System and method of safely distributing high demand products

Abstract

A system for use with computing devices each associated with one of a plurality of customers. The system includes a customer application executing on each of the computing devices and a computing system that receives requests, from a requesting portion of the computing devices, to purchase a product not yet available for purchase. The computing system assigns potential reservations to selected winning ones of the customers associated with the requesting portion, receives confirmations from a confirmed portion of the selected winning customers, converts the potential reservations to actual reservations for the confirmed portion, and transmits a code to each of the confirmed portion of the selected winning customers only after the selected winning customer submits validation information that the computing system determines satisfies validation criteria. A merchant transfers the product to one of the customers at a physical store location only if the customer provides the code to the merchant.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a product reservation computing system, requests to purchase a product from a merchant when the product is not yet available for purchase;   determining that the product is available for reservation;   processing the requests to purchase the product using an assignment script algorithm to assign reservations to select customers that meet a set of criteria to purchase the product from the merchant;   transmitting a notification of an assigned reservation associated with a customer;   receiving a confirmation associated with the customer of the select customers, the confirmation including validation information for the customer;   processing the validation information to confirm that the customer is authorized to purchase the product from the merchant based on the set of criteria;   generating a unique code associated with the product and the customer; and   transmitting the unique code, wherein when the unique code is received by a product reservation module of a device associated with the customer, the unique code facilitates purchase of the product.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein transmission of the unique code is triggered by a personal countdown dock associated with the customer. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein when the unique code is displayed by the device associated with the customer, a point of sale device associated with the merchant uses the unique code to verify that the customer is authorized to purchase the product. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the unique code is a two dimensional barcode. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein when the unique code is received by a merchant system, the merchant system matches the unique code to a communication associated with the customer to confirm that the customer is authorized to purchase the product. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein assignment of the reservations is associated with a default countdown clock indicating a default time when the product will be available for purchase. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the notification of the reservation for the customer is associated with a default countdown clock and a personal countdown clock that indicates a time when the product will be available for purchase by the customer. 
     
     
         9 . A product reservation computing system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media containing instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:   receiving, by the product reservation computing system, requests to purchase a product from a merchant when the product is not yet available for purchase;   determining that the product is available for reservation;   processing the requests to purchase the product using an assignment script algorithm to assign reservations to select customers that meet a set of criteria to purchase the product from the merchant;   transmitting a notification of an assigned reservation associated with a customer;   receiving a confirmation associated with the customer of the select customers, the confirmation including validation information for the customer;   processing the validation information to confirm that the customer is authorized to purchase the product from the merchant based on the set of criteria;   generating a unique code associated with the product and the customer; and   transmitting the unique code, wherein when the unique code is received by a product reservation module of a device associated with the customer, the unique code facilitates purchase of the product.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein transmission of the unique code is triggered by a personal countdown clock associated with the customer. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein when the unique code is displayed by the device associated with the customer, a point of sale device associated with the merchant uses the unique code to verify that the customer is authorized to purchase the product. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the unique code is a two dimensional barcode. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein when the unique code is received by a merchant system, the merchant system matches the unique code to communication associated with the customer to confirm that the customer is authorized to purchase the product. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein assignment of the reservations is associated with a default countdown clock indicating a default time when the product will be available for purchase. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the notification of the reservation for the customer is associated with a default countdown clock and a personal countdown clock that indicates a time when the product will be available for purchase by the customer. 
     
     
         16 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the device to perform operations comprising:
 receiving requests to purchase a product from a merchant when the product is not yet available for purchase;   determining that the product is available for reservation;   processing the requests to purchase the product using an assignment script algorithm to assign reservations to select customers that meet a set of criteria to purchase the product from the merchant;   transmitting a notification of an assigned reservation associated with a customer;   receiving a confirmation associated with the customer of the select customers, the confirmation including validation information for the customer;   processing the validation information to confirm that the customer is authorized to purchase the product from the merchant based on the set of criteria;   generating a unique code associated with the product and the customer; and   transmitting the unique code, wherein when the unique code is received by a product reservation module of a device associated with the customer, the unique code facilitates purchase of the product.   
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein transmission of the unique code is triggered by a personal countdown clock associated with the customer. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein when the unique code is displayed by the device associated with the customer, a point of sale device associated with the merchant uses the unique code to verify that the customer is authorized to purchase the product. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein the unique code is a two dimensional barcode. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein when the unique code is received by a merchant system, the merchant system matches the unique code to communication associated with the customer to confirm that the customer is authorized to purchase the product. 
     
     
         21 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein assignment of the reservations is associated with a default countdown clock indicating a default time when the product will be available for purchase.