WO2014028525A1

WO2014028525A1 - Collaborative checkout and order management in social business to business marketplace system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2014028525A1
Application number: PCT/US2013/054780
Authority: WO
Inventors: David Tso; Peter Koch
Original assignee: Balluun Ag
Priority date: 2012-08-13
Filing date: 2013-08-13
Publication date: 2014-02-20

Abstract

A collaborative checkout and order management system and method are provided. The collaborative checkout and order management system and method may be implemented in a social business marketplace system.

Description

COLLABORAT1VE CHECKOUT AND ORDER MANAGEMENT IN SOCIAL BUSINESS TO BUSINESS MARKETPLACE SYSTEM AND METHOD

Peter Koch

David Tso

Priority Claim/Related Application

This application claims priority under 35 USC 120 of US Patent Application Serial No. 13/584,700 filed on August 13, 2012, and is a continuation in part of US Patent

Application Serial No. 13/197,669 ("'669 Application") filed on August 3, 201 1 , which is incorporated herein by reference.

Appendix

Appendix A (39 pages) contains examples of the user interface of the collaborative check and order management in social business to business marketplace system with workflow management. Appendix A forms a part of the specification and is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Field

The disclosure relates generally to a collaborative checkout and manage order system with offline and online payment methods with delivery verification that can be incorporated into a system and method of a business to business (B2B) marketplace and social networking in the B2B marketplace.

Background

Productivity enhancement systems and tools are well known for various industries. However, the wholesale market between manufacturer/brands and retailer/boutiques is still behind when it comes to productivity enhancement software. Specifically, the wholesale market between manufacturer/brands and independent retailer is after 20 years of software innovation still happening on the tradeshow show floor or at a physical showroom offline where a sales representative and a retail buyer collaborate on filling out order forms on paper purchase order forms and negotiating terms on the fly. That process is then followed by exchange of invoices (mail/cmail/fax) and shipping slips (shipment) between unrelated companies. Because of the nature of people engaging, the majority of the transactions are still happening during tradeshows or at a showroom offline where unrelated companies can meet, which represents for about 5-20 days out of a year of 365 days. The fulfillment between brand/manufacturer and retail buyer is more or less unstructured and often marked with handwritten notes on shipping slip and invoice and then saved on folders. Some online tools have been created over the past 10 years allowing brands/boutiques to create wholesale commerce stores on their website allowing retail buyer to place orders there. Another form has been online storefront sites where the seller manages products and sends the retailer emails to review products and invite the retailer to go to that web location to place orders online which of course is not collaborative and usually occurs only a very few 4+ times a year with the risk that the retailer forgets the location and even his password. Both of these services have been contra-productive and even though companies have invested in this technologies over the past 10 years their sales force most likely by-pass these solutions because they could not actively collaborate with their retail buyer. In other words, the conventional systems did not provide a natural experience to the

tradeshow/showroom collaboration. The reason is that sales representatives of

brand/manufacturers use their sales channel (retailer/brick and mortar stores) to advice their retail buyer what to buy and what product would go best (bestseller, fit to demographic of retail store, etc). Retail buyers usually want to get the personal feedback from the vendor about what merchandise goes well and both combined, because of their often long lasting business relationship, they know well what retail buyer should purchase to stock up their stores and of course have a good market overview of what goes well and what not (trend insight).

There are a few additional core differences with traditional business to commerce (b2c) commerce sites. For example, in wholesale transactions, shipping costs are not assigned to the order but will be evaluated and applied when an invoice gets sent and the order is ready for shipment. Also, during the negotiation of an order, terms are getting negotiated. Terms typically define payment agreements like COD (cash on delivery), Cash in advance, 7-day net, 10-day net or 30 day net and so on. Of course other more modern payment forms like credit cards or PayPal getting accepted as well. In some systems, a 10- day net can be combined with online payment forms like credit card payment or paypal payment, but of course can also be fulfilled by offline payments like check.

Currently, the real world process of preparing a purchase order, executing an order and managing the order including delivery with verification of shipment with invoice and shipment slip is a very manual process between the brand/manufacturer and retail buyer with 3 054780

-3- no productivity driving mechanics in place. Most of the market participants are not very trained with software solutions and do not use open standards that allow different systems to work with each other. Consequently, most of these convention systems use a paper archive system with a lot of hand written notes which can cause many mistakes and are hard to review at a later time. Thus, it would be desirable to have a solution which structures this process in an efficient collaborative online workflow that captures transactions, activities and conversations for better business insight, avoiding errors, later review, archiving but also for eventual disputes between 2 unrelated companies. Thus, it is desirable to provide a collaborative checkout and order management system in social business to business marketplace system and method that overcome the above limitations of typical systems and it is to this end that the disclosure is directed.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 illustrates a social business to business (B2B) network marketplace platform that may implement a workflow system and method;

Figure 2 is a more detailed view of the social business to business (B2B) network marketplace of one private b2b network that may implemented the workflow system and method;

Figure 3A is a block diagram of a social marketplace unit that is used to manage the social business to business (B2B) marketplace and may implement the workflow system and method;

Figure 4 illustrates a collaborative checkout and order management session that is managed by the collaborative checkout and order management system and method leveraging the social marketplace system; and

Figure 5A and 5B illustrate more details of the collaborative checkout and order management session.

Detailed Description of One or More Embodiments

The disclosure is particularly applicable to a collaborative checkout and order management system and method implemented on the Balluun social marketplace system for retailers and sellers and it is in this context that the disclosure will be described. It will be appreciated, however, that the system and method has greater utility since the collaborative checkout and order management system and method may be implemented on other systems and using other known technology and those other implementations are within the scope of the disclosure. Furthermore, the system and method may be used for any wholesale trade of finished goods in any industry where products are getting replaced against a new series at some point.

Figure 1 illustrates a social business to business (B2B) network marketplace 100 in which a plurality of social B2B networks 102 (that may be typical B2B networks or other types of B2B market networks) are brought together with a social aspect (described below) to facilitate social interactions between the participants in each of the social B2B market networks 102 and between one participants and other participants. Figure 2 is a more detailed view of a social business to business (B2B) network and in particular illustrates an example of one social B2B network 102 shown in Figure 1. Each social B2B network 102 has a social network marketplace unit and connections/links 104 that interconnects one or more participants 106 in a private B2B network 108. When each social B2B market network 102 is connected to each other in the social business to business (B2B) marketplace 100, the dedicated private networks 102 are maintained, but a public forum (which each participant to opt to participate in at various levels) is also created that allows social interaction using the social network marketplace unit and connections/links 104 while maintaining the private B2B networks 102 as described below in more detail.

The resulting system 100 provides multilevel feeding of social interaction and conversations including: a business to many other business conversation/activity (public and private), a intra company conversation/activity using the private B2B network, a person to person or person to many person conversion/activity within a private network, a private business to business conversion activity over a private network, a private business to business personal conversion/activity over a private network, a private business to business object related conversation/activity using a private B2B network about goods/services being negotiated, bought or sold, a private business to business object related conversation using a private B2B network about business opportunities, a private business to business object related conversation using a private B2B network about a service/good order, a private business to business object related conversation using a private B2B network about managing a goods/services order and/or a private business to business object related conversation using a private B2B network about customer service. Each of these different types of conversions/interactions are facilitated by the system and method that are now described in more detail. Also a private message system spanning across the connected companies to communicate in a private messaging style (similar to Facebook or linkedin's messaging service) is also enabled allowing participants to write private messages beside the social feed by utilizing the social b2b relationship.

The social B2B network marketplace system provides beside a storefront concept for seller companies to sell and buyer companies to buy a microblogging capability to all participants of the social marketplace B2B system. The microblogging capability allows the participants to have the communications, engagement, collaboration, activity and conversations above with each other. The systems and units that enable the microblogging are now described in more detail.

Figure 3A is a block diagram of a social marketplace unit 104 that is used to manage the social business to business (B2B) network marketplace. One or more computing devices 1 10 (such as a seller account computing device 1 10b and a buyer account computing device 1 10a) can connect to the social marketplace unit 104 using well known protocols (whether secure or not) over a link that may be wired or wireless. In some embodiment, each seller account may be accessed by one or more employees of the seller (employed , employee2,..., employee n) and each employee may have their own computing device 1 10. Similarly, each buyer account may be accessed by one or more employees (employee 1 , employee2,..., employee n) of the buyer and each employee may have their own computing device 1 10. Thus, the social marketplace unit 104 can be connected to by a plurality of sellers and buyers and a plurality of computing devices 1 10. Each computing device 1 10 may be a processing unit based device with a display, processing power and memory to be able to interact with the social marketplace unit 104. For example, each computing device may be a personal computer, a terminal, a laptop computer, a smartphone (Apple iPhone, RIM Blackberry device, HTC device or Palm device), a mobile phone with a digital data capability, a tablet computer and the like. In one embodiment, the computing device has an operating system and manages the functioning of the computing device and the computing device may also have a well known browser application (Mozilla, Safari, etc.) that is stored in the memory of the computing device and executed by a processor of the computing device to establish a connection with the social marketplace unit 104 and interact with the social marketplace unit 104 by exchanging data, images, video, web pages and the like. The social marketplace unit 104 may further comprise one or more well known application servers 1 12 with one or more well known database servers 1 14 for scalability, troubleshooting and security reasons. The above components also provide load balancing as is known. In one embodiment, both the database and application servers 1 12, 1 14 may be running Linux - Red Hat Enterprise operating system software 1 16 as shown. The social b2b network marketplace unit 104 may further comprise a well known Apache Web Server 1 18, a known PHP 5.2.13 120 installed as well as a well known MySQL 5.0.77 122 and these provide the operating environment for the social B2B network marketplace that is running a social unified database 124 which allows the system to provide an integrated combination of a transaction enabled storefront and marketplace combined with the social connectivity and communication structure to provide an integrated connectivity service between companies and a communication service within a company account on the system but also between companies and filtered depending on the demand of level of privacy and integrity.

The system, in one embodiment, may be a sofrware-as-a-service (SaaS) in the cloud and is protected by Firewall(s) and SSL encryption. The Firewall(s) may be a Cisco ASA5500 series firewall and the SSL Service is a Versign SSL encryption license and may encrypt every single page of the social B2B marketplace for security reasons. The system may also be implemented using other architectures such as a client server model, a hosted model, a cloud server model, a mainframe terminal model arid the like and is not limited to any particular architecture.

To provide the transaction-enabled storefront and marketplace combined with the social communication structure, the social network and marketplace unit 104 may further comprise one or more units 126 and an executive services unit 128 that provide the services and features. In one embodiment, each of the units 126 and the executive services unit 128 may be implemented as a plurality of lines of computer code that are executed by the one or more applications servers and database servers of the system. The units 126 may include a registration unit 126a that handles the registration of one to many users per company accounts and accounts of the system, a connectivity unit 126b that handles the connections between 2 or more companies on Balluun to create a private b2b network 102, a profile pages unit 126c that handles the company profiles pages as described below, a multilevel feeds unit I26d that handles the multilevel feeds as described below in more detail, a storefront unit 126e that generates and manages the storefront of each company on the social b2b marketplace, an inventory management unit 126f that manages products of a companies storefront and it's inventory, a shopping cart unit 126g that generates and manages the shopping cart between a buyer account and a seller account to allow the buyer to buy from a dedicated seller company storefront on balluun, a checkout unit 126h that generates and manages the checkout process of a shopping cart of a buyer from dedicated seller storefront, a CRM unit 126i that provides CRM services and features to the seller account based on his storefront as described below, a manage order unit 126j that manages orders for services and goods of the transactions (seller and buyer view) and provides a dynamic order template for ordering, a payment unit 126k that manages the payment process between seller and buyer on the social b2b marketplace with the API's into 3^rd party payment solutions (PayPal and other comparable third party payment solutions), a business intelligence unit 1261 that provides typical business intelligence features to the marketplace, a recommendation engine that matches companies based on database records together. The shopping cart unit of the system may have an integrated social feed that allows the buyer to communicate with seller in real-time on the purpose of the cart/order. The integrated social feed (provided by the connectivity unit of the social marketplace) allows the system to record transaction related conversation to the whole order flow.

The recommendation engine provides company matching based on a recommendation algorithm (for instance: build a recommendation service - seller > clothing > street wear to buyer > clothing > street wear for instance) + social relationship (social graph) of 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree of relationships.) The CRM unit 126i allows for the creating and managing of customer created opportunities in real time on the system with the ability to raise object related (transaction) issues and to communicate with buyer in real-time. The units 126 further may include an activity streams unit 126m that generates and manages the activity streams (described in more detail with reference to Figures 13 and 19-20 in US Patent Application Serial No. 13/197,669 ('"669 Application") filed on August 3, 201 1 which is incorporated herein by reference) and a private messaging unit 126n that generates and manages the private messaging that is described in more detail with reference to Figures 21 -33 in the '669 Application.) The units 126 and executive unit 128 combine a mix of features and functionality to provide the service. Each of the features and functionality takes advantage of the unified social database of social, company, product and transaction related data and delivers the required feature output as a user interface to the user. The structure filters the service and provides the required subset of the features as a buyer account, a seller account and a master/admin account (balluun master account) or just based on the features subscribed which are described below in more detail.

Using the social B2B network marketplace, a company or company division can create a company account with one to MAN Y employees under this company account. In other words, each company account on the system consists of a Company Profile and a sub Profile structure for every single employee as well. The relationship between employees within one company are therefore all related with each other and represent one company on the system. Employees can be added to a company account at any time. Furthermore, a company can invite and connect with any company which has an account on the social B2B system. The system, for example, can connect a manufacturer-manufacturer relationship, a manufacturer-wholesaler relationship, a wholesaler-wholesaler relationship, a wholesaler- retailer relationship, a wholesaler-reseller relationship, a retailer/retailer relationship, a reseller-reseller relationship and/or a wholesaler-retailer/reseller relationship.

The connect works by one company inviting another company (see Figures 34-39 of the ^'669 Application for examples of the process for inviting a new company) and the invited company confirms the invitation request (see Figures 40-42 of the '669 Application for examples of this process). With the system, as soon as two companies are connected, they can communicate with each other using the multi-level feeding structure and/or private messaging or conduct business with each other (ecommerce transactions). In this process, the activity notifications (described below in more detail) are being generated to each company based on the required connectivity. Some of the announcement activity streams can also go to an unconnected crowd of people known as the 'public'. In addition, a company which invited multiple companies to join it's network is maintaining it's own B2B community on the system as well. Furthermore, there can be many independent B2B communities relative to a given company. The community can be all connected businesses or a sub-group of coworkers and/or it's employees grouped into a dedicated group.

The B2B network marketplace has the multi-level feeding structure. In the Company Wall of the B2B network marketplace (for inter and intra company conversations), the system may provide to post: a public filter that filters for everyone on Balluun (twitter like advertising/blogging); a partner filter for Business 2 many Businesses (all my business connections); and a coworker filter for intra company conversation (all my coworkers). In the My Wall portion of the B2B network marketplace (for inter & intra conversation (P2P, 054780

P2manyP) for post's, the system may provide: a public filter that filters for everyone on Balluun (twitter like advertising/b!ogging); a partner filter that filters for business 2 many Businesses (all my business connections); and a coworkers filter that filters for intra company conversations (all my coworkers). The My Co Worker Wall portion of the B2B network marketplace is for inter & intra conversation (P2P, P2manyP) with only threads towards or with that particular coworker involved). The system also provides a Partner Wall in a My Partner portion that is for inter conversation (private B2B) for only threats between me or my company with that particular partner. The system also has an Employee Wall that is part of the My Partner portion of the system that contains messages about inter conversation (private B2B personal) with only threads between me or my coworker with that particular partner employee. The system also has an ecommerce shopping cart check out process that provides inter conversation (private B2B object-related) which are conversations between seller and buyer related to this transaction. The system also provides My Company Opportunity that provides inter conversation (private B2B object-related) which are conversations between seller and buyer related to this opportunity. The system also have ecommerce myorders feeds that are inter conversation (private B2B object-related) between seller and buyer related to this order and orders/manage orders feeds that are inter conversation (private B2B object- related) between seller and buyer related to this order. The system may also have a customer Service feed that is an inter conversation (private B2B object-related) between seller and buyer related to this transaction. The system may also provide filtering of the messages that is described below with reference to Figures 15-16 of the '669 Application. The B2B network marketplace also has the multi-level activity streams. Activity streams are user generated activities which are mixed into the social feed. Users can respond to activity streams as they can to postings, which makes activity stream an integrated part of social feeds and allows engagement. In more detail, when a user is doing something or 2 companies are connecting or transacting, the system creates activity streams which flow into the social feed structure indicating what is happening on the system based on activity. The activity stream is part of the social feed structure allowing users to even respond back with a response feed to an activity stream and cause interaction with other users. Examples of the multi-level activity streams are:

• Company Wall

- Global B2B (Community/Public) - "Company X' just joined Balluun', - 'Company X just added a product to it's storefront' (privacy setting of Product is 'Public', 'Company Yjust activated it's storefront'

- Partner (Business Connection) - 'Company X just added a product to it's storefront' (privacy setting of Product is 'Partners')

- Transaction - 'Company' A just created a shopping cart with you',

¹ 'Company A just submitted order to you', etc (a private object-related activity stream between seller and buyer)

- Company (Co- Worker) - 'Coworker B just joined your team on Balluun, - 'Company X just added a product to it's storefront' (privacy setting of Product is 'Coworker', 'Coworker B just uploaded a new logo for your company'

My Wall

- 'You just joined Company Z on Balluun'

Co Worker Wall

- 'Coworker B joined your team on Balluun', 'Coworker B uploaded a new logo for your company'

My Partner > Partner Wall

- 'Company X added a product to it's storefront' (privacy setting of Product is 'Partners')

My Partner > Employee Wall only threats

- "Partner Employee Name' uploaded a new image to his wall'

E-Commerce > shopping cart / checkout process

- 'You added product xyz to your cart at Company A'

My Company > Opportunity

- 'Company X just created a shopping cart on your storefront'

E-Commerce > My Orders

- 'Company X just submitted purchase order to you' -I I -

• Orders > Manage Order

- 'Company X just made payment to purchase order xyz'

• Customer Service (future)

- 'Company X just flagged transaction for customer service review' The social network marketplace unit provides social networking in and among the users/partners/buyer/sellers of the social marketplace unit and all of the other

users/partners buyer/sellers of the social marketplace unit. The social marketplace unit enables private messages between one or more of the parties. The social marketplace unit 'also' enables a message broadcast to all partners of a user so that, for example, Company A can broadcast messages to Company B, Company C and Company D and these also permit all of the parties involved in the broadcast message to respond to all of the other parties.

The social network marketplace unit also enables communications between a partner and another partner. For example, Company A can communicate with Company B, but Company C cannot gain access to the messages between Company A and Company B. Thus, the social marketplace unit enables private conversations between users of the social marketplace unit (private B to B).

The collaborative checkout and manage order system may be implemented in the social business to business marketplace system and method using the units 126 of the social business to business marketplace system and method. For example, the collaborative checkout and manage order system may utilize the connectivity unit 126b that handles the connections between a buyer and seller of one or more items being sold by the seller and purchased by the buyer, the inventory management unit 126f that manages products of a companies storefront and it's inventory, the shopping cart unit 126g that generates and manages the shopping cart between a buyer account and a seller account to allow the buyer to buy from a seller, the checkout unit 126h that generates and manages the checkout process of a shopping cart of a buyer from the seller, the manage order unit I 26j that manages orders for services and goods of the transactions (seller and buyer view) and provides a dynamic order template for ordering, the payment unit 126k that manages the payment process between seller and buyer on the social b2b marketplace with the API's into 3^rd party payment solutions (PayPal and other comparable third party payment solutions) and the CRM unit 126i that provides CRM services and features (such as opportunity tracking and the like) to the seller account based on his storefront.

The collaborative checkout and manage order system with the offline and online payment methods may structure the collaboration needs for a retail buyer to collaborate with sales representative of vendor from the beginning of creating a cart (purchase order), over terms before submitting order, but also online by fulfillment in a collaborative process while trading with each other at any time and any distance in real-time. The collaborative checkout and manage order process of course is tightly integrated with the workflow system and notification procedure in social business to business marketplace system and method (described in co-pending patent application serial number 13/XXX,XXX filed on same date herewith that is incorporated herein by reference) where the collaborative checkout and manage order system takes advantage of the foundational in rastructure of the social b2b marketplace and takes advantages of the workflow and notification system application filed.

While typical business to business (b2b) checkout and manage order applications exist, a collaborative checkout and order management system that uses a social marketplace system replicates the offline experience and processes with an online b2b checkout and manage order process. The collaborative checkout and order management system provides the ability to use the capacity of a social collaboration system within the cart and to negotiate terms using the social infrastructure.

Since most of the market participants are in the small to midsize businesses with the lack of ubiquitous online tools accessible, the collaborative checkout and order management system provides an accessible way for sales representatives of brands/manufacturer to transact with retail buyer online in real time as if they would sitting around the table at a trade floor booth. In addition, the collaborative checkout and order management system provides a process of creating an opportunity in real time to the seller company when retail buyer adds products of sellers storefront into his cart. The system also includes the archiving of transactions in order history and allows to easy access for seller and buyer without the need of exchanging paper within the wholesale transaction which eliminates paper purchase order form, paper invoices by also allowing to print shipping slip on seller side for buyer to review. The system also allows the buyer or seller to check with the system for consistency and to close the loop to avoid transaction errors between seller and buyer after verifying with system that shipping slip and merchandise are consistent with invoice.

Since most market participants in small to midsize businesses have to travel to meet each other at tradeshows or showrooms to collaborate and execute on purchase orders and still do exchange orders, invoices etc through fax and emails, it would be desirable to have an online based real-time service to allow seller arid buyer in the wholesale b2b space to manage their order needs with an social checkout and social manage order management tool to be able to manage the whole lifecycle from preparing purchase orders to executing all the way to archiving. Using the system, the filling out order forms on paper even they are meeting will be no longer needed since the system's mobile version for tablet pc's (iPad and the like) provides a paperless way of entering orders while negotiating terms during a offline visit between seller and buyer to feed the order into the system to be managed in the same way as the tool for seller and buyer remote from each other. In other words, by creating a purchase order form on a tablet pc (any type of computing device as described above) and by adding products out of a sellers collection allows seller and buyer to feed the order into the marketplace system and the system allows sales representative and retail buyer to continue their checkout and in managing the order as described more below in a more efficient way through the system.

Given the distributed nature of business today, the business to business social marketplace system provides a distributed storefront where every merchant/seller on the site has it's own profile, storefront and is managing his merchant settings independently (as described in more detail in US Patent Application Serial No. 13/197,669 ("'669 Application") filed on August 3, 201 1, which is incorporated herein by reference.) Furthermore, given the seasonal nature of many industries, the system provides for the launching of product groups (collections) which can be launched and which can expire (as described in more detail in the '669 Application.) The system allows a merchant to manage their b2b (wholesale) storefront extremely efficiently without the need of programming.

The system basically considers the time before a product group (collection) launch date, the order period of a collection (product group) from the moment the collection (product group) is launched with specified notifications/activity streams and closes with the last order date where the system avoids that products can be ordered. The system also allows user to define a last cancellation date which specifies the period within a buyer can cancel his order also the period until when the seller can cancel his order which will be announced but also enforced by the system. The period after the last cancellation period is usually the period of producing the merchandise (this can be sometime between 1-2 months long). The period coming after is the delivery time the seller specified to be the shipping date for the merchandise (very important for the retail buyer to have an estimate when shipment arrives). The period after shipment is usually the staging period for retail buyer to show off his new merchandise to consumers and is often used by brand/manufacturer to sell of their last items of his collection on stock called 'immediate sale. This means that this products have been produced and are available to be sold and shipped immediately and the period is known as an 'immediate period' (retail buyer might decide to stock up his store with additional merchandise as he realizes that he needs it). This can last until the day when the seller would remove the product group from the market because the seller is introducing a new collection/series/group of products (called last display date) or more typical when the items on stock are sold out. This system is maintaining a self-cleaning process where through timer products getting launched, introduced to others but also removed and with that the real-time experience created.

Figure 4 illustrates a collaborative checkout and order management session 400 that is managed by the collaborative checkout and order management system and method leveraging the social marketplace system between a buyer workflow 402 and a seller 404 workflow. The seller may have a series or collection of items that the seller is trying to sell. For example, the seller may be in the fashion industry, the sports industry, the home or decor industry and/or any industry where finished goods are traded in the supply chain. The buyer may be interested in purchasing one or more of the items from the collection/series of the seller. To begin the collaborative checkout and order management process, the buyer opens a new shopping cart (406) that is implemented by the shopping cart unit I26g described above. The collaborative checkout and order management system then automatically creates a new opportunity (407) for the seller using the CRM unit I 26i as described above. The connectivity unit 126b of the system may be used to allow the seller and buyer to exchange questions and answers during the collaborative checkout and order management process as shown in Figure 4.

The buyer may then remove/add products items to the shopping cart (408) using the shopping cart unit. The buyer may also select a shipping address and method (410) and receive an order summary (41 1.) During these processes by the buyer, the system is used to manage the opportunity (409) using the CRM unit I26i as described above. During the order management process, any changes to the order, changes to the shipping address and/or changes invoices occur ( 13) so that an order confirmation is provided to the buyer (412) and order details are provided to the seller (414) both by the CRM unit 126i as described above. For the buyer, the system then generates an order details notification ( 15) while generating an order details notification (416) and a shipment confirming notification (417) for the seller that are all generated by the CRM unit 126i as described above.

Figure 5A and 5B illustrate more details of the collaborative checkout and order management session that follows a retail buyer going to sellers storefront and adding products into a cart which creates an opportunity all the way to archive the order in order history to provide the checkout and manage order workflow and makes the transaction between seller and buyer work. Examples of the user interfaces for the collaborative checkout and order management process described below for the seller's side and the buyer's side are in Appendix A which forms part of the specification and is incorporated herein by reference.

As soon as buyer starts adding products of a launched collection and places it into a cart (406) oh sellers storefront on Balluun an opportunity (407) is getting created on sellers social CRM tool to give seller an overview of what buyer is preparing OR as soon as buyer and seller collaborate on the tradeshow floor/showroom together using the iPad app to create a purchase order form/cart by adding products in collections visible to them on the device and as soon as they send order form from iPad into checkout (408-415 and 409) and the manage order system 126j and the opportunity/cart is pushed to the opportunity tool on seller side and open cart location on buyers side for further steps. The showroom mode that allow sales rep and retail buyer to prepare purchase orders on the tablet pc to send a prepared purchase order (a cart) into the system which is getting treated as an open cart and thus allows the same flow as everything else in the system. The showroom mode caters to the onsite experience of seller and buyer meeting in person using the system in addition to them preparing orders remote from each other. This together is a very unique CRM feature, which most CRM solutions can't provide, where sales representative has to enter opportunities manually and one sided only and Balluun created therefore a complete unique interpretation of a CRM (^social customer relationship management (CRM) with real-time opportunity management) within this system.

The opportunity (407) gives seller a mirror view of what buyer is preparing to purchase. Since seller and buyer typically would work together on the same form at the same location (tradeshow/showroom) this is of course desirable for seller and buyer when they are remote from each other. Thus, the Buyer and seller can collaborate while buyer is preparing the purchase order. They can negotiate terms (413) through the attached social feed to the transaction in real-time and if they agree on terms seller is able to apply negotiated terms, discounts or modify the storefront products in the storefront in real-time. The buyer can add/remove change quantity of products, add shipping cost and billing information and select terms (408- 10). Eventually after negotiating and after reviewing the merchants terms of sales, buyer submits the order. Seller on the other side can engage on the opportunity with buyer if he feels there are additional information he wants to bring to buyers attention which relates to the transaction. For example he might apply different terms beside the standard ones he makes available to buyer, or he applies a discount to the transaction in real-time. After the order is submitted, seller can accept order or he can return order in case there are items in the order he can't fulfill. He can of course also share notes in the social feed attached and with that adds additional evidence to the transaction flow. Buyer can then make the required modifications and re-submits order again. After order is submitted order is moving from open cart (buyer) / open opportunities (seller) into open orders 500, 502 (with activity streams on social wall, notification and email order summary sent to both parties). All changes, confirmations or cancellations of course create a tight integration with the social infrastructure of Balluun's method of social b2b marketplace where seller and buyer are getting activity streams of activities which in it's combination capture the activity trail of the transaction together with the conversation. With the cancellation period passing, seller will receive a consolidated list of all orders in form of a email notification, activity stream and detailed overview of orders received and can use this as overview about the amounts per item he needs to produce to fulfill the backlog of orders. Once order is ready for shipment seller can reach out to buyer through social feed in the order letting him know about the status, can make shipment and/or send invoice by adding shipping value to the invoice. With that the open order moves off the open order tab into open invoices.

The buyer receives notification through the app in real-time and by email, and can verify the order, pay using PayPal or any of the other payment options Balluun provides (managed by the payment unit 126k) through the site. Payments are due based on the terms negotiated in the order and system will remind user based on the payment terms schedule through further activity on wall and/or notifications. Since seller is entering shipping information for items he will send based on readiness an invoice that can be a partial invoice of ordered equipment or the full amount due. With the items marked as within invoice and

WESTV241813274.1 shipment seller can print shipping slip from the system which is equal to the value buyer get's as a notification of shipment in real-time through the system. Once the buyer receives merchandise he can take shipping slip and compares merchandise in box with slip + invoice sent. With that he confirms or alerts wrong shipment by accepting or marking items as missing. When shipment is confirmed correct shipment, this order or part of the order will then move to order history for archiving. If verification marks item as missing, he basically initiates a notification to seller with an approval mechanic or rejection which ultimately will lead into a dispute case - seller or buyer can flag. Balluun customer service will then mediate.

While the foregoing has been with reference to a particular embodiment of the invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes in this embodiment may be made without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims.

SELLER SIDE: Set Merchant Settings on Merchant Side to control Storefront and what Buyer on Storefront is allowed to choose

-18-

□ Q 03 S3

BUYER VIEW: Product Details Page with Order Button

-19-

©tjOtiUUD_l tonra She? . Jcata.-cd c".

K*>rd fr *¥i Immediate _:

i

BUYER VIEW: Product Details Page with Order Template

-20-

^■ r.t itk jamt

t^l

BUYER VIEW: Open Carts Overview Page

-21-

More' RrodtKts^'"^ YCLIF ¾end^'ots

D C C3 © BUYER VIEW: Open Carts Overview Page with product detail pop-up -22-

Order St;ra3-ry

ft Oty:j!0.

•KiCi.XS* M - 'Galen Bte*

-*i, '

^■ Sub TouJ _ p .rrn. 53.500.00

its-en

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Fiat* Oder

Tctal $26.574.00. i

More ProdnxaBy Your Vendors BUYER VIEW: Open Carts Overview Page with product pop-up to change quantities

GOG*© BUYER VIEW: view of one open cart and total of all carts open against remaining budget left 24-

BUYER VIEW: Overview carts before communicating one of the seller -25- ofoQlJUUn ^{Home S} -°P Featured

Orders Vsnd t SK^ Irani

ia Clara Contact Vendor

Accoun Settings So n

Continui ·ίϊΚ·όρΏ-3 j

Total $23,626.00

Mo re Pro d ucts By- Your- Vendors

BUYER VIEW: Edit Budget for retailer to spend

-2S-

Total $i4,iq .op

Ss.--.rtl···». :·30,·ϊ

BUYER VIEW: Writing a note to seller about this order

preparation

-27-

* Jen Chtmo

Company Wail

CpiHRany Profile

Manage Store

Orders. Buiinesiei

ompany Settings

Atcaurjt <¾ettif>gs

Total i23,626:0O

More Products By Vour Vendors

BUYER VIEW: See social feed attached to cart

-28- balluun featured

SELLER VIEW: Email notification to seller about question

SELLER VIEW: Social Feed on Sellers Wall with reference to the purchase order number

-30- ofooHUUn ^{Home sh}°P Featured ^s«'*

Gbnnertipri-Feed Personal feed ·»

Vfcw σ oca o

Anna Leighton Dec 12th

SELLER VIEW: View of opportunity buyer created on his store with visibility of items in cart + social feed with collaboration

-31- obOllUUO ^{Home 5h}°P Featured Orders [¾

Buyer: Dirt Road Boutique Com a ct Buyar

, leri Chung of Dirt RoatJ Boatiqge^' ontacted you .about this order ac89acdT 10m

Dear Sonia Clara, do you also have the^vhite collecton for sale? I cant find it. Looking iorward

TO hear from you

jt riic a comment.,.

Buyer: Celebrity Boutique

S29.901.00

View Opportunity

SELLER VIEW: Opportunity Details page.

-32- boiluun

O ortunit : ¾gi stead BooOs a

sl eiettied' «··

xs ^■M L UWfcs.^* ATil-cunt To aS

2. 2 2 2 6 ^•5123.00 51,032.00 s 5 L Units^' Amount Tcta.

3 i 3 i T2 3175.00

^"Saria-Sliaef Sack aiifc^■

.St te No.. Cess/ ^~ a & UffiitS AW ΟΤΕΠιΙ

Mas*- 2 ^■2 0 ¾ . 5655.00 55,56OJ0O

;^'Z 2 2 0 fi: 54,170.00

¾>rf¾ _SL 5¾e%¾&ss.Dress.

s ίΛ I Total

Made ^•4 4 4 12 5495J0O 53,^40.00

._,· -je owM of Dtrrs«iad &-¾it¾ue ceota tedyou atMwt tMs order: .a<¾¾«2i lira

you

eacnn&ern;

5ifl> Total $t8v8O2j0C I Tax . 50X0 i S ping.

Total^' St¾» 2J0

»3¾ιώΐκ:·¾2012,. ABLST -fete Ta-SoK^ Pfeacy- HsCp ^'¾πώ-ίϊ¾' GMira^'ct SELLER VIEW: Answer question in opportunity

-33-

*tt<3asngofp¾t Road sotntscpw^' omta ted.yoij about tnss «<*er: ajesacdt 13^1

I can't find h. Loc irrQiomna to hear from

OS©© SELLER VIEW: Conversation trial of opportunity with buyer

BUYER VIEW: Seller can apply discount to order in negotiation with buyer in opportunity details

-35-

•bolluun Ha.iTfc.- r^"..-.t«i'«J : :^■.·:^■

Open Carts

JenOuirMj

Order Summary: Sonia Clara Cs*;taitVe",So'

ConipanyWa'J

Com any Prof Je

Seller Address Shipping Address

iwanage Store

S""?. ^ Sonia Oara Dirt Road Boutique

ccwoncers 141 Broadway laoo Western Road

Mew YoriL MY 10001 xonsdale. AZ 3Z334

Orcien Change Change

My CorenecCora Order Details

liwira ai_£rtesses

Com anySer£rtgs

At o m Settings

2 4 6 8 Urdu Amciirtt Total 2 2 4 0 8 J6 S.CO 55,560.00

2 2 2 0 S S 69 SCO J4.I7OJ0O

BUYER VIEW: Buyer added dress and confirmed with

-36-

□ O S) (2 SELLER VIEW: Seller's opportunity to apply shipping cost before sending invoice -37-

BUYER VIEW: Buyer can only view the payment terms seller was making available in merchant settings

Shipplrvg^^* TBD Total S19.627.00

.] have iead the venstofs Terms of Services'

Sufenit CKd.r

BUYER VIEW: Buyer requests NET 30 for this transaction

-39-

SELLER VIEW: Seller can apply different payment terms in negotiation with buyer to opportunity

-40-

SELLER VIEW: Seller applies buyer's question of NET30

-41- oballuun Featured

SELLER VIEW: Seller applies Discount to order

-42-

BUYER VIEW: Buyer sees seller's granted terms of 'net 30'

-43-

BUYER VIEW: Buyer reviews Terms of Sales of the merchant/ seller and then can submit purchase order ^

BUYER VIEW: open cart (PO) now became an open order

-

' feo¾t- Jots?.7e«n& Privacy Hsto;- Cojnacc-'

SELLER VIEW: open opportunity now became an open order

SELLER VIEW: Open order details page before invoice is sent, allowing seller to ship merchandise if shipment before payment is agreed on terms. -47- balluun Homo Shop Featured

SELLER VIEW: After/before or during shipping of merchandise seller can apply shipping values to order and send invoice to buyer with shipping cost applied. -48-

SELLER VIEW: After sending invoice open order moved to open invoice tab

-49-

SELLER VIEW: Invoice Detail page allowing shipment information to be entered in case it hasn't be done yet -50- obolluun

BUYER VIEW: Open invoices with status and call to action to pay if unpaid 51- balluun Home Shop Feaiured

BUYER VIEW: Open invoice with shipping status

-52-

Ξ EES El

BUYER VIEW: Open invoice with option to pay within the 30 day net window. -53-

f*-*w».1i}C. About $09 κ¾κ ^"ssni$. Hslp. ^' enoiunny ccnraa BUYER/SELLER VIEW: Order History for storage of documents after order is marked as paid

Qpen airts^' O^'penpriiers Qpeh-lrivp ces. l- ^¾ ^^tc*^rX≤_j

Jeremy Anderson

20.12

Company: Wall. September July

Company Profile

anage.Store:

Coworkers

Orders

My Partner

Invi o Pi^'iwers;, 2011.

September July

.Co mpahy 5 et ipg s

User Sewings;

BUYER/SELLER VIEW: All orders placed and completed in the month of September 2012 (paid date)

-55-

Jeremy Anders'ori

September 2012

Company Wall

Order ID: MCO-OO0-O0M Order ID: OMMMMW-OOOO Order Ifr lXXMW HVOOOO Company Profile

Buyer: Object Adjective Buyer: Object Adjective Buyer: Object Adjective Manage Store

Total: 5- .9S0.00 Total: S22.9SO.00 Total: S22950.O0 Coworkers

Oder Detail! Oder Details Oder Details

Orders

My Partners

Order ID: OOWMtOMOOO

Invite Partners

Buyer: Object Adjective

Company Settings Total: $22.950.00

User Settings Oder Details

BUYER/SELLER VIEW: Order detail overview page » bQlluun

Pater xocftof.Safeiuri contacted you about aasoider.

Sub Total 533.750.00 Tax 40.00. Shipping J 100.00 Total 533Λ50.00 Am unt Due

.About iata _: T¾m$f_-»ftl*a£'.- jgBWaOi.

Claims

-37- Claims;

1. A computer implemented checkout and order management system, comprising:

a computer implemented social marketplace having a seller and a buyer wherein the seller has a series of items to sell and the buyer may purchase the series of items and wherein the social marketplace permits an interaction between the seller and the buyer;

a shopping cart unit thai is part of the computer implemented social marketplace that manages an order for one or more items from the series of items to sell by the seller;

a CRM unit that is part of the computer implemented social marketplace that generates an opportunity notification to the seller that the buyer has placed one or more of the series of items into the shopping cart; and

an order management unit that is part of the computer implemented social marketplace that manages an order by the buyer for the one or more items wherein the seller and buyer negotiate the order using a connectivity unit of the computer implemented social marketplace and wherein the computer implemented social marketplace generates notifications and activity streams that manage the checkout and order management process,

2, The system of claim 1 further comprising a payment unit that manages an invoice generated during the purchase of the one or more items by the buyer,

3, The system of claim 1, wherei the .computer implemented social marketplace generates notifieations for the immediate sale and activities for the immediate sale.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the series of items is a collection of items,

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the seller is a fashion industry seller.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the seller is a sports industry seller.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the seller is a home and decor Industry seller.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer implemented social marketplace further comprises an integrated social feed so that the computer implemented social marketplace records each conversation between the buyer and the seller during the sale of one or more of the series of items.

9. The system Of claim I , wherein the shopping cart unit has an integrated social feed that allows the buyer to communicate with the seller in real-time about the one or more items in the shoppi n g cart.

10. A method for checkout and order management system using a computer implemented social marketplace having a seller and a buyer wherein the seller has a series of i terns to sell and the buyer may purchase the series of items and wherein the social marketplace permits an interaction between the seller and the buyer, the method comprising: managing, using a shopping cart unit that is part of the computer implemented social marketplace, one or more items from the series of items to sell by the seller;

generating, b a CRM unit that is part of the computer implemented social marketplace, an opportunity notification to the seller that the buyer has placed one or more of the series of items into the shopping cart;

managing, by an order management unit that Is part of the computer implemented social marketplace, an order by the buyer for the one or more items wherein the seller and buyer negotiate the order usin a connectivity unit of the computer implemented social marketplace; and

generating, by the computer implemented social marketplace, notifications and activity streams thai manage the checkout and order management process.

11. The method of claim Ϊ 0 further comprising managing, using a payment unit. an invoice generated during the purchase of the on or more items by the buyer.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising generating, by the computer implemented social marketplace, notifications for the immediate sal and activities for the immediate sale,

S3, The method of claim 10, wherein the series of items is a collection of items.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the seller is a fashion industry seller,

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the seller is a sports industry seller.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherei the seller is a home and decor industry seller,

17, The method of claim 10 further comprising recording, by an integrated social feed of the computer implemented social marketplace, each conversation between the buyer and the seller during the sale of one or more of the series of items.

18, The method of claim 9, wherein managing the one or more items further comprises allowing the buyer to communicate with the seller in real-time about the one or more items in the shopping cart.