WO2010016778A1 - A centralised and automated purchase reward method - Google Patents
A centralised and automated purchase reward method Download PDFInfo
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- WO2010016778A1 WO2010016778A1 PCT/NZ2009/000165 NZ2009000165W WO2010016778A1 WO 2010016778 A1 WO2010016778 A1 WO 2010016778A1 NZ 2009000165 W NZ2009000165 W NZ 2009000165W WO 2010016778 A1 WO2010016778 A1 WO 2010016778A1
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- transaction
- promotion
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- award
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- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q30/00—Commerce
- G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
Definitions
- the present invention relates to electronic point of sale and Internet promotional methods and systems.
- the present invention comprises a computer system and method that enables financial incentives for purchases including discounts to be created, delivered and redeemed with reduced involvement or specific setup actions by participating manufacturers, suppliers or participating sales outlets.
- Discounts may take the form of price reductions or "combo" offers whereby consumers are offered additional products or larger packs etc. for the original purchase price of a product. Buy 3, get 4 th product free etc is another form of financial incentive offered.
- instore programs whereby a store decides to offer a financial incentive for purchase of certain items. These programs essentially operate in one store and that store organises their instore programs and funds all costs associated with them themselves.
- manufacturers or suppliers programs whereby a manufacturer or supplier of products offers a financial incentive to purchase certain of their products. This type of program typically is offered over many stores in which the products concerned are sold. In this type of program more extensive setup, distribution, administration and sales outlet reimbursement is required for the program to work properly.
- instore programs are funded instore and no reimbursement to the store for running their programs is typically required. Manufacturers or suppliers programs however usually require sales outlets offering financial incentive programs on their behalf to be compensated for any loss they incur as a consequence.
- promotion and loyalty programs in which financial incentives including discounts are funded typically funding is via a combination of agreed reimbursement by the sponsoring manufacturer or supplier for any loss of profit or revenue incurred by participating sales oudets and/or payment of a small fee applied to each offer and/or delivery of a financial incentive handled by the sales oudet.
- This compensation to sales outlets has traditionally involved them collating coupons or vouchers received from customers in order to qualify for their financial incentive and sending these to a clearing house who processes them on behalf of the program sponsor and/or funder Usually a fee is also paid by the sponsor of a promotion to the promotion program organizer who uses the revenue gained from all such charges to fund program operation. Direct costs and store administration costs associated with this compensation process are significant.
- Some of the steps involved in running a financial incentive program typically include the following: a. A supplier, wholesaler, retailer or another seller of products in the sales and distribution process decides that they wish to increase sales by running a promotion that offers a financial incentive to purchase. b. A program of some sort is then put in place to advertise the promotion. This might involve: i. a media advertising campaign; ⁇ . distribution of offer vouchers in newspapers, magazines, by direct mail and the like; i ⁇ . supply of in-store collateral such as posters, shelf stickers and the Like to sales outlets to publicise the promotional offer. c. . Special procedures also need to be set up at sales oudets to handle the promotion.
- POS Point of Sale
- mechanisms need to be established to record and report on sales under the promotion to enable proper accounting;
- Coupons or vouchers used to qualify for a financial incentive need to be collated and forwarded to the program sponsor for checking and sales oudet reimbursement.
- die invention consists in methods, apparatus or systems according to any one or more of the appended claims.
- the invention consists in a method of sales promotion using sales systems, which record customer sales data, under the control of one or more merchants and a sales promotion computer system comprising the steps of:
- the invention consists in a method of sales promotion using point of sale (POS) systems under the control of one or more merchants and a networked sales promotion computer system controlled by a promotion facilitator consisting of a host and a plurality of local or remote controllers each associated with at least one respective POS system, the method comprising die steps of: a. Setting up as awards records at the host computer the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions, the awards records defining such information as the outlets at which the financial incentives promotions are to be available, their period of validity, sales criteria which define customer award entitlement and/or conditions that must be met to qualify, the financial incentive involved e.g. discount etc. and the like as well as details of associated sponsor charges; b.
- POS point of sale
- the invention consists in a point of sale (POS) promotion system comprising remote controllers including EFTPOS payment processing units associated and communicating with POS systems under the control of one or more merchants and a host computer controlled by a promotion facilitator, the remote controllers having voucher printers associated therewith, the controllers and host computer programmed to:
- a. Set up as awards records at the host computer the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions, the awards records defining such information as the outlets at which the financial incentives promotions are to be available, their period of validity, sales criteria which define customer award entitlement and/or conditions that must be met to qualify, the financial incentive involved e.g. discount etc. and the like as well as details of associated sponsor charges; b. transmit electronically via the internet or other network technologies the awards records from the host computer to appropriate remote controllers; c. receive at each remote controller, customer, product and price data corresponding to the product purchase transactions for each customer at the corresponding POS system; d. compare the customer transaction data with the award records data at the remote controllers to determine if the customer has qualified for any awards, and if so; e.
- any financial incentives including discounts qualified for may be recorded as credits that are subsequendy applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction; f.
- At end of transaction providing to the the sales system for display and/or printing as a customer record details of awards qualified for; g. logging at the remote controllers transaction details along with records of awards qualified for and details of sponsor charges applicable thereto, and at appropriate intervals uploading these details to the host computer.
- the invention consists in a method of sales promotion using sales system under the control of one or more merchants and a sales promotion system comprising the steps of: a. Setting up as awards records at die host computer the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions, the awards records defining such information as the outlets at which the financial incentives promotions are to be available, their period of validity, sales criteria which define customer award entitlement and/or conditions that must be met to qualify, the financial incentive involved e.g. discount etc. and the like as well as details of associated sponsor charges; b.
- the one or more merchants being able to as appropriate when a customers purchases correspond to the awards records display or print on a document details of an offer for a financial incentive that could be qualified for in the current or a future transaction or to apply a financial incentive qualified for in the current transaction or as a further possibility any financial incentives including discounts qualified for may be recorded as credits that are subsequendy applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction; c. At end of transaction providing to the the sales system for display and/or printing as a customer record details of awards qualified for; d.
- the invention consists in a method of sales promotion using internet sales sites selling products or services to customers online via the internet under the control of one or more merchants and a computer system controlled by a promotion facilitator consisting of a host and a plurality of local or remote controllers each associated with at least one respective internet sales site, the method comprising the steps of: a. Setting up as awards records at the host computer the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions, the awards records defining such information as the internet sales oudets at which the financial incentives promotions are to be available, their period of validity, sales criteria which define customer award entidement and/or conditions that must be met to qualify, the financial incentive involved e.g. discount etc. and the like as well as details of associated sponsor charges; b.
- the internet site issuing these details to customers for printing or otherwise to use as appropriate during the transaction or as a further possibility any financial incentives such as discounts qualified for may be recorded as credits that are subsequently applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction; f.
- At end of transaction providing to the the internet sales sites for display and/or printing as a customer record details of awards qualified for; g- logging at the remote controllers transaction details along with records of awards qualified for and details of sponsor charges applicable thereto, and at appropriate intervals uploading diese details to the host computer. h. monitoring the progress of the financial incentives promotions and reporting this against projected results to determine if it is necessary to improve performance or otherwise change the operation of the financial Incentive promotion, and if so; i.
- “financial Incentive promotion” means an undertaking for promoting sales and service by issuing appropriate financial incentive rewards which may comprise but not be limited to a discount on the current transaction, issue of a voucher to enable a discount on a future transaction, vouchers for free gifts including product samples and the like.
- “local or remote controller” means a technology system such as a server, PC, EFTPOS unit or the like and associated input, display, printer output and output components and peripherals including.magnetic stripe cards or any other type of card with integrated data storage and analysis capability and the like.
- “financial services card” is an item such as a credit or debit card owned by the customer making the purchases in any discounted sales transaction.
- POS System means a technology system such as a server, PC or the like and associated software input, display, printer output and output components and peripherals as are required to process and record sales at Points of Sale.
- “Sponsor Charges” are defined as charges set up as part of a financial incentive promotion, such charges to be applied to each issue of a financial incentive award made to a customer, the sponsor charges including but not being limited to a charge to the financial incentive promotion sponsor to cover sales outlet compensation for any financial incentive awards they apply to customer transactions, program administration cost charges and any fees associated with financial award issue and/or redemption.
- “remote” in the context of location means separated by physical distances. So, for example on odier sites or in other cities or states.
- "central” in relation to location means one or more entities at a single location which, by implication, interact with multiple entities at dispersed remote locations.
- Figure 1 is a flow chart showing the components and application architecture of a system implementing aspects of the present invention.
- the purpose of the methods and systems described herein is to enable financial rewards promotions including discounts to be set up and delivered to customers without the need for the delay and expense associated with sales outlets being necessarily notified of such financial incentives and in particular without them having to implement processes specifically to accommodate a promotion, to alter prices or set up discount methods to deliver the desired financial reward, or for accounting and payment processes involving sales reporting by sales oudets to be specially set up to reimburse sales outlets for delivering the financial incentives.
- the system also enables changes to a promotion to be made as desired quickly and at minimum cost. Automated accounting and payment of compensation for sales outlets awarding financial incentives on behalf of other sponsoring organizations is also provided.
- the described system enables centralised and automated end-to end delivery of financial incentives associated with sales promotions, including discounting at sales oudets, without the need for the sales oudets to be directly involved in any part of the individual promotion set-up and financial incentive delivery process.
- Financial incentives including discounts may be automatically offered for the current transaction and any financial incentive awards for these along with those for other previously advertised offers if taken up and qualified for in the transaction supplied via the invention for application by a participating outlet to current transactions. Vouchers for discounts on future purchases may also be issued via the invention.
- the system enables any financial incentives including discounts qualified for in a transaction to be recorded as credits to be applied to a financial services card such as a debit card owned by the customer making the purchases in die discounted sales transaction.
- a financial services card such as a debit card owned by the customer making the purchases in die discounted sales transaction.
- the value of the discounts qualified for are advised to the customer via display and/or printed document then stored and accumulated to be subsequently applied when appropriate as a credit paid for by the sponsor of the sales promotion to the customers financial services card.
- the need for any change to the value of any transaction for which financial incentives including discounts and the like are qualified for as well as subsequent reimbursement to a sales oudet are avoided with consequent significant savings in program setup and administration.
- sales promotions involving financial rewards for example a discount promotion in which a discount is applied to the normal sales oudet price of a product purchased at die sales oudet
- sales promotions involving financial rewards for example a discount promotion in which a discount is applied to the normal sales oudet price of a product purchased at die sales oudet
- sales systems at sales oudets participating in the promotion program preferably before end of sale and/or payment processes are commenced supply details of sales transactions to the remote sales promotion computer devices which check to see if any of the conditions of sales promotions in which they are participating for example a product to which a discounted price is to be applied has been purchased have been met.
- the discount specified in the sales promotion may be returned in some cases to the sales system processing the transaction to be applied as a credit to the transaction cost.
- the above process is followed for each sales promotion that the purchases in the sales transaction qualify for.
- Several discounts may be applied to purchases in a transaction in the above fashion.
- the discounts qualified for may be added up and the value of them printed out on a discount voucher for later redemption as a credit to be applied to the value of purchases in a future transaction completed by the customer.
- the value of the discounts applied are logged along with other transaction details and forwarded to a central system where they are stored and accumulated to be applied according to an agreed formula as a credit paid by the sponsor of the sales promotion to the sales outlet involved in the transaction to compensate them for their loss of profit resulting from the discounted price.
- the value of the transaction may not be reduced by the discounts qualified for instead these may be recorded as a credit to be applied to a financial services card such as a debit card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction.
- a financial services card such as a debit card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction.
- the value of the discounts applied are stored and accumulated to be subsequently applied as a credit paid for by the sponsor of the sales promotion to the customers financial services card.
- a customer must present a card or other device that identifies them to be recognised as part of the transaction and included in the transaction data in order to enable credits earned during the transaction to be applied to their financial services card.
- a summary of the discounts qualified for and some identifying information are printed usually at the end of the receipt printed by the sales outlet sales system printer but occasionally on a separate document for example on a document printed by an EFTPOS device associated with the sales outlet sales system so that the sales outiet operator and the customer can see what discounts have been applied to the transaction. This removes the need for any statement to be provided to the customer to enable them to account for discounts received either as reductions applied to transactions or applied as credits to their financial services card.
- a common feature of the sales promotions enabled by the described system is that they are applied without any action needed by the sales outlet operator or his sales system in order to set up each individual promotion.
- the Promotions Management System A consists of various servers, data storage devices, data input and display terminals including PCs and the like, operator workstations, printers communications controllers and all other ancillary equipment needed to operate a modern computer centre supporting local and remote users and remote intelligent device networks.
- the Promotions Management System A may be located at one of:
- the Customer Rewards Card System D except for the External Sales Transactions 15 is likely located at the premises and/or data centre of a Financial Card Services Provider, or x Financial Institution.
- the Sales Promotion System C Controllers Cl can be located at the data centre premises of a Sales Promotion facilitator or service provider or in the case of larger Sales System Merchants or Outlets on the premises of the merchant or sales outlets.
- the Sales Systems B are located at Merchant sales outlets which may be at retail premises or in the case of Corporate Merchants and Internet Merchants, at their data centre or other central premises.
- Known data communications techniques are used to connect the components of these systems as required for data transfer and the like.
- the functions may be implemented partially or entirely in software executed on general purpose or single purpose computers. However some parts of these functions may be performed physically or mentally outside of the implementing computer system. For example, presentation of earned incentive awards may include handing over physical vouchers.
- each system includes interfaces which exchange data to complete all interactions. The nature of these interactions becomes clear in the description of the complete system.
- Each system or components of each system may be implemented in software executed on general purpose or special purpose computing platforms.
- Figure 1 illustrates the system according ⁇ to specific functional blocks whereby the interaction between functional blocks is represented by flow lines. These flow lines represent communication of data between the functional blocks. Communication of data may, for example, be by way of storage and retrieval from commonly accessible memory, or by communication between interfaces implemented in the functional blocks. Each interface could, for example, package and send outgoing data, receive and parse incoming data, or both. Where appropriate the interface may implement encryption of data.
- Each functional block may be implemented in stand alone software programs, or as routines within integrated software programs.
- the software programs of each system may be executed on a single computing platform or distributed across multiple computing platforms.
- Each software program, or parts of each software program may be stored on computer readable media, such as RAM, ROM, hard disk storage or removable disk storage, for distribution or for loading by the computer prior to execution.
- customers completing transactions at Internet Merchants or via POS or EFTPOS units located at Retail outlets may qualify for a financial incentive which may comprise but not be limited to an offer of a discount on a products bought in the current transaction, a discount on the current transaction or issue of a voucher to enable a discount on a future transaction.
- a financial incentive which may comprise but not be limited to an offer of a discount on a products bought in the current transaction, a discount on the current transaction or issue of a voucher to enable a discount on a future transaction.
- qualification for these incentives is based on customer transactions meeting criteria such as spending a defined minimum value or purchasing certain products currendy on promotion.
- Corporate Merchants such as power utility or telephone companies who bill for goods or services provided in a billing cycle for example monthly, customers may qualify for financial incentives as a result of the value of goods or services purchased meeting a defined value or including required product items and quantities.
- the promotions host 1 controls overall operation of the Promotions Management Host System component of the system including promotion setup 2, promotions and customer database 3, promotions update 4, promotion distribution 5, accounts system 6, data warehouse 7 issued rewards transaction detail receipt 8, and central interface 28. Any use of automated financial incentive promotions under the present invention is ultimately controlled by the promotions host 1.
- the Promotions Host 1 runs software and supports data tables that enable it to setup and maintain the entities required by the Sales Promotion System including: a. System User Ids, groups and security access codes; b. Types of Promotions able to offered and business rules applicable to these; c. Types of Financial Incentives able to offered and business rules applicable to these; d. Types of qualification mechanisms able to be used to qualify for a promotion and business rules applicable to these; e. Lists of sales oudets comprising the sales system participants able to run promotions and their associated access and internal setup details;
- Promotion Program Parameters comprise information needed to operate a promotion including: a. a description of the promotion; b. the desired financial incentive to be offered under the promotion — these may be a discount on a product purchase price, a discount on the transaction value, loyalty points and the like; c. the qualification criteria to be met in order for a customer to become entitled to the specified financial incentive offered by the promotion; d. the period and timeslots that the promotion is to be offered for; e. the merchant oudets participating in the promotion; f. expected promotion performance measures such as no of offers made versus transactions processed and number of promoted products sold and the like; g. the promotion sponsor, and; h. sponsor charges applicable for handling and delivering the promotion.
- Sponsor charges to be charged to the promotion sponsors may include a fee for handling and- delivering the promotion and this may include the cost of setup and distribution of the promotion, a share of distribution system hardware costs, communications costs, management overheads, profit margins and the like.
- the Promotions and Customer Database module 3 also holds details of customers including their identification access and demographic details. These details are supplied by the Cardholder Data Maintenance module 12 and are linked in the Customer Database module 3 where possible to transactions completed by each customer as described in more detail later in this description.
- the promotions update module 4 enables the operation of promotions to be monitored and modified by Financial Incentive Promotion operators after initial set up and distribution, to for example change the parameters including the financial incentive to increase customer appeal, add new merchant participant oudets, extend the period of promotion offer or to correct set up errors.
- the Sales Promotion System logs copies of all transactions and awards processed by it during operation as described below and as transactions and associated awards are received from the various components of the system as described below they are analysed by software in the Promotion Update module 4 to determine their success against expected promotion performance measures. Where promotion performance reported by this module 4 is below expectations, changes are designed and modifications made by Financial Incentive Promotion operators and/or sponsors to the promotion as recorded in the Promotions & Customer Database 3 to address perceived promotion shortcomings.
- New promotions from Promotions Setup module 2 and and updated promotions from Promotion Update module 4 are extracted from the Promotions & Customer Database 3 and used by the promotion distribution module 5 for distribution via the central interface
- the Central Interface module 28 sends details of new or updated promotions to Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl comprising Regional Interface Servers
- Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 run communications management and logging software that monitors time and events occurring on these units and when scheduled as setup by a sales Promotion System Administrator or necessary to respond to a system event such as a security violation initiates and manages a communication session with the Central Interface module 28. Similarly this communications management and logging software accepts and manages a request for a communication session from the Central Interface module 28.
- any new or modified information including new or updated promotions and sales outlet configuration details provided to the Central Interface 28 by the Promotion Distribution module 5 is sent out to Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 and details of their activities including transactions processed, promotions awarded and other status or operational information logged since die last communication session is returned by the Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 to the Central Interface module 28 for logging at the host.
- Software running on the Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 also manages all communications between diem and the particular component of die Sales System Interfaces Bl with which they interact.
- the Promotion Receipt and Initiation module 21 accepts new promotions and manages their activation according to promotion validity dates between which promotions are reviewed for qualification during analysis of each transaction received by Regional
- the promotion distribution module 5 could distribute new or updated promotions direcdy on request to Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 for issue to qualifying customers. Also note diat Merchant Interface Servers aldiough positioned on the diagram away from die Promotions Management System and usually are remote controllers these could be situated in the same geographic location as die Promotions Host and perform the same functions as described herein. Whichever option is used, the Sales Promotion System C working in combination with the Sales System B use known technology and systems to issue Promotion awards to qualifying customers. This process is described further below.
- one preferred form provides the Remote Controllers comprising regional interface servers 29 or merchant interface servers 30 as the primary means of distributing Financial Incentives Promotions to Sales System transaction processing components. Larger merchant oudets may be provided with a merchant interface server 30 for each oudet. This enables fast response times to processing Financial Incentives Promotions.
- Sales System Interfaces Bl are setup to interact with Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl.
- Various specific interface scenarios are shown on Figure 1 by arrows between the components of the Sales Promotion System and the Sales System.
- the interface technology options used are common to all interface scenarios and are described following to apply to all as appropriate.
- Standard communications protocols are used and standard message formats are provided by the Sales Promotion System for use in each interface technology option.
- Interface options are as follows: a.
- the Sales System Interface Bl component software may be modified to interface direcdy with the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl, optionally using a software module supplied by the Sales Promotion System to minimise interface effort. This may be a practical interface method for Internet Merchant sites and Corporate Merchants; b.
- Software modules that capture keyboard input, scanned barcodes and/or printed receipts and sends these to the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl may be installed on the Sales System Interface Bl component.
- these software modules may receive responses from the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl to supply as input to the Sales System Interface Bl component;
- Hardware components that may include EFTPOS units that capture keyboard input, scanned barcodes and/or printed receipts and sends these to the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl may be installed on the Sales System Interface Bl component.
- these hardware components may receive responses from the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces
- a specific interface scenario of the Sales System Interfaces Bl interfacing with the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl. is via POS Stations 35 interfacing using one of the interface options described above with a Merchant Interface Server 30.
- Transaction flow and processing in this scenario is described following.
- Customers make purchases at POS stations 35 and at the appropriate time, usually at the end of the transaction and/or before the payment process is commenced, transaction details are forwarded to an associated merchant interface server 30 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions.
- the Merchant Interface Server 30 processes these transactions as follows: a.
- the Transaction Receipt and Response module 22 processes each transaction sent to the Merchant Interface Server 30 using stored information about the type and configuration of the POS Station 35 with which it is interacting to interpret and as necessary translate the transaction content received into the format required for processing.
- the Transaction Analysis module 23 reviews and processes the content and each line item of the transaction against the active and valid awards promotions received and stored in the Merchant Interface Server 30 according to their business rules and creates an award entidement for each promotion that the transaction qualifies for.
- qualification for an award occurs when a component of a transaction meets die business rules for qualification set up for an active promotion for example a product is purchased and a matching discount coupon is present or a certain customer purchases a nominated product matches the business rule requirements setup in a promotion to qualify for an award.
- qualification for awards may be dependent on the content of the whole transaction, any individual part of it or any combination of parts of it matching business rules setup in any active and valid promotion stored in the Merchant Interface Server 30.
- Reward Issue module 24 creates the appropriate financial incentive awards which may comprise but not be limited to an offer of a discount on a products bought in the current transaction, discounts on the current transaction or issue of a voucher to enable a discount on a future transaction. f. The Reward Issue module 24 provides details of awards it creates to the
- Transaction Receipt and Response module 22 which sends them back to the POS Station 35 for display and/or printing and/or other action such as application of a credit comprising a discount on purchases in the current transaction.
- a message and/or copy of a document containing details of the offer for a financial incentive that could be qualified for in the current transaction is setup by the Merchant
- POS Station 35 If so details of all financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction are issued by the Rewards Issue module 24 via the Transaction Receipt and Response module 22 to POS Station 35 for application as credits to the value of the current transaction or otherwise to use as appropriate during the transaction. h. If any financial incentives awarded are discounts to be applied to purchases in the current transaction, these are applied by the POS Station 35 as follows: i. If the POS Station 35 software has been modified to interface directly with the Merchant Interface Server 30, the discounts earned as financial incentives may be applied by the POS system using standard discounting procedures as appropriate to meet merchant accounting standards; ii. If the POS Station 35 is interfaced with the Merchant Interface Server 30 via software modules or hardware components that both capture keyboard input, scanned barcodes and/or printed receipts as well as receive responses from the Merchant Interface Server 30 to supply to the POS
- the discounts earned as financial incentives may be applied by the POS system using predefined standard barcodes in the POS System 35 that prompt known discounts matching those awarded by the Merchant Interface Server 30, or the operator may be prompted to apply the required discounts or the required discounts may be applied using other standard discounting procedures available via the POS software as appropriate to meet merchant accounting standards; iii.
- financial incentives comprising discounts applied to the current transaction at retail oudets
- a summary of these and a reason typically comprising the name of the promotion and/or product to which the discount has been applied is printed on the sales receipt printed by the POS printer for the transaction.
- Sales outlet customers with an identification number stored on a Customer Identification Token or the like and that is presented at the time of their transaction could also have their vouchers for use in future transactions stored by electronic means such as loading it onto a customer card if present in a transaction or by recording them in the transaction details for recording of vouchers issued in a central database from whence they can be forwarded to customers or be available for them to check electronically as desired.
- any financial incentives such as discounts qualified for in the transaction may be recorded as credits that are subsequendy applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction.
- the following process applies: i.
- the parameters of financial incentives promotions for which financial incentives including discounts qualified for in a transaction are to be recorded as credits to be applied to a financial services card are setup to include a financial services card credits indicator. When this indicator is positive it designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; ii.
- Data Logging module 26 and accumulated to be subsequently applied to the customers financial services card when appropriate as a credit paid for by the sponsor of the sales promotion.
- the customer may then use the financial incentives so earned as part or full payment for purchases made in future transactions.
- a customer may require to present a card or other device that identifies them to be recognised as part of the transaction and to be included in the transaction data in order to enable credits earned during the transaction to be applied to their financial services card.
- the financial incentive applied using this aspect of the invention would be a discount but other financial incentives such as loyalty points could be applied using the invention as well.
- the Sponsor Charges module 27 where appropriate and necessary at Merchant Interface Server 30 level uses final details of awards issued to assign sponsor charges applicable to be charged to the promotion sponsors. These may include a fee for handling, delivering and redeeming awards made under each promotion qualified for as well as charges to the sponsor to reimburse the sales oudet comprising the POS Station 35 for any financial loss incurred as a result of making any awards qualified for.
- Sponsor Charges so assembled are linked to transaction details and logged by the Data Logging module 26 for subsequent return to the Promotions Management System for use in the Accounts System 6 to effect sponsor charging and accounts reconciliation.
- customers make purchases and details of these including payment details are supplied to EFTPOS stations 36 which at die appropriate time, usually at the end of the transaction, forward transaction details to an associated merchant interface server 30 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions.
- the Merchant Interface Server 30 processes these transactions as per steps a to o immediately preceding but in this case delivery of awards including display and printing and customer/operator interaction is via the appropriate EFTPOS unit components rather than the POS unit components. Minor differences in processing steps apply accordingly and Financial Incentives applicable do not include discounts applied direcdy to a POS transaction but apart from this the functionality offered is substantially the same for this embodiment of the invention as for that described in steps a-o above.
- customers make purchases at POS stations 33 which at the appropriate time, usually at the end of the transaction, forward transaction details to an associated regional interface server 29 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions.
- the regional interface server 29 processes these transactions as per steps a to o set out above for POS Stations 35 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30. The only significant difference is that the regional interface server 29 is remote from the POS
- customers make purchases and details of these including payment details are supplied to EFTPOS stations 34 which at the appropriate time, usually at the end of the transaction, forward transaction details to an associated regional interface server 29 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions.
- the regional interface server 29 processes these transactions as per steps a to o set out above with the differences as noted for EFTPOS Units 36 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30.
- the only significant difference between the EFTPOS stations 34 interfacing with a regional interface server 29 and EFTPOS Units 36 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 is that the regional interface server 29 is remote from the EFTPOS Units 34 whereas for the EFTPOS Units 36 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 the latter is in the same location as the EFTPOS Units 36.
- customers make purchases at Internet Merchants sites 32 which at the appropriate time,,usually at the end of the transaction, forward transaction details to an associated regional interface server 29 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions.
- the regional interface server 29 processes these transactions as per steps a to o set out above for POS Stations 35 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 but with Internet Merchants sites 32 being substituted for POS Stations 35 and a regional interface server 29 substituted for Merchant Interface Server 30 everywhere in the narrative for each process step.
- the only material process differences in this arrangement a. the regional interface server 29 is remote from the Internet Merchants sites 32 whereas for the POS Stations 35 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 the latter is in the same location as the POS Station 35; b. Execution of process steps may be slightly different as appropriate to reflect the fact that the regional interface server 29 interacts via the Internet Merchants sites
- any printing is effected via electronic copies being made available for customers to print at their own printer rather than being printed at any printer under the control of the Internet Merchant 32 for example current transaction discount summaries may be included in the electronic customers invoice details and , discount vouchers for future transactions may be eidier included thereafter on die electronic invoice or stored and/or forwarded electronically for customers to print themselves.
- current transaction discount summaries may be included in the electronic customers invoice details and , discount vouchers for future transactions may be eidier included thereafter on die electronic invoice or stored and/or forwarded electronically for customers to print themselves.
- the Internet Merchants sites 32 are able to be apply them directly to the customer invoice using standard discounting procedures as appropriate to meet merchant accounting standards.
- customers may have made purchases from Corporate Merchants 31 details of which during a process in which they are invoiced for tiiese purchases, usually at the end of die customers transactions invoicing, are forwarded to an associated regional interface server 29 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions.
- the regional interface server 29 processes these transactions as per steps a to o set out above for POS Stations 35 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 but with Corporate Merchants 31 being substituted for POS Stations 35 and a regional interface server 29 substituted for Merchant Interface Server 30 everywhere in the narrative for each process step.
- the only material process differences in this arrangement are that: a. the regional interface server 29 is remote from the Corporate Merchants 31 whereas for the POS Stations 35 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 the latter is in the same location as the POS Station 35; b. Execution of some process steps may be slighdy different as appropriate to reflect the fact that there is no customer present during the transaction for the regional interface server 29 to interact with. c.
- step g is not applicable.
- Any printing is effected as part of printing of customer invoices or statements for example current transaction discount summaries are printed on a customers invoice and discount vouchers for future transactions are either printed thereafter on the invoice or stored and/or forwarded electronically for customers to print diemselves.
- the Corporate Merchants 31 are able to be apply them direcdy to the customer invoice using standard discounting procedures as appropriate to meet merchant accounting standards.
- the customer provides a special identification, credit debit or loyalty card which has been previously issued to diem to be scanned or read by the POS or an EFTPOS unit in order to obtain customer identification information as part of a transaction process for transactions at Sales System customer interfaces 33, 34, 35 or 36.
- Sales System customer interfaces 33, 34, 35 or 36 pass scanned card details to the Financial Incentives Promotion Delivery Devices being one of Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30 along with purchases and other transaction details. Customer identification details will have already been provided or be available in the associated Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30 or host server for customer transactions being completed via a corporate entity
- the type of card and information read from it and/or stored in the associated Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30 or host server may be used to determine the appropriate alternative method of receiving any financial rewards earned in the transaction;
- One alternative is that instead of a credit being returned by the Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30 to the Sales System customer interfaces 31-36 to be applied to the current transaction total, a credit of equal value to the financial incentive rewards earned in the transaction is applied to the customers financial services or loyalty card account and in some cases applied ot the card itself as well; f.
- the appropriate credits are supplied by the Regional Interface Server 29 or the Merchant Server 30 to EFTPOS Units 34 and 36 or to appropriately configured POS Stations 33 and 35 to effect application of credits to the customers financial services or loyalty card using standard electronic card update techniques; g. After application of any financial incentive credits being applied to financial services cards as described above or without completing this step if financial services cards are to be updated at a later time, the credits comprising the financial incentive rewards earned in the transaction which may be credits or other rewards such as loyalty points are supplied by the Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30 for forwarding to the Customer Rewards Card System for processing as follows: i. when transaction details are received by the Central Interface 28 during a communication session between the Central Interface 28 and one of the Merchant Interfaces Cl the transaction details are passed by the Central Interface
- the Issued Rewards & Transaction Detail Receipt module 8 which recognises when credits are to be applied to a customer account and passes the relevant details to the Cardholder Issued Rewards Receipt module 18; ⁇ . the Cardholder Issued Rewards Receipt module 18 validates and processes the financial incentive reward credit details ready for rewards credit to the customer and passes validated details to the Rewards Update module 17. iii. Invalid details are output to an error file for manual investigation and correction processing. iv. The Issued Rewards Update module 17 applies credits earned to customers financial services card accounts held in the Cardholder Database 13 or held at an associated banking partner if desired to meet local financial transaction regulations as appropriate.
- credits earned can be applied as a method of payment for future purchases. Alternatively they can be simply applied as a stored value top up to be used for any purchases as desired by the Financial Incentives program manager and in this case the following process is followed: i. Details of the customer and credit involved are passed by the Cardholder Database 13 to the Card Value Update module 14; ii. the Card Value Update module 14 applies the credit to the customer account as appropriate using standard financial services industry processes and procedures. iii. The value of credit stored on a customer financial services card may also be increased via a customer making deposits or funds transfers to it via the External Sales Transactions module 15. j.
- credits are applied to customer financial services cards where these are debit cards increase the credit on the card but these may be linked to certain merchants participating in the Sales Promotion System and hence credits earned may be only be used for subsequent payment for purchases made at these participant merchants. m. If the rewards earned under this aspect of die invention comprise loyalty points these are processed and redeemed using standard known processes and procedures applicable to customer loyalty programs.
- a key aspect of this aspect of the system as for the other components is that financial rewards earned by customers from Financial Incentives Promotions can be delivered without the need for a POS system to be set up to be able to run any individual Financial Incentives Promotions, to have any knowledge of them, or to be able to receive credits from or to interact with a Financial Incentives Promotions device in any way.
- die final action for each transaction processed at any of the Sales System Interfaces is that details of Financial Incentives Promotion rewards issued as appropriate by any of the Sales System B customer interfaces 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36 are recorded along with other details of purchases, transaction totals etc., cardholder information where present and transaction identification details by the Data Logging module 26 of the associated Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30. Periodically these transaction details are sent during a communications session as described earlier by the Regional Interface Server 29 and the Merchant Interface Server 30 as appropriate via the Central Interface Server 28 to the Issued Rewards and Transaction Detail Receipt Module 8 of the Promotions Management System A which supplies them to the Data Warehouse 7 and copies them in turn to the Cardholder
- Issued Rewards Receipt module 18 of the Customer Rewards Card System D where they are processed if appropriate as described above. Details sent to the Data Warehouse 7 and held by it include full details where possible down to line item level of sales transactions along with where available details from any related customer identification tokens presented with the transaction as well as any Financial Incentives Promotion rewards issued qualified for by and awarded to the transaction. These details are stored in the data warehouses 7 and 19 as well as in summary format in the Promotions & Customer Database 3.
- fees and charges comprising Sponsor Charges can be associated with any step of financial incentive promotion reward issue.
- These fees and charges may comprise but not be limited to charges to promotion sponsors to reimburse sales outlets or customers for discounts earned on the current transaction or for issue of a voucher to enable a discount on a future transaction issue, voucher redemption, credit of rewards to cardholder accounts etc. and other fees that might be earned by sales outlets and the Sales Promotion System Operators for issue, redemption and processing transactions and offers pursuant to operation of the Sales Promotion System.
- These fees and charges are recorded as they are incurred by Regional Interface Servers 29 and 30 and subsequendy abstracted and processed by the accounts system modules 6, 20 and 27. These modules abstract and consolidate the fees and charges on a periodic basis and exchange accounts information as necessary to apply debits and credits to the various parties participating in the Sales Promotion programs in order to effect settlement of all moneys due between all participants in each Financial Incentive Promotion.
- the system significantly simplifies the set up and operation of Financial Incentive Promotions.
- the system enables financial rewards earned by customers from Financial Incentive Promotions to be delivered witiiout the need for a Sales System sales interface devices such as POS stations, EFTPOS units and the like be specifically set up to be able to run individual Financial Incentive Promotions, and/or to have any knowledge of them, and/or to be able to receive credits from or to interact with a Financial Incentive Promotions device in any way other than to support the generic functions of supplying transaction details at the appropriate time and receiving any credits as appropriate.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (3)
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GB1203656.2A GB2487493A (en) | 2008-08-06 | 2009-08-06 | A centralised and automated purchase reward method |
NZ598564A NZ598564A (en) | 2008-08-06 | 2009-08-06 | A centralised and automated purchase reward method |
AU2009280166A AU2009280166A1 (en) | 2009-08-06 | 2009-08-06 | A centralised and automated purchase reward method |
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NZ570306 | 2008-08-06 | ||
NZ57030608 | 2008-08-06 |
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WO2010016778A1 true WO2010016778A1 (en) | 2010-02-11 |
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PCT/NZ2009/000165 WO2010016778A1 (en) | 2008-08-06 | 2009-08-06 | A centralised and automated purchase reward method |
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GB (1) | GB2487493A (en) |
NZ (1) | NZ598564A (en) |
WO (1) | WO2010016778A1 (en) |
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EP2551815A1 (en) * | 2011-07-27 | 2013-01-30 | Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd. | A computer system for processing product data |
US8515810B2 (en) | 2008-10-24 | 2013-08-20 | Cardlytics, Inc. | System and methods for delivering targeted marketing offers to consumers via an online portal |
EP3447710A1 (en) * | 2017-08-25 | 2019-02-27 | Toshiba TEC Kabushiki Kaisha | Server device and method for determining promotion reward content to be granted to a customer |
US10992738B1 (en) | 2019-12-31 | 2021-04-27 | Cardlytics, Inc. | Transmitting interactive content for rendering by an application |
US11481808B2 (en) | 2014-05-16 | 2022-10-25 | Cardlytics, Inc. | System and apparatus for identifier matching and management |
US11488190B1 (en) | 2016-12-12 | 2022-11-01 | Dosh, Llc | System for sharing and transferring currency |
US11526881B1 (en) | 2016-12-12 | 2022-12-13 | Dosh Holdings, Inc. | System for generating and tracking offers chain of titles |
US11538052B1 (en) | 2016-12-12 | 2022-12-27 | Dosh Holdings, Inc. | System for generating and tracking offers chain of titles |
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US20070239521A1 (en) * | 2004-09-15 | 2007-10-11 | Bhushan Khadpe | Method and an apparatus to define loyalty promotions |
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2009
- 2009-08-06 NZ NZ598564A patent/NZ598564A/en not_active IP Right Cessation
- 2009-08-06 GB GB1203656.2A patent/GB2487493A/en not_active Withdrawn
- 2009-08-06 WO PCT/NZ2009/000165 patent/WO2010016778A1/en active Application Filing
Patent Citations (2)
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US20020143626A1 (en) * | 2001-03-29 | 2002-10-03 | Voltmer Theodore S. | System and method for networked loyalty program |
US20070239521A1 (en) * | 2004-09-15 | 2007-10-11 | Bhushan Khadpe | Method and an apparatus to define loyalty promotions |
Cited By (12)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US8515810B2 (en) | 2008-10-24 | 2013-08-20 | Cardlytics, Inc. | System and methods for delivering targeted marketing offers to consumers via an online portal |
US8595065B2 (en) | 2008-10-24 | 2013-11-26 | Cardlytics, Inc. | Offer placement system and methods for targeted marketing offer delivery system |
EP2551815A1 (en) * | 2011-07-27 | 2013-01-30 | Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd. | A computer system for processing product data |
US11481808B2 (en) | 2014-05-16 | 2022-10-25 | Cardlytics, Inc. | System and apparatus for identifier matching and management |
US11488190B1 (en) | 2016-12-12 | 2022-11-01 | Dosh, Llc | System for sharing and transferring currency |
US11526881B1 (en) | 2016-12-12 | 2022-12-13 | Dosh Holdings, Inc. | System for generating and tracking offers chain of titles |
US11538052B1 (en) | 2016-12-12 | 2022-12-27 | Dosh Holdings, Inc. | System for generating and tracking offers chain of titles |
EP3447710A1 (en) * | 2017-08-25 | 2019-02-27 | Toshiba TEC Kabushiki Kaisha | Server device and method for determining promotion reward content to be granted to a customer |
CN109427158A (en) * | 2017-08-25 | 2019-03-05 | 东芝泰格有限公司 | Server unit and control method, terminal device |
US10992738B1 (en) | 2019-12-31 | 2021-04-27 | Cardlytics, Inc. | Transmitting interactive content for rendering by an application |
US11146622B2 (en) | 2019-12-31 | 2021-10-12 | Cardlytics, Inc. | Transmitting interactive content for rendering by an application |
US11838378B2 (en) | 2019-12-31 | 2023-12-05 | Cardlytics, Inc. | System for generating deployment criteria and transmitting interactive content based on the deployment criteria for rendering by an application |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
GB201203656D0 (en) | 2012-04-18 |
NZ598564A (en) | 2014-03-28 |
GB2487493A (en) | 2012-07-25 |
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