Minimizing the occurrence of retail pricing errors in electronic commerce
First Claim
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1. A method for determining whether retail prices are reasonable for items sold using an electronic shopping system having a retail price database, comprising:
- determining a retail price of an item;
determining a price bound for the item;
comparing the retail price with the price bound; and
if the retail price violates the price bound, indicating that the retail price needs further evaluation.
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Abstract
In a telephone order shopping system, an on-line shopping system, or a brick and mortar store that uses point of sale terminals, retail prices are compared with price bounds in order to guard against inappropriate retail prices caused by data-entry errors in a retail price database. The price bounds may be read directly from a price bound database or computed from antecedent data such as wholesale prices stored in the price bound database. When a retail price is found to violate an applicable price bound, the retail price is flagged for further evaluation.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method for determining whether retail prices are reasonable for items sold using an electronic shopping system having a retail price database, comprising:
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determining a retail price of an item;
determining a price bound for the item;
comparing the retail price with the price bound; and
if the retail price violates the price bound, indicating that the retail price needs further evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for determining whether retail prices are reasonable for items sold using an electronic shopping system, said method steps comprising:
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determining a retail price of an item;
determining a price bound for the item;
comparing the retail price with the price bound; and
if the retail price violates the price bound, indicating that the retail price needs further evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A retail shopping system, comprising:
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a retail price database for storing retail prices of items sold using the retail shopping system;
a price bound database for storing price bound information pertaining to the items sold using the retail shopping system; and
logic for comparing a retail price of an item to be sold with a price bound derived from price bound information read from the price bound database, and indicating that the retail price needs further evaluation if the retail price violates the price bound. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification