Facilitating purchase of excess items

• US 8,756,100 B1
• Filed: 09/08/2011
• Issued: 06/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lopez, Gustavo Eduardo, George, Michael M., Yanacek, David C., Rabuchin, Steven T., Yarbrough, Brandon H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Myhre, James W
• Application Number:
  US13/227,587
• Time in Patent Office: 1,013 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.24
• US Class Current: 705/14.24
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0223 based on inventory
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for facilitating the purchase of excess items. In one embodiment, customer information and inventory data are retrieved from a merchant client. A determination is made on whether excess items exist. A list of target purchasers is generated based on data associated with a user account, and offers are generated and sent by electronic communication to the list of target purchasers.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying at least one program executable in a computing device, the at least one program comprising:

code that determines an availability and at least one first ticket price associated with a plurality of tickets for attending an event;

code that retrieves a listing of purchasers of at least one of the plurality of tickets for the event from a ticket merchant, the at least one of the plurality of tickets being purchased at the at least one first ticket price from the ticket merchant;

code that obtains a listing of contacts associated with the listing of purchasers, the listing of contacts obtained from a third party social networking site;

code that determines a listing of target ticket purchasers based at least in part upon the listing of contacts, the listing of target ticket purchasers being mutually exclusive of the listing of purchasers; and

code that generates an electronic communication embodying an offer listing to the target ticker purchasers for purchasing from an excess supply of the plurality of tickets through an electronic commerce system, the offer listing referencing the excess supply of the plurality of tickets and at least one second ticket price, the at least one second ticket price being a portion of the at least one first ticket price.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising code that determines a listing of prospective ticket purchasers, wherein code that determines the listing of target ticket purchasers is configured to remove duplicates between the listing of prospective ticket purchasers and the listing of purchasers to determine the listing of target ticket purchasers.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein code that determines the listing of prospective ticket purchasers is further configured to apply at least one criteria in determining the listing of target ticket purchasers.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the at least one criteria is weighted.

5. A method, comprising:

determining, by at least one computing device, an availability and at least one first item price associated with a plurality of items;

determining, by the at least one computing device, a listing of initial purchasers of at least one of the plurality of items, the at least one of the plurality of items being purchased by the listing of initial purchasers at the at least one first item price;

obtaining, by the at least one computing device, a listing of contacts associated with the listing of initial purchasers, the listing of contacts obtained from a third party social networking site;

determining, by the at least one computing device, a listing of target purchasers based at least in part upon the listing of contacts, the listing of target purchasers being mutually exclusive of the listing of initial purchasers;

generating, by the at least one computing device, an offer listing for purchasing from an excess of the plurality of items at at least one second item price; and

providing the offer listing to the listing of target purchasers.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the listing of target purchasers comprises:

determining, by the at least one computing device, a listing of prospective item purchasers; and

removing, by the at least one computing device, duplicates between the listing of prospective item purchasers and the listing of initial purchasers to determine the listing of target purchasers.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the listing of prospective item purchasers further comprises:

retrieving, by the at least one computing device, a set of criteria; and

determining, by the at least one computing device, prospective purchasers of the excess of the plurality of items based at least in part on the set of criteria.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the set of criteria is weighted according to at least one purchase by the prospective purchasers of past offer listings.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the set of criteria comprises at least one of:

past purchase history, search queries, subscriptions, multimedia playlists, wish lists, product views, and data stored on the at least one computing device.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein determining, by the at least one computing device, the availability and the at least one first item price associated with the plurality of items further comprises retrieving information from an item distributor relating to the availability and the at least one first item price.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of items comprise a plurality of tickets for an event.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one second item price is a portion of the at least one first item price.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein providing the offer listing to the purchasers comprises providing the offer listing in electronic mail format to the purchasers.

14. The method of claim 5, wherein providing the offer listing to the purchasers comprises providing the offer listing as an advertisement on a third party network page.

15. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

an item recommendation application executable in the at least one computing device, the item recommendation application comprising;

logic that retrieves a listing of at least one purchaser of an item, the at least one purchaser having purchased the item at at least one first price;

logic that obtains a listing of contacts associated with the listing of at least one purchaser, the listing of contacts obtained from a third party social networking site;

logic that determines at least one target purchaser for purchasing from an excel inventory of the item based at least in part upon the listing of contacts;

logic that determines at least one different price for purchasing from the excess inventory of the item; and

logic that provides an offer listing to the at least one target purchaser, the offer listing providing a recommendation referencing the excess inventory of the item, the offer listing further referencing the at least one different price.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein logic that determines the at least one different price for purchasing the excess inventory of the item is configured to determine the at least one different price according to demand for the excess inventory of the item.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein logic that determines the at least one target purchaser for purchasing from the excess inventory of the item is configured to determine the at least one target purchaser according to at least one of:

account information, data associated with at least one social networking service, product interest, search queries relative to a network page of a merchant, team interest, or purchase of previous offer listings.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein logic that determines the at least one target purchaser for purchasing from the excess inventory of the item is configured to determine the at least one target purchaser according to geographical location of prospective purchasers.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one target purchaser is mutually exclusive of the at least one purchaser having purchased the item at the at least one first price.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein item comprises a ticket associated with an event.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the event comprises one of:

a sporting event, a concert event, a theatre event, and an art event.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein logic that retrieves the listing of the at least one purchaser of the item is configured to retrieve the listing from at least one of:

a ticket distributor or a venue hosting the event associated with the ticket.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein logic that provides the offer listing to the at least one target purchaser is configured to provide the offer listing through at least one of:

a network page, an electronic mail message, a text message, a quick response (QR) code, and an advertisement.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the advertisement is embodied in a third party network page rendered on a client device associated with the at least one target purchaser.

25. A method, comprising:

determining, by at least one computing device, a listing of prospective purchasers of an excess item based at least in part on social networking data corresponding to a listing of contacts for at least one purchaser of the item, wherein the listing of contacts is obtained from a third party social networking site;

determining, by the at least one computing device, a listing of target purchasers from the listing or prospective purchasers based at least in part on application of at least one criteria associated with the listing of prospective purchasers;

generating, by the at least one computing device, an offer listing for purchasing from the excess of the item; and

providing the offer listing to the listing of target purchasers.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least one criteria is weighted based at least in part on purchases made in response to prior offer listings provided to the listing of target purchasers.