Providing an announcement about transactions of a target merchant to a consumer

• US 7,937,291 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2009
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mowzoon, May M., Carlson, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; F. Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALMATRAHI, FARIS S
• Application Number:
  US12/428,398
• Publication Number:
  US 20100274680A1
• Time in Patent Office: 741 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

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 is formed 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 method, comprising:

receiving transaction data for each of a plurality of transactions of a plurality of merchants, wherein each respective transaction is between a respective consumer and a corresponding respective merchant, and the transaction data for each respective transaction includes a respective indicator usable to distinguish the respective merchant for the respective transaction;

receiving a query of a first consumer, the query requesting an announcement about at least one transaction of a target merchant of the plurality of merchants with a second consumer, wherein the target merchant is located within a spatial zone delineated by at least one specified distance relative to a position of a portable consumer device of the first consumer, and the query including data usable to determine an indicator of the target merchant;

receiving a transmission including information usable to determine a position of the portable consumer device;

using at least the information in the transmission to determine the position of the portable consumer device;

determining a location of the target merchant relative to the determined position of the portable consumer device;

identifying the target merchant by comparing the location of the target merchant relative to the at least one specified distance to find a match;

determining the indicator of the target merchant using data included in the query;

identifying the at least one transaction from the plurality of transactions by finding at least one match between the indicator of the target merchant and the corresponding respective indicator in the transaction data; and

forming the announcement for delivery to the first consumer, the announcement including information based on the transaction data of the at least one transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the query is received while the portable consumer device is present within the spatial zone.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the target merchant is selected from the group consisting of:

a merchant that is identified in the query by the first consumer; and

a merchant that is unidentified in the query by the first consumer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information included in the announcement is selected from the group consisting of:

data about a price paid for a resource in the at least one transaction;

a confirmation that a current advertised price for a resource of the target merchant is less than a price paid in the at least one transaction;

an indication of a return, to the target merchant, of a resource purchased in the at least one transaction;

an indication of an incentive provided, under a loyalty program, to a consumer engaged in the at least one transaction;

an indication of a quantity of the at least one transaction; and

any combination of the foregoing.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising subsequent to the forming the announcement, receiving a transmission including a communication from the first consumer for delivery to the target merchant.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the communication includes an offer from the first consumer to purchase a resource previously sold in the at least one transaction of the target merchant, the resource was previously sold at a previous price, and the offer is to purchase the resource at the previous price.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising receiving an authorization request for a transaction between the target merchant and the first consumer for the resource at the previous price.

8. A computer readable medium including stored instructions that, when executed by a computing apparatus, perform a method comprising:

receiving data about a plurality of transactions each between a respective merchant of a plurality of merchants and a corresponding respective consumer, the data for each transaction including an indicator to identify the transaction as occurring with the corresponding respective merchant;

receiving a query of a first consumer requesting an announcement regarding at least one transaction of a target merchant located within a spatial zone, wherein the spatial zone is specified by the first consumer and delineated by at least one specified distance relative to a position of a portable consumer device of the first consumer, wherein the at least one transaction is to be identified from the plurality of transactions, and wherein the target merchant is to be identified from the plurality of merchants;

receiving a transmission including first information usable to determine a position of the portable consumer device;

using at least the first information to determine the position of the portable consumer device;

determining a location of each of the plurality of merchants relative to the determined position of the portable consumer device;

identifying the target merchant by comparing the respective location of each of the plurality of merchants to the at least one specified distance to find a match, and by determining the corresponding indicator of the target merchant;

identifying the at least one transaction using the corresponding indicator of the target merchant; and

forming the announcement for delivery to the portable consumer device, the announcement including second information based on the transaction data of the at least one transaction.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the second information includes at least one of:

data about a price paid for a resource in the at least one transaction;

a confirmation that a current advertised price for a resource of the target merchant is less than a price paid in the at least one transaction;

an indication of a return, to the target merchant, of a resource purchased in the at least one transaction;

an indication of an incentive provided, under a loyalty program, to a consumer in the at least one transaction;

an indication of a quantity of the at least one transaction; and

any combination of the foregoing.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the portable consumer device is selected from the group consisting of:

a financial card;

a contactless device including a wireless processor, a transmitter, and a receiver;

a smart card;

a cellular telephone;

a personal digital assistant;

a digital audio player;

a global positioning system enabled device;

a computer; and

any combination of the foregoing.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein:

a transaction handler within a payment processing system processes the plurality of transactions;

each transaction is conducted upon a respective account of the corresponding respective consumer, each respective account issued to the respective consumer by a corresponding respective issuer;

each respective merchant submits a respective transaction of the plurality of transactions to a corresponding respective acquirer for processing by the transaction handler, the processing comprising requesting the corresponding respective issuer to obtain payment for the submitted transaction from the corresponding respective account; and

the corresponding respective issuer forwards the payment to the corresponding respective acquirer to pay the submitting merchant for the submitted transaction.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises subsequent to the forming the announcement, receiving a transmission including a communication from the first consumer for delivery to the target merchant.

13. A method, comprising:

receiving a query from a shopper requesting data about at least one transaction of a target merchant, wherein the target merchant is located within a spatial zone delineated by at least one specified distance relative to a position of a portable consumer device of the shopper, and wherein the target merchant is associated with an indicator usable to distinguish the at least one transaction from among other transactions;

receiving a transmission including information usable to determine a position of the portable consumer device;

determining the position of the portable consumer device using at least the information included in the transmission;

determining a location of the target merchant relative to the determined position of the portable consumer device;

identifying the target merchant by comparing the relative location of the target merchant to the at least one specified distance;

distinguishing the at least one transaction from among the other transactions using the indicator; and

forming an announcement for delivery to the shopper, the announcement including data about the at least one transaction.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the announcement further includes a merchant offer for a future transaction for a resource previously sold in the at least one transaction.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the merchant offer includes a discounted price for the resource, and wherein the discounted price is lower than a price at which the resource was sold in the at least one transaction.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising subsequent to forming the announcement, receiving a transmission including a communication from the shopper for delivery to the target merchant.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

processing, by a transaction handler within a payment processing system, a plurality of transactions between a plurality of merchants and a plurality of consumers, the plurality of transactions comprising the at least one transaction;

wherein each transaction is conducted on an account issued to a respective consumer processed for payment to a corresponding respective merchant;

wherein each respective merchant submits corresponding transactions to a corresponding acquirer for the processing by the transaction handler, the processing comprising requesting corresponding issuers of the corresponding accounts to obtain corresponding payments for the submitted corresponding transactions from the corresponding accounts; and

wherein the corresponding issuers forward the obtained corresponding payments for delivery to the corresponding acquirer to pay the submitting merchant for the submitted transactions.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the data about the at least one transaction includes at least one of:

data about a price paid for a resource in the at least one transaction;

a confirmation that a current advertised price for a resource of the target merchant is less than a price paid in the at least one transaction;

an indication of a return, to the target merchant, of a resource purchased in the at least one transaction;

an indication of an incentive provided, under a loyalty program, to a shopper engaged in the at least one transaction;

an indication of a quantity of the at least one transaction; and

any combination of the foregoing.