Systems and methods for facilitating a transaction by use of third party subsidies
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- identifying a customer'"'"'s interest in purchasing a product; and
outputting an offer to the customer, wherein the offer comprises a benefit to be provided to the customer in exchange for the customer'"'"'s agreement to perform a first task and a second task, and wherein the first task and the benefit is associated with a first entity and the second task is associated with a second entity.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are provided to process a transaction in which a customer purchases an item. A third party subsidy offer, such as an offer to apply a third party subsidy amount to the transaction in exchange for the customer performing a task, is provided to the customer. The third party subsidy offer may be provided to the customer in response to the customer indicating an interest in purchasing the item. An evaluation may be performed to determine if a merchant benefit, such as a merchant subsidy amount, will also be applied to the transaction. A further evaluation may be performed to determine whether an additional task, not corresponding to a benefit, will also be associated with the third party subsidy offer and also output to the customer in conjunction with, or as part of, the third party subsidy offer.
128 Citations
72 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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identifying a customer'"'"'s interest in purchasing a product; and
outputting an offer to the customer, wherein the offer comprises a benefit to be provided to the customer in exchange for the customer'"'"'s agreement to perform a first task and a second task, and wherein the first task and the benefit is associated with a first entity and the second task is associated with a second entity. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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14. The method oflaim 13, further comprising:
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determining a retail price of the product; and
wherein the step of determining the benefit comprises determining the benefit based on the retail price.
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15. The step of cla im 13, wherein the step of determining the benefit based on the retail price comprises:
determining a value of the benefit such that the value does not exceed the retail price.
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22. A method comprising:
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identifying a first offer for output to a customer, the first offer comprising a first benefit to be provided to the customer in exchange for the customer'"'"'s commitment to perform a first task;
identifying a second task;
generating a second offer for output to the customer, the second offer comprising the first benefit to be provided to the customer in exchange for the customer'"'"'s commitment to perform the first task and the second task; and
causing the second offer to be output to the customer. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65)
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47. A method comprising:
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receiving an indication a customer is interested in purchasing an item from a merchant;
identifying a third party subsidy offer to be provided to the customer, wherein the third party subsidy offer defines (i) a benefit to be applied to the transaction, and (ii) a first task to be performed by the customer, and wherein the benefit is provided by a third party associated with the third party subsidy offer;
identifying a second task to be performed by the customer, wherein the second task is a task provided by the merchant; and
causing an indication of the third party subsidy offer and the second task to be output to the customer, wherein it is not revealed to the customer that the benefit is provided by the third party and not by the merchant.
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56. A method comprising:
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receiving, from a first party, an offer to be provided to a customer, wherein the offer defines a task the customer is to perform in order to receive a first benefit defined by the offer;
receiving, from a second party, an indication of an additional task the customer is to perform, wherein there is no second benefit the customer is to receive in exchange for performing the second task;
modifying the offer to define both the task and the second task, wherein the customer is to perform both the task and the second task in order to receive the first benefit defined by the offer;
charging the first party a first monetary amount based on a value of the benefit;
charging the second party a second monetary amount;
outputting the modified offer to the customer without revealing that the second party is not contributing to the first benefit; and
providing the benefit to the customer if an acceptance of the modified offer is received from the customer.
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59. A method comprising:
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providing, to a merchant, an indication of an offer to be output to a customer of the merchant, wherein the offer defines a task to be performed by the customer in exchange and a benefit to be provided to the customer; and
providing, to the merchant, an agreement that at least one additional task associated with another entity may be included in the offer before the offer is output to the customer.
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66. A method comprising:
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providing, to a merchant, an indication of an additional task to be included in an offer to be output to a customer, wherein the offer defines a benefit to be provided to the customer in exchange for performing a task that is different from the additional task, and wherein the offer is sponsored by a third party; and
providing, to the merchant, a payment in exchange for including the additional task in the offer. - View Dependent Claims (67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72)
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Specification