Computer technologies for enabling smart shipping using QR codes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11182735-B2
Application number	US-201916573049-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 17, 2019
Priority date	Nov 20, 2018
Publication date	Nov 23, 2021
Grant date	Nov 23, 2021

Abstract

Provided herein are system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method and/or computer program product embodiments, and/or combinations and sub-combinations thereof, for using innovative computer technologies to enable smart shipping of items sold from sellers to buyers. An embodiment performs operations that include: predicting shipping information for shipping an item associated with a first user to a destination designated by a second user, including determining a category of the item to identify similar items from a historical database; storing at least some of the shipping information in databases of an Internet site; and generating a machine readable code associated with the item or the shipping information, wherein a shipper uses information from scanning the code to access and retrieve the shipping information from the databases of the site using an application programming interface (API) of the site, and wherein the shipper uses the retrieved shipping information to ship the item to the destination.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method for intelligent shipment of items, comprising:
predicting shipping information for shipping an item associated with a first user to a destination designated by a second user, including determining a category of the item to identify similar items from a historical database;
storing at least some of the shipping information in databases of an Internet site, wherein other of the shipping information is stored in a database of a shipper; and
generating a machine readable code associated with the item or the shipping information, wherein the shipper uses information from scanning the code to access and retrieve the shipping information from the databases of the Internet site using an application programming interface (API) of the site and to retrieve the other of the shipping information from the database of the shipper, wherein said other of the shipping information is not available to the first user to thereby enable an anonymous transaction, and wherein the shipper uses the retrieved shipping information and retrieved other of the shipping information to ship the item to the destination.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predicting comprises:
accessing actual shipping information from past listings in the historical database corresponding to the similar items; and
using at least some of the actual shipping information as the predicted shipping information for shipping the item to the destination.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the shipper provides feedback to the site pertaining to actual shipping of the item to the destination, wherein the feedback includes actual weight and dimensions of the item, an actual box size, and whether the item was hazardous, and wherein the method further comprises:
storing the feedback in the historical database in a past listing associated with the item.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein multiple items associated with the first seller are being shipped to multiple second sellers, the method further comprising:
predicting shipping information for shipping the multiple items to destinations indicated by the second sellers, including grouping items to a same second user, or to second users proximate to each other;
storing at least some of the shipping information of the multiple items in the databases of the site; and
generating a single machine readable code associated with all of the multiple items, wherein the shipper uses information from scanning the single code to access and retrieve the shipping information of the multiple items from the databases of the site, and wherein the shipper uses the retrieved shipping information of the multiple items to ship the multiple items to the destinations of the second sellers via a local shipping office for at least some of the grouped items.

5. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising:
receiving notification that the second user wishes to return the item to the first user;
accessing actual shipping information for shipping the item to a destination of the first user;
storing at least some of the actual shipping information in the databases of the site; and
generating a second machine readable code associated with the item or the actual shipping information, wherein the shipper uses information from scanning the second code to access and retrieve the actual shipping information from the databases of the site, and wherein the shipper uses the retrieved actual shipping information to ship the item to the destination of the first user.

6. A tangible computer-readable device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations for intelligent shipment of items, the operations comprising:
predicting shipping information for shipping an item associated with a first user to a destination designated by a second user, including determining a category of the item to identify similar items from a historical database;
storing at least some of the shipping information in databases of an Internet site; and
generating a machine readable code associated with the item or the shipping information, wherein a shipper uses information from scanning the code to access and retrieve the shipping information from the databases of the site using an application programming interface (API) of the site, and wherein the shipper uses the retrieved shipping information to ship the item to the destination.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the predicting comprises:
accessing actual shipping information from past listings in the historical database corresponding to the similar items; and
using at least some of the actual shipping information as the predicted shipping information for shipping the item to the destination.

8. The device of claim 6 , wherein the shipper provides feedback to the site pertaining to actual shipping of the item to the destination, wherein the feedback includes actual weight and dimensions of the item, an actual box size, and whether the item was hazardous, and wherein the operations further comprise:
storing the feedback in the historical database in a past listing associated with the item.

9. The device of claim 6 , wherein multiple items associated with the first seller are being shipped to multiple second sellers, the operations further comprising:
predicting shipping information for shipping the multiple items to destinations indicated by the second sellers, including grouping items to a same second user, or to second users proximate to each other;
storing at least some of the shipping information of the multiple items in the databases of the site; and
generating a single machine readable code associated with all of the multiple items, wherein the shipper uses information from scanning the single code to access and retrieve the shipping information of the multiple items from the databases of the site, and wherein the shipper uses the retrieved shipping information of the multiple items to ship the multiple items to the destinations of the second sellers via a local shipping office for at least some of the grouped items.

10. The device of claim 6 , the operations further comprising:
receiving notification that the second user wishes to return the item to the first user;
accessing actual shipping information for shipping the item to a destination of the first user;
storing at least some of the actual shipping information in the databases of the site; and
generating a second machine readable code associated with the item or the actual shipping information, wherein the shipper uses information from scanning the second code to access and retrieve the actual shipping information from the databases of the site, and wherein the shipper uses the retrieved actual shipping information to ship the item to the destination of the first user.

11. A system for intelligent shipment of items, comprising:
a memory; and
at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to perform operations comprising:
predicting shipping information for shipping an item associated with a first user to a destination designated by a second user, including determining a category of the item to identify similar items from a historical database;
storing at least some of the shipping information in databases of an Internet site, wherein other of the shipping information is stored in a database of a shipper; and
generating a machine readable code associated with the item or the shipping information, wherein the shipper uses information from scanning the code to access and retrieve the shipping information from the databases of the Internet site using an ap

Assignees

• Mercari Inc

Inventors

• Ellis Brad
• Okabayashi Dai
• Clark Robin
• Isogawa Tadasu

Classifications

• G06Q10/0838 Primary

  Historical data · CPC title

• G06K7/1417

  2D bar codes · CPC title