US 8,285,597 B1Granted

Haggling in an electronic commerce system

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsSrikanth Thirumalai, B. Anthony Joseph, Matthew K. Green

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Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments of systems, methods, and computer programs that facilitate haggling in an electronic commerce system. An average spread of a user is calculated, which is the average difference between an initial list price and a final transaction price among transactions in a transaction history. A rounds score is also calculated, which is based on the number of counteroffers extended by a user in the transaction history. A volume score is calculated and based on the volume of transactions a user has consummated in the transaction history. An abandonment score is calculated and based on the percentage of transactions the user has abandoned. A haggling rating is calculated and based on a combination of the average spread, the rounds score, the volume score, and the abandonment score, and represents an effectiveness of the user in haggling and completing transactions with other users.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in at least one computing device, the program comprising:

code that retrieves a plurality of products from an electronic product catalog;
code that creates a plurality of indicators associated with each of the retrieved plurality of products, each of the indicators corresponding to whether at least one seller of a product is willing to negotiate a sales price;
code that encodes for display at a client, upon selection of one of the retrieved plurality of products, a plurality of sellers willing to negotiate the sales price and a haggling rating associated with each of the sellers, the haggling rating indicating an effectiveness of a seller to negotiate the sales price on a scale from zero to five;
code that calculates an average spread of a user, wherein the average spread comprises the average difference between an initial asking price and a final transaction price among transactions in a transaction history of the user;
code that calculates a rounds score, wherein the rounds score comprises a score based on the number counteroffers extended by the user in the transaction history;
and
code that calculates a user haggling rating based on a combination of the average spread and the rounds score.

4 more elements

A method, comprising:

retrieving, in at least one computing device, a plurality of products from a product catalog in at least one data store accessible to the at least one computing device;
creating, in the at least one computing device, a plurality of indicators associated with each of the retrieved plurality of products, each indicator corresponding to whether at least one seller of a product is willing to negotiate a sales price;
and
encoding for display, in the at least one computing device, upon selection of one of the retrieved plurality of products, a plurality of sellers willing to negotiate the sales price and a haggling rating associated with each of the plurality of sellers indicating a seller amenability to negotiate the sales price.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.