PROMOTION SYSTEM SUPPORTING EMAILED PROMOTIONS AND AT SELLER PREMISES TRANSACTION COMPLETION

• US 20120316954A1
• Filed: 08/21/2012
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Enpulz LLC
• Inventors: Bennett, James D., Winslade, Christopher C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,818,853 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 : Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 : Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 : Insurance

Abstract

An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity.

Claims

1. A promotion system supporting a plurality of buyer computers and a plurality of seller computers, the plurality of buyer computers used by a corresponding plurality of potential buyers, the plurality of seller computers used by a corresponding plurality of sellers, the promotion system comprising:

a promotion management service that stores information regarding each of the plurality of potential buyers;

the promotion management service receives from a first seller of the plurality of sellers via the first seller'"'"'s computer, promotion data related to an item being offered for sale by the first seller;

the promotion management service presents promotion data via at least a subset of the plurality of buyer computers;

a promotion email service that, based on the stored information, sends to a subset of the plurality of potential buyers an email including the promotion data related to the item being offered for sale; and

the promotion management service, responsive to input received via a first buyer computer of the plurality of buyer computers, communicates to the first buyer computer promotion information for storage on the first buyer computer, the promotion information to be used to support completion of a transaction at a physical seller location of the first seller at a later time without receiving by the first seller at the later time of the promotion information from the promotion management service.

2. The promotion system of claim 1, wherein the promotion management service comprises a promotional server that hosts promotion data postings from the plurality of sellers.

3. The promotion system of claim 1, wherein one or both of the first seller and the item being offered for sale by the first seller have an associated geographical region.

4. The promotion system of claim 1, wherein the stored information comprises a geographical region that corresponds to the geographic region associated with the one or both of the first seller and the item being offered for sale by the first seller.

5. The promotion system of claim 1, wherein the item being offered for sale comprises a good and/or a service.