Computer supported retail shopping systems and methods
First Claim
1. A computer assisted shopping system comprising:
- a hand-held scanner for customer scanning of information associated with a product in a retailing facility, the handheld scanner including a display for displaying shopping cart information corresponding to customer scanned information including an image of the product, a unit price of the product, and an amount of the product currently available at the retailing facility; and
a networked system operable to;
store customer delivery preference information;
download information from the hand-held scanner scanned by customer to a register;
generate a product order at the register from the information downloaded from the scanner and the customer delivery preference information;
determine available delivery date and time windows based on inventory availability;
provide delivery options for the customer based on available delivery date and time windows;
accept a delivery option selection and commitment from the customer to close the order; and
calculate a fulfillment strategy to meet the selected delivery option based on available inventory at a plurality of facilities including local inventory at the retailing facility and which maximizes remaining available inventory local to the retailing facility.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A computer assisted shopping system includes a hand-held scanner for customer scanning of information associated with a product in a retailing facility and a networked system. The networked system stores customer delivery preference information and downloads information from the hand-held scanner, as scanned by a customer, to a register. A product order is generated at the register from the information downloaded from the scanner and the customer delivery preference information, and available delivery dates and times based on inventory availability are determined. Delivery options are provided for the customer based on the available delivery dates and times. A delivery option selection and commitment from the customer close the order.
33 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A computer assisted shopping system comprising:
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a hand-held scanner for customer scanning of information associated with a product in a retailing facility, the handheld scanner including a display for displaying shopping cart information corresponding to customer scanned information including an image of the product, a unit price of the product, and an amount of the product currently available at the retailing facility; and a networked system operable to; store customer delivery preference information; download information from the hand-held scanner scanned by customer to a register; generate a product order at the register from the information downloaded from the scanner and the customer delivery preference information; determine available delivery date and time windows based on inventory availability; provide delivery options for the customer based on available delivery date and time windows; accept a delivery option selection and commitment from the customer to close the order; and calculate a fulfillment strategy to meet the selected delivery option based on available inventory at a plurality of facilities including local inventory at the retailing facility and which maximizes remaining available inventory local to the retailing facility. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A computer assisted shopping system comprising:
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a hand-held scanner for customer scanning of information associated with a product in a retailing facility, the handheld scanner including a display for displaying shopping cart information corresponding to customer scanned information including an image of the product, a unit price of the product, and an amount of the product currently available at the retailing facility; and a networked system operable to; store customer delivery preference information; download information from the hand-held scanner scanned by customer to a register; generate a product order at the register from the information downloaded from the scanner and the customer delivery preference information; determine available delivery date and lime windows based on inventory availability; provide delivery options for the customer based on available delivery date and time windows; accept a delivery option selection and commitment from the customer to close the order; and calculate a fulfillment strategy to meet the selected delivery cation based on available inventory at a plurality of facilities including local inventory at the retailing facility and overstock of at least one of the plurality of facilities such that overstock is reduced.
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6. A method of computer assisted shopping comprising:
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providing a hand-held scanner to a customer for scanning information associated with a product within a retailing facility; storing customer delivery preference information; displaying shopping cart information on the hand-held scanner in response to information scanned by the customer information including an image of the product, a unit price of the product, and an amount of the product currently available at the retailing facility; downloading the information scanned by the customer from the hand-held scanner to an information processing system; generating a product order from the downloaded information with the information processing system and the customer delivery preference information; determining with the information processing system available delivery date and time windows based an inventory availability; providing delivery options to the customer based on available delivery date and time windows; accepting a delivery option selection and commitment from the customer to close to the order; and developing an order fulfillment strategy to meet the delivery option selection comprising; determining whether the order can be fulfilled from local inventory at the retail facility; fulfilling the order from the local inventory when the desired product quantity is available in the local inventory; when the desired product quantity is unavailable in local inventory, determining whether sufficient additional product is available in inventory in-transit to the retail facility; and fulfilling the order at least in part from the inventory in-transit upon arrival at the retail facility when sufficient additional product is available in the inventory in-transit. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of computer assisted shopping comprising:
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providing a hand-held scanner to a customer for scanning information associated with a product within a retailing facility; storing customer delivery preference information; displaying shopping cart information on the hand-held scanner in response to information scanned by the customer information including an image of the product, a unit price of the product, and an amount of the product currently available at the retailing facility; downloading the information scanned by the customer from the hand-held scanner to an information processing system; generating a product order from the downloaded information with the information processing system and the customer delivery preference information; determining with the information processing system available delivery date and time windows based on inventory availability; providing delivery options to the customer based on available delivery date and time windows; accepting a delivery option selection and commitment from the customer to close to the order; and developing an order fulfillment strategy to meet the delivery option selection comprising; determining that the order can be fulfilled from a plurality of available facilities; and fulfilling the order at least in part from a selected one of the plurality of facilities to maximize product shelve availability for another one of the plurality of facilities. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. A method of computer assisted shopping comprising:
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providing a hand-held scanner to a customer for scanning information associated with a product within a retailing facility; storing customer delivery preference information; displaying shopping cart information on the hand-held scanner in response to information scanned by the customer information including an image of the product, a unit price of the product, and an amount of the product currently available at the retailing facility; downloading the information scanned by the customer from the hand-held scanner to an information processing system; generating a product order from the downloaded information with the information processing system and the customer delivery preference information; determining with the information processing system available delivery date and time windows based on inventory availability; providing delivery options to the customer based on available delivery date and time windows; accepting a delivery option selection and commitment from the customer to close to the order; and developing an order fulfillment strategy to meet the delivery option selection comprising; determining that the order can be fulfilled from a plurality of available facilities; and fulfilling the order from a selected one of the plurality of facilities to minimize freight charges. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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16. A computer assisted shopping system including:
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a set of hand-held scanners for providing to customers for scanning information associated with merchandise available for purchase, each hand-held scanner including a display for displaying shopping cart information corresponding to the scanned information including an image of the product, a unit price of the product, and an amount of the product currently available at the retailing facility; a networked system including at least one register and a wireless network for establishing communications between the register and the hand-held scanners, wherein the networked system is operable to; store customer delivery preference information for a plurality of registered customers; assign a selected scanner to a registered customer; monitor the selected hand-held scanner as the customer shops the available merchandise; download information from the selected hand-held scanner and associated with merchandise scanned by the customer to the register; generate a product order at the register from the information downloaded from the scanner and the corresponding customer preference information; determine available delivery date and time windows based on inventory availability and the customer preference information; provide delivery options for the customer based on available delivery date and time windows and the customer delivery preference information; accept a delivery option selection and commitment from the customer to close the order; and calculate a fulfillment strategy to meet the selected delivery option and reserve the corresponding merchandise based on available inventory at a plurality of facilities including local inventory at the retailing facility and which maximizes remaining available inventory local to the retailing facility.
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Specification