Tying Objective Ratings To Online Items

• US 20140358819A1
• Filed: 05/31/2013
• Published: 12/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores Texas LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Patterson, David, Bash, David Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 10,096,045 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/347
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

The present disclosure extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for providing item reviews to an online customer from third party sources during a shopping session on a retail website.

Claims

1. A method for providing item reviews to a customer during online shopping over a computer network comprising:

determining a target item being viewed by the customer and storing representative data for the target item in computer memory;

identifying a corresponding item on a third party website over the computer network by comparing the representative data of the target item to items on the third party website;

retrieving reviews from the third party website for the corresponding item and storing in computer memory; and

providing the reviews to the customer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the process of providing reviews is displaying a link to a source for the reviews to the customer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the target item is identical to the corresponding item on the third party website.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the class of the target item and wherein the corresponding item on the third party website is from within the same class of items as the target item.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein reviews for other items from within the same class are provided to the customer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the third party website comprises non-public reviews where access is facilitated by a merchant of the target item.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the non-public reviews are provided after the customer has met a predetermined threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the third party website comprises public reviews that are available for public viewing.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of the review is provided to the customer and displayed within the same webpage as the target item.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a rating is provided for the target item.

11. A system for providing item reviews to a customer during online shopping over a computer network comprising one or more processors and one or more memory devices operably coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable and operational data, the executable and operational data effective to cause the one or more processors to:

determine a target item being viewed by the customer and storing representative data for the target item in computer memory;

identify a corresponding item on a third party website over the computer network by comparing the representative data of the target item to items on the third party website;

retrieve reviews from the third party website for the corresponding item and store in computer memory; and

provide the reviews to the customer.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the process of providing reviews is displaying a link to a source for the reviews to the customer.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising determining whether the target item is identical to the corresponding item on the third party website.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising determining the class of the target item and wherein the corresponding item on the third party website is from within the same class of items as the target item.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein reviews for other items from within the same class are provided to the customer.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the third party website comprises non-public reviews where access is facilitated by a merchant of the target item.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the non-public reviews are provided after the customer has met a predetermined threshold.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the third party website comprises public reviews that are available for public viewing.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein a portion of the review is provided to the customer and displayed within the same webpage as the target item.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein a rating is provided for the target item.