WO2009085020A1

WO2009085020A1 - System and procedure for rewarding at a purchase with a direct influence on the amount to be paid

Info

Publication number: WO2009085020A1
Application number: PCT/SI2008/000071
Authority: WO
Inventors: Marko Samec; Vladimir Tkalec; Dejan Mauer
Original assignee: Marko Samec; Vladimir Tkalec; Dejan Mauer
Priority date: 2007-12-31
Filing date: 2008-12-30
Publication date: 2009-07-09
Also published as: SI22696A

Abstract

A system for rewarding at a purchase with an immediate influence on the amount to be paid provides for a special computerised issuing of invoices, payment forms or any other payment instruments and that in a way that while the payment is underway a customer may decide to participate in a prize game, which is implemented immediately and a possible winning is immediately and directly redeemable. The system provides for a procedure of rewarding, in which the offer to join the game and also the computation and disbursement of a possible winning is implemented quickly and easily on the points of sale that a system covers and may be both physical or electronic, and does not disturb regular activities of the operator at the point of sale. A customer may express his wish to participate in the game in an easy way and directly at the point of sale. The price to enter the game is computed based on the amount to be paid for the purchased goods and/or services and is variable. The system uses algorithms to determine the amount of the winning, and the latter is directly reflected as a discount on the amount of the invoice, payment form or e-bill.

Description

SYSTEM AND PROCEDURE FOR REWARDING AT A PURCHASE WITH A DIRECT INFLUENCE ON THE AMOUNT TO BE PAID

Field of Invention

The invention belongs to the field of systems for computerised issuing of invoices, payment forms or any other payment instruments or in more detail for special computerised processing of an invoice that provides for rewarding of a customer at the moment of payment by a direct influence on the amount to be paid.

Technical Problem

The technical problem solved by the present invention is a system for computerised processing of a sum to be paid for purchased goods and/or services, in which - after a customer decided to join a prize game - the sum of immediate partial or full reimbursement of the sum for the purchased goods and/or services is determined. The underlying task of the system is to provide for a procedure, in which both the offer to join the game at points of sale and the computation and disbursement of a possible prize are performed quickly and simply without disturbing regular activities of the operator at the points of sale. Moreover, the task of the system is to ensure that a customer can express his wish to enter the game in a simple way and directly at the points of sale. A further task of the system is that the prize is mathematically determined based on hypotheses recorded in the computer model and based on a decision tree.

Prior Art

Sales people try to attract customers by various promotional tricks that would gain new customers and/or their long-term loyalty. Apart from occasional discounts on certain products and services they offer their payment cards for instance, with which customers obtain a certain bonus in dependence on the total value of purchased goods, or prize campaigns, in which buyers get a prize in the form of certain products or services after they have collected a certain number of coupons from shopping. In practice there are also solutions including drawing lots or such giving customers an opportunity to obtain a bonus or prize upon each purchase. A few systems or devices foreseen for rewarding for individual purchases are disclosed in the patents cited hereinafter. The patent WO02093518 describes a game of chance, in which promotional game tickets are distributed at a point of sale terminal, e.g. sales register, at or during the normal course of sales transaction. The odds of winning one or more prizes are improved as the number of items of purchased as part of the sales transaction increases. The promotional games can include an instant lottery-type format, a draw- type lottery format, an interactive game format, or a combination of any and all of these formats. A prize drawing game of chance is disclosed in the patent US5413341 as well. A participant of the game fills out a form, which is printed, at intervals, along the length of a cash register tape and disseminated to the customer together with his cash register receipt. Entry forms may also be obtained in other ways, e.g. as a coupon in an advertising flyer. Filled-in entry forms are randomly selected at each participating store from those entry forms collected at that store. Winners receive gift certificates redeemable for specified amounts or quantities of goods or services at the participating stores indicated on the certificate. A system for a point of sale together with a lottery device disclosed in WO973334 is intended especially for gaming sales environments, like gas stations, stores or vending machines. A lottery device may be either activated by a sensor for the quantity of sold goods or products, or a payment system that does it on the basis of a certain quantity of payments. The odds of prize depend on luck. The patent WO9618174 describes a system for motivating customers. Within an accumulator in a central computer of the store are stored the volumes of sales that form up a possible jackpot prize. The jackpot height is regularly published and the buyers have a chance of winning the jackpot prize by tokens on gaming machines. DE4009980 discloses a solution with a conventional cash register housing an electronic lottery unit to grant discount. The lottery draw is activated by a keypad, winnings or discount are shown immediately within the scope of issued receipt of purchase. A microprocessor gaming device for sales promotion disclosed in patent US4854590 is intended for use in combination with a cash register. Upon each actuation of the cash register the device makes a random selection of prize or no prize conditions. If a selection is positive, the prize is selected among the possible prizes also various cash prizes.

The prize is immediately redeemable only with a few of the above-mentioned devices or systems. A majority of solutions foresees special instruments to join a game, e.g. promotional game tickets, forms and coupons. The odds of prize in all of them depend on luck in lottery drawing.

Advantages of the solution of the invention compared to known solutions lie mostly in that a computer system for rewarding at a purchase provides for a simple entry to the game at the points of sale, whereby the entry price is variable, since it depends on the sum for the purchased goods and/or services, and it allows a quick and direct calculation of the winnings thus rendering immediate disbursement of the prize possible.

Description of the Solution to the Technical Problem

By computerised processing of invoices or payments the system of the invention determines the amount of the prize by means of algorithms and the prize is directly reflected as a discount on the amount of the invoice, payment form or e-bill. The service of participating in a prize game is sold at points of sale either physical or electronic, and offers immediate implementation and result without intervention or activities of the customer/payer. The system provides for the implementation of rewarding procedure at the points of sale by immediate and direct influence on the amount of the invoice, payment form or e-bill that a customer is paying.

The procedure and system for promotional rewarding of customers are described in more detail in the continuation by way of the following figures, on which:

Figure 1 shows a functional block diagram of the system for rewarding of customers; Figure 2 shows a schematic course of the procedure for rewarding of customers.

The system for rewarding of customers shown in Figure 1 comprises the following computer subsystems: a set of computing subsystems 101 included in points of sale covered by the system, a controller 102, a gaming subsystem 103 for determining the price of the game, a winning subsystem 104 for the calculation of the value of the winning and a data warehouse 105. Points of sale are the points, on which the invoice for the purchased products and/or services is paid and may be commercial points of sale, payment terminals, sales terminals and web sites, e.g. e-shop baskets and electronic bank points. The controller 102 is a computer subsystem receiving claims from computing subsystems 101 at points of sale and sending decisions of the 5 gaming subsystem 103 to computing subsystems 101 on points of sale, said gaming subsystem 103 determining the price of the prize game, and of the winnings subsystem 104 determining the value of the winnings. The data warehouse 105 is a data collection of records of all transactions and events in the system.

Once a customer has presented the selected goods and/or services at a point of

10 sale, he may express a wish prior to the final preparation of the invoice about his wishing to participate in a prize game. Entering the prize game is charged as an additional item among the purchased goods and/or services. The entry price is calculated on the basis of the amount to be paid for the purchased goods and/or services and is variable. The total amount is entered into a computer algorithm as

15 input data that create a decision on a possible winning and a decision on the height of the winnings. The amount of the winning immediately appears as an item on the issued invoice and is deducted from the original total of sums of all items, the total of the payment form or e-bill, i.e. a person paying an invoice, payment form or e-bill is immediately given the winning. An important advantage of the system of the

>0 invention lies in that the activity is performed while an invoice, a form or an e-bill is being paid.

A course of procedure for rewarding a customer is shown in Figure 2. Upon completion of the invoice the computing subsystem 101 prepares a data package 1 at the point of sale, said package comprising identification data of the point of sale

>5 and the sum of the invoice for the purchased products and/or services. The data package 1 is forwarded to the controller 102, which prepares a claim for the calculation of the price for entering the game in the form of a data package 2 that is sent to the gaming subsystem 103. Based on its mathematical algorithm and input parameters included in the data package 2 the gaming subsystem 103 calculates the iO price of the game, enters transaction data 4 into the data warehouse 105 and submits a data package 3 with the calculated price of the game to the controller 102, the latter sending a data package 5 with the price of the game to the computing subsystem 101 at the point of sale. Should a customer decide to participate in a prize game, the computing subsystem 101 on the point of sale sends the customer's decision in the form of a data package 6 to the controller 102, which sends a claim to the winnings subsystem 104 to determine the value of the winning in the form of a data package 7. Based on its mathematical algorithm and input parameters included in the data package 7 the winnings subsystem 104 calculates the value of the winning, enters transaction data 9 into the data warehouse 105 and submits a data package 8 with the calculated value of the prize to the controller 102. The latter sends a data package 10 with the amount of the winning to the computing subsystem 101 , which issues a final invoice in a way that a possible winning is deducted from the original amount of the invoice, so that a customer pays the difference between the original amount of the invoice and the winning.

The mathematical algorithm used by the winnings subsystem 104 to determine the amount of the winning comprises the criteria for the amount of the invoice, history of demand and participation in the game, implemented daily turnover, policy of payments and the like. The amount of the winning may range from 0 to 100% of the amount of the original invoice.

When a customer pays for a product, service or payment form or e-bill by electronic way, the amount of the gained prize is immediately deducted from the original sum to be paid or is remitted to the customer as an immediate independent transaction. When the system is used in stores, the computer having a programme for the implementation of the system is connected with all cash registers in the store. A customer may express his wish to participate in the prize game in various ways. At the cash register a customer does this orally, by way of cards or fliers or via programme interface.

Claims

1. Computer system for rewarding at a purchase characterised in that it comprises

- a set of computing subsystems (101) intended for the preparation and issuing of invoices on points of sale; - a controller (102), a gaming subsystem (103) and a winnings subsystem (104), all of them being conceived in a way that the controller (102) prior to the completion of the invoice at any point of sale receives a claim for entering a prize game from the computing subsystem (101 ) on a given point of sale and sends the decision of the gaming subsystem (103) to the computing subsystem (101 ), said gaming subsystem using its algorithm to determine the price of the prize game, and of a winnings subsystem (104) that determines the value of the winning based on its algorithm;

- a data warehouse (105) that is a data collection of records of all transactions and activities within the system.

2. Computer system as claimed in Claim 1 characterised in that the sum of the winning appears as an item on the invoice prepared and issued by the computing subsystem (101) at a certain point of sale and is deducted from the original sum of prices of all items of purchased goods and/or services, so that a customer is given a possible winning immediately upon paying the invoice.

3. Computer system as claimed in Claim 1 characterised in that the mathematical algorithm used by the winnings subsystem (104) to determine the amount of the winning comprises a series of criteria, among which the amount of the basic invoice, history of demand and participation in the game, implemented daily turnover and policy of payments.

4. Computer system as claimed in Claims 1 and 3 characterised in that the amount of the winning may be in the range from 0 to 100 % of the amount of the original invoice.

5. Procedure for rewarding at a purchase by means of a computer system as claimed in Claims 1 to 4 characterised in that it comprises a first stage, in which the price for entering the game is computed, a second stage, in which a customer is offered to enter the game, and a third stage, in which a possible winning is calculated and an invoice is issued under the consideration of the winning.

6. Procedure as claimed in Claim 5 characterised in that its first stage, in which the price to enter the game is computed, comprises the following steps:

5 - the computing subsystem (101 ) at a point of sale prepares a data package (1 ) comprising identification data of the point of sale and the amount of the invoice for the purchased goods and/or services, and submits it to the controller (102); - the controller (102) prepares a data package (2) comprising a claim for the computation of the price to enter the prize game and submits it to the gaming

0 subsystem (103);

- the gaming subsystem (103) computes the price to enter the prize game based on its mathematical algorithm and input parameters included in the data package (2), prepares a data package (3) comprising the price of the game and sends the data package (3) to the controller (102) and enters transaction data (4) into a data

5 warehouse (105);

- the controller (102) sends a data package (6) with the price of the game to the computing subsystem (101 ) at the point of sale.

7. Procedure as claimed in Claim 5 characterised in that in its second stage, in which a customer is offered to join the game, an invoice is issued for the purchased goods

:0 and/or services at the point of sale in case a customer refuses to participate in the game, whereas in case a customer decides to participate in the game, the price of the game depending on the amount to be paid for the purchased goods and/or services is included in the list of purchased items on the invoice.

8. Procedure as claimed in Claims 5, 6 and 7 characterised in that its third stage, in 5 which a possible winning is computed and the invoice issued under the consideration of said winning, comprises the following steps: - the computing subsystem (101) at a point of sale prepares the data package (6) comprising the decision of a customer to join the game and submits it to the controller (102);

0 - the controller (102) submits the claim to determine the value of the winning in the form of a data package (7) to the winnings subsystem (104); - the winnings subsystem (104) computes the value of the winning based on its mathematical algorithm and input parameters comprised in the data package (7), prepares a data package (8) comprising the amount of the winning and sends the data package (8) to the controller (102), and enters transaction data (9) into the data warehouse (105);

- the controller (102) submits a data package (10) with the amount of the winning to the computing subsystem (101 ) at a point of sale;

- the computing subsystem (101) at a point of sale issues an invoice, on which a possible winning is included and computed, i.e. the prize is immediately redeemable.

9. Procedure as claimed in Claims 5 and 7 characterised in that a customer may express his wish to participate in the prize game in various ways, i.e. orally at the cash register, by way of cards or fliers or via programme interface on web payment spots.