Reverse Bidding Platform for In-Store Sales Conversion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Brick and mortar merchants often fail to complete sales with consumers who compare prices in-store and then purchase online at a lower price, leading to lost sales opportunities.
Innovation Solution
A reverse bidding platform that calculates a confidence score for consumers based on their online behavior and location, allowing merchants to offer discounted prices to those likely to make a non-fraudulent purchase, enabling in-store sales at competitive prices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If merchants provide goods and services in brick and mortar stores, then consumers can inspect and purchase items on the spot, but consumers often compare items in-store and then purchase online at lower prices, resulting in lost sales opportunities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional bidding process by allowing consumers to bid against the merchant's price rather than the merchant setting the price. The consumer submits a bid price lower than the merchant's asking price, and if the consumer has a high confidence score (indicating likelihood of completing purchase), the merchant accepts the lower bid price. This reverses the conventional dynamic where the merchant sets the price and the consumer either buys or leaves, transforming it into a negotiation where the consumer initiates the price reduction.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the pricing parameter from a fixed merchant-determined price to a dynamic bid-based price. By introducing confidence scores as a new parameter that reflects consumer purchase likelihood, the system adjusts the price parameter interactively. High confidence consumers receive lower prices, while low confidence consumers are not offered the deal, thus changing the price parameter based on consumer behavior patterns rather than static merchant pricing.
2Productivity
If the system provides real-time price comparisons and bidding opportunities to consumers, then sales conversion increases, but the system complexity and data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a third-party service provider as an intermediary that handles the complex data processing and confidence score calculations. Rather than requiring the merchant or consumer to perform complex analysis, the intermediary service processes consumer behavior data, transaction history, and other factors to generate confidence scores, simplifying the overall system architecture while enabling sophisticated pricing decisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically processes consumer data and generates confidence scores without requiring manual intervention. Consumer behavior patterns, transaction histories, and other data are automatically analyzed by the system to determine purchase likelihood, allowing the system to self-regulate pricing decisions based on established algorithms rather than requiring complex manual control mechanisms.
3Reliability
If the system uses machine learning to calculate confidence scores based on consumer behavior and location data, then fraudulent transactions can be prevented, but data privacy concerns and security requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different levels of data processing and analysis based on the specific characteristics of each consumer and transaction. Rather than uniformly processing all data, the system tailors the depth of analysis to individual consumer profiles and risk levels, processing detailed behavior data for high-value transactions while using simpler methods for lower-risk cases, thus reducing overall data exposure risks while maintaining effective fraud prevention.
Data Source
AI summary
A consumer may enter a physical merchant location. A reverse bidding system determines a confidence score that the consumer will make a non-fraudulent purchase of a product. The reverse bidding system performs an online price comparison. The reverse bidding system may transmit an offer to the consumer to purchase the product at the physical merchant location for a discounted price.