Encouraging spending goals and discouraging impulse purchases

• US 10,210,569 B1
• Filed: 06/23/2015
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kim, Wesley, Wolter, Jonathan Andrew, Tsou, Victor
• Primary Examiner(s): Glass, Russell S
• Application Number:
  US14/747,805
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: 705 16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0855 involving a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

This disclosure describes, in part, techniques for collecting customer information of users at a centralized location and utilizing the information in an intelligent manner to assist customers in improving spending habits and in meeting budgetary goals. In some instances, the centralized location is a payment service that functions to both authorize payment instruments of users for costs of transactions conducted at the merchant, and to collect, generate and propagate budgetary profiles, to make budgetary suggestions and perform budgetary operations with regard to interactions of the merchants and the users.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a first point-of-sale (POS) device operated by a first merchant and configured to receive payment information from a payment instrument of a customer of the first merchant using a payment instrument reader and further configured to process, at least in part, a payment for one or more items purchased by the customer in a transaction with the first merchant; and

a payment service system that processes, at least in part, payment transactions at the first POS device and a second POS device operated by a second merchant, the payment service system including;

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors, wherein the instructions program the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

receiving information of the customer;

determining a budgetary goal of the customer;

receiving, from the first POS device, ticket information for the transaction of the customer with the first merchant including the one or more items to be purchased by the customer;

accessing feedback data associated with one or more previous purchases of the customer at the second POS device, the feedback data indicating one or more other items that were impulse purchase items;

determining, by a trained impulsiveness analysis module, that a particular item of the one or more items to be purchased by the customer is an impulse purchase, wherein the determining that the particular item is an impulse purchase is based at least in part on;

the information of the customer;

the budgetary goal of the customer; and

the feedback data;

prior to a payment authorization for the transaction, prompting the customer with an alternative option that is an alternative to purchasing the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase, the prompt including a stimulus associated with the budgetary goal of the customer, and the alternative option comprising removing the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase from the ticket information and transferring, from a payment source of the customer, an amount of funds equal to a cost of the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase to a savings account associated with the budgetary goal of the customer;

receiving approval of the alternative option from the customer;

altering the ticket information in accordance with the alternative option; and

processing the payment for a cost of the transaction and transferring the amount of funds equal to the cost of the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase to the savings account associated with the budgetary goal of the customer.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the acts further comprise the trained impulsiveness analysis module comprises at least one of:

a customer specific impulse module that is based on feedback received from the customer;

or

a non-specific impulse module that is based on feedback received from a plurality of customers.

3. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the budgetary goal is a first budgetary goal, the ticket information is first ticket information, the transaction is a first transaction, and the acts further comprise:

determining a second budgetary goal of the customer;

receiving second ticket information for a second transaction of the customer;

determining, based on the second budgetary goal of the customer and second ticket information, a second budgetary operation to perform based on the second transaction being a type of transaction associated with the second budgetary operation; and

performing the second budgetary operation with regard to the second transaction of the customer, the second budgetary operation comprising automatically setting a spending limit for the second transaction.

4. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the ticket information is first ticket information, the transaction is a first transaction, the information of the customer includes transaction information for a plurality of previous transactions of the customer, and the acts further comprise:

receiving second ticket information for a second transaction of the customer;

determining, based on the transaction information for the plurality of previous transactions of the customer and the second ticket information, a spending pattern of the customer with regard to a type of item included in the second ticket information;

comparing the spending pattern of the customer with regard to the type of item to spending patterns of a plurality of other customers to determine a ranking of the spending pattern of the customer among the other customers; and

in response to the ranking of the customer being above a threshold rank, performing a second budgetary operation with regard to the second transaction of the customer, the second budgetary operation comprising suggesting the customer reduce the amount of the type of item the customer purchases.

5. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions executable by one or more processors of a payment service system that processes payment transactions at a first point-of-sale (POS) device and a second POS device operated by a first merchant and a second merchant, respectively, wherein the instructions program the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

determining a budgetary goal of a customer;

receiving interaction information for an interaction of the customer with the first merchant, wherein the interaction information comprises ticket information for a transaction of the customer at the first POS device including one or more items to be purchased by the customer;

accessing feedback data associated with one or more previous purchases of the customer at the second POS device, the feedback data indicating one or more other items that were impulse purchase items;

determining, using one or more trained impulsiveness analysis modules and based at least in part on the budgetary goal and the feedback data, that a particular item of the one or more items to be purchased by the customer is an impulse purchase;

determining, based at least in part on the determining that the particular item is an impulse purchase, a budgetary operation to perform with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant, wherein the budgetary operation includes one or more of transferring funds, altering the ticket information, or setting a spending limit; and

performing the budgetary operation with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the acts further comprise:

receiving information of the customer;

wherein the determining that the particular item is an impulse purchase is further based at least in part on the information of the customer.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the one or more trained impulsiveness analysis modules comprises at least one of:

a customer specific impulse module that is based on feedback received from the customer;

or

a non-specific impulse module that is based on feedback received from a plurality of customers.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the acts further comprise:

prompting the customer to provide an evaluation of whether an item from a previous transaction was an impulse purchase;

receiving the evaluation from the customer; and

adapting, using machine learning, at least one of the customer specific impulse model or the non-specific impulse model based on the evaluation.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, the acts further comprising:

prior to processing the payment for a cost of the transaction, prompting the customer with an alternative option that is an alternative to purchasing the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase, the alternative option comprising removing the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase from the ticket information;

receiving approval of the alternative option from the customer; and

processing the payment for the cost of the transaction;

wherein the budgetary operation comprises altering the ticket information in accordance with the alternative option.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, the acts further comprising:

prior to processing the payment for a cost of the transaction, prompting the customer with an alternative option that is an alternative to purchasing the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase, the alternative option comprising removing the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase from the ticket information and transferring, from a payment source of the customer, an amount of funds equal to a cost of the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase to a savings account associated with the budgetary goal of the customer;

receiving approval of the alternative option from the customer; and

processing the payment for the cost of the transaction;

wherein;

the budgetary operation comprises the transferring funds and the altering the ticket information;

the transferring funds comprises transferring the amount of funds equal to the cost of the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase to the savings account associated with the budgetary goal of the customer; and

the altering the ticket information comprises altering the ticket information in accordance with the alternative option.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, the acts further comprising:

receiving information of the customer including a dietary goal of the customer, wherein;

the determining that the particular item is an impulse purchase comprises;

determining that the particular item is an impulse purchase that is outside of the dietary goal of the customer; and

the determining the budgetary operation to perform with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant is based at least in part on the determining that the particular is an impulse purchase that is outside of the dietary goal of the customer;

prior to processing the payment for a cost of the transaction, prompting the customer with an alternative option that is an alternative to purchasing the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase, the alternative option comprising removing the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase from the ticket information and adding another item that is within the budgetary goal of the customer and the dietary goal of the customer;

receiving approval of the alternative option from the customer; and

processing the payment for the cost of the transaction,

wherein the budgetary operation comprises altering the ticket information in accordance with the alternative option.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the determining the budgetary operation to perform with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant is further based at least in part on an item customization of an item requested by the customer from the first merchant as part of the interaction.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the acts further comprise:

determining, based on the interaction information and the budgetary goal of the customer, that the interaction of the customer with the first merchant is a type of interaction associated with the budgetary operation, wherein the determining the budgetary operation to perform with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant is further based at least in part on the determining the interaction of the customer with the first merchant is the type of interaction associated with the budgetary operation.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the acts further comprise:

determining the ticket information includes a request by the customer to purchase items for other customers;

prior to a payment authorization for the transaction, prompting the customer with an alternative option that is an alternative to purchasing the items for one or more other customers, the alternative option comprising prompting at least one of the other customers to pay a portion of a cost of the transaction;

receiving approval of the alternative option from the customer; and

prompting a customer device of a particular other customer of the other customers, the particular other customer to pay a portion of the cost of the transaction.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the budgetary operation comprises the setting the spending limit, and wherein the setting the spending limit comprises automatically setting the spending limit for a transaction associated with the interaction.

16. A computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein the budgetary operation further comprises automatically informing the first merchant of the spending limit.

17. A method comprising:

determining, by at least one computing device of a payment service, a budgetary profile of a customer, wherein the payment service processes payment transactions at a first point-of-sale (POS) device and a second POS device operated by a first merchant and a second merchant, respectively;

receiving, by the at least one computing device of the payment service, interaction information for an interaction of the customer with a merchant, wherein the interaction information comprises ticket information for a transaction of the customer at the first POS device including one or more items to be purchased by the customer;

accessing feedback data associated with one or more previous purchases of the customer at the second POS device, the feedback data indicating one or more other items that were impulse purchase items;

determining, using one or more trained impulsiveness analysis modules and based at least in part on the budgetary profile of the customer and the feedback data, that a particular item of the one or more items to be purchased by the customer is an impulse purchase;

determining, by the at least one computing device of the payment service and based at least in part on the determining that the particular item of the one or more items to be purchased by the customer is an impulse purchase, a budgetary operation to perform with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant; and

performing, by the at least one computing device of the payment service, the budgetary operation with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant, wherein the budgetary operation includes one or more of transferring funds, altering the ticket information, or setting a spending limit.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving information of the customer;

wherein the determining that the particular item is an impulse purchase is further based at least in part on the information of the customer.

19. A method as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

determining, based on the interaction information and the budgetary profile of the customer, that the interaction of the customer with the first merchant is a type of interaction associated with the budgetary operation, wherein the determining the budgetary operation to perform with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant is further based at least in part on the determining the interaction of the customer with the first merchant is the type of interaction associated with the budgetary operation.

20. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the determining the budgetary operation to perform with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant is further based at least in part on one of an item or an item customization requested by the customer from the first merchant as part of the interaction.