Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/08—Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/08—Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
  • G06Q10/083—Shipping
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/08—Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
  • G06Q10/087—Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/04—Billing or invoicing
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions
  • G06Q30/0601—Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Definitions

• FIG. 1 illustrates a broad view of the operations of a conventional distributor.
• Multiple customers 10 may submit orders 20 to the distributor, where each order 20 specifies one or more items from inventory 30 to be shipped to the customer that submitted the order.
• order fulfillment 40 the orders may be separately processed by the enterprise to fulfill the customer orders 20.
• the one or more items specified in each order may be retrieved or "picked" from inventory 30 in the materials handling facility.
• Electronic commerce using virtual storefronts may offer many advantages, such as lower cost overhead (e.g., due to lack of sales personnel, lack of physical storefronts, highly automated ordering processes, etc.), and a potential customer base limited only by the reach of the Internet.
• a product distributor that provides a "storefront" for customers exclusively through a network site, or the portion of a product distributor that provides a network site for customers while the distributor maintains physical customer presences, may be referred to as a network enterprise.
• Figure 2 illustrates an example conventional network enterprise that provides a "virtual storefront" to customers via a network site.
• Figure 5 is a block diagram of an example tote delivery service according to at least some embodiments.
• Figure 6 is a flowchart of placing an item into a tote order via a tote ordering pipeline, according to at least some embodiments.
• Figure 7 is a flowchart of placing an item into a tote order using a single-action user interface element, according to at least some embodiments.
• Figure 8 illustrates an example web page of a network site that provides one or more tote delivery service UI elements, according to some embodiments.
• Figure 11 illustrates an example web page via which a customer may confirm that an item is to be placed in a pending tote order, according to some embodiments.
• Figure 12 illustrates an example web page that confirms that a tote order has been placed by the customer, according to some embodiments.
• Figure 13 illustrates an example item detail page that may be presented to a customer that is not subscribed to a subscription-based shipping program provided by the network enterprise, according to some embodiments.
• Figure 14 illustrates an example item detail page that may be presented to a customer that is subscribed to a subscription-based shipping program provided by the network enterprise, according to some embodiments.
• Figure 16 illustrates an example tote return page that may be presented to a customer according to some embodiments.
• Figure 17 illustrates the physical layout and operations of an example fulfillment center when fulfilling a bulk transfer order, according to some embodiments.
• Figure 18 illustrates operations of an example tote delivery service sortation node, according to some embodiments.
• Figure 19 is a flowchart of back end operations for a tote delivery service, according to at least some embodiments.
• Figure 20 is a block diagram illustrating an example computer system that may be used in at least some embodiments.
• the methods and apparatus for product ordering and delivery may use reusable totes to deliver items ordered from a network enterprise to customers' delivery addresses.
• the methods and apparatus may collectively be referred to as a tote delivery service.
• embodiments of the tote delivery service may allow customers of a network enterprise to easily consolidate their orders into standing periodic (e.g., weekly or bi-weekly) deliveries in reusable containers, which may be referred to as totes.
• the reusable totes may be returned to the network enterprise for reuse.
• the reusable totes may be kept by the customers.
• the tote delivery service may be promoted as a free, fast, and "green" delivery program for at least some items that uses reusable totes and that thus reduces or eliminates the delivery of individual orders in cardboard boxes or other packaging materials that require breaking down, recycling, or trashing by the customer.
• customers may be required to have an account with the network enterprise to use the tote delivery service.
• the customers may be required to sign up for or subscribe to the tote delivery service to place orders to be delivered by tote.
• the customers may not be required to sign up for or subscribe to the tote delivery service; the tote delivery service may be made available to some or all customers of the network enterprise without requiring the customers to specifically subscribe to receive the service.
• customers may be required to sign in (e.g., by entering a password) to use the tote delivery service when placing an item in a tote order.
• each customer is assigned a pre-defined tote delivery day according to a zone that the customer's delivery address is in, where each zone corresponds to a day of the week (e.g., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.) on which deliveries are made to that zone.
• the zones may, for example, be based on the zip codes of the delivery addresses.
• a customer may provide a delivery address (or just a zip code) to view the customer's corresponding tote delivery day, or the customer's tote delivery day may automatically be displayed for the customer on a user interface based on the customer's delivery address.
• tote delivery may be presented as an option on at least some item detail pages of the network site user interface for the customer, for example as a single-action user interface element (e.g., a button).
• tote delivery may be presented as an option in the order pipeline user interface.
• Other shipping options for example a next-day shipping option and a two-day shipping option, may also be presented to the customer on these or other web pages of the network site.
• any eligible item offered via the network site may be added by a customer to the customer's virtual tote up to a specified cutoff (e.g., two days) before the customer's tote delivery day (or days).
• individual customers may be assigned a particular time slot on a tote delivery day, or alternatively a customer may specify which time slot on the tote delivery day that the customer wants to receive the tote delivery for that day.
• the customer specifies which time slot of two or more time slots on a tote delivery day that the customer prefers, the specification may be made as a default for the customer and/or may be made on a tote-by-tote basis.
• the customer may place orders for one or more different items at different times, with an order generated, and shipped, for each item or items ordered at a given time.
• the customer may place different items, at different times, into the same tote (or into different totes).
• a given tote scheduled for delivery to a particular delivery address on a particular tote delivery day may be viewed (and processed, by the tote delivery service) as a single tote order, even though different items in the tote may have been placed into the tote at different times that are hours, days, weeks, or even longer apart, and even though different items in the tote may have been placed into the tote by different customers that share the same delivery address.
• the customer may request that a back-ordered or pre -ordered item be delivered via the tote delivery service.
• the back-ordered or pre-ordered item may then be displayed in a virtual tote to be delivered on a future tote delivery day, for example on a tote management page 1100 as illustrated in Figure 15.
• customers may be allowed to cancel items in totes or cancel entire tote orders much later than can be done for orders being shipped by conventional shipping methods, up to the tote delivery day. For example, if a customer's scheduled tote delivery time is 6pm, the customer may be allowed to cancel part or all of the tote order up until noon on the tote delivery day. This provides more flexibility to the customers in regards to managing and scheduling their tote deliveries than is provided by conventional ordering and shipping methods.
• embodiments of the tote delivery service may provide a competitively advantageous delivery option and an enterprise-wide platform for product delivery. With the possible realization of the efficiency of higher units per shipment that may result from an implementation of the product ordering and delivery method, a network enterprise may justify operating its own last-mile delivery system while offering lower-cost or even free delivery to customers via the reusable totes.
• At least some embodiments of the tote delivery service may provide a user interface to a network enterprise system that enables customers to manage their tote deliveries.
• the tote management user interface may allow the customer to specify tote delivery for items ordered from the network enterprise.
• the tote management user interface may also provide a display of virtual totes scheduled for delivery on future tote delivery days.
• return totes may be used to deliver inventory from other entities, such as merchants or sellers, to the network enterprise.
• a merchant or seller may provide one or more different items to the network enterprise that may be placed into the network enterprise's inventory, in some cases for sale via the network site.
• the tote delivery service may be provided to an address of the merchant or seller.
• the merchant or seller may place items to be delivered to the network enterprise into a return tote that is picked up and delivered to a sortation node on a tote delivery run.
• a customer may, for example, be prompted to wait for a scheduled delivery of an item via tote, or add an item to a tote, rather than making a trip to the store to pick up the item.
• a customer may be prompted to suggest that the customer consolidate items ordered via other shipping options (for example, items in a virtual "shopping cart") into an upcoming tote order.
• data store 334 may be implemented as one or more of any type of storage device and/or storage system suitable for storing data used by the server systems that implement the network enterprise logic 330 including, but not limited to: redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) devices, disk drives or arrays of disk drives such as Just a Bunch Of Disks (JBOD), (used to refer to disks that are not configured according to RAID), optical storage devices, tape drives, RAM disks, Storage Area Network (SAN), Network Access Storage (NAS), or combinations thereof.
• RAID redundant array of inexpensive disks
• JBOD Just a Bunch Of Disks
• tape drives tape drives
• RAM disks RAM disks
• SAN Storage Area Network
• NAS Network Access Storage
• one or more totes may be placed into each receptacle.
• the receptacles into which the totes are placed may each include a tote delivery indicator 262 as shown in Figure 4B that may be used by tote delivery personnel to determine the delivery address for the tote(s) contained therein.
• the delivery personnel on the delivery vehicle drop each tote off at a respective customer address 372.
• only one tote will be dropped at a given address 372; however, in some cases, more than one tote may be required to deliver all the items to be delivered on a given delivery day to a given address 372.
• the delivery personnel may also pick up one or more previously delivered totes from at least some addresses 372.
• a given delivery vehicle may deliver to more than one zone 370 on a given delivery run, or on a given delivery day.
• At least some embodiments of the tote delivery service user interface may provide one or more single-action user interface elements, for example on an item detail page, via which a customer may initiate an order for an item provided by the network site to be delivered according to the tote delivery service.
• the tote delivery service user interface may also provide one or more single-action user interface elements via which a customer may initiate an order for an item provided by the network site according to one or more other shipping options provided to the customer by the network site, for example according to a subscription-based shipping program, where each shipping option is associated with a particular one of the single-action user interface elements.
• one or more of these single-action shipping options may only be presented to customers that are current subscribers of a subscription-based shipping program, and not to non-subscribed customers.
• a single action by a customer on a user interface provided by the network site to select a particular one of the shipping options provided by the network site may automatically initiate the purchase order, processing, and shipping or delivery of an item offered by the network site according to the selected shipping option, for example the tote delivery service option.
• Information associated with the customer including, but not limited to, shipping address, billing address, and payment method information may be used in the automatic processing of the order in response to the single action selection of the shipping option.
• a customer may have multiple tote delivery days in a week to the same shipping address, for example Tuesday and Friday to a given address.
• all customers may be given two (or more) tote delivery days per week.
• a subset of delivery addresses may be given two (or more) tote delivery days per week; for example, delivery addresses in some but not all delivery zones may be given two tote delivery days per week.
• subscribers to a subscription-based shipping program may be given two (or more) tote delivery days per week, rather than the standard one tote delivery day per week provided to non-subscribed customers, as a benefit of being subscribed to the shipping program.
• Area 710 may thus allow a customer to specify which upcoming tote delivery day the customer wants the item to be delivered.
• a tote management page may display the tote orders textually, or using a combination of textual and graphical representation.
• the customer may be allowed to choose the display mode (graphical or textual) for the tote management page.
• a page may be provided via which the customer may view tote orders, either graphically or textually, but on which the customer is not allowed to modify the tote orders, or is only allowed to perform a subset of the tote management actions described above.
• the user interface may allow the customer to, for example, drag an item from a virtual tote 1 112 into the shopping cart, or vice versa.
• a tote management page 1100 may include one or more UI elements that represent one or more other shipping options, such as one-day and two-day shipping options.
• the user interface may allow the customer to, for example, drag an item from a virtual tote 1112 into the UI element corresponding to a particular shipping option, and vice versa.
• the web page may include a "schedule for tote delivery" UI element via which the user may place the pre-ordered item in a virtual tote for delivery on a future tote delivery day that is on or after the scheduled release date of the item.
• the tote delivery service back end automatically picks the specified quantity of the item and transfers the item(s) to the appropriate sortation node; the item is then placed into the customer's tote for delivery on the tote delivery day.
• the reminders may, for example, let the customer know which tote days the customer should expect a tote to be placed on their doorstep, what the cutoff day is for placing items into (or removing items from) a given tote, and what will be delivered in the totes on those tote days.
• a reminder might state something like "Item Y is scheduled to be delivered in a reusable tote to your doorstep this coming Wednesday," or "M units of item Z are scheduled to be delivered in a reusable tote to your doorstep on Thursday, June 17.”
• Another example of a reminder may be something like "Your tote delivery on Thursday, June 17, will include one unit of item Y and 3 units of item Z. If you wish to make changes to this tote delivery, please do so before 6 am on
• this retrieving and processing may be performed subsequent to the cutoff time for a given tote delivery day.
• the cutoff time for Friday tote delivery may be Tuesday night, so the tote delivery data may be retrieved and processed at some time Wednesday morning.
• at least some retrieving and processing of tote delivery data for a given tote delivery day may be performed prior to the cutoff time for the tote delivery day.
• the bulk transfer data may be provided to one or more fulfillment centers of the network enterprise's order fulfillment network as bulk transfer orders.
• a bulk transfer order directs a fulfillment center to bulk-transfer items for delivery on a specific tote delivery day to at least one of one or more tote delivery service sortation nodes.
• a bulk transfer order may direct a fulfillment center to bulk-transfer items for delivery on two or more tote delivery days to a sortation node.
• Sortation node 360 may include a receiving 1380 station that receives bulk transfers
• the received bulk transfer 352 items, and the locally picked items 1310 if any, may be delivered in streams or batches to one or more sorting stations 1360 of the sorting node 360.
• the received items may be manually and/or automatically sorted into customer totes.
• sorting station personnel, and/or an automated sorting device may electronically scan each item and place the item into an appropriate customer tote, under direction of control system 1350 and according to the received zone delivery data 340.
• items ordered by two or more customers that share the same tote delivery address may be consolidated into a single tote order to be delivered to the shared address.
• each customer tote may include a tote delivery indicator that may identify at least a delivery address for the particular tote to the sorting station personnel, automated sorting equipment, and the delivery personnel.
• An example tote 250 with an example tote delivery indicator 252 is illustrated in Figure 4A.
• the tote delivery indicator may, for example, be a printed label that is permanently affixed to the tote, or a removable printed label.
• the tote delivery indicator may be a tag that may be attached to and removed from a tote, for example the tag may be attached to a handle of a tote.
• the tote delivery indicator may be a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, or other type of electronic tag, that may be electronically scanned, e.g. using a hand-held scanner, to identify at least the delivery address for the tote.
• RFID radio-frequency identification
• an electronic tag may be programmable at the sortation node 360 so that the delivery address (or other information) indicated by the tag on a given tote may be changed if and when necessary.
• the tote delivery indicator may include or may be a bar code that may be programmed to indicate the particular tote delivery and that may be scanned by tote delivery personnel and/or sortation node personnel or automated sorting devices.
• Figure 19 is a flowchart of back end operations for a tote delivery service, according to at least some embodiments.
• This flowchart assumes, by way of example, that a city has a single sortation node. Note that a city or other geographic region may have more than one sortation node.
• this flowchart represents back end operations for one delivery day; the elements of the flowchart may be repeated for each delivery day of a given sortation node for a geographic region such as city (e.g., Monday through Friday, or Monday through Saturday, or every day of the week).

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• 2011
  • 2011-06-27 CN CN201180032263.5A patent/CN102959574B/zh active Active
  • 2011-06-27 CN CN201610702836.5A patent/CN106372829A/zh active Pending
  • 2011-06-27 CA CA2804140A patent/CA2804140A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2011-06-27 EP EP11804094.8A patent/EP2585995A4/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2011-06-27 WO PCT/US2011/042042 patent/WO2012006031A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2011-06-27 JP JP2013518537A patent/JP5782119B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related

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