Methods for running an on-line shopping mall with updated price notification

• US 7,698,172 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2007
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Naver Corporation
• Original Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Inventors: Yoon, Young Woon, Choe, Jeong Ok
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; Jeffrey A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Allen; William J.
• Application Number:
  US11/858,039
• Publication Number:
  US 20080004987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 937 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705 26- 27, 705/80
• US Class Current: 705/26.62
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers

Abstract

A method of providing price information of goods includes maintaining a database recording user information associated with a user, a product identifier, and desired price information, the user information including a user identifier and a mobile phone number or an electronic mail address associated with the user identifier. The method further includes receiving a selection of a product and desired price information for the product from the user, and recording the product identifier and the desired price information of the product in the database, in association with the user information of the user. The method further includes receiving selling price information of the product associated with the product identifier from at least one seller, and notifying the user of predetermined information when the received selling price satisfies a predetermined criterion.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of running an on-line shopping mall service on one or more servers, the method comprising:

transmitting, to a terminal associated with a user, at least one price of a product available from at least one retailer registered with the on-line shopping mall service;

receiving, at the one or more servers of the on-line shopping mall service, a desired price of the product from the terminal;

arranging, at the one or more servers, the received desired price from the terminal relative to other desired prices received from other terminals for the same product;

sending, from the one or more servers, information indicating the arrangement of desired prices to at least one retailer registered with the on-line shopping mall service;

subsequent to sending, obtaining, at the one or more servers, an updated price of the product from a first retailer registered with the on-line shopping mall service, wherein the updated price is selected by the at least one retailer based on the arrangement of desired prices sent from the one or more servers to the at least one retailer;

comparing, at the one or more servers, the updated price of the first retailer against the desired price so as to determine if the updated price is equal to or lower than the desired price; and

upon determining that the updated price is equal to or lower than the desired price, sending, from the one or more servers, a notification to the user that the product is available via the on-line shopping mall service at a price equal to or lower than the desired price with the updated price.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to transmitting, receiving, at the one or more servers, a request from the terminal of the user for providing sales information of the product available in the on-line shopping mall; and

prior to transmitting, searching, by the one or more servers, for sales information of the product available in the on-line shopping mall.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, from the one or more servers, sales information of the product in addition to the at least one price of the product, wherein the sales information is selected from the group consisting of a brand name of the product, a picture of the product and an online store selling the product.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification, from the one or more servers, provides a link configured to open a web page of the first retailer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification, from the one or more servers, is sent to an email address of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification, from the one or more servers, is sent to a mobile telephone of the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining, by the one or more servers, comprises:

sending, from the one or mores servers, a request for an updated price of the product to at least one retailer registered with the on-line shopping mall service; and

receiving, from the one or more servers, the updated price from the first retailer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining, by the one or more servers, comprises retrieving, by the one or more servers, a price of the product from the web page of the first retailer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the on-line shopping mall service comprises a shopping web page served by the one or more servers comprising at least one link configured to open at least one on-line store registered with the on-line shopping mall.

10. A computer-implemented method for processing to purchase a product from an on-line shopping mall service provided by one or more servers, the method comprising:

searching, using a user terminal, for a desired product in an on-line shopping mall service;

receiving, from the one or more servers of the on-line shopping mall service, at least one price of the product available from at least one retailer registered with the on-line shopping mall;

submitting, to the one or more servers of the on-line shopping mall service, a users desired price of the product to be sent to the at least one retailer;

receiving, from the one or more servers of the on-line shopping mall service, a notification notifying the user that the-at least one retailer has provided an updated price in response to the user'"'"'s desired price, wherein the updated price has been determined by the one or more servers to be equal to or lower than the user'"'"'s desired price, and wherein the updated price is selected based on an arrangement of the user'"'"'s desired price relative to other desired prices for the same product received from other users; and

submitting, to the one or more servers of the on-line shopping mall service, a request to purchase the desired product from the retailer at the updated price that is equal to or lower than the user'"'"'s desired price.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the notification, from the one or more servers, further provides a link configured to open the web page of the at least one retailer who has provided the updated price of the product.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the notification, from the one or more servers, provides the updated price that is equal to or lower than the desired price.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the notification, from the one or more servers, is by at least one of an email or a text message to a mobile phone of the user.