Method and system for shipping of photofinishing orders
First Claim
1. A method for automatically determining the shipping weight of a photofinishing order to a customer from a service provider without physically weighing said photofinishing order, comprising the steps of:
- said service provider receiving a photofinishing order from a customer for at least one photofinishing product;
associating a order ID with respect to said photofinishing order producing said at least one photofinishing product for said photofinishing order;
assembling said photofinishing order and placing said order within a package, said package having said ID thereon in a machine readable format; and
reading said machine readable ID for obtaining an associated estimated weight and providing the associated estimated weight on a manifest to be used in shipping said photofinishing order along with a plurality of other photofinishing orders.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for automatically determining the shipping weight and cost of a plurality of photofinishing items from a service provider without physically weighing the photofinishing order. A computer system receives photofinishing orders from the customers and associates an order ID with respect to each of the photofinishing orders. The orders are filled and sent to a packing station for assembling the photofinishing order. Each order is placed in a shipping package having the order ID thereon in a machine readable format. A reading device reads order ID and obtains information for determining the associated estimated weight for each package. A printer produces a manifest to be used in shipping the plurality of photofinishing orders wherein the manifest provides the estimated weight and cost for each of the orders that is given to the shipping agent for shipment to customers.
12 Citations
40 Claims
-
1. A method for automatically determining the shipping weight of a photofinishing order to a customer from a service provider without physically weighing said photofinishing order, comprising the steps of:
-
said service provider receiving a photofinishing order from a customer for at least one photofinishing product;
associating a order ID with respect to said photofinishing order producing said at least one photofinishing product for said photofinishing order;
assembling said photofinishing order and placing said order within a package, said package having said ID thereon in a machine readable format; and
reading said machine readable ID for obtaining an associated estimated weight and providing the associated estimated weight on a manifest to be used in shipping said photofinishing order along with a plurality of other photofinishing orders. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A system for automatically determining the shipping weight of a photofinishing order to a customer from a service provider without physically weighing said photofinishing order comprising:
-
a computer system at said service provider for receiving a photofinishing order from said customer for at least one photofinishing product, said computer system associating an order ID with respect to said photofinishing order;
means for obtaining said at least one photofinishing product for said photofinishing order;
a packing station for assembling said photofinishing order and placing said order within a package, said package having said ID thereon in a machine readable format;
a reading device for reading said machine readable ID for obtaining information for determining the associated estimated weight for a plurality of said photofinishing orders in a shipment; and
an output device for providing a manifest to be used in shipping said plurality of photofinishing orders along with a plurality of other photofinishing orders, said manifest providing said associated estimated weight of each of said photofinishing orders. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
a CD;
a computer disc;
an electronic e-mail;
computer file.
-
Specification