Systems and methods for providing a reward at a point of return
First Claim
1. A method of handling merchandise return transactions at a merchant'"'"'s point of return comprising offering a reward to a customer who is requesting to return merchandise at the point of return, wherein the offer of the reward is based, at least in part, on the fact that the customer is requesting a return.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are described for providing rewards, such as coupons, instant discounts, or rebates, to customers requesting to return merchandise at a merchant'"'"'s point of return. The reward may be offered, for example, as an incentive not to complete the return or to encourage another purchase. A coupon with a short-term validity may encourage the customer to redeem the coupon before leaving the store, or within a given time frame. Terms of the reward may be personalized for the individual customer, for the return transaction, and/or for the current conditions at the store. The reward may be printed or otherwise provided by a return transaction device, such as with a receipt for the return transaction. Alternatively, the reward may be printed on another device and/or may be provided to the customer using a wide variety of other communications technologies.
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Citations
33 Claims
- 1. A method of handling merchandise return transactions at a merchant'"'"'s point of return comprising offering a reward to a customer who is requesting to return merchandise at the point of return, wherein the offer of the reward is based, at least in part, on the fact that the customer is requesting a return.
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5. A method of processing a merchandise return, comprising:
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receiving a request at a merchant'"'"'s point of return to accept a merchandise return from a customer;
transmitting information about the merchandise return from the point of return to a computerized system; and
receiving information from the computerized system about a reward to be offered to the customer. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. An apparatus for providing a coupon to a customer requesting to make a merchandise return, the apparatus comprising:
- a point of return device in communication with a computerized coupon service, wherein the point of return device is configured to receive input about the requested merchandise return and to provide the input to the computerized coupon service, and wherein the point of return device is further configured to receive information from the computerized coupon service regarding issuing a coupon to the customer.
- View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26)
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27. A system for processing a merchandise return, the system comprising:
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means for receiving a request at a point of return to accept a merchandise return from a customer;
means for transmitting information about the merchandise return from the point of return to a computerized coupon system; and
means for receiving from the computerized coupon system information about a reward to be offered to the customer. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification