Passive Shopping Service Automation for Vendor Offer Matching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Online shopping can be a time-consuming and daunting experience due to the vast amount of information available, requiring users to actively search and browse vendor websites to find matching products within their specified criteria and schedule.
Innovation Solution
A passive shopping service that allows users to specify items, price ranges, and schedules, with a system that identifies matching vendor offers and provides notifications, enabling users to maintain private or public watch lists and purchase items without direct interaction with vendors, while protecting their contact information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If users actively search and browse vendor websites to find matching products, then they can find products within their specified criteria, but they spend a considerable amount of time sifting through available information
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by proactively monitoring vendor websites and pre-identifying products that match user criteria before users actively search. The service continuously scans multiple vendor sites, compares products against stored user specifications, and prepares matched results in advance, eliminating the need for users to manually browse through vast amounts of information.
2Adaptability or versatility
If users provide contact information to vendors for personalized offers, then they may receive relevant notifications, but their contact information may be exposed to unwanted vendor interactions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary service that acts as a buffer between users and vendors. Instead of users directly providing contact information to multiple vendors, the service collects specifications, monitors vendors, and delivers notifications through a controlled interface. This intermediary layer filters and manages vendor interactions, allowing relevant notifications while protecting user privacy by preventing direct exposure of contact information to all vendors.
3Reliability
If users manually monitor multiple vendor websites for price changes and availability, then they can find the best offers, but the process becomes complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The service merges multiple vendor monitoring functions into a single unified system. Instead of users manually checking multiple websites, the service consolidates monitoring of numerous vendor sites, applies user criteria across all of them, and presents combined results through one interface. This merging approach maintains reliable offer matching across multiple sources while dramatically simplifying the user process.
Data Source
AI summary
A shopping system may receive, from a user, a request to add information about an item to a watch list associated with the user; may receive, from the user, a price associated with the item; and may receive, from the user, a schedule associated with the item. The shopping system may identify a vendor offer associated with the item and associated with a particular vendor, where the vendor offer includes a price that is less than or equal to the received price, the identifying being based on the schedule associated with the item; and may provide a notification to the user, where the notification includes information about the identified vendor offer.