GB2480857A

GB2480857A - Sales transaction which includes sending subscriber profile information to a sales entity

Info

Publication number: GB2480857A
Application number: GB201009329A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Mark Hicks
Original assignee: Vodafone IP Licensing Ltd
Current assignee: Vodafone IP Licensing Ltd
Priority date: 2010-06-03
Filing date: 2010-06-03
Publication date: 2011-12-07
Also published as: GB201009329D0

Abstract

In a telecommunication network including a network service provider and a network service subscriber, a method of the network service provider providing the subscriber with a sales service to purchase goods and/or services from at least one sales entity, the method comprises: receiving a communication from a mobile terminal associated with the subscriber including an indication relating to an intended purchase of a given product or service; transmitting a communication relating to the intended purchase to a particular sales entity, together with profile information relating to the subscriber; and in response to the provision of the profile information, receiving a barcode (unique data) from the sales entity, the barcode (unique data) usable to purchase the given product or service. The selection of the particular sales entity may be based upon an incentive offered by the particular sales entity, such that the incentive offered (e.g. discounted price) is dependent upon the provision of the profile information.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING SALES TRANSACTIONS

IN A TELECOMMUNICATIONS ENVIRONMENT

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an arrangement and method for facilitating sales transactions in a telecommunications environment. More particularly the present invention relates to a network service provider facilitating sales transactions between a network service subscriber and a sales entity.

Background

Online retailing is growing in popularity with a growing number of areas of commerce becoming more prevalent online, and with the majority of high street retailers also having an online shopping presence.

The Internet has also provided users with a greater range of information at their finger-tips, enabling them to compare prices, products and services provided by different suppliers. In many cases, it has in fact resulted in too much information being available, making it time consuming for users to find the best deal available.

To address this problem, price comparison websites have become available.

These sites provide a searchlfiltering service to users to compare offers in regard to whatever product and/or service that the user is after. Many of these sites, however, only list retailers/service providers (i.e. sales entities) who subscribe to their comparison service. This therefore does not necessarily provide the user with the best choice available.

With the increased number of sales channels available to customers, from the point of view of the sales entities, competition has increased. A result of this increased competition is that incentives are now often required by consumers in return for their patronage. For instance, incentives such as discounts are now almost mandatory to woo customers. Whilst many sales entities are prepared to offer discounts to customers, ideally, from the sales entity's viewpoint, the discounts should be selectively provided. That is, incentives are ideally offered to targeted customers, or customers matching an ideal customer profile (i.e. and are then more likely to be a repeat customer).

To determine which customers to offer discounts to, many sales entities gather profile information on their customers. In this regard, one approach used to gather customer profile information, including personal information and sales habits is via loyalty cards. In turn for their use of the loyalty cards, customers are typically provided with incentives.

Whilst this loyalty card approach has been found to function successfully, it is essentially only viable for large organisations, as it can be quite costly to implement. Further, from the customer's point of viewpoint, whilst incentives are obtained via their loyalty, they are not necessarily obtaining the best deal for their custom that is possible.

There is therefore a need for an improved approach of facilitating the offer of goods/services to customers. More particularly there is a need for the approach to also facilitate sales entities to gather appropriate data on their customers.

Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect, the present invention provides, in a telecommunication network including a network service provider and a network service subscriber, a method of the network service provider obtaining a redeemable means for the purchase goods and/or services by, or behalf of, the subscriber from at least one sales entity, the method including: receiving a communication from a mobile terminal associated with the subscriber including an indication relating to an intended purchase of a given product or service; transmitting a communication relating to the intended purchase to a particular sales entity, together with profile information relating to the subscriber; and in response to the provision of the profile information, receiving the redeemable means from the sales entity, the redeemable means usable to purchase the given product or service.

This aspect of the invention enables network service providers, such as mobile telecommunication network operators, to facilitate sales transactions between their subscribers and third party retailers and service providers. Subscriber information gathered by the network service provider is therefore able to be used for the benefit of all parties.

Other aspects of the invention are set out in the attached claims.

The key concept underlying these aspects of the invention is the use and control of subscriber profile information. That is, the network service provider, having the profile information is able to act as an intermediary to effectively negotiate sales transactions for products and services that have an advantage for all parties involved. For the subscriber making the purchase, they are able to negotiate competitive pricing/incentives, with minimal effort. For the sales entities, they are able to achieve sales and consequently receive valuable marketing information relating to their customers. And from the network service provider's point of view, they are able to provide an additional useful service to their existing customers, and also potentially receive a commission for all facilitated transactions.

In particular, by linking the subscriber profile information with the sales, it is possible to determine a sales price or other incentive commensurate with the profile information. Further, where the discount/incentive offered by a sales entity is dependent upon the amount and/or quality of the information released by the subscriber, the subscriber is encouraged to allow the sharing of their information.

These aspects of the invention therefore allow the network provider to offer to sales entities the benefit of their huge customer reach, and accordingly provide the sale entities with new customer exposure and a new approach for initiating and maintaining customer relationships. Preferably the relationships appear to the customer to be on a direct one-to-one basis with the sales entities.

Advantageously for the sales entities, these aspects of the invention also enable them to augment their sales process with unique customer data sets, which permit them to price goods for specific customers, whilst at the same time gaining depth of market information about all customers who use the system.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The present invention will now be more fully described with reference to the accompanying figures in which: Figure 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of the key communication channels and network elements used in implementing the embodiments of the invention; and Figure 2 illustrates a flow chart of a technique for implementing the invention according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram showing the interaction between the entities involved in the embodiments of the invention. An intermediary party 11, which in this embodiment of the invention is a telecommunications network provider is in communication with a network subscriber 10 and a sales entity 12. The sales entity 12 may be a provider of goods and/or services, such as a retailer. This communication between the network provider and the sales entity is preferably performed using networked servers that ideally communicate over wired connections, but may also communicate wirelessly.

As part of the standard process of registering customers to utilise the network services, the network provider 11 obtains and saves profile data relating to each of their subscribers. The network service provider 11 typically holds profile data for a plurality of subscribers, although the embodiment of the invention may be implemented for just one subscriber.

This profile data typically includes a name and address of the subscriber, a credit rating, as well as banking information for billing. In addition to such profile information obtained upon the customer registering with the network service provider, further information may also be gathered via the subscriber's usage of the network services. For instance, where the subscriber has mobile internet access, information may be gathered as to the subscriber's interests from the web pages they access. Additionally information relating to their usage of their mobile terminal may also be gathered, such as the number of contacts the subscriber has in their address book etc and the subscriber's call usage (e.g. their frequency of making calls) and/or data usage.

It is such subscriber information that the network service provider is able to utilise in this embodiment of the invention to facilitate a sales transaction between the subscriber 10 and the sales entity 12 that is advantageous to all parties.

The network service provider has a relationship with a plurality of different sales entities 12, although again this embodiment of the invention may be implemented with just one sales entity. The relationship may be a formal relationship, whereby the sales entities have agreed to offer the service provider's subscribers an incentive/discount in exchange for profile information. Alternatively, there may be no formal relationship or agreements between the network provider and the sales entities, and any discounts/incentives offered by the sales entities is determined on a case by case basis (e.g. based upon the quality of the subscriber profile data provided).

An example of how such a communication scenario may be implemented is illustrated in relation to Figure 2. In Figure 2, firstly the subscriber contacts the network provider with a view to purchasing a particular product or service 20.

The contact from the subscriber may be in response to an offer promoted by the service provider and/or one or more sales entities, or it may be unprompted.

For instance, the subscriber may have seen an advertisement in a retail shop stating that a discount is available for Vodafone subscribers who send a communication, such as an SMS message to Vodafone (e.g. on a particular contact number). Alternatively, or in addition, the network service provider may advertise to their subscribers to contact them on a particular contact number/address if they wish to find the best deal on any productsiservices of interest to them. For instance, the subscriber may be shopping and see a particular MP3 player that they would like. Rather than buying the product then and there, the subscriber may send a communication to the network service provider, identifying the product and asking for the best price/incentive offer available to them.

Upon receiving this communication, the network service provider will typically first check that the subscriber has provided the network service provider with the authority to share their profile data, or at least a proportion thereof This consent may have been provided previously, or may be provided in the communication. If the consent has not been provided, the network service provider may contact the subscriber for their consent before proceeding further.

Also, there may be different levels of consent, with the different levels releasing different information, such as in terms of quantity and or value.

Therefore the subscriber may have consented to a certain level of information release.

Where a suitable consent is in place, the network service provider then makes a determination of which one or more sales entities to use/contact regarding the purchase of the product. This determination is ideally based upon an educated assessment of data compiled on products/services offered by the one or more sales entities and the applicable terms of sale. More particularly, the network service provider will assess the offers made by the different sales entities based upon the degree of information released by the subscriber (21). For instance, where different levels of information release are defined, the sales entities may be preferred to provide greater discounts/incentives where greater or more valuable profile information is provided.

The offer data on the products/services may be pre-provided or be live data.

The data may also be supplied to the network service provider by the sales entities and/or third party data gatherers. For instance, where the data is not immediately available to it, the network service provider may instead need to first contact one or more sales entities to obtain availability and offer information. That is, the determination made by the network service provider may be simply in regard to sales entities that provide or may provide the requested product or service, and this communication may be to see if the product/service is available and on what terms. The offer information returned would include the price offered by each of the sales entities in return for profile information relating to the subscriber.

With the availability and offer information obtained, an offer from a sales entity is selected (22). This selection may be performed by the subscriber or by the network service provider.

Where the selection is to be made by the subscriber, the network service provider makes a determination of which offers best match the subscriber's requirements. In this regard, the subscriber's profile data preferably includes preferences for assisting the assessment, such as whether or not discounts are preferred over incentives, preferred delivery terms and/or product colour preferences, etc. The network service provider would then send a communication to the subscriber providing the details of the different sales entities' offers to determine which would be preferable to them. The subscriber would then make a selection and communicate this to the network service provider.

Where the network service provider makes the selection, the selection of one sales entity is made by the network service provider which makes the most attractive offer. Therefore, the network service provider effectively makes the selection on the subscriber's behalf With the sales entity having the best offer selected, the network service provider then sends a communication to the selected sales entity which requests confirmation of the offer and provides profile information of the applicable subscriber (23).

The sales entity receiving this communication confirms the offer by sending unique data, which is typically coding such as a barcode, to the network service provider (24). This unique data is configured to enable to the product/service to be purchased according to the sales terms agreed (e.g. at a discount and/or with an incentive). In other words the unique data is effectively a "redeemable means".

This unique data may be such that it is only usable by the applicable subscriber.

In this regard, the sales entity could use the received profile information, such as identity information, to make the coding unique to the subscriber.

Alternatively, it may be open and therefore usable by any number of alternative customers that the subscriber may pass the offer on to.

It is to be appreciated that at this stage it is preferable that only one sales entity is selected, as this then limits the number of sales entities receiving the subscriber's profile information.

However, in an alternative embodiment however, profile information is not transmitted to the sales entity at this stage (i.e. to obtain the unique data for obtaining the discount/incentive) and that instead, the profile information is only transmitted to the sales entity upon redemption of the discount/incentive.

In a still further embodiment, limited profile information is transmitted to the sales entity when obtaining the discount/incentive coding, and further, typically more important profile information is provided upon redemption.

Once the network service provider obtains the unique data it may be forwarded onto the subscriber for redemption (25). This would typically be by forwarding the data to the subscriber's mobile terminal. The subscriber could then use the unique data in any suitable manner, including at a physical shop's checkout and/or via online website.

Alternatively, the network service provider may utilise the unique data to make the purchase on the subscriber's behalf (25). In this instance, the network service provider may also utilise the subscriber's existing billing account to charge the customer.

In a still further alternative embodiment of the invention, the subscriber may send a communication to their network service provider expressing an interest in purchasing a product/service, and include in the communication an indication of the price they wish to pay for product (e.g. a bid). Where such a communication is received, the network service provider will in turn send a communication to one or more sales entities with the product offer together with profile information relating to the subscriber making the bid. The sales entities receiving this information will then determine whether or not they are prepared to accept the bid. This bid acceptance is made on the basis of the profile information received. For instance, the sales entity may determine whether the profile information is of suitable value to them before accepting the bid and/or whether the subscriber matches their ideal customer profile.

Where the profile information received is acceptable, a sales entity may choose to accept the offer. Alternatively, they may make an alternative offer based on the information provided, which could be higher or lower than the price bid.

For instance, the offer could be lower than the price bid where there is a lot of competition for sales of the particular product/service and the subscriber is considered to a potentially valuable customer based upon their profile information. The sales entity then sends back their response together with coding to enable their offer to be redeemed by the subscriber. Once the network service provider receives the return offers from the sales entities, this embodiment of the invention operates as per the previously described embodiments.

An advantage of this embodiment of the invention, where the sales entities are willing to accept and assess bids from potential customers is that the sales entities are able to obtain profile data from the customers before the transaction has been finalised. Further data is able to be gathered in relation to the number of customers wishing to buy a product/service at a particular price.

In a variation of this embodiment, upon the network service provider receiving a bid from a customer, rather than immediately forwarding it to the sales entity, the system of the network service provider retains it, with a view to making a "multi-product" approach to the retailer once a sufficient number of customers have expressed an interest in the same product (or equivalently a number of different products from a given retailer). This approach enables the network service provider to utilise its large customer reach in order to leverage its consumer-buying power to maximum effect for the benefit of the customers.

The communication to the retailer may be based upon a known "bulk" price or prices offered by the retailer, or may be searching for the best possible offer.

In the embodiments of the invention just described, the network service provider's role in the sales transaction may be visible to the customer, however it is preferable that the network service provider is an invisible partner. This is particularly preferable for the retailers/service providers, who want to have the maximum possible exposure to their customers. To effect this invisibility, communications to the customer from the network service provider would ideally be structured so that they appear as if they are being transmitted directly from the retailer. Also, at the point of sale location (e.g. a website or physical shop), a "personalised shopper" logo may be used to allow the customer to know that the sale transaction is taking place in association with the network service provider, but otherwise all visual indications suggest that the matter is being processed through the retailer. Similarly, communications from the network service provider to the retailers can be structured so that they appear as if they are transmitted directly from the customer.

The embodiments described may be implemented where a "partnership" between the network service provider and the sales entities is in place, or, alternatively or in addition, with sales entities with no such specific arrangements. By integrating sales entities with which no formal relationship exists, the customer is advantageously provided with a greater range of choice, and an increased likelihood of getting the best possible price. The relevant sales data for the transactions may be gathered by various means, including by extracting it from the websites of the sales entities.

Further, the embodiments that have been described have assumed that the customers/users are existing subscribers of the network service provider.

However, it is within the scope of the invention that other network users may also make use of the service offered by the network service provider. These other network users may be telecommunications users who subscribe to different network service providers. These users may make use of the service by additionally proffering certain profile data relevant to them, such as their interests. The network service provider would ideally keep a record of this data, and build on it and/or reuse it, as the user makes additional transactions using the service. Where information on the user's name and address is not available, they may alternatively be identified using CLI (Calling Line Identification) and other available telecommunications user/terminal IDs.

The embodiments of the invention that have been described are to be considered as illustrative of the invention, and not limitative.

For instance, the invention has been described in relation to the facilitation of sales transactions between a network subscriber and a sales entity. However the key inventive concept may also be applied to other transactions and/or communications where the provision of data held by the intermediary network provider is able to yield a benefit for one or more of the transaction parties.

Further, the intermediary in the embodiments of the invention have been described in relation to a telecommunications service provider, but may equally be applied to other service providers, particularly service providers where customers provide personal data as part of their subscription, such as Internet service providers.

Additionally, the embodiments of the invention have also been described from the point of view of the subscriber communicating wit the network provider via a mobile device. Whist this is preferably, it is also within the scope of the invention that the subscriber routes the communications to the network provider via a computer on the Internet.

Claims

Claims 1. In a telecommunication network including a network service provider and a network user, a method of the network service provider obtaining a redeemable means for the purchase goods and/or services by, or behalf of, the user from at least one sales entity, the method including: receiving a communication from a mobile terminal associated with the user including an indication relating to an intended purchase of a given product or service; transmitting a communication relating to the intended purchase to a particular sales entity, together with profile information relating to the user; and in response to the provision of the profile information, receiving the redeemable means from the sales entity, the redeemable means usable to purchase the given product or service.
2. The method of claim 1 further including selecting the particular sales entity based upon an incentive offered by the particular sales entity, such that the incentive offered is dependent upon the provision of the profile information.
3. The method of any one preceding claim further including transmitting the redeemable means, such as a barcode, to the user to enable the user to purchase the given product or service, with an incentive such as a discounted price.
4. The method of any one preceding claim, wherein the user is a subscriber of the network service provider, and the method further includes: the network service provider using the redeemable means to purchase the given product or service on behalf of the subscriber; and charging a purchase price of the given product or service to an existing billing account of the subscriber with the network service provider.
5. The method of any one preceding claim further including the particular sales entity determining a purchase price for the product based upon the profile information provided and creating the redeemable means to represent the determined purchase price.
6. The method of claim 5 further wherein the particular sales entity determines the purchase price based upon: a) the type of profile information provided; and/or b) the content of the profile information provided.
7. The method of any one preceding claim further including the network service provider selecting the particular sales entity from a plurality of different sales entities, such that the particular sales entity offers the given product or service at the most attractive price and/or with the most attractive incentive.
8. In a telecommunication network including a network service provider and a network user, an engine associated with the network service provider which is configured to facilitate the purchase of goods and/or services for the user from at least one sales entity, the engine including: receiving means configured to receiving a communication from a mobile terminal associated with the user expressing an interest to purchase a given product or service; processing means configured to use the communication to determine an appropriate sales entity from which to purchase the given product or service; transmission means configured to transmit a communication relating to purchasing the given product or service to the appropriate sales entity, together with profile information relating to the user; in response to the provision of the profile information, the receiving means being further configured to receiving unique data from the sales entity, the unique data usable to purchase the given product or service.
9. The engine of claim 8 wherein the processing means is further configured to select the particular sales entity based upon an incentive offered by the particular sales entity, such that the incentive offered is dependent upon the provision of the profile information.
10. The engine of claim 8 or 9 wherein the user is a subscriber of the network service provider, and the processing means is further configured to use the unique data to purchase the given product or service on behalf of the subscriber and charge a purchase price of the given product or service to the subscriber's existing network service provider billing account.
11. The engine of any one of claims 8 to 10 wherein the processing means is further configured to determine an appropriate sales entity by selecting a sales entity from a plurality of different sales entities that offers the given product or service with the most attractive inventive and/or price.
12. The engine of any one of claims 8 to 11 wherein the processing means is further configured to: determine that the communication received from the mobile terminal is a bid for a given product or service; store the bid in a memory until a predetermined number of corresponding bids are received from other users; and upon the predetermined number of corresponding bids being received, formulating the communication to the appropriate sale entity, such that the communication relates to a plurality users.
13. In a telecommunication network including a network service provider and a network user, an engine associated with a sales entity which is configured to facilitate the purchase of goods andor services for the user from the sales entity, the engine including: receiving means configured to receive a communication from the network service provider relating to the purchase of a given product or service by the user, the communication including profile information relating to the user; in response to the provision of the profile information, the receiving means being further configured to receiving unique data from the sales entity, the unique data usable to purchase the given product or service.
14. The engine of claim 13 further configured to determining a purchase price for the product or service based upon the profile information provided and to create the unique data to represent the determined purchase price.
15. The engine of claim 13 or 14 further configured to determine wherein the purchase price based upon: a) the type of profile information provided; and/or b) the content of the profile information provided.