Method and system automatically to price a promotional product

Abstract

A computer-implemented method to price a promotional product includes the generation of a user interface that facilitates input of specification information concerning the promotional product, the specification information including product information identifying a base product to be decorated and decoration manufacturing process information identifying a process whereby a decoration is applied to the base product. The specification information concerning the promotional product is received, and a price for the promotional product is automatically calculated utilizing the product information and the decoration manufacturing process information. The user interface further provides a visual representation of the promotional product having the decoration applied thereto and according to the decoration manufacturing process.

1 . A system to automatically price a promotional product, the system including: 
 a database to store promotional product options; and    a visualization server to:    generate a user interface that facilitates the user-specification of promotional product options pertaining to the promotional product, the promotional product options including product information identifying a base product and decoration manufacturing process information identifying a process whereby a decoration is applied to the base product; and    automatically calculate a price for the promotional product utilizing the product information and the decoration manufacturing process information, wherein the user interface further provides a visual representation of the promotional product having the decoration applied thereto according to the decoration manufacturing process.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the promotional product options include decoration position information identifying a position on the base product to which to apply a decoration, and the visualization server is to automatically calculate the price for the promotional product utilizing the product information, the decoration position information and the decoration manufacturing process information. appended claims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.  
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the promotional product options include decoration appearance information, and wherein the user interface facilitates identification of a decorative image that comprises part of the decoration appearance information.  
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3  wherein the user interface facilitates uploading of the decorative image to the visualization server for storage in the database.  
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 3  wherein the database stores a plurality of decorative images, and the user interface facilitates selection of the decorative image from the plurality of the decorative images stored in the database.  
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the user interface facilitates visual specification of at least the decoration position information.  
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6  wherein the user interface presents a positioning grid to facilitate the visual specification of the decorative position information.  
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the database stores information concerning a plurality of base products, and the user interface presents the plurality of base products and facilitates the user selection of the base product from the plurality of base products.  
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8  wherein the user interface presents a thumbnail image of each of the plurality of base products when presenting the plurality of base products for user selection.  
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the database stores decoration area information in conjunction with product information concerning the base product, the decoration area specifying a size of an area on a surface of the base product to which the decoration may be applied.  
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the visualization server utilizes a decorative image, representative of the decoration to be applied to the base product, to determine a decoration area, and to calculate the price utilizing the decoration area.  
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11  wherein the visualization server identifies a number of occupied pixels within the decorative image occupied by artwork representative of the decoration, and determines the decoration area based on the number of occupied pixels.  
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the visualization server determines a decoration price per unit area for the decoration manufacturing process, and calculates a decoration charge based on the decoration price per unit area.  
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13  wherein the decoration manufacturing process is an embroidery manufacturing process, and the decoration price per unit area is based upon an average number of stitches per unit area.  
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the database stores the decoration price per unit area in conjunction with the product information.  
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the user interface facilitates user specification of a size of the decorative image.  
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the user interface presents a plurality of predetermined size options for the decorative image for user selection to thereby specify the size of the decorative image.  
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16  wherein the user interface displays the decorative image according to a default image size, and facilitates user modification of the default image size.  
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the visualization server determines a unit price based on the product information for the base product to which the decoration is to be applied based, and calculates a unit charge based on the unit price.  
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19  wherein the product information includes any one of a group of product characteristics including product type, product color, and product size.  
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 19  wherein the user interface facilitates the input of quantity information indicating a quantity of the promotional products, and wherein the visualization server calculates the unit price based on the quantity of promotional products.  
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the visualization server calculates a setup charge based on the decoration manufacturing process.  
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 22  wherein the decoration manufacturing process is an embroidery manufacturing process, and the setup charge comprises a digitizing charge for digitization of a decoration image representing the decoration to be applied to the base product.  
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the visualization server calculates a tax charge.  
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the visualization server calculates a shipping charge.  
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the visualization server sums a unit charge based on the base product to which the decoration is to be applied, a decoration charge based on the decoration to be applied to the base product, a setup charge based on the decoration manufacturing process, a tax charge and a shipping charge.  
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 26  wherein the visualization server generates a quote user interface to present the price for the promotional product.  
     
     
         28 . The system of  claim 27  wherein the quote user interface presents the unit charge, the decoration charge, the setup charge, the tax charge and the shipping charge.  
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 27  wherein the quote user interface displays the promotional product options selected by a user via the user interface.  
     
     
         30 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the decoration manufacturing process includes any one of a group of manufacturing processes including an embroidery manufacturing process, a silk-screen manufacturing process, and an engraving manufacturing process.  
     
     
         31 . A system to automatically price a promotional product, the system including: 
 first means for storing promotional product options; and    second means for:    generating a user interface that facilitates the user-specification of promotional product options pertaining to the promotional product, the promotional product options including product information identifying a base product and decoration manufacturing process information identifying a process whereby a decoration is applied to the base product; and    automatically calculating a price for the promotional product utilizing the product information and the decoration manufacturing process information, wherein the user interface further provides a visual representation of the promotional product having the decoration applied thereto according to the decoration manufacturing process.