Method and apparatus for the home delivery of local retail e-commerce orders

Abstract

A method and apparatus for empowering general population to deliver e-commerce orders from retail stores to buyers. The method and apparatus comprises a database of patrons who register with the system to do home delivery of e-commerce orders, a database of e-commerce orders from the store, a database of buyers who place the orders, a database of delivery transaction, a database of feedback for patrons, a software application that matches acceptable orders with a patron, a dynamic pricing model that sets the delivery fee, a plurality of kiosks deployed in the retail store for patrons to select orders to deliver, a method to manage delivery transactions and compensation, a feedback system, and a service guarantee on the delivery of an order within its scheduled delivery time. The method and apparatus is then extended to different retail stores of different retail chains to provide unified home delivery service with the same pool of registered patrons.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method of empowering the general population to deliver e-commerce orders from retail stores to buyers, the method comprising: 
 registering of a patron;    providing selection and scheduling of iDeliver service to buyer upon receiving of e-commerce order placed by buyer;    matching pending orders with patron's acceptable delivery criteria;    managing delivery transaction and compensation;    providing means for buyer to leave feedback on patron and making use of said feedback; and    providing means for service guarantee on delivery of order within scheduled delivery time.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein registering of patron comprises the steps of: 
 providing user interface to allow patron to create account by choosing user name and password;  
 providing user interface to patron to collect driver license number or social security number for labor legality in accordance with federal and local state law;  
 providing user interface to allow patron to specify acceptable delivery criteria;  
 presenting iDeliver service agreement which states “While using iDeliver service, you will not hold iDeliver system responsible for the action or inaction of the buyers.” to patron and collecting patron's acknowledgement;  
 persisting the above input information entered by patron in database; and  
 upon verification of patron's work status in accordance with federal and state law, creating patron's membership and mailing membership card to patron.  
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the acceptable delivery criteria includes acceptable deviation criteria and acceptable order criteria.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  wherein the acceptable deviation criteria further includes: 
 the additional distance of travel required by the deviation is less than a preset limit;  
 the additional time of travel required by the deviation is less than a preset limit.  
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3  wherein the acceptable order criteria further includes: 
 the total weight of the goods in the order is less than a preset limit; and  
 the total number of bags of the order is less than a preset limit.  
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein providing selection and scheduling of iDeliver service upon receiving of e-commerce order placed by buyer comprises the steps of: 
 providing user interface to buyer the to show whether iDeliver service is available to buyer's address;  
 if iDeliver service is not available said method ends here;  
 If iDeliver service is available then presenting iDeliver service agreement which states “While using iDeliver service, you will not hold iDeliver system responsible for the action or inaction of buyers delivery service providers.” to buyer and collecting buyer's acknowledgement;  
 providing user interface to buyer to show the availability of schedule delivery times of iDeliver service;  
 providing user interface to allow buyer to select type of delivery (attended or unattended), schedule delivery time and acceptable patron criteria;  
 calculating the delivery fee based on scheduled delivery time and buyer-specified patron criteria;  
 if it is a attended delivery, generating a secret code and sending the code to buyer;  
 sending a order confirmation to buyer; and  
 persisting the above information entered by buyer in database.  
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the acceptable patron criteria includes: 
 the number of deliveries performed by the patron in the past year is more than a preset limit; and  
 the number of positive feedback of the patron is more than a preset limit.  
 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein matching pending orders with patrons' acceptable delivery criteria comprises the steps of: 
 providing user interface to allow patron to login by using user name and password or by swiping of membership card;  
 retrieving patron's acceptable delivery criteria;  
 retrieving all pending orders that are scheduled for delivery by patrons from current time to a preset time limit;  
 applying patron's delivery criteria to filter said orders in step c;  
 providing user interface to present the orders that satisfy patron's delivery criteria to patron;  
 providing user interface to allow patron to accept or decline the individual order from said orders in step e;  
 if patron wish to modify acceptable delivery criteria then providing user interface to allow patron to do so and go to step c;  
 providing user interface to collect the orders accepted by patron to deliver; and  
 printing out the driving directions, map and estimated travel time.  
 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein managing delivery transaction and compensation comprises the steps of: 
 creating a record in transaction database with a “waiting for packaging” status upon receiving of e-commerce order;  
 updating the order status to “packaged” upon completion of order packaging;  
 updating the order status to “selected by patron to deliver” upon patron's confirmation;  
 updating the order status to “store delivery” the order is carried out as store delivery;  
 charging the amount of the order to patron's account upon patron's picking up of order to deliver;  
 instructing patron to request the secret code from buyer if the delivery is attended upon patron's arrival at delivery address;  
 receiving order identification from patron receiving said secret code if the delivery is attended;  
 crediting the amount of the order to patron's account;  
 crediting the delivery fee to patron's account;  
 updating the order status to “delivered” and closing the transaction; and  
 sending reminder to buyer to leave feedback for patron for this delivery.  
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein providing means for buyer to leave feedback on patron and making use of said feedback includes: 
 sending reminder to buyer to leave feedback for patron upon completion of delivery;  
 providing buyer a option to use patron feedback information as acceptable patron criteria when scheduling iDeliver service; and  
 updating patron feedback information in database.  
 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein providing means for service guarantee on delivery of order within scheduled delivery includes: 
 limiting iDeliver service to buyer whose address is within a list of areas where the density of population is higher than a preset limit;  
 limiting iDeliver service scheduled delivery times to a list of time periods when number of customers visiting a store is greater than a preset limit;  
 increasing the delivery compensation to patron once an order reaches urgent hours; and  
 Employing a in-store delivery team to deliver orders that reach critical hours.  
 
     
     
         12 . An e-commerce system for empowering general population to deliver e-commerce orders from retail stores to buyers, the system comprising: 
 a client computer to present user to perform the steps of registering of a patron;    a client computer to present user interface to perform the steps of providing selection and scheduling of iDeliver service to buyer upon receiving of e-commerce order placed by buyer;    a plurality of in-store kiosks to present user interface to perform the steps of matching pending orders with patron's acceptable delivery criteria;    a data storage medium to store order information;    a data storage medium to store buyer information;    a data storage medium to store patron information;    a data storage medium to store transaction information;    a data storage medium to store feedback information; and    a plurality of server computers, coupled to said client computers, in-store kiosks and data storage mediums via a communications network, to implement the method of  claim 1 .    
     
     
         13 . A computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed on a processor, cause the processor to execute the steps of the method of  claim 1 .  
     
     
         14 . A method for providing the method in  claim 1  to different retail chains with the same pool of patrons, the method comprising; 
 sharing the pool of patron information among different retail chains; and  
 allowing a patron to participate in different stores different retail chains where iDeliver service is available.