Presenting Advertisement Content During Searches Of Digital Receipts

• US 20150379570A1
• Filed: 06/30/2014
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores Texas LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Argue, Stuart, Marcar, Anthony Emile
• Granted Patent: US 10,339,565 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/047 using payment protocols involving electronic receipts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for presenting advertising content during searches of digital receipts. Advertising content can be presented at a user interface used to search digital receipts. During character by character input of a search term, input characters are detected as entered. Prior to completely entering the search term, detected characters can be transmitted from a customer device to an advertising system. The advertising system can match the characters to one or more advertisements. The advertising system can return the one or more advertisements back to the customer device. The customer device can present the one or more advertisements at the user interface.

Claims

1. At a mobile device of a customer, the mobile having a processor, system memory, and a display, the mobile device including a search module for searching the content of digital receipts for a customer, the content of each digital receipt including one or more receipt items, the search module including a user-interface, the user-interface including an input user-interface control and an activation user-interface control, the input user-interface control for receiving user entered characters of search terms, the activation user-interface control for activating a search of digital receipt content for an entered search term, a method of displaying advertisements, the method comprising:

sequentially receiving one or more characters at the input user-interface control,

detecting that the one or more characters have been received at the input user-interface control; and

prior to receiving a selection of the activation user-interface control;

prior to detecting receipt of any additional characters at the input user-interface control and automatically and without further user intervention, transmitting the one or more characters and a mobile device identifier from the mobile device to an advertisement system;

subsequent to transmitting the one or more characters, receiving one or more advertisements from the advertisement system, the one or more advertisements advertising items offered for sale by one or more businesses, the one or more advertisements selected based on the one or more characters; and

presenting the one or more advertisements on the display along with the input user-interface control and the activation user-interface control.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, each receipt item has an item name, item identifier, an item price, an item department, and an item date of purchase.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein sequentially receiving one or more characters comprises receiving a single character;

and

wherein detecting that the one or more characters have been received at the input user-interface control comprises detecting that the single character has been received at the input user-interface control.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein transmitting the one or more characters and a mobile device identifier from the mobile device to an advertisement system comprises transmitting the single character to the advertisement system;

and

wherein receiving one or more advertisements from the advertisement system comprises receiving one or more advertisements, each advertisement included in the one or more advertisements associated with a product name having the single character as the first letter.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein sequentially receiving one or more characters comprises sequentially receiving a first character and a second character;

and

wherein detecting that the one or more characters have been received at the input user-interface control comprises detecting that the first character and the second character have been received at the input user-interface control.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein transmitting the one or more characters and a mobile device identifier from the mobile device to an advertisement system comprises transmitting the first character and the second character to the advertisement system;

and

wherein receiving one or more advertisements from the advertisement system comprises receiving one or more advertisements, each advertisement included in the one of more advertisements associated with a product name having the first character and the second character as the first letter and second letter respectively.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising subsequent to sequentially receiving the one or more characters sequentially receiving an additional one or more characters;

subsequent to sequentially receiving the additional one or more characters, receiving a selection of the activation user-interface control; and

in response to receiving selection of the activation user-interface control, submitting the one or more characters and the additional one or more characters together as a search term to a receipt database, the receipt database storing the content of the customer'"'"'s digital receipts received from the business.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving one or more receipt items from the receipt database, the one or more receipt items matching the search term; and

presenting the one or more receipt items along with the one or more advertisements on the display.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving one or more characters and a mobile device identifier from a mobile device comprises receiving a first character and a second character from the mobile device;

wherein selecting one or more advertisements from the advertisement repository according to selection criteria based on the one or more characters comprises selecting advertisements for one or more items, each of the one or more items having the first character and the second characters as the first letter and the second letter respectively of the item name.

9. At a computer system, a method for locating advertisements relevant to a character string, the character string including one or more characters, the method comprising:

receiving one or more characters and a mobile device identifier from a mobile device, the one or more characters having been detected at a user-interface control of a digital receipt search module at the mobile device, the one or more characters having been automatically transmitted from the mobile device upon detection at the user-interface control and prior to initiating a user activated search that includes the one or more characters, the digital receipt search module for searching the content of digital receipts for a customer, the mobile device identifier identifying the mobile device;

accessing an advertisement repository that includes one or more advertisements, the one or more advertisements advertising items offered for sale by one or more businesses;

selecting one or more advertisements from the advertisement repository according to selection criteria based on the one or more characters; and

returning the selected one or more advertisements to the mobile device, returning the selected one or more advertisements including using the mobile device identifier to identify the mobile device as the recipient for the selected one or more advertisements.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein, each receipt item has an item name, item identifier, an item price, an item department, and an item date of purchase.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving one or more characters and a mobile device identifier from a mobile device comprises receiving a character from the mobile device;

wherein selecting one or more advertisements from the advertisement repository according to selection criteria based on the one or more characters comprises selecting advertisements for one or more items, each of the one or more items having the character as the first letter of the item name.

13. A system, the system comprising;

one or more processors;

system memory;

an advertisement database, the advertisement database including one or more advertisements, the one or more advertisements advertising items offered for sale by one or more businesses;

a receipts database, the receipts database containing digital receipts for one or more customers of an entity, each digital receipt containing one or more receipt items; and

one or more computer store devices having stored there one computer-executable instructions representing a search module, the search module configured to;

sequentially receive one or more characters at an input user-interface control;

detect that the one or more characters have been received at the input user-interface control; and

prior to receiving a selection of the activation user-interface control;

prior to detecting receipt of any additional characters at the input user-interface control and automatically and without further user intervention, transmit the one or more characters and a mobile device identifier from the mobile device to an advertisement matching module;

subsequent to transmitting the one or more characters, receive one or more selected advertisements from the advertisement matching module, the one or more advertisements selected based on the one or more characters; and

present the one or more advertisements on the display along with the input user-interface control and the activation user-interface control.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more computer store devices have further stored there one computer-executable instructions representing the advertising matching module, the advertising matching module configured to:

receiving the one or more characters and a mobile device identifier from a mobile device;

accessing the advertisement database;

selecting one or more advertisements from the advertisement database according to selection criteria based on the one or more characters; and

return the selected one or more advertisements to the search module, returning the selected one or more advertisements including using the mobile device identifier to identify the search module as the recipient for the selected one or more advertisements.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein, each receipt item has an item name, item identifier, an item price, an item department, and an item date of purchase.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the search module being configured to sequentially receive one or more characters comprises the search module being configured to receiving a single character;

and

wherein the search module being configured to detect that the one or more characters have been received at the input user-interface control comprise the search module being configured to detect that the single character has been received at the input user-interface control.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the search module being configured to transmit the one or more characters and a mobile device identifier from the mobile device to an advertisement system comprises the search module being configured to transmit the single character to the advertisement system;

and

wherein the search module being configured to receive one or more advertisements from the advertisement system comprises the search module being configured to receive one or more advertisements, each advertisement included in the one or more advertisements associated with a product name having the single character as the first letter.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the search module being configured to sequentially receive one or more characters comprises the search module being configured to sequentially receive a first character and a second character;

and

wherein the search module being configured to detect that the one or more characters have been received at the input user-interface control comprises the search module being configured to detect that the first character and the second character have been received at the input user-interface control.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the search module being configured to transmit the one or more characters and a mobile device identifier from the mobile device to an advertisement system comprises the search module being configured to transmit the first character and the second character to the advertisement system;

and

wherein the search module being configured to receive one or more advertisements from the advertisement system comprises the search module being configured to receive one or more advertisements, each advertisement included in the one of more advertisements associated with a product name having the first character and the second character as the first letter and second letter respectively.

20. The system of claim 13, further comprising the search module being configured to:

subsequent to sequentially receiving the one or more characters, sequentially receiving an additional one or more characters;

subsequent to sequentially receiving the additional one or more characters, receiving a selection of the activation user-interface control;

in response to receiving selection of the activation user-interface control, submitting the one or more characters and the additional one or more characters together as a search term to a receipt database;

receiving one or more receipt items from the receipts database, the one or more receipt items matching the search term; and

presenting the one or more receipt items along with the one or more advertisements on the display.