WO2010022466A1

WO2010022466A1 - Trading system

Info

Publication number: WO2010022466A1
Application number: PCT/AU2009/001116
Authority: WO
Inventors: Anthony Puntoriero
Original assignee: Anthony Puntoriero
Priority date: 2008-08-29
Filing date: 2009-08-28
Publication date: 2010-03-04
Also published as: AU2016100812A4; AU2009212852A1

Abstract

A computer-implemented trading system for buying and selling consumable products is provided. The system includes a computer server including a processor, memory, a bus coupling the processor and memory, and a network interface connecting the computer server to a communication network; a software program executed on the computer server that facilitates the trading system; and a computer host including a processor, memory, a bus coupling the processor and memory, a user interface and a network interface connecting the computer host to the communication network and the computer server. The system further includes a database used to collect and hold information in the memory of the computer server, the information in the database changing state during a transaction when a user input is entered by a consumer via the user interface of the computer host. The user input describing data that includes a consumable product, an amount of the consumable product that will be bought by the consumer, and a period of time over which the amount of the consumable product will be provided to the consumer. The information in the database includes a price for the amount of the consumable product associated with the transaction and the price is stored in the database. The information in the database further includes the method of payment and related information provided by the consumer in order to effect payment in full before all of the amount of the consumable product is provided to the consumer.

Description

Trading system

Field of the invention

The field of the invention relates generally to a method and system for selling consumables to end-users.

Background of the invention

Consumables will often have a variable pricing due to, for example, the volatility of costs in the supply chain. This variability of price can cause difficulties for end user consumers who are dependent on consumables. One example of a variable price consumable is fuel. It is well-recognised that fuel prices fluctuate depending on the variation in the price of fuel, resulting in significant consequences for end-users who are dependent on fuel. Previous attempts to address this problem include the cross- marketing of fuel and other products by awarding discounts to consumers for purchasing fuel if a certain value or quantity of another product has been purchased (US 6,332,128), rewarding consumers with a reduced price per unit of fuel after a consumer has purchased a specified amount of fuel (US 6,321 ,984), and providing consumers a card with which to purchase discounted fuel in the future in exchange for a membership fee (US 2004/0122732). However, these schemes are in effect methods to provide a reduction in the prices of fuel on the date of purchase, and do not assist a consumer in capping or locking in a fuel price at some future date.

For many end users of consumable items there is a need for budgeting or quotation reasons to be able to predict with some measure of accuracy what a consumable item will cost at some time in the future. This would enable the end user to build a pricing model in which the consumable is accurately priced, even though the consumable will be purchased at some time in the future.

Reference to any prior art in the specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that this prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia or any other jurisdiction or that this prior art could reasonably be expected to be ascertained, understood and regarded as relevant by a person skilled in the art.

Summary of the invention

Aspects of the invention provide a system or method of determining the price of a consumable in advance and then redeeming the particular consumable at a later date at that fixed price, irrespective of the trading price of the consumable at that later date. More specifically, the concept of determining a fuel price in advance and then redeeming fuel at that fixed price, irrespective of whether or not the pump price has risen or fallen in the interim.

In a first embodiment, the invention broadly resides in a computer-implemented trading system for buying and selling consumable products, the system including a computer server including a processor, memory, a bus coupling the processor and memory, and a network interface connecting the computer server to a communication network; a software program executed on the computer server that facilitates the trading system; a computer host including a processor, memory, a bus coupling the processor and memory, a user interface and a network interface connecting the computer host to the communication network and the computer server; a database used to collect and hold information in the memory of the computer server, the information in the database changing state during a transaction when a user input is entered by a consumer via the user interface of the computer host, the user input describing data that includes:

a. a consumable product,

b. an amount of the consumable product that will be bought by the consumer, and

c. a period of time over which the amount of the consumable product will be provided to the consumer;

the information in the database including a price for the amount of the consumable product associated with the transaction, the price stored in the database; the information in the database further including the method of payment and related information provided by the consumer in order to effect payment in full before all of the amount of the consumable product is provided to the consumer.

In a second embodiment, the invention broadly resides in a method of selling consumable products, the method including the steps of receiving information from a consumer for a transaction, the information describing data that includes:

a. a consumable product,

b. an amount of the consumable product that will be bought by the consumer, and

determining a price for the transaction according to parameters including the information described in a.-c; effecting payment in full and in advance before all of the amount of the consumable product is provided to the consumer; and providing a part or all of the consumable product to the consumer upon payment or at intervals during the period of time.

In a third embodiment, the invention broadly resides in a method of buying consumable products, the method including the steps of providing information for a transaction, the information describing data that includes:

a. a consumable product,

b. an amount of the consumable product that will be bought, and

c. a period of time over which the amount of the consumable product will be received; receiving a price for the transaction according to parameters including the information described in a.-c; effecting payment in full and in advance before all of the amount of the consumable product is received; and receiving the consumable product upon payment or at intervals during the set period of time.

Brief description of the drawings

The invention may best be understood by referring to the following description and accompanying drawings that are used to illustrate embodiments of the invention. In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a schematic representation of one embodiment of the trading system comprising a computer server, a communication network and a computer host.

Figure 2 is a diagram showing examples of the type of information contained in the database.

Figure 3 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method for selling a consumable product.

Figure 4 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method for buying a consumable product.

Detailed description of the embodiments

This detailed description refers to specific embodiments of the invention. These embodiments are used to illustrate the principles of the invention, and other embodiments can be utilised without changing the scope of the present invention.

The term 'consumable' as used in this specification is to be interpreted broadly, that is, to include any items or services that are purchased by users either for use or consumption, or in production, manufacturing or supplying products or service.

The present invention is directed to a system and methods used for determining the price of a consumable in advance and the consumer redeeming the particular consumable at a later date at that fixed price, irrespective of the trading price of the consumable at that later date. More specifically, a system and methods for determining a price in advance and then redeeming fuel at that fixed price, irrespective of whether or not the pump price has risen or fallen in the interim are described. In the description the 'user of the computer host' and the 'consumer' are the same person: a person buying a consumable product.

The present invention can be implemented with a variety of equipment and with different computer programs. Figure 1 illustrates an example embodiment that includes a computer server 100 and a computer host 300, both of these can be any type of computing device including, but not limited to a personal computer (PC) using an operating system such as Microsoft Windows, Unix or Linux, or a Macintosh computer, or a combination of such devices, for example being connected via a communication network.

The computer server 100 includes a processor 110 that can be a single processor or a plurality of processors, memory 120 that can include a plurality of combinations of volatile and/or non-volatile memory, the processor and memory coupled to a system bus 150, and a network interface 140 that enables the computer server to access a communication network 200. It will be understood by a person skilled in the art that a typical computer system will usually include at least a processor and memory coupled by a bus, but that the invention can be implemented with other computer system configurations or in a distributed computing environment. A software program 130 is executed on the computer server and facilitates the operation of the trading system. A database 121 is stored in the memory 120 and contains data relevant to trading transactions performed with this trading system. The communication network 200 can be any type of network including, but not limited to, a local area network (LAN), or a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet.

The communication network facilitates bidirectional communication between the computer server 100 and the computer host 300. The computer host includes a processor 320 that can be a single processor or a plurality of processors, memory 330 that can include a plurality of combinations of volatile and/or non-volatile memory, and a network interface 310 that enables the computer server to access a communication network 200. The components of the computer host are also coupled to a system bus 350 which also couples to a user interface 340 which can consist of any type of user interface, for example a combination of a monitor, a mouse and a keyboard.

The user interface enables a user of the computer host to access information provided by the trading system and hosted by the computer server, and to enter information relevant to a trading transaction, the information then being transmitted to the computer server 100 via the communication network 200. This information provided by the user of the host computer is stored in the database 121 and is used by the software program 130 to determine details of the trading transaction.

Figure 2 shows a diagram of the information contained in the database. This includes data input by the user such as the type of consumable product that will be traded 401 , the amount of this product that will be traded 402, the period of time over which the product will be made available to and received by the user 403, as well as data generated by the trading system, and in particular generated by the software program 130, such as the price of the specific amount of the consumable product for the transaction 404.

Figure 3 shows a flow chart of a method of selling a consumable product. The method includes the steps of providing a consumer with an interface 500 that provides information about the trading system and facilitates the execution of the trading system. In one embodiment this interface is remotely accessed, and is implemented through a website. The website provides the consumer with information about available products and relevant transaction options, and the website facilitates the uploading of relevant information in order to execute a transaction. The method thus includes a further step 502 where the consumer accesses the website via a host computer in order to input information that describes the data required for the transaction. This information includes, but is not limited to, the type of consumable product, an amount of the consumable product, and a period of time over which the amount of the consumable will be acquired by the consumer.

The next step in the method is to determine the price of the transaction 504. In this embodiment, payment is accepted upon completing the user input and determining the price. The step of accepting payment 506 can be via any method of payment including, but not limited to, electronic transfer. Step 508 in the flow chart describes an unspecified delay. This is because the product can be collected by or delivered to the consumer at any time or combination of intervals during the set period of time relevant to the transaction. Providing the product 510 can thus be according to various ways depending on the amount of the product provided/collected at any time, and the intervals at which the product is provided/collected.

Another example embodiment of the invention is described in the flow chart of figure 4 which describes a method of buying consumable products. According to this method a first step is for a consumer to access a trading interface 600, this interface being a website in this example embodiment. The next step 602 is to input the information required to define the transaction. This information includes, but is not limited to, the type of consumable product, an amount of the consumable product, and a period of time over which the consumer expects to be provided with the amount of the consumable. In a further step of the method, the consumer is provided with the price of the transaction 604, and payment is made 606. Payment can be made via any method of payment including, but not limited to, electronic transfer. Step 608 in the flow chart describes an unspecified delay. This is because the product can be collected by or provided to the consumer at any time or combination of intervals during the set period of time relevant to the transaction. Providing the product 610 can thus be according to various ways depending on the amount of the product delivered/collected at any time, and the intervals at which the product is delivered/collected.

In one example embodiment of the invention, a user will access a website to purchase fuel. A certain type of fuel is selected, for example unleaded fuel or diesel, an amount of fuel is selected, for example 100 litres, and the period over which the fuel will be redeemed by the consumer will be selected, for example 3, 6 or 12 months. Using this information, the trading system will determine a fixed price payable in advance, for example $250. In calculating this price, the system may, if desired, take into account historical price trends and/or forecasts in order to predict the cost of the consumable (in this case fuel) over the selected time period. This predicted cost as a function of time can be used to calculate the price for the consumable at the time of the transaction. In this example, the consumer would make an electronic payment or provide credit card details via the website, and payment is made immediately for the entire amount to finalise the transaction. Following payment, over the selected period of time, say 6 months, the consumer will be able to redeem up to 100 litres of fuel. Any amount up to 100 litres can be redeemed at any one time, the entire amount to be collected before the end of the 6 months. Alternatively, the consumer need not redeem the fuel within the 6 month period, but can continue redeeming the fuel either for another (longer or shorter) period of time, or until the total fuel purchased has been redeemed.

In one embodiment, if the consumable product is not collected by or provided to the consumer within the period of time that the consumer originally expects to be provided with the amount of the consumable product, the remainder of the consumable product that has not yet been collected/provided within this time will be forfeited.

In an alternative embodiment the time period may simply be used in determining the price that the consumable product will be sold at, but the time period may not be used to enforce a limited period of time that the consumable product is collected by or delivered to the consumer. If this is the case, an alternative arrangement can be made for providing the consumer with the amount of the consumable product such as (but not limited to):

• the consumer paying a certain fee to be able to extend the period of time over which the bought amount of the consumable product will be collected/provided;

• the portion of the payment that is unredeemed being credited towards a further transaction; or

• the amount of the purchased product that the consumer can still redeem progressively reducing over time.

In the embodiments described above, payment is effected in full and in advance, during the purchasing transaction, and before any or all of the amount of the consumable product is provided to the consumer. In an alternative embodiment, payment can be made (according to the fixed price as determined at the time of the transaction) at a later stage, ie within a certain period of time after the transaction has been completed, or after some or all of the purchased product has been provided to the consumer. For example, payment in full of the fixed price may become due within 10 days of the transaction being completed, or once 10% of the purchased consumable product has been provided to the consumer.

It will be understood that the invention disclosed and defined in this specification extends to all alternative combinations of two or more of the individual features mentioned or evident from the text or drawings. All of these different combinations constitute various alternative aspects of the invention.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A computer-implemented trading system for buying and selling consumable products, the system including

a computer server including a processor, memory, a bus coupling the processor and memory, and a network interface connecting the computer server to a communication network;

a software program executed on the computer server that facilitates the trading system;

a computer host including a processor, memory, a bus coupling the processor and memory, a user interface and a network interface connecting the computer host to the communication network and the computer server;

a database used to collect and hold information in the memory of the computer server, the information in the database changing state during a transaction when a user input is entered by a consumer via the user interface of the computer host, the user input describing data that includes:

a. a consumable product,

b. an amount of the consumable product that will be bought by the consumer, and

the information in the database including a price for the amount of the consumable product associated with the transaction, the price stored in the database;

the information in the database further including the method of payment and related information provided by the consumer in order to effect payment in full before all of the amount of the consumable product is provided to the consumer.

2. The computer-implemented trading system described in claim 1 where the price for the consumable product is determined by the software program according to at least the user input.

3. The computer-implemented trading system according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the information in the database further includes information provided by the consumer in order to effect payment in full and in advance, and before any of the amount of the consumable product is provided to the consumer.

4. The computer-implemented trading system according to any one of claims 1-3 wherein the information in the database is updated to record how much or how many units of the consumable product the consumer is provided with as a function of time over the period of time.

5. The computer-implemented trading system according to any one of claims 1-4 where an interface to the trading system is provided to the consumer via a website.

6. The computer-implemented trading system of any one of claims 1-5 where the consumable is fuel for vehicles.

7. The computer-implemented trading system of claim 6 where the fuel is provided to the consumer at a conventional petrol station.

8. The computer-implemented trading system of claim 7 wherein the consumer can be provided with a part of or all of the purchased fuel at any one of a plurality of petrol stations.

9. A method of selling consumable products, the method including the steps of

receiving information from a consumer for a transaction, the information describing data that includes:

a. a consumable product, b. an amount of the consumable product that will be bought by the consumer, and

determining a price for the transaction according to parameters including the information described in a.-c;

effecting payment in full and in advance before all of the amount of the consumable product is provided to the consumer; and

providing a part or all of the consumable product to the consumer upon payment or at intervals during the period of time.

10. The method according to claim 9 further including the step of making the payment in full and in advance, and before any of the amount of the consumable product is received.

11. The method according to claim 9 or claim 10 where the consumable product is fuel for vehicles.

12. The method according to claim 11 where the fuel is provided to the consumer at a conventional petrol station.

13. A method of buying consumable products, the method including the steps of

providing information for a transaction, the information describing data that includes:

a. a consumable product,

b. an amount of the consumable product that will be bought, and c. a period of time over which the amount of the consumable product will be received;

receiving a price for the transaction according to parameters including the information described in a.-c;

effecting payment in full and in advance before all of the amount of the consumable product is received; and

receiving the consumable product upon payment or at intervals during the set period of time.

14. The method according to claim 13 further including the step of making the payment in full and in advance, and before any of the amount of the consumable product is received.

15. The method according to claims 13 or 14 where the consumable product is fuel for vehicles.

16. The method according to claim 15 where the fuel is provided at a conventional petrol station.