WO2001069464A1

WO2001069464A1 - Electronic marketplace

Info

Publication number: WO2001069464A1
Application number: PCT/EP2001/002659
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kristian Dicke
Original assignee: Kristian Dicke
Priority date: 2000-03-11
Filing date: 2001-03-09
Publication date: 2001-09-20
Also published as: DE10011912A1

Abstract

The invention concerns an electronic marketplace for continuous computerized trading of products and services described by a given number of product parameters. The invention especially concerns a method for computerized trading of said products and to an automatic trading machine.

Description

Electronic market place

The invention relates to an electronic marketplace for the computerized continuous trade in products and services that can be represented by a predetermined number of product-specific parameters, in particular a method and a vending machine for computerized trade in these products and services.

On the generic electronic marketplace, the products and services are described using a predetermined number of product-specific parameters. These product-specific parameters are set by the marketplace in such a way that the individual products are comparable with one another and therefore tradable. The marketplace thus defines a product standard or a product class through the product parameters.

This product standard defined by the marketplace is comparable to an industrial standard or an ISO standard: a standard specifies the number and type of material features - for screws, for example, the diameter, length, strength - and within the property features the number and grading of the characteristics Characteristics - the length and diameter gradations, the strength classes - are binding. Screws with identical characteristics, i.e. with the same diameter and length as well as the same thread and the same material class, are interchangeable regardless of the manufacturer. The generic system extends this principle to any products and services.

Market participants virtually meet on an electronic marketplace to offer, trade and sell goods there. To do this, market participants can place offers to buy or sell the goods in the marketplace, check the existing offers and react to them with new offers. If if a market participant finally discovers an acceptable offer, he can accept it and thus initiate a contract.

On the one hand, in order to be able to create an open market situation, it is important that none of the parties involved in the conclusion of a contract (buyer and seller) are disadvantaged. On the other hand, as explained above, the products must be presented in such a standardized way that the offers in the market are comparable.

The following market models are known for a computerized marketplace for electronic commerce.

A model, which is referred to in the following community model, works like a bulletin board. In the community model, certain customers and providers are targeted, to whom industry-specific information is made available on a specific computer that can be selected electronically via data communication lines.

Another market model is the so-called catalog. In the catalog model, a large number of product data, including various suppliers, is combined and made available in a single so-called sales channel in order to enable buyers to compare the offers. The sales channel is again accessible via data communication lines. Extended search functions for customers are often provided for the catalog models. A disadvantage of the catalog model, however, is that the prices are fixed by the provider and there is no room for negotiation for the applicant or customer.

In the meantime, auction models are also widespread in the electronic marketplaces. These models allow different buyers to bid in competition for products from certain sellers. The electronic marketplace on which the auction module is implemented is also accessible via data communication lines. Moved depending on the auction model the price just goes up or just goes down. What all auction models have in common, however, is that there is no guarantee for the seller that he will really auction his product and that he will achieve a certain price. Another problem with auction models is that at the time of the auction, the product that the buyer needs is not necessarily offered in the auction.

Auction models are usually used when inconsistent products, especially unique items, are to be sold, the price of which cannot be determined by the seller due to a lack of comparison options with similar products. Basically, an auction relates to a buying or selling situation in which a provider faces a large number of customers or applicants.

A typical auction model for an electronic marketplace in the trading of various types of non-standardized products is described in US Pat. No. 6,021,398. The auction model there is able to match the purchase offers of a large number of buyers with the sales offer of a seller. The purchase offers and the sale offers can contain complicated rules for the dependencies between price, quantity and composition of the objects.

The disadvantage of this system is that an auction is a one-off event that takes place on a specific auction date. At an auction, the buyer can also not count on getting the auctioned goods at a certain price.

The auction model of US 6,021, 398 furthermore does not take into account all of the costs underlying a sales offer or a purchase offer. In addition, the auction model of US 6,021, 398 only takes into account an auction situation with only one provider, but not a trading situation with a large number of suppliers and a large number of applicants. Another auction system is known from US 5,890,138. This system is also an auction system in which an offer is confronted with a large number of applicants.

Another auction system is described in WO 98 / 34187A. The auction should be feasible regardless of the geographic conditions.

Another auction system is known from WO 99/27476.

Catalog systems are known from US 5,710,887 and WO 99/34272.

All of the above-mentioned devices and methods allow the assignment of supply and demand, but they have the disadvantage that this assignment does not yet take into account all the relevant parameters, which, for example, can also be decisive for a job applicant. These systems therefore offer only a low level of certainty that a purchase or a transaction will actually come about if the assignment of demand and supply has taken place.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to increase the security for the market participants that they can actually buy or sell the products on the electronic marketplace. In addition, the invention is based on the object of realizing the costs incurred in such transactions between market participants in a more realistic manner.

This object is achieved according to the invention for an electronic marketplace of the type mentioned at the outset by a method for automatic trading in products described by a predetermined number of product parameters, such as screws or nuts, or services on a virtual marketplace using a vending machine, comprising the following method steps: - Receiving at least one digital order with order parameters, which represent at least a subset of the product parameters, from at least one market provider through the vending machine via a digital data communication interface;

- Receiving at least one digital market test request with market test parameters, which represent at least a subset of the product parameters, from at least one market applicant through the vending machine via a digital data communication interface;

- Automatic change by the trading machine of at least a subset of the order parameters and / or the market test parameters as a function of the respective order-dependent market provider-market applicant pairing;

automatic and electronic comparison of at least a subset of the order parameters with a corresponding subset of the market check parameters by the trading machine, taking into account the changed subset of the order parameters and / or the market check parameters;

- automatic generation of a matching proposal as a function of the result of the parameter comparison;

- Output of the matching proposal in electronic form to the market candidate via a digital data communication interface.

The object is also achieved by a vending machine for computerized trading in products described by a predetermined number of product parameters, such as screws or nuts, or services on a virtual marketplace, comprising: - At least one data communication interface, via which at least one digital order with order parameters from at least one market provider and at least one digital market test request with market test parameters from at least one market applicant can be electronically fed to the commercial machine during operation;

- An electronic, software-controlled core module with a parameter correction module, to which the order parameters and / or the market test parameters are directed by the at least one data communication interface during operation and through which at least a subset of the order parameters and / or the market test parameters as a function of the respective market provider-market candidate pairing is changeable;

a comparator, by means of which a parameter comparison of at least a subset of the order parameters with at least a subset of the market test parameters can be carried out while taking into account the parameters changed by the parameter correction module and by means of which an output signal can be generated in operation when the parameter comparison is completed;

a generator for generating a matching proposal as a function of the output signal of the generator; and

- A means of outputting the matching proposal in digital form to the market applicant via a digital data communication interface.

The method and the vending machine according to the invention are intended to provide an electronic marketplace for continuous trading. In contrast to an auction, this means that, like an exchange, offers are always made available from the marketplace and contracts can always be concluded based on matching offers and counter-offers. The marketplace according to the invention thus bears the needs commercial customers who need to meet their demand not only at the time of auction, but at the time when there is a need for a product.

According to the invention, the electronic marketplace is formed by a commercial machine, for example an electronic, software-controlled device, which compares the offers with the complementary counter-offers without human intervention.

The vending machine receives a plurality of orders from at least one market provider, the sales offers or purchase offers with order parameters, the order-specific parameters such as the quantity and the price of the products, and product-specific features, i.e. contain the characteristics and characteristics of the products in the standard specified by the marketplace, price.

The vending machine also receives a market test order, which contains order and product-specific parameters as market test parameters.

For the market review order, the vending machine automatically issues appropriate offers to the market applicant, which the latter can process.

An essential point of the invention is now to change the order parameters and / or the market test parameters depending on the respective market provider-market applicant pairing. This means the following: Between a certain market provider and a certain market applicant, i.e. a market provider-market candidate pairing, certain interactions may exist, which are only present in this pairing on the one hand and on the other hand influence the order parameters.

For example, discount agreements may exist between the market provider and the market applicant, so that in this case the discount, for example a quantity or price discount, must be taken into account in the order. Another example are transportation costs that vary depending on the locations of the market provider and the market applicant. These costs must also be taken into account in the offer.

However, since it is not yet known when the order is created by the market provider which market competitor is ultimately to be used to conclude a contract, these costs, which depend on the market provider-market applicant pairing, cannot be determined a priori.

According to the invention, it is therefore provided that the vending machine takes into account the order or market test parameters dependent on the market provider-market applicant pairing and changes them as if the market provider had prior knowledge of the market applicant who sent the market test order. Usually only a part of all order parameters will be dependent on the market provider-market candidate pairing. The vending machine automatically changes these parameters without human intervention.

In contrast to the systems as described in WO 99/34272, WO 99/27476 and US 5,710,887, in the commercial vending machine according to the invention or in the method according to the invention for automatic trading, a subset of the order parameters and / or the market check parameters is used before Comparison of the order parameters with the market review parameters automatically changed. According to the invention, this change takes place as a function of the respective order-dependent pairing of market providers and market applicants. Thus, the result of the assignment, for example, of a market provider to a market applicant, can generate all parameters, such as, for example, when the matching proposal is generated. B. Already consider transfer costs, customs costs and volume discounts to name just a few. This ensures that the matching proposal takes into account all parameters of the individual market provider-market applicant pairing. This can significantly increase the security of the transaction compared to the previously known systems. The solution according to the invention also has the advantage that the market applicant can view the modified order parameters. Security is significantly increased for both sides when a contract is concluded, since both parties no longer have to reckon with changes to the order parameters after the contract has been concluded. The trade can therefore be carried out entirely via the vending machine, since all order parameters are realistically recorded.

An essential aspect of the invention is the consideration of the transfer costs: in the case of a large number of products, for example screws, metal rings and other machine elements, the transfer costs which arise when the products are transferred from the seller to the buyer are no longer negligible. The transfer costs include, for example, freight and shipping costs as well as customs duties. In addition, the transfer costs depend on the respective locations of the seller and the buyer, i.e. the individual pairing of the buyer and seller.

In an electronic marketplace, when creating his purchase offer, the buyer assumes a price that already includes the delivery of the goods ("free house" price). At the previous electronic marketplaces, the buyer only received the offers of the sellers with the prices "ex works" and had no information about the transfer costs added to these prices. As a result, in the conventional electronic marketplaces, the conclusion of the contract depends essentially on the transfer costs, which would have to be added to these prices. An efficient conclusion of a contract was therefore not possible until now. So far, the conclusion of the contract had to be bilaterally agreed.

Similarly, when creating a sales offer, a seller assumes that his stated price is an "ex-works" price that does not yet include the freight costs. At the time of creating his sales offer, the seller does not yet know the potential buyer, on whose location the transfer costs ultimately depend. If a buyer therefore appears as a market competitor, then in a further advantageous embodiment the price The transfer costs are added to the complementary sales offers of the market providers. If a buyer appears as a market provider, the transfer machine can be deducted from the prices of the complementary purchase offers by the vending machine in a further advantageous embodiment.

Due to the advantageous automatic consideration of the transfer costs by the commercial machine, the transfer costs that arise due to the individual buyer-seller pairing are incorporated into the offers when the opposing offers are matched.

The buyer can thus see the free-domicile price in his match result, which includes all transfer costs.

Thus, the electronic marketplace according to the invention offers the possibility, regardless of the location of the seller and the buyer, to take the transfer costs of the individual buyer-seller pairing into account when the contract is concluded.

In an advantageous embodiment, the transfer costs are stored on a storage medium in a transfer cost database in the vending machine and can be read from there by the vending machine using a reading unit.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the vending machine automatically calculates the product-specific transfer costs, ie the transfer costs that depend on the product properties such as product volume, product quantity and insurance costs. In this case, an assignment, for example, of the weights and volumes of the various products on a piece basis to the transfer costs depending on the starting and ending points and the course of the transport route, can be stored in the transfer cost database as transfer cost information. When calculating on a piece basis, the vending machine can advantageously have a multiplication unit in order to calculate the total costs as a function of the respective order quantities. In a further advantageous embodiment, the vending machine can also automatically request and receive the transfer cost information in digital form from a service provider via a data communication interface instead of a database. This reduces the maintenance costs for the vending machine, since there is no need to maintain the database.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the duties can also be taken into account in the transfer costs in order to enable the actual order price to be calculated even more precisely. In a further embodiment, the duties can also be stored in a database in the vending machine; the vending machine can query the duties valid at the time of a market check from an external system via the data communication interface.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the vending machine also automatically carries out the automatic and electronic parameter comparison of at least a subset of the order parameters with a corresponding subset of the market test parameters by the vending machine. This comparison enables the vending machine to determine whether the order parameters match the market test parameters. The order parameters can be changed depending on the respective market applicant-market provider pairing before or after the parameter comparison.

However, in order to take into account the dependence on the respective market applicant-market provider pairing when comparing parameters, it is advantageous if, in a further embodiment, the vending machine automatically changes the order parameters before the parameter comparison.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the vending machine can automatically set the language of the comparison result output via the data communication interface as a function of at least a subset of the market test parameters and / or information stored in the vending machine for the respective market applicant by querying a vending machine's voice database provided in the vending machine. With this- In this embodiment, the information about complementary offers from market providers sent to the market applicant by the commercial machine is presented in a language selected by the market applicant. This configuration enables the international use of the method and the commercial machine according to the invention. The speech presentations that are made available to the market participants in, for example, a graphical user interface for the condition of the vending machine and implementation of the method via the data communication line can be standardized in a further embodiment and from a database depending on the settings of the market participants by a reading unit of the vending machine be readable.

Since the different market participants work with different currencies in an international marketplace, it can be provided in a further advantageous embodiment that the order information of the orders of the market providers is specified in a currency specified by the market applicant in its market review parameters or in other parameters stored in the vending machine. The vending machine carries out the conversion automatically. In order to take the current daily exchange rate into account, the vending machine can send inquiries to an external currency vending machine via the data communication interface and receive the current exchange rate from it.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the vending machine also enables the entry of positive or negative lists, so that a market participant is given the opportunity to preferentially conclude transactions with certain market participants in the positive list or not to conclude contracts with certain market participants in the negative list.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the vending machine can accept master orders and process them, which consist of identical individual orders that recur periodically over a certain period of time. The- This design enables market participants to meet an ever-present need.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the vending machine can take into account a percentage matching coverage contained in the order parameters for a purchase order from a market provider. This means that when comparing the order parameters of a complementary order that match the market test parameters of a market test order, the vending machine takes into account a parameter range, for example a price deviation, which is specified as a one-sided or bilateral percentage deviation from a preferred mean value, for example the desired price , Thus, when the matching proposal is created by the vending machine, offers can also be taken into account, the parameters of which do not correspond exactly to the market test parameters.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the vending machine can use a quantity-dependent price when searching for suitable complementary offers. This quantity-dependent price can be determined in that the order parameters and / or the market test parameters contain a plurality of pairs of product unit and unit price. On the basis of this data, the vending machine can carry out the parameter comparison after an interpolation of the product quantity-unit price pairs and creation of a price-quantity function.

After the market vendor has been automatically given a matching proposal by the vending machine, the market applicant can respond to orders that appear interesting to him from market vendors with a new market test with changed market test parameters, after which the vending machine automatically creates a new matching proposal. This process continues until the market candidate decides to accept an offer. In this case, a signal indicating the conclusion of the contract is sent to the vending machine. In a further advantageous embodiment of the method, the handheld enables automatic and electronic payment processing after the conclusion of a contract between two market participants. This can again be done via the data communication interface, via which the vending machine can exchange messages with external payment institutions and make the payment of the market applicant to the market provider perfect.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the vending machine can automatically delete the order for which a contract was concluded to the extent that the contract covers. This ensures that there are no double sales of the same thing. If only a part of the product quantity contained in an order is sold or bought, only this part will be deleted. The remaining part remains available through market test orders.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the vending machine can store the orders in an order database after receipt. From there, the orders can be read out immediately using a reading unit to create a matching comparison.

A problem with conventional methods for computerized trading or with vending machines arises when a single order, which can be an order from a market provider or a market review order from a market applicant, is not matched by a single order, but rather only by a plurality of complementary orders.

To solve this problem, the method according to the invention and the commercial automat according to the invention, in an advantageous embodiment, automatically assign several complementary offers from one or more market providers, preferably by means of linear or non-linear optimization, to a market review order from a market applicant. This has the advantage that even large order quantities that are not matched by a complementary order quantity of the same size can be traded. In this case, the vending machine automatically collects several, according to predetermined or adjustable Compiled orders optimized according to their criteria, with a smaller order volume in order to match the large order quantity.

In a further embodiment, it can be provided that the vending machine automatically combines individual orders that were received separately from a market provider and are independent of one another to form a collective or envelope order. The vending machine can calculate this summary depending on the market inspection order according to a cost function.

In another embodiment, the vending machine according to the invention can have an evaluation module that calculates the prices reached on the marketplace for individual variants by calculating the price of all traded products as a function of a specific product parameter. This is only possible with the standardized description of the products over a predetermined number of product parameters.

Before the description of the structure and function of the electronic marketplace according to the invention is discussed below, the terms used should first be explained. These terms are based on the terms used on stock exchanges.

Thus, all registered users of the electronic marketplace are understood as "market participants". The market participants can assume the role of a buyer or a seller, whereby a single market participant can act as both a buyer and a seller. Regardless of the buyer-seller role, each market participant can act in the role of a "market provider" or a "market applicant". In the role of the market provider, the market participant makes a (buy or sell) offer available to the electronic marketplace. In the role of the market applicant, he observes the relevant market offers and concludes a contract with a market provider if necessary. An "order", also called a "bundle", is an offer by a market participant to buy or sell a certain number of products. A sell order consists of a number of order items or orders. For each product item, each order item specifies the time period, the time span and the delivery quantity within which the market participant wants to sell a product. The same applies to purchase orders.

A "blanket order" corresponds to a set of periodically recurring orders. The individual orders that form the blanket order are identical up to the delivery date.

A "private area" is understood to be an area invisible to other market participants. In the private sector, every market participant can prepare his orders.

If the market participant believes that his offer made in the private sector is ready for the market, he can transfer it to the "public area", where it is visible to all market participants. With the transfer to the public sector, every market applicant can take advantage of the offer.

A "market check" here means the automatic check of an offer against the market, i. H. the quantity of offers from the public sector that are most favorable for the market participant with regard to the criteria selected by him are understood by the vending machine.

A proposal made by the electronic marketplace that meets the criteria set in the market review is referred to as a "matching proposal". If the market applicant has finally decided on a market offer, the corresponding matching proposal becomes a "match".

The "portfolio" is understood to be the quantity of all orders and order items of a market participant. It includes all orders in the private and public sector. After all, the "marketplace" is the quantity of all orders and associated order items of all market participants in the public sector.

In the following, the method according to the invention for computerized trading in these products and the trading machine according to the invention are explained with the aid of the drawing.

Show it:

1 shows a schematic view of an electronic marketplace with a user system and a vending machine;

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of the structure of a commercial machine and a user system;

3 shows a schematic illustration of the interaction of a commercial machine with a system of a market participant;

4 shows the functional structure of a commercial vending machine;

5 shows the schematic sequence of a market check by the commercial machine;

6 shows an example of the automatic calculation of the transfer costs by the commercial machine for a seller as a market applicant;

7 shows an example of the automatic calculation of the transfer costs by the commercial machine for a buyer as a market applicant.

First, the structure of the electronic marketplace according to the invention is described.

FIG. 1 shows an indefinite number of systems 1.1 to 1.n of market participants, in total thus n = 1, 2, ... market participants, it being possible for one system to be assigned to several market participants and one market participant to several systems. In Figure 1 are as market participants or user systems computer systems shown as an example. The user systems 1.1 to 1.n are each connected to a communication system 3 via a data communication line 2.1 to 2.n. The communication system 3 can be any digital communication system that allows data transfer in both directions. The communication system 3 can be based on a wide variety of standards and a modem connection, a connection based on communication protocols such as WAP, TCP / IP, CORBA etc., generally an Internet connection, or a Datex-P connection, a LAN or WAN Network etc. or any combination of these connections.

A vending machine 10 is connected to the communication system 3 via a data communication line 7. The vending machine 10 generates the virtual electronic marketplace and can be formed by any electronic device. In Figure 1, the electronic marketplace 10 is shown schematically by a computer. However, the electronic marketplace can also be distributed over a large number of computer systems. The vending machine 10 allows simultaneous use by any number n of user systems 1.

2 schematically shows the internal structure of a user system 20 and of the commercial machine 10.

Via a user interface 11, data can be entered directly into the trading machine 10 by a user. This can be useful, for example, for system administration of the vending machine 10. The user interface 11 can be designed as a screen with a keyboard, as a floppy disk drive, as a CD-ROM drive, etc.

The vending machine 10 also has a digital communication interface 12, via which the vending machine 10 can exchange data with other systems connected to the communication system 3, for example user systems, other stock exchange systems, debt collection systems, etc. Several communication interfaces 12 can also be provided. The communication Interface 22 can send data to communication system 3 and receive data from communication system 3.

The vending machine 10 furthermore has a main processor, on which the method for trading on the electronic trading place essentially runs. A CPU 13 is shown in FIG. 2 as the main processor. Any number of CPUs can also serve as the main processor. Instructions that are stored in a memory 24 are processed by the CPU 23. The user interface 11, the communication interface 12, the CPU 13 and the memory 14 are connected to one another via a data bus of the commercial machine 10. The data bus can be an internal data bus or, in the case of a distributed system, a network.

The memory 14 has a section in which an operating system 15 is stored. The operating system 15 controls basic operations of the vending machine 10, such as the input and output of data, access to peripheral devices, prioritization of processes that run on the CPU 13, etc. The memory

14 also has an area 15 in which one or more executable programs are stored which can run on the CPU 13. Furthermore, part of the memory is provided with data 16 with which the operating system

15 or the program 16 work. The memory 14 can consist entirely or in part of a memory with read access only or in whole or in part only from a memory with read and write access. CD-ROMs, hard drives, other computers etc. can also be used as the memory 24.

As can also be seen in FIG. 2, a user system 20, corresponding to one of the user systems 1.1 to n in FIG. 1, is constructed analogously to the trading system 10.

3 schematically shows the interaction between the commercial machine 10 and a user system 20. A user program 101 runs locally on the user system 20 and exchanges data with a user process 102 via the data communication line 2 and the data communication system 3. The user program 101 represents the interface via which a market participant interacts with the vending machine 10. On the side of the vending machine 10, a communication process 102 runs, which receives the data sent by the user system, the “market participant”, and forwards it to internal processes for further processing. In the vending machine 10, there are also a number of databases 103 in which data are stored This data is used for further processing of the data sent by the market participant to the vending machine 10, for example an order or a market test order .. A part 104 of the databases can also be outsourced and automatically provided by external systems 105 on request of the vending machine.

FIG. 4 shows the functional division of the vending machine 10, as implemented by the various programs stored in the memory 14 and executed by the CPU 13.

The electronic marketplace 10 comprises a core system 110, which performs the essential functions of the vending machine to create the electronic marketplace, such as the receipt of orders and market test orders, the processing of the order parameters and the creation and transmission of matching suggestions.

The core system includes a transfer cost module 112, through which the transfer costs are calculated and the order parameters are changed depending on the respective market applicant-market provider pairing. For this purpose, the transfer cost module has computing units such as multiplication units, adding units or units, integrators and interpolation units.

The core system 110 further comprises a comparator 114 which compares the order parameters of an order from a market provider with the market review parameters of a market provider and provides a comparison result in digital form. The comparator can also include arithmetic units in order to be able to carry out comparisons between parameters which are not themselves exact Represent value, but represent a function defined over a range of values.

The core system 110 also includes a generator 115, to which the comparison result of the comparator 114 is forwarded, and which creates a matching proposal from the comparison result. For this purpose, the generator 115 likewise has arithmetic units, in order to carry out an evaluation and weighting of the individual orders contained in the matching proposal as a function of the market test parameters or the order parameters.

Finally, the core system 110 also comprises a plurality of databases 117, in which information is stored, which the vending machine 10 automatically accesses when the matching proposal is created. These databases 117 contain an order database 118, in which the currently valid orders from market vendors received by the vending machine 10 are stored with their order parameters, a product database 119 in which product-specific parameters of the products which can be traded with the vending machine are stored. Under the databases 117 there is also a user database 120 in which user-specific information about the market participants operating at the vending machine is stored. A transfer cost database 121 is also provided, in which information about the transfer costs for moving the products from one place to another is stored.

The databases 117 are usually not visible to the market participants in their entirety.

The vending machine 10 also has an administration module 125, an accounting module 126, a payment module 127, a language module 128 and a currency module 129, which are briefly described below:

The management module 125 is used for the maintenance and care of the vending machine 10 and permits interventions in the modules 110 to 129 of the handheld vending machine 10 by the operator of the electronic marketplace. An accounting module 126 can be included in the electronic marketplace 10, which automatically carries out the accounting of the electronic marketplace 10 for its operator. The accounting module 126 monitors the received orders from the market providers and the market review orders from the market applicants as well as the contracts concluded between market providers and market applicants. Based on this information, the accounting module automatically creates fee invoices for the market participants, which can then be processed automatically via the payment module.

The payment module 127 can be used to automatically process the payment when a purchase contract between a buyer and a seller has been successfully concluded. To this end, the payment module 127 is connected to an external collection system, for example a credit institution 130, via a data communication line, not shown in FIG. 3. Through the data exchange with the credit institution 130, money transfers between market participants or market participants at the vending machines can be carried out automatically by the vending machine 10.

In order to be able to use the electronic marketplace 10 internationally in a large number of countries and to take into account that buyers and sellers do not have to be located in the same countries, the electronic marketplace 10 has a language module 128 and a currency module 129.

The language module 128 is equipped with a language database 128a, in which the various languages with which the user program 101, cf. 3, which represents data received from the vending machine 10.

The currency module 129 takes into account different currencies on behalf of a market provider and the market applicant's market review request. The vending machine automatically determines these differences by comparing the market test parameters and the order parameters and activates the currency module to convert the currencies to the currency specified in the market test order. The currency module can do this with an external System 131, for example a currency exchange, can be connected, which forwards the exchange rates to the handheld ice machines continuously or on request via a data communication line.

In the following the function of the electronic market place is described with the help of usage examples.

Before a user can participate in the electronic marketplace as a market participant, he must register as a new user in the vending machine. The registration preferably takes place automatically via the data communication line 2. The new user dials into the vending machine via the data communication line and provides information on his identification, location and contact. The core system automatically enters the new user data into the user database 120. The authenticity and quality of the registering users can be checked and individual users can be prevented from accessing the vending machine via the management module 125. The vending machine 10 automatically creates identification data such as passwords and user IDs for the user identification.

After the registration has been completed, the vending machine notifies the new user of the successful registration via the data communication line.

In order to ensure secure data exchange between the user system 20 and the vending machine 10, the vending machine 10 can use an encryption module (not shown) for data transmission, by means of which the exchanged information is not made accessible to third parties.

In order to be able to participate in the market, the registered user dials into the vending machine via his user program 101 and enters his identification and his password there. If the identifier and password match the identifier and password stored in the user database, the core system 110 enables the user access to the electronic marketplace. With the access authorization, the user can change his user-specific data at any time. In addition to the user-identifying information, this user-specific data also includes order-specific data or parameters that define individual criteria to be taken into account for orders. These criteria correspond to the default settings for later orders.

The order-specific parameters include, for example:

- the minimum weight per order to prevent the purchased or sold goods from being sent in too small quantities;

- the minimum rating of the contractual partner with regard to product, delivery, payment and packaging quality;

- the minimum matching coverage of an order in terms of price, quantity and number of products delivered in percent;

- the identification of market participants with whom he does not want to conclude a contract (negative list) or with whom he prefers to conclude contracts (positive list), whereby each market participant is a member of his own negative list in order to avoid matching his own orders; and

- the preferred currency and language of the operator.

The function of the automatic teller machine 10 is shown schematically in FIG. 5. The order parameters of orders - purchase offers or sales offers - of individual market providers 20 are stored in the order database 119.

The creation of an order takes place in the private area of the market participant on the user system 20 or in the vending machine 10, without another market participant being able to see the process of creating the order. The private area may be physically located on user system 20, on the trading venue, or on any other system.

To create his order, a user enters the product-specific order parameters, by means of which the product is described, and the order-specific or order-specific order parameters, for example the number of desired products, the desired price and the delivery date, on his user system 20 via the user interface 21.

An important aspect of the vending machine according to the invention is the ability of the market provider to generate orders that are out of focus. Various products, each with a finite number of product parameters, are described in the product database 119. For screws, these product parameters are, for example, the size, the material class, the surface treatment and the color. These product parameters can either be determined exactly, by specifying the desired parameter, or unsharp, by specifying a parameter range or several values, in the market test parameters. If a characteristic of the product parameters, for example the color, is completely uninteresting for the market competitor, he can leave it completely indefinite as a "wild card". An order with a subset of product parameters specified or released in areas is referred to as a fuzzy order.

Finally, the user has to specify how long his order should be valid. The vending machine only considers orders within the order validity period. The vending machine will not make the orders for market inspection orders available before or after the validity period has expired.

A blanket order can be created in the same way as a single order. To do this, the user must also specify when the blanket order is to be executed for the first time, how many individual orders and at what intervals these individual orders are to be executed. Since the individual orders of a blanket order are identical, if the individual order is changed, all associated individual orders are changed at the same time.

The vending machine also allows the indication of quantity-dependent prices. For example, a different unit price can be specified for a minimum quantity and for a maximum quantity. The core module then interpolates between these two limit values to produce a price function depending on the order quantity. In this case, the matching proposal is calculated by vending machines based on the interpolated price. The core system 110 also accepts a plurality of unit price-quantity pairs and automatically selects a corresponding interpolation function depending on the number of price-quantity pairs.

After specifying all the order parameters, the user can decide whether he wants to make the order in the public area on the order database available for access by market vendors controlled by the vending machine, or whether he wants to make the order just created as part of a market check against the orders in the Wants to test the order database.

If the market participant decides to publish his order, he generates an order signal on his user system 20 by actuating a switching element. In response to the order signal, the vending machine 10 automatically takes the offer of the market participant from their private area and stores it in the order database 118. In order to enable quick access to the database 118, the vending machine 10 can automatically process and store the data in the database Convert the job to database format.

If the market participant decides to carry out a market test, he generates a market test signal on his user system 20 by actuating a switching element. The vending machine 10 tests the created order against the market in response to the market check signal. The market is formed by the currently valid orders stored in the order database. The market test fung forms the main function of the vending machine 10 and can be carried out by the vending machine 10 for an order in the public or private sector.

The process of the market check will now be described with reference to FIG. 5.

The vending machine 10 receives, via its communication interface 12 connected to the communication system 3, a market test order 150 which is in digital, electronic form. The market test application contains order-specific parameters 151 and product-specific parameters 152.

The vending machine 10 can perform market review orders from a variety of product classes, such as bolts and nuts. The core system first automatically determines the product class within which the market review is to take place based on the product-specific parameters 152.

Once the product class has been determined, the core system 110 can initially perform a rough search in the order database in order to carry out a first, rough preselection based on a subset of the order and product-specific parameters of complementary offers. For this purpose, the comparator 112 can be preceded by a comparator with an arithmetic unit (not shown), which has access to the order database via a reading unit.

The transfer cost module 112 calculates the transfer costs as a function of the market provider-market applicant pairing and the or- and product-specific parameters 151, 152.

For this purpose, the transfer cost module 112 reads information about the product-specific transfer costs from the product database 119. This is, for example, the unit weight and the packaging volume of the products contained in the market inspection order. Furthermore, the transfer cost module 112 reads information about the location and the preferences of the market applicant and the market provider from the user database 120. The user preferences can For example, include certain shipping requirements. With the information about the user-specific and the product-specific transfer costs, the transfer cost module 112 automatically calculates the transfer costs with the aid of the transfer cost database 121. The transfer cost module 112 automatically takes into account the order-specific parameters such as the order quantity.

With the help of an integrated arithmetic unit, the transfer cost module 112 calculates the transfer costs 153 for the individual order and the individual market provider-market applicant pairing and changes the order price accordingly in the order parameters. The order parameters 153 and the product parameters 152 changed by the transfer costs are then forwarded to the comparator 114 in digital form.

The comparator 114 uses an arithmetic unit to compare the at least partially changed order parameters 153 with the order-specific market check parameters 151. The comparator 114 automatically filters out the appropriate complementary market offers as a function of the order-specific parameters. The comparator automatically takes into account vague offers, quantity-dependent prices and overlaps specified in the order and market review parameters. As a result, generator 114 sends an electronic list 154 to generator 116.

The generator 116 organizes the electronic list generated by the comparator 114 and generates a matching proposal 155, which it sends to the market applicant's user system in digital form.

The generator 116 calculates, depending on order-specific parameters and information from the user database 120, a list sequence in which the list 154 generated by the comparator 114 is sent to the user system 20. For this purpose, the generator can also be physically located in the user system 20. The generator uses an optimization function to calculate the sequence. The market applicant can have the matching proposal 155 listed on the user system 20 and compare it with his order. If he finds a suitable offer, he can initiate a contract. Otherwise, he can observe the market situation for all displayed offers from the perspective of the market provider in order to be able to react accordingly to the competition.

The market applicant can then carry out a new market test with changed market test parameters in order to search for other orders which were not found during the first market test. The renewed market check then runs again according to the scheme described in FIG. 5.

In the automatic market check, the market applicant can control the selection of the offers stored in the vending machine by changing his market check criteria. For example:

- an accepted deviation of the offer from the desired price,

- compliance with the desired minimum weight and / or

- specify a deviation from the negative list, i.e. whether offers from market participants who are on the negative list of the market applicant should also be displayed.

This means that a matching proposal that has already been created can also be processed further and the complementary orders found can be evaluated and listed according to other rules.

By specifying the market review parameters, the market applicant can choose whether the selection of offers should be optimized according to the number of order items, price, weight or quantity. The user system then lists all offers that have an overlap with the current order of the market applicant in the desired order on a screen or prints this list. It shows the following order parameters: - Number of order items, number of items and weight of the coverage (each in absolute and relative terms to the current order of the applicant),

- Proportion of the costs of the surplus that arise from the claim of the provider taking into account the transport and customs costs (absolute and relative to the current order of the applicant),

- Proportion of the costs of the surplus that arise from the current order of the provider (absolute and relative to the current order of the applicant) and

- customs and transport costs.

All of these parameters are displayed from the perspective of the market applicant.

6 and 7 illustrate how the transfer costs flow into the matching proposal. The calculation of the sales price depends on whether the current order is a buy or a sale. For simplicity, the example is limited to a single order item. If there are several order items, the individual orders are included in the calculation based on their total share.

6 shows the following situation: A seller 200 wants to sell a quantity of screws, which is accepted 100%, at a total price of $ 1000 ex works. With this market review request, the vending machine searches for complementary buy orders in the order database 118. In the order database there are two buy offers, 201 and 202, one of which buyer 201 has a relative amount of 50% of the products sold by seller 200 for a total price of $ 570 wants to buy free. The other buyer 202 wants 40% of the quantity offered by seller 200 free for a price of $ 450. Without taking the transfer costs into account, the free house purchase offer of buyer 201 is therefore greater than that of buyer 202. The vending machine, for pairing buyer 201 with seller 200, calculates the total transfer cost for transporting the goods from seller 200 to buyer 201 at $ 80. These costs must be deducted from buyer's 201 home offer to be compared to seller 200's sale offer.

For the pairing of the buyer 202 with the seller 200, the vending machine calculates the total transfer cost at $ 50. As with buyer 201, transfer costs are deducted from buyer 202's purchase offer. Taking the transportation costs into account, this results in a purchase offer price of $ 400. The purchase offer of the buyer 201 therefore corresponds to the sales offer of the seller 200 for the quantity sought by the buyer 201, taking into account the transfer costs. The vending machine 10 will therefore include the purchase offer of the buyer 201 in the automatically created matching proposal.

Since the transfer costs depend on the respective buyer-seller pairing, the offer of buyer 201 may prove to be more attractive for another seller 203 with other sales parameters, for example a price of $ 900 for 100%, in terms of the prices adjusted for the transfer costs.

FIG. 7 shows a case example analogous to the case example of FIG. 6, in which a purchase demand is to be matched by the commercial machine as a market check request: buyer 205 searches for a quantity of 100% free of charge for a total price of $ 1000. In response to this market test request, the vending machine 10 searches in its order database 118 for offers which match the product test parameters in their product-specific parameters. The vending machine finds the sales offers from sellers 206 and 207. Seller 206 offers 50% of the quantity requested by buyer 205 ex works at a price of $ 600. Seller 207 offers 60% of the quantity requested by buyer 205 ex works at a price of $ 670.

For the automatic creation of the matching proposal, the transfer cost module first calculates the transfer costs for the two pairs of buyers 205 seller 206 and buyer 205 to seller 206 at $ 70 and $ 80, respectively. These costs must be added to the ex-works offers of sellers 206 and 207 before the vending machine optimizes the offers for the market test order with regard to their prices. After taking the transfer costs into account, both sales offers are above the price sought by buyer 205.

The vending machine will evaluate the offers of buyers 206 and 207 according to a cost function, for example after the deviation from the desired unit price of buyer 205, and send them to the system of buyer 205 in the evaluated order.

The difference between the desired price and the offer price based on the total price of the coverage is decisive for the automatic evaluation of the order in the optimization according to the price, as it is carried out by the handheld ice machine.

The current order is checked against all offers (i.e. orders) in the marketplace where there is an overlap of the delivery times between the current order and the offer. In the case of unsharp purchase orders, the vending machine carries out a fuzzy matching: order items in which the buyer has selected several characteristics or a range for a product-specific parameter of an article are matched with all sales orders with one of these characteristics by the trading machine.

It can happen that several offers from the same market participant are displayed in the market review. This can result in the maximum possible scope of matching between the participating market participants not being achieved because the matching can only take place on an order basis. In order to limit this situation as much as possible, after determining the matching candidates, the market review algorithm tries to combine orders from the same provider into a (virtual) collective order by adding up the individual order items of the orders involved. It should be noted here that the delivery time overlaps and the excess desired by the buyer coverage volumes for matching are observed. Various heuristics are possible for this.

In order to get an overview of how the current order relates to a specific order from a market provider, the market applicant can carry out a market check with the order parameters of an order contained in the matching proposal. The market candidate thus slips into the role of a complementary market provider. The vending machine automatically creates a matching proposal for this market review request, as already described above. This complementary matching proposal shows all possible matching candidates for the complementary offer to the original market review request that are currently on the marketplace for the corresponding offer.

This result corresponds exactly to the view that the market provider would receive when examining its order. This way, every market participant has the opportunity to adjust his order according to the market situation before concluding a contract or discarding an offer.

When the market competitor has finally found an acceptable offer, he can make the deal perfect by sending a close signal to the vending machine. In this case one speaks of a match. Afterwards, the overlaps are extracted from the orders involved in the order database and the reduced orders are transferred to the respective portfolio of the market participants.

A blanket order can only be matched with another blanket order (or added to the proposal list). The prerequisite for this is that the start time and the number and frequency of repetitions of the two blanket orders match. In order to be able to comply with these restrictions, every market participant has the opportunity to view all blanket orders in the marketplace without checking their own order against the market. However, the user can also use each individual order as a blanket order Mark the current order and then check against the market. As soon as such a single order is matched, the blanket order is automatically withdrawn to the private area.

In the following, the automatic matching of a market test order with orders for bundled orders is described using an exemplary embodiment, as is carried out by the vending machine taking into account the transfer costs dependent on the respective market applicant-market provider pairing.

A bundled order is understood to mean a bundle of individual orders across different product classes, which are combined into one order and are accordingly delivered in one delivery by the supplier.

In the following example, the transfer costs include transport costs and handling costs.

The transport costs are the sum of all costs to transport the product quantity specified by the market applicant in a single order from the market provider to the market applicant. It is assumed that the transport costs P _{τ are} only a function of the weight and volume of the order: P _τ = f (kg, m ³ ). However, other dependencies are also conceivable here, such as a dependency on the distance, the time of delivery or the countries crossed during transport.

The following example assumes that transportation costs depend only on weight and distance.

From the buyer's point of view, the handling costs are the sum of all costs for, for example, handling the goods in the incoming goods department, internally processing the supplier's invoice and all costs of transferring money to the supplier's account. From the point of view of the seller, the handling costs are composed as follows, for example, of handling the goods in the warehouse, packaging ready for dispatch, handling in the outgoing goods area and internal processing of the invoice for the customer

The handling costs on the part of the seller and the buyer are always the same for each unbound order and are reduced according to a function with the number of orders in a bundle P _H κ = f (number of bundled orders)

According to the following example, the vending machine is used on a screw exchange

A screw trader A in Germany urgently needs the following screws and, as a market applicant, specifies the following market test parameters during its market review

The handling costs per delivery from a supplier amount to 1 DM.This information is stored in the trading machine in the user database on a storage medium, but can be adjusted in the market test parameters if necessary.The value specified in the market test parameters overwrites the value specified in the user database if both are different

The transfer cost module determines the weights of the product classes contained in the market test parameters for the following values from the product database

At the time of the market check by the screw trader A, the following orders were available in the vending machine

The handler B from the country W, as a market provider, sent an order with the following order parameters to the vending machine. Because the handler B wrote his order in the domestic currency, the vending machine uses the currency module, which uses a data communication line to provide the current currency Currency exchange rate, all prices automatically switch to A's currency

The handling costs of handler B are 1 DM per delivery from a supplier according to the order parameters

First, the vending machine compares the product-specific parameters of the order of the B and the market test order of the A. Since there are no differences in these parameters, the vending machine next compares the quantities offered

In the case of the individual orders, there is a deviation from the quantities of handler A and handler B. Therefore, the vending machine then tests whether these deviations are within the coverage areas specified in the two complementary offers. Handler B, for example, has stated that they should only deliver if at least Decreased 30% of the amount dealer A has indicated that it will only accept an offer if at least 40% of the quantity can be supplied by one supplier. In the present example, the two complementary offers are in the respective coverage area, so that the vending machine next calculates the transfer costs.

If the supply quantities of individual individual orders are not in the respective overlap area and the market applicant has determined to only accept cover offers from a single marketer, the vending machine in the present case would not take the A's offer into account when creating the matching proposal.

In order to generate the matching proposal, the vending machine first determines the transport costs that are incurred for the market provider-market applicant pairing of the A with the B. The vending machine reads transfer cost information on the location of A in country V and the location of B in country W from the transfer cost database and calculates the transportation costs. As a result of this calculation, the transportation costs depend on the weight of the delivery:

With this information, the transfer cost module calculates the free house price for the delivery of the bundle order from dealer B to dealer A by adding the prices in an adding unit as follows:

Since the prices are below the price specified by dealer A, the vending machine includes the order from dealer B in the matching proposal.

Trader C, based in country X, has placed the following orders on screws in the system:

The dealership C will not include the dealer's offer in the matching proposal without taking the transport costs into account, since the cover order of the A and the cover order of the C have different product-specific parameters: The cover order of the C does not contain any screws of product class DIN 931. The same result would be achieved if a different length, diameter or delivery date were given in a single order.

The order from dealer D in country Y is saved in the vending machine with the following parameters:

The handling parameters of dealer D include 1 DM in the order parameters.

First, as described above, the vending machine compares the product-specific parameters as well as the order quantities and their respective coverage areas. In the following case it is assumed that D did not specify a degree of coverage. With this information, the vending machine only takes into account the degree of coverage of A. Since the quantities offered by D lie within the degrees of coverage of the individual orders of A, the order of D fulfills the quantity criterion of the market review request of D.

The vending machine then, as described above, first calculates the transfer costs for the mart provider-market applicant pairing of the A with the D using the transfer cost database. The result is the following assignment in the memory of the vending machine:

Taking into account the quantities in the market inquiry, the vending machine calculates the following prices:

When comparing the total prices, the comparator finds a deviation in individual order 3 in the vending machine. If this deviation lies outside a range determined in the market test parameters, the offer will be des A included in the matching proposal. If this deviation exceeds a maximum price set by A, the vending machine ignores the offer of D.

In the above example, an envelope order was only included in the matching proposal by the vending machine if all individual orders matched their product-specific parameters. However, the vending machine can also be set up so that it first cuts a shell order from a market provider into its individual orders and compares the individual orders with one another. The individual orders with matching product parameters, which are also within the overlap range of the order-specific parameters specified by the market applicant, are then packed in a residual envelope from the market provider. Using a linear or non-linear optimization process or a cost function, the vending machine can weight the remaining envelopes according to their correspondence with the entirety of the individual orders determined in the market test order and record them in the weighting order in the matching proposal.

Finally, the vending machine can also be set up in such a way that it satisfies the demand for an individual order from the market applicant from several individual orders from market providers. The composition of individual orders in response to an individual order can also take place through linear or non-linear optimization in the commercial machine. In the process of optimization, several opposing orders from the same market provider-market applicant pairing can be weighted and compared against each other.

For this purpose, the handheld ice machine can be provided with an evaluation unit connected downstream of the comparator, which evaluates the result of the parameter comparison using a cost function.

In this case, the individual orders of the C for the 8 mm and the 12 mm long screws would be compared with the corresponding individual orders for the A for these screws in the manner already described above. Finally, it should also be noted that the vending machine can also automatically combine individual offers that were originally specified independently of one another in the case of a market test order to form an envelope order.

Claims

claims

1. A method for automatic handling with products described by a predetermined number of product parameters, such as screws or nuts, or services on a virtual marketplace using a commercial machine, comprising the following method steps:

- Receiving at least one digital order with order parameters, which represent at least a subset of the product parameters, from at least one market provider through the vending machine via a digital data communication interface;

- automatic generation of a matching proposal as a function of the result of the parameter comparison; - Output of the matching proposal in electronic form to the market candidate via a digital data communication interface.

2. The method according to claim 1, in which the following step is additionally carried out:

automatic calculation of the transfer costs as a result of the function of the respective order-dependent market provider-market applicant pairing by the trading machine.

3. The method according to claim 2, in which the following step is additionally carried out:

automatic calculation of transfer costs depending on the transfer cost information stored in the vending machine by the vending machine.

4. The method according to claim 3, in which the following method step is additionally carried out:

automatic reading of the transfer cost information from a transfer cost database stored in the commercial machine by the commercial machine.

5. The method according to claim 4, in which the following method step is additionally carried out:

automatic change of the amount of the order price contained in the order parameters by the transfer costs by the vending machine.

6. The method according to claim 5, in which the following method step is additionally carried out: automatic reduction of the order price for a purchase order from a market provider by the transfer costs through the vending machine.

7. The method according to claim 5, in which the following method step is additionally carried out:

automatic increase of the order price for a sales order from a market provider by the transfer costs through the vending machine.

8. The method according to any one of the above claims, in which the following process step is additionally carried out:

Automatic calculation of product-specific transfer costs by the vending machine as a function of product-specific order parameters or of product-specific market test parameters, for example product type, product quantity and product weight.

9. The method according to claim 8, in which the following method step is additionally carried out:

- Automatic reading of product-specific transfer costs on a piece basis from the transfer cost database.

10. The method according to claim 9, in which the following method step is additionally carried out:

- Automatic multiplication of the product-specific transfer costs on a piece basis by the quantity of products contained in the market test parameters and / or the order parameters by the vending machine.

11. The method according to any one of the above claims, in which the following process step is additionally carried out:

- Automatic reading of customs cost information from the transfer cost database by the trading machine.

12. The method according to claim 11, in which the following method step is additionally carried out:

- Automatic calculation of the customs costs as a function of the respective market applicant-market provider pairing, the order parameters and / or the market review parameters by the trading machine.

13. The method according to claim 12, in which the following method step is additionally carried out:

- automatic addition of customs costs to transfer costs.

14. The method according to any one of the above claims, in which the following process step is additionally carried out:

- Automatic generation of a matching proposal as a function of the result of the parameter comparison.

15. The method according to any one of the above claims, in which the vending machine does not make the corresponding order available for a market test, depending on an offer validity period contained in the order parameters, before the entry and / or after the offer validity period has expired.

16. The method according to any one of the above claims, in which the vending machine automatically changes the order parameters after the parameter comparison has been carried out.

17. The method according to any one of the above claims, in which the language of the comparison result output via the data communication interface is automatically set as a function of at least a subset of the market test parameters and / or of information stored in the vending machine for the respective market applicant by querying a language database provided in the vending machine ,

18. The method as claimed in one of the abovementioned claims, in which the currency of the comparison result output via the data communication interface is automatically set as a function of at least a subset of the market test parameters and / or user information stored in the vending machine for the respective market applicant by querying a currency database provided in the vending machine ,

19. The method according to any one of the above claims, wherein at least a subset of the market test parameters and / or the order parameters and / or user information stored in the vending machine for the respective market applicant contains a negative list of market participants, by means of which the vending machine stores the market participants contained in one of the negative lists Parameter comparison and / or automatically when sending the comparison result to the market competitor.

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least a subset of the market test parameters and / or the order parameters and / or information stored in the vending machine for the respective market applicant contains a positive list of market participants, by means of which the vending machine contains the market participants contained in one of the positive lists preferred compared to the market participants not included in one of the positive lists in the comparison result.

21. The method according to any one of the above claims, in which the vending machine on the basis of the order parameters and / or the market test parameters. the framework orders of the market provider and the market applicant are compared with one another, the framework orders being composed of a plurality of identical individual orders in each case by the market provider and market applicant at a predetermined and regular time interval from one another.

22. The method according to any one of the above claims, in which the vending machine takes into account a percentage matching coverage contained in the order parameters for a purchase order from a market provider.

23. The method as claimed in one of the abovementioned claims, in which the order parameters and / or the market test parameters contain a plurality of product unit / unit price pairs, the vending machine comparing the parameters after an interpolation of the product unit / unit price pairs and creation of a price / quantity unit. Performs function.

24. The method according to any one of the above claims, further comprising the following step:

automatic and electronic payment processing after the conclusion of a contract between two market participants.

25. The method according to any one of the above claims, further comprising the following step:

automatic deletion of an order after the conclusion of a contract to the extent that a contract has been concluded between two market participants.

26. The method according to any one of the above claims, which is carried out automatically by the vending machine upon receipt of a market review request.

27. The method according to any one of the above claims, wherein the vending machine stores the orders after receipt in an order database on a storage medium.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the orders are read out from the order database by the trading machine before the parameter comparison.

29. The method according to any one of the above claims, wherein the vending machine automatically assigns several complementary offers from one or more market providers, preferably through linear or non-linear optimization, to a market review order from a market applicant.

30. The method according to any one of the above claims, wherein the vending machine automatically combines several orders from a market provider that were received by the vending machine as individual orders independently of one another, depending on the market testing parameters of a market test order, to form a shell order and compares the order parameters of the shell order with the market test orders.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the vending machine summarizes the envelope orders depending on a cost function.

32. A vending machine for computerized trading in products described by a predetermined number of product parameters, such as screws or nuts, or services on a virtual marketplace, comprising:

at least one data communication interface via which at least one digital order with order parameters from at least one market provider and at least one digital market test request with market test parameters from at least one market applicant can be electronically supplied to the commercial machine during operation; an electronic, software-controlled core module with a parameter correction module, to which the order parameters and / or the market test parameters are routed by the at least one data communication interface during operation and through which at least a subset of the order parameters and / or the market test parameters as a function of the respective one Market provider-market candidate pairing is changeable;

a comparator by means of which a parameter comparison can be carried out during operation of at least a subset of the order parameters with at least a subset of the market test parameters taking into account the parameters changed by the parameter correction module and by means of which an output signal can be generated in operation when the parameter comparison is completed;

a means of outputting the matching proposal in digital form to the market applicant via a digital data communication interface.

33. A vending machine according to claim 32, comprising a storage medium on which a transfer cost database is stored, the transfer cost database containing product-specific transfer cost information for moving the product from one market participant to another market participant;

34. A handheld ice machine according to claim 32 or 33, wherein the parameter correction module is designed as a transfer cost module and has a reading unit by means of which the transfer cost information can be read out from the transfer cost database and can be processed by the transfer cost module.

35. Vending machine according to one of claims 32 to 34, wherein a storage medium is provided with an order database in which the orders from market providers are stored together with the order parameters, and wherein the comparator is connected to a reading unit through which the order parameters can be read out from the order database are.

36. Vending machine according to one of claims 32 to 35, wherein the vending machine has a storage medium with a user database from which transfer cost parameters of the individual market applicants and market providers can be read out by a reading unit and can be directed to the transfer cost module.

37. Vending machine according to one of claims 32 to 36, wherein the vending machine has a language module with a language database, by means of which the language of the matching proposal issued to the market applicant can be set.

38. A vending machine according to one of claims 32 to 37, in which the transfer cost database has a customs cost database with customs cost information that can be read out by a reading unit, from which the customs costs associated with a respective market candidate-market provider pairing can be calculated as a function of the customs cost information by the transfer cost module.

39.A commercial machine according to one of claims 32 to 38, with a multiplication unit which is connected to the transfer cost module via a data line, and through which the transfer costs calculated by the transfer cost module on a per-piece basis can be multiplied by a number of products contained in the market test parameters and the transfer costs can be calculated ,

40. Merchant according to one of claims 32 to 39, with an adding unit which is connected to the transfer cost module via a data line, the transfer costs calculated by the transfer cost module and those in the Order parameters and / or market test parameters contained order costs are directed to the adding unit, and through which the transfer costs and the order costs can be subtracted from one another or added together.

41. Electronic marketplace with a vending machine, with at least one market provider system and with at least one market applicant system, all of which are connected to one another via a digital data communication line, the trading module being designed according to claims 32 to 40.