Customer-generated deals

• US 9,483,775 B1
• Filed: 03/25/2013
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Kim, John Y., Venkateswaran, Vijay
• Primary Examiner(s): Netzloff, Eric
• Application Number:
  US13/849,973
• Time in Patent Office: 1,317 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates

Abstract

A deal manager executing on computer hardware receives a discount offer proposal from a first consumer. The deal manager forwards the discount offer proposal to one or more retail suppliers. The discount offer can include proposed terms such as a conditional modification to an original retail price of a respective retail item offered for sale by the supplier. In response to receiving, from the supplier, acceptance of terms as specified by the discount offer proposal, the deal manager or other suitable resource initiates distribution of terms associated with the approved discount offer to the first consumer and/or a second consumer. The second consumer can be one of multiple consumers to which the approved discount offer is distributed. Accordingly, consumers can propose deals that are, in turn, used by other consumers.

Claims

1. A method of managing price negotiations and sales via an online management hardware platform accessible by a first party and a second party, the first party being a consumer, the second party being a merchant, the method comprising:

via computer processing hardware in the online management hardware platform, executing operations of;

receiving a discount proposal from a mobile communication device operated by the first party, the first party generating the discount proposal and providing the discount proposal to the online hardware management platform via a client application executing on the mobile communication device, the discount proposal indicating a modified purchase price of a retail item for sale by the second party, wherein the first party physically visits a store from which the second party offers the retail item for sale to consumers;

presenting the discount proposal to the second party;

from the second party, receiving approval of the discount proposal and modified purchase price, the approval indicating acceptance by the second party to sell the retail item at the modified purchase price;

providing electronic notification of the received approval of the discount proposal to the first party;

creating multiple redeemable coupons to purchase the retail item at the modified purchase price as specified by the discount proposal approved by the second party;

initiating distribution of the redeemable coupons to a group of persons as specified by the first party, the redeemable coupons indicating the modified purchase price; and

tracking redemption of the redeemable coupons by the group of persons;

the method further comprising;

at the online management hardware platform, receiving enrollment information and corresponding attributes of the discount proposal from the mobile communication device operated by the first party, the enrollment information indicating the second party, the corresponding attributes of the discount proposal indicating an identity of the retail item and the modified purchase price;

from the online management hardware platform, transmitting an electronic communication to the second party, the electronic communication including a selectable link in which the second party selects to set up a corresponding merchant account with the online management hardware platform;

via the corresponding merchant account, and a portal of the online management hardware platform, notifying the second party of the corresponding attributes of the discount proposal provided by the first party; and

wherein receiving the approval of the discount proposal and modified purchase price from the second party further comprises;

via the portal of the online management hardware platform, receiving confirmation from the second party that the attributes of the discount proposal have been accepted by the second party.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein the first party originates and presents the discount proposal to the online management hardware platform, the online management hardware platform facilitating presentation of the discount proposal to the second party via transmission of an email notification to a computer device operated by the second party, the email notification including a selectable link in which to enroll the second party with the online management hardware platform.

3. The method as in claim 2 further comprising:

receiving feedback from the second party, the feedback indicating a commitment by a number of persons in the group to purchase the retail item;

based on the feedback, setting a variable to indicate how many of the multiple persons in the group use the redeemable coupons to purchase the retail item at the modified purchase price; and

in response to detecting that a magnitude of the variable is above a threshold value, generating a signal indicating that the first party is entitled to a reward.

4. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

over time, producing a count value tracking how many of the persons in the group commit to redeeming the redeemable coupons to purchase an instance of the retail item from the second party.

5. The method as in claim 4 further comprising:

comparing the count value to a threshold value; and

in response to detecting that the count value is greater than the threshold value, generating an individual notification to each of the persons in the group that commit to purchase of the retail item at the modified purchase price, the individual notification indicating confirmation of a sale of the retail item at the modified purchase price as specified by the discount proposal from the first party, the second party being a retail supplier of the retail item.

6. The method as in claim 4 further comprising:

comparing the count value to a threshold value; and

in response to detecting that the count value is less than a threshold value, providing a notification to the each of the persons in the group of a deadline in which to commit to purchasing the retail item at the modified purchase price.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein the received approval of the discount proposal has an associated threshold value specifying a predetermined number of instances of the retail item that must be sold in order to sell the retail item at the modified purchase price, the method further comprising:

producing a count value indicating how many persons have committed to purchase of the retail item at the modified purchase price as specified by the discount proposal;

comparing the count value to the threshold value; and

in response to detecting that the count value is less than the threshold value, initiating a communication to the second party, the communication indicating that additional persons must commit to purchasing the item from the second party in order for the second party to sell the retail item at the modified purchase price as specified by the coupon.

8. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving first input, the first input received from the first party and indicating an identity of the first party;

registering the first party as a prospective buyer;

receiving second input, the second input received from the second party and indicating an identity of the second party; and

registering the second party as a prospective seller.

9. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving funds from a person committed to purchase the retail item at the modified purchase price, the person redeeming the coupon with the second party to obtain the modified purchase price;

obtaining an expiration date associated with the discount proposal; and

in response to detecting that a number of persons that have committed to buying the retail item at the purchase price is below a threshold value and that a current date is past the expiration date, initiating a refund of the funds to the person.

10. The method as in claim 1, wherein the second party is a retail supplier, the method further comprising:

receiving a notification from the first party, the notification from the first party including an advertisement of the approved discount proposal; and

initiating distribution of the notification of the approved discount proposal to a social network of persons as specified by the first party.

11. The method as in claim 1, wherein the second party is a retail supplier, the method further comprising:

receiving consent from a group of persons not known to the first party to receive discount notifications;

from the first party, receiving a notification including an advertisement of the approved discount proposal; and

initiating distribution of the discount notification of the approved discount proposal to the group of persons.

12. The method as in claim 1, wherein the group of persons as specified by the first party presents the redeemable coupons to the second party upon commitment by the group of persons to purchase the retail item, the method further comprising:

and

receiving the redeemable coupons from the second party, the second party receiving the redeemable coupons from the group of persons committing to purchase the retail item at the modified purchase price as specified by the discount proposal.

13. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

receiving input from the first party negotiating a time frame in which each of the persons in the group are to purchase the retail item.

16. The method as in claim 1, wherein creating the multiple redeemable coupons includes:

producing a first redeemable coupon to include a first unique code assigned to the first party; and

producing a second redeemable coupon to include a second unique code, the second unique code assigned to a particular person in the group, the second unique code different than the first unique code.

17. The method as in claim 16, wherein the first unique code includes a combination of a first sequence of symbols and a second sequence of symbols;

and

wherein the second unique code includes a combination of the first sequence of symbols and a third sequence of symbols, the third sequence of symbols different than the second sequence of symbols.

18. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

performing the operations of i) creating the multiple redeemable coupons, ii) initiating distribution of the redeemable coupons, and iii) tracking redemption of the redeemable coupons in response to the approval of the discount proposal approved by the second party and further input from the first party to provide notification of the discount proposal to the group of persons specified by the first party.

19. The method as in claim 1, wherein presenting the discount proposal to the second party further comprises:

in response to receiving the discount proposal from the first party, communicating the discount proposal from the online management hardware platform to the second party without redirecting the discount proposal to the group of persons.

20. The method as in claim 19 further comprising:

in response to the online management hardware platform receiving the approval of the modified purchase price from the second party, initiating distribution of the redeemable coupons to the group of persons as specified by the first party.

21. The method as in claim 1,

wherein the online management hardware platform receives the discount proposal from the first party in response to the second party providing preliminary approval of the discount proposal to the first party.

22. The method as in claim 21 further comprising:

in response to receiving the enrollment information from the first party, enrolling the second party as a candidate merchant from which the retail item is available.

23. The method as in claim 22, wherein providing electronic notification of the received approval of the discount proposal to the first party includes:

notifying, via a message from the online management hardware platform to the application executing on the mobile communication device, the first party of the discount proposal confirmed as being accepted by the second party.

24. The method as in claim 23, wherein the first party operates the application on the mobile communication device to distribute a respective email notification to each corresponding person in the group, each respective email notification including the discount proposal accepted by the second party and a selectable link in which to enroll the corresponding person in the group with the online management hardware platform.

25. The method as in claim 24 further comprising:

subsequent to enrolling each of the persons in the group with the online management hardware platform;

receiving input from each of the persons accepting the discount proposal, the input including payment for the retail item.

26. The method as in claim 25 further comprising:

providing notification of the persons accepting the discount proposal to the first party and the second party; and

initiating distribution of the redeemable coupons to the group of persons in response to detecting that a threshold number of the persons in the group agrees to purchasing the retail item at the modified purchase price as specified by the discount proposal.

27. The method as in claim 21 further comprising:

prior to presenting the discount proposal to the second party;

receiving input from the application executing on the mobile communication device, the application including contact information of the second party; and

transmitting a communication from the online management hardware platform to a computer device operated by the second party, the communication including a link in which to enroll the second party with the online management hardware platform as a merchant.

14. A computer system comprising:

computer processor hardware to manage price negotiations and sales in an online management platform accessible by a first party and a second party, the first party being a consumer, and the second party being a supplier; and

a hardware storage resource coupled to the computer processor hardware, the hardware storage resource storing instructions that, when executed by the computer processor hardware, causes the computer processor hardware to;

receive a discount proposal from a mobile communication device operated by the first party, the first party generating the discount proposal and providing the discount proposal to the online management platform via a client application executing on the mobile communication device, the discount proposal indicating a modified purchase price of a retail item for sale by the second party, wherein the first party physically visits a store from which the second party offers the retail item for sale to consumers;

present the discount proposal to the second party;

from the second party, receive approval of the discount proposal and modified purchase price, the approval indicating acceptance by the second party to sell the retail item at the modified purchase price;

provide electronic notification of the received approval of the discount proposal to the first party;

create multiple redeemable coupons to purchase the retail item at the modified purchase price as specified by the discount proposal approved by the second party;

initiate distribution of the redeemable coupons to a group of persons as specified by the first party, the redeemable coupons indicating the modified purchase price; and

track redemption of the redeemable coupons by the group of persons;

the computer processor hardware further operable to;

at the online management platform, receive enrollment information and corresponding attributes of the discount proposal from the mobile communication device operated by the first party, the enrollment information indicating the second party, the corresponding attributes of the discount proposal indicating an identity of the retail item and the modified purchase price;

from the online management platform, transmit an electronic communication to the second party, the electronic communication including a selectable link in which the second party selects to set up a corresponding merchant account with the online management hardware platform;

via the corresponding merchant account, and a portal of the online management platform, notify the second party of the corresponding attributes of the discount proposal provided by the first party; and

wherein receipt of the approval of the discount proposal and modified purchase price from the second party further comprises;

via the portal of the online management platform, receive confirmation from the second party that the attributes of the discount proposal have been accepted by the second party.

15. Computer-readable storage hardware having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by computer processor hardware, cause the computer processor hardware to:

receive a discount proposal from a mobile communication device operated by a first party, the first party generating a discount proposal and providing the discount proposal to the online management platform via a client application executing on the mobile communication device, the discount proposal indicating a modified purchase price of a retail item for sale by a second party, wherein the first party physically visits a store from which the second party offers the retail item for sale to consumers;

present the discount proposal to the second party;

from the second party, receive approval of the discount proposal and modified purchase price, the approval indicating acceptance by the second party to sell the retail item at the modified purchase price;

provide electronic notification of the received approval of the discount proposal to the first party;

create multiple redeemable coupons to purchase the retail item at the modified purchase price as specified by the discount proposal approved by the second party;

initiate distribution of the redeemable coupons to a group of persons as specified by the first party, the redeemable coupons indicating the modified purchase price; and

track redemption of the redeemable coupons by the group of persons;

the computer processor hardware further operable to;

at the online management platform, receive enrollment information and corresponding attributes of the discount proposal from the mobile communication device operated by the first party, the enrollment information indicating the second party, the corresponding attributes of the discount proposal indicating an identity of the retail item and the modified purchase price;

from the online management platform, transmit an electronic communication to the second party, the electronic communication including a selectable link in which the second party selects to set up a corresponding merchant account with the online management hardware platform;

via the corresponding merchant account, and a portal of the online management platform, notify the second party of the corresponding attributes of the discount proposal provided by the first party; and

wherein receipt of the approval of the discount proposal and modified purchase price from the second party further comprises;

via the portal of the online management platform, receive confirmation from the second party that the attributes of the discount proposal have been accepted by the second party.