Limited inventory offered for sale at iteratively adjusted pricing

• US 20040019552A1
• Filed: 10/15/2001
• Published: 01/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Tobin, Christopher M.
• Application Number:
  US09/978,967
• Publication Number:
  US 20040019552A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

Limited inventory is offered for sale at iteratively adjusted pricing. An item of an inventory is offered for sale to a consumer at a current sale price in a network-enabled auction. The current sale price for the item is iteratively adjusted based upon pre-defined criteria, such as an amount of inventory remaining or an elapsed time that the item has been offered. A bid on the item is received from the consumer at the current sale price.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

offering an item of an inventory for sale to a consumer at a current sale price in a network-enabled auction;

iteratively adjusting the current sale price for the item based upon pre-defined criteria; and

receiving a bid on the item from the consumer at the current sale price.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting an initial current sale price.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an incentive to the consumer to participate in a future sale when the item is unavailable.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising offering an incentive to the consumer to purchase the item when the inventory is nearly exhausted.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a descriptor of the item to the consumer before the consumer accepts the offering of the item at the current sale price.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selling the item to the consumer at the current sale price.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting is selected from the group consisting of:

reducing the current sale price; and

increasing the current sale price.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-defined criteria is a market index.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the market index comprises a duration of time that has passed since the item was first offered for sale at the current sale price.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the market index further comprises a total quantity of the inventory remaining.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising discontinuing the offering of the item when the inventory is exhausted.

12. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

offering an item of an inventory for sale to a consumer at a current sale price in a network-enabled auction;

iteratively adjusting the current sale price for the item based upon pre-defined criteria; and

receiving a bid on the item from the consumer at the current sale price.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises discontinuing the offering of the item when the inventory is exhausted.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the pre-defined criteria is a total quantity of the inventory remaining.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the pre-defined criteria is a duration of time that has passed since the item was first offered for sale at the current sale price.

16. An apparatus comprising a server to iteratively adjust a price for an item of an inventory offered for sale in a network-enabled auction based upon instructions from a vendor.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising a transaction terminal communicatively coupled to the server to receive a bid from a consumer for the item and to communicate the bid to the server.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the transaction terminal is selected from the group consisting of:

a personal computer;

a personal transaction device (PTD); and

a personal transaction device coupled to a transaction privacy clearing house (TPCH).

19. A system comprising:

a processing unit;

a memory coupled to the processing unit through a bus; and

a network-enabled auction service executed from the memory by the processing unit to offer an item of inventory to a consumer at a current sale price, the current sale price being iteratively adjusted until the inventory is exhausted, and to receive a bid on the item at the current sale price.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the current sale price is iteratively adjusted based upon a duration of time that has passed since the item was first offered for sale at the current sale price.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the current sale price is iteratively adjusted based upon a total quantity of inventory remaining.