Scheduling delivery of products via the internet

1. A computer-implemented method for scheduling delivery of products, comprising:

receiving a piece of information regarding a customer;

displaying a plurality of available delivery windows to the customer based on the piece of information regarding the customer;

receiving from the customer a selection of a delivery window from the plurality of available delivery windows to fulfill an order for the customer; and

identifying a route from a plurality of routes to deliver the order based on the selected delivery window,

wherein the method further comprises

associating a customer value with each of a plurality of customers based on information in customer order data;

dividing the plurality of customers into at least two customer groups, each customer group corresponding to a range of customer values, each customer being assigned to one of the plurality of customer groups according to the associated customer value; and

determining an actual capacity allocation distribution among the plurality of customer groups based on information in the customer order data so as to adjust at least the range of customer values associated with one customer group, wherein at least one of the windows available for the customer to select depends on the customer group to which the customer is assigned and the adjusted range of customer values,

wherein at least one product is held in inventory in anticipation of customer demand, and

wherein the method is implemented by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of customer groups includes a new customer group corresponding to those of the plurality of customers associated with the system less than a predetermined period of time.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising associating a customer group override with selected ones of the plurality of customers, and allowing a delivery window to be available for the selected ones of the plurality of customers being done with reference to the customer group override.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein information in the customer order data for each customer comprise at least one of customer order size and customer order frequency.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising adjusting the range of customer values associated with one customer group to cause the actual capacity allocation distribution to converge to the target capacity allocation distribution.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the range of customer values associated with selected customer groups is adjusted manually to cause the actual capacity allocation distribution to converge to the target capacity allocation distribution.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 ,

wherein the plurality of delivery windows are transmitted to a remote platform via a wide area network for presentation to the customer, and

wherein the method further comprises determining which of the plurality of windows are available for delivery of the order with reference to currently available system resources.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 ,

wherein the customer is associated with a group name and a customer group override, and

wherein the at least one of the windows that the customer can select for delivery is determined based on which of the group name and the customer group override is dominant.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 , wherein the customer group override is associated with an override expiration date, after which the group name dominates the customer group override.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the identifying process favors a route that already has at least one previously scheduled stop to fulfill another customer order over another route that does not have any previously scheduled stop.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising considering space on a transportation vehicle to deliver products to the customer based on the customer order in view of at least one other order to be serviced by the transportation vehicle for the identified route.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising determining if there is enough time to deliver the order without violating an existing promise to another customer on the identified route.

13. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising providing an indication that a transportation vehicle will be in the customer's neighborhood.

14. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising avoiding driving long distances to deliver just the order of the customer.

15. The method as recited in claim 14 wherein to avoid such driving, the method further comprises determining the ratio of driving time to the available time to deliver the order for the identified route.

16. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising displaying a window for the customer although the window should not be available to the customer group in which the customer is assigned, if the window is still available to another customer group after a certain predetermined period of time has elapsed.

17. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising keeping track of the current state of all delivery windows.

18. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising providing a message to the customer that the customer's status could be improved if the customer orders more than a certain dollar amount by a certain time.

19. A computer-implemented method for scheduling delivery of products, comprising:

receiving a piece of information regarding a customer;

displaying a plurality of available delivery windows to the customer based on the piece of information regarding the customer;

receiving from the customer a selection of a delivery window from the plurality of available delivery windows to fulfill an order for the customer; and

identifying a route from a plurality of routes to deliver the order based on the selected delivery window,

wherein at least one of the windows available for the customer to select depends on assigning the customer to one of a plurality of customer groups based on a value of the customer, each customer group corresponding to customers within a range of values, with at least one of the ranges of values determined based on customer order data,

wherein at least one product is held in inventory in anticipation of customer demand, and

wherein the method is implemented by one or more computing devices.

20. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 19 , wherein the plurality of available delivery windows displayed to the customer depend on the customer group the customer has been assigned.

21. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 20 ,

wherein each customer group corresponds to a group of delivery windows, and

wherein at least one delivery window corresponds to at least two customer groups.