Abstract:
A method, computer program product and system are disclosed for tracking and soliciting potential consumers of selected commercial offerings by third-parties who have subscribed to a marketing network. In some embodiments, a system forwards consumer requests for commercial offerings to merchants while also gathering information relevant to the geographic position of consumers in the marketing network. The system and method make use of mobile locator mechanism in consumer cellular phones to gather information about consumer proximity to retail business incorporated into a marketing network. Consumer requests are forwarded to a server capable of quickly identifying merchants near selected consumers, which merchants are subsequently prompted to craft commercial offerings specific to the consumer submitting the consumer request. Merchants and consumer are put into near real-time negotiations for products or services.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application is a continuation of, and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/345,894 entitled “Enterprise Marketing System and Computer Program Product for Facilitating Retail Negotiation Between Merchants and Consumers,” filed Jan. 9, 2011 for David Nolan, which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    This invention relates to computer implemented marketing processes, and more particularly relates to a computer implemented method and system for pairing consumers with merchants and facilitating price negotiations between them. 
         [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0005]    Potential consumers of food, lodging, travel, and other commercial products and services must consider a great deal more information in deciding whether to patronize a business than can be displayed on traditional drive-by signage, mailers, or through more evolved marketing mechanisms, such as models managed by Groupon®, PriceLine®, Orbitz®, and the like. In deciding whether or not to patronize a business, consumers presently lack real-time information about availability of a product(s) and/or seating at a merchant business center, nor do consumers have efficiently means of comparing rates offered by one merchant to rates offering by a competing merchant in close proximity. 
         [0006]    Merchants likewise lack real-time information about consumers necessary to effectively fix pricing. While some merchants, including restaurants, have learned that consumer demand is higher in the evenings, and consequently raise prices on their dinner menus, merchants have no efficient means of fluctuating pricing in real-time in response to fluctuating consumers demand or competitors&#39; offers throughout the evenings or weekends. Additionally, both merchants and consumers presently lack means of negotiating in near real-time with each other. 
         [0007]    Additionally, even profitable businesses often fail over time because of retention problems with customers, undercutting competition, or an inability on the part of the merchant to gather customer satisfaction information and react to it. 
         [0008]    Methods, computer program products and systems are lacking in the art which track and facilitate solicitation by merchants of potential consumers of selected products. There exists no efficient means of gathering information relevant to the geographic position of consumers relative to merchants offering products or services, despite the existence of mobile locator mechanisms in consumer cellular phones. Merchants and consumer currently cannot be put into near real-time negotiations for products or services. 
         [0009]    The present invention beneficially teaches a unique computer implemented methodology for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers that overcomes prior shortcomings in art. The teachings of the present invention may be equally applicable to negotiations between landlords and potential tenants, as well as non-retail commercial offerings. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]    From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for a method, system, and computer program product for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers. The present invention has been developed in response to the present state of the art; and, in particular, in response to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully solved by currently available methods, systems, computer program products and apparatii, which invention overcomes many or all of the above-discussed shortcomings in the art. Accordingly, the present invention has been developed to provide an method, computer program product, and system for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers. 
         [0011]    A computer program product is disclosed, comprising a computer readable medium, having computer usable program code executable to perform operations for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers, the operations of the computer program product comprising: incorporating a plurality of merchants into a marketing network by storing each respective merchant&#39;s name, physical address, age, telephone number, and email address in persistent computer readable memory; incorporating a plurality of consumers into a marketing network by storing each respective consumer&#39;s cellular telephone number, name, and email address in persistent computer readable memory; and prompting a consumer to create a virtual subgroup of consumers, the virtual subgroup of consumers comprising the names of a plurality of commonly acquainted consumers interested in collectively purchasing a commercial offering from a single merchant in the marketing network. 
         [0012]    The computer program product further comprises prompting a consumer to create a consumer request by: identifying principal characteristics of a commercial offering the consumer is interested in receiving on behalf of a subgroup of consumers; prompting said consumer to rank sub-characteristics of the commercial offering which said consumer values most highly; prompting said consumer to input an expiration date for the consumer request and one or more pieces of information (this information collectively comprising the “Request Information”) from the group consisting of: a subgroup size, a subgroup budget, desired response time, and anticipated time of arrival of the subgroup. 
         [0013]    The computer program product further comprises electronically relaying the consumer request and Request Information to a plurality of merchants in the marketing network; prompting the merchants to craft a commercial offering in the consumer request before the expiration date; prompting a merchant to upload the commercial offering to a server managing the marketing network in response to receiving the Request Information; forwarding commercial offerings crafted by a plurality of merchants and uploaded to the server to said consumer; maintaining a queue of commercial offerings made to said consumer by all merchants in the marketing until the expiration date; forwarding all commercial offerings received in response to the consumer request to one of said consumer&#39;s smart phone and said consumer&#39;s personal computer; asynchronously displaying via the Internet the queue to each merchant having crafted a commercial offering; prompting the merchants having crafted a commercial offering to revise their offering; storing the Request Information, commercial offerings, and consumer request in computer readable memory in a database for future historical data tracking; and referencing one or more of the Request Information, the commercial offering and the consumer request in generating Request Information exclusively associated with future consumer requests. 
         [0014]    In some embodiments, the characteristics of the consumer request comprise one or more characteristics from the group consisting of food, entertainment, health/beauty, electronics, hotel/lodging accommodations, air travel, and professional services. 
         [0015]    In other embodiments, the sub-characteristics comprise one or more characteristics from the group consisting of a price request, a discount rate request, a geographic proximity request, a time in business threshold, a ranking of a third-party organization request, a ranking of consumers in the marketing network request, a response expiration date, a fastest historical response time to previous consumer requests, and a highest level of availability. 
         [0016]    The third-party organization may comprise one of the Better Business Bureau®, AAA®, the Michelin Guide®, Hotelstar®, Consumer Reports®, and Zagat®. 
         [0017]    The computer program product may further comprise prompting the consumer to accept a commercial offering from the queue before the expiration date, and/or comprise prompting the consumer to accept a commercial offering from the queue upon reaching the expiration date. 
         [0018]    The computer program product may further comprise prioritizing commercial offerings received from merchants into each group of the categories consisting of: closest in geographic proximity, time in business, and cheapest. 
         [0019]    In some embodiments, the commercial offering is one of food. In alternative embodiment, the computer program product further comprises organizing the commercial offerings received into one of the categories from the group comprising: Mexican, Italian, American, sandwiches, soups, steak houses, pizza, Brazilian, Chinese, and Japanese. 
         [0020]    The Request Information may further comprise information added by the server, including one or more of the group comprising: the number of requests previously made by said consumer, the number of offers previously accepted by said consumer, an age range of the consumer, dollar amounts spent in response to previous commercial offerings by said consumer, number of previous visits of said consumer to the merchant, and the frequency of visits of said consumer to other merchants in the marketing network by said consumer. 
         [0021]    The Request Information may further comprise one or more virtual flags from the group consisting of: a first time eater flag, and a first time requester flag. The Request Information may further comprise a loyalty ranking exclusively associated with said consumer, the loyalty ranking generated by the server, the loyalty ranking a function of a number of subsequent purchases by the consumer at merchants in the marketing network who made commercial offerings to said consumer which were accepted by said consumer. 
         [0022]    The Request Information may be electronically relayed only to merchants in the marketing network who satisfy the principal characteristics identified by said consumer. The Request Information may be electronically relayed only to merchants in the marketing network who satisfy the principal sub-characteristics identified by said consumer. The commercial offering may be crafted by the merchant comprises a discount percentage rate, a price, and one or more of an additional term, a list of products included, and an expiration date. 
         [0023]    In some embodiments, the computer program product further comprises notifying the merchant asynchronously that the consumer request is one or more of open, expired accepted, and redeemed. In still further embodiments, the computer program product further comprises legally obligating merchants to remunerate a predetermined percentage of gross revenue generated from consumers in the marketing network to a legal entity exclusively associated with management of the server. 
         [0024]    The computer program product may further comprise legally obligating merchants to remunerate a predetermined percentage of gross revenue generated by a merchant in the marketing network from commercial offerings accepted by consumers in the marketing network to a legal entity exclusively associated with management of the server. 
         [0025]    In some embodiments, the computer program product may further comprise legally reducing the predetermined percentage that a merchant is obligated to pay to the legal entity in response to merchant achieving a predetermined level of revenue production for the legal entity. 
         [0026]    The computer program product may further comprise prompting merchants in the marketing network to increase the percentage of gross revenue they will obligate themselves to pay the legal entity in return for having commercial offerings of the merchant moved up in the queue. 
         [0027]    In some embodiments, the computer program product further comprises prompting merchants in the marketing network to bid against each other for queue position with one of dollars and percentages paid to the legal entity. 
         [0028]    In some embodiments, the computer program product may further comprise ranking the commercial offerings within the queue on one or more criteria from the group consisting of: identified consumer preferences, price, discount rate, and proximity. 
         [0029]    The computer program product may further comprise ranking the commercial offerings within the queue on one or more criteria from the group consisting of: identified consumer preferences, price, discount rate, and proximity. 
         [0030]    The queue rankings may be asynchronously displayed to the merchants do not comprise competing merchant names. The queue rankings may be asynchronously displayed to the merchants have all merchant names redacted. 
         [0031]    The computer program product may further comprise notifying a merchant receiving a consumer request that the consumer request satisfies one or more merchant defined criteria with audible tones exclusively associated with the criteria satisfied. 
         [0032]    The computer program product may further comprise prompting the merchants crafting commercial offerings to include one of a counteroffer and a supplemental offer in the commercial offering, wherein the supplemental offer comprises a binding contract offer by the merchant to increase the discount rate offered by the merchant in response to the consumer increasing the budget. 
         [0033]    The computer program product may further comprise offering, in response to a merchant instruction, the consumer an increased discount rate in the commercial offerings if the consumer arrives on time to the merchant place of business. 
         [0034]    The computer program product may further comprise: assessing demerits against merchants who do not respond to consumer requests before the expiration date; and inversely ranking commercial offerings shown in the queue by merchants in accordance with the offering merchant&#39;s respective number of demerits. 
         [0035]    In some embodiments, the computer program product further comprises prompting each merchant to set upper and lower thresholds (the thresholds defining a “Threshold Boundary” between them), wherein a consumer request comprising a budget falling outside the Threshold Boundary is automatically denied by the server on behalf of the merchant. 
         [0036]    The computer program product may further comprise prompting each merchant to establish an upper discount rate lower threshold, wherein a consumer request comprising a discount rate request exceeding the upper threshold is automatically denied. 
         [0037]    The upper threshold is applicable only during certain time periods of a week defined by the merchant. The computer program product may further comprise visually flagging attractive consumer requests for merchants based on historical data analysis of consumer requests previously accepted by one or more of a merchant in the marketing network and a plurality of merchants in the marketing network. 
         [0038]    In some embodiments, the computer program product further comprises prompting a consumer who has accepted a commercial offering to rate one or more of the quality of a commercial product underlying the commercial offering, a quality of furnished service underlying the commercial offering, an overall impression of the merchant making the commercial offering. 
         [0039]    The computer program product may further comprise: calculating a profit which a merchant receiving a consumer request would realize on a consumer request; and relaying the profit calculation to the merchant. Alternatively, the computer program product further comprises: assessing points to the consumer accepting commercial offerings based on the dollar size of the commercial offering; and rewarding the consumer in the future for accumulating point with one or more of priority relay of the consumer&#39;s consumer requests, price reductions for the consumer of commercial offerings. 
         [0040]    In some embodiments, the computer program product further comprises: assessing demerits to a consumer for accepting a commercial offering but never redeeming the commercial offering by buying a commercial product underlying the commercial offering; and penalizing the consumer for accumulating demerits by one or more of delaying relay of consumer requests from the consumer to merchants, blocking relay of consumer requests from the consumer to merchants, and flagging consumer requests from the consumer to merchants with a virtual flag denoting an unreliable consumer. 
         [0041]    The computer program product may further comprise featuring a commercial offering at the merchant request by relaying the commercial offering to consumers outside the subgroup, which outside consumers have not submitted a consumer request. 
         [0042]    The computer program product may further comprise featuring a commercial offering in response to the server identifying optimally profitable commercial offerings to a legal entity based on a historical analysis of revenue generated in response to consumer redemption of the commercial offering. 
         [0043]    A second computer program product is also disclosed comprising a computer readable medium having computer usable program code executable to perform operations for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers, the operations of the computer program product comprising: incorporating a plurality of merchants into a marketing network by storing each respective merchant&#39;s name, physical address, age, telephone number, and email address in persistent computer readable memory; incorporating a plurality of consumers into a marketing network by storing each respective consumer&#39;s cellular telephone number, name, and email address in persistent computer readable memory; and prompting a consumer to create a virtual subgroup of consumers, the virtual subgroup of consumers comprising the names of a plurality of commonly acquainted consumers interested in collectively purchasing a commercial offering from a single merchant in the marketing network. 
         [0044]    The computer program product also comprises prompting a consumer to create a consumer request by: identifying principal characteristics of a commercial offering the consumer is interested in receiving on behalf of a subgroup of consumers; prompting said consumer to rank sub-characteristics of the commercial offering which said consumer values most highly; prompting said consumer to input an expiration date for the consumer request and one or more pieces of information (this information collectively comprising the “Request Information”) from the group consisting of: a subgroup size, a subgroup budget, desired response time, and anticipated time of arrival of the subgroup. 
         [0045]    The computer program product also comprises electronically relaying the consumer request and Request Information to a plurality of merchants in the marketing network; prompting the merchants to craft a commercial offering in the consumer request before the expiration date; prompting a merchant to upload the commercial offering to a server managing the marketing network in response to receiving the Request Information; forwarding commercial offerings crafted by a plurality of merchants and uploaded to the server to said consumer; maintaining a queue of commercial offerings made to said consumer by all merchants in the marketing until the expiration date; forwarding all commercial offerings received in response to the consumer request to one of said consumer&#39;s smart phone and said consumer&#39;s personal computer; relaying the queue to each merchant having crafted a commercial offering at set, predetermined intervals before the expiration date; prompting the merchants having crafted a commercial offering to improve their offering, subsequent to displaying the queue after the set interval; storing the Request Information, commercial offerings, and consumer request in computer readable memory in a database for future historical data tracking; and referencing one or more of the Request Information, the commercial offering and the consumer request in generating Request Information exclusively associated with future consumer requests. 
         [0046]    In some embodiments, the queue is relayed using one of SMS cellular messaging, email, and asynchronous API website display. In other embodiments, the geographic location of the consumer is ascertained using mobile locator devices within the smart phones of consumers and target information from cellular carriers providing the consumer with cellular phone service. In still further embodiments, the geographic location of the consumer is displayed with the queue to merchants in the marketing network, the computer program product further comprising: prompting a merchant to forward a specialized commercial offering to a consumer who appears to be traveling in close proximity to the merchant; and forwarding the specialized commercial offering to the consumer wirelessly. 
         [0047]    The computer program product may also comprise relaying electronic statement to the merchant showing a history of all commercial offerings created, accepted, ignored, rejected and redeemed during a predetermined interval of time, the electronic statement also showing a history of commercial offerings from one or more other merchants; retroactively changing expired commercial offerings in response to a merchant request; and predicting, based on historical data, whether the changed commercial offering would have been accepted by the consumer if changed before expiration. 
         [0048]    In other embodiments, the computer program product further comprises relaying a consumer request only to merchants specifically identified by the consumer. 
         [0049]    A system to perform operations for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers is also disclosed, the system comprising: a merchant incorporation module configured to incorporate a plurality of merchants into a marketing network by storing each respective merchant&#39;s name, physical address, age, telephone number, and email address in persistent computer readable memory; a consumer incorporation module configured to incorporate a plurality of consumers into a marketing network by storing each respective consumer&#39;s cellular telephone number, name, and email address in persistent computer readable memory; and a subgroup prompter module configured to prompt a consumer to create a virtual subgroup of consumers, the virtual subgroup of consumers comprising the names of a plurality of commonly acquainted consumers interested in collectively purchasing a commercial offering from a single merchant in the marketing network. 
         [0050]    The system further comprises a requester creator module configured to: collect principal characteristics of a commercial offering the consumer is interested in receiving on behalf of a subgroup of consumers; rank sub-characteristics of the commercial offering which said consumer values most highly; and accept an expiration date for the consumer request and one or more pieces of information (this information collectively comprising the “Request Information”) from the group consisting of: a subgroup size, a subgroup budget, desired response time, and anticipated time of arrival of the subgroup. 
         [0051]    The system also comprises a request relayer module configured to electronically relay the consumer request and Request Information to a plurality of merchants in the marketing network; an offering crafter module configured to craft a commercial offering in response to the consumer request before the expiration date; a merchant uploader module configured to upload the commercial to a server managing the marketing network in response to receiving the Request Information; an offering forwarder module configured to forward commercial offerings crafted by a plurality of merchants and uploaded to the server to said consumer; a maintainer module configured to maintain a queue of commercial offerings made to said consumer by all merchants in the marketing until the expiration date; a forwarder module configured to forward all commercial offerings received in response to the consumer request to one of said consumer&#39;s smart phone and said consumer&#39;s personal computer; a displayer module configured to asynchronously display via the Internet the queue to each merchant having crafted a commercial offering; a reviser module configured to prompt the merchants having crafted a commercial offering to revise their offering; a storer module configured to store the Request Information, commercial offerings, and consumer request in computer readable memory in a database for future historical data tracking; and a referencer module configured to reference one or more of the Request Information, the commercial offering and the consumer request in generating Request Information exclusively associated with future consumer requests. 
         [0052]    In some embodiments, the Request Information further comprises information added by the server, including one or more of the group comprising: the number of requests previously made by said consumer, the number of offers previously accepted by said consumer, an age range of the consumer, dollar amounts spent in response to previous commercial offerings by said consumer, number of previous visits of said consumer to the merchant, and the frequency of visits of said consumer to other merchants in the marketing network by said consumer. 
         [0053]    In other embodiments, the system further comprises an acceptor module configured to prompt the consumer to accept a commercial offering from the queue upon reaching the expiration date. 
         [0054]    The system may further comprise: a demerit module configured to assess demerits against merchants who do not respond to consumer requests before the expiration date; and a penalizing module configured to inversely rank commercial offerings shown in the queue by merchants in accordance with the offering merchant&#39;s respective number of demerits. 
         [0055]    Reference throughout this specification to features, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized with the present invention should be or are in any single embodiment of the invention. Rather, language referring to the features and advantages is understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, discussion of the features and advantages, and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, refer to the same embodiment. 
         [0056]    Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the invention. 
         [0057]    These features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0058]    In order that the advantages of the invention will be readily understood, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0059]      FIG. 1  is a data-entity relationship diagram illustrating one embodiment of a system for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0060]      FIG. 2  is a Booch relationship diagram illustrating the interrelationships and organization of data created by the operations and modules of the present invention; 
           [0061]      FIG. 3  is a second data-entity relationship diagram illustrating one embodiment of a system for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0062]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a computer system which inter-connects multiple parties in an interactive negotiative environment for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0063]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating method steps of the present invention, including steps which may be performed for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0064]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating method steps of the present invention, including steps which may be performed for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0065]      FIG. 7  is a virtual layout diagram of a browser display showing the queue in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0066]      FIG. 8A  is a layout of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0067]      FIG. 8B  is a second layout of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0068]      FIG. 8C  is a third layout of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0069]      FIG. 8D  is a fourth layout of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0070]      FIG. 8E  is a fifth layout of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention; and 
           [0071]      FIG. 8F  is a fifth layout of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0072]    Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment. 
         [0073]    The described features, structures, or characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, modules, components, and so forth. In other instances, well-known steps or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention. The system modules recited in the claims may be configured to impart the recited functionality to an apparatus as well. 
         [0074]      FIG. 1  is a data-entity relationship diagram illustrating one embodiment of a system for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention. The system  100  comprises a server  102 , a database management system (DBMS)  104 , persistent storage  106 , stored consumer requests  108 , stored commercial offerings  110 , a wireless network  112 , an SMS gateway provider  113 , a consumer  114 , a merchant  116 , a computer  118   a,  a computer  118   b,  a merchant processor  119 , a consumer request  120 , and a commercial offering  122 . 
         [0075]    Typically, the server  102  comprises one or more central processing units executing software and/or firmware to control and manage the other components within the system  100 . In one embodiment, the server  102  comprises hardware and/or software more commonly referred to as a Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS), OS/390, zSeries/Operating System (z/OS), UNIX, Linux, or Windows system  100 . 
         [0076]    The server may comprise a server cluster with firewalls, load balancer, and database servers having Apache® and/or other software applications well-known to those of skill in the art. The server  102 , in the shown embodiment, comprises a database management system (DBMS)  104  or relational database management system (RDBMS), such as Oracle, MySQL, SQL, FireBird, IBM DB2®, or the like. 
         [0077]    The server  102  is in logical communication with one or more consumers  114  and one or more merchants  116  through a networked environment  112 , such as local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). The server  102  may communicate with consumers  114  and merchants  116 , sending queues, consumer requests  120 , and commercial offerings  122 , using variations of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), Post Office Protocol (POP), or other protocols well-known to those of skill in the art. 
         [0078]    The computers  118   a - b  may comprise smart phones which, internally or externally, may comprise an Interactive Voice Response (IVR), which recognizes natural voice communication or DTMF keypad input. 
         [0079]    In the present invention, the server  102  routes information between consumers  114  and merchants  116 . The server  102  is in logical communication with the computer  118   a - b . The server  102  is in logical communication via the Internet  112  with the cellular phones  118   a - b  of potential consumers  114 , or through other personal DPDs such as laptops, Palm Pilots®, digital cameras, and the like. 
         [0080]    In the present invention, as further described in detail below, consumers  114  create consumer requests  120  on their computers  118  which they relay to the server  102 . These consumer requests  120  comprise information about commercial retail offers which the consumer  114  would like to receive from merchants  116 . The server  102  facilitates a real-time negotiation between the consumer  114  and the merchant  116 . 
         [0081]    In some embodiments, the server  102  collects payments from consumers  114  redeeming commercial offerings  122  which they have accepted, then remunerates the merchant  116  making the commercial offering  122  in accordance with a predetermined payment schedule mutually agreed upon by the merchant  116  and a legal entity managing the server  102 . 
         [0082]    The consumers  114  may comprise any person, company or organization that is potentially a customer of another person, company or organization. The consumers  114  are incorporated into a marketing network comprising merchants  116  and consumers  114  who have registered with the server  102 . For the purposes of this patent, the terms “incorporate” and “incorporation” denote the act of formally enrolling a consumer  114  or merchant  116  into the marketing network. Consumers  114  and merchants  116  become incorporated when they create accounts with the server  102  by uploading personal identifying information, including one or more of age, income, address, email address, telephone number, school attendance, consumer interests, product offerings, purchasing practices, credit rating, education level, pricing, and the like. In typical embodiments, the registration takes place via a browser, but may also be sent to the server  102  using programs well-known to those of skill in the art, such Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, Yahoo! Mail, and the like. 
         [0083]    Like the consumers  114 , the merchants  116  may comprise any person, company or organization that is potentially a merchant of another person, company or organization such as the consumers  114 . The merchants  116  market a consumer product, service or business opportunity. The consumer product may comprise any valuable item which can be purchased, tangible or intangible. Examples of consumer products may include food, housing, electronics, books, gifts, digital media, guns, lodging, office supplies, legal services, medical services, insurance, construction contractors, or the like. 
         [0084]    The merchants  116  are incorporated and allowed to receive and respond to consumer requests  120  originating with one or more consumers  114  and sent via the wireless network  112  to the merchant  116 . 
         [0085]    The computers  118   a - b  may comprise any system, apparatus or computer program running on one or more data processing devices (DPDs), such as a server, computer workstation, router, mainframe computer, or the like. In various embodiments, the DPD comprises one or more processors. The processor is a computing device well-known to those in the art and may include an application-specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”). 
         [0086]    Consumer requests  120  are stored in persistent storage  106  in a consumer requests  108  database file. The commercial offerings  110  are likewise stored in computer readable memory  106  in a commercial offerings  110  database file. 
         [0087]    The merchant processor  119  is known to those of skill in the art, and may comprise a processor such as Elavon®, PayPal®, or the like. 
         [0088]    The SMS gateway provider  114  relays short messages between the server  102  and/or one or more consumers  114  and/or one or more merchants  116 . 
         [0089]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a computer system  200  that inter-connects multiple parties in an interactive negotiative environment for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention. The system  200  comprises consumers  114   a - c , phones  202   a - c , a server  102 , GPS data  206 , a consumer request  120   a,  a consumer request  120   b,  a consumer request  120   c,  a commercial offering  122   a,  and a queue  204 . 
         [0090]    The legal entity managing the server  102  may comprise any individual, organization, entity, or combination thereof, tasked with selling, marketing, or negotiating retail offers between or for other third-parties. The legal entity may also comprise a system or computer program running on one or more data processing devices (DPDs). 
         [0091]    In the shown embodiment, three consumers  114   a - c  are in communication with the server  102  using phones  202   a - b . These consumers  114   a - c  have been incorporated into the marketing network. Consumer  114   a  creates a consumer request  120   a  which comprises information about a commercial offering  122  which the consumer  114   a  would like to receive. The consumer request  120   a  may comprise information characterizing the desired commercial offering, including a budget, a defined period of time within which the consumer would like to receive a response from a merchant, an anticipated time of arrival of the consumer  114  to the retail front of merchant  116  responding to the consumer request. This information form the Request Information. 
         [0092]    In various embodiments of the present invention, the consumer  114   a  may interface with the server  102  on behalf of a subgroup of consumers  114  with whom the consumer  114   a  is acquainted. The consumer  114   a  may identify other consumers  114  in the marketing network who are interested in making a common purchase from a merchant  116 , such as a dinner at a fine dining restaurant where they wish to be collectively seated. This group of common acquainted consumers  114  identified by the consumer  114   a  comprises a subgroup. 
         [0093]    The consumer request  120   a  generated by the consumer  114   a  is forwarded to the server  102  and relayed along with other consumers requests to one or more merchants  116 . In some embodiments, the consumer request  114   a  is relayed in a queue  204  with other consumer requests  114 , such as request  120   b  and/or request  120   c.  In other embodiments, the consumer requests are relayed asynchronously to the merchants  116  who the server  102  identifies as satisfying a category specification in the Request Information and/or a subcategory specification in the Request Information. 
         [0094]    In some embodiments, the category specification may be indicative of the type of merchant  116  with whom the consumer  114  is interested in negotiating, such as a restaurant, attorney, doctor, and the like. The subcategories comprise one or more subcategories within the category defining the merchant  116  with whom the consumer  114  creating the consumer request  120  is interested in negotiating with, such as Italian cuisine, American cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, or divorce attorneys, patent attorneys, corporate attorneys, and the like. 
         [0095]    The characteristics of the consumer request may comprise one or more characteristics from the group consisting of food, entertainment, health/beauty, electronics, hotel/lodging accommodations, air travel, and professional services. The sub-characteristics may comprise one or more characteristics from the group consisting of a price request, a discount rate request, a geographic proximity request, a time in business threshold, a ranking of a third-party organization request, a ranking of consumers in the marketing network request, a response expiration date, a fastest historical response time to previous consumer requests, and a highest level of availability. 
         [0096]    Merchants  116  satisfying the category and/or subcategory requests receive the consumer request  114   a  and/or the queue  204 . These merchants  116  are given a chance to accept, deny, or make a counteroffer to the consumer  114   a  in response to receiving the consumer request  120 . 
         [0097]    If a merchant  116  accepts the consumer request  120 , this merchant  116  is committing legally to offer the consumer product requested in the Request Information to the consumer on the terms outlined in the Request Information. The consumer  114   a  must then redeem the commercial offering by spending money at the merchant&#39;s  116  location in accordance with the terms accepted by the consumer  114  in the commercial offering  122 . 
         [0098]    The merchant  116  is given the chance, in some embodiments, to submit a counteroffer to the consumer  114   a.  The merchant  116  may counteroffer a higher price, a small discount rate, a different arrival time, and the like. The counteroffer submitted by the merchant  116  may comprise a commercial offering  122 . This commercial offering may contain terms proposed to the consumer  114  for acceptance. The terms collectively comprise the Offering Terms, and include one or more of a price, discount rate, period of time within which the commercial offering may be redeemed, a physical location for redemption, or other terms. 
         [0099]    Pending consumer requests  120 , from a plurality of consumers  114  in the marketing network are shown to the merchant  116  in a queue  204  relayed from the server  102  to the merchant  116 . The queue  204  may rank, or order, the consumer requests  120  shown in the queue in accordance with the preferences of the merchant  116  to whom the queue is being relayed. 
         [0100]    In some embodiments, the consumer requests  120  are ranked in the order in which they were created by the creating consumer  114 . In other embodiments, the consumer requests are ranked in accordance with the discount rate being requested in the Request Information by the consumer  114 . 
         [0101]    The discount rate is the discount, as a percentage, that is being offered or requested off a listed retail price of the consumer product. For instance, the discount rate in a consumer request  120  in which a consumer was requesting 33% off the retail price of an entrée would be 33%. As the discount rate increases, therefore, the price of the consumer product decreases. 
         [0102]    The merchants  116  may rank the queue in accordance with any piece of information in the Request Information. In some embodiments of the present invention, the consumer requests  120  in the queue  204  are ranking in accordance with creating consumer&#39;s  114  geographic proximity to the merchant  116 . 
         [0103]    GPS data  206  indicating the consumer&#39;s  114  geographic location and/or direction of travel is acquired by the server  102 , gather from the service provider providing cellular telephone service to the consumer  114 . This GPS data  206  is serves a variety of functions in the present invention as further outlined below. 
         [0104]    Like the queue  204 , commercial offerings  122  coming from merchants  116  may be prioritized in a queue for the consumers  114 . The consumers  114  may prioritize the commercial offerings  122  in accordance with a variety of criteria, including the offering merchant&#39;s time in business, the largest discount rate offered by a merchant, the lowest price, the closes, and the like. 
         [0105]      FIG. 3  is a system resources chart illustrating one embodiment of a system  300  that relays commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention. The system  300  comprises consumers  114   a - x , merchants  116   a - x , a server  102 , stored consumer requests  108 , commercial offerings  110 , and a marketing network  302 . 
         [0106]    All of the merchants  116   a - x  and consumers  114   a - x  are incorporated into the marketing network  302 . Consumer requests  120  are stored in a computer readable database file  108 , while commercial offerings  122  are stored in a computer readable database file  110 . 
         [0107]    Historical data is also stored in computer readable memory, including all commercial offerings  122  and all consumer requests  120 , as well as consumer  114  responses to commercial offerings  122  (e.g. acceptance, rejection, and/redemption, and the like). A consumer  114  may simply ignore an offer made by a merchant, and the consumer&#39;s  114  choice to ignore the commercial offering may be stored in computer readable memory. 
         [0108]    In various embodiments of the present invention, the merchants  116  may set criteria for automatically accepting consumer requests  120  which are forwarded to the merchants  116  by the system  300  and/or computer program product implementing the present invention. The merchants may set a price below which consumer requests  120  are automatically rejected, or a price above which consumer offers are automatically accepted. Merchants  116  may do the same for discount rates and geographic distances between consumers  114  and the respective merchants  116 . 
         [0109]    In various embodiments of the present invention, merchants  116  who have smaller percentages of commercial offerings  122  redeemed than other merchants may have their commercial offerings  122  moved to the top of an offering queue comprising all commercial offerings  122  from all merchants  116  made in response to a consumer request  120 . This offering queue, or queue, may be forwarded as it is generated to consumers  114 , synchronously or asynchronously. 
         [0110]    In other embodiments of the present invention, consumers  114  who do not redeem a high enough percentage of commercial offerings  122  accepted, or consumer requests  120  accepted, are penalized by having discount rates and/or prices in commercial offerings  122  automatically adjusted. 
         [0111]    The marketing network  302 , as discussed above, is a virtual network of merchants  116  and consumers  114  who have chose to incorporate for the purpose of negotiating with one another for consumer products. 
         [0112]    The server  102 , merchants  116   a - x , consumers  114   a - x , consumer requests  108 , and commercial offerings are all substantially described above in relation to  FIGS. 1-2 . 
         [0113]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a computer system which inter-connects multiple parties in an interactive negotiative environment for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention. The system  400  comprises a processor  402 , memory  106 , a webserver  102 , a merchant incorporator module  410 , a consumer incorporator module  412 , a subgroup prompter module  414 , a request creator module  416 , a request relayer module  418 , an offering crafter module  420 , a maintainer module  422 , a forwarder module  424 , a displayer module  442 , a reviser module  444 , a storer module  446 , a referencer module  448 , an acceptor module  426 , a demerit module  428 , a penalizer module  430 , an aggregator module  432 , a criteria prompter module  434 , an automatic selector module  436 , a rating prompter module  438 , and a ranking module  440 . 
         [0114]    The merchant incorporator module  410  is configured to incorporate a plurality of merchants  116  into a marketing network  302  by storing each respective merchant&#39;s name, physical address, age, banking information, telephone number, and email address in persistent computer readable memory  106 . A virtual account is created for each merchant  116  incorporated into the marketing network  302 . 
         [0115]    The consumer incorporator module  412  is configured to incorporate a plurality of consumers  114  into a marketing network  302  by storing each respective consumer&#39;s  114  cellular telephone number, name, and email address in persistent computer readable memory. The consumer incorporator module  412  may also store consumer  114  banking information. 
         [0116]    The subgroup prompter module  414  is configured to prompt a consumer  114  to create a virtual subgroup of consumers, the virtual subgroup of consumers comprising the names of a plurality of commonly acquainted consumers  114  interested in collectively purchasing a commercial product  120  from a single merchant in the marketing network, such as lodging, housing, cars, travel or food services (e.g. a dinner party). 
         [0117]    The request creator module  416  may be configured to perform a variety of functions, including collecting principal characteristics of a commercial offering the consumer is interested in receiving on behalf of a subgroup of consumers; ranking sub-characteristics of the commercial offering which said consumer values most highly; and accept an expiration date for the consumer request and one or more pieces of information (this information collectively comprising the “Request Information”) from the group consisting of: a subgroup size, a subgroup budget, desired response time, and anticipated time of arrival of the subgroup. 
         [0118]    The request relayer module  418  is configured to electronically relay the consumer request  120  and Request Information to a plurality of merchants  116  in the marketing network  302 . The offering crafter module  420  may be configured to craft a commercial offering  122  in response to the consumer request  120  before the expiration date. In some embodiments, the offering crafter module  420  automatically crafts the commercial offering  122 . In other embodiments, the offering crafter module  420  may prompt the merchant  116  to input values to be used in crafting the commercial offering  122 . 
         [0119]    The merchant uploader module may be configured to upload the commercial offering to a server  102  managing the marketing network in response to receiving the Request Information. The offering forwarder module  424  may be configured to forward commercial offerings  122  crafted by a plurality of merchants  116  and uploaded to the server  102 , then to said consumer  114 . 
         [0120]    The maintainer module  422  may be configured to maintain a queue of commercial offerings  122  made to said consumer  114  by all merchants  116  in the marketing network  302  until the expiration date. 
         [0121]    The forwarder module  424  may be configured to forward all commercial offerings  122  received in response to the consumer request  120  to one of said consumer&#39;s smart phone, the server  102  and said consumer&#39;s personal computer  118 . 
         [0122]    The displayer module  442  is configured to asynchronously display via the Internet the queue to each merchant having crafted a commercial offering  122 . The queue may also be displayed synchronously. The reviser module  444  is configured to prompt the merchants  116  having crafted a commercial offering  122  to revise their offering. 
         [0123]    The storer module  446  is configured to store the Request Information, commercial offerings  122 , and consumer request  120  in computer readable memory  106  in a database for future historical data tracking. The referencer module  448  may be configured to reference one or more of the Request Information, the commercial offering  122  and the consumer request  120  in generating Request Information exclusively associated with future consumer requests  120 . 
         [0124]    The Request Information may comprise information added by the server  102 , including one or more of the number of requests previously made by said consumer, the number of offers previously accepted by said consumer, an age range of the consumer, dollar amounts spent in response to previous commercial offerings by said consumer, number of previous visits of said consumer to the merchant, and the frequency of visits of said consumer to other merchants in the marketing network by said consumer. 
         [0125]    The acceptor module  426  is configured to prompt the consumer  114  to accept a commercial offering  116  from the queue upon reaching the expiration date. The demerit module  428  may be configured to assess demerits against merchants  116  who do not respond to consumer requests  120  before the expiration date; and the penalizer module  430  may be configured to inversely rank commercial offerings  122  shown in the queue by merchants  116  in accordance with the offering merchant&#39;s  116  respective number of demerits. 
         [0126]    The automatic selector module  436  is configured to automatically select an acceptance from the merchant satisfying one of the criteria from the group consisting of: highest rated merchant by a third-party, highest revenue grossing merchant, highest paying merchant to a legal entity controlling the server. 
         [0127]    The criteria prompter module  434  may be configured to prompt a merchant to set criteria for automatically accepting consumer requests comprising Request Information exceeding one or more thresholds defined by the merchant, the thresholds from the group consisting of: price, number of previous purchases by the consumer, the consumer&#39;s historical average spending, the consumer&#39;s distance geographically from the merchant, the consumer&#39;s budget, and a rating ascribed to the consumer by one of a system and computer program product effectuating relay of the consumer offer. 
         [0128]    The system  400  comprises a processor  402 , a server  102 , computer readable storage  106 , and the following modules: merchant incorporator module, consumer incorporator module, subgroup prompter module, request creator module, request relayer module, offering crafter module, maintainer module, forwarder module, displayer module, reviser module, storer module, reference module, acceptor module, demerit module, penalizer module, and an aggregating module. 
         [0129]    The files  108 ,  110  may be queried with dynamic database queries comprising keywords and/or logical bitwise operations that the indexing server  102  infers were intended such as NOR, OR, XOR, AND, NAND, and the like, as well as other information. 
         [0130]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a method  500  of the present invention, including steps which may be performed for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention. 
         [0131]    The steps of method  500  may be executed in any order as shown. The method  500  begins with consumers  114  being incorporated  502  into the marketing network  302 . Merchants are likewise incorporated  504 . The consumer  114  is prompted  506  to create a virtual subgroup of other consumers  114 . In some embodiments, the consumers  114  in each virtual subgroup are shown the names and photographs of each other consumer  114 . In some embodiments, the consumer  114  forming the subgroup if the spokesman or organizer of the group, who interacts with merchants  116  on behalf of the group. In those embodiments, the organizer creates consumer requests  120  which are uploaded to the server  102  and relayed in a queue to the merchants  116 . 
         [0132]    The consumer  114  creates  508  a consumer request  120 . This consumer request may be created on a DPD such as smart phone  118 . The consumer request comprises percentages, dates (including time), categories, subcategories, geographic distance limits, request discount rates, a credit rating, a budget, a requested lease term and/or other terms which the consumer  114  would like to see a merchant satisfying the category and subcategory specifications accept. 
         [0133]    Merchants  116  in the marketing network satisfying these categories and subcategories are forwarded the consumer request  120 . In some embodiments, the consumer request  120  is forwarded  510  in a queue, or the queue is asynchronously updated to include the consumer request  120 . 
         [0134]    Generally, merchants  116  view the updated the queues on a browser window on a DPD connected to the Internet, such as Explorer®, FireFox®, Chrome®, Safari® or the like. 
         [0135]    Merchants  116  may accept the consumer request  120 , or create a counteroffer called a commercial offering  122  with alternate term(s). These terms may consist of geographic proximity limits, a price, a discount rate, a lease term, a deposit, a minimum credit score, and a window of time. 
         [0136]    The consumer requests are electronically relayed  510  to the merchants  116  by the server  102  and the method  500  proceeds as shown. 
         [0137]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a method  600  of the present invention, including steps which may be performed for relaying commercial offerings from select merchants to select consumers in accordance with the present invention. 
         [0138]    The method  600  begins  602  when a consumer request  120  is received  602  from a consumer  114 . A preliminary check is done to see if  604  the consumer request meets certain criteria, including whether or not there are any merchants  116  in the marketing network  302  which satisfy the category and subcategory specifications of the consumer  114  in the consumer request  114 . In some embodiments, a check is also done to determine whether or not the merchants  116  are willing to entertain consumer requests  120  comprising price and/or discount rate values as low or high as those forming the consumer offer  120 , as well as geographic proximity limits. Assuming that the consumer offer  120  satisfies these predetermined thresholds, the consumer offer  120  is forwarded  608  to qualifying merchants  116  and those merchants  116  are prompted  610  to create counteroffers to the consumers  114  in the form of commercial offerings  122 . 
         [0139]    In some embodiments, the merchants  116  can configure the server  102  to automatically make counteroffers  122  to consumers which comprise higher prices and/or lower discount rates, even in response to a consumer request  120  which otherwise would have been automatically accepted. This feature allows merchants  116  to maximize revenue and profits if they choose, even in response to an consumer request  120  that would otherwise be acceptable. 
         [0140]    The commercial offering  122  crafted by the merchant  116  is uploaded  612  to the server  102 , then stored in persistent memory  106 , and forwarded  614  in a queue with other commercial offerings  122  from other merchants  116  to the consumer  114 . 
         [0141]    The consumer  114  is prompted  616  to accept one of the commercial offerings  122  in the queue. The same queue displayed to the consumer  114  may also be displayed  618  to the merchants  116  who have commercial offerings  122  in the queue  204 . In some embodiments, the queue is only updated for the merchants  116  at periodic intervals of time, while in other embodiments, the queue is continuously updated asynchronously. 
         [0142]    Geographic data is automatically collected  620  from the consumer&#39;s  114  cellular phone. In some embodiments, the consumer  114  has given legal permission to his/her cellular phone service provider to transmit this geographic information, collected by the service provider, to the server  102 . In other embodiments, the cellular phone  118  of the consumer  114  collects GPS information at the phone and transmits this information to the server  102  via the Internet  112 . The server may calculate or collective information about the direction and speed of travel of a consumer  114  on the move by references multiple instances of GPS location information over a given period of time. This GPS information, including speed and direction of travel, collectively comprises the GPS Information. 
         [0143]    This GPS information is relayed to the merchants  116  who have commercial offerings  122  in the queue  204 . Those merchants  116  are prompted  622  to revise their previous commercial offerings  122  in response to receiving the GPS Information. The updated commercial offerings  122  are forwarded to the consumer  114 . 
         [0144]    If  624  the consumer  114  has selected a commercial offering  122 , than all merchants  116  is with commercial offerings  122  in the queue  204  are notified  626  that an offer has been selected. A unique password comprising numbers and/or letters is sent to both the consumer  114  accepting the commercial offering  122  and the merchant  116  creating the commercial offering  122 . This unique password, or identifier, is used by the consumer  114  to identify himself when he arrives at the merchant&#39;s  116  location. 
         [0145]    When the consumer  114  redeems the commercial offering  116 , by spending money, the merchant  116  is required to note this and forward this information to the server  102  for storage  634  in persistent memory  106 . The percentage of commercials offerings  122  which a consumer  114  redeems after acceptance may be used to reward or penalize the consumer  114  in future commercial offerings  122  by other merchants  116 . 
         [0146]    Finally, a percentage of the money collected from the consumer  114  is remitted to the legal entity by the merchant  116 , or the legal entity remits a percentage of the money to the merchant  116 . In some embodiments, both the merchant  116  and the consumer  114  are prompted by the server  102  to rank each other&#39;s service, patronage, professionalism, quality and/or the like after the commercial offerings  122  is redeemed. 
         [0147]    In some embodiments of the present invention, merchants  116  receive electronic or physical statements originating with the server  102  which shown a detailed history of the commercial offerings  122  which the merchant  116  has crafted, and how those offers were treated by consumers  114  who received them, including whether the offers were accepted, ignored, rejected and/or redeemed. The electronic statement may contain hyperlinks to webpages with additional information online, and may be formatted as shown below: 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                   
                 Com. 
                 Money 
                   
               
               
                   
                 Merchant 
                 Time 
                 Share 
                 Paid 
                 Kept 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                 DEALS WON 
               
             
          
           
               
                 $10 worth of 
                 B. Jones 
                 12:50 
                 $8.00 
                 80% 
                 $2.00 
                 Details 
               
               
                 food for $28 
               
               
                 $20 worth of 
                 A. Smith 
                  6:15 
                 $17.00 
                 85% 
                 $3.00 
                 Details 
               
               
                 food for $35 
               
             
          
           
               
                 DEALS LOST 
               
             
          
           
               
                  $8 worth of 
                 xxx 
                 11:40 
                   
                 NA 
                   
                 Details 
               
               
                 food for $12 
               
               
                 $14 worth of 
                 xxx 
                 11:50 
                   
                 NA 
                   
                 Details 
               
               
                 food for $22 
               
               
                 $15 worth of 
                 xxx 
                 12:30 
                   
                 NA 
                   
                 Details 
               
               
                 food for $23 
               
               
                 $20 worth of 
                 xxx 
                  5:55 
                   
                 NA 
                   
                 Details 
               
               
                 food for $30 
               
               
                 $22 worth of 
                 xxx 
                  6:30 
                   
                 NA 
                   
                 Details 
               
               
                 food for $34 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0148]    In various embodiments of the present invention, merchants  116  receive these electronic statements only after participating in the marketing network for a predetermined period of time. In some embodiments, the merchants  116  receive statements that include not just details of the commercial offerings  122  which each respective merchant  116  has created, but also competing merchants  116  who likewise received identical consumer requests  120  from a consumer  114 . 
         [0149]    The statements may be relayed to merchants  116  with suggestions for improving commercial offering  122  acceptance in the future, the suggestions generated automatically by the server  102  after an analysis of historic data. Merchants  116  who take suggestions sent to them with their statements, may be rewarded by having their commercial offerings  122  featured in the future in the queue  204  relayed to consumers  114 . The teachings of the present invention may also be applied to negotiations between landlords and tenants with regard to commercial or residential real estate leases. 
         [0150]    In some embodiments, the merchants  116  are offered a hindsight simulation feature, in which the merchants  116  are given the option of adjusting the prices and/or discount rates in expired commercial offering  122  in a simulated environment to see if the adjusted commercial offering  122  would have been accepted, based on historical data, by the consumer  114  if the commercial offering  122  were so adjusted before expiration. 
         [0151]    Consumers  114  likewise may receive electronic statements showing commercial offerings  122  made to the consumer  114  in response to consumer requests  120 . 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
             
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
               
               
                 Number of times this merchant has 
                   
               
               
                 been in your deal dispatches 
                 Recent Offer 
               
               
                 over the past “x” weeks: 
                 Improvements 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                 4 
                 ABC Burgers 
                 none 
               
               
                 3 
                 XYZ Tacos 
                 none 
               
               
                 3 
                 Kim&#39;s Korean 
                 **** 
               
               
                 3 
                 123 Pizza 
                 none 
               
               
                 2 
                 789 Subs 
                 * 
               
               
                 2 
                 ABC Mexican 
                 none 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0152]    The electronic statements received by consumers  114  may be configured by the consumer  114  to show the number of times a merchant  116  has responded to consumer requests  120  by the consumer  114  or by other consumers  114 . The electronic statement may show the number of times a merchant  116  has improved their offer in response to a request by the consumer  114  that the merchant do so. 
         [0153]    In some embodiments of the present invention, the consumer  114  may accept more than one commercial offering  122  from the queue  204 , after which time the selected merchants  116  originating the selected commercial offerings  122  are put into a successive queue in which non-selected merchants  116  have been eliminated. The selected merchants  116  are then notified of their selection and again given a chance to revise their commercial offerings  122  sent in the queue  204 . 
         [0154]    Consumers  114  may reconfigure the queue  204  to see only merchants  116  whom they have rated positively before, or to exclusively feature merchants  116  whom they have expressed an interest in visiting before. Consumers  114  may also reconfigure their view of the queue to show only merchants  116  who have revised their commercial offerings  122  since an earlier configuration event (the configuration event being an earlier reconfiguration of the queue  204 ). 
         [0155]    In other embodiments, the consumer  114  may craft a consumer request  120  which does include categories or subcategories, but which consumer request  120  the consumer  114  relays directly to select merchants  116 . 
         [0156]    In still further embodiments, the consumers  114  may compare the prices and/or discount rate of a commercial offering  122  received from a merchants  116  to the price and/or discount rate previously offered in previous commercial offerings  122  by the merchant  116  to see if terms from the merchant  116  have improved or not. 
         [0157]      FIG. 7A  is a layout of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention. 
         [0158]    As shown in this embodiment, a URL address  704  is displayed in the browser window  702 . The browser window comprises virtual buttons and controls for interfacing with the server  102 . Button  706  allows a merchant  116  or a consumer  114  to make a counter offering  122 . Button  708  allows a merchant to search for consumers  114  within a geographic area. Button  710  allows a consumer  114  to make a payment for an accepted commercial offering. In some embodiments of the present invention, the consumer  114  must make a payment upon accepting a commercial offering  122 . In other embodiments, the consumer  114  makes the payment upon arrival at the merchant&#39;s  116  place of business. 
         [0159]    The queue  204  is display in a field  716  in the browser window  702 . The queue  204  comprises the names of merchants  116  who have made commercial offerings  122  in response to a consumer request  120 . The queue  204  comprises the price being offered by each merchant  116  on a consumer product  102 , as well as time by which the offering  122  must be redeemed, a date the offering was made, and discount rate on the consumer product underlying the offering  122 . 
         [0160]      FIG. 8A  is a layout  800  of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention. From the display  800 , a consumer  114  begins to form a consumer request  120 . The consumer  114  first picks a category within which the consumer request  120  will fall from those shown. 
         [0161]      FIG. 8B  is a second layout  810  of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention. From the display  810 , a consumer  114  picks a subcategory within which the consumer request  120  will fall from those shown. In the shown embodiment, the consumer  114  has pickled the Dining category previously and is given the option of picking various subcategories, including a cuisine type, a geographic proximity limit surrounding the consumer  114  of merchants  116  receiving the consumer request  120 , and other shown subcategories. The consumer  114  may see featured deals, which are commercial offerings  122  made sua sponte by merchants  116  not in response to a consumer request  120 , which featured deals are open to all consumers  114  within the marketing network  302  within a set geographic radius. 
         [0162]      FIG. 8C  is a third layout  820  of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention. In this instance, the consumer  114  has picked cuisine type as a subcategory, and must now select the type of cuisine desired from the shown list. 
         [0163]      FIG. 8D  is a fourth layout  830  of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the consumer  114  has picked Italian as the cuisine type, and must now specify other value for the Request Information, including an overall budget, a per person budget, a group size, and a geographic proximity limit. The consumer  114  also specifies a deadline, or response time, within which all merchants  116  receiving the consumer request  120  must respond to it. 
         [0164]      FIG. 8E  is a fifth layout  840  of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention. The display  840  follows selection of a virtual control on display  830 . The consumer  114  is now shown the queue  204  as it is populated asynchronously by merchants  116  receiving the consumer request. Three merchants  116  have now responded to the consumer request  120  with commercial offerings  122  made in response to the consumer request  120 . One of these offers is featured above the queue  204 , and blinks in this embodiment. 
         [0165]      FIG. 8F  is a sixth layout  850  of virtual controls on a browser of a smart phone manipulated by one embodiment of the present invention. In this display  850 , the consumer  114  has now accepted the commercial offering  122  featured by the Italian restaurant, and is given details about the commercial offering  122  which the consumer  114  has accepted as shown. The consumer  114  has option of getting directions to the Italian restaurant on the consumer&#39;s  114  phone  118 . The consumer  114  is also provided with various other options commercial offers related to the commercial offering  122 , and given the chance to receive additional discounts on the commercial offering  122  should the consumer  114  decide to accept the additional commercial offers. 
         [0166]    The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.