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A comprehensive system effectuates global electronic commerce on the Internet across frontiers of nations, cultures, and languages. Referral Websites serving various locales offer Buyers the opportunity to view products for purchase. A Buyer selects categories of products for viewing by using drop-down menus that organize products into a clear taxonomy that can be expressed across all languages. Having selected a category of products for viewing, a Buyer receives, from a multi-version relational database, a version of marketing information about each product. The version is one automatically sent from the database to match the Buyer's language, culture, and nationality, as deduced from the use of a particular Referral Website. A shopping cart allows Buyers to select a product for purchase in an interactive way that encourages completion of the purchase. Products can be offered with custom options and in wholesale quantities. Personalized Web pages allow comprehensive customer service after a sale.
1. A method for effecting global e-commerce marketing and sales of manufacturers' products, the method comprising:
placing, on Web pages of referral Websites that use a variety of languages and serve geographic locales throughout the world, embedded HTML forms that are submitted by buyers to request information about products from at least one manufacturer;
storing one locale identifier value at each referral Website among said referral Websites, where said locale identifier is a numerical value that is unique among many numerical locale identifiers that are assigned to the pairings of specific geographic locales and specific languages commonly used in those geographic locales, and where the geographic locale is the country served by said referral Website and where the referral Website is rendered in the language commonly used in that one geographic locale among said geographic locales;
storing in a relational database more than one natural language, locale-specific version of marketing information about each product of said products, where each stored version of marketing information is related to a stored value that is one of said locale identifier values and where said value identifies the language of the stored version of marketing information;
storing identifier values for each said product so that each said product in said database is identified by a product identifier value, a category identifier value, a family identifier value, a group identifier value, and a department identifier value;
storing a set of SQL procedures in said database, where each procedure can be used to retrieve one locale-specific language version of said stored marketing information about a product;
storing, in a server, a set of locale-specific server scripts and style sheets that are selectively used to generate locale-specific e-commerce Web pages that display said translated marketing information;
displaying to a Buyer, who is using a Web browser and is connected by the Internet to one referral Website of said referral Websites, one HTML form of said HTML forms that is manually activated to send a request to receive marketing information about a department of products, where the request comprises, first, a department identifier value that identifies the products that are a subject of the marketing information request by said buyer, and, second, a locale identifier value for a specific locale that is served by the referral Website;
receiving at said server, connected to said database, said request from said Buyer, where said request includes said department identifier value and said locale identifier value;
delivering in response to the buyer's request a series of interactive menus by which the Buyer drills down through a hierarchy of department, group, family, and category to select for viewing product information about a particular product;
processing, by said server, said request for said marketing information about said product, where a product identifier value and said locale identifier value are used to select one SQL procedure of said set of SQL procedures to retrieve said one locale-specific language version of marketing information from said database;
generating an e-commerce Web page by using said one locale-specific language version of marketing information in conjunction with using one server script and one style sheet from said set of locale-specific server scripts and style sheets;
transmitting from said server said e-commerce Web page for display on said Buyer's said Web browser from which said request originated, where the Web page contains marketing information that includes an offer to sell said product for a certain price as expressed in a currency that is commonly accepted in the locale identified by said locale identifier value and also contains an interactive link that is manually activated by said Buyer to order a purchase of said product;
transmitting from said Web browser to said server said purchase order;
collecting payment for said purchase of said product at a Website enabled for processing of e-commerce purchase transactions; and
notifying said manufacturer that said purchase of said product has been made by said Buyer.
This application claims the benefit of invention Disclosure Document No. 473206, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Apr. 27, 2000, entitled DYNAMIC, INTERACTIVE PERSONAL WEBSITE AUTOMATICALLY CONSTRUCTED AS A CONSEQUENCE OF A PURCHASING ACTION—THE WEBSITE PROVIDING TIMELY AND COMPREHENSIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE TO AN INDIVIDUAL BUYER.
1. Field of Invention
The field of this invention is global sale of products and services using electronic means of (a) communications, (b) data storage and retrieval, (c) taking of orders, (d) fulfillment, (e) transfers of payments, and (f) providing customer service after the sale. Both business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales are effectuated.
The present invention is a system for use by even small manufacturers to meet a long-felt need to sell their products to Buyers around the world. The term "manufacturers" is meant to include manufacturers or authorized distributors for manufacturers; and the term "Buyers" is meant to include both individuals and organizations, including other manufacturers.
A complete system, termed a Global Store, is disclosed, a system that overcomes barriers to global trade of language, culture, and nationality. The Global Store integrates communications and database software technologies, hardware infrastructure, and operating methods to market and sell products from manufacturers around the globe to Buyers in a multitude of locales around the globe. Stated another way, The Global Store assembles and operates various subsystems to provide the infrastructure for manufacturers to use a new channel of global commerce, a Virtual Channel.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Overview of the Legacy Channel and of Conventional E-Commerce
Typically, manufacturers, working on their own, market their products effectively only to one specific population of Buyers defined by a country, language, and culture. There are obvious exceptions seen in giant international companies such as Coca Cola (RTM) or Adidas (RTM), but those exceptions represent a tiny fraction of what could be done, and will be done, as even small manufacturers surmount barriers to international trade.
For manufactures who do not have their own giant global marketing system, a presently available "Legacy Channel" for global commerce is manned by an array of players (e.g., exporters, importers, wholesalers, and retailers) who provide a multitude of necessary functions of marketing, sales, payment processing, delivery, and customer service. Manufacturers could conceivably market their products to Buyers around the world by performing all of the above necessary functions themselves, but practical considerations usually cause the manufacturer to outsource many functions of global commerce to the Legacy Channel.
In the future, however, the Legacy Channel will be largely replaced by the new Virtual Channel. That revolutionary change will provide ready access to global markets for even small manufacturers. Furthermore, those manufacturers will be able to maintain control, like never before, over the marketing of their products.
Revolutionary changes come about by a confluence of events. For example, a revolutionary use of rocket ships for manned exploration of space in the mid-Twentieth Century resulted from a confluence of political motivations and technological advances that included, but were not restricted to, international competition between superpowers and advances in rocketry. Improvements in space-age materials, rocket engines, computers, and other technologies also set the stage for the revolutionary change.
A similar situation now exists in the area of global trade. A confluence of recognized needs and new technologies now sets the stage for a revolutionary change in how manufacturers bring their products to markets around the world.
Advances in communications and information technology and their associated standards have made geography a much less salient factor in trade than in prior years. Electronic communications at the speed of light enables one to purchase a product on the other side of the world as quickly as across the street—even more quickly should one decide to walk across that street to make the purchase. Furthermore, increasing use of English as a de facto language of commerce and increasing access to good, real-time translation technology will inevitably lower language barriers.
The Global Store system, described here, is a method that integrates revolutionary and evolutionary developments into a new system of global trade in the Virtual Channel. Only in the very recent past have the following compelling trends and powerful developments conjoined to permit the construction and operation of a complete and integrated system of global trade to meet long-felt needs:
Pent-up pressures for globalization have produced numerous examples of conventional e-commerce businesses attempting to expand globally. These businesses generally meet the challenge to provide information in multiple languages and across cultures by cloning Websites from one locale to another—reproducing some of the design of the original Website and some of the content. This multi-headed e-commerce approach is a crude interim step that fails to meet the emerging needs of manufacturers who desire global sales. Loss of the efficiencies and economies of a truly global approach make the prices of their products less competitive than should be possible, and there is the additional problem of entering and maintaining current and accurate information across multiple databases.
In conventional e-commerce it is not uncommon for the unscrupulous to sell brand name goods through Websites when they are not authorized to do so. In response, manufacturers desire to maintain better control of prices, marketing information about their products, sales, fulfillment, and customer service—all in a global context and, ideally, from a single integrated site.
Buyers are reluctant to make international purchases when they fear that they will have no practical recourse if they pay for a product but either do not receive it or find the product is not acceptable. What is needed for a hesitant Buyer is an escrow service that will complete settlement only after the product has been successfully delivered and the Buyer is satisfied.
Many conventional e-commerce Websites have sought to sell products globally, but few if any have made a serious commitment to globalization by providing good translations in multiple languages. (So far, machine translations are so lacking in accuracy and idiomatic expression that they are likely to inspire mirth rather than confidence in a Buyer.) Furthermore, no site offers products of a multitude of manufacturers along with customer support across more than one language, support that is needed for Buyers to be well informed about international shipping, duties, warranties, currency conversion, repair centers, and other issues important to Buyers.
Conventionally, for both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar businesses, separate databases are established to support production, marketing, sales, and accounting. Information changes in one business database often are not reflected in all of the other databases. Further information vital to a customer, such as parcel tracking, would require leaving the e-commerce site to access such a service on yet another system. Customer support is critically lacking in brick-and-mortar businesses and also is missing in most e-commerce businesses. What is missing is the ability to place in the hands of the customer the ability to go to a single location and, interactively, to obtain an answer to a question pertaining to a product or to an order.
Departing from conventional e-commerce approaches, the ideal e-commerce model, from the manufacturers' viewpoint, is to sell globally using a system allowing
Prior art in the area of electronic commerce has not yet provided a flexible system to use a single, central database to support sales to Buyers around the world. Rather, prior art is exemplified by the design of large international e-commerce companies like Amazon and eBay that clone existing non-global electronic systems of marketing (e.g., Amazon.com) into similar but separate systems that serve various locales (e.g., Amazon.co.uk). Products are separately catalogued and inventoried in the separate, cloned online businesses serving a particular language and locale. Efficiencies and economies of scale are largely lost when marketing becomes thus fragmented. Furthermore, Buyers lose the benefit of an expanded selection of products coming from all locales.
In summary, the Legacy Channel of global trade is not practical for most businesses. Furthermore, as will be described below, the promise of global e-commerce in a Virtual Channel of global trade to supplant the Legacy Channel has not yet been realized; efforts have thus far failed sufficiently to integrate existing art and new art to capitalize on new trends and developments. The invention disclosed here overcomes the shortcomings of prior art by making e-commerce a viable method of global trade for even small manufacturers.
E-Commerce and Database Technology
The Global Store system uses a multi-version database to provide a new way of providing language/locale-specific marketing information and sales of products to Buyers around the globe. Prior art, as seen in patents cited below, provide opportunities for Buyers to (a) view a product and be referred to a seller or (b) view and purchase a product over the Internet, with or without use of a referrer Website. However, no prior art takes advantage of (a) multi-version, locale-specific innovations in marketing, (b) use of Referral Websites from a multitude of locales, combined with (c) other Ancillary Resources to offer truly global sales over the Internet.
Single-Point Global E-Commerce
Prior art has not solved the problem of marketing globally from a single-point. Major players in global e-commerce (e.g., AOL, Yahoo, and Amazon) have adopted a country-by-country or a region-by-region strategy in order to adapt to Buyers' languages and cultures.
In a statement quoted in a Wall Street Journal article, Aug. 01, 2000, a Yahoo executive declared that Yahoo would consider itself unsuccessful if Yahoo were considered an American company two years from then. Yahoo and other e-commerce companies have discovered that their widely recognized brand names are, in themselves, not sufficient for attracting global e-commerce business. Buyers have been found, however, to be attracted to e-commerce sites that cater to local interests and culture. Stated another way, Buyers are more comfortable and confident about buying from a business they do not perceive as foreign.
Needed is a system to provide culture-sensitive and language-adapted marketing, sales, and customer service content to Buyers, doing so in a way that takes advantage of the efficiencies and economies of using a single point of operations. Prior art, described as follows, fails to meet that criterion:
Chelliah et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,887"Computer System and Method for Electronic Commerce," 1998) disclose a multi-vendor shopping system. They describe a method for a presentation to a customer of at least one supplier for selection. Similarly, items from a supplier or suppliers can be displayed for the customer to view. Associated with a supplier of such items is an item database including information on presented items. A pricing means allows reception of information from the item database to determine the cost associated with a presented item. In addition, a customer information database stores information relating to the customer. The system also comprises means for creating a customer-monitoring object for each customer. The Commerce Subsystems include: an Incentives Subsystem; an Observations Subsystem; an Order Fulfillment Subsystem; a Participant Subsystem; a Payment Handler; a Pricing Subsystem; a Product Database; a Promotions Subsystem; a Sales Representative Subsystem; a Redemption Registry; a Security Subsystem; a Shipping Subsystem; and a Tax Subsystem.
The patent by Chelliah et al discloses a relatively comprehensive e-commerce system operating from a single point, but still it fails to meet a basic need of global commerce to provide alternative versions of marketing information for Buyers across linguistic and cultural groups; it can only accommodate Buyers who speak a given language.
The same limitation is seen in the recent patent by Wong (U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,690 "Integrated business to-business Web commerce and business automation system," 2000). Wong makes a strong case for the advantages in efficiency and speed of using a single, integrated database for businesses, and especially Web-based businesses. However, his patent makes no accommodation to differences in language or customs for users of the database. The Global Store system disclosed here overcomes that limitation. Also disclosed are other innovations not seen in the Wong patent, the Chelliah et al patent, or in other prior art:
Accommodating Buyers using a diversity of languages and additional needed innovations are discussed below in the context of related prior art.
Prior Art Using a Single Multilingual Database
Prior art has not provided a solution for global e-commerce from a single point, but several patents have described innovations in database technology that might be used to accommodate visitors to an e-commerce Website when they speak a diversity of preferred languages:
The above two patents suggest the feasibility of providing from a single database information to users who speak different languages. However, in neither of these patents is there disclosed a system that comprehensively accommodates to the needs of a Buyer to view, purchase, and receive products from around the world, using the Buyer's own language in a manner that will not seem foreign to the Buyer. Needed is a method for multiple versions of marketing information to be automatically and transparently delivered from a single database. That database, when incorporated into a complete system for global e-commerce, would thereby accommodate Buyers from around the world
Determining a Visitor's Preferred Language at a Multilingual Website
In a recent patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,598 "Method of Providing One of a Plurality of Web Pages Mapped to a Single Uniform Resource Locator (URL) Based on Evaluation of a Condition," 2000) Danneels suggested that various language versions from a single source on the Web could be delivered selectively to viewers. The selection is based on information transferred from the viewers' Browsers along with a request to view Web page content. Unfortunately, that approach is not valid unless a viewers' Browser is programmed to send preferred language and preferred character set information along with a request. Given that Browsers are not uniformly programmed to send that information, the Danneels' approach is not a strong contender as a general solution for automatically and transparently identifying a preferred language for a viewer.
Another approach is suggested in a patent by Levy (U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,790 "Method and Apparatus for Providing a Web Site Having a Home Page that Automatically Adapts to User Language and Customs," 1999). Levy presents a system whereby a generic home page is delivered in various language versions based on the location code of the viewer's node address. Thereafter, the viewer is given the opportunity to specify the language to be used for viewing other Web pages. There are several problems with this approach, as follow:
The limitations seen in the patents by Danneels and Levy could be overcome when a preferred language is determined by a Buyer's use of a locale-specific Referral Website.
Use of Referral Websites
Prior art, described below, has described use of referral Websites, but none has used the locale of Referral Websites to determine a viewer's locale and preferred language.
Harrington (U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,454 "Integrated Interface for Vendor/Product Oriented Internet Websites," 1999) describes a referral Website that has access to a database of products/services that are available from a multitude of vendors in remote locations. Buyers can access and purchase products in the database, doing so via an interface provided by the referral Website to the vendors' remote Websites. After the Buyer interactively connects with one or more of the remote vendor network sites, the user selects products/services from the information provided on the remote vendor network site. The selection of a particular product/service triggers a transaction notification that records the Buyer's selection and associated financial transaction data, which is transmitted to the database and associated database interface. Harrington's design does not allow for global sales because her referral Website only puts Buyers using a single language in contact with a vendor using the same language. Thus, there is no attention paid to even the first step necessary for global sales.
Bezos et al (U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,141 "Internet-based Customer Referral System," 2000) describe an Internet-based customer referral system that allows referral Websites to receive commissions on sales made to Buyers when they refer those Buyers to an e-commerce Website. These referral Websites are not identified, however, by the language and locale with which they are associated. Therefore, this design does not allow Buyers to get customized treatment that caters to their language or culture. All Buyers coming to the e-commerce Website from referral Websites see a site that is oriented toward a single language and culture. Needed is a system whereby a Buyer's use of a Referral Website (among many Referral Websites serving multiple locales) is used to determine and accommodate to the Buyer's preferred language and to the customs of the Buyer's locale.
Use of Shopping Carts for E-Commerce Websites
Buyers use shopping carts on e-commerce Websites to store a list of products selected for later purchase. There is a significant problem, however; very often, a Buyer places one or more items in a shopping cart but then abandons the cart without completing a purchase. In a study described in the Dallas Morning News, page 4 D, Oct. 2, 2000, Datamonitor, a New York-based market research firm, found that 78% of all online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout.
Any improvement made in the percentage of shopping cart users who go on to complete a purchase would have tremendous positive influence on the success of an e-commerce site.
Unfortunately, prior art has failed to incorporate good, common sense sales techniques into the design of shopping cart functions.
The following patents are discussed in light of certain failures in support of the sales process—limitations that are overcome in the present invention:
Levine et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,681 "Stateless Shopping Cart for the Web," 1998) disclosed a shopping cart system that allows a hidden shopping cart file to be placed in a page sent to a Buyer that displays products for purchase. The Buyer can toggle the hidden file into view. This elegant technological design allows use of a shopping cart without opening a new window. Though Levine et al show technical innovativeness, the use of a hidden file is exactly the opposite of what is needed to stimulate payment for selected items. It is actually better to keep a shopping cart file displayed in an open frame to remind the Buyer about the products selected. Hidden from view, the selected products are more easily forgotten and abandoned.
Yonezawa et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,973 "Shopping Basket Presentation Method for an Online Shopping System," 1999) provide a persisting open shopping cart window from the outset of a Buyer's viewing of products, but there is a failure to provide total cost, including shipping. This is a significant failure because not knowing total cost means that a Buyer does not have the information needed to make a buying decision. It would actually be an advantage to involve the Buyer in a purchasing process by asking the Buyer to provide a destination for a purchased product, thereby allowing the calculation of shipping costs and total costs. That sort of interaction would help to cement in the mind of the Buyer the Buyer's interest in buying the product.
Use of a Personalized Web Page for Comprehensive Customer Service
Relevant prior art to this invention would describe comprehensive customer service from a single point with one or more of the following features:
In totality, the above features would serve to enable the Buyer with a personalized Web-based Customer Information System, a level of service and integration that exceeds prior art. The following patents touch on one or more of the above features. No one patent describes a comprehensive approach.
Providing Buyers' access to a Web-based business' database system is a step demonstrated in a patent by Purcell (U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,807 "Automated and independently accessible inventory information exchange system," 1999). Purcell discloses a method for controlling the collection, processing and dissemination of information by a host regarding product and service availability. The method includes the step of establishing a host-operated information management system. Electronic communication connections to host-approved sellers of products and services are granted limited electronic access to the information management system. Each approved seller has a self-initiated, exclusive capability to access that seller's inventory information that is maintained on the information management system for adding, amending and deleting portions of the seller's inventory information. The seller's inventory information is analyzed and assimilated into a Buyer's listing of products and services available through the information management system to potential Buyers. Host-approved Buyers of products and services are granted limited electronic access to the information management system so that each approved Buyer may access the Buyer's listing for reviewing products and services of interest to that Buyer.
Perkowski (U.S. Pat. No. 6,064,979 "Method of and System for Finding and Serving Consumer Product Related Information Over the Internet Using Manufacturer Identification Numbers," 2000) discloses a Web-based method for finding and displaying consumer product-related information. A database serving subsystem stores manufacturer identification numbers assigned to manufacturers of consumer products, home-page specifying URLs symbolically linked to the identification numbers, universal product numbers (UPNs) assigned to consumer products made by the manufacturers, and product-information specifying URLs symbolically linked to the UPNs. During operation, a Client subsystem transmits to the database serving subsystem a request for information that includes the UPN assigned to the consumer product on which product-related information is being sought. The database serving subsystem automatically compares the UPN against the stored manufacturer's identification numbers and automatically returns to the Client subsystem one or more of URLs symbolically linked to the UPN if URLs have been symbolically linked to the UPN within the database serving subsystem. However, if no URLs have been symbolically linked to the UPN, then the database serving subsystem automatically returns the home-page specifying URL symbolically linked to the manufacturer's identification number contained within the UPN in the request. By virtue of this novel search mechanism based on manufacturers' identification numbers, Client subsystems are automatically provided with the home-page of the manufacturer's World Wide Web (WWW) site in situations where product-information specifying URLs have not yet been symbolically linked with the UPN on any one of the manufacturer's products. By this method, consumers may gain product information or, at least, information about a manufacturer when the consumer has the UPN code for a product of interest and the UPN and linked information has been made part of the database accessed by the consumer. Though this system makes clever use of UPNs and the Web to find information about some products, it does not enable a consumer with a guaranteed way of accessing product information for any given product that a consumer may have purchased. Furthermore, there is no provision to make information available in a language understood by the consumer.
Wong (U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,690 "Integrated Business to-Business Web Commerce and Business Automation System," 2000) argues convincingly for the benefits of ready access to a single, integrated database for all workers inside a Web-centric business; and he includes the customer in the list of beneficiaries. Furthermore, a purchaser is allowed access to the database to check out important information: "Customers can retrieve previous quote records and view order and shipment status via the Web. . . . Parts tracking saves employee time that would otherwise be spent responding to customer inquiries, and also contributes to customer satisfaction through the convenient availability of timely information."
Though Wong describes an integrated business system in many respects, neither he nor others have yet described a system that optimizes a customer's access to relevant information. That is especially true when customers may vary in the languages they understand. Still needed, for either a business-to-business Buyer or an individual Buyer, is ready access to pertinent information at a language-compatible, single point. Pertinent information would include order status, shipment status, histories of prior transactions, warranties, return policies, and other information that could answer many questions for a Buyer without the Buyer ever needing to contact a customer service representative. That access would reduce both aggravation to the Buyer and costs to the seller. Furthermore, that information should be offered in the Buyer's own language. When a Buyer does contact a representative, any questions are likely to be resolved most quickly and with least misunderstanding when the Buyer and the representative are both able to review the same records on their respective computer screens.
Prior Art of Product Organization and Selection Using Menus
Zellweger (U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,125 "Method and apparatus for information management using an open hierarchical data structure," 1998) discloses a method for finding products for purchase, using an open hierarchical data structure. The invention includes an Application Generator, the Distribution files generated by the Application Generator, and a Retrieval system that accesses the Distribution files. The Retrieval system uses data in the Distribution files to configure an Information System that runs stand-alone on a desktop computer. The information management system of the invention uses an open hierarchical data structure for classifying information objects and providing a menu access to them. The open hierarchical data structure of Zellweger's invention includes multiple pathways to the same information object. Multiple paths can be used to support synonyms and to clarify word meanings within a context, thereby overcoming retrieval problems associated with conventional word-matching technologies. The Distribution files include data related to the menu system and the configuration of the Information System as well as data associated with the information objects. The Retrieval system guides an end-user to information objects in the Distribution files by generating successive selection menus in accordance with the open hierarchical data structure. Also disclosed is an embodiment of the invention that can be used to manage and distribute product information to Buyers in the form of an electronic catalog. Buyers use the custom features of an Information System generated by the Application module to locate products, generate orders for the products, and transmit orders electronically to a vendor of the products.
Zellweger's patent provides suppliers of products with a lot of flexibility when authoring hierarchies to be used by Buyers to find products. However, that same flexibility can cause confusion when applied across suppliers. When a plurality of suppliers could organize product information in a plurality of ways, the resulting structure of a combined hierarchy would not lend itself to efficient finding of products. Furthermore, should different suppliers present their products in a combined hierarchy but in different languages, the Buyer would be truly confused and lost. Therefore, Zellweger's patent cannot be readily applied to the problem of helping Buyers find products offered by a myriad of manufacturers; and, furthermore, Zellweger does not attempt to deal with the problem of presenting menus in various languages to accommodate Buyers around the world.
Consentino et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,515 "Enhanced tree control system for navigating lattices data structures and displaying configurable lattice-node labels," 1991) describe a display and navigation system. That system presents hierarchical data in an enhanced tree presentation control that blends the ease-of-use character of the familiar "tree presentation control" with a technique for navigating more complex lattice data structures. At the same time, the system provides more node information by displaying configured lattice-node labels along with the node's name. A primary objective of the invention is to facilitate building, maintaining and using a multiple inheritance taxonomy such as a product catalog data base by means of a multi-navigation path browsing system, which is made possible through the capability of this system's multiple inheritance capability.
The patent by Consentino et al provides an efficient and clear method of displaying a very limited number of products for selection, too limited a number to efficiently organize and display the thousands of products that would be offered at a Global Store. Furthermore, no provision is made in this patent to accommodate Buyers wanting to use a variety of native languages to find products.
Character Sets and Use of Unicode
Shakib et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,213, "Multilingual Storage and Retrieval," 1998) describe a method for storing and retrieving information in multiple languages and multiple character sets in a computer system. Each language has at least one character set, or code page, that is required to display information. Each character set can include all of the characters used by the respective language (e.g., the letters of the English alphabet or the symbols of Kanji). However, more than one language may use the same character set. Consequently, each language also has language-specific rules for displaying information. The language-specific rules are used for sorting the information.
In some existing computer systems, each processor/storage device only supports a single character set. For example, a server in a Client/server network stores and supports a database. The database is stored in a single character set. A Client requesting information from the database may receive the information only in the single character set. Also, a sort of fields in the database may be created only in the single character set.
In other existing computer systems, all of the information is stored in a universal character set. Using the Client/server example, all information on the network is stored in a universal character set, e.g., Unicode. When a Client requests information, it is converted from Unicode into the Client-selected character set.
Unicode, and other universal character sets, use two bytes to represent each character. Many character sets that support specific languages use only one byte to represent each character.
The method invented by Shakib et al and made available by the Microsoft Corporation has yet to have been adapted and extended for use in a comprehensive global e-commerce system.
Art of Internet Communications for E-commerce Transactions
In general, Web servers are stateless with respect to Client transactions. In other words, at the HTTP protocol level, each transaction (e.g., request for an HTML file) is separate from all others. In other common networking system protocols, a Client might initialize a connection to the server, conduct a series of requests from the server and receive information for each request, and then terminate the connection from the server; and the entire exchange, from the initialization to the termination of the connection, would be considered a session which may comprise a transaction. In such systems, the Client/server connection may be considered to be in one of several different states at any instance, depending on the nature of the requests and responses and their order. Such systems require state information to be saved by the server and also, usually, by the Client. Furthermore, time outs and other connection-failure strategies are required. The stateless nature of the Web simplifies the server and Client architectures.
The Internet has developed into a convenient medium by which consumers can purchase goods and services. The ability to purchase goods over the Internet is sometimes provided by software applications known as a "shopping basket" (or "cart"). A shopping basket application, which commonly executes on a World Wide Web (WWW or Web) site of a product manufacturer or retailer, generally provides a virtual store in which a customer can view descriptions of and purchase various products electronically. A shopping basket application generally allows a customer to add products to or delete products from a virtual shopping basket and specify various attributes, such as quantity, size, color, etc. The customer's selections are generally stored in a database associated with the Website. When the customer is ready to purchase the contents of the shopping basket, he may click on a hypertext link labeled "Purchase Contents of Shopping Basket", for example, which causes the customer to be prompted to enter billing information (i.e., name, address, and credit card number) and to confirm the transaction.
Conventional Art for Use in Global Electronic Commerce
Certain art used in electronic commerce is conventional and well known. Prior art, however, does not encompass a comprehensive global electronic commerce system that combines both innovative art and the following conventional art:
The primary object of this invention is to lower the bar for manufacturers to engage in global trade by augmenting or replacing the costly, slow, and inefficient Legacy Channel with a "Virtual Channel" of global trade. Recently invented and improved elements of information technology (both hardware and software) and the Internet provide the building blocks and the opportunity for a revolutionary use of the new Virtual Channel for global trade by even small manufacturers.
Using the multi-language, single, logical database approach described here, an international marketing agent called a "Global Store"—working with e-marketer Referral Websites and integrating other Ancillary Resources—provides a multitude of manufacturers a timely and accurate way to spread their marketing efforts worldwide in the Virtual Channel of global trade.
The present invention makes use of the diversity of locales served by a multitude of Referral Websites serving Buyers around the world. A Buyer at a Referral Website is assumed to be ready and interested in buying a product after that Buyer clicks on the category name of products available for sale. The name of the category is in the same National Language as the language used on the Referral Website. The Global Store is enabled to conduct e-commerce in that particular language as well as the National Languages used at all the other Referral Websites that refer Buyers to the Global Store.
By placing marketing information about products in the Global Store with its multi-language, single, logical, searchable database, a manufacturer can engage in marketing efforts worldwide on the Internet in a multitude of different languages and adapted to various cultures and countries. It has become obvious during the past several years that manufacturers around the world need a global marketing method in order to stay competitive and to optimize their profitability. Use of the Global Store will allow manufacturers advantageously to meet their long felt need to tap into the global market to expand their customer bases, increase sales, and benefit from economies of scale.
Furthermore, use of marketing resources in the Global Store meets the objective for manufacturers to access global marketing efforts without losing control over their marketing—place, presentation, price, promotions, and policies of service. Thereby, manufacturers may build a worldwide brand name based on authentic products, ethical representations, fair prices, and good service to Buyers.
Another object of this invention is to provide manufacturers with a much more efficient and responsive feedback mechanism for adjusting marketing and production schedules. For example, immediate feedback that a new line of skis was selling briskly in South America during May would prompt a ski manufacturer to start adding marketing and production resources for the new line's introduction to Buyers in North America in October.
Another object of the Global Store is to provide better controls over quality of products and services. A complete system of controls spans the Virtual Channel from start (adding a manufacturer's product into a global, multi-version product database) to end (the expiration of an escrow period during which a Buyer may request a refund if a delivered product is not satisfactory).
Another object of the Global Store is to help manufacturers satisfy Buyers' needs for customer service. In order to serve as an alternative to use of the Legacy Channel, the Global Store matches and, where possible, exceeds the level of service that Buyers find in the Legacy Channel. For example, a Buyer in the Legacy Channel may need to call a retail store to inquire about returning a purchased product. In order to find out about return policies and procedures, it is a common experience that the Buyer will
In the Global Store, the answers are readily available within the Virtual Channel information system at the same virtual location where the product was purchased.
Another object of this invention is for manufacturers to be able to provide Buyers with adequate information to make buying decisions. Many prospective Buyers will not complete a transaction unless they know not only the cost of the item but also the total price, including shipping fees, etc. The present invention overcomes this barrier by providing a comprehensive, integrated system whereby Buyers from all over the world can get complete information about product, price (stated in the Buyer's currency), and delivery prior to making the buying decision. Furthermore, the use of a single marketing information database allows the manufacturer easily to control and communicate accurate information about product availability in inventory, service availability, warranties, and return policies.
Another object of this invention is to improve the probability a Buyer will complete a purchase transaction after the Buyer has selected a product for purchase. With conventional art, products are placed in a "shopping cart." Unfortunately, that cart often is later abandoned with no purchase made. The invention disclosed here includes an improved shopping cart design, an improvement that facilitates a Buyer's decision to complete a purchase transaction by
An important advantage here is the immediate assumption that the purchase will be made plus the visual reminder that the Buyer has made a selection and that the product is ready for purchase. This approach overcomes the disadvantage of prior art in which the Buyer is implicitly told that the Buyer need only "think about" completing the purchase "later." That implicit message is poor sales technique. It is best to have the Buyer complete the transaction as soon as possible, before the Buyer forgets about the perceived benefits of the product, gets distracted, or hesitates because of second thoughts.
Another object of the invention is to provide Buyers from around the world with an improved way of finding and selecting a desired category of products to view. Conventional art presents the Buyer with (a) a limited selection of categories (e.g., Amazon.com) or (b) an overly large and confusing array of categories (e.g., eBay.com).
The invention disclosed here includes an efficient universal method of organizing and displaying product categories for selection by Buyers. Using sequential drop-down menus and a clearly organized hierarchy, a Buyer quickly and intuitively navigates among thousands of possible categories of products to select a desired category. The process is easily understood, powerful, and efficient.
Furthermore, the above method is a manifestation of a powerful underlying architecture that is independent of locale—a multi-level, hierarchical, logical taxonomy that can be implemented throughout the world. The logical taxonomy provides a framework for locale-specific navigation and categorization that is itself independent of locale and language. The same underlying technology can be used advantageously to construct hierarchical taxonomies that are customized for different locales and languages, allowing categorization of the same products in a way that is available for use by Buyers across various locales. Stated another way, the same technology provides an architectural framework that can be used to construct a multitude of independent locale-specific hierarchical taxonomies. The taxonomies are consistent in design and function for finding products, while still accommodating differences among locales in language and in how products are customarily categorized.
Based on the taxonomy, a hierarchy, conveniently and concisely presented in drop-down menus, allows a Buyer quickly to step down through hierarchical levels with a multitude of nodes at each level. For example, an English-speaking Buyer would sequentially select among nodes listed under (a) Departments, (b) Groups, (c) Families, and, at an end, (d) Categories of products to view. A possible list of sequentially selected nodes might be "Apparel," "Women's Apparel," "Women's Outerwear," and "Women's Jackets." Because unique numeric values are used to identify the nodes of the hierarchy, no dependence on any one language is made in specifying the nodes. The same products might be found by a German-speaking Buyer looking under a Category node with the same numeric value as "Women's Jackets" but labeled "Damenjacken." A Buyer anywhere in the world may use his or her own language to find a category of products to view regardless of the countries of origin of those products.
Another advantage of the disclosed method for organization and display of products is that a product may be assigned to more than one category. This will aid Buyers looking for certain products when the Buyers have different motivations for looking. For example, one Buyer might look under the Category "Survival Equipment" to find "Snowshoes," while another Buyer might look under the Category "Winter Sports Equipment."
Another object of this invention is to increase Buyers' confidence in buying products from foreign manufacturers by providing an escrow system to guarantee delivery and Buyer satisfaction. Thereby, manufacturers will be more likely to sell their products across international boundaries when Buyers feel thus protected.
Another object of the Global Store is to allow manufacturers to provide customized and personalized service to Buyers. Buyers, at the time of ordering, can be given the option to specify attributes for customized manufacturing of some products. (In that case the Buyer is told the number of extra days prior to delivery that will be needed to produce the customized product.) Manufacturers thereby have the advantage of being able to deliver exactly what the Buyer wants without having to keep a large inventory of completed products.
There are social implications to new ways to facilitate global trade. No nation can afford to be left out of the global economy. Use of a public communications system like the Internet to enable global trade inevitably gives access to a nation's citizens to new information and new ideas. Broader implications of the use of the Internet should not be ignored. A benefit of an increase in global trade is that citizens of different nations become exposed to basic humanness in their trading counterparts. They see other citizens of the world as much like themselves and not to be despised or feared. Having access to information that is not controlled by any one government makes citizens less vulnerable to manipulations by despots.
The technology represented here will change the world. Just as tribes have integrated into nations, nations will integrate into global organizations. An analogy to that integration is seen in the evolution of biological organisms. Individual cells became colonies of cells. Those colonies evolved into highly integrated living systems that are well suited to survive in their environment. Just so, mutual interests and instantaneous communications allow nations of the world to evolve new methods of organization to meet global threats to peace and the environment.
Though the invention disclosed here focuses upon trade of physical products, it also, inevitably, facilitates movement of information and ideas because digitalized products are included. What will it mean when citizens of the world have easy access to information and ideas across barriers of nations, cultures, and languages? With respect to the invention disclosed here, it can be seen that a powerful, language-neutral taxonomic system is part of the Global Store. That system lends itself finding not only tangible products but also digitalized information (books, software, tapes, films, etc.). For example, it would be possible to adapt the taxonomic system to make available online the about 100,000,000 items in the Library of Congress, representing approximately 500 languages. And each item could be found by using no more than six or seven mouse clicks.
Other aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon referring to accompanying drawings.
The present invention is a method and apparatus for overcoming barriers of nation, culture, and language between manufacturers and Buyers. Using their computers to visit selected Websites on the Internet, Buyers are able to access a common multi-language database of marketing information about a manufacturer's product. The marketing information about the product occurs in a multitude of versions adapted to Buyers in various local markets, depending on nation, culture and language.
Buyers in a local market are offered the opportunity to view products for purchase, said offer made at a Referral Website that serves their particular locale. Having selected a category of products for viewing, a Buyer then sees a version of marketing information about each product, said version adapted for the language, culture, and nationality as indicated from the Buyer's use of the Referral Website.
The Buyer, using his or her preferred language, then orders the product, tracks delivery, and has access to customer service.
An innovative system of controls guarantees a high quality of product and a high level of service for the Buyer. The controller apparatus of the invention allows proactive control over (a) selection of manufacturers who provide products, (b) selection products to go into the common database, (c) selection of Websites from which Buyers are referred, and (d) quality of service standards, including the availability of products in inventory for immediate shipment.
While the preferred embodiment of this invention is shown and described here, the invention is not thereby limited to the specific embodiment disclosed. The following description is merely illustrative, having been presented by way of example only. Numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions may be made within the spirit or scope of this invention by one skilled in the arts to which this invention pertains. These and other embodiments are considered to be within the scope and spirit of the present invention. For example, the invention is not limited to use on the Internet or using the Web or private web such as an internal corporate web or using the HTTP communication protocol. Other protocols and usage variations, using messages communicated over TCP/IP connections, are also possible. Another example is the use of scripts other than those specified, e.g. Javascript. Markup languages other than HTML may be used, or a mixture of markup languages may be used. The client and server may be connected by the Internet or a private intranet. Other server platforms, operating systems, gateways, SQL servers, locale definitions, and locale-specific character-sets (rather than UTF-8) may be substituted. The method of client-server interoperability interface may be rearranged and reconfigured and still be within the teachings of the patent. For example, the menu navigation/product selection/shopping cart panel can be implemented with a Java plug-in. For scalability, in other embodiments, additional servers may be used and routers added. Functions may be combined on one server or dispersed onto multiple servers. The scope of the present invention is defined by the claims that are appended.
Glossary: Vocabulary of the Virtual Channel
Technical descriptions and specifications are written at a level that assumes the reader has skill in arts of Web Servers, Browser/Client, SQL Database Servers, e-commerce, and internationalized Internet protocols and markup language standards. The following glossary describes how selected technical terms are used in this document. It is included here to make following sections easier to understand for a non-expert.
The diagram seen in
HTTP-requests and other communications over the Internet between the Buyer and the Global Store are routed via a Local Area Network 1580 and an Internet Information Server—the IIS Web Server Platform 1520. The Global Store also connects to various Ancillary Resources 1400 that enable the Global Store to provide information and services that support marketing, sales, and delivery processes. The connections to these Ancillary Resources are supported by Interfacing Applications for Use of Ancillary Resources 1530. Software technology used to access those supportive resources over the Internet are provided by the purveyor of those services. That technology is well understood, widely available, and needs little exposition for the purposes of the present application.
Internationalization and localization are key concepts in the embodiment of the Global Store system—a system that responds to Buyers around the world in locale-specific ways from one integrated system that accesses information from a single, multi-version database. The technical description of how that is done, using system locale-identifier numeric values (LCIDs), is explained in detail below by documenting the use of LCIDs with ASP server scripts, stored SQL procedures, and externally-linked Cascaded Style Sheets (CSSs). Server Folders (1524) store locale-specific ASP Server Scripts and linked CSSs.
To accommodate the storage, retrieval, and display of information across a multitude of National Languages, certain sophisticated technologies are employed to create an integrated processing environment. Active Server Pages (ASPs) are used selectively to produce cultural, locale, and linguistic differences in Web pages. Those pages are constructed by automatically using National Language designator names to select correct text fragments and graphics from a plurality of such items in a table. Selection of proper text and graphics is enabled by use of LCIDs to differentiate database and server-script versions.
Different versions of records containing product information appear in the Database SQL Server Platform 1550. Different versions accommodate differences in Buyer's languages/locales. Appropriate selective access to those records is enabled by the using locale-identifier values of LCID to identify the various versions. LCID is a key field in records of product information, and the values in that field vary from version to version.
Similarly, LCID values serve to differentiate the various Server Scripts 1522 that generate content for Buyers in different locales. Those scripts are essentially identical in generating Web pages, but they differ as to using (a) different locale-specific versions of product records and (b) content that is invariant as to meaning from page to page but where the expression of that content varies from locale to locale (e.g., labels for navigation, fonts, etc.). The mechanism whereby scripts are accessed is aided by storing the Server Scripts 1522 on the IIS Web Server Platform 1520 in Server Folders 1524 that are named with the values of the various locales that are served. Thus, the server folder named "1031" contains a script named Disp.asp that is used to display product information from the database where (a) the LCID field of pertinent records has a value of "1031," and (b) HTML script is properly configured for labels, fonts, etc. for a Buyer in locale 1031. By contrast, the server folder named "222" contains a script named Disp.asp (same name), but the records accessed and the labels, fonts, etc. used are specific to locale "222." Similarly, Cascaded Style Sheets (CSSs), described below, are stored in locale-specific folders. The CSSs are designed to provide the style appropriate for the locale including font specifications.
The Global Store 1500 acquires a global network of Referral Websites 1600 having HTML Web pages 1610 that display Global Store "Department" names in the language of a Buyer. The preferred language is deduced from the Buyer's visit to a Referral Website serving a particular language/locale. Buyers are invited to click on a Department (e.g., "Women's Fashions") to view selected products that are for sale. Referral Websites are paid commissions on sales. A Referral Website identifier (ReferID) is a numerical identifier used during a settlement process to allocate commission credits for product sales. A ReferID value is forwarded to the Global Store as part of a visit to the Store by a Buyer who requests Web pages served by the Global Store.
A Buyer, who has TCP/IP access to the Internet 1300 by the Buyer's Computer 1200, views Web page displays rendered by the Buyer's Web Browser 1210. A Web page 1610 that comes to the Buyer's Browser over the Internet from a Referral Website 1600 contains an embedded HTML Form which allows the Buyer to send an HTTP request to the Global Store 1500 to request Client/server function-specific and locale-specific responses.
Options for a Buyer to submit requests to the Global Store System 1500 are designed to transmit to the Global Store parameterized information that enables great power and flexibility of the Global Store to respond to Buyers. System parametric values, called Tokens, are passed along with a Buyer's requests. Locale-identifier Tokens (LCID values) trigger the Global Store System 1500 to accommodate to the Buyer's language and locale. Other Tokens, as described below, allow the Global Store to offer the Buyer choices for viewing information about many thousands of products for sale, those choices conveniently and clearly arranged in drop-down menus in the Buyer's language.
Passing of Tokens allows major components—platforms—of the Global Store System to interoperate in a multitude of system states. Use of Tokens allows Global Store platforms to have interoperable congruency and also to have congruency with the platform of a Buyer—the Web Browser 1210 that operates on the Buyer's Computer 1200. Interoperability is achieved between platforms because Tokens, when passed across interfaces between platforms, set states that affect a particular function that is realized by parameterized operations taking place across those platforms.
Interoperability between platforms in the Global Store System is shown, for example, to result even from the first contact of the Buyer with the Global Store System 1500, when the Buyer clicks on a Department name. The role of Tokens is shown, as follows:
Technical Note: The HTML body of the Referral Website Web Page 1610 includes an embedded FORM container that includes an "action" attribute to the "Form" HTML element. An abbreviated example of a Form container is shown as follows:
Regarding the above example:
The IIS passes the HTTP request to the ASP parser (Asp.dll) for parsing the URI and creating a new session for the indicated server script, Frameset.asp. The Frameset.asp server script first establishes the locale parametric value of the server-script session via a "SetLocale" statement in Frameset.asp. For example, a set value of "1031" for the session would be the same LCID value used for the "3081" name of the server folder containing the "3081" version of Frameset.asp. A separate method is used to set a locale for a session when a Cookie 1220 is installed on a Buyer's computer during a product-purchasing process, as described below.
The Global Store responds to a Buyer's request for product views by dynamically writing and sending a Locale-Specific Category Selection Panel. The panel is sent via a sequence of HTML frames that include HTML embedded Forms (one for each of four drop-down menus used in navigating through a taxonomy to select a Category). The Buyer interacts with the Global Store using HTTP protocol whereby the information is conveyed by an integer identifier associated with a name in the Buyer's National Language. The Buyer's HTTP requests are assisted by a separate Client-side JScript for each menu in the four frames. Having received the Locale-Specific Category Selection Panel, the Buyer selects a Category of products to view, that selection being a culmination of using a series of four drop-down menus. (The selection process involves the Buyer navigating a four-level hierarchal taxonomy that is used for organizing products. That taxonomy is described in detail in a later section.)
At the end of the Category selection process, a Buyer selects a nodal value (Node4ID) from a menu showing choices at the fourth level of the hierarchal taxonomy. That modal value is used as a Token, a value that will be passed (along with the Buyer's LCID) by the IIS Web Server Platform 1520 to select appropriate product records from Relational Database Tables 1554 in the Database SQL Server Platform 1550. That process, using Named Stored Procedures 1552 to select product records for display, is described in detail in a later section.
Should the Buyer select a product for purchase, the purchasing process is supported by a Payment Processing Service 1440, one of the Ancillary Resources 1400 in the Virtual Channel. When the purchase is completed, e-mail messages are sent to (a) notify the manufacturer that a product has been purchased and the product needs to be shipped and (b) confirm the order with the Buyer. The e-mail messaging is supported by the SMTP E-Mail Server 1560. In the preferred embodiment the e-mail server is the Microsoft (RTM) Exchange Server.
A Global Store application script that provides a means to collect any taxes that are due for the purchase of a product operates in conjunction with an external Tax Computing Service 1450, one of the Ancillary Resources 1400. The interface with the Tax Computing Service is provided by one of the Global Store application programs included under the rubric "Applications for Interfacing of Ancillary Resources" 1530.
Other Ancillary Resources Allow the Global Store to Access
The art that is used to access the above sources of information is well known and easily implemented by one normally skilled in the art of using services made available on the Internet.
Taxonomy: Metaphorical Layout of Products in the Global Store
The Global Store is visited by a Buyer at the invitation of a Referral Website. The invitation is accepted when the Buyer clicks on a link that the Buyer sees on a Web page at the Referral Website. That click causes a request message to be sent from the Buyer asking that information be sent from the Global Store.
The request message automatically also contains information about the locale where the Buyer is assumed to reside, based on the primary locale served by the Referral Website. The information about locale allows the Global Store, metaphorically, to direct the Buyer to the proper linguistically compatible and culturally compatible "floor" in the "multi-storied" Global Store. The Buyer is sent to a virtual floor matching the language and culture represented on the Referral Website.
All virtual floors of the Global Store are similar with respect to the products that may be viewed and purchased, but the virtual floors are different in respect to language and custom. Stated another way, the Buyer gains automatic access, via the Referral Website and the Buyer's computer, to a virtual floor of the Store on which all business is conducted in a way to accommodate to the language and customs of the Buyer's locale.
The layout of products is essentially the same on the various virtual floors within the Global Store. Products are organized in a way that manifests an underlying taxonomy, a taxonomy which is not dependent on the use of any certain National Language. The taxonomy of product organization is represented on each virtual floor, still metaphorically speaking, by the following layout:
Having navigated his or her way to the proper Category display case, the Buyer then views the products for purchase. Help is given to the Buyer for navigating and purchasing in the Buyer's National Language.
Thus, the Global Store System provides a drill-down, four-step navigational process to a buyer, allowing the buyer to find a Category of products to view. The process involves the sequential use of a series of four linked menus, and the choices available in the menus are dynamically determined from each prior choice. After the first menu, showing Departments and allowing a buyer to choose a Department, the item choices shown in subsequent menus are those items that are in a "child" relationship to the "parent" that was the choice in the prior menu. A buyer chooses:
The clarity and convenience of the taxonomy is shown above. Its power is seen by looking at the number of products that could be conveniently found if there were only 20 divisions at each level of the taxonomy. Twenty Departments, times 20 Groups per Department, times 20 Families per Group, times 20 Categories per Family, times 20 products per Category equals 3,200,000 products. Furthermore, the number of products that could be viewed would be twenty times larger than that (i.e., 64,000,000) if another level of "Subcategory" were added to the taxonomy.
Following are characteristics of the taxonomy:
As shown in
Each of the above operations is explained in greater detail in following sections.
Locale-Specific Category Selection Panel
The Locale-Specific Category Selection Panel (LSCSP) is presented to the Buyer in four persisting frames on the Buyer's computer screen. Each of these frames contains a menu that enables a Buyer to make navigational choices. Making those choices involves the Buyer in a drill-down process that leads to selecting a number of products to view. The Buyer navigates within the Global Store, using menus on the LSCSP to traverse from Department to Group to Family to Category. The choice of a Category causes the display of a number of products.
At the same time the four frames for the LSCSP are created, two other frames are also specified as parts of a Frameset. The six-frame Frameset contains
A Frameset, Frame I, and Frame II are returned from the server in response to an HTTP request (a Node1 request) initiated when a Buyer selects a Department name for products to view from a Web page obtained from a Referral Website. The request is submitted using HTTP from an HTML Form containing a menu with a list of locale-specific Department item options for the locale in the language of the locale.
A Client-side JScript is triggered when the Buyer clicks on one of the locale-specific Department names presented in the HTML Form's menu. The JScript causes a Form-submission of numeric system parameters (including LCID and selected Node1ID value) that initiates the Node1 HTTP request for an LSCSP. The use of an HTML Form for this function was shown as an example in a prior section.
The LSCSP is constituted as four separate frames with a zero-width border between them. The first menu populates the first frame. It contains the same Department item options as appeared on the Referral Website referral page. (This feature allows re-navigation of the taxonomy, re-starting at the Department level as well as any other level of the Taxonomy.)
The LSCSP is presented to Buyers in their National Languages, rendered on their Browsers in appropriate fonts specified by a CSS. The Global Store writes and sends HTML page output to Buyers' Browsers to populate menu lists in the LSCSP. Doing so necessitates converting to a universal encoding format (UTF-8) that can be rendered in a variety of locales. Furthermore, streaming fonts are specified for use by a Buyer's Browser if the Browser does not have a font set that allows rendering of the sent text.
Writing an HTML Frameset Header includes writing a statement informing the Browser of the code set used in a Response. VBScript statements are used to create the output Header instructions to the Browser. For example, the Response.Charset method is used to generate the second line of the HTML header (Response.Charset="UTF-8") that sets the Browser to process UTF-8 encoding.
A written HTML Web Page HEADER includes a LINKED Cascaded Style Sheet (CSS) in a server "link" folder. The CSS provides a method to supply streaming fonts for cases when the fonts are missing during the rendering process by a Buyer's Browser Engine. A "missing font" condition occurs when a Browser fails to have local access to a resident locale font for one or more UTF-8 code points. Streaming fonts are provided to cover the Unicode range necessary for the National Language of a Buyer's locale. Each CSS is locale-specific and is stored in a locale-specific folder, named according to LCID values, as described above. A Browser that is compliant to HTML 4.01 matches the fonts required versus those resident to the Browser. (Browser compatibility with HTML 4.01 specification's vis-�-vis CSS1 and CSS2 style sheets and UTF-8 encoding is assumed for examples given.)
After a Buyer clicks on a Department name at a Referral Website, the Buyer will have his or her selection confirmed; the selected name will be highlighted in a drop-down menu of Department names that occupies the first frame of the LSCSP. The presence of that menu also allows the Buyer to re-start the drill-down process at any time by clicking on another Department name in the menu, thus choosing a new Node1ID and causing new "children" of the newly selected Department name to appear in Frame II. Therefore, along with the Department menu shown in Frame I, also shown to the Buyer is a Group menu in Frame II that contains the names of Groups that are "children" to the selected Department. The Buyer may continue the drill-down process by clicking on one of the Group names.
After a Buyer selects a Department name, further choices are enabled by population of the Group menu in Frame II with Group names that are "children" of the selected Department name. The following Technical Note describes the programming that supports populating that menu and serves as a model for the same kind of programming used for other menus.
If a Buyer wishes to go back to a previous step in the Taxonomy drill-down process, that is possible. The Buyer may choose to find a new Category of products to view in Frame V by re-starting at any step of the drill-down process by first selecting a (a) new Department, (b) new Group, (c) new Family, or (d) new Category. This method allows complete flexibility to search new categories while keeping previously chosen products already selected for purchase in a shopping cart in Frame VI.
By completing the drill-down process enabled by the LSCSP, the Buyer, at end, selects a Category of products to view. The following section describes the operation of providing in Frame V views of those selected products.
Display of Product Information
Having made use of the Locale-Specific Category Selection Panel to select a Category of products to view, the Buyer receives a Web page displaying a number of products—their descriptions, images, prices, and links for getting more information about a product. Among the Relational Database Tables 1554 in the Database SQL Server Platform 1550 is a table named "P" that contains product information in various locale/language-specific versions. Product information that is available for display is stored in product records in relational database table P. Those records, found in different versions for all locales served by the Global Store, include the following fields:
Products selected for viewing are presented in a manner to accommodate the Buyer's language and culture. Metaphorically speaking, on one floor of the Global Store (a floor designed for service to English-speaking Buyers), the Buyer might see a Web page display of "Women's Jackets" with descriptions in English; while a German-speaking Buyer would see, on another floor of the Store, the same products but labeled "Damenjacken" with descriptions in German.
Major specifications and features of the display operation are as follow:
The product database is implemented on an SQL server. Access to data occurs when a calling process from the Internet server passes Tokens for the Locale of a Buyer and the product Category selected by the Buyer. The SQL Server includes a Named Stored SQL Procedure (Category) to receive "calls" from the Information Server in response to Buyers' requests from around the globe in a variety of locales having different languages. The Category Stored SQL Procedure receives a call and associated Tokens for locale (LCID) and product Category (Node4ID). These Tokens are used in all locales on Referral Websites around the globe. All incoming requests flow through the same server-side script with the same script call to the same Category Stored SQL Procedure. In turn, the Category Stored SQL Procedure accesses the same product table for product descriptions.
Technical Note: The same general method is used by the server to send a display of product information to the Buyer as was used in responding to the prior request that caused menus to be displayed in the Locale-Specific Category Selection Panel. Because a description of that method was provided in detail in the prior section, the description here of providing a display of product information does not need to be as technically detailed.
A request to display product information comes from using a "Post" method of an HTML FORM-submitted HTTP request containing a URI and hidden variables (Tokens for LCID and Node4ID values). The request submission references in the URI an appropriate asp file name. Specifically, the URI contains references to (a) Disp.asp, a server-side ASP script to be parsed, and (b) the locale-specific folder on the server where the needed version of Disp.asp can be found. The ISAPI extracts the Disp.asp file name from the URI and passes it to Asp.dll (resident in IIS) for parsing, using the referenced Disp.asp script found in its URI-referenced server folder. A Disp.asp version in a given locale-specific folder is specifically designed to process a Buyer's request function and to provide the server response for that Buyer's locale. For example, Disp.asp in folder 1031 is a script for locale 1031 that is different from Disp.asp in server folder 1041 that is a script for locale 1041. A localized Disp.asp script produces localized HTML output that will be rendered by a Buyer's Browser. Preliminary to all that, however, is retrieval of product information from the database. Steps that reach that goal are detailed below:
When P and PRODCAT are joined, records are available from the joined table that represent all the versions of product information of a product related to all of the Categories (one or more) to which a product has been assigned.
Shown below is the stored SQL procedure that selects product information into a Recordset using SQL statements with
(In the example of an SQL SELECT statement that follows, an "*" is substituted as a wild card indicator for the names of fields of product information. This substitution is made in the interest of brevity and clarity because of the large number of product information fields that would otherwise need to be listed.)
Thereafter, the Recordset is returned to Disp.asp from the calling ADO script that initiated the Category Stored Procedure. Disp.asp maps the information received into a localized server script selected to produce HTML output using VBScript write statements as parsed by Asp.dll. The prepared HTML response includes a written header containing HTML elements that are necessary for the response and the locale. Product information is transmitted to the Buyer in a Product Display Web Page in Frame V in a version that is compatible with the Buyer's language/locale in UTF-8 encoding. The computer screen continues to display in four frames the still functional Product Category Selection Panel of the prior step. (The Buyer, when selecting products to view, may restart the selection process at any level of the taxonomy.) Therefore, the computer screen continues to display (a) four frames allowing the Buyer to request product views and (b) a fifth frame displaying products.
Each Strip comprises a few lines of HTML text, one Strip for each product and in the sequence of the Recordset. A complete page of nested tables for the product description Strips has a constant format from product to product in the HTML page containing the entire display for the Category chosen by a Buyer. A vertical scroll bar in the target frame (Frame V) enables view of numerous products.
Each Product Strip for the Product Display in Frame V includes HTML Cells for the Following: (a) MnfURLThumb—Thumbnail graphic product picture, (b) ProdTitle—Product Title, (c) ProdDscr—Product Description (d) Price, (e) Colorattr—Drop-Down menu for color (if applicable), (f) Sizeattr—Drop-Down Menu for Size (if applicable), (g) MfrURL—URL to manufacturer's product information Web page (if available), and (h) ShipDays—for future delivery of custom-manufactured items (if applicable).
Special details for certain fields and cells are described as follow:
When the Buyer clicks on "Purchase this Item," that event initiates further interactive communications with the Global Store, and those interactions are described in detail in subsequent sections. In this section, however, some attention is given to certain in-the-background accounting operations that are initiated at the time a product is selected for purchase. All information in all tables is in Unicode.
First, a unique BuyerlD value is created and assigned to the Buyer. That value is placed in a new record in a Customer Table where the key field is BuyerID. Other information about the Buyer is added to the Buyer Table as it becomes available.
Second, a unique transaction identifier (TransID) value is assigned in a new record in a Transaction Table during a session in which a Buyer first selects a product for purchase. At the same time, an ItemID value is also created and placed in another field of the same record. Together, TransID and ItemID constitute a unique primary key for the table. The TransID value in conjunction with the ItemID value allows the system to track a specific purchase of a specific product by a Buyer. The same BuyerID value that was assigned in the Customer Table (above) also is added to the Transaction Table to identify the Buyer and allow ready access to Customer Table information. Fields called Color and Size contain, when appropriate, attributes of Color and Size, as selected by the Buyer.
Third, a code value is entered in a status field in the Transaction Table to provide current information about the latest event in the purchase process the transaction. Every product in a transaction is subject to this status monitoring process. The status field is labeled StatID, and values in that field include numerical codes to signify one of the following transaction status events:
Fourth, a Payment Table contains records of the payment details for each transaction. A unique PayID value is assigned to a primary key for each record. Other fields include TransID, and fields to identify the payment processing service, total bill in the Fulfillment Center's currency, and total bill in the Buyer's currency (including tax and costs for options in the case of a custom order).
In the above section describing product displays it was explained that each individual product Strip display in Frame V consists of nested HTML cells. One of those cells contains an HTML Form (one Form per product) that enables selection of a ProdID value when a checkbox in the Product Strip labeled "Purchase this Item" is checked. An ASP script name, ShipTo.asp, is contained in the URI attribute of the Form's "Post" method.
Form submission is aided by a Client-side JScript upon the event of checking of the checkbox for "Purchase this Item." Submission, via an HTTP "Post" method, sends to the IIS Server the URI and hidden variable values that identify the product selected by the Buyer for purchase: ProdID, ColorID, SizeID, BulkID, OptionID, and Discount. As described above, those values were selected prior to the submission and were stored, where appropriate, in a Client JScript for that purpose.
The IIS Server's ISAPI extracts the file name ShipTo.asp from the URI of the HTTP Form submission and passes ShipTo.asp to ASP.dll for parsing. The URI includes the locale-specific folder address from which ShipTo.asp is obtained. The first step is to obtain Form-submitted product information from the Request.Form Collection and establish as session variables OptionID and BulkID. The second step of ShipTo.asp is to update the Transaction Table with a new record that reflects the selection of a product for purchase, including Color and Size selections, as appropriate.
Third, ShipTo.asp sends a locale-specific HTML Web page that occupies Frame V, replacing the display of products that were in Frame V. ShipTo.asp caches the contents of Frame V display so that the display can be presented again should the Buyer later choose to return to shopping. The new Web page includes a ShipTo Data Entry Form page that is sent to the Buyer's Browser to collect shipping information that includes: (a) quantity of an ordered Product (ProdNo), (b) ShipTo Address, (C) ShipTo City, (d) ShipTo State/Province, (e) ShipTo Country, and (f) ShipTo Postal Code.
The new contents of Frame V also include explanatory text that prompts the Buyer to enter information to specify a destination where the purchased product is to be sent. Associated text in the Web page explains that destination information is needed to arrive at a total cost, including shipping charges.
The same routine of asking for a shipping destination is repeated each time the Buyer selects another product for purchase. That task is neither time-consuming nor onerously repetitive for the Buyer; the same shipping destination is assumed and pre-entered. A drop-down menu for selecting a country is supplied in case of a new destination. Only when the shipping destination changes from one purchase to another does shipping information need to be entered more than once by the Buyer. The Buyer is always required to enter the number of products being ordered. All the above information is added to appropriately named fields in the transaction record in the Transaction Table, described above.
Each product purchased during a session may have a separate ShipTo address. The ShipTo address is used to determine the shipping cost for delivery by a carrier, the Carrier specified by CarrierID in the locale-specific Product record.
Filling out the ShipTo form and submitting it (a) updates the transaction record in the Transaction Table with ShipTo information and (b) executes a statement that invokes an associated server-side script, Carrier.asp. As Carrier.asp is parsed by Asp.dll, destination information is used to help determine shipping costs for different grades of delivery service to the Buyer's ShipTo destination from a manufacturer's Fulfillment Center location. That location is the shipping point of origin for the manufacturer's product fulfillment.
Within Carrier.asp, a VBScript statement branches to an Include directive. Branching to a specific directive is determined by the value of CarrierID that is found in the locale-specific version of a product record. That CarrierID value is specific to the Carrier nominated to be the carrier to deliver the product to Buyers in the locale of the Buyer. The Include directive to which the VBScript statement branches initiates parsing of a version of an Include script, Carrier.inc. Each version of Carrier.inc is tailored for a specific carrier (CarrierID) and a specific Buyer's locale (LCID). Each Carrier.inc version automatically implements an interfacing method provided by a carrier (e.g., FedEx (RTM) or UPS (RTM)) necessary to access that carrier's Web-based Shipping Rate Quotation Service (SRQS). Carrier.inc provides shipping point-of-origin (ShipFrom) information, destination (ShipTo) information, number of products, and weight to the specified SRQS, as needed to have a quotation returned. An SRQS then returns the costs for different delivery service grades. Costs are determined in the currency of the Fulfillment Center's locale by the SRQS. The cost to the buyer in the buyer's locale is determined by looking up the current exchange rate in a Currency Ratio table, maintained daily, on the Global Store. The Carrier.inc script, invoked from within Carrier.asp, generates and sends to Frame V a presentation with information about grades of service (e.g., ground and air) from a specific carrier and costs for those service options. That information is accessed from the carrier's Website where shipping rate quotations are made—called here a Shipping Rate Quotation Service (SRQS).
Technical Note: Carrier.inc carries out the following steps:
Upon receipt of the informational response from the carrier's SRQS, Carrier.inc prepares and sends a Delivery Option Display Form to Frame V to display a quoted cost for each delivery service alternative. A Buyer selects a desired delivery service alternative by checking a checkbox.
The latest product selection is added to the top of the display. The OFISC display in Frame VI is vertically scrollable to enable viewing previously selected products. Frame VI occupies approximately ⅕ of the display space used for Frame V and is located below Frame V.
Cart.asp also sends an informational message to Frame V, saying: "The Total Cost for Your Selected Item, Including Shipping, Is Shown in the Panel Below." Also visible in Frame V, at the bottom, is a navigational checkbox labeled "Return to Shopping."
When the Buyer looks "in the Panel Below," the Buyer sees in the OFISC a list of products that have been selected for purchase, the latest selection at the top of the list. Those listings also show purchase quantity, size and color (where appropriate) and total cost. Total cost includes costs for options, if applicable. Selection of options is described in a later section. Also described in a later section are Bulk purchases and discounts for bulk (wholesale) purchases.
At this point, the Buyer has the option to return to shopping or to proceed to checkout. If the Buyer chooses to return to shopping, Frame V is restored from cache to again render the same product display information that was seen by the Buyer prior to the Buyer having clicked on "Purchase this Item." Should the Buyer return to shopping, the product just selected to be purchased would remain visible in the OFISC in Frame VI at the bottom of the screen.
Upon the Buyer's Checking the "Return to Shopping" Checkbox in Frame V (with text rendered in the Buyer's National Language), Restore.asp provides the function of resending the cached Products Display to Frame V. If the Buyer does not choose to return to shopping, the other alternative is to go to Checkout. That option is enabled by a checkbox visible in the OFISC. The checkbox is labeled "Go to Checkout," as stated in the Buyer's National language.
Before proceeding to a description of the checkout process, it is necessary to describe below two exceptions to the above procedure in steps taken to add a product to the OFISC. Those exception occur in the event that a selected product is (a) custom-manufactured or (b) available in wholesale quantities, i.e., business-to-business commerce.
Purchase of Custom-Ordered Products
Custom-ordering is important to e-commerce because it allows manufacturers, e.g., Dell (RTM), to provide what customers want while keeping inventories very low. That capability enables an important transition from "push" marketing to "pull" marketing.
For the Global store to enable purchasing of custom-ordered products, an Options step is used that is parallel to the ShipTo procedure described in the above section. Even while this parallel step obtains information about a Buyer's options choices when making purchases of custom-ordered products, this step also obtains ShipTo information as well. A branch to an interactive Web page allows the Buyer to select among custom features of the product selected for purchase and also to obtain ShipTo information. Branching to that page is controlled by the presence of a particular value in the OptionID field of a Product Record. Specifically, a "1" in that field causes a VBScript statement in ShipTo.asp to branch to an Execute statement that invokes Custom.asp script.
Custom.asp writes and sends to the Buyer's Browser a locale-specific Web page that obtains ShipTo information and Option information. The Web page generated invokes a script that sets all of the information received from this form into session variables.
The following are fields required to be in Product Table records to provide option choices. The information in those fields is locale-specific. It is locale-specific in the same manner as other information about products that appeared in product display Web pages, as described above. Furthermore, prices are adjusted in the same manner. Six was arbitrarily picked here, only for purposes of exposition, as the maximum number of option choices that would be available for any one product. These fields are used to access and display option information:
In the Global Store, for a product to be purchased in wholesale quantities, a "Bulk" step is used that is parallel to the ShipTo procedure described in the above section. For a product that is sold for discounts in quantity, that step involves branching away, temporarily, to present another interactive Web page, a page that allows a Buyer to determine the number of products to order. Even while this parallel step obtains information about the quantity of a product that the Buyer chooses to purchase at wholesale prices, this step also obtains ShipTo information as well.
Branching to that page is controlled by the presence of a particular value in the BulkID field of a Product Record. Specifically, a "1" in that field causes a VBScript statement in ShipTo.asp to branch to an Execute statement that invokes Bulk.asp script. Bulk.asp presents an array of up to eight levels of discounts where both the discount and the number of products required to qualify for the given discount is provided. Information to display on the Web page come from a Bulk Table includes:
After selecting Bulk number of products, the Buyer continues with the process that is invoked by Bulk.asp. The Bulk.asp script writes and sends to the Buyers Browser a locale-specific Web page that includes obtaining the ShipTo information and quantity Information. The Web page generated invokes a script that sets all of the information received from this form into session variables.
Bulk.asp is Buyer's locale specific. It creates and sends to the Buyer's Browser a Web page with the following features and functions:
When the Buyer clicks on the "Go to Checkout" checkbox, the Buyer's screen no longer contains any of the frames described above. At this point, the Buyer begins to see Web pages that are designed to accomplish the following goals:
While accomplishing the above stated goals, other stated goals are pursued to make checkout procedures as quick, clear, and generally Buyer-friendly as possible. To accomplish these goals, certain practices and guidelines are followed:
The "internationalization" technology to implement checkout procedures across barriers of languages, cultures, and nations is not well known. Therefore, those procedures are described in some detail below. It should be understood that those procedures, in all cases, implement not only internationalization goals but also all of the Buyer-friendly practices and guidelines detailed above. The art needed to implement the Buyer-friendly practices and guidelines is conventional and well known, thereby needing no further elaboration. Though those procedures are not elaborated upon, they are manifest throughout the checkout process.
Clicking on "Go to Checkout" invokes the first of a series of locale-specific scripts that provide interactive Web pages during the checkout process. The same method is employed here are has been described extensively in prior sections—the method of using locale-specific scripts of the same name but in different versions and placing those versions in folders that include LCID values in the folders' addresses.
InfoState.asp is the first of two scripts to obtain Customer Information. InfoState.asp is invoked in response to the Buyer clicking on "Go to Checkout." InfoState.asp collects (a) the Buyer's name and (b) the Buyer's State/Province from a drop-down menu. (The Buyer can correct the country, assumed by the Buyer's LCID value collected in a prior step, if it has been wrongly assumed.) Should the Buyer not be in the assumed country based on the locale of the Referral Website, the Web page delivered allows the Buyer to correct the assumption. In that case the Buyer simply chooses to enter the correct country in an alternate menu presented on the page. When that option is taken, the submission leads to a corrected InfoState page, absent the country menu.
The second script, Infocity.asp, is invoked upon Form Post submission the first one, InfoState. InfoCity.asp is a script that presents choices of City in a drop-down menu as "Children" of the State/Province specified in the prior step. This method avoids problems in delivery due to buyer's entering misspellings. Locale-specific names for cities, states, and provinces are obtained from LCID-specific Place Name Tables. International standards for addressing are used.
The technology used for the interactive Web pages in this section is familiar from prior descriptions and need only be described in outline.
In operation, Buyer's choosing a State/Province in the HTML menu triggers an HTML Form Post submission. InfoCity.asp script is obtained by the server from the locale-specific folder containing a locale-specific version of the InfoCity.asp script. InfoCity.asp presents choices for City in a drop-down menu as "Children" of the State/Province selected in the prior menu. Steps are as follow:
In operation, the Buyer's clicking on a City in an HTML menu presented to Buyer's Browser in full screen, triggers an HTML Form submission, using Post method. Doing so sends an HTTP Request for a Buyer's approval Form, via a Form Post Submission containing the Approval.asp script name and the locale-specific folder address in which to obtain a locale-specific version of the Approval.asp script. Approval.asp is a script to obtain a Buyer's approval of a transaction. Steps are as follow:
In operation, the Buyer's checking "Approved" results in an HTML menu being presented to the Buyer by Approval.asp script. A JScript procedure monitors an associated event and which triggers an HTML Form submission, using Post method, sending an HTTP Checkout Request. The Checkout.asp request is received by the server and invokes from the locale-specific folder Checkout.asp script. Checkout.asp script performs the following steps:
When a product is a digital product like a book, Checkout.asp invokes a method-specific download for electronic item(s). Electronic downloads are made from resident inventory using an Include ASP Script. That script is invoked by using an Include directive to (a) actuate a resident process, appropriate for the kind electronic sale (video, audio, etc.), and (b) create an authorization for accounting purposes with the vendor. Transfer of the product purchased completes the transaction (TransID/ProdID), triggering a change to a "delivered" status for the Status Code in the Status Code Record for the item. This process invokes a Form Post submission to a Deliver.asp script invoked by the server receiving the request. Deliver.asp obtains Request.Form collection to obtain the the status of the results of the electronic download. Deliver.asp the posts status to the Status Change Table.
Order fulfillment of physical items is made by each product's manufacturer. A Manufacturer's Order includes all products in the transaction from that manufacturer. A method to notify a manufacturer that a product has been purchase and needs to be shipped is described in the following section.
E-mail Notifications to Buyers and Manufacturers
Status Code triggers invoke automated HTML-encoded e-mail. An event that creates a new record in the Status Change Table also may trigger the sending of an informative email notification to a Buyer or manufacturer. The email is generated in a format and language suitable to the recipient's locale. In the event of a status code value for StatID in the Transaction Table changing, a new record is generated in the Status Change Table to record the change and the date and time of the change, using a constant format throughout all locales. As a specified code value changes, a monitoring Database procedure triggers a specific response. For instance, a status code change that shows a completed sale transaction triggers a notification of Confirmation of Purchase to be sent to a Buyer. At the same time, a Notification of Purchase is e-mailed to each manufacturer, that notification limited to the product(s) purchased from that specific manufacturer.
Both the Confirmation of Purchase to Buyers and the Notification of Purchase to manufactures contain
Additional information is included in the e-mail to the Buyer, as follows:
All of the foregoing is sent to a Buyer in the National Language of the Buyer's locale.
Frames in the Locale-Specific Category Selection Panel. Here, where a multitude of these Includes are described, they are specific for (a) the buyer's locale, (b) the Status Code event that changes in the database, and (c) the SQL procedure designed to monitor changes in the specific Status Code that triggers the e-mail response.
An LCID-specific Include server-script obtains the appropriate identifiers and other information to be bound into HTML for inclusion into an e-mail body. For example, given that a Status Code for a transaction changes to show acceptance of a Buyer's payment by a Payment Gateway and an e-mailed Confirmation of Purchase is required, a process is triggered for
Email may be processed to generate automatic responses like, for example an email response in return, a well known technology. That is done at the Global Store in response to Buyer's email messages, a way of immediate confirming that their email has arrived and that a response will be given shortly to their specific concern. In that case, the Buyer's email is added to the database to be processed by Customer Service Representatives.
Another response would be an automatic email message to a Buyer when an email notification came from a manufacturer that a purchased product had been shipped. That kind of incoming email is used in the Global Store to update the Transaction Table, monitor service to Buyers, and trigger appropriate email messages to Buyers.
Following a purchase of a product, a Buyer is able to view a Personalized Customer Serve Web Page (PCSWP). The Buyer is provided with a URL for the page, sent in an HTML-version email that is automatically sent following a status code change signaling a completed purchase.
The PCSWP delivers individualized customer service information. The purpose of the PCSWP is to allow Buyers to find comprehensive customer service information at one easily accessed location. It is dynamically generated, run-time, by a Buyer's clicking on a hyperlink that includes a server-side script's file name. The hyperlink is included in the email described above.
Information is presented in two frames (Frame I and Frame II) within a Frameset. The left frame, Frame I, consists of a Directory of customer information services. Each service in the Directory consists of an embedded HTML form that, when selected, submits an HTTP "Post" request to the server. Each request specifies a server script that generates a locale-specific response that is sent to the Frame II target. The LCID value needed to obtain a locale-specific response from the server script is obtained from a Customer's record.
The localized Frameset is sent to the Buyer to display all of the Customer Information Services content described below. It consists of the two open frames, Frames I and II. The left frame, Frame I, comprises about 20% of the screen. The right frame, Frame II, comprises the rest. Frame I, which contains a localized Directory of services, scrolls top to bottom; and each Directory item provides a localized Form submission for a Web page to be delivered to the larger Frame II. Each selectable item in the Directory uses a localized Include ASP Script to generate content targeted to Frame II.
The methodology used for implementation of a Frameset and server scripts needed to generate and send Web pages in each locale has been described in prior sections. For example, using LCID-specific server-side Includes containing localized ASP scripts to produce frame-designated results are technical methods already amply described before, and they need not be repeated here.
Information, described with a title in Frame I and used selectively to populate Frame II, includes the following: (a) Current Order Status of products, including delivery, (b) hotlinks to connect with a Carrier's Parcel Tracking Service and automatically obtain Parcel Status from the Carrier for each parcel, (c) Return Policies and Procedures, (d) Past Transactions of prior purchases, (e) Product Information Updates, (f) Global Directory of local product-specific Repair Centers that are searchable for products purchased, (g) Directory of Customer Service Contacts—E-mail addresses, phone numbers, hotlinked Internet Telephony addresses, etc., (h) Global Store Directory, (i) status of products that have been ordered for custom manufacture, (j) links to products, accessories, and services that are related to a purchase product and that the Buyer may wish to purchase, and (k) links to any customer retention programs of the Global Store in which the Buyer participates (or may wish to).
Most of the above content is self-explanatory. Additional technical detail is provided, as follows, to show how dynamic, content-specific Web pages are used to populate Frame II.
An Escrow process is a part of the purchase transaction for all purchases. The Global Store holds each payment in escrow until the buyer receives the shipment. The Buyer is granted three days after delivery to inspect the product and to initiate a return process if the product is unsatisfactory.
After funds are collected from during the purchase process, they placed in a special escrow account at the Global Store pending expiration of the three-day period for inspection.
The Global Store offers to the buyer the escrow process to help Buyers be more comfortable in making purchases internationally. The escrow process is facilitated by collection and monitoring of the following data: (a) assigned escrow number, (b) Transaction ID, (c) Carrier ID, (d) Carrier Tracking number, and (e) Payment Gateway Approval.
Settlement Process
A Settlement process is conducted periodically whereby manufacturers are credited with net receipts for a manufacturer's product after a product is delivered and after there is no outstanding or open escrow. (Returns are handled on an exception basis.)
The Global Store debits from gross receipts for each transaction the commissions owed to the Referral Website and to the Global Store. The Manufacturer is reimbursed for shipping in the amount collected from a Buyer.
For a Manufacturer's account at the Global Store accounting is conducted in the language specified by the manufacturer, and duplicate entries in the books of the Global Store are conducted in English. Settlement feeds into the Accounts Payable. After status code changes reflect satisfactory delivery of a product, payments are made by Electronic Funds Transfer from Global Store accounts to Manufacturers and the Referral Websites.
An assumption is made that the funds received from buyer's purchase are automatically converted on the day of the buyer's purchase at the current exchange rate.
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