SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NEAR REAL-TIME, UNSOLICITED, UNBIASED DEMAND COLLECTION FOR DISTRIBUTING CONSUMER ITEMS

摘要

This invention is a system for determining non-abstract consumer demand for an item comprising: a user agent, an aggregator and a sales agent for transmitting the quantity price demand information to a supplier computer system, receiving an initial price and quantity of the discrete item being offered by the supplier from the supplier computer system, setting the current price to the initial price, (a) transmitting the discrete item information to remote computer systems that represent the user's desire for the discrete item, (b) waiting an predetermined period of time, (c) reducing the quantity of items available by the number sold during the predetermined period of time, (d) reducing the current price and performing steps (a), (b), (c) and (d) until: (i) the quantity of items available is reduced to zero or (ii) a sale termination period is reached or (iii) a maximum price reduction has been reached.

主权项

1. A system for determining non-abstract consumer demand for an item comprising:
a server having a computer readable medium and a processor in communications with a plurality of remote computing devices; a set of computer readable instructions stored on the computer readable medium that, when executed by the processor, provides for:
a user agent for receiving query requests from discrete remote computing devices representing a search for a desired good or service, having price criteria and placing the query request on a persistent search queue in response to an indication that the user wishes to make the query a persistent search wherein the query request represents an unsolicited and unbiased willingness to purchase an item at a particular price;an aggregator for retrieving a plurality of query requests associated with a discrete item from the persistence search queue, defining a predetermined number of ranges equally spanning the difference between the highest and lowest price for the discrete item from each query request, determining which range the price of the query request falls and assigning that query request to that range, determining the quantity of items in each range to provide quantity price demand information; and,a sales agent for transmitting the quantity price demand information to a supplier computer system, receiving an initial price and quantity of the discrete item being offered by the supplier from the supplier computer system, setting the current price to the initial price, (a) transmitting the discrete item information to all remote computer systems associated with a query request that represents the user's desire for the discrete item, (b) waiting an predetermined period of time, (c) reducing the quantity of items available by the number sold during the predetermined period of time, (d) reducing the current price and performing steps (a), (b), (c) and (d) until one of the following occurs: (i) the quantity of items available is reduced to zero, (ii) a sale termination period is reached or (iii) a maximum price reduction has been reached.