Shared Virtual Shopping Cart for Multi-Merchant Checkout
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current e-commerce systems limit shoppers to a single merchant website for purchasing items in their virtual shopping cart, requiring separate interactions with each merchant and lacking cross-selling capabilities among merchants, which increases advertising costs and reduces foot traffic for brick-and-mortar stores.
Innovation Solution
A system allowing shoppers to select and purchase items from multiple merchant websites using a shared virtual shopping cart, enabling checkout from any merchant website while sharing shopper data for cross-selling and reducing the need for advertising, with merchants donating a portion of transactions to local charities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If shoppers interact with each merchant website separately to purchase items, then each merchant can maintain their own website and product database, but shoppers cannot purchase items from multiple merchants in a single transaction and must visit each merchant website individually
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple merchant websites into a unified shopping cart system where items from different merchants can be added to a single virtual shopping cart. The system merges the checkout processes of multiple merchants into one consolidated transaction, allowing shoppers to purchase items from multiple merchants simultaneously without visiting each website separately.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual shopping cart is designed to serve multiple merchants universally, functioning as a common platform that can hold items from any participating merchant. The system provides multi-functionality by enabling single-transaction purchasing across merchant boundaries while maintaining each merchant's independence in managing their own products and pricing.
2Loss of energy
If merchants operate independent websites without cross-selling capabilities, then each merchant maintains control over their own pricing and products, but advertising costs increase and foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where shopper data and purchasing patterns are shared across merchants through the unified platform. This feedback loop enables merchants to identify cross-selling opportunities based on actual shopper behavior, allowing them to promote complementary products from other merchants in the network, thereby reducing reliance on expensive traditional advertising.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing the cross-selling relationships and product associations between merchants before shoppers make purchases. The unified shopping cart is configured in advance to recognize and facilitate cross-selling opportunities, so that when shoppers add items to their cart, relevant cross-sell recommendations are already prepared and readily available.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a single merchant website handles all transactions, then checkout is simplified, but shoppers lose the ability to select from diverse product categories offered by multiple specialized merchants
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the e-commerce ecosystem into specialized merchant websites, each focusing on specific product categories or niches. Rather than forcing all merchants into a single generalist platform, the system allows each merchant to maintain their specialized identity and product focus, while the unified shopping cart integrates these segments into a cohesive multi-merchant purchasing experience.
Data Source
AI summary
A series of associated merchant websites or respective merchant websites each selling narrowly defined product categories to shoppers who browse to select products for placement into a shopping cart. While each website is operated and controlled by a different merchant or a single merchant, each website has access to a shared server farm where information about each shopper is stored. Also shared is a virtual e-commerce shopping cart that the shopper can use to check out at any of the merchant websites even though the virtual e-commerce shopping cart may contain products from multiple different merchant websites. Each merchant website is associated with metadata limited to the narrowly defined product category, thereby providing enhanced SEO benefits without the need to purchase ad words. Each boutique specifically targets a single category making the shopping and buying experience easier. Information gathered from shoppers at each unique boutique is stored at the server farm for being shared with other associated merchants in the collection of sites. A shopper's user account will transfer between sites and allow the data gathered to be used in a cross-promotional method and will ensure the shopper's experience is consistent with what they like and want in future visits. Moreover, a merchant incentivizes an account holder to make an authorized transaction by terms and agreement to auditably donate to the account holder's affinity entity. To incent desirable commerce with locals, the merchant's terms may limit its donation by a derivation of navigation time between account holder and merchant, and/or by date and time of the transaction. The account holder can direct the donation to one of more affinity entities within their own community, and/or within a community where the transaction was physically conducted. An account holder can also donate at the time of transaction where the donation is paid by the account's issuer for reimbursement as a debit to the account holder's account statement. Other payment system participants may donate (the merchant's acquirer, issuer, and transaction handler for the issuer and acquirer), by way of favorable interchange rates, can also make audible donations to account holder directed affinities entities.