UNIVERSAL SHOPPING CART AND ORDER INJECTION SYSTEM

• US 20060041485A1
• Filed: 10/27/2005
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Maple, Eric S., Sandori, Mark I., Byerly, Timothy P., Tarvydas, Martin K., Markus, Matthew A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,328,176 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• 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 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0617 Representative agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 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

Abstract

A universal shopping cart is provided that obtains and orders products and services from different merchants located on the Internet. The consumer completes all of their shopping on the shopping site and is not directed to another merchant'"'"'s site to complete an order. The universal shopping cart provides a monitoring service that allows the consumer to monitor a product for specified criteria. The order injection system places orders for products contained within the universal shopping cart from affiliated and non-affiliated merchants. Specific ordering details required from merchants external to the shopping site are hidden from the consumer. For external merchant sites that require a consumer account before allowing the product to be purchased, the shopping site creates a new consumer account without intervention from the consumer. Once the products are ordered, the consumer may keep track of the ordered products from the shopping site.

Claims

1. A method of processing product orders, via a network, to allow consumers to order products from a plurality of merchants from a web page comprising a consistent user interface, comprising the steps of:

retrieving a universal shopping cart;

searching a local database for information relating to a product prior to searching a plurality of websites for said information;

displaying said information from said plurality of websites within said web page comprising a consistent user interface;

receiving a product selection command from a consumer indicative of selecting a product;

adding said selected product to said universal shopping cart; and

injecting a product order to one of said plurality of merchants associated with said selected product in said universal shopping cart.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said process of injecting said product order is performed by determining said merchant to be an affiliated merchant;

and sending said product order to said affiliated merchant according to a predetermined protocol.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said process of injecting said product order is performed by obtaining services from a site of said merchant associated with said selected product;

pattern matching said services; and

creating instances of parameterized service for each state that contain essential details required to navigate said site of said merchant and place said product order, wherein a state is a set of methods and data that have input criteria and exit criteria for any section of said form in said check out process.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said services are obtained from said site of said merchant by obtaining a copy of each page of said site of said merchant relating to product orders using a plurality of accounts.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said process of injecting said product order is performed according to an order injection process comprising obtaining services from a merchant Web site associated with said selected product;

pattern matching said services to find a set of common characteristics of said services; and

creating service equivalent classes that contain essential details required to navigate said merchant Web site and place said product order.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating said steps of displaying product information and adding at least one product selected by said consumer to said universal shopping cart until a check out command is received from said consumer;

and repeating said step of injecting at least one product order until all of said product orders have been processed.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising generating at least one product key each of which uniquely identifies each of said selected products and a merchant associated with said selected product.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining said minimum number of payments that are needed to pay for all of said at least one selected product.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining at least one common payment method supported by said at least one selected merchant;

and paying said at least one selected merchant according to said common payment methods.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a network presence to allow said consumer to select and order said at least one product without leaving said network presence.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said network presence is an Internet Web site.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein said network presence is a proprietary shopping site configured to receive product browsing, selection, and ordering commands from said consumer via said network.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein said local database is populated with said information by at least one product vendor.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein said local database is populated with said information by at least one product manufacturer.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving new product information from said plurality of websites when said information is outdated information.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising retrieving new product information from said plurality of websites when said information is outdated information and updating said local database with said new product information.

13. A method of ordering products from a shopping site having a web page comprising a consistent user interface that provides information on a plurality of product types from a plurality of merchants, said method comprising:

accessing said shopping site;

selecting one of said plurality of product types;

searching a local database for information relating to said at least one selected product type prior to searching a plurality of websites for said information;

selecting at least one of said merchants that sells at least one product that belongs to said selected product type;

adding said at least one selected product corresponding to said selected product type and said selected merchant to a universal shopping cart; and

repeating said steps of selecting at least one of said product types, selecting said at least one merchant, and adding said at least one selected product until a check out command is received from said consumer.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing identity authentication information to said shopping site.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising selecting a common payment method that is common among a plurality of said selected merchants;

and paying said selected merchants according to said common payment method.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising specifying a product type criteria to direct said shopping site to search for products provided by said at least one merchant that match said product type criteria.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing billing information to said shopping site.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing shipping information to said shopping site.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising rating experience with said at least one selected merchant to said shopping site.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving at least one order confirmation from said shopping site.

21. A method of providing a web page comprising a consistent user interface to allow a consumer to order products via a network, comprising:

providing a search component for searching a local database for information relating to at least one product prior to searching a plurality of websites for said information;

providing a window for said consumer to browse said information from a plurality of merchants, said plurality of merchants including a non-affiliated merchant;

providing a universal shopping cart link for retrieving a universal shopping cart;

providing product selection links for selecting and adding selected products to said universal shopping cart; and

providing a universal shopping cart check out link for checking out said universal shopping cart without directing said consumer to a selected site of said merchant.

22. An apparatus for processing product orders from a consumer via a network to provide a web page comprising a consistent user interface for said consumer to view product information and order products from a plurality of merchants, comprising:

a network interface unit for interfacing said network;

a memory unit for storing a universal shopping cart service program and a universal shopping cart database; and

a processing unit operative to process product orders from said consumer according to said universal shopping cart service program by;

searching a local database for said product information relating to at least one of said products prior to searching a plurality of websites for said product information;

displaying said product information from said merchants within said web page comprising a consistent user interface;

storing at least one selected product selected by said consumer to said universal shopping cart database;

injecting at least one product order to said merchant associated with said at least one selected product in said universal shopping cart database; and

,

storing reputation information on said consumer on a reputation server, wherein said universal shopping cart service program further comprises displaying reputation information of said consumer to said merchant.

23. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components for providing a web page comprising a consistent user interface comprising:

a search component for searching a local database for information relating to at least one product prior to searching a plurality of websites for said information;

a user interface component for displaying said product information;

product order processing component for injecting at least one product order to said merchant associated with at least one product selected by a consumer without directing said consumer to said site of said merchant, wherein said injecting includes populating an order form of said merchant related to said product order.