Method and system for facilitating a purchase process

• US 20070185775A1
• Filed: 02/07/2006
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ebiz Industries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ebiz Industries, Inc.
• Inventors: Lawton, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 8,676,654 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation

Abstract

A transaction system and method is provided for enabling potential buyers to purchase goods through reverse on-line auction process. The transaction system is configured to automatically receive periodic uploads of information regarding goods for sale by suppliers and to store this information in a database. A potential buyer can login to the transaction system and submit searches for goods based on a variety of parameters which may include condition, warranty, and revision. The potential buyer also submits an offer price for each requested item. The transaction system queries the database to determine if the requested goods are available. The transaction system selects the vendor so as to maximize the sales margin and then determines whether the buyer'"'"'s offer can be accepted based on predetermined margin requirements. If the buyer'"'"'s offer can be accepted, the system generates an acceptance to the offer from the buyer and generates a purchase order to the selected supplier.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for processing the sale of goods comprising:

receiving in the computer an offer from a buyer to purchase a good, including a purchase offer price;

accessing a database comprising a list of goods of a plurality of suppliers available for sale, including a supplier sale price;

querying the database to determine whether the good the buyer offers to purchase is available for sale;

calculating a difference between the purchase offer price and the supplier sale price for the good; and

if the difference equals or exceeds a predetermined margin, generating from the computer an acceptance to the offer from the buyer and a purchase order to the supplier from whom the good is available for sale to purchase the good to fill the offer from the buyer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein if the difference between the purchase offer price and the supplier sale price is less than a minimum threshold, preventing the buyer from accessing the computer to purchase any good for a predetermined amount of time.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein if the difference between the purchase offer price and the supplier sale price is less than the predetermined margin, generating a request for the buyer to raise its offer price.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein if the difference between the purchase offer price and the supplier sale price is less than the predetermined margin, forwarding the offer to a human agent for manual processing.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving from the buyer registration information to access the computer through a website and if the buyer is an existing registered user of the website, providing a web page that is customized for the buyer.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the web page is customized based on the buyer'"'"'s industry.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the web page is customized based on the buyer'"'"'s prior purchasing activities.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a request to the buyer to identify itself as an end user, interconnect, distributor, or dealer.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the goods comprise industrial assets.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising collecting in the database in real time, up-to-date data concerning the list of goods of at least one supplier available for sale.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein after generating the purchase order to the supplier to purchase the good to fill the offer from the buyer, updating the database to remove the good from the list of goods available for sale.

12. A computer implemented method for processing the sale of goods comprising:

receiving in the computer an offer from a buyer to purchase a good, including a purchase offer price;

accessing a database comprising a list of goods of at least one supplier available for sale, including a supplier sale price;

querying the database to determine whether the good the buyer offers to purchase is available for sale and if the good is not available for sale, then generating a counter offer to the buyer to sell an alternate good that is available for sale; and

if the buyers accepts the alternate good, generating a purchase order to the supplier from whom the alternate good is available for sale to purchase the alternate good to fill the customer'"'"'s order.

13. A computer implemented method for processing the sale of goods comprising:

receiving in the computer an offer from a buyer to purchase a good, including a purchase offer price;

accessing a database comprising a list of goods of a plurality of suppliers available for sale, including a supplier sale price;

querying the database to determine whether the good the buyer offers to purchase is available for sale;

if the good is available from multiple suppliers, calculating a difference between the purchase offer price and the supplier sale price for the good available from each of the multiple suppliers to determine a sales margin for the good available from each of the multiple suppliers;

selecting the good available from one of the multiple suppliers which provides the greatest sales margin; and

generating from the computer an acceptance to the offer from the buyer to sell the selected good and a purchase order to purchase the selected good from the one of the multiple suppliers which provides the greatest sales margin.

14. A computer implemented method for processing the sale of industrial assets comprising:

receiving in the computer an offer from a buyer to purchase an industrial asset, the offer including a description of the industrial asset, a part number, quantity desired, and a purchase offer price;

accessing a database in communication with the computer which comprises an up-to-date list of industrial assets of a plurality of suppliers available for sale, including a supplier sale price;

querying the database to determine whether the industrial asset the buyer offers to purchase is available for sale and if the industrial asset is not available for sale, then offering for sale to the buyer an alternate industrial asset that is available for sale;

and if the industrial asset is available for sale, calculating a difference between the purchase offer price and the supplier sale price to determine a sales margin; and

if the sales margin equals or exceeds a predetermined margin, generating from the computer an acceptance to the offer from the buyer and a purchase order to the supplier to purchase the industrial asset to fill the offer from the buyer.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein if the difference between the purchase offer price and the supplier sale price is less than the predetermined margin, then offering for sale to the buyer an alternate industrial asset that is less expensive.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising generating a request to the buyer to identify whether the customer requires installation or support.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprising generating a request to the buyer to identify whether the industrial asset is out of service, refurbished, unused, certified, b-stock, domestic, or defective.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein if the industrial asset is available from multiple suppliers, calculating a difference between the purchase offer price and the supplier sale price for the industrial asset available from each of the multiple suppliers to determine a sales margin for the industrial asset available from each of the multiple suppliers, selecting the industrial asset that is available from one of the multiple suppliers which provides the greatest sales margin, and generating from the computer a purchase order to purchase the industrial asset from the one of the multiple suppliers which provides the greatest sales margin.

19. A system for processing the sale of goods comprising:

a database comprising a list of goods of a plurality of suppliers available for sale, including a supplier sale price; and

a processor in communication with the database, the processor comprising;

a first module for automatically receiving up-to-date information on the goods for sale by suppliers and updating the database to reflect the information;

a second module for electronically communicating with a potential customer to receive an offer to purchase a good, including a purchase offer price, and for querying the database to determine if the requested good is available for sale;

a third module for calculating the difference between the purchase offer price and the supplier sale price for such good to determine a sales margin and for generating an acceptance to the offer from the potential customer, if the sales margin exceeds a predetermined margin; and

a fourth module for generating a purchase order to the supplier to purchase such good if the sales margin exceeds a predetermined margin.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising a fifth module for providing product information to a shipping service server, receiving up-to-date shipping rates from the server, and providing the shipping rates to the third module for use in determining the sales margin.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein the third module is configured to offer for sale to the customer an alternate good that is available for sale if the good the customer offers to purchase is not available for sale.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein the third module is configured to reject the offer if the sales margin is less than the predetermined margin.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein the third module is configured to prevent the customer from accessing the system if the difference between the purchase offer price and the supplier sale price is less than a minimum threshold.

24. The system of claim 19 wherein the third module is configured to generate a request for the customer to offer a higher purchase offer price, if the sales margin is less than the predetermined margin.

25. The system of claim 19 further comprising a sixth module for generating a customized web page for the customer based on the customer'"'"'s industry.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the wherein the sixth module is configured to customize the web page based on the buyer'"'"'s prior purchase orders.

27. The system of claim 19 wherein the database comprises a list of goods of a plurality of suppliers available for sale, including a description, part number, identity of the supplier, and predetermined minimum margin.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein if the good the buyer offers to purchase is available from multiple suppliers, the third module is configured to select the good from the supplier that provides the greatest sales margin.

29. The system of claim 20 wherein the fifth module communicates with the shipping service server using XML formatted data that is sent to the shipping service servers via a SSL connection.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the XML formatted data is sent to the shipping service server using a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request.