Providing gift clustering functionality to assist a user in ordering multiple items for a recipient

• US 6,999,941 B1
• Filed: 10/27/2000
• Issued: 02/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Agarwal, Amit D.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CUONG H
• Application Number:
  US09/699,244
• Time in Patent Office: 1,936 Days
• Field of Search: 705 26- 29, 709/218, 709/219, 709/224
• US Class Current: 705/26.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• 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

Abstract

A method and system for creating of gift clusters of multiple items in a client/server environment by users, and for the ordering of such user-defined gift clusters of multiple items. In particular, a user can specify multiple items to be associated together as a gift cluster, and can also specify a variety of descriptive information about the gift cluster. That user or another user can then order the gift cluster as a gift for themselves or for another recipient, and may also order the gift cluster for the same or different recipients multiple times. The descriptive information can provide various information about how the gift cluster is to be used, and can also assist the user or others in identifying when the gift cluster is appropriate for a recipient. When customers are later searching for appropriate gift clusters, the various categorization or other descriptive information can then assist is identifying appropriate gift clusters. The gift clustering functionality may be provided by and work in conjunction with a particular item ordering service, or instead may work independently from any particular item ordering service.

Claims

1. A method for assisting a user of an item purchasing service in giving groups of related items to recipients, the computer-implemented method comprising:

for each of a plurality of gift clusters and in response to instructions from the user, defining the gift cluster to have multiple related items to be ordered together as a single group by,

for each of a plurality of items,

displaying information identifying the item to the user;

receiving an indication from the user to add the item to the gift cluster being defined; and

in response, adding the item to the gift cluster being defined;

receiving an indication from the user of at least one category for the gift cluster being defined;

associating the indicated at least one category with the gift cluster being defined; and

storing the user-defined gift clusters for later use in ordering the plurality of items together as a single group;

after the defining of the plurality of gift clusters, displaying to the user information identifying the user-defined gift clusters and the categories associated with each of the gift clusters, the displayed information including information for each of the user-defined gift clusters that includes a single price for ordering the plurality of items of that user-defined gift cluster together as a single group and that includes information regarding delivery of the plurality of items of that user-defined gift cluster together as a single group; and

after selection by the user of a displayed indication of one of the identified gift clusters and an indication of a recipient, sending to a server computer a request to order for the recipient all of the items included in the indicated gift cluster together as a single group in accordance with the displayed information for that gift cluster, so that the user can send multiple related items to a recipient with a single selection.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicated gift cluster includes an item representing a product to be supplied and an item representing a service to be provided.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicated gift cluster includes items that are different types of products.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein a procurement option is defined to assist ordering of items for a specified recipient using specified payment information, wherein the specified recipient is the indicated recipient, and wherein the selection of the displayed indicated gift cluster and indicated recipient is based on selection of a displayed indication of the procurement option while the procurement option is associated with the indicated gift cluster.

5. The method of claim 4 including using the specified payment information to purchase each of the items included in the indicated gift cluster.

6. The method of claim 1 including:

receiving an indication from another user to display information identifying defined gift clusters having an associated specified value for a specified category;

determining available stored gift clusters having the associated value for the category;

displaying to the another user information identifying the determined gift clusters; and

after selection by the another user of a displayed indication of one of the determined gift clusters and an indication of a second recipient, sending to a server computer a request to order as a group for the second recipient each of the items included in the gift cluster indicated by the another user.

7. The method of claim 1 including receiving an indication from the user to make at least one of the stored defined gift clusters available for ordering by other users.

8. The method of claim 1 including sending to the recipient as a group each of the items included in the indicated gift cluster.

9. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying information identifying multiple items previously defined by a user to be a group, and displaying an indication of an action that is to be performed to order the user-defined group of multiple items; and

in response to the indicated action being performed, sending to a server computer a request to order the user-defined group of multiple items.

10. The method of claim 9 including receiving an indication of a recipient to whom the ordered group of multiple items is to be delivered, and wherein the sending of the request includes an indication to deliver the multiple items to the indicated recipient as a group.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the sending of the request to the server computer results in an order being placed for the multiple items without any further interaction by a user of the client system.

12. The method of claim 9 including displaying an indication to add the user-defined group to a collection of items for later ordering.

13. The method of claim 9 including displaying to a user an indication to add the user-defined group to a collection of items for that user that is accessible to others, the collection for indicating to the others items in which that user has expressed an interest.

14. The method of claim 9 including displaying an indication of each of multiple procurement options having information related to ordering, wherein the indicated action that is to be performed to order the user-defined group is selection of one of the displayed procurement option indications, and wherein the sending of the request includes an indication to order the user-defined group using the information of the procurement option for the selected indication.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the displaying of the information identifies multiple user-defined groups each having multiple items, and including, before the sending to the server computer of the request to order a user-defined group of multiple items, receiving an indication of the user-defined group of multiple items to be ordered from a customer performing the ordering.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the displaying that identifies the multiple user-defined groups of multiple items is in response to selection by the customer of a displayed indication representing the multiple user-defined groups.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the performing of the indicated action includes the indicating of the user-defined group of multiple items to be ordered.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the multiple user-defined groups of multiple items were previously defined by the customer.

19. The method of claim 9 wherein the ordering of the user-defined group of multiple items is performed by a second user distinct from the user.

20. The method of claim 9 wherein the user-defined group includes an item representing a product to be supplied and an item representing a service to be provided.

21. The method of claim 9 wherein the user-defined group includes items that are different types of products.

22. The method of claim 9 wherein the user-defined group includes an item that is another user-defined group of multiple items.

23. The method of claim 9 wherein the user-defined group has associated shipping instructions, and wherein the sent request is additionally to deliver the multiple items as specified by the shipping instructions.

24. The method of claim 9 wherein the user-defined group has associated wrapping instructions for the multiple items, and wherein the sent request is additionally to wrap the multiple items as specified by the wrapping instructions.

25. The method of claim 9 wherein the displayed information and the displayed indication are part of a Web page received from the server system.

26. The method of claim 9 wherein the performing of the indicated action includes clicking a mouse button when a cursor is positioned over the displayed indication.

27. The method of claim 9 wherein the displaying of the information identifying the user-defined group of multiple items is in response to determining that the user-defined group satisfies search criteria specified by a customer.

28. The method of claim 27 including assisting the customer to specify the search criteria by:

displaying indications of multiple categories related to user-defined groups of items; and

receiving indications from the customer of a value for at least one of the multiple categories.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the search criteria relates to popularity of the user-defined group among other users.

30. The method of claim 27 wherein the search criteria relates to demographic information about an intended recipient.

31. The method of claim 27 wherein the search criteria identifies groups of multiple items such that the identified groups have a specified price.

32. The method of claim 27 wherein the search criteria identifies groups of multiple items defined for a specified recipient.

33. The method of claim 27 wherein the search criteria identifies user-defined groups appropriate for a specified occasion.

34. The method of claim 27 wherein the search criteria identifies groups of multiple items defined for users with specified interests.

35. The method of claim 9 including, before the displaying of the information, defining the group of multiple items based on received indications from the user.

36. The method of claim 35 including assisting the user to define the group of multiple items by:

displaying indications of multiple items; and

in response to received indications for at least some of the multiple items, adding the indicated items to the defined group.

37. The method of claim 35 including receiving category information to be associated with the defined group of multiple items.

38. The method of claim 35 including receiving an indication from the user to make the defined group of multiple items available for ordering to other users.

39. The method of claim 9 wherein the multiple items previously defined by the user to be the group are part of a gift cluster previously defined by the user.

40. The method of claim 39 wherein the gift cluster was previously defined by the user for use in ordering the multiple items together as if the multiple items were a single item.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the gift cluster was further previously defined by the user for use in having the multiple items delivered together as a group to a recipient as indicated.

42. The method of claim 40 wherein the gift cluster is one of multiple distinct gift clusters that each previously defined by the user to be a group of multiple items to be ordered together as if the multiple items were a single item.

43. The method of claim 9 wherein the group of multiple items was previously defined by the user for use in ordering the multiple items as if the multiple items were a single item.

44. The method of claim 9 wherein the group of multiple items was previously defined by the user for use in ordering the multiple items together.

45. The method of claim 9 wherein the group of multiple items was previously defined by the user for use in ordering the multiple items as a group multiple times.

46. The method of claim 9 wherein the ordering of the user-defined group of multiple items is performed in a manner as if the group of multiple items is a single item.

47. The method of claim 9 further comprising processing the order of the user-defined group of multiple items so as to deliver the group of multiple items together as a single item.

48. The method of claim 9 wherein the displaying of the information for the user-defined group of multiple items is performed in a manner as if the group of multiple items is a single item.

49. The method of claim 48 wherein the displaying of the information for the user-defined group of multiple items as a single item includes displaying a single price for the ordering of the group of multiple items together.

50. The method of claim 48 wherein the displaying of the information for the user-defined group of multiple items as a single item includes displaying a delivery date for delivery of the group of multiple items together.

51. The method of claim 48 wherein the displaying of the information for the user-defined group of multiple items as a single item includes displaying an indication of availability of the group of multiple items.

52. The method of claim 9 including compensating the user for the defined group of multiple items.

53. The method of claim 52 wherein the compensating of the user for the defined group of multiple items is based at least in part on making the defined group of multiple items available for ordering by others.

54. The method of claim 52 wherein the compensating of the user for the defined group of multiple items is based at least in part on ordering of the defined group of multiple items by others.

55. The method of claim 54 wherein the compensating of the user for the defined group of multiple items is further based at least in part on a number of times that the defined group of multiple items is ordered.

56. The method of claim 9 wherein the user-defined group of multiple items is available for ordering by other users, and wherein the displaying of the information and the displaying of the indication of the action are to a second user other than the user who previously defined the group of multiple items.

57. The method of claim 56 wherein the displaying of the information includes displaying additional information related to the user-defined group to assist the second user in identifying an appropriate defined group of multiple items.

58. The method of claim 56 wherein the displaying of the information includes displaying categorization information related to the user-defined group.

59. The method of claim 58 wherein the displayed categorization information includes indications of one or more categories associated with the user-defined group.

60. The method of claim 58 wherein the displayed categorization information includes information relating to one or more occasions for which the user-defined group is appropriate.

61. The method of claim 58 wherein the displayed categorization information includes a mnemonic moniker associated with the user-defined group.

62. The method of claim 58 wherein the displayed categorization information includes information relating to one or more types of users for which the user-defined group is appropriate.

63. The method of claim 62 wherein the information relating to the one or more types of users includes information relating to interests of users for whom the user-defined group is appropriate.

64. The method of claim 62 wherein the information relating to the one or more types of users includes information relating to demographic information of users for whom the user-defined group is appropriate.

65. The method of claim 56 wherein the displaying of the information to the second user is in response to an indication from the second user.

66. The method of claim 65 wherein the indication from the user is a request for at least one defined group of multiple items that has an associated expiration date that has not yet occurred.

67. The method of claim 65 wherein the indication from the user is a request for at least one defined group of multiple items that is currently available based on criteria associated with the defined group.

68. The method of claim 9 wherein the displaying of the information about the user-defined group of multiple items is part of displaying information about multiple user-defined groups associated with an indicated category.

69. The method of claim 9 wherein the displaying of the information about the user-defined group of multiple items is part of displaying information about multiple user-defined groups containing an indicated item.

70. The method of claim 9 wherein the displaying of the information about the user-defined group of multiple items is part of displaying information about multiple user-defined groups created by an indicated user.

71. The method of claim 9 wherein the displaying of the information about the user-defined group of multiple items is performed based on automatically identifying the user-defined group of multiple items as being potentially appropriate for ordering by a user to whom the information is displayed.

72. The method of claim 71 wherein the automatic identifying of the user-defined group of multiple items as being potentially appropriate for ordering is based on automatically identifying the user-defined group of multiple items as being potentially appropriate for receipt by a recipient indicated by the user to whom the information is displayed.

73. The method of claim 71 wherein the automatic identifying of the user-defined group of multiple items as being potentially appropriate for ordering is based on automatically identifying the user-defined group of multiple items as being potentially appropriate for receipt by the user to whom the information is displayed.

74. The method of claim 71 wherein the automatic identifying of the user-defined group of multiple items as being potentially appropriate for ordering is based on multiple of categorization information associated with the user-defined group, type information associated with one or more users, one or more interests of one or more users, demographic information of one or more users, popularity of the user-defined group among other users, and one or more occasions for which the user-defined group is appropriate.

75. The method of claim 9 wherein the displayed information about the user-defined group of multiple items includes information relating to popularity of the user-defined group among other users.