System and method for dynamic price setting and facilitation of commercial transactions

• US 8,401,907 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2008
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rebel Rice, Steve Litzow, William Addington
• Original Assignee: Rebel Rice, Steve Litzow, William Addington
• Inventors: Litzow, Steve, Rice, Rebel, Addington, William
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, CAM Y T
• Application Number:
  US12/177,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20090049076A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,701 Days
• Field of Search: 707/752, 707/731, 705/40, 705/26.1, 705/26.8
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

The present invention provides methods and systems for defining commercial transaction components; defining rules for mapping customer transactions into individual components; market segmentation in light of these individual definitions and bundling individual components of an offer into optimized packages for presentation and sale. A data processing system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, examines the commercial behavior of enrolled customers, breaks each of the constituent transactions into purchases of atom-level components; catalogues those components; extracts demographic information from said transactions and other sources; facilitates demographic studies of groups of such customers; optimizes offerings to such groups; and facilitates the consummation of those offers of sale. The processing system may also facilitate customers fiscal management through the communication of data necessary to practice the instant invention.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating electronic commerce between a multiplicity of customers and a multiplicity of vendors, comprising:

a. creating a customer database, comprising;

i. enrolling a multiplicity of customers into a closed market;

ii. inputting a unique variable identifier to each customer of the multiplicity of customers; and

,

iii. creating an initial record containing identity and demographic information for said each customer of the multiplicity of customers;

b. creating a transaction database, comprising;

i. creating a record corresponding to each product of a multiplicity of products;

ii. identifying a sales unit quantity appropriate to the product;

iii. inputting a unique variable identifier to the product; and

iv. sorting and categorizing the products according to categories comprising function, use and composition;

c. creating a vendor database, comprising;

i. creating a record corresponding to each vendor of a multiplicity of vendors;

ii. inputting a unique variable identifier to said each vendor of the multiplicity of vendors;

d. recording all purchases;

comprising;

i. identifying each customer who effected purchase of the purchases being recorded by each customer'"'"'s unique variable identifier stored in the customer database;

ii. identifying the vendor, from the vendor database, from whom the customer effected the purchase by the vendor'"'"'s unique variable identifier;

iii. splitting each purchase into component line items;

iv. determining the number of sales units purchased in each component line item;

v. identifying each component line item by said component line item'"'"'s unique variable identifier inputted in the transaction database;

vi. identifying a date for each purchase; and

,

vii. inputting a relational instance in the customer database, comprising;

(A) the customer'"'"'s unique variable identifier;

(B) the line item'"'"'s unique variable identifier, stored in the transaction database;

(C) multiple of sales units;

(D) the vendor'"'"'s unique variable identifier, stored in the vendor database; and

, (E) the date of purchase;

e. receiving a vendor'"'"'s offer to sell a product to the multiplicity of customers;

f. sorting the demographic data and purchase history for each customer and, in turn, sorting the multiplicity of the customers by a multiplicity of segments, each segment representing a group of one or more demographic characteristics or purchases;

g. calculating a statistical score representing market penetration of the vendor'"'"'s offer for each segment of the multiplicity of segments based upon demographic characteristics and the purchase history;

h. sorting the multiplicity of segments by statistical score,

i. selecting a threshold score for likely customer acceptance of the vendor'"'"'s offer; and

,

j. communicating the vendor'"'"'s offer to the customers with the statistical score greater than the threshold score.

2. The method for facilitating commerce in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

i. selecting a threshold score for likely customer acceptance of the vendor'"'"'s offer;

j. calculating profit the vendor is likely to realize;

k. calculating the number of units sold the vendor is likely to realize by communicating the vendor'"'"'s offer to customers with a statistical score greater than threshold score;

l. calculating market share the vendor is likely to realize by communicating the vendor'"'"'s offer to customers with a statistical score greater than threshold score.

3. The method for facilitating commerce in claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

m. selecting values reflecting acceptable profit, acceptable number of units sold and acceptable market share the vendor will realize from the vendor'"'"'s offer;

n. adjusting terms of the vendor'"'"'s offer in light of the profit, number of units sold, and market share;

o. repeating steps e through h, and k through n until the profit, number of units sold and the market share most closely meet the selected values.