METHODS FOR MANAGING TRANSACTIONS ON THE INTERNET WITH ANONYMOUS SHIPPING ADDRESSES

摘要

A method of managing a transaction on the Internet between a consumer and an e-merchant in which the actual shipping address of the consumer is not provided to the merchant. When a consumer initiates a purchase with an e-merchant, if anonymity is desired, the consumer causes a management system to generate an encoded address. The encoded address may be a unique address code stored in a database in the management system and is associated with the actual shipping address of the consumer. The encoded address is provided to the e-merchant. The e-merchant may then prepare the goods for shipping and deliver the packaged goods to a shipper with the encoded address. The shipper then determines whether the address on the packaged goods is an encoded address or an actual shipping address. If the address is encoded, then the shipper may retrieve the actual shipping address associated with the encoded address from a database. Once the actual shipping address is obtained, the goods may be shipped to the consumer.