Systems and Methods to Aggregate Demand

• US 20110087531A1
• Filed: 10/07/2010
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fordyce, Edward W. III, DiGioacchino, Laura, Salmon, Diane C., Siegel, Kevin Paul, VonDerheide, James Alan, Winters, Michelle Eng, Griggs, Alfred William, Subramanian, Kaushik, Amaro, Leigh
• Granted Patent: US 9,031,860 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• 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 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0231 Awarding of a frequent usage incentive independent of the monetary value of a good or service purchased, or distance travelled

Abstract

In one aspect, a computing apparatus includes: a data warehouse to store data associating a plurality of account identifiers with an offer having a predefined purchase requirement and an aggregated purchase requirement for a benefit; and a transaction handler configured to process a plurality of transactions. The transaction handler is further configured to determine whether each of the plurality of transactions satisfies a predefined purchase requirement, identify a set of transactions each satisfying the predefined purchase requirement, and determine whether the set of transactions satisfies an aggregated purchase requirement for the benefit. In one example, the transaction handler is configured to provide the benefit via statement credits when the set of transactions satisfies the aggregated purchase requirement.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

processing, in a computing apparatus, a plurality of transactions, each of the transactions being processed to make a payment from an issuer to an acquirer via a transaction handler in response to an account identifier of a customer, as issued by the issuer, being submitted by a merchant to the acquirer, the issuer to make the payment on behalf of the customer, the acquirer to receive the payment on behalf of the merchant;

determining, by the computing apparatus, whether each of the plurality of transactions satisfies a predefined purchase requirement;

identifying, by the computing apparatus, a set of transactions each satisfying the predefined purchase requirement; and

determining, by the computing apparatus, whether the set of transactions satisfies an aggregated purchase requirement, wherein customers of the set of transactions are entitled to a predefined benefit when the set of transactions satisfies the aggregated purchase requirement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing of the plurality of transactions comprises:

receiving, by the computing apparatus, authorization requests of the plurality of transactions;

determining, by the computing apparatus, whether the account identifiers identified in the authorization requests are associated with an offer of the benefit;

embedding, by the computing apparatus, requests for purchase details in authorization responses for account identifiers that are associated with the offer; and

receiving, by the computing apparatus, the purchase details, wherein the identifying of the set of transactions each satisfying the predefined purchase requirement is based on the purchase details.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the purchase details are received with settlement requests of respective transactions.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the purchase details identify stock keeping unit (SKU) information of items paid for via the respective transactions.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein a corresponding transaction is determined to satisfy the predefined purchase requirement when the purchase details of the corresponding transaction indicate that a predefined item is purchased via the corresponding transaction.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the predefined item is one of:

a product and a service.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of transactions is determined to satisfy the aggregated purchase requirement when a count of total units of the predefined item paid for via the set of transactions is above a predetermined threshold.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of transactions is determined to satisfy the aggregated purchase requirement when a count of transactions in the set is above a predetermined threshold.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of transactions is identified from transactions having authorization requests submitted to the transaction handler prior to an expiration time of the offer.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the benefit comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of incentive, discount, gift, reward, cash back, and rebate.

11. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

providing, by the computing apparatus, the benefit via statement credits, when the set of transactions satisfies the aggregated purchase requirement.

12. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

providing the offer of the benefit to a plurality of customers on a social networking website.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the providing of the offer comprises:

signing customers up to a group on the social networking website to receive the offer; and

associating account identifiers of customers in the group with the offer.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the associating is in response to a count of customers in the group exceeding a predetermined threshold.

15. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

registering, via a computing apparatus, a set of intended purchases, wherein each of the intended purchases satisfies a predefined purchase requirement;

determining, by the computing apparatus, whether the set of intended purchases satisfies an aggregated purchase requirement; and

if the set of intended purchases satisfies the aggregated purchase requirement, processing payment transactions by the computing apparatus for the set of intended purchases, wherein each of the transactions is processed to make a payment from an issuer to an acquirer via a transaction handler using an account identifier of a customer as issued by the issuer, the issuer is to make the payment on behalf of the customer, and the acquirer is to receive the payment on behalf of a merchant.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the processing of the payment transactions comprises providing a benefit to purchasers of the intended purchases in accordance with an offer that specifies the predefined purchase requirement and the aggregated purchase requirement.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the payment transactions are initiated by the computing apparatus in response to a determination that requirements of the offer are satisfied by the set of intended purchases.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the benefit comprises a discounted price for the set of intended purchases;

and the discounted price is computed based on one or more suggested prices specified by customers of the intended purchases.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the registering of the set of intended purchases is via a group hosted on a social networking website;

and the method further comprises;

facilitating, by the computing apparatus, price negotiation between the group and one or more providers of products or services of the intended purchases.

20. A system, comprising:

a data warehouse to store data associating a plurality of account identifiers with an offer for a benefit having a predefined purchase requirement and an aggregated purchase requirement; and

a transaction handler configured to process a plurality of transactions, each of the transactions being processed to make a payment from an issuer to an acquirer via the transaction handler in response to an account identifier of a customer, as issued by the issuer, being submitted by a merchant to the acquirer, the issuer to make the payment on behalf of the customer, the acquirer to receive the payment on behalf of the merchant;

wherein the transaction handler is further configured to determine whether each of the plurality of transactions satisfies a predefined purchase requirement, to identify a set of transactions each satisfying the predefined purchase requirement, and to determine whether the set of transactions satisfies an aggregated purchase requirement for the benefit; and

wherein the transaction handler is to provide the benefit via statement credits when the set of transactions satisfies the aggregated purchase requirement.