Cooperative buying system for purchasing consumer products using a computer network
First Claim
1. A method for a cooperative consumer electronic shopping and pricing system that provides consumers with buying information and purchase recommendations for products when retail prices are at their lowest relative point and prior to when consumer demand for the product exists.
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Abstract
A system, method and apparatus that provides buying information and recommendations to help consumers purchase products from retail merchants when prices are at their lowest relative point rather than when the consumer runs out and needs to purchase at a higher price. The system provides electronic access to a plurality of product information from a plurality of retail merchants in a plurality of markets. For each regularly purchased product the system displays the lowest price available from a plurality of retail merchants. It also displays a price index that indicates how the current lowest price compares with the high and low price recorded for the product over a defined period of time, a re-order index that forecasts when the consumer is expected to run out of the product and a unit price index that indicates how the current unit price compares with the unit prices of a group of similar products. Using the price, re-order and unit price index information the system recommends products that the consumer should consider purchasing. For products purchased from retail merchants with physical stores the system will create a shopping list for each store listing the products in order of location in the physical store for quick purchase. Finally, the system provides a cooperative price check and update function where some consumers, who are also members, check and update prices and store location information on a defined number of products during their regular shopping trip and share this information with the larger consumer population.
98 Citations
14 Claims
- 1. A method for a cooperative consumer electronic shopping and pricing system that provides consumers with buying information and purchase recommendations for products when retail prices are at their lowest relative point and prior to when consumer demand for the product exists.
- 11. An apparatus for a cooperative consumer electronic shopping and pricing system that provides consumers with buying information and purchase recommendations for products when retail prices are at their lowest relative point and prior to when consumer demand for the product exists.
- 13. A method for a cooperative consumer electronic shopping and pricing system that provides consumers who are also members with the ability to input pricing information on products and share this pricing information with the larger consumer population.
Specification