Time variable incentive for purchasing goods and services
First Claim
1. A method for motivating a consumer to promptly indicate an interest in purchasing a product and/or service over a computer network, comprising the steps of:
- presenting an offer for sale of a product and/or service to said consumer;
concurrently presenting to said consumer an incentive for purchasing said product and/or service promptly, wherein said incentive decreases over a period of time.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for motivating a consumer to promptly indicate an interest in purchasing a product and/or service over a computer network includes the steps of presenting an offer for sale of a product and/or service to the consumer over the computer network, concurrently presenting an incentive for purchasing the product and/or service to the consumer promptly over the computer network. The incentive is initially set to a predetermined maximum value and decreases over a period of time. Additional steps include indicating an interest to purchase the product and/or service by the consumer at a point in time during the period of time, and providing the consumer the current value of the incentive corresponding to the point in time at which the consumer indicated the interest.
-
Citations
40 Claims
-
1. A method for motivating a consumer to promptly indicate an interest in purchasing a product and/or service over a computer network, comprising the steps of:
-
presenting an offer for sale of a product and/or service to said consumer;
concurrently presenting to said consumer an incentive for purchasing said product and/or service promptly, wherein said incentive decreases over a period of time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
-
30. Code executable on a computer, said code comprising:
-
code for presenting an offer for sale of a product and/or service to a consumer;
code for concurrently presenting to said consumer an incentive for purchasing said product and/or service promptly, wherein said incentive decreases over a period of time. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32)
-
-
33. Code executable on a computer, said code comprising:
-
code for presenting an offer for sale of a product and/or service to a consumer;
code for concurrently presenting an incentive for purchasing said product and/or service to said consumer promptly, wherein said incentive decreases over a period of time;
code for receiving an indication to purchase said product and/or service by said consumer at a point in time during said period of time; and
code for providing said consumer the current value of said incentive corresponding to the point in time at which said consumer indicated said interest. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35)
-
-
36. A method for motivating a consumer to promptly indicate an interest in purchasing a product and/or service over a computer network comprising the steps of:
-
presenting an offer for sale of a product and/or service to said consumer over said computer network;
concurrently presenting an incentive for purchasing said product and/or service to said consumer promptly over said computer network, wherein said incentive is initially set to a predetermined maximum value and decreases over a period of time;
indicating an interest to purchase said product and/or service by said consumer at a point in time during said period of time; and
providing said consumer the current value of said incentive corresponding to the point in time at which said consumer indicated said interest.
-
-
37. An apparatus for motivating a consumer to promptly indicate an interest in purchasing a product and/or service over a computer network, said apparatus comprising:
-
means for presenting an offer for sale of a product and/or service from a server computer over said computer network to a customer'"'"'s computer;
means for concurrently presenting an incentive for purchasing said product and/or service promptly, wherein said incentive is initially set to a predetermined maximum value and decreases over a period of time;
means for indicating an interest to purchase said product and/or service by said consumer at a point in time during said period of time; and
means for providing said consumer the current value of said incentive corresponding to the point in time at which said consumer indicated said interest.
-
-
38. A system for motivating a consumer to promptly indicate an interest in purchasing a product and/or service over a computer network, said consumer operating a customer terminal operable to act as a client on a network, said system comprising:
-
a host controller, the host controller comprising a computer operable to act as a server on said computer network and to communicate with said customer terminal over said computer network; and
data storage accessible to said host controller, said data storage storing information relating to said products and/or services for offering for purchase to said consumer, the host controller being operable;
for presenting an offer for sale of a product and/or service from said server over said computer network to said customer terminal;
for concurrently presenting an incentive for purchasing said product and/or service promptly from said server over said computer network to said customer terminal, wherein said incentive is initially set to a predetermined maximum value and decreases over a period of time;
for receiving an indication of interest to purchase said product and/or service by said consumer from said customer terminal at a point in time during said period of time; and
for providing said consumer the current value of said incentive corresponding to the point in time at which said consumer indicated said interest.
-
-
39. A method for motivating a consumer to promptly indicate an interest in purchasing a product and/or service via a media, comprising the steps of:
-
presenting an offer for sale of a product and/or service to a consumer via said media;
concurrently presenting an incentive for purchasing said product and/or service to said consumer promptly via said media, wherein said incentive is initially set to a predetermined maximum value and decreases over a period of time;
indicating an interest to purchase said product and/or service by said consumer at a point in time during said period of time; and
providing said consumer the current value of said incentive corresponding to the point in time at which said consumer indicated said interest. - View Dependent Claims (40)
-
Specification