Amazon has been awarded a patent for an automated system that would allow users to return Amazon-derived gifts, even before the order has been shipped.

      According to the application, the invention, tagged to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Colin Bryar, vice president of Web Services, is for a "gift conversion" wizard that would let Amazon users program their own rules for gift-returning, which would be implemented before the order is even shipped.

      For instance, the application says, a user can set a rule that automatically converts "all gifts from Aunt Mildred" into gift certificates because, to put it politely, "the user believes that this potential sender has different tastes than the user."

      Speaking of manners, the wizard could also be programmed to automatically send the giver a thank you note for the original gift, even if the gift was converted.

      Sounds great for unsentimental gift recipients, but there's a strong business incentive for Amazon as well. The Washington Post notes that such an invention could offset the "millions of dollars" e-retailers like Amazon spend in shipping and labor costs for returned items. Roughly 30 percent of all online purchases are returned, the article said. It's probably safe to say that Amazon's best-selling product ever, the third-generation, Wi-Fi Amazon Kindle, is not among them.

      Amazon filed the patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2006 and received approval in November 2010.

Source from PCMag