Patent Publication Number: US-2007100741-A1

Title: Method and system for viewing auction information in a seller&#39;s product catalog in an internal auction system

Description:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE  
      A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office, patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention relates to a method and system for providing integrated auction services through a seller&#39;s e-commerce site. In particular, the present invention relates to viewing auction information and receiving auction notification in a seller&#39;s product catalog in an internal auction system.  
     BACKGROUND  
      Businesses traditionally look for effective ways in which to make their products available to potential buyers. In addition to sales through physical “brick and mortar” stores, innovative ways to sell products are often used especially to dispose of old or excess inventory. The advent of the Internet along with the accompanying revolution in computer and network technology has created new sales paradigms and allowed businesses to establish their own electronic commerce (“e-commerce”) presence through the use of, for example, Internet Web sites. E-commerce sales have steadily grown and now account for a significant portion of business-to-consumer as well as business-to-business sales. Auctions make up a significant portion of e-commerce sales and have grown into an increasingly more important sales paradigm.  
      The revolution in network and computer capability along with the mass availability and development of the Internet facilitates alternative methods of sales such as auctions. Network-based electronic auctions, such as for example those conducted over the Internet, may allow a seller considerable control over an auction and may increase auction participation. For example, a seller may want to limit participation in the auction where the pool of potential customers is limited or where allowing an open auction may, in some manner, hinder the auction process. In another example where an auction may be open to all potential bidders it is often beneficial to maximize the number of people participating in the auction in order to extract the greatest price for the product or lot being auctioned. The Internet and network-based computing provide the ability to aggregate large numbers of bidders for an auction in an easier and generally less costly manner than through traditional auctions. Though network-based auctions (e.g., Internet based auctions) provide significant advantages, the reliance on third party auction providers has limited a seller&#39;s control in a number of ways including through rules on the conformance of auction procedures and the loss of control over restricting auction participation and bidding.  
      Third party auction providers provide a large scale e-commerce community portal that brings together large numbers of buyers and sellers who gather to trade in goods and services. Everyday, millions of items across thousands of categories are available on third party auction providers, for sale by auction and for a fixed price, enabling trade on a local, national, and international basis with customized Internet Web sites in markets around the world. These third party auction providers may provide auction services for the seller as well as access to a ready pool of potential buyers but in exchange they may require a seller to conform their auctioning processes and procedures. In addition, a third party auction provider typically takes a fee that may be fixed or proportional to the value of the auctioned goods and/or services. In both cases, the seller loses some degree of control over the auction process in exchange for using the third party auction service.  
      In addition to the limitations on auction procedures and processes imposed by a third party auction provider, a business may not be able to make maximum use of its business information in providing and generating auctions through a third party auction service. Businesses have typically kept their information, including information regarding their assets and inventory they wish to sell or auction off, in database systems that are part of their corporate information systems. Conventional systems provide limited linking between these business information management systems and online Web auction services and, therefore, manual involvement with the Web auction service is required for each auction or sales posting conducted. These problems may be overcome and the limitations of third party auction services avoided by providing auction services through a seller&#39;s own e-commerce site. In this manner, full advantage may be taken by linking a seller&#39;s business information management systems with its e-commerce site allowing greater automation of the auction submission, tracking, and post-auction processing. An integrated internal auction system solves these problems in a novel manner providing considerable advantages to a seller. In this manner, a seller may be able to provide a customer auction information and notification in the seller&#39;s product catalog through a seller&#39;s e-commerce site in an internal auction system. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating the integrated internal auction system according to one embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating the process for displaying an auction indicator in a product catalog on a seller e-commerce network site of an integrated internal auction system according to one embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating an example process for navigating to an auction from a product catalog displayed on a seller e-commerce network site using an auction indicator in the displayed product catalog in an integrated internal auction system according to one embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 4   a  is an example database table for storing auction information in an integrated internal auction system and associating an auction with a product according to one embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 4   b  is an example database table for storing an association or linking of an auction with a product in an integrated internal auction system according to one embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating the platform on which the method and system for displaying auction information in a product catalog on a seller e-commerce network site in an integrated internal auction system operates according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method and system for providing an integrated auction capability through a seller e-commerce network site is provided through an integrated internal auction system. The integrated internal auction system may include a seller-side application to allow a seller to generate an auction using an available seller business information management system, publish the auction on a seller e-commerce network site, process an auction winner, and monitor ongoing auctions in a manner leveraging a seller&#39;s existing business information management systems and e-commerce network sites. The integrated internal auction system may also include a buyer-side application to provide buyer functionality on a seller e-commerce network site to view and participate in published auctions, to monitor auctions and bidding, and to perform any necessary checkout procedures on winning an auction. In particular, the integrated internal auction system may allow a buyer/customer using a seller e-commerce network site to view auction information (e.g., auction status) and link (i.e., navigate) to an auction from a product catalog in a seller business information management system. The integrated internal auction system may serve as the conduit between seller&#39;s business information management system(s) and e-commerce site(s) while providing seller and/or buyer functionality to implement an integrated auction capability under the seller&#39;s internal control (i.e., without using an external third party auction provider or facilitator).  
      In one embodiment of the present invention, a buyer may be presented with auction information in a product catalog made available over a seller e-commerce network site. The product catalog may contain product and/or service information (for products and/or services offered to the buyer) from one or more seller business information management systems that may, for example, be displayed to the buyer in a table format. The auction information may be linked with the product catalog by the internal auction application in the integrated internal auction system according to one embodiment of the present invention. The inclusion of auction information in the product catalog allows for the rapid and convenient notification of available auctions to a buyer. In this manner, a buyer may be made aware of existing auctions and their status while browsing the product catalog. In one embodiment of the present invention, the auction information in the product may be linked to an auction and the buyer may simply select by conventional means (e.g., clicking on an icon or link) the auction information resulting in the navigation of the seller e-commerce network site display to the auction for the buyer. This provides a convenient method to notify the buyer regarding auctions for a product and to navigate the buyer to the appropriate auction.  
      In one embodiment of the present invention, an auction indicator (auction information) may be included for each product which has an associated auction in which the buyer is allowed to participate. For example, if an entry in the product catalog being displayed to the buyer over the seller e-commerce network site is a “Model M-09 Flatscreen” monitor and an auction for the product exists in which the buyer is authorized to participate, an icon or other indicator (i.e., auction information) may be included in the product catalog entry for the flat screen monitor to indicate that an auction exists. If the buyer is not authorized to participate in an auction, auction information may not be displayed for that product to the buyer. However, if there are multiple auctions for the product and the buyer is allowed to participate in at least one of the auctions, auction information may be indicated in the product catalog according to this embodiment.  
      In another embodiment of the present invention, the auction information included in the product catalog not only notifies the buyer of an auction for a product but it may also notify the buyer of the auction status. For example, a graphical icon such as an auctioneer&#39;s gavel may be used to indicate both the existence of an auction and its status. A raised gavel (hammer at top with the gavel vertical to the plane) according to this example may be used to indicate that an auction exists but has not yet opened for the product (i.e., the auction has not yet started). This may occur where an auction is published but the start date and time have not yet been reached. A dropping gavel (gavel at 45 degrees from the plane) may be used according to this example to indicate an auction that has already begun and is currently ongoing. A fallen gavel (gavel horizontal with the plane) may be used according to this example to indicate an auction that has closed and for which no more bids may be taken. In a situation where more than one auction exists for a product in the product catalog, a single auction indicator may be used to indicate all the auctions cumulatively for the product. Where a graphical icon or other means such as the gavel described above is used to indicate the auction status, a hierarchy of status may be used to determine the status displayed. For example, if ongoing auctions are given the highest value in this status hierarchy and if only one of the auctions for the product is currently ongoing, the ongoing status is used to indicate that at least one ongoing auction exists among the multiple auctions. If a published but not yet ongoing status is the next in the status hierarchy and no ongoing auctions for a product exist, the published status is used if at least one published but not ongoing auction exists for the product. In an alternative embodiment, a separate auction indicator (e.g., a gavel) may be displayed for each auction. This may become cumbersome, cluttering the product catalog display so the auction indicators may be reduced in size according to this embodiment when multiple auctions exist for a product.  
      In one embodiment of the present invention, the auction information may be linked to the auction and selecting the auction information using conventional selection means (e.g., clicking on the auction information) may navigate the buyer to the auction. Using the above example where the auction information included in the product catalog is a graphical icon indicating that an auction exists and perhaps indicating auction status, clicking on or otherwise selecting the graphical icon navigates the buyer to the associated auction for the product. If the auction information is being used to indicate more than one auction for the product, selecting the auction information in order to navigate to the auction may result in an auction listing being displayed containing all the associated auctions for the product. The buyer may then select an auction from this listing to navigate to a particular auction. Though the embodiments discussed herein generally refer to a product catalog and an auction for a product, it should be understood that the catalog may contain services in addition to or instead of products and an auction may be conducted for products and/or services.  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, the internal auction application links a seller e-commerce site (i.e., a seller network site) with a seller&#39;s existing business information management system(s) in order to provide auction services to buyers (customers) through the seller e-commerce site. A seller e-commerce site according to this embodiment may be any electronic business presence that a seller provides to potential buyers. For example, a seller Web site on the Internet that offers information on or purchase of seller&#39;s products can be considered a seller e-commerce site. A seller business information management system according to this embodiment may be any seller information system containing product and/or sales and marketing information that may be used in the provision of products to a buyer. For example, a seller inventory system that tracks the availability of seller products may be considered one form of many potential seller business information management systems. A seller business information management system implies business applications using a programming and/or program interface working with a database to accomplish one or more tasks. However, according to this embodiment a seller business information management system may be considered either the database and the interface to access the database by itself as well as this database and associated interface in conjunction with associated applications. The internal auction application according to this embodiment provides the functionality to implement the auctioning of seller products (i.e., products sold by the seller) on the seller e-commerce site in conjunction with using at least one of the seller business information management systems.  
       FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating the integrated internal auction system according to one embodiment of the present invention. A seller  110  may create an auction using an internal auction application  120  residing on the seller information technology hardware environment  135 . For example, the internal auction application  120  may consist of one or more software applications, programs, modules, procedures, or other computer code to include firmware and may additionally include data that resides on one or more servers, computers, or other hardware platforms that make up the seller information technology hardware environment  135 . The internal auction application  120  may be conceptualized as containing a seller-side application  121  handling the seller interaction  154  with the integrated internal auction system  100  through the internal auction application  120 . The seller-side application  121  may provide the functionality allowing the seller  110  to create, monitor, and manage one or more auctions. The internal auction application  120  may also be conceptualized as containing a buyer-side application  122  handling the buyer interaction  155  with the integrated internal auction system  100  allowing buyer interaction  155  with the internal auction application  120  and the seller business information management system(s)  140  through a seller e-commerce site  115 . The buyer-side application  122  may provide the functionality allowing the buyer  105  to view auctions, participate in active auctions, monitor auctions, and perform the checkout process on won auctions. Though conceptually the functionality provided by the seller-side application  121  and the buyer-side application  122  of the internal auction application  120  are different, both may share data sets, procedures, libraries, and other elements of software code or data. In one embodiment of the present invention, all the elements of the internal auction application  120  may either be contained in both the conceptual subsets—seller-side application  121  and buyer-side application  122 —or in an alternative embodiment the internal auction application  120  may contain additional elements of software code and/or data in addition to these conceptual subsets  121 ,  122 . The internal auction application  120  may use data contained in a seller&#39;s business information management system(s)  140  and/or stored in a local database  130  for the internal auction application  120 . This local database  130  may be considered part of the internal auction application  120  in this embodiment of the present invention even if the database is stored separately in a memory or storage system.  
      An internal auction application  120  may communicate  152  with the local database  130 ; communicate  153  with the seller business information management system(s)  140 ; and communicate  151  with the seller e-commerce site  115  using a communication network that is part of the seller information technology hardware environment  135 . For example, the seller e-commerce site  115 , internal auction application  120 , local database  130 , and business information management system(s)  140  may be located on servers or other computers that are part of a communication network—such as a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN)—controlled by the seller. In an alternative embodiment, the seller information technology hardware environment  135  may include a communication network that is shared by the seller with other network users. For example, the seller e-commerce site  115 , internal auction application  120 , local database  130 , and business information management system(s)  140  may be located on servers or other computers that are part of at least one internal seller communication network (e.g., a LAN and/or WAN) as well as a shared (i.e., shared by seller with other non-seller related entities) communication network such as the Internet. In either embodiment regardless of the network used for communication between the elements of the integrated auction system  100 , seller communication  154  and buyer communication  155  with the integrated auction system  100  may occur over an external network (i.e., a network external to the seller and not under the seller&#39;s direct control), such as for example, the Internet. In an alternative embodiment, seller and buyer communication  154 ,  155  with the integrated auction application  100  may occur over a seller-controlled network (such as a seller-controlled wide area sales network) and/or may involve a combination of at least one seller-controlled network and at least one external network.  
      The integrated auction system  100  integrates a seller business information management systems(s)  140 , which serves as a backend system(s), with a seller e-commerce site  115 , serving as a front-end system, using an internal auction application  120  in order to provide auction services to the seller  110  and the buyer  105  according to one embodiment of the present invention. A seller business information management system  140  is a an application with at least one associated database  141  typically using a database management system (DBMS) that provides data storage and associated programming support for that data (e.g., a query system such as an SQL editor, optimization routines, program interfaces). For example, a seller may have an inventory control system  140  with its own inventory database  141  as one example of a business information management system  140 . The business information management system(s)  140  may contain product information and availability information used in generating an auction and performing order generation to fulfill a winning bidder&#39;s order according to one embodiment of the present invention. The seller e-commerce site  115  allows a buyer  105  to participate in an auction over a communication network. For example, a seller Web site on the Internet offering goods and/or services (electronic commerce) is one example of a seller e-commerce site  115 . An auction in the integrated auction system  100  is made available to the buyer  105  through the seller e-commerce site  115  which may serve as the buyer portal to the integrated auction system  100  according to one embodiment of the present invention. The seller  110  creates and manages auctions through the internal auction application  120  which integrates  153  information from the business information management system(s)  140  and provides the interaction processing  151  with the buyer  105  through the seller e-commerce site  115 .  
       FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating the process for displaying an auction indicator in a product catalog on a seller e-commerce network site of an integrated internal auction system according to one embodiment of the present invention. The process begins  200  when a buyer  105  using a seller e-commerce network site  115  initiates the display of a product catalog by choosing an option on the site  115  generating the display. For example, a buyer  105  may browse products that the seller  110  is making available for sale through the e-commerce network site  115 . The buyer  105  may be provided with one or more options on the seller e-commerce site  115  to limit or focus the display of the product catalog information. For example, a search feature may be included allowing the buyer to narrow or refine the product data displayed. In another example, product categories may be included which the buyer  105  may select limiting the displayed product catalog information to those products within the selected category. In a second step  210 , a buyer may specify parameters for the display of the product catalog such as, for example, search parameters. If these parameters are specified, they are incorporated into a request for the product catalog data in a conditional third step  215  of this process. The request is generated by the seller e-commerce network site  115  or an application controlling the display on the seller e-commerce network site  115  and is sent to at least one seller business information management system  140  in a fourth step  220  in this process. The seller business information management system  140  receives the request, processes the request, and returns the requested product catalog data to the seller e-commerce site  115  or the application controlling the display on the seller e-commerce site  115 . If search or other narrowing parameters are included in the request  215 , these parameters are used by the seller business information management system to correspondingly limit or broaden the retrieved product catalog information. The seller e-commerce network site  115  or the application controlling the display on the seller e-commerce network site  115  receives the retrieved product catalog information in a fifth step  225  in the process. In conjunction with or following the request for the product catalog information, a request is also sent to the internal auction application  120  for corresponding auction information in a sixth step  230  of this process according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this sixth step  230 , the products to be retrieved and/or a search specification are included in the request in order for the internal auction application  120  to retrieve corresponding auction information for the products. In a seventh step  235 , the internal auction application retrieves the corresponding auction information for the product data included in the request  230 . In one embodiment, the retrieved auction information is returned to the seller e-commerce site  115  for processing. In another embodiment, the internal auction application performs the necessary processing of the retrieved auction data  235 . In an eighth step  240 , the retrieved auction data is processed to generate an appropriate auction indicator for the product catalog and/or to provide any appropriate link for the auction indicator according to this embodiment. For example, the auction indicator may indicate the status of an auction as previously described and the auction indicator may need to be generated to reflect the appropriate auction status. In another example where a single auction indicator may be used to indicate several auctions for a product, this generating step  240  may need to determine the appropriate status considering the status of all the auctions indicated as previously discussed. In another embodiment of the present invention, a hyperlink may be associated with an auction indicator during this step  240  facilitating navigation to the auction on the seller e-commerce site  115  also as previously discussed.  
      The generated auction indicators may then be included in the product catalog data  240 . If the auction indicators are generated by the internal auction application  120 , the generated indicators with any hyperlinks are returned to the seller e-commerce site  115  or to the application controlling the display on the seller e-commerce site  115 . The auction indicators may now be included in the displayed product catalog data. If the buyer  105  does not use these auction indicators to navigate to an auction or the auction indicators do not include hyperlinks, the buyer  105  cannot use the auction indicators to navigate to the auctions in a ninth step  245  and the process of including auction information into product catalog is concluded  255 . If the buyer does use the auction indicators to navigate to an auction in the ninth step  245 , the display of the auction data may be presented to the buyer in a new or the same screen on the seller e-commerce site in a tenth step  250  in this process according to this embodiment. The process may conclude  255  with after the display of the auction indicators and the navigation of the buyer.  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating an example process for navigating to an auction from a product catalog displayed on a seller e-commerce network site using an auction indicator in the displayed product catalog in an integrated internal auction system according to one embodiment of the present invention. In a first step  310 , the example process begins  300  by displaying an auction indicator to a buyer  105  in the product catalog. The auction indicator may indicate an auction status and may incorporate a hyperlink or other navigation means to allow a buyer to quickly navigate to the associated auction(s) by selecting the auction indicator. One example process for including an auction indicator in a product catalog was described along with  FIG. 2  above. In a second step  320  of this process, the buyer  105  may select (by conventional means such as, for example, clicking on the auction indicator) an auction indicator in the product catalog in order to navigate to the auction according to this embodiment. If the buyer  105  does not select an auction indicator, the buyer may continue to view the product catalog or may decide to exit from the product catalog display  330  thus concluding the process  390 . If the buyer selects an auction indicator  320 , a determination may need to be made in a third step  340  whether or not the indicator represents a single auction or multiple auctions. If the auction indicator represents a single auction  340 , the buyer is navigated to a display of data for that auction  350  and the process of navigating to an auction from a product catalog using an auction indicator concludes  390 .  
      If the auction indicator represents multiple auctions  340 , an auction listing may be displayed  360  containing the auctions represented by the indicator in a table format. The buyer may examine the auctions and auction data in the auction listing and may select an auction  370  from the listing to view its details. If the buyer  105  selects an auction from the listing to view  370 , the buyer is navigated to a display of data for that auction  380  and the process of navigating to an auction from a product catalog using an auction indicator concludes  390 . If the buyer decides not to view an auction from the auction listing  370 , the process also concludes without navigating the buyer to a display of data for a specific auction.  
       FIG. 4   a  is an example database table for storing auction information in an integrated internal auction system and associating an auction with a product according to one embodiment of the present invention. The auction data table  410  may include any number of rows from zero rows to multiple rows  421 - 423  of data with each row in the table providing the details for a single auction in an integrated internal auction system  100  as shown in  FIG. 1 . The rows  421 - 423  of the auction data table  410  show a simplified example of the data that may exist for an auction according to one embodiment of the present invention.  
      The auction data table  410  may include a number of rows each describing one auction. An auction may be identified using a unique auction identifier stored in the auction identifier column  411  of the auction data table  410 . For example in the first row  421  of the auction data table  410  the auction identifier is “X” while in the second row  422  it is “Y” and in the third row  423  it is “Z”. A product may be identified using a unique product identifier stored in the product column  412  of the auction data table  410 . For example in the first row  421 , the product is “Model A07 Laptop”. In addition to the product  412 , an auction data table may also include a quantity column  413  (or lot size column) indicating the quantity of the product included in the auction. Additional auction parameters in the auction data table  410  may include a start date and time column  414  specifying the date and time the auction is scheduled to start. For example, in the first row  421  of the auction data table  410  the specified start date is Sep. 15, 2005 with midnight (“00:00” using a 24-hour clock) as the start time. In addition to a start date and time column  414 , an end date and time column  415  may also be included in the auction parameters indicating when an auction will end. For example in the first row  421  of the auction data table  410 , the auction will conclude on Sep. 22, 2005 at midnight. The Etc. column  416  is shown to indicate that other columns of data may also be included for the auction in the auction data table  410 . For this reason, the Etc. column  416  is shown in dashed lines.  
       FIG. 4   b  is an example database table for storing an association or linking of an auction with a product in an integrated internal auction system according to one embodiment of the present invention. The auction-to-product table  450  shown is an alternative embodiment of the present invention from the auction data table  410  shown in  FIG. 4   a  and may be used where there are multiple products and/or services for an auction. In this embodiment, an auction data table  410  similar to the one shown in  FIG. 4   a  is used to store the auction information but no product  412  or quantity  413  columns are included in the table. Instead, an auction is associated or linked to a product and/or service using the separate table  450 . In this manner an auction may include multiple products and/or services in a normalized manner with only one entry of auction parameter information in the auction data table  410 . In the first row  471  of the auction-to-product table  450 , auction “P”  461  includes 5 units  463  of “M-09 Flatscreen” product  462 . A second row  472  in the auction-to-product table  450  indicates that auction “P”  461  also includes 4 units  463  of “M-11 Flatscreen” product  462 . A third row  473  in the auction-to-product table  450  indicates that auction “Q”  461  includes 10 units  463  of “Model A07 Laptop” product  462 .  
       FIGS. 4   a  and  4   b  are included to show how an auction may be associated with a product in the either the internal auction application  120  database  130  or in a seller business information management system database  141  according to one embodiment of the present invention. The association of the auction to the product is used, as described in  FIG. 2 , to determine which entries in the displayed product catalog require an auction indicator according to this embodiment and what auction, if any, will the auction indicator be linked to.  
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating the platform on which the method and system for displaying auction information in a product catalog on a seller e-commerce network site in an integrated internal auction system operates according to one embodiment of the present invention. Functionality of the foregoing embodiments may be provided on various computer platforms executing program instructions. One such platform  500  is illustrated in the simplified block diagram of  FIG. 5 . There, the platform  500  is shown as being populated by a processor  510 , a memory system  520  and an input/output (I/O) unit  530 . The processor  510  may be any of a plurality of conventional processing systems, including microprocessors, digital signal processors and field programmable logic arrays. In some applications, it may be advantageous to provide multiple processors (not shown) in the platform  500 . The processor(s)  510  execute program instructions stored in the memory system. The memory system  520  may include any combination of conventional memory circuits, including electrical, magnetic or optical memory systems. As shown in  FIG. 5 , the memory system may include read only memories  522 , random access memories  524  and bulk storage  526 . The memory system not only stores the program instructions representing the various methods described herein but also can store the data items on which these methods operate. The I/O unit  530  would permit communication with external devices (not shown).