Reward system

• US 20040219971A1
• Filed: 07/24/2003
• Published: 11/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kroger Company
• Original Assignee: Kroger Company
• Inventors: Coy, Adrian, Schiesler, James E., Hinds, Mark, Ciancio, David, Hay, Simon, Korfhagen, Edward J., Myatt, Sarah, Wall, Stephen L., Stern, Richard P., Freeman, Gregory J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,618,318 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0234 Rebates after completed purchase
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives

Abstract

A method for operating a reward program including the steps of establishing a plurality of product categories and receiving an indication of selected ones of the product categories. The method further includes the step of tracking customer purchases in at least the selected categories and providing a reward to the customer based at least in part upon customer purchases in the selected categories.

Claims

1. A method for operating a reward program comprising the steps of:

establishing a plurality of product categories;

receiving an indication of selected ones of the product categories;

tracking a customer'"'"'s purchases in at least the selected product categories; and

providing a reward to said customer based at least in part upon the customer'"'"'s purchases in the selected product categories over a discreet period of time.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said receiving step includes receiving an indication of selected ones of the product categories as selected by a customer.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said receiving step includes receiving an indication of selected ones of the product categories as selected by an operating store.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said selected ones of said product categories are less than all of said plurality of product categories.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said reward is based solely upon purchases by said customer in the selected categories.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said tracking step includes tracking purchases of said customer in each of the plurality of product categories.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said receiving step occurs before said the start of said tracking step.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said receiving step occurs after the start of said tracking step.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said providing step includes providing a reward only if a customer has made sufficient purchases that exceed a purchase threshold.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said reward is determined based upon customer purchases in said selected categories that are made after said purchase threshold is exceeded.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein said customer is notified after said purchase threshold has been exceeded.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of printing, on a customer'"'"'s purchase receipt, the total amount of the customer'"'"'s purchases to date that qualify towards meeting the purchase threshold at least until the customer exceeds said purchase threshold.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said reward is store credit, a coupon, a gift card, or a gift certificate.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said reward is based at least in part upon a percentage of all or a portion of said customer'"'"'s purchases in each of said selected product categories.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein further comprising the step of recognizing said selected product categories, said recognizing step including entering said selected product categories into a computer system.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said recognizing step includes linking said selected product categories to a customer account.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein said recognizing step includes scanning a bar code.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of marking products with indicia to indicate in which product category said marked products are classified.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of printing, on a customer'"'"'s purchase receipt, the total amount of the customer'"'"'s purchases to date in each of the selected product categories.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving an indication of new selected ones of said products categories, and wherein said providing step includes providing a reward to said customer based at least in part upon the customer'"'"'s purchases in the new selected categories.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein said tracking step takes place over a selected period of time in which said reward is not provided, and wherein said providing step includes providing a reward that is time limited such that said reward can be used only after said selected period of time.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein said program is operated during a time period of relatively high volume of sales, and wherein said reward is limited such that said reward can only be used during a time period of a relatively low volume of sales.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein said receiving, tracking, and providing steps are carried out for a plurality of customers.

24. A method for operating a reward program comprising the steps of:

establishing a plurality of product categories;

setting a purchase threshold;

receiving an indication of selected ones of the product categories as selected by a customer;

tracking said customer'"'"'s purchases in at least the selected categories;

at some time after the customer reaches the purchase threshold, calculating a reward based at least in part upon customer purchases in the selected categories; and

providing said reward to said customer.

25. A method for operating a reward system comprising the steps of:

tracking a customer reward based at least in part upon customer purchases over a selected period of time, wherein said reward accumulates but cannot be used during said selected period of time; and

providing a window of time after said selected period of time wherein said customer reward may be used, and wherein said reward does not accumulate during said window of time.

26. A system for tracking and calculating customer rewards comprising:

at least one computer programmed to track the amounts of customer purchases in a plurality of predetermined product categories for a plurality of customers, and to calculate a reward for each customer based at least in part upon the customer purchases in selected ones of said predetermined product categories.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein said computer is programmed to receive an indication of selected ones of said product categories as selected by a customer.

28. The system of claim 26 wherein said computer is programmed to receive an indication of selected ones of said product categories as selected by an operating store.

29. The system of claim 26 wherein said computer is programmed to store a purchase threshold and to compare the cumulative purchases of each customer to the purchase threshold.

30. The system of claim 26 further including a plurality of checkout terminals located in at least one store and coupled to said at least one computer, wherein each checkout terminal can identify the products purchased by each customer and transfer such information to said at least one computer.

31. The system of claim 26 further including a bar code scanner operatively coupled to said at least one computer, wherein said bar code scanner can identify the selected ones of said product categories.

32. The system of claim 26 further including a database of customer information, said database including customer identifying information for each customer and reward information associated with each customer, said database being readable by said computer.

33. A software device for operating on a computer and for tracking and calculating customer rewards, the software including:

a tracking module for tracking the amounts of customer purchases in a plurality of predetermined product categories for a plurality of customers; and

a calculating module for calculating a reward for each customer based at least in part upon the customer purchases in selected ones of said predetermined product categories.

34. The software device claim 33 wherein said tracking module can receive an indication of selected ones of said product categories as selected by a customer.

35. The software device of claim 33 wherein at least one of said tracking module or calculating module can store a purchase threshold and compare the cumulative purchases of each customer to the purchase threshold.

36. The software device of claim 33 wherein said software device includes a computer readable medium and a computer program stored on the computer readable medium and including said tracking and calculating modules.