Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for controlling delivery of digital products to users

A method for invoking delivery of a digital product from a computer of a vendor to a computer of a customer, while maintaining customer anonymity with respect to the vendor, comprising, with the computer system of a merchant:

• transacting a sale of the digital product to the customer;
• in response to the sale, transmitting to the customer a receipt for the purchase, said receipt containing a reference by which the customer may initiate a request for product delivery;
• receiving a request for product delivery from the computer of the customer produced from the receipt;
• and
• in response to the request for product delivery, securely transmitting to the computer of the vendor a fulfillment request containing sufficient information for the vendor to deliver the digital product to the customer, wherein the computer system of the merchant transmits the fulfillment request to the computer of the vendor in response to determining that a corresponding order has not been fulfilled more than a threshold number of times;
• wherein the method is performed without exposing the identity of the customer to the vendor.

A method performed by a merchant computer system, the method comprising:

• receiving, at the merchant computer system, an order placed by a user for a digital product, said order identifying a user and payment information of the user;
• storing a record of the order in a database of the merchant computer system;
• subsequent to placement of the order, generating a fulfillment request message for transmission to a vendor computer system of a vendor that is responsible for delivery of the digital product to users, wherein the fulfillment request message includes information identifying the order and the digital product;
• sending the fulfillment request message, or causing the fulfillment request message to be sent, to the vendor computer system to initiate electronic delivery of the digital product to the user;
• receiving from the vendor computer system a confirmation that the digital product has been delivered to the user;
• in response to receiving the confirmation, updating the record of the order, as stored in the database of the merchant computer system, to indicate that the digital product has been delivered to the user;
• and
• receiving, at the merchant computer system, a delivery request that corresponds to the order, and in response to the delivery request, determining whether the digital product has already been delivered to the user;
• wherein the method is performed by the merchant computer system without exposing to the vendor computer system either the payment information of the user or an identifier of the user.

A merchant computer system comprising a processor and a memory, said memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the merchant computer system, cause the merchant computer system to perform a method comprising:

• receiving, at the merchant computer system, an order placed by a user for a digital product, said order identifying a user and payment information of the user;
• storing a record of the order in a database of the merchant computer system;
• subsequent to placement of the order, generating a fulfillment request message for transmission to a vendor computer system of a vendor that is responsible for delivery of the digital product to users, wherein the fulfillment request message includes information identifying the order and the digital product;
• sending the fulfillment request message, or causing the fulfillment request message to be sent, to the vendor computer system to initiate electronic delivery of the digital product to the user;
• receiving from the vendor computer system a confirmation that the digital product has been delivered to the user;
• in response to receiving the confirmation, updating the record of the order, as stored in the database of the merchant computer system, to indicate that the digital product has been delivered to the user;
• and
• receiving, at the merchant computer system, a delivery request that corresponds to the order, and in response to the delivery request, determining whether the digital product has already been delivered to the user;
• wherein the method is performed by the merchant computer system without exposing to the vendor computer system either the payment information of the user or an identifier of the user.