Business process and apparatus for online purchases using a rule-based transferable shopping basket

• US 20050131772A1
• Filed: 11/18/2004
• Published: 06/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Du, John, Chow, Kingsum
• Granted Patent: US 7,542,924 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

An online shopping basket is acquired by a buyer from an online store and is customized according to rules specified by the buyer. The buyer places zero or more items in the online shopping basket(s) before they are given to at least one shopper by the online store. The shopper(s) may further customize the online shopping basket(s) with rules that do not conflict with those specified by the buyer. The shopper(s) then place zero or more items in the online shopping basket(s) and return the basket(s) to the online store. Multiple online shopping baskets are merged into a single basket, and the buyer reviews the items in the merged online shopping basket and adds or removes items as necessary. The buyer then purchases the remaining items from the online store.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

creating a primary online shopping basket having an associated basket ID and a first unit customer ID;

creating multiple secondary online shopping baskets, each of the secondary online shopping baskets having a unique second customer ID;

associating each of the secondary baskets with customer-defined rules that define purchasing requirements for items assigned to each of the secondary online shopping baskets; and

disallowing entry into each of the secondary online shopping baskets for selected items that do not satisfy the customer-defined rules.

2. The method of claim 1, further including merging the multiple secondary shopping baskets into the primary online basket.

3. The method of claim 2, further including grouping the selected items in the primary online basket according to customer IDs.

4. The method of claim 1, further including:

illustrating the primary online shopping basket and each of the secondary online shopping baskets as a web page including a universal resource locater, the first customer ID, and the basket ID.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the secondary shopping baskets includes a customer-defined rule identifying a price ceiling for a product category.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the secondary shopping baskets includes a customer-defined rule identifying specific products which are required to be purchased by a shopper.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary online shopping basket includes customer-defined rules that define purchasing requirements for items assigned to the primary online shopping basket and one of the customer-defined rules for the primary online shopping basket identifies that approval for checkout is required by a buyer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a customer-defined rule may specify a dependency between one of the selected items and a non-selected item in order to instruct a shopper to purchase the non-selected item.

9. A system comprising:

a network; and

a network server computer connected to the client computer through the network, the network server computer responding to requests from the client computer to;

associate a primary online shopping basket and each of a set of secondary online shopping baskets with customer-defined rules that define purchasing requirements for items within online shopping baskets, the online shopping baskets including the primary online shopping basket and the set of secondary online shopping baskets;

associate a first customer ID for the primary online shopping basket and a unique second customer ID for each of the set of secondary online shopping baskets;

determine whether selected items selected for entry into the online shopping baskets satisfy the customer-defined rules; and

disallow entry into the online shopping baskets of the selected items that do not satisfy the customer-defined rules.

10. The network of claim 9, further including merging each of the set of secondary online shopping baskets into the primary online shopping basket.

11. The network of claim 10, further including grouping the items in the primary online shopping basket according to customer IDs.

12. A program code storage device, comprising:

a machine-readable storage medium;

machine-readable program code, stored on the machine-readable storage medium, having instructions, which when executed cause a server to create a primary online shopping basket having an associated basket ID and a first unit customer ID;

create multiple secondary online shopping baskets, each of the secondary online shopping baskets having a unique second customer ID;

associate the primary online shopping basket and at least one of the secondary online shopping baskets with customer defined rules that define purchasing requirements for items assigned to primary online shopping basket or the at least one secondary online shopping basket; and

disallow entry into the at least one secondary online shopping basket for selected items that do not satisfy the customer-defined rules.

15. The program code storage device of claim 12, wherein one of the secondary online shopping baskets includes a customer-defined rule identifying a price ceiling for a product category.

16. The program code storage device of claim 12, wherein one of the secondary shopping baskets, includes a customer-defined rule identifying specific products that are required to be purchased by a shopper.

17. The program code storage device of claim 12, wherein a customer-defined rule may specify a dependency between one of the selected items and a non-selected item in order to instruct a shopper to purchase the non-selected item.

13. The program code storage device, including instructions, which when executed, cause the server to merge the multiple secondary shopping baskets into the primary online basket.

14. The program code storage device, including instructions, which when executed, cause the server to group the items in the primary online basket according to customer IDs.

18. A method, comprising:

creating multiple primary online shopping baskets, each having an associated basket ID and a first unique customer ID;

creating a plurality of secondary online shopping baskets, wherein each of the secondary online shopping baskets is associated with a unique second customer ID;

associating at least one of the multiple primary online shopping baskets with customer-defined rules that define purchasing requirements for items assigned to the at least one primary online shopping basket;

determining whether selected items selected for entry into the at least one primary online shopping basket; and

disallowing entry into the at least one primary online shopping basket and the at least one secondary online shopping basket of the selected items that do not satisfy the customer-defined rules.

19. The method of claim 18, further including merging the multiple secondary online shopping baskets into one of the primary online shopping baskets.

20. The method of claim 19, further including grouping the items in the multiple primary online shopping baskets according to customer IDs.