Automating price guarantees

Techniques are provided in which the current price of a commodity purchased from a seller by a buyer with a price guarantee policy is monitored. Upon detection of the current price dropping below the purchase price, the buyer and seller are notified, leading to a rebate being provided to the buyer from the seller to be redeemed based on the terms of the price guarantee policy. In some embodiments, buyers are offered incentives, such as a discounted price, in exchange for a reduced time period within which a price guarantee policy is redeemable.

BACKGROUND

In the face of the increase in use of the Internet to shop rather than using traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, and the ensuing ease of comparison shopping based on price that the Internet has made available to consumers, more and more brick-and-mortar retailers have begun offering price guarantee to consumers who purchase from them. Typically this price guarantee is made in the form of a guarantee that if the user finds a competitor selling the same item for less money during a specified time window (generally, 30, 60, or 90 days), that the retailer will refund the difference between the actual amount the consumer paid originally and the price he or she could obtain from a competitor. Not only does this give the consumer confidence in making the initial purchase from the brick-and-mortar retailer, but it also helps reduce returns, which can be costly for brick-and-mortar retailers.

In addition to protecting the consumer in cases where a competitor offers a product for less money within the specified time period, the price guarantee generally also extends to the retailers own prices, in that should the retailer drop the price or offer a sale on the product within the specified time period, the consumer is also able to obtain a refund.

This type of price guarantee, however, is rarely taken advantage of by the consumer. Most consumers do not have the time or simply forget to track a retailer's price of a product, and even less time to bring the receipt back to the retailer and obtain a refund within the specified time period. As such, a large number of potential refunds go unredeemed.

There is a need for better techniques for keeping track of all the product purchase and track how these product price matched with other web sites and retailers

SUMMARY

Some embodiments of the invention provide techniques that include monitor the current price of a commodity purchased by a buyer with a price guarantee policy. Upon detection of the current price dropping below the purchase price, the buyer and seller are notified, leading to a rebate being provided to the buyer from the seller to be redeemed based on the terms of the price guarantee policy.

In some embodiments, techniques are provided to offer buyers an incentive, such as a discounted price, in exchange for a reduced time period within which a price guarantee policy is redeemable. In some embodiments, techniques are provided to periodically search for current prices of the purchased commodity in a given time period rather than at a single one point in time.

While the invention is described with reference to the above drawings, the drawings are intended to be illustrative, and the invention contemplates other embodiments within the spirit of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1is a distributed computer system100according to one embodiment of the invention. The system100includes user computers104, advertiser computers106and server computers108, all coupled or able to be coupled to the Internet102. Although the Internet102is depicted, the invention contemplates other embodiments in which the Internet is not included, as well as embodiments in which other networks are included in addition to the Internet, including one more wireless networks, WANs, LANs, telephone, cell phone, or other data networks, etc. The invention further contemplates embodiments in which user computers or other computers may be or include wireless, portable, or handheld devices such as cell phones, PDAs, etc.

Each of the one or more computers104,106,108may be distributed, and can include various hardware, software, applications, algorithms, programs and tools. Depicted computers may also include a hard drive, monitor, keyboard, pointing or selecting device, etc. The computers may operate using an operating system such as Windows by Microsoft, etc. Each computer may include a central processing unit (CPU), data storage device, and various amounts of memory including RAM and ROM. Depicted computers may also include various programming, applications, algorithms and software to enable searching, search results, and advertising, such as graphical or banner advertising as well as keyword searching and advertising in a sponsored search context. Many types of advertisements are contemplated, including textual advertisements, rich advertisements, video advertisements, etc.

As depicted, each of the server computers108includes one or more CPUs110and a data storage device112. The data storage device112includes a database116and a Price Guarantee Program114.

The Program114is intended to broadly include all programming, applications, algorithms, software and other and tools necessary to implement or facilitate methods and systems according to embodiments of the invention. The elements of the Program114may exist on a single server computer or be distributed among multiple computers or devices.

Various monetization techniques or models may be used in connection with advertising, such as sponsored search advertising, including advertising associated with user search queries, and non-sponsored search advertising, including graphical or display advertising. In an auction-based online advertising marketplace, advertisers may bid in connection with placement of advertisements, although many other factors may also be included in determining advertisement selection or ranking Bids may be associated with amounts the advertisers pay for certain specified occurrences, such as for placed or clicked-on advertisements, for example.

Advertiser payment for online advertising may be divided between parties including one or more publishers or publisher networks, and one or more marketplace facilitators or providers, potentially among other parties. Some models include guaranteed delivery advertising, in which advertisers may pay based on an agreement guaranteeing or providing some measure of assurance that the advertiser will receive a certain agreed upon amount of suitable advertising, and non-guaranteed delivery advertising, which may be individual serving opportunity-based or spot market-based. In various models, advertisers may pay based on any of various metrics associated with advertisement delivery or performance, or associated with measurement or approximation of a particular advertiser goal. For example, models can include, among other things, payment based on cost per impression or number of impressions, cost per click or number of clicks, cost per action for some specified action, cost per conversion or purchase, or cost based on some combination of metrics, which can include online or offline metrics. In some embodiments of the invention, payment may be based on assessed favorable branding or brand engagement value, for example.

FIG. 2is a flow diagram illustrating a method200according to one embodiment of the invention. At step202, using one or more computers, one or more price guarantee policies are retrieved from one or more sellers, wherein the price guarantee policies include one or more price guarantee limits for one or more time periods as to when one or more price guarantee rebates can be obtained. At step204, using one or more computers, pricing information is received for one or more commodities from the sellers.

At step206, using one or more computers, based on at least the price guarantee policies from the sellers and the pricing information, offer for sale information for the commodities is generated and sent to one or more buyers, wherein the offer for sale information includes the price guarantee policies associated with each of the commodities, and wherein generating and sending offer for sale information comprises displaying the offer for sale information to the buyers in response to a search query. At step208, using one or more computers, purchase information regarding one or more purchases of the commodities made by the buyers is received, wherein purchase information includes at least a purchase identification, purchase date, purchase price, and any offer for sale information for the commodities.

At step210, using one or more computers, a current price for the commodities associated with the purchase identification is monitored and stored periodically. At step212, using one or more computers, if the current price for the commodities associated with the purchase identification falls below the price guarantee limits of the price guarantee policies associated with each of the commodities within the time periods measured from the purchase date, the purchase information is sent to the sellers with a request for the price guarantee rebate for the buyers. At step214, using one or more computers, an indication that the price guarantee rebate has been granted for the buyers to receive a refund amount is received. At step216, using one or more computers, the refund amount is sent as a credit to one or more accounts of the buyers.

FIG. 3is a flow diagram illustrating a method300according to one embodiment of the invention. At step302, using one or more computers, one or more price guarantee policies are retrieved from one or more sellers, wherein the price guarantee policies include one or more price guarantee limits for one or more time periods as to when one or more price guarantee rebates can be obtained, where the price guarantee rebates include an offer for a gift card redeemable with the sellers. At step304, using one or more computers, pricing information is received for one or more commodities from the sellers.

At step306, using one or more computers, based on at least the price guarantee policies from the sellers and the pricing information, offer for sale information for the commodities is generated and sent to one or more buyers, wherein the offer for sale information includes the price guarantee policies associated with each of the commodities, and wherein the offer for sale information includes one or more prices for the commodities with different price guarantee limits for different time periods such that the price guarantee limits increase in proportion to the span of the time periods. At step308, using one or more computers, purchase information regarding one or more purchases of the commodities made by the buyers is received, wherein purchase information includes at least a purchase identification, purchase date, purchase price, and any offer for sale information for the commodities.

At step310, using one or more computers, a current price for the commodities associated with the purchase identification is monitored and stored periodically, wherein monitoring and storing periodically comprises monitoring the current price as displayed by online sellers. At step312, using one or more computers, if the current price for the commodities associated with the purchase identification falls below the price guarantee limits of the price guarantee policies associated with each of the commodities within the time periods measured from the purchase date, the purchase information is sent to the sellers with a request for the price guarantee rebate for the buyers. At step314, using one or more computers, an indication that the price guarantee rebate has been granted for the buyers to receive a refund amount is received. At step316, using one or more computers, the refund amount is sent as a credit to one or more accounts of the buyers.

FIG. 4is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the invention. Various types of information are stored by a seller402in one or more information folders, represented by Block404. In the present embodiment, the seller402has stored in information folders404, among other things, a list of cleaning services offered; pricing information for the cleaning services; price guarantee policies for the cleaning services; and purchase history of different consumers. This information is sent to a database406for use in generating offer for sale information for the cleaning services offered by the seller402with a price guarantee and, subsequently displaying them to a potential consumer410, as represented by Block408. In some embodiments, displaying the offer for sale information includes, but is not limited to, displaying on a website for the seller, a third-party website visited by the consumer410, e-mail, social network message, mobile device display, and short message service (SMS).

As shown in Block412, based on the consumer410making a purchase based on the offer for sale information408, current prices are monitored such that if the current price for the purchase made by the consumer410falls below the price guarantee, the seller402and the consumer410are both alerted. In the present embodiment, if the price for the cleaning services purchased by the consumer410falls below the price guarantee, the seller402and consumer410are both alerted. Based on this event, a refund is sent to the consumer410by the seller402based on the current price of the purchased cleaning service falling below the price guarantee, as shown in Block414.

FIG. 5is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the invention. Various sellers and online retailers502have price guarantee policies and pricing information, represented by Block504, related to commodities they are selling available for the online community to obtain. For example, in the present embodiment, sellers and online retailers502of laptop computers have created price guarantee policies related to their inventory of laptop computers504. By the same token, buyers are, at any given time, searching for particular items they are interested in purchasing. In the present example, a buyer506is entering a search query into an online search engine to search for a laptop computer he/she is interested in purchasing, represented by Block508. In the present embodiment, both the price guarantee policies and pricing information of the laptop sellers and online retailers (Block504) and the online search query of a potential laptop buyer (Block508) are sent to and gathered by a common database510.

Based on the information received by the database510, a set of offers is generated for the seller's products and/or services and presented to the potential buyer with different incentives. For example, as represented by Block512, three different offers for the buyer506to purchase the laptop searched for (Block508) are presented based on the price guarantee policies and pricing information (Block504) given by the seller502. The buyer506can either: (a) purchase the laptop at $700 with a 30 day price guarantee; (b) purchase the laptop at $650 with a 20 day price guarantee; or (c) purchase the laptop at $650 with a $20 gift card and 10 day price guarantee, as represented by Block512. In effect, the buyer504is presented with a lower price for foregoing a lengthier time period within which to potentially redeem a price guarantee policy by the sellers and online retailers502.

Based on the option among the set of offers (Block512) purchased by the buyer502, the current price for the purchased item is monitored based on the prices presented by sellers and online retailers502and, if the current price falls below the price guarantee associated with the purchase within the specified time period, the seller502will refund the difference in price directly to the buyer506. In the present embodiment, the buyer506chooses to purchase the laptop at $650 with a 20 day price guarantee among the set of options shown by Block512. Accordingly, the current price for the purchased laptop is monitored amongst various sellers and online retailers502, as represented by Block516. If the current price for the laptop were to fall below the price guarantee within the 20 day price guarantee time period, the seller502would directly refund the buyer506an amount equal to the difference in the current price and purchase price, as represented by Block518.

While the invention is described with reference to the above drawings, the drawings are intended to be illustrative, and the invention contemplates other embodiments within the spirit of the invention.