Methods and systems for an alternative payment platform

• US 7,647,252 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2007
• Issued: 01/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TrialPay Incorporated (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: TrialPay Incorporated (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Angelos, Terry, Rampell, Alastair, Campbell, Alex
• Primary Examiner(s): Airapetian; Mila
• Application Number:
  US11/924,443
• Publication Number:
  US 20080162316A1
• Time in Patent Office: 810 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/14
• US Class Current: 705/26.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for providing an alternative payment platform, including method and systems for providing a platform for presenting an alternate offer to a user who is engaged with a primary offer and receiving an indication of the user'"'"'s engagement with the alternate offer, wherein the user'"'"'s engagement with the alternate offer serves as an alternative form of payment for an item associated with the primary offer. Such methods and systems may further include methods and systems for selecting one or more alternate offers engagement with which serves as an alternative form of payment for an item associated with a primary offer, presenting the selected alternate payment offers to a user, receiving an indication of engagement with at least one of the alternate offers, receiving payment in exchange for presenting the accepted offer and providing payment to the offeror of the primary offer.

Claims

1. A method of electronic commerce wherein a user is engaged with a primary offer of a vendor that includes a purchase price, comprising:

presenting, from a facilitator via an electronic display, the primary offer of the vendor;

presenting, from the facilitator via the electronic display, alternate payment offers, wherein fulfillment of any one of the alternate offers which were presented entitles the user to receive the primary offer;

establishing, via a server, a credit for the primary offer to be paid by the facilitator to the vendor, the credit including a fixed cost related to a retail cost and a variable portion determined when one of the alternate offers is fulfilled;

receiving, at the server, an indication of the user'"'"'s fulfillment of one of the alternate offers; and

paying the credit from the facilitator to the vendor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the credit for the primary offer is not disclosed to the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the credit is more than the purchase price.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user'"'"'s fulfillment entitles the user to receive the primary offering independent of the purchase price.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting of alternate payment offers includes selecting one or more offers to present based at least in part on the credit.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the purchase price is not disclosed to a server-based payment facility prior to the server-based payment facility calculating the credit.

7. A computer-implemented method of electronic commerce, comprising:

presenting, from a server via an electronic display, an electronic commerce primary offering of a vendor;

receiving at the server a request to present one or more offers to a user to fulfill the electronic commerce primary offering, wherein the electronic commerce primary offering includes a purchase price and a vendor credit, wherein the vendor credit is not disclosed to the user, and wherein the vendor credit includes a fixed cost determined before one of the offers is fulfilled and a variable portion determined when one of the offers is fulfilled;

receiving at the server a selection of one or more of the offers that facilitate user acceptance from a memory accessible by the server;

presenting, via the electronically controlled display, the one or more offers which were selected; and

paying the vendor credit to the vendor in fulfillment of the electronic commerce primary offering in response to the user acceptance of one of the one or more offers which were presented.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user acceptance entitles the user to receive the primary offering independent of the purchase price and the vendor credit.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the vendor credit is independent of the purchase price.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the vendor credit is greater than the purchase price.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein user acceptance of one of the one or more offers which were presented results in the user receiving the electronic commerce primary offering before a primary offeror of the primary offering receives the vendor credit.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the selecting one or more of the offers is based at least in part on the vendor credit and not on the purchase price.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein committing to pay the vendor credit is performed by a server-based payment facility independent of the purchase price.

14. A system comprising:

a memory and a processor configured to provide;

an electronic commerce platform for receiving a request to present a plurality of offers to a user to fulfill a primary offering of a vendor that includes a purchase price and a vendor credit, wherein the vendor credit is not disclosed to the user;

an offer selection facility for selecting one or more of the plurality of offers that facilitate user acceptance from a memory accessible by the offer selection facility;

an offer display facility for presenting the one or more of the plurality of offers which were selected;

a secondary transaction facility for receiving a user acceptance of one of the one or more of the plurality of offers which were presented; and

a payment module for processing a payment of the vendor credit to the vendor in fulfillment of the primary offering in response to the user acceptance, the vendor credit including a fixed cost determined before the user acceptance and a variable portion determined upon the user acceptance.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the user acceptance entitles the user to receive the primary offering independent of the purchase price and the vendor credit.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the vendor credit is independent of the purchase price.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the vendor credit is greater than the purchase price.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the payment module is further for receiving a merchant payout and using a portion of the merchant payout to pay the vendor credit.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the merchant payout is independent of the purchase price.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the purchase price is not disclosed to the payment module.