Providing offers and associated location information
First Claim
1. An affiliate-network system configured to act as an intermediary between merchants issuing coupons or other offers and online publishers promoting the offers to consumers, the affiliate-network system being configured to distribute and track usage of both on-line offers and in-store offers, the system comprising:
- one or more processors;
non-transitory tangible computer-readable memory storing instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising;
obtaining a coupon issued by a merchant, the coupon being redeemable both in-store, at a physical location of the merchant, and online, at a web site of the merchant, the coupon being obtained as a digital record describing terms of the coupon;
obtaining one or more merchant location identifiers associated with the coupon, the merchant location identifiers designating respective geographic areas where the coupon is to be presented to consumers based on the consumers indicating that they are located in the respective geographic areas;
forming, for the coupon, for each of a plurality of online coupon publishers, a coupon-and-publisher-specific uniform resource identifier (URI) that uniquely identifies the respective publisher and the coupon such that a plurality of different coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs are formed for the plurality of publishers;
sending the coupon, the merchant location identifiers, and the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs to publishers for presentation to consumers by the publishers on user devices of the consumers, wherein different coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs, corresponding to the different respective publishers, are sent to the different respective publishers among the plurality of publishers;
receiving a first one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs in a transport protocol first message from a first user device of a first consumer;
accessing a first coupon display template corresponding to a first publisher corresponding to the first one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs;
sending instructions to the first user device to display a first presentation of the coupon that is customized according to the accessed first coupon display template;
receiving, from the first user device, a selection of an in-store redemption option and, in response effectuating operations comprising;
based on having received the first one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs, attributing in memory an in-store redemption of the coupon to the first publisher corresponding to the first one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs, the attribution being associated with at least one of the merchant location identifiers, andsending the first consumer redemption data documenting that the first consumer is in possession of the coupon for in-store presentation to the merchant at a geographic merchant location;
receiving a second, different one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs in a transport protocol second message from a second user device of a second consumer;
accessing a second coupon display template corresponding to a second publisher corresponding to the second one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs;
sending instructions to the second user device to display a second presentation of the coupon that is customized according to the accessed second coupon display template, wherein the first presentation is visually different from the second presentation such that the first and second presentations are customized to distinguish the first and second publishers even though the instructions to display the presentations being sent from the same computer system and the presentations being of the same coupon;
receiving, from the second user device, a selection of an online redemption option and, in response effectuating operations comprising;
based on having received the second one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs, attributing in memory an online redemption of the coupon to the second publisher corresponding to the second one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs, andsending a redirect command to the second user device, the redirect command instructing the second user device to automatically request and display webpage content from a website of the merchant.
9 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Provided is a process, including: obtaining a coupon issued by a merchant, the coupon being redeemable in-store, at a physical location of the merchant; obtaining one or more merchant location identifiers, the coupon only being redeemable at one or more merchant locations identified by the one or more merchant location identifiers; sending the coupon and the merchant location identifiers to publishers for presentation to consumers by the publishers on user devices of the consumers; and receiving indications from the user devices of the consumers that the consumers interacted with the coupon, the indications indicating a consumer selection of an in-store redemption option.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. An affiliate-network system configured to act as an intermediary between merchants issuing coupons or other offers and online publishers promoting the offers to consumers, the affiliate-network system being configured to distribute and track usage of both on-line offers and in-store offers, the system comprising:
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one or more processors; non-transitory tangible computer-readable memory storing instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising; obtaining a coupon issued by a merchant, the coupon being redeemable both in-store, at a physical location of the merchant, and online, at a web site of the merchant, the coupon being obtained as a digital record describing terms of the coupon; obtaining one or more merchant location identifiers associated with the coupon, the merchant location identifiers designating respective geographic areas where the coupon is to be presented to consumers based on the consumers indicating that they are located in the respective geographic areas; forming, for the coupon, for each of a plurality of online coupon publishers, a coupon-and-publisher-specific uniform resource identifier (URI) that uniquely identifies the respective publisher and the coupon such that a plurality of different coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs are formed for the plurality of publishers; sending the coupon, the merchant location identifiers, and the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs to publishers for presentation to consumers by the publishers on user devices of the consumers, wherein different coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs, corresponding to the different respective publishers, are sent to the different respective publishers among the plurality of publishers; receiving a first one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs in a transport protocol first message from a first user device of a first consumer; accessing a first coupon display template corresponding to a first publisher corresponding to the first one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs; sending instructions to the first user device to display a first presentation of the coupon that is customized according to the accessed first coupon display template; receiving, from the first user device, a selection of an in-store redemption option and, in response effectuating operations comprising; based on having received the first one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs, attributing in memory an in-store redemption of the coupon to the first publisher corresponding to the first one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs, the attribution being associated with at least one of the merchant location identifiers, and sending the first consumer redemption data documenting that the first consumer is in possession of the coupon for in-store presentation to the merchant at a geographic merchant location; receiving a second, different one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs in a transport protocol second message from a second user device of a second consumer; accessing a second coupon display template corresponding to a second publisher corresponding to the second one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs; sending instructions to the second user device to display a second presentation of the coupon that is customized according to the accessed second coupon display template, wherein the first presentation is visually different from the second presentation such that the first and second presentations are customized to distinguish the first and second publishers even though the instructions to display the presentations being sent from the same computer system and the presentations being of the same coupon; receiving, from the second user device, a selection of an online redemption option and, in response effectuating operations comprising; based on having received the second one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs, attributing in memory an online redemption of the coupon to the second publisher corresponding to the second one of the coupon-and-publisher-specific URIs, and sending a redirect command to the second user device, the redirect command instructing the second user device to automatically request and display webpage content from a website of the merchant. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification