Systems and Methods for Delivering Products to a Customer
In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to deliver products to a customer at a landmark or rendezvous location, as opposed to a set street or mailing address. In some configurations, a retail product delivery system may include electronic user devices of delivery agents and customers, a shopping user interface and a delivery user interface, and a control circuit. By one approach, the control circuit receives a retail order from a particular customer, monitors individual activity of the particular customer, presents a selection opportunity permitting the particular customer to select a landmark or rendezvous location for delivery of the shipment, and instruct delivery of the shipment to the particular customer at the landmark or rendezvous location. In one aspect, the control circuit facilitates interaction between the electronic user devices of the particular customer and the assigned delivery agent.
1 . A retail product delivery system for delivery of products to a customer away from home, the retail product delivery system comprising:
one or more electronic user devices configured to be carried by one or more delivery agents and one or more customer recipients;
a shopping user interface configured to operate on at least one of the electronic user devices;
a delivery user interface configured to operate on at least one of the electronic user devices;
a control circuit in communication with at least some of the electronic user devices, the control circuit configured to:
receive a retail order from a particular customer;
monitor individual activity of the particular customer associated with the retail order, including a present location of the particular customer, via an electronic user device associated with the particular customer;
present a selection opportunity, via the shopping user interface, based, in part, on readings from the electronic user device associated with the particular customer, the selection opportunity permitting the particular customer to select a landmark or rendezvous location for delivery of the retail order or a portion thereof; and
instruct delivery of the retail order or the portion thereof to the particular customer at the landmark or rendezvous location, via the delivery user interface operating on one of the electronic user devices associated with the delivery agents.
2 . The retail product delivery system of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
monitor a delivery agent location of an assigned delivery agent tasked with delivery of the retail order or the portion thereof; and
notify the particular customer, via the electronic user device associated with the particular customer and the assigned delivery agent, via the one of the electronic user devices associated with the assigned delivery agent, when the particular customer and the assigned delivery agent are within a predetermined distance from one another.
3 . The retail product delivery system of claim 2 wherein, upon a determination that the particular customer and the assigned delivery agent are within the predetermined distance from one another, the control circuit facilitating interaction between the electronic user device associated with the particular customer and the electronic user device associated with the assigned delivery agent.
4 . The retail product delivery system of claim 1 wherein monitoring individual activity of the particular customer comprises receiving notification of a change of an intended location of the particular customer and the control circuit being further configured to reroute the retail order or the portion thereof during delivery.
5 . The retail product delivery system of claim 4 wherein the control circuit is further configured to analyze multiple delivery agent locations via the electronic user devices carried by separate and distinct delivery agents and in response to receiving the notification of the change in the intended location, rerouting the retail order or the portion thereof to another of the delivery agents for delivery.
6 . The retail product delivery system of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is further configured to present a delivery opportunity to one or more delivery agents via the delivery user interface.
7 . The retail product delivery system of claim 6 wherein the control circuit is further configured to detect whether one of the delivery agents is within a predetermined distance from at least one of: a distribution location, a shipping location, another delivery agent with a delivery location proximate the landmark or rendezvous location of a particular retail order, or the landmark or rendezvous location of the particular retail order.
8 . The retail product delivery system of claim 7 wherein the control circuit is further configured to monitor locations of a plurality of delivery agents via the electronic user interfaces associated therewith.
9 . The retail product delivery system of claim 1 further comprising a delivery agent database having capabilities of at least a plurality of delivery agents and associated delivery vehicles therein.
10 . The retail product delivery system of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is further configured to receive delivery requests from the particular customer and a customer itinerary from the electronic user device associated with the particular customer.
11 . The retail product delivery system of claim 10 wherein the control circuit is further configured to analyze the customer itinerary and identify alternative delivery locations to present to the particular customer via the shopping user interface, in response to a determination that the particular customer is scheduled to be away from an initial delivery location or a home street address.
12 . The retail product delivery system of claim 1 wherein some of the delivery agents are crowd-sourced via a plurality of delivery user interfaces operating on the electronic user devices.
13 . The retail product delivery system of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is further configured to authenticate the particular customer and an assigned delivery agent.
14 . The retail product delivery system of claim 1 wherein the control circuit authenticates delivery of the retail order or the portion thereof by securely storing data in data blocks so that it cannot be modified after storage.
15 . The retail product delivery system of claim 14 further comprising a computer memory storing computer readable instructions configured to create a genesis block of a chain, compute a hash of the genesis block, and create a proof standard of the chain.
16 . The retail product delivery system of claim 15 wherein the chain is stored on multiple nodes as at least one of a distributed database or a shared ledger such that modifications to any one copy of the chain would be detectable when the system attempts to achieve consensus prior to adding a new block to the chain.
17 . The retail product delivery system of claim 15 wherein at least some of the blocks in the chain are created by nodes that include at least one of: the particular customer via the electronic user device associated therewith, a retail entity via the control circuit, or an assigned delivery agent.
18 . The retail product delivery system of claim 14 wherein the control circuit authenticates delivery of the retail order or portion thereof via DNA labeling and the system further comprises a DNA scanner and a delivery agent database having profiles of the delivery agents.
19 . A method for delivering products to a customer away from home, the method comprising:
receiving a retail order from a particular customer;
monitoring individual activity of the particular customer including a present location of the particular customer, via an electronic user device associated with the particular customer;
presenting a selection opportunity, via a shopping user interface configured to operate on the electronic user interface associated with the particular customer, the selection opportunity permitting the particular customer to select a landmark or rendezvous location for delivery of the retail order or a portion thereof; and
instructing delivery of the retail order or the portion thereof to the particular customer at the landmark or rendezvous location, via a delivery user interface operating on a delivery agent user device.
20 . The method of claim 19 further comprising monitoring a delivery agent location of an assigned delivery agent tasked with delivery of the retail order or the portion thereof and notify the particular customer, via the electronic user device associated with the particular customer and the assigned delivery agent, via the delivery agent user device, when the particular customer and the assigned delivery agent are within a predetermined distance from one another.
21 . The method of claim 19 further comprising facilitating interaction between the electronic user device associated with the particular customer and the delivery agent user device upon determining that the electronic user device associated with the particular customer and the delivery agent user device are within the predetermined distance from one another.
22 . The method of claim 19 further comprising receiving notification of a change of an intended location of the particular customer and rerouting the retail order or the portion thereof during delivery thereof.
23 . The method of claim 22 further comprising analyzing multiple delivery agent locations via electronic user devices carried by separate and distinct delivery agents and in response to receiving notification of the change in intended location, rerouting the retail order or portion thereof to another of the delivery agents for delivery.
24 . The method of claim 19 further comprising monitoring locations of a plurality of delivery agents via electronic user devices associated with the delivery agents.
25 . The method of claim 19 further comprising analyzing a customer itinerary for the particular customer and identifying alternative delivery locations to present to the particular customer via the electronic user device associated therewith on the shopping user interface, in response to determining that the particular customer is scheduled to be away from an initial delivery location.