JP4583708B2 - Motivation and commission distribution system for non-cash transactions - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a non-cash base sales transaction system that manages purchase transactions and distributes purchase commissions between sellers and users of non-cash base sales transaction systems.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Non-cash payment devices such as debit cards and credit cards provide great convenience to purchasers of goods and services. However, such a payment apparatus requires an electronic transaction management / accounting system, and an operating cost is in addition to the cost of goods and services purchased with such an apparatus. Traditionally, issuers of non-cash payment devices enter into sales contracts and participating merchants pay commissions to card issuers in exchange for the convenience of using non-cash payment devices. It is like that. Recently, competition between card issuers has reduced the rate of commission paid by merchants. As a result, card issuers have attempted to increase transaction volume by providing consumers with a wide variety of motivations and actively advertising such motivations.
[0003]
Known motivational programs, such as those disclosed in McCarthy US Pat. No. 4,941,090, allow customers to be paid personal bonuses based on individual purchases made by non-cash payment devices. . Also, such motivation programs are attractive to individual customers, but must be effectively promoted to advertise and attract prospective customers. In addition, these motivational programs do not provide any benefit to participating merchants, but the merchants must still be registered under other non-cash payment systems and competitive commissions. Don't be. Therefore, it provides consumers with the motivation to use them in preference to other non-cash payment devices, encourages merchants to join, and reduces advertising costs associated with attracting and maintaining cardholders. It is desirable to develop a non-cash payment system that enables it.
Prior art document information related to the invention of this application includes the following (including documents cited in the international phase after the international filing date and documents cited when entering the country in other countries).
[Patent Document 1]
US Pat. No. 4,594,663 [Patent Document 2]
US Patent No. 4,750,119 [Patent Document 3]
US Patent No. 4,491,090 [Patent Document 4]
US Patent No. 5,025,372 [Patent Document 5]
US Pat. No. 5,117,355 [Patent Document 6]
US Patent No. 5,222,018 [Patent Document 7]
US Pat. No. 5,287,268 [Patent Document 8]
US Pat. No. 5,537,314 [Patent Document 9]
US Patent No. 5,826,241 [Patent Document 10]
US Patent No. 6,105,001 [Patent Document 11]
US Patent No. 5,581,041 [Non-patent Document 1]
P. A. Pays, "An intermediated and payment system technology" Computer Networks & ISDN Systems 28 (1996) pp. 1197-1206
[Non-Patent Document 2]
T. T. Baron "Banks, vendors focus on security" cited in "Abstracts of Recurrent Articles and Literacy" By Helen Collinson in Computers 14 (in Japanese). 409-414
[Non-Patent Document 3]
Amway USA "The Amway Opportunity in the USA-questions &answers" from http www. amway-usa. com / info / q & a. asp, (1998)
[Non-Patent Document 4]
6 sheets compiling article who dispose incentive rebates liking to the use of GM credit card. (From Dialog Search publishing dates, title, source of the articulated & related paragraph, fr. (1985)
[Non-Patent Document 5]
J. et al. Corry, “The Amway way: Seeking the profit of many” The American Spectator; Bloomington; Vol. 31, Issue 10; (1998) pp. 1-2
[Non-Patent Document 6]
M.M. Rock, “This articulate doll make you a millinonair” from Institute of Directors, London; Vol. 48, Issue 7 (1995), pp. 1-4
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
According to the present invention, the commission payment / accounting system organizes transaction data belonging to holders of non-cash payment devices such as debit cards and credit cards into a hierarchical database, and uses debit cards or joins new card members. Reflects the organizational structure of the motivational program for Commissions for purchases are electronically transferred to the card issuer, and the commission payment and accounting system associates stored electronic funds transaction data, intra-organizational relationships between card holders, and proportional commission rates with organizational relationships. The commission payment amount to the card holder is determined and distributed based on the predetermined table.
[0005]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to FIG. 1, an example of a non-cash payment and commission system according to the present invention is shown. This system is designed to manage purchases of goods and services by members of network marketing or multi-level marketing organizations (for example, humans or distributors), and management of commission payments to the organization members by hierarchical commission settlement / payment methods. ing. As will be described further below, each member is given a debit or credit card and can shop anywhere from a number of merchant locations, and the sales location 10 is an example. The debit or credit card has means on its surface for encoding the member's information, such as the member's account number being magnetically encoded in the magnetic stripe. According to the prior arrangement of the network marketing organization, the manager of each seller base provides a certain rate of the purchase price of such a product or service or a certain amount for each purchase as a discount for the purchase of the product or service by the member. I agree. Further, in exchange for taking into account the discount and further discounts, the seller is provided with an opportunity to sell their products and services to members of the organization, for example by means of direct mail.
[0006]
A base sales transaction processing terminal 12 (PPT) is installed at the base 10. The site may have a retail site, a catalog sales operator that receives orders over the phone, or a computer site used to sell goods over a network. The purchase processing terminal 12 communicates data input means such as a keyboard 12a and a magnetic stripe reader 12b for acquiring purchase data, a digital memory (not shown) for temporarily storing purchase data, and purchase data. Then, it may be a general one having an electronic communication interface such as a modem 12c for receiving a card approval signal for purchase.
[0007]
When the member wants to shop at the base 10, the member presents a debit card and inputs the member's account number into the memory of the purchase processing terminal 12 via the magnetic stripe reader 12b. The purchase price is input to the base sales system terminal via the keyboard 12a. The terminal 12 is then activated and activates the electronic communication interface 12c to establish an electronic data connection 13 with the debit authorization / transaction processor 14. In the embodiment in which the communication interface 12c has a modem, the data connector 14 may be a telephone line connection. In other embodiments, another common method of electronic data transmission is employed to establish the data connection 13.
[0008]
The purchase processing terminal 12 is activated to transmit purchase data including the member account number, purchase price, and seller ID to the approval / transaction processor 14. The processor 14 is preferably located at a remote location associated with each point of sale and is further configured to establish an electronic data connection with each point of sale. The processor 14 operates to receive purchase data and for each purchase, decides whether to send an approval signal for the received purchase data. Such a determination is made, for example, based on the risk data maintained by the processor 14 and determines whether the risk of non-performance of the purchase amount is acceptable for each member. Alternatively, the authorization processor may make such a determination by accessing the balance of the member's debit account.
[0009]
When the presented purchase is approved, the approval processor 14 transmits an electronic approval signal to the purchase processing terminal 12 at the sales office 10 through the data connection 13. In response, the purchase processing terminal 12 returns receipt of the approval signal for the purchase of the member.
[0010]
Once the purchase is approved by the processor 14, the processor 14 then establishes a data connection 16 with the automatic clearinghouse processor 17. The automatic clearinghouse processor 17 is preferably installed at a remote location associated with the approval processor 14. The automatic clearinghouse processor 17 is further connected to an electronic funds transfer network 18 for executing electronic funds transfer between the seller account 20, the member account 21 and the organization account 22. For each purchase, the approval processor 14 instructs the automatic clearinghouse processor 17 to perform the following electronic funds transfer: debit the purchase amount to the member account, the seller of the purchase amount Credit to the customer's account, debit to the merchant's account for the discount or fixed amount, and credit to the organization account for the discount or fixed amount. For example, for a $ 20 purchase at a 10% discount rate merchant, a $ 20 debit is charged to the member account 21, a $ 20 credit is paid to the merchant account 20, and a $ 2 A debit is charged to the merchant account 20 and a $ 2 credit is paid to the organization account.
[0011]
In addition to instructing the automatic clearinghouse processor 17 to perform funds transfer, the approval processor 14 is configured to send purchase data to a commission management system 26 maintained by the network marketing organization. ing. The commission management system 26 includes a commission management processor 27, an electronic database 28 for storing member data and structural data related to the organizational structure of the organization, and an automatic print mail facility for executing payment to members. And a payment processor 29 as described above. The member data and the structure data are stored in the database 28 in the form of a plurality of member records, such as a member record 30 shown in FIG. The database 28 is preferably an electronic database in a format compatible with a non-volatile mass data storage device such as a magnetic disk, tape or other known electronic data storage device.
[0012]
The member record 30 includes a plurality of data fields, that is, an account number field 32 for storing an account number, a member specifying field 34 for storing specific data belonging to a member (member name, address, etc.), and a member debit. It has a personal business volume field 36 that stores records relating to purchase discounts or portions thereof resulting from card usage, and a hierarchical location data field 38 that stores data identifying the location of the member within the commission distribution hierarchy. Such hierarchical position data further includes a pointer for indicating the position of the record of another member subordinate to the member in the hierarchy, for example, in the mass data storage device, as will be described below. .
[0013]
When the approval processor 14 transmits purchase data to the commission management system processor 27, the commission management processor 27 associates the received member account number with the corresponding member record stored in the database 28 '. . Next, the commission management system retrieves the contents of the corresponding personal business quantity field 36, adds the generated purchase amount to the retrieved personal business quantity, and in the membership record 30 in the database 28. Store a new value for the member's personal business volume.
[0014]
A structural diagram showing the relationship between the member records in the database 28 is shown in association with the representative member A in FIG. The subordinate structure including the records of the members B to H is herein referred to as the “subordinate network” of the member A. The relationships in the database 28 'are established as follows. When member A joins a new member to this organization, the new member is established in a position directly subordinate to member A in the hierarchy. These new members, eg, members B and C, will show in their membership application forms the facts recruited by member A or the facts recruited and placed by upper level sponsors. Members established within the hierarchy are entitled to join new members, and subsequent generation members are established to form a subordinate network for member A.
[0015]
Commissions are paid from discount credits stored in the organizational account 22 in order to provide incentives for recruiting new members and motivation for members to use debit cards. The commissions are preferably paid at regular intervals such as weekly, monthly, twice a year, or once a year. In a particularly preferred embodiment, commissions are paid at monthly intervals. The commission of each member is determined by the commission management processor 27 according to the total amount of personal business of the members in their own lower network. For example, the commission of a member is determined according to Table 40 in which each continuous class of the lower network is associated with a selected portion for the class, and the personal business amount of the member located in the continuous class in each member's lower network is determined. Consists of a predetermined percentage of the total. This table 40 is shown in FIG. 3 adjacent to an example of the hierarchy. According to Table 40, Member A commissions 2% of the personal business volume of members B and C, 3% of the personal business volume of members D, E, and F, and 20% of the personal business volume of members G and H. For a total of $ 33.30. The ratio table 40 is maintained by the commission management system 26 and is referred to when calculating the commission to be returned to each member at a predetermined interval.
[0016]
It is clear that various commission tables or multi-level payment plans are used to maximize the motivation for members to use the debit card or invite new members. Further, the function of the commission management system 26 may be expanded in order to enhance such motivation. As a further motivation to promote the use of the debit card, the commission payment is made from a continuous class of a member's sub-network according to a qualifying threshold value that gradually increases. It can also be conditioned on reaching a predetermined level of personal business volume to qualify for receipt. In the example of FIG. 3, member A receives $ 50 to qualify for commission from the first three classes of his subordinate network, $ 100 to receive commissions from the fourth to sixth classes, and seventh. And if the 8th level is included, it is necessary to accumulate a personal business volume of $ 200. In another embodiment, a basis for calculating the ratio determining factor from the member's personal business volume may be provided, in combination with the ratio class dependency table 40 used to calculate the member's commission. used.
[0017]
When the commission management processor 27 determines a commission to be paid to a member, the member recognition data and the commission amount are transmitted to the payment processor subsystem 29. In a preferred embodiment, the payment processor subsystem includes an automatic printer / mail processor for printing commission checks to be sent to members. In another embodiment, the payment processor subsystem performs an electronic money transfer of the commission amount from the organization's account 22 to the member's account 21 and further prints a statement mailed to the member. To do.
[0018]
Motivation for members to use non-cash payment devices or solicit new members may also be used to solicit sellers to sign discounts with the organization. Because the members of the organization are motivated to prefer using the organization's payment means over other payment means, and the members wish to achieve the amount of personal business required to qualify for higher commissions Therefore, there is a high possibility that the member buys goods from the participating merchants. To create this motivation, the merchant may allow limited access to the organization's database for marketing purposes. For example, aggregate purchase data regarding the category of goods purchased by each member can be maintained by the commission management system, and the merchant's marketing material can be used specifically for the already motivated members of the organization. By turning to receptive members, sellers can achieve higher promotional efficiencies. Therefore, by signing a discount contract with the organization, the seller can also obtain a high marketing effect by directing promotional materials to those who are already motivated to purchase without hesitation from the seller. For example, the relative frequency with which members purchase sports equipment is valuable information for sports equipment sellers who want to direct promotional materials to consumers of sports equipment with a high degree of purchase. The degree of marketing support given to a seller can be conditioned on the amount of discount provided by the seller.
[0019]
The conditions used above are illustrative and not limiting, and the scope of the present invention is to be defined by the following claims and their equivalents. It will be apparent that the present invention can be modified within the skill of one of ordinary skill in the art. For example, embodiments of the present invention may be applied to other non-cash payment devices. In such variations, the term “discount” as used herein is similar to the premium paid by the seller to process the purchase transaction and the meaning of the discount that the seller has placed on the purchase price. used. Similarly, in such a variant, the member's “debit account” applies to the credit balance charged to the member on a basis separate from or associated with commission payments.
[Brief description of the drawings]
The summary and detailed description below are best understood when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a transaction system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram of an electronic database stored in a commission settlement payment database of the transaction system of FIG.
FIG. 3 is a structural diagram showing an organization of electronic data in the commission settlement payment database.

Claims (11)

A commission distribution method for promoting the use of card payments, executed by a computer system and executed by a commission system for managing commission payments to a plurality of members who have joined a predetermined organization ,
The commission system is
Purchase processing means installed at the sales base and executed by a computer;
Payment processing means connected to an electronic funds transfer network for executing electronic funds transfer between a deposit account of each member, a deposit account of the organization and a seller's account at the sales base by a computer, and executing the electronic money transfer processing When,
A business amount value that is connected to the purchase processing means and the payment processing means via a communication line and serves as a reference for a commission amount to be given to each member, and position data that indicates a relative hierarchical relationship within each organization of each member. A database associated with each member's ID and stored as a member record;
Management means for managing this database by a computer;
Have
This commission distribution method is
Computer, the purchase processing unit, the purchase data in the case of receiving a product purchase by the member of the card used is transmitted to the management unit, in the management means, of the member for holding the card on the basis of the purchase data Allowing the ID to be specified and recorded in the member record as purchase data of the member ;
A step of causing the management means to calculate a business amount value of the identified member based on the purchase data, and further recording the calculated business amount value in the member record of the identified member;
The computer moves the payment processing means based on the purchase data from the member's savings account to the seller's savings account for a monetary amount equal to the purchase price by using the card, and from the seller's savings account to Transferring a predetermined amount of money to the organization's deposit account;
Computer, said management means, at a predetermined timing set in advance, and business volume value of one member from the database, and business volume values of different other member this one member, and the position data And calculating a commission amount for the one member based on these , and
A computer causing said payment processing means to perform electronic money transfer of said commission amount from said organization deposit account to said one member deposit account . The method of claim 1, comprising:
In the position data, the other members that are subordinate to the one member in the hierarchy are included as subordinate members,
The step of calculating the commission amount includes
Computer, a predetermined timing set in advance by the management unit, a business volume value of the one member from the database, and business quantity value of each dependent member, reads said position data, on the basis of these Calculating the commission amount for one member . The method of claim 2, comprising:
The step of calculating the commission amount includes
Computer, based on a proportionally commission rate stored in the database to the ratio table comprising in association with each successive subordinate classes of the hierarchy, is intended to include the additional step of calculating the commission amount. The method of claim 3, comprising:
The step of calculating the commission amount includes
Computer, in which each member is stored in the database further comprises the step of calculating the commission amount based on the table about the business volume value to obtain preferential treatment. The method of claim 4, comprising:
The step of calculating the commission amount includes
Computer, a table relating to the business volume value to obtain the preferential treatment processes removed from the database, to determine the following:
(I) a business volume threshold for commission payment to the one member;
Class value corresponding to the subordinate member hierarchy drawn to determine the commission amount contained in the membership records of (ii) the dependent members. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
Before Symbol card, it includes at least a debit card,
The commission system is
The computer further comprises an approval processor that reads the member information from the debit card and approves the validity of the member,
This method further
Computer, the steps of said receiving the purchase data from the purchase processing unit by debit authorization processor, transferring the purchase data Previous Symbol management processing unit,
A computer issuing an electronic approval signal from the debit approval processor to the purchase processing means;
Computer, the debit approval from the processor to the payment processing means to send an e-command to execute the funds transfer, the payment processing means by the one member deposit accounts from the bank account purchase is made the seller of Transferring a monetary amount equal to the purchase price to
Computer, and a step of moving a predetermined monetary amount to deposit account of the tissue from the bank account of the purchases that were made merchant by said purchase processing means. The method of claim 1, comprising:
The commission system further comprises:
Has a printing means to print the commission amount to be sent to the member on a check,
This method further
Process computer, in the printing unit, to print the commission amount to the calculated the check destined the one member
Having a method. The method of claim 1, wherein
The card is a one of a credit card and debit card,
The card has a symbol that is magnetically encoded for identifying the one member thereon,
This method
The method further comprises converting the magnetically encoded symbol into the purchase data for transmission to the debit authorization processor. The method according to claim 1, wherein the purchase processing means is installed at a plurality of sales bases . A The method of claim 1, said purchase data comprises a discount data.   The method of claim 1, wherein the member is a distributor.

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