Computer system and method for providing an on-line mall

• US 7,689,462 B1
• Filed: 06/06/2002
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Wittsche, L. William
• Primary Examiner(s): Garg; Yogesh C
• Application Number:
  US10/164,997
• Time in Patent Office: 2,854 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/14, 705/1, 709/203, 725/119
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• 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 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

An on-line mall system is provided. The on-line mall includes a community allocation system that receives community data, such as “sporting goods” or “apparel,” and associates the community data with one or more items offered by a merchant. A shop allocation system receives shop data, such as “Store X” or “Store Y,” and associates the shop data with the one or more items.

Claims

1. An on-line mall providing system including subsystems comprising hardware and software operating on a processing platform that implements at least some of recited functions, the system comprising:

a first subsystem generating a plurality of communities in an on-line mall environment, each of the plurality of communities including a plurality of specialty stores targeted at a specific demographic market;

a second subsystem establishing a number of the plurality of communities based on marketing data received by the on-line mall related to number of merchants associated with the plurality of communities; and

a third subsystem allowing a merchant to create a shop to list one or more items for sale and associating at least one of the plurality of communities to the shop.

2. The on-line mall system of claim 1 further comprising a gift registry subsystem configured to associate the one or more items with a gift registry.

3. The on-line mall system of claim 2, wherein the items associated with the gift registry are contained in at least one of the plurality of communities.

4. The on-line mall system of claim 3, wherein the items associated with the gift registry contained in at least one of the plurality of communities are selectable by a customer without having to access multiple stores.

5. The on-line mall system of claim 1, further comprising a fourth subsystem configured to allow customers to enter purchasing data one time for the plurality of specialty stores in each of the communities.

6. The on-line mall system of claim 1, wherein the specific demographic market comprises at least one of women, men, children, or teen stores.

7. An on-line mall providing system comprising:

subsystems, comprising hardware and software, to generate a plurality of communities in an on-line mall environment, each of the plurality of communities including a plurality of specialty stores targeted at a specific demographic market, and to establish a number of the plurality of communities based on marketing data received by the on-line mall related to number of merchants associated with the plurality of communities;

store servers comprising hardware and software, coupled to memories and mass storage devices, to enable a merchant to create a shop to list at least one item for sale; and

community servers comprising hardware and software, communicable with customers'"'"' computers, to associate at least one of a plurality of communities to the shop.

8. The on-line mall system of claim 7, further comprising a gift registry system to enable associating the at least one item with a gift registry.

9. The on-line mall system of claim 8, wherein the items associated with the gift registry are contained in at least one of the plurality of communities.

10. The on-line mall system of claim 9, wherein the items associated with the gift registry contained in the at least one communities are selectable by a customer without having to access multiple stores.

11. The on-line mall system of claim 7, wherein the community servers are to allow customers to enter purchasing data one time for the plurality of specialty stores in each of the communities.

12. The on-line mall system of claim 7, wherein the specific demographic market comprises at least one of women, men, children, or teen stores.