Adaptable retail pricing environment and electronic exchange, delivering customized shopper rewards

• US 10,275,784 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2011
• Issued: 04/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Safeway Incorporated (Albertsons Cos., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Safeway Incorporated (Albertsons Cos., Inc.)
• Inventors: Thomas, David Edward, Quinn, Jonathan G., Minasi, Michael Robert, Marian, Michelle, Aamir, Mir Mohammad, Pattison, Tamara Ruth
• Primary Examiner(s): Li, Sun M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thuy N
• Application Number:
  US13/072,547
• Publication Number:
  US 20110288924A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,958 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history

Abstract

An individualized discount and reward server includes one or more linked databases to store customer data, where the customer data includes at least one retailer account and purchase history associated with the customer. The server includes a processor to allocate at least one customized offer to the retailer account using at least the purchase history associated with the customer, where the at least one customized offer includes a loyalty adjustment changing a general market price point of a product in accordance with the customized offer. The processor redeems the customized offer upon receiving a purchase notification. The customized offer is redeemed by associating the product with the loyalty adjustment independent of the general market price point associated with the product at a time of reception of the purchase notification.

Claims

1. An individualized discount and reward server of a retailer, the server comprising:

a processor and instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium which, when processed by the processor, causes the individualized discount and reward server of the retailer to;

send to a computer system of a consumer packaged good partner, via a network, information that a customer is only willing to buy a consumer packaged good partner'"'"'s product at a reduced price;

after the computer system of the consumer packaged good partner receives the information, receive from the computer system of the consumer packaged good partner an agreement to provide funding for at least one customized offer for the consumer packaged good partner'"'"'s product;

allocate the at least one customized offer to a retailer account based on the agreement using at least a purchase history associated with the customer, the at least one customized offer including a loyalty adjustment changing a general market price point of the product to a discount price point;

display to a point of sale device, via an interface, a display page including categorical display of a plurality of offers that includes the at least one customized offer and an offer selection option for individual selection of each offer included in the plurality of offers, wherein at least one of the plurality of offers comprises a comparison of an offer price to a competitor'"'"'s price for a similar product;

receive a customer input indicating selection of the at least one customized offer from the point of sale device;

update, upon reception of the customer input indicating selection of the at least one customized offer, the retailer account associated with the customer to indicate selection of the at least one customized offer;

receiving a purchase notification from the point of sale device specifying the retailer account associated with the customer and the product; and

upon receiving the purchase notification from the point of sale device;

i) diverting the purchase notification to a second server which is operated by the retailer and separate from the individualized discount and reward server, and

ii) distributing one or more functions to the second server to prevent the individualized discount and reward server from being slowed down, the one or more functions distributed to the second server including;

a. retrieving the retailer account specified in the purchase notification, and

b. redeeming the customized offer by associating the product with the loyalty adjustment independent of the general market price point associated with the product at a time of reception of the purchase notification.

2. The server according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

display to the point of sale device, via the interface, another display page including a list of each offer individually selected by the customer, the another display page including a first option to send an email to the customer including the list or a second option to print the list.

3. The server according to claim 1, wherein the loyalty adjustment includes a reward for at least one additional service offered by the retailer.

4. The server according to claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine the discount price point using at least the purchase history associated with the customer, the purchase history specifying one or more previous purchase prices of the product, the discount price point set to be equal to or lower than a highest purchase price included in the specified one or more previous purchase prices.

5. The server according to claim 1, wherein the at least one customized offer further includes an offer limit specifying that the customer can purchase a specified amount of the product through a predetermined expiration date.

6. The server according to claim 1, wherein the at least one customized offer is further allocated to the customer according to selection of the product from a predetermined list of products displayed to the customer.

7. The server according to claim 1, wherein the display of the plurality of offers is sorted according to the purchase history associated with the customer.

8. The server according to claim 1, wherein

another display page includes a third option to send the list to a mobile device of the customer, and

upon selection of the third option included in the another display page, the processor is further configured to send the list to the mobile device of the customer in which the list is displayed on the mobile device via a mobile application associated with the loyalty program of the retailer.

9. An individualized discount and reward system of a retailer comprising:

a first server, a second server, and a point of sale device,

the first server including;

one or more linked databases to store customer data associated with a loyalty program of a retailer, the customer data including at least one retailer account purchase history associated with the customer;

an interface to receive a customer input from a point of sale device;

a processor that causes the first server of the individualized discount and reward system of the retailer to;

send to a computer system of a consumer packaged good partner, via a network, information that a customer is only willing to buy a consumer packaged good partner'"'"'s product at a reduced price;

after the computer system of the consumer packaged good partner receives the information, receive from the computer system of the consumer packaged good partner an agreement to provide funding for at least one customized offer for the consumer packaged good partner'"'"'s product;

allocate the at least one customized offer to the retailer account based on the agreement using at least the purchase history associated with the customer, the at least one customized offer including a loyalty adjustment changing a general market price point of the product to a discount price point;

display to the point of sale device, via the interface, a display page including a categorical display of a plurality of offers that includes the at least one customized offer and an offer selection option for individual selection of each offer included in the plurality of offers, wherein at least one of the plurality of offers comprises a comparison of an offer price to a competitor'"'"'s price for a similar product;

update, upon reception of the customer input indicating selection of the at least one customized offer, the retailer account associated with the customer to indicate selection of the at least one customized offer;

receive a purchase notification from the point of sale device specifying the retailer account associated with the customer and the product; and

upon receiving the purchase notification from the point of sale device;

i) divert the purchase notification to the second server which is operated by the retailer and separate from the first server, and

ii) distribute one or more functions to the second server to prevent the first server from being slowed down, the one or more functions distributed to the second server including;

 

a. retrieving the retailer account specified in the purchase notification, and

 

b. redeeming the customized offer by associating the product with the loyalty adjustment independent of the general market price point associated with the product at a time of reception of the purchase notification; and

the point of sale device to transmit the purchase notification to the first server.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:

display to the point of sale device, via the interface, another display page including a list of each offer individually selected by the customer, the another display page including a first option to send an email to the customer including the list or a second option to print the list.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the loyalty adjustment is a reward for at least one additional service provided by the retailer.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine the discount price point using at least the purchase history associated with the customer, the purchase history specifying one or more previous purchase prices of the product, the discount price point set to be equal to or lower than a highest purchase price included in the specified one or more previous purchase prices.

13. The system according to claim 9, wherein the at least one customized offer further includes an offer limit specifying that the customer can purchase a specified amount of the product through a predetermined expiration date.

14. The system according to claim 9, wherein the at least one customized offer is further allocated to the customer according to selection of the product from a predetermined list of products displayed to the customer.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor in an individualized discount and reward server of a retailer causes the individualized discount and reward server of the retailer to:

store, in one or more linked databases, customer data associated with a loyalty program of a retailer, the customer data including at least one retailer account and purchase history associated with the customer;

receive a customer input from a point of sale device via an interface of the individualized discount and reward server of the retailer;

send to a computer system of a consumer packaged good partner, via a network, information that a customer is only willing to buy a consumer packaged good partner'"'"'s product at a reduced price;

after the computer system of the consumer packaged good partner receives the information, receive from the computer system of the consumer packaged good partner an agreement to provide funding for at least one customized offer for the consumer packaged good partner'"'"'s product;

allocate the at least one customized offer to the retailer account based on the agreement using at least the purchase history associated with the customer, the at least one customized offer including a loyalty adjustment changing a general market price point of the product to a discount price point;

display to the point of sale device, via the interface, a display page including a categorical display of a plurality of offers that includes the at least one customized offer and an offer selection option for individual selection of the at least of each offer included in the plurality of offers, wherein at least one of the plurality of offers comprises a comparison of an offer price to a competitor'"'"'s price for a similar product;

update, upon reception of the customer input indicating selection of the at least one customized offer, the retailer account associated with the customer to indicate selection of the at least one customized offer;

receive a purchase notification from the point of sale device specifying the retailer account associated with the customer and the product; and

upon receipt the purchase notification from the point of sale device;

i) divert the purchase notification to a second server which is operated by the retailer and separate from the individualized discount and reward server, and

ii) distribute one or more functions to the second server to prevent the individualized discount and reward server from being slowed down, the one or more functions distributed to the second server including;

a) retrieving the retailer account specified in the purchase notification, and

b) redeeming the customized offer by associating the product with the loyalty adjustment independent of the general market price point associated with the product at a time of reception of the purchase notification.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the server to:

display to the point of sale device, via the interface, another display page including a list of each offer individually selected by the customer, the another display page including a first option to send an email to the customer including the list or a second option to print the list.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the loyalty adjustment is a reward for at least one additional service provided by the retailer.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 16, wherein the executable instructions further cause the server to:

determine the discount price point using at least the purchase history associated with the customer, the purchase history specifying one or more previous purchase prices of the product, the discount price point set to be equal to or lower than a highest purchase price included in the specified one or more previous purchase prices.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the at least one customized offer further includes an offer limit specifying that the customer can purchase a specified amount of the product through a predetermined expiration date.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the at least one customized offer is further allocated to the customer according to selection of the product from a predetermined list of products displayed to the customer.