Persistent Online Shopping Cart with Multi-Vendor Bundling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing online shopping systems do not allow for the creation of persistent shopping carts that can be purchased multiple times by the original assembler or others, limiting the ability to bundle items from multiple vendors and offer discounts or incentives.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for creating a persistent online shopping cart that allows users to select and store items from various vendors, enabling the cart to be published for others to purchase, with features for updating prices, geographic targeting, and incentives for cart creators.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional online shopping carts are used, then each user has their own private cart, but the cart cannot be purchased multiple times or shared with others
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the shopping cart concept into two distinct types: private carts (traditional user-specific carts) and public carts (shareable, purchasable carts). This segmentation allows the system to maintain traditional cart functionality while introducing new cart sharing and purchasing capabilities without disrupting existing operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The public cart is designed with multi-functionality, serving as both a shopping list for the creator and a purchasable product for others. The same cart structure can be used for personal shopping, shared with friends, or published as a sellable item, making it universally applicable across different use cases.
2Adaptability or versatility
If vendor-initiated product bundles are created, then bundling is possible, but the initiative and customization are limited to vendors
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of vendors creating bundles and customers selecting from them, the system inverts the process by allowing customers to create their own custom bundles (carts) and then offer them to others for purchase. This reversal gives customers full control over bundle composition while still enabling the bundling functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service cart creation where users can independently assemble their own carts by selecting items from various vendors, setting pricing, and publishing without vendor intervention. This self-service approach maximizes customization while reducing the operational burden on vendors.
3Quantity of substance
If items from multiple vendors are bundled, then variety is increased, but coordination and management become more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces a platform intermediary that manages the complexity of multi-vendor cart coordination. This intermediary handles item availability checking, pricing synchronization, and order routing to multiple vendors, shielding users from the underlying complexity while enabling seamless multi-vendor cart creation and purchasing.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and a method are provided for assembling, and publishing, a persistent cart of products online. The cart can have products from a single vendor or a variety of different vendors. When the cart is published, various deals, discounts, and incentives can be offered. An individual who created the cart can be rewarded. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium stores instructions of a computer program that when executed facilitates creation of the cart of items to be purchased and selects the individual or group of individuals to whom the cart is published. The purchasing of a cart does not eliminate the availability of the cart for subsequent users.