MXPA00000421A - Printed coupons with embedded discounts for online purchases - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for providing discounts in e-commerce transactions comprising printing a discount coupon (2) with human readable information describing the incentive, product, vendor, and a machine-readable symbol (2b) such as a linear or two-dimensional bar code symbol. The symbol is encoded with data fields comprising a first identifier associated with the Internet Protocol address of a vendor's computer, optionally, a second identifier associated with the discount applied to a product, optionally, a third identifier associated with the targeted consumer, and optionally, instructions to enable a computer to access a client program. The method also comprises the steps of disseminating the discount coupon (2);scanning the machine-readable coupon symbol;decoding the scanned data to generate the vendor's IP address;launching the client program to enable access to the online system;communicating with the vendor's host computer;and downloading a file from the vendor's host computer associated with the scanned coupon (2).

Description

PRINTED COUPONS WITH INCREDATED DISCOUNTS FOR ONLINE PURCHASES CROSS REFERENCE FOR RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority of the 5 United States application correlated with serial number 08 / 967,383, filed on November 8, 1997; and claims the priority of the United States application correlated with serial number 09 / 023,918, filed on February 13, 1998; and demands the priority of the provisional request of States United States correlated with serial number 60 / 052,597, filed July 15, 1997; all of which are assigned to the assignee of the present application and which is included by reference herein. TECHNICAL FIELD 15 The present application relates to online commerce, and in particular to the use of printed coupons that have purchase discounts embedded in symbols for machine reading such as bar codes that allow the user to obtain discounts for online purchases. 20 BACKGROUND OF THE TECHNIQUE Online commerce, particularly the so-called e-commerce, or "e-commerce", was published due to the increase in the use of open-line systems such as the Internet, as well as online patent systems as AMERICA ONLINE and COMPUSERVE. The E-Commerce can be considered a method for -jM-fc- = SMigafe.'l-laC g ^^^ j ^ jj ^ »^ j ^ gg ^ execution of a transaction that allows two computers to exchange certain information so that a provider will receive value in the form of payment and the buyer, in return, will receive value in the form of products or services. Thus, for example, a typical e-commerce transaction on the Internet will be included by a consumer who accesses the server computer of a provider through a World Wide Web browser, and downloads a page from that server that offers a lamp. for twenty dollars. The consumer will buy it lamp by entering your credit card information (optionally in a secure way such as through encryption) in your browser and transmitting the information to the provider server through the Internet. The server computer validate the transaction by verifying the credit card number with a clearing institution, and after receiving the approval of the payment, arrange the sending of the lamp to the consumer. As in the direct mail purchase scenario, the consumer receives the lamp in due time and is billed to his card credit, and the provider receives payment from the credit card institution for the transaction. Of course, there are numerous ways to make the payment of goods and services that offer varying degrees of security and ease of use, but the paradigm of the selection of goods and the electronic payment remains constant for any ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ The previous scenario has become popular due to the high degree of convenience and the low cost it provides both to the consumer and to the suppliers. Any consumer with access to the Internet could use the system, and any provider with access to the Internet can sell their merchandise or services. However, this scenario does not allow the use of a system of purchase incentives such as coupons that are currently widespread in commerce. That is, the coupon system, which provides discounts to certain consumers to select products at the point of purchase, is not available in the e-commerce system. Although a supplier could provide discounts to online shoppers at the point of sale (ie after they entered the site), there is no method to provide coupon-type incentives to consumers to go online and actually initiate the transaction Online to receive the discount for online purchase. Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a system that allows providers provide purchase incentives such as coupons to users to encourage them to enter a provider's website and carry out the transaction online. It is also an object of the invention to provide a system that allows the propagation of the traditional printed coupons that could be linked with the incentives for online purchases. Another objective of the present invention is to provide such a system that allows the delivery of special coupons so that certain special consumers receive a first type of purchase discount and some other special consumers receive a different type of purchase discount. DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method for providing purchase incentives or discounts in an e-commerce online transaction comprising the steps for printing a discount coupon, the coupon comprises human readable information that describes at least part of the incentive or offer, product information, supplier information or equivalent, and an easy to read machine symbol such as a linear bar code symbol. The symbol is encoded with data fields comprising a first identifier associated with the Internet Protocol address of a host host computer, optionally, a second identifier associated with a discount amount to be applied to a product or group of products , optionally, a third identifier associated with the consumer to whom the discount coupon is addressed, an instruction for a computer to execute . * Jra-Mnfia3j «ab, j» -. ~ * me < áñ-. -. * & . ~, ~ a client's program allowing access to the online system, such as a World Wide Web browser program. The method also comprises the steps for propagating the discount coupon to a consumer or group of target consumers, or optionally to the general public; explore the easy-to-read coupon symbol by machine on the consumer's computer; decode the scanned data to generate the provider's IP address; start the client's program to allow access to the online system; communicate with the host (host) computer of the provider using the decoded IP address; and download a file from the host computer of the provider associated with the scanned coupon, the file contains information regarding the discount that will be applied to allow the user Make a purchase decision. If the user chooses to make a purchase online, then the choice is communicated to the supplier's computer, the discount related to the coupon is applied and the payment and delivery process is carried out to allow the supplier to charge the purchase price Y the user obtains the purchased product. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES These and other objects and features of the invention will be described in relation to the illustrations. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the system of the present invention; riÉ ^ ßtflÉi Figure 2 is a flowchart of the coupon generation process; and Figure 3 is a flow diagram of the online coupon and rescue process. 5 THE BEST WAY TO CARRY OUT THE INVENTION The preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the Figures. The dotted line portion ("Online coupon generation") refers to the generation and printing of e-commerce coupons 2 that will be useful to explore and provide a discount for an e-commerce transaction online. The coupon comprises two parts; a human easy reading portion 2A and an easy reading portion per machine 2b as a bar code symbol. The portion of human easy reading contains text information and / or graphics that are usually found on a coupon or other type of incentive or advertising such as the name of the supplier, product information, etc. Coupon 2 must also inform the user that scanning the barcode on your computer will allow a discount for an online purchase. The discount amount appear, or optionally not appear so that the user is encouraged to go online in order to find out the amount of the discount at the "point of purchase" online. 25 The easy reading portion by machine 2b would be É-M. It is typically a linear or two-dimensional bar code such as a PDF417 bar code, which is well known in the art. Of course, any bar code with sufficient information density to be encoded with the required information, and potentially the optional information to be described herein, be used within the spirit and scope of the present invention. In addition, other types of easy-to-read symbols or badges also be used per machine. The bar code symbol is encoded with several information fields, depending on the mode used by the supplier that prints the coupon. The data fields 4 that can be encoded in the bar code symbol are described below: 1. Provider IP Address - The address of the Internet Protocol (IP) is encrypted in order to allow the user's computer to automatically access the provider's host computer. The IP address can be directly encoded in IP protocol (format aa.b.ce.dd), or the provider URL can be used (http://www.company.com), which must be resolved in the IP address by means of the Internet Domain Name system as is well known in the art. Regarding the United States codependent patent application with serial number 08/967, 383, which is included as a reference herein, a two-dimensional bar code may be used as a PDF417 bar code symbol to conveniently encode a relatively large amount of data, 5 including the URL of the target provider as well as the identifier resource that indicates to the provider's server computer the identity of the resource (ie the product offer) to be used, the demographic information related to the user to whom the offer of coupon, and an optional encryption key that can be used by the client's computer (user) to encode the number of his credit card to use it in the execution of the online transaction. You can also include a target discount amount so that different users can acquire different discounts or other types of incentives. The inclusion in bar code symbol of an encryption key is especially useful in this embodiment, since it allows the user to code the sensitive information such as your credit card number, and then transmit it with the http request for the product offer on the Internet. Because the provider knows the encryption key that the user has used (either because the provider distributes only one key or because you can search for the local key or remotely using the associated demographic information received with the http request), you can easily decode the credit card number (or other sensitive information such as the account number in a bank) to complete the transaction. In that way the user can complete the sensitive shopping transaction on the Internet without fear that the sensitive information will be pulled by an unscrupulous stealth listener. U.S. patent application serial number 09 / 023,918, which is also included in the present by reference, reveals an alternative way to embed the location information of the provider's computer into 1 target bar code. As shown therein, the same IP address (in a well-known "aa.bb.ce.dd" format) can be encoded within the bar code to avoid the need to use the domain name system to find the IP address of the memory (such as www, acmé.com). In this case, the target field ID or pointer may also be encoded in the bar code to allow the user to download the resource correct (file) of the server computer of the provider located at the coded IP address. The use of this type of coding also allows the use of a smaller bar code, such as a linear or one-dimensional bar code. The use of a linear bar code allows that the consumer uses a simpler type of scanner ^ ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 0 ^ 0 ^^^^ bar code that in the previous case of the barcode two-dimensional In another alternative, a pointer or resource code may be coded, which may be used by the user's computer to resolve (ie search) the URL in a local or remote database configured to provide such information. Thus, the word "acme" can be encoded in the bar code, and the user's computer could perform a search (remotely or locally) to obtain the URL or IP address associated with that identifier. The use of a stenographic identifier is useful in particular when trying to pack the data fields into a small symbol such as a linear bar code. In particular, the published international patent application No. PCT / US97 / 10689 (BARCODE ACCESS SYSTEM IN WORLD WIDE WEB)), which is included by reference herein, discloses a system that implements the use of a resource link code embedded in a bar code, that can be explored and used to search for an associated URL from an external or internal database of URLs. Alternatively, existing bar codes such as UPCs (Uniform Product Codes) can be used, which already exist in the products as well as in printed coupons. The UPC can be scanned, and an external search table or database can be accessed to determine the URL or IP address of the target provider's computer on the Internet. The URL is returned by the database to the user's computer, and then used in the normal course of operation to access the appropriate computer. 5 In addition, the two constituent portions of the UPC (the manufacturer's code and the article's code) can be used in the same way. That is, the user's computer can decipher the manufacturer's code from the scanned UPC and send it to the external database computer for find the appropriate URL for that coupon. The URL is returned to the user's computer, where it is then combined with the code portion of the decoded UPC article to, in consequence, generate a URL or http request. This is then sent to the appropriate computer provider and therefore the online transaction can proceed. For this embodiment, reference is made to the PCT patent application published under number PCT / US96 / 10592 (SYSTEM FOR USING TRADE ITEM ACCESS TO REMOTE COMPUTER), which is included by reference in the present. In this embodiment, it is provided that the user can buy a product such as a music CD, explore the UPC that is already on the CD, and obtain a Web page that allows him to buy another CD (maybe related) at a discount, if he consummates the purchase online. Thus, the incentive provided by the immediate invention is brought to - ^ a? É tá ai? I? I just finished with exploring the product itself instead of a separate coupon. In another embodiment, the introduction of a password or alias on the keyboard can be used to make a discount for an online purchase, without the need to actually scan a coupon or product. That is, an alias or nickname is entered into the user's computer, and used to search for the URL and IP address as mentioned above. Thus, the introduction of a default alias such as "CD_Discount" will return the URL or a special Network page that offers the consumer the purchase of a CD at an online discount. The particular discount can be modified from page to page, which could be accessed with different passwords different search maps at different times. Using this embodiment, a provider could print an advertisement with instructions for the user to type the alias only on a given day, and that a discount will be provided on that day exclusively for the online purchase. In this way the present invention is carried out without the need of having a scanner in the user's computer; typing the appropriate password is sufficient to provide the instant discount for the online transaction. For this reference is made to U.S. Patent No. 5,7604,906, which is included in the present by reference. 2. Incentive and / or product resource identifier - An identifier that designates the location of the file on the host computer of the provider that will provide the product information and / or incentive (discount) to the user. This can be encoded as part of the previous URL (http://www.compania.com/promocupon.html) or it can be a separate field. The resource identifier is optional, since the location of the default resource (for example, index.html) that the Web browser uses when it is not specified can be used by the provider to transmit the purchase and sale information. 3. Discount Identifier - the supplier can include a discount amount (percentage or absolute amount) in the bar code. This is useful in the situation where different discounts are directed to different groups of consumers, such as when regular customers get discounts of 10% but new potential customers get discounts of 20%. The intelligence of applying different discounts may also reside in the server, which could take demographic information and use it to determine the discount. 4. Consumer Identifier - The bar code may include data that is specific to a consumer or group of consumers in particular. So by | rfttfi¡ ^ Mggaaag | aj | ¡¡ilM example, bar codes can be printed using a database of specific consumers, so that the objective coupon of Juan Pérez has an identifier encoded in it that informs the server of the provider that Juan Pérez used the coupon (this can be a search pointer or equivalent). This allows the provider to track the redemption of the coupon for future targeted mailings. Note that the consumer identification can also be downloaded to the provider by extracting the resident information on the user's computer. 5. Client application start command Optionally, the barcode could be coded with a command to automatically start a client application such as a Web Browser, so that the online purchasing process is automated to a greater extent. So, for example, in a WINDOWS environment, the user will simply scan the voucher's bar code while in any application (or only on the Windows Desktop), and the Web browser's application start command would be decoded and cause it that the Web browser resident will be executed on the user's computer (and if necessary, dial the Internet Service Provider previously programmed by the user). If this option is omitted, then the user would have to invoke his Web browser in the usual way.

The information described above is input into a bar code generation program 6 suitable for encoding the input fields in a suitable continuous print stream to print the desired bar code symbol. This process is well known in the art and does not need to be described in detail. In addition, optional parameters related to the specific symbology that this invention uses can be used in this step. For example, the PDF417 symbology provides a redundancy-type security feature that protects against the lack of coding in partially corrupted symbols. This feature could be used by the entity that prints the bar codes to promote full utilization of the coupon processing system of this invention. In addition to the continuous flow of barcode printing data that is generated, a continuous flow of printing is also generated by the document presentation process 8 which will provide the presentation of the remainder of the printed coupon, i.e. the human readable portion of reading. . This is also a process well known in the art and does not need detailed description in the present. For example, it is possible that the coupon includes a graphic representation of the product with a discount, a text invitation to explore the coupon for an online purchase, an indication of the amount of j ^ ^? íti - ^ - áíi ^ -isi mÉ¡ ^^ s ^ - ^ - discount, etc. The continuous flow of bar code printing and the continuous flow of coupon presentation printing are then input to a print server 10 and / or a printer 12 as is well known in the art. The coupons are distributed among the general public, or a group of specifically chosen users, as appropriate. Thus, coupons are included in a direct mail program, such as inserts in newspapers or magazines, etc. He coupon can also be included as part of an advertisement or brochure, magazine, instruction manual included in a product (for example a buyer of a video game software package could receive a coupon for an online purchase of a joystick [lever control] ]), etc. 15 Once the user has received the online coupon and wants to make a purchase with it, he must scan the coupon with a barcode scanner element connected to his computer. This could be through the use of a dedicated barcode scanner as a scanning device by laser (as one of the variety of devices marketed by Symbol Technologies, Inc.) or an equivalent CCD scanning device. In the preferred embodiment, for the present invention a multipurpose document scanner 14 (As any of the variety of commercialized by Hewlett-Packard). The apparatus of ^ Jg ^ scan provides an electrical signal that is proportional to the bars and spaces of the scanned bar code symbol, and a decoder program operating on computer 16 (or included in the dedicated scanner) examines the patromes of the bars and the spaces to arrive at the original data encoded by the supplier in the generation stage of the coupon described above. The next steps to follow depend on the data that was decoded from the bar code symbol. If the Web browser start command was included, then the Web browser is invoked or otherwise the user must manually call the browser through a pointer selection action and the click action well known in the art. Once the user's computer is connected to the Internet, the decoded IP address of the bar code symbol is used to access the server's server computer. Of course, if only the URL was included, then the browser must first invoke the Domain Name Resolution process as is well known in the art in order to obtain the correct IP address of the provider. Similarly, if only one resource code pointer was coded, then the user's computer uses it to resolve (ie search) the URL in a local or remote database configured to provide that information.

Once the host server computer of the provider is accessed, the resource associated with the coupon is downloaded to the user's browser in a manner well known in the art. The user can see the information related to the article or articles available for sale, as well as the prices and the discount or other information, and make his purchase choice based on these data. If the user decides to buy the item, they will have the discount available and will make the payment in one of many payment systems by Internet, or through any conventional system such as C.O.D., telephone call with credit card number, etc. All that is required is that the user has available a discount on the purchase price through the use of their online coupon. 15 The discount amount can be obtained directly from a data packet transmitted with the user's HTTP request to access the provider's file. That is, the discount amount can be obtained directly from the coupon, which is useful when the provider wishes to provide different discount amount to different target user. If all discounts are equal, then that information can be kept on the provider's server. In this case, the supplier could have some kind of identifier of the coupon explored that indicates the discount that must be applied. In the alternative, the resource obtained by the ^ y ^ ^ m ^ mÉt m user exploring the coupon can be available only through a password included in the coupon, so that only the target users have the possibility to access the web page. This is how in this invention, many ways of providing a discount amount are addressed.

Of particular value to the provider in the present invention is the collection of demographic data that relate to the redemption and use of the coupon. So the convenience is that the information related to the identity of the user is provided to the provider's server during the transaction. As explained above, if such information is made available to the provider in advance, some or all of the demographic information (eg name, age, gender, address, hobbies, occupation, income level, etc.) could be included with the coded data in the barcode. In this case, the provider may have a database of potential users, each of whom will be sent online coupons. The provider could then make intelligent decisions regarding the future sending of coupons, because he knows (1) to whom the coupons were sent, (2) who access the online purchase offer, and (3) who made the purchase. actually. In the alternative to include the demographic data in the bar code, a consumer ID can be included, which the provider can link in its database to obtain the previous rescue information. If mails are not selected (that is, when the same coupon with a 5-bar code is provided to any person), then it is very likely that the provider wants to obtain some demographic information from the user at the time of consumption. of the purchase online. Thus, the provider will require that the user fill out a form, which would be sent to the provider for inclusion in your database and use it in subsequent mailings. A detailed example will help explain the present invention. Acmé Software Company operates a website at http://www.acmesoft.com, and in particular provides a special offer to registered users of its Hoja software Electronics that will allow you to obtain your DataBase software through an online purchase at a discounted price. If the user indicated on his Spreadsheet registration form that he uses a trademark of the database software competition, then the latter applies a discount of $ 20, and if the user indicated on its Spreadsheet registration form that it has never used any type of database software, then it applies only a $ 10 discount. Acmé prints a coupon to be sent by mail to these registered Electronic Leaf users who will receive the $ 20 discount that includes the following fields: ? É £ i ^ aitfíÉiÉiMái-Mfi-iitt ??? IP ADDRESS ID. OF RESOURCE ID. OF DISCOUNT CONSUMER http://www.acmesoft.com / databaseoffer. html 20 12345 Juan Pérez, a registered user with the Acmé consumer ID number 12345, receives this coupon in the mail and has the right to buy the Database software package by reading the included text offer. He passes the coupon under his page scanner connected to his computer, and a barcode decoding program is automatically invoked. Then mark your Internet Service Provider (this example does not include the start command), and your browser loads the page "http://www.acmesoft.com/ofertabasededatos.html". After reading the tempting offer on the screen, he clicks the "buy" button and provides his credit card number in an encryption format. Receive the software at the normal price minus the $ 20 discount. In this process, Acmé obtains the ID (identification) of the consumer to verify that this consumer actually receives the discount. Acmé also knows that Mr. Pérez received the offer, acted in it and executed it. Acmé then you can use this data for future campaigns with coupons. ^^ fißil ^ tei-iiBlÉIflife-i

Claims (24)

1. CLAIMS 1. In a computer system operated on the Internet that comprises at least one user computer and at least one provider computer connected to it, a method to provide discounts on purchases in an online transaction between a computer of user and a provider computer comprising the steps of: (a) printing a discount coupon, the coupon comprises printed signs associated with the web address of the provider's computer, (b) propagating the discount coupon to a user; (c) enter the signs to the user's computer; (d) process the introduction of the signs to the user's computer to determine the Web address of the provider's computer; (e) communication with the provider's computer using the determined web address; (f) download from the provider's computer to the user's computer a file associated with the sign of entry, the file contains the information related to the discount to be applied to an online transaction that allows the user to make the purchase decision . The method of claim 1 wherein the printed sign comprises human reading information.
2. * & »^ ..« * & ^ "^? ^ M gg | g¡jg ttj ^^ g ^
3. 3. The method of claim 2 wherein the human reading information comprises the information that describes at least part of the discount offer of the transaction.
4. The method of claim 2 wherein the human reading information comprises an alias associated with the web address of the provider's computer.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of introducing signs comprises typing the alias on a computer keyboard.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of input processing of signs to the user's computer comprises the step of querying the address of the provider's computer in a database table, the web address in correlation to alias.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the printed signs comprise an easy read code per machine.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the easy machine read code is a two-dimensional bar code symbol.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the two-dimensional bar code symbol is encoded with the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the provider's computer.
10. 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the two-dimensional bar code symbol comprises the information specific to the user.
11. The method of claim 8 wherein the two-dimensional bar code symbol comprises a sufficient encryption key that allows the user to encrypt information useful for inclusion with the online transaction.
12. The method of claim 7 wherein the easy machine readable code is a linear bar code symbol.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein the linear bar code symbol comprises the IP address of the provider's computer.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the linear bar code further comprises an identifier associated with a resource that is to be obtained from the provider's computer, the resource contains important information for discounting the online transaction.
15. The method of claim 7 wherein the easy read code per machine comprises a resource pointer associated with a Web address of the provider's computer.
16. 16. The method of claim 15 wherein the step of processing the sign input to the user computer comprises the step of querying the
17. Web address of the provider's computer in a database table, the Web address is correlated with the resource pointer. The method of claim 12 wherein the linear bar code symbol is a UPC symbol comprising a manufacturer identification field and a product identification field.
18. 18. The method of claim 17 wherein the UPC symbol is processed by analyzing the manufacturer's identification field; looking in a database table for a Web address associated with the manufacturer identification field; and generating a file request with the web address and the product identification field.
19. The method of claim 1 wherein the information specified for the user is communicated to the provider's computer.
20. The method of claim 19 wherein the user-specific information is used to determine the discount amount to be offered for the online transaction.
21. 21. The method of claim 19 wherein the user-specific information is obtained from the coupon.
22. 22. The method of claim 19 wherein the user-specific information is obtained from a resource external to the coupon.
23. 23. The method of claim 1 wherein the discount information is determined from the data received from the coupon. The method of claim 1 wherein, if the user chooses to make an online purchase, the choice is communicated to the provider's computer, and the discount related to the coupon is applied to the transaction.

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