PRICING AND AUCTIONING OF BUNDLED ITEMS AMONG MULTIPLE SELLERS AND BUYERS

• US 20090125414A1
• Filed: 10/30/2008
• Published: 05/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tamiras Per Pte Ltd LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Platformation Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Cao, Yu, Kleinrock, Leonard
• Granted Patent: US 7,840,447 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A number of sets of methods and apparatuses applicable to online shopping are disclosed. One set, “Bin Packing Methods with Approximate Membership”, includes methods in pricing and auctioning a bundle of items, some of which could belong to another bundle. Significantly, the membership of a bundle, during pricing and auction, could change. Another set, the “Shopping Console”, puts a structure into the online shopping experience, so that through one interface various shopping activities can be facilitated, including but not limited to researching, pricing, negotiation, group buying, and tracking of purchases. Still another set, “Flash Mob Shopping”, allows sellers and a (spontaneous) group of shoppers to connect on prices without requiring shoppers'"'"' hard commitments, and with sellers revealing only necessary price information.

Claims

1. A method of pricing a bundle of items for a user, comprising:

collecting information regarding members of a bundle;

using a first electronic interface to obtain criticality information regarding at least one of the members;

selecting a common one of the members based on the criticality information;

identifying sub-bundles having alternative combinations of the members that compose the bundle, wherein each of the combinations includes the common member, and at least one of the members of the sub-bundles is not selected by the user;

calculating prices for additional versions of the bundle that include the alternative sub-bundles; and

using a second electronic interface to display the prices and the members of the additional versions of the bundle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying the sub-bundles includes seeding an analysis by selecting a best price on the common member.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting the common member includes constraining the common member to be from one particular brand.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying sub-bundles includes constraining the alternative combinations based on a shipping selection.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a suggestion as to a change in membership of the basket.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the suggestion comprises a change in at least one of brand, quantity, and quality of the common member.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the suggestion comprises a change in at least one of brand, quantity, and quality of a member other than the common member.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting additional information relating to the merits of the additional versions of the bundle via the second interface.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the second interface to display the prices and members includes presenting the additional versions based on a weighting derived from a user profile.