Patent Application
20220156684
This invention relates generally to an electronic system for enabling interaction among various entities, and in particular to an electronic commerce system with gift transaction management capability.
There are several ways to purchase and send gifts to friends and family, including purchasing an item directly in a store, purchasing the item online and delivering it to the gift recipient, reimbursing someone for purchasing a gift for him/herself, purchasing an item on a gift registry, or purchasing a gift card. Gift buying is a personal gesture, into which much thought and creativity is placed. When a buyer puts in the thought of selecting a gift on her/his own, the buyer cares about the perceived effort and thoughtfulness put into selecting the gift. The buyer wants the recipient to know that effort and thoughtfulness existed in the process and the buyer has specifically thought about the recipient when making the purchase.
In many cases, buyers wanting to purchase a gift online and send a personal and thoughtful gift are unable to do so due to constraints. For example, the constraints can include: not knowing exactly what to get and the social awkwardness of asking the recipient; not getting enough support at the time of purchase to find the ‘right gift’; not knowing personal attributes such as size or color of a product; not knowing the physical address required to ship to the gift to; inability to get the gift they want delivered on time; etc. An alternative stemming from these constraints on a gift purchase could be purchasing a gift card. However, the gift card leaves the gift buyer unsatisfied and frustrated because the buyer could not convey the thoughtfulness in choosing a personal and unique gift and because the buyer is forced to highlight the amount given for the gift instead of the thoughtfulness of the gift. The recipient is sometimes also left unsatisfied with the gift or gift card, as there is a disappointment in the lack of effort and thoughtfulness put into the gift buying process on behalf of the buyer. When a buyer uses a gift registry or allows a recipient to select a gift on his/her own, the element of surprise is ruined.
In addition, recipients getting the wrong gift are left with the hassle of returning or exchanging the gifts, which is unpleasant. The thought of a return or an exchange may also frustrate the buyer knowing that they are purchasing a gift that most likely would be returned or exchanged.
Aside of the consumer, online merchants have high operational costs due to excess returns and exchanges. The online merchants further lose sales due to inability to complete transactions online due to the situations described above ending in shopping cart abandonment. Many merchants further lack brand awareness for being a gift destination as they carry items that are hard to gift, such as clothing or cosmetics. Even with the multitude of online gift cards and gift registry services, buyers and recipients are still left unsatisfied with the balance between personalization and ease of gift transactions.
Additionally, currently, physical gift cards only represent a store-specific stored-value—for example, a Nordstrom $100 gift card. These cards can be sold and distributed directly by and within the store (like Nordstrom) or by third parties in places such as CVS, Safeway etc., but do not have the same effect as purchasing a specific real gift for a recipient. There have been attempts of making existing gift cards a bit more thoughtful by allowing senders to buy and send gift cards with more personalization personal photos, videos, greeting cards, or even recommendations of products the recipient can buy with the card. While these solution do not require significant changes to store systems, these solutions do not achieve the thoughtfulness of a real gift, as the recipient still gets a gift card, needs to “buy” the suggested gift for themselves, seeing full price, etc.
Embodiments include a system architecture of a gift transaction system which may for example enable a more flexible gift card system to be implemented without redesign, or with minimal modification of, existing systems. An embodiment of the gift transaction system can include for example a buyer interface module, a recipient interface module, a merchant backend interface module, a store front interface module, a curation module, a reminder module, an analytics module, or a media plug-in interface module; in addition physical gift cards may be included. A media plug-in interface module can include for example a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that provide external connection with third party content providers, applications, and websites. The buyer interface module may be for providing a buyer interface to personalize a gift package. The recipient interface module may be for providing a recipient interface to customize the gift package. The store front interface module and the media plug-in interface module are for integrating the buyer interface and the recipient interface with merchant websites or third-party websites, such as social media websites. The curation module may be for determining product suggestions for either the buyer or the recipient. The reminder module is for maintaining customer loyalty by reminding previous users to come back to the gift transaction system by reminding them of gift giving opportunities, such as holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, or other social events. The analytics module may be for building a business intelligence database to support at least the curation module or the reminder module.
Methods of operating a gift transaction system for facilitating gift transactions are also disclosed. Gift transactions can be initiated based on identification of an electronic account of the recipient, such as an email address, a social network account, or a virtual group association. The identification can include electronic contact information. Transaction may be sealed based on a recipient interaction with the gift transaction system. Suggestions for potential gifts may be generated based on past transactions of the buyer or the recipient, recipient social media account, buyer social media account, or any combination thereof. Inventory reservation/deduction can be made in response to the gift recipient accepting the gift. The gift transaction can place soft holds on items provided by a merchant system with an expiration time limit on the soft hold. Gift recipient upon receiving the gift, can decide to be taken to an exchange interface to exchange the gift in either the merchant store of the original gift or in a separate merchant store. The recipient can then be prompted to purchase other/additional products (upselling), which is a unique opportunity and benefit for both the merchant and the recipient.
The gift transaction can be provided through a stand-alone website and/or service, integrated within various destination websites, integrated within various merchant systems or websites, integrated in shopping cart or checkout processor systems, integrated within social media or social network systems, integrated within payment processors, or any combination thereof. The gift transaction system can be accessed via a custom application or via a web browser on any number of electronic devices capable of doing shopping online.
The gift transaction system includes various authentication methods to ensure that ease of gift sending does not compromise security nor fall into various spam filters or being ignored by the recipient as a spam or unauthorized message. Authentication can be achieved via pass-codes, secret questions, location-based identification, unique identifier such as email address or phone number. Authentication can be achieved via both active and passive means. For example, passive authentication may include the gift transaction system recording an indication, such as an image, a phrase, an audio clip, or a video clip, from the sender to make the recipient feel more comfortable to access the link or message regarding the gift. Passive authentication may also include restricting access to the gift based on a physical region to access the gift transaction system.
The gift transaction system disclosed enables a combination of flexibility, ease, previously only available to gift cards, and the thoughtfulness and gratitude of a gift selection process. Hence, the gift transaction system can have the benefits of both offline and online shopping capabilities and experience. The disclosed gift transaction system reduces shipping and exchange costs for retailers. Specifically, the gift transaction system enables savings for merchant that frequently deal with returns and exchanges by giving a gift recipient an opportunity to exchange, customize, or reject a gift prior to delivery. The gift recipient thus enjoys a surprising and immediate gratification of receiving a gift along with a guiltless ability to customize or exchange the gift without the need to go in-store or needing a gift-receipt. The gift transaction system also reduces shopping cart abandonment problem by reducing steps needed to send a gift and increases payment realization by leveraging social obligation. With the buyer being able to obligate him/herself to a purchase prior to payment and inputting of shipment address, the merchants who utilize the gift transaction system can increase sales, customer acquisition, and customer loyalty. The gift transaction system also enables the retailers to send out of stock items as gifts. The gift recipients are able to know that they have received a gift before the gift item actually becomes available.
Further, some embodiments of the gift transaction system enable a higher level of privacy in the social gifting activities. For example, the gift transaction system allows for a recipient to receive a gift without giving out his/her address. This may be beneficial in online dating situations, used item sales (e.g., eBay™ or Craigslist™), or customers who would like to protect the privacy of home addresses from spam.
Some embodiments of the gift transaction system further enables a gift giving service that align with the modern day etiquette. For example, the gift transaction system can send a gift or a thank you letter or video-message without having to bother the recipients for their address. The gift transaction system can also preserve the element of surprise by having the recipient see the gift or a representation of the gift along with a gift letter. The gift transaction system yet further enables mass gifting gestures, eliminating the need of the sender to individually obtain shipping addresses from recipients.
Some embodiments of the invention allow users to buy real thoughtful gifts (e.g., a virtual representation of a gift printed on, digitally stored within, or otherwise associated with a physical card) with the full flexibility of gift cards (and all the other benefits of embodiments of the e-gifting system described herein), and within the same brick-and-mortar distribution channels as physical gift cards. For example, in some embodiments, a gift card may be purchased by a sender which allows a recipient to exchange the card for a specific physical gift (possibly with exchange or tailoring as discussed herein), the specific physical gift specified on the card, as opposed to a gift card with only a dollar amount. For example, in some embodiments a gift card having printed thereon (or if virtual, displaying on for example a computer or smartphone screen) a description or representation of, e.g., a Cuisinart™ Blender, or an Apple™ iPhone, or any other item, which may be selected by a purchaser, sent or provided to a recipient, and the recipient may use the gift card to obtain the specific physical product. Embodiments include a system architecture of a gift transaction system which may for example enable a more flexible gift card system to be implemented without redesign, or with minimal modification of, existing systems. For example, a software module or widget may be embedded within and interface with existing merchant store front software (e.g., executed on a server operated by an on-line retailer), and may interface with a remote gift-card system executed on a server remote from the merchant system, obviating the need for a redesign of the merchant system.
In some embodiments of the invention, the physical “RealGift” card may be optionally associated with a stored value processor or account on the backend of a merchant store front system, but may have metadata relating to product/gift, product category, and/or set of products associated with the card as well. In some embodiments, gift(s) metadata may be printed on, digitally stored within, or otherwise associated with the card, along with education/instructions for the sender and recipient of the card.
In some embodiments, for a sender, instructions optionally may be included which have, e.g., the dollar amount that needs to be paid in order to activate the card. The amount may optionally include coverage for tax and shipping, so the recipient does not need to pay for these. In some embodiments, for the recipient, the card may have a redemption link for the recipient to redeem, accept, configure, and/or exchange the gift online. In some embodiments, the card may also optionally have product identifications (IDs), barcodes and/or some other identification that may allow the card to be redeemed, e.g., directly in-store.
In some embodiments, the cards may be factory printed and distributed, e.g., to various sales channels. In addition or alternatively, the cards may be printed on-demand by end-users, in-store and/or other commercial printers etc. The on-demand printing may introduce a level of flexibility around the amount and/or variety of products offered as “RealGifts”, personalization levels etc. In some embodiments, the RealGift card may have a clean/un-activate state. In this state the card may, for example, only have partial gift metadata associated with it, without any financial value.
In some embodiments, the RealGift card may be activated, the activation transitioning it into a “paid for” state, in which it can be used by a gift recipient. A RealGift card may be for example a physical card or piece of paper, e.g., a credit card-sized plastic item, with information printed on it such as a link (e.g., URL) to redeem the gift, and a gift description. In this state, the card may have stored value and/or other account information associated with it, and/or have other ways to associate value with it (for example, an actual product that is put on-hold by a merchant). In some embodiments, in paid-for state the card may be redeemed, e.g., for the gift, exchanged etc. In some embodiments, the payment and/or activation may be achieved multiple different ways—e.g., by presenting the card to the cashier (human or automated), who can potentially scan, e.g., a barcode or QR code. In this case the user may pay for and activate the card in the merchant's point of sale (POS) device, potentially along with other purchases in the store. In some embodiments, the card may also have activation instructions and/or a link (e.g., a URL), and the sender may use that to activate the card without going through the store point of sale system, for example by using his or her mobile telephone, computer or other personal device. In some embodiments, the cards may also be activated using a kiosk or similar hardware or software solution that may facilitate payment, activation and/or registration.
In some embodiments, the card may also be optionally “registered”, for example such that additional metadata may be associated with it by the sender/recipient. This may include, e.g., sender inputting recipient's email address and/or greeting or other information (for example, in case the sender decides to send the gift via electronic means and not deliver it in person), the sender may also personalize/customize the gift and/or greeting experience, to add custom photo/video/audio/visual/interactive greetings, boxes, cards etc.
In some embodiments, the gift(s) associated with the RealGift card and/or the associated stored value and/or legal agreement may be tied to a single merchant (“closed-loop”), in which case recipients may, for example, redeem them for the product given as a gift, a similar product (for example, different colors, sizes, models etc.), or to be exchanged for other products, and/or gift cards within the original merchant. In some embodiments, the gift(s) associated with the Real Gift cards may be associated with a network of merchants (“network or hybrid closed loop”), meaning the gift(s) may be redeemed for the original product(s), exchanged for alternative similar or different products, or exchanged for gift cards, etc., from a list of merchants belonging to the network. On the back-end, in some embodiments, this may be achieved by a third-party system operator (for example, implementing embodiments of the system described herein) managing stored value/escrow account/other account/physical merchandise/internal accounting and/or any other method of capturing and/or accounting for the gift(s) and/or their financial value on behalf of merchant in the network.
As an example, in some embodiments, a user may buy and give a “Kitchen Aid 500 Coffee Maker” RealGift Card. If the recipient decides to accept the gift as-is, the third-party system operator may choose the merchant out of its network and send the order to fulfillment (such that the physical product is delivered to the recipient). If the recipient decides to exchange the Coffee Maker, the third-party system operator may offer similar or different products from its network of merchants, and/or offer to exchange the original gift for gift cards or similar instruments for a set of merchants that are part of the third-party system operator's network.
In some embodiments, (e.g., as an example of back-end processing), when the gift is purchased, the third-party system operator stored value is created. Upon redemption/exchange for a specific product to be fulfilled by a specific store, the third-party system operator stored value may be converted, e.g., to that store's stored value and/or be used as form of payment and/or can be marked as “redeemed” and zeroed out upon payment to merchant via other means. Also, in some embodiments, upon exchange, the user may elect to exchange the original gift and its third-party system operator stored value for stored value of one or more of the merchants in the third-party system operator's network. In that case the third-party system operator's system may transfer the value from the third-party system operator stored value to the merchant specific stored value/gift card—e.g., in whole or in part. Partial transfer may allow multiple redemptions/exchanges of one gift across multiple merchants.
In some embodiments, the card may be either completely “open loop”, meaning that it may be redeemed and exchanged for dollar value that may be used anywhere (for example, a Visa pre-paid card), or exchanged for products from any store.
It should be noted that embodiments described herein may also apply to Electronic RealGift cards and not only to physical RealGift cards. The same way electronic gift cards are similar to physical ones, in some embodiments, the third-party system operator product cards may be electronic only and be, e.g., sold, distributed, activated etc., in similar ways to physical cards outlined herein—for example via mobile or desktop websites, apps etc. In some embodiments, multiple combinations may be possible—for example, physical card/gift exchanged for virtual/electronic card, virtual/electronic card exchanged for one or more physical cards etc.
Some embodiments of the invention may include a method of enabling gifting of a gift product on a legacy merchant store front. An embodiment of a method may be performed on a computer having a processor, a memory, and one or more code sets stored in the memory and executed by the processor. An embodiment of a method may include for example determining eligibility of an abstract product available for purchase on the legacy merchant store front to be selected as a gift product, wherein an abstract product represents a set of all available Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) for a given product, wherein a gift product represents a subset of all available SKUs for a given abstract product, and wherein the subset includes less than all available SKUs for the given abstract product and greater than one available SKU for the given abstract product; generating an embedded widget and placing the embedded widget on the merchant store front to determine gift intent to initiate a gift transaction of the gift product by a buyer account for a recipient account; assigning at least one representative SKU to represent the gift product; and mimicking an orchestrated transaction between a user and the legacy merchant store front prior to a final selection of a specific SKU of the gift product.
Some embodiments may further include receiving a legacy gift card number from the legacy merchant store front; associating the legacy gift card number with the gift product and a predefined value; and associating the legacy gift card number with a gift identifier and a visual depiction of a physical representation of the gift product, wherein activation of the gift identifier enables a final selection of a specific SKU of the gift product. In some embodiments, the visual depiction may be appended to at least one of a merchant e-gift card and a physical gift card to be provided to a recipient.
Some embodiments may further include assigning at least one representative address to represent a shipping destination of the gift product; and calculating at least one of a shipping cost and a tax amount based on the assigned representative address. Some embodiments may further include generating a gift buyer interface for a first client device to personalize a gift package including the gift product; generating a gift recipient interface for a second client device to select the final selection of a specific SKU of the gift product; and communicating with the legacy merchant store front to complete the gift transaction to ship the gift package.
Some embodiments may further include mimicking, by the processor, an orchestrated transaction between the legacy merchant store and a recipient of the final selection of the specific SKU of the gift product. Some embodiments may further include determining a difference between an originally agreed upon value and resultant value; and settling the difference between the agreed upon value and the resultant value. In some embodiments, the settling further include identifying one or more valid coupons associated with the gift product; and applying the one or more valid coupons to the gift transaction. Some embodiments may further include simulating at least one user interaction with the legacy merchant store front to identify user-facing functionality of the legacy merchant store front.
Some embodiments may include a method of operating a merchant store front, the method performed on a computer having a processor and a memory. Embodiments of the method may include generating a software module and embedding the software module on the merchant store front to determine gift intent to initiate a gift transaction of the gift product by a buyer for a recipient; determining eligibility of an abstract product group available for purchase on the merchant store front to be selected as a gift; wherein an abstract product group represents a set of available products; and wherein a gift product group represents a subset of all available products for a given abstract product group; and mimicking a transaction between a user and the legacy merchant store front prior to a final selection of a specific product from the gift product group. Some embodiments may further include receiving a gift card number from the merchant store front; associating the gift card number with the gift product group and a predefined value; and associating the gift card number with a gift identifier and a visual depiction of a physical representation of the gift product group, wherein activation of the gift identifier enables a final selection of a specific SKU of the gift product group.
Some embodiments have other aspects, elements, features, and steps in addition to or in place of what is described above, and may be performed on systems as described herein. These potential additions and replacements are described throughout the rest of the specification.
The figures depict various embodiments for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles described herein.
In the following description, various aspects of the present invention will be described. For purposes of explanation, specific configurations and details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without the specific details presented herein. Furthermore, well known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the present invention.
Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specification discussions utilizing terms such as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,” or the like, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or computing system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and/or transforms data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities within the computing system's registers and/or memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computing system's memories, registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
A buyer via one of the client devices 106 can access a store front 108 (e.g., merchant store front) of the merchant system 104. The store front 108 may be a merchant interface generated by the merchant system 104 for buyers to make transactions for properties, virtual goods, products, or services of the merchant. The buyer can initiate a gift transaction via the store front 108. The store front 108 may include an embedded widget or script 109 (as described herein). The store front 108 can add flags to the item pages to make the item eligible or ineligible for gifting. The store front 108 can have a default of no gifting available, and only flagged items are eligible for gifting. Alternatively, the store front 108 can have a default of gifting capability, and only flagged items are not eligible for gifting. The flags can be determined based on a set of logic defined by product type, user profile, user interaction with the store front 108, or any combination thereof (as described herein). Systems and devices 102, 104, and 106 are typically physically remote or separate from each other, and may each include components similar to those described in
In this disclosure, a buyer of a gift transaction is presumed to be the gift sender and the person attributed to be responsible for sending the gift. However, it is understood that the gift transaction system 102 can handle a situation where those three entities are related but not the same. For example, an actual gift sender operating with the gift transaction system 102 may be an assistant of a buyer, who is paying for the gift item, and the gift notice may attribute the gift source as the husband of the actual buyer. The recipient in this disclosure can be the person the gift is intended for or an agent of the person the gift is intended for, such as a parent or a husband.
The buyer can access a buyer interface generated by the gift transaction system 102 and shown on one of the client devices 106. The buyer interface can be embedded on the store front 108 to facilitate a gift transaction. The gift transaction can be a close loop transaction that only allows the buyer to send a gift item from a single store and the recipient to exchange the gift within the single store. The gift transaction can also be an open loop transaction that allows the buyer to purchase from multiple store fronts and the recipient can exchange through multiple store fronts. In some embodiments, when the buyer purchases the gift, a representative item 114 such as, for example, a card, model, or other visual depiction of the gift may be provided to the recipient, as described in detail herein, which may have displayed on it information which may be used by the recipient to obtain the gift (e.g., activation code, system code, website, etc.).
Upon confirming sending a gift, a recipient can accept the gift item via a recipient interface generated by the gift transaction system 102. The recipient interface including an exchange interface can be shown on a recipient device. The recipient device can be one of the client devices 106. The client devices 106 are electronic devices capable of communicating with the store front 108 and the gift transaction system 102. The client devices 106 can include tablets, laptop computers, desktop computers, mobile phones, smart phones, electronic kiosks, electronic accessories, smart vehicles, smart appliances, smart TV, point of sale terminals, game consoles, or any combination thereof.
The merchant system 104 can also include a backend engine 110. The backend engine 110 may be for example code or software executed on a processor (e.g., shown in
The merchant system 104, the gift transaction system 102, and the client devices 106 can communicate with each other through a network channel 112. The network channel 112 can include one or more communication networks that can be linked together, including any combination of local area and/or wide area networks, using both wired and wireless communication systems, and may include the internet and/or cellular telephone systems. The network channel 112 can include point-of-sale networks, TV cables, Ethernet cables, phone lines, local area networks, cellular networks including SMS network, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, the network channel 112 uses standard communications technologies and/or protocols. Thus, the network channel 112 may include links using technologies such as Ethernet, 802.11, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), 3G, 4G, CDMA, digital subscriber line (DSL), etc. Similarly, the networking protocols used on the network channel 112 may include multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), hypertext transport protocol (HTTP), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) and file transfer protocol (FTP). Data exchanged over the network channel 112 may be represented using technologies and/or formats including hypertext markup language (HTML) or extensible markup language (XML). In addition, all or some of links can be encrypted using conventional encryption technologies such as secure sockets layer (SSL), transport layer security (TLS), and Internet Protocol security (IPsec).
Multiple buyers and/or multiple recipients and/or multiple gift items can belong to a single gift transaction. For example, a buyer can initiate a gift transaction. Other buyers can then add their contribution to the gift transaction for the same recipient or recipients. In another example, a buyer can purchase a gift item for a family of recipients, where the gift transaction is not completed without approval from all of the recipients. In yet another example, a buyer can purchase a bundle of gifts for a recipient. The bundle of gifts can be configured by either the buyer or the merchant. The bundle of gifts can include different items and services from different merchants. Multiple buyers can also add to the original gift transaction for the recipient, whether adding money or adding products to the bundle of gifts. A gift “item” in this disclosure is defined as a property, a service, a product, an option, or other derivatives sold by a merchant. For example, gift items can include movies, music files, digital rights management licenses, spa/massage services, coffee shop coupons, vacation vouchers, vacation home rentals, proof of charity donation, flight tickets, sports game tickets, physical items, vehicles, or any combination thereof. The gift item can have a single monetary value for exchange purposes or have a range of values for exchange purposes. A “buyer” in this disclosure is defined as one or more persons or entities responsible for purchasing a gift. However, it is understood that the buyer can specify in the gift transaction that the gift-giving person(s) is intended to be someone else. A “recipient” in this disclosure is defined as one or more persons or entities receiving the gift, including a charity entity.
Each of the modules can operate individually and independently of other modules. Some or all of the modules can be combined as one module. A single module can also be divided into sub-modules, each performing separate method step or method steps of the single module. The modules can share access to a memory space. One module can access data accessed by or transformed by another module. The modules can be considered “coupled” to one another. The modules can share a physical connection or a virtual connection, directly or indirectly, allowing data accessed or modified from one module to be accessed in another module, as illustrated by the line or arrow connections in
The storages or “stores”, described in this disclosure are hardware components or portions of hardware components for storing digital data. Each of the storage can be a single physical entity or distributed through multiple physical devices. Each of the storage can be on separate physical device or share the same physical device or devices. Each of the stores can allocate specific storage spaces for run-time applications.
The gift transaction system 200 can include additional, fewer, or different modules for various applications. Conventional components such as network interfaces, security functions, load balancers, failover servers, management and network operations consoles, and the like are not shown so as to not obscure the details of the system.
The gift transaction system 200 includes a buyer interface module 202 and a recipient interface module 204. The buyer interface module 202 is configured to generate an interface on the client devices 206 for a buyer of a gift. The client devices 206 can be the client devices 106 of
The gift transaction system 200 includes a store front interface 210. The store front interface 210 is configured to embed access to the buyer interface module 202 in a store front of a merchant system 212. In some embodiments, the merchant store front can define where a link to the buyer interface can appear. In other embodiments, the buyer interface module 202 has logics defining where in the webpage structure of the merchant store front, such as DOM structure, to place the buyer interface. The store front interface 210 can access an Application Programming Interface (API) of the merchant system 212, and provide access to the gift transaction system 200 via an API. The store front interface 210 can provide access to the buyer interface from the merchant store front with minimal modification to the merchant store front, such as the store front 108 of
Typically, merchant store front systems, platforms, and technology (both physical and e-commerce) are optimized for a person buying a product for themselves. For example, many merchant store front systems (e.g., cart, checkout, pricing, order management, etc.) function at a “specific product” or “SKU” (stock keeping unit) level. As understood herein, a specific product is a specific physical product with all attributes (like size/color) selected. A SKU is an identification code assigned to a specific product. Many merchant store front systems require a specific SKU to be selected, including size+color, etc. Typical merchant store front systems therefore have logic which deals with and works at SKU level with SKU identifiers and/or UPC identifiers, etc., and cannot function at an “abstract product” level. As understood herein, an abstract product, or abstract product group, is a product or group with all its various SKUs or specific products (for example, multiple sizes and colors, with each variation being a specific product having its own specific SKU). For example, and abstract product group or abstract product may be or represent “Series 2015 Sleds”, where specific Series 2015 sleds may come in specific colors, and in specific sizes. In other embodiments, where SKUs are not used, an abstract or abstract product group may include a group of products not necessarily described by SKUs. An abstract product or group may be a general product description, or a general style of a product, that may represent multiple different specific products. For example, an abstract product may be a style 3100 gray men's polo shirt, and within the subset of specific products represented by that abstract product may be a style 3100 gray men's polo shirt in size 1, 2, 3, etc., and in some embodiments in different shades of gray. While in some embodiments, a system or method may describe or group products using SKUs, other identifier methods may be used, and thus an abstract product or gift product may describe or represent products, or groups of products, in ways other than using a SKU.
Typical merchant store fronts have checkout, order management, fraud prevention and other systems which always require a full shipping address when purchasing physical goods in order to calculate tax and shipping, submit the order, and fulfill it (fraudulent shipping addresses are harder to generate on demand like email addresses). Furthermore, in a typical merchant store front system, orders cannot be delayed in the system and fulfilled at later time, or when a recipient makes a final choice of a specific product. Embodiments of the present invention allow for minor and easy modification of such systems, without major redesign, to allow such systems to include such functionality.
Additionally, when a recipient is asked to access a traditional merchant store front system to receive a gift, the cart always shows full price of items, checkout requires entering full payment information, even if payment method is a gift card, confirmation e-mails providing order and shipping information always include prices, SKUs, payment methods etc.
Therefore, embodiments of the invention allow the stores with their enterprise/legacy/complicated systems (referred to herein generally as “legacy” merchant store fronts) to perform/incorporate the innovative functionality of e-gifting without needing to change these systems or without the need for significant change, which would be cost/effort prohibitive and thus not feasible. This may be accomplished, according to some embodiments of the invention, by enabling a legacy merchant store front to operate at a “gift product” level. This entity does not exist in any ecommerce/commerce system. A gift product, or a gift product group, as understood herein, may be a subset of SKUs for an abstract product, or in the case of a system not using SKUs a subset of products from an abstract product or abstract product group, but is typically not a specific SKU (specific product). For example, embodiments of the invention may enable a gift sender to gift (e.g. buy as a gift) someone a red shirt (without specifying, e.g., the size of the shirt), which means that the gift product of gift product group contains a subset of all products, or product SKUs, that are shirts of a certain style that have red color. In one embodiment a platform or server works with gift products and translates these back and forth to SKUs and abstract products in order to communicate with legacy merchant store fronts without requiring them to change their technology.
Often, a legacy merchant store front webpage logic and UI contains logic to either operate at SKU level (e.g., by including an “add to cart” button requiring selection of the specific product) or product level (e.g., product page). Therefore, in some embodiments, an e-gifting UI may be added to the page (e.g., a gadget, button, or other graphical user element with which a user can interact) which, when selected, provides an instruction to the gift transaction system 200 to analyze the page to determine eligibility of e-gifting (based on multiple factors) of products displayed on the page, and to inject an appropriate UI to trigger an e-gifting flow as described herein. The addition may be made by embedding, placing or installing a widget on the code at merchant system 104.
The buyer interface can be integrated or embedded within a merchant store front via for example the store front interface 210, which may be a widget. The store front interface 210 can add, change, or remove user interface elements, gift buttons, and display the buyer interface overlay over or embedded within the store front interface 210. The store front interface 210 can modify the checkout process of the merchant system 212, such as removing shipping address and payment information questions from the checkout flow.
Without an e-gifting UI, a merchant store front's systems would need to be aware of Gift Products, be able to determine eligibility of products for e-gifting, and change the page UI to add relevant buttons as needed, which would be a significant (and often prohibitive) investment for the merchant store front. Such a merchant store front which does not have the ability/functionality to recognize gift products may be referred to as a legacy merchant store front.
Therefore, in some embodiments, all that is required of the legacy merchant store front is for the store front to add the e-gifting UI, e.g. as a widget, as described herein to its source code (e.g., a few lines of JavaScript on its pages). The JavaScript is aggressively cached in order not to affect the store page load time. When the JavaScript runs, it may inspect the page/product metadata to determine product eligibility for e-gifting for one or more products on the page based on, for example, price, category, type, etc.
If eligible, the gift transaction system 200 may extract the needed metadata associated with the product (title, image, etc.), and inject the e-gifting button/UI into a configured location on the page. When the “e-gift” button is pressed by a user, the gift transaction system 200 may extract additional metadata from the page (currently displayed price, image, attribute selection if any, etc.) and trigger an e-gifting checkout. All the above code logic may be implemented by the gift transaction system 200, rather than the legacy digital store front, and the store front does not need to change any of its systems (e.g., neither front end nor backend).
Furthermore, legacy merchant store front platforms can only communicate and perform logic on either abstract products (which is a set of all SKUs) or SKUs which is a physical product including all attributes (e.g., size, color, fit, length, etc.) selected. In order to allow e-gifting a product and enable a legacy merchant store front to perform all the needed logic, a new entity needs to be created—“Gift Product”—which is more specific than a high level abstract product but less specific than a single SKU. As described herein, this is a subset of product SKUs, for example all sizes of a shirt with red color. Enhancing the many layers of the legacy merchant store front to work with this new entity would be a prohibitive effort for a store, as the store's systems would need to be adjusted to allowing adding to cart, checking out, managing the order, fulfilling, etc., products that are not SKUs and do not have all the information like size/color selected.
Accordingly, in some embodiments, the gift transaction system 200 may be configured to translate the legacy merchant store front's IDs, product IDs, SKUs, etc., along with any potential attribute selections a user has made (e.g., size and/or color) into Gift Products, then after performing all the send/accept/exchange logic on behalf of the legacy merchant store front, the gift transaction system 200 translates the information back into SKUs. This way there is no need for the store system to change and all the translation/logic is done by the gift transaction system 200.Typically, merchant store fronts can either allow users to buy a physical product, where full SKU, shipping address, etc., is required by its system and a product is fulfilled; or a gift card, which is essentially creates a merchant store front is stored value account with associated dollar amount. It is not possible to send a real gift with properties of a gift card (e.g., recipient makes the final choice before anything ships). Also, it is not possible to send a gift card with the properties of a real gift (e.g., if the user likes the gift, they do not see any gift card codes, prices, do not need to add to cart, checkout, enter gift card number etc.). Legacy merchant store fronts do not have the ability to combine the merchant store front's capability to receive orders of real products with their capability of selling/creating gift cards in a way that would merge the benefits of both in one seamless transaction, without significant/prohibitive changes to store systems.
Therefore, in some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 may combine the ability of the merchant store front to sell stored value (e.g., a gift card) with the merchant store front a capability of selling physical gifts. This may be accomplished, for example, by orchestrating both orders between sender and recipients, by saving the given gift metadata in a database of the gift transaction system 200 platform, and hosting all orchestration logic on behalf of the merchant store front (e.g., merchant system 212). The merchant store front may then be provided regular orders for gift cards and products without the need for any changes to its systems, and gift transaction system 200 may handle the missing pieces of logic/orchestration.
When merchant store front systems process orders they are setup to send various e-mails for various stages of order processing lifecycle. With gifting, because of the differences versus traditional purchases, these e-mails cannot be used. For example: when a product is purchased the store system sends an e-mail to the user with order confirmation info for example, “you purchased a shirt for $50 and it's being shipped to Santa Monica, Calif.”. With e-gifting, when the sender places the order, they are purchasing stored value (gift card) behind the scenes and there is no shipping address available, but it is not possible to send a gift card confirmation email to a buyer who just purchased an e-gift for a shirt. Similarly, when accepting a gift, the recipient just needs to enter the shipping address and does not need to see prices, even though in fact they are “paying” with a hidden gift card etc. If the merchant store front would send a regular email, the recipient would accept the gift, and immediately get an e-mail saying “you just bought a $50 shirt and paid with gift card #1234”, which is unacceptable. As the stores cannot execute the logic needed for e-gifting (as explained herein), and the gift transaction system 200 is orchestrating the sender/recipient transactions, merchant store fronts ordinarily need to update gift transaction system 200 about various events/states in the store order management lifecycle for example, when the order is confirmed and its order number, when the final recipient order ships etc.
Typically, in order for gift transaction system 200 to receive the notifications about various order states from the store order management systems, it would need to integrate gift transaction system 200 maAPIs into various layers and platforms that manage orders, and call one or more APIs of gift transaction system 200 when a certain states are reached. For example, when the final physical product is shipped, merchant system 212 would need to call gift transaction system 200 the API to notify it about this event. As the merchant store fronthi enterprise/legacy systems are very complicated and cannot be easily changed, integrating with 3rd party APIs (e.g., an API of gift transaction system 200) would be a very complicated and cost prohibitive effort.
Therefore, in some embodiments, when submitting regular store orders after gift transaction system 200 performed its orchestration logic, gift transaction system 200 may mimic a transaction between a user and the legacy merchant store front prior to a final selection of a specific product from the gift product group. As understood herein, mimicking may refer to interacting with the user and/or the merchant store front so as to sufficiently enable the gifting without an actual transaction occurring between the user and the merchant store front, e.g., implementing the various actions and logic described herein. In some embodiments, when submitting regular store orders after gift transaction system 200 performed its orchestration logic, gift transaction system 200 generates and provides a gift transaction system email address to merchant system 212. As far as the merchant system 212 is concerned it gets a usual order with a usual email address associated with it. When the order reaches different states, the store sends its regular e-mails to the address on the order, which in this case is the e-mail address provided by gift transaction system 200. In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 then locates the gift transaction in its system, analyzes and filters the incoming e-mail, changes the gift state in the system and sends an appropriately formatted e-mail to the end user. This way nothing needs to change in the store legacy systems and they send regular emails regularly, and gift transaction system 200 is responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing, filtering and sending the final emails.
Typically, in order for gift transaction system 200 to perform e-gifting logic on the merchant store front, it needs several pieces of functionality, for example, retrieving information about merchant store front products, submitting orders to the merchant store front etc. Many merchant store front systems do not have APIs that would expose these functionalities that are may be required for gift transaction system 200 to execute these functions properly.
Requiring the stores to create these APIs in their enterprise legacy systems is often cost/time prohibitive for the legacy merchant store fronts. Legacy merchant store fronts would be required to create a specification/requirements that are needed for integration product, cart, order and other APIs, and allocate significant resources/budgets in order to implement and expose these APIs into various store systems. This is often cost/time prohibitive.
Therefore, in some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 may automatically simulate one or more user interactions on the store and allow gift transaction system 200 to perform any action that is available for end users on the store retrieving metadata about products, submitting orders etc. This may include, for example, analyzing the merchant store front to identify and store all available functionality and options available to a user navigating and/or accessing the merchant store front. This may include identifying available interactive buttons and/or links, fill-in boxes, drop-down menus, etc. With this capability, the merchant store front does not need to invest any resources and as long as its main user-facing website (e.g., the website available to a user purchasing an item) is functional, gift transaction system 200 is able to perform all the needed actions on the legacy merchant store front.
In should be noted that, in some embodiments, when a user purchases an e-gift there is no order for the physical underlying product, but the transaction effectively creates stored value instead. Among other reasons, this may be required because users can send products and not SKUs so what is being sent is “red shirt in any size,” which is not something that can be put on hold. A real store order is only created when the recipient comes to redeem the gift and chooses the final SKU. In the time window between sending the e-gift and the recipient choosing the SKU the price of the product can increase, or a promotion (like free shipping) can expire, meaning that the funds available on the stored value account (e.g., the gift card) no longer cover the gift +shipping +taxes. Because it is a gift, it would not be acceptable to ask users to add additional funds to cover the difference to redeem their gift.
Merchant store fronts typically can only accept orders at the current prices of products with current promotions not being expired. Merchant store fronts typically do not save data about historical prices of product and past promotions in their systems, so it is not possible for them to ‘honor’ historical prices/promotions at the time e-gift was purchased.
Therefore, in some embodiments, when and e-gift is purchased, gift transaction system 200 securely calls/contacts the store to receive the current price of the product and all applicable promotions. Gift transaction system 200 may then save a snapshot of the available product/SKUs and the total the store quoted at the time of purchase. When the recipient accepts the gift, gift transaction system 200 may perform security checks against its previously saved date and applies one of its price guarantee mechanisms, which allows the store to accept the order at the historical price/promotions which were available at the time of purchase, without needing to implement anything or have the ability to save historical prices/promos.
Price guarantee mechanisms gift transaction system 200 may implement may include: When submitting the order, if gift transaction system 200 determines there are X dollars that are missing due to price increase/expired promotion, gift transaction system 200 may add a corporate credit card associated with the gift transaction system 200 to the order details. Merchant system 212 charges the card for the delta behind the two as it would charge a user (on a business level, gift transaction system 200 may invoice the merchant system 200 separately which reimburses these amounts back to gift transaction system 200).
Gift transaction system 200 may include a database of “secret coupons” for each store. When submitting the order, if gift transaction system 200 determines there are X dollars that are missing due to price increase/expired promotion, gift transaction system 200 may retrieve the closest secret coupon from its database and apply it to the order, effectively reducing the total by the amount of the coupon and bringing it down to the funds available on the e-gift.
When merchant system 212 sends the card calculation with prices/taxes/shipping, it may securely sign the returned data with its secret (private) key. When gift transaction system 200 submits the final recipient order, gift transaction system 200 sends the original quote with an original cryptographic signature back to the store. Because only the merchant system 212 has its secret key and the data is signed, it can trust the calculation and allow the order through at its original price, without needing to validate prices and/or keep historical pricing data. This requires minimal additional development on the merchant store front side (if not already in place), still without the need to implement any historical prices etc.
The gift transaction system 200 also includes a media plug-in interface module 214. The media plug-in interface module 214 can be an API for a third-party website, such as a social media service or a destination website. For example, the media plug-in interface module 214 can link third-party websites and services to the buyer interface module 202. Further, the media plug-in interface module 214 can also access the social media service to download social graph information related to either the buyer or the recipient from the social media service. For another example, the media plug-in interface module 214 can link the buyer interface module 202 to the destination websites, such as a link or an embedded widget of the buyer interface on social blogging websites, the Pinterest™. website, social media websites, auction websites, ancestry history websites, dating websites, or other websites. The buyer interface module 202 can provide a script to embed access to the buyer interface as a gifting widget within the third party websites. A widget may be for example a software application including portable code intended for one or more different software platforms, and which may be placed, embedded or installed on an existing software application to provide additional functionality.
The media plug-in interface module 214 can further facilitate followers of celebrities to send real gifts to the celebrities via social media websites. The followers need not to have the actual shipping address of the celebrities. The followers (e.g., buyers) can initiate a gift transaction via the buyer interface. The buyer interface can provide to the follower a link to a gift notification page. The link can be manually or automatically posted on social media networks such as Facebook/Twitter. While links to the gift transactions can be broadcasted publicly, only the intended recipient can claim the gift item and receive it after authentication using an underlying social network connected to the gift transaction system 200 via the media plug-in interface module 214. The public can either only view the gift item or the link would show nothing to a viewer who is not the intended recipient, where preference of such would be set by the buyer or be pre-set by a system-wide setting. The inverse can also apply to the gift transaction system 200 where gifts from a celebrity can be sent out to the followers of the celebrity on a social media network without the need for a shipping address or a contact email. The celebrity can share a link generated from the buyer interface, and restrict claiming of the gifts to followers of the celebrity account on a social media network, such as Twitter™ or Facebook Pages. In another example, an organization can authorize the human resource department or management to send employee gifts in an electronic way, or for employees to send to other employees gifts (such as a manager-employee relationship within an organization) without knowing the recipient's physical address.
The buyer interface module 202 can be activated when gift intent is detected in the store front interface 210. Once the gift intent is detected, the store front interface 210 can be set to a gift mode. In the gift mode, the buyer interface module 202 can readily generate the buyer interface to select items to send to potential recipients. The buyer interface module 202 can enable immediate sending off of gifts by reducing the steps needed for the gift sending process. A gift can be send by receiving a selection of at least one gift and receiving a contact point for the recipient. The contact point can be an email address of the recipient or a social media account. Hence the buyer interface module 202 enables a way to send real gifts without knowing the shipping address of the recipient. The buyer interface module 202 can also initiate sending of a gift item prior to payment.
The buyer interface module 202 through the buyer interface enables the buyer to define the gift, including bundled gift items. The buyer interface module 202 allows the buyer to specify an overall exchange budget aside from selecting a gift item. The buyer interface module 202 allows the buyer to select the gift item without fully customizing the gift item. For example, the gift item can be sent without knowing the color preference or size of the gift item. The full customization can be left to the recipient interface module 204
If the buyer interface module 202 provides the buyer interface to a device with a camera, the buyer interface module 202 can facilitate snapping a picture of an item at a store to initiate a gift transaction. The picture can be part of a gift greeting page/card to be sent together with the gift item notice. The buyer interface module 202 can also facilitate snapping a picture of a product identifier, such as UPC code, to be used to select the gift item via a merchant backend interface module 216. The gift item notice can then be generated from the gift item identified by the product identifier.
The gift greeting page/card can be personalized by a buyer, including personalized message, background, multimedia effects, pictures, photographs, animations, video clips, sound bites, or any combination thereof. The gift greeting page/card can also be generated based on templates pre-determined on the buyer interface module 202. For example, the gift greeting page/card by default can include a photo of the gift item from either the buyer's device or from the merchant store front. For another example, the gift greeting page/card can include an advertisement from the manufacturer or reseller of the product. Because advertisements of products and services are well thought out messages appealing to consumers on an emotional level, a connection between a pre-existing advertisement multimedia and gifts broadens the reaches of market branding of such products or services
Once a gift greeting page/card along with a gift notice has been sent, the buyer interface module 202 can store the pending gift transaction on a pending transaction store 218. The gift greeting page/card along with the gift notice generated can be sent over to a recipient contact point including an email account, a social media/network account, a cellular phone message center (e.g., SMS or WhatsApp™), or any combination thereof. The gift greeting page/card can also be printed out via a printer coupled to the client devices 206. A website link to the recipient interface module 204 can be provided on the gift card.
The recipient interface module 204 is configured to generate an interface for a gift recipient, where the interface is accessible from the client devices 206. The recipient interface module 204 can generate a gift recipient interface as a mobile phone application, a webpage, an embedded widget within a webpage, a POS terminal interface, a kiosk interface, a gaming console interface, or any combination thereof.
The recipient interface module 204 can provide to the gift recipient an interactive gift notification sent to the contact point (e.g., email address) of the recipient. For example, the recipient interface module 204 can render the gift notification and any multimedia attachment. For example, the gift notification can include greeting text, audio message, or video message from the buyer. The gift notification can also include marketing material associated with the gift item or tutorial information associated with the gift item. This content can come from the online store, a database storage of the gift transaction system 200, or a third party content provider that has access to the gift transaction system 200 through various APIs or other means. The recipient interface module 204 can receive and store a gift list from the gift recipients
The buyer interface module 202 and the recipient interface module 204 can provide post-gift-transaction management, such as a list of previously received gifts and from who the gift was sent. Either the buyer or the recipient can review this information to determine whether they should be returning a social favor, and whether it is socially appropriate to send or re-send a gift item. Suggestions to return the social favor can also be generated on the buyer interface or the recipient interface
The buyer interface module 202 and the recipient interface module 204 can iteratively optimize up-sale items and UI elements in the gift transaction process by reconfiguring the up-sale items and the UI elements for different buyers and recipients to maximize transactions.
The gift transaction system 200 includes a transaction store 220. The transaction store 220 is a database containing completed gift transactions that has passed through the gift transaction system 200. The transaction store 220 can be accessed by the merchant system 212 or other third-party services via an API.
The gift transaction system 200 includes the merchant backend interface module 216. The merchant backend interface module 216 is configured to access databases of the merchant system 212, such as the merchant system 104 of
The gift transaction system 200 includes a reminder module 222. The reminder module 222 is configured to generate a reminder message to potential buyers to purchase gifts. The reminder message can be generated for specific recipients, for specific occasions, with specific gifts, or any combination thereof. The reminder message can be sent via email, cellular message, mobile application notification, social media services, physical delivery, browser pop-up, or any combination thereof. The reminder module 222 can be coupled to the media plug-in interface module 214 to access social graph information of a potential buyer from a social media service, such as Facebook™.
For example, the reminder module 222 can determine whether to generate a reminder message based on relationship strength between a buyer and a recipient, urgency of a special occasion, profile information of the buyer or the recipient, privacy setting of the buyer or the recipient, gift-related configuration of the buyer or recipient account, or any combination thereof. The relationship strength can be provided by the social graph, can be based on the number of mutual friends, the number of gift transactions between the buyer and the recipient, or other heuristic related to the transaction store 220 and/or the social graph. The reminder module 222 can provide a discount to a gift transaction initiated from the reminder message.
The reminder module 222 can also be configured to re-connect with a gift recipient to manage any pending gift transactions or recently completed gift transactions. For example, the reminder module 222 can send reminders to the recipient of a gift item to open the gift alert to accept or exchange the gift item. The reminder module 222 can also inform the recipient and/or the buyer when the price of the item is about to change, such as within 16 hours.
The reminder module 222 can be configured to avoid spam filters and improve readability. For example, the buyer or gift sender name can be place in every message to the recipient and vice versa. Personal languages and greetings input should be encouraged in the buyer interface module 202 and the recipient interface module 204 to personalize reminder messages. Consecutive messages can be differentiated by different phrasing and/or language structure and size. The reminder module 222 can allow the buyer or the recipient to personalize each message sent prior to sending. For completed gift transactions, the reminder module 222 can provide tutorials or product branding videos to the recipients to enhance the user experience of the gift transaction system 200.
The gift transaction system 200 includes a curation module 224. The curation module 224 is configured to provide item recommendations to the buyer through the buyer interface module 202 or to the recipient through the recipient interface module 204. The item recommendations can be based on business intelligence and user taste profiling generated by the gift transaction system 200 as described below. The item recommendations can also be based on proprietary information from the merchant system 212.
The gift transaction system 200 includes a gift card module 228. The gift card module 228 can be coupled to a stored value provider 232. The gift card module 228 is configured to generate a gift card with stored value for a recipient. The gift card module 228 can generate the gift card in response to the recipient interface module 204 detecting a positive balance after an exchange of a gift item has occurred. The gift card module 228 can include specific gift associated with the gift card. The gift card can include one or several gift item alternatives. The gift card module 228 can also include videos, photos, tutorials, interactive greetings, or any combination thereof. A physical version of the gift card can be printed with a link to access the electronic contents for the gift card.
In one embodiment, the gift card generated can have three states: clean, registered, or paid for. In the clean state, the gift card has a barcode and a product or store information, but there is no sender/recipient information, no custom greeting, and no payment balance. In the registered mode, the gift card has sender/recipient information in addition to the other information in the clean mode, but the gift card has no payment balance. In the paid for mode, the gift card has a payment balance and has all of the information in the registered mode. Either a buyer or a recipient of the gift card can register the gift card in clean mode and convert it to the registered mode. The buyer then can be contacted by the gift transaction system 200 to make payment for the payment balance of the gift card. Once payment is received, the gift card is changed to the pay-for mode.
In some embodiments, a representative card or other item such as a “RealGift” card (or an equivalent device, product, item, etc.) may be provided to enable various e-gifting options (e.g., representative item 114 of
Accordingly, in some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 may create a database of inactive merchant store front gift card numbers in a gift transaction system 200 database (e.g., stored in a memory as shown in
In some embodiments, when a recipient is redeeming the RealGift card, the experience maybe identical to e-gifting: if they accept the gift, they cannot see the price, do not need to add anything to cart, checkout, see and apply gift card codes etc. If a RealGift card was implemented, e.g., as a gift card with an image of a product, this would not be possible or easy with legacy merchant systems alone, and the gift would behave like a gift card and not like a gift. In order to allow seamless redemption of RealGift card, in some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 relies on one or more of the various embodiments described herein for integration with store merchant systems to provide minimal and easy modification to such systems and allowing gift transaction system 200 logic to function. Such additional logic and functionality may include, for example: 1. Translation of product and SKU (or other product) level data into “Gift Product” data for gift transactions and back into store SKU or product data; 2. Tax and shipping estimation modules; 3. Orchestration logic between stored value and physical goods orders 4. Email analysis, translation and filtering system 5. Automatic information extraction and order submission system; and 6. Price guarantee system.
In the prior art gifting landscape there are two distinct categories of gifts—gift cards and real gifts. Gift cards typically do not have a product associated with them, but even if they do, they typically come to the recipient in the form of a card that has a number, dollar balance, etc., and it is up to the recipient to go and buy the gift themselves, using the gift card as a payment. This involves extra effort and work (compared to embodiments of the present invention) for the gift recipient and the recipient seeing the full prices of products involved etc. In any case, no inventory or real products are reserved for the recipient until they place the final order. Real gifts (e.g., an actual specific and physical item: a physical shirt, a physical bicycle) are given to the recipient, typically with their price hidden, but not always. If the recipient wants to exchange the gift they can take/ship it back to the store, at which point they typically get store credit they could use towards another product.
One problem that embodiments of the present invention (e.g., the gift transaction system 200, described herein) may solve includes for example how to allow users to send a real physical gift (optionally having to choose specific SKU—size/color/etc.), but for the experience to be optionally backed behind the scenes by stored credit mechanism (a few examples for which could be—a gift card, or an escrow account to hold gift funds, or credit card authorization for the gift amount etc.), without forcing the reservation of inventory at the time the gift is sent. When no inventory is reserved, by the time the recipient comes to claim the gift, the gift can be sold-out or its price could be higher than the original, in which case the recipient will not be able to claim the gift without paying more, or at all (if the gift is out-of-stock). The ability of sending a gift without actually reserving inventory and use stored value, escrow or similar mechanism in the background also allows sending products that are back-ordered or out-of-stock as gifts.
The challenge is to create a good user experience for the main scenario in which there was no change in price and availability since the gift was purchased and also seamlessly and gracefully handle exception scenarios when the product has been sold-out or its price has increased.
In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 may treat the gift that is being sent in dual matter the main scenario in which there was no change in price and availability since the gift+tax+shipping+additional potential charges or discounts (like premium gift wrapping options, personalized greeting cards, etc.).
In some embodiments, when one or more gifts are being sent, gift transaction system 200 may record the products being sent and their price, e.g., in a database in a memory (e.g.,
In some embodiments, at the time the recipient comes to claim the gifts, gift transaction system 200 may determine the current product price and availability for each gift (either via real-time API call, or through a feed etc.) In some embodiments, if the stored credit (or gift card etc.) amount that is backing the gift(s) is sufficient to claim the original products without additional payment, present the gifts that were sent as real products, without mentioning the price, gift card etc. to the recipient, and allowing them to easily finalize the transaction. In some embodiments, if the price or availability of some of the original products has changed, gift transaction system 200 may direct the recipient into an alternative flow, in which the original gift products that are now out-of-stock (or had their price increased) appear as a ‘suggestion’ so that it appears that the sender actually sent a gift card or stored value with a suggestion for these products. As such, if there is no exception in price/availability the sender feels like they received a real product, in case of an exception they feel like they received a gift card with a thoughtful product suggestion, and in both cases the user experience feels natural and thoughtful to the recipient.
Online stores and e-commerce platforms are able to calculate tax and shipping charges given a specific shipping address for a product. When the gift is being sent virtually with gift transaction system 200, the sender is able to send it via for example email, Facebook™, text message etc., optionally without knowing the recipient's shipping address. If the amount gift transaction system 200 charges the sender for the gift product only covers the product price, without tax and shipping charges, the recipients would need to pay while accepting the gift.
Therefore, in some embodiments, a goal of gift transaction system 200 is to prevent a situation in which the recipient needs to add money just to accept the original gift. Thus it charges the sender for the sum of the product price and estimated tax and shipping charges. This may create a problem—gift transaction system 200 must estimate tax and shipping charges without knowing the exact shipping address. Therefore, in some embodiments, by default, gift transaction system 200 may estimate tax and/or shipping or other expenses that would be sufficient to ship the product anywhere in the target shipping region (e.g. all of the US). If the sender knows approximately where the recipient lives (like a specific state, CA), gift transaction system 200 may allow the sender to specify that region and perform a tax and/or shipping estimation that would allow shipping the gift anywhere in that target region without additional payment.
This may pose an additional challenge—gift transaction system 200 may need to calculate tax and/or shipping, not based on a specific shipping address (the only functionality current stores support), but based on a region—for example, all of the US or California. While custom software could potentially be developed in every store to provide that functionality, because every store has completely different implementation, integration and logic to calculate tax and shipping charges, this becomes a non-trivial task that would need to be done for every store and/or every ecommerce platform.
Therefore, in some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 may calculate/estimate tax and shipping charges based on target region rather than a specific address, while utilizing merchant system 212's tax and shipping calculation logic/software and without needing to make changes to this logic (to support estimation vs specific address calculation) within the store.
In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 may attempt to calculate the maximal tax and shipping charges across the target area (all of the US, CA etc.). This way, the recipients mostly do no need to add money to accept the gift, and at worst, would be left with the store credit after accepting.
In some embodiments gift transaction system 200 may request a simple “Cart” API from the store, that given a list of product SKUs or IDs, shipping method and shipping address calculates the cart subtotals, shipping and tax charges (among other things). As this API accepts only a specific shipping address, exposing this API is not a problem for most stores.
In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 may implement logic to generate or look-up a specific “representative” shipping address for any given target region, based on store settings, in combination with internal tax and shipping tables etc. For example: if the sender is sending a gift and would like to cover charges “anywhere in the US” or “CA”, gift transaction system 200 logic might perform, for example:
1. For shipping: a. gift transaction system 200 may know the most expensive location in the target region to ship to (most expensive state where this store ships or most expensive locations). This info can be setup manually in gift transaction system 200 for every store, or queried periodically by gift transaction system 200 from the store etc. b. For each region, state or area, gift transaction system 200 may store a table of “representative” shipping addresses. For example, it Converts i. the US region→most expensive state(s)→specific representative address in that state, ii. the CA region→most expensive address in that region. c. Then gift transaction system 200 may feed or provide that representative address to a Cart API in the store (e.g., an API enabling access to cart related functions of a merchant's backend system. This produces the shipping charges that should cover shipping anywhere in the target region.
2. For taxes: a. gift transaction system 200 may know a list of all states or regions where the store charges taxes. This information can be setup manually in gift transaction system 200 for every store, or queried periodically by gift transaction system 200 from the store etc. b. Once the sender specifies the target region (all of USA, California etc.), gift transaction system 200 may look up the sub-location where the taxes are maximal, then looks up the ‘representative’ address it has in its database for that location. c. Then gift transaction system 200 may feed or provide that representative address to the Cart API in the store. This produces the tax charges that should cover tax anywhere in the target region.
In absence of full Cart API provided by the merchant store front, gift transaction system 200 can optionally host and manage tax and shipping rule tables, for example, to cover things like “$20 shipping for orders under $100 and free shipping above $100”, “10% tax rate in CA for these products” etc. etc. This can allow the full tax and shipping estimation without depending on the store APIs—partially or fully. Other additional charges separate from tax or shipping may be similarly estimated.
These rule tables can be created and maintained manually on the gift transaction system 200 side for each store, or automatically—for example by periodically feeding or providing the store with various input addresses and recording the tax and shipping charges for each input address, region and location.
In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 can also offer the sender to add a ‘buffer’ or additional funds to the gift amount to ensure that in case the tax and shipping calculation is not accurate, or in case the sender wants to offer recipient more flexibility in exchange options (to be able to exchange to more expensive products or options), or just to allow the sender to buy a larger overall gift which would allow the recipient to both get the gift from the sender and/or be able to get additional products from the store for themselves. For example, if a sender is sending a $50 shirt and tax and shipping estimation is $10, in addition to paying $60 for the gift, the sender can add another $20 to make sure the recipient can either exchange to a more expensive shirt in the store or get an additional item (like gloves) in addition to the original gift. The amount of the additional buffer can also be suggested and recommended to sender by the system, for example based on various factors such as other products in the same category, other product options etc.
Currently, the only way to add products to an on-line shopping cart and subsequently checkout is to select all required product attributes such as size/color prior to adding to the cart. This is a reasonable task when the user is buying the product for themselves, but when buying the product for someone else (or in other shopping scenarios where some or all of the attributes are unknown to the buyer or the buyer is unsure about the correct selection) it creates barriers and potentially prevents buyers from completing the transaction. For example, this may occur in the case of a buyer for a gift that could not make the purchase because they do not know the recipients size, are not sure about their color preference etc.
In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 may allow buyers and/or gift senders to add to cart and/or send a gift without having to choose all these attributes, by allowing the recipient to fill-in their preferences. In order to effectively educate users about this capability of not having to choose product attributes as part of sending the gift with gift transaction system 200, in some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 may add a new option to color/size/attribute selection user interface (UI) elements—for example, this option can read “I'm not sure, it's a gift” or any other variation or message. For example, the product size drop-down element can have a new item together with “Small/Medium/Large” that says “I'm not sure, it's a gift”, etc. As another example, multiple color swatch images can have an additional UI element that says something equivalent to “It's a gift, but I'm not sure what they prefer.” Once users engage with this new UI element, multiple actions can be performed, for example:
In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 (or merchant store front) can display an educational UI to educate users about this new ability of not having to choose specific attributes. In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 (or merchant store front) start the system e-gifting checkout/add-to-cart process that allows sending without specifying the attributes. In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 (or merchant store front) alter the state of the “Add to cart” button to add to gift transaction system 200 gift cart instead of regular cart, which would subsequently result in a gift transaction system 200 checkout. In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 (or merchant store front) can alter the state of the regular store cart to specify that the checkout from the regular store cart page should be gift transaction system 200 gift checkout.
As an alternative to triggering gift transaction system 200 checkout that does not require choosing specific size/color/attributes, and in cases where it is preferred for whatever reason to have user choose a specific SKU and add to the regular store cart, gift transaction system 200 may implement one or more of the following once “I'm not sure” UI element is triggered to for example: 1. Show educational UI to tell users they can choose any attribute value (for example, medium size) because the recipient can easily change/specify their correct size. 2. Automatically select some attribute for the user (like auto select Medium size), so now the product can be added to the regular cart.
In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 may perform dynamic injection—in order to facilitate adding this new UI option to stores attribute selectors, gift transaction system 200 can dynamically detect the presence of such selector (for example, drop-down for Size selection) and automatically add this new option to the list of available options. Alternatively, the store can add this option to their attribute selector, and gift transaction system 200 can optionally handle user interaction with this option with ways outlined above.
Currently, online stores assume that shoppers are buying products for themselves. They are not optimized for shoppers buying products for someone else as gifts. Moreover they are definitely not optimized for gift recipients that are browsing the store while considering exchange options. One of the most important aspects of thoughtful gifting is to hide the price of the gift being given, because often from the human psychology point of view money and thoughtfulness are mutually exclusive. When embodiments (e.g., gift transaction system 200) allow people to buy real gifts online using the gift transaction system 200 experience, it hides the price of the product(s) being given, exactly as if the sender bought a product and removed the price tag.
In the real world, without gift transaction system 200, when the recipient returns or exchanges the gift, they typically discover the price of their gift so they know how much balance they have at their disposal for getting alternative products. This means that while the original gift without the price tag is thoughtful, the exchange process breaks down that thoughtfulness by exposing prices to the recipient. With gift transaction system 200, the exchange process may happen online, which means that gift transaction system 200 can facilitate exchanges without revealing the price of the original gift.
This can be achieved in multiple ways. First, when users specify they are interested to exchange their original gift online, gift transaction system 200 can offer alternative products in a similar price range, without revealing their price and the price of the original product. In some embodiments, gift transaction system 200 can source these products from: 1. the store catalog gift transaction system 200 can ingest prior, or on the fly; 2. same/similar product categories; 3. original gift up-sell or cross-sell or related products; 4. based on gift transaction system 200 internal data and statistic around store products profile, product vertical profile, industry wide profile, sender profile, recipient profile.
In some embodiments, once an alternative product is presented, instead of showing its price, gift transaction system 200 can only indicate to the user whether the alternative product is: 1. Covered by the original gift amount (and optionally, how much funds would remain if that product is cheaper and is selected as gift); 2. Is more expensive than the original product, in which case only the delta of how much more needs to be paid by the recipient can be presented (rather than the full price). Alternatively or in addition to gift transaction system 200 presenting potential exchange product options, gift transaction system 200 can direct the user to the regular store pages to choose an alternative product right in the store from the entire product catalog.
In some embodiments, once the recipient is directed back to the merchant store front to complete the transaction, gift transaction system 200 can place a cookie or another indicator on the merchant store front to indicate that the recipient is in ‘gift exchange mode’ ii. In that mode, gift transaction system 200 can dynamically detect all prices presented on store pages (product/category/search result/etc.) and hide the price, indicating the delta of this product in respect to the original gift—covered/add +$X/or covered with $Y left. iii. In addition to hiding the prices, gift transaction system 200 can optionally add additional UI elements to store product representations, to clearly indicate which products in the store would be covered by the original gift amount, making them good alternatives to the original gift.
In some embodiments, in exchange mode, the user adds product to the store cart as usual. Gift transaction system 200 can hide prices and totals in cart UI elements as well, and only show price deltas (covered by gift, need to add $X). Once the user is ready to checkout they can do so using gift transaction system 200 checkout (or in alternative flows, store checkout if it has been optimized for gift transaction system 200 gift redemption).
In some embodiments, hiding the prices and replacing them with only price deltas can be done by gift transaction system 200 JavaScript code on the fly—by either automatically detecting price/currency related UI elements (for example, those that have structure $XXX) or by store marking these elements for gift transaction system 200. In an alternative implementation, on the server side, the store detects Gift Exchange Mode and rewrites all price elements to deltas or ‘hidden’, based on gift transaction system 200 logic and guidelines.
The gift transaction system 200 includes an analytics module 234. The analytics module 234 is configured to analyze user interactions through the gift transaction system 200, including social media systems and merchant systems connected to the gift transaction system 200. The analytics module 234 can also be configured to calculate relevant behavioral trends regarding each recipient and each buyer relative to each merchant. The analytics module 234 can record both the interaction analysis and behavioral trends, such as recording the analysis and trends in an analytics database store 238.
The analytics module 234 can generate user-based analytics databases as well as gift-item-based (product based or service based) analytics databases in the analytics database store 238. These databases can be based on an analysis of the transaction store 220 combined with social graph information from a social media service via the media plug-in interface module 214. The databases in the analytics database store 238 can also be combined with proprietary information from a specific merchant via the merchant backend interface module 216. For example, the interaction analysis can include strength of relationships between the buyer and the recipient. For example, the behavioral trends can include the most likely product for the recipient and the buyer to purchase. The behavioral trends can also include the likelihood that a social event (e.g., birthdays) associated with a buyer account stored on a social media website accessed through the media plug-in interface module 214 is likely to generate a gift transaction.
Gift item related analysis can include preferred products per specific users or profiles, end to end product cycle, upselling analysis including amount, type of events, and type of products that maximizes up-sales, or any combination thereof. The product related analysis can be used to generate recommendation feeds on the buyer interface module 202 or the recipient interface module 204. Product related analysis can also include exchange rates of each product, such as which products are being exchanged by recipients more frequently, as well as analyzing attributes of products or links between type of products that are being exchanged to and from other type of products.
Gift item related analysis includes calculation of a giftability score. The giftability score is used by the gift transaction system 200 to sort products and services by their fit for being a good gift. The giftability score serves to better predict whether a certain gift item would make a good gift in the eyes of consumers. The analytics module 234 can record which gift items are the most popular for being sent as gifts. The analytics module 234 can also record which gift items are more likely to be accepted by the recipient versus being exchanged. The analytics module 234 can further record which gift items are frequently selected as a replacement item in a gift exchange. The analytics module 234 can calculate a weighted average of the above metrics. Other gift-related signals can also be added to the weighted average, such as time to gift acceptance, time to exchange, and etc.
User-based analytics can be used to modify the giftability score. For example, a modified giftability score can be calculated based on user-specific demographics. User-specific demographics can includes geographical regions of the buyer or recipient, age range of the buyer or recipient, taste profiles of the buyer or recipient, social networks of the buyer or recipient, profile information of the buyer or recipient, other buyer or recipient profile information, or any combination thereof. The specific taste profile can be determined based on past purchases, past exchanges, social network explicit or implicit connections (e.g., Facebook™ likes), website broadcasts (e.g., tweets via Twitter™ and pins via Pinterest™), personal attributes entered and/or known by either the buyer or the recipient, or any combination thereof. The modified giftability score can also be calculated based on a personalized behavior trend. The user-specific demographics and the user-specific behavior trend can include adjustments to the general giftability score of the gift-item. This user-specific demographic or personalization adjustment can be calculated in real-time as a buyer interface is generated, or pre-calculated asynchronously from the real-time purchase. Sorting by gift item centric giftability score, demographic-specific giftability score, or personalized giftability score would allow progressively better gift recommendation and curation to occur.
The giftability score can be used by the buyer interface module 202 to present products and services as potential options as a gift item. The giftability score can be used by the recipient interface module 204 to present products and services as potential options for gift exchanges. The giftability score can be used by the curation module 224 to sort the item recommendation list generated by the curation module 224. The giftability score can further be used by the reminder module 222 to determine gift item recommendations for specific gifting reminders.
The analytics module 234 can generate valuable business intelligence including conversion rate of reminder messages from the reminder module 222, up-sale rates from recommendation feeds of the curation module 224, buyer purchasing profile, recipient purchasing profile, recipient gift exchange rate and preference, social graphs of the buyer or the recipient, other monetization metrics from the merchant system 212, or any combination thereof.
The analytics module 234 can generate a gift social graph amongst user accounts. The gift social graph can be a modification of a social graph retrieved from a social media service. The gift social graph can define relationships and interactions between user accounts. The strength of the relationship can be calculated as described above, further including amount and price of gift items in gift transactions. The gift social graph can include a profile of each user account.
The analytics module 234 can generate a taste profile for different user types, such as gender, age, or geographical location. The analytics module 234 can identify user types based on grouping of gift transaction data. Each taste profile is then associated with preferred brands and/or product categories. Personal information is aggregated into the taste profiles that drive the recommendation feed of the curation module 224. The merchant system 212 can have access to the analytics database store 238 to utilize the business intelligence to improve monetization of the merchant sales.
The analytics database store 238 can further include a shipping address database that associates shipping addresses with email addresses, social media accounts, phone numbers, or any combination thereof. The shipping address database can be used to pre-fill recipient shipping address on the recipient interface module 204. The shipping address database can be used for tax or shipping cost estimations. The analytics module 234 can determine a certainty level of each shipping address. The aggressiveness of using the stored shipping addresses in the buyer and recipient interfaces can be adjusted based on the certainty level.
The gift transaction system 200 includes a security module 240. The security module 240 is configured to prevent fraud associated with the gift transaction. The security module 240 can be coupled to the recipient interface module 204 to authenticate the recipient by email account access or social media service sign-in. The buyer and/or the recipient can also authenticate in other explicit or implicit manners, such as passphrase, secret questions or shared experience questions. The security module 240 can also limit frequency of receiving or sending of gifts. The security module 240 can also cross check gift transaction geolocations to ensure that the gift transactions occur consistently geographically. When an inconsistency is detected, the gift transaction is halted pending an investigation.
Other fraud prevention mechanisms can include: (a) detecting, rejecting, or flagging internet protocol (IP) addresses that belong to proxies and anonymizers; (b) verifying geographical location via IP address of the recipient is within the same region as the shipping address; (c) ensuring that all requests around a gift transaction come from the same physical region, such as via IP-based geographical location; (d) cross-referencing billing address with the buyer's IP-based geographical location; (e) verifying contact points, such as email addresses or social media accounts, to ensure that they are not newly created; (f) ranking generic email addresses (e.g., free accounts like @yahoo.com and @gmail.com) lower than corporate addresses in terms of security risk; (g) cross-referencing the buyer account and the recipient account on social media systems and verifying that the social media accounts are filled with real-life content; (h) verifying via phone call or SMS message; (i) detecting patterns across all gift transactions including situations where many different gift transactions correspond to the same credit card, same physical address, same recipient, same sender, or same email address/credentials; (j) generating gift-based social network based connections made via gift transactions between buyer and recipient and flagging new corners to the gift-based social network as potential fraudulent buyer or recipient, or any combination thereof.
In some embodiments of the gift transaction system 200, gift transactions can occur based on unverified mailing addresses and unverified credit card information. This may expose the system to fraud and abuse. The fraud prevention mechanisms provided by the security module 240 can minimize the possibility of abuses and fraudulent transactions. Based on various fraud prevention mechanisms, a gift transaction could be approved, flagged for additional automatic verification (e.g., additional email required or phone number verification), flagged for manual verification, or rejected.
Furthermore, typical merchant store front fraud systems are currently built/optimized to screen fraud for purchased physical products. One key piece of information used in the screening process is the shipping address because it is not possible to generate many fake shipping addresses for fraudulent transactions. Looking at statistical information around a specific shipping address (for example a shipping address that is used for many transactions/frequently, etc.) is a good measure of whether a transaction is fraudulent or not. With e-gifting, the shipping address is missing when the order is placed, rendering regular/traditional ecommerce fraud systems ineffective. Stores could try to leverage their existing fraud prevention systems but without shipping address, but that significantly reduces the quality of the screening.
Therefore, in some embodiments, security module 240 may leverage many additional statistical and behavioral data points in the screening process user's location, timing between clicks and typing, statistics around credit cards, given product metadata, greeting text, etc. Because of many additional data points are used, many of them more effective than a shipping address, the security module 240 is able to provide the same or better quality of fraud detection to traditional ecommerce.
The gift transaction system 200 includes a payment module 242. The payment module 242 is configured to charge fees associated with gift transactions. The payment module 242 can charge a premium fee per package sent from the buyer. The payment module 242 can charge a fee per gift transaction or up-sale transaction from the merchants via the merchant backend interface module 216. The payment module 242 can charge a fee from a payment processor service per gift transaction. The payment module 242 can charge a fee from the shipping provider. The payment module 242 can also charge a one-time fee to integrate the gift transaction system 200 to a third-party service.
The payment module 242 can be coupled to third-party e-commerce platforms for payment processing and accounting amongst the buyer, the merchant, the payment processors, and the gift transaction system 200. The payment module 242 can be link the final payment of the gift items to the merchant account for ease of integration.
The gift transaction system 200 can include a gift list store 244. The gift list store 244 is configured to store wish-lists of users and gift-lists of users. The gift-lists allow the buyer to keep track of ideas for gifts. The wish-lists allow the curation module 224 to make accurate recommendations to the buyers for things on the recipient wish list. The wish list can also serve to replace the traditional use of gift registries. The recipient can publish a wish list. All gift buyers can obligate themselves to gift items on the list. When the gift items are sent, the recipient can review the sent gifts and make any exchanges on the sent gift list. Once all gifts are accepted or exchanged, then the gift buyers can make the payments. The wish lists and the gift lists can be merchant specific or across multiple merchants.
The techniques introduced in the modules herein can be implemented by programmable circuitry programmed or configured by software and/or firmware, or they can be implemented by entirely by special-purpose “hardwired” circuitry, or in a combination of such forms. Such special-purpose circuitry (if any) can be in the form of, for example, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.
At a step 304 of the method 300, the gift transaction system can receive a gift selection indication. The gift selection indication can be a product identifier, such as a UPC code, together with a merchant identifier. The gift selection indication can also be a set of product identifiers from the same merchant indicating a same-store gift bundle. The gift selection indication can further be a set of product identifiers from different partner merchants indicating a global gift bundle. The buyer interface can facilitate the gift selection process by making recommendations, gift suggestions, and gift bundle suggestions. These recommendations can be provided by the curation module 224 of
When multiple gift selections are indicated, the gift selections can be organized in a gift basket, similar to a shopping cart that assembles gifts for sending. Alternatively, the gift selections can be organized in a shopping cart where the multiple gifts can be paid as a group.
As part of the gift selection process, the buyer can select one or more gift alternatives. The gift alternatives can be selected by the recipient instead of the originally selected gift item made by the buyer. The buyer can be charged for the gift alternatives when accepted. The stored credit for the exchange process can be based on the price of the originally selected gift. The buyer may be prompted to select alternative or additional gifts from sources outside the original online merchant.
Once the gift is selected, the buyer can be prompted to input a recipient contact on a buyer interface, such as the buyer interface generated by the buyer interface module 202 of
The gift alert can be generated as a confirmation of the gift transaction being created. Alternatively, a separate confirmation page can be generated on the buyer interface. Photos, videos, stories, interactive multimedia applications of the merchant or of the gift item can be included in the gift alert. The product tutorial and user guide can also be included in the gift alert.
The gift alert can include sending an email, generating a printable page depicting the gift selection, sending a SMS message, sending a social network message, or any combination thereof. The gift alert can also be sent from one mobile device to another mobile device using a mobile application such as Bump™.
The printable instance of the gift alert can be printed at home or printed professionally and shipping to the recipient. Pre-made gift pages can be used as the gift alert. For example, a barcode of the pre-made gift page can be registered with the gift transaction system 102. For another example, a bar code of a particular gift transaction can be filled in on the pre-made gift page. The gift alert can include greeting card templates, animation templates, audio templates, personal videos, personal photos, personal audio, or any combination thereof. After the gift alert has been sent, the merchant backend interface module 216 of
Optionally, after the gift alert is sent, the method 300 can include generating an item suggestion based on the gift transaction at a step 310. The item suggestion can be based on an account identity of the buyer, such as a preference profile associated with the buyer account identify. The item suggestion can be based on the gift selection indication. The item suggestion can be based on the recipient contact identifier, such as a preference profile associated with the recipient contact identifier. The item suggestion can be a suggestion to create a further gift transaction with the same recipient or to create a further gift transaction with a different recipient. The item suggestion can also be an up-sale advertisement to suggest an item for the buyer himself or herself.
Optionally, in response to generating the gift alert, the method 300 can also include generating a recipient suggestion. The recipient suggestion can be based on the buyer account identity. The recipient suggestion can be coupled together with the item suggestion. The recipient suggestion can be based on a social media network associated with the buyer account identity.
Upon reviewing the recipient interface, the recipient can either choose to accept the gift, exchange the gift, or reject the gift. For example, in a step 406, the method 400 can include receiving an affirmation of gift acceptance via the recipient interface. Receiving the affirmation can include receiving the affirmation with customization of the gift, such as specified size, color, engraving, other customizations, or any combination thereof.
Following the affirmation, the method 400 includes receiving a shipping address via the buyer interface in a step 408. The shipping address can be pre-filled from a previous transaction, from a social media service account, or from a browser cookie. Following the affirmation, the method 400 can also include generating a thank you note for the buyer in a step 410. In response to receiving the shipping address, the method 400 can follow with a step 412 of adjusting the inventory at a merchant system. The actual gift items can be shipped after the buyer has confirmed payment. When a gift bundle has been accepted, the gift transaction system 102 can coordinate delivery of the gift items from various merchants such that the gift items arrive together in a bundle. A soft hold on the gift item can be place on a merchant system via the merchant backend interface module 216 of
Also in response to receiving the shipping address, the method 400 can follow with a step 414 of generating a buyer feedback alert to the buyer based on a buyer contact entry stored on the gift transaction system. The feedback alert can include the thank you note generated in the step 410. The feedback alert can include a link for the buyer to make payment for the accepted gift. In at least one embodiment, the step 412 can be in response to receiving payment for the gift instead of in response to receiving the shipping address. At any point throughout the steps of the method 400, the method 400 can include generating an item suggestions set. The item suggestions set can include a list of potential people that the current recipient can send a gift to. The item suggestions set can include a list of potential items to purchase from the merchant that the gift is purchased from. The items suggestions set can include a calendar of social events recorded on a social media network where a gift giving opportunity is relevant.
In some embodiments, method 500 then follows with a step 504 of receiving an exchange item selection via the recipient interface. The recipient may be prompted to select additional or alternative gifts from sources outside the original online merchant. The exchange item selection can be a set of multiple items, from either the same merchant as the original gift or from different merchants. If the original gift was a set of multiple items, the exchange item selection does not have to be the same number of items (i.e., can be less or more items). The original price of the gift serves as stored credit, where the exchange items can be selected without further payment if the price of the exchange item is lower than the original price. The recipient interface over the merchant store front can modify the merchant store front such that the original price of the gift is not revealed even during exchange. The price of potential exchange items can also be redacted from the merchant store front, and only an indication of whether a charge-free exchange can be made is revealed on the recipient interface.
The gift transaction system 200 can provide an interface for a merchant store to define an exchange network with other merchant stores, where gift items from one merchant within the exchange network can be exchanged with gift items from another merchant on the exchange network. Other merchant stores can opt into the exchange network after the exchange network is created. The gift items from the exchange network can be prioritized by the curation module 224 such that a number of gift items from alternative merchants on the exchange network are presented to a recipient seeking to exchange an originally received gift item. The merchant store closing the gift transaction (i.e., the merchant store paid by the gift transaction) can be debited a referral fee to be credited to the referring merchant store of the original gift item that was exchanged for a gift item of the closing merchant store.
Upon receiving the exchange item selection, the method 500 also includes a step 506 of receiving a shipping address for the delivery of the exchange item selection. Upon confirming the exchange item selection and receiving the shipping address, the method 500 follows with notifying the buyer based on a buyer contact entry stored on the gift transaction system in a step 508. Depending on the price of the exchange item selection and the price of the original gift selection, the method 500 can also include a step 510 of generating a gift balance credit or a step 512 of generating a balance invoice payment request. The step 510 is executed by the gift transaction system when the price of the exchange item selection is smaller than the price of the original gift selection. The gift balance can be stored as a merchant store credit, a gift card, or a multi-merchant store credit for merchants compatible with the gift transaction system 102. A gift card identifier can be generated and stored on the gift transaction system. The step 512 is executed by the gift transaction system when the price of the exchange item selection is greater than the price of the original gift selection.
In this example, the gift customization page 604 includes a recipient contact entry 608, a greeting note 610, a delivery constraint 612, a gift card section 614 including a gift icon 616, or any combination thereof. The recipient contact entry 608 is where the buyer can input the recipient name and the recipient contact information, such as email address, social network message, or cellular text message. The recipient contact entry 608 can be just the recipient name if the buyer selects the option to print out a gift card notifying the recipient of the gift. The greeting note 610 is where the buyer can input a message to be sent to the recipient along with a notification of the gift. The delivery constraint 612 is where the buyer can input a delivery constraint on the gift transaction. The delivery constraint 612 may include an expiration date of the gift, where past the expiration date the recipient would not be able to accept the gift. The delivery constraint 612 may also include a delivery date of the notification of the gift to the recipient.
The gift card section 614 is generated by the gift transaction system 102 of
The buyer information page 702 can also include an estimation section 710. The estimation section 710 estimates the cost of the gift for the buyer. For example, the buyer interface module 202 can determine an estimation of shipping cost and an estimation of tax. The estimation of shipping cost and tax can be facilitated by the merchant backend interface module 216 of
Often, stores have fairly sophisticated systems that calculate tax and shipping charges for an order. In order to calculate tax and shipping charges the store systems may need a SKU and full shipping address. With e-gifting, a specific product having a specific price being sent to a specific address may not be identified: for example SKU or other product identification level data may be unavailable at the time of gift-sending, nor is a shipping address necessarily available, thus a store's systems may be unable to perform any calculations (e.g., calculate a final cost of purchasing and sending the finally chosen gift) without changes to its systems. With e-gifting, there is a need to calculate tax and shipping charges so a sender can cover these costs for the recipient, even before SKU level data and shipping address is available. Typically all of a (legacy) merchant store front's systems and integrations into third party systems that perform tax and shipping calculations would need to be changed and/or enhanced to support calculations/estimations of tax and shipping address without any shipping info and SKU data. These adjustments would not be possible without using the logic implemented according to embodiments of the invention.
In some embodiments, based on for example the gift product or gift product group, which is a subset of all product SKUs or product descriptions, gift transaction system 200 may determine the “Representative SKU” or list of SKUs that would yield the most accurate tax/shipping calculation if given to the store calculation system. Based on user region selection (e.g., the region of the country or world of the gift recipient), if any, e.g., “All of the US” or “Alaska”, gift transaction system 200 may generate a “Representative Address” which is a full shipping address (but not the real or actual shipping address of the gift recipient) that exists in a database of the gift transaction system 200 that represents the region in question. Given the Representative SKU and Representative Address, gift transaction system 200 may provide these to the merchant or store tax/shipping calculation systems or to calculation systems of the gift transaction system 200 if gift transaction system 200 does not integrate directly with the legacy merchant store front's tax/shipping systems. E.g., a shipping, tax, and gift cost may be calculated by gift transaction system 200 and provided to the merchant.
In the gift alert page 902, a recipient is notified of a gift from a buyer. The gift alert page 902 includes a gift description section 904. The gift description section 904 can include a text or a multimedia description of the gift or bundle of gifts being sent. The multimedia description can include a graphical icon, a photograph, an interactive image, a video, or any combination thereof. The gift alert page 902 can also include a gift variant selection section 906. The gift variant selection section 906 can include an interactive element to allow the recipient to select different variants of the gift. For example, the variants can be customization of color and size.
The recipient via the gift alert page 902 of the recipient interface 900 can accept the gift via an acceptance button 908. The recipient can also exchange the gift via an exchange button 910. The gift alert page 902 can further include an item addition section 912. The item addition section 912 is generated by the recipient interface 900 based on a profile of the recipient facilitated by the merchant backend interface module 216 of
The acceptance confirmation page 1202 can include a gift suggestion section 1204. The gift suggestion section 1204 can include links to send gifts to a list of friends (i.e., user accounts socially connected to the recipient) of the recipient through the gift transaction system 200 of
The up-sale interface 1300 can include a gift list 1302, such as the gift lists stored on the gift list store 244 of
This disclosure contemplates the computer system 1500 taking any suitable physical form. As example and not by way of limitation, computer system 1500 may be an embedded computer system, a system-on-chip (SOC), a single-board computer system (SBC) (such as, for example, a computer-on-module (COM) or system-on-module (SOM)), a desktop computer system, a laptop or notebook computer system, an interactive kiosk, a mainframe, a mesh of computer systems, a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a server, or a combination of two or more of these. Where appropriate, computer system 1500 may include one or more computer systems 1500; be unitary or distributed; span multiple locations; span multiple machines; or reside in a cloud, which may include one or more cloud components in one or more networks. Where appropriate, one or more computer systems 1500 may perform without substantial spatial or temporal limitation one or more steps of one or more methods described or illustrated herein. As an example and not by way of limitation, one or more computer systems 1500 may perform in real time or in batch mode one or more steps of one or more methods described or illustrated herein. One or more computer systems 1500 may perform at different times or at different locations one or more steps of one or more methods described or illustrated herein, where appropriate.
The processor may be, for example, a conventional microprocessor such as an Intel Pentium microprocessor or Motorola power PC microprocessor. One of skill in the relevant art will recognize that the terms “machine-readable (storage) medium” or “computer-readable (storage) medium” include any type of device that is accessible by the processor.
The memory is coupled to the processor by, for example, a bus. The memory can include, by way of example but not limitation, random access memory (RAM), such as dynamic RAM (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM). The memory can be local, remote, or distributed.
The bus also couples the processor to the non-volatile memory and drive unit. The non-volatile memory is often a magnetic floppy or hard disk, a magnetic-optical disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (ROM), such as a CD-ROM, EPROM, or EEPROM, a magnetic or optical card, or another form of storage for large amounts of data. Some of this data is often written, by a direct memory access process, into memory during execution of software in the computer 1500. The non-volatile storage can be local, remote, or distributed. The non-volatile memory is optional because systems can be created with all applicable data available in memory. A typical computer system will usually include at least a processor, memory, and a device (e.g., a bus) coupling the memory to the processor.
Software is typically stored in the non-volatile memory and/or the drive unit. Indeed, for large programs, it may not even be possible to store the entire program in the memory. Nevertheless, it should be understood that for software to run, if necessary, it is moved to a computer readable location appropriate for processing, and for illustrative purposes, that location is referred to as the memory in this paper. Even when software is moved to the memory for execution, the processor will typically make use of hardware registers to store values associated with the software, and local cache that, ideally, serves to speed up execution. As used herein, a software program is assumed to be stored at any known or convenient location (from non-volatile storage to hardware registers) when the software program is referred to as “implemented in a computer-readable medium.” A processor is considered to be “configured to execute a program” when at least one value associated with the program is stored in a register readable by the processor.
The bus also couples the processor to the network interface device. The interface can include one or more of a modem or network interface. It will be appreciated that a modem or network interface can be considered to be part of the computer system 1500. The interface can include an analog modem, ISDN modem, cable modem, token ring interface, satellite transmission interface (e.g., “direct PC”), or other interfaces for coupling a computer system to other computer systems. The interface can include one or more input and/or output devices. The I/O devices can include, by way of example but not limitation, a keyboard, a mouse or other pointing device, disk drives, printers, a scanner, and other input and/or output devices, including a display device. The display device can include, by way of example but not limitation, a cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), or some other applicable known or convenient display device. For simplicity, it is assumed that controllers of any devices not depicted in the example of
In operation, the computer system 1500 can be controlled by operating system software that includes a file management system, such as a disk operating system. One example of operating system software with associated file management system software is the family of operating systems known as Windows® from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., and their associated file management systems. Another example of operating system software with its associated file management system software is the Linux™ operating system and its associated file management system. The file management system is typically stored in the non-volatile memory and/or drive unit and causes the processor to execute the various acts required by the operating system to input and output data and to store data in the memory, including storing files on the non-volatile memory and/or drive unit.
Some portions of the detailed description may be presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. The operations are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or “generating” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within registers and memories of the computer system into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the methods of some embodiments. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. In addition, the techniques are not described with reference to any particular programming language, and various embodiments may thus be implemented using a variety of programming languages.
In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in a client-server network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.
The machine may be a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a laptop computer, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, an iPhone, a Blackberry, a processor, a telephone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine.
While the machine-readable medium or machine-readable storage medium is shown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies or modules of the presently disclosed technique and innovation.
In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of the disclosure, may be implemented as part of an operating system or a specific application, component, program, object, module or sequence of instructions referred to as “computer programs.” The computer programs typically comprise one or more instructions set at various times in various memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when read and executed by one or more processing units or processors in a computer, cause the computer to perform operations to execute elements involving the various aspects of the disclosure.
Moreover, while embodiments have been described in the context of fully functioning computers and computer systems, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various embodiments are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that the disclosure applies equally regardless of the particular type of machine or computer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.
Further examples of machine-readable storage media, machine-readable media, or computer-readable (storage) media include but are not limited to recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memory devices, floppy and other removable disks, hard disk drives, optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks, (DVDs), etc.), among others, and transmission type media such as digital and analog communication links.
In some circumstances, operation of a memory device, such as a change in state from a binary one to a binary zero or vice-versa, for example, may comprise a transformation, such as a physical transformation. With particular types of memory devices, such a physical transformation may comprise a physical transformation of an article to a different state or thing. For example, but without limitation, for some types of memory devices, a change in state may involve an accumulation and storage of charge or a release of stored charge. Likewise, in other memory devices, a change of state may comprise a physical change or transformation in magnetic orientation or a physical change or transformation in molecular structure, such as from crystalline to amorphous or vice versa. The foregoing is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all examples in which a change in state for a binary one to a binary zero or vice-versa in a memory device may comprise a transformation, such as a physical transformation. Rather, the foregoing is intended as illustrative examples.
A storage medium typically may be non-transitory or comprise a non-transitory device. In this context, a non-transitory storage medium may include a device that is tangible, meaning that the device has a concrete physical form, although the device may change its physical state. Thus, for example, non-transitory refers to a device remaining tangible despite this change in state.
The above description and drawings are illustrative and are not to be construed as limiting the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above disclosure. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description.
Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some embodiments but not other embodiments.
As used herein, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” or any variant thereof when applying to modules of a system, means any connection or coupling, either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling of connection between the elements can be physical, logical, or any combination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where the context permits, words in the above Detailed Description using the singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular number respectively. The word “or,” in reference to a list of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list, or any combination of the items in the list.
Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the invention may be embodied in other forms and manners not shown below. It is understood that the use of relational terms, if any, such as first, second, top and bottom, and the like are used solely for distinguishing one entity or action from another, without necessarily requiring or implying any such actual relationship or order between such entities or actions.
While processes or blocks are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps, or employ systems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes or blocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, substituted, combined, and/or modified to provide alternative or sub combinations. Each of these processes or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel, or may be performed at different times. Further any specific numbers noted herein are only examples: alternative implementations may employ differing values or ranges.
The teachings of the disclosure provided herein can be applied to other systems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments.
Any patents and applications and other references noted above, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the various references described above to provide yet further embodiments of the disclosure.
These and other changes can be made to the disclosure in light of the above Detailed Description. While the above description describes certain embodiments of the disclosure, and describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the teachings can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may vary considerably in its implementation details, while still being encompassed by the subject matter disclosed herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the disclosure should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the disclosure with which that terminology is associated. In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Description section explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the disclosure encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but also all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the disclosure under the claims.
While certain aspects of the disclosure are presented below in certain claim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of the disclosure in any number of claim forms. Any claims intended to be treated under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.112, 6 will begin with the words “means for”. Accordingly, the applicant reserves the right to add additional claims after filing the application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects of the disclosure.
The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinary meanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in the specific context where each term is used. Certain terms that are used to describe the disclosure are discussed above, or elsewhere in the specification, to provide additional guidance to the practitioner regarding the description of the disclosure. For convenience, certain terms may be highlighted, for example using capitalization, italics and/or quotation marks. The use of highlighting has no influence on the scope and meaning of a term; the scope and meaning of a term is the same, in the same context, whether or not it is highlighted. It will be appreciated that same element can be described in more than one way.
Consequently, alternative language and synonyms may be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein, nor is any special significance to be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein. Synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one or more synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples of any terms discussed herein is illustrative only, and is not intended to further limit the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplified term. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given in this specification.
Without intent to further limit the scope of the disclosure, examples of instruments, apparatus, methods and their related results according to the embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note that titles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of a reader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, the present document, including definitions will control.
Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of the invention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are commonly used by those skilled in the data processing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively to others skilled in the art. These operations, while described functionally, computationally, or logically, are understood to be implemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits, microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient at times, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, without loss of generality. The described operations and their associated modules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware, or any combinations thereof.
Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may be performed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules, alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, a software module is implemented with a computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code, which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or all of the steps, operations, or processes described.
Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise a general-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a non transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, which may be coupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore, any computing systems referred to in the specification may include a single processor or may be architectures employing multiple processor designs for increased computing capability.
Embodiments of the invention may also relate to a product that is produced by a computing process described herein. Such a product may comprise information resulting from a computing process, where the information is stored on a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium and may include any embodiment of a computer program product or other data combination described herein.
The language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on an application based hereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodiments of the invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.
The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/537,143 filed Aug. 9, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/130,627 filed Apr. 15, 2016, which claims benefit from U.S. Patent Application 62/147,746 filed Apr. 15, 2015, and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/794,375 filed Mar. 11, 2013, which in turn claims benefit from U.S. Patent Application 61/754,497, filed Jan. 18, 2013, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62147746 | Apr 2015 | US | |
| 61754497 | Jan 2013 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16537143 | Aug 2019 | US |
| Child | 17509399 | US | |
| Parent | 15130627 | Apr 2016 | US |
| Child | 16537143 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13794375 | Mar 2013 | US |
| Child | 15130627 | US |
