The present invention generally relates to management of reward redemptions in a loyalty program and, more specifically, to a method and system for facilitating reinstatement of redeemed rewards and accruals in the event that a qualifying transaction is reversed.
Loyalty programs are programs that provide participants with incentives to shop at certain retailers sponsoring the program. An incentive is something of value that may be redeemed or collected by a participant. Retailers may thus provide automatic rewards for redemption at the point of sale to customers making a purchase that qualifies for redemption. Alternatively, retailers sponsoring a loyalty program may allow a customer to accumulate or collect incentives, points or credits which entitle the customer to receive redeemable rewards.
Conventional approaches for handling reward accruals and redemptions have a number of problems. One problem is, for example, after a customer redeems a reward, the reward cannot be reinstated to the customer for future redemption if the customer subsequently reverses a qualifying transaction. In other words, once redeemed, the reward is irreversibly used. To qualify for the same reward, the customer will then have to start all over again by making additional qualifying purchases. Consequently, customer's satisfaction may be greatly reduced due to the inability to reinstate and redeem previously-earned rewards and the need to requalify for the same reward.
Another problem is fraudulent reward accruals. Under conventional approaches, when a customer reverses a qualifying transaction, any reward earned or accrued, in whole or in part, is not similarly reversed. As a result, a customer is able to accumulate and redeem rewards that s/he is not entitled to. This encourages fraudulent behavior by customers who make qualifying purchases only to reverse them later on for the sole purpose of accruing rewards.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method and system that facilitates the reversal of reward redemptions and accruals in order to enhance customer satisfaction and minimize fraudulent abuse of a loyalty program when qualifying transactions are reversed.
A system for managing reward reversal is provided. The system includes a device that is capable of adjusting the accumulation and redemption levels of rewards after a purchase or return transaction.
In one exemplary embodiment, a system for managing reward reversals in connection with a loyalty program comprises: control logic configured to receive information relating to a previously completed transaction that is to be reversed, the previously completed transaction being associated with an account linked to the loyalty program; control logic configured to determine reversal information for the transaction to be reversed; and control logic configured to use the reversal information to reverse the previously completed transaction and update the associated account.
Reference to the remaining portions of the specification, including the drawings and claims, will realize other features and advantages of the present invention. Further features and advantages of the present invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention, are described in detail below with respect to accompanying drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.
The present invention in the form of one or more exemplary embodiments will now be described.
The host 104 stores and controls information relating to the loyalty programs. Sponsors typically define the corresponding parameters of the loyalty programs and, in one embodiment, provide such parameters to the host 104 via the program administrator 102. The host 104 may include different rules for individual loyalty programs that each sponsor or participating retailer adopts. The loyalty program parameters define the rules of each program, such as start dates, end dates, customer eligibility, product eligibility, etc. In one implementation, the host 104 is a computer server having a number of software applications that manage various loyalty programs.
The host 104 is configured to interact with program participants through the acceptance point devices, such as, the stand-alone PPOS device 114, the integrated PPOS device 116 and the mobile device 118. The host 104 communicates with the acceptance point devices via the communication medium 106 and the distribution channels 108. The communication medium 106 may be any kind of communication network, including but not limited to the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and a wireless network, etc.
In one implementation, the acceptance point device is a point-of-sale (POS) device. The POS device may be a stand-alone PPOS device dedicated solely to performing point-of-sale transactions, or devices integrated into other devices. Examples of stand-alone PPOS devices 114 are point-of-sale devices in merchants' stores, such as cash registers. Examples of integrated PPOS devices 116 are applications on the Internet that may be accessed through computing devices. POS devices may also be mobile devices 118 including, for example, laptop computers, pocket personal computers, cellular phones and personal digital assistants. Other examples of acceptance point devices include but are not limited to computer terminals, electronic cash registers, automated teller machines, virtual cash registers, kiosks, and security systems.
In one embodiment, the acceptance point device is coupled to a corresponding merchant system (not shown) to allow other merchant functions to be performed in conjunction with the acceptance point device. In alternative embodiments, the acceptance point device may be coupled to other types of devices. Furthermore, it should be understood that, in other embodiments, the acceptance point device may be integrated with the merchant system.
The connection between the acceptance point device and the portable device 110 may be cable, electronic, magnetic, wireless, etc.
The acceptance point device also includes a control application. The control application provides the logic for managing the loyalty programs including, for example, managing the reward reversal calculations and the adjustments of redemption or accrual levels in a loyalty program. The control application may be implemented by software or hardware or a combination of both. In one embodiment, the control application operates online in real time. In another embodiment, the control application operates offline where information is periodically transmitted from the acceptance point device to the host 104 through the communication medium 106.
As will be further described below, the control application is used to manage one or more loyalty programs. For example, the control application is capable of adding to or reversing the amount of accumulated rewards and the amount of redeemed rewards after a transaction. The amount of accumulated rewards may be represented by an accumulation level, and the amount of redeemed rewards may be represented by a redemption level. The accumulation and redemption levels may be in the form of, for example, the number of qualifying products in a given transaction, or the total dollar value of a given transaction. In exemplary embodiments, the accumulation and redemption levels are stored in the portable device 110.
During a purchase transaction that qualifies for a reward, the control application may increase the value of the accumulation level in the portable device 110. During a return (or reversal) transaction that involves an accumulated and/or redeemed reward, the control application may adjust the accumulation level and/or the redemption level. For example, in a return transaction, a previously earned reward may be backed out and a previously redeemed reward may be reinstated.
If the reward stored in the portable device 110 qualifies for redemption, the control application may grant the reward and subsequently reset the accumulation level to zero. Resetting the accumulation level to zero ensures that a loyalty program participant makes the required number of qualifying purchases to earn another reward.
In one embodiment, if the reward stored in the portable device 110 is disqualified from redemption after a return, the control application may reinstate the reward and adjust the accumulation level; in another embodiment, the accumulation level is reset to zero and an escrow account is established. The escrow account is generally a negative balance that requires clearing before another reward may be earned. Different operations of the control application will be further described in the examples provided below.
The portable device 110 includes one or more applications including those that relate to corresponding loyalty programs. These applications may further include transactional information and information that is specific to the loyalty program participants. Examples of such information include the history of a customer's purchase transactions, such as the amount of accumulated and redeemed rewards, and information regarding a redemption limit of rewards.
The portable device 110 can be of many suitable forms, such as credit or debit cards, smart cards, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, pagers, payment cards, security cards, acceptance cards, smart media and transponders. The smart card is one exemplary embodiment that includes a microprocessor embedded within or on a planar plastic body, and electrically connected to contacts on the exterior of the smart card. The smart card may include any suitable medium storing data that is readable to a computer, including but not limited to a ROM (read only memory), RAM (random access memory) and EEPROM (programmable read only memory).
The logic of the reversal process that is initiated when an item is returned is illustrated in
At 508, if accumulation is triggered, the difference between the value of the returned item and the total value of the transaction is calculated. This difference represents the new total value of the transaction which is the original total value of the transaction less the value of the returned item. At 510, the difference or the new total value of the transaction is then used to determine if the trigger for accumulation is exceeded after the return, i.e., whether the original transaction less the returned item is still entitled to accumulation. At 512, if accumulation is not triggered, the accumulation level is not adjusted. At 514, if accumulation is triggered, the accumulation level is adjusted. In one implementation, the accumulation level is adjusted by subtracting the new total value of the transaction from the original total value of the transaction and adding the difference to the accumulation level. It should be noted that the difference may be a negative number.
Turning to illustrative examples of exemplary operations of the present invention,
Referring to
The return transactions of
Steps 312, 318 and 324 of
The return of both $15 and $10 items, however, does not trigger accumulation because the total transaction value ($70) reduced by the value of the returned items ($35) does not exceed the accumulation trigger ($50). Therefore, the total value of the transaction ($70) is subtracted from “0” and the result is added to the purchase count (328). The final purchase count after the return is the same as the initial purchase count before the original transaction ($380). The consequence of these steps is that if the return of items from a prior transaction disqualifies that transaction from triggering the accumulation of rewards, the purchase count will accordingly be adjusted to reflect that the qualifying transaction has not taken place. The reversal of accumulation would prevent the fraudulent growth of rewards towards a redemption based on qualifying transactions that are subsequently returned.
For the return transaction (414), a return of $10 triggers accumulation since the difference between the value of the returned item and the total transaction value ($140) exceeds the accumulation trigger ($50). This difference results in the reduction of the count value from $530 to $520, as shown in step 420. Since a reward was redeemed, the value of the refund for the item being returned is reduced in proportion to the amount rewarded (422, 424).
The initial conditions assumed for the embodiment of
Step 604 in
Upon return of one (1) item at $5.50 illustrated in step 616, the purchase count (5) is reduced by the number of qualifying goods being returned (1) and the new purchase count (4) is loaded onto to the device 110 (622). Since the purchase count (4) after the transaction does not exceed the number of qualifying purchases required for redemption (6), the redemption count remains the same (624).
Steps 702-712 illustrate a purchase of two (2) qualifying products at $5.50 each. Step 714 thus displays a purchase count of two (2), before the purchase of two more items at $5.50 each in step 716. Because the total number of qualifying products purchased (4) after the two (2) transactions exceeds the threshold required for redemption (3), redemption is triggered and a 10% reward of the purchase at step 716 is awarded to the customer (720). In step 722, the purchase count after the transaction is reset to zero (0), since the reward was redeemed in the previous step 720. The resetting of the purchase count in the present embodiment to zero (0) after redemption prevents the growth of rewards after they have been redeemed and thus prevents unfair benefit to the holder of the device 110.
The return transaction in the present embodiment shows the return of one (1) item in step 728. The return transaction in
As in the embodiment of
Referring to
The rules for the loyalty program of
The subsequent return of five (5) items at $5.50 each (852) results in a negative purchase count (−5) (858) after the return transaction. The negative purchase count in the present embodiment represents an escrow account. In some embodiments, the purchase count is automatically reset to zero (0) when the number of items being returned is greater than the initial purchase count, and a separate escrow account with a negative value is simultaneously created. The reward is not returned and the redemption count remains at its current count. However, the customer must clear the escrow account before earning a new reward and thus does not unfairly benefit from retaining the reward. An escrow account is also useful in preventing a customer from losing accumulated rewards during the return of purchased products, by facilitating the use of one count to continuously maintain the current purchase count while clearing the balance for return transactions by the use of a separate count.
Referring to
The return transaction of step 916 shows the return of one item at $5.50, which results in a reduction of the accumulation by one (1) (918) and a reduction of the purchase count from two (2) to one (1) after the return (922). When a coupon representing delayed redemption is available and a qualifying product is returned, the purchase count is represented by the subtraction of the number of products being returned from the redemption trigger, which is the same value as the purchase count prior to the return. The coupon also becomes unavailable and is removed from the device 110 soon after the purchase count is updated to fall below the required value (922). The removal of the coupon requires the customer to earn the coupon again by making the required number of qualifying purchases.
Referring to
The return of the item purchased with the redeemed reward in step 1028 causes the purchase count, which has an initial value of zero (0), to assume a negative value. If the return transaction causes the purchase count to become a negative value and the redemption count is greater than zero (0), the reward is restored in the form of a “coupon” which is available for subsequent redemption. One consequence of this step is that the customer does not lose the redeemed reward or rewards accumulated by prior qualifying purchases when making a return. By comparison, other forms of rewards such as a paper-based coupons typically would not be allowed to be reused after a return transaction. Paper-based coupons and the like generally expire after they are redeemed once.
In addition, other embodiments of the present invention may also be implemented to apply an expiration date. Rules relating to expiration may be stored in the host 104 and communicated to the acceptance point device. For example, expiration dates may be applied by the merchant or retailer to the accumulation of rewards or to the redemption of rewards. Similarly, reinstatement of a previously redeemed reward may be subject to an expiration date after which the previously redeemed reward can no longer be reinstated.
Step 1128 illustrates the return of one (1) item at $5.50. Step 1136 displays no value or expression because the redemption date for the reward has expired. Consequently, the customer could not apply the two (2) qualifying products accumulated in the purchase count after the return, illustrated in step 1134, towards the redemption of a reward for a subsequent purchase. In other embodiments, an option can be added to override the expiration of the redemption date so as to allow redemption of the reward. The availability of such an option would depend on the individual rules established for each loyalty program.
While the present invention has been illustrated using the particular combinations of reward program rules and reversal processes as described, it should be recognized that other combinations are within the scope of the invention. For example, in an alternative embodiment, the present invention is capable of handling reward reversals for an account linked to multiple loyalty programs.
The present invention may also be implemented in different combinations of hardware and software than the ones described. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will know of other ways and/or methods to implement the present invention.
It should be understood that the embodiments provided are illustrative and not restrictive. Various other modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed. Moreover, while the description of the different embodiments are provided in the context of a loyalty program, a person of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate how to utilize the present invention in other applications or context where the reversal of product-based incentives may be desirable.
The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/678,030, filed Sep. 30, 2003, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING REWARD REVERSAL AFTER POSTING”, the entire contents of which is herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.
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0039714 | Jul 2000 | WO |
0046665 | Aug 2000 | WO |
0054507 | Sep 2000 | WO |
0057315 | Sep 2000 | WO |
0057613 | Sep 2000 | WO |
0062265 | Oct 2000 | WO |
0062472 | Oct 2000 | WO |
0067185 | Nov 2000 | WO |
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0068903 | Nov 2000 | WO |
0069183 | Nov 2000 | WO |
0075775 | Dec 2000 | WO |
0077750 | Dec 2000 | WO |
0104851 | Jan 2001 | WO |
0106341 | Jan 2001 | WO |
0108087 | Feb 2001 | WO |
0113572 | Feb 2001 | WO |
0115397 | Mar 2001 | WO |
0118633 | Mar 2001 | WO |
0118746 | Mar 2001 | WO |
0129672 | Apr 2001 | WO |
0133390 | May 2001 | WO |
0140908 | Jun 2001 | WO |
0142887 | Jun 2001 | WO |
0144900 | Jun 2001 | WO |
0144949 | Jun 2001 | WO |
0147176 | Jun 2001 | WO |
0155955 | Jun 2001 | WO |
0150229 | Jul 2001 | WO |
0152575 | Jul 2001 | WO |
0159563 | Aug 2001 | WO |
0161620 | Aug 2001 | WO |
0165545 | Sep 2001 | WO |
0167694 | Sep 2001 | WO |
0171648 | Sep 2001 | WO |
0171679 | Sep 2001 | WO |
0173530 | Oct 2001 | WO |
0173533 | Oct 2001 | WO |
0178020 | Oct 2001 | WO |
0180563 | Oct 2001 | WO |
0184377 | Nov 2001 | WO |
0184474 | Nov 2001 | WO |
0184512 | Nov 2001 | WO |
0186705 | Nov 2001 | WO |
0206948 | Jan 2002 | WO |
0210962 | Feb 2002 | WO |
0214991 | Feb 2002 | WO |
0215037 | Feb 2002 | WO |
0221315 | Mar 2002 | WO |
0229577 | Apr 2002 | WO |
02088895 | Nov 2002 | WO |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20130179248 A1 | Jul 2013 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10678030 | Sep 2003 | US |
Child | 13782896 | US |