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Tracking offers across multiple channels

  • US 9,978,078 B2
  • Filed: 09/18/2014
  • Issued: 05/22/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2013
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An affiliate-network system configured to act as an intermediary between merchants issuing coupons or other offers and publishers promoting the offers to consumers, the affiliate-network system being configured to distribute and track usage of both on-line offers and in-store offers, the system comprising:

  • one or more processors;

    memory storing instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising;

    obtaining a coupon issued by a merchant, the coupon being redeemable both on-line, at the merchant'"'"'s website, and in-store, at a physical location of the merchant;

    sending the coupon to publishers for presentation to consumers by the publishers on user devices of the consumers;

    receiving indications from the user devices of the consumers that the consumers interacted with the coupon, the indications indicating a consumer selection of an in-store redemption option or an on-line redemption option;

    after an indication that a given consumer selected an in-store redemption option, effectuating operations comprising;

    sending the given consumer in-store redemption data documenting that the given consumer is in possession of the coupon for presentation to the merchant at a physical location of the merchant, the data identifying a first publisher that presented the coupon to the given consumer to credit first publisher;

    receiving transaction data from the merchant indicating that the given consumer redeemed the coupon;

    determining compensation for the first publisher based on the transaction data; and

    after an indication that another given consumer selected an on-line redemption option, effectuating operations comprising;

    storing on-line redemption data in memory documenting that the other given consumer selected the coupon and identifying a second publisher that presented the coupon to the other given consumer to credit the publisher, wherein;

    storing on-line redemption data in memory comprises instructing the user device of the other given consumer to load a value into persistent client-side storage of a browser of the user device of the other given consumer,the value loaded into persistent client-side storage is remotely accessible to a given domain from which the instruction to load the value into persistent client-side storage is sent, andthe value loaded into persistent client-side storage is remotely inaccessible to domains other than the given domain under a single-origin policy of the browser of the user device of the other given consumer; and

    instructing the user device of the other given consumer to request content from the merchant'"'"'s website;

    obtaining the on-line redemption data stored in memory upon the other given consumer redeeming the coupon, wherein obtaining the on-line redemption data comprises receiving a request at the given domain from the user device of the other given consumer and responding to the request with instructions from the given domain that cause the user device of the other given consumer to access the value loaded into persistent client-side storage; and

    determining compensation for the second publisher based on the obtained on-line redemption data.

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