Claims
- 1. A system for managing loyalty programs which uses at least one portable user device to store data including loyalty points, said system comprising:
a server for distributing loyalty point program information; and a plurality of merchant terminals coupled to said server, said plurality of merchant terminals including at least a first merchant terminal and a second merchant terminal, said first and second merchant terminals being located at different locations within a first store; the first merchant terminal comprising:
i) a memory for storing a first set of loyalty point program information, said first set of loyalty point program information including information about award points to be accorded for purchases made at said first terminal; ii) a first interface for receiving loyalty point program information updates from said server; iii) a first user device interface for reading from and writing to a portable user device; and the second merchant terminal comprising:
i) a memory for storing a second set of loyalty point program information, said second set of loyalty point program information including information about award points to be accorded for purchases made at said second terminal, the second set of loyalty point information being either: different from said first set of loyalty point information and providing for loyalty points to be awarded at a rate or in an amount that is different from a rate or an amount at which loyalty points are awarded by said first terminal in accordance with the first set of loyalty program information or being the same as the first set of loyalty point program information and providing for loyalty points to be awarded for items corresponding to a first department at a rate or in an amount that is different from a rate or an amount at which loyalty points are to be awarded for items corresponding to a second department which is different from said first department; ii) a second interface for receiving loyalty point program information updates from said server; and iii) a second user device interface for reading from and writing to a portable user device.
- 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first merchant terminal further comprises:
a first loyalty point calculation module for calculating loyalty points as a function of information included in said first set of loyalty point program information, information read from a portable user device associated with a user making a purchase, and information about an item being purchased; and wherein the second merchant terminal further comprises:
a second loyalty point calculation module for calculating loyalty points as a function of information included in said second set of loyalty point program information, information read from a portable user device associated with a user making a purchase, and information about an item being purchased.
- 3. The system of claim 1, wherein a portable user device associated with a user making a purchase on the first terminal includes:
a loyalty point calculation module for calculating loyalty points as a function of information included in said first set of loyalty point program information, information stored in said portable user device, associated with a user making a purchase on the first terminal, and information about an item being purchased.
- 4. The system of claim 1,
wherein said at least one portable user device is a card; and wherein said first and second sets of loyalty point information can be modified independently on each of said first and second merchant terminals, respectively, from information communicated to the individual terminal from said server.
- 5. The system of claim 1, wherein said server is a local server located in said first store, said local server including multiple sets of loyalty point program information, at least some different loyalty point program information sets corresponding to different departments within said store, said first and second terminals each being supplied with different sets of loyalty point program information, said different sets corresponding to different departments in which said first and second terminals are located, respectively.
- 6. The system of claim 1, wherein said server is a local server located in said first store, said local server including multiple sets of loyalty point program information, at least some different loyalty point program information sets corresponding to different locations within said store, said first and second terminals each being supplied with different sets of loyalty point program information, said different sets corresponding to different locations at which said first and second terminals are located in said first, respectively.
- 7. The system of claim 2, wherein said first loyalty point calculation module determines loyalty points to be awarded for a purchase of a first item based on said first item's price, said second loyalty point calculation module determines loyalty points to be awarded for a purchase of a second item based on said second item's price, the loyalty point calculation performed by said first and second terminals awarding different numbers of points for similarly priced items.
- 8. The system of claim 7, wherein said determination of loyalty points, to be awarded by first and second loyalty point calculation modules, is a function of user data read from a portable user device associated with a user making the purchase, said determination of loyalty points being different for users who are members of different user groups.
- 9. The system of claim 7, wherein said first and second sets of loyalty point program information include different weights to be used in calculating the number of loyalty points to be awarded for a purchase.
- 10. The system of claim 9, wherein said first and second sets of loyalty point program information include time period information indicating a time period in which said set of loyalty point program information should be used, a different time period being indicated for said first and second sets of loyalty point program information.
- 11. The system of claim 7, wherein said portable user device utilized in said loyalty point calculation is a card which includes stored information indicating the frequency of prior visits to said first store by said user, said first and second loyalty points calculation modules using said frequency information in determining the number of loyalty points to be awarded.
- 12. The system of claim 7, wherein said portable user device utilized in said loyalty point calculation includes stored information indicating the frequency of prior visits to a department in said first store by said user, said first and second loyalty points calculation modules using said frequency information in determining the number of loyalty points to be awarded.
- 13. The system of claim 1, wherein said first loyalty point calculation is based on the date said first item is purchased.
- 14. The system of claim 1, wherein said first loyalty point calculation is based on the time said first item is purchased.
- 15. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of merchant terminals includes a third merchant terminal and a fourth merchant terminal, said third and fourth merchant terminals being located in a second store, the first and second stores being different,
the third merchant terminal comprising:
i) a memory for storing a third set of loyalty point program information, said third set of loyalty point program information including information about award points to be accorded for purchases made at said third terminal; ii) a third interface for receiving loyalty point program information updates from said server; iii) a third user device interface for reading from and writing to a portable user device; and the fourth merchant terminal comprising:
i) a memory for storing a fourth set of loyalty point program information, said fourth set of loyalty point program information including information about award points to be accorded for purchases made at said fourth terminal, the fourth set of loyalty point information being different from said third set of loyalty point information, said fourth set of loyalty point information providing for loyalty points to be awarded at a rate or in an amount that is different from a rate or an amount at which loyalty points are awarded by said third terminal in accordance with the third set of loyalty program information; ii) a fourth interface for receiving loyalty point program information updates from said server; and iii) a fourth user device interface for reading from and writing to a portable user device.
- 16. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of merchant terminals includes a third merchant terminal, said third merchant terminal being located in a second store, the first and second stores being different,
the third merchant terminal comprising:
i) a memory for storing a third set of loyalty point program information, said third set of loyalty point program information being different from said first and second sets of loyalty point program information and including information about award points to be accorded for purchases made at said third terminal; ii) a third interface for receiving loyalty point program information updates from said server; and iii) a third user device interface for reading from and writing to a portable user device.
- 17. The system of claim 1, wherein said server is a regional server managing loyalty plan participating stores in a geographic region including multiple stores located at different physical locations.
- 18. The system of claim 1, wherein said portable user devices each comprise a microprocessor and a nonvolatile data storage module for storing user information.
- 19. The system of claim 15, wherein said server is a local server located in said store, the system further comprising:
a regional server located remotely from said first, second, third and fourth stores, said regional server including different sets of loyalty point program information for different regions; and means for transmitting to said local server at least one set of loyalty point program information corresponding to the region in which said local server is located.
- 20. The system of claim 19, wherein said regional server further includes different sets of loyalty point program information corresponding to at least two different store chains owned by different owners.
- 21. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said sets of loyalty point program information includes a list of items, loyalty bonus point weights, and dates of bonus programs indicating when loyalty points are to be awarded.
- 22. The system of claim 1, wherein said first terminal writes information updating stored loyalty point information on a portable user device in response to a purchase being made at said first terminal using the portable user device to which said loyalty point information is written.
- 23. The system of claim 1, wherein said first user device interface is a wireless interface for obtaining information from, and writing information to, a portable user device.
- 24. A server for distributing loyalty point information to a plurality of merchant terminals, said plurality of merchant terminals including first and second terminals located in a first store, the server comprising:
a memory including multiple stored sets of loyalty point program information, at least some different loyalty point program information sets corresponding to different departments within said first store; and a terminal interface for communicating to said first and second first and second merchant terminals different sets of loyalty point program information, said different sets corresponding to different departments in which said first and second terminals are located, respectively.
- 25. The server of claim 25, wherein said server is store server located in said first store in which said first and second terminals are located, at least some of said multiple stored sets of loyalty point program information corresponding to different periods of time in which said information is to be used by one of said first and second terminals.
- 26. The server of claim 24, wherein said server is a regional server, said regional server, at least some of said multiple stored sets of loyalty point program information corresponding to different stores located in different geographic regions.
- 27. A method of implementing at least one loyalty scheme which includes the use of portable user devices to store data including loyalty points, said method comprising:
operating a server to distribute loyalty point program information; and operating a plurality of merchant terminals coupled to said server to perform loyalty program functions, said plurality of merchant terminals including at least a first merchant terminal and a second merchant terminal, said first and second merchant terminals being located at different locations within a first store, the step of operating a plurality of merchant terminals including:
operating the first merchant terminal to store a first set of loyalty point program information, said first set of loyalty point program information including information about award points to be accorded for purchases made at said first terminal; operating the first merchant terminal to receive loyalty point program information updates from said server used to update said stored first set of loyalty point program information; when a user makes a purchase at the first merchant terminal using a portable user device, operating the first merchant terminal to read from and write to the portable user device at least some loyalty program information; operating the second merchant terminal to store a second set of loyalty point program information, said second set of loyalty point program information including information about award points to be accorded for purchases made at said second terminal, the second set of loyalty point information being either: different from said first set of loyalty point information and providing for loyalty points to be awarded at a rate or in an amount that is different from a rate or an amount at which loyalty points are awarded by said first terminal in accordance with the first set of loyalty program information or being the same as the first set of loyalty point program information and providing for loyalty points to be awarded for items corresponding to a first department at a rate or in an amount that is different from a rate or an amount at which loyalty points are to be awarded for items corresponding to a second department which is different from said first department; operating the second merchant terminal to receive loyalty point program information updates loyalty point program information updates from said server; and when a user makes a purchase at the second merchant terminal using a portable user device, operating the second merchant terminal to read from and write to the portable user device at least some loyalty program information.
- 28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:
operating the server to transmit loyalty point program information updates on a predetermine schedule.
- 29. The method of claim 28, wherein at least some merchant terminals are updated with loyalty point program information multiple times in a single day to implement loyalty point programs which are effective during different time periods of the day, some of said different time periods lasting less than 3 hours in duration.
- 30. The method of claim 26, wherein said server is a regional server, the method further comprising:
transmitting different loyalty point program information updates to terminals in stores corresponding to different companies.
- 31. The method of claim 30, wherein said first and second sets of loyalty point program information are the same and include information for awarding loyalty points for items corresponding to at least two different store departments at different rates.
- 32. The method of claim 30, where the first and second sets of loyalty point program information are different, said second set of loyalty point program information including information for awarding loyalty points on purchases at a different rate, than said first set of loyalty point program information, for the same items or items of the same type.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/471,185, filed May 16, 2003 which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60471185 |
May 2003 |
US |