Method and media for duplicate detection in an electronic marketplace

• US 8,423,420 B1
• Filed: 01/07/2010
• Issued: 04/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bhosle, Amit, Agrawal, Ashish
• Primary Examiner(s): ZIMMERMAN, MATTHEW E
• Application Number:
  US12/683,519
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1, 705/27.1
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0607 Regulated
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

A shared “universal” virtual shopping cart (“the cart”) may be provided by a host to enable information sharing between multiple disparate electronic marketplaces provided by various merchants. The host may obtain user information via the cart to improve interactions with a user. The host may recommend an item to the user that is offered at a lower price and related to an item retained in the user'"'"'s cart. The host may also recommend items based on a user'"'"'s purchase history, such as complementary items (e.g., up-sell items) and items other users may recommend. In some aspects, the host may compile best selling lists based on data from multiple electronic marketplaces. The host may also perform user specific operations such as indicate an item in a cart is a duplicate of a previous purchase and monitor a price and/or available quantities of an item in the cart.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

hosting a virtual shopping cart associated with a user, wherein the virtual shopping cart stores items that are chosen by the user from electronic marketplaces of various merchants;

tracking items acquired by the user from the various merchants, wherein the items acquired by the user are tracked through use of the virtual shopping cart associated with the user to create a transaction history in a user account of the user;

receiving, from the user, a designation of an additional account of an additional user that is different from the user and is to be combined with the user account of the user;

linking the additional account of the additional user to the user account of the user;

combining using a computer processor the transaction history of the user account and a transaction history of the additional user account based in part on the linking to create a compiled transaction history of a set of previously acquired items;

receiving an indication that the user has selected an item offered by a merchant;

adding the selected item offered by the merchant to the virtual shopping cart associated with the user at least partly in response to the receiving of the indication;

comparing the selected item to the set of previously acquired items in the compiled transaction history and determining that at least one previously acquired item from the set of previously acquired items is the same as the selected item or is determined to be similar to the selected item; and

designating the selected item as a duplicate item in response to a determination that the at least one previously acquired item from the set of previously acquired items in the compiled transaction history is the same as the selected item or is determined to be similar to the selected item.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising transmitting a message to the user indicating that the selected item is a duplicate item, and wherein the message includes transaction details of the at least one previously acquired item including at least a date of the respective transaction and a description of the at least one previously acquired item.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising querying attributes of the at least one previously acquired item, and wherein the message includes item attributes.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the item attributes include at least one technical specification of the at least one previously acquired item.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the comparing of the selected item to the set of previously acquired items includes comparing at least one of a model number, a primary function, or a description of the selected item to that of the set of previously acquired items.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the selected item is determined to be similar to the at least one previously acquired item when the selected item shares at least 90% of item attributes of the at least one previously acquired item.

22. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the selected item is selected from a different one of the electronic marketplaces than the items acquired by the user.

24. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the comparing occurs after the adding the selected item and before payment for items in the virtual shopping cart, and wherein the designating the selected item as the duplicate item occurs within the virtual shopping cart of the user.

7. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, performs acts comprising:

hosting a virtual shopping cart associated with a user, the virtual shopping cart storing items that are chosen from electronic marketplaces of multiple different merchants and facilitating purchase of each of the chosen items from the virtual shopping cart;

compiling a transaction history in a user account of items that the user has acquired from two or more of the electronic marketplaces of the multiple different merchants;

receiving, from the user, a designation of an additional account of an additional user that is different from the user and is to be combined with the user account of the user;

linking the additional account of the additional user to the user account of the user;

combining the transaction history of the user account and a transaction history of the additional user account based in part on the linking to create a compiled transaction history of a set of previously acquired items;

receiving an indication that the user has added a selected item into the virtual shopping cart;

comparing the selected item to the set of previously acquired items in the compiled transaction history and determining that at least one previously acquired item from the set of previously acquired items is the same as the selected item or is determined to be similar to the selected item; and

designating, the selected item as a duplicate item in response to a determination that the at least one previously acquired item from the set of previously acquired items in the compiled transaction history is the same as the selected item or is determined to be similar to the selected item.

8. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the compiling includes mapping the items the user has acquired to a common catalog of items to compile the transaction history of the acquired items.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 8, wherein the acts further comprise mapping the selected item to the common catalog to enable the comparing of the selected item to the acquired items.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 8, wherein the common catalog is selected from a catalog of one of the multiple different merchants or another merchant.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the acts further comprise removing the selected item from the virtual shopping cart after the selected item is designated as the duplicate item.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the acts further comprise:

designating the selected item as consumable or non-consumable;

refraining from the comparing the selected item with the set of previously acquired items in the compiled transaction history or refraining from designating the selected item as the duplicate item at least partly in response to the selected item being designated as consumable; and

performing the comparing of the selected item with the set of previously acquired items in the compiled transaction history and the designating of the selected item as the duplicate item at least partly in response to the selected item being designated as non-consumable.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the acts further comprise causing a display of the selected item with the at least one previously acquired item, the display including at least one attribute of the at least one previously acquired item.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the at least one attribute includes a color or a version of the at least one previously acquired item.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the selected item is determined to be similar to the at least one previously acquired item when the selected item shares at least 80% of item attributes of the at least one previously acquired item.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the acts further comprise adding the selected item to the virtual shopping cart at least partly in response to the receiving of the indication, and wherein the designating the selected item as a duplicate item occurs prior to transmission of payment information from the user for the selected item.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the selected item is selected from a different one of the electronic marketplaces than the items that the user has acquired.

17. A method comprising:

hosting a virtual shopping cart associated with a user, the virtual shopping cart storing items that are chosen from electronic marketplaces of multiple different merchants and facilitating purchase of each of the chosen items from the virtual shopping cart;

compiling a transaction history in a user account of items that the user has acquired from two or more of the electronic marketplaces of the multiple different merchants;

receiving, from the user, a designation of an additional account of an additional user that is different from the user and is to be combined with the user account of the user;

linking the additional account of the additional user to the user account of the user;

combining using a computer processor the transaction history of the user account and a transaction history of the additional user account based in part on the linking to create a compiled transaction history of a set of previously acquired items;

receiving an indication that the user has added a selected item into the virtual shopping cart;

comparing the selected item to the set of previously acquired items in the compiled transaction history and determining that at least one previously acquired item from the set of previously acquired items is the same as the selected item or is determined to be similar to the selected item; and

designating the selected item as a duplicate item in response to a determination that the at least one previously acquired item from the set of previously acquired items in the compiled transaction history is the same as the selected item or is determined to be similar to the selected item.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the comparing comprises:

determining a primary function of the selected item and a primary function of each of the respective previously acquired items from the set of previously acquired items; and

comparing the primary function of the selected item to the primary function of each of the respective previously acquired items from the set of previously acquired items.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising removing the selected item from the virtual shopping cart after the selected item is designated as the duplicate item.

20. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the compiling includes mapping the acquired items from the multiple different merchants to a common catalog of items to compile the transaction history of the acquired items.

21. The method as recited in claim 20, further comprising mapping the selected item to the common catalog to enable the comparing of the selected item to the acquired items.