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

• US 7,925,544 B2
• Filed: 10/11/2010
• Issued: 04/12/2011
• 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: Markus, Matthew A., Byerly, Timothy P., Maple, Eric S., Sandori, Mark I., Tarvydas, Martin K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Garg, Yogesh C
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZIMMERMAN, MATTHEW E
• Application Number:
  US12/902,099
• Publication Number:
  US 20110035293A1
• Time in Patent Office: 183 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1
• 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 30/0609 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 comprising:

determining, by a computer-based system for analyzing and distributing data, whether a selected product is from an affiliated webpage, wherein a plurality of said selected products can be ordered from a plurality of merchants, and wherein said plurality of merchants comprise an affiliated merchant and an unaffiliated merchant;

transmitting, by said computer-based system, an order associated with said selected product to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant, in response to said product being from said affiliated webpage;

injecting, by said computer-based system, said order associated with said selected product to a processor associated with an unaffiliated merchant, in response to said unaffiliated webpage being associated with said selected product; and

determining, by said computer-based system, whether a payment method is accepted by more than one of said plurality of merchants.

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

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding said selected product to a universal shopping cart until a check out command is received.

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 4, wherein said network presence is an Internet Web site.

6. 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.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a local database is populated with said data by said unaffiliated merchant.

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

9. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting said data includes transmitting according to a predetermined protocol.

10. 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 an 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.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said parameterized 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.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said injecting said data 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 placing said order.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating at least one of:

said injecting or transmitting data for each selected product until all data has been processed.

14. 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.

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

16. The method of claim 4, 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 via said network.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding said selected product to a universal shopping cart.

18. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, in response to execution by a computer-based system for analyzing and distributing data, cause said computer-based system to perform operations, comprising:

determining, by said computer-based system, whether a selected product is from an affiliated webpage, wherein a plurality of said selected products can be ordered from a plurality of merchants, and wherein said plurality of merchants comprise an affiliated merchant and an unaffiliated merchant;

transmitting, by said computer-based system, an order associated with said selected product to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant, in response to said product being from said affiliated webpage;

injecting, by said computer-based system, said order associated with said selected product to a processor associated with an unaffiliated merchant, in response to said unaffiliated webpage being associated with said selected product; and

determining, by said computer-based system, whether a payment method is accepted by more than one of said plurality of merchants.

19. A system comprising:

a network interface communicating with a non-transitory, tangible memory and a database;

said memory communicating with a processor for analyzing and distributing data;

said processor, executing a plurality of computer programs, is configured to perform operations comprising;

determining, by said processor, whether a selected product is from an affiliated webpage, wherein a plurality of said selected products can be ordered from a plurality of merchants, and wherein said plurality of merchants comprise an affiliated merchant and an unaffiliated merchant;

transmitting, by said processor, an order associated with said selected product to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant, in response to said product being from said affiliated webpage;

injecting, by said processor, said order associated with said selected product to a processor associated with an unaffiliated merchant, in response to said unaffiliated webpage being associated with said selected product; and

determining, by processor, whether a payment method is accepted by more than one of said plurality of merchants.