Systems and methods for confirming purchases of products from a retail establishment using a mobile device

• US 8,396,758 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2010
• Issued: 03/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Paradise, Andrew, Preston, Dan Richard, Mercado, Jose H. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zukanovich, Brandy A
• Application Number:
  US12/966,434
• Publication Number:
  US 20110145092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 820 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.62, 705/27.1, 705/26.1
• US Class Current: 705/26.62
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0081 the reader being a portable scanner or data reader G07G1/009 takes precedence

Abstract

Techniques for confirming purchases of products from a retail establishment using a mobile device allow for loss prevention personnel at a retail establishment to confirm that users exiting the retail establishment in possession of physical products have legitimately purchased those products via their mobile devices while within the retail establishment. When a purchase facilitating server, in communication with a user'"'"'s mobile device, transacts the user'"'"'s purchase of one or more products within the retail establishment, the purchase facilitating server may generate a purchase confirmation as a receipt of the transaction. The receipt may include a purchase confirmation code and/or one or more visual indicators of an estimated likelihood of theft associated with the corresponding transaction. The receipt may be transmitted to a loss prevention device at the retail establishment, for use by loss prevention personnel in matching against the user'"'"'s physical cart before the user exits the retail establishment.

Claims

1. A method of transacting a user'"'"'s purchase of one or more products from a retail establishment, the method performed, at least in part, by a computer system comprising at least one hardware processor, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from a mobile device in the retail establishment to purchase the one or more products from the retail establishment, the indication comprising payment information for purchasing the one or more products;

processing at least the payment information via at least one processor to transact the user'"'"'s purchase of the one or more products from the retail establishment;

prior to the user encountering a loss prevention device at the retail establishment, calculating an estimated likelihood of theft associated with the transaction, wherein calculating the estimated likelihood of theft comprises;

defining, based on a user profile, a value for each of a plurality of user specific factors, wherein the user profile is generated prior to the user'"'"'s purchase,

mathematically combining the value and a weight defined for each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain a contribution amount for each of the plurality of user specific factors, and

mathematically combining the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain the estimated likelihood of theft;

generating a purchase confirmation identifying the one or more products purchased by the user;

transmitting the purchase confirmation and the estimated likelihood to the loss prevention device at the retail establishment; and

based on the transmitted likelihood, facilitating a determination of loss prevention measures to be taken.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating comprises including in the purchase confirmation a visual indicator of the estimated likelihood of theft associated with the transaction.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the visual indicator indicates an extent to which one or more products that the user intends to remove from the retail establishment are to be visually inspected by loss prevention personnel to confirm that the one or more products to be removed are represented in the purchase confirmation.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the visual indicator indicates the extent of inspection by color coding.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile comprises information related to past purchases of the user, and wherein the plurality of user specific factors comprises an amount of deviation between the user'"'"'s purchase and past purchases of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of calculating the estimated likelihood of theft further comprises identifying the user based on information received from the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile comprises a history of results of comparisons between purchase confirmations and products the user has attempted to remove from the retail establishment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors is further mathematically combined with a contribution amount calculated for the one or more products identified in the purchase confirmation.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user specific factors comprises a length of time that the user and the mobile device were within the retail establishment prior to the transaction.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user specific factors comprises the user'"'"'s level of interaction with the mobile device while within the retail establishment.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors is further mathematically combined with a contribution amount calculated for a location of the retail establishment.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the purchase confirmation as part of the user profile.

13. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with a plurality of computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method of transacting a user'"'"'s purchase of one or more products from a retail establishment, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from a mobile device in the retail establishment to purchase the one or more products from the retail establishment, the indication comprising payment information for purchasing the one or more products;

processing at least the payment information to transact the user'"'"'s purchase of the one or more products from the retail establishment;

prior to the user encountering a loss prevention device at the retail establishment, calculating an estimated likelihood of theft associated with the transaction, wherein calculating the estimated likelihood of theft comprises;

defining, based on a user profile, a value for each of a plurality of user specific factors, wherein the user profile is generated prior to the user'"'"'s purchase

mathematically combining the value and a weight defined for each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain a contribution amount for each of the plurality of user specific factors, and

mathematically combining the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain the estimated likelihood of theft;

generating a purchase confirmation identifying the one or more products purchased by the user; and

transmitting the purchase confirmation and the estimated likelihood to the loss prevention device at the retail establishment.

14. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the generating comprises including in the purchase confirmation a visual indicator of the estimated likelihood of theft associated with the transaction.

15. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the visual indicator indicates an extent to which one or more products that the user intends to remove from the retail establishment are to be visually inspected by loss prevention personnel to confirm that the one or more products to be removed are represented in the purchase confirmation.

16. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the visual indicator indicates the extent of inspection by color coding.

17. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the user profile profiling information comprises information related to past purchases of the user, and wherein the plurality of user specific factors comprises an amount of deviation between the user'"'"'s purchase and past purchases of the user.

18. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the act of calculating the estimated likelihood of theft further comprises identifying the user based on information received from the mobile device.

19. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the user profile comprises a history of results of comparisons between purchase confirmations and products the user has attempted to remove from the retail establishment.

20. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors is further mathematically combined with a contribution amount calculated for act of determining the estimated likelihood of theft is based at least in part on the one or more products identified in the purchase confirmation.

21. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the plurality of user specific factors comprises_act of determining the estimated likelihood of theft is based at least in part on a length of time that the user and the mobile device were within the retail establishment prior to the transaction.

22. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the plurality of user specific factors comprises the user'"'"'s level of interaction with the mobile device while within the retail establishment.

23. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors is further mathematically combined with a contribution amount calculated for act of determining the estimated likelihood of theft is based at least in part on a location of the retail establishment.

24. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises storing the purchase confirmation in the user profile.

25. A system comprising:

at least one hardware processor; and

at least one memory storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the

at least one processor, perform a method of transacting a user'"'"'s purchase of one or more products from a retail establishment, the method comprising;

receiving an indication from a mobile device in the retail establishment to purchase the one or more products from the retail establishment, the indication comprising payment information for purchasing the one or more products;

processing at least the payment information to transact the user'"'"'s purchase of the one or more products from the retail establishment;

prior to the user encountering a loss prevention device at the retail establishment, calculating an estimated likelihood of theft associated with the transaction, wherein calculating the estimated likelihood of theft comprises;

defining, based on a user profile, a value for each of a plurality of user specific factors, wherein the user profile is generated prior to the user'"'"'s purchase,

mathematically combining the value and a weight defined for each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain a contribution amount for each of the plurality of user specific factors, and

mathematically combining the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain the estimated likelihood of the;

generating a purchase confirmation identifying the one or more products purchased by the user; and

transmitting the purchase confirmation and the estimated likelihood to the loss prevention device at the retail establishment.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the generating comprises including in the purchase confirmation a visual indicator of the estimated likelihood of theft associated with the transaction.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the visual indicator indicates an extent to which one or more products that the user intends to remove from the retail establishment should be inspected to confirm that the one or more products to be removed are represented in the purchase confirmation.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the visual indicator indicates the extent of inspection by color coding.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the user profile information related to past purchases of the user, and wherein the plurality of user specific factors comprises an amount of deviation between the user'"'"'s purchase and past purchases of the user.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the act of calculating the estimated likelihood of theft further comprises identifying the user based on information received from the mobile device.

31. The system of claim 25, wherein the user profile comprises a history of results of comparisons between purchase confirmations and products the user has attempted to remove from the retail establishment.

32. The system of claim 25, wherein the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors is further mathematically combined with a contribution amount calculated for the one or more products identified in the purchase confirmation.

33. The system of claim 25, wherein the plurality of user specific factors comprises a length of time that the user and the mobile device were within the retail establishment prior to the transaction.

34. The system of claim 25, wherein the plurality of user specific factors comprises the user'"'"'s level of interaction with the mobile device while within the retail establishment.

35. The system of claim 25, wherein the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors is further mathematically combined with a contribution amount calculated for a location of the retail establishment.

36. The system of claim 25, wherein the method further comprises storing the purchase confirmation as part of the user profile.

37. A method of purchasing one or more products from a retail establishment, the method being implemented in part on a mobile device comprising at least one hardware processor, the method comprising:

receiving, at the mobile device, input from a user of the mobile device, the input comprising an indication to purchase one or more products and payment information for purchasing the one or more products;

transmitting the payment information from the mobile device to a purchase facilitating service provider;

receiving at the mobile device, in response to transmitting the payment information, a purchase confirmation code from the purchase facilitating service provider;

receiving, at the mobile device and prior to the user encountering loss prevention personnel, an estimated likelihood of theft associated with the purchase, wherein the estimated likelihood of theft is calculated, at least in part, by;

defining, based on a user profile, a value for each of a plurality of user specific factors, wherein the user profile is generated prior to the user'"'"'s purchase,

mathematically combining the value and a weight defined for each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain a contribution amount for each of the plurality of user specific factors, and

mathematically combining the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain the estimated likelihood of theft;

communicating the purchase confirmation code and the estimated likelihood to the loss prevention personnel prior to the user removing the one or more products from the retail establishment; and

based on the estimated likelihood, facilitating a determination of loss prevention measures to be taken.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the communicating comprises displaying the purchase confirmation code for the loss prevention personnel on a display of the mobile device.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the communicating comprises transmitting the purchase confirmation code from the mobile device to a device operated by the loss prevention personnel.

40. The method of claim 37, further comprising receiving, at the mobile device, a replacement purchase confirmation code from the purchase facilitating service provider after the communicating.

41. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in a mobile device encoded with a plurality of computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, perform a method of purchasing one or more products from a retail establishment, the method comprising:

receiving, at the mobile device, input from a user of the mobile device, the input comprising an indication to purchase the one or more products and payment information for purchasing the one or more products;

transmitting the payment information from the mobile device to a purchase facilitating service provider;

receiving at the mobile device, in response to transmitting the payment information, a purchase confirmation code from the purchase facilitating service provider;

receiving, at the mobile device and prior to the user encountering loss prevention personnel,

an estimated likelihood of theft associated with the purchase, wherein the estimated likelihood of theft is calculated, at least in part, by;

defining, based on a user profile, a value for each of a plurality of user specific factors, wherein the user profile is generated prior to the user'"'"'s purchase,

mathematically combining the value and a weight defined for each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain a contribution amount for each of the plurality of user specific factors, and

mathematically combining the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain the estimated likelihood of theft; and

communicating the purchase confirmation code and the estimated likelihood to the loss prevention personnel prior to the user removing the one or more products from the retail establishment.

42. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein the communicating comprises displaying the purchase confirmation code for the loss prevention personnel on a display of the mobile device.

43. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein the communicating comprises transmitting the purchase confirmation code from the mobile device to a device operated by the loss prevention personnel.

44. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein the method further comprises receiving, at the mobile device, a replacement purchase confirmation code from the purchase facilitating service provider after the communicating.

45. A mobile device comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method of purchasing one or more products from a retail establishment, the method comprising;

receiving input from a user of the mobile device, the input comprising an indication to purchase the one or more products and payment information for purchasing the one or more products;

transmitting the payment information from the mobile device to a purchase facilitating service provider;

receiving at the mobile device, in response to transmitting the payment information, a purchase confirmation code from the purchase facilitating service provider;

receiving, at the mobile device and prior to the user encountering loss prevention personnel, an estimated likelihood of theft associated with the purchase, wherein the estimated likelihood of theft is calculated, at least in part, by;

defining, based on a user profile, a value for each of a plurality of user specific factors, wherein the user profile is generated prior to the user'"'"'s purchase,

mathematically combining the value and a weight defined for each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain a contribution amount for each of the plurality of user specific factors, and

mathematically combining the contribution amount of each of the plurality of user specific factors to obtain the estimated likelihood of theft; and

communicating the purchase confirmation code and the estimated likelihood to the loss prevention personnel prior to the user removing the one or more products from the retail establishment.

46. The mobile device of claim 45, wherein the communicating comprises displaying the purchase confirmation code for the loss prevention personnel on a display of the mobile device.

47. The mobile device of claim 45, wherein the communicating comprises transmitting the purchase confirmation code from the mobile device to a device operated by the loss prevention personnel.

48. The mobile device of claim 45, wherein the method further comprises receiving, at the mobile device, a replacement purchase confirmation code from the purchase facilitating service provider after the communicating.