Consolidating Household Orders for Concierge Recommendations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional online concierge systems are inefficient in handling orders for multiple users at a common location, as they are configured for individual users, limiting the access and utilization of information from other users' orders to recommend goods and increasing the time and resources required for order fulfillment.
Innovation Solution
An online concierge system generates an account associated with multiple user profiles, allowing users to specify other users to be linked to the account, and retrieves information from prior orders of these users to recommend items and simplify order creation by displaying relevant items from other users' orders, enabling modifications and permissions for associated users.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional online concierge systems are configured for individual users, then each user can place orders independently, but the system cannot leverage information from other users' orders to make recommendations and must fulfill separate orders increasing time and resources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple individual user orders into a single consolidated order when users share common characteristics (same location, same time window). This merging approach allows the system to leverage information from all associated users' order histories for recommendations while reducing the number of separate fulfillments needed, thereby improving both adaptability and productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a unified order structure that serves multiple users simultaneously, making the order fulfillment process multi-functional. A single order can be fulfilled for multiple users at once, allowing the system to efficiently handle diverse user needs while consolidating resources and information access
2Ease of operation
If conventional systems force different users to place different orders, then each user's order can be customized independently, but the system requires more time for order placement and more resources for fulfillment
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-grouping users with common characteristics and pre-consolidating their orders before fulfillment. This preliminary consolidation reduces the time users spend placing orders since they can join existing consolidated orders rather than creating separate ones, while maintaining ease of operation through automatic grouping
3Productivity
If the system consolidates orders from multiple users, then information can be leveraged for better recommendations and resources are optimized, but users may have less control over their individual order contents
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the consolidated order into individual user portions, allowing each user to maintain control over their specific items while benefiting from the consolidated fulfillment process. This segmentation enables resource optimization through consolidation while preserving user autonomy through individual item selection and modification capabilities
Data Source
AI summary
Multiple users of a household can each have a different profile associated with a common account for an online concierge system. This association of different profiles with the common accounts allows the concierge system to show a user of the household what other users of the household purchased and rank items for suggestion to the user based one purchases of other users, facilitating order building. The online concierge system also enables a user profile to designate a user profile associated with the common account for an order pickup or as a contact for a home delivery. Additionally, association of different user profiles with the common account may be used for account recovery of one of the user profiles. Further, different user profiles may have different permissions for creating an order with the online concierge system.