Facilitating a supply of used items

• US 8,266,008 B1
• Filed: 11/04/2011
• Issued: 09/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Siegel, Hilliard Bruce, Nordstrom, Paul G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Desai, Resha
• Application Number:
  US13/289,960
• Time in Patent Office: 312 Days
• Field of Search: 705 261- 272
• 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 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

Techniques are described for facilitating a supply of used items on behalf of an entity that desires to acquire such used items, such as a merchant that sells used items to customers. The used items are obtained based on interactions with recipients who receive items that are sold or otherwise provided by one or more merchants (or other suppliers of items), such as by supplying appropriate information and materials to the recipients along with the items. In some situations, when an item is delivered or otherwise supplied to a recipient by a merchant, the merchant also supplies information to the recipient that indicates an offer from a used item acquirer entity to re-acquire the item from the recipient (such as after the recipient has used the item) and shipping materials for use in returning the item to an indicated destination if the recipient accepts the offer.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining, by one or more configured computing systems, and before delivery of a purchased item to an indicated recipient, an offer to be made to the recipient for the recipient to perform a subsequent sale of the item after the delivery;

delivering to the recipient shipping materials and an indication of the offer along with the item, the shipping materials being for use by the recipient in shipping the item if the offer is accepted by the recipient; and

after the delivering to the recipient, receiving an indication that the offer has been accepted by the recipient, and facilitating provision of compensation to the recipient in accordance with the offer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the purchased item is a new items, wherein the one or more configured computing systems are operated by a merchant that sells new items to customers, and wherein the method further comprises reacquiring the item from the recipient after the offer is accepted by the recipient and after the item has been used by the recipient, and using the reacquired item by the merchant as at least one of a rental item and a used items for sale.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the purchased item is a used item, and wherein the one or more configured computing systems are operated by a merchant that sells used items to customers.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the purchased item is one of a CD and a DVD.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined offer includes a time period during which the offer is valid and a purchase price that indicates an amount of money that will be paid to the recipient if the recipient accepts the offer during the time period.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined offer includes one or more terms that are determined before delivery of the item in a manner based on current market conditions at a time of determining the terms, the current market conditions including at least one of actual current demand for the item, expected future demand for the item, actual current supply of the item, and expected future supply of the item.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined offer includes a determined price to be paid to the recipient based on a current price for used copies of the item.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents configure a computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of one or more items to be provided to a recipient;

determining, by the configured computing device and before a time of providing one or more items to a recipient, that an offer is to be indicated to the recipient at the time of providing the one or more items to the recipient, the offer including one or more terms for subsequent acquisition of at least one of the items from the recipient that will take effect upon later acceptance of the offer by the recipient at a second time after the providing of the one or more items to the recipient, the offer further having associated materials for use by the recipient if the recipient later accepts the offer; and

initiating providing the offer to the recipient.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the initiating providing of the offer to the recipient includes delivering to the recipient an indication of the offer along with shipping materials as part of the providing of the one or more items to the recipient, the shipping materials being for use by the recipient in supplying the item to an indicated destination if the offer is later accepted by the recipient.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the offer includes a price term, and wherein the method further comprises providing compensation to the recipient based at least in part on the price term after the recipient accepts the offer.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the determining that the offer is to be indicated to the recipient includes determining at least one of the one or more terms for the offer, and wherein the initiating providing of the offer includes indicating the determined terms for the offer.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the initiating providing of the offer includes providing access information to the recipient that when later used by the recipient causes additional information about the offer to be provided to the recipient.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the additional information includes at least one term of the offer that is determined after use by the recipient of the access information.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the configured computing device is operated by a merchant, and wherein the initiating providing of the offer includes providing access information to the recipient that when later used by the recipient initiates retrieval of the at least one items from the recipient without further interaction by the recipient with the merchant.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the initiating providing of the offer includes providing access information to the recipient that when used by the recipient initiates preparation of shipping materials for use by the recipient in supplying the at least one items to an indicated destination.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the shipping materials include materials showing the indicated destination that are to be affixed to other materials previously provided to the recipient as part of the providing of the one or more items to the recipient.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the shipping materials include materials showing the indicated destination that are to be affixed to shipping materials previously used to provide the at least one items to the recipient.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the configured computing device, and wherein the contents are software instructions that when executed program the configured computing device to perform the method.

19. A computing device, comprising:

a processor;

a first module that is configured to, when executed by the processor, and for an acquisition of one or more items by a customer, determine an offer that is to be made to the customer along with delivery of the one or more items to the customer, the determining of the offer being performed before the delivery of the one or more items to the customer, the offer being for a subsequent acquisition of at least one of the one or more items from the customer after the delivery and after use by the customer of the at least one item;

a second module that is configured to, when executed by the processor, provide shipping materials and an indication of the determined offer to the customer, the shipping materials being for use by the customer in supplying the at least one item to an indicated destination if the customer later accepts the determined offer; and

a third module that is configured to, when executed by the processor, and after receiving an indication that the determined offer has been accepted by the customer, facilitate provision of compensation to the customer based on the determined offer.

20. The computing device of claim 19 wherein the first module is an offer determiner module, the second module is a supplied item handler module, and the third module is a payment processor module, and wherein the first, second and third modules each include software instructions for execution in memory of the computing device.