Patent ID: 7143057

Claim:
A method of selling articles of manufacture, comprising the steps of: providing an electronic communication system which is available to a plurality of potential purchasers of said articles of manufacture; utilizing said electronic communication system to identify one or more articles of manufacture, from at least one manufacturing entity, which are available for purchase by said plurality of potential purchasers; for selected ones of said one or more articles of manufacture which are available for purchase, identifying pricing milestones in each of a manufacturing phase and a distribution phase, which correspond to a change in commercial risk; through prior arrangements with said at least one manufacturing entity, determining a separate price for each of said pricing milestones to establish a range of prices for said selected ones of said one or more articles of manufacture, taking into account a change in said commercial risk as said pricing milestones are experienced, and providing a changing price to encourage and reward timely commercial commitments and to reduce the commercial risk to said at least one manufacturing entity; utilizing said electronic communication system to make conditional offers of said selected ones of said one or more articles of manufacture for sale to said plurality of potential purchasers at each of said pricing milestones with said separate price, with said conditional offers specifying at least a minimum number of articles which must be ordered in aggregate before the conditional offer becomes binding upon a manufacturing entity; and utilizing said electronic communication system to separately communicate with particular ones of said plurality of potential purchasers and to aggregate commercial commitments from said plurality of potential purchasers for each of said pricing milestones and thereby selling said selected ones of said one or more articles of manufacture; wherein each pricing milestone corresponds to a period of availability in which costs of future supply chain activities or savings related to avoidance of future supply chain activities are reflected in an offer price.