Processing online transactions

• US 8,849,703 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2012
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal Mart Stores Inc (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramaratnam, Arjun, Hansen, Kenneth, Dar, Murad, Srivastava, Puneet, Gerry, Richard Brett, Shah, Ruchitkumar A, Dharaneedharan, Sathya N
• Primary Examiner(s): Iwarere, Seye
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ludwig, Peter L
• Application Number:
  US13/600,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20130275240A1
• Time in Patent Office: 760 Days
• Field of Search: 705/20
• US Class Current: 705/20
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/407 Cancellation of a transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0637 Approvals

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods for managing transactions in which an order is specified online and payment is received at a point of sale (POS). Methods are disclosed for managing payment for such transactions at a POS, including transactions involving payment for both in-store purchases and online orders. Methods are also disclosed for managing inventory and price changes for such transactions where payment can occur at any time in a pay period following order creation. Also disclosed are methods for processing refunds for online orders for which payment was made at a POS. Finally, methods for preventing fraud and abuse as well as restricting the availability of this payment method for certain items are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for managing online transactions comprising:

receiving, by a server, an online order from a customer for an item having a purchase price associated therewith, the item corresponding to an item record for a product offered for sale, the item record including an item identifier and pricing information;

evaluating, by the server, eligibility of the item for in-store point of sale (POS) payment by;

evaluating an eligibility for in-store POS payment of an ancestor node of the item record in a product hierarchy, the item record being a node in the product hierarchy and having a plurality of ancestor nodes each representing a classification of the product, the ancestor node being one of the plurality of ancestor nodes and the eligibility for in-store POS payment of the ancestor node applicable to descendent nodes of the ancestor node;

evaluating an override applicable to the item; and

evaluating at least one of a quantity of the item in the online order with respect to a quantity threshold and a cost of the item with respect to a cost threshold; and

determining the item to be eligible for in-store (POS) payment only if both a) at least one of the evaluating the eligibility of the ancestor node for in-store POS payment and evaluating the override applicable to the item indicate the item is eligible and b) the evaluating the at least one of the quantity of the item and the cost of the item indicate the item is eligible;

transmitting, by the server, for display to the customer, payment options including an in-store POS payment option in response to determining the item to be eligible for in-store POS payment;

receiving, by the server, acknowledgment of payment at a point of sale (POS) for the online order only if the payment options include the in-store POS payment option;

receiving, by the server, a request for a refund for the online order ;

evaluating, by the server, refund activity of the customer for abuse; and

selecting, by the server, both of a refund method and a POS location according to the evaluating of the refund activity of the customer;

determining that the refund activity of the customer indicates abusive activity; and

in response to determining that the refund activity of the customer indicates abusive activity, limiting the POS location for payment of a cash refund to stores within a threshold proximity from a store from which the acknowledgment of payment at the POS was received.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

limiting the refund method to a mailed check according to the evaluating of the refund activity of the customer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

limiting the refund method to an in-store POS cash refund according to the evaluating of the refund activity of the customer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein evaluating refund activity of the customer for abuse further comprises evaluating with respect to an amount threshold an amount of refunds issued for orders of the customer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein evaluating with respect to the amount threshold the amount of refunds issued for the orders of the customer, further comprises:

calculating an aggregate amount by aggregating amounts of a plurality of refunds issued in a refund window for the orders of the customer for which acknowledgment of payment has been received from a POS; and

evaluating, with respect to the amount threshold, the aggregate amount.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein evaluating refund activity of the customer for abuse further comprises:

receiving a refund payee; and

evaluating the refund payee with respect to a payer corresponding to the acknowledgment of payment received from the POS.

7. A system for managing online transactions comprising one or more processors and one or more memory devices operably coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more memory devices storing executable and operational data effective to cause the one or more processors to:

receive an online order from a customer for an item having a purchase price associated therewith, the item being a product offered for sale at the purchase price;

evaluate eligibility of the item for cash payment by;

evaluating an eligibility for in-store point of sale payment of an ancestor node of the item in a product hierarchy, the eligibility applicable to descendent nodes of the ancestor node, the item being a node in the product hierarchy and the ancestor being one of a plurality of ancestor nodes of the item in the product hierarchy, each ancestor node of the plurality of ancestor nodes representing a classification of the product;

evaluating an override applicable to the item; and

evaluating at least one of a quantity of the item in the online order with respect to a quantity threshold and a cost of the item with respect to a cost threshold;

determining the item to be eligible for in-store POS payment only if both of a) at least one of the evaluating the eligibility of the ancestor node and evaluating the override applicable to the item indicate the item is eligible and b) evaluating the at least one of the quantity of the item and the cost of the item indicate the item is eligible

transmit for display to the customer, payment options including a cash payment option only if the item is determined to be eligible according to the evaluating of eligibility;

receive acknowledgment of payment at a point of sale (POS) for the online order only if the payment options include the cash payment option;

receive a request for a refund for the online order of the customer;

evaluate refund activity of the customer for abuse;

select both of a refund method and a POS location according to the evaluation of refund activity of the customer;

determine that the refund activity of the customer indicates abusive activity; and

in response to determining that the refund activity of the customer indicates abusive activity, limit the POS location for payment of a cash refund to stores within a threshold proximity from a store from which the acknowledgment of payment at the POS was received.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the executable and operational data are further effective to cause the one or more processors to limit the refund method to a mailed check according to the evaluation of the refund activity of the customer.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the executable and operational data are further effective to cause the one or more processors to limit the refund method to a cash refund at the POS according to the evaluation of the refund activity of the customer.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the executable and operational data are further effective to cause the one or more processors to evaluate the refund activity of the customer for abuse by evaluating with respect to an amount threshold an amount of refunds issued for orders of the customer.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the executable and operational data are further effective to cause the one or more processors to evaluate with respect to the threshold the amount of refunds issued for prior orders of the customer preceding the online order by:

calculating an aggregate amount by aggregating amounts of a plurality of refunds issued in a refund window for the prior orders of the customer for which acknowledgment of in-store POS payment has been received; and

evaluating, with respect to the threshold, the aggregate amount.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the executable and operational data are further effective to cause the one or more processors to perform the evaluating refund activity of the customer for abuse by:

receiving a refund payee; and

evaluating the refund payee with respect to a payer corresponding to the acknowledgment of payment received from the POS.

13. A computer program product for managing a transaction, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving an online order from a customer for an item having a purchase price associated therewith, the item being a product offered for sale at the purchase price;

evaluating eligibility of the item for in-store point of sale (POS) payment by;

evaluating an eligibility of an ancestor node of the item in a product hierarchy, the eligibility applicable to descendent nodes of the ancestor node, the item being a node in the product hierarchy and having a plurality of ancestor nodes including the ancestor node, the plurality of ancestor nodes each representing a product classification to which the item belongs;

evaluating an override applicable to the item;

evaluating at least one of a quantity of the item in the online order with respect to a quantity threshold and a cost of the item with respect to a cost threshold; and

determining the item to be eligible for in-store point of sale POS payment only if at least one of the evaluating the eligibility of the ancestor node and evaluating the override applicable to the item indicate the item is eligible and evaluating the at least one of the quantity of the item and the cost of the item indicate the item is eligible

transmitting, by the server, for display to the customer, payment options including a cash payment option only if the item is determined to be eligible according to the evaluating of eligibility;

receiving, by the server, acknowledgment of payment at a point of sale (POS) for the online order only if the payment options include the cash payment option;

receiving a request for a refund for the online order of the customer;

evaluating refund activity of the customer for abuse;

selecting both of a refund method and a POS location according to the evaluation of refund activity of the customer for abuse;

determining that the refund activity of the customer indicates abusive activity; and

in response to determining that the refund activity of the customer indicates abusive activity, limiting the POS location for payment of a cash refund to stores within a threshold proximity from a store from which the acknowledgment of payment at the POS was received.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising computer instructions for:

limiting the refund method to a cash refund at the POS according to the evaluation of the refund activity of the customer.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein evaluating refund activity of the customer for abuse further comprises evaluating with respect to a refund threshold an amount of refunds issued for prior orders of the customer.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein evaluating with respect to the refund threshold the amount of refunds issued for the prior orders of the customer, further comprises:

calculating an aggregate amount by aggregating amounts of a plurality of refunds issued in a refund window for the prior orders of the customer for which acknowledgment of in-store POS payment has been received; and

evaluating, with respect to the refund threshold, the aggregate amount.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein evaluating refund activity of the customer for abuse further comprises:

receiving a refund payee; and

evaluating the refund payee with respect to a payer corresponding to the acknowledgment of payment received from the POS.