WO2007065209A1

WO2007065209A1 - Method and system for selling items via a data communications network

Info

Publication number: WO2007065209A1
Application number: PCT/AU2006/001847
Authority: WO
Inventors: Peter John Edwards; Wesley Neil Thornton
Original assignee: Layby Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2005-12-06
Filing date: 2006-12-06
Publication date: 2007-06-14

Abstract

A method and system for selling items via a communications network. A facility is provided via the communications network for a vendor to advertise one or more items for sale. In one form the facility is provided by means of a web server connected to the internet. The vendor specifies, via a vendor interface, a purchase price for each of the items and a range of payment plans is automatically calculated for each item based on the purchase price. Each payment plan allows a customer to pay the purchase price in one or more payments. The range of payment plans for one or more of the items is presented to the customer, via a customer interface, so that the customer can select an item to purchase and select one of the payment plans for the selected item. The invention also provides a method of displaying a shopping cart to the customer as portion of a product display page. The cart is stored on the customer's computer so as to be available for selective viewing within any product display page.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM f OR SELLING ITEMS VIA A DATA

COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to electronic commerce, often referred to as e-commerce. More particularly, the invention concerns a method and system for vendors to sell items, such as products or services, utilizing a data communications network. The invention also concerns a method of displaying a shopping cart in an electronic commerce system. The invention is especially suited to implementation via the internet, and it will therefore be convenient to describe aspects of the invention in relation to that example environment. It should be appreciated however that the invention is not limited to that environment. BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

Communications networks, such as the internet, have been utilized for selling items by individuals posting advertisements to online classified advertisement websites. Generally, items are advertised by placing a picture of the item on a web page, together with a description of the item and a price.

Increasingly, the internet has been used to sell high value items.

Purchasing these high value items, such as jewellery, can be difficult for some consumers as they are required to pay the purchase price at the time of locating the item on the internet. If the consumer does not have the funds available to purchase the item when they locate it, they could delay purchasing until the funds are available. However the risk with this approach is that the item may be sold. It is often the case that items which are advertised on the internet are sold within a relatively short time of the advertisement being placed. Therefore, consumers who do not have the required funds are unable to immediately purchase the items being offered for sale.

Individuals posting items for sale to online classified websites are also limited in their potential market as consumers who do not immediately have funds available are unable to purchase goods. This is particularly so for items offered for sale on a website such as the well-known website E-Bay™. Because consumers have to pay the full purchase price when locating the item, approximately only 20% of the goods advertised on E-Bay™ are sold.

In typical online classified advertisement websites, and other online retail stores, an electronic version of a "shopping cart" is provided. To initiate the purchase of an item a customer locates the item on the relevant page of the web site and clicks on an "Add To Cart" button which is embedded on the web page.

Conventional e-commerce websites that have shopping carts either display a summary shopping cart with a link to the full shopping cart, or display a link only to a shopping cart. To get a full view of their shopping cart using existing websites, a customer must click on the link provided and the website navigates to another web page. This takes the customer away from where products are displayed. To get back to the shopping area, the customer must then navigate back to the sales part of the website.

It would be desirable to provide a method and system which overcomes or improves on at least one of the disadvantages discussed above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect, the present invention provides a method of selling items via a communications network, the method including the steps of: providing a facility via the communications network for a vendor to advertise one or more items for sale;

receiving from the vendor a purchase price for the or each item;

automatically calculating a range of payment plans for the or each item based on the purchase price, wherein each payment plan allows a customer to pay the purchase price in one or more payments;

presenting to the customer the range of payment plans for one or more of the items;

enabling the customer to select one or more of the items to purchase; and enabling the customer to select one of the payment plans for each selected item.

Advantageously, this method allows the customers to select and purchase an advertised item whilst taking advantage of making payments over a period of time. The method may also include the step of receiving from the vendor payment terms. These terms may include such terms as a completion date for the payment plan or, alternatively, the number of payments required to complete the payment plan. Alternatively, the vendor may specify a payment period, such as a specific number of days, for completion of the payment plan.

In a preferred embodiment, the method includes the step of offering the customer the opportunity to purchase the item in a single payment, wherein the single payment may be less than the cost of the total payment plan. For example, a customer may elect to purchase an item immediately for the price of $100.00, or elect to utilize a payment plan of eight weekly payments of $13.00, alternatively two monthly payments of $52.00.

The method may also include the step of allowing the customer to identify a payment method. The payment method may include credit card payments or direct debiting a bank account belonging to the customer. Further, the customer may specify the beginning date of the payment plan. The beginning of the payment plan may be selected from a number of available dates specified.

The method may further include specifying one or more transaction fees for carrying out the purchase. The transaction fees may be calculated based on the payment method specified by the customer.

In a preferred embodiment, the communications network is the internet and the facility includes a web page.

Using this method, the vendor may retain the advertised item until the customer has completed the payment plan. Once full payment has been received, the vendor may arrange delivery of the purchased item.

According to another aspect, the present invention provides an electronic commerce system for selling one or more items, wherein the items are advertised and offered for sale via a communications network, the system including:

a vendor interface enabling a vendor to enter information relating to an item which is for sale, the information including a purchase price;

a server for processing the information relating to the item and automatically calculating a range of payment plans for the item, wherein each payment plan allows a customer to pay the purchase price in one or more payments; and a customer interface enabling a customer to view and select a payment plan for purchasing one or more of the items.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the system server includes a computer such as a web server. The vendor interface accordingly may include one or more software components executing on at least one central processing unit of the computer, the software components including executable instructions to facilitate the calculation of the payment plan. The vendor interface may further include computer input peripherals, such as a keyboard and/or a mouse to enable the vendors to advertise items. The vendor interface may also include suitable interface hardware for interfacing terminals used by the vendor to a communications network to enable vendors to advertise items. For example, in embodiments in which the system includes a web server computer, vendors may advertise items using a standard internet web browser to enter information regarding the item into a form served by the web server and subsequently submitting the information using the web browser back to the server.

Preferably, the server includes one or more software components executing on at last one central processing unit of a computer to process the information received from the vendors to calculate the payment plan.

The customer interface may include a computer display connected to the computer system for displaying both the item information, and the payment plan.

Alternatively, where the system includes a web server computer, the customer interface preferably includes suitable interface hardware for interfacing to a data communications network for serving graphical information, such as web pages, to remotely located computers over the communications network, whereby the information regarding an item is displayed on the remotely located computers using, for example, standard web browsing software.

In an electronic commerce system, a further aspect of the invention provides a method of displaying a shopping cart. The system includes a server connected to a customer computer via a communications network and the method includes the steps of:

transmitting from the server to the customer computer a product display page, said page including information relating to one or more items available for sale, a shopping cart containing information relating to one or more items selected for purchase and control icons associated with the shopping cart;

displaying on the customer computer the product display page, including the information relating to the items available for sale, the shopping cart and the control icons, wherein the shopping cart is shown within a portion of the product display page;

storing on the customer computer the shopping cart;

enabling a customer to hide the shopping cart using the control icons, such that the shopping cart is stored but not visible on the customer computer; and enabling the customer to view the stored shopping cart using the control icons, without the customer computer requesting data from the server.

In this context it should be understood that the term "product" may also include a service or any other item which might be available for sale.

Preferably the communications network includes the internet and the server includes a web server. The product display page would then be a web page served by the web server to the customer computer.

With this method the inventors have developed a way of displaying a shopping cart without taking the customer away from the main shopping site. When a customer adds an item to their cart, they can then navigate to any other area of the website, in a web environment, but can readily view their cart at any time by simply clicking on a "View Cart" control icon. This does not take them away from the current page they are in and does not require the website to refresh the page to show the cart. The cart is part of the current page.

Preferably the method also includes steps of:

transmitting from the server to the customer computer a control script associated with the control icons, wherein the control script enables the customer to hide or view the shopping cart; and

storing the control script together with the shopping cart on the customer computer, such that the shopping cart is available for selective viewing within other product display pages.

The preferred method is thus achieved through "client-side scripting" in which static code and values are temporarily stored in a memory buffer area on the customer's- computer. In this way, the information is available only for the length of time that the customer is connected to the website in that particular session, or if the customer empties the cart during that session.

In one embodiment of the method, some of the updateable fields in the shopping cart may require interaction with the server however, but the collection of server-side information may be achieved dynamically without requiring page refreshes by using web services.

According to a further aspect, the present invention provides an electronic commerce system for selling one or more items via a communications network, the system including:

a server configured to transmit via the communications network a product display page, said page including information relating to one or more items available for sale, a shopping cart containing information relating to one or more items selected for purchase and control icons associated with the shopping cart; and

a customer computer configured to receive and display the product display page, including the information relating to items available for sale, the shopping cart and the control icons, wherein the shopping cart is shown within a portion of the product display page;

the customer computer also being configured to store the shopping cart, whereby:

a customer can hide the shopping cart using the control icons, such that the shopping cart is stored on the customer computer but is not visible, and

the customer can view the stored shopping cart using the control icons, without the customer computer requiring data from the server.

Yet another aspect of the present invention provides a tangible computer program product including computer executable program code for implementing the steps of the methods described above.

Further preferred features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, which should not be considered to be limiting of the scope of the invention as defined in any of the preceding statements, or in any claims appended hereto. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now. be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the system for selling an item, such as a product or service, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating steps in a method for selling an item according to a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating steps for selecting and purchasing an item as shown in step 209 of Figure 2 according to a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Figures 4 to 8 are screen shots illustrating a web based component in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Figure 9 is a flow chart illustrating steps for advertising an item as shown in steps 201 and 203 of Figure 2 according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; and

Figure 10 is flow chart illustrating steps for selecting and purchasing an item as shown in step 211 of Figure 2 according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method and system for selling an item is provided. A schematic diagram of an exemplary system 100 is illustrated in Figure 1. The system 100 includes a central server 102, which in a preferred embodiment is a computer or computer system including one or more central processing units upon which computer executable instruction code is run to affect the necessary process steps for implementing the preferred method and system for selling an item.

The computer system used in implementing central server 102 may be a stand alone computer having various input and output peripherals for entering item information and calculating a payment plan. However, according to a particularly preferred embodiment the central server 102 includes web server functionality enabling the system to be operated by providing input and receiving output using remote computers with conventional web browser software for accessing the central server 102 via an intermediate data communications network such as the internet.

The central server 102 is connected to a communications network, in the form of the internet 112. Similarly, remote customer computers 103, 104 and 105 are also connected to the internet 112. It will be appreciated that the customer computers may be placed at any location. The customer computer 105 includes a screen and input peripherals in the form of a keyboard 107 and a mouse 106. It will also be appreciated that the customer computers 104 and 103 also include input peripherals.

The operation of system 100 illustrated in Figure 1 may be understood by reference to the exemplary flow chart 200 shown in Figure 2. The flow chart 200 illustrates the main steps involved in the operation of the system 100 for selling an item in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention. The operation of the exemplary system 100 is therefore described in greater detail below with reference to both Figure 1 and Figure 2.

Figure 2 shows flowchart 200 which outlines the preferred steps in the selling process. At step 201 , initial contact is made between the vendor who has items to sell and a facility such as a website for selling the items. At step 203, the vendor advertises the item on the website by providing information regarding the item. The information includes the selling price of the item and either a sale completion date or a number of days for payment that the vendor will allow for payment to be received.

Once the vendor has entered the price and other relevant information, the system shown in Figure 1 calculates a range of payment plans. The payment plans may include a single payment (which may be less than the total payment made when compared to a payment plan extending over a number of weeks or months), weekly payments or monthly payments. For example, a customer may elect to purchase an item immediately for the price of $100.00, or elect to utilize a payment plan of eight weekly payments of $13.00, alternatively two monthly payments of $52.00. It will be appreciated that the payment plans may extend over any number of weeks or months as specified by the vendor.

The item is posted to the website at step 207. All of the relevant item information is included on a webpage. The information may include a photograph of the item or items which are to be sold, a written description of the items, and a brief description of the payment plans.

At step 209, a customer selects an item to purchase, payment frequency and preferred start date. Payment plan options are calculated and the customer selects a preferred payment plan for payment of the purchase price. At that time, the customer also selects a payment method, for example, the payments may be made by debits from a credit card or bank account, and a date for the payment plan to begin.

Once the customer has finalised the purchase details, a transaction fee may be applied to the item. The transaction fee may be calculated based on the payment method specified by the customer. For example, a fee of $1.00 may be applied to direct debits from bank accounts, and a fee of $3.00 may be applied to credit card purchases. The fee may also be a percentage of the item price.

At step 211 , a customer begins making the payments on the date specified in step 209. The payment may be the total purchase price, in which case the customer may pay less for the item than if selecting a payment plan. In this case, the payment is complete at step 213. Alternatively, if a payment plan is selected, the customer continues to make payments at step 211 until the payment is complete.

The vendor retains the advertised item until the customer has completed payment of the purchase price via the payment plan at step 213. Once full payment has been received, the vendor arranges delivery of the purchased item at step 215.

Figure 3 shows a flow chart 300 of the steps involved in a customer selecting and purchasing an item. At step 301 , a customer opens a web page which displays items for sale within a product display page. The customer is able to navigate through the web site and select a product display page of interest at step 303. The page automatically refreshes at step 305. If a customer selects and adds an item to the shopping cart at 307, the page refreshes at step 309 and the customer's shopping cart is displayed as part of the product display page (i.e. in the same window) at step 313. If the customer does not add an item to their shopping cart at step 307, the customer remains on that web page and the flow returns to step 301. After the customer has added an item to their cart at step 307 and the cart has been displayed at step 313, the customer can simply resume their shopping because the cart and available products for sale are displayed together on the same web page. Steps 315, 317 and 319 follow the shopping sequence as described above with reference to steps 303, 305 and 307.

At step 321 , the customer can select to view or hide the shopping cart. This is achieved using control icons in the form of "Hide Cart" and "View Cart" buttons. Once viewing the shopping cart, the customer can elect to remove an item from the cart at step 323. If an item is removed, the page automatically refreshes at step 325. If the customer has an. item in their shopping cart at step 327, the shopper is returned to step 313. Otherwise, the customer can continue browsing and shopping at step 301.

Thus, when a customer adds an item to their cart, they can then navigate to any other area of the website but can readily view their cart at any time by simply clicking on a "View Cart" control icon. This does not take them away from the current page they are in and does not require the website to refresh the page to show the cart. The cart is part of the current page.

To implement this functionality, the shopping cart is stored on the customer's computer together with control script. The control script enables the cart to be selectively viewed by the customer at any time. The shopping cart thus stays with the customer as he/she "travels" around the web site. This functionality of the cart is effectively an electronic commerce, or virtual world, equivalent of having a physical shopping cart with you as you travel around a retail store in the real world.

The control script is implemented through what is commonly referred to as

"client-side scripting", in which static code and values are temporarily stored in a memory buffer area on the customer's computer. In this way, the information is available for the length of time that the customer is connected to the website in that particular session, or if the customer empties the cart during that session.

Whilst some updateable fields in the shopping cart may require interaction with the server, the collection of server-side information may be achieved dynamically without requiring page refreshes by using web services. It is considered that web services are well known by those skilled in the art and need not therefore be explained herein in detail.

In an internet environment the functionality of the shopping cart can be observed by noting that the URL does not change when a customer views their cart. With other known websites, clicking on the shopping cart icon or link initiates a page refresh and takes the customer to a different URL. To get back to where they were initiates another page refresh and a URL change. Clearly this is less convenient that the shopping cart display method of the preferred embodiment which is instantly accessible by the customer at any time and whilst on any page of the web site.

Figure 4 shows a screen shot according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. This screen will be seen by a customer who is searching for items to purchase via the internet. Reference numeral 400 shows the screen shot including a search and navigation bar 402 in which customers may search for particular categories or product names. The search and navigation bar 402 is disposed at the top of the screen, providing the advantage of leaving more of the screen to view items. At 404 and 406 there is shown two featured products. Vendors may select to have the items they are selling advertised in the "Featured Product" section of the page by paying a premium amount to the website administrator. The number of items which may be featured products is limited, thereby providing vendors with the maximum amount of advertising space.

If an item is a featured product, the vendor is able to display a picture of the item at 406a and a list price for the item at 406b. The system shown in Figure 1 automatically calculates a "purchase now" price shown at 406c, a per week price shown at 406d and at 406e, a per month price. The customer may find more detailed information regarding the item by clicking the link at 406a. The customer may also receive more detailed information by clicking on the name of the product.

Figure 5 shows a screen shot 500 after a customer has searched for a product category. In this case, the category selected is costume jewellery. An item is displayed at 501 including a title at 502, a list price at 504 and a "Buy Now" price at 506. If the customer elects to make a single payment, the customer can make a saving of $3.00. The payment plans are listed at 508, 510 and 512 respectively. The per week price at 510 and per month price at 512 are formed from the list price at 504.

The screen shot 600 of Figure 6 is a pop-up window which is displayed after the customer selects an item from the screen shot 800 in Figure 8. The title of the item is shown at 602, and a total price (the list price in Figure 5) is shown at 604. At 610, the customer selects a payment frequency and at 612 selects a bank account to be debited. Following the customer's selection of a payment frequency, a payment plan is generated and the customer is able to select from a number of payment plans including those shown at 606, 607 and 608. The customer is also able to select the beginning of the payment plan at 614.

The transaction fee is specified at 616 and included in the payment plan when the customer adds the item to their shopping cart through the "Add to Cart" button 617. If the customer has mistakenly selected this item, they may return to screen shot 800 by selecting the "Back" button 618 or by selecting the screen 800 itself.

Figure 7 shows the customer's shopping cart in screen shot 700. The shopping cart 702 is displayed in a portion of the same window and includes a title 704, list price 706, quantity selection 707, total product (item) cost 709 and colour selection 708. The customer is able to select payment options from the list shown at 712. The payment options 712 include selecting to use a payment plan at 714, selecting an account to debit at 716 and selecting the particular payment plan at 718. The customer can select to hide the shopping cart using the Hide Cart control button at 720, or proceed to the checkout by selecting button 722.

Figure 8 shows screen shot 800 which appears after the customer has selected the Hide Cart button 720 in Figure 7. In this screen, the vendor's details may be seen at 804 including their name, and at 806 an email contact. At 808, the customer has the opportunity to provide feedback to the vendor in the form of a rating. Finally, a View Cart control button is provided at 802, whereby the customer may choose to view their shopping cart at any time.

In Figure 9, steps 201 to 207 of Figure 2 are shown in more detail in flowchart 900. At step 901 the vendor logs into an administration server in order to advertise an item on the website at step 903. In order for a vendor to advertise the item, the vendor first must include at step 903a the item information, such as the category of the item. The vendor must then specify if the sale is to be online or offline at step 903b. If the sale is to be online (i.e. "yes"), the price and sale completion date, or number of days allowed for payment, are entered at steps 903c and 903d respectively, followed by the frequency of payments at step 903e. If the sale is not online (i.e. "no") at step 903b, the vendor simply sets the price of the product at step 903f. Finally, an image of the item may be added at step 903g. After the vendor has advertised an item at step 903, the item is displayed to the website at step 905.

In Figure 10, steps 209 to 213 of Figure 2 are shown in more detail. The flowchart 1000 of Figure 10 begins at step 1001 with a customer browsing the website on which the items are advertised. When the customer finds an item of interest at step 1003, it may be added to their shopping cart at step 1005. If the item is added to the shopping cart, it is necessary for the customer to establish a payment plan at step 1007. This includes selecting a preferred frequency at step 1007a, selecting an account to debit at step 1007b, selecting a preferred beginning for the debiting at step 1007c and selecting a preferred payment plan at step 1007d. Once the customer has completed their shopping, they may proceed to the checkout at step 1009 and confirm their purchase at step 1013.

Alternatively, the customer may establish a payment plan before adding the item selected at step 1003 to their shopping cart. In this instance, the customer elects to set up a payment plan at step 1011 , and proceeds through steps 1007a, 1007b, 1007c and 1007d before selecting an item to purchase.

It will be appreciated that variations, modifications and equivalents will be apparent to persons of skill in the art, and these should be understood to also fall within the spirit of the present invention and within the scope of the appended claims

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method of selling items via a communications network, the method including the steps of:

providing a facility via the communications network for a vendor to advertise one or more items for sale;

receiving from the vendor a purchase price for the or each item;

2. The method of claim 1 further including the step of receiving from the vendor payment terms, wherein the payment terms include a payment period and/or a number of payments and/or a completion date for the payment plan.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the payment terms including an option of a single payment.

4. The method of any one of the preceding claims further including the step of specifying a beginning date of the payment plan.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the beginning date of the payment plan is selectable by the customer from a number or range of available dates.

6. The method of any one of the preceding claims further including the step of enabling the customer to specify a payment method.

7. The method of any one of the preceding claims further including the step specifying one or more transaction fees for carrying out the purchase.

8. The method of claim 7 when appended to claim 6 wherein the transaction fees are calculated based on the payment method specified by the customer.

9. The method of any one of the preceding claims and further including the step of receiving from the customer periodic payments corresponding to the selected payment plan.

10. The method of any one of the preceding claims wherein the communications network includes the internet and the facility includes a web page.

11. An electronic commerce system for selling one or more items, wherein the items are advertised and offered for sale via a communications network, the system including:

a server for processing the information relating to the item and automatically calculating a range of payment plans for the item, wherein each payment plan allows a customer to pay the purchase price in one or more payments; and

a customer interface enabling a customer to view and select a payment plan for purchasing one or more of the items.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the information relating to the item includes payment terms, the payment terms including a payment period and/or a number of payments and/or a completion date for the payment plan.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the payment terms including an option of a single payment.

14. The system of any one of claims 11 to 13 wherein the customer interface enables the customer to specify a beginning date of the payment plan.

15. The system of any one of claims 11 to 14 wherein the customer interface enables the customer to specify a payment method.

16. The system of any one of 11 to 15 wherein the communications network includes the internet and the server includes a web server.

17. In an electronic commerce system, a method of displaying a shopping cart, the system including a server connected to a customer computer via a communications network, the method including the steps of:

storing on the customer computer the shopping cart;

18. The method of claim 17 further including the step of :

19. The system of claim 17 or 18 wherein the communications_, network includes the internet and the server includes a web server.

20. An electronic commerce system for selling one or more items via a communications network, the system including:

21. The system on claim 20 further including control script associated with the control icons which enables the customer to hide or view the shopping cart as desired, the control script being stored on the customer computer together with the shopping cart such that the shopping cart is available for selective viewing within other product display pages.

22. The system of claim 20 or 21 wherein the communications network includes the internet and the server includes a web server.