Patent Application
20070250430
This invention relates to systems and methods for online sales of goods and services. Traditionally, on-line sales of goods and services, i.e. eCommerce, has been accomplished through customized websites developed for individual businesses. Significant time and resources are invested in building, maintaining, and advertising a company's web presence. The benefits from this investment are largely limited to the company's ability to stand out in a sea of Internet search results and advertisements, or to have a website address memorable enough that customers independently recall it.
Small businesses and individuals generally lack the ability to pool their resources into “virtual” organizations with enough buying power or selling power to compete with larger companies. Those who have the ability to pool resources cannot easily extricate themselves from an online partnership because of their investment in web presence; the proliferation of web search engines, such as Google, make it more difficult for a “virtual” organization or its members to “disappear” from the web when the partnership is no longer valid. The high barriers to entry into the online marketplace through a customized website and the uncertain returns on that investment have caused some, particularly small businesses and individuals, to turn to alternatives to make online sales.
One alternative is a centralized electronic bulletin board, such as craigslist.com, with listings in categories similar to the classified section of a newspaper. Another alternative is to list items for sale on a centralized auction service such as Ebay. Users who list items or information on these websites and with these services surrender some control over their information. The users must abide by the rules of the service or website or portal administrator to update or delete items or information. In addition, an intermediary may charge a fee to administer the website or portal in order to recoup his own costs of building, maintaining, and advertising the website or portal. If multiple users wish to form their own “virtual” organization, the individual users must establish a web presence which links them to the portal, or additional infrastructure must be added to the portal to support such online communities—either option adds significant on-going costs and maintenance.
In various embodiments, the present invention provides methods and systems for selling goods and services over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Multiple client devices are connected as peer nodes within a P2P network. Active P2P network nodes register with a server. The server stores information about the types of goods and services that are available from each registered peer and the routing information needed to contact that peer. A peer acting as a buyer, referred to herein as a buyer, can request from the server and receive a list of peers with offerings of a desired type along with the necessary routing information for those peers. The buyer can then query one or more of the peers on the list and receive details about that peer's offerings, including any content, information, or documents related to that peer's offering that the peer desires to share. The buyer can select one or more peers, and to execute a sales transaction with a selected peer.
In one variation, embodiments of the present invention facilitate the donation of items to charitable organizations. Donors list items for donation. A representative of a charity can search the peer network for items that meet the charity's needs and contact the donors directly to arrange the transfer.
In another variation, embodiments of the present invention facilitate the scheduling of appointments. Individuals or businesses list their availability. A customer can search the peer network for a time slot that meets the customer's needs and contact the individual or business directly to make an appointment.
One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.
In one embodiment, peer client devices 120 run a P2P marketplace software application (not shown). Users of the P2P marketplace software application can store files, database records, or other information describing the user's marketplace offerings, query the server 110 and other peer client devices 120 for offerings matching specified types and/or criteria from the offerings of other users, and review the result sets from the user's queries to select an offering to acquire, reserve, buy, sell, barter, bid on or otherwise identify an offering for a transaction with the offeror. The software applications enable each peer client device 120 to communicate with the server 110 and all other peer client devices 120 through the network 101. Network 101 can be any network, such as the Internet, a LAN, a MAN, a WAN, a wired or wireless network, a private network, or a virtual private network.
In the example shown in
Although four peer client devices 120 are shown in the example of
In one implementation, files describing items to sell can be imported from another program, for example, an inventory software application also running on the peer client device 120A. Methods and processes of adding items to inventories by selecting images to represent the items in the inventory database have been described in application Ser. No. 11/123,810, filed May 6, 2005, titled “Image-Based Inventory Tracking and Reports,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. According to those systems and methods, a user can import an image into an inventory application, and by selecting an image to represent an item to be added to the inventory, a new record is created in the inventory database. Within the inventory application, the user can add records of items, organize views of the data, and modify records of items all through the user's interaction with the image representing the item. Thus, in one embodiment, inventory records formed in the inventory application are configured so that they can be imported into the P2P marketplace application. In another implementation, the inventory software application is integrated with the P2P marketplace application. Thus, files or records associated with inventory items can be designated within the software application as being for sale. For example, a check box within the user interface can be selected to mark an item as being for sale, or the user can drag an inventory item or record for the inventory item to a location within the user interface that stores items that are for sale, for example, a bid management section of the marketplace application user interface. In one embodiment, subsequent bids and offers against an item marked for sale can appear within the user interface, allowing the user to accept an offer from another peer and transact the sale for the agreed-upon price.
As shown in
In another implementation, peer nodes register with server 10, but sellers do not specify a category for the items for sale. Accordingly, in this implementation, there is no filtering based on the category of items for sale at a server. Rather, the server 110 stores information about the peer nodes that are currently online so that when a query is made, the query is sent to an initial set of online peers, and then, if additional results are desired, the query is forwarded to others as needed.
In another implementation, peer nodes do not register with server 110. Instead, a query can be broadcast to all P2P nodes within the P2P network or within the group. Alternatively, each peer can possess a list of, for example, a few thousand other peers, and the peers can broadcast the query to their own list of peers.
In one embodiment, the information stored for each peer node at the server 110 is refreshed each time that peer node connects to the network and undergoes registration. In another embodiment, the information stored for each peer node at the server 110 is updated periodically while the peer node is connected to the network. In general, the peer node is connected to the network to enable buyers to search the seller's offerings, and in one embodiment, the seller's offerings are not searchable when the peer node is not connected. In one embodiment, certain peer nodes may be connected continually to the P2P network 100, so that the items listed on these peer nodes are consistently available, whenever a buyer may choose to search. In one embodiment, sellers can elect to have items for sale hosted by a peer node that is continually connected to the P2P network 100. In one implementation, a hosting fee can be charged to the seller for this service.
In one variation, the P2P network 100 may be composed of several sub networks or groups of peer nodes. When a peer node connects to the network, the server 110 may determine the group or groups to which the peer node belongs. Alternatively, the peer node may identify the group or groups to which it belongs for the server 110 during registration. In another variation, part of the data stored by the server 110 identifies the group or groups to which each peer node belongs. For example, a group may be a private trading ring in which the peer network is limited to certain peer nodes for both buying and selling. As another example, an unlimited number of buyer peer nodes may access the offerings of a limited set of seller peer nodes in a group. A peer within a group can choose to send a request to only the participating members within the group rather than the entire P2P community at large. In this way, private and public trading groups or subsets of the entire P2P community allow for independent trading rings to be formed where goods and services are offered only to members within the group. In one implementation, participation in a group is controlled by a peer node that founds the group. Requests to join the group would be addressed by the founding peer node. Groups can be organized according to subject matter, according to geographical area, according to personal relationships, or according to any other criteria.
In step 202, a buyer, such as peer client device 120B, queries the server 110 for items in a desired category. For example, a buyer who is looking for a used cherry desk may query the server 110 for listings in the office furniture category.
In response to the buyer's query, the buyer receives a list of peer nodes and routing information to those peer nodes having items in the desired category 203. In one embodiment, the server 110 provides this information to the buyer by performing a lookup by category. In one implementation, the server 110 may send only a subset of the entire list of peer nodes that meet the criteria of the buyer's query. For example, the server 110 might send only the first 100 or 1000 hits. In one embodiment, the maximum number of hits returned is configurable by the buyer. In another embodiment, the data stored for certain peer nodes on server 110 indicate that those peer nodes should be given priority over other matching peer nodes. For example, certain peer nodes can be marked so that their routing information is always returned by the server 110 to buyers who query for a particular category, no matter how many other hits there are. In one implementation, users can pay an administration fee to be given this preferred treatment by the server 110. As another example, the server may return only hits to the buyer that correspond to members of the buyer's group or groups. In another variation, other filtering, grouping and sorting can be performed on the results of the query. In one embodiment, the list of peer nodes having items in the desired category is displayed to the buyer. In another embodiment, this list is not displayed.
In step 204, the buyer queries each listed peer node for details of items in the desired category. In one implementation, the step 204 of querying each listed peer node is performed automatically in response to the buyer receiving the list. In another implementation, step 204 is performed after the buyer has specified additional criteria for the search within the group of peers identified by the server's response to the buyer's initial query. For example, the server 110 may have returned a list of peer nodes with offerings in the office furniture category, but the buyer may specify additional criteria, such as the characteristics of the office furniture for which the buyer is searching, e.g., “cherry desk”. Queries may be keyword searches, image searches, or any other query format or method known to those of skill in the art. In one implementation, a buyer may specify that the search be limited to members of the group or groups to which the user belongs. In another implementation, the sellers indicate whether an item is available at a fixed price or available to whomever makes the best offer, with or without a hidden reserve price. Any of these criteria can be used in the query by the buyer and/or be included in the information that is conveyed in the search results to the buyer.
In step 205, the buyer receives details of items that match the buyer's query from sellers, such as peer client device 102A of
In one embodiment, the buyer also receives information about the seller to use in deciding which item the buyer wants to acquire, such as the ratings the seller has obtained from a buyer/seller rating system incorporated into the marketplace application. In one implementation, users can link to a rating system, such as Zipingo, a web-based business rating system available at www.zipingo.com, offered by Intuit, Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., or other rating system that enables users to provide and view feedback other users have contributed. For example, within the marketplace application, Zipingo can be displayed in an embedded browser window to allow users to check the ratings and comments other peers have contributed as feedback about a particular buyer or seller based on a buyer's or seller's unique identification. Alternatively, ratings can be displayed in the marketplace application directly and transmitted along with the other information relevant to a particular item for sale. In another embodiment, ratings can be tracked for particular products and included as described above with the other information transmitted relevant to a particular item for sale.
In step 206, the buyer executes the transaction to purchase the desired item. In one embodiment, instructions on how to execute the transaction are included with the details received on the item from the seller. For example, the instructions may direct the user to deposit the payment in an escrow account or with an escrow agent identified by the seller. Alternatively, the seller may direct the buyer to send payment via a Paypal account or other payment service used for online commerce. As another example, the details received on the item may direct the user to the seller's website for related product offerings. Alternatively, the buyer and seller may barter goods or services, or use any other method of exchanging something of value for something else of value. Thus, in some embodiments, the actual sales transaction may occur over a communication channel outside of the P2P network.
Embodiments of the present system allow an overall lower cost of goods due to the elimination of the intermediary and the ability to shop multiple locations at the same time which results in greater variety and ultimately greater value to the customer. The buyer can see offerings from businesses operating on the P2P network alongside offerings from individuals, and the buyer can compare results for both new and used items. Buyers are not required to remember or find specific websites to shop for items for sale. In some embodiments, they also need not risk an auction to purchase goods. This system provides quick information to buyers on items or services for which they searched, and the ability to contact the seller directly to execute the sales transaction.
Embodiments of the present system also allow multiple buyers to be aware of the seller's offerings easily and without a listing fee or other payment to an intermediary. The sellers can reach a targeted market that the seller knows is interested in the products that the seller has to offer because the buyers searched for them. In contrast to a centralized model, in a decentralized P2P model, the seller maintains control over the sales by adding and removing items at will, as easily as adding or taking an item off of a store shelf. Also, in some implementations, certain sellers may capitalize on the opportunity to increase exposure to the seller's other products. Sellers may direct buyers who receive details about one of the seller's items to the seller's other offerings through other distribution channels such as a customized website, a portal, or a brick and mortar store.
The above example described the present invention in the context of buying and selling goods in a P2P marketplace. The present invention is also useful in other contexts, such as buying and selling services, electronic want-ads, facilitating the donation of items, and scheduling appointments.
For example, in one variation, the present invention facilitates the donation of items to charitable organizations. Donors can list items that they desire to donate in a similar fashion to how sellers can list items for sale. In one implementation, items for donation are separately classified, and this data is conveyed to the server 110. Thus, a representative of a charity can search the peer network for items in the donation classification that meet the charity's needs and contact the donors directly to arrange the transfer. Alternatively, the donors could list items that the donor intends to give away along with items that the donor wishes to sell. The donor could mark the appropriate donation items, for example by listing the price of those items as free. Interested charitable organizations could then search for items of interest with the additional search criterion that the price be free. The resulting hits would be the cross-section of the items available for donation and the items that the particular charity wants to obtain. Alternatively or additionally, the system could be operated with the roles reversed. For example, representatives of charities can list items that they specifically need, and a prospective donor can search the peer network for organizations that need the item the donor desires to donate. Then the donor could compare the organizations and information appearing in the results to determine which charity or cause the donor prefers to support. Through leveraging the P2P model to facilitate donation, the donor can rest assured that her donation is reaching an appropriate charity for the type of donation she is making. She can quickly and easily dispose of items she does not need by directly contacting those who have indicated that they would appreciate the gift.
As another example, in another variation, the present invention facilitates the scheduling of appointments. Individuals or businesses can list their availability and the type of service they perform. For example, a hair stylist may list a number of openings he has for the week. A potential customer in need of a hair cut can search the peer network for a time slot that meets the customer's needs and contact the hair stylist directly, for example through the P2P network or by phone, to schedule the appointment for his desired time slot. In this example, the hair stylist leverages the P2P model to efficiently schedule his time by reaching a targeted audience for a low investment of time and money. The potential customer benefits by knowing that the hair stylist has an opening without having to call individual stylists to determine their availability first.
The present invention has been described in particular detail with respect to three possible embodiments. Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced in other embodiments. First, the particular naming of the components, capitalization of terms, the attributes, data structures, or any other programming or structural aspect is not mandatory or significant, and the mechanisms that implement the invention or its features may have different names, formats, or protocols. Further, the system may be implemented via a combination of hardware and software, as described, or entirely in hardware elements. Also, the particular division of functionality between the various system components described herein is merely exemplary, and not mandatory; functions performed by a single system component may instead be performed by multiple components, and functions performed by multiple components may instead performed by a single component.
Some portions of above description present the features of the present invention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. These operations, while described functionally or logically, are understood to be implemented by computer programs. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient at times, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules or by functional names, without loss of generality.
Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
Certain aspects of the present invention include process steps and instructions described herein in the form of an algorithm. It should be noted that the process steps and instructions of the present invention could be embodied in software, firmware or hardware, and when embodied in software, could be downloaded to reside on and be operated from different platforms used by real time network operating systems.
The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored on a computer readable medium that can be accessed by the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore, the computers referred to in the specification may include a single processor or may be architectures employing multiple processor designs for increased computing capability.
The algorithms and operations presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems may also be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will be apparent to those of skill in the, along with equivalent variations. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It is appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the present invention as described herein, and any references to specific languages are provided for invention of enablement and best mode of the present invention.
The present invention is well suited to a wide variety of computer network systems over numerous topologies. Within this field, the configuration and management of large networks comprise storage devices and computers that are communicatively coupled to dissimilar computers and storage devices over a network, such as the Internet, public networks, private networks, or other networks enabling communication between computing systems.
Finally, it should be noted that the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.
