System and method of managing a buy option

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10332170-B2
Application number	US-201615018939-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 9, 2016
Priority date	Mar 31, 2014
Publication date	Jun 25, 2019
Grant date	Jun 25, 2019

Abstract

Disclosed herein are methods for providing a buy option to social networking communications. The method includes communicating with a social networking site that posts text, images and/or videos from posting entities to receiving entities. The posting can have data that points to a product database. The data is processed to determine whether there is a sale-related intent with the posting. The data is used to access a database of products for sale from a merchant. When the sale-related intent applies, the system transmits the posting through the social networking site with a buy button associated with the transmission such that a recipient can easily purchase a product.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
submitting, by a posting entity, at least one of text, an image or a video through a social network to yield a posting, and wherein the social network:
determines, using data associated with the posting, whether there is a product within a database of products for sale from the posting entity to yield a determination;
when the determination indicates that there is no reference to the product in the database of products, the social network:
transmits the posting through the social network to receiving entities without an option to buy; and

when the determination indicates that the posting references the product in the database of products, and thus suggests a sale-related intent, the social network:
transmits the posting through the social network with a buy option for the product; and
receives data that a user of the social network interacted the buy option to yield a purchase interaction, wherein a purchase of the product is managed within the social network; and

processing, by the posting entity, a delivery of the product based on the purchase interaction.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the posting entity is a merchant.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the social network processes a payment for the product and notifies the posting entity of the purchase via an application programming interface.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the posting entity receives, from the social network, payment data as a result of the social network managing the payment for the product.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the social network determines whether the posting is associated with the product in the database of products from the posting entity via an application programming interface between the social network and the database of products.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the posting comprises an image of the product.

7. A system comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable storage device storing instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
submitting, by a posting entity, of at least one of text, an image or a video through a social network to yield a posting, and wherein the social network:
determines, using data associated with the posting, whether there is a product within a database of products for sale from the posting entity to yield a determination;
when the determination indicates that there is no reference to the product in the database of products:
transmits the posting through the social network to receiving entities without an option to buy; and

when the determination indicates that the posting references the product in the database of products, and thus indicating a sale-related intent:
transmits the posting through the social network with a buy option; and
receives data that a user of the social network interacted the buy option to yield a purchase interaction, wherein a purchase of the products is processed within the social network; and

processing, by the posting entity, a delivery of the product based on the purchase interaction.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the posting entity is a merchant.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the social network processes a payment for the product and notifies the posting entity of the purchase via an application programming interface.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the posting entity receives, from the social network, payment data after the social network processes the payment for the product.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the social network determines whether the posting is associated with the product in the database of products from the posting entity via an application programming interface between the social network and the database of products.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the posting comprises an image of the product.

13. A computer-readable storage device storing instructions, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
submitting, by a posting entity, of at least one of text, an image or a video through a social network to yield a posting, and wherein the social network:
determines, using data associated with the posting, whether there is a product within a database of products for sale from the posting entity to yield a determination;
when the determination indicates that there is no reference to the product in the database of products, the social network:
transmits the posting through the social network to receiving entities without an option to buy; and

when the determination indicates that the posting references the product in the database of products, and thus indicating a sale-related intent, the social network:
transmits the posting through the social network with a buy option; and the social network receives data that a user of, the social network interacted the buy option to yield a purchase interaction, wherein a purchase of the product is processed within the social network; and

processing, by the posting entity, a delivery of the product based on the purchase of the product.

14. The computer-readable storage device of claim 13 , wherein the posting entity is a merchant.

15. The computer-readable storage device of claim 13 , wherein the social network processes a payment for the product and notifies the posting entity of the purchase via an application programming interface.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the posting entity receives from the social network, payment data after the social network manages the payment for the product.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 13 , wherein the social network determines whether the posting is associated with the product in the database of products from the posting entity via an application programming interface between the social network and the database of products.

18. A method comprising:
presenting an input field on a user interface of a generalized search entity, wherein the generalized search entity processes data using a generalized search engine that indexes and searches both merchant sites and non-merchant sites;
receiving user input in the input field, wherein the user input comprises a text-based query;
correlating the text-based query against a product database of products for sale from merchants to yield a correlation;
determining, based on the correlation, that the user input is associated with one of a search intent and a purchase intent to yield a determination; and
when the determination indicates the search intent:
presenting a search result comprising a non-merchant site;
receiving a search interaction associated with the non-merchant site; and
transitioning to the non-merchant site; and

when the determination indicates the purchase intent:
presenting a purchase-related search result comprising a buy option associated with the user input, wherein the purchase-related search result is configured such that when a user interacts with the purchase-related search result and confirms a purchase via interacting with the buy option, the generalized search engine participates in processing a purchase of an item; and
receiving an interaction associated with the purchase-related search result.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:
receiving an interaction with the buy option; and
managing the purchase of the item based on payment information stored at the generalized search entity, wherein delivery of the item is handled via a merchant site s

Assignees

• Monticello Entpr Llc

Inventors

• Isaacson Thomas M
• Durham Ryan C

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06F18/24

  Classification techniques · CPC title

• G06Q30/0635

  replenishment orders; recurring orders · CPC title

• G06Q30/0623

  by investigating goods or services · CPC title

• G06Q30/0633

  Managing shopping lists, e.g. compiling or processing purchase lists (shipping orders G06Q10/083; order filling G06Q10/087) · CPC title