EP2776993A1

EP2776993A1 - Method for processing an electronic payment certificate

Info

Publication number: EP2776993A1
Application number: EP12783592.4A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Norbert GÖDICKE
Original assignee: Nubon GmbH and Co KG
Current assignee: Otto Group Solution Provider OSP GmbH
Priority date: 2011-11-07
Filing date: 2012-11-07
Publication date: 2014-09-17

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for processing an electronic payment certificate, comprising the steps of creating an electronic payment certificate in response to a payment for an acquisition, authenticating a user or an entity having executed the payment, and transferring the electronic payment certificate to an account of the user in a database for further processing.

Description

Method for processing an electronic payment certificate

The invention relates to a method for processing an electronic payment certificate. Electronic payment certificates are generally known from the prior art. The term payment certificate relates to a receipt, in particular a cash register receipt, or a voucher, which documents that a payment, e.g. electronic payment or cash payment, has been executed for an acquisition or purchase. The term electronic payment certificate relates to an electronic document to be processed in computers, which documents that an electronic payment or cash payment has been executed by a user or an entity, for example, a payment at a cash register in a shop.

Generally, systems are known in which a consumer is registered for the use of electronic payment certificates. When the customer executes a payment and provides his identity, an electronic payment certificate is sent to the consumer via e-mail. It is an object of the invention to provide an enhanced method for processing an electronic payment certificate. This object is achieved by a method according to the introductory comprising the steps: a) creating an electronic payment certificate in response to a payment for an acquisition, b) authenticating a user or an entity having executed the payment, and

c) transferring the electronic payment certificate to an account of the user in a database for further processing.

It has been discovered by the invention that the handling and processing of existing electronic payment certificates is complex and time-consuming. The method according to the present invention provides for an enhanced and at the same time simplified method for processing an electronic payment certificate. The method can be used for payment situations in a shop or in a web shop where a payment is executed by a consumer. Furthermore, the method can be used for business acquisitions where an entity, e.g., a corporation or an organisation, has executed a payment or a transaction for an acquisition.

The step of creating an electronic payment certificate may be executed by generating an electronic document which contains payment information and keeping it, e.g., in a memory of a cash register until the authentication takes place. The term authenticating can be understood as a step of identifying a user or an entity in a way that a proof is given that he or she has executed the payment. The term database may be understood as an electronic database being accessible by the user, e.g., over the Internet. The database may be provided by a service provider such as a provider of a system for creating and administrating electronic payment certificates. Furthermore, the database may be provided by fiscal authorities, tax authorities or tax software providers.

In preparation to the use of the method according to the present invention a user can be registered in the database which leads to the creation of a user account in the database. After registration, the user is provided with an authentication means enabling the user to be identified after having executed a payment for an acquisition.

According to a first preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention the authentication is executed by means of a barcode being printed on an identification card or being displayed on a display device. Thereby, a convenient and simple means for authenticating a user or an entity having executed a payment is achieved. The term barcode may refer to linear bar codes or two-dimensional matrix bar codes, for example quick-repose-codes (QR-codes). Especially in shops that have a barcode scanning device integrated in a cash register, the use of barcodes for authentication strongly simplifies the authentication. A barcode printed on an identification card provides for a simple means to execute the authentication. The term display device can be understood as a display of a portable computer client such as a tablet personal computer or a smart phone. In this case the scanning device scans the barcode being displayed on the display device.

In a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention, the authentication is executed by means of an identification element being capable of near field communication (NFC). This provides for another convenient and user-friendly means for authenticating a user or an entity having executed a payment. The identification element may contain an element for radio-frequency identification (RFID), e.g. a RFID tag which stores identity information for identifying the user or entity. For authentication a near field communication device then reads the information stored in the RFID tag. Furthermore, the identification element may contain an NFC entity, e.g. integrated circuit, being adapted to send information to a near field communication device. The information is then processed by the near field communication device, for example, as part of the cash register or in form of a separate entity.

Preferably, a NFC entity can also be used for executing the payment. Therefore, the NFC entity may send encrypted information such as credit card information to the cash register or NFC device for initiating the payment. The NFC entity may be an integrated circuit as part of a mobile computer client or smart phone.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention, the electronic payment certificate is transferred to the database in encrypted form. Thereby, a secure way of handling the electronic payment certificates is achieved where critical or confidential information concerning the user or an entity is kept secured from malicious eavesdrop or wiretap. For the encryption various existing methods of encrypting critical or confidential data can be utilized.

In a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention, the database is adapted to store, sort, categorize, tag, evaluate and/or administrate a plurality of electronic payment certificates. This provides a user with a plurality of functions for handling a plurality of electronic payment certificates in the database, in particular data of a plurality of electronic payment certificates. This can be of great interest especially for tax computation. For example, the database is adapted to sort the electronic payment certificates with respect to the payment date, the products bought, or the price of the products. Moreover the electronic payment certificates can be tagged to be able to search the plurality of electronic payment certificates at a later point in time by use of existing text searching methods. Even further, data contained in the electronic payment certificates can be evaluated, i.e. additional information can be obtained from the available data, e.g. by analyzing data contained in the electronic payment certificates. Furthermore, the electronic payment certificates as well as data contained in the electronic payment certificates can be administrated in the database, for example accounted, filed and/or archived. Preferably, an entity, e.g. a corporation or organization, may utilize the database functions mentioned above for evaluation and administration of a plurality of electronic payment certificates or data of a plurality of electronic payment certificates. This may be of great interest especially in the field of travel expense accounting. In this field, travel expenses of employees of the entity are represented by an electronic payment certificate for each purchase made during a travel, such as a business trip. The entity may easily evaluate and administrate the travel expenses by utilizing the functions of the database mentioned above. This is advantageous since the administration of printed payment certificates can be omitted and, in contrast, the whole accounting workflow can be executed electronically. In a further step, the information obtained in the evaluation and administration of the electronic payment certificates can be utilized for invoicing efforts made by the entity for customers. For example, costs generated during a travel of an employee of the entity may be evaluated first. If the employee had undertaken this travel for the interests of a customer of the entity, the costs can be taken into account automatically when an invoice to be directed to the customer is generated. Further preferably, the database is adapted to generate invoices of the company in an automated way based on a plurality of payment certificates stored in the database.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention, the database is accessible by a computer client, in particular a personal computer, a tablet personal computer, a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a media player, a navigation device, a game console, or a laptop computer. Preferably, the computer client may access the database via internet. By accessing the database via a computer client the user may administrate the electronic payment certificates stored in the database, for example, display the electronic payment certificate in different sizes, sort a plurality of electronic payment certificates, etc..

In a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention the computer client is adapted to address a print device for printing an electronic payment certificate. Thereby, the user is enabled to create printed documents of the electronic payment certificates. This can be of great advantage for the user, since he or she may decide on his own when a printed certificate is needed. Preferably, the user may print a plurality of certificates at a time or a predetermined selection of certificates needed for further handling. Especially in the case of a customer complaint, a printing of an electronic certificate may be of great advantage. The user may then send the electronic payment certificate to the distributor of the bought product.

The method according to the present invention may also be adapted for customer complaints via email, where the electronic payment certificate is send to the distributor in form of an email attachment. Furthermore, a complaint may be executed by unlocking a certain electronic payment certificate in the database for access by the distributor. The distributor may then access only the one unlocked electronic payment certificate via the database.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention the electronic payment certificate comprises information on the executed payment, in particular information on bought products, quantity information on bought products, prices of bought products, product categories and/or date of the payment executed. Thereby, additional information is provided to the user or an entity or to business partners of the service provider for organizing, handling, or analyzing a plurality of electronic payment certificates stored in the database. In a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention the database is adapted to provide a statistical application for analyzing data representing previous acquisitions by a user. Such a functionality of the database is advantageous for obtaining valuable information from previous acquisitions of the user, e.g. previous purchases made by the user. Data representing previous acquisitions by a user can be extracted, for example, from a plurality of electronic payment certificates stored in the database, in particular electronic payment certificates assigned to the account of the user in the database. The term "statistical application" may be understood as a computer program implementing statistical methods for calculating certain values, in particular parameters, based on the data representing previous acquisitions of the user. An example of such a value is the mean prizes of all previous acquisitions in a predetermined product category, e.g. footwear. From this value it can be determined whether the user prefers high prize or low prize products. Such a determination can be achieved, for example, by comparing the calculated mean prize of all previous footwear purchases by the user to a mean prize of all previous footwear purchases by all users.

The following example illustrates an embodiment of a statistical application for analyzing data representing previous acquisitions: By analyzing historic data representing characteristics of a certain user and/or historic data representing acquisitions by the user, it may be prognosticated whether a product ordered by the user fits to this user, whereby "fitting to the user" may be understood as fitting to the user's preferences and/or fitting to other physical characteristics of the user, such as body size and weight. The prognostication can be established by calculating for a product ordered by the user a probability that this product will fit to the user. An example thereof is the probability that a certain piece of clothing ordered by a user will fit the body size of the user. The calculation of such a probability is based on historic acquisitions of clothing by the user. From these acquisitions a profile of the user's body size is calculated. This profile can be compared to the cut of the ordered piece of clothing. By this comparison, a probability that the ordered piece of clothing will fit the user can be calculated. If the probability that the ordered piece of clothing will fit the user's body size is lower than a certain threshold, an indication will be provided to the user, such as a message, noticing that the ordered product might not properly fit. Such a method will reduce the number products sent back to the online shop and, thereby, reduce overall cost.

According to another preferred embodiment, the method according to the present invention comprises the step of predicting future acquisitions by a user and/or parameters of future acquisitions by a user based on previous acquisitions by the user and/or parameters of previous acquisitions by the user. Data with respect to previous acquisitions by the user can be extracted, for example, from a plurality of electronic payment certificates stored in the database, in particular electronic payment certificates assigned to the account of the user in the database.

A prediction in the sense of the present invention may be, for example, an estimation of a prize which a user might be willing to pay for a certain product to be bought in the future. As a further example, a probability that a user may want to buy a certain product may be calculated as a prediction in the sense of the present invention. Further examples of a parameter to be predicted are: time-to-next-purchase based on the purchasing rates of previous purchases; probability of illiquidity based on previous acquisitions and payment behavior of the user; probability that a user will buy product C of brand D based on the fact that the user has purchased product A of brand B as well as probability that the product C will fit to the user's body size, in case the user will purchase product C in size E.

In a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention a scanning device is adapted to scan a printed payment certificate and extract information from the printed payment certificate, in particular information on bought products, quantity information on bought products, prices of bought products, product categories and/or date of the payment executed, for further processing of the information in the database. Thereby, even printed payment certificates can be scanned and imported to the database. This provides the user with functionalities to handle all payment certificates, even those that have not been created as an electronic payment certificate, in the database. For the extraction of information from the printed payment certificate existing optical character recognition methods can be utilized.

In a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention the database is adapted to provide an advertisement to a user accessing the database, wherein the advertisement contains content which matches the acquisition pattern of the user. Thereby, an additional advertising functionality is provided for distributors of products. The distributors may publish advertisements to those users which show an acquisition pattern matching the products presented in the advertisement. An acquisition pattern can reflect the buying behaviour of the user being extracted from information obtained from the plurality of electronic payment certificates. For example, an advertisement concerning a certain drink is presented to a user if from the information of the stored electronic payment certificates it can be concluded that the user has already bought one or a plurality of similar beverages. Preferably, the content provided in the advertisement may refer to products or services concerning a certain product having been bought by the user. For example, an insurance can be provided via the database for a product, which has been bought by the user and for which an electronic payment certificate has been issued. As a further example, an extended warranty for a product bought by the user can be provided via the database. According to another preferred embodiment, the method according to the present invention comprises the step of publishing the electronic payment certificate. The term "publishing" may be understood as making the electronic payment certificate publicly available or making relevant data of the electronic payment certificate publicly available. The availability may be achieved though a publicly accessible database which is accessible, e.g., via Internet.

Preferably, the publishing of the electronic payment certificate is utilized in a resale of the bought product. For example, the electronic payment certificate may be published together with an offer of the bought product to be resold. This may be the case, if the user wants to resell the bought product. The reselling may take place, e.g. on a shopping website or an online auction platform. When a customer is interested in buying the offered product, the electronic payment certificate may serve as a proof of certain data with respect to the bought, offered product, such as original purchasing date, original dealer, etc.. In a resale, the publication of the electronic payment certificate may also be achieved by providing with the offer a link to the database in which the electronic payment certificate is stored.

Further preferably, after resale of the product, the electronic payment certificate may be assigned to the customer having bought the product in the resale. This may be achieved by transferring the electronic payment certificate to an account in the database belonging the customer having bought the product in the resale.

Even further preferably, the publishing is executed partly or completely anonymous. This may be understood as making only certain information of the electronic payment certificate publicly available, e.g. information concerning the original purchase date and the original dealer, wherein a publication of the name of the original customer is inhibited. Thereby, confidential information, e.g. the name of the customer having originally bought the product, may be kept from being accessed by third parties.

In a further preferred embodiment of the method according to the present invention, the publishing is initiated automatically by the database. For example, when a user of the database generates an offer for a resale on a shopping website or an online auction platform, the database will automatically add the electronic payment certificate or relevant data of the electronic payment certificate to the publicly available offer. A further aspect of the invention is a system for processing an electronic payment certificate, comprising a computer device adapted to create an electronic payment certificate and to transfer the electronic payment certificate to a database, an authentication element for authenticating that a user or an entity has executed the payment, wherein the database is adapted to further process the electronic payment certificate.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention the system is adapted to execute a method of the above described kind.

Preferred embodiments of the invention are described in connection with the figures, wherein

FIG. 1 illustrates a flow diagram of a first embodiment of a method according to the present invention,

FIG. 2 illustrates schematically an embodiment of a system according to the present invention, FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of second embodiment of a method according to the present invention, and

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a third embodiment of a method according to the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process 1 for processing an electronic payment certificate. Process 1 will be described in reference to a system for implementing process 1 .

The system creates in a first process step A an electronic payment certificate in response and subsequent to a payment for an acquisition. The electronic payment certificate in form of an electronic document is at this phase of the process kept in a computer device such as a cash register in a shop. In a further process step B a user or an entity having executed the payment for the acquisition is authenticated by the system. The authentication can be executed by means of a barcode which is scanned by a scanning device as part of the cash register. The barcode can be printed on an identification card or displayed on a display device. Moreover, the identification card may include an RFID tag storing identity information for identifying the user which can be read by the cash register via near field communication.

In another process step C the electronic payment certificate is transferred by the system to an account of the user in a database for further processing. The transfer is initiated by 5 the cash register, which is connected to the Internet. Therefore, the electronic document kept in the cash register is encrypted and subsequently sent to the database over a communication network such as the Internet. The sent document comprises information on the executed payment, for example, information on bought products, prices of bought products, product categories and/or a date of the payment executed.

10 FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary system 100 for processing an electronic payment certificate. A payment is executed in a shop where in a computer device 1 10 creates an electronic payment certificate. Subsequent to the creation of the electronic payment certificate an authentication element 120 or 125 is provided to the computer device 1 10. Therefore, an identification card 120 with a barcode printed thereon can be scanned by a

15 scanning device of the computer device 1 10 in the shop for authenticating a user or an entity having executed the payment. After authentication, the computer device 1 10 transfers the electronic payment certificate to a database 130. The database is adapted for further processing the electronic payment certificates 150, for example, to store, sort, categorize, tag, evaluate and/or administrate a plurality of electronic certificates. The

20 authentication element can be a barcode being printed on an identification card 120 or a barcode being displayed on a display device 125. Furthermore, the computer device 1 10 may read identity information stored in an RFID tag as part of the identification card 120 or part of the display device 125.

A computer client 140 can be adapted to access the database 130. The computer client 25 140 can be a personal computer, a tablet personal computer, a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a media player, a navigation device, a game console, or a laptop computer. The computer client 140 can be adapted to address a printer 150 for printing an electronic payment certificate on paper.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of a process in which the electronic payment certificate 30 150 is published. In particular, FIG. 3 illustrates a case in which the user 205 publishes in step AA an offer on an online auction platform 210. The offer relates to a resale of a product 215 which the user 205 had originally bought. The user 205 possesses an electronic payment certificate 150 for the bought product 215, i.e. the electronic payment certificate 150 is assigned to the account of the user 205 in the database 130.

In step BB, the user 205 accesses the database 130 and initiates a publication of the electronic payment certificate 150, i.e. data of the electronic payment certificate 150, together with the offer on the online auction platform 210. After initiation in step BB, the publication is executed automatically by the database 130 in communication with the online auction platform 210 in step CC. For the publication with the offer, only certain data of the electronic payment certificate 150 will be published. Some information, such as the name of the user 205 having originally bought the product 215, is inhibited from publication, i.e. will be kept secret or anonymous.

A further user 220 interested in buying the product 215 which is offered on the online auction platform 210 may access the offer as well as the published data of the electronic payment certificate 150 in step DD. This will provide the further user 220 with certain data in proven form with respect to the bought product, such as original purchasing date, original dealer, etc..

The further user 220 may decide to buy the product 215 so that, in step EE, the product will be transferred and assigned from user 205 to the further user 220. Additionally, the electronic payment certificate 150 will be assigned to the further user 220 in step FF. This is achieved by assigning the electronic payment certificate 150 to the further user 220 in the database 130, i.e. to an account in the database 130 belonging/assigned to the further user 220.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process 301 for processing an electronic payment certificate. Process 301 will be described in reference to a system for implementing process 301 . In step AAA, a user 305 accesses an online shop 310, e.g. via Internet by use of a computer client 140, and orders a piece of clothing 315 offered in the online shop 310. In a further step BBB, the online shop 310 provides to the database 130 information 320 with respect to the cut of the ordered piece of clothing 315, e.g. a cut-profile represented by a three-dimensional mathematical function. In step CCC, the database 130 accesses data of historic acquisitions of clothing by the user 305, in particular data of successful acquisitions of clothing by the user 305, i.e. ordered pieces of clothing the user 305 had not sent back to the online shop provider. The data can be obtained from a plurality of electronic payment certificates 150 stored in the database 130. For the case illustrated in FIG. 4, it would then be required that each electronic payment certificate 150 contains data with respect to the cut and/or size of the respective piece of clothing bought by the user 305.

From this data, the database calculates, in step DDD, a profile of the user's body size by utilizing a statistical application. Such a statistical application may comprise an averaging procedure calculating the mean cut-profile of all pieces of clothing bought by the user 305. The mean-cut profile is represented by a three-dimensional mathematical function. In a further step EEE, the profile is compared to the information concerning the cut of the ordered piece of clothing 315, e.g. a cut-profile. Such a comparison is achieved for example as follows: First, a number of points in space are selected, e.g. randomly or in the respective interval in which the functions representing the cut-profiles are non-zero. For each point of the selected number of points in space, a deviation of the value of the function representing the cut-profile of the ordered piece of clothing from the value of the function representing the mean cut-profile is calculated. The calculated deviations are squared and summed up. The sum of squared deviations is divided by the number of points at which the squared deviation is calculated. The resulting value is a normed sum of squared deviations which represents a measure for the probability that the ordered piece of clothing will fit the user's body size. I.e. on the one hand, a comparatively small normed sum of squared deviations represents a comparatively high probability that the product will fit the user 305 and, on the other hand, a comparatively high normed sum of squared deviations represents a comparatively small probability that the product will fit the user 305. If the resulting normed sum of squared deviations exceeds a predetermined threshold, the database, in step FFF, provides the online shop with an information 325, e.g. a message, that the ordered piece of clothing 315 might not fit the user.

Consequently, the online shop may initiate in step GGG a message to the user 305 with a proposal to buy a different product. The different product to be proposed to the user 305 may again be selected by utilizing the statistical application provided by the database, i.e. by comparing a cut-profile of the different product to be proposed to the mean cut-profile of all pieces of clothing bought by the user 305.

Claims

1 . Method for processing an electronic payment certificate, comprising the steps: a) creating an electronic payment certificate (150) in response to a payment for an acquisition,

b) authenticating a user or an entity having executed the payment, and

c) transferring the electronic payment certificate (150) to an account of the user in a database (130) for further processing.

2. Method according to claim 1 ,

wherein the authentication is executed by means of a barcode being printed on an identification card (120) or being displayed on a display device (125).

3. Method according to claim 1 ,

wherein the authentication is executed by means of an identification element being capable of near-field-communication.

4. Method according to any of the preceding claims 1 , 2 or 3,

wherein the electronic payment certificate (150) is transferred to the database (130) in encrypted form.

5. Method according to any of the preceding claims,

wherein the database (130) is adapted to store, sort, categorize, tag, evaluate and/or administrate a plurality of electronic payment certificates (150).

6. Method according to any of the preceding claims,

wherein the database (130) is accessible by a computer client (140), in particular a personal computer, a tablet personal computer, a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a media player, a navigation device, a game console, or a laptop computer.

7. Method according to claim 6,

wherein the computer client (140) is adapted to address a print device (160) for printing an electronic payment certificate.

8. Method according to any of the preceding claims,

wherein the electronic payment certificate (150) comprises information on the executed payment, in particular information on bought products, quantity information on bought products, prizes of bought products, product categories 5 and/or date of the payment executed.

9. Method according to any of the preceding claims,

wherein the database (130) is adapted to provide a statistical application for analyzing data representing previous acquisitions by a user.

10

10. Method according to any of the preceding claims, comprising the step:

predicting future acquisitions by a user and/or parameters of future acquisitions by a user based on previous acquisitions by the user and/or parameters of previous acquisitions by the user.

15

1 1 . Method according to any of the preceding claims,

wherein a scanning device is adapted to scan a printed payment certificate and extract information from the printed payment certificate, in particular information on bought products, quantity information on bought products, prizes of bought 20 products, product categories and/or date of the payment executed, for further processing of the information in the database.

12. Method according to any of the preceding claims,

wherein the database (130) is adapted to provide an advertisement to a user 25 accessing the database and

wherein the advertisement contains content matching acquisition patterns of the user.

13. Method according to any of the preceding claims, comprising the step:

30 publishing the electronic payment certificate (150).

14. Method according to claim 13,

wherein the publishing is initiated automatically by the database (130).

35 15. System for processing an electronic payment certificate, comprising:

a computer device (1 10) adapted to create an electronic payment certificate (150) and to transfer the electronic payment certificate (150) to a database (130) and an authentication element (120; 125) for authenticating that a user or an entity has executed the payment,

wherein the database (130) is adapted to further process the electronic payment certificate (150).

System according to claim 15,

wherein the system is adapted to execute a method according to claims 2-14.