e-COMMERCE VOLUME PRICING

Abstract

A system and method that facilitates e-commerce volume pricing is provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, the system includes an offers and orders component that receives and aggregates orders for a product from a plurality of buyers. The system also includes a logistics component that determines a shipping price for the product for a subset of the plurality of buyers. The shipping price is determined at least in part upon the subset of buyers sharing a shipping method. According to another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided in which buyers within an aggregated purchasing group may be subject to different pricing structures for the same product.

1 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having embodied thereon instructions executable by a processor to:
 obtain consent from at least one merchant to market at least one product or service at a discounted price that is less than a standard price for the at least one product or service offered by the at least one merchant;   construct a set of offers including at least one offer related to the at least one product or service available for purchase at the discounted price;   determine at least one interested party for receipt of the at least one offer related to the at least one product or service from the set of offers;   deliver an advertisement including the at least one offer from the set of offers to the at least one interested party on a predetermined schedule;   receive orders for the at least one product or service from the at least one interested party following receipt of the advertisement by the at least one interested party;   ensure the at least one interested party accepts a set of terms and conditions associated with the at least one offer prior to accepting an order for the at least one offer from the at least one interested party, wherein the set of terms and conditions includes an indication that the discounted price is contingent upon a minimum quantity of orders for the product or service being received prior to a specified time.   
     
     
         2 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 1 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to construct an offer included in the set of offers based upon information received from the at least one merchant of the product or service. 
     
     
         3 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 2 , wherein the information received from the at least one merchant is obtained from an inventory level. 
     
     
         4 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one interested party is a customer who purchases the at least one product or service. 
     
     
         5 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 1 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to deliver the advertisement by way of an email. 
     
     
         6 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 1 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to deliver the advertisement to the at least one interested party based upon at least one delivery setting. 
     
     
         7 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 6 , wherein the at least one delivery setting relates to a frequency of the predetermined schedule. 
     
     
         8 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 6 , wherein the at least one delivery setting relates to a product or service type associated with product or service. 
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 6 , wherein the at least one delivery setting relates to a particular merchant of the product or service. 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 1 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to include an additional incentive for the at least one interested party, wherein the additional incentive is contingent on endorsement activity associated with the at least one offer. 
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 10 , wherein the endorsement activity relates to sharing the at least one offer with one or more prospective customers. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 10 , wherein the endorsement activity relates to referring one or more prospective customers to the advertisement. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 10 , wherein the endorsement activity relates to a purchase of the at least one product or service by a prospective customer that results at least in part from the endorsement activity. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 1 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to construct a customer profile associated with the at least one interested party. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 14 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to update the customer profile in response to a transaction history associated with the at least one interested party. 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 15 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to update the customer profile in response to input from the at least one interested party. 
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein the customer profile determines the at least one interested party to receive the advertisement. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 1 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to maintain a merchant profile associated with the at least one merchant. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 18 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to update the merchant profile in response to customer feedback. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 1 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to construct the set of offers in response to input received from the at least one merchant. 
     
     
         21 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 1 , further comprising instructions executable by a processor to determine the set of terms and conditions in response to input received from the at least one merchant. 
     
     
         22 . A method, comprising:
 receiving authorization from at least one merchant to advertise at least one product or service at a discounted price below a standard price for the product or service otherwise advertised by the at least one merchant, the authorization received via a communications interface communicatively coupled to a communications network;   creating a set of offers including the at least one product or service available for purchase at the discounted price;   determining at least one interested party for receipt of the at least one offer by executing instructions stored in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium;   transmitting at least one advertisement to the at least one interested party based upon a predetermined schedule, the at least one advertisement comprising the at least one offer, the offer transmitted over the communications network by way of the communications interface;   receiving an offer to purchase for the at least product or service from the at least one interested party in response to the at least one advertisement, the response received via the communications interface; and   accepting the offer to purchase when the at least one interested party accepts a set of terms and conditions for an associated offer, wherein the set of terms and conditions includes that the discounted price is conditioned upon purchase volume for the at least one product or service surpassing a predetermined threshold prior to a specified time.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising creating at least one advertisement based upon information received from the at least one merchant. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising transmitting the at least one advertisement as an email. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the transmitting the at least one advertisement is further based upon at least one delivery setting associated with a category type of the at least one product or service. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the transmitting at least one advertisement is further based upon at least one delivery setting associated with a particular merchant of the product or service. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the transmitting at least one advertisement is further based upon at least one delivery setting associated with an extra incentive in addition to the discounted price. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the extra incentive and the discounted price are both contingent upon endorsement activity associated with the at least one offer. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising determining the set of terms and conditions in response to input received from the at least one merchant. 
     
     
         30 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores instructions executable by a processor to:
 acquire authorization from at least one merchant to advertise at least one product or service at a discounted price that is below a standard price for the product or service advertised by the at least one merchant;   create a set of offers in which an offer included in the set of offers relates to the at least one product or service available for purchase at the discounted price;   determine at least one interested party for receipt of at least one offer from the set of offers based upon a preference associated with the at least one interested party;   transmit at least one advertisement according to a daily transmission schedule to the at least one interested party, the at least one advertisement comprising the at least one offer from the set of offers;   receive, in response to the at least one advertisement, at least one order for the at least one product or service from the at least one interested party;   reject the at least one order when at least one interested party does not accept a set of terms and conditions for an associated offer, wherein the set of terms and conditions provides at least in part that the discounted price is conditioned upon order volume for the at least one product or service surpassing a predetermined threshold prior to a specified time.   
     
     
         31 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 30 , wherein the preference relates to a type of offer to receive. 
     
     
         32 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 30 , wherein the preference relates to a type of product or service for which to receive offers.