Technique for implementing item substitution for unavailable items relating to a customer order

• US 7,233,914 B1
• Filed: 12/27/2000
• Issued: 06/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: JUNE RAY LIMITED
• Original Assignee: Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (Kaiser Permanente Inc.)
• Inventors: Wijaya, Joyo, Borders, Louis H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuff, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): THEIN, MARIA TERESA T
• Application Number:
  US09/750,385
• Time in Patent Office: 2,365 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/28, 705/29, 705/7, 705/8, 705/9, 705/10, 705/14, 235/383
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0617 Representative agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers

Abstract

A technique is disclosed for automatically implementing item substitutions for unavailable items in a customer order. According to one embodiment, line item orders from selected customer orders may be aggregated and processed for substitution analysis. Substitutions for unavailable items of selected customer orders may then be automatically implemented based upon substitution instructions, business rules, and/or other predefined criteria.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for effecting, via a computer network, substitution of at least one ordered item of at least one customer order for on-line shopping, the method comprising:

receiving, via the computer network at least one customer order placed by a customer through a computing device, the at least one customer order including more than one ordered item, with at least one ordered item having an ordered quantity larger than one, the customer order being a current order of the customer, including delivery time information regarding the order;

analyzing a selected portion of the received customer order taking into consideration at least another customer order to determine whether at least one item of inventory has been oversold, said analyzing being performed prior to the delivery of at least one ordered item of the received customer order and at least one ordered item of the at least another customer order;

identifying an ordered item in the received customer order relating to an oversold item; and

upon identifying the ordered item relating to the oversold item, automatically substituting, based upon information regarding at least one substitution preference stored in a storage medium, at least one substitute item for the identified ordered item in the received customer order, the at least one substitution preference being provided by the customer,

wherein the substituting depends on a ratio rule for substituting the substitute item for the identified ordered item,

wherein a quantity of the substitute item to be substituted for a quantity of the identified ordered item is not one for one, and is dependent on applying the ratio rule to the quantity of the identified ordered item,

wherein the customer is allowed to modify the at least one substitution preference during the current order, and

wherein the customer is allowed to view the image of at least one item through the computing device to support the customer in placing the current order.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said analyzing includes comparing analyzed order data to inventory data to determine whether at least one item of inventory has been oversold.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said comparing occurs before fulfillment of said portion of the received customer order.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said substituting includes selecting a desired ordered item corresponding to the oversold item.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically substituting also depends on minimizing the number of order substitutions to be performed for each customer order.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically substituting also depends on selecting for substitution an ordered item over another ordered item based on the corresponding quantity levels of the ordered item and the another ordered item.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the ordered item substitution occurs at a time of fulfillment of said portion of the received customer order.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the ordered item substitution is performed at a time of fulfilling an order without intervention from a human operator.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the ordered item substitution is performed by an automated computer process.

10. The method claim 1 wherein automatically substituting also depends on a sorted list of substitute products from which the substitute item is chosen.

11. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one substitution preference is a general substitution preference of the customer.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing the identified ordered item with at least another identified ordered item in another customer order related to the oversold item based upon the quantity associated with each of the identified ordered items.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing the identified ordered item with at least another identified ordered item in another customer order related to the oversold item based upon a number related to substitution already implemented in each customer order associated with the identified ordered item.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said analyzing includes aggregating a selected portion of the received customer orders to determine whether at least one item of inventory has been oversold.

15. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one substitution preference is a specific substitution preference of the customer regarding an item.

16. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one substitution preference is previously provided by the customer before the current order.

17. A computer program product for effecting, via a computer network, substitution of at least one ordered item of at least one customer order for on-line shopping, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein, the computer readable code comprising;

computer code for receiving, via the computer network, at least one customer order placed by a customer through a computing device, the at least one customer order including more than one ordered item, with at least one ordered item having an ordered quantity larger than one the customer order being a current order of the customer, including delivery time information regarding the order;

computer code for analyzing at least a portion of the received customer order taking into consideration at least another customer order to determine whether at least one item of inventory has been oversold, said analyzing being performed prior to the delivery of at least one ordered item of the received customer order and at least one ordered item of the at least another customer order;

computer code for identifying an ordered item in the received customer order relating to an oversold item; and

computer code for automatically substituting, based upon information regarding at least one substitution preference stored in a storage medium, at least one substitute item for the identified ordered item in the received customer order upon identifying the ordered item relating to the oversold item, the at least one substitution preference being provided by the customer,

wherein the substituting depends on a ratio rule for substituting the substitute item for the identified ordered item,

wherein a quantity of the substitute item to be substituted for a quantity of the identified ordered item is not one for one, and is dependent on applying the ratio rule to the quantity of the identified ordered item,

wherein the customer is allowed to modify the at least one substitution preference during the current order, and

wherein the customer is allowed to view the image of at least one item through the computing device to support the customer in placing the current order.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein automatically substituting also depends on minimizing the number of order substitutions performed for each customer order.

19. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein automatically substituting also depends on selecting for substitution an ordered item over another ordered item based on the corresponding quantity levels of the ordered item and the another ordered item.

20. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein said ordered item substitution is performed by an automated computer process.

21. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein said computer code for substituting includes:

computer code for determining a first preferred substitution item for the identified item; and

computer code for determining whether a sufficient quantity of the first preferred substitution item is available to be substituted for the identified item.

22. The computer program product of claim 21 further comprising computer code for determining a second preferred substitution item for the identified item in response to a determination that there is an insufficient quantity of the first preferred substitution item available to be substituted for the identified item.

23. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein said computer code for substituting includes computer code for partially substituting an ordered item for the identified item, said partial substitution code including:

computer code for reducing a quantity of the ordered item; and

computer code for adding a specified quantity of a new item in the respective customer order.

24. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein said computer code for substituting includes computer code for fully substituting an ordered item for the identified item, said full substitution including:

computer code for reducing a quantity of the ordered item to zero; and

computer code for adding a specified quantity of a new item in the respective customer order.

25. A system for effecting, via a computer network, substitution of at least one ordered item of at least one customer order for on-line shopping, the system comprising:

at least one central processing unit;

at least one interface configured or designed to receive at least one customer order placed by a customer through a computing device, via the computer network, the at least one customer order including more than one ordered item, with at least one ordered item having an ordered quantity larger than one, the customer order being a current order of the customer, including delivery time information regarding the order; and

memory;

wherein the processing unit is configured or designed to store in the memory customer order information and information regarding at least one substitution preference relating to at least one item substitution rule;

said system being configured or designed to analyze at least a portion of the received customer order taking into consideration at least another customer order to determine whether at least one item of inventory has been oversold, said analyzing being performed prior to the delivery of at least one ordered item of the received customer order and at least one ordered item of the at least another customer order;

said system being further configured or designed to identify an ordered item in the received customer order relating to an oversold item; and

said system being further configured or designed to automatically substitute, based upon information regarding said at least one substitution preference stored in the memory, at least one substitute item for the identified ordered item in the received customer order upon identifying the ordered item relating to the oversold item, the at least one substitution preference being provided by the customer,

wherein the automatic substitution depends on a ratio rule for substituting the substitute item for the identified ordered item,

wherein a quantity of the substitute item to be substituted for a quantity of the identified ordered item is not one for one, and is dependent on applying the ratio rule to the quantity of the identified ordered item,

wherein the customer is allowed to modify the at least one substitution preference during the current order, and

wherein the at least one interface is further configured or designed to show the image of at least one item to support the customer in placing the current order.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein to automatically substitute also depends on minimizing the number of order substitutions performed for each customer order.

27. The system of claim 25 wherein to automatically substitute also depends on selecting for substitution an ordered item over another ordered item based on the corresponding quantity levels of the ordered item and the another ordered item.

28. The system of claim 25 wherein said ordered item substitution is performed by an automated computer process.

29. The system of claim 25 wherein the system is configured or designed to compare the identified ordered item with at least another identified ordered item in another customer order related to the oversold item based upon the quantity associated with each of the identified ordered items.

30. The system of claim 25 wherein the system is further configured or designed to compare the identified ordered item with at least another identified ordered item in another customer order related to the oversold item based upon a number related to substitution already implemented in each customer order associated with the identified ordered item.

31. A computer-implemented method for effecting, via a computer network, substitution of at least one ordered item of at least one customer order for on-line shopping, the method comprising:

receiving, via the computer network, at least one customer order placed by a customer through a computing device, the at least one customer order including more than one ordered item, with at least one ordered item having an ordered quantity larger than one, the customer order being a current order of the customer, including delivery time information regarding the order;

analyzing at least a portion of the received customer order with at least another customer order to determine whether at least one item of inventory has been oversold, said analyzing being performed prior to the delivery of at least one ordered item of the received customer order and at least one ordered item of the at least another customer order;

identifying an ordered item in the received customer order relating to an oversold item; and

upon identifying the ordered item relating to the oversold item, automatically substituting, based upon information regarding at least one substitution preference stored in a storage medium, at least one substitute item for the identified ordered item in the received customer order, the at least one substitution preference being provided by the customer;

wherein said substituting includes;

accessing said at least one substitution preference to determine a first preferred substitution item for the identified item; and

determining whether a sufficient quantity of the first preferred substitution item is available to be substituted for the identified item,

wherein said substituting depends on a ratio rule for substituting the first preferred substitute item for the identified item,

wherein a quantity of the substitute item to be substituted for a quantity of the identified ordered item is not one for one, and is dependent on applying the ratio rule to the quantity of the identified ordered item,

wherein the customer is allowed to modify the at least one substitution preference during the current order, and

wherein the customer is allowed to view the image of at least one item through the computing device to support the customer in placing the current order.

32. The method of claim 31 further comprising determining a second preferred substitution item for the identified item in response to a determination that there is an insufficient quantity of the first preferred substitution item available to be substituted for the identified item.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein said substituting includes partially substituting an ordered item for the identified item, said partial substitution including:

reducing a quantity of the ordered item; and

adding a specified quantity of a new item in the respective customer order.

34. The method of claim 31 wherein said substituting includes fully substituting an ordered item for the identified item, said full substitution including:

reducing a quantity of the ordered item to zero; and

adding a specified quantity of a new item in the respective customer order.

35. A computer implemented method for effecting, via a computer network, substitution of at least one ordered item of at least one customer order for on-line shopping, the method comprising:

receiving, via the computer network, a plurality of customer orders, with at least one customer order including more than one ordered item placed by a customer through a computing device, with at least one ordered item having an ordered quantity larger than one for a particular item of merchandise, the customer order being a current order of the customer, including delivery time information regarding the order;

aggregating a selected portion of the plurality of customer orders, wherein the aggregated customer orders include a plurality of ordered items;

analyzing the plurality of ordered items, which include the at least one ordered item, to determine whether at least one item of merchandise has been oversold;

upon determining that at least one item has been oversold, automatically modifying at least a portion of the received customer orders by substituting alternate merchandise for ordered merchandise which has been identified as being oversold, where the substitution of merchandise items is implemented using information regarding at least one substitution preference stored in a storage medium, the at least one substitution preference being provided by the customer; and

fulfilling the modified customer orders,

wherein the modifying depends on a ratio rule for substituting the alternate merchandise for the ordered merchandise that has been identified as being oversold,

wherein a quantity of the substitute item to be substituted for a quantity of the identified ordered item is not one for one, and is dependent on applying the ratio rule to the quantity of the identified ordered item,

wherein the customer is allowed to modify the at least one substitution preference during the current order, and

wherein the customer is allowed to view the image of at least one item through the computing device to support the customer in placing the current order.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein said substitution is performed automatically, without intervention by a human.