System and method for dynamic price setting and facilitation of commercial transactions

• US 7,072,858 B1
• Filed: 11/15/2000
• Issued: 07/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xpensewise.Com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Xpensewise.Com, Inc.
• Inventors: Litzow, Steve, Rice, Rebel, Addington, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Jeffrey A.
• Application Number:
  US09/714,853
• Time in Patent Office: 2,057 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/14
• US Class Current: 705/7.35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising

Abstract

The present invention provides methods and systems for defining commercial transaction components; defining rules for mapping customer transactions into individual components; market segmentation in light of these individual definitions and bundling individual components of an offer into optimized packages for presentation and sale. A data processing system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, examines the commercial behavior of enrolled customers, breaks each of the constituent transactions into purchases of atom-level components; catalogues those components; extracts demographic information from said transactions and other sources; facilitates demographic studies of groups of such customers; optimizes offerings to such groups; and facilitates the consummation of those offers of sale. The processing system may also facilitate customers fiscal management through the communication of data necessary to practice the instant invention.

Claims

1. A method to derive an offer based on transaction history, the method comprising:

interposing a data processing system between consumer and vendor;

observing the consumer'"'"'s buying habits using the data processing system to gather the consumer'"'"'s bill data;

identifying the consumer who effected a purchase with a first identifier;

aggregating the first identifier of the consumers into a consumer database;

associating the purchase with the consumer'"'"'s first identifier stored in the consumer database;

identifying a vendor from a vendor database, from whom the consumer effected the purchase, by a second identifier associated with the vendor;

classifying the purchase into one or more component line items, the component line items being defined as an aggregation of smallest indivisible sales units of each product constituting the purchase;

determining the number of smallest indivisible sales units purchased in each component line item;

identifying each smallest indivisible sales units of each product constituting the purchase by a corresponding third identifier in a transaction database; and

inputting a relational instance in the customer database, wherein the relational instance comprises associations between any two or more of the smallest indivisible sales units of each product constituting the purchase selected from the list comprising;

the consumer'"'"'s first identifier;

the line item'"'"'s third identifier;

the number of sales units; and

the vendor'"'"'s second identifier.

2. A system to derive an offer based system comprising:

means for interposing a data processing system between one or more consumers and one or more vendors;

means for observing the consumer'"'"'s buying habits using the data processing system to gather the consumer'"'"'s bills or bill payment transaction data;

means for analyzing the consumer'"'"'s bills or bill payment transaction data;

means for identifying with a first identifier one or more consumers who effected a purchase;

means for aggregating the first identifier of one or more consumers into a consumer database;

means for associating the purchase with the consumer'"'"'s first identifier stored in the consumer database;

means for identifying a vendor from a vendor database, from whom the consumer effected the purchase by a second identifier associated with the vendor;

means for dissecting the purchase into one or more component line items, the component line items being defined as an aggregation of smallest indivisible sales units of each product constituting the purchase;

means for analyzing one or more component line items to determine the number of smallest indivisible sales units purchase;

means for identifying each smallest indivisible sales units of each product constituting the purchase by a corresponding third identifier in a transaction database; and

means for inputting a relational instance in the customer database, wherein the relational instance comprises associating between any two or more of the smallest indivisible sales units of each product constituting the purchase selected from the list comprising;

the consumer'"'"'s first identifier;

the line item'"'"'s third identifier;

the number of sales units; and

the vendor'"'"'s second identifier.