Location based transactions

• US 10,733,644 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2017
• Issued: 08/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tanaka, Ray Hideki, Nandiraju, Srikanth, Mansoor, Mehryar
• Primary Examiner(s): Haq, Naeem U
• Application Number:
  US15/665,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20180130105A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,100 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted

Abstract

A user'"'"'s location is determined by location information communicated by a user device, such as a smart phone. Merchants near the user location are determined and selected. Merchant payment information is transmitted to the user device so that the user can easily make a payment to the merchant through the user device. Merchant offerings may also be sent to the user device for purchase and subsequent payment, where the merchant offerings may be specifically selected for the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a hardware processor, location information of a user;

determining, by the hardware processor, a location of the user based on the location information;

automatically adjusting, by the hardware processor, a threshold distance based on an attribute of an area corresponding to the location of the user;

determining, by the hardware processor, one or more merchants that are within the threshold distance of the location of the user;

transmitting, by the hardware processor via a network, a list of one or more offerings of the one or more merchants to a mobile computing device of the user;

determining, by the hardware processor, that the mobile computing device is at the location and a merchant from the one or more merchants is also at the location; and

in response to the determining that the mobile computing device is at the location and the merchant is also at the location, causing the mobile computing device to automatically populate payment information of the merchant into a payment request form.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware processor is a processor of a payment provider server.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the hardware processor via the network, a selection of one of the one or more offerings from the mobile computing device.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, by the hardware processor via the network, a payment request for the selection from the mobile computing device; and

processing, by the hardware processor, the payment request based on the payment information and the payment request.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, by the hardware processor via the network, a next selection of another of the one or more offerings from the mobile computing device;

receiving, by the hardware processor via the network, a payment request for the next selection from the mobile computing device; and

processing, by the hardware processor, the payment request based on the payment information and the payment request.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting, by the hardware processor, the one or more offerings based on user information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information comprises GPS coordinates.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the payment information identifies an account of the first merchant to a payment provider.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

increasing the threshold distance when the location of the user is in a first type of area or decreasing the threshold distance when the location of the user is in a second type of area.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more offerings comprises a time-based offering from one of the one or more merchants based on a purchase history of the user.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the hardware processor via the network, a selection of one of the one or more offerings from the mobile computing device;

receiving, by the hardware processor via the network, a payment request for the selection from the mobile computing device;

generating, by the hardware processor via the network, an invoice for the payment request based on the payment request form and the selection; and

causing, by the hardware processor via the network, the invoice to be displayed on a display of the mobile computing device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving, by the hardware processor via the network, a change to the invoice from the mobile computing device; and

causing, by the hardware processor via the network, the invoice to be updated with the merchant and the mobile computing device based on the change.

13. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving location information of a user;

determining a location of the user based on the location information;

automatically adjusting a threshold distance based on an attribute of an area corresponding to the location of the user;

determining one or more merchants that are within the threshold distance of the location of the user;

transmitting, via a network, a list of one or more offerings of the one or more merchants to a mobile computing device of the user;

determining that the mobile computing device is at the location and a merchant from the one or more merchants is also at the location; and

in response to the determining that the mobile computing device is at the location and the merchant is also at the location, causing the mobile computing device to automatically populate payment information of the merchant into a payment request form.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a selection of one of the one or more offerings from the mobile computing device.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise adjusting the one or more offerings based on user information that includes a purchase history of the user.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the payment information identifies an account of the first merchant at a payment provider.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the location information comprises GPS coordinates.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the operations are performed by a payment provider server.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the mobile computing device is a wireless communication device.

20. A system comprising:

a network interface component;

a non-transitory memory storing instructions; and

one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read the instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising;

receiving, via the network interface component and a network, location information of a user from a mobile computing device of the user;

determining a location of the user based on the location information;

automatically adjusting a threshold distance based on an attribute of an area corresponding to the location of the user;

determining one or more merchants that are within the threshold distance of the location of the user;

transmitting, via the network interface component and the network, a list of one or more offerings of the one or more merchants to the mobile computing device of the user;

receiving, via the network interface component and the network, a selection of one of the one or more offerings from the mobile computing device;

determining that the mobile computing device and a merchant from the one or more merchants are both at the location; and

in response to the determining that the mobile computing device and the merchant are both at the location, causing, via the network interface component and the network, the mobile computing device to automatically populate payment information of the merchant into a payment request form.