CLIAMS:What is claimed is:
1) A method for social circle based product rating in online purchase portal, said method comprises:
configuring at least one user preference with said social circle;
fetching product ratings from members of said social circle;
measuring a weighted sum of rating for each product based on at least one of said configured user preference and said fetched product ratings; and
displaying said measured weighted sum of ratings to said user.
2) The method as in claim 1, wherein said social circle is associated with an online purchase portal account of said user.
3) The method as in claim 1, wherein said members are manually added to said social circle.
4) The method as in claim 1, wherein said weighted sum of rating for said product is different for different users.
5) The method as in claim 1, wherein products are recommended to said user based on at least one of said measured weighted sum of rating and a past purchase history of said user.
6) The method as in claim 5, wherein said past purchase history is updated each time a purchase is made or cancelled by said user.
7) A system for social circle based product rating in online purchase portal, said system is configured for:
configuring at least one user preference with said social circle using an online shopping server;
fetching product ratings from members of said social circle using said online shopping server;
measuring a weighted sum of rating for each product based on at least one of said configured user preference and said fetched product ratings using said online shopping server; and
displaying said measured weighted sum of ratings to said user using said online shopping server.
8) The system as in claim 7 is further configured for associating said social circle with an online purchase portal account of said user using said online shopping server.
9) The system as in claim 7 is further configured to provide means for manually adding said members to said social circle using said online shopping server.
10) The system as in claim 7 is further configured to provide means for assigning different weighted sum of rating for said product for different users using said online shopping server.
11) The system as in claim 7 is further configured to recommend products to said user based on at least one of said measured weighted sum of rating and a past purchase history of said user using said online shopping server.
12) The system as in claim 11 is further configured to update said past purchase history of said user each time a purchase is made or cancelled by said user using said online shopping server.
,TagSPECI:FORM 2
The Patent Act 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
The Patent Rules, 2005

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(SEE SECTION 10 AND RULE 13)

TITLE OF THE INVENTION

“Commerce through Social Shopping (CommeRs)”

APPLICANTS:
Name : HCL Technologies Limited
Nationality : Indian
Address : HCL Technologies Ltd., 50-53 Greams
Road,Chennai – 600006, Tamil Nadu, India
The following specification particularly describes and ascertains the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:-
FIELD OF INVENTION
[001] The embodiments herein relate to online commerce and, more particularly, to social circle based rating and purchase of products in online commerce.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
[002] Online commerce is gaining popularity with more and more people using internet for their day to day needs including shopping. There are plenty online service providers who help users to select and purchase products online. Users can browse through lists of available products in different categories and can select one of his/her choice. The user can order products online and the product is sent to an address provided by the user. Further, most of the online shopping websites provides option for the user to narrow down search based on certain preferences such as price range, product type, color and so on. Another attracting feature of the online shopping sites is that they provide attractive offers and discounts for each purchase.
[003] However, a disadvantage of the online shopping sites is that the user may not get clear idea about the type of product, quality, any sort of limitations and so on. If the user purchases these products directly from a shop, he may check and verify all features and quality of the product. One feature of the online shopping websites that may help the users in this regard is the reviews posted by other users. Disadvantage of this feature is that the reviews posted by anonymous users may not be worth considering always. For example, the person associated with the online shopping website may post anonymous reviews to misguide the users/customers. Further the user may find multiple matches while searching for a particular product. But none of the existing online shopping systems provides means for automatically suggesting most relevant products for a user.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION
[004] In view of the foregoing, an embodiment herein provides a method a method for social circle based product rating in online purchase portal, the method comprises configuring at least one user preference with the social circle; fetching product ratings from members of the social circle; measuring a weighted sum of rating for each product based on at least one of the configured user preference and the fetched product ratings; and displaying the measured weighted sum of ratings to the user.
[005] Embodiments further disclose a system for a system for social circle based product rating in online purchase portal, the system is configured for configuring at least one user preference with the social circle using an online shopping server; fetching product ratings from members of the social circle using the online shopping server; measuring a weighted sum of rating for each product based on at least one of the configured user preference and the fetched product ratings using the online shopping server; and displaying the measured weighted sum of ratings to the user using the online shopping server.
[006] These and other aspects of the embodiments herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[007] The embodiments herein will be better understood from the following detailed description with reference to the drawings, in which:
[008] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of the social product rating system, as disclosed in the embodiments herein;
[009] FIG. 2 is a block diagram that shows various components of the Online shopping server, as disclosed in the embodiments herein;
[0010] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that shows various steps involved in the process of assigning user specific rating for products in the social circle based online shopping system, as disclosed in the embodiments herein; and
[0011] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that shows various steps involved in the process of user purchasing products using the social circle based online shopping system, as disclosed in the embodiments herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION
[0012] The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
[0013] The embodiments herein disclose a social online shopping system by using information from a social circle associated with each user profile in the online shopping website. Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIGS. 1 through 4, where similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the figures, there are shown embodiments.
[0014] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of the social product rating system, as disclosed in the embodiments herein. The system comprises an online shopping server 101 and a plurality of user devices 102. The user device 102 may be any device such as laptop, desktop, mobile phone, tablet computers and so on which has internet connectivity and may be used to access the online shopping portals. The social circle based online purchase mechanism allows create social circle in the online shopping website, add friends to the social circle, obtain product ratings and reviews from friends in the social circle. The user may also configure own preferences while creating the social circle. Further, the user may manually edit information on user preferences configured with the social circles. The user may also add/remove friends in his social circle.
[0015] Friends in a social circle can rate assign ratings to products and may also share comments/reviews on specific products/services. All these information is shared between users in a social circle. The online shopping server 101, based on the user preferences and the ratings received from friends in the social circle, calculates a weighted average of ratings for each product and provides the rating information to the user.
[0016] The user may browse through the product lists available in the website and may provide ratings to products of his/her choice. In a preferred embodiment, the online shopping server 101 automatically identifies, based on the configured user preferences and ratings obtained from friends in the user’s social circle, products that may be of interest for the user. Further, when the user log in to the website, the online shopping server 101 automatically suggests/recommends the identified products/services to the user. In another embodiment, one user in the social circle may recommend a selected product to any other user in his social circle.
[0017] The user may either select products from the suggested list of products or may manually browse through product categories provided in the website. Further, the user may make purchase decisions based on the ratings provided for each product. The user may provide ratings for products of his choice. In a preferred embodiment, all user actions such as product purchase history/past purchase history, viewed and rated products and so on are saved in the online shopping server 101 for future reference.
[0018] FIG. 2 is a block diagram that shows various components of the Online shopping server, as disclosed in the embodiments herein. The online shopping server 101 further comprises an authentication module 201, an interface module 202, a memory module 203 and a customization and rating module 204. The authentication module 201 authenticates a user login based on pre-configured login credentials. In an embodiment, the login credentials of a user are configured at the time of initial sign up process with the online shopping server 101 through the website. The authentication module 201 may also eliminate possibility of data duplication by checking whether information provided by a user at the time of sign up process is already configured with the online shopping server 101.The interface module 202 is used to connect and facilitate data transfer between the online shopping server 101 and various user devices 102. Further, the memory module 203 stores information such as sign up information of a user, preference information configured by the user, social circle information corresponding to each user account, browsing information and purchase history of each user, ratings assigned to each product and so on.
[0019] The customization and rating module 204 analyzes the configured user preference information and the rating information from friends in the user’s social circle and measures ratings of each product for that user. For example, if multiple friends rate a product, the customization and rating module 204 may calculate a weighted sum of all the ratings for that product. In a preferred embodiment, the weighted sum of ratings calculated by the customization and rating module 204 is user specific. Further, based on the assigned ratings and configured preferences, the customization and rating module 204 identifies products/services which may be of the user’s interest and recommends them to the user.
[0020] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that shows various steps involved in the process of assigning user specific rating for products in the social circle based online shopping system, as disclosed in the embodiments herein. In order to use the social circle based online purchase feature, the user has to create (301) a social circle using features provided in the online purchase portal. In various embodiments, the user can create the social circle while signing up with the website or at any point of time as far as he/she has a user account with the online purchase portal.
[0021] While creating the social circle, the user can configure information on various user preferences such as preferred brands, preferred color choices, preferred designs and so on. The type of user preferences may vary based on the type of products/service provided by each online purchase portal. For example, in the case of apparel sites, the profile captured would include the user’s skin tone, height, weight, color preferences and so on. Further, the user can add friends to the created social circle. For example, the user can invite friends using mail id of the friends. In another embodiment, the user may link the online purchase portal with a social networking site and may add or import friends from that website. In an embodiment, the user may edit/change preferences and friends list at any point of time.
[0022] The customization and rating module 204 in the online shopping server 101 fetches information on configured user preferences (302) and ratings of products (303) fetched from the user's social circle. In a preferred embodiment, the customization and rating module 204 creates a user profile based on the user preference information and other user specific information obtained during sign up process. The user preference information may comprise preferred brands, color choices, designs, type of product interested and so on along with user specific parameters such as age, skin tone, height, weight and so on, depending on type of products being offered by the online purchase portal.
[0023] Further, based on the user preference and rating information, the customization and rating module 204 measures and assigns (304) a weighted sum of rating to all or selected products. In a preferred embodiment, the weighted average value for each product may be different for different users depending on their preferences and ratings obtained for the product from members of the user's social circle. For example, consider user A and user B who have different preferences. The customization and rating module 204, based on the preference of A and B, may assign different priority values for a product 'X' i.e. if characteristics of X matches with preferences of user A and if ratings assigned to X is high, then the customization and rating module 204 assigns higher rating to the product X for the user A. Similarly, if the characteristics of X doesn't match with preferences of user B and if ratings for X from B's social circle is less, then the customization and rating module 204 assigns lesser ratings to X for user B. The various actions in method 300 may be performed in the order presented, in a different order or simultaneously. Further, in some embodiments, some actions listed in FIG. 3 may be omitted.
[0024] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that shows various steps involved in the process of user purchasing products using the social circle based online shopping system, as disclosed in the embodiments herein. Whenever the user log in to the online purchase portal, the customization and rating module 204 provides (401) recommendations based on weighted average of ratings calculated for products based on the user preferences and ratings for the product from the user's social circle. The user views (402) the recommended products and decides (403) whether to purchase any from the recommended list of products or not. In another embodiment, the user may search for a required product by manually browsing through the product listings available in the website. Whenever the user views catalogue of a product in the website, corresponding rating is displayed to the user.
[0025] If the user opts to purchase the product, the website provides (404) options for the user to initiate product purchase. Further, based on the user's purchase actions, the user history information is updated (405). Further, based on the users purchase pattern, ratings of selected products may change for the user. For example, assume that the customization and rating module 204 recommends product Y to the user C based on measured weighted average rankings. If the user purchases this product based on the recommendations, ratings of the product Y increases for the user C. Further, based on the purchase history of a user, members of the user’s social circle may select and purchase products at a later stage. In an example, when the user intends to purchase a gift from the purchase portal, the system may suggest products with highest rating or by considering past purchase history of the user. The user may also consider data updated on the user’s timeline to select an appropriate product. The various actions in method 400 may be performed in the order presented, in a different order or simultaneously. Further, in some embodiments, some actions listed in FIG. 4 may be omitted.
[0026] The embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented through at least one software program running on at least one hardware device and performing network management functions to control the network elements. The network elements shown in Fig. 1 include blocks which can be at least one of a hardware device, or a combination of hardware device and software module.
[0027] The embodiment disclosed herein specifies a system for social online shopping. The mechanism allows process of identifying and suggesting most relevant products for a user, providing a system thereof. Therefore, it is understood that the scope of the protection is extended to such a program and in addition to a computer readable means having a message therein, such computer readable storage means contain program code means for implementation of one or more steps of the method, when the program runs on a server or mobile device or any suitable programmable device. The method is implemented in a preferred embodiment through or together with a software program written in e.g. Very high speed integrated circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL) another programming language, or implemented by one or more VHDL or several software modules being executed on at least one hardware device. The hardware device can be any kind of device which can be programmed including e.g. any kind of computer like a server or a personal computer, or the like, or any combination thereof, e.g. one processor and two FPGAs. The device may also include means which could be e.g. hardware means like e.g. an ASIC, or a combination of hardware and software means, e.g. an ASIC and an FPGA, or at least one microprocessor and at least one memory with software modules located therein. Thus, the means are at least one hardware means and/or at least one software means. The method embodiments described herein could be implemented in pure hardware or partly in hardware and partly in software. The device may also include only software means. Alternatively, the invention may be implemented on different hardware devices, e.g. using a plurality of CPUs.
[0028] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the claims as described herein.