Online Store Sales Regulation via Computer-Implemented Delays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing e-commerce platforms face challenges in regulating sales of exclusive products, particularly in preventing automated applications or 'bots' from purchasing limited stock, which can lead to unfair access for legitimate customers and reduced sales opportunities.
Innovation Solution
Implementing computer-implemented delays in the online store's checkout process, where delays can be tailored based on user priority, purchase history, and assessment of automated application use, allowing for flexible regulation of sales without strict limits, thereby mitigating bot activity and ensuring fair access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If automated applications or bots are used to purchase products, then purchase speed and efficiency are improved, but fairness of access and sales distribution deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment of user priority before allowing purchase, evaluating factors such as purchase history, account age, and bot detection status in advance of the actual purchase attempt. This preliminary action creates a foundation for fair distribution by establishing user credentials before the purchase moment occurs.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts purchase eligibility and timing based on real-time assessment of user behavior patterns. Rather than static rules, the system adapts its evaluation of each user's legitimacy and priority level, creating dynamic thresholds for purchase approval that respond to changing conditions in the purchasing environment.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If strict limits are placed on product sales, then bot activity is reduced, but sales flexibility and customer access deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes multiple parameters simultaneously - adjusting purchase timing delays, modifying quantity limits, altering eligibility criteria - based on the specific product type, demand level, and detected bot activity patterns. This multi-parameter adjustment allows the system to respond flexibly to different scenarios without relying on a single rigid limit.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary assessment layer between the product and the purchaser that evaluates user priority and purchase legitimacy. This intermediary mechanism mediates between allowing purchases and preventing bot activity, using intermediate criteria such as account verification, purchase history analysis, and behavior pattern recognition to determine access without imposing strict universal limits.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If computer-implemented delays are implemented in the checkout process, then bot activity is slowed down, but purchase completion time for legitimate customers increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different delay characteristics to different users based on their assessed priority levels. High-priority legitimate customers experience minimal or no delays, while users exhibiting bot-like behavior experience longer delays. This local differentiation ensures that the harmful effect of delays is concentrated on bots rather than being uniformly applied to all customers.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary assessment of user legitimacy before applying delays, evaluating purchase intent, account status, and behavior patterns in advance. This preliminary action allows the system to prepare appropriate delay levels for each user, ensuring that legitimate customers are not unnecessarily delayed while bots face appropriate delays.
Data Source
AI summary
System and methods are provided to regulate sales of a product in an online store using computer-implemented delays. The computer-implemented delays can, for example, help mitigate the use of bots in the online store, provide different customers with equal access to the product and/or provide certain customers with priority access to the product. According to an embodiment, a method includes receiving an indication that a user intends to purchase an item of a product in an online store, and determining a delay for a sale of the item to the user to regulate sales of the product. Before completing the sale of the item to the user, the delay is implemented in the online store.