Mixed Cart Solution for In-Store App Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Sales associates in brick-and-mortar stores lack access to customers' online data, hindering their ability to provide a premium customer service experience when customers have existing online orders or wish lists.
Innovation Solution
A mixed-cart solution that synchronizes online and in-store shopping carts, allowing sales associates to access customer account information and manage item selections across both platforms, enabling seamless integration of online and offline purchases.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If customers use online apps to order products, then customers can place orders conveniently from home, but sales associates in the store cannot access online customer data to provide personalized service
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges online and offline shopping systems into a unified mixed-cart solution. The associate device accesses and displays the customer's online cart contents, wish list, and account information in the physical store, allowing sales associates to provide personalized service while maintaining online ordering convenience. This combines the benefits of both online and offline channels into a single integrated system.
Solution Approach 2:
The associate device acts as an intermediary between the online system and the sales associate. It retrieves online customer data through authentication, displays it locally, and enables the associate to access online cart information without requiring direct system integration. This intermediary device bridges the information gap between online and offline channels.
2Speed
If customers come into the store to purchase products immediately, then customers can get products right away, but the purchasing process requires manual handling of online orders separately
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by having customers place online orders in advance. When they visit the store, their cart is already populated with selected items, and the associate device displays this information ready for review. This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for customers to re-select items in-store and reduces checkout processing time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines online and offline purchasing into a single mixed-cart transaction. Items from the online cart, in-store selections, and wish list are merged into one unified cart that can be checked out together. This eliminates separate handling of online and in-store orders, streamlining the checkout process and reducing overall processing time.
3Reliability
If sales associates manually handle online and in-store purchases separately, then existing systems can be maintained, but customer service quality and efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The associate device serves multiple functions: it authenticates the customer, displays online cart contents, shows wish list items, enables in-store product selection, and processes the unified mixed-cart checkout. This single device handles all aspects of both online and offline purchasing, eliminating the need for separate manual processes and significantly improving service efficiency while maintaining system compatibility.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for providing a mixed-cart solution for an in-store app. An embodiment operates by receiving a request to add an item from a physical store to an associate shopping cart associated with an account. It is determined that the account is additionally associated with an online shopping cart associated with the store, and that the requested item does not exist in the online shopping cart. It selected item is added to the associate shopping cart. Both the online shopping cart and the associate shopping cart are provided to a computing device configured to simultaneously display both the online shopping cart and the associate shopping cart.