Contextual presentation of information about related orders during browsing of an electronic catalog

• US 20050154652A1
• Filed: 03/07/2005
• Published: 07/14/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ericka N. Lock, Jeffrey P. Bezos, Maryam S. Mohit, Suguna Subramaniam, Walker L. Lockhart, William W. Allocca
• Inventors: Lockhart, Walker L., Bezos, Jeffrey P., Allocca, William W., Subramaniam, Suguna, Mohit, Maryam S., Lock, Ericka N.
• Granted Patent: US 7,672,874 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/27
• 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 electronic catalog system, which may be implemented as a web site or another type of interactive system, presents context-sensitive account information to customers during browsing of an electronic catalog of products. In one embodiment, when a customer accesses a detail page for a particular product, the detail page is supplemented with information, such as status information, about a related order placed by the customer. The related order may be an order for the product represented in the detail page or may be for a related product. Information about related orders may additionally or alternatively be added to other types of pages, such as product category pages and shopping cart pages. In one embodiment, a customer'"'"'s related order information is maintained in a cache during the customer'"'"'s browsing session, and the cache is updated in real time to reflect actions performed by the customer.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of providing account-specific information to users of an electronic catalog, the method comprising:

providing an electronic catalog that includes product detail pages to which users can navigate to obtain detailed information about specific products, said product detail pages including functionality for selecting corresponding products to order;

maintaining order data descriptive of orders placed by users for products represented in the electronic catalog;

receiving, from a computing device associated with a user, a request for a product detail page associated with a product that was previously ordered by the user; and

in response to the request for the product detail page;

(a) automatically accessing the order data associated with the user to identify an order previously placed by the user for the product, and (b) transmitting information reflective of the order to the computing device for presentation to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the order data comprises accessing a cache that stores a copy of at least a portion of the order data associated with the user, said cache temporarily storing copies of order data associated with users who are currently accessing the electronic catalog.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information reflective of the order includes information about a fulfillment status of the order.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information reflective of the order includes an estimated delivery date associated with the order.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the information reflective of the order comprises a notification message indicating that the user previously ordered the product.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information reflective of the order is provided in conjunction with a, user option to modify the order.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the order is a rental order placed by the user for the product.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the product comprises a movie title rented by the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information reflective of the order is transmitted to the computing device as part of the product detail page.

10. A product detail page generated according to the method of claim 9, represented in a computer memory.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the information reflective of the order is transmitted to the computing device for presentation within a pop-up window.

12. A server system that provides account-specific information to users of an electronic catalog according to the method of claim 1.

13. A computer program that embodies the method of claim 1, said computer program comprising computer-executable instructions represented in computer storage.

14. A computer-implemented method of providing account-specific information to users of an electronic catalog, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server, a request for a product detail page of an electronic catalog of products, said request generated by a computing device in response to selection, by a user of the computing device, of a product to which the product detail page corresponds, wherein the product detail page provides functionality for the user to select the product for purposes of initiating a transaction in which the product is shipped to the user by a business entity associated with the electronic catalog; and

in response to the request;

programmatically accessing account information associated with the user to determine, at least, a date that the product was shipped to the user;

generating a message indicating that the product was shipped to the user on said date; and

transmitting the product detail page with said message to the computing device for presentation to the user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the product detail page corresponds to a DVD title and provides functionality to select the DVD title to rent.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising incorporating the message into the product detail page, such that the message is presented to the user as part of the product detail page.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the message is transmitted for presentation within a pop-up window that is displayed with the detail page.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the product detail page includes functionality for the user to add the product to an electronic shopping cart associated with the user.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the product detail page includes functionality for the user to add the product to a repository of items selected by the user to obtain from the business entity.

20. A product detail page generated according to the method of claim 14, represented in a computer memory.

21. A computer-implemented method of providing context-dependent account information to users of an electronic catalog, the method comprising:

maintaining, in a database, a user order history reflective of orders placed by a user for items in an electronic catalog;

copying at least a portion of the user order history from the database into a cache during a browsing session in which the user browses the electronic catalog;

during the browsing session, receiving a request from the user for a page of the electronic catalog, said page being a page that describes at least one item in the electronic catalog;

in response to the request, retrieving from the cache, and incorporating into the page, information about a prior order placed by the user, said prior order being related to the at least one item described by the page; and

transmitting the page, with the incorporated information about the prior order, to the user.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising automatically updating the cache in response to placement of an order by the user during the browsing session.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of copying at least a portion of the user order history from the database into the cache is performed in response to a request by the user for a catalog page that qualifies for the display of information about related orders.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the page is an item detail page that provides a user option to select an item for purchase.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the catalog page is a category page that lists multiple items falling within an item category.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the page is a search results page generated in response to submission by the user of a search query.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the information about the prior order comprises an indication of whether an item described by the page is compatible with an item previously ordered by the user.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein the information about the prior order comprises an indication that the user has already purchased an item described by the page.

29. The method of claim 21, wherein the information about the prior order comprises information about a fulfillment status of the prior order.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein the prior order is an order placed by the user for an item that is different from but related to an item featured on the page.

31. The method of claim 21, further comprising, in response to the request, checking the cache to determine whether any prior orders represented therein are related to the at least one item.

32. The method of claim 21, wherein the information about the prior order is provided to the user in said page without requiring the user to explicitly request order history information.