Bilateral bidding platform for use in bulk sale of items in an electronic marketplace

Abstract

Utilities (e.g., systems, methods, etc.) for facilitating a bilateral bidding process between buyers and sellers of items (services, products, bundles, etc.) to allow buyers to obtain lower prices on the items through crowd bidding while simultaneously allowing sellers to essentially offset such lower prices on the items through increased sales volume of the items. Specifically, the disclosed utilities may make use of a network-based ecommerce system or platform that provides sellers of items access to real-time buyer demand and the optimum price that a plurality of buyers (e.g., customers) are willing to pay that yields increased profits. The disclosed platform also benefits buyers in cases when multiple sellers compete for the then current plurality of buyer demand resulting in a reduced price for the item based on the then real-time demand.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional App. No. 62 / 629,420, entitled METHOD OF CONDUCTING TWO WAY BIDDING FOR BULK SALE OF AN ITEM TO A PLURALITY OF CUSTOMERS,” and filed on Feb. 12, 2018, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference as if set forth in full.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This application generally relates to systems for facilitating the sale of items such as products and / or services and, more particularly, to systems for facilitating the bulk sale of items from one or more sellers to a plurality of buyers in an electronic marketplace.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]A seller with an inventory of a particular item (e.g., product and / or service) has several choices in selling the inventory. It can retail the items in a storefront, either online through an ecommerce website or through a brick and mortar location, pricing the item individually and selling the entire inventory over time. It can...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a system and method for negotiating between buyers and sellers of items through a network-based platform. This platform allows sellers to access real-time buyer demand and determine the optimum price that multiple buyasers are willing to pay, resulting in increased profits. The platform also benefits buyers when multiple sellers are competing for their demand, as the real-time demand helps them find the lowest price. Furthermore, the platform allows small sellers to act as a single representative and benefit from increased sales volume. It provides them with access to a shared inventory and the ability to set criteria for joining a group seller entity. Overall, the platform enables a more efficient and effective bidding process between buyers and sellers.

Problems solved by technology

While the bulk wholesale approach turns over inventory more quickly to free up storage space, it does so at the expense of total revenue and profit.

On the other hand, selling individually or in small multiples typically garners a higher price for each sale and potentially offers a higher return but does so at the price of higher storage costs and the risk that the inventory will be made obsolete before it is completely liquidated.

Regardless, each selling process and the methods used to sell inventory of an item carries their own risks.

Sellers today are often unaware of the optimum demand to price ratio for a given product, service or bundle to realize the highest profit margin for the then current addressable market, therefore leaving potential unaddressed sales that could otherwise yield higher profits overall.

Existing ecommerce systems and methods typically fail to offer access to real time demand / price ratio information from a plurality of buyers for a current addressable market, thereby resulting in missed opportunity for both sellers and unaddressed buyers.

However, the various buyers may be unaware of the bid prices being submitted by other buyers during the current bidding session.

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