The invention relates to transactional apparatus, and particularly to such apparatus for providing user identification such as a purchaser of goods or services at a Point of Sale (POS) with a reward, or providing an identity transaction of a user in say a Post Office or retailer of postal services.
It is to be understood that the term “reward” used herein in relation to purchasers of goods or services comprises any loyalty program reward, promotional offer, prize, discount, parking fee reduction or the like which is offered to a purchaser (user of the apparatus) based on his or her transactional data at a POS.
Moreover, the POS may be in a shop, retail outlet, wholesale outlet, casino, terminal such as a bus, railway, ferry or airport terminal, at a provider of facilities such as leisure e.g. a fitness centre, swimming pool, aerobics class, theatre or the like, or the payment of a service such as provided by a utility.
In order to exemplify the invention, reference is first had to current reward systems.
Currently promotional programs are conducted by retailers which utilise transactional data obtained at point-of-sale (POS). This transactional data is typically obtained by scanning a unique product code (UPC) via the POS terminal. It is then used to ‘trigger’ promotional offers conditional upon particular products appearing in the consumer's purchase (or transaction) ‘basket’.
A key advantage of using transactional data, captured at point-of-sale, for this purpose is the ability to make promotional offers which directly relate to a consumer's purchase basket. For example, consumer goods manufacturers are able to make offers for the purpose of inducing a consumer to switch from a competitor's brand (purchased on this occasion) to their brand (purchased on a subsequent occasion in conjunction with the redemption of a promotional offer).
These promotional programs may be augmented by a loyalty card, which individually identifies the consumer, allowing for a points-based loyalty scheme or other rewards based upon the consumer's expenditure patterns at the store.
The use of transactional data, captured at point-of-sale, can significantly improve the efficiency of consumer promotional activities (they have a higher response rate than would otherwise be the case). However, the cost of implementing these programs can be significant. New hardware may be required at each checkout lane (e.g. a dedicated promotional print, scanner, etc), as well as new software systems (e.g., to capture the transactional data, identify the consumer, identify trigger purchases, publish the appropriate promotional offer, database systems to store an individual consumer's historical transaction data, etc). The associated costs can increase significantly where ‘legacy’ POS and other operational systems need to adapted or retrofitted with the capability to capture and utilize this transactional data for promotional purposes. Further, where older legacy systems are involved, there exists a key business risk for the retailer. Any malfunctioning of the POS or other core operating systems resulting from their modification, in order to accommodate a promotional system linked to POS data may lead to operational disruption, potentially dissatisfied customers and even lost sales. For retailers with existing legacy systems the cost of upgrading their POS equipment and potentially their core operating systems may not be cost-justifiable solely to deploy a consumer promotional program linked to POS data. The potential cost and complexity is further exacerbated where unrelated co-located retailers (e.g. tenant retailers within a mall), or related retail outlets with different systems wish to work co-operatively to utilise their combined transactional data (captured across different and multiple outlets) in order to make targeted offers and communicate targeted messages, in a way that benefits each participating retailer.
It is an object of the invention to seek to mitigate these disadvantages.
According to the invention, there is provided apparatus for providing user identification associated with a Point of Sale (POS), comprising a device remote from the POS adapted to capture and derive transactional information data relating to the user whereby to provide user identification based on the transactional information data.
Using the invention, since the device is remote from the POS (by ‘remote’ being meant that it is not operatively connected thereto and may be positioned at a location separate from the POS, for example at an exit of a store or mall), a purchaser/customer is encouraged into the habit of obtaining the reward himself or herself, after carrying out a transaction at one or more POS.
The device may comprise a stand-alone device for processing the transactional information data and a scanner. Thus the device may comprise a kiosk.
Suitably the said device and scanner may be integral. This provides a compact construction, though the device and scanner may be separate items connected electrically, or electronically e.g. by a wireless connection.
Suitably, the scanner may comprise an OCR scanner.
The scanner may alternatively comprise a web cam device.
The device may comprise a touch screen.
The apparatus may comprise OCR software adapted for decoding the transactional information data and provide a reward to a user, suitably the reward may comprise a message on the touch screen, or a coupon printed by the device.
The coupon may be readable by a suitably programmed POS to process the reward.
The device may suitably be adapted to provide an identity transaction of a user of the apparatus.
The device/kiosk may comprise an interactive touch screen for providing a scanning sequence using the scanner to provide user identification.
The apparatus may also be adapted to provide a verified user identification means, for example a bar-coded means or a printed copy of a scanned user identification document or documents.
The apparatus in a particular application may comprise a postal device for receiving mail from a verified user.
The mail may be selected from the group comprising parcels, packages and the like, and the postal device may comprise a drop-off box which may suitably be positioned adjacent the device.
The postal device may also comprise means for weighing and/or dimensioning mail.
Apparatus embodying the invention is hereinafter described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, which shows a schematic perspective view of the apparatus used in conjunction with purchase of goods or services.
Referring to the drawing, there is shown apparatus for providing a purchaser of goods or services associated with a Point of Sale (POS), (not shown) comprising a device 1 remote from the POS adapted to capture and derive transactional information data generated at the POS whereby to provide a reward based on the transactional information data.
The device 1 is a stand-alone device for processing the transactional information data and a scanner 2.
The scanner 2 in the embodiment shown is a separate OCR scanner which is connected by connection means 3 to the device 1 electrically or electronically, e.g. by a wireless connection. It can alternatively be incorporated as an integral part of the device, which saves space.
The device 1 is in the embodiment a stand-alone kiosk positioned for example at an exit of a retail outlet, shopping mall or the like and to which a customer voluntarily goes after making a purchase at a POS in order to claim a reward or identification verification. The device 1 is an information processing device at which transactional data is in a preferred embodiment decoded, parsed, cleaned, transformed, integrated and utilised for the estimation of analytic models (e.g. for prediction and classification) using appropriate software, which again in a preferred embodiment is customised for the particular application.
The kiosk can be used for providing a reward from a variety of individual customers, identified by way of example as customer 1, customer 2, customer 3 and customer 4 in the FIGURE, though it will be appreciated that there may well be more, or fewer, than four customers/users of the apparatus.
Customer 1 presents a receipt from a POS, customer 2 presents a plurality of receipts for example, groceries and clothes, customer 3 presents an ID card (RFID coil detected or card swiped) and customer 4 presents a downloaded bar coded offer from the web, or scans a bar-coded offer on a mobile phone or other device such as a PALM.
Any such offers can, it will be understood, be made by manufacturers (or their sales, advertising or marketing agents) and published online, via mobile ‘phone, other mobile devices such as PALM, or distributed by newspaper, magazines or direct mail.
The kiosk 1, on receiving the transactional data, provides promotional responses (rewards) based on the captured data, for example a discount parking voucher 4 can be printed, a promotional offer 5 related to a retailer branded product is printed, a promotional offer 6 for home ware is printed, a proof of purchase receipt 7s is printed, or a promotional offer 8 is generated from a particular manufacturer, manufacturer A, which, when scanned, “triggers” a promotional offer for redemption in say a retail outlet (store).
The kiosk has a touch screen 9 for taking a customer/user through various steps to provide a promotional response.
In a preferred embodiment, the invention described herein with reference to the drawing is used as follows:
The invention as hereinbefore described with reference to the drawing is able to provide the following benefits:
For Postal authorities and retailers of postal services, the apparatus can be used to improve the efficiency of identity transactions. An off-the-shelf package can be added to a self service kiosk to allow for at least partial customer self service. There are a number of ways this technology can be deployed instore, e.g.
There may be other operational benefits which can accrue for Postal Authorities, such as ensuring the accuracy of data captured from passports and drivers licenses (which could be electronically verified with the relevant authorities).
Additionally, the system can be used for self-service parcel lodgement.
A ‘drop box’ can be positioned alongside the kiosk, together with off the shelf products for dimensioning and weighing packages. This allows the lodgement of parcels at the self-service kiosk.
It will be understood that the expression ‘information data’ used herein includes both information generally, and particular data.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0819934.1 | Oct 2008 | GB | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/GB09/02583 | 10/30/2009 | WO | 00 | 6/24/2011 |