Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Definitions

• TECHNICAL FIELD The present application relates to online commerce, and in particular to the use of printed coupons having purchase discounts embedded in machine-readable symbols such as bar codes that enable a user to obtain discounts for online purchases .
• Online commerce in particular so called electronic commerce or "e-commerce” , has promulgated due to the increased use of open online systems such as the Internet, as well as proprietary online systems such as AMERICA ONLINE and
• COMPUSERVE. E-Commerce may be considered to be a method of executing a transaction by enabling two computers to exchange certain information such that a vendor will receive value in the form of payment, and the purchaser will, in exchange, receive value in the form of products or services.
• a typical e-commerce transaction on the Internet would involve a consumer accessing a vendor's server computer would involve a consumer accessing a vendor's server computer through his World Wide Web browser, and downloading a page from that server that offers a lamp for twenty dollars.
• the consumer could purchase the lamp by entering his credit card information (optionally in a secure manner such as through encryption) into his browser and transmitting the information to the vendor ' s server by the Internet .
• the server computer would validate the transaction by clearing the credit card number with a central clearinghouse, and after receiving approval for payment, arrange to have the lamp shipped to the consumer.
• the consumer receives the lamp in due course and is billed on his credit card, and the vendor receives payment from the credit card company for the transaction.
• the paradigm of electronic goods selection and payment remains constant for any such type of payment methodology.
• the above scenario has become popular for the increased convenience and lower cost it provides for both the consumer as well as the vendors. Any consumer having access to the Internet could use the system, and any vendor having access to the Internet can make his goods or services available for purchase.
• This scenario does not allow, however, for the use of a purchase incentive system such as coupons that are prevalent in marketing today. That is, the coupon system, that gives certain consumers discounts for select products at the point of purchase, is not provided for in the e-commerce system.
• a vendor could provide discounts to online purchasers at the point of sale (i.e after he has logged on to the site) , there exists no method of providing coupon-type incentives to consumers to go online and actually initiate the online transaction to receive the discount for the online purchase.
• the present invention is a method for providing purchase incentives or discounts in an online e-commerce transaction comprising the steps of printing a discount coupon, the coupon comprising human readable information describing at least part of the incentive or offer, product information, vendor information, or the like, and a machine- readable symbol such as a linear or two-dimensional bar code symbol.
• the symbol is encoded with data fields comprising a first identifier associated with the Internet Protocol address of a vendor's host computer, optionally, a second identifier associated with a discount amount to be applied to a product or group of products, optionally, a third identifier associated with the consumer for whom the discount coupon has been targeted, and optionally, an instruction for a computer to launch a client program enabling access to the online system, such as a World Wide Web browser program.
• the method also comprises the steps of disseminating the discount coupon to a targeted consumer or group of consumers, or optionally to the public in general; scanning the machine-readable coupon symbol at the consumer's computer; decoding the scanned data to generate the vendor's IP address; launching the client program to enable access to the online system; communicating with the vendor's host computer by utilizing the decoded IP address; and downloading a file from the vendor's host computer associated with the scanned coupon, the file containing information relating to the discount to be applied to enable the user to make a purchase decision. If the user elects to make an online purchase, then said election is communicated to the vendor's computer, the discount related to the coupon is applied and a payment and delivery process is executed to enable the vendor to collect the purchase price and the user to obtain the purchased product .
• Figure 1 is a block diagram of the system of the present invention
• Figure 2 is a flowchart of the coupon generation process
• Figure 3 is a flowchart of the coupon scanning and online redemption process.
• the dotted line portion (“Online Coupon generation”) relates to the generating and printing of e-commerce coupons 2 that will be useful for scanning an providing a discount for an online e-commerce transaction.
• the coupon is comprised of two portions; a human-readable portion 2a and a machine-readable portion 2b such as a bar code symbol.
• the human-readable portion contains information such as text and/or graphics that typically are found on a coupon or other type of incentive or advertisement such as the vendor's name, product information, etc.
• the coupon 2 should also inform the user that the scanning of the bar code on his computer will enable a discount for an online purchase.
• the discount amount may be shown, or it optionally may be not shown so that the user is enticed to go online in order to learn the discount amount at the online "point-of purchase” .
• the machine-readable portion 2b would typically be a linear or two-dimensional bar code such as a PDF417 bar code, which is well known in the art.
• a PDF417 bar code which is well known in the art.
• other types of machine-readable symbols or tokens may be used as well.
• the bar code symbol is encoded with various fields of information, depending on the mode utilized by the vendor printing the coupon.
• the data fields 4 that may be encoded into the bar code symbol are described as follows:
• Vendor IP address The Internet Protocol (IP) address is encoded in order to enable the user's computer to access automatically the vendor's host computer.
• IP Internet Protocol
• the IP address may be directly encoded in IP protocol (aa.bb.cc.dd format) , or the URL of the vendor may be used
• a two-dimensional bar code such as a PDF417 bar code symbol may be used to advantageously encode a relatively large amount of data, including the URL of the target vendor as well as the resource identifier that indicates to the vendor's server computer the identity of the resource (i.e. product offer) to be utilized, demographic information related to the user to whom the coupon offer as been targeted, and an optional encryption key that may be used by the client (user) computer to encode his credit card number for use in executing the online transaction.
• a targeted discount amount may also be included so that different users can be provided with different discounts or other types of incentives.
• an encryption key is especially useful in this embodiment, since it allows the user to encrypt sensitive information such as his credit card number, and then transmit it with the http request for the product offer over the Internet. Since the vendor knows the encryption key that the user has used (either because the vendor distributes only one such key or because he can look up the key locally or remotely by using the associated demographic information received with the http request) , he can easily decrypt the credit card number (or other sensitive information such as a bank account number) to complete the transaction. The user can thus complete a sensitive purchase transaction over the Internet without fear of sensitive information being misappropriated by an unscrupulous eavesdropper.
• the IP address itself in well known "aa.bb. cc .dd" format
• the target file ID or pointer may also be encoded within the bar code so as to enable the user to download the proper resource (file) from the vendor server computer located at the encoded IP address.
• this type of encoding also allows the use of a smaller bar code, such as a linear or one-dimensional bar code.
• a linear bar code enables a simpler type of bar code scanner to be utilized by the consumer than in the previous case of the two-dimensional bar code.
• a pointer or resource code may be encoded, that can be used by the user's computer to resolve (i.e. look-up) the URL at a local or remote database configured to provide such information.
• the word "acme” may be encoded in the bar code, and the user's computer could perform a look-up (remotely or locally) to obtain the URL or IP address associated with that identifier.
• the use of a shorthand identifier is particularly useful when trying to pack the data fields into a small symbol such as a linear bar code.
• PCT/US97/10689 discloses such a system that implements the use of a resource link code embedded in a bar code, that can be scanned and used to fetch an associated URL from an external or internal database of URLs.
• UPCs Uniform Product Codes
• the UPC may be scanned, and an external look-up table or database may be accessed to determine the URL or IP address of the target vendor computer on the Internet.
• the URL is returned by the database to the user's computer, and is then used in the normal course of operation to access the appropriate computer.
• the two constituent portions of the UPC may be used in the same fashion. That is, the user's computer may strip the manufacturer's code from the scanned UPC, and send it to the external database computer to look-up the appropriate URL for that coupon.
• the URL is returned to the user's computer, where it is then combined with the item code portion of the decoded UPC to generate a
• the entry of a keyword or alias onto a keyboard may be used to effect a discount for an online purchase, without the need to actually scan a coupon or product. That is, an alias or nickname is entered into the user's computer, and is used to look-up the URL or IP address as mentioned above.
• a predetermined alias such as "CD_Discount” would return the URL of a special Web page that offers to the consumer the purchase of a CD at a discount online.
• the particular discount can be modified on a page by page basis, that would be accessed with different keywords or different look-up maps at different times.
• a vendor could print an ad that instructs the user to type in the alias on a certain day only, and that he will be provided with a discount on that day only for the online purchase.
• the instant invention is thus realized without the need to have a scanner at the user's computer; typing in the appropriate keyword suffices to provide the instant discount for the online transaction.
• Incentive and/or product resource identifier An identifier that designates the file location on the vendor's host computer that will provide the product and/or incentive (discount) information to the user.
• the resource identifier is optional, since the default resource location (e.g. index.html) that the Web browser uses when one is not specified may be used by the vendor to carry the purchase information.
• Discount identifier - The vendor may include a discount amount (percentage or absolute amount) in the bar code. This is useful in the situation where different discounts will be targeted to different groups of consumers, such as when current customers are given discounts of 10% but new potential customers are given discounts of 20%.
• the intelligence to apply different discounts may also reside at the server, which could take demographic information and use it to determine the discount.
• the bar code may include data that is specific to a targeted consumer or group of consumers.
• bar codes may be printed utilizing a database of specific consumers, so that John Smith's targeted coupon has encoded therein an identifier to inform the vendor's server that John Smith has utilized the coupon (this may be a look-up pointer or the like) .
• This enables the vendor to track coupon redemption for future targeted mailings.
• consumer identification may also be uploaded to the vendor by extracting information resident on the user's computer.
• Client application launch command could be encoded with a command to automatically launch a client application such as a web browser, so that the online purchase process is automated to a greater extent.
• client application such as a web browser
• the user would simply scan the coupon's bar code while in any application (or just at the Windows Desktop) , and the Web browser application launch command would be decoded and cause the Web browser resident on the user's computer to execute (and if necessary dial-up the Internet Service Provider preprogrammed by the user) . If this option is omitted, then the user would have to invoke his Web browser in the usual fashion.
• the information described above is input into a bar code generation program 6 suitable for encoding the input fields into a print stream suitable for printing the desired bar code symbol.
• This process is well known in the art and need not be described in detail.
• optional parameters related to the specific symbology utilized by the invention may be selected at this stage.
• the PDF417 symbology provides a redundancy-type security feature that protects against non-decodes of partially damaged symbols. This feature could be utilized by the entity printing the bar codes to promote a robust utilization of the couponing system of this invention.
• a print stream is also generated by document rendering process 8 that will provide the rendering of the remainder of the printed coupon; i.e. the human-readable portion.
• This is also a process that is " well known in the art, and need not be described in detail here.
• the coupon would likely include a graphic representation of the discounted product, a textual invitation to scan the coupon for an online purchase, an indication of the discount amount, etc.
• the bar code print stream and the coupon rendering print steam are then input to a print server 10 and/or printer 12 as well known in the art, which will produce the desired online coupon 2 of the present invention.
• the coupons are disseminated to the public in general, or to a specifically targeted group of users, in any way desired.
• the coupons may be included in a direct mail program, included as inserts in the newspapers or magazines, etc.
• the coupon may also be printed as part of an advertisement or brochure, magazine, instruction manual included with a product (e.g. a purchaser of a video game software package could receive a coupon for an online purchase of a joystick), etc.
• a bar code scanner means coupled to his computer.
• a dedicated bar code scanner such as a laser scanning device (such as one of a variety of devices marketed by Symbol Technologies, Inc.) or an equivalent CCD scanning device.
• a general - purpose document page scanner 14 such as any of a variety of such device marketed by Hewlett-Packard may be used by the present invention.
• the scanning device provides an electrical signal that is proportional to the bars and spaces of the scanned bar code symbol, and a decoder program running on the computer 16 (or embedded in the dedicated scanner) examines the patterns of bars and spaces to arrive at the original data encoded by vendor at the coupon generation stage described above.
• a decoder program running on the computer 16 (or embedded in the dedicated scanner) examines the patterns of bars and spaces to arrive at the original data encoded by vendor at the coupon generation stage described above.
• the resource associated with the coupon is downloaded to the user' s browser in a manner well known in the art.
• the user can view the information regarding the item or items available for purchase, as well as the pricing and discount or other information, and make his purchase choice based on this data. If the user decides to purchase the item, he will be provided with the discount and make payment in one of any number of Internet payment systems, or by any conventional such as C.O.D., telephone call with a credit card number, etc. All that is required is that the user is provided with a discount on the purchase price due to his use of the online coupon.
• the discount amount may be obtained directly from a data packet transmitted with the user's HTTP request to access the vendor's file. That is, the discount amount may be obtained directly from the coupon, which is useful when the vendor desires to provide different discount amounts to differently targeted users. If all discounts are to be the same, then that intelligence may be kept on the vendor's sever. In this case, the vendor would be provided with some type of identifier from the scanned coupon that indicates the discount should be applied. In the alternative, the resource obtained by the user by scanning the coupon may be available only through a password embedded in the coupon, such that only targeted users will be able to access that Web page. Many ways of providing a discount amount are thus envisioned by the present invention.
• the vendor in the present invention is the collection of demographic data regarding coupon redemption and usage.
• information regarding the identity of the user be provided to the vendor's server during the transaction.
• some or all of the demographic information e.g. name, age, sex, address, hobbies, occupation, income level, etc.
• the vendor might have a database of potential users, each of whom would be targeted with the online coupons. The vendor could then make intelligent decisions regarding future coupon targeting, since it will know (1) who was sent the coupons, (2) who accessed the purchase offer online, and (3) who actually made the purchase.
• a consumer ID may be included, which can be linked by the vendor in its database to obtain the above redemption information.
• non-targeted mailings i.e. where everyone is provided with the same bar code coupon
• the vendor will likely want to obtain some demographic information from the user upon consummation of the online purchase.
• the vendor would require a form to be filled out by the user, which would be sent to the vendor for inclusion in its database and use in later mailings.
• the Acme Software Company runs a Web site at http://www.acmesoft.com, and in particular provides a special offer to registered users of its Spreadsheet software that would allow it to obtain its DataBase software by an online purchase at a discounted price. If the user had indicated in its Spreadsheet registration form that it uses a competitive brand of database software, then it applies a $20 discount, and if the user had indicated in its Spreadsheet registration form that it never used any type of database software, then it applies only a $10 discount.
• John Smith a registered user with Acme consumer ID number 12345, receives this coupon in the mail and is enticed into purchasing the DataBase software package by reading the accompanying text offer. He passes the coupon under his page scanner attached to his computer, and a bar code decoding program is automatically invoked. He then dials-up his
• Acme is provided with his consumer ID to verify that this consumer should in fact be receiving the discount.
• Acme also know has knowledge that Mr. Smith received the offer, acted on it, and executed it. Acme may then utilize this data in future coupon campaigns.

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• 1998
  • 1998-07-14 JP JP2000503474A patent/JP2003524806A/ja active Pending
  • 1998-07-14 AU AU84843/98A patent/AU8484398A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1998-07-14 WO PCT/US1998/014540 patent/WO1999004326A2/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1998-07-14 CA CA002295981A patent/CA2295981A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1998-07-14 EP EP98935645A patent/EP1012690A2/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 1998-07-14 BR BRPI9811104-3A patent/BR9811104A/pt not_active IP Right Cessation

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