SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING AUCTIONS ON SOCIAL NETWORK PLATFORMS

• US 20110125605A1
• Filed: 11/17/2010
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Peak Silver Advisors LLC
• Original Assignee: Peak Silver Advisors LLC
• Inventors: Soong, Shiao-Bin, Chatter, Priti, Goyal, Rohit, Chatter, Mukesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,762,221 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A system platform and associated methods are provided for implementing online reverse auctions in a social network platform (SNP). A fully-automated, live, reverse-auction based system is integrated into an SNP to enable buyers to initiate desired transactions and take advantage of a subscribers'"'"' network of friends, colleagues, co-workers, family members and connections by connecting buyers and sellers in a non-intrusive, targeted fashion. Sellers compete for buyers'"'"' business by providing dynamic, real-time seller-specific pricing while simultaneously optimizing the seller'"'"'s target parameters such as price, inventory levels, profit, revenue and volume.

Claims

1. A computerized method for providing an online reverse auction within a social network platform, the method comprising the steps of:

a. receiving, at an application server, an electronic message from a subscriber to a social network platform, the message including initial auction parameters of a desired purchase;

b. using the initial parameters calculating, at an auction controller, auction parameters and providing the auction parameters to one or more automated auction engines, each being associated with a respective seller capable of fulfilling the purchase;

c. iteratively receiving, from at least a subset of the one or more automated auction engines, offers to fulfill the desired purchase for the subscriber, wherein each iteration comprises programmatically-calculated updated auction parameters increasingly favorable to the subscriber;

d. identifying a most favorable set of auction parameters; and

e. distributing over an electronic network the most favorable set of auction parameters to additional subscribers of the social network platform, thus allowing the additional subscribers to complete a purchase according to the most favorable set of auction parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving at the application server, a message from the subscriber indicating a desire to complete the desired purchase at the most favorable set of auction parameters.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the duration during which the additional subscribers may complete the purchase according to the most favorable set of auction parameters is limited.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the distribution of the most favorable auction parameters is limited based on an available inventory allocated to the purchase by a seller associated with the automated auction engine having provided the most favorable set of auction parameters.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the additional subscribers comprise members of the subscribers community within the social network platform and are one degree of separation removed from the subscriber.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the additional subscribers comprise members of the subscribers community within the social network platform and are more than one degree of separation removed from the subscriber.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the degree of separation removed from the subscriber is configurable.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving at the application server, messages from a subset of the additional subscribers indicating a desire to complete the desired purchase at the most favorable set of auction parameters.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial parameters of the desired purchase comprise one or more of a description of an item to be purchased, a quantity of the item to be purchased, a desired class of seller, delivery options and a return policy.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the desired class of seller comprises a historical consumer satisfaction rating.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the updated auction parameters comprise, for each of the one or more sellers, a price at which the one or more sellers are willing to fulfill the desired purchase.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein, at each iteration, each of the one or more sellers revises its respective updated auction parameters based on a seller-specific objective function constrained by one or more of an actual inventory level, target inventory level, supplier break, actual revenue, revenue target, actual profit, promotional cost, customer acquisition cost, and profit target.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein one or more of the constraints to the seller-specific objective function change over time.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising accessing a consumer profile of the subscriber and providing the consumer profile to the one or more sellers capable of fulfilling the purchase such that the programmatically-calculated updated auction parameters are based, at least in part, on the consumer profile.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the additional subscribers comprise members of the subscribers community within the social network platform and the consumer profile is based at least in part on the number of additional subscribers in the subscriber'"'"'s community.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the additional subscribers comprise members of the subscribers community within the social network platform and the consumer profile comprises a community profile, the community profile comprising a compilation of consumer profiles, each profile attributed to one of the additional subscribers in the subscriber'"'"'s community.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the compilation of consumer profiles comprises an index based at least in part on one or more of the additional subscribers'"'"' age, gender, income, education, location, historical purchase patterns, sales conversion rate and activity level within the social network platform.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing to the subscriber and each of the additional subscribers an electronically rendered screen comprising one or more of the initial auction parameters, the auction parameters, the updated auction parameters and the most favorable set of auction parameters.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein one or more of the initial auction parameters, the auction parameters, the updated auction parameters and the most favorable set of auction parameters are provided as a hyperlink.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising providing a filtering function, thereby facilitating the screening of transactions available to the subscriber and each of the additional subscribers based on one or more of the initial auction parameters, the auction parameters, the updated auction parameters and the most favorable set of auction parameters.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising propagating the electronically rendered screen to subsequent subscribers, each subsequent subscriber being within a community of at least one of the additional subscribers.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the propagation of the electronically rendered screen continues until a stopping criteria is met.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the stopping criteria comprises an expiration of a deal duration associated with the transaction.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein the stopping criteria comprises a depletion of inventory available to fulfill the transaction.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein distribution of the most favorable set of auction parameters to the additional subscribers occurs subsequent to the subscriber completing the purchase.

26. A computerized method for facilitating sales of goods to subscribers to a social network platform, the method comprising the steps of:

a. electronically propagating from an application server parameters of a completed transaction for an item between a seller and a subscriber to the social network platform to additional subscribers of the social network platform, each additional subscriber being a member of the subscriber'"'"'s community within the social network platform;

b. receiving at the application server indications of interest to complete subsequent transactions based on the parameters of the completed transaction, each indication of interest being received from one of a subset of the additional subscribers; and

c. upon receipt of the indications of interest, iteratively determining whether the seller can fulfill each subsequent transaction based on the parameters of the completed transaction and a seller-specific objective function constrained by one or more seller-specific parameters until a stopping criteria is met.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the stopping criteria comprises an expiration of a predefined transaction duration.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the stopping criteria comprises accepting subsequent transactions until an inventory limit is reached.

29. The method of claim 26 wherein the stopping criteria comprises the seller deciding to cancel participation in any subsequent transactions.

30. The method of claim 26 further receiving an indication from the seller offering additional inventory to fulfill subsequent transactions.

31. The method of claim 26 wherein the iterative determination occurs after receiving each indication of interest.

32. The method of claim 26 wherein the iterative determination occurs after receiving indications of interest that, when combined, exceed one or more of the seller-specific parameters.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the seller-specific parameters comprise one or more of an actual inventory level, target inventory level, supplier break, actual revenue, revenue target, actual profit, promotional cost, customer acquisition cost, expected conversion rate of subscribers, actual conversion rate of subscribers, actual number of units sold, and profit target.

34. The method of claim 26 further comprising accessing, by the application server, consumer profiles of the additional subscribers and providing the consumer profiles to the seller such that the profiles are considered when determining whether the seller can fulfill each subsequent transaction.

35. The method of claim 26 further comprising completing a subset of the subsequent transactions.

36. The method of claim 26 further comprising repeating steps a)-c) after each completed subsequent transaction, wherein each subscriber in the subset of the additional subscribers replaces the subscriber, thus propagating the parameters of the completed subsequent transactions between the seller and the additional subscribers to subsequent subscribers, each subsequent subscriber being a member of one of the additional subscriber'"'"'s community within the social network platform.

37. The method of claim 36 further comprising changing one or more of the parameters propagated to the subsequent subscribers.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the parameters comprise one or more of a duration during which the additional subscribers can complete subsequent transactions, a price at which the seller is willing to complete the subsequent transactions, and a number of units available to fulfill the subsequent transactions.

39. The method of claim 37 further comprising changing one or more of the parameters propagated to the subsequent subscribers for a subset of the subsequent subscribers.

40. The method of claim 36 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by other transactions for the item initiated by a member of the social network platform other than the subscriber.

41. The method of claim 36 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by other transactions for items other than the item but supplied to the seller by a common supplier.

42. The method of claim 26 further comprising providing an electronically rendered screen to the additional subscribers, the screen comprising one or more of the parameters of the completed transaction, a duration during which the additional subscribers may complete subsequent transactions, and an inventory level of items available to fulfill the subsequent transactions.

43. A computerized method for facilitating sales of goods to subscribers to a social network platform, the method comprising the steps of:

a. receiving, at an application server, an electronic message from a subscriber to a social network platform, the message including desired auction parameters of a proposed purchase of an item, the parameters including a final auction time;

b. providing the desired auction parameters to an initial set of automated auction engines, each being associated with a respective seller;

c. iteratively receiving, from at least a subset of the initial set of auction engines, offers to fulfill the proposed purchase, wherein each iteration comprises programmatically-calculated updated auction parameters increasingly favorable to the subscriber until at least one engine has provided a set of auction parameters;

d. distributing over an electronic network the set of auction parameters to additional subscribers to the social network platform, thus allowing the additional subscribers to respond with respective indications of interest in joining the proposed purchase;

e. receiving at the application server indications of interest to join the proposed purchase from at least a subset of the additional subscribers; and

f. upon receipt of the indications of interest from the subset of the additional subscribers, (i) notifying an updated set of automated auction engines, each being associated with a respective seller, of the indications of interest to join the proposed purchase and (ii) iteratively receiving, from at least a subset of the updated set of automated auction engines, offers to fulfill the proposed purchase, wherein each iteration comprises programmatically-calculated interim auction parameters increasingly favorable to the additional subscribers and satisfying a seller-specific objective function constrained by one or more seller-specific parameters, until a stopping criteria is met.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the stopping criteria comprises reaching the final auction time.

45. The method of claim 43 wherein the initial auction parameters comprise one or more of a description of the item to be purchased, a quantity of the item to be purchased, a number of the additional subscribers that may join the proposed purchase, desired characteristics of the additional subscribers that may join the proposed purchase, a desired class of seller, delivery options and a return policy.

46. The method of claim 45 wherein the initial auction parameters further include a dream price, and the stopping criteria comprises one of the interim auctions offering the item at the dream price.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein the dream price is concealed from the automated auction engines.

48. The method of claim 45 wherein the initial auction parameters further include a commitment price.

49. The method of claim 43 wherein the indications of interest to join the proposed purchase are binding.

50. The method of claim 43 further comprising facilitating the completion of transactions between a seller associated with the winning auction engine and the subset of the additional subscribers according to a final set of auction parameters, the final set of auction parameters being the most favorable parameters to the additional subscribers offered by one of the updated set of auction engines.

51. The method of claim 43 wherein notification to the updated set of automated auction engines occurs after receipt of each indication of interest to join the purchase.

52. The method of claim 43 wherein notification to the updated set of automated auction engines occurs after receipt of a predefined number of indications of interest to join the purchase.

53. The method of claim 43 wherein the seller-specific parameters comprise one or more of an actual inventory level, desired inventory level, supplier break, revenue target and profit target.

54. The method of claim 53 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by the number of received indications of interest to join the proposed purchase.

55. The method of claim 43 further comprising accessing, by the application server, consumer profiles of the additional subscribers and providing the consumer profiles to each auction engine such that the profiles are considered when determining whether the auction engines calculate the interim auction parameters.

56. The method of claim 43 further comprising providing an electronically rendered screen to the additional subscribers, the screen comprising one or more of the final auction time, dream price, commitment price, desired auction parameters, initial auction parameters, and updated auction parameters.

57. The method of claim 43 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by other transactions for the item initiated by a member of the social network platform other than the subscriber.

58. The method of claim 43 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by other transactions for items other than the item but supplied by a common supplier.

59. The method of claim 43 wherein each of the additional subscribers comprise members of the subscribers community within the social network platform and are one degree of separation removed from the subscriber.

60. The method of claim 43 wherein each of the additional subscribers comprise members of the subscribers community within the social network platform and are more than one degree of separation removed from the subscriber.

61. The method of claim 60 wherein the degree of separation removed from the subscriber is configurable.

62. The method of claim 43 further comprising facilitating a search by the additional subscribers of proposed purchases, thereby allowing the additional subscribers to join the proposed purchase.

63. A system for facilitating an online reverse auction within a social network platform, the system comprising:

a. a plurality of auction engines, each auction engine being associated with a potential seller of goods or services; and

b. an application server comprising an auction controller and communication server in communication with the auction engines over an electronic network, wherein;

the communication server is configured to;

(i) receive an electronic message from a subscriber to a social network platform, the message including auction parameters of a desired purchase;

(ii) provide the auction parameters to the auction engines;

(iii) receive, from at least a subset of the one or more auction engines, offers to fulfill the desired purchase for the subscriber, wherein each iteration comprises programmatically-calculated updated auction parameters increasingly favorable to the subscriber until a single auction engine has provided a most favorable set of auction parameters; and

(iv) distribute over the electronic network the most favorable set of auction parameters to additional subscribers of the social network platform, thus allowing the additional subscribers to complete a purchase according to the most favorable set of auction parameters; and

the auction controller is configured to determine the additional subscribers of the social network platform to whom the most favorable set of auction parameters are to be distributed.

64. The system of claim 63 wherein the communications server is further configured to receive a message from the subscriber indicating a desire to complete the desired purchase at the most favorable set of auction parameters.

65. The system of claim 63 wherein the auction controller is further configured to limit the duration during which the additional subscribers may complete the purchase.

66. The system of claim 63 wherein the auction controller determines the additional subscribers to which the most favorable set of auction parameters are to be distributed by traversing relationships among subscribers to the social network platform.

67. The system of claim 66 wherein the auction controller limits the degree of separation between the subscriber and the additional subscribers.

68. The system of claim 63 wherein the communication server is further configured to receive messages from a subset of the additional subscribers indicating a desire to complete the desired purchase at the most favorable set of auction parameters.

69. The system of claim 63 wherein the auction engines are configured to iteratively revise its respective updated auction parameters based on a seller-specific objective function constrained by one or more of an actual inventory level, desired inventory level, supplier break, actual revenue, revenue target, actual profit, and profit target.

70. The system of claim 63 wherein the communication server provides a consumer profile of the subscriber to the auction engines such that the programmatically-calculated updated auction parameters are based, at least in part, on the consumer profile.

71. The system of claim 70 wherein the additional subscribers comprise members of the subscribers community within the social network platform and auction controller is further configured to compile a plurality of consumer profiles, each profile attributed to one of the additional subscribers in the subscriber'"'"'s community.

72. The system of claim 71 wherein the compilation of consumer profiles comprises an index based at least in part on one or more of the additional subscribers'"'"' age, income, education, gender, location, historical purchase patterns, sales conversion rate and activity level within the social network platform.

73. The system of claim 63 wherein the communications server is further configured to provide to the subscriber and each of the additional subscribers an electronically rendered screen comprising one or more of the auction parameters, the updated auction parameters and the most favorable set of auction parameters.

74. A system for facilitating sales of goods to subscribers to a social network platform, the system comprising:

an application server and a plurality of automated auction engines each being associated with a respective seller, wherein;

the application server is configured to;

(i) receive an electronic message from a subscriber to a social network platform, the message including desired auction parameters of a proposed purchase of an item, the parameters including a final auction time;

(ii) provide the desired auction parameters to an initial set of the automated auction engines;

(iii) iteratively receive, from at least a subset of the initial set of auction engines, offers to fulfill the proposed purchase, wherein each iteration comprises programmatically-calculated updated auction parameters increasingly favorable to the subscriber until at least one engine has provided an initial set of auction parameters;

(iv) distribute over an electronic network the initial set of auction parameters to additional subscribers to the social network platform, thus allowing the additional subscribers to respond with respective indications of interest in joining the proposed purchase;

(v) receive indications of interest to join the proposed purchase from at least a subset of the additional subscribers;

(vi) upon receipt of the indications of interest from the subset of the additional subscribers;

(1) notify an updated set of automated auction engines of the indications of interest to join the proposed purchase; and

(2) iteratively receive, from at least a subset of the updated set of automated auction engines, offers to fulfill the proposed purchase, wherein each iteration comprises programmatically-calculated interim auction parameters increasingly favorable to the additional subscribers and satisfying a sell-specific objective function constrained by one or more seller-specific parameters, until a stopping criteria is met; and

(vii) identify a winning auction engine based on the received offers.

75. The system of claim 74 wherein the stopping criteria comprises reaching the final auction time.

76. The system of claim 74 wherein the initial auction parameters comprise one or more of a description of the item to be purchased, a quantity of the item to be purchased, a number of the additional subscribers that may join the proposed purchase, desired characteristics of the additional subscribers that may join the proposed purchase, a desired class of seller, delivery options and a return policy.

77. The system of claim 76 wherein the initial auction parameters further include a dream price, and the stopping criteria comprises one of the interim auctions offering the item at the dream price.

78. The system of claim 76 wherein the initial auction parameters further include a commitment price.

79. The system of claim 74 wherein the application server is further configured to facilitate the completion of transactions between a seller associated with the winning auction engine and the subset of the additional subscribers according to the final set of auction parameters.

80. The system of claim 74 wherein notification to the updated set of automated auction engines occurs after receipt of each indication of interest to join the purchase.

81. The system of claim 74 wherein notification to the updated set of automated auction engines occurs after receipt of a predefined number of indications of interest to join the purchase.

82. The system of claim 74 wherein the seller-specific parameters comprise one or more of an actual inventory level, desired inventory level, supplier break, revenue target and profit target.

83. The system of claim 74 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by the number of received indications of interest to join the proposed purchase.

84. The system of claim 74 wherein the application server is further configured to provide consumer profiles to each auction engine such that the profiles are considered when determining whether the auction engines calculate the interim auction parameters.

85. The system of claim 74 wherein the application server is further configured to provide an electronically rendered screen to the additional subscribers, the screen comprising one or more of the final auction time, dream price, commitment price, desired auction parameters, initial auction parameters, and updated auction parameters.

86. The system of claim 74 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by other transactions for the item initiated by a member of the social network platform other than the subscriber.

87. The system of claim 74 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by other transactions for items other than the item but supplied by a common supplier.

88. The system of claim 74 wherein each of the additional subscribers comprise members of the subscribers community within the social network platform and are one degree of separation removed from the subscriber.

89. The system of claim 74 wherein each of the additional subscribers comprise members of the subscribers community within the social network platform and are more than one degree of separation removed from the subscriber.

90. The system of claim 89 wherein the application server is further configured to configure the degree of separation.

91. An apparatus for facilitating an online reverse auction within a social network platform, the apparatus comprising:

a cell memory comprising a plurality of grouped memory addresses, each grouping representing a subscriber to a social network and storing information describing one or more potential purchases available to the subscriber;

a rules memory configured to store instructions for implementing rules governing the propagation and updating of information stored in the cell memory;

a controller configured to read information from the cell memory and rules memory and apply the rules to the information; and

a processor for configuring the cell memory and rules memory.