Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of electronic commerce (e-commerce). More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a transaction method and system of e-commerce.
A transaction is an agreement, communication, or movement carried out between separate entities or objects, often involving an exchange of items of value, such as information, goods, services and/or money. For example, a user may visit an e-commerce website or web portal to check out a good or service offered by a vendor or vendors serviced by the website. Then, as the user finds an item the user likes to purchase, he or she may make a purchase by clicking the item displayed on the website and by making a payment for the item via a transaction system, which may be embedded on the website.
However, if the user wants to purchase diverse items, the user may have to visit several websites. For instance, if the user were to purchase a song to download, an IPOD, a T-shirt, and a gift card (or a gift certificate) from a coffee shop, the user may have to visit an on-line music store, electronic store, clothing shop, and coffee shop, respectively. Although there may be a website which offers a large number of items, the website may not have all the items that the user may wish to purchase. This, in turn, may cause the user to spend lots of time searching for items of his or her interest as well as good deals for such items.
A method and system for incentive based tie-in transaction is disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes receiving request data for purchasing a first item from an electronic device of a user via a website of a first vendor, and forwarding offering data which proposes a deal for the first item in exchange for a participation in one or more tie-in offers to the electronic device of the user, where the tie-in offers are selected from multiple registered offers based on transaction data of the user. The method further includes forwarding receipt data confirming a sale of the first item to the website of the first vendor in response to a purchase signal triggered by the electronic device of the user. The method may also include forwarding flag data confirming the participation in the tie-in offers by the user to respective communication devices for respective vendors of the one or more tie-in offers, and forwarding second acknowledgement data for the participation in the tie-in offers to the electronic device of the user.
In another aspect, an e-commerce system embedded with a transaction engine performs a method of an e-commerce transaction, the method includes displaying multiple sale items on a website, and forwarding offering data which proposes a deal for a first item in exchange for a participation in one or more tie-in offers to an electronic device of a user upon receiving request data for purchasing the first item from the electronic device of the user, where the tie-in offers are selected from multiple registered offers based on transaction data associated with the user using the transaction engine. The method further includes forwarding receipt data confirming a sale of the first item to the electronic device of the user in response to a purchase signal triggered by the electronic device of the user.
The methods, and/or systems disclosed herein may be implemented by any means for achieving various aspects, and may be executed in a form of a machine readable medium embodying a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform any of the operations disclosed herein.
Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of an example and not limited to the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements and in which:
Other features of the present embodiments will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows.
A method and system for incentive based tie-in transaction is disclosed. In the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.
Upon receiving the request data 112 from the electronic device 104 of the user 102, the request data 112 along with other information is sent to a transaction engine 114 (e.g., a transaction module, a transaction system, etc.), as shown in
Further, the offering data 116 may include a donation to a charity chosen by the user 102 in exchange for a purchase of the first item 110 and/or the participation in the tie-in offers 118. Thus, if the user 102 were to purchase the downloadable song and/or the ten dollar gift certificate in the example above, a small proceed (e.g., 3 percent) from the purchased amount may be donated to a charity designated by the user 102. As shown in
The user 102 may then choose one of the offering data 116 and make a purchase by triggering a purchase signal 126 from the electronic device 104 of the user 102. It can be seen from
Further, the transaction engine 114 forwards flag data confirming a sale of the one or more tie-in items 118 by the user 102 to respective communication devices for respective vendors of the tie-in items 118. For example, as shown in
Furthermore, the website of first vendor 106 forwards first acknowledgement data 140 for the sale of the first item 110 to the electronic device 104 of the user 102, as shown in
In operation, the user of the e-commerce system 202 sends request data 216 from the electronic device of user 206 to purchase a first item 214 (e.g., a desired good, a desired service, a donation to a charity, etc.), where the first item 214 may be one item from numerous sale items 212 displayed on the website 210. Based on the request data 216 and transaction data 220 (e.g., which includes user data, demographic information, previous purchasing history, etc.), the transaction engine 204 may forward offering data 222 to the electronic device of user 206. The offering data 222 proposes a deal for the first item 214 in exchange for a participation in one or more tie-in offers. The tie-in offers may include a purchase of a tie-in item, watching an advertisement, answering a survey, etc. The one or more tie-in offers may be selected from the multiple registered offers 218 that may be offered by the group of vendors 208 based on the transaction data 220 of the user using the transaction engine 204.
In one embodiment, the user may participate in one or more tie-in offers from registered offers 218 in exchange for a deal associated with the first item 214. As the user confirms acceptance of the deal associated with the first item 214 or the offering data 222, a purchase signal 224 may be triggered by the electronic device of user 206. In response to the purchase signal 224, receipt data 226 is forwarded to the electronic device of user 206 by the transaction engine 204 confirming a sale of the first item 214. Further, flag data 228 confirming the participation of the user in the tie-in offers is forwarded to respective vendors of the tie-in offers through respective communication devices by the transaction engine 204, as shown in the data flow diagram 200 of
In one example embodiment, the transaction engine 204 may be based on a plug and play module. Alternatively, the transaction engine 204 may be in a form of a widget which is transferable and embedded into other websites (or web pages) or devices by a drag-and-drop action.
The demographic information 232 may include statistical characteristics (e.g., age, location, etc.) of a group of users similar to the user described in
In step 304, offering data which proposes a deal for the first item in exchange for a participation in one or more tie-in offers is forwarded to the electronic device of the user, where the one or more tie-in offers are selected from multiple registered offers, such as gift certificates, goods, services, an advertisement, a survey, etc., offered by a group of vendors (e.g., sellers, advertisers, marketing companies, etc.) based on transaction data of the user. In one embodiment, the deal for the first item may include an offer of the first item for free or at a discount in exchange for the participation in the tie-in offers. Additionally, the offering data may comprise a donation to a charity designated by the user in exchange for the purchase of the first item and/or the participation in the tie-in offers. In one exemplary implementation, the transaction data may include user data, demographic information of other users similar to the user, previous purchasing history of the user, respective commission rates paid by the vendors, and/or sales performances of the vendors.
In step 306, receipt data confirming a sale of the first item is forwarded to the website of the first vendor in response to a purchase signal triggered by the electronic device of the user. In one embodiment, the website of the first vendor may be prompted to forward acknowledgement data for the sale of the first item to the electronic device of the user. Additionally, flag data confirming the participation of the user in the tie-in items may be forwarded to communication devices (e.g., a mobile phone, computer, etc.) of vendors of the tie-in offers. Furthermore, acknowledgement data for the participation of the user in the tie-in offers may be forwarded to the electronic device of the user as well. It is appreciated that the method illustrated in
The above-described transaction engine allows users to choose from a range of products and services to purchase, as alternatives to making a contribution to an original vendor from whom a product or service is received. The above-described transaction engine can be embedded into any website or device. Also, the above-described transaction engine can be delivered as a mobile phone application, or even built directly into hardware of a device. Further, the above-described transaction engine can be taken by a user and embedded into the user's own website, thereby enabling viral distribution. It should be noted that, the above-described method and system may be extended for digital products such as music, video, text, news, etc. and for any physical asset a vendor might wish to sell or offer services around too.
It is appreciated that, the transaction engine presents the user with a range of options to enter into a commitment to purchase (e.g., via a gift certificate), instead of just the products being offered by the vendors. When the user purchases the gift certificate offered by the transaction system, a percentage of the transaction is sent to the original vendor, and the purchased product or service is then made available to the user. The above-described transaction reflects commitment of the user (directly or over the Internet or a phone) to buy goods at face value or greater/lesser value at some point of time in the future. The user will receive goods at the face value or higher (in the event that the gift certificate is sold at a discount to the face value).
In addition, it will be appreciated that the various operations, processes, and methods disclosed herein may be embodied in a machine-readable medium and/or a machine accessible medium compatible with a data processing system (e.g., a computer system), and may be performed in any order (e.g., including using means for achieving the various operations). Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.
Although the present embodiments have been described with reference to specific example embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the various embodiments. For example, the various devices, modules, analyzers, generators, etc. described herein may be enabled and operated using hardware circuitry (e.g., CMOS based logic circuitry), firmware, software and/or any combination of hardware, firmware, and/or software (e.g., embodied in a machine readable medium). For example, the various electrical structure and methods may be embodied using transistors, logic gates, and electrical circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuitry (ASIC)).
Benefit is claimed under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Applications Ser. No. 61/016,600 entitled “products provided in exchange for commitment to purchase” by Arjun Chopra et al.,filed on 26 Dec. 2007, which is herein incorporated in its entirety by reference for all purposes.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61016600 | Dec 2007 | US |