Contextual presentation of information about related orders during browsing of an electronic catalog
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method of providing account-specific information to users of an electronic catalog, the method comprising:
- providing an electronic catalog that includes product detail pages to which users can navigate to obtain detailed information about specific products, said product detail pages including functionality for selecting corresponding products to order;
maintaining order data descriptive of orders placed by users for products represented in the electronic catalog;
receiving, from a computing device associated with a user, a request for a product detail page associated with a product that was previously ordered by the user; and
in response to the request for the product detail page;
(a) automatically accessing the order data associated with the user to identify an order previously placed by the user for the product, and (b) transmitting information reflective of the order to the computing device for presentation to the user.
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Abstract
An electronic catalog system, which may be implemented as a web site or another type of interactive system, presents context-sensitive account information to customers during browsing of an electronic catalog of products. In one embodiment, when a customer accesses a detail page for a particular product, the detail page is supplemented with information, such as status information, about a related order placed by the customer. The related order may be an order for the product represented in the detail page or may be for a related product. Information about related orders may additionally or alternatively be added to other types of pages, such as product category pages and shopping cart pages. In one embodiment, a customer'"'"'s related order information is maintained in a cache during the customer'"'"'s browsing session, and the cache is updated in real time to reflect actions performed by the customer.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method of providing account-specific information to users of an electronic catalog, the method comprising:
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providing an electronic catalog that includes product detail pages to which users can navigate to obtain detailed information about specific products, said product detail pages including functionality for selecting corresponding products to order;
maintaining order data descriptive of orders placed by users for products represented in the electronic catalog;
receiving, from a computing device associated with a user, a request for a product detail page associated with a product that was previously ordered by the user; and
in response to the request for the product detail page;
(a) automatically accessing the order data associated with the user to identify an order previously placed by the user for the product, and (b) transmitting information reflective of the order to the computing device for presentation to the user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A computer-implemented method of providing account-specific information to users of an electronic catalog, the method comprising:
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receiving, at a server, a request for a product detail page of an electronic catalog of products, said request generated by a computing device in response to selection, by a user of the computing device, of a product to which the product detail page corresponds, wherein the product detail page provides functionality for the user to select the product for purposes of initiating a transaction in which the product is shipped to the user by a business entity associated with the electronic catalog; and
in response to the request;
programmatically accessing account information associated with the user to determine, at least, a date that the product was shipped to the user;
generating a message indicating that the product was shipped to the user on said date; and
transmitting the product detail page with said message to the computing device for presentation to the user. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A computer-implemented method of providing context-dependent account information to users of an electronic catalog, the method comprising:
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maintaining, in a database, a user order history reflective of orders placed by a user for items in an electronic catalog;
copying at least a portion of the user order history from the database into a cache during a browsing session in which the user browses the electronic catalog;
during the browsing session, receiving a request from the user for a page of the electronic catalog, said page being a page that describes at least one item in the electronic catalog;
in response to the request, retrieving from the cache, and incorporating into the page, information about a prior order placed by the user, said prior order being related to the at least one item described by the page; and
transmitting the page, with the incorporated information about the prior order, to the user. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification