Method and apparatus to enable consumer replenishment shopping by useful life

• US 6,963,851 B1
• Filed: 05/08/2000
• Issued: 11/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Toohey, James J., Szabo, Robert M., Fortenberry, Keith N.
• Primary Examiner(s): BROWN, TIMOTHY M
• Application Number:
  US09/567,178
• Time in Patent Office: 2,010 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26
• US Class Current: 705/26.8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

A method for producing a shopping list consisting of one or more items, wherein at least one item in the shopping list is a consumable item. The method on an e-commerce site comprising the storing data representing an inventory of items for sale at the e-commerce site. The purchase history of the items purchased by the consumers at the e-commerce site is stored along with the shopping list. A predetermined useful life of at least one item purchased in the purchase history by scanning a product code during the previous delivery of consumable items. The product code includes a date embedded therein. A useful life is predicted based on the rate of consumption by the plurality of consumers is stored. When a request is received from a consumer for a shopping lists to build an active shopping list the purchase history for the consumer to determine if a consumable item previously purchased from the purchase history has exceeded the predetermined useful life is reviewed. The consumer is able to authorize the addition of the consumable item previously purchased.

Claims

1. A method for producing a shopping list consisting of one or more items, wherein at least one item in the shopping list is a consumable item having a useful life, the method comprising:

storing, in a database, one or more consumer shopping lists of respective consumers at an e-commerce site;

storing, in a database, a list of items previously purchased by one or more of the respective consumers from the e-commerce site;

receiving a request from a consumer for at least one of the consumer shopping lists; and

determining if the request from the consumer is from a consumer that has previously purchased one or more consumable items having a useful life from the e-commerce site, and in response to a determination that the user has previously purchased one or more consumable items from the e-commerce site, then performing the sub-steps of;

reviewing the consumer'"'"'s list of items previously purchased to determine if any items previously purchased are a consumable item with a useful life having a predetermined date, wherein the predetermined date was previously captured during the delivery of the product from the e-commerce site using a machine readable code with a date embedded therein; and

adding to the at least one requested consumer shopping list, one or more consumable items from the list of items previously purchased that have exceeded the predetermined date of useful life.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the sub-step of adding further include the sub-steps of:

prompting the consumer if they want to authorize the addition of the one or more consumable items to be added to the shopping list; and

adding the consumable item to the shopping list authorized by the consumer.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of storing one or more consumer shopping lists includes storing a consumer shopping list that has zero items in the consumer shopping list.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

storing data representing inventory of items available at the e-commerce site; and

wherein the step of storing one or more consumer shopping lists includes storing a shopping list containing one or more items available at the e-commerce site.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

creating a purchase order for the items in the at least one consumer shopping list.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of storing a list of items previously purchased includes:

storing the predetermined date of useful life for at least one item.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of storing the predetermined date of useful life for at least one item includes the sub-step of:

calculating from the predetermined date a replacement date to associate with the identifier code by data mining previous purchases of at least one of the items purchased.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the sub-step of calculating includes calculating if at least one consumable item has a useful life based on a quantity associated with the item and calculating the predetermined date of useful life based upon a consumer'"'"'s rate of consumption of the quantity associated with the item.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the sub-step of calculating includes calculating if at least one consumable item has a replacement date based on a wear-life associated with the item and calculating the replacement date based upon a consumer'"'"'s rate of consumption of the wear-life associated with the item.

10. A method for producing a shopping list of consumable items based on the useful life of a consumable item, the method on an e-commerce site comprising the steps of:

storing, on an e-commerce database, data representing an inventory of non-perishable items for sale at an e-commerce site;

storing, on the e-commerce database, one or more shopping lists each for a plurality of consumers;

storing, on the e-commerce database, a purchase history of non-perishable items purchased by the plurality of consumers from the e-commerce site;

storing, on the e-commerce database, a predetermined useful life of at least one of the non-perishable items purchased in the purchase history by scanning a product code with a machine readable date code embedded therein during the previous delivery of at least one item to at least one of the plurality of consumers, and predicting the useful life based on a pre-determined rate of consumption of the at least one of the plurality of consumers;

receiving a request from the at least one-consumer for at least one of the shopping lists to build an active shopping list;

determining if the request from the at least one consumer is from a consumer that has previously purchased one or more non-perishable items having a useful life from the e-commerce site and in response to a determination that the at least one consumer has previously purchased one or more non-perishable items from the e-commerce site, performing the sub-steps of;

reviewing the purchase history for the at least one consumer to determine if at least one non-perishable item previously purchased from the purchase history has exceeded the predetermined useful life;

prompting the at least one consumer to authorize the addition of the at least one non-perishable item previously purchased; and

adding the at least one non-perishable item to the active shopping list if authorized by the at least one consumer.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of storing a predetermined useful life includes the sub-step of:

calculating if at least one non-perishable item has a useful life based on a quantity associated with the item and calculating the predetermined useful life based upon a consumer'"'"'s rate of consumption of the quantity associated with the item.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of storing a predetermined useful life includes the sub-step of:

calculating if at least one non-perishable item has a useful life based on a wear-life associated with the item and calculating the predetermined useful life based upon a consumer'"'"'s rate of consumption of the wear-life associated with the item.

13. A computer readable medium containing programming instructions for producing a shopping list consisting of one or more items, wherein at least one item in the shopping list is a consumable item having a useful life, the computer readable medium comprising the programming instructions of:

storing on an e-commerce database, one or more consumer shopping lists of respective consumers;

storing a list of items previously purchased by one or more of the respective consumers from an e-commerce site;

receiving a request from a consumer for at least one consumer shopping list from the one or more consumer shopping lists; and

determining if the request from the consumer is from a consumer that has previously purchased one or more consumable items having a useful life from the e-commerce site, and if in response to a determination that the user has previously purchased one or more consumable items from the e-commerce site, performing the substeps of;

reviewing the consumer'"'"'s respective list of items previously purchased to determine if any items previously purchased are consumable items with a useful life having a predetermined date, wherein the predetermined date was previously captured during the delivery of the product from the e-commerce site using a machine readable code with a date embedded therein; and

adding to the at least one requested consumer shopping list one or more consumable items that have exceeded the predetermined date of useful life.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the programming instructions of adding further include the programming instructions of:

prompting the consumer if they want to authorize the addition of the one or more consumable items to be added to the shopping list; and

adding the consumable item to the shopping list authorized by the consumer.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the programming instruction of storing one or more consumer shopping lists includes storing a consumer shopping list that has zero items in the consumer shopping list.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising the programming instructions of:

storing data representing inventory of items available at the e-commerce site; and

wherein the step of storing one or more consumer shopping lists includes storing a shopping list containing one or more items available at the e-commerce site.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising the programming instructions of:

creating a purchase order for the items in the at least one consumer shopping list.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the programming instruction of storing a list of items previously purchased includes:

storing the predetermined date of useful life for at least one item.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18 wherein the programming instruction of storing includes the program instructions of:

calculating from the predetermined date a replacement date to associate with the identifier code by data mining previous purchases of at least one of the items purchased.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the programming instruction of calculating includes calculating if at least one consumable item has a replacement date based on a quantity associated with the item and calculating the replacement date based upon a consumer'"'"'s rate of consumption of the quantity associated with the item.

21. A computer readable medium containing programming instructions for producing a shopping list of consumable items based on the useful life of a non-perishable consumable item, the computer readable medium comprising the programming instructions of:

storing data representing an inventory of non-perishable consumable items for sale at an e-commerce site;

storing one or more shopping lists, each for a plurality of consumers at the e-commerce site;

storing the purchase history of the non-perishable consumable items purchased by the plurality of consumers at the e-commerce site;

storing a predetermined useful life of at least one of the non-perishable consumable items purchased in the purchase history by scanning a product code with a machine readable date code embedded therein during the previous delivery of at least one non-perishable consumable item to at least one of the plurality of consumers, and predicting the useful life based on a predetermined rate of consumption of the at least one consumer;

receiving a request from the at least one consumer for at least one of the shopping lists to build an active shopping list;

determining if the request from the consumer is from a consumer that has previously purchased one or more consumable items having a useful life from the e-commerce site and in response to a determination that the user has previously purchased, one or more consumable items from the e-commerce site, performing;

reviewing the purchase history for the at least one consumer to determine if at least one non-perishable consumable item previously purchased from the purchase history has exceeded the predetermined useful life;

prompting the at least one consumer to authorize the addition of the at least one non-perishable consumable item previously purchased; and

adding the at least one non-perishable consumable item to the active shopping list if authorized by the at least one consumer.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the programming instruction of storing a predetermined useful life includes the programming instruction of:

calculating if at least one non-perishable consumable item has a useful life based on a quantity associated with the non-perishable consumable item and calculating the predetermined useful life based upon a consumer'"'"'s rate of consumption of the quantity associated with the non-perishable consumable item.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the programming instruction of storing a predetermined useful life includes the programming instruction of:

calculating if at least one non-perishable consumable Item has a useful life based on a wear-life associated with the non-perishable consumable item and calculating the predetermined useful life based upon a consumers rate of consumption of the wear-life associated with the non-perishable consumable item.

24. An e-commerce system for producing a shopping list of consumable items based on the useful life of a non-perishable consumable item, the system comprising:

an inventory database for storing data representing an inventory of non-perishable consumable items for sale at an e-commerce site;

a shopping list database for storing one or more shopping lists, each for a plurality of consumers at the e-commerce site;

a purchase history database for storing the purchase history of the non-perishable consumable items purchased by the plurality of consumers at the e-commerce site;

a useful life database for storing a predetermined useful life of at least one item purchased in the purchase history by scanning a product code with a machine readable date code embedded therein during the previous delivery of at least one non-perishable consumable item to at least one of the plurality of consumers, and predicting the useful life based on a predetermined rate of consumption by the at least one of the plurality of consumers;

means for receiving a request from the at least one consumer for at least one of the shopping lists to build an active shopping list;

means for determining if the request from the consumer is from a consumer that has previously purchased one or more non-perishable items having a useful life from the e-commerce site, and in response to a determination that the user has previously purchased one or more non-perishable items from the e-commerce site, performing the following;

reviewing the purchase history for the at least one consumer to determine if at least one non-perishable consumable item previously purchased from the purchase history has exceeded the predetermined useful life;

prompting the at least one consumer to authorize the addition of the at least one non-perishable item previously purchased; and

adding the at least one non-perishable item to the active shopping list authorized by the at least one consumer.