Method, medium, and system for allocating a transaction discount during a collaborative shopping session

• US 7,970,661 B1
• Filed: 01/20/2010
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wrp IP Management, LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Thomas, Mathews, Abraham, Subil M., Kannan, Ramakrishnan, Hariharan, Rajaraman
• Primary Examiner(s): Garg; Yogesh C
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZIMMERMAN, MATTHEW E
• Application Number:
  US12/690,553
• Publication Number:
  US 20110178889A1
• Time in Patent Office: 524 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1, 705/27.1, 705/14.1, 705/14.39, 705/14.23, 705/319
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• 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 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A collaborative shopping group can be established within a social networking web site. This initially established group can consist of individuals with whom the establishing user has a social networking affiliation. After an initial establishment of the collaborative shopping group, each individual within the group is able to add additional individuals to the collaborative shopping group. A shared shopping cart can be established for the collaborative shopping group. A set of different members of the collaborative shopping group can individually and independently add items from a set of different e-commerce sites to the shared shopping cart. An e-commerce purchase of items in the shared shopping cart can be completed. The completed e-commerce purchase can receive a transaction discount greater than or equal to a sum of discounts that would have resulted from discrete purchases of the items of the shared shopping cart by the individuals of the collaborative shopping group.

Claims

1. A collaborative e-shopping method comprising:

establishing, using a computer processor, a shared shopping cart for use by a plurality of different collaborative shoppers;

each of said collaborative shoppers individually and independently adding items from at least one e-commerce site via a shopper-specific browser interface to the shared shopping cart;

each of said collaborative shoppers specifying a purchasing leeway for each of the items, wherein each purchasing leeway includes a deviation extent from specifics of the respective item added to the shared shopping cart;

determining a transactional discount, wherein the discount is greater than a sum of transactional discounts that would have been applied if the shared shopping cart items were purchased separately as individual-specific discrete transactions;

disproportionately allocating the transactional discount to each collaborative shopper so that collaborative shoppers with a greater purchasing leeway receive a higher portion of the discount than collaborative shoppers with a lesser purchasing leeway;

at least one of said collaborative shoppers selecting a sale finalization action via their browser interface;

responsive to the selection of the sale finalization action, confirming that each of the collaborative shoppers of the plurality elect to finalize a sale of the items in the shared shopping cart;

in response to each of said collaborative shoppers finalizing the sale of the items in the shared shopping cart, purchasing the items in the shared shopping cart from the at least one e-commerce site; and

shipping each of the purchased items of the shared shopping cart to addresses specified by the different collaborative shoppers.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for the purchase, each of the different collaborative shoppers paying a shopper specific amount for the items which that shopper placed in the shared shopping cart, wherein said shopper specific amount does not exceed an amount that would have been paid where the items purchased separately by the shopper as an individual-specific discrete transaction.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said shared cart transactional discount comprises a bulk quantity discount, a shipping discount, a reward program discount, and a combination item purchasing discount, some of which would not have been available to the different collaborative shoppers outside the shared shopping cart purchase.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the adding of items by at least one of the collaborative shoppers occurs at different times from different locations and using different user interfaces which each individual one of the different collaborative shoppers must log onto using shopper-specific authorization information, said method further comprising:

responsive to the selection of the finalization action, conveying a digitally encoded message to a previously specified message receiving account of each of the different collaborative shoppers other than the shopper who initiated the finalization action; and

receiving responses to the digitally encoded messages, each response indicating an election to finalize the purchase or an option to not finalize the purchase.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

removing items from the shared shopping cart corresponding to shoppers that elected to not finalize the purchase; and

proceeding with the sale for the remaining items by performing the purchasing of the items, where the items involved in the purchasing consist of the remaining items present in the shared shopping cart after the removing of the items from shoppers that elected not to finalize the purchase.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one e-commerce site comprises a plurality of different e-commerce sites, which are independently owned and operated from one another, wherein the adding of items by at least one of the collaborative shoppers occurs from different locations, said method further comprising:

responsive to the selection of the finalization action, aggregating applicable promotions of the e-commerce sites based on the items in the shared shopping cart;

generating recommendations and discounts for items not currently in the shared shopping cart based in part of the promotions and recommendations given the items of the shared shopping cart;

responsive to the selection of the finalization action, conveying a digitally encoded message to a previously specified message receiving account of each of the different collaborative shoppers other than the shopper who initiated the finalization action, wherein at least one of the digitally encoded message comprises one of the discounts and recommendations;

presenting the discounts and recommendations via the to the purchaser who triggered the finalization action and to at least one of the different collaborative shoppers, which is presented within the digitally shopper specific browser interface; and

receiving responses for the discounts and recommendations, which includes at least one positive response, which results in at least one additional item being added to the shared shopping cart prior to the purchasing of the items; and

receiving responses to the digitally encoded messages from at least a portion of the different shoppers that received the digitally encoded message, each response indicating an election to finalize the purchase or an option to not finalize the purchase.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the adding of items to the shared shopping cart comprises:

each collaborative shopper selecting items from a set of for sale items advertised on the at least one e-commerce site, wherein the selected items that are added to the shared shopping cart are determined by the collaborative shopper at the time at which they are added and were not previously specified or suggested to the collaborative shopper by the e-commerce site based upon a list of items designed for purchase by another, whereby the collaborative shopper is not selecting items from an online registry or the equivalent.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

within a social networking web site, which is independent of any of the at least one e-commerce site, establishing a collaborative shopping group consisting of individuals with whom the establishing user has a social networking affiliation;

wherein after an initial establishment of the collaborative shopping group, each individual within the group is able to add additional individuals to the collaborative shopping group, wherein each of the additional individuals is one with whom the adding user has a social networking affiliation; and

wherein the different collaborative shoppers associated with the shared shopping cart consists of the members of the collaborative shopping group, which includes at least one additional individual not included in the collaborative shopping group originally entered by the establishing user.

9. A method for collaborative shopping within a social network comprising:

establishing, using a computer processor, a collaborative shopping group within a social networking web site, wherein the collaborative shopping group comprises a group of individuals with whom an individual in the group of individuals has a social networking affiliation;

permitting each individual within the collaborative shopping group to add additional individuals to the collaborative shopping group;

establishing a shared shopping cart for the collaborative shopping group;

a plurality of different members of the collaborative shopping group individually and independently adding items from a plurality of different e-commerce sites to the shared shopping cart, wherein each of the different e-commerce sites has a unique URL and is independently owned and operated from the social networking web site and from each other;

each of the members specifying a purchasing leeway for each of the items, wherein each purchasing leeway includes a deviation extent from specifics of the respective item added to the shared shopping cart;

determining a transaction discount for a purchase of the items in the shared shopping cart, wherein the discount is greater than or equal to a sum of discounts that would have resulted if discreet purchases of the items were made without using the shared shopping cart;

disproportionately allocating the transaction discount to each member so that the members with a greater purchasing leeway receive a higher portion of the discount than the members with a lesser purchasing leeway; and

completing an e-commerce purchase of items in the shared shopping cart, wherein the e-commerce purchase receives the allocated transaction discount.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the members of the collaborative shopping group are granted an ability to include and exclude others from the collaborative shopping group in accordance with social networking based rules of the social networking site.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein only members of the social networking site are permitted to be members of the collaborative shopping group.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

the collaborative shopping group purchasing a preferred annual membership for a price from at least one of the e-commerce sites, wherein the preferred membership entitles any member of the collaborative shopping group to receive preferred annual membership benefits when completing a purchase of items that the member placed in the shared shopping cart, where the preferred annual membership benefits would otherwise not be applied to purchases made by that member who individually lacks the preferred annual membership.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein members of the collaborative shopping group receive incentives for purchases made by others that result from purchases, ratings, or recommendations provided by an incentive received by one of the members which caused at least one of the other members to complete a purchase.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the different members who placed items in the shared shopping cart are referred to as collaborative shoppers, wherein the completing of the e-commerce purchase comprises:

any of said collaborative shoppers selecting a sale finalization action via their browser interface;

responsive to the selection of the finalization action, confirming that each of the collaborative shoppers of the plurality elect to finalize a sale of the items in the shared shopping cart;

only when each of said collaborative shoppers has finalized the sale of items in the shared shopping cart, purchasing the items in the shared shopping cart from the at least one e-commerce sites;

wherein for the purchase, a shared shopping cart transactional discount is provided for the purchase which is greater than or equal to a sum of transactional discounts that would have been granted where the collaborative shared shopping cart items purchased separately as individual specific discrete transactions;

for the purchase, each of the different collaborative shoppers paying a shopper specific amount for the items which that shopper placed in the shared shopping cart, wherein said shopper specific amount does not exceed an amount that would have been paid were the items purchased separately by the shopper as an individual specific discrete transaction; and

;

shipping each of the purchased items of the shared shopping cart to postal/mail/other addresses specified by the different collaborative shoppers.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

establishing at least one alert for the shared shopping cart that is triggered upon an occurrence of a user defined condition of a user of the collaborative shopping group relating to a purchase of a different user in the collaborative shopping group;

detecting the occurrence and responsibly triggering the alert;

presenting the alert to the user.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

detecting a proximity of a first user of the collaborative shopping group to a physical store having an item in inventory matching an item in the shared shopping cart, said item being for a second user of the collaborative shopping group;

providing a notification to the first user of the item and its presence in the physical store;

the first user purchasing the item in the physical store; and

responsive to the purchasing, updating the shared shopping cart for at least the second user to indicate that the first user has purchased the item for the second user.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the adding of items by at least one of the collaborative shoppers occurs at different times from different locations, said method further comprising:

responsive to the selection of the finalization action, aggregating applicable promotions of the e-commerce sites based on the items in the shared collaborative shopping cart;

generating recommendations and discounts for items not currently in the shared collaborative shopping cart based in part of the promotions and recommendations given the items of the shared shopping cart;

responsive to the selection of the finalization action, conveying a digitally encoded message to a previously specified message receiving account of each of the different collaborative shoppers other than the shopper who initiated the finalization action, wherein at least one of the digitally encoded message comprises one of the discounts and recommendations;

conveying a digital message comprising the discounts and recommendations to at least one member of the collaborative shopping group that did not place an item in the collaborative shopping cart;

presenting the discounts and recommendations via the to the purchaser who triggered the finalization action and to at least one of the different collaborative shoppers, which is presented within the digitally shopper specific browser interface; and

receiving responses for the discounts and recommendations, which includes at least one positive response, which results in at least one additional item being added to the shared shopping cart prior to the purchasing of the items; and

receiving responses to the digitally encoded messages from at least a portion of the different shoppers that received the digitally encoded message, each response indicating an election to finalize the sale or an option to not finalize the sale.

18. The method of claim 9, the adding of items in the shared shopping cart further comprising:

detecting items placed in at least one of individual shopping carts and individual wish lists of the different e-commerce sites but not purchased by members of the collaborative shopping group; and

extracting the detected items from the at least one of the individual shopping carts and individual wish lists and placing them in the shared shopping cart.

19. One or more non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the following steps:

establishing, using a computer processor, a collaborative shopping group within a social networking web site, wherein the collaborative shopping group comprises a group of individuals with whom an individual in the group of individuals has a social networking affiliation;

permitting each individual within the collaborative shopping group to add additional individuals to the collaborative shopping group;

establishing a shared shopping cart for the collaborative shopping group;

from a plurality of different members of the collaborative shopping group individually and independently, receiving items from a plurality of different e-commerce sites into the shared shopping cart, wherein each of the different e-commerce sites has a unique URL and is independently owned and operated from the social networking web site and from each other;

from each of the members, receiving a purchasing leeway for each of the items, wherein each purchasing leeway includes a deviation extent from specifics of the respective item added to the shared shopping cart;

determining a transaction discount for a purchase of the items in the shared shopping cart, wherein the discount is greater than or equal to a sum of discounts that would have resulted if discreet purchases of the items were made without using the shared shopping cart;

disproportionately allocating the transaction discount to each member so that the members with a greater purchasing leeway receive a higher portion of the discount than the members with a lesser purchasing leeway; and

completing an e-commerce purchase of items in the shared shopping cart, wherein the e-commerce purchase receives the allocated transaction.