Method and system for a universal shopping cart having order injection and common payment determination
First Claim
1. A method for a consumer to order products, via a network, from a plurality of merchants using a web page comprising a consistent user interface, comprising:
- determining, by a computer processor, whether information in a local database associated with a web page and relating to a product is at least one of;
outdated and missing;
determining, by said computer processor, whether said information is from an affiliated merchant or an unaffiliated merchant in response to said information being said at least one of;
outdated and missing;
retrieving, by said computer processor, additional information from said affiliated merchant in response to a merchant identifier matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers, wherein said additional information is retrieved in response to said affiliated merchant granting permission to access an affiliated merchant database;
screen scraping, by said computer processor, additional information from said unaffiliated merchant in response to said merchant identifier not matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers;
displaying, by said computer processor, said additional information within said web page comprising said consistent user interface;
receiving, at said computer processor, a product selection command indicative of selecting a product for inclusion in a universal shopping cart;
determining, by said computer processor, whether said selected product is from an affiliated web site by parsing an order string to determine said merchant identifier for said selected product and matching said merchant identifier with one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers in a database;
transmitting, by said computer processor, raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product directly to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant database in response to said selected product being from said affiliated web site and in response to said affiliated merchant granting said permission to said affiliated merchant database;
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 each of said 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.
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Accused Products
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.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for a consumer to order products, via a network, from a plurality of merchants using a web page comprising a consistent user interface, comprising:
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determining, by a computer processor, whether information in a local database associated with a web page and relating to a product is at least one of;
outdated and missing;determining, by said computer processor, whether said information is from an affiliated merchant or an unaffiliated merchant in response to said information being said at least one of;
outdated and missing;retrieving, by said computer processor, additional information from said affiliated merchant in response to a merchant identifier matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers, wherein said additional information is retrieved in response to said affiliated merchant granting permission to access an affiliated merchant database; screen scraping, by said computer processor, additional information from said unaffiliated merchant in response to said merchant identifier not matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers; displaying, by said computer processor, said additional information within said web page comprising said consistent user interface; receiving, at said computer processor, a product selection command indicative of selecting a product for inclusion in a universal shopping cart; determining, by said computer processor, whether said selected product is from an affiliated web site by parsing an order string to determine said merchant identifier for said selected product and matching said merchant identifier with one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers in a database; transmitting, by said computer processor, raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product directly to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant database in response to said selected product being from said affiliated web site and in response to said affiliated merchant granting said permission to said affiliated merchant database; 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 each of said 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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system for a consumer to order products, via a network, from a plurality of merchants using a web page comprising a consistent user interface, said system is configured to:
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determine, by a computer processor, whether information in a local database associated with a web page and relating to a product is at least one of;
outdated and missing;determine, by said computer processor, whether said information is from an affiliated merchant or an unaffiliated merchant in response to said information being said at least one of;
outdated and missing;retrieve, by said computer processor, additional information from said affiliated merchant in response to a merchant identifier matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers, wherein said additional information is retrieved in response to said affiliated merchant granting permission to access an affiliated merchant database; screen scrape, by said computer processor, additional information from said unaffiliated merchant in response to said merchant identifier not matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers; display, by said computer processor, said additional information within said web page comprising said consistent user interface; receive, at said computer processor, a product selection command indicative of selecting a product for inclusion in a universal shopping cart; determine, by said computer processor, whether said selected product is from an affiliated web site by parsing an order string to determine said merchant identifier for said selected product and matching said merchant identifier with one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers in a database; transmit, by said computer processor, raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product directly to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant database in response to said selected product being from said affiliated web site and in response to said affiliated merchant granting said permission to said affiliated merchant database; inject, 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
,determine, by said computer processor, a common payment method which is accepted by each of said 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.
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Specification