Dynamically determining actual delivery information for orders based on actual order fulfillment plans

• US 8,005,761 B1
• Filed: 05/03/2007
• Issued: 08/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Braumoeller, Rick, Lee, Dennis, Holden, Jeff, Brinkerhoff, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): OUELLETTE, JONATHAN P
• Application Number:
  US11/744,079
• Time in Patent Office: 1,573 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/333
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0832 Special goods or special handling procedures, e.g. handling of hazardous or fragile goods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium for dynamically generating actual fulfillment plans for a current order or a potential order so as to enhance the future fulfillment process for expected future orders is described. In some situations, actual delivery information based on one or more such actual fulfillment plans will then be provided to a customer, such as by displaying actual delivery date and/or time before or during the ordering process based on one or more actual fulfillment plans that can be or will be used to fulfill the order. A variety of types of criteria can be used to evaluate the effects of using a fulfillment plan to fulfill a current order, including criteria that consider the modeled future cost of fulfilling expected future orders, such as an overall cost of fulfilling all orders during a specified time period that is at least partially in the future.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing to a customer information about actual fulfillment of an order before completion of an ordering process for the order, the method comprising:

receiving from a customer an indication of one or more items, the received indication of the items being part of an ordering process for an order for the items that has been initiated by the customer but not completed; and

upon receiving the indication,

automatically determining one or more fulfillment plans that are options for fulfilling an order for the items, each fulfillment plan indicating one or more distribution centers from which the items of the order are to be transported to a recipient, the automatic determining being performed by one or more configured computer systems;

for each of at least some of the determined fulfillment plans, automatically determining a time of actual delivery of the items if that fulfillment plan is used to fulfill the order, the determining of actual delivery time being performed by the one or more configured computer systems and being based at least in part on information determined about processing that would take place at the distribution centers indicated by the fulfillment plan and on information about transporting of the items from those indicated distribution centers to the recipient;

selecting one of the determined fulfillment plans to be used for fulfilling the order; and

providing information to the customer about ordering the items that includes the determined actual delivery time for the selected fulfillment plan, the providing of the information being performed as part of completing the ordering process.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing to the customer of the information includes providing information to enable the customer to complete the ordering process for the order in such a manner as to use the selected fulfillment plan for fulfilling the order.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the information is provided as part of a Web page transmitted to the customer, and wherein the provided information to enable the customer to complete the ordering process so as to use the selected fulfillment plan includes a displayed control that is selectable by the customer to perform the completing of the ordering process.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein actual delivery times are determined for at least one fulfillment plan other than the selected fulfillment plan, and including providing information to the customer about ordering the items that includes the determined actual delivery times for at least one of the other fulfillment plans.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the providing to the customer of the determined actual delivery times for the other fulfillment plans includes providing information to enable the customer to indicate to use one of the other fulfillment plans for fulfilling the order.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the provided determined actual delivery times for the other fulfillment plans are part of a Web page transmitted to the customer, and wherein the provided information to enable the customer to indicate to use one of the other fulfillment plans for fulfilling the order includes one or more displayed controls that are selectable by the customer to perform the indicating of the other fulfillment plan.

7. The method of claim 1 including determining a cost associated with at least some of the determined fulfillment plans, and wherein the provided information to the customer about ordering the items includes an indication of the determined cost associated with the selected fulfillment plan.

8. The method of claim 7 including providing information to the customer about ordering the items that includes the determined actual delivery time and the determined associated cost for at least one fulfillment plan other than the selected fulfillment plan.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the associated cost for a fulfillment plan reflects a cost that will be charged to a customer for using the fulfillment plan.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the associated cost for a fulfillment plan reflects a cost that will be incurred by a supplier of the items for using the fulfillment plan.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the associated cost for a fulfillment plan includes costs that are directly attributable to using the fulfillment plan to supply the items to the recipient.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the associated cost for a fulfillment plan includes modeled future costs of supplying expected future orders to recipients if the items are supplied to the recipient using the fulfillment plan.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein the associated cost for a fulfillment plan includes costs assigned to reductions in customer goodwill that result from using the fulfillment plan to supply the items to the recipient.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the provided information to the customer about ordering the items includes one or more displayed controls that are selectable by the customer to specify options related to using the selected fulfillment plan to fulfill the order.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the provided information for the selected fulfillment plan includes an indication of one or more processing lanes to be used at each of the distribution centers indicated for the selected fulfillment plan.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the provided information for the selected fulfillment plan includes an indication of a manner of acquiring at least some of the items.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the provided information for the selected fulfillment plan includes an indication of a priority for fulfilling the order.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the provided information for the selected fulfillment plan includes an indication of a manner of processing at least some of the items at the distribution centers indicated for the selected fulfillment plan.

19. The method of claim 1 including receiving an indication of ordering instructions for the customer, and wherein the determining of the fulfillment plan options and/or the selecting of the one fulfillment plan are based on the ordering instructions.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the ordering instructions correspond to a predefined default ordering option for the customer.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the recipient is the customer.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the transporting of the items is by shipping the items.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the transporting of the items includes a physical moving of the items.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the actual delivery time is a future date.

25. The method of claim 1 including indicating to order the items using the selected fulfillment plan.

26. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose stored contents configure a computing device to provide to a customer information about actual fulfillment of an order before completion of an ordering process for the order, by performing a method comprising:

receiving from a customer an indication of one or more items as part of the customer initiating an ordering process for the items; and

after receiving the indication,

for each of at least one or more fulfillment plans that are options for fulfilling an order for the items and that each indicate one or more distribution centers from which the items of the order are to be transported to a recipient, determining an actual delivery date of the items if that fulfillment plan is used to fulfill the order, the determining of the actual delivery date based at least in part on information about processing that would take place at the distribution centers indicated by the fulfillment plan and on information about transporting of the items from those indicated distribution centers to the recipient;

selecting one of the fulfillment plans to be used for fulfilling the order; and

providing information to the customer about ordering the items that includes the determined actual delivery date for the selected fulfillment plan.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein actual delivery dates are determined for at least one fulfillment plan other than the selected fulfillment plan, and wherein the computing device is further configured to perform providing to the customer information about the determined actual delivery dates for at least one of the other fulfillment plans in such a manner as to allow the customer to select one of the other fulfillment plans to be used for fulfilling the order.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the configured computing device.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the contents are instructions that when executed program the configured computing device.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the providing to the customer of the information includes providing information to enable the customer to complete the ordering process by using the selected fulfillment plan for fulfilling the order.

31. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 30 wherein the information is provided as part of a Web page transmitted to the customer from a merchant, wherein the configured computing device is operated by the merchant, and wherein the provided information to enable the customer to complete the ordering process includes a control that when displayed via the Web page is selectable by the customer to perform the completing of the ordering process.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein actual delivery times are determined for at least one fulfillment plan other than the selected fulfillment plan, and wherein the information provided to the customer includes information about ordering the items that includes the determined actual delivery times for at least one of the other fulfillment plans.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein providing of information to the customer of the determined actual delivery times for the other fulfillment plans includes providing information to enable the customer to indicate to use one of the other fulfillment plans for fulfilling the order.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the computing device is further configured to perform determining a cost associated with at least some of the determined fulfillment plans, and wherein the provided information to the customer about ordering the items includes an indication of the determined cost associated with the selected fulfillment plan.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 34 wherein the associated cost for a fulfillment plan includes modeled future costs of supplying expected future orders to recipients if the items are supplied to the recipient using the fulfillment plan.

36. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 34 wherein the associated cost for a fulfillment plan includes costs assigned to reductions in customer goodwill that result from using the fulfillment plan to supply the items to the recipient.

37. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the provided information for the selected fulfillment plan includes an indication of a priority for fulfilling the order.

38. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the provided information for the selected fulfillment plan includes an indication of a manner of processing at least some of the items at the distribution centers indicated for the selected fulfillment plan.

39. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the computing device is further configured to perform receiving an indication of ordering instructions for the customer, and wherein one or more of the determining of the fulfillment plan options and of the selecting of the one fulfillment plan are based on the ordering instructions.

40. A computing device for providing to a customer information about actual fulfillment of an order at a time of placing the order, comprising:

one or more processors;

a plan determiner component that is configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, determine one or more fulfillment plans that are options for fulfilling an order from a customer for one or more indicated items, each fulfillment plan indicating one or more distribution centers from which the items of the order are to be transported to a recipient;

an actual delivery time determiner component that is configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, and for each of at least some of the determined fulfillment options, determine a time of actual delivery of the items if that fulfillment plan is used to fulfill the order; and

an information provider component that is configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, and before completing an ordering process for the order, provide information to the customer about ordering the items that includes the determined actual delivery time for one of the determined fulfillment plans selected to be used for fulfilling the order.

41. The computing device of claim 40 wherein the plan determiner component, the actual delivery time determiner component, and the information provider component include instructions for execution in memory of the computing device.

42. The computing device of claim 40 wherein the actual delivery time determiner component determines a time of actual delivery of the items if a fulfillment plan is used to fulfill the order based at least in part on information about a manner of processing the items at the distribution centers indicated by the fulfillment plan.

43. The computing device of claim 40 wherein the providing to the customer of the information includes providing information to enable the customer to complete the ordering process for the order by using the selected fulfillment plan for fulfilling the order.

44. The computing device of claim 43 wherein the information is provided as part of a Web page transmitted to the customer from a merchant, wherein the computing device is operated by the merchant, and wherein the provided information to enable the customer to complete the ordering process includes a control that when displayed via the Web page is selectable by the customer to perform the completing of the ordering process.

45. The computing device of claim 40 wherein actual delivery times are determined for at least one fulfillment plan other than the selected fulfillment plan, and wherein the information provided to the customer includes information about ordering the items that includes the determined actual delivery times for at least one of the other fulfillment plans.

46. The computing device of claim 45 wherein providing of information to the customer of the determined actual delivery times for the other fulfillment plans includes providing information to enable the customer to indicate to use one of the other fulfillment plans for fulfilling the order.

47. The computing device of claim 40 comprising one or more components configured to determine a cost associated with at least some of the determined fulfillment plans, and wherein the provided information to the customer about ordering the items includes an indication of the determined cost associated with the selected fulfillment plan.

48. The computing device of claim 47 wherein the associated cost for a fulfillment plan includes modeled future costs of supplying expected future orders to recipients if the items are supplied to the recipient using the fulfillment plan.

49. The computing device of claim 47 wherein the associated cost for a fulfillment plan includes costs assigned to reductions in customer goodwill that result from using the fulfillment plan to supply the items to the recipient.

50. The computing device of claim 40 wherein the provided information for the selected fulfillment plan includes an indication of a priority for fulfilling the order.

51. The computing device of claim 40 wherein the provided information for the selected fulfillment plan includes an indication of a manner of processing at least some of the items at the distribution centers indicated for the selected fulfillment plan.

52. The computing device of claim 40 comprising one or more components configured to receive an indication of ordering instructions for the customer, and wherein one or more of the determining of the fulfillment plan options and of the selecting of the one fulfillment plan are based on the ordering instructions.