Systems and methods for facilitating group rewards

Abstract

In accordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention a retailer may receive a request from a group of customers for a reward the group desires to earn by making purchases at the retailer. In response to such a request the retailer determines purchasing conditions the group must satisfy in order to earn the reward. The purchasing conditions may be determined based on, for example, a value of the reward (e.g., a cost of the reward to the retailer), a number of customers in the group, and / or a time by which the group desires to earn the reward. The purchasing conditions may be determined such that the retailer realizes at least a predetermined profit after the cost of providing the reward is considered. The methods of the present invention may be implemented at an online and / or brick-and-mortar retailer.

Description

[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 118,414, filed Jul. 17, 1998 in the name of Walker et al. and entitled POINT-OF-SALE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF GROUP REWARDS; which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 948,144 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Processing Customized Group Reward Offers" filed on Oct. 9, 1997 in the name of Walker et al., and issued Oct. 3, 2000 as U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,599. The entirety of each of the above applications is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002] Retailers frequently attempt to motivate customers to make repeat purchases at the retailers' establishments. One form of such attempts involves enrollment of customers in a frequent shopper program with the retailer. Certain frequent shopper programs are well known and widely practiced by many retailers. These prior art programs typically provide...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0098] Since customers are better motivated in the instant program, there will be more compliance with the program, thereby generating more profits for a retailer implementing the program. Hence, smaller retailers having smaller budgets may implement this invention with more success than with prior art frequent shopper programs because of the greater expected returns. Thus, smaller retailers are better able to take advantage of the instant frequent shopper program than those offered in the prior art. A further advantage of the present invention is that, in the up-front reward issuance embodiment discussed above, a customer is better motivated to join the instant frequent shopper program and is better motivated to achieve the purchasing goals established by the retailer than in prior art frequent shopper programs.

[0099] The group reward program described above may include additional features described hereinbelow. For example, the retailer may require each customer, upon registration, to provide financial account information corresponding to a financial account owned by the customer. The financial account information may include a financial account identifier, such as a credit card number corresponding to a credit card account, or a checking account number corresponding to a checking account owned by the customer.

[0100] In one embodiment, an entry fee for participating in the group reward may be charged against the financial account. In a second embodiment, a penalty may be charged against the account when a customer or a group fails to meet the purchasing goals set by the retailer for the group reward program. In an up-front reward embodiment, the customer may be provided with a group reward upon registration. The value of the group reward may be secured by an open authorization to charge a penalty, corresponding to either the value of the reward or a portion of the value of the reward, against the financial account should the customer and / or the group fail to meet the purchasing goal established by the retailer. Further uses of the financial account will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

[0102] In accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention, a request may be submitted to a retailer from one or more customers representing a group of customers, wherein the request comprises an indication of a reward the group desires to earn in exchange for completing purchases at the retailer. A reward (in a customized reward embodiment or any other embodiment of the present invention) may comprise, for example, (i) one or more products, (ii) one or more units of a product, (iii) an amount of money, (iv) an amount of alternate currency (e.g., merchant-specific currency or gift certificates), (v) one or more provisions of a service, or (vi) a combination thereof. For example, a group of parents may desire to earn a set of little league uniforms for their children. A customized reward, as used herein, is a reward requested by one or more customers by submitting a description of the reward to a retailer or other entity practicing aspects of the present invention, and for which the retailer or other entity determines conditions that have to be satisfied by the one or more customers. The conditions may be determined via a negotiating process between the one or more customers comprising the group and the retailer or other entity practicing aspects of the present invention.

[0103] It should be noted that a request for a reward may be received from a single customer (e.g., acting on behalf of a group of customers) or may be received from a plurality of customers acting cooperatively (e.g., each of the customers of the group or a subset of the customer of the group). Alternatively, a request for a reward may be received from a person or entity that is not a customer of a retailer and / or does not intend to be a member of any resultant group that will attempt to earn the reward.

[0104] Receiving a request for a reward will be referred to herein as receiving a request "from the group". Receiving a reward "from a group" or "from the group", as used herein, encompasses both embodiments where a request is received from a single customer (e.g., representing a group of customers and / or wishing to establish or attract a group of customers) and embodiments where a request is received from a plurality of customers, unless specified otherwise.

Problems solved by technology

Such frequent shopper programs tend to result in larger retailer sales since a customer has the incentive to make all or many of his or her purchases through the one retailer offering a reward, rather than making purchases through competing retailers.

However, in prior art frequent shopper programs, the retailers are at the mercy of the customer's personal motivation to meet the retailer's purchasing goals and obtain the reward.

A customer's choice to forgo the reward thus results in a loss of potential sales to the retailer.

Even if a customer were to incur a penalty for failing to meet a purchasing goal, a customer's personal willingness to incur the penalty or forego a potential reward results in a loss of potential sales to the retailer.

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