WO2001088805A1

WO2001088805A1 - Internet-based systems and methods for facilitating shipment of goods

Info

Publication number: WO2001088805A1
Application number: PCT/US2001/013622
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lee J. Lorenzen
Original assignee: Catalog City Inc
Current assignee: Catalog City Inc
Priority date: 2000-05-15
Filing date: 2001-04-27
Publication date: 2001-11-22
Anticipated expiration: 2002-11-15
Also published as: AU2001257350A1

Abstract

The present system and method relate to facilitating shipment of goods to international destinations and keeping buyers anonymous from sellers to protect overall privacy. The techniques used allow senders from within a country to send goods to international recipients in a manner that does not require the senders to possess any special knowledge regarding international addressing, foreign sales taxes, duties, and/or updating their information systems for handling thereof. The foreign shipment address is obtained (202). Then, the customer and merchant information is stored (204). A transshipment address is generated (206) and finally the goods are shipped (208).

Description

PATENT APPLICATION

INTERNET-BASED SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FACILITATING

SHIPMENT OF GOODS

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and systems for facilitating shipment of goods to international destinations and/or to keep buyers anonymous from sellers to protect privacy. More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques that leverage on the distributed and participatory nature of a distributed computer network, such as the Internet, to allow senders from ^"within a country to send goods to international recipients in a manner that does not require the senders to possess any special knowledge regarding international addressing and/or foreign sales taxes and/or duties, and/or to update their information systems for the handling thereof.

As the Internet becomes more popular, more and more people around the world get online everyday to search for products and conduct electronic commerce transactions. Since the Internet facilitates the exchange of information, such as product descriptions, reviews, and catalogs without regard to distance or international borders, a purchaser conducting a product search online may sometimes find that a desired product is offered by a merchant overseas and would need to be shipped internationally if purchased. Sellers likewise are finding that more and more of their potential customers are represented by international purchasers, who find the sellers' products via online searches.

Unfortunately, as is well known to most merchants, shipping products internationally is not as simple as shipping domestically within one's own country. With reference to merchants in the United States, for example, most order fulfillment systems are created prior to the advent of online e-commerce and thus tend to be more geared toward handling domestic billing/shipping addresses. As such, they tend to be formatted to work with the US addressing format, and are thus typically unable to handle the diversity of shipping address formats that international addresses sometimes require. By way of example, legacy order-taking or product fulfillment systems may be programmed to expect a five-digit zip code and may be unable to handle an international address that has a different format for its zip code, or no zip code at all.

Furthermore, shipping goods internationally involves a whole host of issues pertaining to international sales taxes, international tariffs, and other issues that an average merchant not having a sizable volume of international sales in the past may not be familiar with. For these merchants, it is sometimes difficult to figure out how to calculate these international sales taxes and tariffs and, given the hectic pace of business, most smaller merchants find that it is simpler to forgo potential sales from international customers than to trouble themselves with learning the intricacies of selling and shipping goods to foreign consumers.

To help simplify the process for merchants wishing to participate in international commerce, a set of harmonized tariff codes has been proposed and adopted by many countries around the world. The harmonized tariff codes permit sellers from different countries to have a common standard by which goods can be sorted and classified. Goods identified in accordance with the harmonized tariff codes tend to pass through customs more rapidly since the harmonized tariff codes allow customs personnel to more quickly determine the contents of the packages without having to open up individual packages for inspection. Further, tariffs associated with goods identified in accordance with the harmonized tariff codes can be readily determined, further speeding their transit across international borders. However, the use of the harmonized tariff codes still does not adequately address the difficulties that legacy back-end shipping systems may have with international addresses and the different formats that may be required.

While not wishing to be bound by specifics of others' implementations, it is believed that the United States Postal Service (USPS) also offers an international shipping service called Global Package Link (GPL). As best understood by the inventor herein, GPL allows merchants to affix special bar code labels on packages to allow the packages destined for a foreign destination to be sent first to a domestic commingling point (i.e., a domestic location where packages are gathered and sorted, and packages destined for a given city or region may be grouped together for shipment in bulk). The special bar code label associated with each package also identifies the goods within the package (using, for example, the harmonized tariff codes). The use of these labels helps packages pass through the customs of the participating foreign countries more efficiently.

To participate in GPL, however, a merchant is required to assign the harmonized tariff code to every item in his or her inventory that may be shipped internationally. This is because the use of the harmonized tariff codes is a requirement of GPL. Furthermore, since the merchant is responsible for generating the international address label employed for shipping to the final overseas destination, the back-end system must be able to handle non-US address formats and support bar- coding. For some merchants, this redesign effort represents a significant new infrastructure and places a burden on the merchant's time and resources. Still further, it is understood that GPL is available only to merchants whose international shipping volume is higher than some predefined threshold. For lower volume merchants, the volume requirement renders them ineligible for participation in the GPL program. The need to ship goods and other items across international borders is not limited to the merchant-customer situation. The Internet has allowed people to communicate more inexpensively and has done much to facilitate the rise in e- commerce between private individuals. One only has to look at the popularity of online auction services, such as Ebay.com or Amazon.com or peruse the numerous online classified advertisement pages to realize that there is a large number of people who regularly employ the Internet to facilitate buying and selling among themselves. The ability to ship internationally is just as desirable for these people as it would be for an online merchant since buyers who conduct Internet purchases may come from any geographic location around the globe. Yet, the complexity surrounding the sale and shipment of goods internationally (e.g., international addressing formats, taxes, tariffs, and the like) often discourages these individuals from offering products to customers overseas. Some of the same issues also apply to international shipment in non-commercial situations, e.g., the shipment of a gift between relatives.

In view of the foregoing, there are desired improved systems which leverage on the distributed and participatory nature of the Internet to allow senders from within a country to service international recipients in a manner that does not require the senders to possess any special knowledge regarding international addressing and/or foreign sales taxes and/or duties, and/or to have special systems for the handling thereof. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides for Internet-based systems and methods for facilitating shipment of goods. The present invention relates to methods and systems for facilitating shipment of goods to international destinations and/or to keep buyers anonymous from sellers to protect privacy. More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques that leverage on the distributed and participatory nature of a distributed computer network, such as the Internet, to allow senders from within a country to send goods to international recipients in a manner that does not require the senders to possess any special knowledge regarding international addressing and/or foreign sales taxes and/or duties, and/or to update their information systems for the handling thereof.

In particular, this customer-centric result is facilitated through the use of a transshipment facility located in each country that receives a package and processes its contents according to the particular requirements (i.e. customs, taxes, etc) for that particular country. The transhipment facility processes the package based upon the implied (or express) consent of the recipient of the package. An alias address is created for each recipient of packages which contains (or combines) the recipient's address as well as the intervening address of the transshipment facility.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for facilitating international shipping of goods ordered through the Internet from a merchant located in a first country to a ship-to location having a foreign ship-to address located in a second country different from said first country, comprising: obtaining said foreign ship-to address from an online buyer for an order placed with said merchant, said obtaining being facilitated via an Internet-based utility; storing said foreign ship-to address in a database; generating a unique identification code for said order; transmitting through said Internet said unique identification code to said merchant, along with a transshipment facility address associated with a transshipment facility located in said first country, to allow said merchant to ship goods associated with said order to said transshipment facility.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided to allow a transshipment service to facilitate shipping of goods ordered through the Internet from a merchant located in a first country to a ship-to location having a foreign ship-to address located in a second country different from said first country, comprising: obtaining said foreign ship-to address from an online buyer for an order placed with said merchant, said obtaining being facilitated via an Internet-based address form furnished by said transshipment service; storing said foreign ship-to address in an Internet-accessible database; generating a unique identification code for said order; transmitting through said Internet said unique identification code to said merchant, along with a transshipment facility address associated with a transshipment facility located in said first country, to allow said merchant to ship a package of goods associated with said order to said transshipment facility and include therewith said unique identification code, wherein said merchant fulfills said order as if it were placed by said transshipment service destined for said transshipment facility.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for facilitating shipping of goods ordered through the Internet from a merchant to a ship-to location at a ship-to address that a buyer desires to keep private from said merchant, both said merchant and said ship-to locations being located in the same country, comprising: obtaining said ship-to address from said buyer for an order placed with said merchant, said obtaining being facilitated via an Internet-based utility; storing said ship-to address in a database; generating a unique identification code for said order; transmitting through said Internet said unique identification code to said merchant, along with a transshipment facility address associated with a transshipment facility located in said first country, to allow said merchant to ship goods associated with said order to said transshipment facility, wherein said unique identification code and said transshipment facility address are employed by said merchant for said shipping in place of an identity of said buyer and said ship-to address.

These and other features of the present invention will be described in more detail below in the detailed description of the invention and in conjunction with the following figures. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, various logical blocks representing the participants and modules involved in the transshipment service.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the steps taken by the transshipment service in order to generate the transshipment addressing data and the unique identification code.

Fig. 3 illustrates, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the steps taken by the transshipment service to facilitate international shipping after the merchandise is received from the merchant.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to a few preferred embodiments thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention maybe practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process steps and/or structures have not been described in detail in order to not unnecessarily obscure the present invention.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an innovative technique for allowing a merchant to sell and ship merchandise to an international buyer, and for the international buyer to buy from such merchants, without requiring any knowledge on the part of the merchant pertaining to international addressing formats, value-added taxes, or customs charges, or requiring any expensive modification to existing legacy order fulfillment systems. The invention includes, in one embodiment, the use of one or more domestic transshipment facility, (i.e., a facility located in the same country as the merchant from whom the merchandise is ordered) and leveraging on the Internet and its communication facilities to allow the international buyer to fill out her/her own local addressing information to facilitate shipping through the domestic transshipment facility.

The local addressing information, along with the merchant's identity and the information pertaining to the items ordered, may then be transmitted to the domestic transshipment facility to facilitate calculation of any value-added taxes, customs charges, and shipping cost from the domestic transshipment facility to the buyer's international (i.e., overseas with respect to the seller) ship-to location.

The domestic transshipment facility, using the information furnished by the buyer and communicated to it via the Internet from the buyer, in turn requests the merchant to ship the ordered merchandise domestically to the domestic transshipment facility. To uniquely identify the package, the domestic transshipment facility may furnish a unique identification code for use by the merchant. Moreover, once the customer knows this unique identification code (i.e. alias address), the customer might communicate same directly with the merchant in order to receive goods. Persons using this system might then have an address book of these alias addresses for customers (without any appended order numbers), so that it appears ~ analogously, or for practical purposes ~ as if the customer "resides" at the transhipment facility. Thus, from the merchant's perspective, it is as if the order came from a domestic buyer. The merchant can therefore calculate tax, prepare the invoice, address the shipping label to the domestic transshipment facility, and ship as if the transaction is performed for a domestic buyer. Once the package arrives at the domestic transshipment facility, the identity and address of the international buyer is resolved, the VAT or customs charges are settled with the appropriate authorities, the appropriate foreign local postage is applied, and the package is shipped to the international buyer without further participation from the merchant. Moreover, when a customer uses this transshipment facility, the facility acts on behalf of the customer to perform such tasks including opening the package, taking care of customs issues, and other such matters, all without need for further interaction by the customer. The presently described system is supported by the Multi- Vendor Internet Commerce System (MV-ICS) as described in the provisional application (S/N 60/141,905) that is incorporated by reference above. The MV-ICS supports a global logistics service which provides for the trans-shipment of packages from merchants in one country to consumers in another country without the merchant needing to change their backend operations or understand any of the intricacies of shipping internationally. This service, for instance, is seamlessly integrated into the CatalogCity.com shopping experience and any of the other online shopping malls powered by the MV-ICS, or its equivalents (hence referred to as MV-ICS.com). hi addition, the MV-ICS provides an International Address Book service for use by other web sites and individuals who wish to take advantage of the MV-ICS Trans-Shipment Service.

In support of this MV-ICS Trans-Shipment Service, partnering can be done, for instance, with Miami-based TransExpress.com for trans-shipments between the US and Latin America. Partnering with similar companies can also done for Japanese trans-shipments and for European trans-shipments. These Trans-Shipment partners will manage the consolidation hubs located in the US and the customs clearing and break-bulk distribution hubs in their respective regions.

These Trans-Shipment partners will work with Catalog City (or a similar company operating or offering an MV-ICS) to establish trans-shipment prices and will be responsible for billing the customer for all aspects of the international leg of a package's journey. These Trans-Shipment partners will also operate a "returns" processing center wherein packages of sufficient value will be returned to the country of origin. These and other packages might thereafter be sold to liquidators. As the volume of packages going through this service increases, it will be possible to offer major merchants the option of consolidating their shipments to each Trans-Shipment hub. For example, if a company like Amazon.com integrates with the present Trans-Shipment service, and/or if thousands of Latin American customers use their Alias Address (see below) for their Amazon.com shipments, it is possible that hundreds of individually shipped Amazon.com packages could arrive each day via UPS at the Miami Trans-Shipment hub. hi this case, it would be possible to manage consolidated shipments directly from Amazon.com to the hub and save a large amount on shipping. These savings may or may not be passed on to the customer as deemed appropriate for the business needs of the Trans-shipment provider.

Alias Address Format Examples. Each of the Trans-Shipment logistics partners should be able to handle the following example Alias Address interface. It should be noted that this format is provided for example purposes and is not intended limited the scope of interfaces that might be used.

Alias Address for US Merchants Actual International Address

John Pincott John Pincott c/o 1234567CC9UK-15 10 Downing Street

1976 Battery Park London New York, NY 10012 1A5B3 USA England

Art Gomez Art Gomez c/o 1234568CC5MX-5 10 Calle Principal 7801 NW 37^th Street Mexico City Miami, FL 33166 VIA123

USA Mexico

Akio Muta Akio Muta c/o 1234569CC7JP-38 45^th Floor Mitsui Building

15 Airport Way Shinjuku, Shinjuku Station

Los Angeles, C A 90210 10034-34

USA Tokyo

Japan

Alias Address Format Description. The Alias Address format is as follows (referring to the example of John Pincott' s US Merchant Alias Address above):

1234567 - Customer's alias address number, assigned byMV-ICS.com as we create new alias addresses. The number of leading digits can vary from 1 - 12 digits.

CC - Catalog City Product Code, indicates that the Checksum digit will follow. This field can also be used to deal with non-CC Alias Address creators that need to be able to independently manage their own customer alias address number ranges. This field will always be at least two non-numeric characters and can be used to indicate the end of the customer's alias address number.

9 - Any digit from 0-9 that is a checksum to verify that this is a valid and accurate alias address UK - Two character ISO country code of the customer's actual international address.

-15 - Indicates which order number / package number this is - in this case the 15^th time an order has originated from CatalogCity.com using this customer's Alias Address. This field will be present when the order originates from CatalogCity.com or MV-ICS. com. This field will be missing in other cases where the customer has just used his Alias Address directly with a non-CC cataloger or online web site or individual. These packages will require more inspection and handling at the Transshipment hub.

International Alias Address Hubs. In addition, the present system will support multiple Alias Addresses per international address (one for each trans-shipment hub) to deal with trans-shipment from merchants who are not necessarily in the US. For example, if Art Gomez - listed above as living in Mexico — wished to purchase from merchants in Europe or Japan who only shipped within their local regions, he would direct those shipments to the following Alias Addresses (which would be automatically created for him):

Alias Address for European Merchants Actual International Address

Art Gomez Art Gomez c/o 1234568CC5MX-6 10 Calle Principal 110 Heathrow Airport Road Mexico City Heathrow VIA123 1A3C7 Mexico England

Alias Address for Japanese Merchants Actual International Address

Art Gomez Art Gomez c/o 1234568CC5MX-7 10 Calle Principal

100 Narita Airport Mexico City

Narita Prefecture VIA123

123-24550 Mexico Japan

Trans-Shipment Application Programming Interface (API). An example of a basic data interface between the MV-ICS servers and the Trans-shipment partner will include (but is not limited to) the following: 1. Create New Alias Address - This API passes to each Trans-shipment partner the customer's assigned alias address, actual international address, phone number, e- mail address, preferences regarding pre-authorization of shipments and credit card information.

2. Update Alias Address - updates fields of Alias Address or deletes Alias Address account. 3. Pre-Shipment Advisory - The alias address has been used on CatalogCity.com or a related MV-ICS. com to place an order. The package contents, value, tariff classification and estimated shipping charges are passed to Trans-shipment facility. This is done simultaneously with sending the order to the merchant. In cases where the package contents are known by the MV-ICS. com site in advance, this advises the trans-shipment hub what is likely to be in the package and what has been quoted to the customer as the estimated price for shipment/customs/duty/VAT.

4. Pre-Shipment Advisory Update - updates fields of Pre-shipment Advisory or cancels Shipment.

5. Package Tracking Data Upload from Trans-shipment Hub - This data feed gives MV-ICS. com the info to display in the user's account page on our web site. This data upload includes all aspects of the current tracking status, e.g., arrived at hub, shipped from hub to country, in local post of country, arrived at customer, returned from customer, etc.

6. Request User Pre-authorize Payment of International Shipping/Custom Duties/VAT - tells MV-ICS. com server that an e-mail should be sent to a customer so that an authorization can be obtained before the package will ship due to the international shipping/handling/customs/duties/taxes exceeding the estimated amount by some significant amount.

7. User Payment Authorization Confirmed/Denied/Unavailable - response received authorizing payment of appropriate charges or denying the shipment due to cost or no response (in which case package is forwarded within (n) days or alternatively returned based on customer preference settings)

MV-ICS Checkout Process. Certain initial versions of the MV-ICS Trans- Shipment service were implemented to support US merchants' shipments into Latin America using a system compatible with the existing TransExpress services. Given the one-way nature of this service and this single trans-shipment partner, the interface for creating a trans-shipment address was handled during (for instance) the CatalogCity.com Address creation time (either via the Address Book or at Registration). This approach, however, has certain limitations. Ultimately, the present invention is intended to support an interface that hides the complexity of this service until the customer actually needs to take advantage of the service. hi addition, the present system provides the MV-ICS Trans-Shipment service along with other aspects of the ability to maintain the customer's complete personal shopping identity. For instance, to avoid confusion with the CatalogCity.com shopping mall and broaden the appeal of these services, the present system might use the MV-ICS. com web site as the home base for all of these services. The basic capabilities the customer will find on this site will be equivalent to the services currently accessed by clicking on the My Account link which is located in the top right corner of each of our CatalogCity.com shopping malls.

MV-ICS.com Web Site Services. The purpose of the MV-ICS site is to allow the user to manage all aspects of their personal shopping identity. This includes areas described more completely in the above-incorporated provisional application (S/N 60/141,905). International customers interested in a Trans-Shipment address will be able to register directly at this site and create their own personal address for use on other e-commerce web sites. In addition to their own address, international and domestic customers will also be able to create a complete personalized address book of international addresses (along with their appropriate Alias Addresses) to use when shipping items to friends, relatives and business partners around the world. To facilitate understanding, reference may be made to the figures and discussion below. With reference to Fig. 1, various logical blocks representative of the international buyer (104), the domestic merchant (102), the domestic transshipment facility (112) and the optional domestic distribution center (114) are shown. To invoke the transshipment service, the international buyer 104 may invoke a web-based transshipment utility 108, which allows the international buyer 104 to fill out the foreign shipping address information (i.e., the final ship-to address in the foreign country). This may occur, for example, at the same time or shortly after the international buyer 104 has visited a merchant website and selected one or more items for purchase. The web-based transshipment utility may represent a web-based form or page, furnished by the merchant website or by the transshipment service in another separate browser. The foreign shipping information along with the customer information (such as name) and/or payment information (such as credit card information) and/or merchant/merchandise selected information (such as the identity of the merchant and the identification of the items selected for shipment) may then be forwarded (via paths A and B in Fig. 1) to a database 106, preferably through the Internet, and stored therein. At this point, the transshipment service knows the identity of the buyer, the items to be bought, and the identity of the merchant. From these pieces of information, any value added taxes, customs charges, international shipping cost from the domestic transshipment facility 112 to the final foreign ship-to destination, along with any service charge for the value-add service by the transshipment service may be calculated and charged to the buyer. Preferably, the charge is made immediately to allow the transshipment service to take advantage of the few days "float" between the time the customer is charged and the time payment has to be made to the appropriate authorities and/or shipping companies to facilitate international shipping. The information received at database 106 maybe also employed to generate transshipment addressing data, which has the destination address of the domestic transshipment facility 112, and an associated unique identification code (i.e. Alias Address, or the like). The unique identification code is unique to each order. As will be discussed later herein, the unique identification code is employed as a key to the database in order for the transshipment service to ascertain the recipient's foreign ship-to address from the database.

By way of example, if the name of the buyer and the foreign ship-to address is "Sanjeev Bannerjia, Flats 17, "Monalisa" 20 Camac Street, Calcutta-700107 India" and the order is for a sweater from a given online merchant in the US (such as Catalogcity.com™), the transshipment addressing data may be "Sanjeev Bannerjia, c/o 1234570CC2IN-55, 100 Commerce Street, Oakland, CA 94607" wherein 1234570CC2IN is the identification of the transshipment company located in Oakland, and 55 is the order number. If additional privacy protection is desired, the buyer's identity (e.g., "Sanjeev Bannerjia") may not even be made available to the merchant, and the transshipment addressing data may read simply "Attention:

[Transshipment Company Name, i.e. "Worldship" or the like], c/o 1234570CC2IN-55, 100 Commerce Street, Oakland, CA 94607," since the identity of the buyer can readily be determined by cross-referencing the unique identification code with the order record in database 106.

Once the transshipment addressing data is ascertained, it may be forwarded along paths B and C to the merchant 102, along with the information pertaining to the selected merchandise (such as items selected and price), and the payment information (e.g., buyer credit card information). As can be seen, forwarding is preferably done via the Internet 130. Upon receipt of the above information, the merchant can charge for the merchandise to be shipped along with any shipment cost to the domestic transshipment facility and/or any domestic tax, and proceed to ship the merchandise ordered to the domestic transshipment facility (e.g., WorldShip in Oakland in this case) and include therewith (e.g., on the shipment label) the unique identification code (e.g., "1234570CC2IN") to allow the domestic transshipment facility to identify the package as belonging to Mr. Banerjia at the domestic transshipment facility.

Note that, since the domestic transshipment facility is located in the same country as the merchant, it is not necessary for the merchant to modify their order fulfillment system to accomplish the shipment. For example, it is not necessary for the merchant to modify the address template of their shipping system to accommodate international addressing formats, to change the financial module to calculate the appropriate VAT, customs charges, foreign shipping costs, and the like. To the merchant, the shipment and sale procedures are exactly identical to those involving a domestic buyer.

As mentioned earlier, it is also not necessary for the merchant to know the name of the recipient to whom the merchandise is shipped (or the name of the buyer, if the buyer is not the same person as the recipient). This aspect makes the present invention well suited for protecting the privacy of the buyer, and it is applicable for such privacy protection purpose irrespective whether the buyer or final ship-to destination is located in a foreign country or in the same country as the merchant.

By way of example, a buyer may desire to conceal his/her identity from merchants when buying certain highly personal items, or to shield against advertisements and other forms of communication from advertisers. In that case, that buyer may be able to use the web-based transshipment service to shield his/her identity and ship-to address from the merchant, who needs to know only the unique identification code and the address of the domestic transshipment facility to fulfill the order. If further privacy is desired, the domestic transshipment facility may even charge the buyer directly instead of forwarding the buyer's payment data (e.g., credit card) to shield the buyer's highly personal payment data (which may contain the identification of the buyer and his/her billing address) from the merchant. The domestic transshipment facility may then turn around and settle with the merchant either immediately for that order or on a batch basis.

Once the package containing the ordered merchandise arrives from the merchant 102 at the domestic transshipment facility 112, it may be sorted and matched with the identity of the buyer and his/her ultimate foreign ship-to address, using the unique identification code as a key to search the database. If desired, the unique identification code may be represented by bar codes or other machine-readable forms in order to facilitate sorting and automated access to database 106. Access to database 106 is accomplished via paths D and B through the Internet 130 as shown. At this point, an international address label which includes the identity of the buyer and the ultimate international ship-to address (e.g., the recipient's home or business in the foreign country) may be generated at the domestic transshipment facility.

Any local postage required for the item to be shipped to the ultimate ship-to address may also be affixed at this point. Furthermore, VAT and customs charges may also be settled at this point between the transshipment service and the appropriate authorities and/or international shipment companies. Note that neither the merchant nor the buyer has to understand the intricacies behind VAT, customs charges, or international shipping costs throughout the whole process.

Thereafter, the individual packages may optionally be shipped to a foreign distribution center prior to being forwarded to the foreign recipient. The packages may be shipped individually or in a bulk shipment in aggregate with other packages destined for the same foreign distribution center 114 to save on shipping cost. At the foreign distribution center 114, the packages may then be sorted and forwarded to the final ship-to destination.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the steps taken by the transshipment service in order to generate the transshipment addressing data and the unique identification code to allow a domestic merchant to sell and ship to the international buyer in substantially the same manner that the domestic merchant would normally sell/ship to a domestic buyer. In step 202, an Internet-based transshipment utility is furnished to the buyer when shipment is requested to allow the buyer to fill out the international ship-to address. Typically, the Internet-based transshipment utility takes the form of a web-based page or form to be filled out by the international buyer after merchandise selection has been accomplished.

With the furnished information, the domestic transshipment service may be able to calculate any necessary VAT, customs charges, and any shipment cost from the domestic transshipment facility (to which the merchant ships) to the final foreign ship-to address specified by the buyer. A fee for the value-add service provided by the transshipment service may also be charged at this time. If desired, these additional costs may be shown also to the buyer so the buyer may be informed of the total cost involved in purchasing the merchandise and having the merchandise shipped to the specified foreign ship-to address via the transshipment service.

In step 204, the customer information (such as customer name, ship-to address, payment information), the merchant information (e.g., merchant identity), and the merchandise information (e.g., the items selected and price) maybe stored in a database. In step 206, the transshipment addressing information for use by the merchant is generated, which includes the unique identification code for identifying the order and the package to be shipped, hi step 208, this transshipment addressing information is then forwarded (e.g., electronically via the web or fax or email or by other communication means) to the merchant, along with the information pertaining to the merchandise selected and the payment information from the buyer so that the buyer maybe charged for the cost of the goods ordered, any domestic tax, and any shipping cost from the merchant to the domestic transshipment facility. If desired, the buyer may be charged by the transshipment service itself to further shield the identity of the buyer from the merchant (as discussed earlier). In this latter case, the payment information to be furnished to the merchant may pertain to an account of the transshipment service against which the cost of the goods ordered, any domestic tax, and any shipping cost from the merchant to the domestic transshipment facility may be debited.

Fig. 3 illustrates, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the steps taken by the transshipment service to facilitate international shipping after the merchandise is received from the merchant. In step 302, the ordered merchandise is received at the domestic transshipment facility. The ordered merchandise is preferably shipped using the transshipment addressing data furnished by the transshipment service earlier. After the domestic transshipment facility receives the package, the unique identification code included with the package (e.g., on the shipping label generated by the merchant) may be used to ascertain the identity of the international buyer and the ultimate ship-to address (step 304).

Once such information is ascertained, a foreign shipping label may be generated by the transshipment service to facilitate forwarding the package on from the domestic transshipment facility (step 306). Note that the actual work of generating the foreign shipping address label, calculating shipping cost for the international portion of the journey, calculating the local foreign postage to allow the package to be forwarded via the foreign post/package service, and calculating any necessary VAT and customs charges are all performed by the transshipment service without knowledge from the merchant. As mentioned before, this is a significant advantage since it allows the merchant to service the order as if the order were from a domestic buyer.

The foreign shipping label, along with any necessary local foreign postage, may be affixed to the package at this point. From then on, the package may be shipped internationally from the domestic transshipment facility to the final destination point in a conventional manner.

In accordance with one advantageous embodiment of the invention, the transshipment service may commingle packages from various merchants destined for different recipients located a given foreign country or a given region in a foreign country (step 308). Commingling allows shipment of these packages to be done in a bulk format to save on shipping cost for the international portion of the journey. This optional step is highly advantageous for the low-volume merchants since, individually, low- volume merchants may not have enough volume to take advantage of the bulk shipping discount, hi this case, the fact that packages are gathered at a domestic transshipment facility from multiple merchants destined for the same general locality serviced by a foreign distribution center facilitates such aggregation. Furthermore, commingling allows a bulk manifest to be generated (from the merchandise information contained in the database, which is accessible to authorized entities through the Internet) to further ease passage through the customs service. After arrival at the foreign distribution center, the individual packages are removed from the bulk shipping box and shipped out to individual international recipients at the international ship-to destination indicated on the individual packages using conventional delivery methods.

While this invention has been described in terms of several preferred embodiments, there are alterations, permutations, and equivalents which fall witliin the scope of this invention. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims be inteφreted as including all such alterations, permutations, and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for facilitating international shipping of goods ordered through the Internet from a merchant located in a first country to a ship-to location having a foreign ship-to address located in a second country different from said first country, comprising:

obtaining said foreign ship-to address from an online buyer for an order placed with said merchant, said obtaining being facilitated via an Internet-based utility;

storing said foreign ship-to address in a database;

generating a unique identification code for said order;

transmitting through said Internet said unique identification code to said merchant, along with a transshipment facility address associated with a fransshipment facility located in said first country, to allow said merchant to ship goods associated with said order to said transshipment facility.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving said goods associated with said order at said transshipment facility from said merchant;

ascertaining, using said unique identification code, said foreign ship-to address from said database;

preparing a foreign address label, using said foreign ship-to address, to facilitate shipment of said goods associated with said order from said transshipment facility to said foreign ship-to address.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

ascertaining customs charge associated with said order; paying said customs charge on behalf of said merchant, in a manner that is substantially transparent to said merchant, with an appropriate customs authority to facilitate said shipping said goods associated with said order internationally.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

ascertaining international shipping charge associated with said order, said international shipping charge pertains to a charge for shipping said goods associated with said order from said transshipment facility to said second country;

paying said international shipping charges on behalf of said merchant, in a manner that is substantially transparent to said merchant, with an appropriate international shipping service to facilitate shipping said goods associated with said order internationally.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

grouping said goods associated with said order with other packages destined for a given foreign distribution center, said foreign distribution center being associated with a given region of said second country; and

shipping said goods associated with said order and said other packages in a bulk shipment to said foreign distribution center.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

ascertaining international shipping charge associated with said order, said international shipping charge pertains to a charge for shipping said goods associated with said order from said transshipment facility to said foreign distribution center; and

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

ascertaining foreign postage charge required to send said goods associated with said order from said foreign distribution center to said foreign ship-to address;

affixing sufficient postage to cover said foreign postage charge to a package containing said goods associated with said order, said affixing being performed on behalf of said merchant, in a manner that is substantially transparent to said merchant.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining payment data from said online buyer; and

transmitting said payment data to said merchant.

9. The method of claim 1 where the identity of said online buyer is not made known to said merchant.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the payment information associated with said online buyer is not made known to said merchant.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

authorizing said merchant to charge for said order against an account that is not associated with said online buyer to protect the privacy of said online buyer.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said foreign ship-to-address and said unique identification code are used to form an alias address.

13. A method to allow a transshipment service to facilitate shipping of goods ordered tlirough the Internet from a merchant located in a first country to a ship- to location having a foreign ship-to address located in a second country different from said first country, comprising:

obtaining said foreign ship-to address from an online buyer for an order placed with said merchant, said obtaining being facilitated via an Internet-based address form furnished by said transshipment service;

storing said foreign ship-to address in an Internet-accessible database;

generating a unique identification code for said order;

transmitting through said Internet said unique identification code to said merchant, along with a transshipment facility address associated with a transshipment facility located in said first country, to allow said merchant to ship a package of goods associated with said order to said transshipment facility and include therewith said unique identification code, wherein said merchant fulfills said order as if it were placed by said transshipment service destined for said transshipment facility.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

ascertaining, using said unique identification code included with said package received from said merchant at said transshipment facility, said foreign ship-to address from said database;

preparing a foreign address label, using said foreign ship-to address, to facilitate shipment of said package from said transshipment facility to said foreign ship-to address.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

calculating, without involving said merchant in said calculation, customs charge associated with said order;

paying said customs charge on behalf of said merchant, in a manner that is substantially transparent to said merchant, with an appropriate customs authority to facilitate said shipping said goods associated with said order from said transshipment facility to said second country.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein said foreign ship-to-address and said unique identification code are used to form an alias address.

17. A method for facilitating shipping of goods ordered through the Internet from a merchant to a ship-to location at a ship-to address that a buyer desires to keep private from said merchant, both said merchant and said ship-to locations being located in the same country, comprising:

obtaining said ship-to address from said buyer for an order placed with said merchant, said obtaining being facilitated via an Internet-based utility;

storing said ship-to address in a database;

generating a unique identification code for said order;

transmitting through said Internet said unique identification code to said merchant, along with a transshipment facility address associated with a transshipment facility located in said first country, to allow said merchant to ship goods associated with said order to said transshipment facility, wherein said unique identification code and said fransshipment facility address are employed by said merchant for said shipping in place of an identity of said buyer and said ship-to address.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

charging said buyer for an amount that at least covers said order; and

authorizing said merchant to charge for said order against an account that is not associated with said buyer to protect the privacy of said buyer.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

ascertaining from said database, using said unique identification code included with said goods shipped from said merchant, said ship-to address;

preparing an address label, using said ship-to address, to facilitate shipment of said goods associated with said order from said transshipment facility to said ship-to address.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein said foreign ship-to-address and said unique identification code are used to form an alias address.