WO2010123457A1

WO2010123457A1 - Method and system for making offer to one or more sellers

Info

Publication number: WO2010123457A1
Application number: PCT/SG2009/000150
Authority: WO
Inventors: Xiangyang Sim
Original assignee: Xiangyang Sim
Priority date: 2009-04-23
Filing date: 2009-04-23
Publication date: 2010-10-28

Abstract

The presented invention is a system and method that allows a buyer to be able to make offers to one or more seller and once the buyer bought the amount desired, remaining orders are automatically cancelled. Each of the buyer's offers is an offer to one of the sellers. The buyers and sellers can also see each other's price. Buyers and sellers can also make changes to their prices at any point in time. A Buyer can group his/her offers such that once the buyer bought the quantity of items or services desired, the remaining offers in the group will be cancelled. The quantity set by the buyer can be one or more and the buyer can either group his/her offers base on items or services that are similar or different or both. The sellers can be either selling items or services that are similar or different or both.

Description

TITLE

Method and system for making offer to one or more sellers

Technical Field

This invention relates to a marketplace that is computer assisted; more specifically to a method and system which allows a buyer to make offers to one or more sellers to buy a certain quantity of items or services that are similar or different or both and cancel remaining offer once the buyers have bought the quantity that he/she wanted.

Background Art

At present, websites which allows users to buy and sell their items are usually inflexible and less efficient. Buyers of auction site have a problem when they want to buy one or more items or services that are similar or different or both. These buyers are only able to place a limited number of bids. The number of bids must be equal to the fixed amount items that a buyer wanted to buy. This is because if a buyer wanted one item and bided for three similar items instead, the buyer will have to buy all three if the buyer won the three auctions. In the case when a buyer wanted to buy two similar items, bidding for three similar items will have the same effect with the buyer having the obligation to buy the three similar items after winning all three auctions. This cause the buyers to wastes time if the buyer failed to win that certain amount of auction at one go and have to bid for similar items again. Further to this, buyers are also not able to get better deals. An example for illustration: A buyer wanted to buy an iPhone but can only bid for one i^hone auction at a time. The buyer will be unable to place bids to other iPhone advertisements as this is likely to result in the buyer having to buy more than one iPhone. This causes the buyer not able to get a better deal if the user failed to win his/her first auction as other auctions of similar items with a slightly different price might be won by other buyers resulting to the buyer having lesser choices and having to bid for other auctions again.

Websites like forums which allows buyers to buy and sell their items are also inflexible and less efficient. These websites allows buyers to place offer to multiple sellers but do not automatically cancel the remaining offers once buyers have already got the quantity they want. This causes the buyers to spend time informing the sellers to cancel orders. This cause the sellers to lose sales while waiting for the user to cancel his/her order. An example will be a buyer who wanted to buy an iPod and made five different offers to five different sellers. Once a seller sold an iPod to the buyer, the buyer will have to manually cancel the remaining orders to the other four sellers. During the time when the buyer bought the item and the time when buyer cancel the other four orders, the other four sellers will have to hold their stock if they wish to sell to the buyer, causing the four sellers to lose potential sales during that time period and the buyer having to spend extra time cancelling orders. The four sellers will waste more time and lose more sales if the buyer did not cancel his/her order.

Websites like Wigix which allows people to post a single order to multiple sellers are also limited in flexibility and efficiency. Buyers are only able to make one offer in one category of items or services. This causes the buyers not able to get only one item or service when making offers for items or services that are different. An example will be a buyer who only wants one phone and the phone can be a Nokia or Apple phone but making offers to both Nokia and Apple sellers may result in the buyer having obligation to buy two phones. Buyers are also only able to make one offer to one or more sellers instead of making one order to each of the sellers. This causes the buyers to be unable to make a slightly higher or lower offer to each of the sellers as each of the items or services sold by sellers might vary in quality and attributes. This also causes the buyers' offers to be less relevant to the sellers and result lesser chance of a successful transaction.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is a system and method that allows a buyer to be able to make offers to one or more seller and once the buyer bought the amount desired, remaining orders are automatically cancelled. Each of the buyer's offers is an offer to one of the sellers. The buyers and sellers can also see each other's price. Buyers and sellers can also make changes to their prices at any point in time. A Buyer can group his/her offers such that once the buyer bought the quantity of items or services desired, the remaining offers in the group will be cancelled. The quantity set by the buyer can be one or more and the buyer can either group his/her offers base on items or services that are similar or different or both. The sellers can be either selling items or services that are similar or different or both.

Fig 1 shows a situation when the buyer wants to buy only one item and the remaining offers are cancelled once an item is sold to the buyer. The offers are grouped into a group called "Group 1" in which once the buyer bought the quantity he/she wanted, the remaining order in the group will be cancelled. The quantity set by the buyer can be one or more and the buyer can either group his/her offers base on items or services that are similar or different or both. In this case, once the buyer successfully bought one item, the remaining offers to the other sellers are automatically cancelled. The sellers can be either selling items that are similar or items that are different or both. Examples of items that are similar are a brand new iPhone 3G 8GB and another seller selling an almost new iPhone 3G 8GB. Examples of items that are different are an Apple phone Vs a Nokia Phone. This situation also applies when the buyer purchases a service. Examples of services that are similar would be on-site personal computer repairs and carry-in personal computer repair. Examples of services that are different would be massaging services and personal computer repair.

Fig 2 shows a situation when the buyer wants to buy two items, the remaining offers are cancelled once both items are sold to the buyer. The offers are grouped into a group "Group 1" in which once the buyer bought the quantity desired, the remaining offer in the group are cancelled. The quantity set by the buyer can be one or more and the buyer can either group his/her offers base on items or services that are similar or different or both. In this case, once the buyer successfully bought two items from one or more sellers, the remaining offers to the other sellers are automatically cancelled. The sellers can be either selling items that are similar or items that are different or both. Examples of items that are similar is a brand new iPhone 3G 8GB and the other seller selling an almost new iPhone 3G 8GB. Examples of different items is an Apple phone Vs a Nokia Phone. This situation also applies when the buyer is buying a service. Examples of services that are similar are onsite personal computer repair and carry-in personal computer repair. Examples of services that are different are massaging services and personal computer repair.

This invention will allow buyers to be able to make offers to more than one seller at one time comparing to auctions. By being able to make offers to more than one seller, the time wasted on biding for new item after losing an auction will be reduced and the buyer is able to make offers to a larger variety of items and services at the same time. The buyers will also not miss out the chance to make offers to attractive deals from sellers. Furthermore, when comparing with forum the buyers will save time as after making offers to multiple sellers and having a certain amount of items or services bought, the buyers do not need to cancel their remaining offers. In addition, the sellers will not need to waste time and lose potential sales when waiting for the buyers to cancel their extra offers. Finally, when compared to websites like Wigix the buyers can make offers to sellers who sell items or services that are similar different or both and getting one or more items that are similar or different or both. This allows the buyers to be not limited to make offer in the category or type of the items or services. The buyers can also make customized offers for each seller instead of one offer for many sellers. This will increase the chance of successful transactions.

Although the description above contains much specificity, these should not be construed as the limiting scope of the invention but rather as providing illustrations to some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention. For example, offers by buyers may be expressed in an object-oriented programming language and stored in an object-oriented database; different ways of accessing include wired, wireless and remote connections; market spaces and transaction spaces may be presented in tabular form instead of graphical form, etc.

As a result the scope of the embodiments should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given.

Brief Description of Drawings Fig 1 shows a situation when the buyer wants to buy only one item and the remaining offers are cancelled once an item is sold to the buyer.

Fig 2 shows a situation when the buyer wants to buy two items, the remaining offers are cancelled once both are sold to the buyer.

Best Mode of Carrying Out the Invention

The best modes to carry out the invention will be a software application or a website that allows a buyer to be able to make offers to one or more seller and once the buyer bought the amount desired, remaining orders are automatically cancelled. Each of the buyer's offers is an offer to one of the sellers. The buyers and sellers can also see each other's price. Buyers and sellers can also make changes to their prices at any point in time. A Buyer can group his/her offers such that once the buyer bought the quantity of items or services desired, the remaining offers in the group will be cancelled. The quantity set by the buyer can be one or more and the buyer can either group his/her offers base on items or services that are similar or different or both. The sellers can be either selling items or services that are similar or different or both.

Industrial Applicability

This invention is usable in areas where there are buyers and sellers who are buying and selling items or services. Through this invention, the buyers and sellers can improve their buying and selling efficiency and get a much a better deal.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for a buyer to make a plurality of offers in the form of prices to one or more sellers for items or services sold by said sellers. Once the said buyer bought the amount that said buyer wanted, the remaining offers of said offers will be automatically cancelled.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said offers is an offer to one of said sellers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said sellers can each sell one or more said items or said services that are similar or different or both.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said buyer and said sellers can see each other's price.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said buyer can make changes to the said buyer's prices anytime.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said sellers can make changes to said sellers' prices anytime.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said buyer is allowed to group said buyer's said offers into a group such that once said buyer bought the said amount that said buyer wanted, said remaining offers in said group will be cancelled.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said buyer can choose said quantity to he one or more.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said buyers can either group said offers based on said items or said services that are similar or different or both.

10. A system for a buyer to make offers in the form of prices to one or more sellers for items or services sold by said sellers. Once the said buyer bought the amount that said buyer wanted, the remaining offers of said offers will be automaticaUy cancelled.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein each of said offers is an offer to one of said seders.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein said sellers can each sell one or more said items or said services that are similar or different or both.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said buyer and said sellers can see each other's price.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein said buyer can make changes to the said buyer's prices anytime.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein said sellers can make changes to said sellers' prices anytime.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein said buyer is allowed to group said buyer's said offers into a group such that once said buyer bought the said amount that said buyer wanted, said remaining offers in said group will be cancelled.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said buyer can set said quantity to be one or more.

8. The system of claim 16, wherein said buyers can either group said offers based on said items or said services that are similar or different or both.