APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PRIORITIZING SELLERS IN ELECTRONIC MARKETS

摘要

A transaction management system for managing the purchase of products and/or services by buyers from sellers. The system comprises a data store for storing: buyer data comprising, for each of a plurality of buyers, a buyer identifier; seller data comprising, for each of a plurality of sellers, a seller identifier and seller offer data indicating at least one product and/or service offered for sale; and prioritized seller data comprising, for each of a plurality of buyers, a seller identifier for each of at least one seller whose product and/or service is to be prioritized for purchase by the buyer. The system also comprises a program store storing processor implementable instructions and a processor coupled to the data store and to the program store for implementing the stored instructions. The stored instructions comprise instructions for controlling the processor to implement a buyer interface to: receive a purchase inquiry from a buyer, the purchase inquiry comprising purchase criteria for a product and/or service; output seller offer data for a plurality of sellers, the sellers each being able to meet the purchase criteria for the product and/or service requirement; and receive a purchase request from the buyer accepting an offer of the product and/or service from one of the sellers, thereby creating a transaction. The stored instructions further comprise instructions for controlling the processor to modify seller offer data of prioritized sellers before it is output by the buyer interface, to thereby prioritize the product and/or service of the at least one rioritized seller.