Apparatus and method for on-line price comparison of competitor's goods and/or services over a computer network
First Claim
1. A method for a computer-implemented on-line price comparison over a computer network of goods and/or services sold by a vendor over said computer network, comprising the steps of:
- requesting through said computer network from a competitor'"'"'s database a price for an item sold by the competitor over said computer network;
receiving from said database said competitor'"'"'s price;
displaying said competitor'"'"'s price on a display;
decreasing the price of said item sold by the vendor by a predetermined amount to create a new price if said competitor'"'"'s price is less than said item price; and
displaying said new price on said display.
20 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus are provided for a computer-implemented on-line price comparison method for performing price comparison and price reduction of goods and/or services sold by a vendor over a computer network, such as the Internet. The price comparison method can be selected by a customer, whereupon the computer program requests a competitor'"'"'s price by transmitting a price request over the computer network. When the competitor'"'"'s price is received, it is displayed to the customer. The computer program compares the competitor'"'"'s price to the item price for the specified item. If the competitor'"'"'s price is higher, nothing is done. If the competitor'"'"'s price is lower, however, the computer program presents to the customer the option of requesting a reduced price. If the customer requests a reduced price, the computer program checks to see if the competitor'"'"'s price is below a predetermined threshold. If it is, the computer program advises the customer to buy the specified item from the competitor. If the competitor'"'"'s price is not below the threshold, the vendor'"'"'s item price is reduced and displayed to the customer, who may now purchase the product at a price lower than that of the competition.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A method for a computer-implemented on-line price comparison over a computer network of goods and/or services sold by a vendor over said computer network, comprising the steps of:
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requesting through said computer network from a competitor'"'"'s database a price for an item sold by the competitor over said computer network; receiving from said database said competitor'"'"'s price; displaying said competitor'"'"'s price on a display; decreasing the price of said item sold by the vendor by a predetermined amount to create a new price if said competitor'"'"'s price is less than said item price; and displaying said new price on said display. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for a computer implemented on-line price comparison over a computer network of goods and/or services sold by a vendor over said computer network, comprising the steps of:
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requesting from a competitor'"'"'s database a competitor'"'"'s price for an item over said computer network in response to a request by a customer; detecting whether said price was received; displaying said competitor'"'"'s price for said item if said competitor'"'"'s price was received and displaying an error message if said competitor'"'"'s price was not received; comparing said competitor'"'"'s price to the vendor'"'"'s item price; comparing said competitor'"'"'s price to a predetermined threshold if said competitor'"'"'s price is less than said item price; decreasing said item price by a predetermined amount to create a new price if said competitor'"'"'s price is greater than a predetermined threshold in response to a request by said customer; and displaying said new price. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An apparatus for performing a computer implemented on-line price comparison over a computer network of goods and/or services sold by a vendor with those of a competitor, comprising:
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storage means for storing an item price; input means for receiving a comparison request for a competitor'"'"'s price; procurement means for procuring said competitor'"'"'s price over said computer network; display means for displaying said item price and said competitor'"'"'s price; comparison means for comparing said item price and said competitor'"'"'s price; and adjustment means for adjusting said item price by a predetermined amount to create a new price if said item price is greater than said competitor'"'"'s price. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. The apparatus of clam 19, wherein said new price is stored in said storage means.
Specification