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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

This application generally relates to online transactions, and in particular, distributed gifting transactions that are conducted on a third-party system using merchant website content.

Description of the Related Art

Gifts are given for a variety of holidays and special occasions. They are an expression of our appreciation and gratitude towards friends, family, acquaintances, or existing or prospective customers. However, often times finding the right present and sending it to the recipient on time can be a daunting enterprise. The advent of modern internet technology has provided a great convenience. Online stores offer the alternative solution of shopping conveniently from any location and time by browsing electronic catalogues on a personal computer or mobile device.

Online stores operate one or more online web sites (also referred to as electronic storefronts or e-commerce sites) accessed via the Internet and the World-Wide Web via web browser. The web sites host various web pages via which an online store is enabled to showcase their goods, accept payments, and collect delivery information. Even though online shopping has added the convenience of shopping from home or other places where an internet connection is available, and may offer a wider selection and/or better prices, buying gifts online is still not a very convenient experience.

Using existing e-commerce methods, the most straightforward way to purchase a gift and convey the gift to a recipient is to buy one or more gift items online as a regular purchase and have the item(s) shipped directly to the gift recipient's home address or any other address of the recipient, such as an office address, if known to the giver. Many shopping cart/checkout schemes on online store web sites allow a purchase to be shipped to a different shipping address than the purchaser's billing address. In this case the gift giver needs to accurately input the shipping information to ensure it is shipped to the correct address. Entry of an errant address may either cause the item to be shipped to the wrong address, or cause a delay if it is determined by either the store or the shipper that the entered address does not actually exist. It also is often advisable to inform the gift recipient that a gift is being sent in order to coordinate receipt of the delivery. For example, the recipient may be out of town, and would not be available to receive a shipment that might be left on the recipient's doorstep which would be at risk of being stolen.

Another deficiency of current e-commerce methods include the problem of knowing a correct size or color and style preference of a gift recipient for gift items such as clothing. Asking the gift recipient for such details may sometimes be impractical and ruins the surprise nature of the gift. Picking a wrong size or the gift recipient preferring a different color or style, etc., would then require the recipient going through the trouble of shipping the product back for a replacement, again ruining the gift giving experience.

Existing e-commerce platforms are limited to sending single gift items, thus forcing a giver who wants to give multiple gifts to purchase them in separate transactions, and forcing the recipient to review and accept them in multiple transactions.

There is thus a need for an online shopping tool that offers an enhanced gifting experience.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system for importing gift transaction functions to a merchant website from a third-party transaction system. According to one embodiment, the system comprises a file server configured to receive merchant and product data from a merchant server, a database that stores the received merchant and product data, a data backend communicatively coupled to the database, the data backend managing access and retrieval of the merchant and product data, a sender interface coupled to the data backend that communicates with a sender client device to create a gift transaction from a virtual shopping bag, the virtual shopping bag including a product assortment defined by the sender client device based on the merchant and product data, a recipient interface coupled to the data backend that communicates with a recipient client device to receive a selection from the product assortment made by the recipient, and a widget interface that interfaces with a website integration component that is embedded on a merchant website, the website integration component adds the virtual shopping bag to the merchant website and imports a feature to create the gift transaction with the virtual shopping bag.

The data backend may be further configured to create payment links that direct the sender client device to the merchant server for checkout and payment of the gift transaction based on the selection from the product assortment. The system may further include a payment system coupled to the data backend, wherein the payment system is configured to handle the checkout of the gift transaction. The payment system may include an inventory system configured to check availability of products in the gift transaction based on the merchant and product data. The system may further include an analytics interface coupled to the data backend, the analytics interface configured to allow the merchant server to access user, transaction, and system performance data, and user behaviors associated with the sender client device and the recipient client device.

The system may also include a peer-to-peer sharing interface configured to communicate the gift transaction between the sender client device and the recipient client device. The peer-to-peer sharing interface may transmit the gift transaction over at least one of email, text message, and social network communications. The gift transaction may include an option that allows a user of the recipient client device to provide a selection selected from the group consisting of: color, style, shape, configuration, and size of a product from the product assortment. The virtual shopping bag may be created on the merchant website to store the product assortment. In one embodiment, the gift transaction includes a free product added to the product assortment in the virtual shopping bag by the merchant server. The sender interface may be configured to save the virtual shopping bag and transfer the shopping bag to additional senders to add products to the virtual shopping bag. In another embodiment, the gift transaction may be re-designated to another recipient by the recipient client device.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a system for generating customer care gifts. According to one embodiment, the system comprises a processor and a memory having executable instructions stored thereon that when executed by the processor cause the processor to receive a selection of a gift transaction value, generate a gift transaction based on the gift transaction value and customer information retrieved from a data source, transmit a gift notification to a customer entity, the gift notification including a link to redeem the gift transaction by directing a client device associated with the customer entity to the processor, generate gift options based on the gift transaction value, receive selection from the gift options, receive delivery details to redeem the gift transaction with the selection from the gift options, and generate an order based on the selection from the gift options and the delivery details.

The customer information may include name, address, email address, and phone number. The customer information may be loaded from customer relationship manager software. The gift transaction value may include a product assortment or a monetary amount. The selection from the gift option may include a selection selected from the group consisting of: preferred size, color, shape, configuration, and style. In one embodiment, the selection from the gift option includes a swap for a different product. In another embodiment, the processor re-designates the gift transaction to another recipient based on an instruction from the customer entity. The processor may further generate a service feedback of product preferences.

