Patent Application
20080027795
Feedback is provided to the customer so that the customer less likely to lose interest in use of a particular transactional account. The feedback may take various forms to server various purposes. Examples of the feedback may serve to better educate the customer about the details of the transaction, assist the customer in making selections for purchase, and even reward the customer with coupons or lottery numbers.
The checkout system 106 may be an application specific machine or a general-purpose programmable computer system programmed with the specific task of accumulating the charges for the purchase, receiving a form of payment, and completing the sale by providing evidence of the purchase and payment. The checkout system 106 may be operated by an employee of the retailer or may be a self-checkout configuration where the user 102 interacts directly with the checkout system 106. The checkout system 106 receives purchase data s input of the items being purchased, such as by receiving a manual selection of the item from a menu, receiving a manual entry of a stock keeping unit (SKU), or receiving a scanned entry of the SKU such as via a bar code reader.
The checkout system 106, which includes data processor, memory, databuses, input/output interfaces, and so forth includes examples of computer readable media which store instructions that when performed implement various logical operations. Such computer readable media may include various storage media including electronic, magnetic, and optical storage. Computer readable media may also include communications media, such as wired and wireless connections used to transfer the instructions or send and receive other data messages.
Upon the items to be purchased being entered into the checkout system 106 to produce a total purchase price including any taxes or applicable discounts, the checkout system 106 then presents the total purchase price to the user 102 and requests or otherwise receives the form of payment as discussed above. As shown in
The verification may occur by exchanging the transactional data including the transactional account, any security codes associated with the transactional account, and the total purchase price with a database 110 for the account that is maintained by the account manager. The account manager includes the entity that issued the transactional card to the customer, which may either by the retailer 104 of a separate entity altogether that may affiliated with the retailer 104 or entirely distinct from the retailer 104. The database 110 includes at least the transactional account number, the current balance, and the history of purchases including the retailer and total purchase price that forms statement data. According to exemplary embodiments, the database 110 may also include additional data such as coupon data that reflects the coupons that have been provided to the user 102 as a result of using the particular card. This coupon data may be presented to the user 102 on an account statement to reinforce the benefits of having used the particular transactional account at various retailers as opposed to some other form of payment.
The coupon data of database 110 may originate from a database 108 that is maintained by the retailer, by the card issuer/account manager, by product manufacturers, or by other entities with an interest in the purchase being made by the user 102. Upon the checkout system 106 verifying that the transactional account that has been presented is a valid form of payment, then according to exemplary embodiments, the checkout system 106 queries the database 108 for relevant coupons by providing at least the transactional account in the query and may provide additional information as well including an identification of the products being purchased.
The database 108 associates transactional accounts that are being used as forms of payment with coupons. The coupons may be assigned based on various factors including an accumulation of total purchase price or numbers of purchases for the transactional account, the current purchase including key products, the account manager associated with the transactional account, etc. For example, if the current purchase price falls within a given range, one set of coupons may be provided, while if the purchase price falls within a different range, a different set of coupons may be provided. Likewise, if a certain product has been purchased then a particular coupon associated with that product may be provided, such as a coupon for the same product or a coupon for a complementary product. The coupon found by the query to the database 108 results in coupon data being returned to the checkout system 106 where it can then be printed for the user 102 at coupon operation 208.
By associating the coupon data within the database 108 with a particular transactional account, control over which, if any, coupon will be provided to the user 102 is achieved. For example, coupons may be provided only when a particular transactional account from a particular card issuer/account manager is used as the form of payment. In this manner, the user 102 is given an incentive to use that particular transactional account as opposed to some other form of payment. The database 108 may be devoted to one card issuer/account manager, such as where the card issuer/account manager maintains the database 108 or where the card issuer/account manager has an agreement with the retailer or product manufacturer or other entity who maintains the database 108. Alternatively, such as where the retailer or product manufacturer maintains the database 108, the database 108 may associate transactional accounts from different card issuers/account managers to coupon data so that a coupon is provided to a user 102 when paying with one of various transactional accounts.
Associating the coupon data of database 108 with a particular transactional account may be done by the checkout system 106 having logic that detects whether the appropriate transactional account has been presented prior to submitting the query to a particular database 108. If a transactional account that is not associated with database 108 and the coupon data therein is presented, then no query to database 108 may be generated. In that case, either the user 102 receives no coupon due to use of the transactional account or a different database that contains coupon data relevant to the transactional account being used may be queried.
Returning to coupon operation 208, the checkout system 106 provides the receipt and coupon data to an output mechanism of the retailer 104, such as a receipt printer. As shown in this example, the retailer 104 then provides a paper copy of the receipt 114 and coupon 112 to the user 102. The receipt 114 and coupon 112 may be separate printouts or the coupon 112 may be printed at some available space on the receipt 114.
In addition to the checkout system 106 providing the coupon data to the output mechanism of the retailer 104, the checkout system 106 may also transfer the coupon data over the data connection to the database 110 of the account manager at account operation 210. As discussed above, the account manager may then track the coupons that have been provided to the user, such as to include such information on statements that the user receives in order to remind the user of the added benefits of using the particular transactional account to make purchases.
For the system of
The interface system 106, which includes data processor, memory, databuses, input/output interfaces, and so forth may also includes examples of computer readable media which store instructions that when performed implement various logical operations. Such computer readable media may include various storage media including electronic, magnetic, and optical storage. As noted above, computer readable media may also include communications media, such as wired and wireless connections used to transfer the instructions or send and receive other data messages.
The interface system 302 has access to purchase and/or account data that may be displayed for the user, either while the user is shopping or at the time of making the purchase. Illustrative scenarios and the corresponding operational flow of the system of
The interface system 302 communicates with other systems in order to obtain the purchase and account data displayed for the user on the display 306. For example, where the interface system 302 is a component of a shopping cart, the interface system 302 may maintain a wireless connection such as Wi-Fi to a data network either established within the premises of the retailer or at a remote location. The data network may be maintained by the retailer, by a product manufacturer, by the card issuer/account manager for the transactional account that may be used to activate the system interface 302, or by another entity with an interest in the purchases being made by the user.
In the example shown, the interface system 302 communicates with the back-end computer system 310 which may be maintained by any one of the parties interested in the purchase of items by the user. The back-end computer system 310 provides for a look-up of the purchase and/or account information based on receiving the transactional account from the interface system 302. The system 310 may access data from various databases in order to provide the purchase and/or account information desired by the user. For example, database 312 contains purchase history data that may be provided via the user interface 304 so that someone who shops for something repetitively can see what has been purchases in the past and likely needs to be purchased again.
This database 312 may be maintained by the retailer and provides purchase data that includes a history of the purchases made by the consumer at the retailer. In that case, the retailer may collect all purchase history of the user and associate that with a single transactional account of the user, regardless of how the user paid for the past purchases. As an alternative, the retailer may only collect purchase history for purchases made with a particular transactional account as the form of payment. In this manner, the user may be provided such purchase history information if the appropriate transactional account is entered into the interface system 302. Furthermore, the user may be provided such purchase history information only if the appropriate transactional account was used to make the previous purchases. Accordingly, the user is thereby given an incentive to use the transactional account to pay for purchases in order to have access to such purchase history information.
This database 312 may be maintained by the card issuer/account manager and provide data for purchases made by the consumer at the current retailer and/or other retailers. For example, the user may shop for similar items but at different places and the purchase history may include items from the different places such that the user is made aware of what has been purchased in the past regardless of which retailer the user is currently visiting. In this example, the database 312 tracks only those purchases where the particular transactional account was used as the form of payment. Again, the user is provided with an incentive to use the particular transactional account as the form of payment.
The purchase data of database 312 may also include items to be purchased. For example, the user may maintain a list of items to purchase such as by accessing a web site or other interface while the user is at home or otherwise not at the retailer. The user may log-in by providing the transactional account and then may input the list which becomes associated with the transactional account within the database 312. The list may be associated with the transactional account so that upon swiping the card at the interface system 302 or otherwise entering the transactional account, the items to be purchased may be accessed from the database 312 and displayed in list form for the user.
A database 316 may provide additional purchase information such as details regarding the retailer that the user is currently visiting. This database 316 may be maintained by any one of the various entities interested in the purchases made by the user. Such details may include the floor plan or layout of the retailer which may be provided to the user via the user interface 304 to allow the user to more easily navigate through the facility of the retailer.
As another example of retailer details provided by database 316, route data and associated routing logic may also be included. For example, the user may enter items to be purchased, either in advance or visiting the retailer such as via a web site as discussed above, or by manually entering the items to be purchased via the user interface 304. Routing logic may then operate upon the list of items to be purchases relative to the layout of the merchandise of the retailer to produce route data. The route data may specify the most efficient route for the user to follow when shopping for the items to be purchases, and the route data may be provided back to the user interface 304 of a shopping cart for viewing by the user while shopping.
Additional purchase information may also be provided to the user. For example, product manufacturers 318, distributors, promoters, and other entities of this type may be given access to the back-end system 310 so that these entities can post purchase information that may be relevant to the user. For example, a promotion including product data, discount data, etc. for a new or existing product may be submitted to the back-end system 319 where it is then made available to the user upon the user having provided the transactional account to the system interface 302. In this manner, advertisers may directly target customers via the system interface 302. Furthermore, back-end system 310 may apply logic to match promotions with users who have previously purchased the item being promoted or a related item based on the purchase history of database 312.
For the system of
As shown in
In addition to, or as an alternative to providing such purchase data, the system interface 302 may also obtain account information based on the transactional account that the user has provided when paying for the purchase and may then display that information for the user. In this manner the user is more informed about making the purchase with the transactional account. Providing this account information at the time of purchase thereby creates an additional incentive to use the particular transactional account as the form of payment as opposed to using other transactional accounts or forms of payment where such feedback is not made available.
The account information may be provided in the same manner as the purchase related information discussed above. However, the account information of the example of
As shown in
In this system, the user 602 approaches the checkout system 606 of the retailer 604 and provides the transactional account as the form of payment at account operation 702. The checkout system 606 of retailer 604 receives the purchase data including the transactional account provided by the user 602 and then communicates with the account manager system 608, and in particular the database 610 of the account manager that includes the account data including the available funds for the account, to verify that the transactional account is an authorized form of payment for the transaction at verification operation 704.
The account manager system 608, upon being queried for the transactional account approval by the checkout system 606, may then make a determination about whether the transactional account is an authorized form of payment and if so, authorization is returned to the checkout system 606. According to exemplary embodiments, the account manager system 608 may also determine whether the transactional account is eligible for a lottery entry at eligibility operation 706. Eligibility may be determined on one of various factors, such as whether the purchase price meets a minimum threshold, whether enough reward points have accrued, whether the number of uses of the transactional card over a given period meets a minimum threshold, etc. Furthermore, determining eligibility may determine how many lottery entry numbers the user qualifies for where more than one lottery entry number at a time is desired.
Upon the account manager determining that the transactional account is eligible for a lottery entry, the account manager system 608 then submits an electronic request to the lottery system 612. The lottery system 612 generates at least one lottery entry number and a bill for the lottery entry at entry operation 708. The lottery entry number is returned to the account manager system 608 where it may then be returned to the checkout system 606 as part of the verification process at checkout operation 710. The checkout system 606 then provides the receipt and lottery data to an output device of the retailer 604, such as a receipt printer, and the receipt 618 and lottery entry 616 are printed and provided to the user 602. The lottery entry 616 may be a separate printout from the receipt 618 or may be printed in a designated area of the receipt 618. The user is thereby provided with a lottery entry as a result of using the particular transactional account and may be motivated to repeatedly use the particular transactional account when making purchases.
The bill for the lottery entry may be returned along with the lottery entry number to the account manager system 608 where the account manager is the party responsible for covering the cost of the lottery entry. However, an alternative configuration may involve a third party promoter having a promotional entity system 614 where the third party promoter is ultimately responsible for covering the cost of the lottery entry. In that case, the bill may be submitted directly from the lottery system 612 to the system 614 of the third party promoter or where the lottery system 612 has submitted the bill to the account manager system 608, the account manager system 608 may then submit the bill to the promotional entity system 614.
The various systems of
While exemplary embodiments have been particularly shown and described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various other changes in the form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
