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

• Current Assignee: Retailmenot Incorporated (J2 Global, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Retailmenot Incorporated (J2 Global, Inc.)
• Inventors: Georgoff, Michael Thomas, Showers, Brian Keith, Song, Jimmy Jaejoon, Pile, John Thomas, Dapremont, Edgar Mitchell
• Primary Examiner(s): Long, Meredith A
• Application Number:
  US14/489,875
• Publication Number:
  US 20150088607A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,342 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0211 Determining the effectiveness of discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices

Abstract

Provided is a process, including: 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; and 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.

Claims

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, and

the 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.

2. The affiliate-network system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising:

after sending the coupon to publishers, obtaining a request from a user device of a consumer who selected the coupon upon presentation by a given publisher, the request identifying the given publisher, the coupon, and indicating display capabilities of the user device;

preparing a presentation of the coupon based on the display capabilities, the coupon, and the given publisher by performing operations comprising;

retrieving an coupon presentation template corresponding to the display capabilities from memory;

retrieving from memory publisher-specific content to be added to the retrieved template; and

retrieving from memory redemption options of the coupon to be added to the retrieved template, the redemption options indicating that the coupon is redeemable in-store and on-line; and

sending to the user device instructions to display the coupon according to the retrieved template, publisher-specific content, and redemption options in a user interface by which the consumer selects on-line redemption or in-store redemption.

3. The affiliate-network system of claim 2, wherein:

sending the coupon to the given publisher comprises sending a publisher-and-coupon specific uniform resource identifier (URI) of the coupon and the publisher;

the request from a user device of a consumer who selected the coupon comprises user agent information indicative of display capabilities;

retrieving publisher-specific content comprises retrieving images of the given publisher'"'"'s brand and colors selected by the given publisher; and

the in-store redemption option includes an option to print the coupon, a option to send a network address of a presentation of the coupon via text message, and an option to email a network address of a presentation of the coupon.

4. The affiliate-network system of claim 1, wherein receiving indications from the user devices of the consumers that the consumers interacted with the coupon comprises:

after sending a first presentation of the coupon to a first user device of a consumer, receiving a request from the consumer to send information about the coupon to another user device or account via short-message-service (SMS) text message, or email, or a card-linked offer application program interface.

5. The affiliate-network system of claim 1, wherein:

sending the coupon is associated a geographic area in which the coupon is redeemable, the geographic area being specified by the merchant; and

sending the coupon to publishers comprises;

receiving a request from a publisher for coupons redeemable within a queried geographic area;

determining that geographic area associated with the coupon is at least partially within the queried geographic area; and

in response to the determination, sending the coupon to the publisher from which the request was received.

6. The affiliate-network system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising determining compensation for the same publisher based on both in-store usage of the coupon and on-line usage of the coupon.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising:

steps for content negotiation.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising:

steps for specifying how an offer is to be displayed in each of a variety of different modes of presentation.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising:

steps for hosting offer content that publishers embed.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising:

steps for organizing data about a multi-channel offer with reference to a single offer record.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising:

steps for providing multi-channel access to an offer through a single uniform resource identifier.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising:

steps for providing analytics to both merchants and publishers that aggregate both on-line and off-line consumer interactions.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising:

steps for dynamically adjusting the terms of offers based on feedback from multiple channels of offer redemption, including on-line and in-store redemptions.

14. A method, comprising:

obtaining, with one or more processors, 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, with one or more processors, the coupon to publishers for presentation to consumers by the publishers on user devices of the consumers;

receiving, with one or more processors, 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, with one or more processors, 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, with one or more processors, 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, and

the 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.

15. The method claim 14, comprising:

after sending the coupon to publishers, obtaining a request from a user device of a consumer who selected the coupon upon presentation by a given publisher, the request identifying the given publisher, the coupon, and indicating display capabilities of the user device;

preparing a presentation of the coupon based on the display capabilities, the coupon, and the given publisher by performing operations comprising;

retrieving an coupon presentation template corresponding to the display capabilities from memory;

retrieving from memory publisher-specific content to be added to the retrieved template; and

retrieving from memory redemption options of the coupon to be added to the retrieved template, the redemption options indicating that the coupon is redeemable in-store and on-line; and

sending to the user device instructions to display the coupon according to the retrieved template, publisher-specific content, and redemption options in a user interface by which the consumer selects on-line redemption or in-store redemption.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein:

sending the coupon to the given publisher comprises sending a publisher-and-coupon specific uniform resource identifier (URI) of the coupon and the publisher;

the request from a user device of a consumer who selected the coupon comprises user agent information indicative of display capabilities;

retrieving publisher-specific content comprises retrieving images of the given publisher'"'"'s brand and colors selected by the given publisher; and

the in-store redemption option includes an option to print the coupon, a option to send a network address of a presentation of the coupon via text message, and an option to email a network address of a presentation of the coupon.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving indications from the user devices of the consumers that the consumers interacted with the coupon comprises:

after sending a first presentation of the coupon to a first user device of a consumer, receiving a request from the consumer to send information about the coupon to another user device or account via short-message-service (SMS) text message, or email, or a card-linked offer application program interface.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein:

sending the coupon is associated a geographic area in which the coupon is redeemable, the geographic area being specified by the merchant; and

sending the coupon to publishers comprises;

receiving a request from a publisher for coupons redeemable within a queried geographic area;

determining that geographic area associated with the coupon is at least partially within the queried geographic area; and

in response to the determination, sending the coupon to the publisher from which the request was received.

19. The method of claim 14, comprising determining compensation for the same publisher based on both in-store usage of the coupon and on-line usage of the coupon.

20. The method of claim 14, comprising:

steps for content negotiation.

21. The method of claim 14, comprising:

steps for specifying how an offer is to be displayed in each of a variety of different modes of presentation.

22. The method of claim 14, comprising:

steps for hosting offer content that publishers embed.

23. The method of claim 14, comprising:

steps for organizing data about a multi-channel offer with reference to a single offer record.

24. The method of claim 14, comprising:

steps for providing multi-channel access to an offer through a single uniform resource identifier.

25. The method of claim 14, comprising:

steps for providing analytics to both merchants and publishers that aggregate both on-line and off-line consumer interactions.

26. The method of claim 14, comprising:

steps for dynamically adjusting terms of offers based on feedback from multiple channels of offer redemption, including on-line and in-store redemptions.

27. The method of claim 14, comprising:

providing more than a thousand offers per hour to respective consumers'"'"' computing devices by elastically scaling an amount of geographically distributed networked computing devices in an offer distribution system.

28. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the persistent client-side storage is a cookie or Local Storage memory of the browser; and

the value identifies the second publisher.