Importance

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Abstract

An e-commerce mechanism tries to dynamically estimate or refine a profile of a buyer and hence change their negotiation strategy in a dynamic and an on-line manner. An e-commerce site can negotiate with a customer based on his or her profile. The e-commerce site may sell one or more types of items to various customers. These customers may be brokers, other intermediaries, businesses or consumers. Similarly, the e-commerce site may be a broker, an auctioneer, an intermediary, a seller, or even a manufacturer. In one specific case of this invention, the existing data on various customers' past purchases, buying behavior, demographics and other parameters is studied to arrive at attributes which are then used to segment customers into various profiles. The profiles depend not only on the demographic factors but also on factors like the season, the time of day, the geographical area and the cultural upbringing. When a new customer comes to the e-commerce site, the customer is assigned to a pre-specified profile in an on-line manner. The e-commerce site then negotiates with the customer according to the customer's present profile. As the customer negotiates, the customer's profile is dynamically updated to incorporate the customer's actions. Different profiles may yield different negotiation strategies and also different results, i.e., value, price, points, delivery dates, etc. Both the customer and the e-commerce site can negotiate on the basis of each other's dynamic profiles and come to a mutually agreed settlement.

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First Claim