초록

The present invention provides systems and methods for enabling a customer to sample content and select content for purchasing while the customer is in a retail store. Advantageously, the customer may be given one or more options for the delivery of the content.

대표청구항 ▼

What is claimed is: 1. A method for enabling a customer in a retail store to purchase digital assets, comprising: receiving at a terminal located within the retail store a virtual shopping cart identifier inputted by the customer; transmitting the identifier from the terminal to a server system, wh

What is claimed is: 1. A method for enabling a customer in a retail store to purchase digital assets, comprising: receiving at a terminal located within the retail store a virtual shopping cart identifier inputted by the customer; transmitting the identifier from the terminal to a server system, which determines the status of the identified virtual cart; after determining the status of the cart, transmitting a response to the terminal; displaying to the customer at the terminal a user interface that enables the customer to select a digital asset for purchase; receiving at the terminal input from the customer indicating that the customer desires to add the digital asset to the customer's virtual cart; transmitting from the terminal to the server system an asset identifier identifying the digital asset, wherein the server system associates the asset identifier with the cart identifier; receiving at the terminal and from the customer an indication that the customer is ready to purchase the contents of the customer's virtual cart; transmitting to a fulfillment system an order message, wherein the order message includes information identifying one or more digital assets, each of which digital asset has an identifier associated with the cart identifier; receiving an order response from the fulfillment system, wherein the order response includes an order confirmation code; providing the order confirmation code to the customer; receiving a message transmitted from a device operated by the customer and located outside the store, wherein the message contains the order confirmation code; and after receiving the message, transmitting to the device located outside of the store the one or more digital assets. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving at a checkout terminal the virtual cart identifier; transmitting from the checkout terminal to the server system the received cart identifier; receiving from the server system purchase amount information; receiving payment from the customer; and providing a receipt to the customer. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the order confirmation code is printed on or stored in the receipt. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting step further comprises: fetching from the storage device digital assets identified by digital asset identifiers associated with the confirmation code; and transmitting the fetched digital assets from the fulfillment system to the device located outside of the store. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the fulfillment system comprises a database that associates the confirmation code with one or more digital asset identifiers, each identifier identifying a digital asset. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface that enables the customer to select a digital asset for purchase also enables the user to select for the digital asset a purchase mode from a set of available purchase modes. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of available purchase modes includes a copy to disk purchase mode and a digital download purchase mode. 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining the digital assets associated with the cart identifier that have been selected for digital download by the customer, wherein this determining step occurs prior to transmitting the order message to the fulfillment system, and all of the digital assets identified in the order message have been selected for digital download by the customer. 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: prior to receiving at the terminal located within the retail store the virtual shopping cart identifier inputted by the customer, making available to the customer a shopping card, wherein the virtual shopping cart identifier is printed on the shopping card and/or stored in the shopping card and the virtual shopping cart identifier identifies a particular virtual shopping cart; receiving, at the server system, the asset identifier that was transmitted by the terminal; and in response to receiving the asset identifier, adding the identified asset to the particular virtual shopping cart identified by the virtual shopping cart identifier, wherein the step of adding the identified asset to the particular virtual shopping cart comprises updating a virtual cart database so that a record in the virtual cart database associates the asset identifier with the virtual cart identifier. 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising instructing the customer to go to a checkout counter with the shopping card after receiving at the terminal the indication that the customer is ready to purchase the contents of the customer's virtual cart and before providing the order confirmation code to the customer. 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: receiving the shopping card from the customer after or upon the arrival of the customer at the checkout counter; and inputting into a checkout terminal the virtual shopping cart identifier associated with the received shopping card. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein, at the time the terminal receives the virtual shopping cart identifier, the virtual shopping cart identifier is not anywhere associated with any information about the customer. 13. A method for enabling a customer in a retail store to purchase digital assets, comprising: receiving at a terminal located within the retail store an account identifier associated with the customer; transmitting the identifier from the terminal to a server system, which determines whether a database coupled to the server system associates any digital asset identifiers with the account identifier; after determining whether the database associates any digital asset identifiers with the account identifier, transmitting a response to the terminal; displaying to the customer at the terminal a user interface that enables the customer to select a digital asset for purchase; receiving at the terminal input from the customer indicating that the customer desires to purchase the digital asset; transmitting from the terminal to the server system an asset identifier identifying the digital asset, wherein the server system uses the database to associate the asset identifier with the account identifier; receiving at the terminal an indication that the customer is ready to purchase the digital assets identified by the asset identifiers associated with the account identifier; transmitting to a fulfillment system an order message, wherein the order message includes the account identifier and information identifying one or more digital assets, each of which digital asset has an identifier associated with the account identifier; receiving from a device operated by the customer and located outside of the store the account identifier; and after receiving the account identifier, transmitting to the device located outside of the store the one or more digital assets. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the transmitting step further comprises: fetching from a storage device digital assets identified by digital asset identifiers associated with the account identifier; and transmitting the fetched digital assets from the fulfillment system to the device located outside of the store. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the fulfillment system comprises a database that associates the account identifier with one or more digital asset identifiers, each identifier identifying a digital asset. 16. The method of claim 13, wherein the user interface that enables the customer to select a digital asset for purchase also enables the user to select a purchase mode for the digital asset from a set of available purchase modes. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the set of available purchase modes includes a copy to disk purchase mode and a digital download purchase mode. 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining the digital assets associated with the account identifier that have been selected for digital download by the customer, wherein this determining step occurs prior to transmitting the order message to the fulfillment system, and all of the digital assets identified in the order message have been selected for digital download by the customer. 19. The method of claim 13, wherein the customer device includes software that is configured to automatically download the one or more digital assets from the fulfillment system so that the customer need not manually download the one or more digital assets. 20. A method for enabling a customer in a retail store to purchase digital assets, comprising: providing the customer with a shopping card having a virtual shopping cart identifier printed thereon or stored therein; placing a terminal in the retail store, the terminal having a reader for reading virtual shopping cart identifiers printed on or stored in shopping cards; transmitting from the terminal to a server system the virtual shopping cart identifier after the reader reads the virtual shopping cart identifier, which server system determines whether a database coupled to the server system associates any digital asset identifiers with the cart identifier; after determining whether the database associates any digital asset identifiers with the cart identifier, transmitting a response to the terminal; displaying to the customer at the terminal a user interface that enables the customer to select a digital asset for purchase; receiving at the terminal input from the customer indicating that the customer desires to purchase the digital asset; transmitting from the terminal to the server system an asset identifier identifying the digital asset, wherein the server system associates the asset identifier with the cart identifier; receiving at the terminal an indication that the customer is ready to purchase the digital assets identified by the asset identifiers associated with the cart identifier; transmitting to a fulfillment system an order message, wherein the order message includes information identifying one or more digital assets, each of which digital asset has an identifier associated with the cart identifier; receiving an order response from the fulfillment system; providing an order confirmation code to the customer; receiving from a device operated by the customer and located outside the store a message containing the order confirmation code; and after receiving the message containing the order confirmation code, transmitting to the device located outside of the store the one or more digital assets. 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the reader comprises at least one of a barcode scanner, magnetic strip reader, and an RFID reader. 22. The method of claim 20, further comprising: receiving at a checkout terminal the virtual cart identifier; transmitting from the checkout terminal to the server system the received cart identifier; receiving from the server system purchase amount information; receiving payment from the customer; and providing a receipt to the customer. 23. The method of claim 22, wherein the order confirmation code is printed on or stored in the receipt. 24. The method of claim 20, wherein the transmitting step further comprises: receiving by the fulfillment system the confirmation code from the device located outside of the store, wherein the fulfillment system comprises a storage device; fetching from the storage device digital assets identified by digital asset identifiers associated with the confirmation code; and transmitting the fetched digital assets from the fulfillment system to the device located outside of the store. 25. The method of claim 24, wherein the fulfillment system comprises a database that associates the confirmation code with one or more digital asset identifiers, each identifier identifying a digital asset. 26. The method of claim 20, further comprising instructing the customer to go to a checkout counter with the shopping card after receiving at the terminal the indication that the customer is ready to purchase the digital assets identified by the asset identifiers associated with the cart identifier and before providing the order confirmation code to the customer. 27. The method of claim 26, further comprising: receiving the shopping card from the customer after or upon the arrival of the customer at the checkout counter; and inputting into a checkout terminal the virtual shopping cart identifier associated with the received shopping card. 28. A method for enabling a customer in a retail store to purchase digital assets, comprising: receiving at a terminal located within the retail store an account identifier associated with the customer or a virtual shopping cart identifier; associating the account or cart identifier with a set of one or more audio encoding formats; transmitting the account or cart identifier from the terminal to a server system; transmitting an audio recordings identifier from the terminal to the server system, wherein the audio recordings identifier identifies a set of audio recordings; determining the set of audio encoding formats associated with the account identifier or cart identifier; determining whether an audio recording included in the set of audio recordings is available for purchase in at least one of the audio encoding formats in included in the set; and displaying an indication to the customer that the audio recording is available for purchase only if it was determined that the audio recording is available for purchase in at least one of the audio encoding formats included in the set. 29. The method of claim 28, further comprising receiving a confirmation code from the fulfillment system prior to transmitting the audio recording to the device located outside of the store. 30. The method of claim 29, wherein the step of transmitting the audio recording includes the step of receiving at the fulfillment system the confirmation code from the device located outside of the store. 31. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of transmitting the audio recording includes the step of receiving at the fulfillment system the account identifier from the device located outside of the store. 32. The method of claim 28, wherein the audio recordings identifier identifies a set of one or more audio recordings released together on a compact disc or phonograph record. 33. The method of claim 28, wherein the audio recordings identifier identifies a set of one or more audio recordings recorded by the same artist. 34. The method of claim 28, wherein the device located outside of the store includes software that is configured to automatically download the audio recording from the fulfillment system so that the customer need not manually download the audio recording. 35. The method of claim 28, further comprising the steps of: receiving at the terminal input from the customer indicating that the customer desires to add the audio recording to a virtual shopping cart; transmitting from the terminal to the server system an asset identifier identifying the audio recording, wherein the server system uses the database to associate the asset identifier with the account or cart identifier; receiving at the terminal an indication that the customer is ready to purchase the audio recording; transmitting to a fulfillment system an order message, wherein the order message includes the asset identifier; and transmitting the audio recording from the fulfillment system to a device operated by the customer and located outside of the store.