Bidding to receive data after a consumer is in a zone

• US 8,538,831 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2011
• Issued: 09/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VIS USA Incorporated
• Inventors: Carlson, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): ALMATRAHI, FARIS S
• Application Number:
  US13/212,844
• Publication Number:
  US 20110307338A1
• Time in Patent Office: 761 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/26.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

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 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 system, comprising:

memory; and

a processor coupled to access the memory and configured to;

form a first electronic transmission, sent from a merchant and addressed to an auctioneer, of an option to receive data related to communicating with a consumer when the consumer is located in a zone, the first electronic transmission including a merchant indicator usable to determine a return address of the merchant and further including an announcement condition for forming a bid for the option, the announcement condition including presence of the consumer within the zone;

when the announcement condition is satisfied, form the bid, wherein the bid is addressed to the auctioneer;

when the bid is a winning bid, receive the data at the return address of the merchant; and

send a communication to a portable consumer device of the consumer, the communication including a message from the merchant and including at least a portion of the data from the auctioneer, wherein the communication is directly sent to the portable consumer device without sending to the auctioneer, and wherein the communication includes indicia of a discount for the consumer to receive when the consumer engages in a transaction upon an account issued to the consumer by an issuer and the transaction is conducted at a point-of-interaction terminal of the merchant.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive first information from the portable consumer device; and

prior to the forming the bid, form a second electronic transmission addressed to the auctioneer, wherein the second electronic transmission includes the merchant indicator and the first information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the announcement condition further includes a criterion that is selected from the group consisting of:

a window of time for receiving the data;

an account category of at least one account of the consumer issued to the consumer by an issuer within a payment processing system;

a transaction history of at least one account of the consumer indicating a tendency to purchase resources matching that of the merchant, the at least one account issued to the consumer by an issuer within a payment processing system;

a demographic of the consumer;

an occurrence of a transaction upon at least one account of the consumer while the consumer has been in the zone, the at least one account issued to the consumer by an issuer within a payment processing system; and

combinations of the foregoing.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to successively repeat the forming the bid to provide a plurality of successive bids until at least one of the plurality of successive bids is the winning bid.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a reader to interface with the portable consumer device.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a cellular telephone.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a display for presenting a user interface, and wherein the processor is further configured to render, via a browser, the user interface for receiving input from a user for forming the first electronic transmission.

8. A system, comprising:

memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

submit, from a merchant to a transaction handler, a bid to receive an announcement after at least one criterion of an announcement condition is satisfied, the announcement including first data about a consumer, and the at least one criterion including presence of the consumer within a spatial zone;

receive, from the transaction handler, notification that the bid is a winning bid;

after the at least one criterion is satisfied, receive, from the transaction handler, the announcement; and

in response to receiving the announcement from the transaction handler, provide, from the merchant, a communication directly to a portable consumer device of the consumer without sending the communication to the transaction handler, the communication including at least a portion of the first data from the transaction handler, and the communication including a discount for the consumer to receive when the consumer engages in a transaction with the merchant.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to form a first transmission including information usable to determine a location of the consumer.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to receive a second transmission including second data from the portable consumer device, wherein a portion of the second data is included in the first transmission.

11. A system, comprising:

memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

submit a bid, from a first merchant to a transaction handler, for an option to receive data for communicating with a consumer after at least one announcement condition occurs, the at least one announcement condition including presence of the consumer within a spatial zone, and further including a transaction occurring with a merchant located in the spatial zone;

receive, by the first merchant from the transaction handler, notification that the bid is a winning bid;

after receiving the notification and after the at least one announcement condition occurs, receive the data from the transaction handler; and

send, directly from the first merchant without sending to the transaction handler, a communication to a portable consumer device of the consumer, the communication including at least a portion of the data, and the communication including a discount for the consumer to receive when the consumer engages in a transaction with the first merchant.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to form a transmission including first information received from the portable consumer device, wherein the first information is usable to determine a location of the consumer.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to read an account identifier from an RFID reader, and send a transmission to the transaction handler, the transmission including the account identifier.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to send a transmission, the transmission including data received from a global positioning system receiver of the portable consumer device.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to receive an auction initiation communication indicating that an auction for the option to receive the data has begun.

16. A method, comprising:

storing data;

forming, by a processor, a first electronic transmission, addressed to an auctioneer from a merchant, of an option to receive data related to communicating with a consumer when the consumer is located in a zone, the first electronic transmission including a merchant indicator usable to determine a return address of the merchant and further including an announcement condition for forming a bid for the option, the announcement condition including presence of the consumer within the zone;

when the announcement condition is satisfied, forming the bid, wherein the bid is addressed to the auctioneer;

when the bid is a winning bid, receiving the data at the return address; and

send, directly from the merchant without sending to the auctioneer, a communication to a portable consumer device of the consumer, the communication including at least a portion of the data, and the communication including a discount for the consumer to receive when the consumer engages in a transaction with the merchant.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions, which when executed, cause a computing apparatus to:

submit, by a computing apparatus of a merchant to an auctioneer, a bid to receive an announcement after at least one criterion of an announcement condition is satisfied, the announcement including data about a consumer, and the at least one criterion including presence of the consumer within a spatial zone;

receive notification that the bid is a winning bid; and

after the at least one criterion is satisfied, receive, by a computing apparatus of the merchant from the auctioneer, the announcement; and

send, directly from the merchant without sending to the auctioneer, a communication to a portable consumer device of the consumer, the communication including at least a portion of the data, and the communication including a discount for the consumer to receive when the consumer engages in a transaction with the merchant.