Method and system with multi-tier club memberships for discounted buying on the internet and at store locations
First Claim
1. A method of buying and selling using club memberships as a basis for buyers to receive discounts on purchases of products offered by sellers through at least one of a computer system, the Internet, e-mail, electronic data interchange (EDI), television, telephone, facsimile (fax), catalogs, magazines, newspapers, coupons, and mailings and additionally at in-store locations, wherein the products comprise either goods or services, the method comprising:
- making a plurality of discounted product offers from the sellers available to the buyers by integrating an Internet online channel of purchasing with real-world offline channels of purchasing;
providing the club memberships and associated membership cards of the buyers to provide access to the integrated channels and the discounted product offers from the sellers; and
wherein the buyers who are club members have access to a club Internet web site that allows the club members to access the discounted product offers on individual seller discount pages from the sellers directly linked through seller logos or seller names either generally or by product category to the club Internet web site without the buyers having to visit a multitude of seller sites separately and locate the individual seller discount pages from within information included on the seller sites.
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Accused Products
Abstract
This invention relates to a method and system as a branded club product (goods and services) discounting membership, universal discount card technology, hardware infrastructure, operational and software corporate team amalgamation, seller and buyer critical mass, essential implementation and real-time operational approach to integrate internet e-commerce with in-store commerce in physical store locations, at the point of sale (POS) checkout at store registers, of initially hundreds and eventually thousands of sellers, electronically and operationally, launching and igniting a whole new generation of advertising, buying and selling.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of buying and selling using club memberships as a basis for buyers to receive discounts on purchases of products offered by sellers through at least one of a computer system, the Internet, e-mail, electronic data interchange (EDI), television, telephone, facsimile (fax), catalogs, magazines, newspapers, coupons, and mailings and additionally at in-store locations, wherein the products comprise either goods or services, the method comprising:
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making a plurality of discounted product offers from the sellers available to the buyers by integrating an Internet online channel of purchasing with real-world offline channels of purchasing;
providing the club memberships and associated membership cards of the buyers to provide access to the integrated channels and the discounted product offers from the sellers; and
wherein the buyers who are club members have access to a club Internet web site that allows the club members to access the discounted product offers on individual seller discount pages from the sellers directly linked through seller logos or seller names either generally or by product category to the club Internet web site without the buyers having to visit a multitude of seller sites separately and locate the individual seller discount pages from within information included on the seller sites. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A club membership product discounting system in which sellers advertise discount product offers to buyers for purchase through an integration of online and offline channels, the system comprising:
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means for hosting, managing and operating a club membership Internet web site on which the sellers can advertise the discount product offers to the buyers through links to discount pages from at least one of seller logos and seller names;
means for indicating additional important temporal product information at the seller logos prior to receiving commands from the buyers to link to the discount pages;
means for allowing the respective sellers to add, remove and revise data on the discount pages associated with the respective sellers;
means for linking to respective main web sites of the respective sellers from the respective discount pages;
means for allowing the buyers to purchase discounted products online securely; and
means for electronically transmitting discounted product data from the hosting means to seller in-store checkout registers. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification