Integrated shopping cart for sale of third party products and services via the internet
First Claim
1. An improved method for an e-commerce retailer to display and sell items of a third party comprising:
- identifying, by a processor, each item of a third party supplier with a unique identifier, wherein a particular third party supplier provides photo-finishing services;
associating, by a processor, the unique identifier of the item with an image for the item, said image residing on a computer maintained by the third party supplier, wherein the unique identifier is further associated with a user, at least one of the images corresponding to user photographic images;
in response to a product request from the user to the e-commerce retailer, the e-commerce retailer presenting at least some of the images of third party supplier items to the user for on-line commerce, said images being retrieved from said computer maintained by the third party supplier in response to the product request, the product request being a user-initiated request for at least one specific item of the third party; and
in response to an order request from the user to the e-commerce retailer, for one or more items,identifying, by a processor, based at least in part on said unique identifier, each item requested, the user, and an appropriate third party supplier for each requested item,automatically generating, by a processor, an order for each requested item to be transparently sent to the third party supplier, andwhen the order includes items from the e-commerce retailer and user photographic images, splitting amongst the retailer and appropriate third party suppliers.
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Abstract
The current invention includes an improved system for an e-commerce vendor to seamlessly incorporate products and services from a third party into its own e-commerce site. This system enables the e-commerce vendor to display the third party products and to accept orders and arrange fulfillment of these products through its own site in a manner that is seamless to the end user. When the e-commerce retailer requests product information from the supplier, the supplier provides the retailer with product information and URLs at which additional information can be located. The retailer uses this information to retrieve product images, descriptions and information and to display this information to its customer on its own site. Each of these items is tagged with a unique element identifier that contains a number of details about the product. This information tagged to the product image or description enables the product to be easily identified by both the retailer and the supplier. When the customer purchases the products from the retailer, the necessary information is tagged to the product information and, thus, is available for placement of the order with the supplier. This enables the product order to be routed to and fulfilled by the third party supplier in a manner that is transparent to the customer.
49 Citations
29 Claims
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1. An improved method for an e-commerce retailer to display and sell items of a third party comprising:
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identifying, by a processor, each item of a third party supplier with a unique identifier, wherein a particular third party supplier provides photo-finishing services; associating, by a processor, the unique identifier of the item with an image for the item, said image residing on a computer maintained by the third party supplier, wherein the unique identifier is further associated with a user, at least one of the images corresponding to user photographic images; in response to a product request from the user to the e-commerce retailer, the e-commerce retailer presenting at least some of the images of third party supplier items to the user for on-line commerce, said images being retrieved from said computer maintained by the third party supplier in response to the product request, the product request being a user-initiated request for at least one specific item of the third party; and in response to an order request from the user to the e-commerce retailer, for one or more items, identifying, by a processor, based at least in part on said unique identifier, each item requested, the user, and an appropriate third party supplier for each requested item, automatically generating, by a processor, an order for each requested item to be transparently sent to the third party supplier, and when the order includes items from the e-commerce retailer and user photographic images, splitting amongst the retailer and appropriate third party suppliers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A system providing an improved method for an e-commerce retailer to display and sell items of a third party, said system comprising:
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an e-commerce retailer to identify each item of a third party supplier with a unique identifier, wherein an item of a third party supplier includes at least one graphic image and corresponds to a photo finishing service offered to a user, the unique identifier associated, at least in part, with the user; an image server configured to receive user information requests from the e-commerce retailer regarding certain third party supplier items including a user-initiated information request from the user for at least one specific item of the third party, and transparently provide images and descriptions of said items retrieved from a computer maintained by the third party supplier in response to user information requests at least some graphic images being based on photographs previously taken by the user; and an order engine module, in communication with said image server module, for processing orders for third party supplier items, the order engine module further for splitting orders that include items from the e-commerce retailer and items corresponding to user photographs from one or more third party suppliers amongst the e-commerce retailer and appropriate third party suppliers. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A computer readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed on a processing system, cause said processing system to perform a method comprising:
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identifying each item of a third party supplier with a unique identifier; associating the unique identifier of the item with an image for the item, said image residing on a computer maintained by the third party supplier, wherein the unique identifier is further associated with a user; transparently presenting, by an e-commerce system, third party supplier items to a user for on-line commerce; receiving user information requests at the e-commerce system regarding certain graphic images from an item presentation program logic, and providing digital images for display wherein said digital images are retrieved from a computer system maintained by the third party supplier in response to the product request, the product request being a user-initiated request for at least one specific item of the third party; splitting orders that include items from the e-commerce system and items from one or more third party suppliers amongst the e-commerce system and the appropriate third party suppliers, wherein a particular third party supplier provides photo-finishing services for the graphic images and at least some of the items include user photographic images; and processing orders for graphic images to be transparently sent to the appropriate third party supplier. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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26. A computer readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed on a processing system, cause said processing system to perform a method comprising:
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identifying, with a tagging logic, each item of a third party supplier with a unique identifier, each unique identifier associated with data about that item and a user wherein a particular third party supplier provides photo-finishing services; transparently presenting, with an e-commerce logic, at least some of the items to the user for on-line commerce in response to a user-initiated information request for a third party supplier item; retrieving the data, with an XML request logic, about the one or more items from a third party supplier website, and enabling the e-commerce logic to present the data to the user for the on-line commerce; and splitting an order amongst the e-commerce retailer and appropriate third party suppliers when the order includes items from a retailer and user photographic images; processing orders for items with an order engine. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29)
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Specification