The present invention relates to e-commerce data processing systems, and in particular relates to a system and method of managing items of interest that have been selected from online merchants.
Online shopping through a public computer network such as the Internet has been growing exponentially over the past decade due to its convenience and competitive prices. However, its growth is expected to slow as most people have already become familiar with the Internet and online shopping. To encourage more sales, one feature that online merchants have been offering is a wish list feature in which a shopper can save details of items that may be of some interest for later purchase.
However, many items in the wish list are never purchased because the shopper is unsure about those items and there is no convenient way to receive any comments from the shopper's friends and colleagues who might provide an encouragement to buy.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a convenient system and method for allowing shoppers to request and receive feedback on their wish list items from friends and colleagues. It would also be desirable to allow shoppers to add items to the wish list from multiple online merchants that are unrelated to each other.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a system for managing wish list items from a plurality of online merchants is provided. The system includes a memory, processor and item management module executed by the processor. The memory stores data regarding the wish list items that have been selected by a user. The item management module has a receive-advice feature that sends an electronic message to user-selected contacts. The electronic message contains a request for feedback on one or more selected items of interest. When the contacts submit feedbacks, they are stored in the memory for viewing by the user.
In another embodiment, a method for managing items of interest for potential purchase from a plurality of online merchants is provided. The method includes storing data regarding wish list items which are selected by a user, sending an electronic message to one or more user-selected contacts containing a request for feedback on one or more selected items of interest, and storing the feedback from the contacts in the memory.
As can be appreciated, the present invention provides a convenient system and method for a shopper to request and receive feedbacks on his wish list items from friends and colleagues. In this way, the shoppers make purchases with confidence knowing that the items being purchased have received positive feedback and the online merchants benefit from increased sales.
For purposes of this application, the terms “code”, “program”, “application”, “software code”, “software module”, “module” and “software program” are used interchangeably to mean software instructions that are executable by a processor.
The present system allows a user/shopper to browse any online merchant's website on the Internet and add items of interest to his “Wishspace”. Once the items are added, the system allows the user to request feedback on any item of interest from his contacts. Feedbacks can include a rating of an item and comment on the item.
In one embodiment, as described in detail below, the system includes a plug-in module which is designed to be run inside a user's browser program and which may be activated to access certain features such as data capturing and graphical interface to make it easy to add items of interest from multiple unassociated merchants.
As can be appreciated, the present system is beneficial for the shoppers as it helps them to make decisions on particular items. The system is also helpful to the merchants as it will likely result in increased sales.
It is to be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that the system 30 can be implemented as any computer such as a personal computer, minicomputer, workstation, mainframe, or a combination thereof. While system 30 is shown, for illustration purposes, as a single computer unit, it can comprise a group/farm of computers which can be scaled depending on the processing load and size of the data sets. In addition, in conjunction with, or as a substitute for, all or a portion of memory 160, one or more additional memory storage devices can be coupled to system 30 including databases for storing user information and associated item data.
In each subsequent use of the item selection plug-in module 220, the module can automatically execute a log-in procedure required to establish a communication between the user computer 52 and the system 30. Alternatively, the user can be required to log-in to the system 30 by entering the username and password to establish a session with the item management module 166.
At step 304, a user visits a merchant web site through the Internet 60 and views items, as is conventionally known. Once a user has identified one or more items of interest that he would like to add to the Wishspace, a selection is made using the plug-in module 220 at steps 306-308.
For instance, as shown in
In one embodiment, the plug-in module modifies the HTML codes embedded in the downloaded webpage of a merchant website. The browser program 218 then interprets the modified HTML code in the web page and displays the overlay to the user.
As indicated in step 308 of
Once an item is selected, in step 309, the plug-in module 220 transmits a request for item cluster (grouping) information from the item management module 166. A cluster is a group identifier that helps the user to group similar items of interest. In step 338, the item management module 166 receives the request, retrieves the corresponding cluster information for the user from the data storage 164, and then transmits the retrieved information to the plug-in module 220. The module 220 stores the received cluster information in the memory 216.
In step 310, the plug-in module 220 executes certain software code to try and collect item data from the merchant's website in a process called data capturing (some times known as data scraping or data scratching). This information includes the merchant name 420, a representative image 422, the item price 424 and the item name 426.
In step 312, the plug-in module 220 displays in an overlay the captured data along with a pull-down menu displaying the existing clusters.
As the item data in the overlay 440 are the best guesses of the plug-in module 220, the user is allowed to change any data directly on the overlay 440 in step 314. The user can also add notes via a field 458 in the overlay 440, and choose or add a cluster via a drop-down menu 460 in step 316.
When the user has confirmed or modified the item information, selecting the “done” icon 462 causes the plug-in module 220 to transmit the data to the item management module 162 (step 318). The transmitted data include the merchant's name 450, item image 452, item price 454, item name 456, the URL for the item and cluster and notes. In step 342, the item management module 166 receives the data and stores them in the storage 164.
If the user selects the “cancel” icon 464, the selection plug-in item overlay 440 is removed and no updates are made to the user's data of selected items in the item management module 166.
Although all of the data capturing and selection are performed by the plug-in module 220 in the embodiment shown, any or all of such processing can also be performed by the item management module 166.
Referring to
At step 502, the user logs in to the item management system 30 using his login name and password in a well known manner.
The item management module 166 of the system 30 provides multiple functions for the shoppers. Among others, the module 166 allows shoppers to store product discount and reward offers, place items of interest into their Wishspace, send the item details to their friends and receive feedback, and keep track of the purchases of items.
In response to the user's submission of login name and password and assuming that the login is successful, the item management module 166 retrieves all data related to the user, including the data regarding the items of interest, and stores them in a temporary memory which is a part of the storage 164 for faster access. The module 166 also transmit for display on the user's computer a web page containing a plurality of tabs including “Wishspace”, “Purchases” and “Offers” (see
In step 504, the user selects the Wishspace tab to view the items of interest that have been saved.
Each item and cluster has a small down arrow 632,630. When the user places a mouse cursor over the down arrow, a pull down menu appears with several options. For an item, the options include viewing details of the item, obtaining advice or feedback from friends or contacts, editing item details and deleting the item. For a cluster, the options include obtaining advice or feedback from friends or contacts on all items in the cluster, renaming the cluster name and deleting the cluster.
At step 506, the user selects an individual item or an entire cluster to request feedback. For instance, as shown in
As indicated in step 508, the user can select one or more contacts that will be sent a message requesting feedback. In the embodiment shown, the system 30 uses email addresses for sending messages to the contacts of the user. As indicated in step 510 in
If the user selects the “Cancel” icon 650, the feedback request overlay 640 is removed and no message is sent. In certain embodiments, the request for feedback for a particular item can be carried out by a similar process using the item selection plug-in module 220 when items are selected for inclusion in the item data associated with the item management module 166.
Referring to
The email message 802 provides instructions 804 to the contact, and a “Give Advice” icon 806 that is associated with a sufficiently unique address link that serves as a key identifying the contact to which the request for feedback is directed, the item or cluster, and the user that requested the feedback. In the event that the icon 806 is not operable, e.g., due to a firewall or other security measure operating on the contact's computer, the address in the form of a uniform resource locator (URL) 808 is also provided. In this convenient manner, the contact need not log in, register with or create an account with the item management system 30 to provide the requested feedback/advice.
When the recipient contact selects the link 806 in the email by clicking on it with a mouse or enters the URL 808 into his browser program, indicated in step 704 of FIG. 6B, the contact is directed to the web site of the item management system 30.
In step 712, an email message is sent to the user by the item management module 166, indicating that one of the selected contacts has provided a feedback which may include comments or ratings or both for one or more items.
The email provides a clickable hyperlink that takes the user to a web site containing the item or cluster of items in question (see
Moving a mouse cursor over a down arrow inside the associated item image triggers a pull-down menu. When a “View Item Details” is selected, the item management module displays a View Item window (overlay) as shown in
Once items are included in the user's Wishspace, there are a number of options provided to the user through other enhanced features according to the present invention. One of the features is that the item management module 166 constantly tracks the item details at the merchant online sites. The tracking of information can be done with or without the assistance of the online merchants. If any of the items of interest in the user's Wishspace has been changed at the associated merchant website, the item management module updates the changed data for the user in storage 164. When the item is subsequently viewed, the item management module 166 will show the item with a note stating that the item information has been changed.
For instance, the web page in
The user may configure its personal settings so that a specific change on an individual item triggers an email message or a general change on any item triggers a message. For example, the user account in the system 30 can be set up, through the item management module 166, to send an email to the user whenever a price on any item of interest drops. In some embodiments, with the consent of the user, merchants may be provided certain information regarding the items in the user's selected items. This information may be useful to the merchants for gauging the demand for the items. In such embodiments, merchants may be given an opportunity to make selective notifications to the user. This feature may give merchants an added ability to make appropriate offers, and may give the users enhanced purchasing options.
Any of the overlays/windows (e.g., overlay 416, 440, 640) described herein can be generated by the action of either the plug-in module 220 or item management module 166 or both. In one embodiment, the overlays are generated by inserting or modifying appropriate code (e.g., HTML codes) to the received browser webpage to include the overlay 416 in the user's browser window. In that embodiment, the browser program 218 interpreting the HTML codes generates the overlay.
As described above, the present invention provides a convenient and flexible system for allowing a shopper to add and manage items of interest to a wish list from any online merchant without being restricted to a single merchant. The present invention also provides a convenient system for the shopper to automatically request and receive feedbacks on his wish list items from friends and colleagues. In this way, the shoppers make purchases with confidence knowing that the items being purchased have received positive feedback and the online merchants benefit from increased sales.
The foregoing specific embodiments represent just some of the ways of practicing the present invention. Many other embodiments are possible within the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited to the foregoing specification, but instead is given by the appended claims along with their full range of equivalents.
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/143,090, filed Jan. 7, 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61143090 | Jan 2009 | US |