Method and apparatus for facilitating the provision of a benefit to a customer of a retailer
First Claim
1. A method for providing a benefit to a customer at a point-of-sale, comprising:
- determining an offer that a customer desires to accept by receiving an indication of the offer from the customer, wherein the offer defines a benefit to be provided to the customer in exchange for the customer'"'"'s commitment to an activity;
determining a purchase that the customer previously participated in;
determining a benefit to provide to the customer based on the purchase and the offer;
providing, at a point-of-sale, the benefit to the customer in exchange for the customer'"'"'s commitment to the activity in accordance with the offer.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention, a customer participating in a purchase at a retailer is presented with an offer. The offer defines a benefit and an activity. The benefit is to be provided to the customer if the customer commits to the activity. A benefit may comprise, for example, a refund of a purchase total of the purchase during which the offer was output to the customer. The customer, at a time after the purchase during which the offer is output and after considering the offer, may accept the offer at a POS device or rebate device of the retailer. The benefit may be provided to the customer at the time of acceptance. The customer may be committed to the activity at the time of acceptance.
483 Citations
49 Claims
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1. A method for providing a benefit to a customer at a point-of-sale, comprising:
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determining an offer that a customer desires to accept by receiving an indication of the offer from the customer, wherein the offer defines a benefit to be provided to the customer in exchange for the customer'"'"'s commitment to an activity;
determining a purchase that the customer previously participated in;
determining a benefit to provide to the customer based on the purchase and the offer;
providing, at a point-of-sale, the benefit to the customer in exchange for the customer'"'"'s commitment to the activity in accordance with the offer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for providing a benefit to a customer at a point-of-sale, the method comprising:
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receiving, at a time after a purchase is completed by a customer, an acceptance of an offer from the customer, wherein the offer defines a benefit that is to be provided to the customer in exchange for the customer'"'"'s commitment to an activity;
determining, based on a purchase total associated with the purchase, an amount of cash to provide to the customer, thereby determining the benefit;
providing, at a point-of-sale, the benefit to the customer;
documenting an identity of the customer to whom the benefit was provided;
storing an indication of the customer'"'"'s acceptance of the offer; and
determining, based on the identity, whether the customer fulfilled the commitment to the activity in accordance with the offer. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method for providing a benefit to a customer at a point-of-sale terminal, comprising:
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receiving, at a point-of-sale terminal, a receipt of a purchase previously completed by a customer;
receiving, at a point-of-sale terminal, an identifier that identifies an offer that the customer desires to accept, wherein the offer defines at least a portion of a purchase total associated with the previous purchase to be provided to the customer in exchange for the customer'"'"'s commitment to an activity;
determining a current time;
determining a time at which the purchase was completed;
determining whether the current time is within a predetermined period of time from the time at which the purchase was completed;
determining an amount of cash to be provided to the customer, based on the at least a portion of the purchase total defined by the offer;
causing, if the current time is within the predetermined period of time from the time at which the transaction was completed, the amount of cash to be provided to the customer from a cash drawer of the point-of-sale terminal; and
registering the customer for the activity defined by the offer. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A method for providing an amount of cash to a customer, comprising:
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determining an acceptance of an offer by a customer, wherein the offer defines a benefit to be provided to the customer in exchange for a commitment from the customer to perform an activity;
determining an identifier that identifies the offer;
determining an identifier that identifies a purchase completed at a time before the current time;
determining an indication of an identity of a customer who is accepting the offer determining an amount of cash to be provided to a customer, thereby determining the benefit of the offer;
authorizing the amount of cash to be removed from a cash drawer of a point-of-sale terminal and provided to the customer in exchange for the acceptance of the offer;
storing, in a memory associated with the point-of-sale register, an indication of the amount of cash as having been removed from the cash drawer of the point-of-sale terminal, wherein the indication is stored in association with each of the identifier that identifies the purchase, the identifier that identifies the offer, and the indication of the identity of the customer. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A method for determining an offer to provide to a customer at a point-of-sale, the method comprising:
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determining a purchase total of a purchase being completed by a customer;
determining at least one item included in the purchase;
determining an offer to provide to the customer based on at least one of the purchase total and the at least one item, wherein the offer defines an amount of cash that is at least a portion of the purchase total to be provided to the customer from a cash drawer of a point-of-sale terminal in exchange for the customer'"'"'s commitment to an activity, and outputting the offer to the customer as the customer completes the purchase, wherein the offer may only be accepted by the customer in a transaction other than the purchase. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49)
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Specification