Services for generation of electronic marketplace listings using personal purchase histories or other indicia of product ownership

• US 20030204449A1
• Filed: 05/09/2002
• Published: 10/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Roseman, Neil C., Kotas, Paul, Bezos, Jeffrey P., Blackburn, Jeffrey M., Dalzell, Richard L., Moore, Bruce C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,389,294 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

An online marketplace system provides various features for assisting users in listing products for sale, locating the listings for a product, and performing related actions. A user wishing to sell a product can browse to an existing description of the product in an electronic catalog and then select an option to create a corresponding listing. If the user previously purchased the product via the system, the user may alternatively select the product from a personal purchase history. The system may also proactively send product-specific listing requests to those predicted to own specific products. To create a listing for a selected product, the user preferably specifies the product'"'"'s condition and a selling price. The pending listings for a product are preferably displayed or summarized on the product'"'"'s detail page in the catalog. In one embodiment, the catalog also servers as a retail sales catalog of an online merchant.

Claims

1. In an online sales system that supports user-to-user sales, a system for facilitating the ability for users to list products for sale to other users, the system comprising:

a browsable electronic catalog of products that includes functionality for users to make online purchases of products;

a purchase history tracking component that maintains purchase histories of users of the system, the purchase histories including identifiers of products purchased from the browsable electronic catalog; and

a marketplace listing creation component that supports an ability for a user to specify a product to be listed for sale by selecting the product from an electronic display of at least a portion of the user'"'"'s purchase history, as maintained by the purchase history tracking component, whereby the user may select a previously-purchased product unit to re-sell.

2. The system as in claim 1, wherein the marketplace listing creation component enables the user to list the previously purchased product unit for sale without supplying a description that identifies the product.

3. The system as in claim 1, further comprising a marketplace listing display component that displays pending marketplace product listings in the electronic catalog in association with corresponding product descriptions.

4. The system as in claim 1, wherein the marketplace listing creation component suggests to the user a selling price for selling a unit of a product.

5. The system as in claim 1, wherein the electronic display comprises a web form that enables the user to select multiple products to list for sale.

6. The system as in claim 1, wherein the electronic display is provided in an email document sent to the user.

7. The system as in claim 1, wherein marketplace listing creation component further supports an ability for a user to specify a product to be listed for sale by browsing to a description of the product within the electronic catalog and then selecting an option to list a unit of the product for sale, said option displayed in the electronic catalog in conjunction with the description of the product.

8. The system as in claim 7, wherein the option to list a unit of the product for sale is further displayed in the electronic catalog in conjunction with an option to purchase a unit of the product.

9. The system as in claim 7, wherein the option to list a unit of the product for sale is further displayed in the electronic catalog in conjunction with an option to preorder a unit of the product from an unspecified marketplace seller.

10. A method of listing a product unit for sale within an online marketplace system that supports user-to-user sales, the method comprising:

purchasing products via the online marketplace system over time to generate a purchase history;

browsing an electronic display of the purchase history to locate a description of a previously purchased product to be re-sold; and

selecting an option associated with listing the previously purchased product for sale, said option provided within the display of the purchase history;

whereby a user may specify a product to be listed for sale without supplying a description of the product.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising specifying at least a condition of a unit of the product to be listed for sale.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving from the marketplace system an indication of a suggested price for selling the unit of the product, wherein the suggested price is based at least in part on the specified condition.

23. A computer system configured to perform the method of claim 10.

13. A method for facilitating user-to-user sales of products within an electronic marketplace system, the method comprising:

tracking purchases made by a user of the electronic marketplace system over time to generate a purchase history for the user;

for at least a first product included in the purchase history of the user, generating a link for listing the first product for sale; and

transmitting the link to the user by electronic mail to assist the user in re-selling a previously purchased unit of the first product.

14. The method as in claim 13, wherein the link is transmitted to the user in response to another user preordering the first product.

15. The method as in claim 13, wherein the link is transmitted to the user by electronic mail in response to the user performing an online action that evidences completion of consumption of the first product.

16. The method as in claim 15, wherein the online action is one of the following:

(a) submitting a review of the first product;

(b) submitting a rating of the first product;

(c) purchasing a second product that is deemed to supersede the first product.

17. The method as in claim 13, wherein the link is transmitted to the user a predetermined time period after acquisition of the first product by the user.

18. The method as in claim 17, wherein the predetermined time period is based at least in part on a characteristic of the first product.

19. The method as in claim 13, wherein the link is to a page of the electronic marketplace system that provides functionality for listing the first product for sale.

20. The method as in claim 13, wherein the link is a single action link which, when selected by the user, causes the unit of the first product to be listed for sale without further action by the user.

21. The method as in claim 13, wherein the link comprises a uniform resource locator that includes an identifier of the first product.

22. The method as in claim 13, wherein the purchase history includes at least one of the following:

(a) online retail purchases made by the first user;

(b) gift purchases made by other users for the first user.

24. A method for facilitating user creation of online listings for selling items to other users in a user-to-user sales system, the method comprising:

monitoring user actions performed with respect to an electronic catalog of products to detect a user action that evidences ownership by a first user of a first product represented in the electronic catalog of products; and

in response to detection of the user action, transmitting to the first user a message that provides an option to list the first product for sale, said option being selectable by the first user to initiate creation of an electronic user-to-user sales listing.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising, in response to selection of the option by the first user, prompting the first user to specify at least a condition of the first product and a selling price.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the user action is a purchase of the first product by the first user.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the message is transmitted to the first user a selected time period after the purchase of the first product by the first user.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the user action is a purchase of the first product by a second user as a gift for the first user.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the user action is an electronic submission by the first user of at least one of the following:

(a) a review of the first product;

(b) a rating of the first product.

30. The method of claim 24, wherein the user action is a purchase by the first user of a second product that supercedes the first product.

31. The method of claim 24, wherein the message is transmitted to the first user within an electronic mail communication.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the electronic mail communication includes a link to a web page that prompts the first user to enter at least a price and condition of the first product.

33. The method of claim 24, wherein the message is transmitted to the first user within a personalized web page.

34. A computer system configured to perform the method of claim 24.