Field of the Invention

[001] The present invention relates to online auction systems and in particular to a system, application server and computer readable storage medium for selecting a winning bidder from bidder participation data in accordance with bid data.

Background

[002] According to the traditional e-commerce auction models implemented by auction systems such as the e-Bay™ auction model, a plurality of bidders each place bids on an item for auction. The auction is set to run for a predetermined period and at the end of the predetermined period the auction system awards the auction item to the bidder who placed the higher bid amount.

[003] However, existing e-commerce auction platforms suffer from the

disadvantage of auction items sometimes being awarded for amounts greater than their retail value or market value. Furthermore, even where the auction item is awarded for less than the retail or market value the discounts available using the auction process is not substantial.

[004] Furthermore, existing auction platforms conduct auctions for specific items which naturally limits the number of participants participating in the auction to those interested in a specific e-commerce item. The need exists for an e-commerce auction platform allowing multiple bidders to participate in an auction despite these multipie bidders been interested in differing items.

[005] Furthermore, existing auction platforms conduct auctions for specific e- commerce items posted by the auction platform and therefore limit their participants to conducting e-commerce transactions only on their e-commerce auction platform. A need therefore exists for an e-commerce auction platform allowing participants to purchase e- commerce items from a plurality of third-party e-commerce platforms,

[006] It is to be understood that, if any prior art information is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the information forms part of the common genera! knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.

Summary

[007] The invention seeks to provide a system, application server and computer readable storage medium for selecting a winning bidder from bidder participation data in

accordance with bid data which wil! overcome or substantially ameliorate at !east some of the deficiencies of the prior art, or to at least provide an alternative.

[OOejAccording to one aspect, there is provided a system for allocating e-commerce credit to a user account, the system comprising a network for transmitting digital data; a plurality of client computing devices in operable communication with the network, the plurality of client computing devices each adapted for receiving e-commerce credit bids from respective users; an e-commerce server in operable communication with the network, the e-commerce server comprising a database adapted for storing a first user account data representing a first user account associated with a first user and second user accounts data representing a second user account associated with a second user; and a memory device for storing digital data including computer program code, wherein the application server is controlled by the computer program code to send, to first and second bidder client computing devices of the plurality of client computing devices associated with the first and second user accounts respectively, e-commerce credit auction data representing an e-commerce credit auction for an e-commerce credit amount; receive, from the first bidder client computing device, first bidder data representing a first bid amount for the e-commerce credit amount; receive, from the second bidder client computing device, second bidder data representing a second bid amount for a the e-commerce credit, the second bid amount being greater than the first bid amount; and allocate, in the database, the e-commerce credit amount in relation to the second user account

[009] Upon receipt of each of the first bidder data and second bidder data, the e- commerce server may be further controlled by the computer program code to facilitate a financial transaction for a participation fee amount for each of the first user account and the second user account

[010]The e-commerce server may be further controlled by the computer program code to calculate the participation fee amount

[011]The e-commerce server may be further controlled by the computer program code to calculate the participation fee amount at least in accordance with the e-commerce credit amount.

[012] Upon facilitating the financial transaction for the participation fee, the e-commerce server may be further control ied by the computer program code to increment a participation fee sum amount by the participation fee; and determine if the participation fee sum amount exceeds a threshold amount. [013]The e-commerce server may be adapted to calculate the threshold amount at least in accordance with the e-commerce credit amount.

[014] Upon determining that the participation fee sum amount exceeds the threshold amount, the e-commerce server may be further controlled by the computer program code to allocate the e-commerce credit amount in relation to the second user account.

[015] In allocating, in the database, the e-commerce credit amount in relation to the second user account, the e-commerce may be further controlled by the computer program code to allocate the e-commerce credit amount in relation to the second user account in accordance with the participation fee amount paid by the second user.

[016]The e-commerce server may be further controlled by the computer program code to allocate the sum of the e-commerce credit amount and the participation fee amount in relation to the second user account,

[017JThe e-commerce server may be further controlled to facilitate an e-commerce transaction in relation to the first user account for an e-commerce transaction amount, wherein the e-commerce server is adapted to decrement the e-commerce transaction amount by the participation fee paid by the first user.

[018]Other aspects of the inventio are also disclosed.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[019] otwithstanding any other forms which may fall within the scope of the present invention, preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

[020] Fig. 1 shows a system for allocating e-commerce credit to a user account in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

[021] Fig. 2 shows a computing device for allocating e-commerce credit to a user account in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

[022] Figs. 3 to 5 show exemplary graphical user interfaces for use in allocating e- commerce credit to a user account in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of Embodiments

[023] It should be noted in the following description that like or the same reference numerals in different embodiments denote the same or similar features. System 100 of computing devices

[024] Fig. 1 shows a system 100 of computing devices adapted for allocating e- commerce credit to user accounts.

[Q25JAs will be described in further detail below, the system 100, while being adapted for providing traditional e-commerce selling of goods and services online, the system 100 is distinguished in being further adapted when allocating e-commerce credit to user account in accordance with an e-commerce credit auction process. Specifically, and as wii! be described in further detail below, the system 100 allows users to enter an e- commerce auction process for e-commerce credit wherein, if successful, the successful user is able to utilise the e-commerce credit to purchase items through the e-commerce system as opposed to having to use a credit card or other traditional forms of payment.

[026] As such, the system 100 comprises an e-commerce server 1 0 for serving web pages to one or more client computing devices 120 over the Internet 130. it should be noted that the e-commerce server 110 may be adapted for performing both the functions of traditional e-commeree processing and the allocation of e-commerce credit to a user account, in this manner, a user may interact with the e-commerce server 1 10 to participate in the above-mentioned e-commerce credit auction and if successful, utilise the allocated e-commerce credit for the purchase of an item available for purchase from the same e-commerce server 110. However, it should be noted that in other embodiments, the e-commerce server 110 may serve the purposes of allocating the e-commerce credit only wherein users may utilise any allocated e-commerce credit for the purpose of purchasing items from other e-commerce service 110.

[027] In a preferred embodiment, the e-commerce server 110 is a web server having a web server application 140 for receiving requests, such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) requests, and serving hypertext web pages or files in response. The web server application 140 may be, for example the Apache™ or the Microsoft ^m IIS HTTP server.

[028]The e-commerce server 1 10 is also provided with a hypertext preprocessor 150 for processing one or more web page templates 160 and data from one or more databases 170 to generate hypertext web pages. The hypertext preprocessor may, for example, be the PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) or Microsoft Asp™ hypertext preprocessor. The web server 110 is also provided with web page templates 160, such as one or more PHP or ASP files.

[029] Upon receiving a request from the web server application 140, the hypertext preprocessor 160 is operable to retrieve a web page template, from the web page templates 160, execute any dynamic content therein, including updating or loading information from the one or more databases 170, to compose a hypertext web page. The composed hypertext web page may comprise client side code, such as Javascript, for Document Object Model (DOM) manipulating, asynchronous HTTP requests and the like.

[OSOJThe database 170 is adapted for storing user account data representing one or more user accounts for users. Such user account data is created by the e-commerce server 110 during the user registration process. In this manner, when allocating the e- commerce credit as will be described in further detail below, the e-commerce server 1 10 is adapted to update the user account data in relation to the appropriate user account.

[031] Client computing devices 120 are provided with a browser application 180, such as the Mozi!la Firefox™ or Microsoft Internet Explorer™ browser applications. The browser application 180 requests hypertext web pages from the web server 110 and renders the hypertext web pages on a display device 1020.

Computing device

[032] Fig. 2 shows a computing device 200. in a preferred embodiment, the computing device 200 takes the form of the e-commerce server 1 10 as described above. In this manner, the computing device 200 is adapted to comprise functionality for communication with the internet 130, storage capability {such as the database 170) for storing user account data and the like.

[033] However, it should be noted that the computing device 200 ma be adapted for use as the client computing devices 120 is also shown in figure 1 In this manner, the computing device may comprise differing technical integers, such as the display device 2020, human interface 260 and the like, in other words, the technical integers of the computing device 200 is shown in figure 2 are exemplary only and variations, adaptations and the like may be made thereto within the purposive scope of the embodiments described herein and having regard for the particular application of the computing device 200.

[034] In particular the steps of the method for allocating e-commerce credit to a user account, as described in further detail below, may be implemented as computer program code instructions executable by the computing device 200. The computer program code instructions may be divided into one or more computer program code instruction libraries, such as dynamic iink libraries (DLL), wherein each of the libraries performs a one or more steps of the method. Additionally, a subset of the one or more of the libraries may perform graphical user interface tasks relating to the steps of the method.

[035]The device 200 comprises semiconductor memory 210 comprising volatile memory such as random access memory (RAM) or read only memory (ROM). The memory 200 may comprise either RAM or ROM or a combination of RAM and ROM.

[Q36]The device 200 comprises a compute program code storage medium reader 230 for reading the computer program code instructions from computer program code storage media 220. The storage media 220 may be optical media such as CD-ROM disks, magnetic media such as floppy disks and tape cassettes or flash media such as USB memory sticks.

[037] The device further comprises I/O interface 240 for communicating with one or more peripheral devices. The I/O interface 240 may offer both serial and parallel interface connectivity. For example, the I/O interface 240 may comprise a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), Universal Serial Bus (USB) or similar I/O interface for interfacing with the storage medium reader 230. The I/O interface 240 may also communicate with one or more human input devices (HID) 260 such as keyboards, pointing devices, joysticks and the like. The I/O interface 240 may also comprise a computer to computer interface, such as a Recommended Standard 232 (RS-232) interface, for interfacing the device 200 with one or more personal computer (PC) devices 290. The I/O interface 240 may also comprise an audio interface for communicate audio signals to one or more audio devices 2050, such as a speaker or a buzzer.

[038]The device 200 also comprises a network interface 270 for communicating with one or more computer networks 280. The network 280 may be a wired network, such as a wired Ethernet™ network or a wireless network, such as a Bluetooth™ network or IEEE 802.1 1 network. The network 280 may be a local area network (LAN), such as a home or office computer network, or a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet or private WAN.

[039]The device 200 comprises an arithmetic logic unit or processor 2000 for performing the computer program code instructions. The processor 2000 may be a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) or complex instruction set computer (CISC) processor or the like. The device 200 further comprises a storage device 2030, such as a magnetic disk hard drive or a solid state disk drive.

[040]Computer program code instructions may be loaded into the storage device 2030 from the storage media 220 using the storage medium reader 230 or from the network 280 using network interface 270. During the bootstrap phase, an operating system and one or more software applications are ioaded from the storage device 2030 into the memory 210. During the fetch -decode- execute cycle, the processor 2000 fetches computer program code instructions from memory 210, decodes the instructions into machine code, executes the instructions and stores one or more intermediate results in memory 200.

[041]irt this manner, the instructions stored in the memory 210, when retrieved and executed by the processor 2000, may configur the computing device 200 as a special- purpose machine that may perform the functions described herein.

[042]The device 200 also comprises a video interface 2010 for conveying video signals to a display device 2020, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), cathode-ray tube (CRT) or similar display device.

[043JThe device 200 also comprises a communication bus subsystem 250 for interconnecting the various devices described above. The bus subsystem 250 may offer parallel connectivity such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), conventional Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) and the like or serial connectivity such as PCI Express (PCIe), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial ATA) and the like.

Allocating e-commerce credit to a user account

[044] There will now be described in exemplary method showing how the above- mentioned system 100 and various computing devices 200 are adapted for allocating e- commerce credit to user accounts in accordance with an e-commerce credit auction process, with reference to the exemplary graphical user interfaces as substantially shown in figures 3 and 4. It should be noted that the ensuing method is exemplary only and that no limitations should necessarily be imputed to the embodiments described herein accordingly.

[045]The method employs the use of the e-commerce server 1 10 and at least two client computing devices 120 in the process of ailocating e-commerce credit to a user account.

[046]Specifical!y, the database 170 of the e-commerce server 10 is adapted for storing user account data such that users, using their client computing devices 120, May authenticate and otherwise transact with the e-commerce server 110.

[047] For the purposes of convenience, the method described below will make use of to users named as the first user and the second user. In this manner, the e-commerce server 110 database 170 may comprise user accounts data corresponding to the first user and the second user. Such user account data would have been populated within the database 170 during the registration process performed by each of the first user and the second user.

[048]The method starts where a first user wishes to purchase an item from an e- commerce platform. As affuded to above, the e-commerce platform may be implemented by the e-commerce server 1 0 by a third party e-commerce server 1 10 as also alluded to above.

[049]Specificaiiy, referring to figure 3, there is shown an exemplary graphical user interface 300 where the first user wishes to buy a digital camera for $100.

[O50]Generaily, the first user would have authenticated with the e-commerce server 110 such as by providing authentication credentials or the like such that the e-commerce server 110 may retrieve the account details for the first user from the database 170.

[051 JAs is apparent, the camera costs $100. Now, the user may utilise the "buy now" button 305 to purchase the camera in the traditional manner, in this manner, the user may utilise the button 305 to be taken through checkout procedure wherein, for example, the first user may utilise a credit card or the like to purchase the camera for $100.

[052] However, as alluded to above, the system 100 is distinguished in offering users the ability to participate in auctions for e-commerce credit such that any credit won by a user may subsequently be used for purchasing e-commerce items. Such auctions for e- commerce credit provide advantages in allowing users to purchase items at heavily discounted rates when compared to paying the recommended retail price.

[053]As such, the first user, probably realising that the first user doesn't wish to spend $100 for the camera may elect to utilise the "bid for credit" button 110 so as to attempt to obtain $100 of e-commerce credit which may be used for the purposes of purchasing the camera.

[054]As is also apparent from the exemplary interface 300, the user accounts data associated with the first user represents that the first user already has $63 in credit which may be utilised for the purposes of purchasing e-commerce items. In this manner, the first user may utilise such existing credit to purchase the camera 100 such that the first user would need only deduct a further $37 from the first user's credit card.

[055] ow, the first user having elected to bid for credit may be presented, by the client computing device 120 display device 2020 the exemplary graphical user interface 400 as substantially shown in figure 4.

[056]As will be described in further detail below, the interface 400 allows the first user to place a bid for the e-commerce credit amount of $100. It should be noted that the e- commerce credit amount available for auction may correlate to the value of the camera. However, in other embodiments the user may configure the e-commerce credit amount or at least select from a set of e-commerce credit amounts available for auction by the e-commerce server 110. As alluded to in the background section above, by conducting an auction process for an e-commerce credit amount greatly increases the potential participants for the auction as compared to traditional item specific auctions wherein the only participants for these item specific auctions of those participants interested in the specific item of the auction.

[057]Now, as alluded to above, in differing embodiments the e-commerce server 1 10 may be adapted to perform both the functionality of the e-commerce auction and the e- commerce purchase process. Alternatively, the e-commerce server 110 may be adapted for allocating e-commerce credit for use by third party e-commerce servers, [058] in the first embodiment, and as is apparent from the exemplary interface 400, the graphical user interface 400 is served by the e-commerce server 110 at a first domain, given as ontatl.com. Now, retailers wishing to vend items may configure an account with the e-commerce server 110 such that the e-commerce server 110 is adapted to serve a subdomain on the onfail.com domain related to the particular vendor, given here as the To s4u subdomain.

[059] For the second embodiment, where the e-commerce server 10 performs the allocation of e-commerce credit only, a user may browse to a domain served by the e- commerce server 1 10, such as ontail.com for the purpose of winning e-commerce credit. Then, in one embodiment, the user may utilise the credit won on the ontail.com domain for use in purchasing items of other domains, such as eBay or the like. However, in other embodiments, the user may be restricted to using any credit won for use only within ontaif.com.

[060] In one manner, the e-commerce server 110 may be adapted to provide a voucher key which may be subsequently entered by the user in each other e-commerce platform. The voucher key may either encode the e-commerce credit amount o represent an e-commerce credit amount stored within the database 170 of the e- commerce server 10 such that, upon receipt, a third party e-commerce server 1 10, such as by way of API call or the like, may validate the exact amount of e-commerce credit allocated by the e-commerce server.

[061] In other embodiments, the e-commerce credit auction functionality may be served by way of iFrame 405 or the like within a webpage served by another e-commerce server 110. I I

[062] Now, referring specifically to the interface 400, the first user may configure their bid for the e-commerce credit amount of $100.

[063]Specificaliy _f the exemplary interface 400 comprises various information fields, such as the amount of e-commerce credit available for auction ($100) the status of the auction (given here as "live" but which may also comprise "closed" upon completion of the auction) the estimated closure of the auction (given here as three hours) and the like.

[064]Specificaily, as will be described in further detail below, the e-commerce server 110 keeps the auction for the bid amount open for a certain period of time, until such time that the sum of the participation fees paid by each bidder exceeds or at least meets the e-commerce credit amount by a certain amount. At this stage, the e-commerce server 110 closes the e-commerce credit auction and allocates the e-commerce credit to the winning user account of the auction. In this regard, given the rate of payment of participation fees, the e-commerce server 110 may estimate the closure of the auction so as to be able to represent 3 hours in the exemplary interface 400.

[065] ow, in more detail, using the interface 400, the first user may participate in the e- commerce credit auction by paying a participation fee, given here as $2. As such, when the first user clicks on the bid button 430, the e-commerce server 110 deducts the $2 from the first user account, such as by initiating a financial transaction to deduct the amount from the first user's payments institution, such as PayPal or the like.

[066] In one embodiment, the user may utilise the previously awarded e-commerce credit for the purposes of participating in further auctions. In this embodiment, the e- commerce server 1 10 would decrement the e-commerce credit amount stored against the user account of the first user in the database 170.

[067] Also, the interface 400 requires the user to input a "shadow bid" amount. The shadow bid amount represents the amount that the user is willing to pay for the e- commerce credit amount in the exemplary interface 400, the first user has indicated that the first user is willing to pay $90 for the $100 e-commerce credit amount. As such, should the first user win the auction, the first user will be required to pay the $90 (or a lesser amount related thereto) in order to receive the $100 e-commerce credit amount.

[068] In a preferred embodiment, the e-commerce server 110 is adapted to allow the user to place a series of "next highest available" shadow bid amounts by paying an increased participation fee. For example, in the manner described above, the user pays a $2 participation fee so as to be eligible to place a shadow bid. However, at this point in time, the e-commerce of 110 may invite the user to pay a higher participation fee so as to be eligible to receive the "next highest available" shadow bid placement.

[069]Specificaliy _t the e-commerce server 110 ma be adapted to divide the shadow bid amounts into a series of "slots", such as for each round dollar amount.

[070]ln this manner, were the user to elect to pay the increased participation fee of $3, the user would be given, by the e-commerce server 1 10 the next highest available slot.

[071 JFor example, if the user places a shadow bid amount of $90 and another user has already placed a shadow bid amount of $91 and a yet further user has placed a shadow bid amount of $92 and yet another further user has placed a shadow bid amount of $94, the next highest shadow bid amount will be $93. In this manner, the e-commerce server 110 will allocate the shadow bid amount of $93 to the user, as opposed to the lower $90 dollar amount. It should be noted that should the user successfully win the auction process in the manner described below, the fee payable by the user will be related only to the initial shadow bid amount nominated by the user and not the next highest available shadow bid amount.

[072] It should be noted that the user may be able to pay a further increased participation fee, such as a participation fee of $4 so as to be eligible to receive the next two highest available shadow bid amounts and so on and so forth.

[073JAs will be described in further detail below, other users will similarly place shadow bid amounts wherein once the sum of the participation fees paid exceeds the threshold, the e-commerce server 10 will select the user account having the highest shadow bid amount.

[074]As such, there will now be described in the similar method wherein a second user wishes to purchase an item in an e-commerce platform. For example, the second user may wish to purchase a leather wallet for $100. In this manner, the second user similarly does not wish to pay the full amount for the leather wallet and alternatively elects to participate in the e-commerce credit auction for the $100. In this manner, the second user would similarly be presented, by the e-commerce server 1 10, the exemplary graphical user interface 400 as substantially given in figure 4. Here, the second user would be required to pay the requisite participation fee of $2, and select a shadow bid amount. Here, the second user chooses a shadow bid amount of $92.

[075]The e-commerce server 10 sets the participation fee in accordance with the value of the e-commerce credit. For example, in the exemplary embodiment, the e-commerce server 110 has nominated a percentage of 2% of the value of the e-commerce credit as the participation fee. Such configuration may be configured by the e-commerce server 110 webmaster.

[076] Now, other users will also enter the auction for the $100 e-commerce credit, each of these users similarly paying a $2 dollar participation fee. The e-commerce server 1 10 is configured so as to keep the auction open until such time that the sum of the participation fees exceeds a certain amount.

[077] For example, for the $100 credit auction, the e-commerce server 110 may be configured to keep the auction open and to continue to receive participation bids until such time that 72 customers have paid the participation fee such that the sum of the participation fee is $144. In this manner, the $100 credit amount would have been covered already including a commission for the operator of the e-commerce server 1 10 and including $4 of GST,

[078] It should be noted that in various embodiments, the e-commerce server 110 may be adapted to close the auction at any other pre-configured threshold depending on the application.

[079]As such, upon reaching the predetermined threshold for the sum of the participation fees, the e-commerce server 110 is adapted to mark the auction has closed, in this manner, for subsequent page views of the graphical user interface 400, the e-commerce server 10 may represent that the auction has been closed, o remove access to the page entirely.

[080] At the close of the auction for the e-commerce credit $100, the e-commerce server 110 is adapted to so as to allocate the credit e-commerce credit to a winning user account, in this manner, the winning user account is determined in accordance with the highest value of the shadow bid amount.

[081] For example, above it was stated that the first user nominated a shadow bid amount of $90 and that the second user nominated a shadow bid amount of $92,

[082] Now, at the close the auction and assuming that these two amounts are the highest shadow bid amounts of all of the participants, the e-commerce server 110 is adapted to award the auction to the second user because the second user has the highest shadow bid amount by an amount of two dollars.

[083] It should be noted that in one embodiment, the e-commerce 1 10 may be configured such that the winner participant may decide to decline the auction in which case the e-commerce 110 is configured to award the auction to the next highest shadow bid amount. [084] Now, the winner of the auction (the second user) must now pay an amount relating to the shadow bid amount ($92) nominated by the second user, in the first embodiment, the e-commerce server 110 is adapted to receive payment for the full shadow bid amount nominated by the second user. Fo example, upon winning the auction, in order to receive the $100 auction credit, the second user must pay the shadow bid amount of $92 in orde to receive the $100 auction credit amount.

[O SJHowever, in a preferred embodiment, the e-commerce server 1 0 is adapted to require payment from the second user for an amount less than the shadow bid amount. Specifically, in this preferred second embodiment, the e-commerce server 1 0 is adapted to select a random number such as, for example, a random number between 15 and 55 (but not limited to 15 to 55) and thereafter request payment of a percentage of the shadow bid amount nominated by the second user in accordance with this random number.

[086] For example, should the e-commerce server 110 generate a random number of 20, the e-commerce server 110 will then require the second user to pay 20% of the shadow bid amount nominated by the second user of $92.

[087]The second user may pay this amount in the normal manner such as by making payment using a credit card gateway or the like. Alternatively, the e-commerce server 1 10 may deduct this amount from existing credit of the second user making payment for the difference.

[088] As such, the e-commerce server 1 10 updates the database 170 to allocate the $100 e-commerce credit to the second user account associated with the second user. In this manner, the second user ma subsequently use the allocated e-commerce credit of $100 for the purposes of purchasing e-commerce items in the usuai manner.

[089] As alluded to above, where third-party e-commerce servers 1 10 (such as eBay or the like) perform the e-commerce purchase transactions, the e-commerce server 110 may be adapted to interface with such third-party e-commerce service 110 to allow the second user to use the award e-commerce credit on these third party e-commerce servers 110,

[090] In this manner, the second user is able to purchase the wallet for $18.40, much less than the recommended retail price of S 100.

[091] The other participants of the auction may receive notification such as by way of e- mail message or the like notifying them of their failed auction attempt.

[092] Furthermore, in this exemplary method, the e-commerce server 110 is adapted to refund the participation fee to the successful winner of the auction. Specifically, the e- commerce server 110 is adapted to refund the $2 participation fee paid by the second user to participate in the auction. Furthermore, the e-commerce server 1 10 may be adapted to enter the second user into further auctions including in an automated manner. For example, the e-commerce server 1 10 may be adapted to enter the second user into a monthly e-commerce credit prize draw which prize e-commerce credit may further be funded by participation bids.

[0S3JNOW, and noting that the first user was not successful in the e-commerce credit auction, should the first user subsequently decide to purchase the digital camera anyways for $100, the e-commerce server 110 may be adapted to deduct the participation fee of $2 (or refund the $2 after purchase to use in the next auction). Already having been paid by the first user from the purchase price of the camera. In this manner, having been unsuccessful in the e-commerce credit auction, the first user may decide to purchase the camera anyways so as to be in a no different financial position as to having not entered the auction into at all.

[094] In preferred embodiments, the various retailers having configured accounts with the e-commerce server 1 10, including the above exemplary retailer Toys4U, may be required to pay a percentage of ail e-commerce saies facilitated by the e-commerce server 110. For example, for the camera purchase by the first user, the e-commerce server 110 may be adapted to deduct an amount of 10% from the $100 recommended retail price of the camera of $10 from a retailer account associated with Toys4U.

Interpretation

Bus

[095] in the context of this document, the term "bus" and its derivatives, while being described in a preferred embodiment as being a communication bus subsystem for interconnecting various devices including by way of parallel connectivity such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), conventional Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCi) and the iike or serial connectivity such as PCI Express (PCIe), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial ATA) and the like, should be construed broadly herein as any system for communicating data .

In accordance with:

[096] As described herein, 'in accordance with' may also mean 'as a function of and is not necessarily limited to the integers specified in relation thereto.

Composite items

[097] As described herein, 'a computer implemented method' should not necessarily be inferred as being performed by a single computing device such that the steps of the method may be performed by more than one cooperating computing devices.

[098]SirniSariy objects as used herein such as 'web server', 'server ⁵ , 'client computing device', 'computer readable medium' and the like should not necessarily be construed as being a single object, and may be implemented as a two or more objects in cooperation, such as, for example, a web server being construed as two or more web servers in a server farm cooperating to achieve a desired goal or a computer readable medium being distributed in a composite manner, such as program code being provided on a compact disk activatable by a license key downloadable from a computer network.

Database:

[099] In the context of this document, the term "database" and its derivatives may be used to describe a single database, a set of databases, a system of databases or the like. The system of databases may comprise a set of databases wherein the set of databases may be stored on a single implementation or span across multiple implementations. The term "database" is also not limited to refer to a certain database format rather may refer to any database format. For example, database formats may include MySQL, ySQLi , XML or the like.

Wireless:

[0100] The invention may be embodied using devices conforming to other network standards and for other applications, including, for example other WLAN standards and other wireless standards. Applications that can be accommodated include IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs and links, and wireless Ethernet.

[0101] In the context of this document, the term "wireless" and its derivatives may be used to describe circuits, devices, systems, methods, techniques, communications channels, etc., that may communicate data through the use of modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. The term does not imply that the associated devices do not contain any wires, although in some embodiments they might not. In the context of this document, the term "wired" and its derivatives may be used to describe circuits, devices, systems, methods, techniques, communications channels, etc., that may communicate data through the use of modulated electromagnetic radiation through a solid medium. The term does not imply that the associated devices are coupled by electrically conductive wires.

Processes:

[0102] Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specification discussions utilizing terms such as "processing", "computing", "calculating", "determining", "analysing" or the like, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or computing system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities into other data similarly represented as physical quantities.

Processor:

[0103] tn a similar manner, the term "processor" may refer to any device or portion of a device that processes electronic data, e.g., from registers and/or memory to transform that electronic data into other electronic data that, e.g., may be stored in registers and/or memory. A "computer" or a "computing device" or a "computing machine" or a "computing platform" may include one or more processors.

[0104] The methodologies described herein are, in one embodiment, performabie by one or more processors that accept computer-readable (also called machine-readable) code containing a set of instructions that when executed b one or more of the processors carry out at least one of the methods described herein. Any processor capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken are included. Thus, one example is a typical processing system that includes one or more processors. The processing system further may include a memory subsystem including main RAM and/or a static RAM, and/or ROM. Computer-Readable Medium:

[0105] Furthermore, a computer-readable carrier medium may form, or be included in a computer program product. A computer program product can be stored on a computer usabie carrier medium, the computer program product comprising a computer readable program means for causing a processor to perform a method as described herein.

Networked or Multiple Processors:

[0106] in alternative embodiments, the one or more processors operate as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g., networked to other processors), in a networked deployment, the one or more processors may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer or distributed network environment, The one or more processors may form a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine.

[01 7] Note that while some diagram(s) only show(s) a single processor and a single memory that carries the computer-readable code, those in the art will understand that many of the components described above are included, but not explicitly shown o described in order not to obscure the inventive aspect. For example, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

Additional Embodiments:

[0108] Thus, one embodiment of each of the methods described herein is in the form of a computer-readable carrier medium carrying a set of instructions, e.g., a computer program that are for execution on one or more processors. Thus, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be embodied as a method, an apparatus such as a special purpose apparatus, an apparatus such as a data processing system, or a computer-readable carrier medium. The computer-readable carrier medium carries computer readable code including a set of instructions that when executed on one or more processors cause a processor or processors to implement a method. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a method, an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of carrier medium (e.g., a computer program product on a computer-readable storage medium) carrying computer-readable program code embodied in the medium.

Carrier Medium:

[0109] The software may further be transmitted or received over a network via a network interface device, While the carrier medium is shown in an example embodiment to be a single medium, the term "carrier medium" should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term "carrier medium" shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by one or more of the processors and that cause the one or more processors to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present invention. A carrier medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-vo!ati!e media, volatile media, and transmission media. implementation:

[0110J St will be understood that the steps of methods discussed are performed in one embodiment by an appropriate processor (or processors) of a processing (i.e., computer) system executing instructions (computer-readable code) stored in storage. It will also be understood that the invention is not limited to any particular implementation or programming technique and that the invention may be implemented using any appropriate techniques for implementing the functionality described herein. The invention is not limited to any particular programming language or operating system.

Means For Carrying out a Method or Function

[0111] Furthermore, some of the embodiments are described herein as a method or combination of elements of a method that can be implemented by a processor of a processor device, computer system, or by other means of carrying out the function. Thus, a processor with the necessary instructions for carrying out such a method or element of a method forms a means for carrying out the method or element of a method. Furthermore, an element described herein of an apparatus embodiment is an example of a means for carrying out the function performed by the element for the purpose, of carrying out the invention.

Connected

[0112] Similarly, it is to be noticed that the term connected, when used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being limitative to direct connections only. Thus, the scope of the expression a device A connected to a device B should not be limited to devices or systems wherein an output of device A is directly connected to an input of device B. It means that there exists a path between an output of A and an input of B which may be a path including other devices or means. "Connected" may mean that two or more elements are either in direct physical or electrical contact, or that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

Embodiments:

[0113] Reference throughout this specification to 'One embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but may. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this disclosure, in one or more embodiments.

[0114] Similarly it should be appreciated that in the above description of example embodiments of the invention, various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments are hereby expressly incorporated into this Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments, w th each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention.

[0115J Furthermore, while some embodiments described herein include some but not other features included in other embodiments, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the invention, and form different embodiments, as would be understood by those in the art. For example, in the following claims, any of the claimed embodiments can be used in any combination.

Specific Details

[0116] In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

Terminology

[01173 fn describing the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology will be resorted to for the sake of clarity. However, the invention is not intended to be limited to the specific terms so selected, and it is to be understood that each specific term includes all technical equivalents which operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar technical purpose. Terms such as "forward", "rearward", "radially", "peripherally", "upwardly", "downwardly", and the like are used as words of convenience to provide reference points and are not to be construed as limiting terms.

Different Instances of Objects

[0118] As used herein, unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives "first", "second", "third", etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

Comprising and Including

[0119] tn the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" are used in an inclusive sense, i.e. to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention.

[0120] An one of the terms: including or which includes or that includes as used herein is also an open term that also means including at least the elements/features that follow the term, but not excluding others. Thus, including is synonymous with and means comprising.

Scope of Invention

[0121} Thus, while there has been described what are believed to be the preferred embodiments of the invention, those skilled in the art will recognize that other and further modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is intended to claim all such changes and modifications as fall within 2^ the scope of the invention. For example, any formulas given above are merely representative of procedures that may be used. Functionality may be added or deleted from the block diagrams and operations may be interchanged among functionai blocks. Steps may be added or deleted to methods described within the scope of the present invention.

[01221 Although the invention has been described with reference to specific examples, it will be appreciated by those skifled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms. industrial Applicability

[0123] ft is apparent from the above, that the arrangements described are applicable to the online industries.