The present invention relates generally to the field of network-based commerce and, more specifically, to a method and system to automate payment for a commerce transaction.
With the wide spread acceptance of the Internet as an ubiquitous, interactive communication and interaction platform, on-line (or electronic) commerce conducted over the Internet has become commonplace in a variety of business environments. On-line commerce is traditionally categorized as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer (C2C) and even business-to-employee (B2E) commerce. In the B2B environment, a number of online exchanges or marketplaces (e.g., vertical exchanges) have been established with a view to facilitating electronic commerce between parties, for example, within a vertical supply chain. Such B2B exchanges typically provide a number of tools for facilitating commerce, such as aggregated and near real-time inventory information, Requests for Quotation (RFQ) capabilities and auctions.
In the B2C and C2C environments, a number of marketplace exchanges and transaction facilities have proved popular. A leading electronic commerce system (or marketplace) is operated by eBay, Incorporated. Electronic marketplaces are also provided by Yahoo! Incorporated and Amazon.com. Further, a number of on-line services offer on-line classifieds, such as the Yahoo! Classifieds service offered by Yahoo! Incorporated.
A number of the on-line marketplaces are utilized by merchants as an important, if not a primary, distribution channel for products. Further, various retailers and merchants also utilize free, or low-cost, classified advertisement services offered on the Internet, such as Yahoo! Classifieds.
In order to complete the purchase of these products, buyers generally provide checkout information such as credit card numbers, checking account numbers and shipping addresses to the seller upon winning or completing the purchase. In the case of on-line auctions, sellers often wait days or weeks for the buyer's check out information, or never receive it at all and are forced to relist the item. Additionally, buyers forget to provide their checkout information.
A method and system to automate payment for a network-based commerce transaction have been disclosed. In one embodiment, a method comprises providing a buyer an option to enable auto-pay, wherein auto-pay automatically provides payment to a seller upon a termination event of a network-based commerce transaction. Payment information of the buyer is provided to a network-based payment system upon the occurrence of the termination event.
The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements and in which:
A method and system to automate payment for commerce transactions are described. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details.
The term “user” shall be taken to refer to any entity, human or automated, that contributes to, or participates in, a transaction, communication or process.
The term “transaction” shall be taken to include any communication or exchange between two or more parties with a view to establishing a business agreement, exchange of value or a commercial relationship. Accordingly, the word “transaction” shall be deemed to cover, but not be limited to, a purchase-and-sale transaction established as a result, for example, of the placement of an advertisement or as a result of the conclusion of an auction process, the auction process being conducted on-line or otherwise.
While an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is discussed below with reference to “items”, it will be appreciated that the present invention is not so limited. Accordingly, the word “item” shall be deemed to cover, but not be limited to, a transaction listing, in which both items and services may be included.
The client machine 38 enables the client to access services that are provided by the network-based marketplace machine 10 and, a payment machine 8, illustrated more fully in
The network-based marketplace machine 10 provides online marketplace services that enable sellers and buyers to transact items and services. A buyer that submits a winning bid in an auction or executes a purchase to complete a sale may acquire goods and/or services from the seller.
In one embodiment the network-based marketplace machine 10 may be embodied as “eBay The World's Online Marketplace”™ created by eBay of San Jose, Calif.
The payment machine 8 provides payment services that enable a user to electronically send and receive payments over the network 34. For example, the payment machine 16 may be embodied as the PayPal™ Payment Service operated by PayPal of San Jose, Calif. Additional embodiments of payment machine 16 may be Western Union® BidPay™ Payment Service operated by BidPay.com, Inc. of Bridgeton, Mo.; Bill Me Later® operated by I4 Commerce™ of Timonium, Md.; or other similar electronic payment systems. In alternate embodiments, payment machine 8 is integrated with network-based marketplace machine 10.
In addition to other software components that are not illustrated, the client machine 38 includes a client communication program 36. The client communication program 36 enables a user to display web pages or e-mail messages that are loaded from server computers. The client communication program 36 may be embodied as a browser (e.g., the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser developed by Microsoft™ Corporation of Richmond, Wash. or Navigator™ browser developed by Netscape of Mountain View, Calif.). The client communication program 36 executes under an operating system (e.g., Microsoft™ Windows developed by Microsoft™ Corporation or Mac OS X developed by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif.). The client communication program 36 may also be embodied as a mail client (e.g.., the Microsoft Outlook personal information manager developed by Microsoft™ Corporation of Richmond, Wash. or Lotus Notes™ developed by the Lotus Notes Development Corporation.
The network-based marketplace machine 10 includes one or more of a number of types of front-end servers, namely communications servers in the exemplary form of an application program interface (API) servers 13, page servers 12 that deliver web pages e.g., markup language documents), picture servers 14 that dynamically deliver images to be displayed within Webpages, listing servers 16, processing servers in the exemplary form of CGI (or ISAPI) servers 18 that provide an intelligent interface to back-end servers, and search servers 20 that handle search requests to the network-based marketplace machine 10. The e-mail servers 22 provide, inter alia, automated e-mail communications to users of the network-based marketplace machine 10. The ISAPI servers 18 host an auto-pay module 44. Although illustrated as part of ISAPI servers 18, auto-pay module 44 can be distributed throughout the servers of the network based market machine 10, as well as embodied as an independent server. Auto-pay module 44 allows for the use of auto-pay. When auto-pay is used, a network-based commerce transaction is automatically completed. In other words, money is automatically transferred from a purchaser's financial account to the seller's financial account because the purchaser and seller have both provided their respective information, prior to the close of the transaction.
The back-end servers include a database engine server 26, a search index server 24 and a credit card database server 28, each of which maintains and facilitates access to a respective database.
The database 30 includes a user table 54 that contains a record for each user of the network-based marketplace machine 10. The user may operate as a seller, buyer, or both, with respect to the network-based marketplace machine 10. The database 30 also includes listings table 60 that may be linked to the user table 54 and a listing association table 52. A user record in the user table 54 may be linked to multiple items that are being, or have been, transacted via the network-based marketplace machine 10.
The number of other tables are also shown to be linked to the user table 54, namely a user past aliases table 48, a feedback table 50, a bids table 55, an account table 64, an account balances table 62 and a purchase history table 58. The masters categories table 67 stores records for listing categories presented across multiple views (or presentations) of list categories via regional or community sites presented by the network-based marketplace machine 10. A site categories table 42 stores records indicating which item categories are to be presented for respective regional or community sites (e.g., a country, region or city specific site) presented by the network-based marketplace machine 10.
Thus, when a request to complete a network-based commerce transaction is generated, at block 410, the auto-pay module 44 determines if auto-pay should be used at decision block 420, by examining auto-pay settings table 71. If the auto-pay table 71 indicates that auto-pay should not be used, then a manual checkout process is used to complete the network-based commerce transaction at block 430. If the auto-pay table 71 indicates that auto-pay should be used, then auto-pay module 44 is used to complete the network-based commerce transaction at block 440. The process ends at block 499.
At decision block 504, the marketplace machine 10 prompts the user 10 to respond whether his/her shipping address is within the United States. If the address is not within the United States, the user enters a shipping address in the United States at block 505. Upon entry of a United States address or if the address was a valid United States address, the marketplace machine 10 determines at block 506 if the buyer (user) is registered with an electronic payments system such as payment machine 8. If the user is not registered, the user is prompted to provide credit card information at block 507. At decision block 508, the marketplace machine 10 determines if the information provided by the user passes a standard credit card authorization process. If the authorization is not provided, a credit card page indicating the authorization error is provided to the user and the user is provided another opportunity to provide credit card information at block 507.
If credit card authorization is provided at decision block 508, then a reviewer page 72 is generated at block 512. At decision block 520, the marketplace machine 10 determines if the buyer is registered with an Electronic Payments (EP) System such as payment machine 8. If the buyer is registered, then an auto-pay confirmation is provided to the buyer at block 521. The buyer's financial account is debited and the seller's account is credited at block 523. If the buyer was not registered with an electronic payment system at decision block 520, then the buyer is still provided an auto-pay confirmation at block 522. Additionally, the buyer is provided with the option to register with an electronic payment system. The registration process is completed at block 524 according to steps required by the specific EP system used and funds are transferred at block 523. Interactions with payment machine 8 may be necessary with blocks 520-524.
Returning to decision block 506, if the buyer is registered with an electronic payment system, a review page is provided to the buyer at block 511. After confirmation of the transaction, funds are transferred from the buyer to the seller at block 523. The process ends at block 599.
Thus, at block 610, once a buyer has won an auction (or otherwise incurred a payment obligation), the marketplace machine 10 automatically provides the seller with the buyer's shipping address as the buyer provided above. The seller receives the buyer's payment information automatically at block 620. Prior to this transmission of payment information, the buyer provided his or her credit card information, and/or registered with payment machine 8.
Returning to
Once an auction closes, the marketplace machine 10 determines if auto-pay is on and can be used for checkout.
At block 710, auto-pay module 44 checks if the seller globally disabled the auto-pay feature within his or her user profile by checking a global disable auto-pay field in auto-pay settings table 71. If auto-pay is globally disabled, it is determined that auto-pay is off at block 740 and the process ends at block 799. If auto-pay is off a manual checkout is performed according to block 430 of
If auto-pay is not globally disabled, auto-pay module 44 determines if the seller enabled auto-pay for the particular listing at decision block 720. Auto-pay module 44 checks an auto-pay enabled field in listings table 60. If the seller did not enable auto-pay for the particular listing, then the process continues to block 740, as described above. At decision block 720, additional conditions can be imposed upon the seller. For example in order to enable auto-pay, shipping costs can be required to be provided, as well as tax and insurance costs.
If the seller enabled auto-pay for the particular listing and provided any required costs, then at decision block 730, auto-pay module 44 determines if the buyer enabled his payment via auto-pay for the specific listing. Auto-pay settings table 71 stores information regarding whether the buyer enabled auto-pay. If the buyer did not enable auto-pay then the process continues to block 740 as discussed above. If the buyer did enable auto-pay, then module 44 determines that auto-pay is on at block 750 and method 600 is completed. Also at block 750, upon determining that auto-pay is on, the auto-pay settings table 71 can be updated to reflect that auto-pay is or is not on and the payment flow of
In an alternate embodiment, the seller can be left completely unaware of the fact that the buyer used auto-pay. In this embodiment, the seller has specified that he accepts credit card payments (or any similar type of instant funds transfer), and has specified the total cost of the item (including shipping costs, either fixed or actual). The buyer uses auto-pay to complete the transaction and the seller receives payment immediately once the listing ends. Furthermore, default settings can be established to allow auto-pay automatically.
Item 2108691703 is listed in
Item 1122334455 is also listed in
The listing for item 2107951143, indicates that the buyer has not enabled auto-pay. However, since the buyer is winning the auction, he/she can turn on auto-pay. By turning on auto-pay settings table 71 will be updated. Additionally, the buyer will be prompted to enter his/her shipping address and electronic payment service information,
The listing for item 2111518219 indicates that auto-pay is not available to the buyer. Auto-pay may be unavailable because the seller globally disabled auto-pay as discussed above in reference to decision block 710 of
Additionally, auto-pay can be used whenever the on-line auction closes, even when items are bought for a fixed price, through a buyout mechanism, such as “Buy it Now” used by eBay Inc. within the marketplace it operates. In this scenario a buyer can provide all his or her checkout information, and then later decide to end the auction and purchase the item for a fixed-price. “Buy it Now” is also available as part of a fixed-price listing, where there is no auction element at all. The auto-pay module 44, completes the transaction using the previously entered checkout information.
In an additional embodiment, commerce system 100 can be used to enforce a seller driven auto-pay network-based transaction process. With seller driven auto-pay, the seller requires payment before the transaction can end successfully or after an item has been claimed. For example, before a listing for an auction item closes, payment is provided to the seller,
A GUI similar to GUI 1100 can be presented to the seller for each listing he/she has. Such a GUI would also include an auto-pay status column that allows the seller to turn off/on auto-pay for each listing. For each listing, the seller can chose to require that the buyer pay in real time or have a stored payment profile (including credit cards) in order to successfully purchase or bid on a listing.
At decision block 1520, auto-pay module determines if the seller required the buyer use auto-pay for the particular listing. If auto-pay is not required, the buyer is prompted to complete the purchase, or enter a bid without invoking auto-pay at processing block 1530. The process would end at block 1599.
If the seller does require the buyer to use auto-pay, auto-pay module 44 determines if the seller requires immediate manual payment or payment via information stored in the buyer's profile? if immediate manual payment processing is required, then at processing block 1550 the buyer is stepped through the process of paying with immediately available funds (e.g., account balance, instant funds transfer guaranteed by payment system, or credit card). The transaction is closed at processing block 1570 and the process terminates at block 1599.
If information stored in the buyer's profile is required for payment, such information is retrieved at processing block 1560. The information is used to process the payment (using payment system 8 if necessary). The transaction is closed at processing block 1570 and the process terminates at block 1599.
It is important to note that in this embodiment, payment from the buyer to seller occurs before the auction closes. If a buyer can not make payment, then the auction remains open. In one embodiment of the payment processing flow of Hocks 1550 and 1560, the item is not placed on hold, so it remains available to other prospective buyers. This allows for a “race” condition between two or more buyers. In an alternate embodiment, the listing is put on hold.
Payment processing flow of block 1550 and 1560 can involve numerous actions. For example, a bidder can be directed to payment system 8 to complete the transaction. Once payment system 8 collects and applies the buyer's payment information, confirms that the item is still available, it processes the payment and closes the listing. If multiple items are available, the quality available is decremented. Additionally, if the buyer is not previously registered with payment system 8, the buyer goes through the registration flow unique to payment system 8. It is important to note that payment processing information can be stored on marketplace machine 10 and provided to payment system 8, just prior to the conclusion of the transaction to streamline the payment process. This can be achieved by querying the buyer to use his/her stored payment processing profile. Information in the profile can be stored in user table 54 and tables of database 30.
Marketplace machine 10 in conjunction with payment machine 8 can have additional functionalities. These functionalities, as will be described in greater detail below include the use of confirmed shipping addresses, specific currency requirements, flexible payment timing, unpredictable final price payments, quick cash pricing options, and non-cash payment facilitation.
A confirmed shipping address can be an address that matches an address stored on file or verified with payment system 8. Additionally, an address can be confirmed based on a minimum buyer feedback/reputation score, a price range, or a seller chosen pre-approved buyer list.
The flexible timing functionality allows that at the seller's discretion, or based on the format, payment can occur after the close of item. For example, the seller can require that payment be made within 48 hours of the end of an item. This can happen in realtime, where the buyer enters payment information as described above. Alternatively, the seller can require that the buyer have a stored payment profile and an attempt to automatically process a payment can be made immediately, again in 24 hours in the event of a failure, and perhaps one last time 24 hours after that if a failure condition persists.
The unpredictable final price functionalities allows for cases where the final price cannot be known until the end of the listing (e.g., in an auction format, or a volume-discount multi-item purchase), the seller can apply different auto-pay rules. For example, if the final price exceeds $100, he or she can require immediate payment, but allow for a within-48-hours automatic payment if the price is less than $100.
The quick cash pricing option allows a seller to specify a start price (i.e., opening bid), an immediate purchase price (i.e., price at which the buyer can immediately purchase, resulting in the closing of the item), and a reserve price (i.e., price the buyer must meet or exceed before he or she can claim the item). Another pricing option is the Quick Cash price,
For example, the seller may list a PSA 10 Jason Giambi Alaska League rookie card with the following pricing options:
The card can be sold in a variety of ways, including these two examples:
Finally, system 100 allows for the processing of a non-cash payment (e.g., a trade). For example, just as payment system 8 maintains a payment profile for its customers, a baseball card storage facility maintains a portfolio of baseball cards for its customers (stored in a temperature-controlled trolled vault, the ownership of these cards can be transferred without the cards ever leaving the vault). A seller can list an item “for sale for $3,000 immediate cash payment, or trade for ownership transfer of PSA 9 Mickey Mantle rookie card.” Upon receiving notification that either S3,000 or the Mantle card had been deposited in his or her account, the seller would send the item to the buyer.
The computer system 800 includes a processor 802, a main memory 806 and a static memory 808, which communicate with each other via a bus 824. The computer system 800 may further include a video display unit 812 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)). The computer system 800 also includes an alphanumeric input device 814 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 816 (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit 818, a signal generation device 822 (e.g., a speaker) and a network interface device 810.
The disk drive unit 818 includes a machine-readable medium 820 on which is stored a set of instructions (i.e., software) 804 embodying any one, or all, of the methodologies described above. The software 804 is also shown to reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 806 and/or within the processor 802. The software 804 may further be transmitted or received via the network interface device 810. For the purposes of this specification, the term “machine-readable medium” shall be taken to include any medium which is capable of storing or encoding a sequence of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one of the methodologies of the present invention. The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly be taken to included, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical and magnetic disks, and carrier wave signals. Further, while the software is shown in
Thus, a method and system automate payment for a commerce transaction has been described. Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.
In the foregoing detailed description, the method and system of the present invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the present invention. In particular, the separate blocks of the various block diagrams represent functional blocks of methods or apparatuses and are not necessarily indicative of physical or logical separations or of an order of operation inherent in the spirit and scope of the present invention. The present specification and figures are accordingly to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/411,006, filed Mar. 2, 2012, which is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/427,553 filed Apr. 30, 2003, which applications are incorporated in their entirety herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10427553 | Apr 2003 | US |
Child | 13411006 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 13411006 | Mar 2012 | US |
Child | 13752107 | US |