Method and apparatus for providing an electronic commerce environment for leveraging orders from a plurality of customers
First Claim
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1. A method for providing a transaction environment, said method comprising the steps of:
- a) receiving a first order from a first customer for a product or service at a first volume;
b) receiving a second order from a second customer for said product or service at a second volume;
c) offering said first order and said second order as an aggregate order for bidding to at least one vendor;
d) selecting a winning bid from said at least one vendor; and
e) allocating said winning bid in accordance with said first and second volume.
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Abstract
Method and apparatus for providing an electronic commerce environment for leveraging orders from a plurality of customers. Specifically, the apparatus and method is designed to provide an electronic commerce environment for aggregating orders from a plurality of customers, where the savings associated with the winning bid for such large aggregate order are, in turn, awarded to the customers in accordance with the size of their respective orders.
87 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method for providing a transaction environment, said method comprising the steps of:
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a) receiving a first order from a first customer for a product or service at a first volume;
b) receiving a second order from a second customer for said product or service at a second volume;
c) offering said first order and said second order as an aggregate order for bidding to at least one vendor;
d) selecting a winning bid from said at least one vendor; and
e) allocating said winning bid in accordance with said first and second volume. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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12. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions including instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps comprising of:
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a) receiving a first order from a first customer for a product or service at a first volume;
b) receiving a second order from a second customer for said product or service at a second volume;
c) offering said first order and said second order as an aggregate order for bidding to at least one vendor;
d) selecting a winning bid from said at least one vendor; and
e) allocating said winning bid in accordance with said first and second volume.
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20. An apparatus for providing a transaction environment, said apparatus comprising:
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means for receiving a first order from a first customer for a product or service at a first volume and for receiving a second order from a second customer for said product or service at a second volume;
means for offering said first order and said second order as an aggregate order for bidding to at least one vendor;
means for selecting a winning bid from said at least one vendor; and
means for allocating said winning bid in accordance with said first and second volume. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification