Method and apparatus for managing demand and inventory

• US 20040068451A1
• Filed: 10/07/2003
• Published: 04/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: GameFly Incorporated
• Original Assignee: GameFly Incorporated
• Inventors: Lenk, Edward C., Suh, Jung, Spector, Sean E.
• Application Number:
  US10/681,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20040068451A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method and system for managing the inventory level of, and the distribution of, electronic media rental units, including but not limited to videogame discs, musical compact disks, or movie VCD/DVDs. More specifically, preferred embodiments of the present invention forecasts future rental and sales demand for a given electronic media, such as a videogame, prior to the release of that electronic media to the general public. The forecast is based on the pre-release demand of the electronic media in that the future rental and sales demand is estimated from the rental and sales demand of previously released electronic media having similar pre-release demand. Furthermore, the preferred embodiments of the present invention allows registered members of a rental user group to keep rented units of the electronic media for a purchase price, which is dynamically controlled to minimize rental shortage and maximize profits.

Claims

1. A method for managing inventory level of electronic media rental units, said method comprising the steps of:

listing for future rental of an electronic media prior to the general public release date of said electronic media;

receiving placement of orders for future rental of said electronic media;

determining pre-release rental demand for said electronic media; and

determining a post-release rental demand for rental units of said electronic media.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a correlation relationship between the pre-release rental demand of said electronic media and a pre-release rental demand of a previously released electronic media.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a post-release sales demand for rental units of said electronic media.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said electronic media is listed over the Internet, and wherein said placement of orders is received over the Internet.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a life cycle of said electronic media.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of listing for sale said electronic media.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a spread factor of the post-release rental demand for said electronic media.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining the quantity of an initial purchase order of said electronic media rental units.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a future sales quantity of said electronic media rental units.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a future sales price of said electronic media rental units.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of periodically adjusting said sales price of said electronic media rental units.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the monetary amount of each periodic price adjustment is the same.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of determining rental surplus or shortage of said electronic media rental units.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of tracking an actual rental demand of said electronic media rental units after the electronic media is released to the general public.

15. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of tracking an actual sales demand of said electronic media rental units after the electronic media is released to the general public.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining the quantity of a subsequent purchase order of said electronic media rental units.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining updated future rental demand of said electronic media rental units.

18. A method of managing distribution of electronic media units to a plurality of registered members of a user group, said method comprising the steps of:

listing for future rental an electronic media prior to a release date of said electronic media;

receiving from one of said plurality of registered members a placement of order for future rental of said electronic media, said one registered member placing said order in an ordering queue, said ordering queue including an array of order selection slots for designating different electronic media to be ordered for rental by said one registered member; and

distributing to said one registered member a unit of said electronic media upon or after the release date.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of assigning a priority status to said placement of order, said priority status being assigned in accordance with a timing at which the placement of order was received

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said unit of said electronic media is distributed to said one registered member via the Internet.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of offering to said one registered member the option to purchase the distributed unit of said electronic media unit.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of offering for future sale units of the listed electronic media.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of offering to the registered members discounts off of a purchase price.

24. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

determining pre-release rental demand for said electronic media;

calculating correlation characteristics between the pre-release rental demand of said electronic media with a pre-release rental demand of a previously released electronic media; and

determining a post-release rental demand for units of said electronic media.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of determining a post-release sales demand for units of said electronic media.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of tracking actual rental demand of the electronic media after its release date.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising the step of determining an updated future rental demand of said electronic media units.

28. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of determining a quantity of an initial purchase order of said electronic media units.

29. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of determining a future rental surplus or shortage of said electronic media units.

30. A machine-readable medium including a set of executable instructions for causing a processor to perform a method of managing inventory level of electronic media rental units, said method comprising the steps of:

listing for future rental of an electronic media prior to the general public release date of said electronic media;

receiving placement of orders for future rental of said electronic media;

determining pre-release rental demand for said electronic media; and

determining a post-release rental demand for rental units of said electronic media.

31. A machine-readable medium including a set of executable instructions for causing a processor to perform a method of managing distribution of electronic media units to a plurality of registered members of a user group, said method comprising the steps of:

listing for future rental an electronic media prior to a release date of said electronic media;

receiving from one of said plurality of registered members a placement of order for future rental of said electronic media, said one registered member placing said order in an ordering queue, said ordering queue including an array of order selection slots for designating different electronic media to be ordered for rental by said one registered member; and

distributing to said one registered member a unit of said electronic media upon or after the release date.