System and method for availability-based limited-time offerings and transactions
AssigneeRearden Commerce, Inc.
InventorsPatrick Grady, Mark Orttung
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
System and method for availability based on limited-time offerings and transactions. One embodiment of the present invention provides a system and method that, based on a set of known preferences and historic transactions with customers, culls from a customer database those customers most likely to close a transaction in a short time. The selected customers are notified of the offer, and the system processes the customers responses in a timely manner, and thus allow fleeting inventories to be sold off before they expire.
Claims33
A computer implemented method comprising:
- receiving, via a computing device, an offer that has an explicit or implicit expiration;
- determining, via a set of instructions executed on a machine, a likelihood of accepting the offer for each of a plurality of customers, the likelihood being determined by applying predetermined rules based on the characteristics of the offer and information on customers;
- selecting a set of customers from the plurality of customers based on the likelihood of accepting the offer and predetermined criteria;
- ranking the selected customers based on the likelihood of accepting the offer;
- sequentially providing the offer to at least one or more of the selected customers in the order of the ranking via one of a plurality of various transmission media which is selected based on a customer interest threshold;
- guaranteeing availability of the offer to the one or more selected customers by limiting the offer to a number of customers matching a number of products or services available;
- providing a next customer in the sequence the offer when the offer expires for or is rejected by the at least one of the selected customers.
A tangible computer readable medium that provides instructions that when executed by a machine will cause said machine to perform operations comprising:
- receiving, via a computing device, an offer that has an explicit or implicit expiration;
- determining a likelihood of accepting the offer for each of a plurality of customers, the likelihood being determined by applying predetermined rules based on the characteristics of the offer and information on customers;
- selecting a set of customers from the plurality of customers based on the likelihood of accepting the offer and predetermined criteria;
- ranking the selected customers based on the likelihood of accepting the offer;
- sequentially providing the offer to at least one or more of the selected customers in the order of the ranking via one of a plurality of various transmission media which is selected based on a customer interest threshold;
- guaranteeing availability of the offer to the one or more selected customers by limiting the offer to a number of customers matching a number of products or services available;
- providing a next customer in the sequence the offer when the offer expires for or is rejected by the at least one of the selected customers.
A computer system comprising at least one server configured for:
- receiving, via a computing device, an offer that has an explicit or implicit expiration;
- determining a likelihood of accepting the offer for each of a plurality of customers, the likelihood being determined by applying predetermined rules based on the characteristics of the offer and information on customers;
- selecting a set of customers from the plurality of customers based on the likelihood of accepting the offer and predetermined criteria;
- ranking the selected customers based on the likelihood of accepting the offer;
- sequentially providing the offer to at least one or more of the selected customers in the order of the ranking via one of a plurality of various transmission media which is selected based on a customer interest threshold;
- guaranteeing availability of the offer to the one or more selected customers by limiting the offer to a number of customers matching a number of products or services available;
- providing a next customer in the sequence the offer when the offer expires for or is rejected by the at least one of the selected customers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.