METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR REDUCING ITEM SELECTION ERROR IN AN E-COMMERCE ENVIRONMENT

• US 20110238536A1
• Filed: 03/29/2010
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Gubser, Erin Louise, Liu, Xiao Xiao, Dobbin, Elizabeth, Budaraju, Hema
• Granted Patent: US 9,792,638 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/27.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers

Abstract

Methods and systems for displaying, to a user interface, categories of items for the user to select from for querying the system, in order to enable the system to return to the user images of items of the type desired by the user for possible purchase. The items categories of items can be presented to the user interface visually in silhouette form so that the user can select brand and the silhouette image of the type of item desired. Upon selection of the silhouette image, a query is sent to the system and images of the desired type of item are returned to the user interface for presentation to the user, along with certain attributes of the items.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

displaying silhouette images of types of various items over an ecommerce network;

enabling the selection of one of the silhouette images representing a desired type of item;

querying computer storage in response to selection of the silhouette image; and

responsive to the query, displaying at least one item listing of the desired type of item for possible purchase.

2. The method of claim 1 further including, responsive to selection of the silhouette image, mapping the selected silhouette image to textual information.

3. The method of claim 2 further including using the textual information for querying the computer storage.

4. The method of claim 2 further including using a hash of the textual information for querying the computer storage.

5. The method of claim 1 where the desired type of item has at least one attribute, the method further including displaying at least one attribute of the desired type of item with the displayed at least one item listing.

6. The method of claim 1 further including an image as part of the displayed at least one item listing.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one item listing comprises images of various styles of the desired type of item.

8. The method of claim 1 further including enabling the purchase of an item by selecting one of the at least one item listings.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with an executable program stored thereon, which program, when executed, instructs one or more computer processors to perform the following method:

displaying silhouette images of types of various items over an ecommerce network;

enabling the selection of one of the silhouette images representing a desired type of item;

querying computer storage in response to selection of the silhouette image; and

responsive to the query, displaying at least one item listing for possible purchase.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, the method further including, responsive to selection of the silhouette image, mapping the selected silhouette image to textual information.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, the method further including using the textual information for querying the computer storage.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, the method further including mapping the selected silhouette image to textual information and using a hash of the textual information for querying the computer storage.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, where the desired type of item has at least one attribute, the method including displaying at least one attribute of the desired type of item with the displayed at least one item listing.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, the method including displaying an image as part of the at least one item listing.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the at least one item listing comprises images of various styles of the desired type of item.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, the method including enabling the purchase a desired type of item by selecting one of the displayed at least one item listing.

17. A computer implemented method of displaying in an electronic commerce system silhouette images of types of items for purchase.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 17 further including displaying non-silhouette images of a type of item for purchase.

19. The computer implemented method of claim 18 further including displaying attributes of the type of item and enabling the selection of the attributes.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 19 further including, in response to selection of one or more attributes, displaying images of the type of item having the selected attributes.

21. The computer implemented method of claim 20 wherein responsive to selection of one of the images of item having the selected attributes, registering the purchase of the item.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with an executable program stored thereon, which program, when executed, instructs one or more computer processors to perform the method of displaying silhouette images of types of items for purchase.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, the method further including displaying non-silhouette images of a type of item for purchase.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, the method further including displaying, attributes of the type of item and enabling selection of at least one of the attributes.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, the method further including, in response to selection of at least one of the attributes, displaying images of the type of item having the selected at least one attribute.

26. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 25, the method further including, responsive to selection of one of the images of the type of item having the at least one attribute, registering purchase of the item.