393 results about "Purchasing process" patented technology

A computer implemented method is provided for conducting business-to-business electronic commerce over the Internet. The method includes the step of providing a website that enables electronic communication with users, and including on the website an electronic shopping basket which is selectively actuatable into various states. An additional step includes enabling two or more remote users to simultaneously access the shopping basket. Each of the users is assigned one or more hierarchically distinct abilities to affect the state of the shopping basket, so that the users are permitted to simultaneously view the status of the shopping basket and sequentially affect the state of the shopping basket. This enables various actions in the purchasing process to be accomplished by various individuals. These abilities to affect the state of the basket may also include providing the users with various selected levels of access to the basket, i.e., to prevent unauthorized purchases. Notification of any change of the state of the shopping basket is automatically sent to all of the users by affecting a display of the shopping basket on the website.

A multi-channel process enrolls user-viewers via VOD inputs and supplemental communications channels (cell phone, VoIP, land-line telephone, Internet or fax). Goods are advertised for the shop on-demand (OD) process via user's interactive TV (STB enabled TV set). A buy-now command is sent with the STB-ID code to the cable head end (HE) and shop OD client application operative thereat and to the shop OD computer server. If the set ID code matches the approved list at the HE, a purchase-confirmation is sent to the user via the STB-TV from the cable HE. One methodology sends a local confirm via metadata or specially configured VA asset. Supplemental communications channels handle supplemental confirms to the user. If not enrolled, supplemental communications network gathers user-viewer profile data. The profile lists user-selectable supple-comm message format (email, voice, text, fax). Non-enrollees may be given discounts to enroll. PINs are also used to control purchasing processes.

The invention relates to a vending machine and an operation method thereof. The vending machine comprises cameras which are connected to a processor, and the processor is connected to a background server through the network. The cameras shoot real-time image information of commodities for sale on goods racks, and send the real-time image information to the background server through the processor; the cameras shoot real-time image information of the commodities for sale on the goods racks, and identify first types and first quantity of the commodities for sale on the goods racks according to the real-time image information; the background server determines the types and quantity of the extracted commodities for sale according to the first types and the first quantity of the commodities for sale, and closes an account according to the types and quantity of the commodities for sale. By means of the technology, the cost of goods passages is reduced, the capacity of the goods racks is increased, the operation complexity of a user in the purchasing process can be further reduced, and the maintenance requirement is reduced.

Disclosed herein is a method for administering a live, online, interactive shopping event. The method may comprise providing a web page on an interface of a host device through which at least one potential buyer and an event host may interact, representing the at least one potential buyer by an avatar displayed within the web page, displaying an image of an item being sold within the web page, displaying a live video stream provided by the event host within the web page, wherein the live video stream is displayed to the at least one potential buyer, and providing for the at least one potential buyer to at least one of view, discuss, and purchase the item being sold within the web page, the purchasing process being initiated by an action taken by the at least one potential buyer on the web page.

The invention provides an intelligent medicine purchasing system based on a remote medical system and medical advice compliance monitoring. The system comprises a remote medical subsystem, a management subsystem linked with a medical unit information platform, and a medicine shopping guide service subsystem linked with a service information platform of a medicine sales network. With the adoption of the intelligent medicine purchasing system provided by the invention, a specific marketing channel is established for the medicine sales network, and a new business model and a new service model are synchronously developed; a patient can implement the follow-up visiting process and medicine purchasing process without going to a hospital and a drugstore, therefore, the medical visits can be reduced, the cost of medical visits is decreased, the probability of cross infection of a patient can be reduced, the efficiency and accuracy of medicine purchasing service can be improved, convenience is brought to medicine sales and the patient, and the burden on the patient can be decreased.

When a group purchasing application according to a group of a predetermined number of persons is received, a group purchasing key that identifies the group is issued. When a product purchasing procedure request having the group purchasing key is received from a user, a payment processing is carried out at a normal price without a discount, and a product shipping processing is carried out. After the purchasing procedure processing for all users in the group is completed, a discount amount according to the group purchasing is calculated, and a discount amount payback processing is carried out.

Described is a system and method whereby a person(s) viewing or experiencing a multimedia program displayed on a device such as a computer screen or television screen can interact with the program in viewing environments including but not limited to: Internet type connections, telecommunication (telephone, ISDN, ADSL), VSAT satellite, and other wire and wireless transmission including as well as video conferencing. The goal of the interaction is to provide a useful and minimally interruptive form of advertising, enacting the sale of a product or service or communicating information in a synchronized manner that may or may not relate to the media being played. The interaction can take the form of a follow up email containing a special offer or information, or the interaction can even prompt the person(s) to initiate a purchase process for a good or service being promoted in conjunction with the media program. In other embodiments, viewers may interact with a given program by means of a plurality of options that include but are not limited to selecting an icon or banner or pressing a button on a remote control. The resulting action sequence will then be initiated, be it a request for information, a purchase activity and so on. If it is a purchase action that is initiated, we have enhanced the method of existing protected media delivery systems to include special security features that are designed to reduce and eliminate copying of protected multimedia programs.

Methods and systems for selling and purchasing items in an online environment, including a set price purchase process and a negotiated price/value purchase process. The system presents to a potential buyer one or more specific product(s) which is/are available for immediate purchase at a pre-set price; provides the potential buyer with the option to request sellers to offer product(s) at a lower price (which may be set forth by the potential buyer), and/or offer the product(s) with different options, and/or to offer similar product(s); and provides sellers with the opportunity to offer the product and/or options to the potential buyer at the requested price/with the requested option, and/or to make offers to the potential buyer to provide the product(s) at different price(s) and/or with different options and/or to provide a different but similar product.

This invention is an innovative solution to antiquated paper coupons. It overcomes deficiencies of couponing systems by using electronic data systems to process a plurality of discount transactions in parallel with the consumers purchase via real-time discounting matrix. This consumer focused system comprises a business related process possessing the means of: transceiving consumer purchase data; managing databases related to discount available items, consumer purchase performance, history, preferences, transaction history, etc.; accessing discount matrix. Individual consumers use a variety of technologies to initiate the discounting transaction during the purchase process, to perform the real-time connection, to quarry, and to reporting on matrix transactions for discount authorizations simultaneously for a plurality of retail and Internet based point of sale locations. This discount process provides a means of better determining the consumer's intent to receive discounts on desired retail goods and services through a plurality of measured definitions in the purchase process.

Demonstrating a piece of real clothing to a customer to facilitate a trying-on and purchasing process includes: obtaining a set of data, representing the customer's body configuration, determining from the set of data a first standardized size for a piece of clothing that is a close match to the customer's body configuration, putting a first piece of real clothing with the first standardized size on a real mannequin with measurements corresponding to the set of data representing the customer's body configuration, obtaining a first image or set of images showing the first piece of clothing on the real mannequin; and presenting to the customer the first image or set of images showing the first piece of real clothing.

Method and system (400) for becoming aware of some hearing loss and the need for a professional hearing test. Simple and professional hearing testing provide an understanding of the improvement in the quality of life that can be achieved through use of a hearing aid. Ordering and fitting of the hearing aid, and training on use of a hearing aid, are performed to further demonstrate and provide for improved quality of life. The system (400) includes a user (410), a hearing test unit (415), a test administrator computer (420), a pair of headphones (422), a keyboard (423), a monitor (426), a series of hearing test programs (446), a central hearing health system (440), a database, a device (433), and a set of individual results.

The invention discloses a ticket clearing system and method. The ticket clearing system includes a data acquisition subsystem, a data verification subsystem, an account clearing system, an account checking subsystem, a settlement subsystem, a report-form statistics subsystem, a system configuration management subsystem and a system monitoring and management subsystem. The system also includes an external system and a clearing rule management subsystem. The method includes data monitoring and management processes such as a data acquisition process, a status inquiry service process, a query verification process, a ticket purchase process, a station entrance and exit station-code matching verification process, a card balance verification process, a query service type clearing process, a station exit clearing process, an account checking data request process, an account checking detail data request process, an account checking data confirmation request process, a settlement process, a report-form subsystem process, a system configuration management subsystem process and a data receiving monitoring process and the like.

Systems and methods for providing self-checkout systems that utilize a scanning imager or camera which includes a selectively steerable field of view. A tracking subsystem may include a targeting imager or camera that captures data (e.g., 3-dimensional data) that characterizes objects in an environment, for instance a retail environment. Images captured by one or more targeting imagers may be used to determine characteristics of objects. The characteristics may be used to generate an object model, which is a collection of properties about an object in the field of view. The tracking subsystem directs the field of view of the relatively higher resolution scanning imager with a relatively narrow field of view to track one or more objects so that images of the objects may be captured. The images are processed to identify the identification of the objects so that the objects may be added to a transaction list to complete a purchase process.

A computer implemented system and method for providing on-line purchasing of products through a communications network are provided. An application server of the system is adapted to determine that a user is interacting with a website associated with the application server as a guest registrant. A guest processing component residing on the application server obtains information during an on-line purchasing process that is used to establish a member registration account. The member registration account is associated with the user that interacts with the host website as a guest registrant.

Described are computer-implemented methods for determining damage to one or more structures by trees or by one or more weather effects. The method may comprise calculating a Tree Proximity Score for one or more sets of geospatial coordinates from weather-related damage data and tree characteristic information using a computer processor. The tree characteristic information may be from a geographic area encompassing each of the sets of geospatial coordinates, and the sets of geospatial coordinates may comprise geographic locations of a plurality of structures. The tree characteristic information may comprise one or more categories based on the presence of tall or medium-height trees within one or more parcels surrounding the sets of geospatial coordinates. Uses for the Tree Proximity Score may be in the insurance industry in insurance policy implementation and underwriting or in the home-buying process as a factor for quantifying whether a particular property is safe.

The invention relates to the technical field of commodity recommendation, in particular to a commodity presentation method and device and an automatic vending machine. The method comprises the following steps: determining commodity information related to a target commodity selected by a user, wherein the commodity information at least comprises specification and price information of commodities of the same classification, discount information of the commodities of the same classification and discount information of the target commodity; sequentially arranging the commodity information according to a preset sort order, wherein the preset sort order is matched with user preference of the user; presenting the sequentially ordered commodity information for the user. According to the method, the commodity information related to the target commodity selected by the user is determined, and the related commodity information is presented for the user according to the user preference, so that the user can rapidly choose the favored commodities, and inconvenience brought by excessively high time consumption due to commodity selection in the purchasing process of the user is reduced. The purchasing time of the user is saved, and the purchasing experience of the user is increased.

The invention pertains to the recommendation system field in the information technology, and is particularly suitable for the recommendation application based on an e-commerce platform in an Internet environment. For shortages with existing collaborative filtering methods, a new characteristic-based collaborative filtering method is provided. According to the new method, the likes and dislikes of article characteristics of users in the goods purchasing process are fully taken into consideration, so a recommendation result which is a more accurate than a conventional collaborative filtering method in the condition that less neighbours of users/products are used, so that the recommendation system is more close to potential demands of website users. Overall, the new method is a collaborative filtering recommendation method having advantages of high efficiency and wide application range.

Auxiliary digital data is sold and bought. A process for selling auxiliary digital data is performed with respect to a process for cancelling a limitation of use of the digital data. A process for buying the auxiliary digital data is performed. A process for receiving a selling request and a buying request is performed, and selling and buying transactions are concluded. The process of selling, the process of buying, and the process of selling and buying are each performed by transmitting and receiving data through a communication network.

A means and method of providing a novel collectible memorabilia item is disclosed. The present invention involves concealing a memorabilia item that is affixed to a carrier item by the manufacturer thereof. To ensure that the memorabilia item remains hidden, so that they can only be seen by buyers after they have paid for their purchase, the protective devices could optionally be tamper-proofed. Additionally, the means for concealment includes protective devices and/or the optional tamper-proofing devices in addition to components similar to those currently utilized in anti-theft systems. In addition to protecting the memorabilia item and ensuring that it remains with the carrier item, by concealing the memorabilia an element of chance is introduced to the purchasing process. Accordingly, the true value of the carrier item and the memorabilia item attached there to is not revealed until the carrier item is purchased and the protective device is then removed.

The invention discloses a system and a method for controlling a virtual reality. The method comprises the steps as follows: in an APP-form ticket purchase process, a user operates a mobile phone APP, selects a film, reads relevant information of the film, determines the film and a session, and pays a ticket for the film via third-party payment software; before starting of the film, the user switches a mobile phone interface to a cinema mode in the APP, a mobile phone is clamped into virtual reality glasses, and the user wears the virtual reality glasses; and the user publishes comments or watching impressions. According to the invention, the user can get rid of a very small mobile phone screen and can feel the immersive virtual reality just like that the user enters another world; and when the user wears the virtual reality glasses, the whole 3D world can appear in front of eyes, the mobile phone software can sense head rotations of the user via a sensor equipped in the mobile phone, the 3D world can also make corresponding synchronous rotations, the user who can look around in the real world can also look around in the virtual world to look the surrounding environment, and thus the user can further believe authenticity of the virtual world.