WO2001097144A1

WO2001097144A1 - Method and apparatus for sale and delivery of goods to consumers

Info

Publication number: WO2001097144A1
Application number: PCT/US2001/019285
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gregory M. Stuppler; Victor Svilik
Original assignee: Stuppler Gregory M; Victor Svilik
Priority date: 2000-06-14
Filing date: 2001-06-14
Publication date: 2001-12-20
Also published as: AU2001269861A1

Abstract

A method and apparatus for sale and delivery of goods to consumers is presented. The apparatus allows consumers to place orders for goods remotely, select the type and quality of goods, the location to which the goods should be delivered and the time (8) of delivery. The disclosed method allows consumers to select desired goods and have them delivered to consumers' vehicles (14) at the time convenient for both the vendor and the consumer thereby obviating the need for long waiting times by consumers and increasing the efficiency in the distribution chain.

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

Title of the Invention

Method and Apparatus for Sale and Delivery of Goods to Consumers

Method and System for Sale and Delivery of Goods to Customers

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed to the field of electronic commerce ("E- commerce"). More specifically, the invention relates to methods and systems for conducting E- commerce in a multiple-vendor and multiple-consumer environment, such as via the telephone or an electronic portal on the World Wide Web ("the Internet"). Yet more specifically, the invention relates to methods and systems for the sale and delivery of goods and services to consumers' locations. 2. Description of Prior Art

Electronic shopping systems are known in the art. Retailers and manufacturers ("e-tailers") utilize the Internet web sites as a means for allowing consumers to select goods and services offered by the owner of a web site, place and pay for orders for such goods and services, specify delivery options, etc. Once an order is placed, the e-tailer utilizes either a third-party distribution mechanism (e.g., Federal Express, United Parcel Service, the U.S. Postal Service) or, the e-tailer's own delivery service to deliver the ordered goods to the buyer. Such expedited delivery of purchased goods and/or services causes additional expenses borne by either the consumer or the e-tailer. The convenience, as well as the price benefits, associated with purchasing goods and services on-line have resulted in explosive growth in e-commerce. In 1998, 31 million people worldwide participated in e-commerce. This number is expected to grow to 183 million people by 2003. 183 million people represents only 36% of on-line users. Growth in e-commerce is driven by cost savings provided to consumers both in terms of product pricing and the opportunity cost associated with physically going to a store to browse or purchase goods. The latter has particular significance in the United States where the average worker spends an ever increasing number of hours per week on the job. This demographic trend results in leisure time gaining a premium value for consumers. Accordingly, certain people may wish to reduce the toll on their leisure time spent shopping and running errands. For example, an individual who works over 40 hours per week would rather spend his/her day off at a sporting event or participating in an activity with a family member instead of spending it at the local mall trying to find the best price for a new personal computer. The Internet allows individuals to shop without leaving the home or office. Thus, the Internet preserves leisure time. In addition, the Internet affords vastly improved tracking and analyzing capabilities to improve the electronic shopping experience.

The emergence of the on-line retail channel has divided retailers into three distinct segments. First, there are "pure-play e-tailers". These are retailers who do not have physical stores (i.e., they do not have a "bricks and mortar" location) where consumers can shop; rather consumers can only access them on-line. These e-tailers enjoy savings b their cost structure because they do not have the burden of the expenses associated with maintaining physical retail locations. Second, there are e-tailers who maintain traditional physical retail locations and have chosen to utilize the Internet as an additional channel for sales. These e-tailers have created an Internet presence for themselves in part as a defensive maneuver against pure-play e-tailers. However, in staking out a share of the Internet market, they also risk canniba-izing the revenues generated by their physical retail locations. Finally, there are retailers who have no presence on the Internet. These retailers are not on-line for various reasons - the products they sell are not conducive to long delivery times, their management is not "e-sawy," their customers are not e-sawy, they do not have the resources, etc.

An example of e-tailers is Homegrocer.com, an Internet grocery shopping and delivery service. The company stocks the groceries in its own facility and delivers to customers the orders placed by the customers via the Internet. The company delivers directly to customers' homes with its own fleet of temperature-controlled custom-made vehicles. When such a delivery is made, the customer has to be at home to accept the order. Because most customers work during the day, most orders require that the delivery be made during several hours in the late afternoon and early evening. That fact creates a great demand for the delivery fleet during a short window of time, while the rest of the day the delivery fleet remains underutilized. In addition, deliveries to individual customers' locations create a significant additional expense in terms of both labor and equipment cost.

Services provided by Ste-unline.com resolve the problem with the customer having to be at home at the time of delivery. Streamline.com installs a refrigerator/freezer unit in a customer's garage. Such unit is equipped with a keypad entry system. Thus, the delivery is made directly to such refrigerator/freezer unit. While delivery can be made at any time and the customer no longer has to be at home to accept delivery, this method fails to address the expenses associated with the cost of delivery — the equipment and labor costs. To the contrary, the necessity to install individual refiigerator/freezer units in customer garages causes additional labor and equipment costs. At the same, this method does not reduce the costs associated with individual deliveries. Another shortcoming of this method is the limitation imposed by the space requirements to install the refrigerator/freezer units. This limitation automatically excludes the potential customers whose dwellings do not have garages or whose garages have no room for the refrigerator/freezer unit. Yet another problem with this method is a potential discomfort or even security concerns that the customers may have with allowing strangers unattended access to their houses. Homeruns.com is another service that provides delivery of groceries and other goods and/or services ordered by customers on-line. Its regular home delivery service is not significantly different from the service provided by Homegrocer.com. In addition, Homeruns.com offers a service called HomeRuns Online Worksite Delivery program. Under this program, on some days selected by the employer, HomeRuns delivers employees' orders to the employer's parking lot. Then, employees pick up their orders on the way home. The employees have about 2 hours to pick up their orders. While this method allows reduced delivery costs, the necessity to deliver the orders during the evening hours does not address the problem of an increased demand on the delivery fleet during a narrow window of time in the evening. Thus, the underutilization of the fleet the rest of the day remains to be a problem. In addition, under this method, employees' orders can be delivered only during the time scheduled by the employer, which may make this service inconvenient for some of the employees.

Webvan and Peapod are other services that operate under business models similar to that ofHomegrocer.com.

PaxZone is a home package delivery service that allows the consumer to order the goods and services and have them delivered to a participating location (a store, coffee shop, or any other local business) close to the consumer's house. Upon the completion of the delivery, the company notifies the consumer and the consumer picks up the package on the way home. This method provides for a delivery to locations that have long business hours. Thus, the delivery fleet may be utilized more efficiently. At the same time, however, the PaxZone method requires the consumer to make an extra trip to pick up the ordered goods. In addition, this method involves a third party, the business accepting delivery, which creates additional operational, security, logistical, reliability and convenience concerns.

As it is clear from the foregoing description of the existing services, despite the growth in e-commerce, the delivery channel is still characterized by significant deficiencies. While the Internet allows consumers to benefit from savings in the opportunity costs when purchasing goods and services, consumers or retailers must contend with the costs associated with the delivery of those goods. Those costs take two forms. Primarily, because consumers must be willing to wait at least 24 hours for delivery in order to receive the goods ordered on-line, immediate satisfaction of the buying impulse is delayed. In addition, in the rare instances where delivery within several hours is possible, consumers are often required to wait in their homes and offices during a "window" of time within which their goods will arrive. Finally, the delivery costs for goods ordered on-line are often prohibitive if the aggregate price of the goods ordered is below a certain level. For example, if a consumer orders a paperback book on-line for $5.00 from an e-tailer, he or she may enjoy a large relative savings in the price of the book. The book may sell for $5.95 at a physical retailer; thus the on-line buyer enjoys a savings of almost 16%. However, once the shipping charge of $5 - $15, depending on the speed of delivery, is factored in, there is a strong disincentive towards purchasing on-line unless the purchase is of significant size. As such, there is currently no method allowing e-tailers to significantly reduce the opportunity costs associated with ordering on-line.

Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide an improved method and system for delivery of consumers' remotely-placed orders to a convenient consumer location. Another object of this invention is to eliminate the security concerns created by unattended access to consumers' residences.

It is another object of this invention to reduce the labor and equipment costs necessary for the delivery of consumers' remotely-placed orders to convenient consumer locations.

It is still another object of this invention to increase the efficiency and utilization of the personnel and equipment involved in the delivery of the remotely-placed consumers' orders. It is yet another object of this invention to provide a method and system for delivery of remotely-placed orders, which method and system are more flexible and convenient for the consumer.

3. Summary of the Invention A by-product of the demographic, technological and economic changes in the modern U.S. society, is the prevailing phenomenon of consumers' automobiles sitting idle for increasingly long periods of time when the consumers are at work or otherwise not in need of their cars. Thus, as large numbers of consumers park their cars for extended periods of time at work or at the points of mass transportation, the number of secure, controlled, well staffed and maintained parking facilities has grown. The aggregation of very large numbers of consumers' automobiles at such parking facilities during relatively long periods of time presents a convenient opportunity for the efficient delivery of goods and services to such cars.

To address the shortcomings of the existing methods and systems, the present invention provides a method and system which can be used by retailers and e-tailers to sell and deliver goods and services to consumers while substantially reducing the costs associated with the delivery process. The said reduction in the costs is achieved through the delivery of ordered goods to consumers' cars parked in parking facilities during extended periods of time when such consumers are not in need of their cars.

In accordance with one aspect of this invention, a consumer places an order for goods or services remotely through the telephone, fax or computer. The order is then filled and delivered to a consumer's car at a parking location during the time when the consumer is at work or otherwise not using his/her car.

The suggested system and method afford the e-tailer an opportunity to fill and deliver consumers' orders during the window of time which can be as long as 9 hours or longer. Thus, this invention provides for a higher utilization of the delivery personnel and equipment, obviates the necessity to wait for consumers to pick up their orders, allows for deliveries at centralized locations, does not require the consumers to make an extra trip to pick up their orders, eliminates the security concerns associated with the unattended access of the delivery personnel to consumers' residences, may require no additional equipment, and affords the services to a broader segment of potential consumers. 4. Detailed Descriptjς.η pf e Preferred Embodiments An inventive method and system are disclosed whereby a consumer may review a listing of participating parking facilities and their locations in a particular locality, select the desired parking facility, review a listing of participating retailers in a particular locality and the products available for sale and delivery by those retailers, submit the relevant customer, payment, automobile, automobile access, and parking facility information, submit an order to purchase and pay for goods or services, receive from the retailer the delivery information. The retailer then prepares and delivers the order to the location of the consumer's vehicle.

In accordance with this invention, a consumer may place an order either via the telephone, fax, computer or any other device or method allowing remote communication.

Fig. 1 shows a flow chart of the method steps of one embodiment of the present invention. The consumer first accesses the service information interface (1). An example of such interface may be a page on an Internet web site. Here, the consumer reviews the listing of the participating parking facilities (2) and picks a parking facility where the consumer plans to leave his/her vehicle for an extended period of time (3). Next, the consumer, reviews the list of participating retailers (4) and selects a retailer from whom the consumer wants to order goods or services (5). In the next step, the consumer selects the types and quantities of goods and services desired from this retailer (6). Then, the consumer may want to select another retailer (7). If the consumer selects another retailer, then steps 4 through 7 are repeated. If no additional retailer is selected, then the consumer may select the delivery day and time (8). Next, the consumer specifies the information necessary for accessing the consumer's vehicle (9), payment method (10), and confirms the order (11). The order is then received (12) and prepared for delivery (13) by the service provider. The service provider then delivers the order to the consumer's car (14) and places it in the car (15). Later, the consumer drives the delivered order home (16).

The present invention may be practiced in a variety of different ways. Step one of the method described above may be implemented through a telephone, fax or a wireless communication system, which are well known in the art. In one embodiment of the present invention, the consumer may not be allowed to select a participating retailer, which is described above as steps 4 and 5. In that case, the service provider will select a retailer, while the consumer specifies the types and quantities of goods desired.

The service provider may also be a retailer. In that case, when the consumer's order is received, the service provider may prepare the order without relying on others' services. Similarly, the delivery may be sub-contracted to a third party or executed by the service provider. When the order is delivered to the parking location of the consumer's automobile, the delivery personnel may be afforded access to the consumer's automobile. In that case the order is placed in the consumer's automobile. Alternatively, if no access to the consumer's automobile is provided, the order may be placed in a storage either located next to each of the consumers' automobiles or at a centralized parking facility storage. The consumer may then retrieve his or her order at a convenient time. Alternatively, at the time of departure, employee of the service provider or the parking facility may retrieve the order for the consumer. Said employees will be notified of the consumer's impending departure, either at the time of payment for parking or via an electronic mechanism, and the order will be readied and placed in the consumer's trunk just prior to existing from the lot. In another embodiment of this invention, a system for automated access to the consumer's automobile is provided. When placing an order, the consumer may specify that the order be placed directly in the consumer's automobile. In that case, the consumer will specify the method of accessing the automobile. The consumer may either leave the keys with the parking attendant or have a code lock installed on the automobile and specify the code of such lock. In the event that the consumer specifies the code, such code may be made known to the delivery personnel or, alternatively, transmitted to a memory device on board of the delivery vehicle. Then at the time of the delivery, the delivery personnel will be able either to use the code to access the consumer's vehicle or to initiate a transmission of the code from the on-board computer to the consumer's car, whereby the car will be unlocked and the order delivery accomplished. Such transmission may be implemented through a number of technical devices well known in the art. For example, an infrared transmission from the delivery vehicle on-board computer to the customer's vehicle may be utilized. Alternatively, a radio frequency signal may be used to transmit the code.

In another embodiment of this invention, an automated system for locating a customer's automobile in the parking facility is provided. In accordance with this embodiment, the customer's automobile is equipped with a transmitter, which is capable of broadcasting a preprogrammed code at a very low energy level. When the customer places an order, he or she is asked to submit the code for the locator system. The code submitted by the customer is then transmitted to a device on-board of the delivery vehicle or a hand-held device carried by the delivery personnel. When the delivery vehicle enters the parking facility, the on-board or the hand-held device receives the signal transmitted by the device of the consumer's automobile thereby identifying the location of the consumer's automobile, which in turn simplifies the delivery procedure.

In another embodiment of this invention, a system for the return of orders via the service provider is provided. The customer may leave the order with an employee of the service provider or an employee of the parking facility or in a storage container located within the parking facility. Said order will be retrieved by the service provider and delivered back to the retailer who sourced the order or said retailer will retrieve the order directly. A customer will notify said retailer of his or her desire to return the product either via communication through the service provider's web site or via employees of the service provider or the parking facility who act as the service provider's representative at the parking facility. Upon completion of the return of the order, the customer's account will be credited.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for sale and delivery of goods to a consumer comprising the steps of: accepting an order from said consumer; preparing said order for delivery; delivering said prepared order to a location of said consumer's vehicle; and releasing said prepared order at said location of said consumer's vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said order is accepted from said consumer remotely.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising a step of placing said prepared order in the consumer's vehicle.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said order is accepted from said consumer through a computer-to-computer communication..

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said order is accepted from said consumer through a telephone voice communication.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein said order is accepted from said consumer through a telephone line digital communication.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein said order is accepted from said consumer through a wireless communication.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising a step of presenting said consumer with a plurality of allowed locations.

9. . The method of claim 8, further comprising a step of allowing said consumer to select one location from said plurality of allowed locations.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising a step of presenting said consumer with a plurality of available goods and services.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising a step of allowing said consumer to select desired goods from said plurality of available goods and services.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising a step of allowing said consumer to select a date and time for delivery of said desired goods.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising a step of allowing said consumer to specify a method of payment.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising a step of allowing said consumer to specify information necessary for accessing said consumer's vehicle.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said information necessary for accessing said consumer's vehicle comprises a specific location of said consumer vehicle key.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said information necessary for accessing said consumer's vehicle comprises said consumer vehicle lock punch-in code combination.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein said information necessary for accessing said consumer's vehicle comprises said consumer vehicle lock wireless transmission code.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising a step of entering said consumer vehicle lock wireless transmission code into a device capable of transmitting said consumer vehicle lock wireless transmission code.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising a step of confirming said consumer's order.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of preparing said consumer's order for delivery further comprises the steps of: distributing parts of said order to a plurality of sellers; allowing said plurality of sellers to fill said parts of said order; and collecting said parts of said order.

21. A system for sale and delivery of goods to a consumer, said system comprising: a consumer computer capable to communicate with a service provider computer; a service provider computer capable to communicate with said consumer computer; an interface allowing said consumer to place an order for delivery of goods; a device for transmitting consumer vehicle access-related information from said order; and a device capable of broadcasting said consumer vehicle access-related information to allow said service provider gain access to said consumer's vehicle.