Concurrent dynamic pricing marketing and selling system

ABSTRACT :-

A system for liquidating excess, returned, inventory of slow moving products to maximize gross profit. The system has a variable pricing strategy for enabling quick liquidation of unsold or returned inventory items. The system is Web based. The pricing strategy is interactive, and includes a flexible current price, an open order mechanism, a facility for a demand price and a buyer auction scheme. Sellers interact with the system to set minimum prices and permitted increments of changes in price when prices vary. Buyers can choose to acquire a certain amount of a product at the current price, or set an amount they are willing to pay after a particular period of time. Sellers can adjust prices based on buyer responses and arrive at an optimal pricing strategy over a given period of time to meet their requirements for inventory liquidation. The system can be used in on-line shopping forums and is available through a number of access points including affiliated websites, distributor and manufacturer websites and portal type websites. The system permits the liquidation of excess or returned inventory in a desired amount of time with an improved recovery price.

CLAIMS :-

What is claimed is:

1. A concurrent dynamic pricing marketing and sales system for providing buyer access to inventory items of a seller, comprising:

an inventory sales tool accessible to a plurality of buyers through at least one medium;

said inventory sales tool being effective to provide an indication of an available quantity of an item and a plurality of pricing schemes;

at least one of said pricing schemes permits at least one of said buyers to request an immediate purchase at an immediate purchase price; and

at least another of said pricing schemes permits said at least one of said buyers to request a deferred purchase at a deferred purchase price.

2. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein said at least one medium is a worldwide network of interconnected computers.

3. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, further comprising:

buyer selectable shopping channels; and

each of said shopping channels permits buyer access to said inventory items based on a type of merchandise.

4. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein said immediate purchase price decreases over a specified time period when no purchase requests are made.

5. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein said immediate purchase price increases a specified amount when an immediate purchase is made.

6. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein said indication is effective to provide information related to purchases by all of said buyers.

7. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein said item is made available for a limited duration of time.

8. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein:

said immediate purchase price can fluctuate;

said deferred purchase request includes an open order purchase request made by a first buyer;

said open order purchase request includes an open price;

said open order purchase request being fillable if said open price matches said immediate purchase price; and

said open order purchase request being accessible to no others of said buyers except said first buyer.

9. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein:

said inventory sales tool includes a lot price for a lot containing a specified quantity of said items;

said lot price and said specified quantity determine an average price for each of said items in said lot;

said deferred purchase request includes a demand purchase request made by said at least one of said buyers;

said demand purchase request includes a demand price;

said demand purchase request being fillable after a prescribed amount of time has passed if said demand price is not less than said average price; and

said demand purchase request being accessible to no others of said buyers except said at least one of said buyers.

10. A marketing system according to

claim 9

, wherein:

said at least one of said buyers includes at least another buyer;

said deferred purchase request includes at least another demand purchase request made by said at least another buyer;

said at least another demand purchase request includes another demand price;

said demand purchase request and said at least another demand purchase request being both fillable after said prescribed amount of time has passed if a sum of said demand price and said another demand price is not less than a total number of said items requested multiplied by said average price;

said demand purchase request being accessible to no others of said buyers except said at least one of said buyers; and

said at least another demand purchase request being accessible to no others of said buyers except said at least another buyer.

11. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein a filled immediate purchase decreases said available quantity of said item for said deferred purchase.

12. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein:

said inventory sales tool includes a minimum auction price;

said deferred purchase request includes an auction purchase request including a bid purchase price;

said auction purchase request being fillable if said bid purchase price is not less than said minimum auction price and said bid purchase price is greater or equal to any other bid purchase price submitted for a like quantity of items.

13. A marketing system according to

claim 10

, wherein said seller sets said lot price.

14. A marketing system according to

claim 12

, wherein said seller sets said minimum auction price and a bid purchase price increment by which said bid purchase price is permitted to change.

15. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein said sell sets a minimum immediate purchase price.

16. A marketing system according to

claim 8

, wherein:

said inventory sales tool includes a lot price for a lot containing a specified quantity of said items;

said lot price and said specified quantity determine an average price for each of said items in said lot;

said deferred purchase request includes a demand purchase request made by said at least one of said buyers;

said demand purchase request includes a demand price;

said demand purchase request being fillable after a prescribed amount of time has passed if said demand price is not less than said average price; and

said demand purchase request being accessible to no others of said buyers except said at least one of said buyers.

17. A marketing system according to

claim 16

, wherein:

said inventory sales tool includes a minimum auction price;

said deferred purchase request includes an auction purchase request including a bid purchase price;

said auction purchase request being fillable if said bid purchase price is not less than said minimum auction price and said bid purchase price is greater or equal to any other bid purchase price submitted for a like quantity of items.

18. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, wherein said inventory items are composed of excess inventory.

19. A marketing system according to

claim 17

, wherein said inventory items are composed of excess inventory.

20. A marketing system according to

claim 2

, wherein said inventory sales tool is accessible on a web site.

21. A marketing system according to

claim 20

, wherein said web site is related to a general buyer interest.

22. A marketing system according to

claim 20

, wherein said web site is related to a manufacturer of said inventory items.

23. A marketing system according to

claim 20

, wherein said web site is related to a distributor of said inventory items.

24. A marketing system according to

claim 20

, wherein said web site is a general purpose web site including at least a search engine.

25. A marketing system according to

claim 1

, further including an indication showing for a first buyer at least any immediate purchase selections with immediate purchase prices and any deferred purchase selections with deferred purchase prices.

26. A marketing system according to

claim 25

, wherein said indication is effective to permit said first buyer to complete a sales transaction based on said selections.

27. A marketing system according to

claim 25

, further including:

a storage medium;

said indication being storable on said storage medium; and

a profile describing purchase trends of said first buyer contains information related to all of said indications stored on said storage medium.

28. A marketing system according to

claim 25

, further including:

a first buyer notification; and

said first buyer notification containing information related to offers for sale of said inventory items.

29. A marketing system according to

claim 28

, wherein said first buyer notification operates on an electronic mailing system.

30. A marketing system according to

claim 27

, further including:

a first buyer notification; and

said first buyer notification containing information related to offers for sale of said inventory items.

31. A system providing buyer purchase choices, comprising:

an inventory content indication effective to provide information about at least a portion of an inventory content including at least one saleable item;

a communication network effective to provide access to said indication for a plurality of users;

a plurality of buying options including at least one of a current purchase option and a deferred purchase option related to said at least one saleable item; and

said communication network effective to provide access to said plurality of buying options for said plurality of users, whereby said plurality of users may modify at least one parameter of any one of said plurality of buying options.

32. A system according to

claim 31

, wherein said modification of said at least one parameter includes submission of a buy request.

33. A system for providing buyer and seller purchase feedback, comprising:

an inventory content indication effective to provide information about at least a portion of an inventory content including a plurality of saleable items;

a plurality of variable prices related to each of said saleable items;

a communication network effective to provide access to at least one of said indication and said prices for a plurality of buyers and at least one seller;

a plurality of buying options including at least one of a current purchase option and a deferred purchase option related to said at least one of said indication and said prices;

said buying options permit said buyers to submit purchase requests; and

said at least one seller can modify parameters of said buying options.

34. A method of offering inventory items for sale, comprising:

providing to a buyer an indication of available quantities for inventory items of a seller;

providing to said buyer a plurality of pricing schemes for said inventory items;

at least one of said pricing schemes permitting said buyer to request an immediate purchase at an immediate purchase price;

at least another of said pricing schemes permitting said buyer to request a deferred purchase at a deferred purchase price; and filling said purchase requests if said purchase prices meet specific criterion.

35. A method according to

claim 34

, wherein:

said deferred purchase includes at least one of an open order; a demand order and an auction bid order;

filling said open order if a related open order purchase price is not less than said immediate purchase price;

filling said demand order within a specified period of time if a related demand order price is not less than an average lot price for an inventory lot including said inventory items; and

filling said auction bid order if a related auction bid order price is greater than any other auction bid order price.

36. A method according to

claim 35

, wherein said method is operable over a network of interconnected computers.

37. A method according to

claim 34

, wherein said inventory items comprise excess inventory including at least one of excess items, returned items and repaired items.

38. An article of manufacture comprising a computer readable medium in which is stored a computer program for offering inventory items for sale, the computer program comprising:

a first code segment executable to provide to a buyer an indication of available quantities for inventory items of a seller;

a second code segment executable to permit said buyer to request an immediate purchase at an immediate purchase price;

a third code segment executable to permit said buyer to request a deferred purchase at a deferred purchase price; and

a fourth code segment executable to fill said purchase requests if said purchase prices meet specific criterion.

39. A tool for providing a buyer and seller access to an inventory, comprising:

an indication of quantities of inventory items;

a current price associated with each of said inventory items;

a deferred price associated with each of said inventory items;

an offer facility which permits said seller to set parameters associated with said prices;

a purchase facility which permits said buyer to select purchases from among said inventory items for purchase; and

said selected purchases can be made at either a current price or a deferred price.

40. A tool according to

claim 39

, wherein said tool can be provided on a web site accessible to said buyer.

System and Method for Combining Group Buying with Regular Selling

ABSTRACT :-

A system and method of combining group buying with regular selling is provided. A group-buying company advertises a first product for sale from a group-buying website. The first product is a group-buying deal with deep discount offered for a short period of time. The group-buying websites also provides recommendation information on one or more products based on the first product. The one or more recommended products are supplied by another non-group-buying company. Consumers are able to purchase the one or more recommended products from the group-buying website

DESCRIPTION :-

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to e-commerce and, more particularly, to system and method for cross-promotion of group-buying products with non-group-buying products. 

BACKGROUND :-

There are several models in B2C (business to consumer) commerce. A first model is the traditional brick and mortar stores and shops. In this model, consumers visit the stores to buy products or services (e.g., in a restaurant). Usually, most of the products or services are sold at regular price, with a small number of items sold at lower (promotional) price and for a limited time. This form of commerce has been in existence for thousands of years.

A second model is e-commerce via online websites and stores. A typical example of this is amazon.com, where consumers buy products online and receive the products through shipment. In general, this model does not cover local services (e.g., restaurants). The pricing structure is similar to brick and mortar stores in that most of the products are sold at regular price, with a small number of items sold at lower (promotional) price and for a limited time. This form of commerce has been in existence for the past two decades or so.

A third model is online group-buying. This is a model got popularized in the recent 2-3 years. It started by offering coupons for local services online, and more recently, has evolved to also cover delivered products at scale. Different from the above two models, all the products sold in a typical group-buying website are priced at deep discount, but a minimum number of buyers is required for a deal (the product or service being sold) to be valid. Another limitation of the group-buying model is that product selection at any particular time is limited. Compared with (possibly) hundreds of thousands of products on a regular e-commerce site, a group-buying website usually just has hundreds of products or less at any particular time.

In B2C commerce, recommendation is a very common technique. For example, when a customer buys a laptop, the merchant may recommend the customer to buy a mouse. In the online world, recommendations often appears as “Customer who bought this product also bought”, or “You may also like”. These recommendations are often computed base on sophisticated data mining algorithms, such as association rules, collaborative filtering, and/or personalization algorithms. Because of the importance of this technique, recommending systems has become a focused research area in recent years. Currently, however, recommendations on B2C websites are limited to products offered by the same website, and under the same B2C model. For example, a group-buying company may recommend other group-buying deals from the same company, and an online store may recommend other products from the same site..

SUMMARY :-

A system and method of combining group buying with regular selling is provided. A group-buying company advertises a first product for sale from a group-buying website. The first product is a group-buying deal with deep discount offered for a short period of time. The group-buying websites also provides recommendation information on one or more products based on the first product. The one or more recommended products are supplied by another non-group-buying company. Consumers are able to purchase the one or more recommended products from the group-buying website.

In one embodiment, the non-group-buying company as a supplier opens up its inventory database to the group-buying company. The group-buying company determines the recommendation information based on data mining algorithms using the following information: relationship to the currently advertised group-buying product, personal information of the current buyer, collective buying behavior of users, and what is currently available in the inventory database. In addition, extended product selection is achieved by searching capability. Users can search the entire inventory database of the supplier from the same group-buying website and make payments from the same group-buying website.

In another embodiment, the non-group-buying company receives relevant information from the group-buying company and determines the recommendation information, which is sent back to the group-buying company. The non-group-buying company may have more control on the cross-promotion process including the payment process and even the display format of the recommendation.

In another preferred embodiment, the non-group-buying company is a local store that provides a large selection of products and services to local consumers. The recommended products/services may be determined based on buyer's location. After the buyer purchases a product or service from the group-buying website, the buyer gets a voucher or coupon code. The buyer then goes to the nearby local store to redeem the coupon (e.g., pick up the ordered product or enjoy the ordered service). This type of commerce model is a type of O2O (online-to-offline) transaction that has certain advantages by combining online and offline business, especially when location-based recommendation can be targeted to consumers located near the local store.

Other embodiments and advantages are described in the detailed description below. This summary does not purport to define the invention. The invention is defined by the claims.

Electronic online commerce card with transactionproxy number for online transactions

ABSTRACT :-

An online commerce system facilitates online commerce over a public network using an online commerce card. The "card" does not exist in physical form, but instead exists in digital form. The online commerce card is issued electronically to a customer by an issuing institution. The issued card is assigned a permanent customer account number that is maintained on behalf of the customer at the issuing institution to remove the risk of the number being lost or s stolen. When the customer desires to conduct an online transaction, the customer asks the issuing institution to issue a transaction number for a single transaction. The issuing institution generates a temporary transaction number and associates it with the permanent account number in a data record. The customer receives the transaction number and submits that number to the merchant as a proxy for the customer account number. The transaction number looks like a real card number and the merchant handles the transaction number in the same manner as any regular credit card number. When the merchant submits an request for authorization, the issuing institution recognizes the number as a transaction number for an online commerce card. The issuing institution references the customer account number, using the transaction number as an index, and processes the authorization request using the real customer account number in place of the proxy number. Once the authorization request is processed, the issuing institution once again exchanges the transaction number for the customer account number and sends an authorization reply back to the merchant under the transaction number.

DESCRIPTION :-

TECHNICAL FIELDThis invention relates to systems and methods for facilitating online commerce over a public network (such as the Internet or an Interactive TV/Cable Network) using credit cards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. More particularly, this invention relates to systems and methods for conducting online transactions using an electronically realizable card that has a private, permanent account number maintained on behalf of a customer by an issuing institution and temporary transaction numbers issued to the customer on a transactional basis without exposure of the permanent account number.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION :-

Online commerce is experiencing dramatic growth in recent years. More merchants are developing sites on the World Wide Web (or simply "WWW" or "Web") that consumers can access and order goods and/or services. It is fairly common for a consumer to browse a merchant's catalog, select a product, place an order for the product, and pay for the product all electronically over the Internet.
Typically, the consumer pays for the goods and/or services ordered over the Internet with a credit card. During the online transaction, the merchant sends an order form and requests the consumer to enter personal data (e.g., name, address, and telephone number) and credit card information (e.g., account number and expiration date). The consumer returns the completed order form containing the credit card information to the merchant over the Internet. The merchant verifies that the credit card number is valid and can be charged the payment amount. The card verification is usually conducted on a well-established card network, such as the VisaNet® network or the Veriphone® network.
One problem with this traditional online commerce model concerns the security of the credit card data as it travels over the Internet. The credit card information can be intercepted in route, copied into a database, and used to make unauthorized purchases. In an automated environment, an imposter can repeatedly use the stolen credit card data to conduct many online transactions before the consumer ever becomes aware that the credit card data has been stolen.
It would be desirable to develop a new online commerce model that reduces or eliminates the incentive for stealing credit card data. Ideally, a secure online commerce model would render the credit card data hard to steal, and if stolen, worthless to the thief.
Another concern is that any new online commerce model should integrate well with existing proprietary card network systems. There are well-established systems that verify credit card purchases and subsequently settle accounts. These systems and associated protocols are entrenched in the merchant and banking communities and experience a high level of acceptance and trust. A new online commerce model should not usurp these systems, nor require merchants to change their existing practices to implement completely different systems and protocols.
The inventor has developed a card-based online commerce system that improves security and integrates with existing card verification and settlement systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION :-

This invention concerns a system and method for facilitating online commerce over a public network (such as the Internet or Interactive TV/Cable Network) using an online commerce card. The "card" of this system does not exist in physical form, but instead exists in a digital form that can be electronically realized for online commerce.
The online commerce card is issued electronically to a customer by an issuing institution, such as a bank or third party certifying authority. The issued card is assigned a permanent customer account number that is maintained on behalf of the customer by the issuing institution. The customer account number is not given to the customer to remove the risk of that number being lost or stolen.
When the customer desires to conduct an online transaction, the customer sends a request to the issuing institution to issue a transaction number for a single transaction. The issuing institution generates a temporary transaction number and associates it with the permanent account number in a data record. The customer receives the transaction number and submits that number to the merchant as a proxy for the customer account number during the transaction.
The transaction number looks like a real card number (i.e., it has the same format and number of digits as a regular credit card). To the merchant, the transaction number is treated the same as any regular credit card number. The merchant handles the proxy transaction number according to traditional protocols, including seeking authorization from the issuing institution to honor the card number.
During the authorization phase, the issuing institution recognizes the number as a transaction number for an online commerce card. The issuing institution references the customer account number associated with the online commerce card, using the transaction number as an index to the appropriate data record, and processes the authorization request using the card's true customer account number. In this manner, the issuing institution can use its existing processing system to check account information, spending limits, and so forth. Once the authorization request is processed, the issuing institution once again exchanges the card's transaction number for the card's customer account number and sends an authorization reply back to the merchant under the transaction number.
As a result, the merchant never needs to know if the number is a legitimate account number, or a proxy number for an account number. The merchant does not need to implement any new devices, software, or protocols to participate in the new online commerce system.
For added security, the transaction number can be linked to extra transaction information to ensure that the number is only used for one specific transaction. For instance, the issuing institution might tie the transaction number to a specific purchase amount and a particular merchant ID. The issuing institution might further impose a short expiration term on the transaction number so that the number becomes invalid after the expiration term lapses.
The online commerce system substantially reduces the value of a stolen number since the transaction number that is transmitted over the Internet (or other network) is only a proxy number for a single purchase. Stealing the proxy number would not greatly benefit a thief because it cannot be repeatedly used for other purchases or transactions. In addition, the system seamlessly integrates with existing card verification and settlement protocols. Software modules are implemented at the customer and issuing institution, but no additional components are implemented at the merchant, settlement participants, or any other member in the online commerce transaction.