Method and system for a universal shopping cart having order injection and common payment determination

• US 7,580,869 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Issued: 08/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Byerly, Timothy P, Maple, Eric S, Sandori, Mark I, Tarvydas, Martin K, Markus, Matthew A
• Primary Examiner(s): Garg, Yogesh C
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZIMMERMAN, MATTHEW E
• Application Number:
  US11/841,367
• Publication Number:
  US 20080033839A1
• Time in Patent Office: 736 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.35
• 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 for a consumer to order products, via a network, from a plurality of merchants using a web page comprising a consistent user interface, comprising:

determining, by a computer processor, whether information in a local database associated with a web page and relating to a product is at least one of;

outdated and missing;

determining, by said computer processor, whether said information is from an affiliated merchant or an unaffiliated merchant in response to said information being said at least one of;

outdated and missing;

retrieving, by said computer processor, additional information from said affiliated merchant in response to a merchant identifier matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers, wherein said additional information is retrieved in response to said affiliated merchant granting permission to access an affiliated merchant database;

screen scraping, by said computer processor, additional information from said unaffiliated merchant in response to said merchant identifier not matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers;

displaying, by said computer processor, said additional information within said web page comprising said consistent user interface;

receiving, at said computer processor, a product selection command indicative of selecting a product for inclusion in a universal shopping cart;

determining, by said computer processor, whether said selected product is from an affiliated web site by parsing an order string to determine said merchant identifier for said selected product and matching said merchant identifier with one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers in a database;

transmitting, by said computer processor, raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product directly to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant database in response to said selected product being from said affiliated web site and in response to said affiliated merchant granting said permission to said affiliated merchant database;

injecting, by said computer processor, said order at an unaffiliated webpage in response to said unaffiliated webpage being associated with said selected product, wherein data elements of said order is injected to said unaffiliated webpage according to matching said data elements to respective fields associated with said unaffiliated webpage; and

,

determining, by said computer processor, a common payment method which is accepted by each of said at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant which respectively sell each of said selected product in said universal shopping cart, wherein said at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant is paid via said common payment method.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing identity authentication information to at least one of:

said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising specifying a product type criteria to direct at least one of:

said affiliated merchant or unaffiliated merchant to search for products provided by at least one of;

said affiliated merchant or unaffiliated merchant that match said product type criteria.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing billing information to said webpage.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing shipping information to said webpage.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising rating an experience with at least one of said affiliated merchant, said unaffiliated merchant or said webpage.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an order confirmation from said webpage.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said transmitting raw data is performed by sending said product order to said affiliated merchant according to a predetermined protocol.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating said steps of displaying said additional information and receiving a product selection command until a check out command is received; and

repeating said step of injecting said order until a plurality of orders have been processed.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said additional information is further obtained by generating a product key which uniquely identifies said selected product and at least one of:

said affiliated merchant or unaffiliated merchant associated with said selected product.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving said product selection command without leaving a network presence.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving said product selection command without leaving an Internet Web site.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said consumer selects and orders said product without leaving a proprietary at least one of:

said affiliated merchant or unaffiliated merchant configured to receive product browsing, selection, and ordering commands from said consumer via said network.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said information is populated in said local database by said merchant.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein injecting said order further comprises obtaining services from a 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 details for navigating said webpage and placing said order.

16. A system for a consumer to order products, via a network, from a plurality of merchants using a web page comprising a consistent user interface, said system is configured to:

determine, by a computer processor, whether information in a local database associated with a web page and relating to a product is at least one of;

outdated and missing;

determine, by said computer processor, whether said information is from an affiliated merchant or an unaffiliated merchant in response to said information being said at least one of;

outdated and missing;

retrieve, by said computer processor, additional information from said affiliated merchant in response to a merchant identifier matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers, wherein said additional information is retrieved in response to said affiliated merchant granting permission to access an affiliated merchant database;

screen scrape, by said computer processor, additional information from said unaffiliated merchant in response to said merchant identifier not matching one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers;

display, by said computer processor, said additional information within said web page comprising said consistent user interface;

receive, at said computer processor, a product selection command indicative of selecting a product for inclusion in a universal shopping cart;

determine, by said computer processor, whether said selected product is from an affiliated web site by parsing an order string to determine said merchant identifier for said selected product and matching said merchant identifier with one of said stored affiliated merchant identifiers in a database;

transmit, by said computer processor, raw data in a data file for an order for said selected product directly to a processor associated with said affiliated merchant database in response to said selected product being from said affiliated web site and in response to said affiliated merchant granting said permission to said affiliated merchant database;

inject, by said computer processor, said order at an unaffiliated webpage in response to said unaffiliated webpage being associated with said selected product, wherein data elements of said order is injected to said unaffiliated webpage according to matching said data elements to respective fields associated with said unaffiliated webpage; and

,

determine, by said computer processor, a common payment method which is accepted by each of said at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant which respectively sell each of said selected product in said universal shopping cart, wherein said at least one of said affiliated merchant or said unaffiliated merchant is paid via said common payment method.