Marketplace system that supports user-to-user sales via a definitive product catalog

• US 7,614,552 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2008
• Issued: 11/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Dalzell, Richard L., Roseman, Neil C., Kotas, Paul, Bezos, Jeffrey P., Blackburn, Jeffrey M., Moore, Bruce C.
• Primary Examiner(s): RUDY, ANDREW J
• Application Number:
  US12/332,246
• Publication Number:
  US 20090138380A1
• Time in Patent Office: 335 Days
• Field of Search: 705/27, 705/26, 235/375, 235/376, 235/383, 235/385, 707/10, 707/100, 707/102, 707/104.1, 709/207, 709/209, 709/217, 709/223
• US Class Current: 235/383
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0619 Neutral agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

An electronic marketplace system embodies various inventions for assisting users in listing products for sale, locating the listings for a product, and performing related actions. A user wishing to sell a product can browse to an existing description of the product in an electronic catalog and then select an option to create a corresponding listing. To create the listing for the selected product, the user preferably specifies the product'"'"'s condition and a selling price. The pending listings for a product are preferably displayed or summarized on the product'"'"'s detail page in the catalog. When no such listings exist, an option to preorder the product from an unspecified seller may be provided. In one embodiment, the electronic catalog also serves as a retail sales catalog of a merchant.

Claims

1. A marketplace system, comprising:

a server system that provides network-based user access to an electronic catalog of products, said server system providing functionality for users to purchase at least some of said products from a merchant via the electronic catalog;

a listing creation component that provides functionality for users to add marketplace listings to the electronic catalog for selling at least used units of products represented in the electronic catalog, wherein at least some of the marketplace listings are displayed in the electronic catalog in association with corresponding product descriptions used for sales of such products by the merchant; and

a transaction processing system that supports at least (a) sales of products from the merchant to users, said merchant-to-user sales initiated via the electronic catalog, and (b) user-to-user sales associated with the marketplace listings.

2. The marketplace system as in claim 1, wherein the marketplace system is operative to generate, for a particular product, a product detail page that includes both (1) information regarding pending marketplace listings for the particular product, and (2) an option to purchase the particular product from the merchant, said option to purchase being separate from the marketplace listings.

3. The marketplace system as in claim 1, wherein the listing creation component provides functionality for a seller to initiate creation of a marketplace listing for a product from a preexisting description of the product in the electronic catalog.

4. The marketplace system as in claim 1, wherein the listing creation component provides a bulk uploading service for allowing a user to upload multiple marketplace listings at a time.

5. The marketplace system as in claim 1, wherein the merchant is a retail merchant.

6. The marketplace system as in claim 1, wherein the electronic catalog includes descriptions of products that are not sold by the merchant but that may be listed for sale by users.

15. The marketplace system as in claim 1, wherein the listing creation component comprises web pages served by the server system.

16. The marketplace system as in claim 1, wherein the listing creation component is operative to generate, and to output to a seller, a suggested selling price for a marketplace listing being created by the seller.

17. The marketplace system as in claim 1, wherein the electronic catalog is arranged in, and is capable of being browsed using, a hierarchy of product categories.

18. The marketplace system as in claim 1, wherein the merchant is one of a plurality of merchants from which products are available for purchase via said electronic catalog without using a marketplace listing.

19. The marketplace system as in claim 1, wherein the listing creation component enables a seller to create a multi-unit marketplace listing that remains in effect until a seller-specified number of units of an associated product have been sold.

7. A marketplace system that supports user-to-user sales via a definitive product catalog, the system comprising:

a data repository that stores catalog descriptions of each of a plurality of products; and

a server system that provides user access to a browsable electronic catalog of the products represented in the data repository, said electronic catalog including said catalog descriptions of the products and providing an option for users thereof to create marketplace listings for selling said products, such that a user wishing to sell a particular product can browse to a preexisting description of the particular product in the electronic catalog and then select an option to create a marketplace listing for selling said particular product, said server system additionally operative to incorporate information regarding at least some of the marketplace listings into the electronic catalog in association with the corresponding catalog descriptions such that users can initiate purchases from other users via the electronic catalog; and

a transaction processing system operative to transact user-to-user product sales in connection with the marketplace listings, said transaction processing system additionally operative to transact merchant-to-user product sales in connection with products described in said electronic catalog.

8. The marketplace system as in claim 7, wherein the electronic catalog additionally provides functionality for users to purchase said products from a merchant without use of a marketplace listing.

9. The marketplace system as in claim 8, wherein the server system is operative to generate, for a first product of said plurality of products, a product detail page that includes both (1) information regarding pending marketplace listings for the first product, and (2) an option to purchase the first product from the merchant, said option to purchase being separate from said marketplace listings for the first product.

10. The marketplace system as in claim 7, wherein the server system is operative to generate, for a first product of said plurality of products, a product detail page that (1) provides an option to initiate a purchase of the first product from a retail entity, and (2) includes, separately from said option to initiate a purchase from the retail entity, an option to view pending marketplace listings for the first product.

11. The marketplace system as in claim 7, wherein said option for users to create marketplace listings is provided via web pages served by the server system.

12. The marketplace system as in claim 7, wherein the server system is operative to generate, and to output for presentation to a seller, a suggested selling price for a marketplace listing being created by the seller.

13. The marketplace system as in claim 7, wherein the electronic catalog includes a browse tree that enables users to navigate the electronic catalog according to a hierarchy of product categories.

14. The marketplace system as in claim 7, wherein the server system enables a seller to create a multi-unit marketplace listing that remains in effect until a seller-specified number of units of a corresponding product have been sold.