INCREMENTAL PROMOTION FOR ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
First Claim
1. An electronic commerce apparatus for offering a promotional award to a visitor of an electronic commerce site, comprising:
- a connection to a distributed communication network;
a promotional awards storage area, including;
a visitor identifier storage that contains unique identification information for each visitor to said site, a number of previous visits storage that contains information pertaining to prior visits to said site by visitors identified in said visitor identifier storage, and an award time storage that stores a time of a last award for each visitor to said site; and
an awards rule storage that stores rules for crediting awards to visitors of said site according to information stored in said visitor parameter storage, said award rule storage including a rule that determines a specific promotional award based on whether a predetermined time period has elapsed since said last award time;
wherein a visitor of said site is granted a promotional award by retrieving visitor parameter information from said visitor parameter storage corresponding to customer identification information stored in said customer identifier storage in response to visitor identification information provided to said apparatus upon visitor access to said site, and applying retrieved visitor parameter information to award crediting rules retrieved from said awards rule storage.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for offering a promotional award to a visitor to an electronic commerce site. The electronic commerce apparatus comprises a connection to a distributed communication network, at least one promotional awards storage area for a visitor, including a customer identifier storage and an award amount storage, and an awards rule storage, wherein the visitor is granted a promotional award upon visiting the electronic commerce site, with the promotional award amount being controlled by an awards rule contained in the awards rule storage. The method comprises the steps of detecting a site visit by a visitor, granting a promotional award to the visitor, and adding the promotional award to a pre-existing promotional award, if the site visit is not a first site visit by the visitor, wherein the visitor is motivated to make multiple site visits and a purchase as a result of the promotional award.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. An electronic commerce apparatus for offering a promotional award to a visitor of an electronic commerce site, comprising:
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a connection to a distributed communication network;
a promotional awards storage area, including;
a visitor identifier storage that contains unique identification information for each visitor to said site, a number of previous visits storage that contains information pertaining to prior visits to said site by visitors identified in said visitor identifier storage, and an award time storage that stores a time of a last award for each visitor to said site; and
an awards rule storage that stores rules for crediting awards to visitors of said site according to information stored in said visitor parameter storage, said award rule storage including a rule that determines a specific promotional award based on whether a predetermined time period has elapsed since said last award time;
wherein a visitor of said site is granted a promotional award by retrieving visitor parameter information from said visitor parameter storage corresponding to customer identification information stored in said customer identifier storage in response to visitor identification information provided to said apparatus upon visitor access to said site, and applying retrieved visitor parameter information to award crediting rules retrieved from said awards rule storage. - View Dependent Claims (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 26)
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3. (canceled)
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10. A method for offering a promotional award to a visitor to an electronic commerce site, comprising the steps of:
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detecting a site visit by a visitor and tracking a number of visits to said site by said visitor;
granting a promotional award for each site visit by said visitor, said promotional award having a value that increases for each successive site visit by said visitor; and
adding said promotional award values together to form a cumulative total for said visitor. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 27)
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13. (canceled)
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19. A method for offering a promotional award to a visitor of an electronic commerce site, comprising the steps of:
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detecting a site visit by a visitor;
storing information identifying a visitor and identifying prior promotional awards credited to said visitor;
determining whether said visitor has already exceeded a predetermined promotional award limit;
granting a promotional award to said visitor if said visitor has not exceeded said predetermined promotional award limit, said promotional award having a value that is greater than the value of the preceding promotional award granted to said visitor for visiting said site; and
adding said promotional award value to the value of said prior credited promotional awards associated with said visitor identification information. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28)
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Specification