Bidding to Receive Data After a Consumer is in a Zone

• US 20110307338A1
• Filed: 08/18/2011
• Published: 12/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Carlson, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,538,831 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.64
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

An announcement distributor distributes, or auctions an opportunity to distribute, an announcement to an announcement recipient such as a consumer, issuer, merchant, or acquirer within a payment processing system. The announcement when there has been a satisfaction of an announcement condition, such as the consumer being determined to be located within a predetermined spatial zone. The content of the announcement may, in turn, facilitate a subsequent cashless transaction for resources of merchants. Implementations describe various permutations of the content of the announcement, the announcement condition, and the announcement recipient.

Claims

1. A point-of-interaction terminal, comprising:

memory to store data related to communicating with a consumer when the consumer is located in a zone; and

a processor coupled to access the memory and configured to implement a method comprising;

forming a first electronic transmission, addressed to an auctioneer, of an option to receive the data, the first electronic transmission including a merchant indicator usable to determine a return address of a merchant and further including an announcement condition for forming a bid for the option, the announcement condition including presence of the consumer within the zone;

when the announcement condition is satisfied, forming the bid, wherein the bid is addressed to the auctioneer; and

when the bid is a winning bid, receiving the data at the return address.

2. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises enabling a communication to a portable consumer device co-located with the consumer.

3. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 2, wherein the enabling the communication includes forming a second electronic transmission addressed to the portable consumer device, the second electronic transmission including a message from the merchant.

4. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 2, wherein the communication includes indicia of a discount for the consumer to receive when:

the consumer engages in a transaction upon an account issued to the consumer by an issuer; and

the transaction is conducted at the point-of-interaction terminal.

5. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving first information from a portable consumer device that is co-located with the consumer; and

prior to the forming the bid, forming a second electronic transmission addressed to the auctioneer, wherein the second electronic transmission includes the merchant indicator and the first information.

6. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 1, wherein the announcement condition further includes a criterion that is selected from the group consisting of:

a window of time for receiving the data;

an account category of at least one account of the consumer issued to the consumer by an issuer within a payment processing system;

a transaction history of at least one account of the consumer indicating a tendency to purchase resources matching that of the merchant, the at least one account issued to the consumer by an issuer within a payment processing system;

a demographic of the consumer;

an occurrence of a transaction upon at least one account of the consumer while the consumer has been in the zone, the at least one account issued to the consumer by an issuer within a payment processing system; and

combinations of the foregoing.

7. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises successively repeating the forming the bid to provide a plurality of successive bids until at least one of the plurality of successive bids is the winning bid.

8. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 1, further comprising a reader to interface with a portable consumer device.

9. The point-of interaction terminal of claim 1, further comprising a cellular telephone.

10. The point-of interaction terminal of claim 1, further comprising a display for presenting a user interface, and wherein the method further comprises rendering, via a browser, the user interface for receiving input from a user for forming the first electronic transmission.

11. A point-of-interaction terminal, comprising:

memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to implement a method comprising;

submitting a bid to receive an announcement after at least one criterion of an announcement condition is satisfied, the announcement including data about a consumer, and the at least one criterion including presence of the consumer within a zone;

receiving notification that the bid is a winning bid; and

after the at least one criterion is satisfied, receiving the announcement.

12. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 11, further comprising forming a first transmission including information usable to determine a location of the consumer.

13. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 12, further comprising receiving a second transmission including first data from a portable consumer device that is co-located with the consumer, wherein a portion of the first data is included in the first transmission.

14. A point-of-interaction terminal, comprising:

memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to implement a method comprising;

submitting a bid for an option to receive data for communicating with a consumer after at least one announcement condition occurs, the at least one announcement condition including presence of the consumer within a spatial zone;

receiving notification that the bid is a winning bid; and

after receiving the notification and after the at least one announcement condition occurs, receiving the data.

15. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises forming a transmission including first information received from a portable consumer device of the consumer, wherein the first information is usable to determine a location of the consumer.

16. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises sending an announcement, including at least a portion of the data, to a portable consumer device.

17. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises reading an account identifier from an RFID reader, and sending a transmission to a transaction handler computer, the transmission including the account identifier.

18. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises sending a transmission, the transmission including data received from a global positioning system receiver of a portable consumer device.

19. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises receiving an auction initiation communication indicating that an auction for the option to receive the data has begun.

20. The point-of-interaction terminal of claim 14, wherein the at least one announcement condition includes a transaction occurring with a merchant located in the spatial zone.