Method, medium, and system for a universal shopping cart having order injection and common payment determination

• US 7,577,592 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Issued: 08/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Byerly, Timothy P, Maple, Eric S, Sandori, Mark I, Tarvydas, Martin K, Markus, Matthew A
• Primary Examiner(s): Garg, Yogesh C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US11/841,412
• Publication Number:
  US 20080033834A1
• Time in Patent Office: 729 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.81
• 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 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0617 Representative agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• 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

Abstract

A universal shopping cart is provided that obtains and orders products and services from different merchants located on the Internet. The consumer completes all of their shopping on the shopping site and is not directed to another merchant'"'"'s site to complete an order. The universal shopping cart provides a monitoring service that allows the consumer to monitor a product for specified criteria. The order injection system places orders for products contained within the universal shopping cart from affiliated and non-affiliated merchants. Specific ordering details required from merchants external to the shopping site are hidden from the consumer. For external merchant sites that require a consumer account before allowing the product to be purchased, the shopping site creates a new consumer account without intervention from the consumer. Once the products are ordered, the consumer may keep track of the ordered products from the shopping site.

Claims

1. A method of providing a web page comprising a consistent user interface to allow a consumer to order products from a plurality of merchants via a network, comprising:

displaying, by a computer processor, information related to said plurality of merchants within said web page comprising said consistent user interface, wherein said plurality of merchants comprise an affiliated merchant and an unaffiliated merchant;

receiving, at said computer processor, a selected product from said web page;

adding, by said computer processor, said selected product to said universal shopping cart;

determining, by said computer processor, whether said selected product in said universal shopping cart is from an affiliated webpage;

transmitting, by said computer processor, raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product in said universal shopping cart directly to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant database in response to said selected product being from said affiliated webpage;

injecting, by said computer processor, said order at an unaffiliated webpage in response to said unaffiliated webpage being associated with said selected product, wherein data elements of said order is injected to said unaffiliated webpage according to matching said data elements to respective fields associated with said unaffiliated webpage; and

,

determining, by said computer processor, a common payment method which is accepted by at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant which respectively sell each of said selected product in said universal shopping cart, wherein said at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant is paid via said common payment method.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting raw data further comprises sending said order to said affiliated merchant according to a predetermined protocol.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating said steps of displaying information and adding said selected product to said universal shopping cart until a check out command is received; and

repeating at least one of;

said step of injecting or transmitting raw data in a data file for each selected product until all of said orders have been processed.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a network presence to allow selecting and ordering of said products without leaving said network presence.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said network presence is at least one of:

an Internet Webpage, and a proprietary webpage configured to receive product browsing, selection, and ordering commands from said consumer via said network.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said network presence is an Internet Web site.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein said network presence is a proprietary webpage configured to receive product browsing, selection, and ordering commands via said network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said local database is populated with said information by said unaffiliated merchant.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said local database is populated with said information by a product manufacturer.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting a raw data file step includes transmitting according to a predetermined protocol.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating instances of a parameterized service for each state that contains details for navigating said website of said unaffiliated merchant and placing said order, wherein said state is a set of methods and data that have input criteria and exit criteria for a section of a form which is used for said order.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said service is obtained from a website of said unaffiliated merchant by obtaining a copy of each webpage of said website of said unaffiliated merchant relating to orders using a plurality of accounts.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of injecting said order is performed according to an order injection process comprising obtaining services from said webpage associated with said selected product;

pattern matching services to find a set of common characteristics of said services; and

creating service equivalent classes that contain details for navigating said webpage and place said order.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying additional information and adding said selected product to said universal shopping cart until a check out command is received;

and repeating said step of injecting said order until all of said orders have been processed.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a product key which uniquely identifies said selected product and a merchant associated with said selected product.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a minimum number of payments to pay for all of said orders.

17. A tangible computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions for providing a web page comprising a consistent user interface to allow a consumer to order products from a plurality of merchants via a network that, if executed by a computer processor, cause said computer processor to perform a method, comprising:

displaying information related to said plurality of merchants within said web page comprising said consistent user interface, wherein said plurality of merchants comprise an affiliated merchant and an unaffiliated merchant;

receiving a selected product from said web page;

adding said selected product to said universal shopping cart;

determining whether said selected product in said universal shopping cart is from an affiliated webpage;

transmitting raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product in said universal shopping cart directly to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant database in response to said selected product being from said affiliated webpage;

injecting said order at an unaffiliated webpage in response to said unaffiliated webpage being associated with said selected product, wherein data elements of said order is injected to said unaffiliated webpage according to matching said data elements to respective fields associated with said unaffiliated webpage; and

,

determining a common payment method which is accepted by at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant which respectively sell each of said selected product in said universal shopping cart, wherein said at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant is paid via said common payment method.

18. A system for providing a web page comprising a consistent user interface to allow a consumer to order products from a plurality of merchants via a network, said system configured to:

display information related to said plurality of merchants within said web page comprising said consistent user interface, wherein said plurality of merchants comprise an affiliated merchant and an unaffiliated merchant;

receive a selected product from said web page;

add said selected product to said universal shopping cart;

determine whether said selected product in said universal shopping cart is from an affiliated webpage;

transmit raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product in said universal shopping cart directly to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant database in response to said selected product being from said affiliated webpage;

inject said order at an unaffiliated webpage in response to said unaffiliated webpage being associated with said selected product, wherein data elements of said order is injected to said unaffiliated webpage according to matching said data elements to respective fields associated with said unaffiliated webpage; and

,

determine a common payment method which is accepted by at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant which respectively sell each of said selected product in said universal shopping cart, wherein said at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant is paid via said common payment method.