PROVIDING INCENTIVES USING PRODUCT LEVEL DATA
First Claim
1. At a processing unit within a computing system including the processing unit and a database, a method of determining whether a purchase made by a consumer qualifies for an incentive offered by at least one sponsor, the method comprising:
- receiving incentive information related to the incentive offered by the at least one sponsor, the information including first data corresponding to at least one item that may be purchased to qualify for the incentive;
receiving transaction information from a merchant related to a transaction between the consumer and the merchant, the transaction information including second data corresponding to at least one item purchased by the consumer; and
comparing the incentive information and the transaction information to determine a correlation between the first data and the second data indicating that the consumer qualifies for the incentive offered by the at least one sponsor.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A computer-implemented method and system for providing incentives to consumers based on product level data. Information relating to an incentive is defined and stored using, for example, a database accessible by a processing unit. The information relating to the incentive may include a product identifier, such as a stock keeping unit (SKU) number corresponding to a particular product or service. During a transaction between a merchant and a consumer, information may be transmitted to a processing unit, which determines if the information contains the product identifier corresponding to that specified to qualify for the incentive. Information related a payment medium used by the consumer in the transaction may be received and compared to information from an issuer of the payment medium to verify the transaction. The incentive may be provided via a credit to the payment account, or as an online virtual reward on a social networking or gaming website.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. At a processing unit within a computing system including the processing unit and a database, a method of determining whether a purchase made by a consumer qualifies for an incentive offered by at least one sponsor, the method comprising:
-
receiving incentive information related to the incentive offered by the at least one sponsor, the information including first data corresponding to at least one item that may be purchased to qualify for the incentive; receiving transaction information from a merchant related to a transaction between the consumer and the merchant, the transaction information including second data corresponding to at least one item purchased by the consumer; and comparing the incentive information and the transaction information to determine a correlation between the first data and the second data indicating that the consumer qualifies for the incentive offered by the at least one sponsor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. At a processing unit within a computing system, a method of determining whether a consumer qualifies for an incentive based on product level data, the method comprising:
-
receiving purchase information related to the purchase of at least one item by the consumer, the information including product level data corresponding to the at least one item and an identifier corresponding to a payment account used by the consumer; and correlating the product level data with information specifying items for which the incentive is offered to determine whether the consumer qualifies for the incentive, the information provided by a sponsor and stored in a location accessible by the processing unit. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. In a computing system including a processing unit and a database accessible by the processing unit, a method of providing an incentive to a consumer based on product level data, the method comprising:
-
storing incentive information defined by a sponsor using the database, the incentive information including a product identifier corresponding to a particular product for which the sponsor is offering the incentive; receiving transaction information from a merchant, the transaction information relating to a transaction between a merchant and the consumer in which a payment medium for which the consumer holds an account with an issuer is used; obtaining payment information from the issuer of the payment medium using the processing unit, the payment information including information related to transactions executed with the payment system; comparing, using the processing unit, the payment information with the transaction information to verify the transaction using the payment medium occurred between the merchant and the consumer; and comparing, using the processing unit, the incentive information with the transaction information to determine if the transaction information includes the product identifier indicating that the consumer is entitled to the incentive offered by the sponsor. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
-
Specification