GB2526164A

GB2526164A - A system for providing product-discovery information and a mobile-transaction platform incorporating the same

Info

Publication number: GB2526164A
Application number: GB1415432.2A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Man Fai Christopher Lau
Original assignee: SMARTONE MOBILE COMM Ltd
Current assignee: SMARTONE MOBILE COMM Ltd
Priority date: 2014-05-14
Filing date: 2014-09-01
Publication date: 2015-11-18
Also published as: HK1199690A2; GB201415432D0

Abstract

A system for providing product-discovery information comprises plural beacon devices 230,240,250,260, such Bluetooth low energy devices, installed in a trading site. Broadcasting a beacon signal by the devices causes plural zones 235-265 to be established. A mobile-computing device is configured to determine, based on detecting any received beacon signal, whether it is inside any zone. When the mobile-computing device is inside a zone, it determines a zone identifier thereof and sends a request having the determined zone identifier and a customer identifier to a first backend server. The first backend server returns information of selected products available at one or more places associated with the zone as the product-discovery information, the selected products being selected only from product items associated with the consumer identifier. At least one beacon-generating device 235 is installed such that there is one zone covering an entrance of the trading site and at least part of the zone is outside the trading site, thereby allowing the mobile-computing device to obtain the product-discovery information before entering into the trading site.

Description

A System for Providing Product-Discovery Information and a Mobile-Transaction Platform Incorporating the Same

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

100011 The present invention relates generally to location-based provision of product-discovery information. In particular, the present invention relates to a system for providing such information based on zone awareness and a mobile-transaction platform including the same.

BACKGROUND

100021 It is desirable to provide enjoyable shopping experience to customers when visiting a retail store or a shopping mall. If a merchant can proactively provide enhanced shopping experience to potential customers, it is possible that enjoyment obtained during shopping can motivate the customers to spend more in purchasing commodities or ordering services offered by the merchant.

100031 In US201400193 13, it is suggested that purchasing experience can be enhanced by enabling a person to receive a variety of real-time updates or recommendations regarding products that the person may need or intend to purchase. US2O 130181045 suggests that personalized shopping experience can he provided to a person by providing a personalized price for a product where the personalized pnce is determined based on the level of interest of the product to the person. In US20140019300, it is suggested that in-store navigation can be provided to a visitor in order to guide the visitor to reach a desired product. thereby enhancing shopping experience. US8600837 discloses a method for calculating a ranking score for a product or a service based on a history of positive or negative votes, so that a person can make a purchasing decision with a know'edge of the ranking score, thereby enriching shopping experience.

100041 An assumption made in the aforementioned publications is that a person has a list of potential products that the person wishes to buy or considers for possible purchase. It.

follows that this list of potential products is known to the person before using the techniques disclosed in the aforementioned publications. It is not often the case, however. Most people Page 1 often do not have clear ideas on which products to be purchased before seeing the products or before visiting particular shops. Hence, product discovery is one key aspect in enhancing shopping experience.

100051 There is a need in the art to have a technique for both achieving product discovery and providing good shopping experience to people in general and potential customers in particular.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

100061 A first aspcct of the present invention is to provide a system for providing product-discovery information upon receiving a request from a mobile-computing device traveling inside or outside a trading site, for example a mall or a merchant shop. The mobile-computing device is at least configured to wirelessly receive a beacon signal and to execute a software application receivable from the system.

100071 The system comprises plural beacon-generating devices each installed in the trading site and configured to wirelessly broadcasting a copy of the beacon signal, a first backend server for receiving and responding to the request from the mobile-computing device.

and a second hackend server for sending a copy of the software application to the mobile-computing device when requested. The first backend server includes a first database for storing at least information of products available in the trading site, and the second backend server has a second database for storing at kast the software application. In particular, the broadcasting of the copies of the beacon signal by the beacon-generating devices causes plural zones, each being identified by a zone identifier, to be established inside or outside the trading site.

100081 The software application, when executed by the mobile-computing device, configures the mobile-computing device to determine, based on detecting any received beacon signal, whether the mobile-computing device is inside any zone. When the mobile-computing device is determined to be inside a zone, the software application further configures the mobile-computing device to determine the zone identifier of the zone, to prepare the request by including the determined zone identifier and a consumer identifier in the request, and to send the request to the first backend server unless a copy of product- discovery information obtained in response to the request is already present in the mobile-computing device and is not expired.

100091 After receiving the request. the first baekend server returns to the mobile-computing device the information of selected products available at one or more places Page 2 associated with the zone corresponding to the received zone identifier as the product-discovery inlormation. The first hackend server sdec(s the selected products only from items in a list of products associated with the consumer identifier.

100101 At least one of the beacon-generating devices is installed at a location in the trading site such that a first one of the zones includes m entrance of the trading site and such that. at least part of the first one of the zones is outside the trading site. Thereby the mobile- computing device is allowed to obtain the product-discovery information before the mobile-computing device enters into the trading site.

100111 Optionally, the first backend server further includes a third database for recording a time history of the zones traversed by the mobile-computing device. The first hackend server is further configured to identify a route that has been traveled by the mobile-computing device in the trading site, such that infoimation provided by the identified roule is utilizable to customite (he product-discovery inlormatioii to he returned to (he mobile-computing device.

F00121 Tn another option, the one or more places associated with the first one of the zones collectively form the trading site. It follows that that a user of the mobile-computhig device is alerted with the product-discovery information of selected products available in the trading site before the user enters thereinto, in order to entice the user to visit the trading site.

F00131 lii one practical approach, an individual zone is a region having a substantially annular or suhstantially circular shape centered at one sdected heacon-gencrating device.

The region is defined such that the copy of the heacon signal broadcast from this se'ected beacon-generating device and received at a location in the region has a power level within a pre-determined range chosen for the aforesaid individual zone.

100141 The zones may he classified into at least a first group ol tones and a second group of zones, any zone in (he first group being dassified as a wide-coverage zone and any zone in the second group being classified as a close-proxinilty zone, where the wide-coverage zone is bigger than the close-proximity zone in size. Preferably, the zone that includes the trading site's entrance is realized as the wide-coverage zone. In case the trading site comprises a merchant shop having plural shelves, one or more of the beacon-generating devices are preferably arranged to define plural close-proximity zones in the merchant shop such that each of the shelves is at least partially covered by one of the close-proximity zones. lii one option, the widc-coveragc zone is defined to have an outer radius grcater than lOrn. In another option, the close-proximity zone is defined to have an outer radius not greater than 2m.

Page 3 100151 hi one practical realization of the system, one or more or all of the beacon-generating devices are Bluetooth Low Energy devices.

100161 The first or the second hackend server may communicate with the mobile-computing device through a secure wireless channel.

100171 Optionally, the first or the second database is a distnbuted database in a cloud.

Similarly, it is possible that the third database is a distributed database in the cloud.

100181 The product-discovery information returned by the first hackend server may include one or more sale-incentive offers customized according to the customer identifier.

100191 When executed in the mobile-computing device, the software application may further configure the mobile-computing device to, upon arrival of the product-discovery information before the mobile-computing device enters into the trading site, calculate a consumer utility value of the alTived product-discovery infoimation and generate an alerting signal. The alerting signal has a signal magnitude dependent on the consumer utility value or exhibits a timc pattern determined by the consumer utility value. The alerting signal may be a mechanical signal produced by vibration of the mobile-computing device, or may bean audio signal.

100201 The trading site may be a mall or a merchant shop.

100211 A second aspect of the present invention is to provide a platform for sending product-discovery information of products to a mobile-computing device and processing a mobile transaction with the mobile-computing device when the mobile-computing device travels inside or outside a trading site. The p'atform comprises the system as disclosed in the first aspect of this invention, for at least providing product-discovery information to the mobile-computing device. The platform further comprises a transaction server for handling the mobile transaction, and one or more transaction terminals instafled in the trading site and communicable with the transaction server. The software apphcation. when executed by the mobile-computing device, further configures the mobile-computing device to comimmicate with one of the transaction terminals when performing the mobile transaction. The aforesaid one of the transaction terminals is caused to communicate with the transaction server for processing the mobile transaction.

100221 It is optional that the transaction server is a virtual server in a cloud.

100231 In another option. one or more or all of the transaction terminals are configured to he communicable with the transaction server through distinct secure wireless links.

Page 4

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

100241 FIG. 1 lists the states of mind of a customer at different locations in a shopping mall for an example scenario, and actions that may be performed to maintain peace of mind for the customer.

100251 FIG. 2 dcpicts a zone-establishing part of a disclosed system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, this part being installed in a shopping mall having a plurality of merchant shops and beacon-generating devices for defining a plurality of zones, whereby a mobile-computing device is enabled to request product-discovery information when detected to be inside one of the zones.

100261 FIG. 3 depicts, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a computing-infrastructure part of the disclosed system in response to the request made by the mobile-computing device.

100271 FIG. 4 depicts, according to one embodiment of the present invention, a computing-infrastructure part of a mobile-transaction platform. where the platform incorporates the disclosed system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

100281 The following definitions are used herein in the specification and the appended claims. The word "product" means a physical thing or a service provided by a merchant rather than a typical meaning of the physical thing only. "A trading site" means a physical area or space that has a defined boundary substantially unambiguous to an ordinary person and is used for doing selling and buying of prodncts. A trading site may include pubhc places such as corridors, lobbies and foyers for people to access different parts of the site.

Examples of a trading site include a mall having a plurality of retail stores, a single shop. a single restaurant, or a shopping complex with a variety of retail stores, restaurants, etc. If, for example, a trading site is a shopping mall occupying an entire building, the boundary of the trading site is thc boundary dcfincd by thc building's outcirnost structures. "A merchant shop" means a retail shop run by a merchant. Optionally, a merchant shop may comprise a plurality of departmcnts each selling a unique category of products. "A mobile-computing device" is a portable electronic device having computing power and configured to be used by a human user. For example. a mobile-computing device may he a smartphone or a handheld tablet computer. "A cloud" is construed and interpreted in the sense of cloud computing or, synonymously. distributed computing over a network unless otherwise specified.

Page 5 100291 Herein in the specification and the appended claims, "product-discovery inlormation" relers to inlormation that enables a person to identify and pmcure one or more products that may he of interest to the person for purchase. Product-discovery information may include availability information indicating a list of products physically located nearby the person. As an option, it is possible that the list provides the products avai'able in a nearby trading site. Furtheimore, product-discovery information may be personalized or customized.

As an example. the person may have already indicated in a certain social-networking site that certain brands are his or her favorites, and items in the list of products are selected from products offered by these brands. Product-discovery information may further include promotional information, such as availability of discounts or other sale-incentive offers for one or more items in the list of products. Product-discovery information may also include one or more coupons as a sale-incentive offer to increase the person's motivation to make a purchase. To enahle (lie person to procure a product that the person desires, location information of the desired product may be included in product-discovery information.

F00301 Tt is desired to achieve product discovery and provide good shopping experience to people when they visit, or are about to visit, a trading site. The inventors have observed that. not all people have definite lists of products to be purchased when the people are about to enter the trading site. It is often many people's experience that they make ad hoc purchasing decisions in situ. It implies that they often do not have clear ideas on what to do (i.e. to actually purchase or to do window shopping only) unless being appealed by products. The inventors have ohserved that it is a phenomenon of peace of mind, and that the presence of peace of mind is deemed a piece of enjoyable shopping experience to many pcoplc. From a merchant's perspective, it is desirable to motivate potential customers to at least enter into the trading site such that there is a chance!èr the potential customers to he appealed by the products therein. The need for peace of mind to achieve enjoyahle shopping experience can be utilized by the merchant through strategically introducing a product-discovery stage as illustrated in the following example.

F00311 Consider an example scenario that a customer visits a shopping mall. FIG. I contains a table showing the states of mind of the customer at different locations of the mall, and what a merchant can do in order to keep the peace of mind for the customer. When the customer comes close to the mall and is near an entrance thereof, the customer does not have an exact idea on what he intends to purchase. It is advantagcous that the merchant can trigger his interest to at least visit the mall by providing him with a list of products that he may like or favor. To keep a peaceful mind, at this stage the customer may not have made a decision Page 6 on the products that he is going to purchase. After entering So the mall, it is possible that the customer strolls around the mall, hut still does not have a strong idea on what he intends to buy. When he approaches a nearby retail store, the merchant can indirectly help him to make up a clearer picture on, or even to confirm, what he intends to buy through narrowing down the list of introduced products. After he enters into the store, he may have a list of favorite products he wants to buy. Advantageously, the merchant may refresh or even further narrow down the list of introduced products, and point out to him where he can get these products. While he roams from one department to another department, the customer is most likely to have a much clearer idea of what he wishes to purchase. As such, the merchant. may point out to him the location(s) of the department(s) having the products that he wishes to buy.

When the customer reaches the vicinity of an exact point of interest holding one or more products that he wants, since he knows what he wishes to buy. he wants to know the exact point (such as a particular shelf) where the product(s) can he lound. The merchant may provide this answer to him for keeping him peace of mind.

F00321 Generalized from the aforementioned example. it is observed that keeping a peaceful mind for a person in general and a potential customer in particular is advafflageously achievable by providing product-discovery information when he is at or comes close to an entrance of a trading site. The trading site is not only limited to a mall, but also includes other premises such as a merchant shop. Furthermore, it is observed that the person can advantageously receive customized zonal experience or zone-based experience for enhancing his shopping experience, where the zonal experience is obtained and varies when the person travels in the tradthg site from one zone to another zone. Iii particular, the zonal experience is preferably obtained with a converging list of introduced products for product discovery while the customer is (raveling from one zone to another. It is also observed that in the later stage olthe person's travel in the trading site, the product-discovery process is preferred to focus on providing location information of the desired products.

100331 ffi the present invention, a first aspect thereof is to provide a system for providing product-discovery information based on zone awareness.

10034] With the pervasiveness of mobile-computing devices, the system is customized to provide the product-discovery information upon receiving a request from a mobile-computing device that travels, or is traveling. inside or outside a trading site such as a mall or a merchant shop. In general. the mobile-computing device is carried by a person visiting or about to visit the trading site. Hereinafter this person is referred to as "a visitor." As is mentioned above.

the mobile-computing device may be a smartphone or a handheld tablet computer. The Page 7 mobile-computing device provides a user interface to the visitor. The visitor is allowed to interact with the mobile-computing device to gain product-discovery information from the system. To achieve zone awareness, the mobile-computing device is at least configured to wirelessly receive a beacon signal and to execute a software application receivable from the system. The beacon signal enables the mobile-computing device to determine the device's physical location, or at least a distance relative to a certain reference point such as the location of an equipment that generates the beacon signaL The software apphcation is required to be executable on the mobile-computing device. For example, if the mobile-computing device is a smartphone running under a particular computing environment such as an iOS environment or an Android environment, the software application will he a mobile application also running under this particular computing environment.

100351 The disclosed system comprises a zone-establishing part and a computing-infrastructure part. The zone-estahhshing part is installed in a trading site for establishing a plurality of zones so as to provide geographical references for the mobile-computing device of the visitor to detect, thereby providing zone awareness to the device. The computing-infrastructure part includes computing facilities for responding to the request made by the mobile-computing device for product-discovery information.

100361 Exemplarily, the zone-establishing part of the disclosed system is illustrated with an aid of FIG. 2, which depicts a floor plan of a shopping mall 200. Without loss of generality, the shopping mall 200 is treated as a trading site in the forthcoming illustration unless otherwise stated. The shopping mall 200 has the following interior-design characteristics for the sake of assisting illustration of the disclosed system only; these characteristics do not form any limitation to the present invention. The shopping mall 200 has a defined boundary 201, a number of merchant shops 210-214, a mall entrance 231 for allowing people to enter or leave the shopping mall 200, and a lobby 206 as a public place in the shopping nrnll 200 not belonging to any of the merchant shops 210-214.

100371 The zone-establishing part of the system comprises plural beacon-generating devices 230, 240, 250, 260,270,280,290 installed in the shopping maIl 200. Each of the beacon-generating devices 230, 240, 250. 260. 270, 280, 290 is configured to wirclessly broadcasting a copy of the beacon signal. In particular. the broadcast of the copies of the beacon signal by the beacon-generating devices 230, 240, 250. 260. 270. 280, 290 causes plural zones 235, 243, 244, 245, 255, 265, 275, 285, 295 to he established inside or outside the shopping mall 200. As an example shown in FIG. 2, the zone 235, established by the beacon-generating device 230 located near the mall entrance 231, is partly inside and partly Page 8 outside the shopping mall 200, whereas the other zones 243, 244, 245, 255, 265, 275, 285, 295 are all inside the shopping mall 200. Furthermore, each of the zones is identi fled by a zone identifier. The zone identifier is determinable by the mobile-computing device via a number of methods. For example, information on the zone identifier may be embedded into the copy of the beacon signal broadcast by a beacon-generating device. In another example, the copy of the beacon signal may include a device identifier for identifying the beacon-generating device that transmits the beacon-signal copy. and the zone identifier is determined according to the device identifier and additional information contained in the software application for mapping the device identifier to the zone identifier. The method of the latter example is particularly useful if one beacon-generating device is intended to establish a plurality of zones.

100381 By establishing the zones through broadcasting the copies of the beacon signal.

and by executing the software application received from the disclosed system to configure the mobile-computing device, the mobile-computing device is enabled to deterniine whether it is inside any zone based on detecting any received beacon signal. When the mobile-computing device is determined to be inside one of the zones, the software application further configures the mobile-computing device to determine the zone identifier thereof, and to prepare the request for product-discovery information. In the preparation of the request, the zone identifier is embedded into the request so that the system will be notified of the zone that the mobile-computing device (or the visitor) resides in. Since the product-discovery information is required to he personalized to the visitor, the request is prepared by further including a customer identifier into the request. The customer identifier is required to be understandable by the system. For example, the customer identifier may be the visitor's name or his nickrame earlier registered in the system. The mobile-computing device may acquire the customer identifier by asking the visitor through the user interface of the mobile-computing device. Although the visitor enters into one of the zones, the mobile-computing device is not always required to send the request to the system for requesting the product-discovery information. If a copy of product-discovery information earlier obtained in response to the same request is ah'eady present in the mobile-computing device and is not expired. it is not necessary to resend the request to the system.

100391 As is generalized and mentioned above, when the visitor comes close to the shopping mall 200 and is near the mall entrance 231, the visitor may not have an exact idea on what he intends to purchase, so that keeping a peaceful mind for the visitor is achievable by providing product-discovery information personalized and customized to him. The Page 9 mobile-computing device is enabled to send the request for product-discovery information to the system when die visitor approaches the mall entrance 231 only if one particular beacon-generating device is installed at a location of thc shopping mall 200 in ordcr that the resultant zone covers the mall entrance 231. In FIG. 2, this particular beacon-generating device is the beacon-generating device 230 and the resultant zone is the zone 235. Notice that part of the zone 235 is outside the shopping mall 200. Having some part of the zone 235 outside the mall 200 is advantageous in that, as mentioned above, a person's interest to visit the mall 200 may be triggered by having the product-discovery information when this person is still outside the mall 200. It is also noticed that the example scenario of FIG. 2 assumes that the trading site is the shopping mall 200. In sonic situations, it is possible that the owner of the shopping mall 200 does not authorize installation of any beacon-generating device in the public area thereof, but a merchant of a merchant shop desires to have such installation in his own shop. Consider another example scenario that offly die merchant shop 210. which is a trading site under consideration, is installed with beacon-generating devices. Providing peace of mind to the visitor is possible by first having the beacon-generating device 250 installed in the shop 210 so as to create the zone 255 to cover an entrance 251 of the shop 210.

Generalizing the observations made in the two example scenarios yields the following exemplary arrangement of the disclosed system. At least one of the beacon-generating devices is installed at a location in the trading site such that a first one of the zones includes an entrance of the trading site and such that at least part of the first one of the zones is outside the trading site. Thereby the mobile-computing device is allowed to obtain the product-discovery information before the mobile-computing device enters into the trading site.

100401 In the establishment of the zones, it is necessary to have a boundary or perimeter defined for each of the zones. In one practical approach, a region occupied by an individual zone is defined such that the copy of the beacon signal broadcast from one selected beacon- generating device and received at a location in the region has a power level within a pre-determined range chosen for the aforesaid individual zone. It follows that the individual zone has a substantially annular or substantially circular shape centered at the aforementioned selected beacon-generating device. As an example shown in FIG. 2, the beacon-generating device 240 establishes the zones 243. 244, 245. The zone 243 is substantially similar to a circle having a centre located at the beacon-generating device 240. and can be defined as having a power level of the received beacon signal (e.g., measured at the mobile-computing device) to be greater than a certain first threshold value. The zone 244, which is substantially annular in shape, can be defined such that the received power level is between a second Page 10 threshold value and the first threshold value, where the second threshold value is lower than the first one. Similarly, the outermost zone 245. also having a substantially annular shape.

can he defined such that the received power level is between a third threshold value and the second threshold value where the third one is lower than the second one. From FIG. 2, it is also seen that the substantially circular zone 243 has an (outer) radius shorter than an outer radius of the substantially annular zone 244. and the outermost substantially annular zone 245 has an even greater outer radius than the outer radius of the zone 244. In the aforementioned example, the three concentric zones 243, 244, 245 are installed in the lobby 206. There is no implication that multiple concentric zones need to be established in. or only in, this particular part of the trading site. Establishing multiple concentric zones or just one zone for one beacon-generating device is generally decided based on practical needs.

100411 Preferably, the aforementioned practical approach is realizable by means of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. That is, a BLE device is used as a beacon-generating device.

F00421 According to practical needs, zones established in a trading site may or may not have substantially similar sizes. For providing differentiated zonal experience for the visitor when he travels from one zone to another, it may be desirable to establish zones of different sizes. In one embodiment, the established zones are classified into at least two groups of zones, one group for wide-coverage zones and another group for close-proximity zones where a wide-coverage zone is defined to he bigger than a dose-proximity zone in size.

100431 The Bluetooth technology is generally used for picocefi communications over a rtmgc of within -40m. and BLE devices may be used as beacon-generating devices. As an example, one may define that the wide-coverage zone has an outer radius greater than lOrn.

100441 The wide-coverage zone can he used by the system to discover as many people as possihle when they approach a particular location. In nile use, the wide-coverage zone may be established at the entrance of the trading site (for example, the zone 235 in FIG. 2) for certain practical advantages such as iiicreasing the opportunity to draw more people to enter into the trading site.

100451 The close-proximity zone can he used by the system for micro-location detection of the visitor. As is mentioned above, the product-discovery process is preferred to focus on providing location information of desired products in a later stage of the visitor's visit in the trading site. One or more close-proximity zones are preferably set up for providing such location information. In this regard. each of these close-proximity zones provides micro-location information. In one example, the visitor considers that the micro-location Page 11 information is valuable to him if the mobile-computing device can point out to him that the product lie wants to procure is within -Im from his current location. Alerting the visitor for such short distance within -Im by the mobile-computing device also provides an additional opportunity for the merchant to more easily do targeted marketing to the visitor as the desired product is nearby. As an example, a close-proximity zone may be defined to have an outer radius not greater than 2m. In an example provided in FIG. 2, the merchant shop 210 has product-holding shelves 271, 281, 291, which are at least partially covered by the close-proximity zones 275, 285. 295 established by the beacon-generating devices 270, 280, 290, respectively.

100441 To further enhance shopping experience, the mobile-computing device may he configured to alert the visitor with an alerting signal upon arrival of the product-discovery information before the visitor (or the mobile-computing device) enters into the trading site (the mall 200 in FIG. 2), where the alerting signal is customized according to a "weight" of the product-discovery information. namely, a degree of relevance of the information to the visitor. As an option, the alerting signal may he an audio signal provided by the mobile-computing device, or a mechanical signal produced by vibration of the mobile-computing device. The weight of the product-discovery information may be obtained by computing a consumer utility value of the arrived product-discovery infoimation. The consumer utility value is an indicator of the usefulness of the product-discovery information to the visitor. In one example, this value is computed by summing up the saving provided by discounts offered to the list of reported products in the product-discovery information. In another example, this value is the number of reported products that the visitor has indicated to be his favorites. The alerting signal generated by the mobile-computing device may have a signal amplitude dependent on the consumer utility value, or may exhibit a time pattern determined by the consumer utility value. The generation of the a'erting signal can he controlled by the software application provided from the disclosed system and executed by the mobile-computing device.

100471 Apart from the zone-establishing part as detailed above, the disclosed system further includes the computing-infrastructure part used for responding to the request issued from the mobile-computing device for product-discovery information. FIG. 3 exemplarily depicts a computing-infrastructure part of the system. The computing-infrastructure part comprises a first hackcnd server 320 for receiving and responding to a request from a mobile-computing device 310, and a second backend server 330 for sending a copy of the software application to the mobile-computing device 310 when requested by the mobile-computing Page 12 device 310. The first backend server 320 includes a first database 325 for storing at least information of products availaffle in the trading site (e.g., the shopping mall 200). The second hackend server 330 includes a second database 335 for storing at least the software application. Optionally, the first database 325 or the second database 335 is a distributed database in a cloud. Both of the databases 325, 335 may also be distributed databases in the cloud.

100481 After receiving the request from the mobile-computing device 310, the first backend server 320 searches the first database 325, and returns to the mobile-computing device 310 with the information of selected products available at one or more places in the trading site and associated with the zone corresponding to the received zone identifier in the request. The returned information is the product-discovery information. In particular, the first backend server 320 selects the selected products only from items in a list of products associated with the consumer identifier. Most often the aforementioned one or more places are in the trading site. The present invention, however, is not limited by this geographical arrangement.

100491 Optionally, the one or more places associated with one of the zones collectively form the trading site. As a result, a user of the mobile-computing device 310 is alerted with the product-discovery information of selected products available in the trading site before the user enters into the trading site in order to entice the user to make a visit thereto.

100501 As is mentioned above, the product-discovery information may further include promotional information. The product-discovery information returned by the first hackend server 320 may include one or more sale-incentive offers customized according to the customer identifier in the request. from the mobile-computing device 310.

100511 In general, the system is required to maintain the first database 325 from time to time with an updated list of products associated with the customer identifier. At present, it is fashionable that people follow particular brands and/or particular merchant shops (for instance, famous shops). In addition, it is fashionable that people give LIKEs to brands or shops that they favor via social-networking sites. In one option, the system may obtain the updated list by regularly checking the social-networking sites.

100521 Usually, the first baekend server 320 and the second backend server 330 are connectable to the Internet 340. The mobile-computing device 310 sends the request for product-discovery information to the first hackend server 320 via the Internet 340. If the mobile-computing device 310 desires to download the software application, such request is also sent to the second backend server 330 via the Internet 340. Being portable, the mobile-Page 13 computing device 310 most often connects to the Internet 340 via a wireless secure channel 315 in order to reach the Iirst and the second hackend servers 320, 330. Examples of communication systems supporting establishment of the wireless secure channel 315 include IEEE 802.1 lb/gIn WiFi. Bluetooth 4.0. and a 2.SGI3GI4G mobile data network.

100531 In one embodiment, the first backend server 320 further comprises a third database 326 for recording a time history of the zones traversed by the mobile-computing device 310. and is further configured to identify a route that has been traveled by the mohfle-computing device 310 in the trading site. The information provided by the identified route can be utilized by the first backend server 320 to customize the product-discovery information to he returned to the mohfle-computing device 310. With a knowledge of the visitor's journey in the trading site, zonal presentation of product information with customized marketing inducements is made possible. Furthermore, this knowledge enables creation of "a virtual shopping assistant" on the mobile-computing device 310 to humanize shopping experience in the trading site. In one implementation option, the third database is a distributed database in the cloud.

100541 A second aspect of the present invention is to provide a mobile-transaction platform that incorporates the system disclosed in the first aspect of the present invention.

When a visitor who visits a trading site has decided to buy a certain product of a certain merchant shop in the trading site, it is highly desirable that the (mobile) transaction between the visitor, also a customer, and a merchant that runs the merchant shop can he accomplished in a convenient. simp'e way and in a quick manner, so as to provide peace of mind and hence further enhancing shopping cxper encc to the customer.

100551 The disclosed platform is used for sending product-discovery information of products to a mobile-computing device and processing a mobile transaction with the mohfle-computing device when the mobile-computing device travels inside or outside a trading site.

The disclosed platform comprises a zone-establishing part and a computing-infrastructure part. The zone-establishing part of the platform is substantially similar to that of the system disclosed above in the first aspect of the present invention. The computing-infrastructure part of the platform is illustrated as follows with an aid of FIG. 4, which depicts an exemplary computing-infrastructure part. As shown in FIG. 4. the platform incorporates the computing-infrastructure part of the above-disclosed system for at least providing product-discovery information to the mobile-computing device. The platform further comprises a transaction server 430 for handling the mobile transaction. The transaction server 430 may be a physical server, or a virtual server in a cloud. At the trading site, a transaction terminal 420 Page 14 communicable with the transaction server 430 is installed. Depending on practical needs, multip'e transaction terminals may he instafled in the trading site. Prelerably, the transaction terminal 420 sets up a wireless link 425 with the Internet 340 such that the transaction server 430 is reachable. The use of the wireless link 425 also offers an advantage that the transaction terminal 420 is portable, allowing easy installation at the trading site. Optionally and typically. the wireless link 425 is a secure one. As one example. the wireless link 425 that is secure can he realized on a 2.5G13G14G mobile data network.

100561 Tn making the mobile transaction for a purchase of a product, a mobile-computing device 310 is used as a machine representative to a customer or a payer for authorizing payment to a merchant in order to buy the product while the transaction terminal 420 is an agent representing a merchant to process the transaction. When the payer wishes to confirm the transaction and authorize payment to the merchant, the mobile-computing device 310 sends the confirmation and the authorization to the transaction terminal 420 through a communication channel 415. preferably wireless and secure. In one practical option, the communication channel 415 is established based on Near Field Communication (NFC). The receipt of the confirmation and the authorization causes the transaction terminal 420 to communicate with the transaction server 430 for completing the mobile transaction. The transaction terminal 420 sends the authonzation obtained from the payer to request the transaction server 430 to execute the transfer of funds from the payer's account to the merchant's account. Possibly. the transaction server 430 is run by a hank or a financial institution capable of making such transfer. However, for a number of practical reasons such as security, it is preferable that the transaction server 430 is run by the owner of disclosed platform, and that the transaction server 430 further interacts with one or more financial institutions to complete the mobile transaction. The transaction server 430 reports to the merchant whether the transfer is successful or not. It maybe done by sending a transaction-success or a transaction-failure message to the transaction terminal 420, although the transaction server 430 may instead send this message to the merchant's another computing device. The transaction server 430 may additionally send the transaction-success or the transaction-faflure message to the mobile-computing device 310 through the wireless link 315 to inform the customer.

100571 Practically, the software application in the second database 335 is prepared with instruction codes to further configure the mobile-computing device 310 to interact with the transaction terminal 420 in processing the mobile transaction.

Page 15 100581 The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereol The present embodiment is therelore to he considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced (herein.

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Claims

What is claimed is: 1. A system for providing product-discovery information upon receiving a request from a mobile-computing device traveling inside or outside a trading site, the mobile-computing device being at least configured to wirelessly receive a beacon signal and to execute a software application receivable from the system, the system comprising: plural beacon-generating devices each instaflcd in the trading site and configured to wirelessly broadcast a copy of the beacon signal; a first backend server for receiving and responding to the request from the mobile-computing device, the first hackend server including a first database for storing at Icast information of products available in thc trading sitc; and a second backend server for sending a copy of the software application to the mobile-computing device when requested, the second hackend server including a sccond databasc for storing at least the software application: wherein: the broadcasting of the copies of the beacon signal by the beacon-generating devices causes plural zones, each being identified by a Lone identifier, to be established inside or outside the trading site; the software application, when executed by the mobile-computing device, configures the mobile-computing device: (a) to determine, based on detecting any received beacon signal, whether the mobile-computing device is inside any zonc; and (b) whcn thc mobilc-computing dcvicc is dctcimincd to bc inside a zone, to determine the zone identifier thereof, to prepare the request by including the determined zone identifier and a consumer identifier in the request, and to send the request to the first hackend server unless a copy of product-discovery information obtained in response to the request is already present in the mobile-computing device and is not expired; the first hackend server, after receiving the request, returns to the mobile-computing device the information of selected products avaflahlc at one or more places associated with the zone corresponding to the received zone identifier as the product-discovery information, wherein the first backend server selects the sdccted products only from items in a list of products associated with the consumer identifier; and Page 17 at least one of the beacon-generating devices is installed at a location in the trading site such that a first one ol the zones includes an entrance of the trading site and such that at least part of the first one of the zones is outside the trading site, thereby allowing the mobile-computing device to obtain the product-discovery information before the mobile-computing device enters into the trading site.
2. The system of claim 1. wherein the trading site comprises a mall.
3. The system of claim I, wherein the trading site comprises a merchant shop.
4. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the one or more places associated with the first one of the zones collectively lorm the trading site.
5. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first hackend server further includes a third database for recording a time history of the zones traversed by the mobile-computing device, and is further configured to identify a route that has been traveled by the mobile-computing device in the trading site and to utilize information provided by the identified route to customize the product-discovery information to he returned to the mobile-computing device.
6. The system of claim 5, wherein the third database is a distributed database in a cloud.
7. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein an individual tone is a region having a suhstantially annular or substantially circular shape centered at one selected beacon-generating device, and the region is defined such that the copy of the beacon signal broadcast from this selected beacon-generating device and received at a location in the region has a power level within a pre-determined range chosen for the aforesaid individual zone.
8. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the zones are classified into at least a first group of zones and a second group of zones, any zone in the first group being classified as a wide-coverage zone and any zone in the second group being Page 18 classified as a close-proximity zone, where the wide-coverage zone is bigger than the close-proximity zone iii size.
9. The system of claim 8, wherein each wide-coverage zone has an outer radius greater than lOm.
10. The system of claim 8. wherein the first one of the zones is realized as the wide-coverage zone.
11. The system of claim 8. wherein each close-proximity zone has an outer radius not greater than 2m.
12. The system of claim 8, and eaims 9 to 11 when dependent on daim 8 wherein: the trading site comprises a merchant shop having plural shelves: and one or more of the beacon-generating devices arc arranged to define plural close-proximity zones in the merchant shop such that each of the shelves is at least partially covered by one of the close-proximity zones.
13. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein one or more or all of the beacon-generating devices are Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices.
14. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first or the second backend server communicates with the mobile-computing device through a secure wireless channel.
15. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first or the second database is a distributed database in a cloud.
16. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the product-discovery information returned by the first backend server includes one or more sale-incentive offers customized according to the customer identifier.

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17. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the product-discovery inlormation returned by the first hackend server includes one or more coupons as a sale-incentive offer.
18. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the software application, when executed in the mobile-computing device, further configures the mobile-computing device to, upon arrival of the product-discovery information before the mobile-computing device enters into the trading site, calculate a consumer utility value of the arrived product-discovery information and generate an alerting signal, where the alerting signal has a signal magnitude dependent on the consumer utility value or exhibits a time pattern determined by the consumer utility value.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the alerting signal is an audio signal. or a mechanical signal produced by vibration of the mobile-computing device.
20. A system for providing product-discovery information, comprising: a mobile-computing device at least configured to wirelessly receive a beacon signal and to execute a software application; and the system of any one of claims 1 to 20, so that a user of the mobile-computing device is alerted with the product-discovery information of selected products available in the trading site before the user enters thereinto.
21. A platform for sending product-discovery information of products to a mobile-computing device and processing a mobile transaction with the mobile-computing device when the mobile-computing device travels inside or outside a trading site, the mobile-computing device being at least configured to wirelessly receive a beacon signal and to execute a software application receivable from the platform, the platform comprising: the system as set forth in any of claims 1-20 for at east providing product-discovery information to the mobile-computing device; a transaction server for handling the mobile transaction; and one or more transaction terminals installed in the trading site and communicable with the transaction server; Page 20 wherein the software application, when executed by the mobile-computing device, further conligures the mobile-computing device to communicate with one of the transaction terminals when performing the mobile transaction, causing the said one of the transaction terminals to communicate with the transaction server for processing the mobile transaction.
22. The platform of claim 21, wherein the transaction server is a virtual server in a cloud.
23. The platform of claim 21 or claim 22, wherein one or more or all of the transaction terminals are configured to he communicable with the transaction server through distinct secure wireless links.
24. A system for providing product-discovery information upon receiving a request from a mobile-computing device traveling inside or outside a trading site, substantially as hereinhefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
25. A platform for sending product-discovery information of products to a mobile-computing device and processing a mobile transaction with the mobile-computing device when the mobile-computing device travels inside or outside a trading site, substantially as hereinhefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.Page 21