Patent Application
20150088642
Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to methods, apparatus and systems for providing an intelligent shopping cart service. In an embodiment, the intelligent shopping cart service operates to alert a consumer when a product or service is not aligned with the consumer's preferences, criteria or requirements before a purchase transaction is consummated.
The Internet has changed the way in which consumers shop and purchase products and services. In particular, consumers desire easy access to product and/or service information, to pricing information, to merchants' offerings, and to convenient and secure methods of payment for goods and services. It is common for consumers to own one or more electronic devices that are configured for connection to the Internet via, for example, cable-type modems or DSL-modems and/or routers, which may provide wired or wireless Internet access. For example, consumers may own laptop computers, tablet computers, Smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and/or desktop computers that can connect to the Internet. Such Internet-connected devices may be configured for receiving content to display to consumers, and/or configured to obtain information and/or instructions and/or purchase transaction data from consumers, and/or configured to transmit information and/or purchase transaction data or instructions to third parties, such as merchants.
It is known that a consumer's shopping habits are often highly aligned or correlated with that consumer's preferences and/or any unique products or services constraints. For example, a particular consumer may have one or more special dietary preferences and/or requirements with regard to food products that will be purchased for their family members, such as a preference or requirement for foods that are Organic, Cholesterol Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Fat Free, Low Fat, Lower Sugar, High Fiber, Whole Grain, No Sodium, Low Sodium, Wheat Free, Kosher, Vegetarian Vegan, and the like. Such consumers may be spending hours of their shopping time making sure that the food supplies they purchase online or at a retail store, such as at a green grocer or supermarket, meets their criteria. Consumers may also have preferences or requirements for purchasing certain technology products, travel packages, entertainment items, personal care products, toiletries, financial services and/or beverages. Some of these preferences or requirements may be based on beliefs or concerns, such as that products should be environmentally friendly, and/or should be of a particular brand name, and/or should be budget-priced or “on sale”. A consumer may also have medical or dietary reasons for purchasing certain products and/or services. However, due to the vast amount of products and services for sale online and at merchant retail locations, it can be very difficult for consumers to ensure that the products and/or services they select match all of their own criteria in a quick and easy manner. Thus, in some cases, consumers mistakenly purchase products and/or services online and/or at merchant retail locations that ultimately must be returned because these products and/or services do not match the consumers' expectations, preferences, criteria and/or requirements. Returning such mismatched products and/or services wastes time and money for both consumers and merchants.
Thus, a need exists for systems and/or methods to simplify and/or facilitate the online and/or retail store shopping experiences so that consumers can be quickly and efficiently alerted or advised when a particular product or item or service does not meet their preferences, criteria and/or their requirements before a purchase transaction is consummated.
Features and advantages of some embodiments of the present invention, and the manner in which the same are accomplished, will become more readily apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate exemplary embodiments and which are not necessarily drawn to scale, wherein:
In general, and for the purpose of introducing concepts of embodiments, described are systems and/or methods for providing an intelligent shopping cart service for consumers. In some embodiments, a consumer enrolls or registers for the intelligent shopping cart service by using a consumer device running browser software to visit a smart preferences website and to provide information, or provides information in some other manner to the system. The information may include consumer identification data and preferences, criteria and/or requirements data regarding products and services. In some implementations, intelligent shopping cart application programming interface (API) software is downloaded and stored on the consumer's device. The intelligent shopping cart API software is operable to recognize product identifiers and then, based on the preferences, criteria and/or requirements data provided by the consumer during enrollment, determine whether or not a particular item or service matches the consumer preferences and/or requirements before a purchase transaction is consummated. If there is a product mismatch, then an alert notification or indication is provided to the consumer so that the consumer has the opportunity to select a replacement product.
Referring to
The intelligent shopping cart system 100 may also include one or more financial institutions 122, which may include third party entities, such as payment card account issuer banks and/or merchant acquirer banks. The system 100 may also include a plurality of merchant devices 124 (such as web servers, custom in-store devices, point-of sale (POS) terminals, and the like), consumer mobile devices 126 (such as Smartphones, tablet computers, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or other types of mobile devices capable of receiving and transmitting data as described herein), consumer and/or business desktop computers 128, and one or more social media server computers 130 (which may be associated with social media services or companies such as Facebook®, Twitter®, Google Plus®, Groupon® and the like). In some embodiments, the consumer's mobile device 126 may be a payment-enabled mobile telephone or Smartphone, and the merchant devices 124 may be custom-made tablet computers that are physically attached to shopping carts available at a merchant's retail location and that include, for example, a reader device and a touch screen. In some embodiments, the merchant device 124 includes one or more merchant server computers that are utilized for hosting one or more online shopping websites. In some implementations, the merchant device 124 may be configured for communications with a merchant products database 125, which may store a list of available products along with product characteristics and/or attributes and/or information and the like. Product characteristics and/or attributes may include aspects such as price, unit price, weight, shape, size, ingredients, and the like. Each merchant enrolled in the intelligent shopping cart system may be required to maintain and/or update their own merchant product database. It should be understood that the various components shown in the intelligent shopping cart system 100 of
As mentioned above, the consumer's mobile device 126 may be a mobile telephone or Smartphone. In some embodiments, such a consumer mobile device 126 is payment-enabled, which means that it is capable of initiating payment transactions in a payment card system. However, it should be understood that the consumer's mobile device 126 need not be payment-enabled to perform the novel intelligent shopping cart functions described herein.
It should be understood that a consumer may enroll or register with the intelligent shopping cart server computer 102 in any of a number of ways, including utilizing a mobile device to access a intelligent shopping cart server computer 102 via the Internet and providing required information. During customer registration, a consumer may provide basic information about himself or herself and, in some embodiments, provide information regarding the customer's mobile devices (for example, by providing a SIM identifier and/or a mobile telephone number and/or other device identifier). The consumer may also provide information concerning one or more bank credit card accounts, debit card accounts, loyalty card accounts, and/or gift cards issued to or held by him or her. In addition, the consumer may provide information and/or preferences concerning one or more family members, such as a spouse and/or children to form a “Household” intelligent shopping cart service account. Furthermore, in practice the intelligent shopping cart system 100 may include numerous other types of databases, many financial institution computers 122, a large number of merchant devices 124 and social media servers 130, and a large number of customer mobile devices 126 and consumer and/or business computers 128. Moreover, instead of the Internet 108, various components may be configured to communicate with each other via conventional computer-to-computer data networks, and/or over secure network connections, and such data communications may be in digital form and/or in analog form.
Referring to
Referring again to
In some embodiments, after a consumer has registered for the intelligent shopping cart service, she may then utilize one of her electronic devices, such as a tablet computer, to log-in to her intelligent shopping cart account prior to or during a shopping experience. If that device does not yet contain intelligent shopping cart software, the consumer can transmit a software request to download the intelligent shopping cart software from the intelligent shopping cart server computer 102. The software would then be downloaded to and stored on the consumer's device, where it is then ready for immediate use.
In addition, in some embodiments, a consumer registered with the intelligent shopping cart service may login to the intelligent shopping car server computer and create or build an intelligent shopping cart list (a shopping list) of items that he or she desires to purchase. The intelligent shopping cart list may be created by the consumer at home for use in shopping at a particular retail store, or may be created for use to shop online. In some embodiments, the intelligent shopping cart list can be downloaded to the consumer's mobile device, and/or may be printed out by the consumer. In addition, while compiling the list, the intelligent shopping cart server computer may include processor executable code configured for providing suggestions regarding merchant(s) who offer for sale one or more of the items on the intelligent shopping cart list that are desired for purchase by the consumer.
Referring again to
In addition, when a mismatch is detected, in some implementations the intelligent shopping cart software may be configured to provide suggested replacement product(s) or service(s) to a consumer, which may be based on information provided by the consumer and/or based on data obtained from one or more merchants regarding the types of products in that merchant's inventory. For example, the merchant may have provided a list of products that are similar in some regards, but have one or more different characteristics, but that still may align or substantially align with some (or a majority) of the consumer's preferences. In some implementations, the suggested replacement products or services may be associated with a different, second merchant than the current merchant, in which case one or more universal resource locater (URLs) or links may be provided for the consumer to open a new webpage and so that the consumer can easily navigate to the second merchant's website to purchase a replacement item. Yet further, in some embodiments, when a mismatch is identified and the consumer is notified, the intelligent shopping cart software may be further configured to prevent consummation of the purchase transaction until the consumer verifies and/or clears each alert notification. For example, the consumer may be required to respond to an advisement dialogue box which may present the following message: “At least one item in your shopping cart does not match your preferences. Do you still wish to continue with your purchase? Yes/No”. The consumer would then be required to check a “Yes” radio button (for example) before proceeding with checkout, or a “No” radio button to return to the item list and determine whether or not to delete or replace one or more items that have been flagged as being misaligned with the consumer's preferences, criteria and/or requirements. It should be understood that other types of messages and/or data input procedures could be used to communicate with and receive input from the consumer in such manner.
In the case where a particular product and/or service that has been added to the virtual shopping cart cannot be identified, and thus cannot be compared to the consumer's preferences, criteria and/or requirements, then an indication may be provided to the consumer advising him or her of this fact. For example, a yellow icon indicator may be provided near the description of such an item for display to the consumer that resembles a “caution” sign or icon. In this case, the consumer may also be prompted to login to his or her intelligent shopping cart account and provide further information concerning that product or service, including any preferences, criteria and/or requirements to associate with it. In some implementations, the mere fact that one or more items have been flagged in this manner does not prevent the consumer from consummating the purchase transaction.
In some embodiments, in order to determine whether or not products chosen by the consumer match or do not match the consumer's preferences, the API transmits the product ID for each product to the intelligent shopping cart server computer 102. The intelligent shopping cart server computer 102 identifies the consumer by data contained in an intelligent shopping cart product ID request generated by the consumer's Smartphone, then identifies and compares the product ID to the preferences, criteria and/or requirements associated with that consumer, which are stored in the preferences database 106. When the intelligent shopping cart server computer determines that the product ID matches the consumer's preferences then, in some embodiments, a confirmation message is transmitted by the intelligent shopping cart server computer to the API for display on the consumer's mobile device. As explained above, in other implementations, no confirmation message is provided. If the intelligent shopping cart server computer instead determines that a product is a mismatch with regard to the consumer's preferences or requirements, then an alert message is transmitted to the API, which may then cause an audible notification and/or a visual notification to be provided to the consumer by the consumer's mobile device.
In some embodiments, when a product matches the consumer's preferences then a green checkmark or other type of icon may appear next to that product's description on a display screen of the consumer's mobile device. But if there is a mismatch, then a red mismatch icon (for example, a red “stop sign” icon) or other type of indication may instead appear next to the product description to alert the consumer before a purchase transaction is consummated. As explained above, other types of notifications or alerts may also be used or included, such as an audible notification, or a text message transmitted to the consumer's device that contains further details (especially in the case of a product or item mismatch or potential mismatch). When the consumer is shopping online, such notifications and/or indications may take the form of icons or marks on an online shopping itemized receipt that is generated by the online merchant in an online shopping cart, which is presented for review to the consumer before the purchase is consummated. In addition, in a retail store environment, when a merchant device such as a point-of-sale (POS) terminal (for example, a cash register) includes intelligent shopping cart software or is integrated with the intelligent shopping cart system through, for example, wireless communication, then a printed receipt (being prepared by the a merchant device for the consumer) may include one or more types of indications regarding mismatched items or services. For example, as items are being scanned by a cashier at a POS terminal located at the retail store checkout line, the POS terminal may indicate mismatched items in red on a display screen visible to the consumer and/or may provide an audio indication (such as a loud tone) when a mismatched item is scanned so that the consumer may be provided with an opportunity to decline that item or product and/or replace it with different merchandise that aligns with his or her preferences and/or requirements. A printed receipt may also be presented to the consumer that includes marks and/or icons indicating mismatched items, which may be indicated by, for example, different colors and/or shapes or fonts.
In any of the example scenarios outlined above, the consumer may have the opportunity to replace any mismatched or misaligned products in his or her shopping cart with different merchandise (or service) that meets his or her criteria, which saves time and avoids a potential product return scenario (or disappointment with regard to a service). Furthermore, in some embodiments, the intelligent shopping cart software may be configured to provide one or more suggested replacement products when a mismatch is detected. Any replacement suggestions or proposals may be based on preference and/or requirements information provided by the consumer and/or may be based on merchant data, for example, merchant data indicating products that are available in store inventory. In some embodiments, the replacement product or service suggestions may include an electronic link to a replacement product on the merchant's website and/or a product description and/or a product name and location of that product in that merchant's retail store. In some implementations, the suggested or proposed replacement item or service may be associated with a different merchant than the current merchant.
In some embodiments, when a registered consumer of the intelligent shopping cart service enters a merchant location (such as a retail store) with his or her consumer mobile device, the intelligent shopping cart API program enabled thereon is configured to determine or recognize when the consumer enters or is in a merchant retail location. For example, the consumer's mobile device may include global positioning service (GPS) enabled circuitry that provides location coordinates that can be matched to one or more merchants' retail locations (in some implementations, only for those merchants participating in the intelligent shopping cart service). Once the intelligent shopping cart API program determines that the consumer is in a retail location, it may next be configured to conduct a search to determine if the consumer prepared an intelligent shopping cart list (or a shopping list of items the consumer desires to purchase). If so, then the intelligent shopping cart API may communicate with the intelligent shopping cart server to obtain a retail store map that includes the layout of that particular retail store and/or the location of each item on the intelligent shopping cart list. In addition, the intelligent shopping cart server may be configured to provide an optimal path (or shopping directions) for the consumer to walk to pick up each item on the intelligent shopping cart list. For example, in an implementation, the intelligent shopping cart server computer searches a retail store map database that contains merchant retail store information including store layout data (such as a map of each selling floor), retail store product location data, and the like. The intelligent shopping cart server computer may then download the shopping directions to the consumer's mobile device (or to a merchant device provided in the retail store for use by consumers) for display to the consumer, for example, on a touch screen. In some implementations, the intelligent shopping cart API program may access memory in the consumer's mobile device that has been preloaded with one or more merchant retail store maps and/or product locations. Such mapping data may be compiled over time as the consumer shops at various merchant stores and stored in the memory of the consumer's mobile device, so that retrieval of such mapping data is optimized for quick display to the consumer while shopping at merchant retail store locations that are typically frequented by the consumer. The intelligent shopping cart API may be configured to periodically update such mapping data on various consumer devices as merchants report changes to store layout data and/or product placement in their retail stores.
Referring again to
In an implementation, when a determination is made that the product ID matches the consumer's preferences and/or requirements then the merchant device emits a confirmation tone that is audible to the consumer, and/or a confirmation icon or message is displayed on the touch screen. However, if a determination is made that a product is a mismatch with regard to the consumer's preferences, criteria or requirements, then an alert tone, which may be louder and/or more forceful than the confirmation tone, is emitted from the merchant device, and/or an alert or warning message is displayed on the touch screen. Other types of notifications may also be used or included, such a text message that includes details, for example, explaining why a particular food product is a mismatch item. The consumer then has the opportunity to remove and/or replace any mismatched or misaligned products in the shopping cart with a different product that meets his or her criteria, which saves time and avoids a potential product return scenario. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the merchant device may be configured to provide one or more suggested replacement products when a mismatch is detected, which suggestion(s) may be based on information provided by the consumer and/or by the merchant (which may be based at least partially on merchant retail store inventory data).
The computer processor 602 may be constituted by one or more conventional processors. Processor 602 operates to execute processor-executable steps, contained in program instructions described below, so as to control the intelligent shopping cart merchant device 600 to provide desired functionality.
Communication component(s) 604 may be used to facilitate communication with, for example, other devices (such as merchant server computers and or wireless routers connected to the internet (not shown)). Communication component(s) 604 may, for example, have capabilities for sending and receiving messages over WiFi networks, via the Internet, and/or engaging in data communication over conventional computer-to-computer data networks.
Input component(s) 606 may comprise one or more of any type of peripheral device typically used to input data into a computer. For example, the input device 606 may include a keyboard and/or a mouse or may be a touchscreen. Output component(s) 608 may comprise, for example, a touchscreen display and/or an audio speaker or some other device. The reader component 610 may be configured to read product ID labels (such as barcode labels) and/or other products and/or services identification indicia during operation of the intelligent shopping cart merchant device 600.
Storage device 612 may comprise any appropriate information storage device, including combinations of magnetic storage devices (e.g., magnetic tape and hard disk drives), optical storage devices such as CDs and/or DVDs, and/or semiconductor memory devices such as Random Access Memory (RAM) devices and Read Only Memory (ROM) devices, as well as flash memory. Thus, the storage device 612 is a non-transitory computer readable medium and/or any form of computer readable media capable of storing computer instructions and/or application programs and/or data. It should be understood that non-transitory computer-readable media comprise all computer-readable media, with the sole exception being a transitory, propagating signal.
Storage device 612 stores one or more programs or applications for controlling the processor 602. The programs comprise program instructions that contain processor-executable process steps of the intelligent shopping cart merchant device 600, including, in some cases, process steps that constitute processes provided in accordance with principles of the present invention, as described in more detail below.
The programs stored by the storage device may include a consumer registration application 614 that manages a process by which consumers or customers (which may be payment card account holders or cardholders) may register or enroll themselves and/or their electronic devices by utilizing the intelligent shopping cart merchant device 600. In some embodiments, the consumer enrollment process may allow the consumer to enroll by accessing a suitable web page hosted by the intelligent shopping cart server computer 102 (see
The storage device 612 may store one or more databases, such as a consumer identification database 616, a consumer preferences database 618, and a merchant product inventory database 620. The merchant device 600 may be operable to obtain data to populate such databases from sources such as the intelligent shopping cart server computer 102 and/or from one or more merchant server computers.
The application programs of the smart preferences computer 600 may be combined in some embodiments, as convenient, into one, two or more application programs. Moreover, the storage device 610 may store other programs, such as one or more operating systems, device drivers, database management software, web hosting software, and the like.
In some embodiments, derived intelligence data may be utilized to provide replacement product and/or service suggestions when a mismatch occurs between a consumer's predetermined product or service preferences, criteria or requirements and the selected products and/or services for purchase. In particular, data concerning products or services found at social media websites such as Facebook® and/or Twitter® may be analyzed or monitored to provide recommendations. For example, when a customer preference is to purchase clothing that conforms to current fashion trends, a selected garment may not be appropriate and thus be a mismatch. The intelligent shopping cart computer server 102 may then utilize data obtained from Twitter® to determine what garments are currently fashionable, and to generate one or more replacement products or services suggestion(s) to recommend. The derived intelligence data may include the merchant name and/or merchant category, the merchant location, the gender of the consumer, and/or the segment to which the consumer or cardholder belongs (for example, the cardholder may have been categorized, for example, as belonging to one or more segments characterized as being affluent, mass market, urban, youth, early adopter, and the like). Each time a consumer utilizes the intelligent shopping cart system, data about his or her purchase transactions may be stored in an intelligent shopping cart log (in a database, for example). For example, a merchant device and/or a consumer's handheld device running the intelligent shopping cart software may transmit purchase transaction item details to the intelligent shopping car log when a purchase transaction is consummated. Thus, the intelligent shopping cart log may include data concerning transaction data such as the merchant name and location, the amount of the purchase, the date and time of the transaction, the merchant category, whether or not it was a cross border transaction, the card holder location, the currency used and/or interchange rate, any recommended replacement product(s), the selection made by the consumer (whether or not a recommendation was followed), and the cardholder segment.
The intelligent shopping cart server computer may be configured to periodically access the intelligent shopping cart log to identify purchase transaction data associated with one or more consumers. Based on the purchase transaction data, the intelligent shopping cart server computer may operate to modify one or more weightings associated with one or more consumer preferences, criteria or requirements that are stored in the preferences database. Such operation can improve, for example, the efficacy of subsequent recommendations for replacement products or services. Thus, the intelligent shopping cart replacement product recommendation process may include self-learning, which occurs by analyzing historical purchase transaction data of consumers and/or cardholders, historic replacement product recommendations with relation to the actual selections made by consumers, and aggregated intelligence data (for example, by analyzing purchase transaction data of consumers of a particular segment). For example, the self-learning process may result in recognizing a trend or an affinity regarding selection of a particular type of product or service under certain circumstances that is detected by the intelligent shopping cart computer system, and which can be utilized to result in making better and quicker future product and or service recommendations for cardholders.
In some embodiments, Issuer FIs or issuer banks and/or Acquirer FIs and/or merchant banks can also register with the intelligent shopping cart system. Each of these entities may provide benefits information and/or rewards information (which may be stored in a benefits database) and one or more rules and/or limitations concerning one or more of the payment card accounts and/or restrictions or limitations on rewards and/or benefits offered to consumers. Information can include, but not be limited to, the amount of points or cash back rewards that can be earned for purchasing certain types of goods or services, and/or for purchasing a certain dollar amount of goods or services from particular merchants, the expiration date(s) for obtaining particular rewards or benefits, and/or rules that may govern obtaining certain rewards or benefits such as limits on the total amount of rewards that can be obtained. In this manner, consumers can earn standard benefits that are offered by payment card account entities such as MasterCard®, VISA® and American Express®, can earn additional issuer benefits or rewards (typically added-on benefits provided by Issuer FIs such as banks), and/or can earn merchant benefits (for example, exclusive benefits offered by a particular merchant, such as a low price-match guarantee, or loyalty points). In some embodiments, the benefits information and/or rewards information may be stored in one or more databases and may be provided to consumer when a replacement product or service is recommended. Furthermore, based in product or service selections and/or replacement product or service recommendations, the intelligent preference service computer may be configured to also make electronic wallet recommendations involving one or more consumer payment accounts. For example, if a replacement product is recommended that is associated with “BigBox Electronics Store” then the intelligent preferences service computer may recommend that the consumer purchase that replacement product with the consumer's BigBox Electronics Store MasterCard® Rewards credit card. Such functionality may require the intelligent preference service computer to communicate with one or more databases that include consumer electronic wallet data, for example.
In some embodiments, consumers may enroll and utilize the intelligent shopping cart service at no cost, as one or more entities (such as merchants, issuer banks, payment card processing companies, and the like) may subsidize such a service. Thus, consumers who utilize the intelligent shopping cart service are happy because they save time (and possibly money) by purchasing only those products and services that match their preferences. The merchant is also happy to sell products that consumers appreciate and will not return, possibly earning loyal customers in the process. In addition, a third party intelligent shopping cart service provider, such as MasterCard International Incorporated, is happy to power a beneficial shopping experience for consumers (and possibly obtain new cardholders and/or merchant issuer financial institution customers due to the service).
The flow charts and descriptions thereof herein should not be understood to prescribe a fixed order of performing the method steps described therein. Rather the method steps may be performed in any order that is practicable.
As used herein and in the appended claims, the term “payment card account” includes a credit card account or a deposit account that the account holder may access using a debit card or a gift card account. The term “payment card account number” includes a number that identifies a payment card account or a number carried by a payment card, or a number that is used to identify an account in a payment system that handles debit card and/or credit card transactions or to route a transaction in a payment system that handles debit card and/or credit card transactions. The term “payment card” includes a credit card or a debit card (including a pre-paid debit card) or a gift card. The term “payment card account” also includes an account to which a payment card account number is assigned. Thus a payment card account may include an account to which payment transactions may be routed by a payment system that handles debit card and/or credit card and/or gift card transactions, even if the account in question is not eligible to be charged for purchase transactions or other transactions. A payment card account may also include an account from which payment transactions may be routed by a payment system that handles debit card and/or credit card and/or gift card transactions, even if the account in question is not customarily used, or is not eligible, to be charged for purchase transactions.
Although the present invention has been described in connection with specific exemplary embodiments, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions, and alterations apparent to those skilled in the art can be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
