Pricing and Auctioning of Bundled Items Among Multiple Sellers and Buyers
First Claim
1. A method of bundling goods and services for a user, the method comprising:
- providing an interface through which a user can define at least one desired characteristic of a desired bundle;
mapping the at least one characteristic to a first and second item in a known bundle;
using the at least one characteristic to automatically compute a de novo bundle having third and fourth times that are equivalent to the first and the second items, respectively, which are not expressly selected by the user; and
presenting an item by item comparison between the known and de novo bundles to the user.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A number of sets of methods and apparatuses applicable to online shopping are disclosed. One set, “Bin Packing Methods with Approximate Membership”, includes methods in pricing and auctioning a bundle of items, some of which could belong to another bundle. Significantly, the membership of a bundle, during pricing and auction, could change. Another set, the “Shopping Console”, puts a structure into the online shopping experience, so that through one interface various shopping activities can be facilitated, including but not limited to researching, pricing, negotiation, group buying, and tracking of purchases. Still another set, “Flash Mob Shopping”, allows sellers and a (spontaneous) group of shoppers to connect on prices without requiring shoppers'"'"' hard commitments, and with sellers revealing only necessary price information.
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Citations
7 Claims
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1. A method of bundling goods and services for a user, the method comprising:
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providing an interface through which a user can define at least one desired characteristic of a desired bundle; mapping the at least one characteristic to a first and second item in a known bundle; using the at least one characteristic to automatically compute a de novo bundle having third and fourth times that are equivalent to the first and the second items, respectively, which are not expressly selected by the user; and presenting an item by item comparison between the known and de novo bundles to the user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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Specification