Contextual presentation on electronic catalog pages of information reflective of prior orders

• US 8,165,923 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2011
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Bezos, Jeffrey P., Mohit, Maryam S., Lockhart, Walker L., Lock, Ericka N., Allocca, William W., Subramaniam, Suguna
• Primary Examiner(s): Thein, M.
• Application Number:
  US13/244,061
• Publication Number:
  US 20120016768A1
• Time in Patent Office: 214 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/26.61
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0627 using item specifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

An interactive system personalizes pages of an electronic catalog with information reflective of related orders placed by the user. In one embodiment, when a user requests a category page (such as a browse node page, author page, or artist page) of an electronic catalog, the system determines whether the user previously ordered any items falling within the associated category. If any such orders are identified, information regarding the prior order(s) is incorporated into the requested category page. This information may include, for example, an indication of the particular item(s) ordered, and the order date and/or status of each such order. The system may also personalize item detail pages with information regarding any orders placed for the corresponding items and/or similar items.

Claims

1. A method of providing contextual information to customers during browsing of an electronic catalog, the method comprising:

receiving, from a computing device associated with a customer, a request for an item category page of the electronic catalog, said item category page corresponding to an item category, said item category being one of a plurality of item categories of the electronic catalog;

determining, in response to the request, that the customer previously placed an order for an item falling in said item category;

generating a personalized version of the item category page for the customer at least partly by incorporating information regarding the previously placed order into the item category page, said information including an identifier of the item; and

sending the personalized version of the item category page to the computing device associated with the user in response to the request;

said method performed by a computer system that comprises one or more servers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the customer previously placed said order comprises accessing cached order history information associated with the customer, said cached order history information added to a cache of the computer system prior to receipt by said computer system of the request for the item category page.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, prior to receiving said request, retrieving said order history information from a database, and adding the order history information to the cache.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method comprises determining whether particular items previously ordered by the user fall in said item category.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the item category page is an author page that corresponds to, and lists books by, a particular author.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the item category page is an artist page that lists music titles by a particular artist.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the item category page is a browse node page of a hierarchical browse structure in which items are arranged within a hierarchy of item categories.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the item category page includes a plurality of links that correspond to respective subcategories of the item category.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the order comprises a shipping date associated with the order.

10. An interactive system, comprising:

a computing system that provides user access to an electronic catalog of items, said electronic catalog comprising item category pages that correspond to respective item categories; and

a data repository that stores customer-specific order information regarding orders placed by computers for particular items represented in the electronic catalog; and

said computing system programmed to respond to a request from a computing device associated with a customer, for an item category page corresponding to an item category, by at least;

determining, based on the customer-specific order information associated with said customer, whether the customer previously placed an order for an item falling in the item category; and

when such a previously placed order is identified, incorporating information reflective of said order into the item category page for presentation to the customer, said information specifying an ordered item that falls in the item category.

11. The interactive system of claim 10, wherein the information reflective of the order comprises a shipping date associated with the order.

12. The interactive system of claim 10, wherein the computing system is programmed to cache order history information associated with said customer during a browsing session of the customer, and to access the cached order history information during the browsing session to determine whether the customer has ordered any items that fall within item categories of item category pages accessed by the customer.

13. The interactive system of claim 10, wherein the item category page is an author page that lists books by a particular author.

14. The interactive system of claim 10, wherein the item category page is an artist page that lists music titles by a particular artist.

15. The interactive system of claim 10, wherein the item category page is a browse node page of a hierarchical browse structure in which items are arranged within a hierarchy of item categories.

16. Non-transitory computer storage that stores executable instructions that direct a computer system to perform a process that comprises:

determining, in response to a request from a user computing device for an item category page of an electronic catalog, whether a user associated with the user computing device previously ordered an item that falls within an item category corresponding to the requested item category page, said item category page corresponding to one of a plurality of item categories of the electronic catalog; and

when a determination is made that the user previously placed an order for an item falling in the item category, supplementing the item category page with information regarding the order, and sending the supplemented item category page to the user computing device in response to the request.

17. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 16, wherein determining whether the user previously ordered an item that falls within the item category comprises accessing cached order history information associated with the user, said cached order history information added to a cache prior to receipt by the computer system of the request for the item category page.

18. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 16, wherein the information regarding the order includes information regarding a fulfillment status of the order.