Unified Virtual Shopping Cart for Cross-Channel Collaboration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current shopping systems lack the ability for seamless collaboration across different channels, such as online and in-store shopping, preventing customers from efficiently sharing information and making joint purchasing decisions.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system of shared virtual shopping carts that allow interconnected devices to synchronize shopping information and enable collaborative shopping decisions across various channels, including online, in-store, and mobile platforms, using personal shopping assistants and network connectivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If customers shop through different channels (online, in-store, mobile) independently, then each channel operates autonomously with its own shopping cart, but collaboration between shoppers is prevented and information sharing is blocked
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple independent shopping carts (online, in-store, mobile) into a unified virtual shopping cart system. This consolidation allows shoppers across different channels to share a common shopping basket, enabling real-time collaboration and information sharing while maintaining the autonomy of individual shopping channels.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual shopping cart is designed as a universal platform that functions across multiple shopping channels simultaneously. It serves as a common interface for both online and in-store shoppers, allowing the same cart to be accessed and modified from different devices and locations, thereby enabling collaborative shopping without requiring separate systems for each channel.
2Ease of operation
If a customer stays on one shopping channel to complete a purchase, then the shopping process is simple and focused, but the ability to collaborate with other shoppers on different channels is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual shopping cart acts as an intermediary that connects shoppers on different channels. It mediates between online and in-store shopping experiences by providing a common platform where shopping information, item selections, and pricing data are shared in real-time, allowing customers to maintain channel-specific simplicity while enabling cross-channel collaboration.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements real-time feedback mechanisms where changes made by one shopper on any channel are immediately reflected in the virtual shopping cart for all other shoppers. This ensures that all participants have up-to-date information about item selections, pricing, and availability, enabling informed collaborative decisions without requiring customers to switch channels.
3Ease of manufacture
If shopping channels operate independently with separate carts, then system implementation is straightforward, but synchronization between online and physical shopping experiences is impossible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple independent channel systems into a unified virtual cart architecture. This merger maintains the simplicity of individual channel implementations while establishing a central synchronization point that ensures consistent shopping information across all channels, thereby improving reliability without significantly complicating system implementation.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for collaborative shopping comprising shopping devices interconnected by a network and respectively used by shoppers in a collaborative shopping session, and virtual shopping carts respectively associated with the shopping devices for sharing information on items of interest among the shoppers and enabling the shoppers to collaborate on the shopping.