Cross-Border E-Wallet Address Intermediary
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Solution Overview
Problem
US and UK e-commerce merchants often do not accept foreign cards due to liability concerns, and even when they do, they typically do not ship overseas, creating barriers for foreign consumers who face transparency issues regarding taxes, customs duties, and shipping charges during international purchases.
Innovation Solution
An e-wallet system that facilitates cross-border transactions by assigning local shipping addresses, providing a secure online shopping experience by using prepaid cards and estimating fully landed costs, allowing consumers to shop from US and UK merchants with enhanced security and reduced data entry errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If US and UK merchants accept foreign cards, then cross-border card acceptance is improved, but liability concerns increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a local shipping address intermediary service that acts as a mediator between foreign consumers and US/UK merchants. The system assigns local addresses to foreign consumers, allowing merchants to ship domestically while the intermediary handles international forwarding. This resolves the contradiction by enabling cross-border transactions without exposing merchants to direct international shipping liability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the shipping process into two distinct parts: domestic shipping from merchant to local address, and international shipping from local address to foreign consumer. This segmentation allows US/UK merchants to limit their liability to only the domestic portion, while the intermediary service assumes responsibility for the international portion.
2Adaptability or versatility
If merchants ship overseas, then fulfillment capability is improved, but shipping costs and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a local shipping address intermediary service that acts as a mediator between foreign consumers and US/UK merchants. The system assigns local addresses to foreign consumers, allowing merchants to ship domestically while the intermediary handles international forwarding. This resolves the contradiction by enabling cross-border transactions without exposing merchants to direct international shipping liability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the shipping process into two distinct parts: domestic shipping from merchant to local address, and international shipping from local address to foreign consumer. This segmentation allows US/UK merchants to limit their liability to only the domestic portion, while the intermediary service assumes responsibility for the international portion.
3Loss of information
If consumers provide physical addresses directly to merchants, then transparency is improved, but data entry errors increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a local address copy that represents the consumer's foreign address in a format suitable for US/UK merchants. Instead of merchants handling complex foreign addresses directly, the system provides a simplified local address copy that maintains all necessary routing information while being compatible with domestic shipping systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The local shipping address service acts as an intermediary that translates and validates address information. The system receives the consumer's foreign address, generates an appropriate local address format, and provides it to the merchant, thereby reducing data entry errors while maintaining transparency.
Data Source
AI summary
Local shipping addresses in a first country are assigned to a plurality of consumers having physical addresses in at least one country other than the first country. A request is obtained, from an e-commerce retailer, for a corresponding one of the local shipping addresses. Product information, an indication of a desired form of shipping from the e-commerce retailer to the corresponding one of the local shipping addresses, and an indication of a desired form of shipping from the corresponding one of the local shipping addresses to a corresponding one of the physical addresses in the at least one country other than the first country are obtained. An indication of an estimated fully landed cost associated with the on-line shopping session is dispatched.