Method and apparatus for controlling the performance of a supplementary process at a point-of-sale terminal
What is Al technical title?
Al technical title is built by PatSnap Al team. It summarizes the technical point description of the patent document.
a technology of supplementary process and point-of-sale terminal, which is applied in the field of point-of-sale terminals, can solve the problems of imposing yet more delays on the completion of customer transactions, unfavorable customer transactions, and unsatisfactory burden
Inactive Publication Date: 2008-01-17
WALKER JAY +2
View PDF0 Cites 3 Cited by
Summary
Abstract
Description
Claims
Application Information
AI Technical Summary
This helps you quickly interpret patents by identifying the three key elements:
Problems solved by technology
Method used
Benefits of technology
Benefits of technology
[0010] It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for controlling the performance of a supplementary process at a point-of-sale terminal.
Problems solved by technology
A supplementary process performed at a POS terminal may undesirably slow the rate at which customer transactions are completed.
Offering a customer a choice of several upsells in exchange for an amount of change due could impose yet further delays on completing customer transactions.
Such delays may be acceptable under some conditions, yet unduly burdensome under other conditions.
However, eliminating the supplementary processes may speed the completion of customer transactions, but at the cost of the extra profit derived from such supplementary processes.
Method used
the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
View more
Image
Smart Image Click on the blue labels to locate them in the text.
Viewing Examples
Smart Image
Click on the blue label to locate the original text in one second.
Reading with bidirectional positioning of images and text.
Smart Image
Examples
Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test
Embodiment Construction
[0019] Applicants have recognized that supplementary processes performed by POS terminals may introduce delays in the completion of customer transactions, and that these delays may be acceptable under certain circumstances. For example, when there are few pending customer transactions, such delays do not significantly affect relevant measures of performance such as sales per hour or profit per hour.
[0020] Accordingly, performing supplementary processes during periods of low activity, yet reducing or refraining from supplementary processes during periods of high activity, can result in increased profit. Such increased profit can exceed the profit of POS terminals that either always perform the supplemental process or never perform the supplemental process.
[0021] In one embodiment of the present invention, a POS terminal measures one or more criteria, such as an activity rate of a terminal, and performs a supplementary process if the criteria are less than predetermined thresholds. ...
the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to view more
PUM
Login to view more
Abstract
According to some embodiments of the present invention, methods and apparatus are described for providing a supplementary product offer. In one embodiment, a method is provided for measuring an activity rate of a point-of-sale terminal and providing a supplementary product offer in accordance with the activity rate of the point-of-sale terminal. For example, the activity rate may be based on the number of completed transactions per time, the number of items purchased through the point-of-sale terminal per time, the number of upsells accepted by customers per time, the number of customers in a store or the number of customers in the vicinity of the point-of-sale terminal.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 045,386, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING THR PERFORMANCE OF A SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESS AT A POINT-OF-SALE TERMINAL, filed Mar. 20, 1998, which is a continuation-in-part of (i) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 920,116, entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING SUPPLEMENTARY PRODUCT SALES AT A POINT-OF-SALE TERMINAL, filed Aug. 26, 1997 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,099 on Sep. 12, 2000, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 822,709, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING LOTTERY TICKET TRANSACTIONS UTILIZING POINT-OF-SALE TERMINALS, filed Mar. 21, 1997 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,670 on Jul. 31, 2001; and (ii) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 841,791, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SELLING SUBSCRIPTIONS TO PERIODICALS IN A RETAIL ENVIRONMENT, filed May 5, 1997 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,926...
Claims
the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
Login to view more
Application Information
Patent Timeline
Application Date:The date an application was filed.
Publication Date:The date a patent or application was officially published.
First Publication Date:The earliest publication date of a patent with the same application number.
Issue Date:Publication date of the patent grant document.
PCT Entry Date:The Entry date of PCT National Phase.
Estimated Expiry Date:The statutory expiry date of a patent right according to the Patent Law, and it is the longest term of protection that the patent right can achieve without the termination of the patent right due to other reasons(Term extension factor has been taken into account ).
Invalid Date:Actual expiry date is based on effective date or publication date of legal transaction data of invalid patent.
Login to view more
Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
Login to view more 
Login to view more