Bilateral bidding platform for use in bulk sale of items in an electronic marketplace

Abstract

Utilities (e.g., systems, methods, etc.) for facilitating a bilateral bidding process between buyers and sellers of items (services, products, bundles, etc.) to allow buyers to obtain lower prices on the items through crowd bidding while simultaneously allowing sellers to essentially offset such lower prices on the items through increased sales volume of the items. Specifically, the disclosed utilities may make use of a network-based ecommerce system or platform that provides sellers of items access to real-time buyer demand and the optimum price that a plurality of buyers (e.g., customers) are willing to pay that yields increased profits. The disclosed platform also benefits buyers in cases when multiple sellers compete for the then current plurality of buyer demand resulting in a reduced price for the item based on the then real-time demand.

1 - 15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . A method comprising:
 receiving, into a staging register of a computerized bidding system, a plurality of bid objects for a product and/or service from a plurality of potential buyers, wherein each of the plurality of bid objects includes a price object defining an upper limit of a price at which a buyer of the plurality of potential buyers is willing to pay for the product and/or service;   organizing, by a bidding engine of the computerized bidding system, the plurality of bid objects in the staging register, wherein after the organizing the plurality of bid objects in the staging register comprise organized bid objects;   moving, by the bidding engine at the beginning of a bid session, the organized bid objects into an active register of the computerized bidding system;   receiving, by the bidding engine during the bid session, an indication of a particular bid object of the organized bid objects from a potential seller of the product and/or service; and   generating, by the bidding engine at a conclusion of the bid session, an indication of a bid block.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the organizing comprises organizing the plurality of bid objects in the staging register starting with a first bid object having a price object defining a highest price and continuing to at least a second bid object having a price object defining a lowest price. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the bid block includes the particular bid object and at least one other bid object of the organized bid objects having a price object defining a price greater than or equal to a price defined by the price object of the particular bid object. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising removing, from the active register by the bidding engine at the end of the bid session, any organized bid objects of the bid block having a price object defining a price less than a price defined by the particular bid object, wherein after the removing the organized bid objects remaining in the active register comprise remaining bid objects. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  further comprising receiving, by the bidding engine during a subsequent bid session, an indication of another particular bid object of the remaining bid objects. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 19  further comprising generating, by the bidding engine, an indication of a subsequent bid block. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the subsequent bid block includes the another particular bid object and at least one other bid object of the remaining bid objects having a price object defining a price greater than or equal to a price defined by the price object of the another particular bid object. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the bid session occurs for a first predetermined period of time, wherein the subsequent bid session occurs for a second predetermined period of time, and wherein the first and second predetermined periods of time are non-overlapping. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein receiving the plurality of bid objects into the staging register comprises receiving the plurality of bid objects into a bidding pool of the computerized bidding system. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein each bid object of the plurality of bid objects further includes a bid duration object defining a period of time that the bid object is valid in the bidding pool. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25  further comprising identifying any bid objects in the active register at the end of the bid session having expired bid duration objects and that are not in the bid block. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the removing comprises removing the identified bid blocks having expired bid duration objects. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 19  further comprising receiving, into the staging register during the bid session of the active register, a plurality of additional bid objects for the product and/or service. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 28  further comprising moving, by the bidding engine at the beginning of the subsequent bid session, the additional bid objects into the active register. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the receiving includes receiving, by the bidding engine during the bid session, a plurality of indications of a respective plurality of different ones of the bid objects in the active register from a respective plurality of potential sellers of the product and/or service. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising disallowing receipt of bid objects from the staging register into the active register during the bid session. 
     
     
         32 . One or more non-transitory computer readable media having program instructions stored thereon which, when executed by at least one processor, cause a machine to:
 cause a plurality of bid objects for a product and/or service from a plurality of potential buyers to be received into a staging register of a computerized bidding system, wherein each of the plurality of bid objects includes a price object defining an upper limit of a price at which a buyer of the plurality of potential buyers is willing to pay for the product and/or service;   direct a bidding engine of the computerized bidding system to organize the plurality of bid objects in the staging register, wherein after the organizing the plurality of bid objects in the staging register comprise organized bid objects;   direct, at the beginning of a bid session, the bidding engine to move the organized bid objects into an active register of the computerized bidding system;   cause, during the bid session, an indication of a particular bid object of the organized bid objects to be received by the bidding engine from a potential seller of the product and/or service; and   direct the bidding engine to generate an indication of a bid block at the conclusion of the bid session.   
     
     
         33 . The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of  claim 32 , wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the program instructions further cause the machine to direct, at the end of the bid session, the bidding engine to remove from the active register any organized bid objects of the bid block having a price object defining a price less than a price defined by the particular bid object, wherein after being removed from the active register the organized bid objects remaining in the active register comprise remaining bid objects. 
     
     
         34 . A computerized bidding system comprising:
 at least one web server configured to communicate via a network with: a plurality of buyer devices, and at least one seller device;   one or more memory storage devices including: a staging register, and an active register; and   at least one processor communicatively coupled to: the at least one web server, and the one or more memory storage devices, the at least one processor configured to:
 cause a plurality of bid objects for a product and/or service to be received, via the at least one web server, into the staging register from a plurality of potential buyers, wherein each of the plurality of bid objects includes a price object defining an upper limit of a price at which a buyer of the plurality of potential buyers is willing to pay for the product and/or service; 
 direct a bidding engine of the computerized bidding system to organize the plurality of bid objects in the staging register, wherein after the organizing the plurality of bid objects in the staging register comprise organized bid objects; 
 direct, at the beginning of a bid session, the bidding engine to move the organized bid objects into the active register; 
 cause, during the bid session, an indication of a particular bid object of the organized bid objects to be received, via the at least one web server, by the bidding engine from a potential seller of the product and/or service; and 
 direct the bidding engine to generate an indication of a bid block at the conclusion of the bid session. 
   
     
     
         35 . The computerized bidding system of  claim 34 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to remove, from the active register and at the end of the bid session, any organized bid objects of the bid block having a price object defining a price less than a price defined by the particular bid object from the , wherein after being removed from the active register the organized bid objects remaining in the active register comprise remaining bid objects.