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System and methods for financing merchant business needs

  • US 9,786,005 B1
  • Filed: 09/19/2014
  • Issued: 10/10/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2014
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

  • receiving, over a first period of time, by one or more processors of a payment system, from a point-of-sale (POS) computing device of a merchant, transaction data for a plurality of first financial transactions corresponding to purchases by a plurality of customers of a plurality of first items from an inventory of the merchant, the transaction data including payment data to enable the one or more processors to process payments for each first financial transaction, the transaction data further including an itemized listing of the first items and other items purchased from the merchant for each first financial transaction;

    maintaining, by the one or more processors, based on the received transaction data, a data structure of the inventory of the merchant, the data structure including information about items available for purchase from the merchant, including a quantity of the first item remaining in the inventory of the merchant;

    determining, by the one or more processors, a current quantity of the first item remaining in the inventory of the merchant by subtracting from the data structure the first items purchased from the merchant as indicated in the received transaction data;

    utilizing, by the one or more processors, one or more application programming interfaces to access one or more social media resources to obtain social media data that describes a popularity of the merchant;

    determining, by the one or more processors, based on the obtained social media data indicating that the merchant is gaining popularity, that the merchant will be receiving more customersdetermining, by the one or more processors, from the data structure, a historical quantity of the first item sold during a prior time period corresponding to an upcoming time period;

    based on the historical quantity determined from the data structure, the current quantity of the first item remaining in the inventory determined from the data structure, and further based on determining from the social media data that the merchant will be receiving more customers, determining, by the one or more processors, for the upcoming time period, a quantity of the first item for the merchant to purchase to replenish the inventory for the upcoming time period;

    determining, by the one or more processors, based at least partially on the transaction data received from the POS merchant computing device over the first period of time, a cash advance amount for enabling the merchant to purchase at least a portion of the quantity of the first item for replenishing the first item in the inventory;

    sending, by the one or more processors, a notification to the POS merchant computing device of the merchant to cause a merchant application on the POS computing device to display an inventory interface concurrently with a transaction interface, the inventory interface presenting a message indicating the quantity of the first item for replenishing the inventory and further presenting an offer for the cash advance, wherein the inventory interface includes at least one control for accepting the cash advance, wherein transaction interface on the POS computing device is used to conduct the first financial transactions between the merchant and the customers of the merchant;

    receiving, by the one or more processors, via the at least one control included in the inventory interface presented on the POS computing device, an acceptance of the offer for the cash advance from the POS computing device of the merchant;

    providing, by the one or more processors, the cash advance to a financial account of the merchant, wherein the financial account of the merchant is maintained by a financial institution that is a separate entity from the payment system;

    processing, by the one or more processors, at least one second financial transaction conducted between the merchant and at least one customer of the merchant using the POS computing device of the merchant;

    determining, by the one or more processors, that the merchant has not repaid the cash advance and a fee for the cash advance; and

    apportioning, by the one or more processors, a respective portion of funds from the at least one second financial transaction to a separate financial account of the payment system.

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