Methods for providing a location based merchant presence
First Claim
1. A method for providing a merchant presence to a consumer, comprising:
- receiving merchant information in an electronic medium that defines the merchant presence, the merchant information including a defined location for the merchant and a category of goods and/or services offered by the merchant;
receiving information from a consumer device that includes an indication of the consumer'"'"'s location without specifying an active search for the merchant; and
if the indication of the consumer location overlaps with the defined location for the merchant, actively presenting the merchant presence to the consumer device in response to receiving the indication of the consumer'"'"'s location.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and systems for providing a merchant presence to a consumer based on the respective locations of the consumer and the merchant are disclosed. The methods include determining the location of the consumer by receiving an indication of the consumer'"'"'s location from a consumer device and transmitting an electronic message regarding the merchant'"'"'s presence to the consumer device only if the indicated location of the consumer is the same as, overlaps with, or comes within a service area, that defines the location of the merchant. The merchant'"'"'s presence is actively “pushed” to the consumer based on detecting the consumer'"'"'s location without need of the consumer to conduct an active search for the merchant. The consumer'"'"'s location may be continuously tracked using geo positioning coordinates and the merchant presence is updated based on the consumer'"'"'s changing locations. The merchant presence is transmitted in any of a variety of format compatible with the consumer device.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method for providing a merchant presence to a consumer, comprising:
-
receiving merchant information in an electronic medium that defines the merchant presence, the merchant information including a defined location for the merchant and a category of goods and/or services offered by the merchant;
receiving information from a consumer device that includes an indication of the consumer'"'"'s location without specifying an active search for the merchant; and
if the indication of the consumer location overlaps with the defined location for the merchant, actively presenting the merchant presence to the consumer device in response to receiving the indication of the consumer'"'"'s location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20)
-
-
18. A method for providing a merchant presence to a consumer, comprising:
-
receiving information in an electronic medium that includes a geographic point of origin and service area defined by the merchant, where the merchant presence includes a description of goods and/or services offered the merchant, and;
receiving an indication of the physical presence of a consumer device within the service area of the merchant; and
transmitting the merchant presence to the consumer device if the indication of the physical presence of the consume device is within the service area defined by the merchant.
-
-
19. A system for presenting a merchant presence to a consumer, comprising:
-
a presence server that stores merchant information defining the merchant presence in an electronic medium, the merchant information including a defined location for the merchant and a category of goods and/or services offered by the merchant;
a device interface operably configured with the presence server to format the merchants presence to be compatible with consumer device in at least one of a protocol and format; and
a communication port operably configured with the presence server to receive an indication of the consumer'"'"'s location and to actively transmit the formatted merchant presence to the consumer device if the indication of the consumer'"'"'s location overlaps with the defined location for the merchant.
-
Specification