Embedded Email Forms for Website-Free E-Commerce Transactions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Emails in e-commerce are underutilized for interactive transactions due to limitations in interactivity and design, lacking features like multiple inputs, calculations, adjustable visual elements, and recognition technologies, making them less engaging compared to websites and social media.
Innovation Solution
Implementing embedded forms within emails that allow customers to interactively select options and complete transactions directly from the email, using tokens and a form monitor server to generate and process these forms, enabling seamless transactions between customers and vendors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional email format is used for e-commerce transactions, then email simplicity and wide compatibility are maintained, but interactivity and transactional capability are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent embeds HTML forms within email messages, creating a nested structure where a web-form-like interface is contained inside the email format. This allows email to provide interactive form-filling capabilities while remaining deliverable through standard email systems, effectively nesting a complex interface within a simple delivery mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing system that receives emails containing embedded forms, extracts the form data, and processes transactions. This mediator handles the complexity of form processing while keeping the email interface simple for end users, separating the user experience from the processing complexity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If embedded forms with multiple inputs and calculations are added to email, then transactional capability and interactivity are improved, but email system compatibility and ease of operation deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The embedded forms within emails are self-contained and can be completed directly by the user without requiring external web page navigation. The form processes inputs, performs calculations, and submits transactions entirely within the email client environment, making the system self-sufficient and reducing operational steps for the user.
3Ease of operation
If email is used as a standalone platform for transactions, then customer convenience is improved, but functional limitations compared to websites persist
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes email a multi-functional platform by enabling it to not only deliver messages but also present product information, collect customer inputs through embedded forms, perform calculations, and process transactions. This transforms email from a single-function communication tool into a universal e-commerce platform that can handle multiple transactional functions within a single message.
Data Source
AI summary
A method implemented in an e-commerce system to facilitate transactions between a customer and a vendor using embedded forms includes requesting by a vendor system to an e-commerce system to generate an embedded form for use in an SMTP email campaign. The method further includes transmitting emails with embedded forms including at least one token by the vendor system to a customer device. The method further includes rendering the embedded form in email to the customer device and receiving a response email, wherein the response email includes input details requested in the specified input fields and a token; authenticating the response email; decoding the token and processing a transaction based on the customer input details requested in the specified input fields of the embedded form.