, comprising:

a) a data store for storing look and feel descriptions;

b) a communication link to a target website; and

c) a processor for executing instructions that perform the steps of;

i) receiving an identification for an example page from the target website;

ii) retrieving the example page via the communication link;

iii) identifying look and feel elements within the retrieved example page; and

iv) storing the identified look and feel elements as a look and feel description associated with the target website in the data store.

12. A look and feel description capture process, comprising the steps of:

a) receiving an identification for an example page from a target website;

b) retrieving the example page via a communication link to the target website;

c) identifying look and feel elements within the retrieved example page; and

d) storing the identified look and feel elements as a look and feel description associated with the target website in a data store.

13. A system for serving pages containing dynamically selected content, comprising:

a) an index data store including records associated with pages containing links designated for dynamic content selection;

b) a content data store including dynamically selectable content;

c) a communication link to a visitor computer

d) a processor for executing instructions that perform the steps of;

i) receiving the activation of a link designated for dynamic content selection via the communication link;

ii) accessing a record in the index data store associated with the page containing the activated link;

iii) selecting content from the content data store based upon the accessed record;

iv) constructing a page containing the selected content; and

v) serving the constructed page via the communication link.

14. A cost effective, scalable system for serving dynamically constructed Web pages, comprising:

a) a Web server layer comprising one or more processors;

b) an application server layer comprising one or more processors, wherein each processor executes one or more application servers; and

c) A database server layer comprising one or more processors and a data store including content for use in dynamically constructing Web pages;

wherein a processor of the Web server layer is programmed to perform the following;

i) receive an end user request;

ii) determine a way to process data as required to respond to the end user request;

iii) select an application server that processes data in the determined way;

iv) request processed data from the selected application server running on a selected processor of the application server layer;

v) receive the requested processed data from the determined application server running on the selected application server layer processor;

vi) construct a Web page containing the received processed data; and

vii) serve the constructed Web page; and

wherein a processor of the application server layer is programmed to perform the following;

i) receive a request for processed data from a selected processor of the Web server layer directed to a selected application server;

ii) request data required to fulfill the received request from a database server running on a selected processor of the database server layer;

iii) receive the required data from the database server running on the selected database server layer processor;

iv) process the received, required data using the selected application server into the requested processed data; and

v) forward the requested processed data to the selected Web server layer processor; and

wherein a processor of the database server layer is programmed to perform the following;

i) receive a request for data from a selected processor of the application server layer;

ii) retrieve the request data from the data store; and

iii) forward the requested data to the selected processor of the application server.