Online marketplace with seller financing

• US 9,501,791 B2
• Filed: 07/18/2014
• Issued: 11/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mark V. Dziuk
• Original Assignee: Mark V. Dziuk
• Inventors: Dziuk, Mark V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Poinvil, Frantzy
• Application Number:
  US14/335,634
• Publication Number:
  US 20160019614A1
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• Field of Search: 705 3- 44
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0619 Neutral agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

An online marketplace system generates an online marketplace for seller-financed transactions. The system includes a plurality of listings of transaction offerings that are available. The transaction offerings are listed by a plurality of users and are from a plurality of different categories of products and services. The transaction offerings include a plurality of transaction terms, including payment and seller-financing terms. A transaction engine facilitates the negotiation of transaction terms between users and the formation of agreement between users. Transaction coins are awarded during the successful performance of a transaction according to the agreed upon transaction terms. A reputation engine generates trust profiles and trust scores for users. The trust profiles and trust scores are used by parties to evaluate the trustworthiness of the other party. A user interface engine generates a user interface that includes listings from users and trust scores of those users.

Claims

1. A system for notifying users of time limited offers in an online marketplace comprising:

at least one processing device; and

at least one computer readable storage device storing data instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to generate an online marketplace for seller-financed transactions, wherein the instructions cause the at least one processing device to;

generate, using the at least one processing device, a user interface presenting a plurality of listings of transaction offerings that are available from sellers over time for at least two payments, wherein the listings of transaction offerings include transaction offerings across a plurality of different transaction offering categories;

generate in the user interface, using the at least one processing device, trust profiles for users of the online marketplace, the trust profiles including information that allows both buyers and the sellers to evaluate trustworthiness of each other prior to entering into the seller-financed transactions, wherein the trust profiles include reputation data including;

reputational factors, including;

at least one rating of at least one of the user'"'"'s prior transactions, from another user;

historical data about the user'"'"'s conformance to terms of the user'"'"'s prior transactions; and

information about a verification level of the user; and

a trust score computed based on at least some of the reputational factors, including a number of the user'"'"'s prior transactions;

interact with the buyers and the sellers through the user interface, using the at least one processing device, to define terms of the seller-financed transactions, comprising;

receive an offer from a first user of the buyers and the sellers for one of the transaction offerings, the offer including offer details and a time limit;

generate an offer alert from the offer that includes the offer details, the time limit, and a customized link, which is selectable by a second user of the buyers and the sellers to view the offer on the online marketplace;

format the offer alert according to a preferred offer communication method for the second user;

transmit the formatted offer alert to the second user over a wireless communication network,

wherein the formatted offer alert upon receipt instantaneously activates an application on a remote computing device to display the formatted offer alert and enable connection via the customized link to the online marketplace over the Internet

upon connection of the remote computing device via the customized link, generating for display on the remote computing device to the second user;

a listing for the one of the transaction offerings;

the offer including the offer details;

the trust profile for the first user; and

an option to accept the offer; and

receive an acceptance from the second user; and

monitor, using the at least one processing device, compliance with the terms of the seller-financed transactions including receipt of payments over time from the buyers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction offerings include goods and services.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the listings include transaction offerings that are available for lease, wherein at least some of the sellers are lessors, and wherein at least some of the buyers are lessees.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processing device to provide the sellers and the buyers with an option to purchase insurance to cover risk associated with the seller-financed transactions.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processing device to provide an option for sellers to obtain a profile insurance policy, and wherein after purchasing the profile insurance policy, the instructions cause the at least one processing device to update the trust profiles of the sellers to contain an insurance badge indicating that the sellers have profile insurance policies.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processing device to generate and send automatic reminders to the buyers prior to the payments becoming due.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processing device to automatically impose penalties on the buyers for late payments.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processing device to perform user verification and award one of a plurality of user verification levels to the users after completion of one of a plurality of verification processes.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processing device to allow the buyers the and sellers to propose and accept adjustments to the terms of the seller-financed transactions after the seller-financed transactions have been entered into.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processing device to define a neighborhood for a subset of the users by sending invitations and receiving acceptances of the invitations, and sharing at least some of the listings of transaction offerings among the subset of the users in the neighborhood.

11. An online marketplace system for notifying users of time limited offers for seller-financed transactions, the marketplace system comprising:

at least one processing device; and

at least one computer readable storage device storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to;

generate and store trust profiles for buyer users and seller users, using the at least one processing device, the trust profiles configured to allow both the buyer users and the seller users to evaluate trustworthiness of each other prior to entering into seller-financed transactions, wherein the trust profiles include reputation data including;

reputational factors, including;

at least one rating of at least one of a user'"'"'s prior transactions, from another user;

historical data about the user'"'"'s conformance to terms of the user'"'"'s prior transactions; and

information about a verification level of the user; and

a trust score computed based on at least some of the reputational factors, including a number of the user'"'"'s prior transactions;

receive descriptions of a plurality of transaction offerings from a plurality of the seller users of the online marketplace system, using the at least one processing device, wherein the transaction offerings are available from the seller users over time for a plurality of payments;

generate, using the at least one processing device, a user interface presenting a plurality of listings and the trust profiles for the buyer users and the seller users, each of the listings including one of the descriptions of the plurality of transactions offerings, wherein the plurality of listings are associated with transaction offerings across a plurality of different transaction offering categories;

present at least some of the plurality of listings to the buyer users through the user interface, using the at least one processing device; and

facilitate, using the at least one processing device and through the user interface, negotiation of binding contracts between the buyer users and the seller users for transfer of the transaction offerings from the seller users to the buyer users, wherein the binding contracts define payment terms, and wherein the payment terms include prices and seller-financing terms including at least two payments to be made by the buyer users over a period of time, comprising;

receive an offer from a first user of the buyer users and the seller users for one of the transaction offerings, the offer including offer details and a time limit;

generate an offer alert from the offer that includes the offer details, the time limit, and a customized link, which is selectable by a second user of the buyer users and the seller users to view the offer on the online marketplace system;

format the offer alert according to a preferred offer communication method for the second user;

transmit the formatted offer alert to the second user over a wireless communication network,

wherein the formatted offer alert upon receipt instantaneously activates an application on a remote computing device to display the formatted offer alert and enable connection via the customized link to the online marketplace system over the Internet;

upon connection of the remote computing device via the customized link, generating for display on the remote computing device to the second user;

a listing for the one of the transaction offerings;

the offer including the offer details;

the trust profile for the first user; and

an option to accept the offer; and

receive an acceptance from the second user.

12. The online marketplace system of claim 11, wherein at least some of the seller users are also some of the buyer users, and wherein at least some of the buyer users are some of the seller users.

13. The online marketplace system of claim 11, wherein the at least one processing device is further caused to:

notify the buyer users and the seller users that an agreement has been reached;

confirm receipt of first payments from the buyer users according to the payment terms;

monitor conformance of the seller users to the seller-financing terms;

monitor conformance of the buyer users to the payment terms over the periods of time; and

update reputation data within the trust profiles based at least in part on the conformance of the seller users and the buyer users.

14. The online marketplace system of claim 13, wherein the at least one processing device is further caused to:

generate reminders of upcoming payments;

alert the buyer users when payments are past due; and

impose penalties on the buyer users for defaults.

15. The online marketplace system of claim 12, wherein the at least one processing device is further caused to apply transaction insurance for defaults to cause insurance payments to be made from at least one insurer to the seller users.

16. A method of facilitating online transactions involving seller financing and notifying users of time limited offers in an online marketplace, using at least one computing device, the method comprising:

generating and storing trust profiles for buyer users and seller users, using the at least one computing device, the trust profiles configured to allow both the buyer users and the seller users to evaluate trustworthiness of each other prior to entering into online transactions involving seller financing, wherein the trust profiles include reputation data including;

reputational factors, including;

at least one rating of at least one of the user'"'"'s prior transactions, from another user;

historical data about the user'"'"'s conformance to terms of the user'"'"'s prior transactions; and

information about a verification level of the user; and

a trust score computed based on at least some of the reputational factors, including a number of the user'"'"'s prior transactions; and

receiving descriptions of a plurality of transaction offerings from a plurality of seller users of the online marketplace, using the at least one computing device, wherein the transaction offerings are available for purchase from the seller users over time for at least two payments;

generating a user interface presenting a plurality of listings and the trust profiles using the at least one computing device, each of the listings including one of the descriptions of the plurality of transactions offerings, wherein the plurality of listings are associated with transaction offerings across a plurality of different transaction offering categories;

presenting at least some of the plurality of listings to buyer users through the user interface, using the at least one computing device; and

facilitating, using the at least one computing device and through the user interface, negotiation of binding contracts between the buyer users and the seller users for transfer of the transaction offerings from the seller users to the buyer users, wherein the binding contracts define payment terms, and wherein the payment terms include prices and seller-financing terms including at least two payments made by the buyer users to the seller users over a period of time, comprising;

receiving an offer from a first user of the buyer users and the seller users for one of the transaction offerings, the offer including offer details and a time limit

generating an offer alert from the offer that includes the offer details, the time limit, and a customized link, which is selectable by a second user of the buyer users and the seller users to view the offer on the online marketplace;

formatting the offer alert according to a preferred offer communication method for the second user;

transmitting the formatted offer alert to the second user over a wireless communication network,

wherein the formatted offer alert upon receipt instantaneously activates an application on a remote computing device to display the formatted offer alert and enable connection via the customized link to the online marketplace over the Internet

upon connection of the remote computing device via the customized link, generating for display on the remote computing device to the second user;

a listing for the one of the transaction offerings;

the offer including the offer details;

the trust profile for the first user; and

an option to accept the offer; and

receiving an acceptance from the second user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the seller-financing terms involve third-party financing, wherein upon completion of the transaction the seller users obtain a full one-time payment and a third party receives the at least two payments from the buyer users over time.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the seller-financing terms involve third-party financing, wherein at least one third party makes the at least two payments to the seller users on behalf of the buyer users, and wherein the buyer users repay the at least one third party according to third-party financing terms different from the payment terms.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the trust profiles further include a transaction coins element representing a quantity of transaction coins that have been earned by the user.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving ratings of transactions from the buyer users and the seller users; and

updating the trust profiles based at least in part on the ratings.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein presenting a listing to a buyer user comprises presenting the proposed seller-financing terms, including price, payment amount, payment frequency, and number of payments, and further including an amortization schedule.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising communicating contact information between a buyer user and a seller user only after a binding contract has been formed.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving a hold payment from a buyer user before receiving an offer to enter into a transaction, and placing a listing on hold for a hold period.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the trust score is based on a transaction-related score, an average rating, and a verification level score.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the transaction-related score is a transaction coin score, wherein the transaction coin score is computed based on a number of transactions that are completed in conformance with the seller-financing terms and a number of transactions that are not completed in conformance with the seller-financing terms.