Price guarantee tracking service

• US 8,006,900 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2008
• Issued: 08/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions Holdings Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lamb, Albert A., Grigsby, Travis M., Surprenant, Lee M., Freund, Thomas J.
• Primary Examiner(s): St.Cyr; Daniel
• Application Number:
  US12/125,129
• Publication Number:
  US 20090289114A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• Field of Search: 235/383, 235/385, 235/375
• US Class Current: 235/383
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering

Abstract

Price guarantee tracking services are an automated method for acquiring price guarantee terms and conditions from retailers and subsequently viewing them. A system for tracking a price guarantee includes a processor; memory operably connected to the processor; a find price guarantee program loaded into the memory and operable by the processor; a parse price guarantee program loaded into the memory and operable by the processor; and a list of price guarantee terms loaded into the memory and operable by the processor.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining a list of price guarantees comprising:

determining a plurality of retailers;

obtaining respective machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers;

for each of the machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers,

parsing the machine-readable price guarantee to determine price guarantee characteristics that comprise a refund calculation formula, price guarantee time period, price guarantee scope, price guarantee documentation requirements, and excluded items;

associating, in a machine-readable storage medium, the price guarantee characteristics with the respective one of the plurality of retailers; and

tracking eligibility for a potential refund for a customer based, at least in part, on the price guarantee characteristics, purchase information of the customer, and subsequent prices off each of the plurality of retailers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said obtaining the respective machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers comprises:

downloading content from websites of the plurality of retailers;

searching said content for price guarantees; and

for each price guarantee, converting the price guarantee into a corresponding one of the machine readable price guarantees if not already machine-readable.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a second plurality of retailers;

determining that the second plurality of retailers do not have price guarantees; and

recording an indication of no price guarantee found for each of the second plurality of retailers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the price guarantee scope indicates at least one of retail channel constraint, geography constraint, date constraint, retailer constraint, and advertising requirement.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a graphical user interface with the price guarantee characteristics displayed for each of the plurality of retailers;

wherein the graphical user interface comprises a control for each type of price characteristic to sort the displayed price guarantee characteristics by the corresponding type of price characteristic.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying the customer that the customer is eligible for a potential refund based, at least in part, on the price guarantee characteristics, the purchase information, and the subsequent sales prices.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said machine-readable price guarantees comprise one of an XML file and a character-delimited file.

8. A system for tracking a price guarantee comprising:

a processor;

memory operably connected to said processor;

a find price guarantee program loaded into said memory and executable by said processor to,

determine a plurality of retailers;

obtain respective machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers;

a parse price guarantee program loaded into said memory and executable by said processor to,

for each of the machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers,

parse the machine-readable price guarantee to determine price guarantee characteristics that comprise a refund calculation formula, price guarantee time period, price guarantee scope, price guarantee documentation requirements, and excluded items;

associate, in a machine-readable storage medium, the price guarantee characteristics with the respective one of the plurality of retailers; and

a potential refund tracker program loaded into said memory and executable by said processor to track eligibility for a potential refund for a customer based, at least in part, on the price guarantee characteristics, purchase information of the customer, and subsequent prices of each of the plurality of retailers.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said find price guarantee program executable to obtain the respective machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers comprises the find price guarantee program being executable to:

download content from websites of the plurality of retailers;

search the content for price guarantees; and

for each price guarantee, convert the price guarantee into a corresponding one of the machine-readable price guarantees.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said find price guarantee program is further executable to:

determine a second plurality of retailers;

determine that the second plurality of retailers do not have price guarantees; and

record an indication of no price guarantee found for each of the second plurality of retailers.

11. The system of claim 8 further comprising a graphical user interface program loaded into the memory executable by the processor to:

display a graphical user interface with the price guarantee characteristics displayed for each of the plurality of retailers;

wherein the graphical user interface comprises a control for each type of price characteristic to sort the displayed price guarantee characteristics by the corresponding type of price characteristic.

12. The system of claim 8 further comprising a refund eligibility notifier program loaded into the memory executable by the processor to notify the customer that the customer is eligible for a potential refund based, at least in part, on the price guarantee characteristics, the purchase information, and the subsequent sales prices.

13. A computer program product for finding a price guarantee comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having program instructions stored therein, the program instructions comprising,

first program instructions determine a plurality of retailers;

second program instructions to obtain respective machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers;

third program instructions to for each of the machine-readable price guarantees of the plurality of retailers,

parse the machine-readable price guarantee to determine price guarantee characteristics that comprise a refund calculation formula, price guarantee time period, price guarantee scope, price guarantee documentation requirements, and excluded items;

associate, in a machine-readable storage medium, the price guarantee characteristics with the respective one of the plurality of retailers;

fourth program instructions to track eligibility for a potential refund for a customer based, at least in part, on the price guarantee characteristics, purchase information of the customer, and subsequent prices of each of the plurality of retailers.

14. The computer program of claim 13, wherein the computer readable storage medium further has stored therein:

fifth program instructions to download content from websites of the plurality of retailers;

sixth program instructions to search the content for price guarantees; and

seventh program instructions to, for each price guarantee, convert the price guarantee into a corresponding one of the machine-readable price guarantees.

15. The computer program of claim 13, wherein the computer readable storage medium further has stored therein fifth program instructions to display a graphical user interface with the price guarantee characteristics displayed for each of the plurality of retailers and sixth program instructions to sort the price guarantee characteristics by price guarantee characteristic type.