Method and system to facilitate pre-ordering via an electronic commerce facility, and to automatically facilitate satisfying of a pre-order upon listing of an appropriate offer via the electronic commerce facility

• US 7,890,375 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2001
• Issued: 02/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: Halfcom Incorporated (eBay Inc.)
• Inventors: Balijepalli, Srinivas, Borowsky, Pete, Geshel, Vadim, Schwankl, Michael, Kopelman, Joshua
• Primary Examiner(s): MILEF, ELDA G
• Application Number:
  US09/920,573
• Publication Number:
  US 20020099642A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,486 Days
• Field of Search: 705 26- 27, 705/37
• US Class Current: 705/26.8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A method to facilitate pre-ordering of an offering via a network-based transaction facility includes, responsive to user identification of an offering, communicating offering information to the user regarding the offering. In conjunction with the offering information, a selectable option is communicated to the user to pre-order the offering by specifying pre-order attribute information. Following selection the pre-order option by a user and provision of the pre-order attribute information, a pre-order relating to an item is recorded at the transaction facility. The pre-order specifies a plurality of pre-order attributes. An offer to sell the item is received at the transaction facility, the offer specifying a plurality of offer attributes. A matching operation is automatically performed to detect a correspondence between the pre-order and the offer. The matching operation utilizes at least one pre-order attribute of the pre-order attributes and at least one offer attribute of the offer attributes to detect the correspondence. Responsive to a detection of the correspondence by the matching operation, a transaction facilitating operation is automatically performed to facilitate establishment of a transaction whereby the pre-order is satisfied by the offer to sell the item.

Claims

1. A method to facilitate a transaction via a network-based transaction facility, the method including:

recording a pre-order relating to an item in a processor-implemented database of the transaction facility, the pre-order specifying a plurality of pre-order attributes including a minimum pre-order product condition and minimum seller rating;

receiving an offer to sell the item at the transaction facility, the offer specifying a plurality of offer attributes including an offer product condition and a seller rating;

automatically performing with processor-implemented matching logic a matching operation to detect a correspondence between the pre-order and the offer, the matching operation utilizing the plurality of pre-order attributes and the plurality of the offer attributes to detect the correspondence; and

responsive to the processor-implemented matching logic detecting a correspondence between the pre-order and the offer, automatically performing a transaction when the plurality of pre-order attributes are satisfied by the plurality of the offer attributes,

wherein, if a batch of offers are detected matching the pre-order, the matching pre-orders are set to a reserve state, and wherein a second transaction is performed when one of the pre-orders is confirmed.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the minimum pre-order product condition includes an item descriptor, an item price and a pre-order expiration specification.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the seller rating is established based on a trading history of a seller from which the offer originates.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the seller rating is determined by input received from other users of the transaction facility.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the item description comprises any one of a UPC code and an ISBN code.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the offer product condition includes an item descriptor, an item price and a seller identifier.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the matching operation utilizes multiple pre-order attributes of the plurality of pre-order attributes and multiple offer attributes of the plurality of offer attributes to detect the correspondence.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the correspondence includes any one of a group of degrees of correspondence, including an exact correspondence, a correspondence below a maximum threshold, a correspondence above a minimum threshold and a correspondence within a range.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the pre-order attributes specifies a criterion, and wherein the detecting of the correspondence includes determining whether the criterion is met or exceeded.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising communicating the pre-order to a seller from which the offer to sell was received.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the communication of the pre-order to the seller occurs prior to a publication of the offer to sell by the transaction facility.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the communication of the pre-order includes communicating to the seller a user-selectable option to instantly satisfy the pre-order with the offer and thereby to establish the transaction.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the communication of the pre-order includes communicating at least a subset of the plurality of pre-order attributes to the seller.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the communicating on the pre-order includes causing a display of a user interface communicating the pre-order to the seller.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the user interface comprises a markup-language document.

16. The method of claim 14 including transmitting the user interface via a network to a device accessible by the seller.

17. The method of claim 10 including communicating comparative price information to the seller in conjunction with the pre-order.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the comparative price information includes, for the item, any one of a group of information items including a recommended price for a second item, a last sold price for an item substantially similar to the second item, an average list price for an item substantially similar to the second item, a current highest price for an item substantially similar to the second item, a current low price for an item substantially similar to the current item and a minimum listing price.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein the offer to sell is received as part of a batch of offers from the seller to sell a plurality of items.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the item includes any one of a group of items including goods and services.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein multiple instances of the item are in existence, and the pre-order relates to any one of the multiple instances of the item that satisfies the pre-order attributes.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the offer to sell relates to a specific instance of the multiple instances of the item.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein a single instance of the item is in existence, and both the pre-order and the offer relate to the single instance of the item.

24. A commerce system to facilitate a transaction, the system including:

first means for recording a pre-order relating to an item at the transaction facility, the pre-order specifying a plurality of pre-order attributes including a minimum pre-order product condition and minimum seller rating; and

second means for automatically performing a matching operation to detect a correspondence between the pre-order and an offer received at the system, the offer specifying a plurality of offer attributes including an offer product condition and a seller rating, the matching operation utilizing the plurality of pre-order attributes and the plurality of the offer attributes to detect the correspondence;

the second means further, responsive to a detection of the correspondence by the matching operation, for automatically performing a transaction when the plurality of pre-order attributes are satisfied by the plurality of the offer attributes,

wherein, if a batch of offers are detected matching the pre-order, the matching pre-orders are set to a reserve state, and wherein a second transaction is performed when one of the pre-orders is confirmed.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the at least one pre-order attribute includes any one of a group of attributes including an item descriptor, an item price, an item condition, a seller rating and a pre-order expiration specification.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the seller rating is established based on a trading history of a seller from which the offer originates.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the seller rating is determined by input received from other users of the transaction facility.

28. The system of claim 25 wherein the item description comprises any one of a UPC code and an ISBN code.

29. The system of claim 24 wherein the at least one offer attribute includes any one of a group of attributes including an item descriptor, an item price, an item condition and a seller identifier.

30. The system of claim 24 wherein the matching operation utilizes multiple pre-order attributes of the plurality of pre-order attributes and multiple offer attributes of the plurality of offer attributes to detect the correspondence.

31. The system of claim 24 wherein the correspondence includes any one of a group of degrees of correspondence, including an exact correspondence, a correspondence below a maximum threshold, a correspondence above a minimum threshold and a correspondence within a range.

32. The system of claim 24 wherein at least one of the pre-order attributes specifies a criterion, and wherein the detecting of the correspondence includes determining whether the criterion is met or exceeded.

33. The system of claim 24 wherein the transaction facilitating operation includes communicating the pre-order to a seller from which the offer to sell was received.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the communication of the pre-order to the seller occurs prior to a publication of the offer to sell by the transaction facility.

35. The system of claim 33 wherein the communication of the pre-order includes communicating to the seller a user-selectable option to instantly satisfy the pre-order with the offer and thereby to establish the transaction.

36. The system of claim 33 wherein the communication of the pre-order includes communicating at least a subset of the plurality of pre-order attributes to the seller.

37. The system of claim 33 wherein the communicating on the pre-order includes causing a display of a user interface communicating the pre-order to the seller.

38. The system of claim 37 wherein the user interface comprises a markup-language document.

39. The system of claim 37 wherein the communicating of the pre-order includes transmitting the user interface via a network to a device accessible by the seller.

40. The system of claim 33 including communicating comparative price information to the seller in conjunction with the pre-order.

41. The system of claim 40 wherein the comparative price information includes, for the item, any one of a group of information items including a recommended price for a second item, a last sold price for an item substantially similar to the second item, an average list price for an item substantially similar to the second item, a current highest price for an item substantially similar to the second item, a current low price for an item substantially similar to the current item and a minimum listing price.

42. The system of claim 24 wherein the offer to sell is received as part of a batch of offers from the seller to sell a plurality of items.

43. The system of claim 24 wherein the item includes any one of a group of items including goods and services.

44. The system of claim 24 wherein multiple instances of the item are in existence, and the pre-order relates to any one of the multiple instances of the item that satisfies the pre-order attributes.

45. The system of claim 24 wherein the offer to sell relates to a specific instance of the multiple instances of the item.

46. The claim of claim 24 wherein a single instance of the item is in existence, and both the pre-order and the offer relate to the single instance of the item.

47. A machine-readable medium storing a sequence of instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to facilitate a transaction via a network-based transaction facility, the method including:

recording a pre-order relating to an item at the transaction facility, the pre-order specifying a plurality of pre-order attributes including a minimum pre-order product condition and minimum seller rating;

receiving an offer to sell the item at the transaction facility, the offer specifying a plurality of offer attributes including an offer product condition and a seller rating;

automatically performing a matching operation to detect a correspondence between the pre-order and the offer, the matching operation utilizing at least one pre-order attribute of the plurality of pre-order attributes and at least one offer attribute of the offer attributes to detect the correspondence;

responsive to a detection of the correspondence by the matching operation, automatically performing a transaction when the plurality of pre-order attributes are satisfied by the plurality of the offer attributes,

wherein, if a batch of offers are detected matching the pre-order, the matching pre-orders are set to a reserve state, and wherein a second transaction is performed when one of the pre-orders is confirmed.