| Entries |
| Document | Title | Date |
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| 20090281885 | USING VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT INCENTIVES TO REDUCE REAL WORLD ENERGY USAGE - Real world energy usage can be reduced using a virtual environment. A virtual universe energy conservation system (“system”) can determine energy usage from a power grid by energy consuming devices supporting a virtual universe. The system can determine that the energy usage is at a time that corresponds to a peak power usage period on the power grid. The system can determine a virtual universe user account associated with the energy consuming devices. The system can also transmit an offer of a virtual universe award to an electronic device associated with the virtual universe user accounts to entice a reduction in energy usage from the power grid during the peak power usage period. | 11-12-2009 |
| 20090292599 | TRANSACTIONAL ADVERTISING - A method of transactional advertising includes providing a transactional advertising platform for presenting offers to a user who is committed to complete an electronic transaction; selecting an offer to present based on at least two of the following associated with the transaction: a transaction amount, a payment type, a shipment address, and a shopping cart contents; and presenting the offer to the user based on a user level of commitment to complete the electronic transaction and based on the status of the transaction. The user level of commitment includes one of an indication of non-payment, an indication of payment, and an indication of indecision to pay. The transaction status includes one of needs incentive to transact, method of payment provided, payment approved, and payment complete. | 11-26-2009 |
| 20090319351 | Measuring the effectiveness of a person testimonial promotion - Behavioral targeting to push promotional offers to a person, such as an artist, celebrity, athlete, politician, of a fan-based network is provided. The selection and redemption of promotional offers can increase by providing persons of a fan-based network with relevant and high value offers. In addition, marketing campaigns can increase their effectiveness with knowledge and identification of persons having a high degree of influence on other persons. A person's measure of influence is determined by characterizations of the person's fans based on monitored actions of the fans. Relevant promotional offers can be targeted to a consumer based indirectly on the actions of the fans of the consumer in addition to the direct behavior of the consumer himself. The actions and behavior of a consumer and his or her fans can be tracked within the fan-based network setting. Pushing relevant and high value offers enables rapid and viral spread of offers. | 12-24-2009 |
| 20100004987 | Information-Processing System for the Purpose of Market Research - An information-processing system for market research includes a number of stations connected to the computer, each desirably having a touch screen. The program available in the computer is adapted to output a series of questions to a respondent, optionally after providing beforehand information necessary to answer a question. Once the respondent has answered the group of questions, the respondent receives a free reward, such as a gift voucher or product, for example. By presenting product information about which questions are asked, the invention ensures that each respondent has viewed the provided information before the respondent can receive their reward. | 01-07-2010 |
| 20100023389 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING INTERNET BASED MARKETING CHANNELS - This invention is an interactive internet based system that will allow customers to view, and participate in multiple incentive programs via said single interactive internet based system. The customers will be able to choose for themselves from a list of qualifying incentive programs. Additionally, the customers will be ready to track and control their participation, including the redemption of the aforementioned incentives. Furthermore, this system allows vendors to create, manage, and track their incentive programs utilizing the same interactive internet based system. Vendors will be able to design, submit, and manage their own customer incentive programs and business activity down to the customer level, wherein the data is updated real time or daily. | 01-28-2010 |
| 20100030631 | Free Sample Provision Managing System and Its Program - The object of the present invention is to provide a system in which a use is capable of selecting a desired sample product over a network and receiving that selected sample product. A system is provided in which when distributing samples of products to a user via a network, displays distributable sample products on a user terminal that is used by the user, receives a selection for a sample product from the user terminal and manages the user that desires that sample product. This system comprises: a memory unit 12 for storing at least sample product information for a sample product to be distributed and user information of a user; a display unit 21 that displays sample product information to the user; a selection-receiving unit 22 that receives sample product selection information from the user; a point-calculation unit 20 that subtracts the number of sample product points that are included in the sample product information from the number of points that have been awarded to the user and included in the user information; and a sample-product-point-control unit 21 that controls the probability that the user will select the sample product by changing the number of points required for that sample product that is displayed to the user according to matching of the sample product information with attributes of the user. | 02-04-2010 |
| 20100036720 | UBIQUITOUS INTENT-BASED CUSTOMER INCENTIVE SCHEME - System(s) and method(s) are provided to compensate an agent in exchange for the agent's intent in transacting with a service platform. Compensation can be effected in online and offline domains, and intent can be conveyed online or offline. Compensation is funded through advertisement spending, and advertisement impressions facilitate compensation delivery. The service platform that compensated the agent extracts intent through explicit or implicit expressions which can be collected online or offline. Offline expressions can be delivered through wearable indicia. Compensation can be delivered wirelessly offline or online to a device operated by the agent. Agent and agent's device(s) registration afford service platform to deliver adaptive compensation customized to the agent, and advertisement(s) with format and content optimized for the agent's device. To drive agent's commercial transactions, offline location services and online location information facilitate delivery of advertisement and associated compensation based in part on agent's intent and location. | 02-11-2010 |
| 20100036721 | Method of Increasing Customer Loyalty With A Merchant - A method of increasing customer loyalty and sales with a merchant includes providing a carrier to obtain demographic and contact information about a customer and enter the customer as a participant in a rewards program. This carrier also grants the loyalty program permission to market to them through any contact means they are given. The customer information is matched with a participant number. Promotional materials are sent to the participant wherein the promotional materials include a participant identifier and a promotional code wherein the promotional material is presented to a merchant to obtain points in the rewards program based upon the participant's activity with the merchant such that a card is not required to participate in the rewards program. The results of all marketing is analyzed to determine future customized marketing to target existing and potential customers with similar demographic profiles as merchants existing best customers. | 02-11-2010 |
| 20100036722 | AUTOMATICALLY PRESCRIBING TOTAL BUDGET FOR MARKETING AND SALES RESOURCES AND ALLOCATION ACROSS SPENDING CATEGORIES - In one embodiment, a software facility is provided that uses a qualitative description of a subject offering to automatically prescribe both (1) a total budget for marketing and sales resources for a subject offering and (2) an allocation of that total budget over multiple spending categories—also referred to as “activities”—in a manner intended to optimize a business outcome such as profit for the subject offering based on experimentally-obtained econometric data. | 02-11-2010 |
| 20100042487 | Apparatus and Method of Monetizing Hyperlinks - A data processing system for monetizing referring hyperlinks from source websites to target websites, wherein the source website owners and target website owners are not associated in business relationship related to referrals. One data processing system comprises a dedicated network server comprising a monitoring module arranged to monitor and record activation of the referring hyperlinks; a benefit value evaluation module, arranged to assign a suggested value to the referring hyperlinks based on predefined rules that relate to the activation of the referring hyperlinks; characteristics of the target websites and the source websites; and statistical data relating to past activation of the referring hyperlinks and related transferred benefit values, and a benefit transaction network platform arranged to support transferal of benefits from the target website owners to the source website owners. The suggested value is used to estimate and recommend the benefit values. | 02-18-2010 |
| 20100042488 | PRICE GUARANTEE METHODS AND SYSTEMS - A method is provided. The method includes recording transaction information for a consummated transaction related to a purchase of an item or service at a computer, the transaction information including information identifying a consumer; monitoring, by the computer, an incentive to purchase the item or service for a predetermined time period after purchase of the item or service by the consumer; comparing, by the computer, the incentive to the transaction information during the predetermined time period to determine if the incentive was offered as part of the consummated transaction; and if the incentive was not offered as part of the consummated transaction, duplicating, by the computer, the incentive for the consumer after the consummated transaction. | 02-18-2010 |
| 20100057548 | TARGETED CUSTOMER OFFERS BASED ON PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS - Embodiments are directed towards enabling product and/or service providers to maximize sales of products, services, and content to their existing customers. In one embodiment, a process, apparatus, and system are directed towards optimizing a selection of offers for any customer touch-point to ensure the provider delivers the best offer to the right customer at the most appropriate time. Offers are optimized not only according to a customer's interests and preferences but also according to revenue and profitability potential using predictive analytics. | 03-04-2010 |
| 20100088166 | Electronic Coupons - System and method of creating, managing, validating, associating and redeeming electronic coupons are disclosed. An electronic coupon system is capable of creating, delivering and distributing coupons to at least one user. The system is also capable of identifying, verifying and associating the coupon with the user, and further allowing the coupon to be redeemed by the user at a third-party vendor. | 04-08-2010 |
| 20100094693 | OFFER OR REWARD SYSTEM USING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR MODELING - The invention relates to a method of consumer modelling for sales' promotions, comprising the steps of providing a plurality of points of sale, providing a plurality of computer devices respectively adapted to analyse consumer behaviour and deliver data based thereon to a point of sale, and providing a device associated with an individual point of sale of the plurality thereof for providing at least promotional material to a consumer making a sales' transaction at any individual point of sale. Thus, in the drawings, there is shown a point of sale location ( | 04-15-2010 |
| 20100106576 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTING AND TRACKING INCENTIVES FOR POSITIVE BEHAVIOR - The system evaluates a set of incentives based upon a variety of factors and/or predetermined rules and consumers are provided incentives when they satisfy one or more criteria of making payments for their transaction accounts. The one or more criteria include making an early payment, paying more than a minimum amount due, and making the payment through an automatic payment scheme. If a received payment satisfies one or more predefined criteria, one or more incentives are selected for the consumer, tracked, and provided to the consumer. The system analyzes payment information to determine attributes and positive (desirable) behavior and provides incentives to the consumer based on such positive behaviors. | 04-29-2010 |
| 20100114683 | METHOD FOR GENERATING AN ELECTRONIC COUPON, COUPON HOLDING DEVICE, SYSTEM FOR GENERATING AN ELECTRONIC COUPON, ELECTRONIC COUPON AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - A method is provided for generating an electronic coupon comprising generating coupon identification data; generating coupon metadata; and generating the electronic coupon based on the coupon identification data and based on the coupon metadata. Further, a coupon holding device is provided including a coupon receiving unit configured to receive a first electronic coupon; a coupon metadata generation unit configured to generate coupon metadata for the first electronic coupon; and a coupon generation unit configured to generate a second electronic coupon based on the first electronic coupon and the coupon metadata. | 05-06-2010 |
| 20100121696 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING CUSTOMERS ACCESS TO INCENTIVE DEALS - A computer-implemented method of provides customers access to incentive deals. The method includes maintaining a database of customer prospect accounts associated with customer prospects. Each of the customer prospect accounts includes customer data associated with the customer prospect. A plurality of incentive deals are registered in an incentive deal database. Each incentive deal is associated with incentive deal identifying data and predetermined customer prospect eligibility criteria. The customer data is traversed against the predetermined customer prospect eligibility criteria. A description of one or more incentive deals for which the customer prospect is eligible are identified to the customer prospect on a user terminal based on results of the traversing step. | 05-13-2010 |
| 20100131342 | Intelligent clearing network - In an embodiment, a system for validating, redeeming, and financially settling paper coupons coded with a GS1 barcode and 8110 Application Identifier comprises a real time network through which a Point-of-Sale (POS) terminal communicates directly to, or through a POS controller, with an Intelligent Clearing Network (ICN) server. One or both of the POS terminal and POS controller are installed with a ICN POS data bridge which stores computer code. The ICN server is configured to run a real time application while in communication with the POS terminal, wherein the POS terminal transmits paper coupon data elements read from the GS1 barcode and other consumer transaction information including universal product codes purchased, and transaction details to the ICN server via the network. | 05-27-2010 |
| 20100153196 | ENHANCED CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS - One exemplary embodiment of the disclosure provides a method to publish campaign data in an electronic environment. The exemplary method includes querying a database to select campaign metadata ready to publish to a target channel system and determining a plurality of value users as a subset of all end users. The value users are determined so that one or more coupons are automatically generated and distributed to each of the value users. A value of the coupon is based on a set of pre-defined criteria including a volume of business generated by the value user or how negatively impacted the value user was based on a negative purchase experience (e.g., product not as described or never received). The target channel system is selected from a plurality of channel systems based on a target indicating attribute of the campaign metadata. The packaged campaign metadata is transferred to the target channel system. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100161399 | INSTANT PAYOUT INCENTIVE SYSTEM - Methods, apparatus, and systems to process transactions in a networked communication system, including cash back rebate eligible transactions. Some embodiments provide for distributed risk analysis of transactions, such as to provide for a probability analysis of transaction completion at a payment server. The payment server then makes a recommendation for reward timing or payout of a cash back reward. | 06-24-2010 |
| 20100185504 | MANAGEMENT OF DYNAMIC MOBILE COUPONS - Providing for network-based management of dynamic mobile coupons (DMCs) employed in mobile device-related commerce is described herein. Management can include mitigating processing load involved in processing dynamic characteristics of a set of DMCs, facilitating post-transaction evaluation of DMCs, or facilitating a virtual shopping experience in conjunction with redeeming DMCs in a mobile-commerce environment. Communicative association between a mobile device and network components can be implemented to leverage data collected by the mobile device with communication and processing capabilities of the network. Dynamic DMC states are determined from the collected data, which are implemented to facilitate the mobile-commerce. The disclosure provides an integrated mechanism for efficient utilization of DMCs to enhance user experience and satisfaction with mobile commerce. | 07-22-2010 |
| 20100191588 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ENHANCING CUSTOMER LOYALTY - A method of and system for providing customer-specific information involving a) obtaining customer identification information for identifying a customer to be served at the weigh station; b) storing a plurality of customer profiles for a plurality of customers wherein each customer in the plurality of customers has an associated customer profile; and, c) when the customer is in the plurality of customers, retrieving the associated customer profile for the customer using the customer identification information and providing associated customer-specific information based on the associated customer profile to a weigh station display. | 07-29-2010 |
| 20100217658 | Method and System for Creation, Distribution, Aggregation, Return, Donation, Exchange, Verification, Redemption and Clearing of Incentives - The present invention provides a space and all necessary procedures enabling visitors to create, distribute, aggregate, exchange, return, donate, verify, redeem, account and clear different kinds of incentives by commonly available means and tools, where the specific commodity (promotional programs) is exchanged for special consideration. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20100228613 | Systems and Methods for Interactively Rewarding Users of an Entertainment System - A user is rewarded for actions performed within an entertainment system. Digital content is provided to a client device over a network. Data is then received from the client device over the network. The received data represents an input from a user of the client device in response to the digital content provided to the client device. A value associated with the input from the user is determined. An account balance associated with the user is adjusted by a quantity of credit tokens. The quantity of tokens is determined by the value associated with the input from the user. | 09-09-2010 |
| 20100241501 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRACKING AND PROVIDING INCENTIVES FOR TASKS AND ACTIVITIES AND OTHER BEHAVIORAL INFLUENCES RELATED TO MONEY, INDIVIDUALS, TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER ASSETS - Methods and systems for altering behavior in a variety of applications include recording information associated with an event related to a particular activity or field, determining a status of the event in connection with a rewards algorithm, calculating reward information in accordance with the rewards algorithm, and storing the calculated reward information. A recipient is notified in accordance with a notification algorithm of the calculated reward information. Incentives may be provided for participation in services plans, including professional services plans such as legal plans, adoption and use of types of funds, accounts and funds transfers, use of online services, and numerous other services. Rewards include the receipt of professional services and membership in services plans. Incentives for entering into transactions include offering of related services, including identity theft related services for events related to the transaction. Methods and systems for entering transactions include receiving first transaction request information from a transaction party in a first mode, prompting the transaction party for second transaction request information to be provided in a second mode, if the second transaction information is received in a suitable manner, then entering into the transaction, and otherwise terminating the transaction. | 09-23-2010 |
| 20100250351 | Method for electronic coupon creation, deployment, transference, validation management, clearance, redemption and reporting system and and method for interactive participation of individuals and groups with coupons - This invention relates generally to electronic commerce (e-commerce) methods for the use of systems and media platforms, for use with both mobile and non-mobile systems, to deploy virtual advertising and promotion via the use of electronic coupons, and more particularly a method and system for creating, deploying, transferring, clearing, managing, redeeming and reporting on the use of electronic coupons or virtual electronic rebates (VeeBates) and permitting individuals and groups within one or more social communications networks to participate in and transmit information to others about their activities related to the virtual advertising, incentives, redemption and promotion. | 09-30-2010 |
| 20100262474 | Method and apparatus for generating a sale offer over an electronic network system - A method and apparatus are provided for generating a sale offer over an electronic network (such as the Internet). The method and apparatus may be used with a commercial sale system designed to increase the revenue income of Web site by offering, at a substantially discounted or virtually free basis, one more goods and/or services to visitors of the Web site. According to the features of the invention, the seller (who may be the owner or co-owner of the Web site) transmits a sale offer on the Web site for a high quality good or service, wherein the good or service can be purchased for free or a cost near to zero. The seller may make the offer visible and available to a number of perspective buyers, who are connected at that very moment to the Web site. According to an additional aspect of the invention, the sale offer may be available for only a very limited amount of time (e.g., one or more minutes) and may be offered at random or unpredictable times on the Web site in order to increase Web traffic to the site. | 10-14-2010 |
| 20100262475 | System and Method of Organizing a Distributed Online Marketplace for Goods and/or Services - Disclosed are methods and systems for organizing and growing an online or otherwise dynamically accessible distributed marketplace for goods and services offered either at a particular location, or at a particular time, or available in certain quantity, or exhibiting some or all of the above characteristics. One such system comprises means for posting in real-time vendor offers to an online database based on the at least one parameter, means for identifying a location of a consumer based on a consumer action at the host site, means for generating relevant offers based on the consumer action or location, wherein the offers are viewed through the host site, means for accepting the offers by the consumer through the host site, means for processing revenue and means for distributing revenue wherein the database dynamically communicates with a plurality of host sites at any given time and generates relevant offers for a plurality of consumers on the plurality of host sites at any given time. | 10-14-2010 |
| 20100274646 | System and Method for Improving E-Commerce - A system and method for improving advertising response rates by allowing an electronic advertising content to be stored, retrieved, shared, and manipulated by individual users, while enabling the accurate recordation of accounting information associated with the electronic advertising content. | 10-28-2010 |
| 20100274647 | Marketing System and Method Benefiting Both Buyers and Businesses Alike - System and method for providing value to both buyers and businesses. Businesses provide value to buyers by providing a searchable database containing member businesses and their products and services. Businesses also provide discounts and specials to buyers as an added incentive. Businesses are provided a means to display their goods and services to a targeted group of motivated buyers searching within the system of the present invention, wherein discounts and specials influence a buyer to transact with a member business rather than a non-member business. The searchable database of the present invention may provide results for buyer search requests pertaining to local zip codes of member businesses, product or service categories, product or service descriptions, and the like. Member businesses may be required to maintain a minimum level of incentives available to member buyers, such as offering at least one buy one get one free offer to member buyers. | 10-28-2010 |
| 20100274648 | Conditional electronic coupon distribution method and system - A conditional e-coupon distribution method distributes e-coupons predefined by sellers to mobile users only if the number of mobile users requesting such e-coupons equals or exceeds a threshold. The method receives a request to browse e-coupons from a mobile user. The method receives the location of the mobile user and determines a plurality of sellers local to the mobile electronic device and a plurality of corresponding e-coupons available from the local sellers. The method receives a request for a particular e-coupon from a seller and authorizes the provision of said e-coupon to the mobile user. At the end of a processing cycle, the mobile user receives the requested e-coupon if all conditions, such as a period of time and threshold, have been met. A computer-usable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein allows for storage of the method. | 10-28-2010 |
| 20100280892 | Method and system for targeted offers to mobile users - A system for targeted offers to at least one mobile user includes a data collection system configured to collect information relating to the at least one mobile user's interests, a profiling engine configured to profile the at least one mobile user according to a plurality of classification groups based on the collected information of the data collection system, a matching engine configured to map the at least one mobile user profile received from the profiling engine to at least one service profile, and an offer manager configured to offer at least one service to the at least one mobile user based on the mapping received from the matching engine and a trigger received from the data collection system. | 11-04-2010 |
| 20100287044 | System and methods for discount retailing - A system and methods to mutually satisfy a consumer with a discount and a vendor with a minimum number of sales by establishing a tipping point associated with an offer for a good or service. If the tipping point is met, the sale of the good or service is executed and the consumer is charged and receives an indication of the discounted sale, such as a certificate. If the tipping point is not met, the discount offer is abandoned and the consumer is not charged. Once the tipping point is established, the vendor receives a payment, even before the consumer uses the certificate. | 11-11-2010 |
| 20100299193 | Community-Based System and Method for Automatic Discount of a Purchase - A community-based system and method for providing automatic discounting of a purchase is described. A database containing a plurality of items for purchase and a plurality of discounts associated with the items is provided. A search query is received from a user using a networked device, and items responsive to the search query are transmitted to the device for display. The device is then usable to select one or more displayed items. Corresponding discounts are automatically associated with the selected items, and when purchase of the item is completed, the associated discounts are applied in a paperless manner. Concurrent with the discount feature, users are permitted to create customizable user accounts, through which favorite items and groupings of items can be uploaded, flagged, stored, and shared with other users. User accounts are usable for tracking of demographic information, communication with other users, and providing automatic notifications based on user-selected preferences. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20100299194 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING AND MANAGING GIFT CARDS - An offer management system is provided that evaluates conditions in relation to a gift card and triggers an action. In another example, the offer management system may be capable of evaluating attributes of a transaction using a gift card and may be capable of triggering an action. A trigger may be defined using one or more rules. For example, an administrator for a retailer may configure an offer rule in an interface of the offer management system. These rules may be evaluated in real-time, and offers made responsive to those evaluations. For example, offers may be made to a gift card recipient such as a discount on the total purchase, a dynamic addition of value to a gift card, issuance of a new gift card, or other offer. These offers may be used by a retailer to foster certain behaviors relating to gift cards. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20100324979 | COMPUTER-BASED ANALYSIS OF AFFILIATE SITE PERFORMANCE - A performance analysis system analyzes the performance of affiliate sites that provide links to specific items in an electronic catalog, and identifies catalog items that can be listed by such affiliate web sites to improve performance. An association mining component analyzes transaction data attributable to specific categories or types of affiliate web sites to identify items that are frequently purchased in combination by users of such sites. The detected item associations are used to evaluate, for a given affiliate site, whether significant disparities exist between the expected and actual sales quantities of specific items. The results of the analysis are incorporated into affiliate-specific performance reports, which may include specific recommendations for improving performance. The disclosed methods may also be used to analyze the performance of, and provide recommendations to, online sellers within an online mall, online marketplace, or online auction system. | 12-23-2010 |
| 20110029362 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ADAPTIVE OFFER DETERMINATION - The optimization system monitors a mobile phone user's behavior in response to an offer for a reward and determines a good level for a product promotion. The determination may be made based upon the user's current response, past response patterns to various reward levels or a correlation between a user's behavior and the behavior corresponding to a class of users. The system can determine an offer level that maximizes the return on the profit or revenue from a potential purchase for which the offer applies. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110035265 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VERIFIED MONETIZATION OF COMMERCIAL CAMPAIGNS - A system and method for verified monetization. A definition of a commercial campaign is received wherein the definition comprises an identification of an advertiser and an advertisement, at least one trigger condition, at least one monetization condition, at least one verification policy, and at least one monetization action, wherein trigger conditions relate to the occurrence of trigger events, the monetization conditions relate to location data relating to at least one person, verification policies relates to the reliability of the location data, and the monetization actions relates to payments to payees. When an indication of an association between a user and the advertisement is received, the user is associated with the commercial campaign. When the occurrence of trigger events is detected, if the campaigns monetization conditions and verification policies have been satisfied, payees are paid according to the campaign's monetization actions. | 02-10-2011 |
| 20110047016 | DISTRIBUTION OF E-COUPONS TO USER DEVICES - A method and system for determining which of a plurality of users may be sent an e-coupon. More particularly, a computing device may determine which of a plurality of users are watching a particular program or advertisement on television and may determine a corresponding e-coupon to be sent to the users watching the particular program. | 02-24-2011 |
| 20110047017 | Offer Management Method And System - An offer management system may provide an open platform capable of aggregating offers from multiple offer providers. All offers may be uploaded to the offer management system and presented to consumers via a single portal so they can easily browse, select and review all available digital offers at one time, in one place. Upon visiting a hosted website, the offer management system may interact with the consumer by displaying references to digital offers on the home page or in the navigation bar. The offer management system can display personalized content that may feature any available offers targeted specifically to the consumer based upon personal information contained in a profile for the consumer that is associated with the consumer's online account, such as a loyalty card account. Moreover, the offer management system may receive requests from the consumer to print selected offers or download selected offers to the consumer's account. | 02-24-2011 |
| 20110054987 | Point of Sale System for Reconciling Sales Information with a Sales Incentive - A Point Of Sale (POS) reconciles generates revenue estimation data based on the reconciliation of POS sales transactions associated with a sales incentive (e.g., a store or manufacturer coupon). When a coupon is used in conjunction with a sales transaction at a POS, the coupon can be verified and factored in the sales transaction. The sales incentive data can be synchronized, along with other sales information in a POS connected server, where the data can be reconciled and analyzed for future reporting to a remote user requesting the revenue data. The POS connected server, or the POS terminal itself, can generate revenue estimations, return on investment calculations, and related reports. | 03-03-2011 |
| 20110060631 | REDEMPTION OF CUSTOMER BENEFIT OFFERS BASED ON GOODS IDENTIFICATION - Apparatus and methods for redemption of customer benefit offers based on goods identification are provided. A system for redeeming a customer benefit offer that is represented in an account maintained on an offer platform according to the invention may include an electromagnetic receiver module configured to receive transaction information from a point of sale terminal, the transaction information being based on a transaction and including an identifier of a purchasing instrument used to execute the transaction and an identifier of an item that is part of the transaction and a quantity corresponding to the number of items having the same identifier in the transaction. The system may also include a processing module configured to: identify in an offer platform a customer benefit offer corresponding to the purchasing instrument, the item identifier and the quantity; and further configured to mark a record in the account as “redeemed,” the record corresponding to the customer benefit offer. | 03-10-2011 |
| 20110066481 | RANDOM PARTITIONING AND PARALLEL PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR VERY LARGE SCALE OPTIMIZATION AND METHOD - A system for random partitioning and parallel processing of a very large data set includes a random partitioning component, and an optimization component which optimizes the mix of data in the random partitioning component, and an aggregation component which aggregates the optimization for each of the random partitions into a solution for the entire data set. The solution is substantially optimized for given rules and other constraints. The random partitioning produces a substantially optimized solution in a lesser time. The size of the random partitions can be selected so as to produce an optimal solution in a selected amount of time. | 03-17-2011 |
| 20110078004 | SYSTEMS, METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SELF DIRECTED INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION AND CUSTOMER REWARDS - A system and method classifies individuals based on product or service preferences of tastes. With input from the system on user preferences, offers are created by product or service promoters specific to a segment of users with similar preferences. The offers, items and users are linked using alphanumeric or digital codes. The offers and the linked codes are used to obtain discounts, rewards and incentives, or warranty registration when products or services are purchased. The offers, linked codes and purchases are stored such that they are accessible by a user. | 03-31-2011 |
| 20110082728 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELIVERY OF ELECTRONIC COUPONS - A method for delivering an electronic coupon to a mobile device includes receiving via a wireless network a target image or icons extracted from the target image, comparing the target image to a plurality of learned images using a processor in communication with the wireless network, determining whether the target image matches at least one learned image, and when the target image matches at least one learned image, delivering to the mobile device over the wireless network an electronic coupon associated with the at least one learned image. The target image can represent at least a portion of a front surface of a consumer packaged good located in a retail outlet. The target image can be generated using a mobile device configured to communicate with the wireless network. The front surface of the consumer packaged good is the surface of the consumer packaged good that faces an aisle of the retail outlet carrying the consumer packaged good; accordingly, the consumer does not need to handle the consumer packaged good in search of a bar code. | 04-07-2011 |
| 20110082729 | SYSTEM FOR IN-STORE COUPON DISTRIBUTION AND REDEMPTION - Systems and methods for processing of electronic coupons are disclosed. A plurality of touch screen devices are deployed in aisles of a store. The touch screen devices display coupons for products located in the corresponding aisles after administration devices detect the presence of a registered user in an aisle. The touch screen device accepts selection of coupons and the selections are uploaded to a main server. A point-of-sale administration device detects the presence of a registered user and downloads the pre-selected coupons from main servicer for redemption. | 04-07-2011 |
| 20110087529 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CREATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS AND GATHERING OF CONSUMER DATA - A system and methods for the creation and/or distribution of promotional materials, such as coupons, to consumers is provided. A promotional material item is created electronically and a copy of the item is distributed to mobile devices, or other electronic devices, of consumers. Each copy of the promotional material item includes a unique identifier for redemption and tracking purposes. | 04-14-2011 |
| 20110093318 | VIRAL DISTRIBUTION AND TRACKING OF ELECTRONIC COUPONS - Distributing and tracking electronic coupons based on proximity. Upon detecting recipients proximate to a computing device, one or more electronic coupons are selected and transmitted to the detected recipients. The transmittal occurs via a wireless connection in some embodiments. Coupon properties associated with the transmitted coupons are adjusted (e.g., values decreased, expiration conditions modified, location of transmittal, etc.). Distribution data for the transmitted coupons is stored to maintain a distribution history. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110106598 | Surfacing Digital Coupons to Customers - Various systems, methods, and other embodiments are described relating to the selection of digital coupons for display in network pages. In one embodiment, a plurality of coupon campaigns are maintained in a computing device for a plurality of entities in association with an operation of an electronic commerce system employed to sell a plurality of items over a network. Each of the coupon campaigns comprises at least one digital coupon to be applied to a purchase of at least one of the items. A network page is generated in the electronic commerce system to be rendered on a client. The network page is generated in association with the operation of the electronic commerce system. A subset of the digital coupons is determined to be included in the network page to present to a user. | 05-05-2011 |
| 20110106599 | Providing Digital Coupons for Third Party Network Sites - Various embodiments, including systems and methods, are described for providing digital coupons to third party network sites. In one representative embodiment, a computing device is provided, where a plurality of digital coupons are maintained in a memory associated with the computing device. Each digital coupon is directed to the purchase of at least one item through an electronic commerce system. A coupon service is implemented in the computing device that is configured to identify at least one of the digital coupons to present on a third party network site in response to a request for at least one of the digital coupons received from the third party network site based at least in part upon information contained in the request. The identified digital coupons are then sent to the third party network site. | 05-05-2011 |
| 20110106600 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CONTEXTUAL COUPON DISPLAY AND SELECTION - Methods and systems for displaying coupons within a network-based system are disclosed. For example, a system can include a database, a monitoring module, a coupon rules engine, and a coupon widget. The database to store account information associated with a user, the account information identifying one or more unique coupons redeemable exclusively by the user. The monitoring module to monitor interactions by the user with the network-based system. The coupon rules engine to select a selected coupon, of the one or more unique coupons redeemable exclusively by the user, that is eligible to be presented to the user based on the monitored interactions by the user with the network-based system. The coupon widget to present the selected coupon to the user. | 05-05-2011 |
| 20110153397 | AWARDING AN INCENTIVE BASED ON PARAMETERS OF AN INCENTIVE PROGRAM - Systems, methods and articles of manufacture are disclosed for awarding an incentive to a customer. An incentive program may be tailored to suit the needs of a merchant. The incentive program may be provided to a customer to reward specific customer behavior, such as regularly visiting a brick-and-mortar store to purchase store credit and/or to spend store credit and/or rewards, thereby providing the opportunity for increased sales for the merchant. | 06-23-2011 |
| 20110161147 | STIMULUS/RESPONSE-BASED BINDING OF IDENTIFIERS ACROSS INFORMATION DOMAINS WHILE MAINTAINING CONFIDENTIALITY - Disclosed are methods for extracting and using information about an entity that has a presence in a number of information domains. The entity has separate identifiers in each of several domains. Various techniques are described that bind together the identifiers of the entity across the domains. The results of the binding are provided to an interested party that can review information extracted about the entity's behavior in the multiple domains. The interested party is not given access to information that would compromise the confidentiality of the entity. A trusted broker has access to information about the behavior of the entity in the several domains. The broker analyzes that information and provides the analysis to the interested party, again without compromising the confidentiality of the entity. An “incentivizer” works with the broker to extract from the domains information that would be useful in binding together the different identifiers of the entity. | 06-30-2011 |
| 20110173055 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR ADVERTISING ON A MOBILE ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A system and method for transmitting, accessing, and/or managing promotions transmitted to mobile electronic devices. The system and method can analyze data affiliated with a user, a mobile electronic device, the changing of the mobile electronic device's alert, and the usage of the changed mobile electronic device's alert. Analyzing data such as, for example, affiliated with the changing of the mobile electronic device's alert and/or the usage of the changed mobile electronic device's alert the system and method can determine which promotions are transmitted to and/or received by the mobile electronic device. | 07-14-2011 |
| 20110178855 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INCREASING MARKETING PERFORMANCE USING SPEND LEVEL DATA - The present invention improves upon existing systems and methods by providing a passive profile creation method. The data accessible to a financial processor, such as spend level data, is leveraged using sophisticated data clustering and/or data appending techniques. Associations are established among entities (e.g., consumers), among merchants, and between entities and merchants. In one embodiment, a system and method for passively collecting spend level data for a transaction of a first entity, aggregating the collected spend level data for a plurality of entities; and clustering the first entity with a subset of the plurality of entities, based on aggregated spend level data of the first entity is provided. | 07-21-2011 |
| 20110184792 | SOCIAL NETWORK REWARDS - Social network reward techniques are described. In an implementation, a method implemented by at least one computing device includes obtaining data that describes users' interaction with a social network service and determining influence of one or more said users on other said users via the social network service from the obtained data. A reward is computed based on the determined influence for at least one said user. | 07-28-2011 |
| 20110231233 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO PROVIDE OFFERS TO MOBILE DEVICES IN ACCORDANCE WITH PROXIMITY-SENSITIVITY SCORES - According to some embodiments, a proximity-sensitivity score is determined for each of a plurality of merchants. The proximity-sensitivity scores may indicate, for example, a likelihood that potential offers from the merchants would be accepted by customers based on distances between customer locations and merchant locations. An indication of a customer's current location may be received, and a selection engine may automatically select for a customer, in substantially real time, at least one selected offer from a plurality of potential offers based at least in part on proximity-sensitivity scores and the customer's current location. Data associated with the selected offer may then be transmitted, via a wireless communication network, to a mobile device associated with the customer. | 09-22-2011 |
| 20110231234 | EFFECTIVE ATTENTION DISPOSING SYSTEM - Methods and electronic device system for effective disposing attentions among large number of attention seekers. A server system that registers attention seekers' requests, votes and/or monetary bids, ranks the requests according the statistics of the received votes or bids and personal interest of the attention giver. The requests of the higher ranks are selected for attention of the attention giver. | 09-22-2011 |
| 20110251879 | Product discount system, apparatus and method - A product discount system, apparatus, and method are herein disclosed. A discount server may receive one or more product discounts from a use. A wireless device may retrieve product identification information from a product and generate a discount request message that is transmitted to a discount server. The discount server may identify potential discounts associated with the product identification information and transmit product availability data to the wireless device. The wireless device may notify a user of available product discounts based on the product availability data. Once notified, the user may proceed by redeeming one or more of the available product discounts. | 10-13-2011 |
| 20110251880 | VIRAL COUPON INFRASTRUCTURE - Methods, systems, devices and/or apparatus related to generating, transmitting and/or tracking coupons. Specifically, the disclosed methods, systems, devices and/or apparatus relate to generating, transmitting and/or tracking a plurality of coupons among a plurality of consumers using social media channels and other electronic distribution channels. Some exemplary embodiments may include authenticating consumers and/or coupons. | 10-13-2011 |
| 20110270655 | Offer conversion - A source offer and offer parameters regarding the source offer are received. Specifications for one or more of a number of conversion parameters are also received. The source offer is converted to a target offer, based on the offer parameters and the conversion parameters specified. Where the source offer is an incremental offer, the target offer is a cumulative offer. Where the source offer is a cumulative offer, the target offer is an incremental offer. In an incremental offer, when a volume reaches a volume threshold, a price decreases by a corresponding price discount for the volume above the volume threshold, but the price does not decrease for the volume below the volume threshold. In a cumulative offer, when the volume reaches at the volume threshold, the price decreases by the corresponding price discount for the volume both below and above the volume threshold. | 11-03-2011 |
| 20110276373 | Online coupon distribution system and method - The online coupon distribution system and method distributes discount coupons through a website. The website is designed and constructed to include a “trifold” process that blends discount coupon purchasing with cost effective advertising and charitable contributions into a powerful web presence. The process is called cooperative couponing. The system sells coupons and allocates generated revenue among merchants, a website principal, and a designated charity. The website identifies local merchants in a geographic area. Coupons are electronically distributed on a daily basis. The website features target goal coupons, two subsidiary coupons providing discounts, and five additional weekly merchant coupons strategically placed on the website. The website permits website users to designate a charitable contribution to a charity of their choice based on their coupon purchase. | 11-10-2011 |
| 20110276374 | Targeted marketing with CPE buydown - Systems and methods are described that facilitate incentivizing vendors to give greater discounts on items or services offered or advertised to specific customers on a third-party website in exchange for reduced advertisement pricing. For instance, a vendor enters offer parameters (e.g., item or service for sale, price or discount amount, terms of the offer, a permitted number of acceptances of the offer such as 100, 1000, 5000, etc.) into a user interface (UI) along with target customer criteria (e.g., age, gender, minimum income, etc.). The target criteria is matched to customer profile data associated with or stored at the website (e.g., or a server associated therewith), and an advertisement generated using the offer parameter information is presented to customers whose profiles match the target criteria. In return for offering larger discounts, a cost per event (CPE) associated with the advertisement is reduced for the vendor. An invoice is generated and transmitted to the vendor, and upon receipt of payment, the advertisement provider remits a portion of the received payment to the website owner. | 11-10-2011 |
| 20110295668 | MANAGEMENT OF ADVERTISING RELATED DATA ON NETWORKED MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICES - The present invention discloses a method for managing advertising related data over a distributed computer network, wherein the method includes receiving from an advertiser at least one data record defining a coupon and target data specifying demographics for targeting the coupon. The method further includes receiving from the consumers identifying data, demographic data and purchase preference data and providing to each consumer a coupon based on the demographic data, preference data and target data. The method further includes entering the consumers in a sweepstakes and receiving validation notices confirming that a plurality of coupons was utilized by a subset of the consumers at the advertiser via a purchase. The method further includes receiving from an advertiser a request to view aggregate data representing coupon provision and coupon validation and generating a data record including aggregate data representing coupon provision and coupon validation according to demographic data. | 12-01-2011 |
| 20110302008 | Assessing engagement and influence using consumer-specific promotions in social networks - A system and method for assessing engagement activities and influence using consumer-specific promotions in a social network environment is provided. | 12-08-2011 |
| 20110313828 | Virtual sample cabinet system and method for prescription drug marketing - A method is provided which provides functionality for doctors and staff to remotely electronically download a “virtual sample cabinet” software program from a central server onto their desktop computers or mobile technology devices to allow them to centrally search, review product information and insurance coverage, print or electronically send prescription drug sample vouchers and co-pay savings coupons to selected pharmacies. This eliminates the need for physician offices to manage and house physical drug samples, as well as offers a more convenient and efficient way to allocate, dispense and monitor needed drug samples and coupons for savings to their patients. | 12-22-2011 |
| 20110313829 | DYNAMIC AUGMENTATION OF ELECTRONIC COUPONS - A commercial incentive engine and network is described that advantageously allows content and/or terms associated with a commercial incentive that has already been distributed to a consumer over a network to be dynamically augmented. The dynamic augmentation may occur responsive to one or more of revisions to the content and/or terms input by an advertiser, responsive to business information provided by an advertiser, or responsive to spatial, temporal, social and topical data associated with the consumer. An alternate implementation also advantageously allows the content and/or terms associated with a commercial incentive to be dynamically determined prior to distribution of the commercial incentive to a consumer over a network. | 12-22-2011 |
| 20110313830 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TARGETING TRANSACTION ACCOUNT PRODUCT HOLDERS TO RECEIVE UPGRADED TRANSACTION ACCOUNT PRODUCTS - Utilization of information in a closed loop data system further augments modeling while at the same time enabling customization of offers based on spend patterns. Data mining techniques are leveraged to identify rules to determine higher response rate populations. These rules are referred to herein as “triggers,” in that the presence of particular attributes will trigger a cardholder as being more likely to respond to a particular offer. The benefit yielded by this approach is a greater acceptance rate to an offer provided by a transactional account company. To identify the triggers, records of cardmembers who already utilize a given product are analyzed to determine their spend patterns. The spend histories of customers who are eligible to use the product are analyzed according to the identified triggers. Customers whose spend patterns most closely correspond to the triggers are then targeted with offers for the given product. | 12-22-2011 |
| 20110320248 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATIC PRICING IN ELECTRONIC COMMERCE - An automatic pricing method and apparatus for use in electronic commerce environments is described. Automatic pricing uses live price testing to estimate and measure demand for specific products—taking into account where appropriate, a vendor selected segmentation scheme. The results of live price testing are compared using a vendor selected goal function, e.g. profit maximization, to select a new price. A goal function that balances short term gains versus long term gains based on customer lifetime value is described. The live price testing approach used is designed to minimize losses due to price testing through statistical methods. Additionally, methods for distributing price testing across time so as to avoid problems caused by too many ongoing tests as well as side effects from testing are described. The selected price is a win for both purchasers and vendors as the automatic price will approximate the efficiency of a reverse auction without the inconvenience of the auction format while being goal maximizing for the vendor. For example, a vendor that normally sets prices of items for sale to customers can use embodiments of the invention to great effect. | 12-29-2011 |
| 20120016727 | Commerce System and Method of Controlling The Commerce System Using Performance Based Pricing, Promotion and Personalized Offer Management - A commerce system has a plurality of members. A maximum discounted offer is determined for a product in the commerce system. A discounted offer is generated less than the maximum discounted offer for the product. Members of the commerce system are assigned to a control group and offer group. A control discounted offer is provided to members of the control group and the discounted offer is provided to members of the offer group to assist with purchasing decisions. An incremental profit is determined as a difference between the maximum discounted offer and the discounted offer for a purchased product. Activities within the commerce system are controlled by distributing the incremental profit between members of the commerce system. The incremental revenue or profit is distributed based on purchasing decisions of the control group with the control discounted offer and purchasing decisions of the offer group with the discounted offer. | 01-19-2012 |
| 20120029986 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING E-COMMERCE - A system and method for improving advertising response rates by allowing an electronic advertising content to be stored, retrieved, shared, and manipulated by individual users, while enabling the accurate recordation of accounting information associated with the electronic advertising content. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20120078694 | ANALYTICS SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DISCOUNT INSTRUMENTS - The invention provides systems and methods for collecting point-of-sale (POS) data, and then using this data to determine the effectiveness of a given promotion. By collecting transaction data at the POS that includes a merchant identifier and a promotion identifier (among other data), a variety calculations may be performed to determine the effectiveness of the promotion. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120101881 | LOYALTY PROMOTION APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS - The LOYALTY PROMOTION APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS (“L-PROMO”) transforms consumer credentials, consumer opt-in activities, and, merchant campaign setup inputs via L-PROMO components into a financial transaction and offer redemption outputs. In one implementation, a method is disclosed, comprising: receiving consumer identifying information from a consumer electronic wallet vehicle; receiving merchant information and a proposed transaction from a merchant terminal; initiating consumer payment by sending a payment approval to an electronic wallet account; receiving a request to apply a promotional offer; determining consumer eligibility to apply the promotional offer to the proposed transaction; applying the promotional offer to the proposed transaction by returning credits to the consumer based on terms of the promotional offer; sending transaction details to the consumer; and sending a message to a social network indicating the transaction on the consumer's social media page. | 04-26-2012 |
| 20120136702 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COUPON MANAGEMENT AND REDEMPTION - The present invention provides a system for the electronic management and redemption of coupons. The present invention provides for association of coupons with consumers and storage of the association in an electronic memory. The system further includes one or more periphery devices operable to communicate with said coupon card. The periphery devices receive purchase data from a cash register memory and compare to coupons stored in electronic memory to determine which coupons are redeemable. The system also includes a server computer connected to the periphery devices to collect redeemed coupon information from the periphery devices. A clearing house collects coupon redemption information from all servers in the system to create redemption reports. | 05-31-2012 |
| 20120158474 | COUPON EFFECTIVENESS INDICES - Profiles characterizing each of a plurality of consumers are received. Thereafter, each profile is associated with one of a plurality of customer segments (e.g., matched pairs, etc.). Thereafter, a coupon effectiveness index is determined for each of the plurality of consumers for an offering based on the associated customer segment. The coupon effectiveness indices model characterizes causal effects estimates determined using historical data of purchases of individuals having varying coupon treatments for the offering. Subsequently, provision of at least a portion of the determined coupon effectiveness indices is initiated. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120166260 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING CELEBRITY ENDORSED DISCOUNTS - An advertising engine, system and method for formulation of endorsed advertising. The engine, system and method includes at least one computerized storage vault including a plurality of media assets correspondent to each prospective endorser for the endorsed advertising, and a graphical user interface for presentation of the plurality of media assets having a multi-layer format. The graphical user interface may include a library that presents at least a first layer including available ones of the prospective endorsers, and at least a second layer including ones of the media assets correspondent to each of the prospective endorsers, and a recommendation engine that presents at least ones of the media assets correspondent to a plurality of ranked ones of the prospective endorsers from the vault responsive to a request for the endorsed advertising. | 06-28-2012 |
| 20120185311 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ANALYZING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A PROMOTION - The invention provides systems and methods for collecting point-of-sale (POS) data, and then using this data to determine the effectiveness of a given promotion. The transaction data includes a merchant identifier for each of the merchants and a transaction amount for each transaction involving the merchants. One of the merchants is a promotion merchant that is offering a promotion involving transactions made with the merchant. A portion of the transaction data is aggregated into control merchant aggregated data involving control merchants, where the control merchant aggregated data comprises transaction data obtained other than from the promotion merchant. A characteristic of the purchases is calculated, both for transactions involving the promotion merchant and for the control merchants. | 07-19-2012 |
| 20120209672 | MONITORING FOR OFFLINE TRANSACTIONS - A technique for tracking conversion of an online offer includes tracking online and/or offline transactions. A customer accepts an offer provided by a merchant and submits his or her account information so that he or she may receive a reward for satisfying criteria associated with the offer. Transactions of the merchant are then monitored at the payment processor level to determine whether the customer satisfies the purchase criteria. Therefore, online and offline conversion can both be tracked. Further, the merchant is able to determine the overall effectiveness of advertising campaigns by analyzing the number of offers that are both accepted and satisfied. | 08-16-2012 |
| 20120215601 | Systems and Methods for Task-Based Decreasing Price Markets - Embodiments of task-based, decreasing-price markets enable dynamic discounting of items for sale. In one example, users shop for products (e.g., clothing, electronics, or cars) or services (e.g., hotel rooms, plane tickets, or car rentals) using a computing device or mobile device. As the users shop, they view advertisements or perform other tasks, like answering questions, and the system discounts an item's price based on the number or complexity of the performed tasks. Each user who performs a task gets a chance to buy the item at its discounted price. The other users also get a chance to buy the item at the discounted price. If someone buys the item, the item's price returns to its starting value. If nobody buys the item, the system discounts the item's price further as the users perform more tasks until someone buys the item or the item's price reaches a minimum value. | 08-23-2012 |
| 20120215602 | System for Targeting Advertising to Mobile Communication Facilities Using Third Party Data - A system for targeting advertising content includes the steps of: (a) receiving first and second requests for advertising associated with first and second users, wherein the users are identified; (b) retrieving data pertaining to the users from a data provider; (c) selecting respective advertising content from the first and second sponsors based at least on a determination of relevancy of each advertising content to the data provider's data, wherein the relevancy determination generates respective relevancy scores; (d) determining the advertising content of the first sponsor is more relevant to the first user and the advertising content of the second sponsor is more relevant to the second user based on the respective relevancy scores; and (e) transmitting the advertising content of the first sponsor to the first mobile communication facility for display and transmitting the advertising content of the second sponsor to the second mobile communication facility for display. | 08-23-2012 |
| 20120253903 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ANALYZING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A PROMOTION - The invention provides systems and methods for collecting point-of-sale (POS) data, and then using this data to determine the effectiveness of a given promotion. The transaction data includes a merchant identifier for each of the merchants and a transaction amount for each transaction involving the merchants. One of the merchants is a promotion merchant that is offering a promotion involving transactions made with the merchant. A portion of the transaction data is aggregated into control merchant aggregated data involving control merchants, where the control merchant aggregated data comprises transaction data obtained other than from the promotion merchant. A characteristic of the purchases is calculated, both for transactions involving the promotion merchant and for the control merchants. | 10-04-2012 |
| 20120265590 | FLEXIBLE SHIP SCHEDULES AND DEMAND AGGREGATION - Electronic buying and selling systems and methods are provided. In particular, relations among distinct price curves and buyers or potential buyers are disclosed. For instance, a price offered to a system user can vary based on total volume of all people aggregating in private environments, cumulative total order by user, ship date, optimal time, as well as terms and conditions associated with the offer (e.g., no cancellation of order, cancellation possible, payment method . . . ). | 10-18-2012 |
| 20120271689 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING AND AFFECTING A CHANGE IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR - The system evaluates a set of incentives based upon a variety of factors and/or predetermined rules and consumers are provided incentives when they satisfy one or more criteria of making payments for their transaction accounts. The one or more criteria include making an early payment, paying more than a minimum amount due, and making the payment through an automatic payment scheme. If a received payment satisfies one or more predefined criteria, one or more incentives are selected for the consumer, tracked, and provided to the consumer. The system analyzes payment information to determine attributes and positive (desirable) behavior and provides incentives to the consumer based on such positive behaviors. | 10-25-2012 |
| 20120296715 | MANAGEMENT OF AN OFFER FOR A FINANCIAL INCENTIVE - Management of an offer for a financial incentive offered by an offeror and, in particular, management of redemption of the offer by a particular user which eliminates the need for a redemption entity to capture a user-unique redemption code or otherwise report redemption in order to track and control the user's redemption of the offer is disclosed. Instead, the user's revelation of the redemption code, via a device associated with the user, may be considered a redemption of the financial incentive by the user regardless of whether the user actually receives the incentive. In particular, offers for financial incentives may be provided in an electronic form to a user, via a device associated with the user, such as the user's personal computer or mobile device, from an offer server, such as via a wired and/or wireless network. The offer includes a redemption code which must be exchanged/presented to the redemption entity, e.g. a merchant or retailer, to obtain the financial incentive. Upon delivery of the offer to the user's device, the redemption code is concealed from the user by the device such that user must take some subsequent action to reveal it, ideally in the presence of the redemption entity or otherwise substantially contemporaneously with the purchase. The revelation, or the attempt thereto, of the redemption indicia may cause the offer to be considered redeemed by the offer server and prevent a subsequent redemption. Upon presentment of the redemption code, the redemption entity provides the requisite financial incentive. | 11-22-2012 |
| 20120296716 | Management of an Offer for a Financial Incentive - A way of providing offers for financial incentives to users as part of an electronic customer loyalty, rewards, or discount program involving one or more merchants is provided. For example, an offer criterion is received from a merchant. The offer criterion is established by the merchant for each user and associated with one or more products or services offered by the merchant. First data indicative of at least partial satisfaction of the offer criterion by a user is received. It is determined whether the first data has caused the user to satisfy the offer criterion for that user. Upon determining that the first data has caused the user to satisfy the offer criterion for that user, second data is provided to a mobile device associated with the user. The second data is representative of an offer for a financial incentive redeemable with the merchant. | 11-22-2012 |
| 20120316935 | REBATE AND DISCOUNT SYSTEM FOR PROMOTION OF SERVICE VENDORS USING DENSITY OF WORK SITES - A system and method for offering promotional price discounts, rebates, and other offers to help service vendors improve the density of work sites for which they deliver services is disclosed. An electronic platform enables vendors that provide work site services to create and manage pricing schedules, rebates, and discount offers based on the geographic density of work sites. The vendor price lists can include a base price, and rebates and discounts from the base price increase based on the number of customer work sites within a given geographical area. The electronic platform enables vendors to advertise the geographically variable pricing schedules to clients, and to track customer patronage. The electronic platform allows customers to view and purchase vendor offered services from the discount pricing schedules, forward recommendations for vendor services to others, and submit requests for a discounted service to vendors. | 12-13-2012 |
| 20130041732 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING A CUSTOMER LOYALTY AWARD PROGRAM - This invention discloses a novel system and method for implementing an electronic customer loyalty rewarding service that awards credits for continued patronage of a vendor, where the credits can be spent at the vendor or with other vendors that participate in the service. The disclosure further includes an embodiment where the system automatically calculates a discount voucher deal for a vendor with a guarantee spend amount per customer that uses the voucher. The system automatically trades these transactions in order to either electronically pay the guarantee or collect a commission on the overspend above the guarantee. | 02-14-2013 |
| 20130085827 | METHOD FOR REDEEMING ELECTRONIC COUPONS - A merchant provides a consumer with its email address along with at least a portion of one or more images of coupons. The consumer selects a desired coupon for redemption and sends an email to the merchant attaching the image or a portion of the image, or the URL or a Quick Response Symbol (QR code) of the coupon. The merchant, upon receipt, verifies the authenticity of the coupon and redeems it if valid. The merchant accumulates and stores emails from consumers who have sought redemption of coupons. These accumulated consumer emails and email addresses are analyzed to determine how the emails and/or email addresses can used by the merchant for communicating with consumers by email to promote the merchant's goods and services. | 04-04-2013 |
| 20130117083 | SYSTEM AND PROCESS FOR DISTRIBUTING COUPON CODES OR DISCOUNT OFFERS VIA SHORT CODE AND SMS MOBILE AND INTERNET TECHNOLOG FOR A CONVENIENCE FEE - Among other things, there are disclosed systems and methods for providing coupons on demand to a consumer, to make the process of offering coupons and redeeming coupons more efficient. Embodiments of such systems may include a server reachable by mobile telephones or other communication devices with a database of coupon information, with modules or software for entering and administering coupon information and monitoring activity of coupons and reporting it to merchants. A consumer may text a keyword to a dedicated address, requesting coupons related to the keyword, and a selection of coupons (if any are available) is returned. If any coupon(s) are desired, they are returned to the consumer's mobile communication device, and a fee is added to the consumer's bill for the mobile communication device. | 05-09-2013 |
| 20130124280 | REAL TIME REDEMPTION TRACKING SYSTEM - A marketing system is disclosed comprising a merchant server including means for providing a vendor website; a point of sale terminal in communication with the merchant server, the point of sale terminal for conducting a retail transaction with a customer; a tracking server in communication with the merchant server, the tracking server for acquiring customer statistics and providing the customer statistics to the merchant server; and an internet-ready device in communication with a marketing system application disposed in the tracking server, the internet-ready device for utilizing a token received in the retail transaction. | 05-16-2013 |
| 20130124281 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CUSTOMER INCENTIVE DEVELOPMENT AND DISTRIBUTION - A system for advertising and promotion comprises identifying a promotion to be offered to a consumer, identifying a consumer that is interested in the promotion, identifying a plurality of consumer-specific attributes, using at least one of the consumer-specific attributes to determine a promotion offering value, offering the promotion to the consumer at the promotion offering value determining whether the consumer agrees to purchase the promotion at the promotional offering value, and determining whether to adjust the promotional offering value based on whether the consumer agreed to purchase the promotion. | 05-16-2013 |
| 20130166362 | System And Method For Promotional Discounted Aggregated Purchasing - A system, method, and computer program product provides discounted aggregated purchasing. A method for promotional discounted aggregated purchasing may include determining a volume discount matrix for a product to be available during a promotional period, accepting bids from a plurality of consumers indicating a price each consumer is willing to pay for the product, placing a hold on payment cards of the consumers who have entered bids, each hold being for the amount of each bid, at a conclusion of the promotional period, determining a price for the product based on a final discount level that is determined based on the received bids and on the determined volume discount matrix, and performing transactions for the product for all consumers who bid an amount greater than or equal to the determined price. | 06-27-2013 |
| 20130185125 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MANAGING OVERAGES IN DAILY DEALS - Methods and apparatus are disclosed for using a financial transaction card number system of a payment processing network as part of an overage management system. In an embodiment, a method receives an intelligent transaction card number used with a redemption code to purchase products or services contained in an offer, wherein the intelligent transaction card number indicates a total amount of a transaction and the total includes a value of the redeemed offer and an overage spent by the consumer in addition to the value of the redeemed offer. The method conducts post-clearing adjustments based on terms of the redeemed offer and generates instructions for corresponding credits or debits of funds. The method then receives instructions to: transfer funds from a first purse for the value of the redeemed offer and authorizes, clearing and settling the transferred funds; and to transfer funds from a second purse for the overage. | 07-18-2013 |
| 20130185126 | ONLINE PROMOTIONAL SYSTEMS AND METHOD - In one preferred form there is provided a computer implemented coupon system | 07-18-2013 |
| 20130211890 | ELECTRONIC COUPON ISSUANCE AND REDEMPTION APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS - The ELECTRONIC COUPON ISSUANCE AND REDEMPTION APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS (“ECIR”) transforms user coupon purchase and redemption request inputs via ECIR components into coupon issuance, transaction, and analytics outputs. In some embodiments, the ECIR may receive an inventory request from a coupon program manager, including at least a virtual coupon issue criteria. The ECIR may generate one or more account identifiers, and transmit the account identifiers to the coupon program manager. The ECIR may receive, from the coupon program manager, an issue request along with the purchase information, which may include one or more purchase identifiers corresponding to one or more buyers. The ECIR may determine when the received purchase information satisfies the virtual coupon issue criteria, when it satisfies the criteria, the ECIR may issue one or more virtual coupons having the one or more account identifiers, and transmit the issued virtual cards to the coupon program manager. | 08-15-2013 |
| 20130231986 | NON-CASH TRANSACTION INCENTIVE AND COMMISSION DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM - An electronic fund transfer system is disclosed wherein commissions for point-of-sale purchase transactions are determined and distributed to members of an organizational network for promoting use of a non-cash payment device that is tangible for effecting purchase transactions. Purchase data is electronically transmitted from the point-of-sale to an automated clearing house for effecting fund transfers to prepare the purchase, and also to a commission management system. The commission management system maintains an electronic database reflecting the structure of the organizational network, and further determines the distribution of purchase commissions according to a predetermined schedule of proportions relating to the position and business volume of each member of the network. The commission management system further comprises a payment processor for effecting commission payments to the members or to a designated sponsor on a scheduled basis. | 09-05-2013 |
| 20130246137 | Systems and Methods for Task-Based Decreasing Price Markets - Embodiments of task-based, decreasing-price markets enable dynamic discounting of items for sale. In one example, users shop for products (e.g., clothing, electronics, or cars) or services (e.g., hotel rooms, plane tickets, or car rentals) using a computing device or mobile device. As the users shop, they view advertisements or perform other tasks, like answering questions, and the system discounts an item's price based on the number or complexity of the performed tasks. Each user who performs a task gets a chance to buy the item at its discounted price. The other users also get a chance to buy the item at the discounted price. If someone buys the item, the item's price returns to its starting value. If nobody buys the item, the system discounts the item's price further as the users perform more tasks until someone buys the item or the item's price reaches a minimum value. | 09-19-2013 |
| 20130262204 | PROMOTION TARGETING, FULFILLING, TRACKING, AND MANAGING - An integrated, online approach to handling aspects of customer promotions can include a promotional management module for use by a client vendor. The promotional management module can integrate with the client vendor's existing online commerce portal and/or with a social networking service or the like to provide a user with an enhanced shopping experience by presenting one or more offers that the user can redeem via e-commerce (e.g. online selection and payment), in-person (e.g. at a physical location of the client vendor, or via other approaches. | 10-03-2013 |
| 20130290082 | TECHNIQUES FOR TRACKING AND LIMITING ELECTRONIC OFFERS - Techniques for tracking and limiting electronic offers are provided. Identifiers are generated and linked to an electronic offer as the offer is propagated threw a network or propagated over disparate networks. Each identifier associated with a unique recipient receiving the offer. Metrics are gathered for the offer's propagation and a distribution policy is dynamically enforced as each new recipient attempts to access the offer. | 10-31-2013 |
| 20130311255 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING AND UPDATING LIMITED REDEMPTION COUPONS ON A MOBILE DEVICE - A method for updating a limited redemption coupon includes: storing, in a database, at least one coupon record for at least one coupon, wherein the at least one coupon record includes at least a limitation on redemption associated with the at least one coupon; updating, in the database, the limitation on redemption associated with the at least one coupon in response to a limiting event; and transmitting, by a transmitting device, the updated limitation on redemption associated with the at least one coupon to at least one mobile communication device for display on the at least one mobile communication device. | 11-21-2013 |
| 20130317894 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING TEMPLATE-BASED DISCOUNT VALUATION AND RANKING - An approach is provided for template-based discount valuation and ranking. A discount management platform processes or facilitates a processing of a vocabulary for representing one or more parameters of discount information associated with one or more discount types. The discount management platform then processes or facilitates a processing of the one or more discount types to generate one or more templates based, at least in part, on the vocabulary. The one or more templates include, at least in part, one or more labels, one or more input fields, or a combination thereof for calculating and/or facilitating a calculation of one or more discount values associated with the discount information. | 11-28-2013 |
| 20130325569 | MOBILE WALLET SYSTEM - A mobile wallet system providing contextual services to a consumer is described, comprising a mobile wallet on a mobile device associated with the consumer, a payment platform for processing payment transactions by the mobile wallet, a digital content service platform for providing digital content services to the mobile wallet, and an analytics platform for controlling the digital content services provided to the mobile wallet based on collected consumer data. | 12-05-2013 |
| 20130325570 | CAMPAIGN REWARD SYSTEM WITH FINANCIAL RECONSOLIDATION - A campaign offer system provides an offer using a mobile device. A service provider includes one or more servers with engines and attached storage. The service provider is configured to be in communication with a mobile application running on a user mobile device of a use. The service provider is in communication with an advertiser, a retailer and a financial institution. A retailer gateway is in communication with a retailer checkout system that has a unique identifier for each retailer checkout location captured by the mobile device. The unique identifier is transmitted to the service provider which effects transactions between the user and the retailer checkout system via the retailer gateway. The system prepares a report for the retailer that includes redemption data for the offers redeemed at the retailer with enough data to identify a specific redemption. | 12-05-2013 |
| 20130332249 | OPTIMAL SUPPLEMENTARY AWARD ALLOCATION - A method of allocating a new incentive to a portion of a population includes identifying a plurality of group features of the population based on retention data clustering members of the population into a plurality of groups having similar risk profiles based on the plurality of group features and a plurality of categorical factors, dividing each of the plurality of groups into an experimental group and a control group respectively corresponding to members of the population that have received a previous incentive and that have not received the previous incentive, computing an effectiveness score of the previous incentive for each group based on a comparison of the corresponding experimental group and the corresponding control group, and generating a set of potential target groups for the new incentive based on the effectiveness scores. | 12-12-2013 |
| 20130339113 | SYSTEMS AND/OR METHODS FOR MANAGING "SHOW-ROOMING" PRACTICES - Certain exemplary embodiments relate to systems and/or methods for managing “show-rooming” practices of consumers, e.g., where consumers interact with a product at a sometimes convenient brick-and-mortar location, only to later purchase the product from a different (and typically online) provider. Distinct special offers (e.g., in the form of price adjustments) may be presented to potential show-rooming consumers, e.g., via a mobile device operated by those consumers. In certain exemplary embodiments, the distinct special offers may be generated based on, for example, pricing information gathered from competitors, rules specified by the brick-and-mortar location, characteristics or habits of a particular consumer using a particular device, recent trends, etc. The rate at which browsing consumers buy products for which they are presented with special offers, etc., may be monitored and fed back into the system, e.g., to help provide a more finely tuned special offer that helps preserve profit for the seller. | 12-19-2013 |
| 20140006120 | MERCHANT CONTROLLED FREE BUYER DISCOUNT OFFERS INTERNET-BASED SYSTEM AND METHOD | 01-02-2014 |
| 20140039994 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RANKING INFORMATION ITEMS FOR DISPLAY - A method of displaying information items, the method comprising: determining a ranking score for each of a plurality of information items based on a history of votes received for each of the information items, the determining comprising: assigning a value to the information item for each vote received in respect of that information item, assigning a weight to each value as a function of the recency of the vote, and calculating a score for each information item, the score being calculated as a first sum across all votes of the product of the value of each vote with its assigned weight, divided by a second sum of the weights across all votes; determining, responsive to a first serve request and based on at least one criterion, at least one of the information items to be displayed at a client device; and transmitting to the client device code executable by a browser application to display the at least one information item based on the ranking score. | 02-06-2014 |
| 20140074573 | METHOD FOR PROMOTING GOODS AND SERVICES OF PROVIDERS - A method for promoting goods and services of providers includes the steps of designating a group of targeted recipients, and storing demographics information of each recipient in an electronic database. A plurality of direct mail items including provider promotions is generated, and each marked with a machine-readable ID code unique to each of the recipients. The direct mail items are sorted by their respective ID codes into cooperative mail packages. The mail packages are then forwarded to respective recipients. A report is generated based on the direct mail items redeemed. | 03-13-2014 |
| 20140095281 | CONSUMER ANALYTICS SYSTEM THAT DETERMINES, OFFERS, AND MONITORS USE OF REWARDS INCENTIVIZING CONSUMERS TO PERFORM TASKS - A method and system are provided for providing incentives and rewards to consumers in return for their sharing of their electronically-derived consumer location data and sharing their opinions and feedback. The system may be programmed to determine parameters of a reward offered to an individual consumer or group of consumers based on or more criteria. In addition, location-derived insights and information reported by the consumers may be used to segment and customize the available incentives and rewards for each consumer. Reward redemption analytics may also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of reward customization. | 04-03-2014 |
| 20140114732 | GENERATING A SCORE FOR A COUPON CAMPAIGN - Techniques are provided for generating, by a coupon distributor, a score that represents a quality of a coupon campaign that a coupon provider offers to the coupon distributor. The score may be generated based on the brand of the product, the product category to which the product belongs, the coupon value, and the percentage discount reflected by the coupon. One or more of these factors may be based on historical data that indicates the success (or failure) of previous coupon campaigns (e.g., of the same product, brand, and/or product category, and/or similar coupon value). The coupon distributor uses the score to, e.g., determine whether to accept a proposed coupon campaign, project the number of prints/redemptions of the coupon campaign, determine how to present the coupon, determine an amount to charge for running the coupon campaign, and/or determine products or product categories of coupons to which the coupon distributor should seek. | 04-24-2014 |
| 20140122195 | Systems and Methods for Tracking and Analyzing the Redemption of Promotional Content - Certain embodiments herein are directed to tracking and analyzing the redemption of promotional content, such as coupons, discounts, or similar offers. The redemption of the promotional content may be tracked such that a source or provider of the promotional content may be identified and associated with the promotional content at the point of redemption. Requests to redeem promotional content may be verified by comparing information received at the point of redemption with information previously stored in association with providing promotional content to a user device seeking to redeem the promotional content. Such information may include a unique identifier for the promotional content, a unique identifier for the user device, and a unique identifier for the source of the promotional content. Information associated with historical redemptions of promotional content may be analyzed to target user devices and/or sources of the promotional content for receiving future distributions of the promotional content. | 05-01-2014 |
| 20140122196 | SECURE VAULT FOR ONLINE-TO-OFFLINE TRANSACTIONS - Systems and methods are disclosed for providing online offers for rewards that can be tracked to offline transactions for redemption. In order to protect sensitive consumer information, payment processing details such as credit card numbers and other authorizing data are redirected through a secure network to payment processing platforms, and then tokenized for subsequent use in relatively less secure data network communications and transactions. After a secure payment processing platform has authorized a transaction such as a reward for purchases, the payment processing platform can detect qualifying retail activity and generate corresponding rewards, which may be signaled to the customer through any suitable communications medium. | 05-01-2014 |
| 20140122197 | TRACKING REDEMPTION OF ONLINE-TO-OFFLINE TRANSACTIONS - Systems and methods are disclosed for providing online offers for rewards that can be tracked to offline transactions for redemption. In order to protect sensitive consumer information, payment processing details such as credit card numbers and other authorizing data are redirected through a secure network to payment processing platforms, and then tokenized for subsequent use in relatively less secure data network communications and transactions. After a secure payment processing platform has authorized a transaction such as a reward for purchases, the payment processing platform can detect qualifying retail activity and generate corresponding rewards, which may be signaled to the customer through any suitable communications medium. | 05-01-2014 |
| 20140122198 | AFFILIATE NETWORK TRACKING FOR ONLINE-TO-OFFLINE TRANSACTIONS - Systems and methods are disclosed for providing online offers for rewards that can be tracked to offline transactions for redemption. In order to protect sensitive consumer information, payment processing details such as credit card numbers and other authorizing data are redirected through a secure network to payment processing platforms, and then tokenized for subsequent use in relatively less secure data network communications and transactions. After a secure payment processing platform has authorized a transaction such as a reward for purchases, the payment processing platform can detect qualifying retail activity and generate corresponding rewards, which may be signaled to the customer through any suitable communications medium. | 05-01-2014 |
| 20140122199 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF COLLECTING, STORING AND SHARING DIGITAL COUPONS, REBATES AND OFFERS UTILIZING A UNIFORM DATA FORMAT COMMUNICATED BETWEEN MULTIPLE PROVIDERS, PLATFORMS, AND PROVISIONING SYSTEMS - A system and method for collecting storing, distributing and tracking digital coupons. The system and method include a platform/interface of a computing system for a plurality of businesses to submit digital coupons to a central coupon database of an application programming interface, and a platform/interface for consumers to create a user account with a user coupon database. The system and method further include a performance tracking database that stores information regarding coupons that are selected and redeemed by each user of the computing system. | 05-01-2014 |
| 20140129305 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SHOPPING OFFER CONTROL AND FEEDBACK - Systems and methods for providing a brand owner direct control of offers redeemable by users. An exemplary system includes a user interface device, a processing device and a communication device. The processing device receives product information entered via a user interface device by a brand owner authorized user. The product information includes product name, product category and attribute information. The processing device also receives offer information entered via the user interface device by the brand owner authorized user, the offer information being associated with one or more products, wherein the offer information includes at least one product name, validity information, coding information, offer type information and associated store information. The processing device generates an offer(s) based on the received offer information. A communication device makes the generated offer(s) available to a user device-based application program. | 05-08-2014 |
| 20140143036 | TEAM SHOPPING - A method of improving sales volume includes the steps of distributing redeemable offers to teams of shoppers wherein the shoppers are able to receive whatever basic discounts or other benefits that may be available to all shoppers, but also to receive a “kicker” benefit when the team achieves a specified purchasing objective such as a total of all sales to members of the team. Teams may compete for prizes or other benefits beyond those offered to individual teams. | 05-22-2014 |
| 20140172524 | ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION OF COUPON EFFECTIVENESS - Coupons may be analyzed in order to determine the relationship between a coupon's content and the coupon's performance. In one example, a service delivers coupons to users, and receives feedback on the coupons' performance. For example, the service may receive information on how often users print a given coupon, or how often a coupon results in a conversion. The service may build a model of how a coupon's features, and external events such as the weather, correlate with a coupon's performance. The service may offer a portal that businesses use to design and disseminate coupons. The portal may suggest particular types of coupons, or particular coupon dissemination strategies, based on the models that have been built from analysis of prior coupons. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140172525 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ISSUING, EVALUATING, AND MONITORING CARD-LINKED OFFERS - Methods and systems are disclosed for issuing, evaluating, and monitoring offers and incentives linked to various consumer financial accounts. Financial service account providers, merchants, card-linked offer providers, and/or service providers may collect transaction information relating to the redemption of card-linked offers. From the data, informative metrics may be determined relating to the offer, its redemption rate, and the consumers who redeemed it. The metrics may be used to evaluate the relative success of the offer, and can trigger revenue sharing processes derived from the offer. In certain aspects, incentive offers may be modified based on the metrics. In further embodiments, the metrics may also be used to determine a metric score that provides further information about the card-linked offer campaign. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140207544 | RANKING LIMITED TIME DISCOUNTS OR DEALS - Briefly, the disclosure describes embodiments of methods or systems for providing an offer to potential recipients based on an appeal score and/or preference indicators of the potential recipients. | 07-24-2014 |
| 20140207545 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FACILITATING MERCHANT-CUSTOMER RETAIL EVENTS USING A FINANCIAL TRANSACTION FACILITATION SYSTEM - Method and system is disclosed for facilitating merchant-customer retail events using a financial transaction facilitation system. The system selectively registers merchant-vendors and system-users. Offers by merchant-vendors are purchased by system-users for redemption at selectable times and physical locations. The purchases are made using a third-party artificial currency system. Payment by the third-party artificial currency system is authenticated and applied to the merchant-vendor upon purchase confirmation and validation. | 07-24-2014 |
| 20140236690 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION OF PRODUCT REDEMPTION COUPONS - Provided is a method and system for the electronic distribution of coupons to user devices. A repository, such as an online service provider, stores packages of coupon data for downloading on demand. The user may view, select, and sort desired coupons. The user's demographic as well as coupon selection data is provided back to the online service and coupon distributor and issuers for subsequent marketing analysis. The online service can perform subsequent coupon processing on previously downloaded coupon packages such as variation of discount amounts and can also determine how many times a particular coupon was viewed. When coupons are presented at a retail store, the discount is provided to the user. Upon redemption by the store, transaction data is also supplied to the coupon issuers and distributor for integration into marketing analysis. | 08-21-2014 |
| 20140244368 | ESTIMATING PRODUCT PROMOTION SALES LIFT - Regular sales of a product during a period of time including at least one sales promotion for the product is estimated based on actual sales data for the product during the period of time. A correlation value for each pair of products is calculated. One or more products that are similar to a target product of are determined based on the correlation values of the similar products to the target product. Baseline sales of the target product during the period of time is calculated based on the estimated regular sales for each of the similar products. An incremental sales lift for the target product during the period of time is calculated based on actual sales data for the target product and the baseline sales of the target product during the period of time. | 08-28-2014 |
| 20140278855 | DYNAMIC INCENTIVES - A system and method for providing dynamic incentives is described. An individual incentive may include a message portion, offer value portion, creative, and an audience segment. A mix of incentives is distributed and the mix is optimized based on delivery data and redemption data. Other applications include determining an audience segment and optimizing incentive design for other campaigns. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20140278856 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ADMINISTERING A REWARD PROGRAM - In accordance with the present invention, a central controller stores a series of registrations, each of which corresponds to a purchaser of a product. The central controller calculates a measurement of product success, such as the number of products sold or the market share of the product. The central controller determines if the measurement is within a predetermined range. For example, the central controller may determine if the number of products sold exceeds a predetermined threshold. A selected set of registrations which are “early-adopter” registrations are selected. The set of registrations thereby defines a set of early-adopter purchasers. For example, the central controller may select a set of registrations having ordinal positions within a predetermined range of positions, such as the first hundred registrations. Thus, one hundred early-adopter purchasers are defined. If the measurement of product success is within the predetermined range, a reward, such as a refund or a free product, is provided to each early-adopter purchaser. For example, if sales of the product exceed 1,000,000 units, a reward is provided to each early-adopter purchaser. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20140278857 | Systems and Methods for Management of Consumer Incentives - Systems and methods are provided for tracking effectiveness of incentives transmitted to particular consumers. A computer-readable medium is configured to store a consumer profile data structure configured to store consumer data including consumer history data and an incentives offered data structure configured to store a history of incentives offered including an identification of to which consumers a particular incentive was offered and which of those consumers redeemed the particular incentive. One or more data processors configured to access the one or more computer-readable mediums and to execute steps including updating the consumer profile data structure based on consumer activity data associated with the particular consumer; transmitting the particular incentive to the particular consumer based on consumer data associated with the particular consumer; and updating the consumer profile data structure and the incentives offered data structure based on receipt of an indication that the particular consumer redeemed the particular incentive. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20140289029 | LOCAL CONTEXTUAL DISPLAY - A service provider system remembers feedback by a user when the user selects an offer, a presented option, or other content from a page or display on a user device. The user is then taken to a new page or screen with details about the offer, option, or other content. When the user goes back to the original page or screen, the page is revised based on the user feedback. For example, a dialog box may pop up over the selected offer to ask the user whether the user accepted the offer or is not interested in the offer. If so, the offer disappears and subsequent pages may not show the selected offer again. | 09-25-2014 |
| 20140337110 | Method And System For Determining Average Values For Displayed Information Items - A method of displaying information items, the method comprising determining an average value for each of a plurality of information items based on at least one stored input value received for each of the information items; determining, responsive to a first serve request and based on at least one display criterion, at least one of the information items to be displayed at a client device; and transmitting to the client device code executable by a browser application to display the at least one information item and the average value determined for each at least one information item. | 11-13-2014 |
| 20140344035 | MANAGING CONTENT RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CUSTOMERS - Embodiments are directed towards recommending coupon templates to a customer, from which the customer can select and have published to consumers. A ranked order may be determined for the coupon templates for each of a plurality of categories. A subset of the coupon templates may be recommended and provided to a customer. The subset of coupon templates may be determined based on a category of the customer, the ranked order of the plurality of coupon templates for the category, external variables, or the like, or any combination thereof. One or more of the subset of coupon templates may be selected by the customer and published to the consumers. The ranked order of the plurality of coupon templates may be determined and/or modified based on monitored actions associated with previously published coupons, such as by employing a success of similar attributes associated with previously published coupons. | 11-20-2014 |
| 20140351030 | Electronic Distribution and Management of Transactional Promotional Campaigns - Systems and methods for distributing and tracking a promotional offer that is electronically claimable and redeemable by consumers determine a predicted fill rate, and compare the predicted fill rate to a target fill rate to dynamically adjust distribution and availability of the offer. | 11-27-2014 |
| 20140372187 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMIC PERSONALIZATION OF ELECTRONIC COUPON DISTRIBUTION AND REDEMPTION VIA MOBILE DEVICE - A computer-implemented method for generating coupons is provided. The method comprises receiving a request for a coupon from a publisher; responsive to the request selectively generating a coupon, said coupon comprising: (a) a unique coupon id; (b) code associated with a clipping button which when executed on a customer device configured to display the coupon together with media content and an ad unit associated with the media content, causes the customer device to send a clipping notification message including the coupon id to the coupon server system upon selection of the clipping button by a customer; sending the coupon to the publisher for displaying with said media content on the customer device; receiving the coupon clipping notification message from the customer device upon selection of the clipping button by the customer; and creating an association between the coupon id in the coupon clipping notification and the customer. | 12-18-2014 |
| 20150073885 | Mobile Coupon Application Network - A mobile coupon application network operates between a plurality of merchant profiles and a user account. The plurality of merchant profiles and the user account are stored within a remote server along with a plurality of coupons that is uploaded by the each of the plurality of merchant profiles. The user account is able to access the plurality of coupons through a portable computing device as the portable computing device communicates with the remote server. The plurality of coupons provides location-based coupons and non-location-based coupons so that the user account is able to select a desired coupon from a variety of coupon categories. Once the desired coupon is selected by the user account, the remote server executes a redeeming process for the desired coupon calculating a discounted retail price for the purchasing product. | 03-12-2015 |
| 20150081407 | BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS USING TRUST BASED INSTRUMENT - The embodiments herein disclose methods and systems for trust based transactions between entities. The method comprises the step of inviting one or more entities to register on the ET platform, allowing one more issuing entities to set campaign and/or contract, distributing and activating TrustSwaptions to receiving entities, allowing the receiving entities to redeem the TrustSwaptions, and measuring the campaign progress and evaluating ROI from the campaign. The TrustSwaptions are negotiable instruments which grant ownership of the instruments without the obligation to enter into an underlying trade and allow the entities to transact among each other. The ET platform can capture specific transaction patterns exhibited by entities to establish and build Social Bonafide score trustworthiness/morality quotient of the entities. Further, a system for transactions that use the trust-based negotiable instruments between entities or group of entities is also disclosed. | 03-19-2015 |
| 20150100397 | METHOD OF TESTING AN INCENTIVE COMPENSATION PLAN FOR FAIRNESS AND EQUITY - A method of testing an incentive compensation (“IC”) plan tests whether the plan computes incentive compensation to various participants in a fair manner, considering the differences in various characteristics that impact success in their job responsibilities, independently of their performance, such as, for a sales force as one example, characteristics of product class trends, territory size, market share, and market conditions. The fairness test may also test for stability and attainment tests. If the testing reveals unfairness, the plan may be redefined to reduce the unfairness. | 04-09-2015 |
| 20150112776 | PROMOTION MANAGEMENT METHODS AND APPARATUS - A system, method, and apparatus for managing promotions are disclosed. An example method includes receiving in a server an indication of a sale of a promotional item from a sales terminal, the promotional item being specified by a promoter for a promotional competition to be carried out by a group of sales associates, the indication including an identifier of a sales associate who sold the promotional item, determining a quantity of the promotional items sold based on the received indication and a previous quantity of the promotional items sold by the sales associate, determining relationships among the group of sales associates based on the quantity of promotional items sold by the sales associates, and sending to a computer system of the promoter information indicative of the quantity of promotional items sold respectively by the sales associates and information indicative of the determined relationship among the group of sales associates. | 04-23-2015 |
| 20150120409 | MARKDOWN OPTIMIZATION SYSTEM HAVING BENEFITS ANALYSIS AND REPORTING - Techniques are described for generating benefits reports for a markdown optimization system. As described herein, a markdown optimization system executes markdown optimization software that applies to compute markdown schedules for retailers. In addition, the markdown optimization system applies techniques to reliably approximate and quantify the benefit derived by a given retailer from using of a computed markdown schedule instead of utilizing a user-defined schedule. | 04-30-2015 |
| 20150120410 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING INELASTIC PRODUCTS - According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a system for identifying inelastic products, the system comprising an interface, a markdown analysis module, and a database, wherein the markdown analysis module is further configured to receive signals from each server of a plurality of retail stores including product sales information, calculate, based on the received information, the total expected markdown for each retail store, identify, based on the total expected markdown of each retail store, an outlier store that has a total expected markdown greater than a threshold, identify a sister store that has at least one similar characteristic to the outlier store and less total expected markdown than the outlier store, compare expected markdowns of the outlier store and the sister store, and identify, based on the comparison between the expected markdowns of the outlier and sister stores, at least one inelastic product in the outlier store. | 04-30-2015 |
| 20150120411 | MERCHANT OFFER RECOMMENDATION SYSTEM - Systems and methods for recommending offers to merchants for provision to their customers include a database storing customer offer data for a plurality of customers and a plurality of offers and that details the results of providing one or more of the plurality of offers to each of the plurality of customers. Identifying information about a first merchant is received and used to retrieve a first subset of the plurality of customers that are associated with the first merchant. The first subset of the plurality of customers is used to review the customer offer data to determine the results of providing the one or more of the plurality of offers to each of the first subset of customers. A first offer that is associated with a higher amount of participation results by the first subset of the plurality of customers relative to the others of the plurality of offers is then determined and provided for display to the first merchant. | 04-30-2015 |
| 20150120412 | ACTIVE IMPROVEMENT OF COUPONS BASED UPON CUSTOMER ASSISTED RESOLUTION OF INFORMATION GAPS - A method and system includes providing an electronic coupon to a customer, providing the customer an option to improve the coupon in exchange for a customer response, performing an analysis of at least one of information known about the customer, coupon issuer information, and contextual information, and identifying an information gap item which is at least one of missing, incomplete, and not updated within a time range, generating a customer response requirement based upon the information gap item, displaying the response requirement to the customer, and upon the customer providing a response which satisfies the response requirement, improving the coupon based on the customer response. | 04-30-2015 |
| 20150127435 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR DISCOUNT RETAILING - A system and methods to mutually satisfy a consumer with a discount and a vendor with a minimum number of sales by establishing a tipping point associated with an offer for a good or service. If the tipping point is met, the sale of the good or service is executed and the consumer is charged and receives an indication of the discounted sale, such as a certificate. If the tipping point is not met, the discount offer is abandoned and the consumer is not charged. Once the tipping point is established, the vendor receives a payment, even before the consumer uses the certificate. The system and methods also include a reward or loyalty program, an exchange or secondary market for the purchased deals, and a matching algorithm that matches customers to relevant goods or services. | 05-07-2015 |
| 20150134431 | Providing Single-Use Offers - Provided is a process, including: obtaining an offer issued by a merchant, the offer being redeemable on-line, at the merchant's website, in-store, at a physical location of the merchant, or both; obtaining a plurality of single-use offer codes associated with the offer; receiving a request for a single-use offer code, the request having a phone number; sending to the phone number, via a text messaging service, a text message comprising a uniform resource identifier (URI) to a select single-use offer code of the plurality single-use offer codes; and sending the single-use offer code to a consumer user device in response to a user selection of the URI. | 05-14-2015 |
| 20150134432 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATING WITH A MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICE AT A HOST LOCATION - An embodiment of the present invention provides, among other things, a method for communicating with a mobile communication device of a consumer. The mobile communication device is located at a host location. An invitation to the consumer to communicate via the mobile communication device is delivered to a display physically present at the host location and viewable by the consumer. In response to the delivering, a request is received from the consumer via the mobile communication device. Communicating then takes place with the mobile communication device. | 05-14-2015 |
| 20150310469 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION VIA MOBILE DEVICES AND ENABLING ITS USE AT A POINT OF TRANSACTION - Methods and systems for utilizing promotion data accessible via a mobile device are disclosed. A digital record of promotion data from a product provider may be stored in a database. A plurality of such digital records may be aggregated for one or more providers. A digital record may be associated with an incentive account associated with an individual. An electronic request to apply promotion data associated with the individual to a transaction and authentication data identifying the individual may be received. A digital record associated with the individual's incentive account may be located and transmitted to a transaction processing system. A processing result record associated with the digital record may be received from the processing system. Usage information derived from the processing result record may be associated in a database. | 10-29-2015 |
| 20150339698 | A MEDIA SYSTEM WITH A SERVER AND DISTRIBUTED PLAYER DEVICES AT DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS - A media system ( | 11-26-2015 |
| 20160019572 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EFFICIENTLY DISTRIBUTING COUPONS - A method for efficiently distributing coupons to consumers including, inter alia, storing a plurality of consumer profiles; receiving, from a first device of a first consumer, a first consumer identifier associated with the first consumer and identification of at least one second consumer to whom a coupon, with an associated coupon identifier, is to be forwarded; forwarding the coupon to a second device of the at least one second consumer; creating a coupon forwarding data entry, in a consumer profile of the first consumer; receiving a notification indicating coupon redemption and including at least the coupon identifier; updating a consumer profile of the second consumer to reflect a weighted interest level; identifying from the first database, coupon history information that includes at least forwarding and redemption information associated with the redeemed coupon; and generating statistics based on the identified coupon history information. | 01-21-2016 |
| 20160034933 | COMMUNITY MARKETING SYSTEM AND THE OPERATION METHOD THEREOF - A community marketing system is disclosed in the present invention, the present invention comprises the price computing apparatus, the coupon apparatus, the share-feedback apparatus, and the direct feedback apparatus. The present invention also discloses that the operation method for the community marketing system, firstly processing the categories pricing step, and then transmitting an order from the categories pricing to the coupon apparatus, the share-feedback apparatus, and the direct feedback apparatus, and processing the calculation for the share-feedback step, and the direct feedback step. | 02-04-2016 |
| 20160063529 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ADAPTIVE OFFER DETERMINATION - The optimization system monitors a mobile phone user's behavior in response to an offer for a reward and determines a good level for a product promotion. The determination may be made based upon the user's current response, past response patterns to various reward levels or a correlation between a user's behavior and the behavior corresponding to a class of users. The system can determine an offer level that maximizes the return on the profit or revenue from a potential purchase for which the offer applies. | 03-03-2016 |
| 20160086209 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR OFFER ACCEPTANCE - A system and method for capturing and processing data related to redemption of an offer from an issuer of offers. The system comprises a data capture device adapted to capture data relating to redemption of an offer; storage databases; a user interface; and a data processing device with the ability to communicate with storage databases and the user interface. | 03-24-2016 |
| 20160086211 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REAL-TIME, RULES-BASED SOCIAL MEDIA AMPLIFICATION - The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for enabling organizations to track, monitor manage and implement customer incentives and customer referrals through social media as a means to acquire and develop new customer acquisition channels at a reasonable cost per acquisition. | 03-24-2016 |
| 20160117707 | Perpetually decreasing group pricing system and method - The present invention takes an input of the acceptable pricing to volume points from a business and outputs a continuous function which interpolates the pricing information for the entire range of customer volumes. As each consumer agrees to purchase an offer, they are added to the group, and the price decreases as defined by the output function. The result of this model is that of consumer collusion; it is in each consumer's best interest to increase the volume of purchases for the offer by the business. This yields lower prices for the individual, incentivizing each consumer to advertise for the business making the offer. | 04-28-2016 |
| 20160162830 | INVENTORY MANAGEMENT BASED ON AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING RECOMMENDATIONS - Various embodiments of systems and methods to automatically generating recommendations for managing an inventory of a product are described herein. In one aspect, sensor data is received from one or more sensors, and demonstration data is received from one or more product demonstrators. The sensor data represents a number of customers that viewed the product displayed in a shopping area of a business entity, and the demonstration data represents a number of times the product is demonstrated in the shopping area. In another aspect, based on the sensor data and the demonstration data, an interest score for the product is determined Further, in yet another aspect, based on the determined interest score and a quantity of the product sold by the business entity within the period of time, the recommendations are automatically generated and provided to the business entity for managing the inventory of the product. | 06-09-2016 |
| 20170236141 | Method, Apparatus, And Computer Program Product For Auto-Replenishing An Inventory Of Promotions | 08-17-2017 |
| 20220138790 | DYNAMIC TIME-BASED ADJUSTMENT OF PREDICTIVE MODELING DATA - Systems, methods and techniques disclosed herein provide dynamic time-based adjustment of predictive modeling data. | 05-05-2022 |
