Shared Purchasing Platform Using Affinity-Based Group Booking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Individuals or small groups face difficulties in finding unrelated users to share goods or services like tables, apartments, sports fields, or customized products, leading to higher per capita costs and potential unsold inventory for suppliers.
Innovation Solution
A method and system allowing multiple users to share a single good or service by grouping them based on affinity through a remote server, optimizing the number of users to minimize individual costs and maximize service utilization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If individual users or small groups book goods or services in full, then they can secure the good or service, but the per capita cost increases and suppliers risk unsold inventory
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual users into shared groups who collectively book and pay for goods or services. The system automatically forms groups of users with similar booking preferences, allowing them to share the total cost and achieve lower per capita prices while ensuring the supplier receives full payment for the entire good or service.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary booking platform that acts as a mediator between individual users and suppliers. This platform automatically matches users into groups, manages the collective booking process, handles payments, and coordinates with suppliers, eliminating the need for users to manually find and coordinate with other potential sharers.
2Quantity of substance
If users search for unrelated users to share goods or services, then per capita cost decreases, but the complexity of finding and coordinating users increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the system to automatically perform the complex task of user matching and group formation without requiring user intervention. The platform uses algorithms to identify and group users with similar booking preferences, automatically notifies them of potential sharing opportunities, and coordinates the booking process, freeing users from the complexity of manual coordination.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of users searching for, contacting, and coordinating with each other with an automated electronic system. The platform uses digital algorithms to match users, send notifications, and manage bookings, substituting the complex human coordination process with an efficient automated information processing system.
3Ease of operation
If suppliers lower rental prices to match individual user budgets, then accessibility increases, but revenue and profit margins decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the total cost of the good or service across multiple users in a shared group, rather than requiring a single user to bear the full cost. This allows the supplier to maintain the full price point (preserving revenue) while each individual user pays only a portion, making the booking accessible to users with limited budgets.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables multiple users to contribute partially to the total cost, with each user paying only a fraction of the full price. The collective contributions from multiple users equal the full supplier price, ensuring revenue is maintained while individual payment barriers are reduced, allowing more users to access the good or service.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method and a system for purchasing a single good or service, in a shared mode, by a plurality (N) of users, are described. The method is based on a 1 to Nth relationship, wherein a plurality (N) of users aim to share a single good or service and wherein each of the users is willing to pay a share of the total cost of the single good or service. The method comprises the following steps: each supplier of a good or service sets (S1) the maximum number (Nmax) of users who can use the good or service and the total cost (Ctot) of the good or service; each user or small group of users selects (S2) a good or service he or she wants to use; users who are potentially interested in using the same good or service are searched (S3) and grouped by affinity; the users who have been searched for are grouped (S4), in order to fully saturate the good or service in terms of maximum allowed number (Nmax) of users; each grouped user purchases the selected good or service paying a minimum per capita amount, previously set by the supplier of the good or service, which is obtained by dividing the total cost (Ctot) of the good or service by the maximum number (Nmax) of the users who can use the good or service; the maximum number (Nmax) of users use (S6) the purchased good or service.