Reusable shipping packages for electronic marketplace sellers
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorAnand Varadarajan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Techniques for improving the efficiency of an electronic marketplace are disclosed herein. In particular, methods for implementing reusable packaging in fulfillment of orders by participants who are both consumers and sellers in an electronic marketplace are described. The reusable packaging may be provided on a one-to-one basis as compared to a seller's pending outgoing orders and an order placed by the seller acting as a consumer to an electronic marketplace, on a one-to-N basis as compared to the seller's selling history, or may be based on a multi-modal assessment of the seller's past and pending orders and accommodate multiple representative orders. Reusable packaging may include a wide variety of containers and additional materials to aid a seller in its use.
Claims23
A computer-implemented method comprising:
- under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,
- receiving first information about a physical characteristic of a first item to be provided by a seller;
- receiving second information about a physical characteristic of a second item ordered by the seller;
- receiving historical data associated with other items previously provided by the seller;
- selecting a reusable packaging based at least in part on the second information and at least one of the first information or the historical data, the reusable packaging configured to accommodate the first item and the second item;
- providing an instruction to package the second item utilizing the selected reusable packaging;
- and
- providing an instruction to ship, to the seller, the second item packaged in the selected reusable packaging.
A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,
- receiving first information about a first item ordered by a seller;
- receiving second information about a second item to be provided by the seller;
- selecting a reusable packaging based at least in part on the first information and the second information, the reusable packaging configured to accommodate the first item and the second item;
- and
- enabling the first item to be shipped in the reusable packaging.
A system comprising:
- a data store configured to store computer-executable instructions;
- and
- a computing device in communication with the data store, the computing device, when executing the computer-executable instructions, configured to at least:
- in response to obtaining fulfillment order data and seller order data:
- select a reusable packaging based at least in part on the fulfillment order data and the seller order data, the reusable packaging configured to accommodate an item associated with the fulfillment order data and the seller order data;
- and
- enabling the item associated with the seller order data to be shipped in the reusable packaging.
A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to at least perform operations comprising:
- obtaining first order data from a first order placed by a consumer;
- obtaining representative order data, the representative order data being an aggregation of a plurality of second orders directed to one or more items fulfilled by a seller;
- selecting a reusable packaging based at least in part on the first order data and the representative order data;
- and
- enabling a particular second order of the plurality of second orders to be shipped in the reusable packaging.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.