Automated retail website creation

• US 7,386,490 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2001
• Issued: 06/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Treetop Ventures LLC
• Original Assignee: Treetop Ventures LLC
• Inventors: Barritz, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): FADOK, MARK A
• Application Number:
  US09/829,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20010037258A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,618 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/80, 715/825, 715/962
• US Class Current: 705/27.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A website constructing tool for retailers streamlines and substantially automates the task of creating a website for retailers that buy their merchandise from a plurality of vendors. The system avoids the laborious, painstaking, unstructured and unformatted approach to the creation of a retailer website by enabling a retailer website to be constructed by resetting certain criteria and formats for the graphic design and merchandise categories and selection. Thereafter, the system enables substantially automatic selection of the relevant merchandise information from the databases or websites of the vendors, in a manner which populates and inserts into the retailer website the relevant information about available merchandise meeting the criteria, format and organization of the retailer website.

Claims

1. A website constructor program operable to execute on a processor comprising at least one computer program operable for running on at least one computer, the website constructor comprising:

a selection criteria module that establishes a selection criteria for merchandise selection;

a website organization module that defines a look and feel of a website constructed by the website constructor;

a graphic design module that creates at least one website layout and features setup for the website constructed by the website constructor;

a merchandise selection module in the website constructor that selects merchandise offered for sale on the website constructed by the website constructor that matches the selection criteria at least substantially automatically, the merchandise selection module being based on merchandise made available by a plurality of vendors;

a merchandise information downloading module that downloads substantially automatically, from a plurality of vendors of merchandise, merchandise information defining the merchandise offered for sale on the website constructed by the website constructor that has been selected by the merchandise selection module; and

a website builder that builds the website based on the criteria and conditions that have been setup by the foregoing modules.

2. The website constructor of claim 1, wherein the constructor is operable substantially automatically.

3. The website constructor of claim 1, in which the website is optimized for a retail operation.

4. The website constructor of claim 1, in which merchandise information comprises at least two of the following merchandise parameters that are selected from the group consisting of product code, UPC code, SKU code, product description, retail price, product style, product color, product size, product ordering information, product incentive program, product image, and product tags.

5. The website constructor of claim 4, in which the merchandise information is provided in Extensible Markup Languages (XML).

6. The website constructor of claim 1, in which the selection criteria comprises at least two parameters selected from the parameter group consisting of category;

subcategory;

manufacturer;

vendor;

promotions;

close-out;

starting date and ending date of seasonal merchandise.

7. The website constructor of claim 1, in which the website organization module defines the look and feel of the website by reference to one or more organization parameters selected from the parameter group consisting of category;

manufacturer;

promotions;

close-out;

product appearance; and

tags representing the begin and end dates for the placement of merchandise on the website.

8. The website constructor of claim 1, in which the merchandise selection module enables a user of the website constructor to control downloading of merchandise information in a manner which enables:

acceptance or rejection of marketing or merchandise information based on the selection criteria;

selection of purchase orders, pricing schedules, and delivery schedules; and

specification of loading information.

9. The website constructor of claim 1, in which the website builder enables periodical rebuilding of the website.

10. The website constructor of claim 1, in which the website builder enables rebuilding of the website based on the detection of a changed condition.

11. The website constructor of claim 10, in which the changed condition comprises a change in a date.

12. The website constructor of claim 10, in which the changed condition comprises the changing of the merchandise information by a vendor.

13. The website constructor of claim 10, in which the changed condition constitutes a manual intervention by a user of the website constructor.