Intelligent method of order completion in an e-commerce environment based on availability of stored billing information

• US 7,346,587 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2002
• Issued: 03/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Subramanya, Venkatesh, Quigley, Benjamin L., Tran, Vincent, Rawat, Jai, Goldstein, Seth, Mahajan, Rajesh, Muppirala, Prakash
• Primary Examiner(s): Worjloh; Jalatee
• Application Number:
  US10/313,748
• Publication Number:
  US 20040111374A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,929 Days
• Field of Search: 235/380, 705 50- 79, 705 39- 44
• US Class Current: 705/67
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/027 involving a payment switch or gateway
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

An intelligent method of e-commerce order completion automatically completes an order using either stored billing information, or information supplied at purchase if none is stored. User sends an order to a merchant. On receipt, user'"'"'s authentication level is checked. If user is authenticated and billing information has been stored, it is retrieved and order completed without further user action. When none has been stored, flow redirects to a digital form for entering billing information, whereupon order is completed. In this case, after order completion, the user may save billing information to create a new digital wallet. To create the wallet, if the user isn'"'"'t authenticated, or is insufficiently authenticated, they are first prompted to authenticate. Upon wallet creation, the user is fully authenticated and can complete purchases quickly without providing billing information with every purchase.

Claims

1. An intelligent method of order completion comprising the steps of:

receiving an order originated by a user;

determining authentication status of said user;

checking for the availability of a digital wallet for said user;

without said user'"'"'s intervention, automatically obtaining billing information from an alternative source when a digital wallet for said user is unavailable, wherein said alternative source comprises any of;

a subscriber record; and

a record of previous purchase;

creating a digital wallet using said billing information from said alternate source;

completing said order without said user'"'"'s intervention;

wherein said step of completing said order comprises the steps of;

populating fields of a digital order from with billing information without said user'"'"'s action or awareness;

executing said order; and

when a digital wallet is available, completing said order based on billing information from said digital wallet without user intervention.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

returning a status as “

user not authenticated”

when said authentication status does not permit wallet use.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of creating a digital wallet comprises:

creating a wallet with said billing information if said user agrees.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

when said authentication status does not permit wallet use and user has not previously created a wallet,

asking said user to supply billing information for order completion; and

creating a wallet with said billing information if said user agrees after successfully authenticating the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein completing said order comprises the steps of:

when said authentication status does not permit wallet use and user has not previously created a wallet;

redirecting flow to a digital form, wherein said user manually enters billing information; and

executing said order.

6. A computer program product comprising computer readable ode embodied on a tangible medium, said computer readable code comprising code means for performing an intelligent method of order completion comprising the steps of:

receiving an order originated by a user;

determining authentication status of said user;

checking for the availability of a digital wallet for said user;

without said user'"'"'s intervention, automatically obtaining billing information from an alternative source when a digital wallet for said user is unavailable, wherein said alternative source comprises any of;

a subscriber record; and

a record of previous purchase;

creating a digital wallet using said billing information from said alternate source;

completing said order without said user'"'"'s intervention;

wherein said step of completing said order comprises the steps of;

populating fields of a digital order from with billing information without said user'"'"'s action or awareness;

executing said order; and

when a digital wallet is available, completing said order based on billing information from said digital wallet without user intervention.