System and methods for providing location based discount retailing

• US 8,650,072 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2011
• Issued: 02/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Groupon Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Groupon Incorporated
• Inventors: Mason, Andrew, Chennavasin, Don A., Gupta, Suneel, Jesse, David, Keintz, Brett R., Lerner, Yishai, Shah, Mihir, Stolte, Brian M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lastra, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US13/050,771
• Publication Number:
  US 20110313840A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,062 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.1
• US Class Current: 705/14.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed that provide offers for goods or services based on the locations of potential customers and the geographic locations of the merchant. The offers may be limited in quantity and acceptance and redemption of the offers may be limited in time. A unique identifier may be associated with each accepted offer. A merchant may have at least some control over the creation and rendering of one or more offers for the merchant'"'"'s goods and services.

Claims

1. A method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in which a merchant is allowed to provide a discount offer to a potential customer when said potential customer indicates a location near where said merchant is providing the goods or services, said offer being valid for a limited offer time, and being redeemable for a limited redemption time, comprising a network server, a microprocessor, a memory and computer software, said computer software being located in said memory and run by said microprocessor, said computer software comprising a location based discount offer algorithm, wherein said location based discount offer algorithm comprises the steps of:

(a) establishing a relationship with a merchant, said relationship including receiving information from said merchant pertaining to goods or services provided by said merchant;

(b) allowing said merchant to determine a discount offer price for a particular good or service to be provided by said merchant, said discount offer price being a reduction in amount from a standard offer price for said particular good or service;

(c) allowing said merchant to determine a limited number of discount offers to be provided by said merchant;

(d) allowing said merchant to determine said limited offer time for said discount offer price to be valid;

(e) allowing said merchant to determine said limited redemption time for said potential customer to redeem said discount offer price;

(f) providing at least one access code to said merchant, said at least one access code correlating to each of said limited number of discount offers provided by said merchant;

(g) determining when said potential customer is located near the location where said merchant can provide the particular good or service;

(h) presenting to said potential customer located near the location that said merchant can provide the particular good or service, said discounted offer price, said limited offer time and said limited redemption time.

2. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(i) receiving an acceptance of the discounted offer price from the potential customer located near the location that said merchant can provide the particular good or service,

(l) determining if said acceptance occurred during said limited offer time; and

(j) receiving a payment associated with the acceptance of the discounted offer price from said potential customer if said acceptance occurred during said limited offer time;

(k) associating an access code to the acceptance of the discounted offer price; and

(l) providing an acknowledgement that said payment has been received.

3. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

(m) allowing for the redemption of the discount offer price for the particular good or service if said redemption occurred during said limited redemption time and said access code is valid.

4. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 1, wherein said establishing a relationship means contracting with the merchant to provide discounted goods and services on the discount platform.

5. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 4, wherein said contracting with the merchant means allowing said platform to receive payments for the merchant to provide goods and services to potential customers.

6. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 1, wherein said merchant is allowed to provide said limited offer time discount offer price directly into the discount platform.

7. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 1, wherein said merchant is allowed to provide said limited offer time directly into the discount platform.

8. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 1, wherein said merchant is allowed to provide said limited redemption time directly into the discount platform.

9. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 1, wherein providing said at least one access code to said merchant occurs prior to said merchant determining a discount offer price for a particular good or service.

10. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 1, wherein providing said at least one access code to said merchant occurs subsequent to said merchant determining a discount offer price for a particular good or service.

11. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 1, wherein the number of access codes provided is the same as the number of acceptances of discount offers during the limited offer time.

12. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 1, wherein near the location means in the same zip code as the merchant providing the particular good or service.

13. The method of offering discounted goods or services over a discount platform in claim 1, wherein near the location means in the same zip code as the merchant providing the particular good or service during the limited redemption time.

14. A discount offering system for allowing a merchant to provide a discount offer to a potential customer when said potential customer indicates a request and a location near where said merchant is providing the goods or services, comprising:

a network server, said network server configured to store and operate a discount offer application for presenting a discount offer for a particular good or service to a potential customer located within the vicinity of where said particular good or service will be redeemed during a limited redemption time;

a merchant terminal, said merchant terminal being configured to access said discount offer application and being located remotely from said network server, said merchant terminal allowed to access said discount offer application, such that a merchant can enter a discount offer information into said merchant terminal pertaining to said discount offer for said particular good or service;

said network server further configured to receive the discount offer information from said merchant terminal and to present said discount offer information to potential customers that will be near the vicinity of the merchant providing the particular good or service during the limited redemption time, said discount offer being presented for a limited offer time and if accepted during said limited offer time, said discount offer must be redeemed by said potential customer during said limited redemption time;

said network server further being capable of receiving from a potential customer an acceptance of and payment for said discount offer for a particular good or service, said network server further being capable of providing an acknowledgement of said payment and an at least one access code for said transaction.

15. The discount offering system for allowing a merchant to provide a discount offer to a potential customer of claim 14, wherein said discount offer information is a discount offer price for a particular good or service.

16. The discount offering system for allowing a merchant to provide a discount offer to a potential customer of claim 14, wherein said discount offer information is a limited offer time for a discount offer for particular good or service.

17. The discount offering system for allowing a merchant to provide a discount offer to a potential customer of claim 14, wherein said discount offer information is a limited redemption time for a discount offer for a particular good or service.

18. The discount offering system for allowing a merchant to provide a discount offer to a potential customer of claim 14, wherein said discount offer information is a limited number of discount offers to be provided by said merchant.

19. The discount offering system for allowing a merchant to provide a discount offer to a potential customer of claim 14, wherein said at least one access code corresponds to each of the limited number of discount offers to be provided by said merchant.