System and method of facilitating delivery of goods to a customer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11144866-B2
Application number	US-201816001828-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2018
Priority date	Jun 6, 2018
Publication date	Oct 12, 2021
Grant date	Oct 12, 2021

Abstract

Methods and systems for facilitating delivery of goods from a retail location to a customer are disclosed. In one method, a request is received from a customer user which includes an order for goods to be delivered from a retail store. One or more delivery users within a predefined geographic area shared with a location of the customer user are identified. A delivery user agrees to pick up the customer's order and deliver the requested goods to the customer's home. Confirmation messages are automatically sent and received when the delivery user picks up the customer's order and again when the order is delivered to the customer. The delivery user can earn rewards or payments upon completion of successful delivery.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of delivering goods from a retailer to a customer, the method comprising:
enrolling a plurality of customer users and a plurality of delivery users into a delivery network of a retail organization, the retail organization including a plurality of retail locations serviced by the delivery network, and the delivery network being established based on a geographic area;
validating the plurality of customer users and the plurality of delivery users to confirm the customer users and delivery users are within the geographic area;
vetting each of the plurality of delivery users;
receiving, at a computing system, a request from a customer user computing device at a first geographic location within the geographic area, the request comprising an order for delivery of goods from the retailer to an address of a customer user associated with the customer user computing device within a requested time frame, the customer user being among the plurality of customer users;
allocating the order to a retail location from among the plurality of retail locations based on availability of requested goods at the retail location and proximity of the retail location to the first geographic location;
receiving, from a delivery user computing device, a notification from at least one delivery user indicating that the at least one delivery user is currently at the retail location or will be traveling to the retail location within a predetermined amount of time, wherein the at least one delivery user has his or her own goods to pick up at the retail location;
sending information regarding the order to the delivery user computing device based on the notification from the at least one delivery user indicating that the at least one delivery user is currently at the retail location or will be traveling to the retail location, and further based on the proximity between the first geographic location and a second geographic location, wherein the second geographic location is an address of the at least one delivery user associated with the delivery user computing device, the delivery user computing device being associated with one of the plurality of vetted delivery users in the delivery network, and the order information including a map of the first geographic location and the second geographic location;
receiving, at the computing system, a notification message from the delivery user computing device indicating that the at least one delivery user will deliver the goods from the retail location to the address of the customer user after the at least one delivery user has picked up his or her own goods from the retail location;
providing instructions to one or more employees at the retail location to prepare the requested order for pick up;
sending a notification message to the delivery user computing device when the order is ready for pickup at the retail location;
confirming the identity of the at least one delivery user at the time of pickup;
receiving, at the computing system, a delivery confirmation message from at least one of the customer user computing device and the delivery user computing device; and
based on receiving the delivery confirmation message, sending a reward to the at least one delivery user.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a barcode scan from a point of sale device to confirm which order the delivery user is picking up from the retail location and receiving a matching barcode scan from the point of sale device that has scanned a barcode on a prepared order.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving ratings of the transaction from one or more of the customer user computing device and the delivery user computing device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reward is delivered electronically to the delivery user computing device and is in the form of one or more of store credit, a coupon, a payment, a discount, and points.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising contacting contract delivery services if no delivery users are available to deliver the order within the requested timeframe.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein vetting delivery users comprises:
receiving the delivery user's personal information from the delivery user computing device, the personal information comprising a name, an address, driver's license information, vehicle insurance information, and date of birth of the delivery user;
confirming validity of the delivery user's personal information;
conducting a background check of the delivery user; and
based upon the at least one delivery user passing the background check, sending a message to the delivery user computing device notifying the at least one delivery user of successful completion of vetting.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending notifications in real time to the customer user when the computing system receives one or more of the notification message, the pickup confirmation message, and the delivery confirmation message.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the confirmation messages are recorded in a blockchain ledger.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting at least one delivery user computing device to present the order information to, the at least one delivery user computing device being selected based on receiving an indication from the least one delivery user computing device that a delivery user associated with the at least one delivery user computing device will be traveling to the second geographic location, wherein the second geographic location is located within a predefined distance of the first geographic location.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting at least one delivery user computing device to present the order information to, the at least one delivery user computing device being selected based on receiving an indication from the least one delivery user computing device that a delivery user associated with the at least one delivery user computing device will be traveling to the retail location.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting at least one delivery user computing device to present the order information to, the at least one delivery user computing device being selected based on the at least one delivery user computing device being within a predefined distance of the retail location.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting at least one delivery user computing device to present the order information to, the at least one delivery user computing device being selected based on the at least one delivery user computing device being within a predefined distance of the first geographic location.

13. A delivery facilitation system useable to coordinate deliveries of goods from a retailer to a customer user, the delivery facilitation system comprising:
a delivery facilitation server including a processor and a memory communicatively connected to the processor, the memory comprising:
a user validation engine configured to receive user information, validate user locations within a geographic area, enroll customer users and delivery users in a delivery network based on a geographic area, and vet users;
a request management engine configured to:
receive requests from customer user computing devices, each request comprising an order for delivery of goods from a retailer to a first geographic location within the geographic area,
allocate requests to one of a plurality of retail locations based on proximity to the first geographic location and availability of requested goods,
receive, from a delivery user computing device, a notification from at lea

Assignees

• Target Brands Inc

Inventors

• Swartz Rebecca
• Srinivasan Aarthi
• Neumann James

Classifications

• G06Q50/26

  Government or public services (business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40) · CPC title

• G06Q20/322

  Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices] · CPC title

• G06Q10/083 Primary

  Shipping · CPC title

• G06Q20/12

  specially adapted for electronic shopping systems · CPC title

• G06Q20/3224

  Transactions dependent on location of M-devices · CPC title