Scheduling delivery of products via the Internet
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for scheduling delivery of products in a customer order, comprising:
- receiving a piece of information regarding the customer;
displaying a plurality of delivery windows available to the customer to fulfill the order based on the piece of information;
receiving from the customer a selection of a delivery window from the plurality of delivery windows to fulfill the order; and
identifying a route from a plurality of routes to deliver the order, wherein at least one of the delivery windows is available to one group of customers, but not to another group of customers, with customers being associated with their corresponding group based on information related to their previous orders, wherein whether the at least one of the delivery windows is available to the customer depends on the group of customers that the customer is associated with, wherein at least one product is held in inventory in anticipation of customer demand, and wherein the method is implemented by one or more computing devices.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for scheduling delivery of an order via a wide area network. A computer system associates a customer point value with each customer according to a customer point system. The customer point values is determined with reference to customer order data. The computer system then divides the customers into customer groups, each of which has a range of customer point values. The system determines an actual capacity allocation distribution among the customer groups based on the customer order data. The system adjusts the range of customer point values for customer groups to cause the actual capacity allocation distribution to converge to a target capacity allocation distribution.
162 Citations
22 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method for scheduling delivery of products in a customer order, comprising:
-
receiving a piece of information regarding the customer;
displaying a plurality of delivery windows available to the customer to fulfill the order based on the piece of information;
receiving from the customer a selection of a delivery window from the plurality of delivery windows to fulfill the order; and
identifying a route from a plurality of routes to deliver the order, wherein at least one of the delivery windows is available to one group of customers, but not to another group of customers, with customers being associated with their corresponding group based on information related to their previous orders, wherein whether the at least one of the delivery windows is available to the customer depends on the group of customers that the customer is associated with, wherein at least one product is held in inventory in anticipation of customer demand, and wherein the method is implemented by one or more computing devices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A computer-implemented method for scheduling delivery of products in a customer order, comprising:
-
receiving a piece of information regarding the customer;
displaying a plurality of delivery windows available to the customer to fulfill the order based on the piece of information;
receiving from the customer a selection of a delivery window from the plurality of delivery windows to fulfill the order; and
identifying a route from a plurality of routes to deliver the order, wherein at least one delivery window displayed to be available provides an incentive to the customer to select the window, wherein at least one product is held in inventory in anticipation of customer demand, and wherein the method is implemented by one or more computing devices.
-
-
22. A computer-implemented method for scheduling delivery of products in a customer order, comprising:
-
receiving a piece of information regarding the customer;
displaying a plurality of delivery windows available to the customer to fulfill the order based on the piece of information;
receiving from the customer a selection of a delivery window from the plurality of delivery windows to fulfill the order; and
identifying a route from a plurality of routes to deliver the order, wherein a delivery window is made unavailable to the customer if a distance related to delivering product to the customer to fulfill the order is beyond a certain amount, wherein at least one product is held in inventory in anticipation of customer demand, and wherein the method is implemented by one or more computing devices.
-
Specification