Automatic ship programs have been offered by retailers and manufacturers for years with varying levels of end user usefulness thus resulting in limited usefulness. Over the past three years, The CareGiver Partnership carefully researched those consumers who elected not to take advantage of their convenient Never Run OutSM automatically scheduled delivery service. These insights led to the development of a unique and now patent pending solution. This solution applies to any consumer product, commodity or service in any industry where automatic shipment provides a convenience benefit for the end user.
“We learned that the primary reason consumers weren’t taking advantage of our Never Run Out service was because they didn’t know how often they should schedule a delivery”, said Lynn Wilson, Founder of The CareGiver Partnership. Since every person’s usage varies and each of the over 400 SKU’s of incontinence products we sell is packaged in different counts, consumers were confused.
With these consumer insights, we set out to solve the problem by asking pertinent questions and then addressing them programmatically using an algorithm that precisely matches consumer usage with a specific stock keeping unit. For example, if a person uses 3 incontinence products per day on average and there are 72 in a case, the tool recommends shipment every 24 days.
This process is applicable to a broad range of products and services including replenishment of baby diapers for parents; pet food for pet owners; machine cleaning supplies for a manufacturing concern; replacement light bulbs for a large convention center, etc. This is by no means an exhaustive list.
In particular, the invention is applicable to products, supplies and services that are sold in multiples with specific multiples forming a single deliverable unit, such as a package of 20, 30, 40, etc. diapers wherein the customer can order any one of the packages and the delivery schedule will vary depending on which size package the customer orders.
The invention pertains to any product or service by providing programmatic tools that calculate the most appropriate delivery sequence or schedule based on combining the quantity of product in a given unit (ounces, pounds, pieces, etc.) and the current estimated consumption rate per time period.
The process was further enhanced to make it even more convenient for our consumers by allowing them to:
- Manage modifications to the delivery sequence or schedule including the delivery interval
- Skip a delivery
- Pause recurring orders for X period of time
- Increase or decrease the quantity delivered
- Modify the product established for recurring delivery
- Cancelling future deliveries
- Modify the payment method for recurring deliveries
Since implementation, new customers taking advantage of our Never Run Out service has increased 88% per month. We’ve proven that this tool offers a major convenience benefit to consumers. We’re already in discussions with other retailers who are wishing to license our invention and implement it within their online businesses.
