Patent ID: 8156013

Claim:
A method, comprising: processing, by enterprise logic implemented on one or more computer devices, tote delivery data indicating items to be delivered to delivery addresses in one or more zones via a tote delivery service from a sortation node that serves the one or more zones to generate bulk transfer data for two or more fulfillment centers and zone delivery data for the sortation node, wherein the tote delivery service delivers totes including items ordered by customers via a network site to delivery addresses corresponding to the customers on assigned tote delivery days; picking, at each of the two or more fulfillment centers, items indicated by the bulk transfer data corresponding to the fulfillment center and bulk transferring the picked items to the sortation node, wherein at least some of the items are picked at the two or more fulfillment centers as single units of a respective item, wherein the bulk transfer from each of the two or more fulfillment centers is an unsorted collection of the items picked at the respective fulfillment center, wherein the picked items in the unsorted collection are not sorted according to delivery orders for delivery addresses; receiving, at the sortation node, the bulk transfer from each of the two or more fulfillment centers and sorting the unsorted collections of items from the bulk transfers into totes corresponding to the delivery addresses according to the zone delivery data; loading, at the sortation node, the totes including the sorted items onto one or more delivery vehicles; and each delivery vehicle delivering totes to delivery addresses in at least one of the one or more zones.