System for commodity sales

• US 7,917,404 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2008
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mizuno, Noriaki, Egashira, Kiyofusa
• Primary Examiner(s): Pond; Robert M.
• Application Number:
  US12/136,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20080249821A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,022 Days
• Field of Search: 705 26- 27
• US Class Current: 705/26.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• 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 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The wishes of purchasers and sellers of particular commodity items are matched using a computer database. Hopeful purchasers submit requests during a predetermined sale time frame. The requests include a desired purchase price and a desired purchase quantity for the particular commodity item. After the predetermined period, purchaser information is used to produce a purchase wish list in a predetermined order. An optimum combination of intending purchasers, selling quantities, selling prices, commodity suppliers, supply quantities, and supply prices is created by comparing the purchase wish list with a supply list.

Claims

1. A commodity sales system comprising:

a database storing, in a supply list, information about a plurality of supply quantities and a supply price that, for each supply quantity, indicates a supply cost obtained from at least one commodity supplier for the particular commodity item;

a seller server configured to perform the operations of

receive purchase wish information from intending purchasers through a network for a predetermined period of time, the

store the purchase wish information in the database,

retrieve, from the database, the purchase wish information, the purchase wish information includes a desired purchase price and a desired purchase quantity for the particular commodity item,

produce a purchase wish list having the information arranged in a predetermined order after the predetermined period of time,

select an optimum combination of intending purchasers, selling quantities, selling prices, commodity suppliers, supply quantities, and supply prices by comparing only the desired purchase price and the desired purchase quantity from the purchase wish list with the supply price and the supply quantity from the supply list, and

transmit a purchase admission notification to the selected intending purchasers, wherein

the supply price lowers as the supply quantity increases, and

each supply quantity is classified into a supply quantity range indicating a maximum supply quantity range for each commodity supplier.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of supply quantity ranges each have a same predetermined span, and

one or more corresponding supply prices are indicated for each of the supply quantities for use in a single instance of the select operation.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein

the purchase wish list is arranged such that the desired purchase prices are placed in descending order from highest to lowest.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the select operation:

selects the optimum combination so that a gross profit of a seller is maximized;

determines a first value by summing a product of the desired purchase price and the desired purchase quantity for each transaction;

determines a second value by summing the purchase quantity for each transaction;

determines a third value by multiplying the second value and the supply price corresponding to the supply quantity range in the supply list that includes the second value; and

calculates the gross profit by subtracting the third value from the first value.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the selecting operation:

accumulates the desired purchase quantities by referring to the purchase wish list;

checks within which supply quantity range in the supply list the accumulation result falls;

determines a minimum supply price within the corresponding supply quantity range; and

calculates an aggregate gross profit using the determined supply price.