System and method of fulfilling a transaction

• US 7,962,418 B1
• Filed: 03/30/2007
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ward, Charles L., Howard, Craig W., Sawers, Robert H., Wei, Danny, Gellman, David I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fischer; Andrew J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cheung; Calvin K
• Application Number:
  US11/731,812
• Time in Patent Office: 1,537 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.17, 705/14.23, 705/65, 705/68
• US Class Current: 705/65
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3676 Balancing accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts

Abstract

A method is disclosed that includes receiving a request for a transaction from a customer at a seller server system via an electronic-commerce website and identifying a customer account stored at the seller server system based on an identity of the customer. A plurality of financial instruments is associated with the customer account. The plurality of financial instruments has a customer-specific sequence including at least a first financial instrument pre-selected by the customer and a second financial instrument. The method includes automatically attempting to collect a particular payment associated with the transaction from a first financial service provider corresponding to the first financial instrument and automatically attempting to collect the particular payment from a second financial service provider corresponding to the second financial instrument in response to data received at the seller server system indicating a denial of the payment.

Claims

1. A method of fulfilling a transaction, the method comprising:

under control of a configured server computer system associated with an electronic commerce website,

determining a customer-specific sequence of a plurality of financial instruments of a customer that are associated with an account of the customer at the electronic commerce website, the customer-specific sequence indicating an order of the financial instruments that includes at least a first financial instrument and a second financial instrument, and wherein data related to the second financial instrument was previously received from the customer in connection with a second transaction related to a second offering of the electronic commerce website, the second offering including at least one of a second product and a second service being offered for purchase by customers;

at a first time,

receiving an indication of a first transaction involving the customer and a first offering of the electronic commerce website, the first offering including at least one of a first product and a first service being offered for purchase by customers, the first transaction being authorized by the customer at an earlier time prior to the first time for payment for the first transaction, the indication of the first transaction being received by the configured server computer system at the first time without any interactions by the customer at the first time to initiate the payment for the first transaction;

automatically selecting the first financial instrument to use in an attempt to collect the payment associated with the first transaction, the selecting being based on the determined customer-specific sequence and being performed by the configured server computer system; and

automatically attempting, using the configured server computer system, to collect the payment associated with the first transaction by using the selected first financial instrument; and

at a later second time after the first time, and based at least in part on a lack of success of the attempting to collect the payment by using the selected first financial instrument, automatically attempting to collect the payment for the first transaction by using the second financial instrument, the second financial instrument being selected to be used at the second time by the configured server computer system based on the determined customer-specific sequence and without any interactions by the customer at the second time to initiate the use of the second financial instrument for payment of the first transaction.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the lack of success of the attempting to collect the payment by using the selected first financial instrument is determined based at least in part on a failure event that occurs with respect to the attempting to collect the payment by using the selected first financial instrument.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the failure event includes receiving data indicating that the first financial instrument has expired, has been reported lost, has been reported stolen, has been canceled, has exceeded a spending limit, has been restricted as to online transactions, or any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first transaction is requested by the customer after the second transaction has been completed.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first transaction is requested by the customer after the second transaction has been initiated but before the second transaction has been completed.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the payment for the first transaction is part of a plurality of periodic payments.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first offering includes the first service, the first service being a subscription service.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first offering includes the first service, the first service being one of a membership service, a preferred customer service, and a shipping discount service.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the payment for the first transaction to be made at the first time is an auto-renewal payment associated with continuing to provide the first service to the customer.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the first offering includes the first product, and the plurality of periodic payments corresponds to an installment payment plan.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the second offering includes the second product.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the second offering includes the second service, the second service being a subscription service.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the second offering includes the second service, the second service being an auction offering.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining of the customer-specific sequence includes obtaining an indication from the customer of the customer-specific sequence.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining of the customer-specific sequence is performed automatically by the server computer system.

16. A server computer system configured to fulfill a transaction, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more modules configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, facilitate transactions with a seller by;

determining a customer-specific sequence of a plurality of financial instruments of a customer that is associated with an account of the customer with the seller, the customer-specific sequence indicating an order of the financial instruments that includes at least a first financial instrument and a second financial instrument, and wherein data related to the second financial instrument was previously received from the customer in connection with a second transaction related to a second offering of the seller, the second offering including at least one of a second product and a second service being offered to customers;

at a first time,

receiving an indication of a first transaction involving the customer and a first offering of the seller, the first offering including at least one of a first product and a first service being offered to customers, the first transaction including an associated payment to be made on behalf of the customer at the first time;

selecting the first financial instrument to use in an attempt to collect the payment associated with the first transaction, the selecting based on the determined customer-specific sequence; and

automatically attempting to collect the payment associated with the first transaction by using the selected first financial instrument; and

at a later second time after the first time, and based at least in part on a lack of success of the attempting to collect the payment by using the selected first financial instrument, automatically attempting to collect the payment associated with the first transaction by using the second financial instrument, the second financial instrument being automatically selected by the one or more configured modules to be used based on the determined customer-specific sequence and without any interactions by the customer at the second time.

17. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the lack of success of the attempting to collect the payment by using the selected first financial instrument is determined based at least in part on a failure event that occurs with respect to the attempting to collect the payment by using the selected first financial instrument.

18. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the failure event includes receiving data indicating that the first financial instrument has at least one of expired, been reported lost, been reported stolen, been canceled, exceeded a spending limit, and been restricted as to online transactions.

19. The computer system of claim 18 wherein the first financial instrument is at least one of a credit card and a debit card.

20. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the first transaction is requested by the customer after the second transaction has been completed.

21. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the first transaction is requested by the customer after the second transaction has been initiated but before the second transaction has been completed.

22. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the payment associated with the first transaction is part of a plurality of periodic payments.

23. The computer system of claim 22 wherein the first offering includes the first service, the first service being one of a membership service, a preferred customer service, and a shipping discount service.

24. The computer system of claim 23 wherein the payment associated with the first transaction to be made at the first time is an auto-renewal payment associated with continuing to provide the first service to the customer.

25. The computer system of claim 22 wherein the first offering includes the first product, and the plurality of periodic payments corresponds to an installment payment plan.

26. The computer system of claim 22 wherein the second offering includes the second product.

27. The computer system of claim 22 wherein the second offering includes the second service, the second service being a subscription service.

28. The computer system of claim 22 wherein the second offering includes the second service, the second service being based on an auction offering.

29. The computer system of claim 22 wherein the first offering includes the first service, the first service being a subscription service.

30. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the determining of the customer-specific sequence includes obtaining an indication from the customer of the customer-specific sequence.

31. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the determining of the customer-specific sequence is performed automatically by the one or more configured modules of the server computer system.

32. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the one or more modules are operated by the seller and include software instructions for execution by the at least one processors.