One of the many conveniences of electronic commerce, in particular on-line shopping, is immediate confirmation that a desired item is, or is not, immediately available from stock. To provide this information, an on-line merchant uses data processing equipment to keep inventory records. Each time a unit of a particular item is sold, the number of that item remaining in inventory is reduced in the inventory record.
When an on-line shopper requests or orders an item from the on-line merchant, for example by including the item in an electronic shopping cart, the merchant's data processing system checks the inventory record concerning that item. If the inventory record shows that the item is not in stock, the on-line shopper is informed, and the order is rejected, or accepted with the stipulation that shipping of the item will be delayed; if the inventory record shows that the item is in stock, the order is accepted unconditionally.
On occasion, an on-line merchant may accept an order that cannot be filled because the stock of the item is depleted, despite an incorrect inventory record showing otherwise. When this happens, the on-line shopper may be dissatisfied by the shopping experience. So, not only is the merchant unable to profit from selling the particular item ordered by the on-line shopper, the merchant also risks offending a customer. Consequently, it is important that an item in fact be in stock when the merchant accepts an on-line order.
Tracking stock and providing accurate reports of item availability become significantly more difficult when a merchant provides both on-line and traditional in-person shopping. Enterprises of this kind have recently become known as “click and mortar,” where “click” suggests on-line shopping where a shopper uses a computer mouse to put an item into an electronic shopping cart, and “mortar” suggests traditional in-person shopping where a shopper puts an item into a physical shopping cart or otherwise takes physical charge of the item before checkout.
A problem arises when an in-person shopper engages in a prolonged shopping session. The in-person shopper may remove an item from stock, put the item in his or her shopping cart, and then continue shopping for quite some time. When the in-person shopper finally checks out, the inventory record concerning the selected item is brought up to date. In the meantime, however, the inventory record is incorrect, and may sometimes show that an item is available when in fact the last unit of the item has been taken from stock and put into a physical shopping cart by an in-person shopper.
For the duration of the in-person shopping session, which in practice may easily reach thirty minutes, an on-line shopper may place an order for the same item held by an in-person shopper, and be assured by the merchant that the item is available from stock. Only too late the merchant finds that the item ordered by the on-line shopper is in fact not available, and must inform the on-line shopper that the order cannot be filled after all.
When this happens, the on-line shopper may become dissatisfied with the merchant and with on-line shopping in general. Consequently, there is a need for a way of determining whether an item offered for sale to both on-line and in-person shoppers is in stock, rather than in the physical shopping cart of an in-person shopper, when a merchant accepts an on-line order for that item, so that a merchant may correctly advise the on-line shopper regarding the availability of the item from stock.