US 12,217,267 B2
System, method, and computer program for providing a multi-merchant electronic shopping cart for a shopping service
Kevin H. Johnson, Kentfield, CA (US); and Tanuj Chatterjee, Burlingame, CA (US)
Assigned to Rakuten Group, Inc., Tokyo (JP)
Filed by Rakuten Group, Inc., Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Nov. 2, 2017, as Appl. No. 15/802,266.
Application 15/802,266 is a continuation of application No. 13/666,134, filed on Nov. 1, 2012, granted, now 9,922,327.
Prior Publication US 2018/0089692 A1, Mar. 29, 2018
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06Q 30/00 (2023.01); G06Q 20/12 (2012.01); G06Q 30/02 (2023.01); G06Q 30/06 (2023.01); G06Q 30/0601 (2023.01)
CPC G06Q 30/00 (2013.01) [G06Q 20/12 (2013.01); G06Q 30/02 (2013.01); G06Q 30/06 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0633 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0641 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0643 (2013.01)] 28 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method performed by a computer system for providing a multi-merchant, electronic shopping cart for a shopping service, the method comprising:
providing a shopping cart object within a web browser that provides access to an electronic shopping cart for the shopping service, wherein the electronic shopping cart can be used at a plurality of unrelated merchant shopping sites and includes one or more wish lists and wherein the shopping cart object remains within the web browser regardless of what website is displayed in the web browser;
in response to a user selecting a visual representation of the shopping cart object from within the web browser, displaying a user interface for the electronic shopping cart in a new window, wherein the user is able to view the user interface for the electronic shopping cart without navigating the web browser to a new webpage;
in response to the user selecting the visual representation while a webpage supported by the electronic shopping cart is displayed in the web browser, performing the following:
automatically extracting information related to a product on the webpage supported by the electronic shopping cart, by:
scraping some or all of the product information from the webpage and/or identifying an application programming interface associated with the merchant shopping site, sending a request for product information on the webpage to the application programming interface, and receiving the requested information,
normalizing the extracted product information, and
automatically displaying the extracted and normalized product information in the user interface for the electronic shopping cart prior to the product being added to the electronic shopping cart;
enabling the user to save the product to any wish list in the electronic shopping cart for retrieval at a later time, wherein the user is able to save products from the plurality of unrelated merchant shopping sites to the one or more wish lists in the electronic shopping cart; and
enabling the user to purchase at one time, from the plurality of unrelated merchant shopping sites, a plurality of products saved to a wish list in the electronic shopping cart, wherein for each product to be purchased, a purchase transaction is conducted, on behalf of the user, with the merchant associated with the merchant shopping site from which the user added the product to the wish list in the electronic shopping cart.