The present disclosure relates generally to techniques for providing electronic services at a point of sale of an electronic device.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Electronic service products are used to provide various software features and functions in numerous electronic devices, from mobile phones or cellular devices to computers, televisions, automobile dashboards, and many more. A customer buying an electronic device may elect at checkout to purchase one or more electronic service products. The customer may be charged in response to the purchase of the electronic device completing. However, in some cases, it may not be desirable to activate and/or complete the charges associated with an electronic service product at the time of purchase of an electronic device. For example, some period of time may pass between a customer purchasing an electronic device and a user using the electronic service product for the first time, such as when the electronic device and the electronic service product are purchased as part as a gift. In this way, resources may be wasted both on the side of the customer (e.g., financial resources, time) and on the side of an electronic service product provider (e.g., computing resources associated with maintaining a digital profile of the electronic service product, even while not in use).
A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set forth below. It should be understood that these aspects are presented merely to provide the reader with a brief summary of these certain embodiments and that these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure. Indeed, this disclosure may encompass a variety of aspects that may not be set forth below.
Methods and systems for postponing activation and/or purchase of electronic service products to a time different from an order generation of the electronic service products are provided herein. These techniques may provide a number of improvements in technological arts, including but not limited to improved user experiences with the purchased electronic device, and, in some cases, conservation of customer and computing resources. To improve a user experience with purchasing electronic service products, a back end computing device may maintain records associating orders, unique device identifiers, and electronic service product identifiers to each other after a customer-initiated purchase. At the point of sale, a customer may commit to purchasing an electronic service product at a future time, causing an order to be generated where the unique device identifier of the purchased electronic device is associated with any electronic service products that the customer committed to purchasing. A server coupled to the back end computing device may maintain a database of the unique device identifiers and the electronic service products. The back end computing device may operate to delay activation of the electronic service product until a qualifying event occurs. A qualifying event may include a user powering on the purchased electronic device, the user selecting or opening an application for use, the user accessing digital content for use via the electronic service product, a pre-determined amount of time passing, a shipment of the purchased electronic device being completed, or the like. In response to the qualifying event occurring, the back end computing device may query the server to determine relevant electronic service products based on the unique device identifier of the purchased electronic device and the qualifying event.
These systems and methods may also provide infrastructure to perform linking tasks such as linking a digital user profile to the serial number of the purchased electronic device and the purchased electronic service product and/or linking the digital user profile to a payment method used to purchase the purchased electronic device and the purchased electronic service product. In addition, the purchased electronic device may communicate with the back end computing device to provide a subscription management page that displays to a user a summary of activated subscriptions, account information for each subscriptions, and/or renewal periods associated with the subscriptions of the digital user profile. Furthermore, since electronic service products are associated to the user via the digital user profile, the electronic service products may be used across a variety of device platforms that also use the digital user profile. In this way, various graphical user interfaces may be generated and presented to the user based on their digital user profile and/or based on information associated with the digital user profile or purchased electronic device (e.g., data stored in the database).
Various aspects of this disclosure may be better understood upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings in which:
One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all features of an actual implementation are described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions may be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Additionally, it should be understood that references to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present disclosure are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features.
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods for processing customer-initiated purchases of new electronic devices separate from processing customer-initiated purchases of corresponding subscriptions to be associated with the new electronic device. Purchased electronic devices may be associated with a variety of electronic services, such as music listening applications or news-providing applications, where to access content via an application, a user pays a fee on a predetermined time interval to retain access to the application. Further, additional electronic services may include electronic device insurance services or other services tied to a particular electronic device. These electronic services may be purchased as electronic service products and ordered at the time of hardware purchase (e.g., at the time of purchasing of the one or more electronic devices), and thus may be associated with a serial number of the purchased hardware. In this way, at an order time of the electronic service product and electronic device, a user identification may not be collected and instead the serial number of the purchased electronic device may be linked with one or more electronic services to facilitate purchase and/or activation of the electronic service product at a later time. Through delaying purchasing and/or activation of the electronic services until a later time, customers receive an improved experience with the electronic services subscribed to, since preemptive charging may be delayed until the user actually uses the electronic services for the first time. In addition, a back end computing device may save the payment method used to activate the electronic service products to automatically renew the electronic services on behalf of the customer at predetermined timing intervals (e.g., service periods).
The systems and methods of this disclosure may facilitate the collection and management of customer personal data, payment methods, and device serial numbers, permitting the collected data to be associated with a digital identification of the customer. This collection may improve the interaction of the customer with purchased electronic devices through streamlining future payments and permitting various personal data to be auto-filled when suitable.
With this in mind, a block diagram of an electronic device 10 is shown in
The electronic device 10 shown in
The processor core complex 12 may carry out a variety of operations of the electronic device 10. The processor core complex 12 may include any suitable data processing circuitry to perform these operations, such as one or more microprocessors, one or more application specific processors (ASICs), or one or more programmable logic devices (PLDs). In some cases, the processor core complex 12 may execute programs or instructions (e.g., an operating system or application program) stored on a suitable article of manufacture, such as the local memory 14 and/or the main memory storage device 16. In addition to instructions for the processor core complex 12, the local memory 14 and/or the main memory storage device 16 may also store data to be processed by the processor core complex 12. By way of example, the local memory 14 may include random access memory (RAM) and the main memory storage device 16 may include read only memory (ROM), rewritable non-volatile memory such as flash memory, hard drives, optical discs, or the like.
The electronic display 18 may display image frames, such as a graphical user interface (GUI) for an operating system or an application interface, still images, or video content. The processor core complex 12 may supply at least some of the image frames. For example, the processor core complex 12 may supply image frames that display a product selection menu to facilitate customer-initiated purchasing of products and electronic services. The electronic display 18 may be a self-emissive display, such as an organic light emitting diodes (OLED) display, a light emitting diode (LED) display, a digital micromirror device (DMD) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD) illuminated by a backlight, or the like. In some embodiments, the electronic display 18 may include a touch screen, which may permit users to interact with a user interface of the electronic device 10.
The input structures 22 of the electronic device 10 may enable a user to interact with the electronic device 10 (e.g., pressing a button to increase or decrease a volume level). The I/O interface 24 may enable electronic device 10 to interface with various other electronic devices, as may the network interface 26. The network interface 26 may include, for example, interfaces for a personal area network (PAN), such as a Bluetooth network, for a local area network (LAN) or wireless local area network (WLAN), such as an 802.11x Wi-Fi network, and/or for a wide area network (WAN), such as a cellular network. The network interface 26 may also include interfaces for, for example, broadband fixed wireless access networks (WiMAX), mobile broadband Wireless networks (mobile WiMAX), asynchronous digital subscriber lines (e.g., ADSL, VDSL), digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) and its extension DVB Handheld (DVB-H), ultra wideband (UWB), alternating current (AC) power lines, and so forth. The power source 28 may include any suitable source of power, such as a rechargeable lithium polymer (Li-poly) battery and/or an alternating current (AC) power converter.
In certain embodiments, the electronic device 10 may take the form of a computer, a portable electronic device, a wearable electronic device, or other type of electronic device. Such computers may include computers that are generally portable, such as laptop, notebook, and tablet computers, as well as computers that are generally used in one place, such as conventional desktop computers, workstations and/or servers. In certain embodiments, the electronic device 10 in the form of a computer may be a model of a MacBook®, MacBook® Pro, MacBook Air®, iMac®, Mac® mini, or Mac Pro® available from Apple Inc. By way of example, the electronic device 10, taking the form of a computer 10A, is illustrated in
User input structures 22, in combination with the electronic display 18, may permit a user to control the handheld device 10B. For example, the input structures 22 may activate or deactivate the handheld device 10B, navigate user interface to a home screen, a user-configurable application screen, and/or activate a voice-recognition feature of the handheld device 10B. Other input structures 22 may provide volume control, or may toggle between vibrate and ring modes. The input structures 22 may also include a microphone may obtain a user's voice for various voice-related features, and a speaker may enable audio playback and/or certain phone capabilities. The input structures 22 may also include a headphone input may provide a connection to external speakers and/or headphones.
Turning to
Similarly,
These electronic devices 10 depicted in
To help explain,
The electronic service product order may include information related to a particular purchased electronic device, a payment account used, a particular purchased service product, or the like. For example, the final electronic service product order may include indications of a unique device identifier (e.g., serial number, media access control (MAC) address), an electronic service identifier (e.g., electronic service serial number, service name, media access control (MAC) address), a user identifier (e.g., username, email, fingerprint, voice profile, Touch ID, or other biographical information related to a user to be linked with the electronic device and electronic service product), a payment method (e.g., credit or debit account information), or the like. As may be appreciated, the electronic service product order may include some or all of the above-listed information, for example, the electronic service product order may include a unique device identifier, an electronic service identifier, a payment method, but not a user identifier.
In response to receiving the electronic service product order, the back end computing device 56 may store some or all of the information of the electronic service product order into a database 60. The database 60 may be hosted in a server, may represent multiple memory components, and/or may be accessible by the back end computing device 56 through physical couplings or through wireless couplings. The back end computing device 56 may also link the electronic service product ordered to the purchased electronic device 58. This linking may happen in response to a user powering on the purchased electronic device, such as to cause the purchased electronic device to perform a power up operations, or other suitable qualifying event, to link the unique device identifier to the electronic service identifier. In some embodiments, at the time of linking, the back end computing device 56 may also facilitate the linking of a user identifier (e.g., user account indicated by a username, email address, or the like) with the unique device identifier and the electronic service identifier. In addition, in some embodiments, the payment method is not charged for the electronic service product until the electronic service product is linked with the electronic device. This may facilitate electronic service product activation and may be initiated in response to a qualifying event.
The back end computing device manages interactions between the purchased electronic device 58 and an electronic service product provider 62. The electronic service product provider 62 is any suitable computing or networking device that provides infrastructure for the electronic service product ordered via the retail computing device 54. For example, an electronic service (e.g., digital content service subscription or an insurance product) may be purchased as an electronic service product, and thus the electronic service product provider 62 may transmit user data and/or electronic service product data to the back end computing device 56 for transmission to the purchased electronic device 58 to facilitate interaction with the digital content service subscription or the insurance product. As such, the electronic service product provider 62 may receive electronic service product related actions, such as refund requests, contract administration requests (e.g., questions, account changes), or the like, from the back end computing device 56. Similarly, the electronic service product provider 62 may transmit electronic service product-related actions, such as billings, indications of service renewals, or the like, to the back end computing device 56. In this way, the electronic service product provider 62 may activate the electronic service product in response to a control signal transmitted from the back end computing device 56 based at least in part on a qualifying event occurring. After linking the electronic service product provider 62 with the purchased electronic device 58, the electronic service product provider 62 may interface with the purchased electronic device 58 without use of the back end computing device 56 to provide the linked electronic service by the electronic service product provider 62 to the purchased electronic device 58.
At block 74, the back end computing device 56 receives selection of one or more electronic devices 10 from customer. The selection may be received, for example, via the retail computing device 54, such as in a physical store or in a digital (e.g., online) store. For ease of discussion, the one or more electronic devices selected are referred to as a selected electronic device 10 thus it should be understood that any of the following blocks may be repeated or performed multiple times for multiple selections of electronic devices. The selected electronic device 10 is considered the purchased electronic device 58 after the customer purchases the selected electronic device 10. After receiving the selection of the electronic device 10 from the customer (e.g., sometimes via the user of the retail computing device 54), the retail computing device 54 transmits the selection to the back end computing device 56.
Referring briefly to
Returning to
At block 78, the back end computing device 56 may receive indications of one or more selected electronic service products from the retail computing device 54. In response to receiving the generated list of available electronic service products, the retail computing device 54 may present the user with a graphical user interface depicting the various electronic service products and available options for each electronic service product. Thus, after the user or customer (acting as the user via online store) selects the one or more electronic service products and options, the retail computing device 54 may transmit the selections to the back end computing device 56.
Referring briefly to
Returning to
At block 82, the back end computing device 56 may receive the consent and/or the payment method associated with the customer from the retail computing device 54. The consent and/or payment method may be provided to the back end computing device 56 as information or data corresponding to a user input into the retail computing device 54. For example, consent may be transmitted to the back end computing device 56 as data corresponding to “yes” or a consent indication of “yes” (e.g., a 1 for “yes” and a 0 for “no”). If the back end computing device 56 does not receive consent or a payment method from the retail computing device 54, the electronic device and the electronic service product order may not be processed.
Referring to
Returning to
Thus, in response to the qualifying event, at block 86, the back end computing device 56 may access and initiate fulfillment of the stored order. The back end computing device 56 may process the payment method associated with the stored order to initiate a purchase of the electronic service product. In some embodiments, the purchase may not be completed until a user of the purchased electronic device 58 enters one or more user identifiers (e.g., username, password, email address) to prompt linking of the purchased electronic device 58 with a digital profile of the user.
After completing the purchase and verifying the stored payment method was valid (e.g., able to be used to complete the transaction without error), at block 88, the back end computing device 56 triggers activation of the electronic service product identified by electronic service identifiers (e.g., included in the order) for use on or with the purchased electronic device 58 identified by unique device identifiers (e.g., as indicated in the order). In response to the qualifying event, the back end computing device may transmit a control signal or suitable activation trigger to the electronic service product provider 62 to cause activation of the electronic service product on the purchased electronic device 58. Thus, in response to the qualifying event, the payment method is processed and the electronic service product is installed and/or activated on the purchased electronic device 58.
Referring now to
Continuing on to a more detailed discussion of order fulfillment,
At block 124, the back end computing device 56 may receive a purchase payload including an electronic service order indication that specifies an electronic service product purchased proximate to a purchase (e.g., with regards to time) of an electronic device with which the electronic service product is to be associated, where the purchase payload includes a unique device identifier that identifies the electronic device and an electronic service identifier that identifies the electronic service product. The purchase payload may be generated in response to the retail computing device 54 facilitating completion of a purchase. The purchase payload is a data packet transmitted from the retail computing device 54 to the back end computing device 56 to summarize certain transaction and customer-purchase details, such as the electronic device 10 purchased (e.g., the purchased electronic device 58) and the electronic service products purchased, in addition to consents and/or payment methods provided by the customer.
In some embodiments, at block 126, the back end computing device 56 may receive a control indicating or detect a qualifying event associated with the purchased electronic device 58. The unique device identifier (e.g., serial number) is associated with the purchased electronic device 58 and thus actions, such as, qualifying events, linked to the unique device identifier may be associated with the purchased electronic device 58. A qualifying event may include a user powering on the purchased electronic device 58, the user completing an initial set-up of the purchased electronic device 58 (where at completion an indication of the initial set-up may be transmitted to the back end computing device 56), the user selecting or opening an application (for example, an application corresponding to the purchased electronic service product) for use thereby causing transmission of an indication corresponding to an initial request for use of the electronic service product, the user accessing digital content for use via the electronic service product thereby causing transmission of an indication corresponding to an initial request for use of the electronic service product, a shipment of the purchased electronic device being completed, arrival of a particular calendar date corresponding to a date when a shipment is expected to be completed (e.g., provided to the back end computing device 56 by a third party shipping service or other suitable service provider), a pre-determined amount of time passing, or the like.
In response to the qualifying event, at block 128, the back end computing device 56 may activate the electronic service product identified by the electronic service identifier for the purchased electronic device 58 identified by the unique device identifier. The back end computing device 56 may query the database 60 to determine relevant electronic service products based on the unique device identifier of the purchased electronic device 58 and the qualifying event, where “relevant” refers to electronic service products agreed to be purchased for use on the purchased electronic device 58. After determining relevant electronic service products, the back end computing device 56 may facilitate the activation and linking of a digital profile corresponding to the user, the purchased electronic device 58, and the purchased electronic service product. After linking, the back end computing device 56 may update data stored, such as, in the database 60, to indicate that the user is associated with the purchased electronic device 58. The back end computing device 56 may also save the payment method used to pay for the electronic service product by the user with the digital profile of the user. At the end of the process 122, the purchased electronic device 58 may have paid-access to the electronic service product until an end of a contract term (e.g., a time paid for, a subscription period, until a renewal date).
Continuing onto
At block 140, the retail computing device 54 may receive a customer-initiated purchase or an indication of the customer-initiated purchase. Many different avenues for placing an order may be present, including, but not limited to, a customer accessing an online store (e.g., a software/application-based store, web-based store) or proceeding with a checkout event in a physical store. For the physical store example, the customer may have already selected a physical electronic device 10 product offering when the retail computing device 54 receives the customer-initiated purchase (e.g., a customer physically transporting an item for purchase at the retail computing device 54). However, a user of the retail computing device 54 may proceed through electronic device 10 selection as described below (and thus, the retail computing device 54 may still present and receive selection of electronic device 10 offerings).
At block 142, the retail computing device 54 transmits the customer-initiated purchase to the back end computing device 56 where the customer-initiated purchase includes an indication of the selected electronic device 10. At block 144, the back end computing device 56 receives the customer initiated purchase and, at block 146, generates and transmits an indication of electronic service product and electronic device 10 offerings to the retail computing device 54 based at least in part on the customer-initiated purchase.
The retail computing device 54, at block 148, may receive the indication of the electronic service product and the electronic device 10 offerings. At block 150, the retail computing device 54 may present the electronic service product offerings to the user. To do so, the retail computing device 54 may update a graphical user interface to depict one or more indications of the electronic service product offerings to the user (e.g., indications 112B of
After presenting the electronic service product and the electronic device 10 product offerings to the user, at block 152, the retail computing device 54 may receive a selection of respective electronic service products and the electronic device 10 products. The selection indicates which product offerings the customer wishes to purchase. The selection is an input from a user of the retail computing device 54 (e.g., a user inputting on behalf of the customer that initiated the purchase, the customer as a user that initiated the purchase).
At block 154, the retail computing device 54 may transmit the selection to the back end computing device 56, and at block 156, the back end computing device 56 may receive the selection of the respective electronic service products and the electronic device 10 products. Based on the selection, the back end computing device 56 may, at block 158, determine and transmit pricing for the selected electronic service products and for the selected electronic devices 10 to the retail computing device 54. The back end computing device 56 may reference information stored in the database 60 and/or may access information maintained by the electronic service product provider 62 to determine an amount to charge the customer for the selected products. At block 160, the retail computing device 54 may receive the pricing from the back end computing device 56, and at block 162, use the pricing in addition to the selected product offerings to determine (e.g., develop, generate) an invoice. The invoice may resemble the graphical user interface of
At block 166, the retail computing device 54 processes the payment method to complete the purchase of the selected electronic device 10. Upon verification and completion of the purchase, the selected electronic device 10 becomes the purchased electronic device 58. In some embodiments, the retail computing device 54 communicates with the back end computing device 565 for processing and verifying the payment method, however in some embodiments, the retail computing device 54 communicates with a third-party software (e.g., PayPal, banking software) to process and verify the payment method. In response to completing the purchase, at block 168, the retail computing device 54 transmits the payment method along with a purchase payload to the back end computing device 56.
At block 170, the back end computing device 56 receives the payment method and the purchase payload. The purchase payload may include information related to the customer, the payment method, the purchased electronic device 58, the selected electronic service products, or the like. In this way, the purchase payload may at least include a unique device identifier and electronic service identifier such that the selected electronic service product and the purchased electronic device 58 are associated in a memory (e.g., the database 60) accessible by the back end computing device 56.
In some embodiments, when the purchase payload is received by the back end computing device 56, the purchase of the selected electronic device has been processed but the purchase of the electronic service product is delayed until the back end computing device 56 identifies a qualifying event, such as at block 172, or receives indication of a qualifying event (e.g., via a control signal transmitted from the purchased electronic device 58). The qualifying event, as described earlier, may be any suitable event that prompts the back end computing device 56 to process payment for an electronic service product. A qualifying event indication may be associated with the electronic device and may indicate that a qualifying event associated with the unique device identifier has occurred. In alternative embodiments, the purchase of the electronic service product may be processed at the time of purchase of the selected electronic device, while the activation of the electronic service may not be processed (e.g., completed) until a qualifying event occurs (e.g., at a different time).
In response to receiving the qualifying event or to receiving the qualifying event indication, the back end computing device 56, at block 174, processes the payment method saved for the purchased electronic device 58 and/or completes activation of the selected electronic service products based on the qualifying event. In this way, the back end computing device 56 may reference the database 60, determine based on the qualifying event which electronic service products to activate, and further verify that the particular purchased electronic device 58 is qualified to have the electronic service products installed and/or activated (e.g., having suitable consents, permissions, settings, and/or payments). Thus, the qualifying event may correspond to a unique device identifier and an electronic service identifier to identify the purchased electronic device 58 and the purchased electronic service product to be associated with the purchased electronic device 58 to facilitate the activation of the electronic service product.
After the activation of the electronic service product, at block 176, the back end computing device 56 may issue a receipt to the customer, or may signal to the retail computing device 54 to cause the issuing of the receipt to the customer. The receipt may include acknowledgements of the purchased electronic device 58 and the purchased electronic service product. At this point, the electronic service product is purchased and activated on the purchased electronic service product.
In some embodiments, the electronic service product is a subscription service that is renewed on regular time intervals. But, in some embodiments, the electronic service product is a one-time purchase service that may or may not expire after a particular time interval or service period. For example, a music subscription service may be an electronic service product that is renewed each month, while a news subscription service may be an electronic service product that is renewed each year. In addition, an insurance product may be an electronic service product that is not renewable and expires after a year, or a period of time corresponding to the electronic service product purchased. It should be noted that although the process 138 may have been described in terms of one electronic service product and one purchased electronic device, a transaction may correspond to a purchase of multiple electronic service products and multiple electronic devices, or any combination thereof.
Turning now to a discussion of the interactions between the back end computing device 56 and the purchased electronic device 58,
At block 188, the purchased electronic device 58 may receive customer login information. The customer login information may be inputted by a user via one or more input structures. The purchased electronic device 58, at block 190, may transmit the customer login information and/or a unique device identifier to the back end computing device 56. The unique device identifier corresponds to the purchased electronic device 58 the customer login information was inputted on. The back end computing device 56, in response to receiving the data, may associate the unique device identifier with the customer login information in the database 60 to establish a link between that particular user and the purchased electronic device 58. This link may be used to enhance user experiences, such as through automatic option population and tailoring presentation of digital content.
At block 192, the back end computing device 56 receives the customer login information and the unique device identifier. The back end computing device 56 may verify the customer login information after receipt. In response to the customer login information being valid, as described above, the back end computing device 56 may associate the customer login information with the purchased electronic device 58 (e.g., via the unique device identifier) in the database 60. After verification and association, the back end computing device 56, at block 194, determines whether the customer login information or the unique device identifier is associated with at least one electronic service product. The association between an electronic service product and the unique device identifier or the customer login information may be made at a time of purchase of the purchased electronic device 58, such as when the customer provides consent to purchase a particular electronic service product at a later time. Determining the at least one electronic service products associated with the user (e.g., either through the purchased electronic device 10 and/or through the customer login information) defines the qualifying events that may trigger activation of the electronic service product.
In response to a qualifying event (e.g., as defined through the particular electronic service product to be purchased by the user), at block 196, the back end computing device 56 transmits an association notification (e.g., an indication of the association) to the purchased electronic device 58. The association notification may be any suitable flag, signal, data byte or bit, or the like to indication association of the electronic service product to the purchased electronic device 58. At block 198, the purchased electronic device 58 receives the association notification and, at block 200, the purchased electronic device 58 presents the association notification to the user. In some embodiments, the purchased electronic device 58 generates and presents a graphical user interface in response to the association notification. The association notification may request a user confirm the association via a user input (e.g., selecting a button, providing an electronic signature, or the like). In response to receiving a user confirmation of the association, at block 202, the purchased electronic device 58 transmits the user input affirming the association to the back end computing device 56. At block 204, the back end computing device 56 receives the user input. The back end computing device 56 may associate the user input with the customer login information and/or the purchased electronic device 58 in the database 60.
Referring briefly to
Returning to
However, if no payment method exists for the customer login information, at block 208, the back end computing device 56 initiates a request for a valid payment method. This request may be transmitted to the purchased electronic device 58 at block 210. In response to the request, at block 212, the purchased electronic device 58 may prompt the user to re-enter a valid payment method (e.g., one or more account identification numbers) or to enter a new, valid payment method. At block 214, the purchased electronic device 58 transmits the new payment method to the back end computing device 56 for verification.
At block 216, the back end computing device 56 receives the new payment method or identification number, and verifies that the payment method is now valid. If the payment method is not valid, the back end computing device 56 may continue to repeat the prompting of the user for a valid payment method and may continue to verify any entered payment method until receiving a valid payment method. After receiving a valid payment method, at block 218, the back end computing device 56 may associate the new payment method or the identification number to the customer login information. The payment method for the customer login information may be saved in the database 60 and used as a preferred method of payment for future purchases or service period renewals. In some embodiments, the preferred method of payment is automatically populated into suitable fields during a purchase process for the user logging in with the customer login information as a way to enhance and improve the user experience.
At block 220, the back end computing device 56 uses the payment method to activate the one or more electronic service products with the purchased electronic device 58. The activation may include processing the purchase associated with the one or more electronic service products and the payment method, such that the user associated with the customer login information is charged for the electronic service products at the time of activation (e.g., rather than at the time consent was given to purchase the electronic service product).
In some embodiments, at block 212, the back end computing device 56 may transmit a completion notification to the purchased electronic device 58 to cause the purchased electronic device 58 to indicate the activation to the user. The purchased electronic device 58 may update a graphical user interface presented to the user to indicate the association between the electronic service product and the purchased electronic device 58 to the user.
In addition, in some embodiments, at block 224, the back end computing device 56 may repeat the activation of the electronic service product using the preferred method of payment to renew the previously activated electronic service product(s). At block 226, the purchased electronic device 58 may receive a renewal notification from the back end computing device 56 and may update a graphical user interface to communicate the renewal to the user. This automatic renewal operational scheme may be particular desirable for embodiments of the electronic service products that utilize renewal operational schemes and/or subscriptions. For example, a music subscription electronic service product, a digital content electronic service product, or the like may use an automated renewal operational scheme.
As described above (e.g., at block 192 and the block 194 of the process 186), the back end computing device 56 may determine whether the customer login information or unique device identifier is associated with at least one electronic service product. An example result of the determination is depicted in
After confirming the association (e.g., via actuation of digital button 100J), the purchased electronic device 58 may receive pricing from the back end computing device 56 and may display the current pricing of the electronic service product in addition to a prompt to the user to confirm the purchase of the electronic service products determined at the block 210.
Furthermore, in some embodiments, the purchased electronic device 58 does not prompt the user to enter a payment method when the purchased electronic device 58 or the back end computing device 56 determines that the user has a preferred payment method already stored in the database. The stored payment method used to complete the purchase of the purchased electronic device 58 may correspond to the preferred payment method of the user, and thus may be automatically populated for the user based on data transmitted from the back end computing device 56. The unique device identifier of the purchased electronic device 58 may be associated with the payment method in the database 60. In some embodiments, the purchased electronic device 58 may automatically populate a data field 102C with a stored payment method for the user and additionally prompt the user to enter a security code into a data field 102D for the stored payment method as a method to validate that the user has permission to use the payment method.
To help explain qualifying events, as used at the block 172 of the process 138 and the block 196 of the process 186,
As an additional example of a qualifying event,
It should be noted that the features described above are optional and may be used in various combinations. For example, the block 212, the block 224, and/or the block 226 of the process 186 may be excluded from the process 186. In addition, one purchased electronic device 58 may have more than one electronic service products associations at one time. Furthermore, the electronic service product provider 62, although depicted in
To elaborate,
In some embodiments, as described above, a shipment notification may initiate or prompt activation of the electronic service product. In this way, the back end computing device 56 may receive the shipment notification from a third-party system or internal shipping tracking system, wherein the shipment notification communicates that the purchased electronic device 58 has been shipped to the user (where the user may be the same person or a different person from the customer). In response to the shipment notification, the back end computing device 56 may transmit an indication, or a fulfillment indication, to the electronic service product provider 62 to fulfil the electronic service product (e.g., initiate activation and purchase of the electronic service product). The electronic service product was ordered via the electronic service product order corresponding to the purchased electronic device 58 and thus is to be fulfilled on the purchased electronic device 58 in response to the shipment notification. An example of this may be an insurance electronic service product, where the electronic service product provider 62 may not want the insurance electronic service product to activate until the user of the purchased electronic device 58 actually possesses (e.g., owns, has) the purchased electronic device 58—which may not occur until after a shipment is received by the user. In addition, in some embodiments, one qualifying event may initiate simultaneous fulfillment of one or more electronic service products. Furthermore, in response to the fulfillment of the electronic service product, in some embodiments, a notification presented to a user via a graphical user interface may disappear (e.g., a push notification) or a may change (e.g., a depiction of a status related to the fulfillment).
Thus, the technical effects of the present disclosure include improvements to managing activations and payments corresponding to purchases of electronic service products, for example, through delaying activation and purchase of an electronic service product until a qualifying event. These techniques describe a back end computing device that selectively manages electronic service products based on whether a qualifying event for the particular electronic service product is received. In this way, multiple electronic service products may be purchased with an electronic device but each electronic service product may be selectively activated and purchased at different times based on when the particular qualifying event for that electronic service product is received by the back end computing device. These techniques describe and facilitate an improved manner managing activations of electronic service products as a way to improve user experience, such as providing a summarizing graphical user interface to improve user management of activated electronic service products.
The specific embodiments described above have been shown by way of example, and it should be understood that these embodiments may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. It should be further understood that the claims are not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed, but rather to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of this disclosure.
The techniques presented and claimed herein are referenced and applied to material objects and concrete examples of a practical nature that demonstrably improve the present technical field and, as such, are not abstract, intangible or purely theoretical. Further, if any claims appended to the end of this specification contain one or more elements designated as “means for [perform]ing [a function] . . . ” or “step for [perform]ing [a function] . . . ”, it is intended that such elements are to be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f). However, for any claims containing elements designated in any other manner, it is intended that such elements are not to be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f).