Systems and Methods for Facilitating the Sale of Goods and/or Services Via Incentives

• US 20120265598A1
• Filed: 04/13/2012
• Published: 10/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Douglas Krone
• Original Assignee: Douglas Krone
• Inventors: Krone, Douglas
• Granted Patent: US 9,721,262 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Systems and methods of the present invention facilitate the sale of products, such as goods and/or services. Specifically, merchants of products provide incentives for consumers that may be defined by time and geography to drives sales of the products, such as during low demand periods. Moreover, the present invention allows consumers to search for and claim time-sensitive incentives from merchants; specifically, incentives requiring instant or nearly instant acceptance and/or redeemability.

Claims

1. A method of providing an incentive to a consumer from a merchant for a good or service provided by the merchant and adapted to be purchased by the consumer, comprising the steps of:

providing a merchant electronic computing device, wherein a merchant defines an incentive on the merchant electronic computing device, wherein the incentive includes a monetary value and an expiry;

storing the incentive for distribution to a plurality of consumers;

distributing the incentive to the plurality of consumers electronically to the plurality of consumers'"'"' electronic devices, wherein the incentive further comprises geographic information defined therein and further wherein the incentive is distributed to consumers having location information matching the geographic information defined in the incentive at the time the incentive is distributed.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the incentive is a percentage discount on the merchant'"'"'s goods or services.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the incentive is a voucher having a set monetary amount discount on the merchant'"'"'s goods or services.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the consumers'"'"' electronic devices comprise tracking means for tracking the geographic location of the consumer'"'"'s electronic devices, wherein the consumers'"'"' present location information is determined based on the tracking of the consumers'"'"' electronic devices.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

activating the incentive after storing the same, wherein activating the incentive allows the plurality of consumers access to the incentive on the consumers'"'"' electronic devices.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographic information defined in the incentive comprises a portion of geographic information of a geographic area wherein the consumers in that geographic area are not provided access to the incentive.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographic information defined in the incentive comprises a first portion of geographic information of a first geographic area wherein the consumers in the first geographic area are not provided access to the incentive, and a second portion of geographic information of a second geographic area wherein the consumers in the second geographic area are provided access to the incentive.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographic information defined in the incentive further comprises vector-based information defining that the incentive be distributed to consumers having a defined direction of travel.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the incentive is accessible to consumers having a direction of travel matching the defined direction of travel in the incentive at the time the incentive is distributed.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the incentive is not accessible to consumers not having a direction of travel matching the defined direction of travel in the incentive when the incentive is distributed.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

deactivating the incentive wherein deactivating the incentive makes the incentive inaccessible to the plurality of consumers.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the incentive further comprises a time of distribution defined therein, wherein the incentive is distributed at the time of distribution defined in the incentive.

13. A method of receiving an incentive defined by a merchant comprising the steps of:

providing an electronic device having geographical tracking means;

receiving an incentive distributed from a merchant, wherein the incentive has a value discount defined therein and a time expiry defined therein, and further wherein the incentive comprises geographic location information defined therein, wherein receiving the incentive from the merchant occurs when the geographic location information define in the incentive matches the geographic location of the portable electronic device at the time the incentive is distributed by the merchant.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the electronic device is a portable electronic device.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the geographic location information defined in the incentive further comprises vector-based direction of travel information defined therein, wherein receiving the incentive from the merchant occurs when the vector-based direction of travel information defined in the incentive matches the direction of travel of the portable electronic device at the time the incentive is distributed by the merchant.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the incentive comprises a percentage discount on the merchant'"'"'s goods or services.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the incentive comprises a set value discount on the merchant'"'"'s goods or services.

18. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of:

periodically retrieving the incentive from the merchant.

19. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of:

receiving a plurality of incentives from one or more merchants, each of the plurality of incentives having geographic location information defined therein, wherein receiving the plurality of incentives occurs when the geographic location of the portable electronic device matches the geographic location information of each of the incentives at the time each of the incentives are distributed by the merchant.

20. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of:

receiving a machine readable code at the electronic device, wherein the machine readable code is scanned at the merchant for redeeming the incentive.