UNIVERSAL SHOPPING CART AND ORDER INJECTION SYSTEM

• US 20080033834A1
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Published: 02/07/2008
• 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: Tarvydas, Martin, Sandori, Mark, Maple, Eric, Markus, Matthew, Byerly, Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 7,577,592 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 providing a web page comprising a consistent user interface to allow a consumer to order products from a plurality of merchants via a network, comprising:

providing a search component for searching a local database for information relating to a product prior to searching a plurality of webpages for said information;

providing a window for said consumer to browse said information from said plurality of merchants;

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;

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;

searching a local database for information relating to a product;

determining whether said information is at least one of;

outdated and missing;

determining whether said information is from an affiliated merchant or unaffiliated merchant when said information is said at least one of;

outdated and missing;

receiving additional information from said affiliated merchant when said information is from an affiliated merchant;

screen scraping additional information from said unaffiliated merchant when said information is from an unaffiliated merchant;

displaying said information 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;

determining whether said selected product in said universal shopping cart is from an affiliated webpage;

transmitting raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product in said universal shopping cart directly to a processor associated with said affiliated webpage when said selected product is from said affiliated webpage; and

,

injecting said order at an unaffiliated webpage when said unaffiliated webpage is associated with said selected product in said universal shopping cart, wherein said order is injected to said unaffiliated webpage according to pattern matching.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting raw data further comprises sending said product order to said affiliated merchant according to a predetermined protocol.

3. 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.

4. The method of claim 3, 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.

5. The method of claim 3, 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 method.

6. 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.

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

8. 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.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said local database is populated with said information by a merchant.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said local database is populated with said information by a product manufacturer.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting a raw data file step includes transmitting according to a predetermined protocol.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating instances of a parameterized service for each state that contains essential details required to navigate said website of said merchant and placing said order, wherein a state is a set of methods and data that have input criteria and exit criteria for any section of a form in said check out process.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said service is obtained from a website of said merchant by obtaining a copy of each webpage of said website of said merchant relating to orders using a plurality of accounts.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of injecting said order is performed according to an order injection process comprising obtaining services from said webpage associated with said selected product;

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

creating service equivalent classes that contain essential details required to navigate said webpage and place said order.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying additional 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 said order until all of said orders have been processed.

16. The method of claim 1, 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.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a minimum number of payments that are needed to pay for all of said orders.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a common payment method supported by said merchants;

and paying said merchants according to said common payment methods.

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

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said network presence is at least one of:

an Internet Webpage, and a proprietary shopping site configured to receive product browsing, selection, and ordering commands from said consumer via said network.