Systems and methods for allocating and distributing inventory

Abstract

Presented herein is an online marketplace for the selling and delivering of items for sale. The online marketplace includes devices and systems as well as their methods of use for the online purchase of goods as well as for the efficient and expedient delivery of the goods purchased. In particular embodiments, the system may include a cloud based database that stores images of the items for purchase, and may further include an associated computing device that is configured for receiving data corresponding with the one or more physical items represented by the images of the goods for sale that are stored in the database. The computing device is further configured for displaying the data corresponding with the one or more physical items for sale, e.g., to a client via a web portal; obtaining order data for an online order for the one or more physical items for sale; assessing geolocation data for the online order for delivery within a defined delivery area, and notifies a client that the online order should be delivered as well as indicates the most efficient manner in which to make the delivery.

That which is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An online marketplace system for allowing community based goods producers to sell their goods, the online marketplace system comprising:
 a structured database, the structured database storing goods data corresponding with a plurality of locally sourced physical items for sale from a collective of small, local goods producers, the collective of small, local goods producers including a plurality of community based goods producers, the goods data including information regarding availability of the one or more locally sourced physical items for sale and information about each of the community based goods producers who are offering those locally sourced physical items for sale;   a server coupled to the database and configured for communicating with a plurality of client computing devices over a network interface, the server further being configured for generating a graphical user interface at a display of at least one of the one or more first client computing devices, the graphical user interface for producing at the display a shopping dashboard for presenting the one or more goods for sale and the one or more community based goods producers offering those goods for sale, the server comprising:
 a first processing engine for receiving at least first order data corresponding to a user selection from a user, the user selection comprising a selection of at least one of the one or more goods for sale presented at the shopping dashboard, and a community based goods producer preference for each of the one or more goods selected by the one or more users; 
 a second processing engine for comparing the first order data with the goods data in the database so as to ensure that each user selected good from each preferred community based goods producer has not been allocated for another order; 
 a third processing engine for generating and transmitting merchant purchase data for each selected community based goods producer of each selected good to be purchased by the user, the merchant purchase data indicating that the user has selected a good to be purchased and has selected a community based goods producer from whom to purchase the good; 
 a fourth processing engine for receiving packaged good data from each client computing device of each selected community based goods producer, the packaged good data notifying the server that each selected good purchased from each selected community based goods producer is ready for delivery; 
 a fifth processing engine for receiving a notification that each purchased good has been picked up for delivery 
 a sixth processing engine for receiving a notification that the one or more user selected goods was delivered to the user. 
   
     
     
         2 . The online marketplace system in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the user comprises a plurality of users, and the at least first order data includes at least first and second order data from the plurality of different users. 
     
     
         3 . The online marketplace system in accordance with  claim 2 , wherein the plurality of different users have different geographical locations, and the server further includes an additional processing engine for receiving geolocation data pertaining to the geographical location of each of the plurality of different users and for determining geolocation data containing the geographic location for each selected community based goods producer. 
     
     
         4 . The online marketplace system in accordance with  claim 3 , wherein the additional processing engine is further configured for assessing the geolocation and determining a delivery route, the delivery route including directions to the geographic location for each selected community based goods producer, for pickup of each selected good that was purchased from each respective different user, and from each selected community based goods producer to the geographic location for each respective different user. 
     
     
         5 . The online marketplace system in accordance with  claim 4 , wherein the server includes a further processing engine for tracking progress of delivery along the delivery route and/or for predicting an estimated time of arrival at each geographic location, and for communicating one or more of the progress and estimated time of arrival to one or more recipients. 
     
     
         6 . The online marketplace system in accordance with  claim 5 , wherein the server includes another processing engine configured for receiving merchant package data from each selected community based goods producer, the merchant package data indicated that a purchased good has been packaged and is ready for delivery. 
     
     
         7 . The online marketplace system in accordance with  claim 6 , wherein the selected community based goods producer comprises a plurality of different community based goods producers having different geographical locations, and the delivery route data includes each of the geographical locations of each of the different community based goods producers. 
     
     
         8 . A method for delivering goods ordered by a consumer via an online marketplace, the goods including one or more goods for sale by a community based goods producer, the method comprising:
 providing, from a server computer, at a display of a first client computing device, a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface for producing, at the display, a shopping dashboard for presenting one or more goods for sale and one or more community based goods producers offering those goods for sale;   receiving, at the server computer, from the first client computing device over a network interface, first digital order data for an online order of goods, the first digital order data including a selection from a consumer of at least one good to be purchased from at least one selected community based goods producer, and storing the first digital order data in a database in communication with the server computer;   transmitting, from the server computer to a second client computing device of the at least one selected community based goods producer, via the network interface, at least a portion of the first digital order data, the second client computing device for receiving the first digital order data and determining availability of the consumer selected at least one good to be purchased, and for generating and transmitting one or more of order receipt data, availability of the selected good data, and order complete and ready for pick up data back to the server computer;   receiving, at the server computer, from the at least one selected community based goods producer client computing device, a notification, the notification including one or more of order receipt data, availability of the selected good data, and order complete and ready for pick up data, the order complete and ready for pick up data corresponding with the first digital order data of the first online order of goods, and indicating when the consumer selected at least one good to be purchased is ready for pickup;   determining, by the server computer, in response to receipt of the indication that the consumer selected at least one good to be purchased is ready for pickup, a geolocation for each the at least one selected community based goods producer as well as a geolocation for the consumer so as to produce determined location data;   generating, by the server computer, using the determined location data, delivery route data, the delivery route data setting forth a route by which to pick up and deliver the consumer selected at least one good to be purchased from a location of the at least one selected community based goods producer to a location of the consumer, the delivery route data including delivery data comprising the geolocation of the at least one selected community based goods producer and the consumer;   transmitting, from the server computer to a third client computer of the consumer via the network interface, a first and second notification, the first notification indicating when the consumer selected at least one good to be purchased has been picked up for delivery, and further transmitting a second notification indicating an estimation of when the consumer selected at least one good to be purchased will be delivered to the first consumer.   
     
     
         9 . The method for delivering goods according to  claim 8 , wherein the at least one good to be purchased comprises a plurality of goods, and the at least one selected community based goods producers comprises a plurality of selected community based goods producers, each having distinct geolocations. 
     
     
         10 . The method for delivering goods according to  claim 9 , wherein the method further comprises transmitting to the server computer delivery data, the delivery data including a confirmation that at least one of the plurality of goods from at least one of the plurality of selected community based goods producers has been delivered, and further including an actual time of delivery. 
     
     
         11 . The method for delivering goods according to  claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises comparing the estimation of when the consumer selected at least one good to be purchased will be delivered with the actual time of delivery. 
     
     
         12 . The method for delivering goods according to  claim 11 , wherein when there is a difference between the estimation of when the consumer selected at least one good to be purchased will be delivered and the actual time of delivery, then the method further comprises determining a reason for the difference so as to produce first analysis result data. 
     
     
         13 . The method for delivering goods according to  claim 12 , wherein producing the first analysis data further comprises analyzing one or more weighted factors employed in making the estimation of when the consumer selected at least one good to be purchased will be delivered. 
     
     
         14 . The method for delivering goods according to  claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises employing the first analysis result data to re-weight at least one of the one or more weighted factors. 
     
     
         15 . A method of offering goods for sale to a consumer via an online community based goods marketplace, the method comprising:
 providing, from a server computer, at a display of a first client computing device, a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface for producing, at the display, a shopping dashboard, the shopping dashboard being configured for receiving a search query pertaining to type of one or more goods for sale and/or one or more types of community based goods producers offering the goods for sale at the community based goods marketplace;   receiving, at the server computer, a choice of one or more types of goods for sale and/or one or more types of community based goods producers, and a geographical locator of the consumer;   accessing, by the server computer in response to the choice by the consumer, a database associated with the server computer, the database for storing data on the one or more types of goods for sale and data on the community based goods producers associated with the online community based goods marketplace;   retrieving from the database, by the server computer, in response to the choice of the consumer and the geographic locator, one or more images from the database, the one or more images corresponding to the choice of one or more types of goods for sale and/or selected one or more types of community based goods producers, the retrieving of the images being limited by the geographical locator;   transmitting, by the server computer, for display via the shopping dashboard presented at the graphical user interface of the first client computing device, the one or more retrieved images, the one or more retrieved images being presented in a streaming loop at the shopping dashboard.   
     
     
         16 . The method for offering goods for sale according to  claim 15 , wherein the method comprises retrieving the one or more images and/or a description pertaining to the one or more images from a website of one or more community based producers, and uploading retrieved images and/or description to the database. 
     
     
         17 . The method for offering goods for sale according to  claim 15 , further comprising receiving at the server computer, from at least one consumer, a selection of at least one good for sale and one community based goods producer offering the at least one selected good for sale, and in response to receiving the selection of the at least one good for sale and the one community based goods producer, transmitting an order to the selected community based good producer, the order including order data pertaining to the selection of the at least one good. 
     
     
         18 . The method for offering goods for sale according to  claim 17 , further comprising receiving at the server computer, from the one community based goods producer selected, in response to receiving the order data, selected good availability data, the selected good availability data including an indication of the selected good being available for purchase or not available for purchase. 
     
     
         19 . The method for offering goods for sale according to  claim 18 , wherein if the selected good is available for purchase, the method further comprises generating delivery route data, the delivery route data including a delivery route between a geolocation for the selected community based good producer and the geographical location for the consumer, and based on the delivery route data, further generating an estimated time by which the consumer will receive the selected good once purchased. 
     
     
         20 . The method for offering goods for sale according to  claim 19 , further comprising transmitting to the display of the first client computing device of the at least one consumer, the good availability data and the estimated by which the consumer will receive the selected good once purchased.