UNIVERSAL SHOPPING CART AND ORDER INJECTION SYSTEM

• US 20080033839A1
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Sandori, Mark, Maple, Eric, Markus, Matthew, Byerly, Timothy, Tarvydas, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 7,580,869 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/27
• 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 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0617 Representative agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A universal shopping cart is provided that obtains and orders products and services from different merchants located on the Internet. The consumer completes all of their shopping on the shopping site and is not directed to another merchant'"'"'s site to complete an order. The universal shopping cart provides a monitoring service that allows the consumer to monitor a product for specified criteria. The order injection system places orders for products contained within the universal shopping cart from affiliated and non-affiliated merchants. Specific ordering details required from merchants external to the shopping site are hidden from the consumer. For external merchant sites that require a consumer account before allowing the product to be purchased, the shopping site creates a new consumer account without intervention from the consumer. Once the products are ordered, the consumer may keep track of the ordered products from the shopping site.

Claims

1. A method for a consumer to order products, via a network, from a plurality of merchants using a web page comprising a consistent user interface, comprising:

accessing a webpage, wherein said webpage includes information obtained by;

searching a local database for information relating to a product;

determining whether said information is at least one of;

outdated and missing;

determining whether said information is from an affiliated merchant or unaffiliated merchant when said information is said at least one of;

outdated and missing;

receiving additional information from said affiliated merchant when said information is from an affiliated merchant;

screen scraping additional information from said unaffiliated merchant when said information is from an unaffiliated merchant;

displaying said information within said web page comprising a consistent user interface;

retrieving a universal shopping cart;

sending to said webpage a product selection command indicative of selecting a product to cause;

said selected product to be added to said universal shopping cart;

a determination of whether said selected product is from an affiliated web site;

transmission of raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product directly to a processor associated with said affiliated webpage when said selected product is from said affiliated web site; and

,

injection of said order at an unaffiliated webpage when said unaffiliated webpage is associated with said selected product in said universal shopping cart, wherein said order is injected to said unaffiliated webpage according to pattern matching.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing identity authentication information to said shopping site.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a common payment method that is common among said plurality of said merchants;

and paying said merchants according to said common payment method.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising specifying a product type criteria to direct said shopping site to search for products provided by said merchant that match said product type criteria.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing billing information to said webpage.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing shipping information to said webpage.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising rating an experience with at least one of said merchant and said webpage.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an order confirmation from said webpage.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said process of injecting said product order is performed by determining a merchant to be said affiliated merchant;

and sending said product order to said affiliated merchant according to a predetermined protocol.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said information is further obtained by repeating said steps of displaying product information and adding a product selected by said consumer to said universal shopping cart until a check out command is received from said consumer;

and repeating said step of injecting said order until all of said orders have been processed.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said information is further obtained by generating at least one product key each of which uniquely identifies each of said selected products and a merchant associated with said selected product.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising said consumer selecting and ordering said product without leaving a network presence.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising said consumer selecting and ordering said product without leaving an Internet Web site.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising said consumer selecting and ordering said product without leaving a proprietary shopping site configured to receive product browsing, selection, and ordering commands from said consumer via said network.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said information is populated in said local database by said merchant.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said information is populated in said local database by said manufacturer.