Patent Application
20090099914
The subject matter of the present disclosure relates to a system and method for offering a credit product to consumers on a transactional basis when the consumer is completing a purchase for an electronic transaction.
Consumers can purchase items on-line, via the phone, or in a retail store. Web-based purchasing has become increasingly popular, and websites are designed to handle various methods of electronic payment for consumer purchases. In addition to the common payment methods using credit cards or debit cards, some additional electronic payment methods include PayPal®, BillMeLater®, and Google Checkout™.
PayPal® provides an additional payment option for consumers on a merchant's website. With PayPal®, HTML forms are added to the merchant's website that direct the consumers to the PayPal® website for payment processing after which the consumer returns to the merchant's website. Merchants then have their PayPal® accounts credited with payment. Google Checkout™ adds a payment process to a merchant's website that simplifies the checkout process for both the merchant and the consumer. Google Checkout™ allows a consumer to make on-line purchases using a username and a password so that the consumer's credit card is charged and the merchant's bank account is credited with payment.
In another example, an on-line merchant using the BillMeLater® service incorporates an icon into the merchant's website in which the consumer can select the service as a payment option for a transaction. For example, FIG. 1A shows a merchant's webpage 10 having transaction information and a BillMe Later® icon 12, which is advertised to each consumer entering the screen. If the client selects the icon 12, then a new screen 20 in
With the growing popularity of on-line and other types of purchasing, merchants and consumers continue to seek new and useful ways to complete purchases electronically in addition to those already available.
In an automated transactional credit system, a consumer makes a purchase on a merchant's website. Before the consumer can select a payment option, a web page requests that the consumer enter her name and shipping or billing address. Using this information, the system uses a profiling mechanism to selectively offer the consumer with a credit product on a transactional basis. In an automated process, for example, the system first searches database information to determine whether the consumer has an existing account, an outstanding offer, a previously declined offer, etc. Next, the system applies various rules to the search results to determine whether to make an offer for a transactional credit product to the consumer. If the offer is to be made, the system then determines whether the consumer pre-qualifies for the transactional credit product using an on-line prescreen service.
If the consumer pre-qualifies, an additional webpage is incorporated into the merchant's website that offers the transactional credit product to the consumer to pay for the web-based transaction before the consumer is directed to any order confirmation or payment webpage on the website. If the consumer accepts the offer, the system performs any necessary authorization processes or instant credit applications and allows the consumer to pay for the web-based transaction with the newly acquired transactional credit product. In addition to being used for web-based transactions, the disclosed transactional credit system can be used for transactions over the phone (e.g., catalog orders), at a retail store, or via other channel.
Turning to the drawings, a transactional credit system 100 is shown in
Briefly,
As will be noted, however, the requested information at this point in the transaction processing does not include the consumer's date of birth or social security number. From her perspective, the consumer is merely entering her name and shipping or billing address to complete the web-based transaction and is not entering payment information or making any form of application for credit. As an alternative to requesting information in such a webpage 400, the system 100 can instead obtain the consumer's log-on ID for the merchant's website 120 and can use this to search its associated databases 122 for information pertaining to the consumer's identity.
Returning to
Which credit identity a consumer has will determine whether the consumer's demographic information is sent to a transactional credit service 140 for processing and eventually will determine whether an offer for a transactional credit product will be made to the consumer to pay for the web-based transaction. In particular, a profiling and filtering mechanism 130 uses the consumer's credit identity and applies predetermined rules to filter out those web-based transactions where the consumer has one or more certain credit identities (Block 210). For example, the mechanism 130 may not send a consumer's information to the service 140 if the consumer already has a private label or co-branded credit account with the merchant or has an outstanding offer for such a private label or co-branded credit product. For these particular consumers, the merchant may wish to have the consumer use their existing private label or co-branded product or be reoffered such a product again as opposed to being offered a transactional credit product.
The profiling and filtering mechanism 130, however, transfers web-based transactions and demographic information that pass through the filtering to the transactional credit service 140 (Block 215). The service 140 then processes the consumer's demographic information and determines whether to offer the consumer a transactional credit product for the current web-based transaction (Block 220). This determination is also based on a set of rules and decisions, which are discussed in more detail later with reference to
After making a determination, the service 140 provides the result (offer, decline, etc.) to the website 120. If an offer is to be made, the offer is incorporated into the consumer's online experience on the merchant's website 120 and displayed to the consumer while proceeding from checkout to payment for the transaction (Block 225). If an offer is not to be made, then no additional webpage would be added to the consumer's on-line experience.
When an offer is made, the consumer is given an opportunity to accept the offer and then asked to enter additional information to complete the transaction (Block 230). For example, the additional information can be requested in a pre-approval credit application webpage 600 as shown in
As an example of an offer,
From the consumer's viewpoint, she has just entered her name and shipping and/or billing address on merchant's website in a webpage, such as in
In one implementation of the transactional credit system 100 of
Regardless of the particular implementation,
In a first identity, for example, the search may identify the consumer as having an existing account (Block 710). This account could include an existing merchant private label or co-branded credit product, which the merchant would then prefer the consumer use to complete the transaction. In addition, the existing account could include an existing transactional credit product previously accepted by the consumer. In either case, the entire offer of a transactional credit product may be bypassed for this consumer, and the merchant's website can direct the consumer to an order confirmation and payment webpage.
In a second identity, for example, the search may identify the consumer as having a previous offer for transactional credit with transaction history (Block 720). Here, a determination can be made whether the consumer's current transaction meets any sales limits or requirements for such an offer. In addition, a determination can be made whether the consumer's previous transaction history supports a current authorization of a credit product. If the requirements are not satisfied, the entire offer of a transactional credit product will be bypassed altogether. If the requirements are satisfied, a passive transactional credit offer can be made to the consumer in the form of an advertisement, logo, or additional payment option for the transactional credit product. Such a passive offer can be incorporated into an order confirmation and payment webpage presented to the consumer on the merchant's website.
In a third identity, for example, the search may identify the consumer as having a previous offer for transactional credit without any previous transaction history from which to base a negative authorization (Block 730). In this situation, the transactional credit offer can be made again to the consumer using an offer webpage such as shown in
Finally, in a fourth identity, for example, the search may identify the consumer as a virgin consumer who does not have an existing account or a previous offer for the transactional credit product (Block 740). Here, the transactional credit service 140 has a mechanism that runs an on-line prescreen service to determine whether the consumer is pre-approved or not. If pre-approved, an offer for a transactional credit product is made. The on-line prescreen service can be similar to those known in the art. As shown in
As detailed above, which identity the consumer has determines whether or not an offer is made to the consumer and how that offer may be made to the consumer. Ultimately, if the consumer receives an offer for transactional credit, she may either accept or reject it, and processing proceeds accordingly, as shown at the bottom of
After accepting the offer, entering the additional information, and agreeing to the terms, the transactional credit service performs a credit processing service. For example,
Ultimately, the approved transactional credit product is used to complete the consumer's transaction on the merchant's website using credit payment techniques. For example, the transaction credit service (140;
As opposed to handling only web-based transactions, the transactional credit system 100 in general can be configured to handle one or more types of electronic transactions through different channels, including web, phone, and retail. For example,
Providing additional channels, the merchant's system 110 also has a phone system 124 for interfacing with telephones 104 and has a retail system 126 for interfacing with retail devices and systems 106. These additional systems 124 and 126 can process consumer's electronic transactions in much the same way discussed above with reference to the web-based transactions. Moreover, these additional systems 124 and 126 can obtain the consumer's name and shipping or billing address before allowing the consumer to select a payment option so the system 100 can first determine whether to offer the consumer a transactional credit product in much the same manner as that discussed above with reference to web-based transactions.
For example, the phone system 124 can include an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or touch-tone response system that handles consumers' catalog orders made in phone calls to the phone system 124. Details of an automated phone system are provided in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/176,167, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. When a consumer is making a catalog order over the phone, part of the catalog transaction handled by the phone system 124 can involve obtaining the consumer's name and shipping or billing address. The phone system 124 obtains this demographic information from the consumer via the phone 104 before allowing the consumer to select a payment option for the transaction and without requesting typical credit related information such as digits from the consumer's social security number or date of birth. Based on the obtained demographic information, the transactional credit system 100 can the determine whether to offer the consumer a transactional credit process in a manner similar to that discussed above with reference to web-based transactions.
In another example, the retail system 126 can interface with computers, registers, and other retail devices 106 at retail outlets or stores. When a consumer is making a purchase at the retail outlet, part of the retail transaction can involve obtaining the consumer's name and shipping or billing address. As with the web and phone based systems, the retail system 126 can obtain this demographic information from the retail devices 106 before the consumer is made to select a payment option. For example, a clerk at a retail register may request the consumer's name and address as part of the transaction, or the clerk may request the consumer's phone number, which is then used to find any previously stored demographic information on the consumer. Using the demographic information relayed from the retail system 126, the transactional credit system 100 can then determine whether to offer the consumer a transactional credit process in a manner similar to that discussed above with reference to web-based transactions.
The foregoing description of preferred and other embodiments is not intended to limit or restrict the scope or applicability of the inventive concepts conceived of by the Applicants. In exchange for disclosing the inventive concepts contained herein, the Applicants desire all patent rights afforded by the appended claims. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims include all modifications and alterations to the full extent that they come within the scope of the following claims or the equivalents thereof.
