Providing automated gift registry functionality to assist a user in purchasing an item for a recipient

• US 7,580,861 B1
• Filed: 03/17/2000
• Issued: 08/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Song, Zhengrong
• Primary Examiner(s): Diaz; Susanna M
• Application Number:
  US09/528,087
• Time in Patent Office: 3,448 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/14, 705/16
• US Class Current: 705/26.35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• 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 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium is described that provides automated gift registry functionality to assist a user in purchasing an item for a recipient. In particular, the system may track various information about a series of item purchases from one or more services through which items can be purchased. When such information about past item purchases is available, the system can then use the information to provide various automated gift registry functionality for users that want to purchase items for various recipients. Types of automated gift registry functionality provided by the system include making recommendations of items that are appropriate to be purchased for a specified recipient, assisting in preventing recipients from receiving inappropriate gift items by monitoring item gift purchases and item self-purchases, and responding to user requests to determine whether a specified gift would be appropriate for a recipient. In addition to information about past item purchases (e.g., whether a recipient has already received a copy of an item), the system can also use other information when determining whether a purchase of an item for the recipient is appropriate such as demographic information about the recipient or explicitly specified recipient preferences. Thus, for each type of gift registry functionality provided by the AGR system, a variety of types of tracked or retrieved information can be used when determining whether an item is appropriate for a recipient.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for assisting a user in acquiring an item for a recipient, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a recipient;

receiving information related to previous item acquisitions;

retrieving from the received information indications of items acquired for the recipient by others and indications of items acquired by the recipient for others;

at a first time, receiving an indication of a first user initiating an acquisition of a first item for the recipient;

automatically determining based on the retrieved indications whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate, the automatic determining being performed by an automated system being executed by one or more computer systems and being performed without using any indication specified by the recipient or any other user before the first time of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate; and

indicating to the first user whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is determined to be appropriate.

2. The method of claim 1 including, for each of the previous item acquisitions, tracking activities related to the items in order to generate the received information.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the tracked activities include acquisition of an item.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the tracked activities include cancellation of an item acquisition.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item is appropriate includes:

determining from the retrieved indications whether the first item has already been acquired for the recipient; and

when it is determined that the first item has already been acquired for the recipient, indicating to the first user that the first item is not appropriate to be acquired for the recipient.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item is appropriate includes:

determining from the retrieved indications whether the first item has already been acquired for the recipient; and

when it is determined that the first item has already been acquired for the recipient, indicating to the first user that the first item is appropriate to be acquired for the recipient.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item is appropriate includes:

generating recommendations of items to be acquired for the recipient by selecting items related to the items indicated by the retrieved indications;

determining whether the first item is among the recommended items; and

when it is determined that the first item is among the recommended items, indicating to the first user that the first item is appropriate to be acquired for the recipient.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the received indication of the first user initiating the acquisition of the first item for the recipient includes an indication of a request from the first user to determine whether the recipient already has the first item, and wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item is appropriate includes:

determining from the retrieved indications whether the first item has already been acquired for the recipient; and

when it is determined that the first item has not already been acquired for the recipient, indicating to the first user that the first item is appropriate to be acquired for the recipient.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the recipient has manually specified a wish list indicating items that are appropriate to be acquired for the recipient, and including determining that a second item is appropriate to be acquired for the recipient if the second item is indicated on the wish list.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item is appropriate includes using retrieved demographic information about the recipient.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicating to the first user whether the initiated acquisition of the first item is determined to be appropriate includes presenting a warning to the first user if the initiated acquisition of the first item is determined to not be appropriate.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicating to the first user whether the initiated acquisition of the first item is determined to be appropriate includes, if the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is determined to be appropriate, permitting the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient to continue without preventing the initiated acquisition.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the previous item acquisitions are performed by multiple acquirers for multiple recipients.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic determining of whether an initiated acquisition of a first item is appropriate to be acquired for a recipient is performed for each of a plurality of recipients.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item is appropriate is additionally based on an amount of time that has elapsed since at least one of the items previously acquired for the recipient was acquired.

16. The method of claim 1 including retrieving stored information related to the indicated recipient, and wherein the retrieving of the indications of items includes using the retrieved stored information to determine whether each of the previous item acquisitions was acquired for the recipient.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the first item is a service that will be performed for the recipient after the acquisition of the first item for the recipient.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the first item is allowed to be acquired for only a limited time.

19. A computer-readable memory medium whose contents include instructions that when executed cause a computer system to assist a user in acquiring an item for a recipient, by performing a method comprising:

receiving an indication of a recipient;

receiving information related to previous item acquisitions;

retrieving from the received information indications of items acquired for the recipient by others and indications of items acquired by the recipient for others;

at a first time, receiving an indication of a first user initiating an acquisition of a first item for the recipient;

automatically determining based on the retrieved indications whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate, the automatic determining being performed by the computer system when executing the instructions included in the contents and being performed without using any indication specified by the recipient or any other user before the first time of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate; and

providing an indication to the first user whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is determined to be appropriate.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the method includes tracking activities related to the previous item acquisitions, and wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate is further based on the tracked activities.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the tracked activities include receipt of an item by the recipient.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the tracked activities include delivery of an item to be provided to the recipient.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the tracked activities include cancellation of an item to be provided to the recipient.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the tracked activities include return by the indicated user of an item provided to the recipient.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the method further comprises tracking items acquired by the recipient for the recipient, and wherein the automatic determining is further based on those tracked items.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate includes determining from the retrieved indications that the first item has not already been provided to the recipient.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate includes determining from the retrieved indications that the first item has already been provided to the recipient.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate includes generating recommendations of items to be provided to the recipient by identifying items related to other items that were previously provided to the recipient by other users.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate includes:

receiving an indication of a request to determine whether the recipient already has the first item; and

determining from the retrieved indications that the first item has not already been acquired for the recipient.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the first user is the recipient.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate includes determining from the retrieved indications that the first item has already been acquired for the recipient but not yet delivered to the recipient.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate includes using retrieved demographic information about the recipient.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the automatically determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate includes determining that the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is not appropriate, and wherein the method further comprises blocking an attempted acquisition of the first item for the recipient.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the automatically determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate includes determining that the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate, and wherein the providing of the indication to the first user includes permitting an attempted acquisition of the first item for the recipient to continue without preventing the initiated acquisition.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the automatic determining of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate is based at least in part on an amount of time that has elapsed since a previous occurrence of providing the first item to the recipient.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the first item is a service that will be performed for the recipient.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the first item when provided to the recipient is allowed to be retained by the recipient for only a limited time.

38. A computer system for assisting a user in acquiring an item for a recipient, comprising:

a processor;

an item acquisition analysis component configured to, when executed by the processor, receive indications of a recipient and of information related to previous item acquisitions, to retrieve from the indicated information indications of items acquired for the recipient by others and of items acquired by the recipient for others, to receive at a first time an indication of a first user initiating an acquisition of a first item for the recipient, and to automatically determine based on the retrieved indications whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate without using any indication specified by the recipient or any other user before the first time of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate; and

an item acquisition appropriateness indicator component configured to, when executed by the processor, indicate to the first user whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is determined to be appropriate.

39. A computer system for assisting a user in acquiring an item for a recipient, comprising:

a processor;

a means for receiving indications of a recipient and of information related to previous item acquisitions, for retrieving from the indicated information indications of items acquired for the recipient by others and of items acquired by the recipient for others, for receiving at a first time an indication of a first user initiating an acquisition of a first item for the recipient, and for automatically determining based on the retrieved indications whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate without using any indication specified by the recipient or any other user before the first time of whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is appropriate; and

a means for indicating to the first user whether the initiated acquisition of the first item for the recipient is determined to be appropriate.