Shared Electronic Shopping Cart for Social Collaboration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional online shopping experiences are typically solitary and lack real-time interaction with others, making it difficult for consumers to share shopping activities and receive assistance from friends, family, or social networks.
Innovation Solution
The system and method enable consumers to create and manage shared or social electronic shopping carts, allowing them to automatically share shopping activities with others via online social networks, short message services, and email, thereby enabling others to participate and assist in shopping activities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If online shopping is conducted using conventional electronic shopping carts, then shopping efficiency and ease of operation are improved, but social interaction and collaborative shopping capabilities deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines conventional electronic shopping cart functionality with social networking capabilities into a unified system. Users can create social shopping carts that integrate traditional product selection and checkout processes with features for sharing cart contents, receiving recommendations, and collaborating with friends and family members, thereby maintaining shopping efficiency while adding social interaction capabilities
Solution Approach 2:
The electronic shopping cart system is enhanced to perform multiple functions: traditional shopping tasks (product selection, cart management, checkout) alongside social activities (sharing carts via email/social networks, receiving recommendations, collaborative decision-making). This multi-functional approach allows the same platform to serve both individual shopping efficiency and group social interaction needs
2Reliability
If shopping activities are kept private and individual, then user privacy and security are maintained, but collaborative shopping and social engagement are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments shopping cart privacy into different levels: private carts for individual shopping, and social/shareable carts for collaborative shopping. Users can control which friends or contacts have access to their cart contents, allowing them to maintain privacy for sensitive purchases while enabling collaboration for others. This segmentation allows simultaneous support for both privacy protection and collaborative shopping
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces social networking platforms and email systems as intermediaries between the shopping cart system and users' social contacts. These intermediaries enable secure sharing of shopping activities while maintaining the user's control over information disclosure. The intermediary layer protects user privacy by allowing selective sharing without exposing all shopping activities to the public
Data Source
AI summary
Certain embodiments of the disclosure relate to methods and systems that enable a consumer to electronically shop for products using a conventional electronic shopping cart such as are typically provided by online merchants, and to also create and manage one or more additional “shared” electronic shopping carts through which the end-user may automatically share details of such shopping activities with others using electronic means such as online social networks, short message services, and email, thereby enabling others to participate and assist in various shopping activities.