Abstract:
A system and method for selling services, experiences, and/or products over the Internet is presented. Customers may subscribe to a boutique product purchase feature that allows them to purchase limited offer products without proceeding through a check-out procedure. The method may include the steps of: (1) presenting the user with purchase options, (2) selecting a purchase option (3) presenting an order summary, (4) confirming the order, (5) charging an account, and (6) returning the user to a shopping page. Alternatively, the method may perform steps (1) though (5) without leaving the shopping page.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This application relates generally to use of the Internet as a tool for selling products to remote users. 
     BACKGROUND 
     The Internet is a publically accessible global network that carries data through packet switching using the Internet Protocol (IP). A computer connected to the Internet can send and receive data from other computers that are also connected to the Internet, thereby allowing the computers to exchange information and provide services to each other, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and web browsing. Web browsing, in particular, is widely used as a way to access information and services available through the Internet. Web browsing involves using an application program—called a browser—running on a first computer to retrieve data from a second computer over the Internet. The first computer is referred to as a client, while the second computer is referred to as a server. Typically, the server supplies the data and computer commands that make up a web site to the client computer in a process commonly referred to as hosting the web site. The browser interprets the data and commands retrieved from the server, causing the browser to display the data in such a way so that the user views it as a web page. Typically, the user will interact with the browser by entering keyboard, mouse, and/or other user interface commands, which causes the browser to load web pages and/or request that the server perform operations. 
     One Internet service that has become popular is retail sales. Internet retail sellers create virtual stores in the form of web sites that display their merchandise, and allow users to purchase goods, experiences, and services online. These goods, experiences, and services (collectively referred to herein as “products”) may be in a form that can be delivered immediately over the Internet, such as digital media or software, or they may be in a form that requires shipment using conventional methods of delivery. Typically, a user visiting a retail sales web site will browse a collection of products displayed on a series of web pages, putting products which they are interested in into a virtual shopping cart, i.e., a personalized list of products marked for later purchase. When the user is finished shopping at the site, the user will proceed to a virtual checkout, where the user can purchase the products in their virtual shopping cart. In order to complete a purchase, a user will end the shopping experience by proceeding to a checkout web page, which is often served by a secure server that is separate from the server that provides product description pages. 
     Because of the convenience and cost savings associated with the Internet shopping experience, retail sales over the Internet have seen tremendous growth. In response to this demand, a large number of retail sales sites have emerged, and competition to provide a unique and compelling sales experience has created improved systems, methods and computer program products to serve this industry, and yet, a need for further improvements remains. 
     SUMMARY 
     In accordance with principles of the present invention, when a customer in a shopping web site is given the option of purchasing products immediately through a shortcut of the shopping cart process, that nevertheless is consistent and compatible with the familiar shopping cart model. Advantageously, this method can permit a purchase to occur without the customer leaving the shopping page presented by the shopper&#39;s browser. In a particular embodiment of the invention, the customer purchasing a product is asked to confirm the purchase, and potentially one or more other products in the customer&#39;s virtual shopping cart, via a popup window in the shopping page, so that the customer can be immediately returned to the main display of the shopping page. 
     One application of the invention is to limited availability products. In order to foster a sense of excitement and entice web shoppers to purchase more goods and services, it may be advantageous to present limited availability offers to online shoppers. One example of a limited availability offer is a so-called boutique product, which is limited in either the amount of time the product is available, and/or in the amount of product made available. Boutique products encourage consumers to make purchases by engendering a sense of scarcity. However, if a conventional shopping cart model is used, when a consumer decides to take advantage of a limited offer by adding the boutique product to their shopping cart, time might expire or the product may sell out before the consumer finishes shopping. This creates a time pressure on the consumer to end or defer their shopping experience in order to proceed to the virtual checkout and complete the transaction. Once the consumer has left the shopping page to complete a purchase, there is a possibility they will not return and continue shopping. Thus, the same time pressure created by boutique products that encourages the consumer to buy the boutique product may also lead to lost sales of other products, by encouraging the consumer to terminate his/her shopping prematurely. 
     In accordance with principles of the present invention, it has been recognized that there is an advantage to allowing consumers to make immediate purchases of some products, such as to relieve time pressure of boutique products, without disrupting the general shopping experience, and that this can be accomplished by the shortcut shopping cart process elaborated here. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate various embodiments of the invention and, together with a general description of the invention given above and the detailed description of the embodiments given below, serve to explain the embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram of a log in web page presented to a client computer user attempting to access a web page hosted by the server computer in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram of an exemplary shopping page that may be hosted by the server computer in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 4  is a diagram of an exemplary shopping page that may be accessed by selecting a product from the shopping page in  FIG. 3 . 
         FIGS. 5 and 6  are diagrams detailing the user options presented in  FIG. 4 . 
         FIG. 7  is a diagram of an exemplary pop-up order summary generated by selecting the “Quick! Buy It.” purchase options presented in  FIGS. 4-5 . 
         FIG. 8  is a diagram of an exemplary pop-up order confirmation generated by selecting the place order option in  FIG. 7 . 
         FIG. 9  is a diagram of an exemplary product purchase feature sign up page which may be generated when a non-subscriber selects the sign-up option presented in  FIG. 6 . 
         FIG. 10  is a flow chart of a subscriber “Quick! Buy It.” purchase process as illustrated by  FIGS. 5, and 7-8 . 
         FIG. 11  is a flow chart of a non-subscriber purchase and feature sign-up process as illustrated by  FIGS. 6 and 9 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Turning to the drawings, wherein like numbers denote like parts throughout the several views,  FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a system architecture in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. A server computer  10  hosts a web site and is connected to the Internet  50  in such a way that it can exchange data with a client computer  30  using standard Internet protocols. Although the server  10  and client  30  computers will both typically be computers, and will be referred to as such throughout the application, they may represent practically any computing device, computer system, or programmable device capable of communicating over a network, including but not limited to multi-user or single-user computers, desktop computers, portable computers and devices, handheld devices, network devices, mobile phones, tablet and touch pad devices, and the like. In addition, although the server computer  10  and client computer  30  are shown as communicating over the Internet  50 , embodiments of the invention may include communication by any other means, such as over Wide Area Networks (WAN), Local Area Networks, (LAN), private networks, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), phone systems, wireless communications systems, satellite communications systems, or any other mechanism by which data may be exchanged. 
     Server and client computers  10 ,  30  may each include one or more processors  12 ,  32  coupled to a memory  14 ,  34 . The computer processor  12 ,  32  may represent one or more devices selected from microprocessors, micro-controllers, digital signal processors, microcomputers, central processing units, field programmable gate arrays, programmable logic devices, state machines, logic circuits, analog circuits, digital circuits, and/or any other devices that manipulate signals based on operational instructions that are stored in a memory  14 ,  34 . Each computer  10 ,  30  may have a memory  14 ,  34  that typically represents devices comprising the main storage of each computer  10 ,  30 . Each respective memory  14 ,  34  may be comprised of a single memory device or a plurality of memory devices including but not limited to random access memory (RAM), static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), read-only memory (ROM), volatile memory, non-volatile memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any other device capable of storing information. In addition, each memory  14 ,  34  may be considered to include memory storage physically located in multiple locations, such as any cache memory in processors  12 ,  32 , memory on video or other peripherals such as accessory cards (not shown) and/or storage capacity used as a virtual memory, such as storage capacity on mass storage devices  16 ,  36 . 
     Each computer  10 ,  30  may also include a mass storage device  16 ,  36 , each of which may represent a single mass storage device or a plurality and/or array of mass storage devices including but not limited to hard drives, optical drives, tape drives, non-volatile solid state devices and/or any other device capable of storing information. Each computer  10 ,  30  may also include an Input/Output (I/O) interface  18 ,  38 , with each I/O interface employing suitable communication protocols for communicating with other computers and computing devices. In one embodiment of the invention, the I/O interfaces  18 ,  38  may operate by transmitting Internet Protocol (IP) packets over an Ethernet connection. In another embodiment of the invention, the I/O interfaces  13 ,  38  may operate by transmitting signals over a wireless link to an access point. A Human Machine Interface (HMI)  20 ,  40  may be operatively coupled to each processor  12 ,  32  in a known manner. Each HMI  20 ,  40  may comprise one or more user input devices such as an alphanumeric keyboard, touchpad, touch screen, keypad, stylus, mouse, trackball, joystick, pointing device, and/or microphone, capable of accepting commands or inputs from the operator and transmitting the entered input to its respective processor  12 ,  32 . Commands may be in the form of selecting menu options, pressing buttons, entering text, speech recognition by the computer, or any other mechanism capable of communicating the intent of the user to the computer. Each HMI  20 ,  40  may also include one or more display devices including, but not limited to, a CRT monitor, LCD display panel, alphanumeric display, touch screen, and/or speaker. 
     Each computer  10 ,  30  may operate under the control of one or more operating systems  22 ,  42  that resides in memory  14 ,  34  and executes or otherwise relies upon various computer software applications, components, programs, objects, modules, and data structures. A server application  24  may be implemented as part of the operating system  22  or as a separate application on computer  10 . In one embodiment of the invention, the server application  24  may be a web server program that delivers web page content over the Internet  50 . In another embodiment of the invention, the web page content may be related to retail sales over the Internet. The web page content may be stored on a mass storage device  16 , in memory  14 , or on another storage device or computer in another location. In a similar fashion, a client application  44  may be implemented as part of the operating system  42 , or as a separate application to facilitate access to the server application  24  by a user. In one embodiment of the invention, the client application  44  may be a web browser program. 
       FIG. 2  is a diagram depicting how a user may obtain access to the web site in one embodiment of the invention. A user may enter the address of the web site hosted by the server computer  10  into the client application  44  using the HMI  40 . The client computer  30  may be connected to the server computer  10  in such a way that the client application  44  may exchange data with the server application  24 . Typically, the data is displayed to the user in the form of a web page on the HMI  40  that includes images and text. The user may interact with the web page by entering commands though the HMI  40 , which may cause the server application  24  to perform various operations. The web page initially presented to the user may be a log-in page  60  or some other welcome page from which the user can navigate to other pages and access additional web pages included on the web site. If the user has a customer account with the web site, they may be prompted to log into their account by entering a user identity  62  and password  63 . The user identity  62  will typically be the user&#39;s email address, but may be any alphanumeric string unique to that user. 
     After the user enters the user identity  62  and password  63 , the user may enter the site  64 . Users who have forgotten their user identity  62  or password  63  may be provided with a mechanism to re-set his/her password in order to gain access to his/her customer account  66 . One way of providing such access is to send a special link to the registered e-mail address of the requesting user. Clicking on the link allows the user to reset the password so that the user may gain access to his/her account. Users who do not have a customer account, or that do not wish to log in before entering the site, may select a non-member option  68 . Users selecting the non-member option may be prompted to create a customer account, or they may be allowed access to the web site anonymously. 
     Once the user has entered the web site, they may navigate to other web pages by selecting objects on the displayed web page, or though keystrokes, mouse clicks, voice commands, or by entering any other suitable user inputs available on the HMI  40 . 
       FIG. 3  illustrates an example of a web shopping page in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Users may be presented with a web shopping page  70  including product presentations  72 ,  74 ,  76 ,  78  for products available for purchase. There are many variations on how product presentations  72 ,  74 ,  76 ,  78  may be configured, but typically one or more product presentations  72 ,  74 ,  76 ,  78  may be displayed on a single shopping page, with each product presentation  72 ,  74 ,  76 ,  78  including images  80 ,  82 ,  84 ,  86 , a short description  88 ,  90 ,  92 ,  94  and buttons providing options to the user. If the user is interested in a particular product, they may be given the option of obtaining more detailed information, and may also be given the option of marking the product for later purchase  96 ,  98 ,  100 ,  102 , which may place the product in a virtual shopping cart. In one embodiment of the invention, the user may obtain more detailed information on a product by selecting the product image  80 ,  82 ,  48 ,  86  or short description  88 ,  90 ,  92 ,  94 . In another embodiment of the invention, the user may mark a product for later purchase without viewing detailed information via options  96 ,  98 ,  100 ,  102 . Marking for later purchase may include putting the product in a virtual container, such as a virtual shopping bag or virtual shopping cart, as is conventional. The product presentation  72 ,  74 ,  76 ,  78  may also include an option (not shown) allowing the user to purchase the product by a shopping cart shortcut process as explained in detail herein. Users browsing the web site may select and view web pages  70  presenting only standard product presentations, or only boutique product presentations, or a boutique product presentation may periodically be displayed in a space that may be co-located on a shopping page with standard product presentations. 
       FIGS. 4-8  are diagrams illustrating how the user may be presented with and purchase a product in several embodiments of the invention. Referring now to  FIG. 4 , Product presentations  110  will typically include an image of the product  112 , a short description  116 , and an option box  114 . Users who subscribe to a shortcut product purchase feature (subscribers) may be presented with an option box  114 , which may present the options of either purchasing the product  118  (shown in  FIG. 5  as a “Quick! Buy It.” option), or marking the product for later purchase  120  (shown in  FIG. 5  as an “Add it to My Bag” option). Users who are not subscribed to the shortcut product purchase feature (non-subscribers) may be given the options of marking it for later purchase  122  or subscribing to the shortcut product purchase feature  124  as shown in  FIG. 6 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 7 , subscribers who select the shortcut product purchase option  118  may be presented with a pop-up window containing an order summary  130 . The order summary  130  may include product information on one or more boutique or non-boutique products  131 - 133 , shipping information  134 , payment information  135 , as well as providing subscribers with the options of closing the order summary  136 , placing the order  137 , continuing shopping  138 , or proceeding to checkout  139 . Product information  131 ,  132 ,  133  may include information on the most recently selected product  131 , other products that may have been selected previously  132 , as well as products which were recently removed  133  from the shortcut or “Quick! Buy It.” order summary  130 . Subscribers may have the option of removing a product from the shortcut or “Quick! Buy It.” list by selecting a remove option  140 , and may also have the option of adding recently removed products  133  to the shortcut or “Quick! Buy It.” list by selecting an “add to order” option  141 . When the subscriber either adds or removes a product  131 - 133  from the order summary  130 , the shipping information  134  and payment information  135  may be automatically updated. Products that have been removed  133  may be marked for later purchase so that they are displayed and accessible in the subscriber&#39;s virtual shopping cart when used in normal checkout processes. The subscriber may also be presented with the option to proceed to the normal checkout  139 . Subscribers selecting the proceed to checkout option  139  may be presented with a check out order summary that includes all items that are marked for later purchase, as well as all currently selected products  131 - 133 . 
     Subscribers select the place order option  137  to quickly purchase the currently selected products. The subscriber may then be presented with an order confirmation pop-up window  144  as shown in  FIG. 8 . In the example of  FIG. 8 , only the black men&#39;s watch shown in  FIG. 7  has been retained for purchase by the shortcut or “Quick! Buy It.” process. The order confirmation window  144  may include information concerning the amount billed  145  and the product purchased  146 . Subscribers may then be given the option of closing the window  147 , which may return them to the main display of the shopping page  70  ( FIG. 3 ). Both subscribers and non-subscribers who select the option of marking the product for later purchase  120 ,  122  may have the selected product marked for later purchase so that it may be purchased through a conventional shopping cart process when the user is finished shopping. Notably, as a result, the shortcut or “Quick! Buy It.” process has the feature that the user does not need to purchase all the items in their virtual cart when making a quick purchase; other items in the cart, if not included in the shortcut or “Quick! Buy It.” purchase, are left in the cart and may be purchased later. It is, however, possible to quick buy multiple items in the cart, or even all items in the cart, and in this way the quick buy is not a bypass of the shopping cart, but rather is a shortcut of the normal shopping cart process. 
     It is worth nothing that, as in other conventional shopping processes that involve a shopping cart, if a product offer expires on an item left in the cart and not purchased, or the inventory runs out prior to the user purchasing the product left in the cart, the product may be deleted from the cart and be unavailable later during a conventional checkout process. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 9 , non-subscribers who select the option of signing up for the shortcut product purchase feature  124  ( FIG. 6 ) may be presented with a feature sign up window  150 . The feature sign up window  150  may include spaces for the user to insert billing and shipping address information  151 , payment methods  152 , and giving the user the option of either submitting the data entered or cancelling the session  153 . When the user has entered the required information in the address space  151  and payment method space  152 , and selects the submit option  153 , their customer account status may change to that of a subscriber. When this occurs, the user may also receive confirmation that they are now a subscriber. 
       FIG. 10  presents a flowchart illustrating a process as previously described and in accordance with an embodiment of the invention for a user who is a subscriber. A subscriber may select a product  154 , which may cause a product to be added to the “Quick! Buy it.” list  155 . The subscriber may be presented  156  with order summary options that include making a purchase  157 ; removing the product  158 , or canceling the transaction  162 . Removing the product  158  causes the product to be marked for later purchase (i.e., held in the user&#39;s conventional shopping cart)  160 . Canceling the transaction  162  returns the subscriber to the main display of the shopping page  174 . 
     If there are products which are in the user&#39;s conventional shopping cart (i.e., marked for later purchase), the subscriber may be given the option of adding 163 those products to the shortcut or “Quick! Buy It.” product list, which may cause those products to be moved  164  from the marked for later purchase list to the “Quick! Buy it.” list. This permits free selection of which products are to be purchased in the shortcut or “Quick! Buy It.” process and which are to be purchased later via a conventional shopping cart process. If the subscriber places the order  157 , the subscriber&#39;s account may be billed for the cost of the products on the “Quick! Buy it.” list and the user may be presented with an order confirmation  172 , at which time the subscriber may be returned to the main display of the shopping page  174 . 
     The subscriber may also select to proceed to a conventional shopping cart checkout  176 , they may be taken to a checkout page  178 , where they may be presented with the opportunity to buy all products on the “Quick! Buy it.” and marked for later purchase lists. 
     Notably, the functionality of the “Quick! Buy It.” process described in reference to  FIG. 10  may be implemented in the user&#39;s browser as a popup window, allowing faster access to purchasing screens and switching between screens without the invocation of a separate server for checkout purposes and without the reloading of different pages, as is conventionally done for a conventional checkout process. This makes the shortcut or “Quick! Buy It.” process as speedy as single-button purchase processes that bypass the shopping cart, as have been implemented by some web sites, and yet, the quick buy process is more flexible. The speed derives from the use of a popup window rather than a new page to display and purchase items, and the flexibility comes from the inclusion of the shopping cart in the process, which gives the user the ability to purchase items already in the shopping cart and/or to move items interactively between the existing shopping cart and the shortcut or “Quick! Buy it.” purchase list. 
       FIG. 11  presents a flowchart illustrating a process as previously described and in accordance with an embodiment of the invention for a user who is a non-subscriber. A non-subscriber may select a product  180 , which may cause the product to be presented to the non-subscriber  182  in such a way that it includes options such as signing up for the product purchase feature  184 , or marking the product for later purchase  198 . If the non-subscriber selects the sign up for the product purchase feature option  184 , a purchase feature sign up window may be presented  186  including the options of cancelling the transaction  188  or entering product purchase feature sign-up data  190 . If the non-subscriber cancels the transaction  188 , they may be returned to the product presentation  182 . If the non-subscriber enters the necessary data and selects save  190 , the customer account may be updated to reflect the user&#39;s status as a purchase feature subscriber  192 . A product purchase feature subscriber status confirmation may then be presented to the now subscribing user  194 , and the user may then be taken to the product presentation as a subscriber  196 . Step  196  may cause the product to be added to the “Quick! Buy it.” list  155 , and presented to the subscriber in such a way that it includes the subscriber options previously described in step  156 . Thereafter, the purchase process may be substantially the same as presented in  FIG. 10 . 
     If a non-subscriber selects the mark product for later purchase option  198 , the product may be placed on a list of products that the subscriber has indicated he/she wishes to purchase  200 , and the non-subscriber may then be returned to the main display of the shopping page  202 . The non-subscriber may be given the option of purchasing the products on the marked for later purchase list at a later time when the non-subscriber is ready to end their shopping session. 
     As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the embodiments of the invention may also be embodied in a computer program product embodied in at least one computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied thereon. The computer readable storage medium may be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination thereof, that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. Exemplary computer readable storage media include, but are not limited to, a hard disk, a floppy disk, a random access memory, a read-only memory, an erasable programmable read-only memory, a flash memory, a portable compact disc read-only memory, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. Computer program code for carrying out operations for the embodiments of the present invention may be written in one or more object oriented and procedural programming languages. 
     The methods described herein can be implemented by computer program instructions supplied to the processor of any type of computer to produce a machine with a processor that executes the instructions to implement the functions/acts specified herein. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computer to function in a particular manner. To that end, the computer program instructions may be loaded onto a computer to cause the performance of a series of operational steps and thereby produce a computer implemented process such that the executed instructions provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified herein. 
     The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “includes”, “having”, “has”, “with”, “composed of” or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description or the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.” 
     While the invention has been illustrated by a description of various embodiments and while these embodiments have been described in considerable detail, it is not the intention of the applicant to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative methods, and illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of applicant&#39;s general inventive concept.