Cross-Site E-Commerce Watchlists for Item Availability Alerts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Consumers face challenges in tracking and managing their shopping interests across multiple retail websites due to information overload and inconvenient methods for saving items for later purchase, particularly for items like event tickets that may become unavailable during the shopping process.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for creating a watchlist of products or events, allowing users to identify and associate items with friends, store them for later retrieval, and receive updates on changes or purchases, with options for automatic addition from multiple websites or emails.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If consumers use multiple retail websites to shop for items, then they have access to more product information and choices, but they experience information overload and shopping fatigue
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the shopping process by separating item tracking from purchase execution. Users can add items to a watchlist across multiple websites without immediately committing to purchase, allowing them to organize and manage items of interest separately from the actual buying process. This reduces information overload by consolidating tracked items in one place.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary service (watchlist system) that mediates between multiple retail websites and the consumer. This intermediary consolidates item information from various sources, tracks availability, and notifies users of changes, reducing the need for consumers to manually monitor multiple websites and thereby reducing shopping fatigue.
2Reliability
If consumers create shopping carts or interest lists on each website, then they can save items for later purchase, but they must log in and enter personal information on each website which is inconvenient and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal watchlist system that functions across multiple retail websites without requiring separate registrations. Users can add items from any participating website to a single centralized watchlist using their email address, eliminating the need to create and manage separate shopping carts on each website and significantly reducing the time required.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by automatically tracking items added to the watchlist and monitoring their availability. Once users add items to their watchlist, the system autonomously checks for availability changes and sends notifications, eliminating the need for users to repeatedly log in and check on their saved items across different websites.
3Ease of operation
If consumers decide to purchase an item but log back on later, then they can complete the purchase, but the item may be sold out by then
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the system continuously monitors item availability in the user's watchlist and automatically notifies users of any changes. This real-time feedback loop ensures users are immediately informed when items become unavailable or when they are still available, allowing them to act quickly to complete purchases before items sell out.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by proactively checking item availability and sending notifications to users before items sell out. Rather than requiring users to repeatedly check availability, the system takes preliminary action to monitor and alert users, ensuring they have advance notice to complete purchases while items are still available.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for creating a watchlist of products relating to any type of item/service/event for which any type of purchase may be made by a user. The system permits a user to access a website and identify items of the website that are of interest and other users (or friends) and associate one or more users with one or more items in the watchlist. The system stores the identified items and friends in a watchlist for later retrieval, review, transmission or action by the user. The system may periodically inform the user of any changes to the items of interest or any changes in purchases made by the user's friends to items in the watchlist. Items may alternatively be added from multiple websites, multiple emails or automatically by the system.