Delivering ordered items to an appropriate address

• US 9,785,908 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2014
• Issued: 10/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Spiegel, Joel R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Glass, Shay S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Glass, Russell S.
• Application Number:
  US14/507,581
• Publication Number:
  US 20150026089A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,100 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0838 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium for automatically determining appropriate delivery information for one or more items of an order or potential order is described. A variety of types of information can be considered when determining what delivery information is appropriate for one or more items, such as a type of the items, the particular items, relationships of the items to other items, information about the purchaser, and/or information about the recipient. In addition, the automatic determination of an appropriate address for an item being ordered or potentially ordered by a user can be made in a variety of ways, such as based on inferences from past behavior when ordering items, on inferences from information about the item and from available delivery information for the user, and/or on previous explicit indications from the user.

Claims

1. One or more computer memories storing program instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to:

automatically generate and maintain, in a database, a data structure for use in determining appropriate delivery addresses for items, the data structure comprising a multiplicity of entries respectively associated with distinct users of an item ordering service, wherein the individual entries of the data structure contain information indicating an association between an item type and one or more delivery addresses that are associated with the respective one of the distinct users with which the individual entries are respectively associated;

wherein to automatically generate and maintain the data structure in the database, the program instructions further cause the one or more computers, for individual ones of the distinct users of the item ordering service, to;

analyze, based on interaction with one or more computing devices that store associations between delivery addresses for previous orders and the one or more items of those orders, previous orders by the user to detect one or more patterns from addresses that were previously used for delivery of items of various types to delivery addresses of the user;

generate a plurality of mappings for the user that each map a distinct item type to a distinct delivery address of a plurality of addresses associated with the user, wherein to generate the plurality of mappings the program instructions further cause the one or more computers to determine item-type-to-delivery-address relationships for the user based at least in part on the detected one or more patterns;

store, to the database, the plurality of mappings in one or more entries of the data structure associated with the user;

subsequent to said generate the plurality of mappings and said store the mappings,

revise one or more of the plurality of automatically-generated mappings based at least in part on received update information, wherein to revise the one or more of the plurality of automatically-generated mappings the program instructions further cause the one or more computers to;

receive update information associated with the user that is indicative of a relationship between one or more item types and one or more delivery addresses associated with the user; and

in response to said receive the update information, update one of the stored mappings, wherein to update the stored mappings, the program instructions further cause the one or more computers to determine the relationship indicated by the received update information; and

transmit, over a network and based at least in part on the data structure in the database, one or more of the one or more delivery addresses to which an item type is mapped, wherein the entries respectively associated with the distinct users are accessible for determination of appropriate delivery addresses for items for which the distinct users indicate potential orders, so that when a particular user indicates a potential order on a display of a graphical user interface for one or more items of an item type, one or more of the one or more delivery addresses to which the item type is mapped in the entry associated with that particular user can be selected from the display of the graphical user interface as being one or more potentially appropriate delivery addresses for the indicated one or more items.

2. The computer memories of claim 1, wherein individual entries of the multiplicity of entries further contain, per individual entry, information indicating one or more delivery manners for use with at least one of the one or more delivery addresses to which the mapping stored in the individual entry maps one or more item types for the distinct user respectively associated with that individual entry.

3. The computer memories of claim 1, wherein the program instructions cause the one or more computers to generate or update the mapping for the user automatically, without receiving an explicit indication from the user of an item-type-to-delivery-address relationship.

4. The computer memories of claim 1, wherein the program instructions cause the one or more computers to generate or update the mapping for the user based on receiving an explicit indication from the user of an item-type-to-delivery-address relationship.

5. The computer memories of claim 1, wherein the existing information associated with the user includes delivery addresses, and the program instructions further cause the one or more computers to acquire the delivery addresses from at least one of:

a public or proprietary database;

a client computing device used by the user;

a profile associated with the user;

or

a record of electronic devices associated with the user.

6. The computer memories of claim 1, wherein the existing information associated with the user includes one or more items offered to the user for ordering from the item ordering service.

7. The computer memories of claim 1, wherein the existing information associated with the user includes information about the user'"'"'s past behavior when ordering items, and the one or more item-type-to-delivery-address relationships for the user are determined from inferences based on analyzing the user'"'"'s past behavior when ordering items.

8. The computer memories of claim 1, wherein said determining the one or more item-type-to-delivery-address relationships for the user from existing information associated with the user is based on at least one of:

indications from the user specifying one or more specific delivery addresses for one or more specific item types;

indications of item-type-to-delivery-address relationships for one or more recipients of orders from the user, wherein the one or more recipients are distinct from the user;

associations between types of items and types of delivery addresses that depend on properties of particular types of items that make those particular types of items typically compatible with particular types of delivery addresses;

or

typical mappings of other users between types of items and types of delivery addresses.

9. The computer memories of claim 1, wherein the program instructions and the mappings stored in the data structure are configured to cause the one or more computers to perform said selection of one or more of the one or more delivery addresses as being one or more potentially appropriate delivery addresses for the indicated one or more items based, at least partially, on one or more of:

a current time at which the particular user indicates the potential order;

or

a current physical location of the particular user when the particular user indicates the potential order.

10. A method, comprising:

performing, by one or more computers, for individual users of an item ordering service;

automatically generating, in a database, a plurality of mappings per user, wherein the plurality of mappings generated for the user each map one or more item types to one or more delivery addresses associated with the user;

wherein automatically generating comprises;

analyzing, based on interaction with one or more computing devices that store associations between delivery addresses for previous orders and the one or more items of those orders, previous orders by the user to detect one or more patterns from addresses that were previously used for delivery of items of various types to delivery addresses of the user;

determining item-type-to-delivery-address relationships for the user from existing information associated with the user based at least in part on the detected one or more patterns; and

storing, to the database, the plurality of mappings generated for the user in a data structure;

subsequent to said generating and storing the mapping,

revising one or more of the plurality of automatically-generated mappings based at least in part on received update information, revising comprising;

receiving update information associated with the user that is indicative of a relationship between one or more item types and one or more delivery addresses associated with the user; and

in response to said receiving the update information, updating one or more of the stored plurality of mappings, wherein said updating comprises determining the relationship indicated by the received update information; and

transmit providing access, over a network, one or more of the one or more delivery addresses to which an item type is mapped, wherein the mappings generated for the individual ones of the users are accessible for determination of appropriate delivery addresses for items for which the individual ones of the users indicate potential orders, so that when a particular user indicates a potential order on a display of a graphical user interface for one or more items of an item type, one or more of the one or more delivery addresses to which the item type is mapped in the plurality of mappings generated for the particular user can be selected from the display of the graphical user interface as being one or more potentially appropriate delivery addresses for the indicated one or more items.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more delivery addresses associated with the user include one or more electronic delivery addresses, and at least one of the plurality of mappings stored for the user maps one or more electronic item types to one or more electronic delivery addresses.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the mapping stored for the user maps at least one single item type to multiple delivery addresses.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of the plurality of mappings stored for the user maps multiple different item types to a single delivery address or to a single group of delivery addresses.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the update information comprises feedback from the user indicating that the user has chosen a delivery address for an ordered item type that is different from a delivery address initially selected for the user as being a potentially appropriate delivery address for that ordered item type.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising adjusting future determinations of potentially appropriate delivery addresses for an ordered item type based on said updating the stored plurality of mappings.

16. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores program instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to, for individual users of an item ordering service;

automatically generate, in a database, a plurality of mappings per user, wherein the plurality of mappings generated for the user each map one or more item types to one or more delivery addresses associated with the user;

wherein automatically generate comprises;

analyze, based on interaction with one or more computing devices that store associations between delivery addresses for previous orders and the one or more items of those orders, previous orders by the user to detect one or more patterns from addresses that were previously used for delivery of items of various types to delivery addresses of the user;

determine one or more item-type-to-delivery-address relationships for the user from existing information associated with the user based at least in part on the detected one or more patterns; and

store, to the database, the plurality of mappings generated for the user in a data structure;

subsequent to said generate and store the mapping,

revise one or more of the plurality of automatically-generated mappings based at least in part on received update information, wherein revise comprises;

receive update information associated with the user that is indicative of a relationship between one or more item types and one or more delivery addresses associated with the user; and

in response to said receive the update information, update the stored plurality of mappings, wherein said update comprises determine the relationship indicated by the received update information; and

transmit provide access, over a network, one or more of the one or more delivery addresses to which an item type is mapped, wherein the mappings generated for the individual ones of the users are accessible for determination of appropriate delivery addresses for items for which the individual ones of the users indicate potential orders, so that when a particular user indicates a potential order on a display of a graphical user interface for one or more items of an item type, one or more of the one or more delivery addresses to which the item type is mapped in the plurality of mappings generated for the particular user can be selected on the display of the graphical user interface as being one or more potentially appropriate delivery addresses for the indicated one or more items.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein, when executed by the processor, the program instructions further cause the system to, for individual ones of the users of an item ordering service:

rank potential appropriateness of delivery addresses for one or more item types potentially ordered by the user based on the plurality of mappings generated for the user.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the update information associated with the user includes an assignment of one or more delivery addresses to one or more item types that is specified by the user.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein said update the plurality of mappings stored for the user is causes by the program instructions before, during, or after an ordering process initiated by the user.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the delivery addresses associated with the user include one or more addresses at which the user can receive items and one or more addresses at which other recipients can receive items ordered by the user.