WO2010016778A1

WO2010016778A1 - A centralised and automated purchase reward method

Info

Publication number: WO2010016778A1
Application number: PCT/NZ2009/000165
Authority: WO
Inventors: Howarth James Noel Duckworth; David Howarth Duckworth
Original assignee: Howarth James Noel Duckworth; David Howarth Duckworth
Priority date: 2008-08-06
Filing date: 2009-08-06
Publication date: 2010-02-11
Also published as: GB201203656D0; NZ598564A; GB2487493A

Abstract

A system for sales promotion comprising a central promotions management system and sales systems at plurality of remote locations, the system comprising at least one computer programmed to: receive multiple sets of input parameters, each set corresponding with a financial incentives promotion, each set including promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters for the promotion, store the promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters, receive transaction data from a customer transaction at a sales system, apply rules generated from the promotion parameters to the transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award, for each transaction qualifying for an award, present award information to the customer, and applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to the award, and apply sponsor charges against accounts of promotion sponsors.

Description

"A CENTRALISED AND AUTOMATED PURCHASE REWARD METHOD"

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to electronic point of sale and Internet promotional methods and systems. In particular the present invention comprises a computer system and method that enables financial incentives for purchases including discounts to be created, delivered and redeemed with reduced involvement or specific setup actions by participating manufacturers, suppliers or participating sales outlets.

Description of the Prior Art

Product manufacturers, distributors and merchants have for many years used sales promotions involving financial incentives such as discounted prices to encourage customers to purchase their products. Typically running a promotion involves manufacturers, suppliers or other manufacturers representatives liaising with sales outlets either individually or via merchant chains and collectives to make arrangements for the incentive program such as a discounted price program to take place.

Often discounts will be offered on products when it is desired to promote sales in order to meet sales objectives e.g. to increase market share, or clear outdated product.

Discounts may take the form of price reductions or "combo" offers whereby consumers are offered additional products or larger packs etc. for the original purchase price of a product. Buy 3, get 4^th product free etc is another form of financial incentive offered.

Other rewards including free gifts, points, airmiles and entries in prizedraws comprise an indirect financial incentive to buy. All forms of financial incentives including the aforementioned whereby a customer receives a financial reward for meeting the qualifying conditions of a sales promotion are within the field of the present invention described herein.

There are many ways that financial incentives including discounts can be effected. The most common involves issuing a coupon or voucher of some sort that an intending purchaser takes to a sales outlet and performs some specified action to qualify for the incentive, for example purchase of an item and presentation of it along with the voucher in order to receive a discounted price for the item. Alternatively "blanket" promotions may be effected whereby a general offer that a promoted item may be purchased at a discounted price is publicized. In this case no coupon or voucher may be needed to qualify for the financial incentive such as a discounted price, rather discounts are promoted and made available using in-store processes.

There are two main levels of financial incentive programs. Firstly there are instore programs whereby a store decides to offer a financial incentive for purchase of certain items. These programs essentially operate in one store and that store organises their instore programs and funds all costs associated with them themselves. Secondly there are manufacturers or suppliers programs whereby a manufacturer or supplier of products offers a financial incentive to purchase certain of their products. This type of program typically is offered over many stores in which the products concerned are sold. In this type of program more extensive setup, distribution, administration and sales outlet reimbursement is required for the program to work properly. As described above instore programs are funded instore and no reimbursement to the store for running their programs is typically required. Manufacturers or suppliers programs however usually require sales outlets offering financial incentive programs on their behalf to be compensated for any loss they incur as a consequence. While there are variations as to the exact way that promotion and loyalty programs in which financial incentives including discounts are funded, typically funding is via a combination of agreed reimbursement by the sponsoring manufacturer or supplier for any loss of profit or revenue incurred by participating sales oudets and/or payment of a small fee applied to each offer and/or delivery of a financial incentive handled by the sales oudet.

This compensation to sales outlets has traditionally involved them collating coupons or vouchers received from customers in order to qualify for their financial incentive and sending these to a clearing house who processes them on behalf of the program sponsor and/or funder Usually a fee is also paid by the sponsor of a promotion to the promotion program organizer who uses the revenue gained from all such charges to fund program operation. Direct costs and store administration costs associated with this compensation process are significant.

Some of the steps involved in running a financial incentive program typically include the following: a. A supplier, wholesaler, retailer or another seller of products in the sales and distribution process decides that they wish to increase sales by running a promotion that offers a financial incentive to purchase. b. A program of some sort is then put in place to advertise the promotion. This might involve: i. a media advertising campaign; ϋ. distribution of offer vouchers in newspapers, magazines, by direct mail and the like; iϋ. supply of in-store collateral such as posters, shelf stickers and the Like to sales outlets to publicise the promotional offer. c. . Special procedures also need to be set up at sales oudets to handle the promotion. These usually include setting up or configuring special methods and/or pricing/discount mechanisms in the Point of Sale (POS) system at sales outlets as required to effect delivery of financial rewards for purchases made of the promoted item — this might for example include setting discounts up in the POS via loading a barcode that when scanned as part of a transaction (possibly via the barcode being printed on a coupon) triggers a price reduction. d. mechanisms need to be established to record and report on sales under the promotion to enable proper accounting; e. Coupons or vouchers used to qualify for a financial incentive need to be collated and forwarded to the program sponsor for checking and sales oudet reimbursement. f. financial or other compensation for reduced margins and the like consequent on delivery of the promotion needs to be made on an agreed basis to sales oudets participating in the promotion. The procedures and processes needed to effect financial sales incentives programs as outlined in general above involve significant cost and effort. There is also a significant time lag involved between a decision to run a promotion and the time it can be delivered across the desired range of sales oudets. Finally once a promotion program is set in place, it is usually difficult or at best expensive to alter it and irrespective of cost, significant delay is involved in making any changes that might be necessary or desirable as a result of competitive actions or mistakes discovered in the promotion set up.

In this specification where reference has been made to patent specifications, other external documents, or other sources of information, this is generally for the purpose of providing a context for discussing the features of the invention. Unless specifically stated otherwise, reference to such external documents is not to be construed as an admission that such documents, or such sources of information, in any jurisdiction, are prior art, or form part of the common general knowledge in the art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the object of the present invention to provide an online, electronic, point of sale or Internet promotional method and system which automate aspects the delivery of financial incentives associated with sales promotions, or which will at least provide the industry with a useful choice. According to different aspects die invention consists in methods, apparatus or systems according to any one or more of the appended claims.

According to a further aspect the invention consists in a method of sales promotion using sales systems, which record customer sales data, under the control of one or more merchants and a sales promotion computer system comprising the steps of:

a. Setting up as awards records in the sales promotion computer system the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions, the awards records defining such information as the oudets at which the financial incentives promotions are to be available, their period of validity, sales criteria which define customer award entidement and/or conditions that must be met to qualify, the financial incentive involved e.g. discount etc. and die like as well as details of associated sponsor charges; b. comparing customer transaction data received by the sales promotion computer system from a sales system with the award records at the sales promotion computer system to determine if the customer has qualified for any awards, and if so; c. for each award that the customer has qualified for as appropriate providing to the the sales system for display or printing on a document details of an offer for a financial incentive that could be qualified for in the current or a future transaction or returning to the sales system details of a financial incentive qualified for in the current transaction or as a further possibility the discounts qualified for may be recorded as credits that are subsequently applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction; d. At end of transaction providing to the the sales system for display and/or printing as a customer record details of awards qualified for; e. logging at the sales promotion computer system transaction details along with records of awards qualified for and details of sponsor charges applicable thereto; f. monitoring the progress of the financial incentives promotions and reporting this against projected results to determine if it is necessary to improve performance or otherwise change the operation of the financial Incentive promotion, and if so; g. making changes to the awards records as desired to adjust the the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions and advising these to sales system interface points of the sales promotion computer system for use thenceforth in comparison of customer transaction data received by die sales promotion computer system from a sales system with the award records at the sales promotion computer system to determine if the customer has qualified for any awards, issuing any awards so qualified for and logging details of transactions and awards qualified for by them as well as any sponsor charges applicable thereto as described in the preceding items b-f; h. analysing at the host computer sponsor charges logged for awards made and using these to account for charges and payments due as well as to comprise audit trails consistent with sound accounting practices.

In a further aspect the invention consists in a method of sales promotion using point of sale (POS) systems under the control of one or more merchants and a networked sales promotion computer system controlled by a promotion facilitator consisting of a host and a plurality of local or remote controllers each associated with at least one respective POS system, the method comprising die steps of: a. Setting up as awards records at the host computer the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions, the awards records defining such information as the outlets at which the financial incentives promotions are to be available, their period of validity, sales criteria which define customer award entitlement and/or conditions that must be met to qualify, the financial incentive involved e.g. discount etc. and the like as well as details of associated sponsor charges; b. transmitting electronically via the internet or other network technologies the awards records from the host computer to appropriate local or remote controllers; c. receiving at each local or remote controller, customer, product and price data corresponding to the product purchase transactions for each customer at the corresponding POS system; d. comparing the customer transaction data with the award records data at die local or remote controllers to determine if die customer has qualified for any awards, and if so; e. for each award diat die customer has qualified for as appropriate providing to the the sales system for display or printing on a document at the POS system details of an offer for a financial incentive that could be qualified for in the current or a future transaction or returning to the POS system details of a financial incentive qualified for in die current transaction or as a further possibility any financial incentives including discounts qualified for may be recorded as credits that are subsequendy applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making die purchases in the discounted sales transaction; f. At end of transaction .providing to die the sales system for display and/or printing as a customer record details of awards qualified for; g. logging at the local or remote controllers transaction details along with records of awards qualified for and details of sponsor charges applicable diereto, and at appropriate intervals uploading these details to the host computer. h. monitoring the progress of the financial incentives promotions and reporting this against projected results to determine if it is necessary to improve performance or otherwise change the operation of the financial Incentive promotion, and if so; i. making changes to the awards records as desired to adjust the the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions and transmitting these to the appropriate local or remote controllers for use thenceforth in comparison of customer, product and price data corresponding to the product purchase transactions for each customer at the corresponding POS system received at the local or remote controllers with the award records data at the local or remote controllers to determine if the customer has qualified for any awards, issuing any awards so qualified for and logging details of transactions and awards qualified for by them as well as any sponsor charges applicable thereto as described in the preceding items d- h; j. analysing at the host computer sponsor charges logged for awards made and using these to account for charges and payments due as well as to comprise audit trails consistent with sound accounting practices.

In yet another aspect the invention consists in a point of sale (POS) promotion system comprising remote controllers including EFTPOS payment processing units associated and communicating with POS systems under the control of one or more merchants and a host computer controlled by a promotion facilitator, the remote controllers having voucher printers associated therewith, the controllers and host computer programmed to:

a. Set up as awards records at the host computer the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions, the awards records defining such information as the outlets at which the financial incentives promotions are to be available, their period of validity, sales criteria which define customer award entitlement and/or conditions that must be met to qualify, the financial incentive involved e.g. discount etc. and the like as well as details of associated sponsor charges; b. transmit electronically via the internet or other network technologies the awards records from the host computer to appropriate remote controllers; c. receive at each remote controller, customer, product and price data corresponding to the product purchase transactions for each customer at the corresponding POS system; d. compare the customer transaction data with the award records data at the remote controllers to determine if the customer has qualified for any awards, and if so; e. for each award that the customer has qualified for as appropriate providing to the the sales system for display or printing on a documentat the remote controller details of an offer for a financial incentive that could be qualified for in the current or a future transaction or returning to the POS system details of a financial incentive qualified for in the current transaction or as a further possibility any financial incentives including discounts qualified for may be recorded as credits that are subsequendy applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction; f. At end of transaction providing to the the sales system for display and/or printing as a customer record details of awards qualified for; g. logging at the remote controllers transaction details along with records of awards qualified for and details of sponsor charges applicable thereto, and at appropriate intervals uploading these details to the host computer. h. monitoring the progress of the financial incentives promotions and reporting this against projected results to determine if it is necessary to improve performance or otherwise change the operation of the financial Incentive promotion, and if so; i. making changes to the awards records as desired to adjust the the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions and transmitting these to the appropriate remote controllers for use thenceforth in comparison of customer, product and price data corresponding to the product purchase transactions for each customer at die corresponding POS system received at the remote controllers with the award records data at the remote controllers to determine if the customer has qualified for any awards, issuing any awards so qualified for and logging details of transactions and awards qualified for by them as well as any sponsor charges applicable thereto as described in the preceding items d-h; ₎. analysing at the host computer sponsor charges logged for awards made and using these to account for charges and payments due as well as to comprise audit trails consistent with sound accounting practices.

In yet another aspect the invention consists in a method of sales promotion using sales system under the control of one or more merchants and a sales promotion system comprising the steps of: a. Setting up as awards records at die host computer the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions, the awards records defining such information as the outlets at which the financial incentives promotions are to be available, their period of validity, sales criteria which define customer award entitlement and/or conditions that must be met to qualify, the financial incentive involved e.g. discount etc. and the like as well as details of associated sponsor charges; b. transmitting the awards records from the host computer to the one or more merchants, the one or more merchants being able to as appropriate when a customers purchases correspond to the awards records display or print on a document details of an offer for a financial incentive that could be qualified for in the current or a future transaction or to apply a financial incentive qualified for in the current transaction or as a further possibility any financial incentives including discounts qualified for may be recorded as credits that are subsequendy applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction; c. At end of transaction providing to the the sales system for display and/or printing as a customer record details of awards qualified for; d. logging at the merchant transaction details along with records of awards qualified for and details of sponsor charges applicable thereto, and at appropriate intervals uploading these details to die host computer. e. monitoring the progress of the financial incentives promotions and reporting this against projected results to determine if it is necessary to improve performance or otherwise change the operation of die financial Incentive promotion, and if so; f. making changes to the awards records as desired to adjust the the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions and transmitting these to the appropriate merchants for use thenceforth in comparison of customer, product and price data corresponding to the product purchase transactions for each customer with the award records data at the merchants to determine if the customer has qualified for any awards, issuing any awards so qualified for and logging details of transactions and awards qualified for by them as well as any sponsor charges applicable thereto as described in the preceding items b-e; g. analysing at the host computer sponsor charges logged for awards made and using these to account for charges and payments due as well as to comprise audit trails consistent with sound accounting practices.

In a further aspect the invention consists in a method of sales promotion using internet sales sites selling products or services to customers online via the internet under the control of one or more merchants and a computer system controlled by a promotion facilitator consisting of a host and a plurality of local or remote controllers each associated with at least one respective internet sales site, the method comprising the steps of: a. Setting up as awards records at the host computer the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions, the awards records defining such information as the internet sales oudets at which the financial incentives promotions are to be available, their period of validity, sales criteria which define customer award entidement and/or conditions that must be met to qualify, the financial incentive involved e.g. discount etc. and the like as well as details of associated sponsor charges; b. transmitting electronically via the internet or other network technologies the awards records from the host computer to appropriate local or remote controllers; c. receiving at each local or remote controller, customer, product and price data corresponding to the product purchase transactions for each customer at the corresponding internet sales sites; d. comparing the customer transaction data with the award records data at the local or remote controllers to determine if the customer has qualified for any awards, and if so; e. for each award that the customer has qualified for as appropriate issuing an electronic message or copy of a document containing details of an offer for a financial incentive that could be qualified for in the current or a future transaction or returning to the internet site details of a financial incentive qualified for in the current transaction, the internet site issuing these details to customers for printing or otherwise to use as appropriate during the transaction or as a further possibility any financial incentives such as discounts qualified for may be recorded as credits that are subsequently applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction; f. At end of transaction providing to the the internet sales sites for display and/or printing as a customer record details of awards qualified for; g- logging at the remote controllers transaction details along with records of awards qualified for and details of sponsor charges applicable thereto, and at appropriate intervals uploading diese details to the host computer. h. monitoring the progress of the financial incentives promotions and reporting this against projected results to determine if it is necessary to improve performance or otherwise change the operation of the financial Incentive promotion, and if so; i. making changes to the awards records as desired to adjust the the parameters and sponsorship details of financial incentives promotions and transmitting these to the appropriate remote controllers for use thenceforth in comparison of customer, product and price data corresponding to the product purchase transactions for each customer at the corresponding internet sales sites received at the local or remote controllers with the award records data at the local or remote controllers to determine if the customer has qualified for any awards, issuing any awards so qualified for and logging details of transactions and awards qualified for by them as well as any sponsor charges applicable thereto as described in the preceding items d- h; j. analysing at the host computer sponsor charges logged for awards made and using these to account for charges and payments due as well as to comprise audit trails consistent with sound accounting practices.

In this specification: a. "financial Incentive promotion" means an undertaking for promoting sales and service by issuing appropriate financial incentive rewards which may comprise but not be limited to a discount on the current transaction, issue of a voucher to enable a discount on a future transaction, vouchers for free gifts including product samples and the like. b. "local or remote controller " means a technology system such as a server, PC, EFTPOS unit or the like and associated input, display, printer output and output components and peripherals including.magnetic stripe cards or any other type of card with integrated data storage and analysis capability and the like. c. "financial services card" is an item such as a credit or debit card owned by the customer making the purchases in any discounted sales transaction. In one aspect of the invention the value of any discounts applied may in some situations be stored and accumulated to be subsequently applied as a credit paid for by the sponsor of the sales promotion to the customers financial services card. d. "POS System" means a technology system such as a server, PC or the like and associated software input, display, printer output and output components and peripherals as are required to process and record sales at Points of Sale. e. "Sponsor Charges" are defined as charges set up as part of a financial incentive promotion, such charges to be applied to each issue of a financial incentive award made to a customer, the sponsor charges including but not being limited to a charge to the financial incentive promotion sponsor to cover sales outlet compensation for any financial incentive awards they apply to customer transactions, program administration cost charges and any fees associated with financial award issue and/or redemption. f. "remote" in the context of location means separated by physical distances. So, for example on odier sites or in other cities or states. g. "central" in relation to location means one or more entities at a single location which, by implication, interact with multiple entities at dispersed remote locations.

To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the descriptions herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting.

The term "comprising" is used in the specification and claims, means "consisting at least in part of". When interpreting a statement in this specification and claims that includes "comprising", features other than that or those prefaced by the term may also be present. Related terms such as "comprise" and "comprises" are to be interpreted in the same manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

Figure 1 is a flow chart showing the components and application architecture of a system implementing aspects of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The purpose of the methods and systems described herein is to enable financial rewards promotions including discounts to be set up and delivered to customers without the need for the delay and expense associated with sales outlets being necessarily notified of such financial incentives and in particular without them having to implement processes specifically to accommodate a promotion, to alter prices or set up discount methods to deliver the desired financial reward, or for accounting and payment processes involving sales reporting by sales oudets to be specially set up to reimburse sales outlets for delivering the financial incentives. The system also enables changes to a promotion to be made as desired quickly and at minimum cost. Automated accounting and payment of compensation for sales outlets awarding financial incentives on behalf of other sponsoring organizations is also provided.

More specifically the described system enables centralised and automated end-to end delivery of financial incentives associated with sales promotions, including discounting at sales oudets, without the need for the sales oudets to be directly involved in any part of the individual promotion set-up and financial incentive delivery process. Financial incentives including discounts may be automatically offered for the current transaction and any financial incentive awards for these along with those for other previously advertised offers if taken up and qualified for in the transaction supplied via the invention for application by a participating outlet to current transactions. Vouchers for discounts on future purchases may also be issued via the invention.

As a further significant new development the system enables any financial incentives including discounts qualified for in a transaction to be recorded as credits to be applied to a financial services card such as a debit card owned by the customer making the purchases in die discounted sales transaction. In this case the value of the discounts qualified for are advised to the customer via display and/or printed document then stored and accumulated to be subsequently applied when appropriate as a credit paid for by the sponsor of the sales promotion to the customers financial services card. Via this method the need for any change to the value of any transaction for which financial incentives including discounts and the like are qualified for as well as subsequent reimbursement to a sales oudet are avoided with consequent significant savings in program setup and administration.

In the described system sales promotions involving financial rewards, for example a discount promotion in which a discount is applied to the normal sales oudet price of a product purchased at die sales oudet, are set up in a central host system and automatically distributed to various remote sales promotion computer devices under the control of the central host system. Sales systems at sales oudets participating in the promotion program preferably before end of sale and/or payment processes are commenced supply details of sales transactions to the remote sales promotion computer devices which check to see if any of the conditions of sales promotions in which they are participating for example a product to which a discounted price is to be applied has been purchased have been met.

If so, the discount specified in the sales promotion may be returned in some cases to the sales system processing the transaction to be applied as a credit to the transaction cost. The above process is followed for each sales promotion that the purchases in the sales transaction qualify for. Several discounts may be applied to purchases in a transaction in the above fashion. Alternatively the discounts qualified for may be added up and the value of them printed out on a discount voucher for later redemption as a credit to be applied to the value of purchases in a future transaction completed by the customer. In both of the above situations the value of the discounts applied are logged along with other transaction details and forwarded to a central system where they are stored and accumulated to be applied according to an agreed formula as a credit paid by the sponsor of the sales promotion to the sales outlet involved in the transaction to compensate them for their loss of profit resulting from the discounted price.

As a further possibility the value of the transaction may not be reduced by the discounts qualified for instead these may be recorded as a credit to be applied to a financial services card such as a debit card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction. In this case the value of the discounts applied are stored and accumulated to be subsequently applied as a credit paid for by the sponsor of the sales promotion to the customers financial services card. In this embodiment of the invention a customer must present a card or other device that identifies them to be recognised as part of the transaction and included in the transaction data in order to enable credits earned during the transaction to be applied to their financial services card.

In all of the above cases preferably a summary of the discounts qualified for and some identifying information are printed usually at the end of the receipt printed by the sales outlet sales system printer but occasionally on a separate document for example on a document printed by an EFTPOS device associated with the sales outlet sales system so that the sales outiet operator and the customer can see what discounts have been applied to the transaction. This removes the need for any statement to be provided to the customer to enable them to account for discounts received either as reductions applied to transactions or applied as credits to their financial services card.

A common feature of the sales promotions enabled by the described system is that they are applied without any action needed by the sales outlet operator or his sales system in order to set up each individual promotion.

The following is a general description of the method. However there are many different ways that the method can be applied to achieve the desired result but all would involve the common process of enabling sales promotions to be setup and operated automatically via transaction details supplied by sales outlets participating in the sales promotion programs to a sales promotion system using the invention to be analysed for qualification and if so financial rewards being applied all without any specific action by sales outlets. Also while the most common financial incentive that might be applied via the system consists of a discount on the price of items being purchased the methods encompassed by the system are also intended to accommodate other forms of financial incentive including loyalty points awarded in lieu of discounts.

Referring now to Figure 1, major system components of the system include a Promotions Management System A, a Sales System B, a Sales Promotion System C and a Customer Rewards Card System D. The Promotions Management System A consists of various servers, data storage devices, data input and display terminals including PCs and the like, operator workstations, printers communications controllers and all other ancillary equipment needed to operate a modern computer centre supporting local and remote users and remote intelligent device networks. Depending on commercial arrangements the Promotions Management System A may be located at one of:

1. the premises of Customer Rewards Card System operator;

2. the premises of the Sales Promotion System operator, or:

3. the premises of an independent Sales Promotional services provider.

The Customer Rewards Card System D except for the External Sales Transactions 15 is likely located at the premises and/or data centre of a Financial Card Services Provider, or ^x Financial Institution. The Sales Promotion System C Controllers Cl can be located at the data centre premises of a Sales Promotion facilitator or service provider or in the case of larger Sales System Merchants or Outlets on the premises of the merchant or sales outlets. The Sales Systems B are located at Merchant sales outlets which may be at retail premises or in the case of Corporate Merchants and Internet Merchants, at their data centre or other central premises. Known data communications techniques are used to connect the components of these systems as required for data transfer and the like.

In this system components the functions may be implemented partially or entirely in software executed on general purpose or single purpose computers. However some parts of these functions may be performed physically or mentally outside of the implementing computer system. For example, presentation of earned incentive awards may include handing over physical vouchers.

According to one embodiment the system components interact entirely without human physical intervention. That is each system includes interfaces which exchange data to complete all interactions. The nature of these interactions becomes clear in the description of the complete system.

Each system or components of each system may be implemented in software executed on general purpose or special purpose computing platforms.

Figure 1 illustrates the system according^ to specific functional blocks whereby the interaction between functional blocks is represented by flow lines. These flow lines represent communication of data between the functional blocks. Communication of data may, for example, be by way of storage and retrieval from commonly accessible memory, or by communication between interfaces implemented in the functional blocks. Each interface could, for example, package and send outgoing data, receive and parse incoming data, or both. Where appropriate the interface may implement encryption of data.

Each functional block may be implemented in stand alone software programs, or as routines within integrated software programs. The software programs of each system may be executed on a single computing platform or distributed across multiple computing platforms. Each software program, or parts of each software program may be stored on computer readable media, such as RAM, ROM, hard disk storage or removable disk storage, for distribution or for loading by the computer prior to execution.

Wherever possible the functions illustrated in Figure 1 and interactions between functions illustrated by the flow lines in Figure 1 may be implemented as computer executable programs. In the following description, unless the context requires otherwise (such as actions of customers, retail staff or persons devising or modifying promotions), an action described passively should be interpreted as being the result of an action performed by a computer executing a computer program in accordance with the relevant related functional block that would be taking the action. For simplicity the system is described in terms of the functions performed by each functional block. Persons skilled in programming computers will understand how to implement each described function in a suitable computer program on the basis of these descriptions.

Using known sales promotion systems, customers completing transactions at Internet Merchants or via POS or EFTPOS units located at Retail outlets may qualify for a financial incentive which may comprise but not be limited to an offer of a discount on a products bought in the current transaction, a discount on the current transaction or issue of a voucher to enable a discount on a future transaction. Qualification for these incentives is based on customer transactions meeting criteria such as spending a defined minimum value or purchasing certain products currendy on promotion. Similarly for Corporate Merchants such as power utility or telephone companies who bill for goods or services provided in a billing cycle for example monthly, customers may qualify for financial incentives as a result of the value of goods or services purchased meeting a defined value or including required product items and quantities.

In the case of financial incentives comprising discounts applied to the current transactions completed at retail oudets, a summary of these and a reason typically comprising die name of the promotion and/or product to which the discount has been applied is printed normally at the bottom of or immediately following the sales receipt for die transaction. In the case of financial incentives comprising vouchers to enable a discount on a future transaction that are qualified for at retail oudets, these are typically printed after die sales receipt for the transaction and if present, the summary for discounts applied in the current transaction as described above. Retail oudet customers with an identification number stored on a Customer Identification Token or the like that is presented at die time of their transaction could also have their vouchers for use in future transactions stored and/or forwarded to them to check electronically as desired. In the case of Corporate Merchants, current transaction discount summaries are printed on a customers account and discount vouchers for future transactions are either printedthereafter on the account or stored and/or forwarded electronically. In the case of Internet Merchants, current transaction discount summaries are included in the electronic customers account and discount vouchers for future transactions are either included thereafter on die account or stored and/or forwarded electronically for customers to print themselves. Referring to Figure 1 , the promotions host 1 controls overall operation of the Promotions Management Host System component of the system including promotion setup 2, promotions and customer database 3, promotions update 4, promotion distribution 5, accounts system 6, data warehouse 7 issued rewards transaction detail receipt 8, and central interface 28. Any use of automated financial incentive promotions under the present invention is ultimately controlled by the promotions host 1.

The Promotions Host 1 runs software and supports data tables that enable it to setup and maintain the entities required by the Sales Promotion System including: a. System User Ids, groups and security access codes; b. Types of Promotions able to offered and business rules applicable to these; c. Types of Financial Incentives able to offered and business rules applicable to these; d. Types of qualification mechanisms able to be used to qualify for a promotion and business rules applicable to these; e. Lists of sales oudets comprising the sales system participants able to run promotions and their associated access and internal setup details;

£ Lists of sponsors comprising the manufacturers and suppliers and the like who are able to run promotions using the Sales Promotion System and their associated access and internal setup details; g. Types of sponsor charges and the business rules associated with these; h. Various utility lists that simplify promotion setup and operation such as lists of standard time intervals for example shop opening hours and time slots that promotions are able to be offered during and the like.

When a sales promotion system operator wishes to run automated financial incentive promotions using the present invention the promotion setup 2 process accepts and records details of the desired promotion supplied by the sales promotion operator referred to hereinafter as Promotion Program Parameters and uses these to setup the promotion as required. Promotion Program Parameters comprise information needed to operate a promotion including: a. a description of the promotion; b. the desired financial incentive to be offered under the promotion — these may be a discount on a product purchase price, a discount on the transaction value, loyalty points and the like; c. the qualification criteria to be met in order for a customer to become entitled to the specified financial incentive offered by the promotion; d. the period and timeslots that the promotion is to be offered for; e. the merchant oudets participating in the promotion; f. expected promotion performance measures such as no of offers made versus transactions processed and number of promoted products sold and the like; g. the promotion sponsor, and; h. sponsor charges applicable for handling and delivering the promotion.

Sponsor charges to be charged to the promotion sponsors may include a fee for handling and- delivering the promotion and this may include the cost of setup and distribution of the promotion, a share of distribution system hardware costs, communications costs, management overheads, profit margins and the like.

Details of promotions, sales oudets, sponsors, customers and all other information needed to operate the Promotions Management System are recorded by and held in die Promotions and Customer Database module 3 from where they are accessed and updated as required by odier modules of the Promotions Management System. The Promotions and Customer Database module 3 also holds details of customers including their identification access and demographic details. These details are supplied by the Cardholder Data Maintenance module 12 and are linked in the Customer Database module 3 where possible to transactions completed by each customer as described in more detail later in this description. The promotions update module 4 enables the operation of promotions to be monitored and modified by Financial Incentive Promotion operators after initial set up and distribution, to for example change the parameters including the financial incentive to increase customer appeal, add new merchant participant oudets, extend the period of promotion offer or to correct set up errors. The Sales Promotion System logs copies of all transactions and awards processed by it during operation as described below and as transactions and associated awards are received from the various components of the system as described below they are analysed by software in the Promotion Update module 4 to determine their success against expected promotion performance measures. Where promotion performance reported by this module 4 is below expectations, changes are designed and modifications made by Financial Incentive Promotion operators and/or sponsors to the promotion as recorded in the Promotions & Customer Database 3 to address perceived promotion shortcomings.

New promotions from Promotions Setup module 2 and and updated promotions from Promotion Update module 4 are extracted from the Promotions & Customer Database 3 and used by the promotion distribution module 5 for distribution via the central interface

28 to the sales promotion system. This is done via the promotion distribution module 5 periodically reviewing all active promotions in the Promotions & Customer Database 3, selecting those promotions that are new or modified since last review and sending details of these to all merchants or sales outlets listed as participating in each promotion. The Central Interface module 28 sends details of new or updated promotions to Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl comprising Regional Interface Servers

29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 of the Sales System for issue to qualifying customers. This is done as part of two way communication sessions that the Central Interface module 28 manages between it and Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 of the Sales System. Communication sessions may be to a schedule or by request from either end. Standard communications systems and protocols are used to effect communications.

Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 run communications management and logging software that monitors time and events occurring on these units and when scheduled as setup by a sales Promotion System Administrator or necessary to respond to a system event such as a security violation initiates and manages a communication session with the Central Interface module 28. Similarly this communications management and logging software accepts and manages a request for a communication session from the Central Interface module 28. During communication sessions any new or modified information including new or updated promotions and sales outlet configuration details provided to the Central Interface 28 by the Promotion Distribution module 5 is sent out to Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 and details of their activities including transactions processed, promotions awarded and other status or operational information logged since die last communication session is returned by the Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 to the Central Interface module 28 for logging at the host. Software running on the Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 also manages all communications between diem and the particular component of die Sales System Interfaces Bl with which they interact.

The Promotion Receipt and Initiation module 21 accepts new promotions and manages their activation according to promotion validity dates between which promotions are reviewed for qualification during analysis of each transaction received by Regional

Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 as described in more detail below.

Alternatively in another aspect of the present invention the promotion distribution module 5 could distribute new or updated promotions direcdy on request to Regional Interface Servers 29 or Merchant Interface Servers 30 for issue to qualifying customers. Also note diat Merchant Interface Servers aldiough positioned on the diagram away from die Promotions Management System and usually are remote controllers these could be situated in the same geographic location as die Promotions Host and perform the same functions as described herein. Whichever option is used, the Sales Promotion System C working in combination with the Sales System B use known technology and systems to issue Promotion Awards to qualifying customers. This process is described further below.

Continuing with the description the system, one preferred form provides the Remote Controllers comprising regional interface servers 29 or merchant interface servers 30 as the primary means of distributing Financial Incentives Promotions to Sales System transaction processing components. Larger merchant oudets may be provided with a merchant interface server 30 for each oudet. This enables fast response times to processing Financial Incentives Promotions.

In order to participate in Financial Incentive Promotions offered via the Sales Promotion System C, Sales System Interfaces Bl are setup to interact with Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl. Various specific interface scenarios are shown on Figure 1 by arrows between the components of the Sales Promotion System and the Sales System. The interface technology options used are common to all interface scenarios and are described following to apply to all as appropriate. Standard communications protocols are used and standard message formats are provided by the Sales Promotion System for use in each interface technology option. Interface options are as follows: a. The Sales System Interface Bl component software may be modified to interface direcdy with the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl, optionally using a software module supplied by the Sales Promotion System to minimise interface effort. This may be a practical interface method for Internet Merchant sites and Corporate Merchants; b. Software modules that capture keyboard input, scanned barcodes and/or printed receipts and sends these to the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl may be installed on the Sales System Interface Bl component. Optionally these software modules may receive responses from the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl to supply as input to the Sales System Interface Bl component; c. Hardware components that may include EFTPOS units that capture keyboard input, scanned barcodes and/or printed receipts and sends these to the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl may be installed on the Sales System Interface Bl component. Optionally these hardware components may receive responses from the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces

Cl to supply as input to die Sales System Interface Bl component; d. Manual transfer by sales oudet operators of information between Sales System Interface Bl components and Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl. e. Elements of options a-d may be intermixed to achieve the required interface standards and protocols.

In one form of the present system, a specific interface scenario of the Sales System Interfaces Bl interfacing with the Local And Remote Controller Merchant Interfaces Cl. is via POS Stations 35 interfacing using one of the interface options described above with a Merchant Interface Server 30. Transaction flow and processing in this scenario is described following. Customers make purchases at POS stations 35 and at the appropriate time, usually at the end of the transaction and/or before the payment process is commenced, transaction details are forwarded to an associated merchant interface server 30 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions. The Merchant Interface Server 30 processes these transactions as follows: a. The Transaction Receipt and Response module 22 processes each transaction sent to the Merchant Interface Server 30 using stored information about the type and configuration of the POS Station 35 with which it is interacting to interpret and as necessary translate the transaction content received into the format required for processing. b. The Transaction Analysis module 23 reviews and processes the content and each line item of the transaction against the active and valid awards promotions received and stored in the Merchant Interface Server 30 according to their business rules and creates an award entidement for each promotion that the transaction qualifies for. c. Qualification for an award occurs when a component of a transaction meets die business rules for qualification set up for an active promotion for example a product is purchased and a matching discount coupon is present or a certain customer purchases a nominated product matches the business rule requirements setup in a promotion to qualify for an award. d. Qualification for awards may be dependent on the content of the whole transaction, any individual part of it or any combination of parts of it matching business rules setup in any active and valid promotion stored in the Merchant Interface Server 30. e. For each promotion that the transaction meets the qualification criteria for the

Reward Issue module 24 creates the appropriate financial incentive awards which may comprise but not be limited to an offer of a discount on a products bought in the current transaction, discounts on the current transaction or issue of a voucher to enable a discount on a future transaction. f. The Reward Issue module 24 provides details of awards it creates to the

Transaction Receipt and Response module 22 which sends them back to the POS Station 35 for display and/or printing and/or other action such as application of a credit comprising a discount on purchases in the current transaction. g. In the case of an offer to be made for the current transaction a message and/or copy of a document containing details of the offer for a financial incentive that could be qualified for in the current transaction is setup by the Merchant

Interface Server 30 and returned to POS Station 35 for display and/or printing. Several such offers could be made and after all offers have been made the customer is given the opportunity to add to their purchases in the current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer. When the customer indicates that they have finished adding any new items to the current transaction in order to meet the requirements of any offers made in the current transaction as described above or indicates that they do not wish to do so the updated transaction data is re-sent by POS Station 35 to Merchant Interface Server 30 for a further comparison by the Transaction Analysis module 23 with active award records data to re-determine if the customer has qualified for any awards. If so details of all financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction are issued by the Rewards Issue module 24 via the Transaction Receipt and Response module 22 to POS Station 35 for application as credits to the value of the current transaction or otherwise to use as appropriate during the transaction. h. If any financial incentives awarded are discounts to be applied to purchases in the current transaction, these are applied by the POS Station 35 as follows: i. If the POS Station 35 software has been modified to interface directly with the Merchant Interface Server 30, the discounts earned as financial incentives may be applied by the POS system using standard discounting procedures as appropriate to meet merchant accounting standards; ii. If the POS Station 35 is interfaced with the Merchant Interface Server 30 via software modules or hardware components that both capture keyboard input, scanned barcodes and/or printed receipts as well as receive responses from the Merchant Interface Server 30 to supply to the POS

Station 35 as input to the Sales System the discounts earned as financial incentives may be applied by the POS system using predefined standard barcodes in the POS System 35 that prompt known discounts matching those awarded by the Merchant Interface Server 30, or the operator may be prompted to apply the required discounts or the required discounts may be applied using other standard discounting procedures available via the POS software as appropriate to meet merchant accounting standards; iii. In both the above cases of financial incentives comprising discounts applied to the current transaction at retail oudets, a summary of these and a reason typically comprising the name of the promotion and/or product to which the discount has been applied is printed on the sales receipt printed by the POS printer for the transaction.

i. In the case of financial incentives comprising vouchers to enable a discount on a future transaction to be qualified for, these are typically printed after the sales receipt for die transaction and if present, the summary for discounts applied in the current transaction as described above. j. In the case of financial incentives comprising loyalty points, a summary of these is typically printed after the sales receipt for the transaction and if present, the summary for discounts applied in the current transaction as described above. k. Sales outlet customers with an identification number stored on a Customer Identification Token or the like and that is presented at the time of their transaction could also have their vouchers for use in future transactions stored by electronic means such as loading it onto a customer card if present in a transaction or by recording them in the transaction details for recording of vouchers issued in a central database from whence they can be forwarded to customers or be available for them to check electronically as desired.

1. As further possibility where customers have presented a Customer Identification Token or similar during a transaction any financial incentives such as discounts qualified for in the transaction may be recorded as credits that are subsequendy applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making the purchases in the discounted sales transaction. In this scenario the following process applies: i. In the Promotion Setup module 2 the parameters of financial incentives promotions for which financial incentives including discounts qualified for in a transaction are to be recorded as credits to be applied to a financial services card are setup to include a financial services card credits indicator. When this indicator is positive it designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; ii. When customer, product and price data corresponding to a product purchase transaction are compared in Transaction Analysis module 23 against the active and valid awards promotions stored in the Merchant Interface Server 30, for each award that the transaction qualifies for the financial services card credits indicator is checked; iii. If positive, any financial incentives awarded by the Rewards Issue module 24 are returned by the Transaction Receipt and Response module 22 to the POS Station 35 to be advised to the customer via display and/or printed document as per items i and j above after which they are then stored in the

Data Logging module 26 and accumulated to be subsequently applied to the customers financial services card when appropriate as a credit paid for by the sponsor of the sales promotion. The customer may then use the financial incentives so earned as part or full payment for purchases made in future transactions. iv. In this embodiment the system a customer may require to present a card or other device that identifies them to be recognised as part of the transaction and to be included in the transaction data in order to enable credits earned during the transaction to be applied to their financial services card. v. Normally the financial incentive applied using this aspect of the invention would be a discount but other financial incentives such as loyalty points could be applied using the invention as well. vi. In the case, where financial incentives qualified for are applied to a customer financial services card being used the value of the transaction being processed by the POS Station 35 is not altered so there is no need for any sales system processes to apply discounts awarded using the invention and accordingly no need for any compensation to be made to the sales oudet at which the transaction is occurring. vii. Where the financial incentives are discounts, the sum of all discounts applied to customers financial services cards for each financial incentive promotion is accumulated and periodically a debit is made to the manufacturer or supplier sponsoring the promotions to offset credits applied to customers financial sendees cards.

The process of applying financial incentives earned to customer financial services cards or accounts is described in more detail further on in dus description. m. After completion of a transaction including application of any discounts, payment and printing of receipts and vouchers etc. a copy of the final transaction details is returned where applicable by the POS Station 35 to the Merchant Interface Server 30. n. The Issued Rewards & Transaction Detail Receipt module 25 takes returned final transaction details where available and where not uses whatever original transaction details are available plus discounts etc issued to calculate and assemble an assessed final transaction content, links this to details of awards issued and any customer details available and supplies all this information to the Data Logging module 26 which logs all the information available as a full transaction record. o. The Sponsor Charges module 27 where appropriate and necessary at Merchant Interface Server 30 level uses final details of awards issued to assign sponsor charges applicable to be charged to the promotion sponsors. These may include a fee for handling, delivering and redeeming awards made under each promotion qualified for as well as charges to the sponsor to reimburse the sales oudet comprising the POS Station 35 for any financial loss incurred as a result of making any awards qualified for. Sponsor Charges so assembled are linked to transaction details and logged by the Data Logging module 26 for subsequent return to the Promotions Management System for use in the Accounts System 6 to effect sponsor charging and accounts reconciliation. In another aspect of the system, customers make purchases and details of these including payment details are supplied to EFTPOS stations 36 which at die appropriate time, usually at the end of the transaction, forward transaction details to an associated merchant interface server 30 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions.

The Merchant Interface Server 30 processes these transactions as per steps a to o immediately preceding but in this case delivery of awards including display and printing and customer/operator interaction is via the appropriate EFTPOS unit components rather than the POS unit components. Minor differences in processing steps apply accordingly and Financial Incentives applicable do not include discounts applied direcdy to a POS transaction but apart from this the functionality offered is substantially the same for this embodiment of the invention as for that described in steps a-o above.

In a further aspect, at smaller merchant locations customers make purchases at POS stations 33 which at the appropriate time, usually at the end of the transaction, forward transaction details to an associated regional interface server 29 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions.

The regional interface server 29 processes these transactions as per steps a to o set out above for POS Stations 35 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30. The only significant difference is that the regional interface server 29 is remote from the POS

Station 33 whereas for the POS Stations 35 interfacing with.a Merchant Interface Server 30 the latter is in the same location as the POS Station 35.

In a further aspect, at smaller merchant locations customers make purchases and details of these including payment details are supplied to EFTPOS stations 34 which at the appropriate time, usually at the end of the transaction, forward transaction details to an associated regional interface server 29 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions.

The regional interface server 29 processes these transactions as per steps a to o set out above with the differences as noted for EFTPOS Units 36 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30. The only significant difference between the EFTPOS stations 34 interfacing with a regional interface server 29 and EFTPOS Units 36 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 is that the regional interface server 29 is remote from the EFTPOS Units 34 whereas for the EFTPOS Units 36 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 the latter is in the same location as the EFTPOS Units 36.

In a further aspect, customers make purchases at Internet Merchants sites 32 which at the appropriate time,,usually at the end of the transaction, forward transaction details to an associated regional interface server 29 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions. The regional interface server 29 processes these transactions as per steps a to o set out above for POS Stations 35 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 but with Internet Merchants sites 32 being substituted for POS Stations 35 and a regional interface server 29 substituted for Merchant Interface Server 30 everywhere in the narrative for each process step. The only material process differences in this arrangement: a. the regional interface server 29 is remote from the Internet Merchants sites 32 whereas for the POS Stations 35 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 the latter is in the same location as the POS Station 35; b. Execution of process steps may be slightly different as appropriate to reflect the fact that the regional interface server 29 interacts via the Internet Merchants sites

32 with a customer direcdy rather than via a POS station operator but the processes themselves are essentially the same; c. Any printing is effected via electronic copies being made available for customers to print at their own printer rather than being printed at any printer under the control of the Internet Merchant 32 for example current transaction discount summaries may be included in the electronic customers invoice details and , discount vouchers for future transactions may be eidier included thereafter on die electronic invoice or stored and/or forwarded electronically for customers to print themselves. d. If any financial incentives awarded are discounts to be applied to purchases in the current transaction, the Internet Merchants sites 32 are able to be apply them directly to the customer invoice using standard discounting procedures as appropriate to meet merchant accounting standards. e. Because customers of Internet Merchants 32 are making their purchase online using a financial services card it is less likely mat any financial incentives such as discounts qualified for in the transaction would be recorded as credits that are subsequently applied to a financial services card owned by the customer making the purchases in die discounted sales transaction. However it is possible that diis method of applying any discounts earned might be the desired mediod of customer reward in order to promote loyalty and if so this method of effecting financial incentive reward could be used for Internet Merchants 32.

In yet a further aspect of the system, customers may have made purchases from Corporate Merchants 31 details of which during a process in which they are invoiced for tiiese purchases, usually at the end of die customers transactions invoicing, are forwarded to an associated regional interface server 29 which has previously been supplied with details of current Financial Incentives Promotions.

The regional interface server 29 processes these transactions as per steps a to o set out above for POS Stations 35 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 but with Corporate Merchants 31 being substituted for POS Stations 35 and a regional interface server 29 substituted for Merchant Interface Server 30 everywhere in the narrative for each process step. The only material process differences in this arrangement are that: a. the regional interface server 29 is remote from the Corporate Merchants 31 whereas for the POS Stations 35 interfacing with a Merchant Interface Server 30 the latter is in the same location as the POS Station 35; b. Execution of some process steps may be slighdy different as appropriate to reflect the fact that there is no customer present during the transaction for the regional interface server 29 to interact with. c. Because there of there being no customer present during the transaction for the regional interface server 29 to interact witih no offers can be made for the current transaction so the whole of step g is not applicable. d. Any printing is effected as part of printing of customer invoices or statements for example current transaction discount summaries are printed on a customers invoice and discount vouchers for future transactions are either printed thereafter on the invoice or stored and/or forwarded electronically for customers to print diemselves. e. If any financial incentives awarded are discounts to be applied to purchases in the current transaction, the Corporate Merchants 31 are able to be apply them direcdy to the customer invoice using standard discounting procedures as appropriate to meet merchant accounting standards. f. Because customers of Corporate Merchants 32 have made their purchases and are being invoiced for them when transactions are being processed for financial incentive rewards it is less likely that any financial incentives such as discounts qualified for in the transaction would be recorded as credits that are subsequently applied to a financial sendees card owned by die customer being invoiced in any discounted sales transaction. However it is possible that this might be the desired method of customer reward in order to promote loyalty and if so this mediod of effecting financial incentive reward could be used for Corporate Merchants 31.

All the above arrangements allow die new financial incentive reward delivery alternative whereby financial rewards earned by a customer may be applied as credits to a financial services or loyalty card owned by the customer. While the process required to effect this new reward delivery mechanism is described in item 1 of the processes a-o above, this new financial incentive reward deliver)' alternative comprising the ability to direcdy credit any financial incentives earned by customers to a credit or debit card, or to a nominated customer account, is described in more detail as follows: a. a customer commences a transaction at a sales oudet enabled for one of the above automated Financial Incentives Promotion reward delivery methods described above for any of the Sales System B customer interfaces 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36, interacting with their associated Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30; b. The customer provides a special identification, credit debit or loyalty card which has been previously issued to diem to be scanned or read by the POS or an EFTPOS unit in order to obtain customer identification information as part of a transaction process for transactions at Sales System customer interfaces 33, 34, 35 or 36. c. Sales System customer interfaces 33, 34, 35 or 36 pass scanned card details to the Financial Incentives Promotion Delivery Devices being one of Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30 along with purchases and other transaction details. Customer identification details will have already been provided or be available in the associated Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30 or host server for customer transactions being completed via a Corporate

Merchant 31 of an Internet Merchant 32. d. The type of card and information read from it and/or stored in the associated Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30 or host server may be used to determine the appropriate alternative method of receiving any financial rewards earned in the transaction; e. One alternative is that instead of a credit being returned by the Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30 to the Sales System customer interfaces 31-36 to be applied to the current transaction total, a credit of equal value to the financial incentive rewards earned in the transaction is applied to the customers financial services or loyalty card account and in some cases applied ot the card itself as well; f. Where financial incetives earned are to be applied as credits to a customer card the appropriate credits are supplied by the Regional Interface Server 29 or the Merchant Server 30 to EFTPOS Units 34 and 36 or to appropriately configured POS Stations 33 and 35 to effect application of credits to the customers financial services or loyalty card using standard electronic card update techniques; g. After application of any financial incentive credits being applied to financial services cards as described above or without completing this step if financial services cards are to be updated at a later time, the credits comprising the financial incentive rewards earned in the transaction which may be credits or other rewards such as loyalty points are supplied by the Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30 for forwarding to the Customer Rewards Card System for processing as follows: i. when transaction details are received by the Central Interface 28 during a communication session between the Central Interface 28 and one of the Merchant Interfaces Cl the transaction details are passed by the Central

Interface 28 to the Issued Rewards & Transaction Detail Receipt module 8 which recognises when credits are to be applied to a customer account and passes the relevant details to the Cardholder Issued Rewards Receipt module 18; ϋ. the Cardholder Issued Rewards Receipt module 18 validates and processes the financial incentive reward credit details ready for rewards credit to the customer and passes validated details to the Rewards Update module 17. iii. Invalid details are output to an error file for manual investigation and correction processing. iv. The Issued Rewards Update module 17 applies credits earned to customers financial services card accounts held in the Cardholder Database 13 or held at an associated banking partner if desired to meet local financial transaction regulations as appropriate.

h. Details of credits applied to directly customer cards along with any other transaction data as desired are supplied for recording and holding in the Cardholder Database 13 as appropriate.

i. Depending on the type of customer card or account to which the credits are delivered and on the way the card system is designed, credits earned can be applied as a method of payment for future purchases. Alternatively they can be simply applied as a stored value top up to be used for any purchases as desired by the Financial Incentives program manager and in this case the following process is followed: i. Details of the customer and credit involved are passed by the Cardholder Database 13 to the Card Value Update module 14; ii. the Card Value Update module 14 applies the credit to the customer account as appropriate using standard financial services industry processes and procedures. iii. The value of credit stored on a customer financial services card may also be increased via a customer making deposits or funds transfers to it via the External Sales Transactions module 15. j. The usual security procedures associated with financial transactions of this type are observed as appropriate in all steps of the processes described above. k. In one option of the system credits are applied to customer financial services cards where these are debit cards increase the credit on the card and thus may be used for any subsequent payment diat the customer desires.

1. In another option of the system credits are applied to customer financial services cards where these are debit cards increase the credit on the card but these may be linked to certain merchants participating in the Sales Promotion System and hence credits earned may be only be used for subsequent payment for purchases made at these participant merchants. m. If the rewards earned under this aspect of die invention comprise loyalty points these are processed and redeemed using standard known processes and procedures applicable to customer loyalty programs.

A key aspect of this aspect of the system as for the other components is that financial rewards earned by customers from Financial Incentives Promotions can be delivered without the need for a POS system to be set up to be able to run any individual Financial Incentives Promotions, to have any knowledge of them, or to be able to receive credits from or to interact with a Financial Incentives Promotions device in any way.

Continuing with die description of the overall system, die final action for each transaction processed at any of the Sales System Interfaces is that details of Financial Incentives Promotion rewards issued as appropriate by any of the Sales System B customer interfaces 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36 are recorded along with other details of purchases, transaction totals etc., cardholder information where present and transaction identification details by the Data Logging module 26 of the associated Regional Interface Server 29 or Merchant Interface Server 30. Periodically these transaction details are sent during a communications session as described earlier by the Regional Interface Server 29 and the Merchant Interface Server 30 as appropriate via the Central Interface Server 28 to the Issued Rewards and Transaction Detail Receipt Module 8 of the Promotions Management System A which supplies them to the Data Warehouse 7 and copies them in turn to the Cardholder

Issued Rewards Receipt module 18 of the Customer Rewards Card System D where they are processed if appropriate as described above. Details sent to the Data Warehouse 7 and held by it include full details where possible down to line item level of sales transactions along with where available details from any related customer identification tokens presented with the transaction as well as any Financial Incentives Promotion rewards issued qualified for by and awarded to the transaction. These details are stored in the data warehouses 7 and 19 as well as in summary format in the Promotions & Customer Database 3.

Where financial incentives earned by customers as a result of qualifying for any current Financial Incentives Promotions rewards as described above are to be applied as credits to credit or debit card, or to a nominated account to which the consumer wishes to have their Financial Incentives Promotions credits applied, the appropriate rewards details are provided to the Rewards Update Module 17 which uses them to apply the appropriate credits to customer accounts held in the Cardholder Database 13 or held at an associated banking partner if desired to meet local financial transaction regulations as described in detail above.

In the present system fees and charges comprising Sponsor Charges can be associated with any step of financial incentive promotion reward issue. These fees and charges may comprise but not be limited to charges to promotion sponsors to reimburse sales outlets or customers for discounts earned on the current transaction or for issue of a voucher to enable a discount on a future transaction issue, voucher redemption, credit of rewards to cardholder accounts etc. and other fees that might be earned by sales outlets and the Sales Promotion System Operators for issue, redemption and processing transactions and offers pursuant to operation of the Sales Promotion System. These fees and charges are recorded as they are incurred by Regional Interface Servers 29 and 30 and subsequendy abstracted and processed by the accounts system modules 6, 20 and 27. These modules abstract and consolidate the fees and charges on a periodic basis and exchange accounts information as necessary to apply debits and credits to the various parties participating in the Sales Promotion programs in order to effect settlement of all moneys due between all participants in each Financial Incentive Promotion.

Via a combination of the new functionality provided by the invention as outlined above, the system significantly simplifies the set up and operation of Financial Incentive Promotions.

While the descriptions and examples described in the foregoing illustrate the scope of the invention, these are not intended to be all-encompassing and it is stressed tiiat the full scope of the invention is defined only by the appended claims. Amongst other things, the system enables financial rewards earned by customers from Financial Incentive Promotions to be delivered witiiout the need for a Sales System sales interface devices such as POS stations, EFTPOS units and the like be specifically set up to be able to run individual Financial Incentive Promotions, and/or to have any knowledge of them, and/or to be able to receive credits from or to interact with a Financial Incentive Promotions device in any way other than to support the generic functions of supplying transaction details at the appropriate time and receiving any credits as appropriate.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method of sales promotion for use in conjunction with sales systems which record customer sales data, comprising: receiving multiple sets of input parameters, each set corresponding with a financial incentives promotion, each set including promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters for the promotion recording the promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters receiving transaction data from a sales system of a merchant applying rules generated from the promotion parameters to die transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award for each transaction qualifying for an award returning data to the sales system identifying the transaction and the award and applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to die award applying sponsor charges against accounts of promotion sponsors.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein die sets of input parameters are received and stored centrally and the method includes broadcasting, to locations of a sales system, at least one of: promotion parameters, rules generated from promotion parameters, sponsorship parameters and rules derived from sponsorship parameters are broadcast to.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 including selecting a set entities to which to send promotion parameters from a larger set of entities based on rules generated from the promotion parameters.

4. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 including applying rules generated from die sponsorship parameters to transaction data received from die promotion sales system to generate merchant payment data, and allocating credit to merchant accounts based on the merchant payment data.

5. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 t o 4 including analysing awards data for a financial incentive promotion, providing a report comparing the awards data against comparison data.

6. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 including receiving updated input parameters for a financial incentives promotion, replacing stored parameters with the updated parameters, sending updated parameters or rules generated from the promotion parameters to the entities of the sales promotion system.

7. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the promotion parameters include merchants at which the financial incentive promotion will be available, the period of the promotion, sales criteria which define customer entidement to an award and the financial incentive.

8. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7 wherein the transaction data comprises customer, product and price data.

9. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction, and the method includes providing discount data to the sales system entity in relation to an earned award.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9 including crediting a merchant account to offset the discount.

11. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10 including logging transaction data, records of awards made.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11 wherein the logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

13. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 12 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the current transaction offer indicator to see if it indicates that the award qualified for is an offer to be made in the current transaction and if so; returning information regarding the offer to the sales system so that all such offers to be made in the current transaction are processed and displayed and the customer is offered the opportunity to add to their purchases in the current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13 including: receiving further transaction data, applying rules generated from promotions parameters to the further transaction data to check if the customer has qualified for any further awards, and if so; sending details of the additional financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction, to the sales system.

15. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 14 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the financial services card credits indicator; the method includes sending details of credit to be applied to a card to a card issuer computer system in response to determining qualification for an award.

16. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 15 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, the value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; each time that the financial incentive awards are made sponsor charges applicable to the award are determined according to rules derived from the sponsor parameters and recorded as part of the award record that is logged along with other details of the transaction; the awards records are analysed and all applicable charges are applied as appropriate as a credit or debit to the parties as specified in the sponsor parameters.

17. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 16 wherein the sales system comprises one or more entities in the group: corporate merchants, internet merchants, POS stations, and EFTPOS terminals.

18. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 17 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

19. A method of sales promotion for use in conjunction with sales systems which record customer sales data, comprising: receiving from a promotions management system, and storing, promotion parameters or rules generated from promotion parameters receiving transaction data from a sales system of a merchant applying rules generated from promotion parameters to the transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award for each transaction qualifying for an award returning data to the sales system identifying the transaction and the award. sending to the promotions management system data concerning each qualifying award including the transaction and the merchant.

20. A method as claimed in claim 19 including applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to the award, and including this in the data sent to the promotions management system in relation to the transaction.

21. A method as claimed in either 19 or 20 including receiving updated promotion parameters or rules and replacing stored parameters or rules with the updated parameters or rules.

22. A method as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 21 wherein the promotion parameters include sales criteria which define customer entidement to an award and the financial incentive.

23. A method as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 22 wherein the transaction details comprise customer, product and price data.

24. A method as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 23 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction

25. A method as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 24 including logging system transaction details, records of awards made, and uploading logged data to a promotions management system at intervals.

26. A method as claimed in claim 25 wherein logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

27. A method as claimed in any one of claims -19 to 26 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the current transaction offer indicator to see if it indicates that the award qualified for is an offer to be made in the current transaction and if so; returning information regarding the offer to the sales system so that all such offers to be made in the current transaction are processed and displayed and the customer is offered the opportunity to add to their purchases in the current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer.

28. A method as claimed in claim 27 including: receiving furdier transaction data, applying rules generated from promotions parameters to the further transaction data to check if die customer has qualified for any further awards, and if so; sending details of die additional financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction, to the sales system.

29. A method as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 28 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the financial services card credits indicator; the method includes logging details of credit awards made in response to transactions.

30. A method as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 29 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, the value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; each time that the financial incentive awards are made sponsor charges applicable to the award are determined according to rules derived from the sponsor parameters and recorded as part of the award record that is logged along with other details of the transaction.

31. A method as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 30 wherein the sales system comprises one or more entities in the group: corporate merchants, internet merchants, POS stations, and EFTPOS terminals.

32. A method as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 31 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

33. A method of sales promotion management for use in conjunction with sales systems which record customer sales data, comprising: receiving multiple sets of input parameters, each set corresponding with a financial incentives promotion, each set including promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters for the promotion storing the promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters sending promotion parameters or rules generated from promotion parameters to entities in a sales promotion system, receiving data from sales promotion system entities concerning qualifying awards made, including the transaction and the merchant applying sponsor charges against accounts of promotion sponsors.

34. A method as claimed in claim 33 wherein the sets of input parameters are received and stored centrally and the method includes broadcasting to the entities of the sales promotion system.

35. A method as claimed in claim 33 or claim 34 including selecting a set of entities to which to send promotion parameters from a larger set of entities based on rules generated from the promotion parameters.

36. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 35 including applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to transaction data received from the promotion sales system to generate merchant payment data, and allocating credit to merchant accounts based on the merchant payment data.

37. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 36 including analysing awards data for a financial incentive promotion, providing a report comparing the awards data against comparison data.

38. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 37 including receiving updated input parameters for a financial incentives promotion, replacing stored parameters with the updated parameters, sending updated parameters or rules generated from the promotion parameters to the entities of the sales promotion system.

39. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 38 wherein the promotion parameters include merchants at which the financial incentive promotion will be available, the period of the promotion, sales criteria which define customer entitlement to an award and the financial incentive.

40. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 39 wherein the transaction data comprises customer, product and price data.

41. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 40 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction.

42. A method as claimed in claim 41 including crediting a merchant account to offset discounts awarded.

43. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 42 including logging transaction data, records of awards made.

44. A method as claimed in claim 43 wherein the logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

45. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 44 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction.

46. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 45 wherein die financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; the method includes evaluating logged transaction and award data and sending details of credit to be applied to a card to a card issuer computer system in response to awards made.

47. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 46 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, the value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; and the awards records are analysed and all applicable charges are applied as appropriate as a credit or debit to the parties as specified in the sponsor parameters.

48. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 47 wherein the sales system comprises one or more entities in the group: corporate merchants, internet merchants, POS stations, and EFTPOS terminals.

49. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to claim 48 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

50. A method of sales promotion for use in conjunction with sales systems which record customer sales data, comprising: receiving from a promotions management system, and storing, promotion parameters or rules generated from promotion parameters receiving transaction data relating to a transaction with a customer applying rules generated from promotion parameters to the transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award for each transaction qualifying for an award providing output to the customer identifying the award sending to the promotions management system data concerning each qualifying award including the transaction and the merchant.

51. A method as claimed in claim 50 including applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to the award, and including this in the data sent to the promotions management system in relation to the transaction.

52. A method as claimed in either 50 or 51 including receiving updated promotion parameters or rules and replacing stored parameters or rules with the updated parameters or rules.

53. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 52 wherein the promotion parameters include sales criteria which define customer entitlement to an award and the financial incentive.

54. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 53 wherein the transaction details comprise customer, product and price data.

55. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 54 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction

56. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 55 including logging transaction details, records of awards made, and uploading logged data to a promotions management system at intervals.

57. A method as claimed in claim 56 wherein logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

58. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 57 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the current transaction offer indicator to see if it indicates that the award qualified for is an offer to be made in the current transaction and if so; presenting information regarding the offer to the customer so that all such offers to be made in the current transaction are processed and displayed and the customer is offered the opportunity to add to their purchases in the current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer.

59. A method as claimed in claim 58 including: receiving further transaction data, applying rules generated from promotions parameters to the further transaction data to check if the customer has qualified for any further awards, and if so; presenting details of the additional financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction, to the customer.

60. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 59 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the financial services card credits indicator; the method includes logging details of credit awards made in response to transactions.

61. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 60 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, the value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; each time that the financial incentive awards are made sponsor charges applicable to the award are determined according to rules derived from the sponsor parameters and recorded as part of the award record that is logged along with other details of the transaction.

62. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 61 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

63. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 62 wherein method is executed in software of internet merchants.

64. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 62 wherein the method is executed in software of POS stations.

65. A method as claimed in any one of claims 50 to 62 wherein the method is executed in software of EFTPOS terminals.

66. Apparatus for sales promotion for use in conjunction with sales systems which record customer sales data, the apparatus comprising at least one computer programmed to: receive multiple sets of input parameters, each set corresponding with a financial incentives promotion, each set including promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters for the promotion, store the promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters, receive transaction data from a sales system of a merchant, apply rules generated from the promotion parameters to the transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award, for each transaction qualifying for an award return data to the sales system identifying the transaction and the award and applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to the award, and apply sponsor charges against accounts of promotion sponsors.

67. Apparatus as claimed in claim 66 wherein the sets of input parameters are received and stored at a central computer and the apparatus is programmed to broadcast, to locations of a sales system, at least one of: promotion parameters, rules generated from promotion parameters, sponsorship parameters and rules derived from sponsorship parameters are broadcast to.

68. Apparatus as claimed in claim 66 or claim 67 programmed to select a set entities to which to send promotion parameters from a larger set of entities based on rules generated from the promotion parameters.

69. A method as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 68 programmed to apply rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to transaction data received from the promotion sales system to generate merchant payment data, and allocate credit to merchant accounts based on the merchant payment data.

70. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 66 t o 69 programmed to analyse awards data for a financial incentive promotion, and provide a report comparing the awards data against comparison data.

71. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 70 programmed to receive updated input parameters for a financial incentives promotion, replace stored parameters with the updated parameters, and send updated parameters or rules generated from the promotion parameters to the entities of the sales promotion system.

72. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 71 wherein the promotion parameters include merchants at which the financial incentive promotion will be available, the period of the promotion, sales criteria which define customer entitlement to an award and the financial incentive.

73. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 72 wherein the transaction data comprises customer, product and price data.

74. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 73 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction, and the apparatus is programmed to provide discount data to the sales system entity in relation to an earned award.

75. Apparatus as claimed in claim 74 programmed to credit a merchant account to offset the discount.

76. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 75 programmed to log transaction data, records of awards made.

77. Apparatus as claimed in claim 76 wherein the logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

78. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 76 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction; the apparatus is programmed to determine if a transaction qualifies for an award by checking the current transaction offer indicator to see if it indicates that the award qualified for is an offer to be made in the current transaction and if so; return information regarding the offer to the sales system so that all such offers to be made in the current transaction are processed and displayed and the customer is offered the opportunity to add to their purchases in die current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer.

79. Apparatus as claimed in claim 78 programmed to: receive further transaction data, apply rules generated from promotions parameters to the further transaction data to check if the customer has qualified for any further awards, and if so; send details of the additional financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction, to the sales system.

80. A method as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 79 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial sendees card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; and the apparatus is programmed to determine if a transaction qualifies for an award by checking the financial services card credits indicator; and send details of credit to be applied to a card to a card issuer computer system in response to determining qualification for an award.

81. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 80 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, the value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; and the apparatus is programmed to, each time that the financial incentive awards are made, determine sponsor charges applicable to the award according to rules derived from the sponsor parameters and record the sponsor changes as part of the award record that is logged along with other details of the transaction; analyse the awards records and apply all applicable charges as appropriate as a credit or debit to the parties as specified in the sponsor parameters.

82. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 81 wherein the sales system comprises one or more entities in the group: corporate merchants, internet merchants, POS stations, and EFTPOS terminals.

83. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 66 to 82 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

84. Apparatus for sales promotion for use in conjunction with sales systems which record customer sales data, the apparatus comprising at least one computer programmed to: receive from a promotions management system, and store, promotion parameters or rules generated from promotion parameters receive transaction data from a sales system of a merchant apply rules generated from promotion parameters to the transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award for each transaction qualifying for an award return data to the sales system identifying the transaction and the award. send to the promotions management system data concerning each qualifying award including the transaction and the merchant.

85. Apparatus as claimed in claim 84 programmed to apply rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to the award, and include this in the data sent to the promotions management system in relation to the transaction.

86. Apparatus as claimed in either 84 or 85 programmed to receive updated promotion parameters or rules and replace stored parameters or rules with the updated parameters or rules.

87. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 84 to 86 wherein the promotion parameters include sales criteria which define customer entitlement to an award and the financial incentive.

88. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 84 to 87 wherein the transaction details comprise customer, product and price data.

89. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 84 to 88 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction

90. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 84 to 89 programmed to log system transaction details, records of awards made, and upload logged data to a promotions management system at intervals.

91. Apparatus as claimed in claim 90 wherein logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

92. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 84 to 91 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and : the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction; the apparatus is programmed to determine if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the current transaction offer indicator to see if it indicates that the award qualified for is an offer to be made in the current transaction and if so; return information regarding the offer to the sales system so that all such offers to be made in the current transaction are processed and displayed and the customer is offered the opportunity to add to their purchases in the current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer.

93. Apparatus as claimed in claim 92 programmed to: receive further transaction data, apply rules generated from promotions parameters to the further transaction data to check if the customer has qualified for any further awards, and if so; send details of the additional financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction, to the sales system.

94. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 84 to 93 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; and the apparatus is programmed to determine if a transaction qualifies for an award by checking the financial services card credits indicator; and log details of credit awards made in response to transactions.

95. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 84 to 94 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, the value of die sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and die organization funding the charge; and the apparatus is programmed to, each time that the financial incentive awards are made, determine sponsor charges applicable to the award according to rules derived from the sponsor parameters and record the sponsor changes as part of die award record that is logged along with other details of the transaction.

96. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 84 to 95 wherein the sales system comprises one or more entities in the group: corporate merchants, internet merchants, POS stations, and EFTPOS terminals.

97. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 84 to 96 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

98. Apparatus for sales promotion management for use in conjunction with sales systems which record customer sales data, the apparatus comprising at least one computer programmed to: receive multiple sets of input parameters, each set corresponding with a financial incentives promotion, each set including promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters for the promotion store die promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters send promotion parameters or rules generated from promotion parameters to entities in a sales promotion system, receive data from sales promotion system entities concerning qualifying awards made, including the transaction and the merchant apply sponsor charges against accounts of promotion sponsors.

99. Apparatus as claimed in claim 98 wherein the sets of input parameters are received and stored at a central computer and the apparatus is programmed to broadcast to the entities of the sales promotion system.

100. Apparatus as claimed in claim 98 or claim 99 programmed to select a set of entities to which to send promotion parameters from a larger set of entities based on rules generated from the promotion parameters.

101. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 100 programmed to apply rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to transaction data received from the promotion sales system to generate merchant payment data, and allocate credit to merchant accounts based on the merchant payment data.

102. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 101 programmed to analyse awards data for a financial incentive promotion, and provide a report comparing the awards data against comparison data.

103. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 102 programmed to receive updated input parameters for a financial incentives promotion, replace stored parameters with the updated parameters, and send updated parameters or rules generated from the promotion parameters to the entities of the sales promotion system.

104. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 103 wherein the promotion parameters include merchants at which the financial incentive promotion will be available, the period of the promotion, sales criteria which define customer entitlement to an award and the financial incentive.

105. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 104 wherein die transaction data comprises customer, product and price data.

106. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 105 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to die transaction.

107. Apparatus as claimed in claim 106 programmed to credit a merchant account to offset discounts awarded.

108. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 107 programmed to log transaction data, records of awards made.

109. Apparatus claimed in claim 108 wherein the logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

110. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 109 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction.

111. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 110 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; and the apparatus is programmed to evaluate logged transaction and award data and sending details of credit to be applied to a card to a card issuer computer system in response to awards made.

112. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 111 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, die value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; and the apparatus is programmed to, analyse the awards records and apply all applicable charges as appropriate as a credit or debit to the parties as specified in the sponsor parameters.

113. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to 112 wherein the sales system comprises one or more entities in the group: corporate merchants, internet merchants, POS stations, and EFTPOS terminals.

114. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 98 to claim 113 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

115. Apparatus for sales promotion comprising at least one computer programmed to: receive from a promotions management system, and storing, promotion parameters or rules generated from promotion parameters receive transaction data relating to a transaction with a customer aPpty ^rul^es generated from promotion parameters to the transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award for each transaction qualifying for an award provide output to the customer identifying the award send to the promotions management system data concerning each qualifying award including the transaction and the merchant.

116. Apparatus as claimed in claim 115 programmed to apply rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to the award, and include this in the data sent to the promotions management system in relation to die transaction.

117. Apparatus as claimed in either 115 or 116 programmed to receive updated promotion parameters or rules and replace stored parameters or rules with the updated parameters or rules.

118. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 117 wherein the promotion parameters include sales criteria which define customer entidement to an award and the financial incentive.

119. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 118 wherein the transaction details comprise customer, product and price data.

120. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 119 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction.

121. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 120 programmed to log transaction details, records of awards made, and upload logged data to a promotions management system at intervals.

122. Apparatus as claimed in claim 121 wherein logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

123. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 122 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction; the apparatus is programmed to determine if a transaction qualifies for an award by checking the current transaction offer indicator to see if it indicates that the award qualified for is an offer to be made in the current transaction and if so; present information regarding the offer to the customer so that all such offers to be made in the current transaction are processed and displayed and the customer is offered the opportunity to add to their purchases in the current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer.

124. Apparatus as claimed in claim 123 programmed to: receive further transaction data, aPply rules generated from promotions parameters to the further transaction data to check if the customer has qualified for any further awards, and if so; present details of the additional financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction, to the customer.

125. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 124 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; and the apparatus is programmed to determine if a transaction qualifies for an award by checking the financial services card credits indicator; and log details of credit awards made in response to transactions.

126. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 125 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, the value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; and the apparatus is programmed to, each time that the financial incentive awards are made, determine sponsor charges applicable to the award according to rules derived from the sponsor parameters and record the sponsor changes as part of the award record that is logged along with other details of the transaction.

127. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 126 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at die sales system.

128. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 127 wherein method is executed in software of internet merchants.

129. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 127 wherein the mediod is executed in software of POS stations.

130. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 115 to 127 wherein the method is executed in software of EFTPOS terminals.

131. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a mediod of sales promotion for use in conjunction widi sales systems which record customer sales data, comprising: receiving multiple sets of input parameters, each set corresponding with a financial incentives promotion, each set including promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters for the promotion recording the promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters receiving transaction data from a sales system of a merchant applying rules generated from the promotion parameters to the transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award for each transaction qualifying for an award returning data to the sales system identifying the transaction and the award and applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to the award applying sponsor charges against accounts of promotion sponsors.

132. The computer program product of 131 wherein the sets of input parameters are received and stored centrally and the method includes broadcasting, to locations of a sales system, at least one of: promotion parameters, rules generated from promotion parameters, sponsorship parameters and rules derived from sponsorship parameters are broadcast to.

133. The computer program product of claim 131 or claim 132 wherein the method includes selecting a set entities to which to send promotion parameters from a larger set of entities based on rules generated from the promotion parameters.

134. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 133 wherein the method includes applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to transaction data received from the promotion sales system to generate merchant payment data, and allocating credit to merchant accounts based on the merchant payment data.

135. The computer program product of any one of claims 13 t o 134 wherein the method includes analysing awards data for a financial incentive promotion, providing a report comparing the awards data against comparison data.

136. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 135 wherein the method includes receiving updated input parameters for a financial incentives promotion, replacing stored parameters with the updated parameters, sending updated parameters or rules generated from the promotion parameters to the entities of the sales promotion system.

137. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 136 wherein the promotion parameters include merchants at which the financial incentive promotion will be available, the period of the promotion, sales criteria which define customer entitlement to an award and the financial incentive.

138. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 137 wherein the transaction data comprises customer, product and price data.

139. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 138 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction, and the method includes providing discount data to the sales system entity in relation to an earned award.

140. The computer program product of claim 139 wherein the method includes crediting a merchant account to offset the discount.

141. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 140 wherein the method includes logging transaction data, records of awards made.

142. The computer program product of claim 141 wherein the logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

143. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 142 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the current transaction offer indicator to see if it indicates that the award qualified for is an offer to be made in the current transaction and if so; returning information regarding the offer to the sales system so that all such offers to be made in the current transaction are processed and displayed and the customer is offered the opportunity to add to their purchases in the current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer.

144. The computer program product of claim 143 wherein the method includes: receiving further transaction data, applying rules generated from promotions parameters to the further transaction data to check if the customer has qualified for any further awards, and if so; sending details of the additional financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction, to the sales system.

145. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 144 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the financial services card credits indicator; the method includes sending details of credit to be applied to a card to a card issuer computer system in response to determining qualification for an award.

146. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 145 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing die sponsor charge to be applied, the value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding die charge; each time that the financial incentive awards are made sponsor charges applicable to the award are determined according to rules derived from the sponsor parameters and recorded as part of the award record that is logged along with other details of the transaction; the awards records are analysed and all applicable charges are applied as appropriate as a credit or debit to the parties as specified in die sponsor parameters.

147. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 146 wherein the sales system comprises one or more entities in the group: corporate merchants, internet merchants, POS stations, and EFTPOS terminals.

148. The computer program product of any one of claims 131 to 147 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

149. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method of sales promotion for use in conjunction with sales systems which record customer sales data, comprising: receiving from a promotions management system, and storing, promotion parameters or rules generated from promotion parameters receiving transaction data from a sales system of a merchant applying rules generated from promotion parameters to the transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award for each transaction qualifying for an award returning data to the sales system identifying the transaction and the award. sending to the promotions management system data concerning each qualifying award including the transaction and the merchant.

150. The computer program product of claim 149 wherein the method includes applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to the award, and including this in the data sent to the promotions management system in relation to the transaction.

151. The computer program product of either 149 or 150 wherein the method includes receiving updated promotion parameters or rules and replacing stored parameters or rules with the updated parameters or rules.

152. The computer program product of any one of claims 149 to 151 wherein the promotion parameters include sales criteria which define customer entitlement to an award and the financial incentive.

153. The computer program product of any one of claims 149 to 152 wherein the transaction details comprise customer, product and price data.

154. The computer program product of any one of claims 149 to 153 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction

155. The computer program product of any one of claims 149 to 154 wherein the method includes logging system transaction details, records of awards made, and uploading logged data to a promotions management system at intervals.

156. The computer program product of claim 155 wherein logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

157. The computer program product of any one of claims 149 to 156 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the current transaction offer indicator to see if it indicates that the award qualified for is an offer to be made in the current transaction and if so; returning information regarding the offer to the sales system so diat all such offers to be made in the current transaction are processed and displayed and the customer is offered the opportunity to add to their purchases in die current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer.

158. The computer program product of claim 157 wherein the method includes: receiving further transaction data, applying rules generated from promotions parameters to the further transaction data to check if the customer has qualified for any further awards, and if so; sending details of the additional financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction, to the sales system.

159. The computer program product of any one of claims 149 to 158 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card

(such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in die sales transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the financial services card credits indicator; the method includes logging details of credit awards made in response to transactions.

160. The computer program product of any one of claims 149 to 159 wherein - the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, the value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; each time that the financial incentive awards are made sponsor charges applicable to the award are determined according to rules derived from the sponsor parameters and recorded as part of the award record that is logged along with other details of the transaction.

161. The computer program product of any one of claims 149 to 160 wherein the sales system comprises one or more entities in the group: corporate merchants, internet merchants, POS stations, and EFTPOS terminals.

162. The computer program product of any one of claims 149 to 161 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

163. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method of sales promotion management for use in conjunction with sales systems which record customer sales data, comprising: receiving multiple sets of input parameters, each set corresponding with a financial incentives promotion, each set including promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters for the promotion storing the promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters sending promotion parameters or rules generated from promotion parameters to entities in a sales promotion system, receiving data from sales promotion system entities concerning qualifying awards made, including the transaction and the merchant applying sponsor charges against accounts of promotion sponsors.

164. The computer program product of claim 163 wherein the sets of input parameters are received and stored centrally and the method includes broadcasting to the entities of the sales promotion system.

165. The computer program product of claim 163 or claim 164 wherein the method includes selecting a set of entities to which to send promotion parameters from a larger set of entities based on rules generated from the promotion parameters.

166. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to 165 wherein the method includes applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to transaction data received from the promotion sales system to generate merchant payment data, and allocating credit to merchant accounts based on the merchant payment data.

167. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to 166 wherein the method includes analysing awards data for a financial incentive promotion, providing a report comparing the awards data against comparison data.

168. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to 167 wherein the method includes receiving updated input parameters for a financial incentives promotion, replacing stored parameters with the updated parameters, sending updated parameters or rules generated from the promotion parameters to the entities of the sales promotion system.

169. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to 168 wherein the promotion parameters include merchants at which the financial incentive promotion will be available, the period of the promotion, sales criteria which define customer entitlement to an award and the financial incentive.

170. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to 169 wherein the transaction data comprises customer, product and price data.

171. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to 170 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction.

172. The computer program product of claim 171 wherein the method includes crediting a merchant account to offset discounts awarded.

173. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to 172 wherein the method includes logging transaction data, records of awards made.

174. The computer program product of claim 173 wherein the logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

175. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to 174 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction.

176. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to 175 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and in the method: die promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; die method includes evaluating logged transaction and award data and sending details of credit to be applied to a card to a card issuer computer system in response to awards made.

177. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to 176 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, die value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; and the awards records are analysed and all applicable charges are applied as appropriate as a credit or debit to die parties as specified in the sponsor parameters.

178. A method as claimed in any one of claims 163 to 177 wherein the sales system comprises one or more entities in the group: corporate merchants, internet merchants, POS stations, and EFTPOS terminals.

179. The computer program product of any one of claims 163 to claim 178 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

180. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer program code embodied therein, the computer readable program vode adapted to be executed to implement a method of sales promotion for use in conjunction with sales systems which record customer sales data, comprising: receiving from a promotions management system, and storing, promotion parameters or rules generated from promotion parameters receiving transaction data relating to a transaction with a customer applying rules generated from promotion parameters to the transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award for each transaction qualifying for an award providing output to the customer identifying the award sending to the promotions management system data concerning each qualifying award including the transaction and the merchant.

181. The computer program product of claim 180 wherein the method includes applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to the award, and including this in the data sent to the promotions management system in relation to the transaction.

182. The computer program product of either 180 or 181 wherein the method includes receiving updated promotion parameters or rules and replacing stored parameters or rules with the updated parameters or rules.

183. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 182 wherein the promotion parameters include sales criteria which define customer entitlement to an award and the financial incentive.

184. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 183 wherein the transaction details comprise customer, product and price data.

185. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 184 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction

186. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 185 wherein the method includes logging transaction details, records of awards made, and uploading logged data to a promotions management system at intervals.

187. The computer program product of claim 186 wherein logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

188. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 187 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction; determining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the current transaction offer indicator to see if it indicates that the award qualified for is an offer to be made in the current transaction and if so; presenting information regarding the offer to the customer so that all such offers to be made in the current transaction are processed and displayed and the customer is offered the opportunity to add to their purchases in the current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer.

189. The computer program product of claim 188 wherein the method includes: receiving further transaction data, applying rules generated from promotions parameters to the further transaction data to check if the customer has qualified for any further awards, and if so; presenting details of the additional financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction, to the customer.

190. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 189 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and in the method: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; deterrnining if a transaction qualifies for an award includes checking the financial services card credits indicator; the method includes logging details of credit awards made in response to transactions.

191. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 190 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, the value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; each time that the financial incentive awards are made sponsor charges applicable to the award are determined according to rules derived from the sponsor parameters and recorded as part of the award record that is logged along with other details of the transaction.

192. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 191 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

193. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 192 wherein method is executed in software of internet merchants.

194. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 192 wherein the method is executed in software of POS stations.

195. The computer program product of any one of claims 180 to 192 wherein the method is executed in software of EFTPOS terminals.

196. A system for sales promotion comprising a central promotions management system and sales systems at plurality of remote locations, the system comprising at least one computer programmed to: receive multiple sets of input parameters, each set corresponding with a financial incentives promotion, each set including promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters for the promotion, store the promotion parameters and sponsorship parameters, receive transaction data from a customer transaction at a sales system, aPply rules generated from the promotion parameters to the transaction data to determine if the transaction qualifies for an award, for each transaction qualifying for an award, present award information to the customer, and applying rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to determine promotion sponsor and sponsor charges related to the award, and apply sponsor charges against accounts of promotion sponsors.

197. A system as claimed in claim 196 wherein the sets of input parameters are received and stored at a central computer and the apparatus is programmed to broadcast, to locations of a sales system, at least one of: promotion parameters, rules generated from promotion parameters, sponsorship parameters and rules derived from sponsorship parameters are broadcast to.

198. A system as claimed in claim 196 or claim 197 programmed to select a set entities to which to send promotion parameters from a larger set of entities based on rules generated from the promotion parameters.

199. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 198 programmed to apply rules generated from the sponsorship parameters to transaction data received from the promotion sales system to generate merchant payment data, and allocate credit to merchant accounts based on the merchant payment data.

200. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 t o 199 programmed to analyse awards data for a financial incentive promotion, and provide a report comparing the awards data against comparison data.

201. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 200 programmed to receive updated input parameters for a financial incentives promotion, replace stored parameters with the updated parameters, and send updated parameters or rules generated from the promotion parameters to the entities of the sales promotion system.

202. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 201 wherein the promotion parameters include merchants at which the financial incentive promotion will be available, the period of the promotion, sales criteria which define customer entitlement to an award and the financial incentive.

203. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 202 wherein the transaction data comprises customer, product and price data.

204. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 203 wherein the promotion parameters denote the award as a discount to be applied to the transaction, and the apparatus is programmed to provide discount data to the sales system entity in relation to an earned award, and the sales system entity applies the discount against the transaction.

205. A system as claimed in claim 204 programmed to credit a merchant account to offset the discount.

206. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 205 programmed to log transaction data, records of awards made.

207. A system as claimed in claim 206 wherein the logging includes sponsor charges applicable to the awards made.

208. A system as claimed in any one of claims 198 to 207 wherein the award is an offer to be made in the current transaction, and: the promotion parameters include a current transaction offer indicator defining that the offers are to be made in the current transaction; the apparatus is programmed to determine if a transaction qualifies for an award by checking the current transaction offer indicator to see if it indicates that the award qualified for is an offer to be made in the current transaction and if so; return information regarding the offer to the sales system so that all such offers to be made in the current transaction are processed and displayed and the customer is offered the opportunity to add to their purchases in the current transaction as desired in order to meet the requirements for each offer.

209. A system as claimed in claim 208 programmed to: receive further transaction data, aPply rules generated from promotions parameters to the further transaction data to check if the customer has qualified for any further awards, and if so; send details of the additional financial incentives qualified for in the current transaction, to the sales system.

210. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 209 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and: the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; and the apparatus is programmed to determine if a transaction qualifies for an award by checking the financial services card credits indicator; and send details of credit to be applied to a card to a card issuer computer system in response to determining qualification for an award.

211. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 210 wherein the sponsor parameters include the event causing the sponsor charge to be applied, the value of the sponsor charge, the recipient of the charge and the organization funding the charge; and die apparatus is programmed to, each time that the financial incentive awards are made, determine sponsor charges applicable to the award according to rules derived from the sponsor parameters and record the sponsor changes as part of the award record that is logged along with other details of the transaction; analyse the awards records and apply all applicable charges as appropriate as a credit or debit to the parties as specified in the sponsor parameters.

212. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 211 wherein the sales system comprises one or more entities in the group: corporate merchants, internet merchants, POS stations, and EFTPOS terminals.

213. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 212 wherein the transaction details include details of coupons scanned at the sales system.

214. A system as claimed in any one of claims 196 to 213 wherein the financial incentive awarded comprises credit to be applied to a financial services card (such as a debit card) owned by the customer making the purchases in the sales transaction, and:

5 the promotion parameters include a financial services card credits indicator that when positive designates that any financial incentives qualified for are to be applied to a financial services card; and the apparatus is programmed to determine if a transaction qualifies for an award by checking the financial services card credits indicator; and

10 ^apply credit directly to the card of the customer at the sales system.

215. A system as claimed in either claim 210 or claim 214 wherein qualification data is provided with the credit data, the qualification data being specific to a subset of merchants, and in transactions applying card credits the sales systems check the r

15 qualification data to determine that the credit is usable with the merchant.