Shopify Inc.

Blake Delaney Manders

Dennis Ho

Scott Francis

System and methods are provided to regulate sales of a product in an online store using computer-implemented delays. The computer-implemented delays can, for example, help mitigate the use of bots in the online store, provide different customers with equal access to the product and/or provide certain customers with priority access to the product. According to an embodiment, a method includes receiving an indication that a user intends to purchase an item of a product in an online store, and determining a delay for a sale of the item to the user to regulate sales of the product. Before completing the sale of the item to the user, the delay is implemented in the online store.

Systems and methods to regulate sales of a product in an online store

A system for web traffic control is provided that is based on information related to a user's previous online activity. In one embodiment, the system is able to collect information about incoming traffic, compare the information to a generated ruleset, and make and implement a decision about how to handle each request/user interaction. In one embodiment, the ruleset is based on e-commerce rules. An e-commerce rule is a unit of decision making logic based on the user's previous online activity on the e-commerce platform, e.g. 'If request is to add an item to user's cart, and if user already added something to their cart less than one second ago, then block request'. In some embodiments, the rules may be executed at the firewall and/or in a web application on the e-commerce platform. In some embodiments, one or more rules may be recommended to a merchant.

Growing community of inventors

Ottawa, Canada

Blake Delaney Manders