Patent Application
20170192648
The present disclosure generally relates to merchant dashboards, and more particularly to a customizable, intelligent merchant dashboard system that actively assists a merchant in the completion of a variety of merchant-related tasks.
More and more consumers are purchasing items and services over electronic networks such as, for example, the Internet. Consumers routinely purchase products and services from merchants and individuals alike. The transactions may take place directly between a conventional or online merchant or retailer and the consumer, and payment is typically made by entering credit card or other financial information. Transactions may also take place with the aid of an online or mobile payment service provider such as, for example, PayPal, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Such payment service providers can make transactions easier and safer for the parties involved. Purchasing with the assistance of a payment service provider from the convenience of virtually anywhere using a mobile device is one main reason why online and mobile purchases are growing very quickly.
Moreover, with the explosive growth of electronic commerce (e-commerce) (e.g., buying and/or selling of goods and/or services over an electronic network such as the Internet), merchants find themselves having to digest ever-increasing amounts of data to successfully manage their business. Such data may include, for example, information related to a merchant account (e.g., provided by a payment service provider) such as account balance, transaction activity, or other information related to the merchant account. Additionally, merchants may regularly need to review other information (e.g., provided by one or more third-party applications) such as electronic mail (email), marketing data, inventory data, order data, shipping data, financial data (e.g., revenues, expenses, cash in/out), customer reviews/disputes, as well as other metrics, performance data, and/or other information related to the operation and management of the merchant's business.
Currently, a merchant may have to separately review data provided by the payment service provider (e.g., by way of a payment service provider dashboard accessible via a secure payment service provider application or web page), as well as by each of the one or more third-party applications (e.g., by way of respective, secure third-party applications or web pages), in order to stay up-to-date with information which impacts their business. Thus, a merchant may expend a significant amount of time reviewing and digesting large amounts of information, often from disparate sources, thereby losing time that could be spent focusing on the merchant's actual business.
Thus, there is a need for a merchant dashboard system that is customizable and that actively assists a merchant in the completion of a variety of merchant-related tasks.
Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, wherein showings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the present disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.
The present disclosure provides systems and methods for providing a merchant dashboard system that provides merchants with a customizable dashboard (e.g., providing data visualization) that may be configured on a merchant-by-merchant basis (e.g., by selection of appropriate dashboard widgets) to report information from any of a plurality of data sources to a merchant. Additionally, embodiments described herein may be equally applicable to merchants operating a physical merchant location as well as merchants operating a virtual storefront accessible to a customer via a website (e.g., accessible through an Internet connection using a mobile device and/or a personal computer) or via a mobile application executing on the customer's mobile device.
Generally, dashboards have been used to provide at-a-glance views of key performance indicators, for example, relevant to a particular business objective or business process. Moreover, dashboards have conventionally been limited to show summaries, trends, comparisons, and exceptions. In the example of a payment service provider, dashboards have conventionally been used to show account balances, transaction activity, or other information related to the merchant account. In addition, merchants may regularly need to review information provided by one or more third-party applications such as email, marketing data, inventory data, order data, shipping data, financial data (e.g., revenues, expenses, cash in/out), customer reviews/disputes, as well as other metrics, performance data, and/or other information related to the operation and management of the merchant's business.
More importantly, regardless of the specific information conveyed, existing dashboards are largely non-customizable. This presents a considerable challenge, given the fact that merchants can be vastly different from one another and may thus rely on different types of data and/or information that is relevant to a merchant's particular industry, business type, etc. For example, a merchant's business type may include business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-business (C2B), or consumer-to-consumer (C2C), a merchant may sell a variety of products and/or services, a merchant may operate a physical merchant location and/or a virtual storefront (e.g., accessible through the Internet, via a mobile application, etc.), and/or a merchant may have a variety of other different attributes.
Thus, in at least some existing examples, a merchant may use a dashboard to review a subset of information relevant to the merchant's business, but the merchant may further have to separately review data provided, for example, by a payment service provider, as well as by each of one or more third-party application, in order to stay up-to-date with information which impacts their business. Thus, merchants may expend a considerable amount of time and energy reviewing and digesting large amounts of information, often from disparate sources, thereby losing time that could be spent focusing on the merchant's actual business.
By providing the merchant dashboard system as described herein, a merchant is provided with a smart, fully customizable dashboard that provides the merchant with timely, relevant data, alerts, and/or other actionable or informative information. For example, in accordance with embodiments described herein, dashboard customization may be implemented by selection of, and on-going recommendation of, widgets to provide relevant, timely information from any of a plurality of data sources to a merchant. As used herein, the term “widget” may be used to describe a software application (e.g., software widget), component, applet, portlet, or other such stand-alone applications as known in the art, where individual widgets may be dedicated to conveying a particular type of data or information, as described in more detail below. Additionally, in various embodiments, widgets may include a graphical user interface (GUI) widget, a desktop widget, a mobile widget, or a web widget, among others. As also described below with respect to
In various embodiments, a merchant may select a set of widgets upon creation of the merchant dashboard, and widgets may be recommended (e.g., by a payment service provider) based on merchant actions, actions of other similar merchants, or based on other factors, as described below. In addition, embodiments of the present disclosure may include integration of external data from any of a plurality of external third-party data sources (e.g., via the merchant dashboard widgets described herein). In some embodiments, the merchant dashboard system provided herein may also include “active listeners”, where such active listeners may be used to continually refresh data/information displayed via a widget, may provide timely alerts and/or notifications based on event triggers, and generally may be used to push data/information to a merchant (e.g., via the merchant dashboard), thereby acting as an active merchant assistant.
Referring now to
In the embodiments illustrated and discussed below, the merchant 102 may provide a physical location such as a department store, a restaurant, a grocery store, a pharmacy, a movie theater, a theme park, a sports stadium, and/or a variety of other merchant physical locations known in the art. Moreover, in some embodiments, the merchant 102 physical location may include a mobile merchant location such as a cart, kiosk, trailer, and/or other mobile merchant location as known in the art. In addition, in various embodiments, the merchant 102 may include a virtual storefront that serves to complement the merchant physical location. In still other embodiments, the merchant 102 may not include a merchant physical location, and may instead only include a merchant virtual storefront, as described above.
The network 106 may be implemented as a single network or a combination of multiple networks. For example, in various embodiments, the network 106 may include the Internet and/or one or more intranets, landline networks, wireless networks, cellular networks, satellite networks, and/or other appropriate types of networks. In some examples, the merchant 102 may communicate through the network 106 via cellular communication, by way of one or more merchant network communication devices. In other examples, the merchant 102 may communicate through the network 106 via wireless communication (e.g., via a WiFi network), by way of one or more merchant network communication devices. In yet other examples, the merchant 102 may communicate through the network 106 via any of a plurality of other radio and/or telecommunications protocols, by way of one or more merchant network communication devices. In still other embodiments, the merchant 102 may communication through the network 106 using a Short Message Service (SMS)-based text message, by way of one or more merchant network communication devices.
The system provider device 108 may likewise couple to the network 106 via a wired or wireless connection. As described in more detail below with reference to
As illustrated in
For merchants having a merchant physical location, the arrival, departure, and/or position of the one or more customers (e.g., via customer devices) to the merchant physical location may be detected by way of one or more beacon devices (e.g., in communication with a customer device) in a beacon system implemented at the merchant physical location. As such, in some embodiments, the merchant dashboard system 100 may also provide such customer traffic and location information to the merchant 102, for example, via an appropriate widget. In addition, in some embodiments, the system provider may include a payment service provider such as, for example, PayPal Inc. of San Jose, Calif., that provides the merchant dashboard system 100 for the merchant 102, as well as any other merchants implementing the merchant dashboard system 100.
Information sent and received through the network 106, merchant devices, and customer devices may be associated with merchant 102 accounts in a database located in a non-transitory memory, and any use of that information may be stored in association with such merchant 102 accounts. Furthermore, the payment service provider may provide the merchant dashboard system 100 for a plurality of different merchants, similarly as described for the merchant 102, discussed below. Thus, references to a system provider operating a system provider device below may refer to a payment service provider operating a payment service provider device, or may refer to any other entity providing a merchant dashboard system separate from or in cooperation with a payment service provider.
Referring now to
The method 200 begins at block 202 where a request to create a merchant account is received and one or more merchant attributes are determined. Referring first to
Consider, for example, a merchant that would like to create a new merchant account. In some embodiments, with reference to
Thus, following block 202, the system provider device has received a request to create a merchant account and has determined one or more merchant attributes (e.g., based on the submitted business profile information 402). As discussed below, the system provider device may thus use the one or more determined merchant attributes to suggest one or more dashboard widgets to the merchant.
The method 200 proceeds to block 204 one or more dashboard widgets are suggested based on the determined one or more merchant attributes. With reference to the example of
As discussed above, in some embodiments, the ‘Suggested Widgets’ may be based on the determined merchant attributes as well as on merchant usage data from other merchants 107 (
The method 200 proceeds to block 206 where a selection of one or more dashboard widgets is received (e.g., by the system provider). Still referring to
The method 200 proceeds to block 208 where a merchant dashboard is created (e.g., by the system provider). In various examples, the created dashboard includes the widgets selected at block 206. With reference to the example of
By way of example, the merchant dashboard 602 may be specifically customized for each given merchant (e.g., the merchant 102), as indicated by icon 605. In various embodiments, the merchant dashboard 602 may be a merchant's workflow starting point. That is, in some examples, when a merchant logs-in to the system, the merchant may initially be presented with the merchant dashboard 602, from which the merchant may then take further actions, as discussed below. Thus, the merchant dashboard 602 is configured to quickly provide a snapshot of the information/data that is most relevant to the merchant (e.g., merchant 102) for which the merchant dashboard 602 was created. In the exemplary merchant dashboard 602, illustrated therein is a plurality of widgets 604, 606, 608, 610, 612, 614, 616, 618, 620. In various embodiments, the plurality of widgets included in the merchant dashboard 602 includes those widgets previously selected at block 206 of the method 200. Moreover, in various embodiments, the plurality of widgets may convey data/information from a payment service provider (e.g., PayPal), as well as one or more third-party data sources (e.g., data sources 105). Thus, with consideration of the example of
Regardless of the third-party data source, and in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, the third-party data sources may communicate their data (e.g., email, marketing data, inventory data, order data, shipping data, financial data such as revenues, expenses, and/or cash flow, customer reviews/disputes, or other business-relevant data) to the system provider, for appropriate formatting and subsequent display via the merchant dashboard 602. With reference again to the example of
Referring again to the plurality of widgets shown in the merchant dashboard 602, each of the plurality of widgets 604, 606, 608, 610, 612, 614, 616, 618, 620 may be resized or removed, and new widgets may be added, for example via an add widget button 607. Other methods of adding widgets are discussed below with reference to
In some embodiments, in order to drill deeper into a particular widget, the merchant may click on (e.g., double-click on), or simply expand, a particular widget (e.g., by dragging the widget by a corner). By way of illustration, consider the sales volume widget 612. In the view of the merchant dashboard 602 of
In another embodiment of the block 210, notifications may be pushed to the system provider, and the merchant may be alerted by a bell icon 611 in the merchant dashboard 602. In some embodiments, notifications delivered via the icon 611 may include notifications that may not be specific to a particular widget (e.g., specific to one of the plurality of widgets of the merchant dashboard 602), they may include notifications for time-sensitive information, or they may include other high-priority notifications.
The method 200 proceeds to block 212 where merchant data is collected. For example, in various embodiments, as the merchant (e.g., merchant 102) uses the merchant dashboard system 100, the system provider may collect merchant usage data from the merchant 102, as well as from the other merchants 107. As discussed above, the other merchants 107 may include merchants that have the same or similar business type as the merchant 102, merchants that are in the same or similar industry as the merchant 102, and/or merchants that have other attributes that are similar to the merchant 102. In some embodiments, the collected merchant usage data may include, for example, a list of widgets used by the merchant 102 as well as the other merchants 107, business attributes (e.g., as described above) for each of the merchant 102 and the other merchants 107, and/or other relevant merchant data and/or information.
The method 200 proceeds to block 214 where one or more additional dashboard widgets are suggested based on the collected merchant usage data. For example, in various embodiments, one or more additional and/or alternative dashboard widgets (e.g., to populate to merchant dashboard 602) may be suggested based on the merchant usage data collected at block 212. With reference to the example of
With reference to
As discussed above, in some embodiments, the ‘Suggested Widgets’ may be based on the collected merchant usage data (e.g., from the merchant 102 and/or the other merchants 107), where the collected merchant usage data may include, for example, a list of widgets used by the merchant 102 as well as the other merchants 107, business attributes (e.g., as described above) for each of the merchant 102 and the other merchants 107, and/or other relevant merchant data and/or information. For the sake of illustration, consider an example where the system provider determines, by the collected merchant usage data, that the merchant using the merchant dashboard 602 (e.g., the merchant 102) is using a first set of widgets—‘Widget X’, ‘Widget Y’, and ‘Widget Z’. Then, consider that the system provider collects merchant usage data for other merchants (e.g., the other merchants 107) which have one or more shared attributes with the merchant 102 (e.g., they are in the same or similar industry). By way of example, based on the collected merchant usage data, the system provider may then determine that around 75% (or other predetermined threshold percentage) of the other merchants 107, that have the one or more shared attributes with the merchant 102, that use the first set of widgets (X, Y, and Z) also use a ‘Widget R’. Thus, the system provider determines that the ‘Widget R’ may likewise be of use to the merchant 102, and thus one of the ‘Suggested Widgets’ may include the ‘Widget R’. Thus, following block 214, the system provider device has suggested one or more dashboard widgets based, at least in part, on the collected merchant usage data.
The method 200 proceeds to block 216 where a selection of one or more dashboard widgets is received (e.g., by the system provider). Still referring to
The method 200 proceeds to block 218 where a merchant dashboard is updated (e.g., by the system provider). For example, in some embodiments, the merchant dashboard 602 may be updated (e.g., widgets may be added and/or removed) at block 218, based on selections made at block 216. In at least one example, based on the selection of ‘Widget K’ (
It will be understood that the examples given above, for example with reference to the method 200, are merely exemplary and are not meant be limiting in any way. Moreover, those of skill in the art in possession of this disclosure will recognize that various additional embodiments may be implemented in accordance with the methods described herein, while remaining within the scope of the present disclosure.
Referring now to
Referring to
As discussed with reference to
In another aspect of the present disclosure, a color coding scheme may also be used to quickly and effectively communicate various types of information. For example, regardless of the data source (e.g., payment service provider or third-party source), colors may be used to convey a performance level for a given metric which the merchant may be monitoring via a merchant dashboard widget (e.g., such as any of the plurality of widgets of the merchant dashboard 602, the plurality of widgets 904, or the plurality of widgets 1004). By way of example, in some cases, portions of a widget (e.g., numbers) or other graphics (e.g., such as the map and bar graph shown in the expanded, detailed widget 712) may be shown in a variety of different colors to convey the performance level for the given metric. In some embodiments, a blue color may indicate an average performance, a green color may indicate an above average performance, and a red color may indicate a poor performance. In some cases, various shades of colors (e.g., various shades of blue, green, or red) may be used to indicate relative performance within a given performance level. For example, a dark red color may indicate a poorer performance level than a light red color, a dark green color may indicate a better performance than a light green color, and a dark blue color may indicate a better performance than a light blue color.
In some cases, a merchant's performance benchmark may be set by the merchant's past performance as well as by the performance of other merchants who are in the same and/or similar category as the merchant. Such a performance benchmark may thus be used to determine relative performance levels and colors to implement in the color coding scheme. By implementing these performance benchmarks and color coding scheme, a merchant may quickly glance at the merchant dashboard and promptly get a sense of whether they are doing well, average, or poorly versus other, potentially competitive, merchants in the same or similar industry. Thus, the color coding scheme may be considered as providing data that may not be presented as part of a widget itself, but rather the color coding scheme may be considered as a data/information enhancement, further assisting the merchant in the daily tasks associated with running their business.
Thus, systems and methods have been described that provide for a merchant dashboard system that provides merchants with a customizable dashboard (e.g., providing data visualization) that may be configured on a merchant-by-merchant basis (e.g., by selection of appropriate dashboard widgets) to report information from any of a plurality of data sources to a merchant. In various examples, and in accordance with the various embodiments described herein, the system provider device may receive a request to create a merchant account and determine one or more merchant attributes, which the system provider device may thereby use to suggest one or more dashboard widgets. The system provider device may then receive a selection of one or more dashboard widgets (e.g., from a merchant), and thereby create a customized merchant dashboard based on the received selections. Thereafter, merchant usage data may be collected and additional dashboard widgets may be suggested, thereby providing a mechanism to update the merchant dashboard with timely and relevant widgets that may be of use to the merchant. Thus, the embodiments described herein provide merchants with a customizable, intelligent merchant dashboard system that actively assists the merchant in the completion of a variety of merchant-related tasks. It is additionally noted that the embodiments described herein describe technological solutions to problems associated with e-commerce business practices, which include business practices that did not exist prior to the advent of computer networks and the Internet. Various examples of technological devices and systems that may be used to implement embodiments of the present disclosure are discussed in more detail below with reference to
Referring first to
The embodiment of the networked system 1100 illustrated in
The customer devices 1102, merchant devices 1104, payment service provider device 1112, account provider devices 1108, and/or system provider device 1110 may each include one or more processors, memories, and other appropriate components for executing instructions such as program code and/or data stored on one or more computer readable mediums to implement the various applications, data, and steps described herein. For example, such instructions may be stored in one or more computer readable mediums such as memories or data storage devices internal and/or external to various components of the system 1100, and/or accessible over the network 1114.
The network 1114 may be implemented as a single network or a combination of multiple networks. For example, in various embodiments, the network 1114 may include the Internet and/or one or more intranets, landline networks, wireless networks, and/or other appropriate types of networks.
The customer devices 1102 and/or merchant devices 1104 may be implemented using any appropriate combination of hardware and/or software configured for wired and/or wireless communication over network 1114. For example, in one embodiment, the customer devices 1102 and/or merchant devices 1104 may be implemented as a personal computer of a user in communication with the Internet. In other embodiments, the customer devices 1102 and/or merchant devices 1104 may be a smart phone, wearable computing device, laptop computer, and/or other types of computing devices.
The customer devices 1102 and/or merchant devices 1104 may include one or more browser applications which may be used, for example, to provide a convenient interface to permit the customer to browse information available over the network 1114. For example, in one embodiment, the browser application may be implemented as a web browser configured to view information available over the Internet.
The customer devices 1102 and/or merchant devices 1104 may also include one or more toolbar applications which may be used, for example, to provide user-side processing for performing desired tasks in response to operations selected by the customer and/or the merchant. In one embodiment, the toolbar application may display a user interface in connection with the browser application.
The customer devices 1102 and/or merchant devices 1104 may further include other applications as may be desired in particular embodiments to provide desired features to the customer devices 1102 and/or merchant devices 1104. In particular, the other applications may include a payment application for payments assisted by a payment service provider through the payment service provider device 1112. The other applications may also include security applications for implementing user-side security features, programmatic user applications for interfacing with appropriate application programming interfaces (APIs) over the network 1114, or other types of applications. Email and/or text applications may also be included, which allow customer payer to send and receive emails and/or text messages through the network 1114. The customer devices 1102 and/or merchant devices 1104 may include one or more user and/or device identifiers which may be implemented, for example, as operating system registry entries, cookies associated with the browser application, identifiers associated with hardware of the customer devices 1102 and/or merchant devices 1104, or other appropriate identifiers, such as a phone number. In one embodiment, the user identifier may be used by the payment service provider device 1112 and/or account provider device 1108 to associate the user with a particular account as further described herein.
The merchant devices 1104 may be maintained, for example, by a conventional or on-line merchant, conventional or digital goods seller, individual seller, and/or application developer offering various products and/or services in exchange for payment to be received conventionally or over the network 1114. In this regard, the merchant device 1104 may include a database identifying available products and/or services (e.g., collectively referred to as items) which may be made available for viewing and purchase by the customer.
The merchant devices 1104 also include a checkout application which may be configured to facilitate the purchase by the payer of items. The checkout application may be configured to accept payment information from the user through the customer devices 1102, the account provider through the account provider device 1108, and/or from the payment service provider through the payment service provider device 1112 over the network 1114. The merchant devices 1104 may also include a system provider application, as described above, to implement one or more aspects of the method 200 and/or other aspects of the various embodiments described herein.
Referring now to
Referring now to
In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, computer system 1300, such as a computer and/or a network server, includes a bus 1302 or other communication mechanism for communicating information, which interconnects subsystems and components, such as a processing component 1304 (e.g., processor, micro-controller, digital signal processor (DSP), etc.), a system memory component 1306 (e.g., RAM), a static storage component 1308 (e.g., ROM), a disk drive component 1310 (e.g., magnetic or optical), a network interface component 1312 (e.g., modem or Ethernet card), a display component 1314 (e.g., CRT or LCD), an input component 1318 (e.g., keyboard, keypad, or virtual keyboard), a cursor control component 1320 (e.g., mouse, pointer, or trackball), a location determination component 1322 (e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) device as illustrated, a cell tower triangulation device, and/or a variety of other location determination devices known in the art), and/or a camera component 1323. In one implementation, the disk drive component 1310 may comprise a database having one or more disk drive components.
In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, the computer system 1300 performs specific operations by the processor 1304 executing one or more sequences of instructions contained in the memory component 1306, such as described herein with respect to the customer devices 1102, the merchant device 300, 900, 1000, or 1104, the payment service provider device 1112, the account provider device(s) 1108, and/or the system provider devices 108 or 1110. Such instructions may be read into the system memory component 1306 from another computer readable medium, such as the static storage component 1308 or the disk drive component 1310. In other embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement the present disclosure.
Logic may be encoded in a computer readable medium, which may refer to any medium that participates in providing instructions to the processor 1304 for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. In one embodiment, the computer readable medium is non-transitory. In various implementations, non-volatile media includes optical or magnetic disks, such as the disk drive component 1310, volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as the system memory component 1306, and transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire, and fiber optics, including wires that comprise the bus 1302. In one example, transmission media may take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radio wave and infrared data communications.
Some common forms of computer readable media includes, for example, floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, carrier wave, or any other medium from which a computer is adapted to read. In one embodiment, the computer readable media is non-transitory.
In various embodiments of the present disclosure, execution of instruction sequences to practice the present disclosure may be performed by the computer system 1300. In various other embodiments of the present disclosure, a plurality of the computer systems 1300 coupled by a communication link 1324 to the network 1114 (e.g., such as a LAN, WLAN, PTSN, and/or various other wired or wireless networks, including telecommunications, mobile, and cellular phone networks) may perform instruction sequences to practice the present disclosure in coordination with one another.
The computer system 1300 may transmit and receive messages, data, information and instructions, including one or more programs (i.e., application code) through the communication link 1324 and the network interface component 1312. The network interface component 1312 may include an antenna, either separate or integrated, to enable transmission and reception via the communication link 1324. Received program code may be executed by processor 1304 as received and/or stored in disk drive component 1310 or some other non-volatile storage component for execution.
Referring now to
Where applicable, various embodiments provided by the present disclosure may be implemented using hardware, software, or combinations of hardware and software. Also, where applicable, the various hardware components and/or software components set forth herein may be combined into composite components comprising software, hardware, and/or both without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Where applicable, the various hardware components and/or software components set forth herein may be separated into sub-components comprising software, hardware, or both without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, where applicable, it is contemplated that software components may be implemented as hardware components and vice-versa.
Software, in accordance with the present disclosure, such as program code and/or data, may be stored on one or more computer readable mediums. It is also contemplated that software identified herein may be implemented using one or more general purpose or specific purpose computers and/or computer systems, networked and/or otherwise. Where applicable, the ordering of various steps described herein may be changed, combined into composite steps, and/or separated into sub-steps to provide features described herein.
The foregoing disclosure is not intended to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms or particular fields of use disclosed. As such, it is contemplated that various alternate embodiments and/or modifications to the present disclosure, whether explicitly described or implied herein, are possible in light of the disclosure. For example, the above embodiments have focused on merchants and customers; however, a customer or consumer can pay, or otherwise interact with any type of recipient, including charities and individuals. The payment does not have to involve a purchase, but may be a loan, a charitable contribution, a gift, etc. Thus, merchant as used herein can also include charities, individuals, and any other entity or person receiving a payment from a customer. Having thus described embodiments of the present disclosure, persons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is limited only by the claims.
