CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[001] This application claims the benefit of Indian Provisional Patent
Application: 3114/DEL/2015, titled “ONLINE GROUP SHOPPING
PLATFORM WITH A BIDDING SYSTEM AND THE METHOD THEREOF”
and filed on 30.09.2015, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by
reference herein for all purposes.
FIELD OF INVENTION
[002] The present invention relates to demand aggregation and group bargaining
for products/services and the computerized operation of buying groups conducted
over online networks.
BACKGROUND
[003] The concept of online shopping is in vogue since its advent. Typically, a
seller places his product on the website along with the product description,
including photographs of the product in some instances, a required minimum
selling price etc. Potential buyers compete for the purchase of the product,
wherein the buyers are usually registered and authenticated by the systems.
[004] In the past, systems have evolved depending and focusing on the general
psyche of the buyers, requirement of sellers, economic trends and the technical
feasibilities. However, with the presently available systems and models, both
buyers as well as sellers face several difficulties which are inherent in the
presently employed features of the systems. For those not savvy in sales tactics
and persuasion, bargaining is, to many, at best a hassle. No systems devoted to the
process of bargaining, efficiently reaches the best price (acceptable to buyer and
seller both) for in a given transaction. Moreover, none of the platforms provide a
capability for unrelated buyers to come together to buy a particular product in
order to get discounts from sellers in a particular location. On the other hand, all
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sellers selling within e-commerce space do not know what product buyers are
interested in.
[005] The above-highlighted drawbacks are in addition to the time and effort put
in by the sellers and buyers for each transaction. Therefore, there is a need to have
an online system and method which is fully devoid of such problems and allows
parties to engage in bargaining for the best price in a given transaction.
SUMMARY
[006] In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a system for group
purchasing by related or unrelated buyers is disclosed. The system includes a
product module for fetching information from a database related to products for
buying and selling; a group creation module for creating a first group of
committed buyers and a common group of committed and non-committed buyers,
each group is active for a pre-determined time duration; a demand aggregation
module for aggregating demand of the product requested in at least the first group
or the common group; a tracking module for tracking at least one of the number of
committed buyers, non-committed buyers, time period elapsed and quantity of
products required based upon demand in real-time and the pre-determined time
duration; a product analysis module for monitoring different prices offered by one
or more sellers; a location module for extracting location of buyers and sellers; an
authentication module for authenticating buyers and sellers; and a report module
for generating one or more reports relating to the buyers for consumption by the
seller.
[007] In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method for
group purchasing by related or unrelated buyers is disclosed. The method
includes receiving buyer inputs; determining whether the buyer is a committed or
non-committed buyer; automatically creating a group of one or more committed
buyers, each group is specific for the committed buyers of a product, each group
is active for a pre-determined time duration; aggregating the quantity of the
product requested in the group; transmitting the aggregated quantity to at least one
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of a plurality of sellers; receiving competitive price offers from the sellers;
displaying all the price offers to the committed buyers along with the time
duration within which the committed buyers have to respond; and repeating the
above steps from the aggregating step once the group is updated in real-time on
addition of new committed buyers within the time duration.
[008] In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method for
group purchasing by related or unrelated buyers is disclosed. The method
includes receiving geographical location and product inputs from the related or
unrelated buyers; determining whether the buyer is a committed or non-committed
buyer; automatically creating a group of one or more committed buyers, each
group is specific for the committed buyers of a product, each group is active for a
pre-determined time duration; identifying one or more local sellers located
proximate to the buyer geographical location; aggregating the quantity of the
product requested in the group; transmitting the aggregated quantity to at least one
of a plurality of local sellers; receiving competitive price offers from the local
sellers; displaying all the price offers to the committed buyers along with the time
duration within which the committed buyers have to respond; and repeating the
above steps from the aggregating step once the group is updated in real-time on
addition of new committed buyers within the time duration.
[009] In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method for
group purchasing by related or unrelated buyers is disclosed. The method
includes receiving geographical location and expression of interest on a product
from the related or unrelated buyers; identifying one or more local sellers located
proximate to the buyer geographical location; aggregating the quantity of the
product for which expression of interest is received; transmitting the aggregated
quantity to at least one of a plurality of local sellers; receiving competitive price
offers from the local sellers; displaying all the price offers to the committed
buyers along with the time duration within which the committed buyers have to
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respond; and repeating the above steps from the aggregating step once the number
of interested buyers are updated in real-time within the time duration.
[0010] In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method for
group purchasing by related or unrelated buyers is disclosed. The method
includes receiving geographical location, expression of interest, expected price,
and quantity required of a product from the related or unrelated buyers;
determining whether the buyer is a committed or non-committed buyer;
automatically creating a common group of at least one committed and noncommitted
buyer, each group is specific for a product, each group is active for a
pre-determined time duration; identifying one or more local sellers located
proximate to the buyer geographical location; aggregating the quantity of the
product requested in the group; transmitting the aggregated quantity to at least one
of a plurality of local sellers; receiving competitive price offers from the local
sellers; displaying all the price offers to the buyers of the common group along
with the time duration within which the buyers of the common group have to
respond; and repeating the above steps from the aggregating step once the
common group is updated in real-time on addition of new committed or noncommitted
buyers within the time duration.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] FIG. 1 depicts client-server architecture illustrating connection between
buyer/seller and administrator.
[0012] FIG. 2 illustrates a modular block diagram of demand aggregation and
distribution software of server.
[0013] FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram depicting a magnified view of location
module.
[0014] FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram depicting buyer/seller registration
process.
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[0015] FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram depicting steps for group purchasing by
automatically creating groups and aggregating demand for getting the lowest price
offers from sellers.
[0016] FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram depicting steps for group purchasing by
automatically creating groups and aggregating demand for getting the lowest price
offers from the sellers based on location.
[0017] FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram depicting steps for group purchasing via
expression of interest based upon location.
[0018] FIG. 8 illustrates a flow diagram depicting steps for group purchasing by
automatically creating a common group.
[0019] FIG. 9 illustrates exemplary implementation of the system.
[0020] FIG. 10 illustrates a flow diagram depicting steps for adding buyers to a
group.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS
[0021] The present disclosure provides a unique platform enabling buyers to
bargain with local dealers or online sellers and get lowest prices possible. The
invention provides a method to purchase a particular product and/or service within
a defined time frame and accomplish the desired purchase. The invention focuses
on group purchasing based online shopping services as its salient feature. The
invention enables individual buyers to leverage their collective purchasing power
to achieve an economic bargain, which cannot be achieved by any one buyer
buying alone. Buyers can place their expectations with respect to the product. The
aggregated demand generated by remote buyers’ lures the sellers to discount the
selected products on bulk orders. This in turn builds a symbiotic/synchronised
relationship between a buyer and a seller equating the two with their individual
gains. Sellers can also compete with local or online sellers by throwing
competitive counter offers. Not only this, sellers will be able to get to know how
many people are interested in buying a particular product in their locality and
what their price expectations are. Embodiments of the present invention will now
be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
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some, but not all, embodiments of the invention are shown. Indeed, the invention
may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited
to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so
that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements.
[0022] Applications, software programs or computer readable instructions may be
referred to as components or modules. Applications may be hardwired or hard
coded in hardware or take the form of software executing on a general purpose
computer, such that, when the software is loaded into and/or executed by the
computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention, or they
are available via a web service. Applications may also be downloaded in whole or
in part through the use of a software development kit or a toolkit that enables the
creation and implementation of the present invention. In this specification, these
implementations, or any other form that the invention may take, may be referred
to as techniques. In general, the order of the steps of the disclosed processes may
be altered within the scope of the invention.
[0023] In an embodiment buyers are users of the system who form groups to buy
products. Typically, these users are people who participate in on-line groupbuying
sales by accessing the on-line group-buying main site. The buyers
participating in the on-line shopping may be related or un-related buyers. Related
buyers correspond to friends, family member or any other acquaintances while
unrelated buyers include random unacquainted buyers. Sellers are users of the
system who access demands generated by buyers and make offers to them.
Typically, these users are original equipment manufacturer (OEMs),
product/service retailers, and service providers offering products/services for sale
to buyers via the on-line group-buying sales method. On the other hand, an
administrator, who is the owners of the system, keeps on adding products to the
system so that sellers can pick products they sell and buyers can pick products that
they want to buy. The server operates as directed by the administrator.
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[0024] Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a system configured as
client/server architecture used in an embodiment of the present disclosure. A
“client device” is a member of a class or group that uses the services of another
class or group to which it is not related. In the context of a computer network, a
client device is a process (i.e. roughly a program or task) that requests a service
which is provided by another process, known as a server program. The process at
the client device uses the requested service without knowing any working details
about the server program or the server itself. In a networked system, a process at
the client device usually runs on a computer that accesses shared network
resources provided by another computer running a corresponding server process.
[0025] In FIG. 1, the system for practicing the teachings of the present invention
includes clients, one or more servers 30 and a network 40 which is used for
establishing communication between the client and server 30.The clients may
comprise of one or more buyers 10 and one or more sellers 20.
[0026] The buyer device 10 and seller device 20 may be any electronic device for
presentation of information in visual format. The devices can without any
limitation include laptops, tablets, phones etc. The buyer device 10 and the seller
device 20 will be henceforth addressed as buyer and seller respectively.
[0027] In an embodiment, the buyer/seller device may contain a processor 102, a
memory 103, an optional input/output controller 105, a network interface 107, and
an online shopping application 111.
[0028] The processor 102 in the buyer and seller devices executes the application
program. The memory 103 in the buyer device stores the buyer data such as
product selection, quantity, expected price etc. and the memory 103 in the seller
device stores the seller data such as price offers etc. This data is sent to the server
30 for processing.
[0029] The optional input/output controller 105 is used for controlling the
information being displayed on the buyer/seller device respectively. The optional
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input ports and devices may be USB ports, SD Card reader, fire-wire ports,
lightning ports, serial ports, parallel ports, LAN/WAN port, microphone ports, etc.
[0030] The network interface 107 is used to provide the buyer/seller device a
dedicated, full-time connection to a network 40.
[0031] The online shopping application 111 in the buyer/seller device acts as an
interface between seller- server and buyer-seller transactions in order to extract
any information from the buyers and sellers in relation to the purchase of the
product. The online shopping application 111 provides a different interface for
both buyer and seller. The buyer may view and browse products/services and
provide various inputs such as product selection, quantity required, expected
price, shipping address etc. by using the interface.
[0032] On the other hand the seller uses the interface provided by the online
shopping application 111 for entering the products/services which he/she sells.
The entries are stored in the database 104. The interface provided at the seller end
is different as compared to the buyer interface. For example, the seller may view
all the reports and information related to the buyer group and give price offers etc.
[0033] The online shopping application 111 further consists of buyer location
component 301 in the buyer device and seller location component 305 in the seller
device and would be discussed in details in FIG. 3.
[0034] The network 40is used for establishing communication between the buyer,
seller and the server 30. The network 40 may be a global area network (GAN),
such as the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), or
any other type of network or combination of networks. The communication
medium may provide for wireline, wireless, or a combination of wireline and
wireless communication between devices in the network. In some embodiments of
the invention the communication medium described herein may be a cloud
computing network.
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[0035] A “server” is typically a remote computer system that is accessible over a
communication medium. The process at the client device may be active on a
portable device which communicates with the server process via a network that
allows multiple client devices to take advantage of the information-gathering
capabilities of the server. Thus, the server essentially acts as an information
provider for a computer network.
[0036] In an embodiment, the server 30 may be a heterogeneous server or any
other kind of server known in the art and includes processor 102, data aggregation
and distribution application 100 and one or more databases 104.
[0037] The processor 102 controls and collaborates the functioning of all the
modules and fetches the required data from the database 104.
[0038] The database 104 may be a heterogeneous database or any other kind of
database known in the art. The database 104 may be externally attached to the
server 30 or embedded inside the server 30. The database 104 stores all the
information and data relating to the buyer, seller and the products. The buyer data
which is stored in the database 104 is not limited to and may be such as buyer id,
contact address, shipping address, phone number, buyer name, buyer personal
details, product selected, group id, product of interest, quantity, expected priceetc.
The seller data which is stored in the database 104 is not limited to and may be
such as seller id, seller contact details, stock details, last price offer, seller location
etc. The details of the products are also stored in the database 104 which may be
product id, product name, product category, product description, product quantity,
product price, product images etc.
[0039] The data aggregation and distribution application 100 (DAD application)
100 functions in synchronization with the online shopping application 111. This
collaborative functioning assists in keeping a count of all the buyers for a selected
product thereby generating an aggregate demand based upon the quantity of the
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product demanded. It then conveys the same to the respective sellers. The DAD
application has various modules which are discussed in FIG. 2.
[0040] In the Fig. 2, the different modules contained in the DAD application are
discussed. The modules include product module 201, group creation module
203,demand aggregation module 205, tracking module 207, product analysis
module 209, buyer module 211, seller module 213, location module 215,
authentication module 217, bargaining module 219 and report module 221.
[0041] The product module 201 functions to convey all the information related to
the products which are made available for buying and can be browsed by the
buyers for product selection. The product module 201 fetches the information
related to the products from the database 104 for display on the buyer device.
[0042] The group creation module 203 creates a “group” for the selected product.
The group creation module 203 adds committed buyers to “group”. The module
may also create a common group of committed buyers and those buyers who have
just shown interest in the product or are non-committed buyers. Each group
formed belongs to a specified product. Therefore, all buyers (committed and/or
non-committed) who wish to buy the same product lie in the same group. Also,
each group stays active for a pre-determined time period.
[0043] The demand aggregation module 205 performs the accumulation of the
demand. Demand refers to quantity of a product or service is desired by buyers at
various prices. The demand and aggregation module 205 aggregates the total
demand for the specified product. Therefore, higher the no. of buyers or quantity
required by them, higher will be the demand for that particular product. This will
in turn influence the sellers to fix lower prices.
[0044] The tracking module 207 keeps tracks of available product stock at the
seller’s end, price offers of different sellers, the time period left before the offer
expires, number of buyers who have made purchases based on sellers offers,
buyers interested in buying products including quantity, which seller sells in buyer
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locality, lowest offer on a product, etc. The tracking module 207 also classifies the
registered buyers of the website into committed and non-committed buyers. The
committed buyers refer to the registered buyers who guarantee the purchase of the
selected product while the non-committed buyers relate to the registered buyers
who just show their interest in the product without any confirmation for purchase.
The non-committed buyers will henceforth be referred as “Expression of Interest”
buyers. Thus, the tracking module 207 keeps a track of committed buyers and
expression of interest buyers. The tracking module 207 also tracks the current
total demand for the specified product.
[0045] The product price analysis module 209 monitors the different prices
offered by the sellers and fixes the lowest price as the best price offered to the
buyers.
[0046] The buyer module 211 manages the buyer information obtained from the
buyers through online shopping application 111 including the name, address,
contact details, shipping and billing details etc thereby maintaining the
authenticity of the clients. Further this information is sent to the database104.All
the interaction between the buyer online shopping application 111 and the DAD
application 100 installed on the server 30 is through the buyer module 211.
[0047] The seller module 213 manages the seller information obtained from the
sellers through online shopping application 111 including the name, address,
contact details etc thereby maintaining the authenticity of the sellers. Further this
information is sent to the database 104. All the interaction between the seller
online shopping application 111 and the DAD application 100 installed on the
server 30 is through the seller module 213.
[0048] The location module 215 involves extracting location of the buyers as well
as sellers. The details of the same are discussed in the description in Fig 3.
[0049] The authentication module 217 authenticates all the buyers/sellers who
access the online website. The buyers/sellers are authenticated based upon their
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entries in the registration form including the name and contact details. If the
buyers/sellers are not authentic then they cannot make purchasing through the
online website.
[0050] The report module 221 prepares a report of all the information obtained by
the buyers such as no. of buyers, quantity required, price expectation etc. The
reports such as how many buyers purchased the product based on offer, how many
buyers are interested in buying the product including the quantity, current lowered
offer prices from other sellers, offers previously offered, updated report on
quantity for each product the sellers sell is further sent to the sellers. The sellers
can view these reports.
[0051] In the Fig. 3, the function of the location module 215 is elaborated. The
buyer location component 301 and seller location component 305 in the online
shopping application 111 traces the location of the buyers and sellers respectively
and conveys this information to the mapping component 303 in the location
module 215 of the server 30. Alternately, the server 30 may directly fetch the
buyer/seller location by using the any know techniques. The location of the
buyer/seller device can be obtained using different underlying mechanisms such
as via global positioning system (GPS) or any other global navigation satellite
system such as triangulation method, presence technology, or social networking,
Wi-Fi, or simply asking the user (buyer and sellers) to enter their location
manually. The mapping component 303 determines whether the geographic
location of the seller is within the buyer geofence and whether the geographic
location of the buyer is within the seller geofence.
[0052] In the Fig. 4, the general process for registration of new buyers and sellers
on the website is described. The concept of group purchase on selected products is
specifically designed for registered buyers. The sellers and buyers interested in the
website for selling and purchasing have to submit their details and accept the
terms and conditions formulated by the administrator.
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[0053] The new buyers and sellers enter their respective details on the online
shopping application 111 which in turn is addressed by the buyer module 211 and
seller module 213.
[0054] In the first step 401, the server 30 uses the authentication module
217checks whether the buyer/seller has an existing account or is a new client. The
authentication module 217 traces the details of the buyer/seller from the database
104. If the information is available of the buyer and/or seller respectively the step
411 is followed. However, if the information is not available then steps from 403
are followed.
[0055] At step 403, in case a new client is recognized, the authentication module
217displays the terms and conditions for joining.
[0056] The buyer and/or seller are required to convey whether they comply with
the terms and conditions or not at step 405. If the buyer and/or seller accept the
terms and condition at step 405 then at step 407 the details in the registration form
needs to be mandatorily filled. However, if the buyer and/or seller do not accept
the terms and conditions then the authenticity module 219 denies the membership
at the step 417.
[0057] The details mentioned in the registration form are stored in the database
104.
[0058] In another case, where the buyer and/or seller already have an account, the
username and password is required to be entered 411. If the server 30
(authentication module 217) accepts the password, then subsequently the data is
displayed else the user re-enters the password.
[0059] FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram depicting steps for group purchasing by
automatically creating groups and aggregating demand for getting the lowest price
offers from the sellers.
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[0060] At step 502, the server 30 receives from the buyer inputs such as selected
product and the quantity required.
[0061] At step 504, the server 30 uses the tracking module 207 to determine
whether the buyers are committed to buy the specified product or not. If the
buyers are committed to buy the product, then steps from 506 onwards are
followed. However, if the buyers are not committed to buy the product, then they
are not included in the group buying activity.
[0062] At step 506, the server 30 uses the group creation module 203 to
automatically create a group of buyers who want to buy the specific
product/service.
[0063] At step 508, the server 30 uses the demand aggregation module 205 to
aggregate the quantity of the product specified by each buyer in the group.
[0064] At step 510, the server 30, transmits the aggregate demand of the product
along with other information related to buyer to all the sellers who sell the
specified product in the form of a report prepared by report module 221.The other
information may be group information such as number of buyers in the group,
products in which the buyers are interested, best current offers offered by other
dealers etc.
[0065] At step 510, the sellers based on the aggregate demand and other
information throws competitive best offers to the buyers via the server 30. In
addition to the demand and the other information, the best offers made by the
sellers are also dependent on the quantity of the product available in the inventory.
The sellers use the database 104 to identify the quantity of the specified product
available in the inventory. Thus, the server 30 receives the best offers from all the
sellers at step 512.
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[0066] At step 514, the server 30 uses the product price analysis module 209 to
analyze all the price offers made by all the sellers for the specified product. The
lowest price offer is identified by the price analysis module 209.
[0067] At the step 516, the server 30 sends the price offered by all the sellers
along with the analyzed lowest price to all the buyers in the group for the
specified product.
[0068] At step 518, the server 30 uses the tracking module 207 to identify
whether the pre-determined time has elapsed for group buying for the product or
not. If the pre-determined time has elapsed then the step 520is followed wherein
the analyzed lowest offer price which is the best price is sent to the buyer.
However, if the pre-determined time has not elapsed, then step 508 and onwards
are followed.
[0069] Alternatively, the deal may be closed in case the pre-determined time is
elapsed.
[0070] FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram depicting steps for group purchasing by
automatically creating groups and aggregating demand for getting the lowest price
offers from the sellers based on location.
[0071] The buyer picks a location such as city or locality and may specify the
location radius on a map. The buyer may then browse product prices based on the
location selected with the specified radius. For example, the buyer may view all
the prices for a selected product in the specified location radius on the map or in a
list and may specify the quantity required. Also, the buyer is provided with an
option to increase the location radius, so that he may receive more prices from the
sellers available in that location. Thus, at step 602, the server 30 receives from the
buyer inputs such as location radius, selected product and the quantity required.
The location input is then sent to the location module 215 for further processing.
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[0072] At step 604, the server 30 uses the tracking module 207 to determine
whether the buyers are committed to buy the specified product or not. By
committed it is meant that the buyers will definitely buy the specified product. If
the buyers are committed to buy the product, then steps from 606 onwards are
followed. However, if the buyers are not committed to buy the product, then they
are not included in the group buying activity.
[0073] At step 606, the server 30 uses the group creation module 203 to
automatically create a group of buyers who want to buy the specific
product/service.
[0074] At step 608, the server 30 uses the location module 215 to identify the
local sellers who sell the specified product and are proximately close to the buyer
location. The location module 215 determines whether the geographic location of
the seller is within the buyer geofence and whether the geographic location of the
buyer is within the seller geofence. Based on this local sellers who are
proximately close to the location radius specified by the buyer are identified by
the server 30.
[0075] At step 610, the server 30 uses the demand aggregation module 205 to
aggregate the quantity of the product specified by each buyer in the group.
[0076] At step 612, the server 30, transmits the aggregate demand of the product
along with other information to all the local sellers who sell the specified product
in a report prepared by report module 221. The other details may be group
information such as number of buyers in the group, products in which the buyers
are interested, best current offers offered by other dealers etc.
[0077] At step 614, the sellers based on the aggregate demand and other
information throws competitive best offers to the buyers via the server 30. In
addition to the demand and the other information, the best offers made by the
sellers are also dependent on the quantity of the product available in the inventory.
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The sellers use the database 104 to identify the quantity of the specified product
available in the inventory. Thus, the server 30 receives the best offers from all the
sellers at step 612.
[0078] At step 616, the server 30 uses the product price analysis module 209 to
analyze all the price offers made by all the sellers for the specified product. The
lowest price offer is identified by the price analysis module 209.
[0079] At step 618, the server 30 sends the price offered by all the sellers along
with the analyzed lowest price to all the buyers in the group for the specified
product.
[0080] At step 620, the server 30 uses the tracking module 207 to identify
whether the pre-determined time has elapsed for group buying for the product or
not. If the pre-determined time has elapsed then the step 624 is followed wherein
the analyzed lowest offer price which is the best price is send to the buyer.
However, if the pre-determined time has not elapsed, then step 622 is followed.
[0081] At step 622, the server determines whether the buyer has modified the
radius or not. If the buyer has modified the location radius in the predetermined
time then steps from 608 is repeated till the time lapses. However, if the user has
not modified the location radius, and the pre-determined time has not lapsed, then
steps from 610 are repeated till the time lapses.
[0082] At step 624, the server30 sends the lowest offered price as the best price to
all the buyers in the group.
[0083] Alternatively, the deal may be closed in case the pre-determined time is
elapsed.
[0084] FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram depicting steps for group purchasing via
expression of interest based upon location
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[0085] At step 702, the server 30 receives location information or location radius
from the buyer. Further, at step 702, the server 30 also receives expression of
interest on a product from the buyer. By the term Expression of interest it is meant
that the buyer has just shown interest on a product, but has neither joined any
group nor has committed to buy the product. Expression of interest may be
determined based on the buyer clicking on an action button which then matches
the buyer’s information to a particular product and the buyer’s selected locality.
That information may update on the server.
[0086] At step 704, the server 30 uses the location module 215 to identify the
local sellers who are proximately close to the location or location radius specified
by the buyer. The details of this step may be referred from step 608 of FIG. 6
which is similar to step 704.
[0087] At step 706, the server 30 uses the demand aggregation module, which
also aggregates the number of buyers showing interest in the specified product.
These buyers do not join the group of the specified product; rather only show
interest in the product.
[0088] At step 708, the server 30 sends the aggregated data and other information
to the sellers who are dealing with the specified product in a report prepared by
report module 221. The aggregated data and the other information is only sent to
those sellers who are proximately close to the buyer specified location or location
radius. By the aggregate data and other information related to the buyers, the
sellers may identify how many buyers are interested in a product in a locality and
this helps the sellers to throw an offer accordingly.
[0089] Steps 710-714 are similar to steps in FIG. 6. The details of steps 710-714
may be referred from steps 614-618 of FIG. 6.
[0090] At step 716, the server 30 sends a list of number of buyers who have
shown interest on the specified product to all the buyers. Thus the buyers may
view other buyers who have shown interest on the specified product on their
device.
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[0091] Steps 718-722 are similar to steps in FIG. 6. The details of the steps 718-
722 may be referred from steps 620-624 of FIG.6.
[0092] Alternatively, the deal may be closed in case the pre-determined time is
elapsed.
[0093] FIG. 8 illustrates a flow diagram depicting steps for group purchasing by
automatically creating a common group.
[0094] At step 802, the server 30 receives location information or location radius
from the buyer. The server 30 also receives the selected product or expression of
interest on the product, quantity required and/or expected price of the specified
product which the buyer deems fit.
[0095] At step 804, the server 30 uses the tracking module 207 to identify how
many buyers are committed or have shown expression of interest on the specified
product. Based on this information, the server 30 uses the group creation module
203 to create a common group of both types of buyers for the specified product.
[0096] Steps 806-822 are similar to steps in FIG. 6. The details of steps 806-822
may be referred from steps 608-624 of FIG. 6.
[0097] Alternatively, the deal may be closed in case the pre-determined time is
elapsed.
[0098] The Fig. 9 shows an exemplary of the system wherein buyer 1 is Bob,
buyer 2 is Joe and buyer 3 is Jane. All the three decide to perform a purchase on
online shopping website. Both, Bob and Jane have devices having online
shopping application 111 installed on them respectively. The online shopping
application 111 initiates by establishing a connection via network 40with the
server 30 by using hypertext transfer protocol (http) or secure hypertext transfer
protocol (https) or any other standard protocols. The server 30 by using standard
protocols establishes the connections via network 40 with the seller devices. Bob,
being an already registered buyer, enters his account username and password and
21
starts browsing the different products available on the website. However, Joe is a
new user for the website and hence, has to get registered first in order to view
products with offers. Joe fills the registration form and after authentication
through text or email or by any other means, becomes a registered buyer and starts
browsing.
[0099] Bob decides to buy three mobile phone and Joe and Jane two mobile
phones respectively of the same brand. Bob and Joe may also specify the location
and expected price for the phones demanded by them. Both Bob and Joe
guarantees their purchase by joining a group specified for selected phone. On the
other hand, Jane is interested in buying two mobile phone but is not sure whether
she will buy it or not. As Jane is unsure about her purchase, she is not
automatically joined in the group specified for mobile phones.
[00100] Bob may invite his friends and other family (who are registered
buyers and also wish to buy phones) to join the same group through emails, social
sites such as Facebook etc. since as the demand increases, the offer prices on the
product may be lowered. The other buyers like Bob will get automatically added
in the group and based upon this demand; the sellers associated with phones will
offer their respective prices such as offer price 500, offer price 550 and offer price
480. The offer made is based on factors such as demand which is seven, stock
availability and competitive prices offered by other sellers. Bob and other buyers
in the group get all the prices including the lowest price offer (offer price 480) and
thereby perform their purchase henceforth. However, Jane being a part of
interested buyers, gets all the updates related to the price offered by different
sellers and can perform a purchase of the product if she wishes by either joining
the group or common group or individually purchasing etc.
[00101] FIG. 10 illustrates a flow diagram depicting steps for adding buyers to a
group.
22
[00102] At step 1000, the potential buyer logs in to the online shopping software
111 on his/her device and uses the interface to views products/services having
offers.
[00103] At step 1002, the server 30 determines whether the buyer is interested in
any product or not. If the buyer is interested in any of the products, then the steps
from 1004 are followed. However, if the buyer is not interested in any of the
products, the buyer can review the website later to see the new set of products if
any.
[00104] At step 1004, the server 30 determines if the potential buyer wants to join
the group made for the specified product. If the buyer is not interested in joining
the group, but still shows interest then step 1008 is performed. However, if the
potential buyer wants to join the group then steps from 1006 is followed.
[00105] At step 1006, the server 30 confirms the buyer interest in joining the
group and adds the buyer to the group of the specified product.
[00106] At step 1008, the server 30 adds the buyer to the list consisting of buyers
who have shown expression of interest.
[00107] After the buyer is added to the group, the buyer may specify the quantity
by using the interface provided by the online shopping software 111 on his/her
device. This input is received by the server 30 at step 1010.
[00108] The buyer may specify the shipping address if changed, contact details
etc. by using the interface. The input is received by the server 30 at step 1012.
[00109] At step 1014, the server 30 uses the database 104 to store all the details of
the potential buyer.
[00110] With the above embodiments in mind, it should be understood that the
embodiments might employ various computer-implemented operations involving
data stored in computer systems. The embodiments also relate to a device or an
apparatus for performing these operations. The apparatus can be specially
constructed for the required purpose, or the apparatus can be a general-purpose
23
computer selectively activated or configured by a computer program stored in the
computer. In particular, various general-purpose machines can be used with
computer programs written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may be
more convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the required
operations.
[00111] A module, an application, a layer, an agent or other method-operable
entity could be implemented as hardware, firmware, or processor executing
software, or combinations thereof. It should be appreciated that, where a softwarebased
embodiment is disclosed herein, the software can be embodied in a physical
machine such as a controller. For example, a controller could include a first
module and a second module. A controller could be configured to perform various
actions, e.g., of a method, an application, a layer or an agent.
[00112] The embodiments can also be embodied as computer readable code on a
computer readable medium. The computer readable medium is any data storage
device that can store data, which can be thereafter read by a computer system.
Examples of the computer readable medium include solid state drives, hard
drives, SD cards, network attached storage (NAS), read-only memory, randomaccess
memory, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, magnetic tapes, and other optical
and non-optical data storage devices. The computer readable medium can also be
distributed over a network coupled computer system so that the computer readable
code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. Embodiments described
herein may be practiced with various computer system configurations including
hand-held devices, tablets, microprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or
programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers and
the like. The embodiments can also be practiced in distributed computing
environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are
linked through a wire-based or wireless network.
[00113] The foregoing description, for the purpose of explanation, has been
described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative
discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the
24
precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of
the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best
explain the principles of the embodiments and its practical applications, to thereby
enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the embodiments and various
modifications as may be suited to the particular use contemplated. Also, that
various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications,
variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in
the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.

CLAIMS
We Claim:
1. A system for group purchasing by related or unrelated buyers, the system
comprising:
a product module for fetching information from a database related to
products for buying and selling;
a group creation module for creating a first group of committed buyers and
a common group of committed and non-committed buyers, each group is
active for a pre-determined time duration;
a demand aggregation module for aggregating demand of the product
requested in at least the first group or the common group;
a tracking module for tracking at least one of the number of committed
buyers, non-committed buyers, time period elapsed and quantity of
products required based upon demand in real-time and the pre-determined
time duration;
a product analysis module for monitoring different prices offered by one
or more sellers;
a location module for extracting location of buyers and sellers;
an authentication module for authenticating buyers and sellers; and
a report module for generating one or more reports relating to the buyers
for consumption by the seller.
2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system comprises
a buyer module for managing the buyer information and an interface
through which the buyer device interacts with the server; and
a seller module for managing the seller information and an interface
through which the seller device interacts with the server.
3. A method for group purchasing by related or unrelated buyers, the method
comprising:
26
receiving buyer inputs;
determining whether the buyer is a committed or non-committed buyer;
automatically creating a group of one or more committed buyers, each
group is specific for the committed buyers of a product, each group is
active for a pre-determined time duration;
aggregating the quantity of the product requested in the group;
transmitting the aggregated quantity to at least one of a plurality of sellers;
receiving competitive price offers from the sellers;
displaying all the price offers to the committed buyers along with the time
duration within which the committed buyers have to respond; and
repeating the above steps from the aggregating step once the group is
updated in real-time on addition of new committed buyers within the time
duration.
4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the method comprises
analyzing the received competitive price offers to identify the lowest price
and highlighting the lowest price offer while displaying all the price offers.
5. A method for group purchasing by aggregating demand of related or
unrelated buyers, the method comprising:
receiving geographical location and product inputs from the related or
unrelated buyers;
determining whether the buyer is a committed or non-committed buyer;
automatically creating a group of one or more committed buyers, each
group is specific for the committed buyers of a product, each group is
active for a pre-determined time duration;
identifying one or more local sellers located proximate to the buyer
geographical location;
aggregating the quantity of the product requested in the group;
transmitting the aggregated quantity to at least one of a plurality of local
sellers;
receiving competitive price offers from the local sellers;
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displaying all the price offers to the committed buyers along with the time
duration within which the committed buyers have to respond; and
repeating the above steps from the aggregating step once the group is
updated in real-time on addition of new committed buyers within the time
duration.
6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the method comprises
receiving modified geographical location from one or more buyers of the
group.
7. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the method comprises
analyzing the received competitive price offers to identify the lowest price
and highlighting the lowest price offer while displaying all the price offers.
8. A method for group purchasing by related or unrelated buyers, the method
comprising:
receiving geographical location and expression of interest on a product
from the related or unrelated buyers;
identifying one or more local sellers located proximate to the buyer
geographical location;
aggregating the quantity of the product for which expression of interest is
received;
transmitting the aggregated quantity to at least one of a plurality of local
sellers;
receiving competitive price offers from the local sellers;
displaying all the price offers to the committed buyers along with the time
duration within which the committed buyers have to respond; and
repeating the above steps from the aggregating step once the number of
interested buyers are updated in real-time within the time duration.
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9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the method comprises
receiving modified geographical location from one or more interested
buyers.
10. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the method comprises
analyzing the received competitive price offers to identify the lowest price
and highlighting the lowest price offer while displaying all the price offers.
11. A method for group purchasing by related or unrelated buyers, the method
comprising:
receiving geographical location, expression of interest, expected price, and
quantity required of a product from the related or unrelated buyers;
determining whether the buyer is a committed or non-committed buyer;
automatically creating a common group of at least one committed and
non-committed buyer, each group is specific for a product, each group is
active for a pre-determined time duration;
identifying one or more local sellers located proximate to the buyer
geographical location;
aggregating the quantity of the product requested in the group;
transmitting the aggregated quantity to at least one of a plurality of local
sellers;
receiving competitive price offers from the local sellers;
displaying all the price offers to the buyers of the common group along
with the time duration within which the buyers of the common group have
to respond; and
repeating the above steps from the aggregating step once the common
group is updated in real-time on addition of new committed or noncommitted
buyers within the time duration.
29
12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the method comprises
receiving modified geographical location from one or more committed or
non-committed buyers.
13. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the method comprises
analyzing the received competitive price offers to identify the lowest price
and highlighting the lowest price offer while displaying all the price offers.