Purchase Request Management System

Abstract

System and method for notifying subset of sellers of a purchase request is described. In one embodiment, the present system and method receives a purchase request over a computer network from a potential buyer. The purchase request may include product identification data and potential buyer information. The systems and method determines a subset of sellers from within a group of sellers based upon seller information and one or both of said product identification data and said potential buyer information. The system and method then notifies the subset of sellers of the purchase request.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . Method of notifying sellers of a purchase request, comprising:
 receiving said purchase request over a computer network from a potential buyer, said purchase request including product identification data and potential buyer information;   determining a subset of sellers from within a group of sellers based upon seller information and one or both of said product identification data and said potential buyer information; and   notifying said subset of sellers of said purchase request.   
     
     
         2 . Method of  claim 1 , the step of notifying being automatically made when the purchase request is stored within one or more seller exclusive database regions. 
     
     
         3 . Method of  claim 1 , the step of receiving said purchase request comprising receipt of a request transmitted via one or more of web pages. 
     
     
         4 . Method of  claim 1 , the step of receiving comprising receiving the purchase request at a data center system. 
     
     
         5 . Method of  claim 4 , further comprising the step of creating an exclusive database region for each of a plurality of participating sellers in a database of said data center system. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising the step of storing data associated with said purchase request in said exclusive database region and associated with said subset of sellers. 
     
     
         7 . Method of  claim 1 , wherein potential buyer information includes buyer location information. 
     
     
         8 . Method of  claim 7 , wherein said buyer location information includes buyer zip code. 
     
     
         9 . Method of  claim 7 , the step of determining a subset of sellers comprising determining one or more sellers based at least in part on said buyer location information. 
     
     
         10 . Method of  claim 7 , wherein said buyer location information includes a first radius and said seller location information includes a second radius, wherein the step of determining a subset of sellers comprises determining overlap between said first radius and said second radius. 
     
     
         11 . System for notifying sellers of purchase requests, comprising:
 plurality of seller exclusive database regions formed within non-transitory memory of a data center system;   receiving module for receiving the purchase requests, each of the purchase requests having product information and potential buyer information from a potential buyer;   buyer-seller association module configured to assign each purchase request to only a subset of a plurality of sellers in accordance with (a) seller information and (b) one or both of the product information and the potential buyer information; and   notification module for notifying the subset of sellers of one or more purchase requests corresponding to the seller exclusive database regions.   
     
     
         12 . System of  claim 11 , said purchase requests stored as purchase request records within a non-transitory computer storage medium. 
     
     
         13 . System of  claim 12 , wherein the plurality of sellers is organized as a seller group and assigned a seller group account. 
     
     
         14 . System of  claim 13 , wherein each seller in the seller group is assigned one or a plurality of exclusive sales regions. 
     
     
         15 . System of  claim 12 , wherein the seller group includes user profiles for each of a plurality of users. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , further including an associate task module for assigning tasks to users in the seller group. 
     
     
         17 . System of  claim 11 , wherein each seller of the plurality of sellers is assigned one or a plurality of exclusive sales regions. 
     
     
         18 . System of  claim 11 , wherein at least some of the plurality of sellers are assigned one or more of the same non-exclusive sales regions. 
     
     
         19 . System of  claim 11 , further including seller access module for providing seller access to the data center system. 
     
     
         20 . System of  claim 19 , said access being limited to seller's exclusive database regions. 
     
     
         21 . System of  claim 11 , the system comprising a distributed network such that one or more of the exclusive database regions, receiving module, buyer-seller association module, and notification module are distributed amongst a plurality of servers. 
     
     
         22 . System of  claim 11 , wherein the notification module notifies a seller of the subset of sellers when the product request is stored in the seller's exclusive database region. 
     
     
         23 . System for notifying sellers of purchase requests, comprising:
 means for receiving the purchase requests within a data center system, each of the purchase requests having product information and potential buyer information from a potential buyer;   means for assigning each of the purchase requests to only a subset of a plurality of sellers in accordance with (a) seller information and (b) one or both of the product information and the potential buyer information; and   means for notifying the subset of sellers of one or more purchase requests corresponding to the seller exclusive database regions.