Patent Document ID: 8005761
Application ID: 11744079
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method for providing to a customer information about actual fulfillment of an order before completion of an ordering process for the order, the method comprising: receiving from a customer an indication of one or more items, the received indication of the items being part of an ordering process for an order for the items that has been initiated by the customer but not completed; and upon receiving the indication, automatically determining one or more fulfillment plans that are options for fulfilling an order for the items, each fulfillment plan indicating one or more distribution centers from which the items of the order are to be transported to a recipient, the automatic determining being performed by one or more configured computer systems; for each of at least some of the determined fulfillment plans, automatically determining a time of actual delivery of the items if that fulfillment plan is used to fulfill the order, the determining of actual delivery time being performed by the one or more configured computer systems and being based at least in part on information determined about processing that would take place at the distribution centers indicated by the fulfillment plan and on information about transporting of the items from those indicated distribution centers to the recipient; selecting one of the determined fulfillment plans to be used for fulfilling the order; and providing information to the customer about ordering the items that includes the determined actual delivery time for the selected fulfillment plan, the providing of the information being performed as part of completing the ordering process.