Patent Application
20140095334
The application is directed to product purchasing and product upgrades, and in particular to a method and system that track purchased items and display upgrade options and prices for a customer to trade-in and upgrade purchased items as many times as desired.
Customers often want the latest version of many products on the market today, and sometimes feel conflicted about purchasing an item if they suspect a newer model or updated version may be introduced. Customers often have to weigh purchasing the available version of a product against the ability to purchase any newer models that may be introduced before they would be ready to purchase the same type of product again. This can be a concern for retailers and manufacturers who rely on repeat purchases of their premium or high-end products.
With certain products, such as electronics or automobiles, new models or versions are being introduced with greater frequency. This has led to customers feeling trapped when they purchase the product only to find out that a newer or better model is released shortly thereafter, leaving them with what they consider to be an “outdated” model.
Although retailers may have existing buy-back programs for products, these typically involve a cash or cash-equivalent payment to the customer instead of a direct upgrade to the newer model. Additionally, existing buy-back or trade-in programs usually require some form of pricing algorithm and a subjective human evaluation of the returned product to determine the trade-in value. A customer may be forced to return the product to a store for a pricing evaluation, or may be required to ship the product back to a retailer or manufacturer and then wait for an evaluation to be performed there before knowing the cash or cash-equivalent amount they will receive for their previously purchased product. These programs also involve an additional purchase transaction, conducted online or in-store, subsequent to the cash or cash-equivalent trade-in of a previously purchased product before a customer obtains the newer product model. These existing buy-back and trade-in programs are often supplemental to the initial product purchase, and sometimes involve a separate purchase of the right to participate in the program. Therefore, the ability to upgrade is not fundamental to the initial purchase decision, and completing all of the necessary steps and transactions to return or trade in a previously purchased product and obtain possession of a newer product is cumbersome and time consuming for the consumer.
Other trade-in programs may allow a customer to upgrade to a newer model, but only after a specified time period or when an existing service contract is over. For example, a wireless phone retailer may allow a customer to purchase a new model phone at a discounted price, but only when the customer's existing contract is renewed for a specified time period. This discounted price only reflects the new service contract and is not a reflection of a trade-in upgrade from an old product to the new product, and the customer may be left with the previously purchased model.
For some products, the customers may have no trade-in or buy-back options. This may force customers to find a third party willing to purchase the old device before they are able to purchase the upgraded model.
As the lifespan of products has become shorter, and as newer models of products are being introduced at increasingly frequent rates, a system and method providing for an easy upgrade of a purchased item to a newer model without complicated trade-in evaluations or buy-back cash or cash-equivalent transaction steps is required. The system and method described herein allow for a customer to quickly and easily upgrade previously purchased items to new models whenever desired, without penalizing the retailer or manufacturer as is the case in some other prior product return systems wherein the manufacturer or retailer may be forced to pay a customer for a returned device without also selling a new product to the customer at the same time. In the system and method described herein, the product return to the manufacturer is part of the same upgrade transaction that includes the sale and shipment of the new, updated model of the product to the customer.
The present application is directed to a system and method for processing product upgrade transactions. Customers may purchase products eithers in a retail store or online, and the payment transaction information to purchase the product is processed by or entered into a digital purchased product upgrade application. The purchase may be completed with a purchase transaction module within the purchased product upgrade application. The digital purchased product upgrade application stores the information related to the item purchased, tracks items purchased, and displays product upgrade options and upgrade pricing options in real-time. The application may be stored on a server and accessible as a website hosted on a network, or may be stored as an application program on a mobile device.
A central database stored on a server acquires and stores information regarding purchased products, as well as information regarding new models and versions of products, which may be presented to customers as upgrade options. The central database further stores pricing information for each upgrade option. The central database and server may be hosted by the payment issuer, or may be hosted by a third party. The upgrade options are part of the original product purchase transaction, and a customer need only select the upgrade option for previously purchased products in order to both initiate a second transaction to trade in the originally purchased product and receive the upgraded model of the product.
The trade-in of a previously purchased product is therefore linked to the purchase of a new model, or upgrade, of that product. After purchase of a product, a customer may use the purchased product upgrade application to view purchased items that include the upgrade option, view upgrade options for each purchased product, and view the real-time price required to complete the upgrade transactions of trading in the originally purchased product for the upgrade product. The purchased product upgrade application may be accessed as a website through a computing device connected to a network, or may be accessed through a mobile application on a smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device. When a customer initiates the upgrade option through a upgrade request module within the purchased product upgrade application, the purchased product upgrade application notifies the manufacturer and retailer that the customer has selected this option. The manufacturer and retailer may then arrange for pickup of the originally purchased product, drop off the originally purchased product, and delivery of the upgrade new model product. In an alternative embodiment, the application may provide the customer the option to drop off the originally purchased product at a retailer or manufacturer location, and to pick up the upgrade new model product at the retailer or manufacturer.
Upon completion of the upgrade request by the customer, the payment issuer may send the upgrade payment to the upgrade system hosted on the central database. The upgrade payment may be matched to the original purchase. After this match is completed, the upgrade system sends the payment to the manufacturer or retailer to complete the transaction.
At the initial product purchase, the customer would have access to the initial product purchase price as well as the upgrade price required to initiate the upgrade transaction for an upgrade of the initial product, if an upgrade product exists at that time. If the initial product is the most current version of the product such that no upgrade option exists at the time of the initial purchase transaction, the customer may only be provided with the initial product purchase price as well as an indication that upgrade purchase price options will be provided in the future if and when an upgrade product becomes available. Any upgrade option prices related to the initial product purchase are displayed to the customer as they are available. These upgrade prices change over time to reflect the change in value of the initially purchased product that would be exchanged for the upgrade product. According to some embodiments, the upgrade option prices may reflect the difference between the price of the upgrade product and a current value of the initially purchased product. This current value of the initially purchased product may be predetermined according to the initial product purchase price, and the amount of time that has passed since the initial purchase. Both initial product purchase prices and upgrade option prices may be stored in the upgrade system
A system and method for processing and completing product upgrade request transactions are disclosed. The system and method use a purchased product upgrade application, accessed through an online website or through a mobile application, to complete a product upgrade transaction from an initially purchased product to a newer version or upgraded model of the initially purchased product.
After a customer selects a product for purchase, a payment issuer processes the payment from the customer and tags the product purchase transaction as an upgrade option payment transaction 102. Once a transaction is tagged as upgrade option payment transaction 102, the customer is notified that they have the option to upgrade the purchased product to a new model or upgraded version of the product at any time in the future by accessing an upgrade system and selecting an upgrade option. The payment issuer may be a different entity from the retailer or manufacturer, such as a bank, credit card company, or other third party payment service. In some instances, such as where a retailer branded credit card is used to make a purchase from that retailer, the payment issuer may be the same party as the retailer or manufacturer. The payment issuer receives the payment information through the customer's use of a specific payment method associated with that payment issuer. For example, the payment issuer may be a credit card company and use of the credit card by the customer during a product purchase ensures that the payment information is received by the payment issuer. The payment issuer may also be a bank wherein a bank card or bank account number is used to complete the transaction, or the payment issuer may be a third party online or mobile payment service such as PayPal wherein a member ID or login is required to complete any purchase transactions. During the product purchase transaction, the barcode or other product identifying information may contain coded data specifying that the product is eligible for the upgrade option. When this coded data is recorded during the purchase transaction, it may initiate a process whereby the product purchase transaction information is automatically sent over a network connection to the payment issuer when a retail or online transaction is completed.
The retailer, which may be an online retailer selling products through a website or a retailer store location, provides additional purchase details 204 to the upgrade system. These additional purchase details 204 may include store location, online website address, retail purchase price, warranty information, and other information. These retailer product details may also be sent to the upgrade system through a network connection.
The issuer, manufacturer, and retail information are then loaded into a purchased product upgrade application 205 accessible by the customer. The central database, which stores the information, is in bidirectional communication with the purchased product upgrade application. As information about a purchased product or upgrade product is stored in the central database, the central database makes this information available to customers through the purchased product upgrade application. The purchased product upgrade application may be hosted on a website accessible through a user interface, such as a computer, smartphone, tablet, or personal digital assistant. The purchased product upgrade application may also be a mobile application that a user downloads onto a mobile device such as a smartphone or table computer.
The purchased product upgrade application directly links the selected upgrade product and upgrade payment price to the trade-in of the originally purchased product. In contrast to existing buy-back programs, payment of the real-time upgrade pricing displayed by the purchased product upgrade application is all that is required to complete the transaction to trade in the previously purchased device for the upgraded model. A pricing engine stored on the central server contains instructions that determine the upgrade prices for purchased products in real time. The pricing engine continuously computes the real-time upgrade prices for each product stored in the database. The upgrade pricing is determined as a function of estimated trade-in value of the previously purchased device, which will be returned to the manufacturer or retailer, and the cost of the new upgraded model.
The selection of the upgrade option in the purchased product upgrade application additionally causes the upgrade request to be sent to the manufacturer of the upgrade product, as shown at 303. The mobile application may be configured to directly send this information to the manufacturer over a network by using a network communication interface. Alternatively, the request could be sent from the purchased product upgrade application device to the upgrade system at the central server. The upgrade system may then search the information stored in the database to determine the proper manufacturers and retailers and retailers associated with the originally purchased product and the requested upgrade product. The upgrade system may then send a notification of the request to these determined manufacturers and retailers using wired or wireless communication means. For example, the request notification may be sent as an email, as information uploaded onto a webpage accessible over a network, as a facsimile, or as digital information transmitted directly into a manufacturer's or retailer's product management databases. The manufacturer or retailer additionally receives information regarding the trade-in method selected by the customer. If the customer selected to have the previously purchased product picked up, the manufacturer arranges for this pickup and arranges for the new product to be shipped. If the customer selected to complete the transaction at a manufacturer or retail location, the manufacturer or retailer checks the existing products in stock to ensure that the upgrade product is available and arranges for the customer to complete the transaction by bringing in the previously purchased product and picking up the upgrade product.
Alternatively, the customer may enter payment information, such as credit card, bank account, or PayPal™ account numbers, as part of a user profile stored within the application program. When the payment is a mobile application, the customer payment information may be entered into fields within the application or may be previously stored as part of a customer profile within the application itself. A payment issuer uses the payment information provided by the customer, and processes an upgrade payment. As shown at 401, the upgrade payment and corresponding upgrade information is sent from the payment issuer to the upgrade system, wherein the payment is matched 402 to the original customer purchase information stored in the database. The upgrade system then sends a proper portion of this payment to the manufacture at 403 and to the retailer at 404. The difference between the upgrade purchase price (or total cost including monetary payment and the value of the returned initially purchased product) and the upgrade price (or monetary value paid by the customer to complete the upgrade transaction) is sent from the manufacturer to the retailer at 405 to reconcile the upgrade transaction amount with the total value received by and distributed from the retailer during the initial and upgrade transactions.
For example, the total cost of the new upgrade device may be $250. In order to upgrade from the previously purchased product to the new product, a customer may be required to pay an upgrade price of $100, with the additional $150 being the trade-in value of the previously purchased device. The upgrade system may complete any processing necessary to send the previously purchased back to the manufacturer, providing the manufacturer with a value of $150 as described above at 403. The upgrade price transaction of $100 may be paid by the customer, to the retailer through the upgrade system as described above at 404. This payment may be made through the mobile payment application. The $150 trade-in value may then be paid from the manufacturer to the retailer to reconcile the upgrade transaction amount as described above at 405.
When the payment transaction is completed, the customer will either receive the new, upgrade device at the retailer or the new, upgrade device will be shipped to the customer's address.
In the foregoing, the invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments. However, it is evident that various modification and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader scope of the invention.
