U.S. patent application number 16/849751 was filed with the patent office on 2020-10-01 for method, apparatus, and computer program product for providing a user platform for a real-time marketplace.
The applicant listed for this patent is Groupon, Inc.. Invention is credited to Bhupesh Bansal, Francisco Jose Larrain, Sridatta Viswanath.
Application Number | 20200311792 16/849751 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 1000004896859 |
Filed Date | 2020-10-01 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20200311792 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Viswanath; Sridatta ; et
al. |
October 1, 2020 |
METHOD, APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDING A
USER PLATFORM FOR A REAL-TIME MARKETPLACE
Abstract
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided
herein to facilitate negotiation between consumers and merchants
for promotions. In one embodiment, a method for generating
promotion impressions is provided which includes receiving, via a
user interface, a request for a promotion, wherein the request
comprises one or more indications of consumer preferences for the
promotion and causing transmission of the request to a promotion
and marketing service. The method further comprises receiving an
impression comprising promotion data for one or more merchants
based at least in part on the one or more indications of
preferences. The method further comprises receiving, via the user
interface, a selection of a promotion to purchase wherein the
promotion is selected from the promotion data in the impression.
The method further comprises transmitting the selection of the
promotion to purchase to the promotion and marketing service. A
corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also
provided.
Inventors: |
Viswanath; Sridatta; (Palo
Alto, CA) ; Larrain; Francisco Jose; (Palo Alto,
CA) ; Bansal; Bhupesh; (Sunnyvale, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Groupon, Inc. |
Chicago |
IL |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
1000004896859 |
Appl. No.: |
16/849751 |
Filed: |
April 15, 2020 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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14865907 |
Sep 25, 2015 |
10657570 |
|
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16849751 |
|
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62056085 |
Sep 26, 2014 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 ;
705/26.7 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0611 20130101;
G06Q 30/0631 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/06 20060101
G06Q030/06 |
Claims
1-16. (canceled)
17. A system, comprising one or more computers and one or more
storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when
executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more
computers to: receive one or more transactional constraints for a
promotion associated with a merchant device in response to a
selection of the promotion via a user interface of a consumer
device, wherein the selection of the promotion is associated with
one or more consumer selection parameters; determine whether the
one or more consumer selection parameters conform to the one or
more transactional constraints provided by the merchant device; and
transmit the selection of the promotion to a promotion and
marketing service system in response to a determination that the
one or more consumer selection parameters conform to the one or
more transactional constraints provided by the merchant device.
18. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more storage devices
store instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or
more computers, to further cause the one or more computers to:
receive an impression comprising the promotion and one or more
other promotions, wherein the impression is generated based on one
or more consumer preferences; and cause rendering of the impression
via the user interface of the consumer device, wherein the
promotion is selected from the user interface.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more storage devices
store instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or
more computers, to further cause the one or more computers to:
receive the one or more other promotions from one or more other
merchant devices.
20. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more storage devices
store instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or
more computers, to further cause the one or more computers to:
receive a request for the promotion via the user interface, wherein
the request comprises one or more consumer preferences for the
promotion.
21. The system of claim 20, wherein the one or more storage devices
store instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or
more computers, to further cause the one or more computers to:
transmit the request to the promotion and marketing service system;
and receive an impression comprising at least the promotion,
wherein the impression is generated based on the one or more
consumer preferences.
22. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more storage devices
store instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or
more computers, to further cause the one or more computers to:
determine a counter-offer for the promotion in response to a
determination that the one or more consumer selection parameters do
not conform to the one or more transactional constraints provided
by the merchant device, wherein counter-offer comprises a different
promotion associated with one or more different transactional
constraints.
23. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more transactional
constraints comprise a timing constraint for the selection of the
promotion.
24. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving, by a
computing device comprising a processor, one or more transactional
constraints for a promotion associated with a merchant device in
response to a selection of the promotion via a user interface of a
consumer device, wherein the selection of the promotion is
associated with one or more consumer selection parameters;
determining, by the computing device, whether the one or more
consumer selection parameters conform to the one or more
transactional constraints provided by the merchant device; and
transmitting, by the computing device, the selection of the
promotion to a promotion and marketing service system in response
to a determination that the one or more consumer selection
parameters conform to the one or more transactional constraints
provided by the merchant device.
25. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, further
comprising: receiving, by the computing device, an impression
comprising the promotion and one or more other promotions, wherein
the impression is generated based on one or more consumer
preferences; and causing, by the computing device, rendering of the
impression via the user interface of the consumer device, wherein
the promotion is selected from the user interface.
26. The computer-implemented method of claim 25, further
comprising: receiving, by the computing device, the one or more
other promotions from one or more other merchant devices.
27. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, further
comprising: receiving, by the computing device, a request for the
promotion via the user interface, wherein the request comprises one
or more consumer preferences for the promotion.
28. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, further
comprising: transmitting, by the computing device, the request to
the promotion and marketing service system; and receiving, by the
computing device, an impression comprising at least the promotion,
wherein the impression is generated based on one or more consumer
preferences.
29. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, further
comprising: determining, by the computing device, a counter-offer
for the promotion in response to a determination that the one or
more consumer selection parameters do not conform to the one or
more transactional constraints provided by the merchant device,
wherein counter-offer comprises a different promotion associated
with one or more different transactional constraints.
30. A computer program product, stored on a computer readable
medium, comprising instructions that when executed by one or more
computers cause the one or more computers to: receive one or more
transactional constraints for a promotion in response to a
selection of the promotion associated with a merchant device via a
user interface of a consumer device, wherein the selection of the
promotion is associated with one or more consumer selection
parameters; determine whether the one or more consumer selection
parameters conform to the one or more transactional constraints
provided by the merchant device; and transmit the selection of the
promotion to a promotion and marketing service system in response
to a determination that the one or more consumer selection
parameters conform to the one or more transactional constraints
provided by the merchant device.
31. The computer program product of claim 30, further comprising
instructions that when executed by the one or more computers cause
the one or more computers to: receive an impression comprising the
promotion and one or more other promotions, wherein the impression
is generated based on one or more consumer preferences; and cause
rendering of the impression via the user interface of the consumer
device, wherein the promotion is selected from the user
interface.
32. The computer program product of claim 31, further comprising
instructions that when executed by the one or more computers cause
the one or more computers to: receive the one or more other
promotions from one or more other merchant devices.
33. The computer program product of claim 30, further comprising
instructions that when executed by the one or more computers cause
the one or more computers to: receive a request for the promotion
via the user interface, wherein the request comprises one or more
consumer preferences for the promotion.
34. The computer program product of claim 33, further comprising
instructions that when executed by the one or more computers cause
the one or more computers to: transmit the request to the promotion
and marketing service system; and receive an impression comprising
at least the promotion, wherein the impression is generated based
on one or more consumer preferences.
35. The computer program product of claim 30, further comprising
instructions that when executed by the one or more computers cause
the one or more computers to: determine a counter-offer for the
promotion in response to a determination that the one or more
consumer selection parameters do not conform to the one or more
transactional constraints provided by the merchant device, wherein
counter-offer comprises a different promotion associated with one
or more different transactional constraints.
36. The computer program product of claim 30, wherein the one or
more transactional constraints comprise a timing constraint for the
selection of the promotion.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of and claims priority to
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/865,907, titled "METHOD,
APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDING A USER
PLATFORM FOR A REAL-TIME MARKETPLACE," and filed Sep. 25, 2015,
which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.
62/056,085, entitled "Methods, Apparatuses, and Computer Program
Products for Providing a User Platform for a Real-Time
Marketplace", filed on Sep. 26, 2014, the contents of which are
hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
FIELD
[0002] Embodiments of the invention relate, generally, to
determining relevance signals for promotions to facilitate
generating impressions for a consumer within a promotion and
marketing service application.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Promotion and marketing services seek to encourage consumers
to explore and discover available promotions that the consumer may
be interested in, and as a result provide methods for using a
variety of relevance measures to determine what available
promotions should be presented to a consumer. In this regard, a
number of deficiencies and problems associated with the methods and
systems used to, among other things, identify promotions which may
have a particular relevance to a consumer have been identified.
Through applied effort, ingenuity, and innovation, many of these
identified problems have been solved by developing solutions that
are included in embodiments of the present invention, some examples
of which are described herein.
BRIEF SUMMARY
[0004] Accordingly, a method, apparatus, and computer program
product are provided to facilitate providing a user platform for a
real-time marketplace and to facilitate the generation of
impressions comprising one or more promotions for a consumer from a
promotion and marketing service.
[0005] In one embodiment, a method for generating promotion
impressions is provided which includes receiving, via a user
interface, a request for a promotion, wherein the request comprises
one or more indications of consumer preferences for the promotion.
The method further comprises causing transmission of the request to
a promotion and marketing service. The method further comprises
receiving an impression comprising promotion data for one or more
merchants based at least in part on the one or more indications of
preferences. The method further comprises receiving, via the user
interface, a selection of a promotion to purchase wherein the
promotion is selected from the promotion data in the impression and
transmitting the selection of the promotion to purchase to the
promotion and marketing service.
[0006] In some embodiments, the method may further comprise wherein
the impression comprises promotion data for a counter-offer,
wherein the counter-offer comprises promotion data different from
the consumer preferences for the promotion.
[0007] In some embodiments, the method may further comprise
receiving a modified request comprising one or more modified
indications of consumer preferences for the promotion, wherein the
modified indications of consumer preferences are in response to the
counter-offer; causing transmission of the modified request to the
promotion and marketing service; and receiving a new impression
comprising changed promotion data for the one or more
merchants.
[0008] In some embodiments, the method may further comprise wherein
the request for a promotion is for a last-minute promotion and one
of the one or more indications of consumer preferences for the
promotion comprises an indication of a premium.
[0009] In one embodiment, an apparatus may be provided comprising
at least one processor and at least one memory including computer
program instructions, the at least one memory and the computer
program instructions configured to, with the at least one
processor, cause the apparatus to at least receive, via a user
interface, a request for a promotion, wherein the request comprises
one or more indications of consumer preferences for the promotion.
The apparatus further comprising the at least one memory and the
computer program instructions further configured to, with the at
least one processor, cause the apparatus to cause transmission of
the request to a promotion and marketing service. The apparatus
further comprising the at least one memory and the computer program
instructions further configured to, with the at least one
processor, cause the apparatus to receive an impression comprising
promotion data for one or more merchants based at least in part on
the one or more indications of preferences. The apparatus further
comprising the at least one memory and the computer program
instructions further configured to, with the at least one
processor, cause the apparatus to receive, via the user interface,
a selection of a promotion to purchase wherein the promotion is
selected from the promotion data in the impression; and transmit
the selection of the promotion to purchase to the promotion and
marketing service.
[0010] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise
wherein the impression comprises promotion data for a
counter-offer, wherein the counter-offer comprises promotion data
different from the consumer preferences for the promotion.
[0011] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise the
at least one memory and the computer program instructions
configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus
to receive a modified request comprising one or more modified
indications of consumer preferences for the promotion, wherein the
modified indications of consumer preferences are in response to the
counter-offer; cause transmission of the modified request to the
promotion and marketing service; and receive a new impression
comprising changed promotion data for the one or more
merchants.
[0012] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise
wherein the request for a promotion is for a last-minute promotion
and one of the one or more indications of consumer preferences for
the promotion comprises an indication of a premium.
[0013] In one embodiment, a method for generating promotion
impressions is provided which includes receiving a consumer request
for a promotion, wherein the consumer request comprises one or more
indications of consumer preferences for the promotion; and
providing, via a user interface, an indication of the consumer
request including the one or more indications of consumer
preferences. The method further comprises receiving, via the user
interface, an indication of whether generation of a promotion
meeting the indications of consumer preferences is acceptable; and
if the generation of a promotion meeting the indications of
consumer preferences is acceptable, causing transmission of
promotion data based at least in part on the one or more
indications of consumer preferences for use in generating an
impression.
[0014] In some embodiments, wherein if the generation of a
promotion meeting the indications of consumer preferences is not
acceptable, the method may further comprise receiving, via the user
interface, a counter-offer to the consumer request, wherein the
counter-offer comprises promotion data different from the consumer
preferences for the promotion; and causing transmission of
counter-offer for use in generating an impression.
[0015] In some embodiments, the method may further comprise
receiving consumer profile data along with the consumer request for
a promotion; and providing the consumer profile data along with the
indication of the consumer request for use in determining whether
generation of a promotion meeting the indications of consumer
preferences is acceptable.
[0016] In some embodiments, the method may further comprise wherein
the consumer profile data comprises one or more of: consumer
location data, consumer demographic data, consumer purchase data,
and consumer request history.
[0017] In one embodiment, an apparatus may be provided comprising
at least one processor and at least one memory including computer
program instructions, the at least one memory and the computer
program instructions configured to, with the at least one
processor, cause the apparatus to at least receive a consumer
request for a promotion, wherein the consumer request comprises one
or more indications of consumer preferences for the promotion; and
provide an indication of the consumer request including the one or
more indications of consumer preferences. The apparatus further
comprising the at least one memory and the computer program
instructions further configured to, with the at least one
processor, cause the apparatus to receive an indication of whether
generation of a promotion meeting the indications of consumer
preferences is acceptable; and if the generation of a promotion
meeting the indications of consumer preferences is acceptable,
cause transmission of promotion data based at least in part on the
one or more indications of consumer preferences for use in
generating an impression.
[0018] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise,
wherein if the generation of a promotion meeting the indications of
consumer preferences is not acceptable, the at least one memory and
the computer program instructions configured to, with the at least
one processor, cause the apparatus to receive a counter-offer to
the consumer request, wherein the counter-offer comprises promotion
data different from the consumer preferences for the promotion; and
cause transmission of counter-offer for use in generating an
impression.
[0019] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise the
at least one memory and the computer program instructions
configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus
to receive consumer profile data along with the consumer request
for a promotion; and provide the consumer profile data along with
the indication of the consumer request for use in determining
whether generation of a promotion meeting the indications of
consumer preferences is acceptable.
[0020] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise
wherein the consumer profile data comprises one or more of:
consumer location data, consumer demographic data, consumer
purchase data, and consumer request history.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0021] Having thus described embodiments of the invention in
general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying
drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and
wherein:
[0022] FIG. 1 illustrates an example computing system within which
embodiments of the present invention may operate;
[0023] FIGS. 2A-C illustrate block diagrams of example apparatuses
which may be configured to provide operations in accordance with
some example embodiments discussed herein;
[0024] FIG. 3 depicts an example data flow illustrating
interactions between apparatus that may be provided in a computing
system in accordance with some example embodiments discussed
herein;
[0025] FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations that
may be executed by one or more apparatuses to facilitate the
negotiation and generation of one or more promotions between a
consumer and a merchant in accordance with some example embodiments
discussed herein;
[0026] FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations that
may be executed by one or more apparatuses to facilitate the search
for promotions and the generation of one or more promotions for a
consumer in accordance with some example embodiments discussed
herein;
[0027] FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations that
may be executed by one or more apparatuses to facilitate the
offering of current and/or short term promotions to a consumer
based on the consumers current location in accordance with some
example embodiments discussed herein;
[0028] FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations that
may be executed by one or more apparatuses to facilitate the
automatic purchase of promotions for a consumer that meet
pre-established criteria in accordance with some example
embodiments discussed herein;
[0029] FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations that
may be executed by one or more apparatuses to facilitate the search
for promotions for a specific activity by a consumer in accordance
with some example embodiments discussed herein;
[0030] FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations that
may be executed by one or more apparatuses to facilitate the
negotiation and generation of one or more promotions between a
consumer and a merchant in accordance with some example embodiments
discussed herein; and
[0031] FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations that
may be executed by one or more apparatuses to facilitate the
negotiation and generation of one or more promotions between a
consumer and a merchant in accordance with some example embodiments
discussed herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0032] Embodiments of the present invention now will be described
more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings,
in which some, but not all embodiments of the inventions are shown.
Indeed, embodiments of the invention may be embodied in many
different forms and should not be construed as limited to the
embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are
provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal
requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
Overview
[0033] Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to
improved apparatuses, methods, and computer readable media for
providing a real-time marketplace allowing consumers and merchants
to participate in a bidding system for transactions. Embodiments
provide for a system whereby consumers and merchants may generate
promotions, which are specific to the consumer and merchant, for a
particular transaction and/or available during a particular time
period.
[0034] In some embodiments, a promotion and marketing service may
facilitate a real-time marketplace whereby consumers and merchants
may participate in a bidding system for the generation and
acquisition of promotions. For example, in some embodiments, a
consumer who is in the vicinity of a specific merchant may
instigate a negotiation with the merchant, through the promotion
and marketing service, for a promotion redeemable in a short time
period, such as by requesting a specific discount for a transaction
if the consumer visits the merchant and competes the transaction
within a short time, e.g. the next hour. In some embodiments, the
merchant may be able to respond to a consumer's promotion request
in a number of manners. For example, if the promotion terms (e.g.
the specific discount and time period) requested by the consumer
are acceptable to the merchant, the merchant may provide an
indication to the consumer (through the promotion and marketing
service) that the terms are acceptable. The promotion and marketing
service may then facilitate the consumer accepting the promotion
terms and facilitate the acquisition of the promotion by the
consumer.
[0035] In some embodiments, the merchant may instead provide a
counter-offer proposing a promotion on alternate terms that are
acceptable to the merchant. The real-time marketplace may
facilitate multiple iterations of counter-offers between the
consumer and merchant to allow the consumer and merchant to agree
on promotion terms that are mutually acceptable. In some
embodiments, after the consumer and merchant have agreed on the
promotion terms, the promotion and marketing service may facilitate
the acquisition of the promotion by the consumer.
[0036] In some embodiments, a promotion and marketing service may
facilitate a real-time marketplace whereby consumers may request
availability of promotions using a specified criteria, for example
for a category, such as restaurants, activities, shopping, etc.,
around the consumers location or in a defined area, and/or during a
specified time period. Such a real-time marketplace may provide for
searching for and generating one or more promotions for a specific
transaction that is specific to an individual consumer for an
individual merchant and which may be provided for a limited time
period and/or may be redeemable in a limited time period. For
example, in some embodiments, a consumer who is in a certain
neighborhood may instigate a search for a promotion at a particular
type of restaurant within a certain distance. In some embodiments,
the promotion and marketing system may determine the appropriate
merchants in the area and determine if the merchant has a current
promotion or may solicit the merchants for a promotion for the
consumer. The promotion and marketing service may then facilitate
the consumer accepting the promotion terms and facilitate the
acquisition of the promotion by the consumer.
Definitions
[0037] Some embodiments of the present invention will now be
described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying
drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the invention
are shown. Indeed, the invention may be embodied in many different
forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set
forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this
disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers
refer to like elements throughout.
[0038] As used herein, the terms "data," "content," "information,"
and similar terms may be used interchangeably to refer to data
capable of being transmitted, received, and/or stored in accordance
with embodiments of the present invention. Thus, use of any such
terms should not be taken to limit the spirit and scope of
embodiments of the present invention. Further, where a computing
device is described herein to receive data from another computing
device, it will be appreciated that the data may be received
directly from the another computing device or may be received
indirectly via one or more intermediary computing devices, such as,
for example, one or more servers, relays, routers, network access
points, base stations, hosts, and/or the like, sometimes referred
to herein as a "network." Similarly, where a computing device is
described herein to send data to another computing device, it will
be appreciated that the data may be sent directly to the another
computing device or may be sent indirectly via one or more
intermediary computing devices, such as, for example, one or more
servers, relays, routers, network access points, base stations,
hosts, and/or the like.
[0039] As used herein, the term "promotion and marketing service"
may include a service that is accessible via one or more computing
devices and that is operable to provide promotion and/or marketing
services on behalf of one or more providers that are offering one
or more instruments that are redeemable for goods, services,
experiences and/or the like. In some examples, the promotion and
marketing service may take the form of a redemption authority, a
payment processor, a rewards provider, an entity in a financial
network, a promoter, an agent, and/or the like. As such, the
service is, in some example embodiments, configured to present one
or more promotions via one or more impressions, accept payments for
promotions from consumers, issue instruments upon acceptance of an
offer, participate in redemption, generate rewards, provide a point
of sale device or service, issue payments to providers and/or or
otherwise participate in the exchange of goods, services or
experiences for currency, value and/or the like. The service is
also, in some example embodiments, configured to offer merchant
services such as promotion building (e.g., assisting merchants with
selecting parameters for newly created promotions), promotion
counseling (e.g., offering information to merchants to assist with
using promotions as marketing), promotion analytics (e.g., offering
information to merchants to provide data and analysis regarding the
costs and return-on-investment associated with offering
promotions), and the like.
[0040] As used herein, the terms "provider" and "merchant" may be
used interchangeably and may include, but are not limited to, a
business owner, consigner, shopkeeper, tradesperson, vendor,
operator, entrepreneur, agent, dealer, organization or the like
that is in the business of a providing a good, service or
experience to a consumer, facilitating the provision of a good,
service or experience to a consumer and/or otherwise operating in
the stream of commerce. The "provider" or "merchant" need not
actually market a product or service via the promotion and
marketing service, as some merchants or providers may utilize the
promotion and marketing service only for the purpose of gathering
marketing information, demographic information, or the like.
[0041] As used herein, the term "consumer" should be understood to
refer to a recipient of goods, services, promotions, media, or the
like provided by the promotion and marketing service and/or a
merchant. Consumers may include, without limitation, individuals,
groups of individuals, corporations, other merchants, and the
like.
[0042] As used herein, the term "promotion" may include, but is not
limited to, any type of offered, presented or otherwise indicated
reward, discount, coupon, credit, deal, incentive, discount, media
or the like that is indicative of a promotional value or the like
that upon purchase or acceptance results in the issuance of an
instrument that may be used toward at least a portion of the
purchase of particular goods, services and/or experiences defined
by the promotion. Promotions may have different values in different
contexts. For example, a promotion may have a first value
associated with the cost paid by a consumer, known as an "accepted
value." When redeemed, the promotion may be used to purchase a
"promotional value" representing the retail price of the goods. The
promotion may also have a "residual value," reflecting the
remaining value of the promotion after expiration. Although
consumers may be primarily focused on the accepted and promotional
value of the promotion, a promotion may also have additional
associated values. For example, a "cost value" may represent the
cost to the merchant to offer the promotion via the promotion and
marketing service, where the promotion and marketing service
receives the cost value for each promotion sold to a consumer. The
promotion may also include a "return on investment" value,
representing a quantified expected return on investment to the
merchant for each promotion sold.
[0043] For example, consider a promotion offered by the promotion
and marketing service for a $50 meal promotion for $25 at a
particular restaurant. In this example, $25 would be the accepted
value charged to the consumer. The consumer would then be able to
redeem the promotion at the restaurant for $50 applied toward their
meal check. This $50 would be the promotional value of the
promotion. If the consumer did not use the promotion before
expiration, the consumer might be able to obtain a refund of
$22.50, representing a 10% fee to recoup transaction costs for the
merchant and/or promotion and marketing service. This $22.50 would
be the residual value of the promotion. If the promotion and
marketing service charged the merchant $3.00 to offer the
promotion, the $3.00 fee would be the "cost value." The "return on
investment" value of the promotion might be dynamically calculated
by the promotion and marketing service based on the expected repeat
business generated by the marketing of the promotion, the
particular location, the demographics of the consumer, and the
like. For example, the return on investment value might be $10.00,
reflecting the long term additional profit expected by the merchant
as a result of bringing in a new customer through use of a
promotion.
[0044] Promotions may be provided to consumers and redeemed via the
use of an "instrument." Instruments may represent and embody the
terms of the promotion from which the instrument resulted. For
example, instruments may include, but are not limited to, any type
of physical token (e.g., magnetic strip cards or printed barcodes),
virtual account balance (e.g., a promotion being associated with a
particular user account on a merchant website), secret code (e.g.,
a character string that can be entered on a merchant website or
point-of-sale), tender, electronic certificate, medium of exchange,
voucher, or the like which may be used in a transaction for at
least a portion of the purchase, acquisition, procurement,
consumption or the like of goods, services and/or experiences as
defined by the terms of the promotion.
[0045] In some examples, the instrument may take the form of tender
that has a given value that is exchangeable for goods, services
and/or experiences and/or a reduction in a purchase price of a
particular good, service, or experience. In some examples, the
instrument may have multiple values, such as accepted value, a
promotional value, and/or a residual value. For example, using the
aforementioned restaurant as the example provider, an electronic
indication in a mobile application that shows $50 of value to be
used as payment for a meal check at the restaurant. In some
examples, the accepted value of the instrument is defined by the
value exchanged for the instrument. In some examples, the
promotional value is defined by the promotion from which the
instrument resulted and is the value of the instrument beyond the
accepted value. In some examples, the residual value is the value
after redemption, the value after the expiry or other violation of
a redemption parameter, the return or exchange value of the
instrument and/or the like.
[0046] As used herein, the term "redemption" refers to the use,
exchange or other presentation of an instrument for at least a
portion of a good, service, or experience as defined by the
instrument and its related promotion. In some examples, redemption
includes the verification of validity of the instrument. In other
example embodiments, redemption may include an indication that a
particular instrument has been redeemed and thus no longer retains
an actual, promotional, and/or residual value (e.g., full
redemption). In other example embodiments, redemption may include
the redemption of at least a portion of its actual, promotional,
and/or residual value (e.g., partial redemption). An example of
redemption, using the aforementioned restaurant as the example
provider, is the exchange of the $50 instrument and $50 to settle a
$100 meal check.
[0047] As used herein, the term "impression" refers to a metric for
measuring how frequently consumers are provided with marketing
information related to a particular good, service, or promotion.
Impressions may be measured in various different manners,
including, but not limited to, measuring the frequency with which
content is served to a consumer (e.g., the number of times images,
websites, or the like are requested by consumers), measuring the
frequency with which electronic marketing communications including
particular content are sent to consumers (e.g., a number of e-mails
sent to consumers or number of e-mails including particular
promotion content), measuring the frequency with which electronic
marketing communications are received by consumers (e.g., a number
of times a particular e-mail is read), or the like. Impressions may
be provided through various forms of media, including but not
limited to communications, displays, or other perceived
indications, such as e-mails, text messages, application alerts,
mobile applications, other type of electronic interface or
distribution channel and/or the like, of one or more
promotions.
[0048] As used herein, the term "electronic marketing information"
refers to various electronic data and signals that may be
interpreted by a promotion and marketing service to provide
improved electronic marketing communications. Electronic marketing
information may include, without limitation, clickstream data
(defined below), transaction data (defined below), location data
(defined below), communication channel data (defined below),
discretionary data (defined below), or any other data stored by or
received by the promotion and marketing service for use in
providing electronic communications to consumers.
[0049] As used herein, the term "clickstream data" refers to
electronic information indicating content viewed, accessed, edited,
or retrieved by consumers. This information may be electronically
processed and analyzed by a promotion and marketing service to
improve the quality of electronic marketing and commerce
transactions offered by, through, and in conjunction with the
promotion and marketing service. It should be understood that the
term "clickstream" is not intended to be limited to mouse clicks.
For example, the clickstream data may include various other
consumer interactions, including without limitation, mouse-over
events and durations, the amount of time spent by the consumer
viewing particular content, the rate at which impressions of
particular content result in sales associated with that content,
demographic information associated with each particular consumer,
data indicating other content accessed by the consumer (e.g.,
browser cookie data), the time or date on which content was
accessed, the frequency of impressions for particular content,
associations between particular consumers or consumer demographics
and particular impressions, and/or the like.
[0050] As used herein, the term "transaction data" refers to
electronic information indicating that a transaction is occurring
or has occurred via either a merchant or the promotion and
marketing service. Transaction data may also include information
relating to the transaction. For example, transaction data may
include consumer payment or billing information, consumer shipping
information, items purchased by the consumer, a merchant rewards
account number associated with the consumer, the type of shipping
selected by the consumer for fulfillment of the transaction, or the
like.
[0051] As used herein, the term "location data" refers to
electronic information indicating a particular location. Location
data may be associated with a consumer, a merchant, or any other
entity capable of interaction with the promotion and marketing
service. For example, in some embodiments location data is provided
by a location services module of a consumer mobile device. In some
embodiments, location data may be provided by a merchant indicating
the location of consumers within their retail location. In some
embodiments, location data may be provided by merchants to indicate
the current location of the merchant (e.g., a food truck or
delivery service). It should be appreciated that location data may
be provided by various systems capable of determining location
information, including, but not limited to, global positioning
service receivers, indoor navigation systems, cellular tower
triangulation techniques, video surveillance systems, or radio
frequency identification (RFID) location systems.
[0052] As used herein, the term "communication channel data" refers
to electronic information relating to the particular device or
communication channel upon which a merchant or consumer
communicates with the promotion and marketing service. In this
regard, communication channel data may include the type of device
used by the consumer or merchant (e.g., smart phone, desktop
computer, laptop, netbook, tablet computer), the Internet Protocol
(IP) address of the device, the available bandwidth of a
connection, login credentials used to access the channel (e.g., a
user account and/or password for accessing the promotion and
marketing service), or any other data pertaining to the
communication channel between the promotion and marketing service
and an entity external to the promotion and marketing service.
[0053] As used herein, the term "discretionary data" refers to
electronic information provided by a merchant or consumer
explicitly to the promotion and marketing service in support of
improved interaction with the promotion and marketing service. Upon
registering with the promotion and marketing service or at any time
thereafter, the consumer or merchant may be invited to provide
information that aids the promotion and marketing service in
providing services that are targeted to the particular needs of the
consumer or merchant. For example, a consumer may indicate
interests, hobbies, their age, gender, or location when creating a
new account. A merchant may indicate the type of goods or services
provided, their retail storefront location, contact information,
hours of operation, or the like.
[0054] It should be appreciated that the term "discretionary data"
is intended to refer to information voluntarily and explicitly
provided to the promotion and marketing service, such as by
completing a form or survey on a website or application hosted by
the promotion and marketing service. However, is should be
appreciated that the examples of discretionary data provided above
may also be determined implicitly or through review or analysis of
other electronic marketing information provided to the promotion
and marketing service. It should also be appreciated that the
promotion and marketing service may also gate access to certain
features or tools based on whether certain discretionary data has
been provided. For example, the consumer may be required to provide
information relating to their interests or location during a
registration process.
[0055] As used herein, the term "offering parameters" refers to
terms and conditions under which the promotion is offered by a
promotion and marketing service to consumers. These offering
parameters may include parameters, bounds, considerations and/or
the like that outline or otherwise define the terms, timing,
constraints, limitations, rules or the like under which the
promotion is sold, offered, marketed, or otherwise provided to
consumers. Example offering parameters include, using the
aforementioned restaurant as the example provider, limit one
instrument per person, total of 100 instruments to be issued, a run
duration of when the promotion will be marketed via the promotion
and marketing service, and parameters for identifying consumers to
be offered the promotion (e.g., factors influencing how consumer
locations are used to offer a promotion).
[0056] As used herein, the term "redemption parameters" refers to
terms and conditions for redeeming or otherwise obtaining the
benefit of promotions obtained from a promotion and marketing
service. The redemption parameters may include parameters, bounds,
considerations and/or the like that outline the term, timing,
constraints, limitations, rules or the like for how and/or when an
instrument may be redeemed. For example, the redemption parameters
may include an indication that the instrument must be redeemed
prior to a specified deadline, for a specific good, service or
experience and/or the like. For example, using the aforementioned
restaurant as the example provider, the redemption parameters may
specify a limit of one instrument per visit, that the promotion
must be used in store only, or that the promotion must be used by a
certain date.
[0057] As used herein, the term "promotion content" refers to
display factors or features that influence how the promotion is
displayed to consumers. For example, promotion content may include
an image associated with the promotion, a narrative description of
the promotion or the merchant, a display template for association
with the promotion, or the like. For example, merchant self-service
indicators (defined below) may be used to identify promotion offers
that were generated by merchants with similar characteristics to
the merchant self-service indicators. Various other factors may be
used to generate the promotion offer, such as the success of the
promotion offers generated by the merchants with similar
characteristics, the product availability of the merchant, and the
like.
[0058] As used herein, the term "promotion component" is used to
refer to elements of a particular promotion that may be selected
during a promotion generation process. Promotion components may
include any aspect of a promotion, including but not necessarily
limited to offering parameters, redemption parameters, and
promotion content. For example, promotion components may include,
but are not limited to, promotion titles, promotion ledes (e.g., a
short text phrase displayed under a promotion title), promotion
images, promotion prices, promotion discount levels, promotion
style sheets, promotion fonts, promotion e-mail subjects, promotion
quantities, promotion fine print options, promotion fees assessed
to the merchant by the promotion and marketing service, or the
like. Promotion components may also include various flags and
settings associated with registration and verification functions
for a merchant offering the promotion, such as whether the identity
of the merchant has been verified, whether the merchant is
registered with the promotion and marketing service, or the
like.
[0059] As used herein, the term "electronic marketing
communication" refers to any electronically generated information
content provided by the promotion and marketing service to a
consumer for the purpose of marketing a promotion, good, or service
to the consumer. Electronic marketing communications may include
any email, short message service (SMS) message, web page,
application interface, or the like electronically generated for the
purpose of attempting to sell or raise awareness of a product,
service, promotion, or merchant to the consumer.
[0060] It should be appreciated that the term "electronic marketing
communication" implies and requires some portion of the content of
the communication to be generated via an electronic process. For
example, a telephone call made from an employee of the promotion
and marketing service to a consumer for the purpose of selling a
product or service would not qualify as an electronic marketing
communication, even if the identity of the call recipient was
selected by an electronic process and the call was dialed
electronically, as the content of the telephone call is not
generated in an electronic manner. However, a so-called "robo-call"
with content programmatically selected, generated, or recorded via
an electronic process and initiated by an electronic system to
notify a consumer of a particular product, service, or promotion
would qualify as an electronic marketing communication. Similarly,
a manually drafted e-mail sent from an employee of the promotion
and marketing service to a consumer for the purpose of marketing a
product would not qualify as an electronic marketing communication.
However, a programmatically generated email including marketing
materials programmatically selected based on electronic marketing
information associated with the recipient would qualify as an
electronic marketing communication.
[0061] As used herein, the term "business analytic data" refers to
data generated by the promotion and marketing service based on
electronic marketing information to assist with the operation of
the promotion and marketing service and/or one or more merchants.
The various streams of electronic marketing information provided to
and by the promotion and marketing service allow for the use of
sophisticated data analysis techniques that may be employed to
identify correlations, relationships, and other associations among
elements of electronic marketing information. These associations
may be processed and formatted by the promotion and marketing
service to provide reports, recommendations, and services both
internal to the promotion and marketing service and to merchants in
order to improve the process by which merchants and promotion and
marketing service engage with consumers. For example, the promotion
and marketing service may analyze the electronic marketing
information to identify an increased demand for a particular
product or service, and provide an electronic report to a merchant
suggesting the merchant offer the particular product or service.
Alternatively, the promotion and marketing service may identify
that a particular product or service is not selling or resulting in
the merchant losing money, customers, or market share (e.g., after
consumers order a particular menu item, they never come back to the
merchant), and suggest that the merchant should discontinue
offering that product or service.
[0062] It should be appreciated that the term "business analytic
data" is intended to refer to electronically and programmatically
generated data. For example, a printed report or letter manually
drafted by an employee of the promotion and marketing service would
not be said to include business analytic data, even if said data
was used by the employee during the drafting process, while a data
disk or downloaded file containing analytics generated by the
promotion and marketing service would be considered business
analytic data.
Technical Underpinnings and Implementation of Exemplary
Embodiments
[0063] Merchants, including manufacturers, wholesalers, and
retailers, have spent a tremendous amount of time, money, manpower,
and other resources to determine the best way to market their
products to consumers. Whether a given marketing effort is
successful is often determined based on the return-on-investment
offered to the merchant from increased awareness, sales, and the
like of the merchant's goods and services in exchange for the
resources spent on the marketing effort. In other words, optimal
marketing techniques generally maximize the benefit to the
merchant's bottom line while minimizing the cost spent on
marketing. To this end, a merchant's marketing budget may be spent
in a variety of different manners including advertising, offering
of discounts, conducting market research, and various other known
marketing techniques. The end goal of these activities is to ensure
that products are presented to consumers in a manner that maximizes
the likelihood that the consumers will purchase the product from
the merchant that performed the marketing activities while
minimizing the expense of the marketing effort.
[0064] The advent of electronic commerce has revolutionized the
marketing process. While merchants would typically have to perform
costly market research such as focus groups, surveys, and the like
to obtain detailed information on consumer preferences and
demographics, the digital age has provided a wealth of new consumer
information that may be used to optimize the marketing and sales
process. As a result, new technologies have been developed to
gather, aggregate, analyze, and report information from a variety
of electronic sources.
[0065] So-called "clickstream data" provides a robust set of
information describing the various interactions consumers have with
electronic marketing information provided to them by merchants and
others. Promotion and marketing services have been developed with
sophisticated technology to receive and process this data for the
benefit of both merchants and consumers. These services assist
merchants with marketing their products to interested consumers,
while reducing the chance that a consumer will be presented with
marketing information in which the consumer has no interest. Some
promotion and marketing services further leverage their access to
the trove of electronic marketing information to assist merchants
and consumers with other tasks, such as offering improved merchant
point-of-sale systems, improved inventory and supply chain
management, improved methods for delivering products and services,
and the like.
[0066] Unlike conventional marketing techniques related to the use
of paper or other physical media (e.g., coupons clipped from a
weekly newspaper), promotion and marketing services offer a wealth
of additional electronic solutions to improve the experience for
consumers and merchants. The ability to closely monitor user
impressions provides the ability for the promotion and marketing
service to gather data related to the time, place, and manner in
which the consumer engaged with the impression (e.g., viewed,
clicked, moused-over) and obtained and redeemed the promotion. The
promotion and marketing service may use this information to
determine which products and services are most relevant to the
consumer's interest, and to provide marketing materials related to
said products and services to the consumer, thus improving the
quality of the electronic marketing communications received by the
consumer. Merchants may be provided with the ability to dynamically
monitor and adjust the parameters of promotions offered by the
promotion and marketing service, ensuring that the merchant
receives a positive return on their investment. For example, the
merchant can closely monitor the type, discount level, and quantity
sold of a particular promotion on the fly, while with traditional
printed coupons the merchant would not be able to make any changes
to the promotion after the coupon has gone to print. Each of these
advancements in digital market and promotion distribution involve
problems unique to the digital environment not before seen in
traditional print or television broadcast marketing.
[0067] However, these promotion and marketing services are not
without problems. Although the clickstream data provides a wealth
of information, the inventors have determined that existing
techniques may not always leverage this information in an efficient
or accurate manner. Technology continues to rapidly advance in the
field of analytics and the processing of this information, offering
improved data gathering and analysis techniques, resulting in more
relevant and accurate results provided in a more efficient manner.
Electronic marketing services continue to evolve and provide
improved methods for engaging consumers and spreading awareness of
products offered by promotion and marketing services.
[0068] In many cases, the inventors have determined that these
services are constrained by technological obstacles unique to the
electronic nature of the services provided, such as constraints on
data storage, machine communication and processor resources. The
inventors have identified that the wealth of electronic data
available to these services and the robust nature of electronic
marketing communications techniques present new challenges never
contemplated in the world of paper coupons and physical marketing
techniques. The inventors have further determined that even
technological methods that leverage computers for statistical
analysis and consumer behavior modeling (e.g., television rating
systems) fail to address problems associated with providing
relevant, high quality electronic marketing communications (e.g.,
impressions) to consumers in a manner that maximizes accuracy,
minimizes error, is user friendly and provides for efficient
allocation of resources. Embodiments of the present invention as
described herein serve to correct these errors and offer improved
resource utilization, thus providing improvements to electronic
marketing services that address problems arising out of the
electronic nature of those services.
[0069] In order to offer digital promotions through a promotion and
marketing service, merchants generally manually engage with
representatives of the promotion and marketing service to negotiate
the components of the promotions to be offered to consumers by the
promotion and marketing service. This process generally provides
for blanket promotions that are targeted to a variety of consumers.
Such blanket promotions do not allow for merchants to offer timely
promotions targeted to a specific consumer or particular group of
consumers on a real-time basis. For example, such blanket
promotions do not allow for merchants to offer promotions to
specific consumers, e.g. consumers in the vicinity, for a specific
time period, e.g. next two hours, to allow for a merchant to
utilize currently available capacity.
[0070] The inventors have identified various problems and
difficulties that occur in providing merchants with the opportunity
to create and sell blanket promotions and with facilitating a
merchant providing limited promotions to utilize current capacity.
In particular, the inventors have determined that the process of
generating a new promotion requires direct manual intervention with
a promotion and marketing service and requires providing general
promotions directed to a variety of consumers generally over an
extended time period.
[0071] The inventors have therefore determined that existing
electronic systems for generating promotions fail to address these
issues. As a result of these problems and others that may arise
from time to time, delays and inefficiencies may be introduced into
the process of generating a promotion and may not allow a merchant
to tailor promotions to specific consumers during specific time
periods. In many cases, generation of such real-time promotions and
facilitation of negotiations between consumers and a merchant may
be completely impossible without purchasing additional
applications, devices, or other tools.
System Architecture and Example Apparatus
[0072] Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products of the
present invention may be embodied by any of a variety of devices.
For example, the method, apparatus, and computer program product of
an example embodiment may be embodied by a networked device, such
as a server or other network entity, configured to communicate with
one or more devices, such as one or more client devices.
Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may include
fixed computing devices, such as a personal computer or a computer
workstation. Still further, example embodiments may be embodied by
any of a variety of mobile terminals, such as a portable digital
assistant (PDA), mobile telephone, smartphone, laptop computer,
tablet computer, or any combination of the aforementioned
devices.
[0073] In this regard, FIG. 1 discloses an example computing system
within which embodiments of the present invention may operate.
Merchants may access a promotion and marketing service 102 via a
network 112 (e.g., the Internet, or the like) using computer
devices 108A through 108N and 110A through 110N, respectively
(e.g., one or more consumer devices 108A-108N or one or more
merchant devices 110A-110N). Moreover, the promotion and marketing
service 102 may comprise a server 104 in communication with a
database 106.
[0074] The server 104 may be embodied as a computer or computers as
known in the art. The server 104 may provide for receiving of
electronic data from various sources, including but not necessarily
limited to the consumer devices 108A-108N and the merchant devices
110A-110N. For example, the server 104 may be operable to receive
and process clickstream data provided by the consumer devices 108
and/or the merchant devices 110. The server 104 may also facilitate
e-commerce transactions based on transaction information provided
by the consumer devices 108 and/or the merchant devices 110. The
server 104 may facilitate the generation and providing of various
electronic communications and marketing materials based on the
received electronic data.
[0075] The database 106 may be embodied as a data storage device
such as a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device or devices, or as a
separate database server or servers. The database 106 includes
information accessed and stored by the server 104 to facilitate the
operations of the promotion and marketing service 102. For example,
the database 106 may include, without limitation, user account
credentials for system administrators, merchants, and consumers,
data indicating the products and promotions offered by the
promotion and marketing service, clickstream data, analytic
results, reports, financial data, and/or the like.
[0076] The consumer devices 108A-108N may be any computing device
as known in the art and operated by a consumer. Electronic data
received by the server 104 from the consumer devices 108A-108N may
be provided in various forms and via various methods. For example,
the consumer devices 108A-108N may include desktop computers,
laptop computers, smartphones, netbooks, tablet computers,
wearables, and the like. The information may be provided through
various sources on these consumer devices.
[0077] In embodiments where a consumer device 108 is a mobile
device, such as a smart phone or tablet, the consumer device 108
may execute an "app" to interact with the promotion and marketing
service 102. Such apps are typically designed to execute on mobile
devices, such as tablets or smartphones. For example, an app may be
provided that executes on mobile device operating systems such as
Apple Inc.'s iOS.RTM., Google Inc.'s Android.RTM., or Microsoft
Inc.'s Windows 8.RTM.. These platforms typically provide frameworks
that allow apps to communicate with one another and with particular
hardware and software components of mobile devices. For example,
the mobile operating systems named above each provide frameworks
for interacting with location services circuitry, wired and
wireless network interfaces, user contacts, and other applications
in a manner that allows for improved interactions between apps
while also preserving the privacy and security of consumers. In
some embodiments, a mobile operating system may also provide for
improved communication interfaces for interacting with external
devices (e.g., home automation systems, indoor navigation systems,
and the like). Communication with hardware and software modules
executing outside of the app is typically provided via application
programming interfaces (APIs) provided by the mobile device
operating system.
[0078] The promotion and marketing service 102 may leverage the
application framework offered by the mobile operating system to
allow consumers to designate which information is provided to the
app and which may then be provided to the promotion and marketing
service 102. In some embodiments, consumers may "opt in" to provide
particular data to the promotion and marketing service 102 in
exchange for a benefit, such as improved relevancy of marketing
communications offered to the user. In some embodiments, the
consumer may be provided with privacy information and other terms
and conditions related to the information provided to the promotion
and marketing service 102 during installation or use of the app.
Once the consumer provides access to a particular feature of the
mobile device, information derived from that feature may be
provided to the promotion and marketing service 102 to improve the
quality of the consumer's interactions with the promotion and
marketing service.
[0079] For example, the consumer may indicate that they wish to
provide location information to the app from location services
circuitry included in their mobile device. Providing this
information to the promotion and marketing service 102 may enable
the promotion and marketing service 102 to offer promotions to the
consumer that are relevant to the particular location of the
consumer (e.g., by providing promotions for merchants proximate to
the consumer's current location). It should be appreciated that the
various mobile device operating systems may provide the ability to
regulate the information provided to the app associated with the
promotion and marketing service 102. For example, the consumer may
decide at a later point to disable the ability of the app to access
the location services circuitry, thus limiting the access of the
consumer's location information to the promotion and marketing
service 102.
[0080] Various other types of information may also be provided in
conjunction with an app executing on the consumer's mobile device.
For example, if the mobile device includes a social networking
feature, the consumer may enable the app to provide updates to the
consumer's social network to notify friends of a particularly
interesting promotion. It should be appreciated that the use of
mobile technology and associated app frameworks may provide for
particularly unique and beneficial uses of the promotion and
marketing service through leveraging the functionality offered by
the various mobile operating systems.
[0081] Additionally or alternatively, the consumer device 108 may
interact through the promotion and marketing service 102 via a web
browser. As yet another example, the consumer device 108 may
include various hardware or firmware designed to interface with the
promotion and marketing service 102 (e.g., where the consumer
device 108 is a purpose-built device offered for the primary
purpose of communicating with the promotion and marketing service
102, such as a store kiosk).
[0082] The merchant devices 110A-110N may be any computing device
as known in the art and operated by a merchant. For example, the
merchant devices 110A-110N may include a merchant point-of-sale, a
merchant e-commerce server, a merchant inventory system, or a
computing device accessing a web site designed to provide merchant
access (e.g., by accessing a web page via a browser using a set of
merchant account credentials). Electronic data received by the
promotion and marketing service 102 from the merchant devices
110A-110N may also be provided in various forms and via various
methods. For example, the merchant devices 110A-110N may provide
real-time transaction and/or inventory information as purchases are
made from the merchant. In other embodiments, the merchant devices
110A-110N may be employed to provide information to the promotion
and marketing service 102 to enable the promotion and marketing
service 102 to generate promotions or other marketing information
to be provided to consumers.
[0083] In some embodiments, the merchant devices 110A-110N may
facilitate a merchant portal in conjunction with the promotion and
marketing service 102, such as using server 104 and database 106.
In some embodiments, the merchant portal may provide for a
real-time, or near real-time, connection between a merchant and the
promotion and marketing service.
[0084] An example of a data flow for exchanging electronic
information among one or more consumer devices, merchant devices,
and the promotion and marketing service is described below with
respect to FIG. 3.
Example Apparatuses for Implementing Embodiments of the Present
Invention
[0085] The server 104 may be embodied by one or more computing
systems, such as apparatus 200 shown in FIG. 2A. As illustrated in
FIG. 2A, the apparatus 200 may include a processor 202, a memory
204, input/output circuitry 206, communications circuitry 208,
request processing circuitry 210, promotion generation circuitry
212, promotion acquisition circuitry 214, and negotiation circuitry
216. The apparatus 200 may be configured to execute the operations
described above with respect to FIG. 1 and below with respect to
FIGS. 3-8. Although these components 202-216 are described with
respect to functional limitations, it should be understood that the
particular implementations necessarily include the use of
particular hardware. It should also be understood that certain of
these components 202-216 may include similar or common hardware.
For example, two sets of circuitry may both leverage use of the
same processor, network interface, storage medium, or the like to
perform their associated functions, such that duplicate hardware is
not required for each set of circuitry. The use of the term
"circuitry" as used herein with respect to components of the
apparatus should therefore be understood to include particular
hardware configured to perform the functions associated with the
particular circuitry as described herein.
[0086] The term "circuitry" should be understood broadly to include
hardware and, in some embodiments, software for configuring the
hardware. For example, in some embodiments, "circuitry" may include
processing circuitry, storage media, network interfaces,
input/output devices, and the like. In some embodiments, other
elements of the apparatus 200 may provide or supplement the
functionality of particular circuitry. For example, the processor
202 may provide processing functionality, the memory 204 may
provide storage functionality, the communications circuitry 208 may
provide network interface functionality, and the like.
[0087] In some embodiments, the processor 202 (and/or co-processor
or any other processing circuitry assisting or otherwise associated
with the processor) may be in communication with the memory 204 via
a bus for passing information among components of the apparatus.
The memory 204 may be non-transitory and may include, for example,
one or more volatile and/or non-volatile memories. In other words,
for example, the memory may be an electronic storage device (e.g.,
a computer readable storage medium). The memory 204 may be
configured to store information, data, content, applications,
instructions, or the like, for enabling the apparatus to carry out
various functions in accordance with example embodiments of the
present invention.
[0088] The processor 202 may be embodied in a number of different
ways and may, for example, include one or more processing devices
configured to perform independently. Additionally or alternatively,
the processor may include one or more processors configured in
tandem via a bus to enable independent execution of instructions,
pipelining, and/or multithreading. The use of the term "processing
circuitry" may be understood to include a single core processor, a
multi-core processor, multiple processors internal to the
apparatus, and/or remote or "cloud" processors.
[0089] In an example embodiment, the processor 202 may be
configured to execute instructions stored in the memory 204 or
otherwise accessible to the processor. Alternatively or
additionally, the processor may be configured to execute hard-coded
functionality. As such, whether configured by hardware or software
methods, or by a combination thereof, the processor may represent
an entity (e.g., physically embodied in circuitry) capable of
performing operations according to an embodiment of the present
invention while configured accordingly. Alternatively, as another
example, when the processor is embodied as an executor of software
instructions, the instructions may specifically configure the
processor to perform the algorithms and/or operations described
herein when the instructions are executed.
[0090] In some embodiments, the apparatus 200 may include
input/output circuitry 206 that may, in turn, be in communication
with processor 202 to provide output to the user and, in some
embodiments, to receive an indication of a user input. The
input/output circuitry 206 may comprise a user interface and may
include a display and may comprise a web user interface, a mobile
application, a client device, a kiosk, or the like. In some
embodiments, the input/output circuitry 206 may also include a
keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, a touch screen, touch areas, soft
keys, a microphone, a speaker, or other input/output mechanisms.
The processor and/or user interface circuitry comprising the
processor may be configured to control one or more functions of one
or more user interface elements through computer program
instructions (e.g., software and/or firmware) stored on a memory
accessible to the processor (e.g., memory 204, and/or the
like).
[0091] The communications circuitry 208 may be any means such as a
device or circuitry embodied in either hardware or a combination of
hardware and software that is configured to receive and/or transmit
data from/to a network and/or any other device, circuitry, or
module in communication with the apparatus 200. In this regard, the
communications circuitry 208 may include, for example, a network
interface for enabling communications with a wired or wireless
communication network. For example, the communications circuitry
208 may include one or more network interface cards, antennae,
buses, switches, routers, modems, and supporting hardware and/or
software, or any other device suitable for enabling communications
via a network. Additionally or alternatively, the communication
interface may include the circuitry for interacting with the
antenna(s) to cause transmission of signals via the antenna(s) or
to handle receipt of signals received via the antenna(s).
[0092] Request processing circuitry 210 includes hardware
configured to receive and process requests from a consumer related
to the search, negotiation, or acquisition of promotions. The
request processing circuitry 210 may utilize processing circuitry,
such as the processor 202, to perform these actions. The request
processing circuitry 210 may receive the data via a network
interface provided by the communications circuitry 208. However, it
should also be appreciated that, in some embodiments, the request
processing circuitry 210 may include a separate processor,
specially configured field programmable gate array (FPGA), or
application specific interface circuit (ASIC) to perform processing
of consumer promotion requests, determination of criteria needed to
meet requests, facilitate communication of status or consumer
requests, and the like. The request processing circuitry 210 is
therefore implemented using hardware components of the apparatus
configured by either hardware or software for implementing these
planned functions.
[0093] Promotion generation circuitry 212 includes hardware
configured to identify and determine promotions to be offered to
consumers based on data received via a network interface. The
promotion generation circuitry 212 may utilize processing
circuitry, such as the processor 202, to perform these actions. The
promotion generation circuitry 212 may receive the data via a
network interface provided by the communications circuitry 208.
However, it should also be appreciated that, in some embodiments,
the promotion generation circuitry 212 may include a separate
processor, specially configured field programmable gate array
(FPGA), or application specific interface circuit (ASIC) to perform
the determination and generation of promotions applicable to a
consumer request and facilitate communication of such promotions to
a consumer. The promotion generation circuitry 212 is therefore
implemented using hardware components of the apparatus configured
by either hardware or software for implementing these planned
functions.
[0094] Promotion acquisition circuitry 214 includes hardware
configured to facilitate the acquisition of promotions by a
consumer. The promotion acquisition circuitry 214 may utilize
processing circuitry, such as the processor 202, to perform these
actions. The promotion acquisition circuitry 214 may receive data
via a network interface provided by the communications circuitry
208. However, it should also be appreciated that, in some
embodiments, the promotion acquisition circuitry 214 may include a
separate processor, specially configured field programmable gate
array (FPGA), or application specific interface circuit (ASIC) to
perform the acceptance and purchase of promotions by a consumer and
facilitate the notification of such to a consumer and/or a
merchant. The promotion acquisition circuitry 214 is therefore
implemented using hardware components of the apparatus configured
by either hardware or software for implementing these planned
functions.
[0095] Negotiation circuitry 216 includes hardware configured to
facilitate negotiations between consumers and merchants with regard
to promotions for transactions offered by the merchant. The
negotiation circuitry 216 may utilize processing circuitry, such as
the processor 202, to perform these actions. The negotiation
circuitry 216 may receive data via a network interface provided by
the communications circuitry 208. However, it should also be
appreciated that, in some embodiments, the negotiation circuitry
216 may include a separate processor, specially configured field
programmable gate array (FPGA), or application specific interface
circuit (ASIC) to perform provide for real-time or near real-time
communications regarding negotiations between a consumer and a
merchant and facilitate the proceeding of data related to such
negotiations. The negotiation circuitry 216 is therefore
implemented using hardware components of the apparatus configured
by either hardware or software for implementing these planned
functions.
[0096] As will be appreciated, any such computer program
instructions and/or other type of code may be loaded onto a
computer, processor or other programmable apparatus's circuitry to
produce a machine, such that the computer, processor other
programmable circuitry that execute the code on the machine create
the means for implementing various functions, including those
described herein.
[0097] It is also noted that all or some of the information
presented by the example displays discussed herein can be based on
data that is received, generated and/or maintained by one or more
components of apparatus 200. In some embodiments, one or more
external systems (such as a remote cloud computing and/or data
storage system) may also be leveraged to provide at least some of
the functionality discussed herein.
[0098] As described above and as will be appreciated based on this
disclosure, embodiments of the present invention may be configured
as methods, mobile devices, backend network devices, and the like.
Accordingly, embodiments may comprise various means including
entirely of hardware or any combination of software and hardware.
Furthermore, embodiments may take the form of a computer program
product on at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage
medium having computer-readable program instructions (e.g.,
computer software) embodied in the storage medium. Any suitable
computer-readable storage medium may be utilized including
non-transitory hard disks, CD-ROMs, flash memory, optical storage
devices, or magnetic storage devices.
[0099] The consumer device(s) 108 may be embodied by one or more
computing systems, such as apparatus 220 shown in FIG. 2B. As
illustrated in FIG. 2B, the apparatus 220 may include a processor
222, a memory 224, an input/output circuitry 226, a communications
circuitry 228, request generation circuitry 230, promotions
acquisition circuitry 232, and promotion negotiation circuitry 234.
The apparatus 220 may be configured to execute the operations
described below with respect to FIGS. 1 and 3-8. The functioning of
the processor 222, the memory 224, the input/output circuitry 226,
and the communication circuitry 228 may be similar to the similarly
named components described above with respect to FIG. 2A. For the
sake of brevity, additional description of these components is
omitted.
[0100] Request generation circuitry 230 includes hardware
configured to facilitate the generation of requests from a consumer
related to the search, negotiation, or acquisition of promotions.
The request generation circuitry 230 may utilize processing
circuitry, such as the processor 202, to perform these actions. The
request processing generation circuitry 230 may transmit and
receive the data via a network interface provided by the
communications circuitry 208. However, it should also be
appreciated that, in some embodiments, the request generation
circuitry 230 may include a separate processor, specially
configured field programmable gate array (FPGA), or application
specific interface circuit (ASIC) to facilitate the indication of
criteria for consumer promotion requests, perform processing of
consumer promotion requests, facilitate communication of status or
consumer requests, and the like. The request generation circuitry
230 is therefore implemented using hardware components of the
apparatus configured by either hardware or software for
implementing these planned functions.
[0101] Promotion acquisition circuitry 214 includes hardware
configured to facilitate the acquisition of promotions by a
consumer. The promotion acquisition circuitry 214 may utilize
processing circuitry, such as the processor 202, to perform these
actions. The promotion acquisition circuitry 214 may receive data
via a network interface provided by the communications circuitry
208. However, it should also be appreciated that, in some
embodiments, the promotion acquisition circuitry 214 may include a
separate processor, specially configured field programmable gate
array (FPGA), or application specific interface circuit (ASIC) to
perform the acceptance and purchase of promotions by a consumer and
facilitate the notification of such to a consumer. The promotion
acquisition circuitry 214 is therefore implemented using hardware
components of the apparatus configured by either hardware or
software for implementing these planned functions.
[0102] Promotion negotiation circuitry 234 includes hardware
configured to facilitate negotiations between consumers and
merchants via a promotion and marketing service with regard to
promotions for transactions offered by the merchant. The promotion
negotiation circuitry 234 may utilize processing circuitry, such as
the processor 202, to perform these actions. The promotion
negotiation circuitry 234 may receive data via a network interface
provided by the communications circuitry 208. However, it should
also be appreciated that, in some embodiments, the promotion
negotiation circuitry 234 may include a separate processor,
specially configured field programmable gate array (FPGA), or
application specific interface circuit (ASIC) to perform the
facilitation of real-time or near real-time communications
regarding negotiations between a consumer and a merchant and
facilitate the processing of data related to such negotiations. The
promotion negotiation 234 is therefore implemented using hardware
components of the apparatus configured by either hardware or
software for implementing these planned functions.
[0103] The merchant device(s) 110 may be embodied by one or more
computing systems, such as apparatus 240 shown in FIG. 2C. As
illustrated in FIG. 2C the apparatus 240 may include a processor
242, a memory 244, an input/output circuitry 246, a communications
circuitry 248, constraints generation circuitry 250, promotion
generation circuitry 252, and promotion negotiation circuitry 254.
The apparatus 240 may be configured to execute the operations
described below with respect to FIGS. 1, 3-6, and 8. The
functioning of the processor 242, the memory 244, the input/output
circuitry 246, and the communication circuitry 248 may be similar
to the similarly named components described above with respect to
FIG. 2A. For the sake of brevity, additional description of these
components is omitted.
[0104] Constraints generation circuitry 250 includes hardware
configured to facilitate the indication of a merchant's constraints
regarding promotion negotiations to a promotion and marketing
service. The constraints generation circuitry 250 may utilize
processing circuitry, such as the processor 202, to perform these
actions. The constraints generation circuitry 250 may transmit and
receive data via a network interface provided by the communications
circuitry 208. However, it should also be appreciated that, in some
embodiments, the constraints generation circuitry 250 may include a
separate processor, specially configured field programmable gate
array (FPGA), or application specific interface circuit (ASIC) to
perform the addition and modification of negotiation constraints by
a merchant and facilitate the communication of such constraints to
a promotion and marketing service. The constraint generation
circuitry 250 is therefore implemented using hardware components of
the apparatus configured by either hardware or software for
implementing these planned functions.
[0105] Promotion generation circuitry 252 includes hardware
configured to identify and determine promotion data relevant to
consumer requests and to be offered to consumers based on data
received via a network interface. The promotion generation
circuitry 252 may utilize processing circuitry, such as the
processor 202, to perform these actions. The promotion generation
circuitry 252 may receive the data via a network interface provided
by the communications circuitry 208. However, it should also be
appreciated that, in some embodiments, the promotion generation
circuitry 252 may include a separate processor, specially
configured field programmable gate array (FPGA), or application
specific interface circuit (ASIC) to perform the determination and
generation of promotion data applicable to a consumer request and
facilitate communication of such promotions to a promotion and
marketing service. The promotion generation circuitry 252 is
therefore implemented using hardware components of the apparatus
configured by either hardware or software for implementing these
planned functions.
[0106] Promotion negotiation circuitry 254 includes hardware
configured to facilitate negotiations between consumers and
merchants via a promotion and marketing service with regard to
promotions for transactions offered by the merchant. The promotion
negotiation circuitry 254 may utilize processing circuitry, such as
the processor 202, to perform these actions. The promotion
negotiation circuitry 254 may receive data via a network interface
provided by the communications circuitry 208. However, it should
also be appreciated that, in some embodiments, the promotion
negotiation circuitry 254 may include a separate processor,
specially configured field programmable gate array (FPGA), or
application specific interface circuit (ASIC) to perform the
facilitation of real-time or near real-time communications
regarding negotiations between a consumer and a merchant and
facilitate the processing of data related to such negotiations. The
promotion negotiation 254 is therefore implemented using hardware
components of the apparatus configured by either hardware or
software for implementing these planned functions.
Example Electronic Marketing Information Service Data Flow
[0107] FIG. 3 depicts an example data flow 300 illustrating
interactions between a server 302, one or more consumer devices
304, and one or more merchant devices 306. The server 302 may be
implemented in the same or a similar fashion as the server 104 as
described above with respect to FIG. 1, the one or more consumer
devices 304 may be implemented in the same or a similar fashion as
the consumer devices 108A-108N as described above with respect to
FIG. 1, and the one or more merchant devices 306 may be implemented
in the same or a similar fashion as the merchant devices 110A-110N
as described above with respect to FIG. 1.
[0108] The data flow 300 illustrates how electronic information may
be passed among various systems when employing a server 302 in
accordance with embodiments of the present invention. The one or
more consumer devices 304 and/or one or more merchant devices 306
may provide a variety of electronic marketing information to the
server 302 for use in providing promotion and marketing services to
the consumer. This electronic marketing information may include,
but is not limited to, location data, clickstream data, transaction
data, communication channel data, and/or discretionary data.
[0109] As a result of transactions performed between the one or
more consumer devices 304 and the server 302, the server 302 may
provide fulfillment data to the consumer devices. The fulfillment
data may include information indicating whether the transaction was
successful, the location and time the product will be provided to
the consumer, instruments for redeeming promotions purchased by the
consumer, or the like.
[0110] In addition to the e-commerce interactions with the one or
more consumer devices 304 offered by the server 302, the server 302
may leverage information provided by the consumer devices to
improve the relevancy of marketing communications to individual
consumers or groups of consumers. In this manner, the server 302
may determine promotions, goods, and services that are more likely
to be of interest to a particular consumer or group of consumers
based on clickstream data, location data, and other information
provided by and/or relating to particular consumers. For example,
the server 302 may detect the location of a consumer based on
location data provided by the consumer device, and offer promotions
based on the proximity of the consumer to the merchant associated
with those promotions.
[0111] Alternatively, the server 302 may note that the consumer has
an interest in a particular hobby (e.g., skiing) based on
electronic marketing information associated with the consumer
(e.g., a browser cookie that indicates they frequently visit
websites that provide snowfall forecasts for particular ski
resorts), and offer promotions associated with that hobby (e.g., a
promotion offering discounted ski equipment rentals or lift
tickets). It should be appreciated that a variety of different
types of electronic marketing information could be provided to the
server 302 for the purpose of improving the relevancy of marketing
communications. It should also be appreciated that this electronic
marketing information may be received from a variety of electronic
sources, including various consumer devices, merchant devices, and
other sources both internal and external to a promotion and
marketing service. For example, other data sources may include
imported contact databases maintained by merchants, electronic
survey questions answered by consumers, and/or various other forms
of electronic data.
[0112] It should also be appreciated that the server 302 may also
control other factors of the electronic marketing communications
sent to the consumer other than the particular promotions included
in the electronic marketing communication. For example, the server
302 may determine the form, structure, frequency, and type of the
electronic marketing communication. As with the content of the
electronic marketing communication, these factors may be
programmatically determined according to various methods, factors,
and processes based on electronic data received by the server 302
for the purpose of maximize the likelihood that the communication
will be relevant to the recipient consumer.
[0113] The server 302 interactions with the one or more merchant
devices 306 may be related to enabling the merchant to market their
products using a promotion and marketing service. For example, the
one or more merchant devices 306 may provide promotion data
defining one or more promotions to be offered by the promotion and
marketing service on behalf of the merchant. The server 302 may
receive this information and generate information for providing
such promotions via an e-commerce interface, making the promotions
available for purchase by consumers. The server 302 may also
receive information about products from the one or more merchant
devices 306. For example, a merchant may provide electronic
marketing information indicating particular products, product
prices, inventory levels, and the like to be marketed via a
promotion and marketing service. The server 302 may receive this
information and generate listing information to offer the
indicating products to consumers via a promotion and marketing
service.
[0114] The one or more merchant devices 306 may also receive
information from the server 302. For example, in some embodiments a
merchant may obtain access to certain business analytic data
aggregated, generated, or maintained by the server 302. As a
particular example, a merchant might offer to pay for consumer
demographic data related to products or services offered by the
merchant. It should be appreciated however, that a merchant may not
need to list any products or services via the promotion and
marketing service in order to obtain such data. For example, the
promotion and marketing service may enable merchants to access
electronic marketing data offered via the promotion and marketing
service based on a subscription model. The one or more merchant
devices 306 may also receive electronic compensation data from the
server 302. For example, when a promotion or product is sold by the
promotion and marketing service on behalf of the merchant, a
portion of the received funds may be transmitted to the merchant.
The compensation data may include information sufficient to notify
the merchant that such funds are being or have been transmitted. In
some embodiments, the compensation data may take the form of an
electronic wire transfer directly to a merchant account. In some
other embodiments, the compensation data may indicate that a
promotion or product has been purchased, but the actual transfer of
funds may occur at a later time. For example, in some embodiments,
compensation data indicating the sale of a promotion may be
provided immediately, but funds may not be transferred to the
merchant until the promotion is redeemed by the consumer.
[0115] Embodiments advantageously provide for improvements to the
server and/or merchant devices and/or consumer devices by
facilitating real-time or near real-time negotiations between
consumers and merchants for promotions related to transactions
provided by the merchant.
Description of Example Embodiments
[0116] In some embodiments, a promotion and marketing service may
facilitate a real-time marketplace whereby consumers and merchants
may participate in a bidding system for the generation and
acquisition of promotions. Such a real-time marketplace may provide
for generating one or more promotions for a specific transaction
that is specific to an individual consumer for an individual
merchant and which may be provided for a limited time period and/or
may be redeemable in a limited time period. For example, in some
embodiments, a consumer who is in the vicinity of a specific
merchant may instigate a negotiation with the merchant, through the
promotion and marketing service, for a promotion redeemable in a
short time period, such as by requesting a specific discount for a
transaction if the consumer visits the merchant and competes the
transaction within a short time, e.g. the next hour. In some
embodiments, the merchant may be able to respond to a consumer's
promotion request in a number of manners. For example, if the
promotion terms (e.g. the specific discount and time period)
requested by the consumer are acceptable to the merchant, the
merchant may provide an indication to the consumer (through the
promotion and marketing service) that the terms are acceptable. The
promotion and marketing service may then facilitate the consumer
accepting the promotion terms and facilitate the acquisition of the
promotion by the consumer.
[0117] Alternatively, the merchant may instead provide a
counter-offer proposing a promotion on alternate terms that are
acceptable to the merchant. The real-time marketplace may
facilitate multiple iterations of counter-offers between the
consumer and merchant to allow the consumer and merchant to agree
on promotion terms that are mutually acceptable. In some
embodiments, after the consumer and merchant have agreed on the
promotion terms, the promotion and marketing service may facilitate
the acquisition of the promotion by the consumer. Additionally, in
some embodiments, the promotion and marketing service may further
facilitate the redemption of the promotion upon completion of a
transaction between the consumer and the merchant.
[0118] FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations for a
process 400 that may be executed by one or more apparatuses to
facilitate the negotiation and generation of one or more promotions
between a consumer and a merchant, in accordance with some example
embodiments discussed herein. Operations of process 400 may begin
at block 402 where a consumer may initiate a request for a
promotion based on certain terms from a merchant. For example, in
some embodiments, an apparatus, such as a consumer device 108, may
provide means, such as Request Generation Circuitry 230 or the
like, for a consumer to indicate a request for a promotion from a
selected merchant that comprises specific terms, such as a
particular discount for a transaction or the like. In some
embodiments, the consumer may than provide the consumer request to
the promotion and marketing service which facilitates a real-time
marketplace between consumers and merchants.
[0119] At block 404, the promotion and marketing service may
receive the consumer request from the consumer device and initiate
processing of the request, for example using means such as Request
Processing Circuitry 210, or the like, of server 104 of the
promotion and marketing service. At block 406, the promotion and
marketing service may compare the request with a merchant's
negotiation constraints stored by the promotion and marketing
service, such as in database 106, if there are any. For example,
means such as the Request Processing Circuitry 210 or the like, may
determine the merchant specified in the consumer request and
determine if the merchant has stored negotiation constraints, and
if so may then retrieve the merchant's stored negotiation
constraints. The promotion and marketing service, using means such
as the Request Processing Circuitry 210 or the like, may then
compare the merchant's negotiation constraints with the consumer
request to determine if the consumer request fits within the
merchant's negotiation constraints.
[0120] In some embodiments, merchant negotiation constraints may
include one or more of a maximum and/or minimum for allowable
discount or transaction amount, location constraints for the
consumer (e.g. the consumer is within a certain distance of the
merchant), limits on the number of times a consumer can request a
deal and/or submit a bid in a negotiation, a determination of
whether the consumer is a current customer of the merchant,
demographics of target consumers, time period for redemption of
promotion, or the like. In some embodiments, the merchant may
provide the constraints to the promotion and marketing service
using means such as the Constraints Generation Circuitry 250 or the
like, of a merchant device 110. In some embodiments, the merchant
may be provided with the ability to modify the negotiation
constraints on a real-time basis, such as to allow the merchant to
change the constraints based on the merchant's current capacity for
certain types of transactions.
[0121] At block 408, if the consumer request fits within the
merchant's negotiation constraints, the promotion and marketing
service, using means such as Promotion Generation Circuitry 212 or
the like, may then generate an impression comprising the promotion
for the consumer based on the promotion terms in the consumer
request. The promotion and marketing service, using means such as
Promotion Generation Circuitry 212 or the like, may also retrieve
data, such as offering parameters, redemption parameters, or the
like from database 106, for example, to use in the generation of
the promotion. At block 418, the promotion and marketing service
may then provide the impression to the consumer, for example by
providing the impression to a consumer device 108 to be displayed
on a display of the consumer device 108.
[0122] If the consumer request does not fit within the merchant's
negotiation constraints, at block 410, the promotion and marketing
service, using means such as Request Processing Circuitry 212,
Negotiation Circuitry 216 or the like, may provide the consumer
request to the merchant, such as by providing for transmission of
the consumer request to a merchant device 110. In some embodiments,
the promotion and marketing service may also provide consumer
profile information or the like, which may be stored by the
promotion and marketing service, along with the consumer request to
facilitate decisions by the merchant. For example, the promotion
and marketing service may provide data about the consumer such as
of the consumer's past purchase history, consumer demographics,
and/or the like.
[0123] The merchant, using means such as Promotion Negotiation
Circuitry 254 or the like, may then analyze the consumer request
and make a determination of whether the promotion terms are
acceptable. If the promotion terms are acceptable to the merchant
the merchant may provide an indication accepting the request to the
promotion and marketing service. In some embodiments, the merchant
may also provide additional terms for the promotion, using means
such as Promotion Negotiation Circuitry 254 or the like.
[0124] If the promotion terms are not acceptable to the merchant,
but the merchant would like to propose a counter-offer with
different promotion terms, the merchant may generate the
counter-offer using means such as Promotion Negotiation Circuitry
254 or the like. The merchant may then provide an indication of the
promotion counter-offer to the promotion and marketing service.
[0125] If the promotion terms are not acceptable to the merchant,
and the merchant does not want to propose a counter-offer, the
merchant may provide an indication that consumer request is not
acceptable to the promotion and marketing service, using means such
as Promotion Negotiation Circuitry 254 or the like.
[0126] At block 412, the promotion and marketing service may
receive an indication from the merchant regarding the consumer
request and may determine the response to provide to the consumer,
using means such as Request Processing Circuitry 210, Negotiation
Circuitry 216, or the like.
[0127] If the merchant does not accept the consumer request, at
block 414, the promotion and marketing service, using means such as
Negotiation Circuitry 212 or the like, may then provide an
indication to the consumer that no promotion is available from the
merchant based on the requested promotion terms, for example by
providing the indication to a consumer device 108 to be displayed
on a display of the consumer device 108.
[0128] If the merchant accepted the consumer request, the promotion
and marketing service, using means such as Promotion Generation
Circuitry 212 or the like, may then generate an impression
comprising the promotion for the consumer based on the promotion
terms in the consumer request and, if any, the additional promotion
terms provided by the merchant. The promotion and marketing
service, using means such as Promotion Generation Circuitry 212 or
the like, may also retrieve data, such as offering parameters,
redemption parameters, or the like from database 106, for example,
to use in the generation of the promotion. At block 418, the
promotion and marketing service may then provide the impression to
the consumer, for example by providing the impression to a consumer
device 108 to be displayed on a display of the consumer device
108.
[0129] If the merchant provided a counter-offer to the consumer
request, the promotion and marketing service, using means such as
Negotiation Circuitry 212 or the like, may then generate an
impression comprising the promotion counter-offer for the consumer
based on the promotion terms in the merchant's counter-offer. At
block 418, the promotion and marketing service may then provide the
impression with the promotion counter-offer to the consumer, for
example by providing the impression to a consumer device 108 to be
displayed on a display of the consumer device 108.
[0130] In some embodiments, the promotion and marketing service may
then receive a response from the consumer in regard to the
impression. If the promotion and marketing service receives an
acceptance of the promotion, or in the case of a promotion
counter-offer, an acceptance of the promotion counter-offer, from
the consumer, the promotion and marketing service, using means such
as the Promotion Generation Circuitry 212, Promotion Acquisition
Circuitry 214, or the like, may generate and complete the
acquisition of the promotion for the consumer at block 422.
[0131] In some embodiments, in the case where the merchant provided
a promotion counter-offer at block 412, the promotion and marketing
service may allow the consumer to accept the promotion
counter-offer or continue negotiation with the merchant. For
example, if the consumer does not wish to accept the counter-offer,
the promotion and marketing may facilitate the consumer providing a
modified request to the merchant with different promotion
terms.
[0132] In some embodiments, if at block 420, the consumer indicated
that the promotion or the promotion counter-offer was not
acceptable, at block 424, the promotion and marketing service
determines whether the consumer provided a modified request with
different promotion terms. If the consumer did not provide a
modified request, the operation ends at block 426. If the consumer
did provide a modified request, operation returns to block 406 and
continues.
[0133] In some embodiments, a promotion and marketing service may
facilitate a real-time marketplace whereby consumers may request
availability of promotions using a specified criteria, for example
for a category, such as restaurants, activities, shopping, etc.,
around the consumers location or in a defined area, and/or during a
specified time period. Such a real-time marketplace may provide for
searching for and generating one or more promotions for a specific
transaction that is specific to an individual consumer for an
individual merchant and which may be provided for a limited time
period and/or may be redeemable in a limited time period. For
example, in some embodiments, a consumer who is in a certain
neighborhood may instigate a search for a promotion at a particular
type of restaurant within a certain distance. In some embodiments,
the promotion and marketing system may determine the appropriate
merchants in the area and determine if the merchant has a current
promotion or may solicit the merchants for a promotion for the
consumer. The promotion and marketing service may then facilitate
the consumer accepting the promotion terms and facilitate the
acquisition of the promotion by the consumer. Additionally, in some
embodiments, the promotion and marketing service may further
facilitate the redemption of the promotion upon completion of a
transaction between the consumer and the merchant.
[0134] FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations for a
process 500 that may be executed by one or more apparatuses to
facilitate the search for promotions and the generation of one or
more promotions for a consumer, in accordance with some example
embodiments discussed herein. Operations of process 500 may begin
at block 502 where a consumer may initiate a request for a
promotion based on certain criteria, such as category, location,
time, etc. For example, in some embodiments, an apparatus, such as
a consumer device 108, may provide means, such as Request
Generation Circuitry 230 or the like, for a consumer to indicate a
request for a promotion that comprises specific criteria, such as a
particular category, in a particular area, and/or during a
particular time period, or the like. In some embodiments, the
consumer may than provide the consumer request to the promotion and
marketing service which facilitates a real-time marketplace between
consumers and merchants.
[0135] At block 504, the promotion and marketing service may
receive the consumer request from the consumer device and initiate
processing of the request, for example using means such as Request
Processing Circuitry 210, or the like, of server 104 of the
promotion and marketing service. In some embodiments, the promotion
and marketing service, using means such as Request Processing
Circuitry 210, Promotion Generation Circuitry 212, or the like, may
determine promotion terms that may appeal to the consumer that
should be included in the request to the merchant, such as based on
consumer profile information which may be stored by the promotion
and marketing service.
[0136] At block 506, the promotion and marketing service may
determine which merchants fit the criteria of the consumer's
request, using means such as the Request Processing Circuitry 210
or the like. The promotion and marketing service, using means such
as the Request Processing Circuitry 210 or the like, may then
generate a listing of merchants that may fit the criteria of the
consumer's request. In some embodiments, the listing of merchants
may also be determined in part based on consumer profile
information or the like which may be stored by the promotion and
marketing service.
[0137] At block 508, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as Request Processing Circuitry 210 or the like, may
then select a first merchant from the listing of merchants.
[0138] At block 510, the promotion and marketing service may
compare the request with the merchant's negotiation constraints
stored by the promotion and marketing service, such as in database
106, if there are any. For example, means such as the Request
Processing Circuitry 210 or the like, may determine if the merchant
has stored negotiation constraints, and if so may then retrieve the
merchant's stored negotiation constraints. The promotion and
marketing service, using means such as the Request Processing
Circuitry 210 or the like, may then compare the merchant's
negotiation constraints with the consumer request to determine if
the consumer request fits within the merchant's negotiation
constraints.
[0139] In some embodiments, merchant negotiation constraints may
include one or more of a maximum and/or minimum for allowable
discount or transaction amount, location constraints for the
consumer (e.g. the consumer is within a certain distance of the
merchant), limits on the number of times a consumer can request a
deal and/or submit a bid in a negotiation, a determination of
whether the consumer is a current customer of the merchant,
demographics of target consumers, time period for redemption of
promotion, or the like. In some embodiments, the merchant may
provide the constraints to the promotion and marketing service
using means such as the Constraints Generation Circuitry 250 or the
like, of a merchant device 110. In some embodiments, the merchant
may be provided with the ability to modify the negotiation
constraints on a real-time basis, such as to allow the merchant to
change the constraints based on the merchant's current capacity for
certain types of transactions.
[0140] If the merchant does not have stored negotiation
constraints, operation proceeds to block 514, and the promotion and
marketing service, using means such as Request Processing Circuitry
210 or the like, determines if there are additional merchants on
the listing of merchants.
[0141] If the consumer request fits within the merchant's
negotiation constraints, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as Request Processing Circuitry 210, Promotion
Generation Circuitry 212, or the like, may then generate promotion
data for that merchant and add it to a listing of response data for
the consumer's request. The promotion and marketing service then
removes that merchant from the listing of merchants.
[0142] At block 514, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as Request Processing Circuitry 210 or the like,
determines if there are additional merchants on the listing of
merchants. If there are additional merchants, the promotion and
marketing service selects the next merchant and returns to block
510 and operation proceeds. If, at block 514, the promotion and
marketing service, using means such as Request Processing Circuitry
210 or the like, determines that there are no additional merchants
on the listing of merchants, operation continues to block 518.
[0143] At block 518, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as Request Processing Circuitry 210, Negotiation
Circuitry 216 or the like, may provide the consumer request to any
merchants remaining on the listing of merchants, such as by
providing for transmission of the consumer request to a merchant
device 110. In some embodiments, the promotion and marketing
service may also provide consumer profile information or the like,
which may be stored by the promotion and marketing service, along
with the consumer request to facilitate decisions by the merchant.
For example, the promotion and marketing service may provide data
about the consumer such as of the consumer's past purchase history,
consumer demographics, and/or the like.
[0144] The one or more merchant receiving the consumer request,
using means such as Promotion Negotiation Circuitry 254 or the
like, may then analyze the consumer request and make a
determination of whether a promotion can be generated for the
consumer. If a merchant determines that a promotion can be
generated for the consumer, the merchant provides an indication
accepting the request and providing the promotion terms to the
promotion and marketing service, using means such as Promotion
Negotiation Circuitry 254 or the like.
[0145] At block 520, the promotion and marketing service may
receive promotion terms from one or more of the merchants that were
sent the consumer request. At block, 522, the promotion and
marketing service, using means such as Request Processing Circuitry
210, Negotiation Circuitry 216, Promotion Generation Circuitry 212,
or the like, may then generate promotion data for each merchant
supplied promotion terms and add it to a listing of response data
for the consumer's request.
[0146] The promotion and marketing service, using means such as
Promotion Generation Circuitry 212, Request Processing Circuitry
210, or the like, may then generate an impression comprising the
promotion data for the selected merchants. The promotion and
marketing service, using means such as Promotion Generation
Circuitry 212 or the like, may also retrieve data, such as offering
parameters, redemption parameters, or the like from database 106,
for example, to use in the generation of the impression. At block
524, the promotion and marketing service may then provide the
impression to the consumer, for example by providing the impression
to a consumer device 108 to be displayed on a display of the
consumer device 108.
[0147] In some embodiments, the promotion and marketing service may
then receive a response from the consumer in regard to the
impression. If the promotion and marketing service receives an
acceptance of one of the promotions in the impression from the
consumer at block 526, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as the Promotion Generation Circuitry 212, Promotion
Acquisition Circuitry 214, or the like, may generate and complete
the acquisition of the promotion for the consumer at block 528.
[0148] In some embodiments, a promotion and marketing service may
facilitate a real-time marketplace whereby merchants may provide
promotion data for us in generating impressions for consumers who
are currently in the vicinity of the merchant. Such a real-time
marketplace may provide a manner by which a merchant can offer
promotions to nearby consumers which may be provided for a limited
time period and/or may be redeemable in a limited time period, such
as to allow a merchant to offer promotions to fill unmet capacity
for certain transactions or to drive traffic from nearby consumers.
For example, in some embodiments, a consumer may be provided with
short term promotions for merchants that are located within a
certain distance of the consumer's current location. In some
embodiments, the promotion and marketing system may determine the
consumers current location and determine appropriate merchants in
the area that have current promotions that may appeal to the
consumer. The promotion and marketing service may then facilitate
the consumer accepting a promotion and facilitate the acquisition
of the promotion by the consumer. Additionally, in some
embodiments, the promotion and marketing service may further
facilitate the redemption of the promotion upon completion of a
transaction between the consumer and the merchant.
[0149] FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations for a
process 600 that may be executed by one or more apparatuses to
facilitate the offering of current and/or short term promotions to
a consumer based on the consumer's current location, in accordance
with some example embodiments discussed herein. Operations of
process 600 may begin at block 602 where a promotion and marketing
service may receive location data from a consumer, such as from a
consumer device 108.
[0150] At block 604, the promotion and marketing service may
determine which merchants are with the consumer's vicinity based on
the consumer location data, using means such as the Promotion
Generation Circuitry 212 or the like. The promotion and marketing
service, using means such as the Promotion Generation Circuitry 212
or the like, may then generate a listing of merchants that are with
the consumer's vicinity. In some embodiments, the listing of
merchants may also be determined in part based on consumer profile
information or the like which may be stored by the promotion and
marketing service.
[0151] At block 606, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as Promotion Generation Circuitry 212 or the like, may
then select a first merchant from the listing of merchants.
[0152] At block 608, the promotion and marketing service may
determine if the merchant has a current promotion that may appeal
to the consumer. For example, means such as the Promotion
Generation Circuitry 212 or the like, may determine if the merchant
has any current promotions data that may appeal to the consumer,
such as may be stored in database 106, and if so, may then retrieve
the merchant's stored current promotions data. The promotion and
marketing service, using means such as the Request Promotion
Generation Circuitry 212 or the like, may then store the merchant's
current promotions data for creation of an impression for the
consumer.
[0153] At block 612, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as Promotion Generation Circuitry 212 or the like,
determines if there are additional merchants on the listing of
merchants. If there are additional merchants, the promotion and
marketing service selects the next merchant at block 614, returns
to block 608 and operation proceeds. If, at block 612, the
promotion and marketing service determines that there are no
additional merchants on the listing of merchants, operation
continues to block 616.
[0154] At block 616, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as Promotion Generation Circuitry 212 or the like, may
then generate an impression comprising the promotion data for the
selected merchants. The promotion and marketing service, using
means such as Promotion Generation Circuitry 212 or the like, may
also retrieve data, such as offering parameters, redemption
parameters, or the like from database 106, for example, to use in
the generation of the impression. At block 618, the promotion and
marketing service may then provide the impression to the consumer,
for example by providing the impression to a consumer device 108 to
be displayed on a display of the consumer device 108.
[0155] In some embodiments, the promotion and marketing service may
then receive a response from the consumer in regard to the
impression. If the promotion and marketing service receives an
acceptance of one of the promotions in the impression from the
consumer at block 620, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as the Promotion Generation Circuitry 212, Promotion
Acquisition Circuitry 214, or the like, may generate and complete
the acquisition of the promotion for the consumer at block 622. If,
at block 620, the promotion and marketing service does not receive
a response from the consumer in regard to the impression, operation
ends at block 624.
[0156] In some embodiments, a promotion and marketing service may
facilitate a consumers indicating that certain types of promotions
should be acquired for the consumer without the need for the
consumer to take any action in regard to the specific promotion. In
some embodiments, for example, a consumer may indicate to the
promotion and marketing system, such as in a consumer profile or
the like, that if a new promotion is available for a particular
merchant or type of transaction within certain constraints, the
promotion and marketing service should automatically acquire that
promotion for the consumer without further instruction from the
consumer. For example, a consumer may be a frequent customer of a
certain restaurant and may provide standing instructions, in the
consumer's profile for instance, that if a promotion for that
restaurant becomes available, or if promotion for that restaurant
within a certain value range becomes available, the promotion and
marketing service should complete the acquisition of that promotion
for the consumer.
[0157] FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations for a
process 700 that may be executed by one or more apparatuses to
facilitate the automatic purchase of promotions for a consumer that
meet pre-established criteria, in accordance with some example
embodiments discussed herein. Operations of process 700 may begin
at block 702 where a promotion and marketing service may receive
criteria for the purchase of new promotions from a consumer, such
as from a consumer device 108. A consumer device may provide for
indication of such criteria using means such as Request Generation
Circuitry 230 or the like.
[0158] At block 704, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as the Request Processing Circuitry 210, Promotion
Generation Circuitry 212, or the like may determine whether any new
promotions match the purchase criteria specified by the consumer,
such as in a consumer profile or the like. If there are no new
promotions matching the consumer's purchase criteria, operation
loops back to block 704 and continues.
[0159] If, at block 704, the promotion and marketing service
determines that one or more new promotions match the purchase
criteria specified by the consumer, the promotion and marketing
service may complete the acquisition of the promotion for the
consumer at block 708, using means such as the Promotion
Acquisition Circuitry 214, Promotion Generation Circuitry 212, or
the like. At block 708, the promotion and marketing service may
then provide a notification to the consumer regarding the
acquisition of the promotion.
[0160] In some embodiments, a promotion and marketing service may
facilitate a real-time marketplace whereby consumers may search for
last-minute promotions. For example, in some embodiments, a
consumer who is in the vicinity of a specific event or activity, or
who may desire to go to an event that is beginning in a short time
frame (e.g. a sporting event, concert, etc.) may provide a request
to the promotion and marketing service to search for available
promotions for the activity or event. In some embodiments, the
consumer may also be able to indicate a premium over the listed
price that the consumer would be willing to pay to attend the
activity or event.
[0161] FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations for a
process 800 that may be executed by one or more apparatuses to
facilitate the search for promotions for a specific activity by a
consumer, in accordance with some example embodiments discussed
herein. Operations of process 800 may begin at block 802 where the
promotion and marketing service may receive a consumer request for
last-minute promotions from a consumer device and initiate
processing of the request, for example using means such as Request
Processing Circuitry 210 or the like. For example, a consumer may
initiate a request for last-minute promotions meeting certain
criteria, such as for a particular activity or type of activity
occurring in a short time frame. For example, in some embodiments,
an apparatus, such as a consumer device 108, may provide means,
such as Request Generation Circuitry 230 or the like, for a
consumer to indicate a request for last-minute promotions.
[0162] At block 804, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as Request Processing Circuitry 210 or the like, may
determine if there are one or more merchants that might be able to
meet the consumer's request. If the promotion and marketing service
determines that the consumer's request cannot be met, the promotion
and marketing service may provide an indication to the consumer
that no promotion is available for the activity or event at block
806, for example by providing the indication to a consumer device
108 to be displayed on a display of the consumer device 108.
[0163] At block 808, the promotion and marketing service, using
means such as Request Processing Circuitry 212, Negotiation
Circuitry 216 or the like, may provide the consumer request to the
identified merchants, such as by providing for transmission of the
consumer request to a merchant device 110. In some embodiments, the
promotion and marketing service may also provide consumer profile
information or the like, which may be stored by the promotion and
marketing service, along with the consumer request to facilitate
decisions by the merchant. For example, the promotion and marketing
service may provide data about the consumer such as of the
consumer's past purchase history, consumer demographics, and/or the
like.
[0164] The merchant, using means such as Promotion Negotiation
Circuitry 254 or the like, may then analyze the consumer request
and make a determination of whether a promotion can be provided to
the consumer. If the merchant can provide a promotion to the
consumer, the merchant may provide an indication accepting the
request and providing promotion data to the promotion and marketing
service.
[0165] At block 810, the promotion and marketing service may
receive an indication from the merchant regarding the consumer
request and may determine the response to provide to the consumer,
using means such as Request Processing Circuitry 210, Negotiation
Circuitry 216, or the like.
[0166] If the one or more merchants cannot fulfill the consumer's
request, the promotion and marketing service may provide an
indication to the consumer that no promotion is available for the
activity or event at block 806.
[0167] At block 812, if the merchant accepted the consumer request,
the promotion and marketing service, using means such as Promotion
Generation Circuitry 212 or the like, may then generate an
impression comprising the promotion for the consumer based on the
promotion data provided by the merchant. The promotion and
marketing service, using means such as Promotion Generation
Circuitry 212 or the like, may also retrieve data, such as offering
parameters, redemption parameters, or the like from database 106,
for example, to use in the generation of the promotion. At block
814, the promotion and marketing service may then provide the
impression to the consumer, for example by providing the impression
to a consumer device 108 to be displayed on a display of the
consumer device 108.
[0168] In some embodiments, the promotion and marketing service may
then receive a response from the consumer in regard to the
impression at block 816. If the promotion and marketing service
receives an acceptance of the promotion from the consumer, the
promotion and marketing service, using means such as the Promotion
Generation Circuitry 212, Promotion Acquisition Circuitry 214, or
the like, may generate and complete the acquisition of the
promotion for the consumer at block 422.
[0169] If the consumer did not accept the promotion offered in the
impression, the operation ends at block 820.
[0170] FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations for a
process 900 that may be executed by one or more apparatuses, such
as consumer device 108, to facilitate the negotiation and
generation of one or more promotions between a consumer and a
merchant, in accordance with some example embodiments discussed
herein. Operations of process 900 may begin at block 902 where a
consumer may initiate a request for a promotion based on certain
terms from a merchant, such as by entering a request in a user
interface provided by consumer device 108. For example, in some
embodiments, an apparatus, such as a consumer device 108, may
provide means, such as input/output circuitry 226, processor 222,
and Request Generation Circuitry 230 or the like, for a consumer to
indicate a request for a promotion from one or more merchants that
comprises specific terms, such as a particular discount for a
transaction or the like.
[0171] At block 904, the consumer device may cause the consumer
request for a promotion to be transmitted to the promotion and
marketing service to initiate processing of the request, for
example using means such as Request Generation Circuitry 230,
communications circuitry 228, and processor 222, or the like, of
consumer device 108.
[0172] At block 906, the consumer device may receive an impression
from the promotion and marketing service comprising promotion data
that matches the consumer request from one or more merchants, for
example using means such as Promotion Negotiation Circuitry 234,
Promotion Acquisition Circuitry 232, communications circuitry 228,
processor 222, or the like, of consumer device 108.
[0173] At block 908, the consumer device may receive a selection
from the consumer of one of the promotions provided in the
impression that the consumer wishes to purchase, for example using
means such as Promotion Acquisition Circuitry 232, communications
circuitry 228, processor 222, or the like, of consumer device 108.
If the consumer makes a selection of one of the promotions to
purchase, the consumer device may cause the selection to be
transmitted to the promotion and marketing service to facilitate
the purchase/acquisition of the promotion, for example using means
such as Promotion Acquisition Circuitry 232, communications
circuitry 228, processor 222, or the like, of consumer device
108.
[0174] Alternatively or additionally, some embodiments may provide
for the consumer to further negotiate for a promotion from one or
more merchants by allowing for the consumer to modify the promotion
request instead of accepting one of the promotions provided in the
impression. As shown at block 912, the consumer device may receive
modified request parameters from the consumer, such as indicating a
different discount or the like, for example using means such as
Promotion Negotiation Circuitry 234, input/output circuitry 226,
processor 222, or the like, of consumer device 108.
[0175] If the consumer device receives modified request parameters
from the consumer at block 912, operation returns to block 904
where the consumer device causes the modified request to be
transmitted to the promotion and marketing service. If the consumer
does not make a selection of a promotion from the impression and
does not provide modified request parameters, operation would end
at block 914.
[0176] FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of exemplary operations for
a process 1000 that may be executed by one or more apparatuses,
such as merchant device 110, to facilitate the negotiation and
generation of one or more promotions between a consumer and a
merchant, in accordance with some example embodiments discussed
herein. Operations of process 1000 may begin at block 1002 where a
merchant receives a consumer's request for a promotion based on
certain terms, such as from a promotion and marketing service. For
example, in some embodiments, an apparatus, such as a merchant
device 110, may provide means, such as communications circuitry
248, processor 242, and/or Promotion Negotiation Circuitry 254 or
the like, for a merchant to receive a request for a promotion that
comprises specific terms, such as a particular discount for a
transaction or the like.
[0177] In some embodiments, at block 1004, the merchant device may
also receive consumer profile data, such as from a promotion and
marketing service, that is associated with the consumer who
initiated the request for a promotion, for example using means such
as communications circuitry 248, processor 242, and/or Promotion
Negotiation Circuitry 254 or the like, of merchant device 110. In
some embodiments, the received consumer profile data may be used by
the merchant in the process of determining whether to offer a
promotion to the consumer based on the terms specified in the
request, whether to propose an alternate promotion, or to make no
offer to the consumer.
[0178] At block 1006, the merchant device may receive an indication
from the merchant regarding a response to the consumer request for
a promotion, for example using means such as Promotion Negotiation
Circuitry 254, input/output circuitry 246, processor 242, or the
like, of merchant device 110. For example, the merchant may
determine that the consumer request for a promotion is acceptable
to the merchant, such as having terms that fall within the
merchant's standard criteria, being a request from a particular
type of consumer the merchant is trying to attract, is for a
transaction that would fill the merchant's excess capacity, or the
like, and the merchant may indicate such acceptance of the consumer
request. The merchant may alternatively determine that the consumer
request for a promotion is not acceptable. In some embodiments, the
merchant may also provide a counter-offer to the consumer request
for a promotion, rather than accepting or refusing the consumer
request, for example using means such as Promotion Negotiation
Circuitry 254, input/output circuitry 246, processor 242, or the
like, of merchant device 110. For example, the merchant may
determine that a promotion can be offered to the consumer using
different terms, such as a different discount, a different
redemption period, or the like.
[0179] At block 1008, the merchant device may determine whether or
not the merchant provided an indication that the consumer request
for a promotion was acceptable, for example using means such as
Promotion Negotiation Circuitry 254, processor 242, or the like, of
merchant device 110. If the merchant indicated that the consumer
request was acceptable, promotion data for the merchant may be
transmitted to the promotion and marketing service at block 1010,
for example using means such as Promotion Generation Circuitry 252,
communication circuitry 248, processor 242, or the like, of
merchant device 110.
[0180] In some embodiments, if the merchant indicated that the
consumer request was not acceptable, the merchant may further
provide a counter-offer to the consumer request based on different
terms at block 1012. If the merchant provides a counter-offer, the
counter-offer promotion data for the merchant may be transmitted to
the promotion and marketing service at block 1014, for example
using means such as Promotion Negotiation Circuitry 254,
communication circuitry 248, processor 242, or the like, of
merchant device 110. If the merchant indicated that the consumer
request was not acceptable, and does not provide a counter-offer,
operations may end at block 1016.
[0181] In some embodiments, a merchant device, such as merchant
device 100, may facilitate access to a merchant portal in
conjunction with a promotion and marketing service, such as the
promotion and marketing service 102. In some embodiments, such a
merchant portal may provide for a real-time, or near real-time,
connection between a merchant and the promotion and marketing
service. The merchant portal may facilitate merchant interactions
with the promotion and marketing service and consumers. For
example, in some embodiments the merchant portal may facilitate the
establishment and/or updating of merchant's negotiation criteria,
such as a maximum and/or minimum allowable discount for a
transaction, location criteria for a consumer initiating a request
(e.g. consumers within X miles), limits on number of times a
consumer may request or modify a request for a promotion, type of
customers that can negotiate for promotions, or the like, for
example.
[0182] In some embodiments, the merchant portal may facilitate the
handling of consumer requests for a promotion. The merchant portal
may also facilitate the providing of consumer data, such as
consumer demographic data, purchase, history, or the like, from the
promotion and marketing service to the merchant for use in the
determination of a consumer request. In some embodiments, the
merchant portal may also facilitate the offering of promotions to
consumers who are within an area defined by the merchant, such as
for a limited redemption period.
[0183] Blocks of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations
support combinations of means for performing the specified
functions, combinations of steps for performing the specified
functions and program instruction means for performing the
specified functions. It will also be understood that each block of
the circuit diagrams and process flowcharts, and combinations of
blocks in the circuit diagrams and process flowcharts, can be
implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems that
perform the specified functions or steps, or combinations of
special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
[0184] Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions
set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to
which these embodiments of the invention pertain having the benefit
of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the
associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the
embodiments of the invention are not to be limited to the specific
embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments
are intended to be included within the scope of the appended
claims.
* * * * *