Patent Application
20060089897
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for executing the sale and purchase of goods in an on-line market place. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and method for on-line trade-in of goods.
2. Description of the Background Art
The use and proliferation of the Internet for purchasing and selling goods and services is well known. With that advent of eBay® and other online auctions or marketplaces, there has been tremendous growth in the number and dollars amount of goods being sold and purchased over the Internet. In such transactions, a seller must create and post a listing including a description of the goods to be sold, a reserve price, and other information. This process can be time consuming and has not been fully automated.
While individual users and some companies have listed used goods for sale on such online marketplaces, it is very difficult in not impossible to provide a trade-in to discount the price of a new item. For example, even in a market segment where trade-in transactions are common such as automobile sales like eBay motors, there is currently no mechanism to get trade-in information and acceptance before a transaction is completed.
Therefore, what is needed is automated systems and method for on-line trade-in of goods.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies and limitations of the prior art by providing an online trade-in system. In one embodiment, the online trade-in system comprises: a pricing guide module, an affiliates module, a marketplace listing module, a trade-in website module, a transaction processing module, an inventory handling module, a database and a marketplace manager. The marketplace manager creates an online trade-in system that accesses the other modules to complete a trade-in transaction. The pricing guide module is used to define the items that are acceptable by the merchant for trade-in as well as a price for each item. The marketplace manager uses information from the pricing guide module and provides it to the transaction processing module along with user input to begin and create a trade-in transaction. The marketplace manager uses also controls the inventory handling module to generate a reverse logistic label that can be used by the user to send the trade-in goods back to the merchant, and track the trade-in goods as well as initiate the process to list the item on an online marketplace. The affiliates module is used to provide affiliates with a trade-in capability using an existing trade-in system. The marketplace listing module is used to provide trade-in calculators in marketplace listings. The trade-in website module is used to create customer facing website that allows traders to browse equipment eligible for trade, as well as shop for normal for-sale merchandise.
The present invention also includes a number of novel methods including: a method for performing an online trade-in, a method for creating a pricing guide, a method for handling inventory, a method for item record creation, a method for dynamic pricing of trade-in goods, and a method for performing trade-ins for affiliates.
The invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals are used to refer to similar elements.
System and methods for trading in items in an on-line market place 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 invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the invention. For example, the present invention is described primarily with reference to a trade-in system for golf clubs. However, the present invention applies to any type of goods or services in an on-line marketplace.
Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Some portions of the detailed descriptions that follow are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. 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. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “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's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
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 in 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, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, each coupled to a computer system bus.
The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to petform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the invention as described herein.
Moreover, the present invention claimed below is operating on or working in conjunction with an information system or network. The present invention is capable of operating with any information system from those with minimal functionality to those providing all the functionality disclosed herein.
Overview
Referring now to
The system 100 advantageously allows users to buy and sell goods in online market places or as direct transactions from online sellers to buyers. The present invention enhances the existing marketplaces and online transactions by providing an easy and automatic way for sellers to accept and buyers to submit used goods or articles for trade-in. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the trade-in system 102 of the present invention can be used alone without an online marketplace or transaction, but will be disclosed below in the context of on-line marketplace. The system 102 of the present invention is particularly advantageous because it facilitates the sourcing and buying of used merchandise (trade-in items) from end users (tradees) for merchants. The trade-in items are used as a form of currency for the tradee towards the purchase of new items from the merchant. The trade-in items are shipped to the merchant using shipping labels automatically created by system 102. The new purchases are shipped back to the tradee by the merchant. A new stock keeping unit (SKU) (trade SKU) is automatically created by the system 102 for inventory management. The merchant then uses the system 102 to find a buyer for the trade item at a marked up price on marketplaces, referral sites and using website traffic.
System
Referring now to
The marketplace manager 216 is an application program that controls and is coupled to the other modules 202, 204, 206, 208, 210 and 212 of the system 102. The marketplace manager is the application that the merchant uses to facilitate and manage the selling of his/her items, both new items as well as trade items. The marketplace manager 216 also manages the trade-in process.
In preparation for receiving trade-ins, the pricing guide module 202 creates an inventory of “tradable” items. This comprises, at its most basic level, a SKU#, a description, and base trade-in price (price paid for item) for each tradable item. If there are specific attributes (such as condition, size, shaft type) that effect the value of the item, these items can be set up for dynamic pricing based on a series of price adjustment files also uploaded to the system 102. Additionally, pricing information can be sourced dynamically for any number of 3rd party sources as will be described in more detail below. All of this product pricing information is stored in the database 214 and is accessible by the marketplace manager 216.
The affiliates module 204 is used to redirect potential users from the websites of affiliates and OEMs to the trade-in system 102. The affiliates module 204 helps create trade-in interfaces that the have the same or similar look and feel of the affiliate site. All trade-in transactions appear to be completed at the affiliate, but are actually being redirected to trade-in system 102. On the back-end, affiliate orders are filtered within the marketplace manager 216, and shipping labels generated reflect the affiliate specifics.
The marketplace listing module 206 is used to provide trade-in calculators in marketplace listings such as eBay®. By combining the client-created price guide information, with flash programming, the marketplace listing module 206 generates trade-in calculators in marketplace listings. Price guide information is made available in real-time to customers browsing items for sale by the same vendor (or affiliates) by communication between the marketplace listing module 206 and the pricing guide module 202. The addition of a trade-in calculator has shown to be effective not only as an inventory acquisition tool, but also for marketing items that are for sale.
The trade-in website module 208 is used to create customer facing website that allows traders to browse equipment eligible for trade, as well as shop for normal for-sale merchandise. Within the trade-in area, the customer completes a trade-in (or combined trade/sale) transaction as specified below. This is a usually a custom designed website, but may also be a standard, template-driven site.
The transaction processing module 210 accepts input from the user and creates the interfaces to specify goods for trade-in, present pricing, create inventory records and processes other information required to complete the transaction. For example, a trader navigates to the base product they are interested in trading (e.g., Callaway Driver) and identifies the specifics of their club (e.g., loft, shaft type, condition). They are presented with both cash and a credit offered that is calculated based on the specifics they provided. This item is added to the cart as a trade and the trader can “checkout” to receive a reverse logistics label, provided by the trade-in system 102. When an offer is accepted, a clone of the base SKU is automatically generated and includes all of the item specifics provided by the trader. This process is described in detail below with reference to
The inventory handling module 212 is responsible for additional processing once an item is scanned and indicated to have been received. Once the item is received it is scanned, verified, and activated for sale by the inventory handling module 212. The inventory handling module 212 also signals the marketplace manager 216 to create a payment (check or credit) to the user and records it as part of the invoice. The received item is automatically listed for sale in either the client's website or appropriate marketplaces by the inventory handling module 212.
The database 214 is a conventional type and is used to store data about specific goods, pricing, transaction and other information as will be understood to those skilled in the art. While the database 214 is shown for convenience and ease of understanding as part of the server 102, it should be recognized that the database could be a separate stand-alone system such as those provided by SAP, Oracle or other database companies and which communicates with server 102.
Referring now to
Control unit 350 may comprise an arithmetic logic unit, a microprocessor, a general purpose computer, a personal digital assistant or some other information appliance equipped to provide electronic display signals to display device 310. In one embodiment, control unit 350 comprises a general purpose computer having a graphical user interface, which may be generated by, for example, a program written in Java running on top of an operating system like WINDOWS®V or UNIX®I based operating systems. In one embodiment, one or more application programs are executed by control unit 350 including, without limitation, word processing applications, electronic mail applications, financial applications, and web browser applications.
Still referring to
Processor 302 processes data signals and may comprise various computing architectures including a complex instruction set computer (CISC) architecture, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture, or an architecture implementing a combination of instruction sets. Although only a single processor is shown in
Memory unit 304 stores instructions and/or data that may be executed by processor 302. The instructions and/or data may comprise code for performing any and/or all of the techniques described herein. Memory unit 304 may be a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, a static random access memory (SRAM) device, or some other memory device known in the art. The memory 304 is described in more detail below with reference to
Data storage device 306 stores data and instructions for processor 302 and comprises one or more devices including a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive, a CD-ROM device, a DVD-ROM device, a DVD-RAM device, a DVD-RW device, a flash memory device, or some other mass storage device known in the art.
System bus 308 represents a shared bus for communicating information and data throughout control unit 350. System bus 308 may represent one or more buses including an industry standard architecture (ISA) bus, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus, a universal serial bus (USB), or some other bus known in the art to provide similar functionality. Additional components coupled to control unit 350 through system bus 308 include the display device 310, the keyboard 312, the cursor control device 314, the network controller 316 and the I/O device(s) 318.
Display device 310 represents any device equipped to display electronic images and data as described herein. Display device 310 may be, for example, a cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), or any other similarly equipped display device, screen, or monitor. In one embodiment, display device 310 may be equipped with a touch screen in which a touch-sensitive, transparent panel covers the screen of display device 310.
Keyboard 312 represents an alphanumeric input device coupled to control unit 350 to communicate information and command selections to processor 302. The Keyboard 312 can be a QWERTY keyboard, a key pad, or representations of such created on a touch screen.
Cursor control 314 represents a user input device equipped to communicate positional data as well as command selections to processor 302. Cursor control 314 may include a mouse, a trackball, a stylus, a pen, a touch screen, cursor direction keys, or other mechanisms to cause movement of a cursor.
Network controller 316 links control unit 350 to a network 104 that may include multiple processing systems and client devices 106a-n. The network 104 of processing systems may comprise a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) (e.g., the Internet), and/or any other interconnected data path across which multiple devices may communicate. The control unit 350 also has other conventional connections to other systems such as a network for distribution of files (media objects) using standard network protocols such as TCP/IP, http, https, and SMTP as will be understood to those skilled in the art.
One or more I/O devices 318 are coupled to the system bus 308. For example, the I/O device 318 includes an image scanner and document feeder for capturing an image of a document. The I/O device 318 also includes a printer for generating documents. The I/O device 318 may also include audio input/output device equipped to receive audio input via a microphone and transmit audio output via speakers. In one embodiment, audio device is a general purpose; audio add-in/expansion card designed for use within a general purpose computer system. Optionally, I/O audio device may contain one or more analog-to-digital or digital-to-analog converters, and/or one or more digital signal processors to facilitate audio processing.
It should be apparent to one skilled in the art that trade-in system 102 may include more or less components than those shown in
The operating system 402 is preferably one of a conventional type such as, WINDOWS®, SOLARIS® or LINUX® based operating systems. Although not shown, the memory unit 304 may also include one or more application programs including, without limitation, word processing applications, electronic mail applications, financial applications, and web browser applications.
The function and operation of the pricing guide module 202, the affiliates module 204, the marketplace listing module 206, the trade-in website module 208, the transaction processing module 210, the inventory handling module 212, the database 214 and the marketplace manager 216 were described above so that description will not be repeated here. It should be noted that each of these modules 202-216 are coupled to the bus 308 for communication with each other and the processor 302. Such a coupling allows the modules to perform the methods described below with reference to
General Method
Referring now
As shown in
Once the pricing guide is created, the method of the present invention provides 504 access to the trade-in system 102 on at least one of a private website, an affiliate website or in an online marketplace. This is preferably done by creating hypertext links and associated graphics and data that are selectable by the user. Such hypertext links may be placed in a variety of locations such as a private website, an affiliate website or in an online marketplace. When selected by the user or clicked on, the user or their browser is re-directed to the trade-in system 102. As noted above, the trade-in system 102 includes a web server capable of providing information and executing transactions with the user. An exemplary web page 1200 for selecting the item to be traded in is shown in
Once the user begins to interact with the trade-in system, the trade-in process 506 is executed. The trade-in process and the user interaction with the system 102 is described in more detail below with reference to
Next, the trade-in system 102 sends 508 the user the trade-in transaction information. This step can be accomplished in a variety of ways. First, if the user is purchasing other goods from a merchant, the information is sent to the user along with the other goods. For example, the transaction information and a label for sending the trade-in item back to the merchant (or other entity) are included with the other goods purchased by the user. Second, if it is a trade in without any other transaction, the trade-in system 102 can send an email to the user that includes the transaction information, and label that is printable by the user for sending the trade-in item back to the trade-in system 102. Third, trade-in system 102 can present a web page that includes the transaction information, and label that is printable by the user for sending the trade-in item back to the trade-in system 102. Those skilled in the art will recognize that these are only examples, and that there are a variety of other ways that the trade-in transaction information can be provided to the user.
Once the user has completed step 506, the system 102 also adds 510 the transaction information regarding the trade-in item to the database 214. This is preferably performed by the marketplace manager 216. By adding the information regarding the trade-in to the database 214 eliminates the duplicate data entry when the trade-in item is send by the user. The user then sends 512 the trade-in item with the transaction information and it is received by the trade-in system 102. This could be simply a tracking code, SKU or other information provided on the shipping label, or it could be more detailed information. It need only be information sufficient to match the trade-in item to the record created in the database in step 510. Once the trade-in item is received by the trade-in system 102, it is processed 514 and added to the inventory available for sale by the trade-in system 102 or its affiliates. This processing 514 of the trade-in item is described in more detail below with reference to
Pricing Guide Creation
Referring now to
Trade-In Process
Referring now to
Inventory Handling
Referring now to
Item Record Creation
As has been just described above, a key advantage of the present invention is the ability to create trade-in item records that can be used in multiple phases of the trade-in process. A further advantage of the present invention is that there is little impact on the user since much of the information about an item is provided automatically by the system 102 using the pricing guide. Referring now to
Dynamic Pricing Guide
In an alternate embodiment, the system 102 can include a dynamic pricing guide. The pricing guide is dynamic in that the trade-in prices for items are modified periodically or immediately prior to a trade-in transaction to reflect the market price for that same item in an online marketplace. The process for generating dynamic prices begins by retrieving 1002 market place data. This can be done by downloading such information from the online market place such as eBay®, or any other source of historical transactions. Next, the system 102 filters the data for specific items or SKUs and categories. Since the market place data is likely to have all items sold, whereas the trade-in system 102 accepts only a smaller subset of those items, the data is first filtered 1004. This also makes the processing of the data more efficient and manageable. Next, the method determines 1006 whether there is an exact match between an SKU in the pricing guide and the SKU data provided by in step 1002. If not, the method gets the next item or SKU in the pricing guide in step 1008 and returns to step 1004. If there is an exact match between an SKU in the pricing guide and the SKU market data, the method calculates 1010 an average market price for all sales of that item. Then the average market price is reduced 1012 by a predetermined amount or markdown. This can either be a set dollar amount or a fixed percentage, but is preset by the operator of the trade-in system 102. Next, the method retrieves 1014 the trade-in price for the item from the pricing guide. Then a new price is generated 1016 by blending the trade-in price from the pricing guide and the reduced average market price. For example, this can be done by multiplying the trade-in price from the price guide and the reduced average market price each by 50% and summing them. Those skilled in the art will recognize a variety of modifications to the blending factors that may be used by the trade-in system 102. Finally, this new blended price is output to the trade-in process and used as the price paid to the user. As noted above, the frequency at which the prices are dynamically calculated can be set to be per transaction or any period from hourly, daily weekly etc.
Affiliates
Another aspect of the present invention related to affiliates and OEMs is shown in
User Interfaces
The foregoing description of the embodiments of the present invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is intended that the scope of the present invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claims of this application. As will be understood by those familiar with the art, the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Likewise, the particular naming and division of the modules, routines, features, attributes, methodologies and other aspects are not mandatory or significant, and the mechanisms that implement the present invention or its features may have different names, divisions and/or formats. Furthermore, as will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art, the modules, routines, features, attributes, methodologies and other aspects of the present invention can be implemented as software, hardware, firmware or any combination of the three. Of course, wherever a component, an example of which is a module, of the present invention is implemented as software, the component can be implemented as a standalone program, as part of a larger program, as a plurality of separate programs, as a statically or dynamically linked library, as a kernel loadable module, as a device driver, and/or in every and any other way known now or in the future to those of ordinary skill in the art of computer programming. Additionally, the present invention is in no way limited to implementation in any specific programming language, or for any specific operating system or environment. Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the present invention, which is set forth in the following claims.
The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to: 1) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/604,747, filed on Aug. 25 2004, entitled “ON-LINE TRADE-IN AND SHIPPING SYSTEM FOR AN ON-LINE MARKETPLACE”; 2) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/609,036, filed on Sep. 9, 2004, entitled “ON-LINE MARKETPLACE PRODUCT CONFIGURATION TOOL”; 3) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/646,209, filed on Jan. 21, 2005, entitled “TRADE-IN SYSTEM” which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60604747 | Aug 2004 | US | |
| 60609036 | Sep 2004 | US | |
| 60646209 | Jan 2005 | US |
