Smart gift card values

• US 10,169,769 B1
• Filed: 12/23/2014
• Issued: 01/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Square Inc (Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.))
• Inventors: Mocko, Christopher Lang
• Primary Examiner(s): Gills, Kurtis
• Application Number:
  US14/580,567
• Time in Patent Office: 1,470 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration

Abstract

Techniques and arrangements for determining a recommended number gift cards for a merchant to order and for determining values for the merchant to associate with those gift cards, based, in part, on comparing a business profile generated for the merchant with collected business profiles. The business profiles may include geographical locations of the merchants, a class of items offered by the merchants, and transactional information for the merchants.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more servers associated with a payment processing service that authorizes payment instruments of customers, the method comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of merchant devices, first data associated with a plurality of merchants;

generating a plurality of business profiles using the first data received from the plurality of merchant devices, each of the plurality of business profiles including at least one of a geographical location, a class of items, or transactional information;

receiving, from a merchant device of a first merchant, second data associated with the first merchant, the merchant device executing an instance of a merchant application that configures the merchant device as a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, the instance of the merchant application configuring the POS terminal to transmit at least the second data to the payment processing service;

determining, using the second data, a geographical location associated with the first merchant;

determining, using the second data, a class of items offered by the first merchant;

determining, using the second data, a historical revenue of the first merchant;

determining, using the second data, a ticket size associated with the first merchant;

generating a business profile for the first merchant based at least in part on the geographical location of the first merchant, the class of items offered by the first merchant, the historical revenue of the first merchant, and the ticket size associated with the first merchant;

comparing the business profile of the first merchant to the plurality of business profiles to identify at least one business profile from the plurality of business profiles that is associated with the geographical location associated with the first merchant, the class of items offered by the first merchant, and a historical revenue that is within a threshold revenue of the historical revenue of the first merchant;

based at least in part on the at least one business profile and the ticket size associated with the first merchant, determining recommended values for the first merchant to associate with physical gift cards that are purchased by the customers from the first merchant wherein a physical gift card is a prepaid stored-value monetary card in which at least a portion of the stored-value is deducted in association with a purchase;

transmitting, to the merchant application, a suggestion message that the first merchant associate each of the physical gift cards with a respective one of the recommended values, wherein the merchant application is configured to present, via a display of the POS terminal, a user interface associated with selectable controls corresponding to each of the recommended values;

receiving, from the merchant application and responsive to selection of a selectable control corresponding to a recommended value, a request to activate at least one physical gift card for the recommended value; and

associating, based on receiving the request, at least one physical gift card with a stored-value corresponding to the recommended value.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the recommended values is determined based on values that customers purchase gift cards for at one or more merchants that are associated with the at least one business profile.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the ticket size associated with the first merchant is based at least in part on a minimum ticket size of the first merchant, an average ticket size of the first merchant, a median ticket size of the first merchant, a maximum ticket size for the first merchant, or a multiple of the maximum ticket size for the first merchant.

16. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the merchant application, an order for the physical gift cards; and

causing the order to occur for the physical gift cards for the merchant.

4. One or more computing devices of a payment processing service, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing computer executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

receiving, from a merchant device, data associated with a merchant, the merchant device executing an instance of a merchant application that configures the merchant device as a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, the instance of the merchant application configuring the POS terminal to transmit at least the data to the payment processing service;

determining, based at least in part on the data, a class of items offered by the merchant;

determining, based at least in part on the data, a ticket size associated with the merchant;

generating a business profile for the merchant based at least in part on the class of items and the ticket size;

determining, using the business profile, at least one recommended value for the merchant to associate with one or more gift cards of the merchant, wherein a gift card is a prepaid stored-value monetary card in which at least a portion of the stored-value is deducted in association with a purchase;

causing a user interface to be presented via a display of the POS terminal, the user interface presenting a recommendation to associate the one or more gift cards with the at least one recommended value;

receiving, from the merchant application and responsive to an interaction with the user interface presented via the display of the POS terminal, a request to activate at least one gift card of the one or more gift cards for the at least one recommended value; and

associating a stored-value corresponding to the at least one recommended value with the at least one gift card.

5. One or more computing devices as recited in claim 4, wherein the ticket size associated with the merchant is based on at least one of a minimum ticket size of the merchant, an average ticket size of the merchant, a median ticket size of the merchant, a maximum ticket size of the merchant, or a multiple of the maximum ticket size of the merchant.

6. One or more computing devices as recited in claim 4, the acts further comprising:

identifying at least one business profile from a plurality of business profiles, the at least one business profile having a similarity to the business profile of the merchant that is greater than a threshold similarity; and

based at least in part on the at least one business profile, determining the at least one recommended value for the merchant.

7. One or more computing devices as recited in claim 6, wherein the at least one recommended value is based at least in part on values that customers purchase gift cards for at one or more merchants that are associated with the at least one business profile.

8. One or more computing devices as recited in claim 6, wherein the at least one recommended value is based at least in part on ticket sizes associated with one or more merchants that are associated with the at least one business profile.

9. One or more computing devices as recited in claim 8, wherein the at least one recommended value is based at least in part on at least one of a minimum ticket size, an average ticket size, a median ticket size, a maximum ticket size, or a multiple of the maximum ticket size for the one or more merchants that are associated with the at least one business profile.

10. One or more computing devices as recited in claim 4, the acts further comprising:

determining a geographical location associated with the merchant; and

determining a historical revenue of the merchant;

and wherein the business profile for the merchant is further based at least in part on the geographical location associated with the merchant and the historical revenue of the merchant.

17. One or more computing devices as recited in claim 4,

the acts further comprising:

receiving, from the merchant application, an order for the one or more gift cards; and

causing the order to occur for the one or more gift cards for the merchant.

18. One or more computing devices as recited in claim 4, wherein the user interface includes at least one selectable control corresponding to the at least one recommended value and the interaction comprises an actuation of the at least one selectable control.

19. One or more computing devices as recited in claim 4, wherein the request is associated with a plurality of gift cards, and the acts further comprise associating each gift card in the plurality of gift cards with the stored-value corresponding to the at least one recommended value.

20. One or more computing devices as recited in claim 4, wherein prior to causing the user interface to be presented via the display of the POS terminal, the acts further comprise:

receiving, from the merchant application, an identifier of a customer purchasing the at least one gift card;

accessing customer data associated with the customer; and

modifying the at least one recommended value based at least in part on the customer data.

11. A device comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the one or more processors to;

send, to one or more servers associated with a payment processing service, item data indicating a class of items offered by a merchant associated with the device;

send, to the one or more servers associated with the payment processing service, ticket data indicating a ticket size of the merchant;

receive, from the one or more servers associated with the payment processing service, a message that indicates at least one recommended value for the merchant to associate with one or more gift cards offered by the merchant, the at least one recommended value based at least in part on the class of items offered by the merchant and the ticket size of the merchant, wherein a gift card is a prepaid stored-value monetary card in which at least a portion of the stored-value is deducted in association with a purchase;

present, via a display of the device, a user interface that enables the merchant to activate the one or more gift cards, the user interface including at least one graphical element representative of the at least one recommended value;

receive an input associated with a selection of the at least one graphical element; and

send, to the one or more servers associated with the payment processing service and responsive to receiving the input, a request to activate a particular gift card of the one or more gift cards for the at least one recommended value.

12. A device of claim 11, wherein the ticket size of the merchant is based at least in part on at least one of a minimum ticket size of the merchant, an average ticket size of the merchant, a median ticket size of the merchant, a maximum ticket size of the merchant, or a multiple of the maximum ticket size of the merchant.

13. A device of claim 11, wherein the at least one recommended value is based at least in part on at least one of a minimum ticket size, an average ticket size, a median ticket size, a maximum ticket size, or a multiple of the maximum ticket size for one or more merchants that are associated with at least one business profile that has been deemed similar to the business profile of the merchant.

14. A device of claim 11, wherein the at least one recommended value is based at least in part on values that similar merchants associate with gift cards that are purchased by customers from the similar merchants.

15. A device of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the one or more processors to:

send, to the one or more servers associated with the payment processing service, a geographical location associated with the merchant; and

send, to the one or more servers associated with the payment processing service, a historical revenue of the merchant,

and wherein the at least one recommended value is further based at least in part on the geographical location associated with the merchant and the historical revenue of the merchant.