Group Formation and Dynamic Pricing for E-Commerce in Social Networks

• US 20140244420A1
• Filed: 05/05/2014
• Published: 08/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Peak Silver Advisors LLC
• Original Assignee: Peak Silver Advisors LLC
• Inventors: Chatter, Mukesh, Goyal, Rohit, Chatter, Priti, Soong, Shiao-bin
• Granted Patent: US 9,947,059 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 facilitating sales of goods to subscribers to a social network platform, the method comprising the steps of:

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;

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

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;

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;

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

upon receipt of the indications of interest from the subset of the additional subscribers, 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 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.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the stopping criteria comprises reaching the final auction time.

3. The method of claim 1 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.

4. The method of claim 3 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.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the dream price is concealed from the automated auction engines.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the initial auction parameters further include a commitment price.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the indications of interest to join the proposed purchase are binding.

8. The method of claim 1 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.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein notification to the updated set of automated auction engines occurs after receipt of each indication of interest to join the purchase.

10. The method of claim 1 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.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the seller-specific parameters comprise one or more of an actual inventory level, desired inventory level, supplier break, revenue target and profit target.

13. The method of claim 1 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.

14. The method of claim 1 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.

15. The method of claim 1 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.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by other transactions for items other than the item but supplied by a common supplier.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the degree of separation removed from the subscriber is configurable.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising facilitating a search by the additional subscribers of proposed purchases, thereby allowing the additional subscribers to join the proposed purchase.

12. The method of claim 12 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by the number of received indications of interest to join the proposed purchase.

21. 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;

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;

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

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;

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;

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

upon receipt of the indications of interest from the subset of the additional subscribers;

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

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

identify a winning auction engine based on the received offers.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the stopping criteria comprises reaching the final auction time.

23. The system of claim 21 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.

24. The system of claim 23 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.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein the initial auction parameters further include a commitment price.

26. The system of claim 21 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.

27. The system of claim 21 wherein notification to the updated set of automated auction engines occurs after receipt of each indication of interest to join the purchase.

28. The system of claim 21 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.

29. The system of claim 21 wherein the seller-specific parameters comprise one or more of an actual inventory level, desired inventory level, supplier break, revenue target and profit target.

30. The system of claim 21 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by the number of received indications of interest to join the proposed purchase.

31. The system of claim 21 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.

32. The system of claim 21 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.

33. The system of claim 21 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.

34. The system of claim 21 wherein the seller-specific objective function is further constrained by other transactions for items other than the item but supplied by a common supplier.

35. The system of claim 21 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.

36. The system of claim 21 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.

37. The system of claim 36 wherein the application server is further configured to configure the degree of separation.