WO2017154014A1 - Single platform based multi-merchant, multi-coalition system for loyalty award points - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention works as a single platform loyalty award point program using which a user can earn and redeem loyalty points at any merchant. The invention automatically detects the merchant based on its location and automatically changes color, look and feel of app to that of the merchant and displays user's points, offers from the merchants and redeem points, etc. so that every merchant fees as if they were running their own individual loyalty program. The invention enables participating merchants to form one or more of their own coalitions based on their specific needs wherein two participating merchants within a coalition can have different collaboration agreements between for relative adjustment of loyalty points. The system also enables users to form multiple groups and carry out group transactions. The system enables a user to seek on-demand offers from different merchants for purchase of a particular product/service and facilitates the user to choose the best offer out of the offers received from the merchants.

Description

METHODS OF IDENTIFYING AND TREATING IMMUNE CHECKPOINT

INHIBITOR-RESPONSIVE NEOPLASMS

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to a single platform based multi-merchant, multi-coalition system for loyalty award points and method of operating thereof. The invention, in particular, relates to a royalty point award system wherein participating merchants can form one or more of their own coalitions based on the nature and location of their business and two coalition partners may have different collaboration agreements for relative adjustment of loyalty points. The system enables a transacting customer to earn loyalty points from multiple merchants across multiple coalitions in a single platform and redeem loyalty points at any of the participating merchants. The system enables users to form multiple groups and carry out group transactions and facilitates the transactor to either transfer the transaction or split and transfer the points to other members of the group. The system enables a customer to obtain offers "on-demand" for a product/service by separately communicating with different merchants.

BACKGROUND TECHNICAL INFORMATION

In the prior art, in order to attract, retain customers and to promote loyalty of customers for repeat business, different merchants such as merchandise stores, airlines, hotels, car rental companies, chain retailers, telecom providers, etc. have historically introduced frequent use programs that offer awards of loyalty or reward points (e.g. frequent flyer miles) or other such incentives schemes based on the distance travelled or purchases made by that customer. The loyalty points or reward points are generally calculated using a predetermined formula or as a percentage of the money value of the purchases or distance travelled, etc. The different merchants typically keep an individual's loyalty point accounts which record the loyalty points earned by an individual customer, points redeemed by an individual consumer and other related information.

Incentive programs also tend to modify the behavior of individual consumers and direct the consumers to some pre-determined action, such as purchase of products or services upon visiting a retailer, viewing advertising, testing a product, or the like. Companies use awards and incentives also to increase awareness of product offerings, to launch new products, to attract the attention of a newly identified audience, to differentiate products to encourage certain behavior, to obtain information, and for other purposes. The introduction of the digital computer and the computer network has eliminated some of the inconveniences of conventional incentive programs, particularly those that relate to data tracking and manipulation.

Large scale merchants such as chain hotels and various airlines are able to implement their own loyalty or reward point's schemes since they have the infrastructure in place to maintain user loyalty point accounts. Thus, these large entities are able to build brand loyalty via their own loyalty reward schemes. They are able to operate independently by awarding their own reward points and redeeming the reward points by offering their own products and services. Mid-size and smaller merchants are often unable to implement their own loyalty reward programs due to the high cost of the infrastructure required, including server computers that maintain user reward accounts and administration costs.

Recently there has been steady proliferation in the loyalty point programs. Several merchants are having their own loyalty programs and issuing a plastic card to the customers pertaining to their loyalty programs. Thus a customer going for shopping has to carry the plastic cards of different merchants who may be offering redeeming of loyalty points. Since a customer's wallet can carry limited number of such plastic cards, the consumer is left with two choices, either to carry the fat bulging wallet containing the plastic cards of different merchants every time while going for buying goods or services or to carry plastic cards of some merchants while keeping at home loyalty plastic cards of some of the merchants.. The former is inconvenient and cumbersome and even though the consumer may be a member of multiple loyalty programs, he/she may not like to carry all the cards all the time. The latter option leaves the consumer with missed opportunities to earn or redeem loyalty points at those merchants whose plastic card he/she may not be carrying at the time of making purchases. Hence, there is a need for a loyalty system which eliminates the use of plastic cards of different merchants offering loyalty points and thus to provide relief to the customer from physically carrying of plastic cards of different merchants.

With the advent of technology and hand held devices, the merchants have now started launching their loyalty programs on the mobile applications ("apps") exclusively designed and made for them and according to their needs. This has made the wallet of the consumer much lighter and life of the consumer easier. However, since usually the size of these apps is big and space available on the smart phones is limited; it again puts the consumer in a fix as to which app he/she should install on his/her mobile and which he/she should not. It also creates confusion in the mind of the consumer as to which Mobile app is related to which merchant. There are systems in which the merchants have a coalition between them and operate through a single app. The drawback of such systems is that, there is a service provider which chooses the member merchants to the coalition. These merchants are chosen in the best interest of the service provider rather than keeping in view the interest of the merchant or the consumer. Further, usually this model does not take into account the nature and location of the merchant and hence at many times the coalition is neither fruitful to the merchant nor to the consumer. Hence there is a need for a Multi Merchant Multi Coalition Loyalty Program which runs through a single platform and which gives the merchants liberty to form their own coalition based on their nature of business and their physical location.

US 7,742,943 discloses a system which utilizes a pre-existing infrastructure of network such as credit card infrastructure to provide merchant branded reward points to the customers making purchase transactions with these merchants. An acquiring bank administers the reward program on behalf of merchants and users.The system allows any merchant, regardless of its size, to award their own branded loyalty points on the basis of money-value of transactions using prescribed calculations. The system allows users to accumulate royalty points or allow users to selectively redeem their reward points at merchants that are part of the network. The system includes a central server residing on the credit card network and tracks the transaction between the merchant, the acquiring bank making payment and/or the issuing bank which issued the credit/debit card and wherein the acquiring bank administers the loyalty award program on behalf of the customers and the merchants. For this purpose, a reward account is maintained in a database at the central server. The system allows users to aggregate reward points earned from various merchants into a reward exchange account, wherein the aggregated reward points may be advantageously used to purchase goods or services from any selected merchant in the system.

A limitation of the system of the above patent is that the customer has to present his/her credit card to the merchant while making transaction and the transaction is approved by swiping of the card at a POS (point of sale) terminal. Thus the consumer has to physically carry his/her credit card in his/her wallet which involves problems associated with such physical carrying of cards, as described above as well as the problems arising from the loss of credit cards.

Another limitation of the system is that it has no provision to enable a user to view the offers on a product/service or to seek offers on-demand for a specific or a generic product. The customer has to be on look out for himself for available offers by different merchants on a product/service which he may be intending to purchase and in that process he/she may miss some opportunities of loyalty points offers by merchants on the purchase of product. Further limitations of the system of the cited patent are that it does not enable group transactions and subsequent splitting of points earned. It has also no provision for formation of multiple coalitions with variant collaboration agreements between partners in the coalition. It has also no provision for redemption of loyalty points at a third party merchant who is not a participant in the loyalty program.

US 2005/0043992 discloses an invention relating to transfer, gifting and/or pooling of geographic area loyalty points between accounts wherein geographic area may include all or any portion of any street, city, country, state, country, continent, region. The geographic area may relate to any of the participants, products, services, or identifications. The points may be earned based upon everyday purchases of products and services in a certain geographic area, accrued across retailers and/or manufacturers in a certain geographic area. The system administrator maintains an account for each participating consumer and apprises the consumer of the point totals and account activity. The consumer may view points based upon geographic area designation or combination of designations. The system may allow the consumer to transfer points from one geographic area designation to another geographic area designation. The system administrator offers a catalog of products and services from which consumers may select rewards in exchange for the applicable accrued points. The system also facilitates the gifting of loyalty points to charitable organizations on a recurring basis. The system also facilitates conversion of loyalty points to a monetary value. When an item is purchased, the purchase data is processed and stored by a retailer processor. The retail regional processor processes similar information from each of the retailer processors owned by the same retailer. The reward terminal informs the consumer about number of reward points in a certain geographic area that they have accumulated from all system participants and the type of awards that may be obtained using reward points.

A limitation of the system of the cited patent, is that it is geographic-area specific. The reward terminal informs the customer of the number of reward points which have accumulated from the purchases made in a certain geographic area and the type of awards that may be obtained using those reward points. The offers accordingly are limited to the merchants in the geographic area.

Another limitation of the system is that it has no provision for customers to seek offers on- demand by separately communicating with different merchants for a particular product/service.

Further limitations of the system of the cited patent are that this system also does not enable group transactions and subsequent splitting of points earned. It has also no provision for formation of multiple coalitions with variant collaboration agreements between partners in the coalition. It has also no provision for redemption of loyalty points at a third party merchant who is not a participant in the loyalty program.

US 5,774,870 and US 6,009,412 describe disclose an integrated on-line, interactive frequency incentive and award redemption program accessible to an on-line user. The system enables an on-line user to browse a product catalogue for shopping and to electronically place an order for the desired product. The system checks the user's credit and electronically issues a purchase order to the supplying company. The system calculates award points, updates the award account of enrolled users, and communicates that number of awarded points to the user. Additionally, enrolled users can browse through an award catalogue and electronically redeem an amount of awarded points toward an award.

A limitation of the award programs disclosed by the '870 and '412 patents is the process of identifying a product and the associated loyalty points that would be earned on buying the product is time consuming. A product homepage provides information regarding the products sold by a particular brand, program homepage provides information regarding incentive programs for different products and Qualified Awards page provides entire award catalogue of awards which could be arranged such as awards of value up to 500 points, awards of value up to 1000 points. Thus a customer has to browse through different catalogues to identify the product and the incentive program associated with that product. There is no provision to enable customers to communicate with different merchants for on-demand offers on a product/service.

Further limitations of the system of the cited patent are that it does not enable group transactions and subsequent splitting of points earned. It has also no provision for formation of multiple coalitions with variant collaboration agreements between partners in the coalition. It has also no provision for redemption of loyalty points at a third party merchant who is not a participant in the loyalty program.

US 5,056,019 discloses an automated purchase reward accounting system and method. In particular, it discloses a marketing method for providing manufacturer purchase reward offers by automatically tracking the purchases of member consumers through the use of bar-coded membership cards and using the purchase records in a data processing system to determine if the required purchases have been made to earn a reward. The purchase incentive offers are compiled into a reward booklet and each member consumer receives such booklet periodically, disclosing the available reward offers with conditions for earning them, a periodic status report indicating the member consumer's progress toward earning rewards, and a reward certificate for those rewards earned. As soon as a consumer joins the program, he receives machine readable consumer identification code and a member identification card.

A limitation of the system disclosed in the above cited patent is that it necessitates physical carrying of member identification card which the user has to present at the check-out counter at the merchant's outlet while making purchases. The system therefore suffers from the problems associated with physical carrying of such membership cards in wallet, as described earlier.

Another limitation of the system disclosed in the above cited patent is that the system involves considerable processing and paper work. The reward offers are compiled periodically in the form of booklet containing information about the product and also the eligibility criteria to earn the reward on the product. Such booklet is sent to the consumers and the potential consumers and is also displayed on the shelves on the merchant floor. The user has also to select the offers from the reward booklet. Besides, a monthly status report is sent to the consumers to apprise them of the purchases made and the status of earning points and also a reward certificate for the rewards earned is sent to the consumer. Further, the product for which reward points are available are distinctively identified at the retailer's outlet by means of stickers.

Still another limitation of the system of the above patent is that the reward booklet is compiled weekly and sent to consumers. Thus the offers may be around 10 days old and may not contain award points information about the products which may have been launched during the intervening period thereby resulting in missed opportunities for the consumer. The system does not enable a user to seek offers "on-demand" from different merchants.

Further limitations of the system of the cited patent are that it does not enable group transactions and subsequent splitting of points earned. It has also no provision for formation of multiple coalitions with variant collaboration agreements between partners in the coalition. It has also no provision for redemption at a third party merchant who is not a participant in the loyalty program.

US2009/0150237 discloses a system for loyalty points based online auction. The patent discloses a system for point based auction over a computerized network wherein several merchants may bid on an opportunity to sell to a group of consumers who have indicated a desire to purchase certain goods and/or services. In the described system the consumers may combine one or more loyalty accounts and the system calculates, according to a point to currency conversion, a currency value of a balance of points. The merchant is able to see the currency value of the consumer's points, wherein the merchant may determine to place a bid in the reverse auction. A limitation of the above system is that it relates only to the redemption of loyalty points through the system of auction wherein a provider of a product determines the currency value of the loyalty points in the account of customers and makes a bid to provide a product based on the number of award points. It caters for reverse auction wherein provider merchant gives the bid for number of points required for a particular product/service but it does not enable a customer to seek on- demand offers from different merchants for a product intended to be purchased by him/her. Another limitation of the system is that it does not enable group transactions and subsequent splitting of points earned. It has also no provision for formation of multiple coalitions with variant collaboration agreements between partners in the coalition. It has also no provision for redemption at a third party merchant who is not a participant in the loyalty program.

In the present offer systems, the merchants use predictive techniques which study the transaction history of the consumers and predict what according to their opinion, the customer will want to purchase next. Despite such predictive techniques, the industry average of offer redemption is less than 3% which shows that prediction techniques are far from accurate in predicting what the consumer would like to buy. Further, these offers are not tailor-made and are generalized towards the customers at large, which makes the predictive technique as very less accurate technique since one offer may only be useful to a handful number of consumers and may not be appropriate for other customers. Another drawback of using the predictive technique to give offers is that the consumers get unnecessary emails, SMS, etc. regarding these offers (even if they are not interested), which makes them irritated and consumers may actually fall out of the loyalty program.

Hence, there is a need for replacing the predictive techniques with interactive technique so that instead of merchant trying to guess what a customer wants to purchase and making offers based on such guess, a customer communicates with different merchants and seeks on-demand customized offers for the product which he/she intends to purchase.

An aspect of the present invention therefore is to provide a single platform based multi- merchant, multi-coalition system for loyalty award points which enables a user to earn loyalty award points from one or more participating merchants by transacting with the merchants using a single platform of the present invention.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a loyalty award system on a single platform which enables a user to receive loyalty points from sources other than the points of transaction such as gift, corporate rewards, lotteries, meal coupons and coupons from third parties which can be redeemed like points earned from the transactions. Yet another aspect of the present invention is to provide a loyalty award system on a single platform which enables a user to redeem loyalty points at one or more participating merchants under the rules laid down by the participating merchant or group of participating merchants.

Further aspect of the present invention is to provide multi merchant multi coalition loyalty system on a single platform, which enables a merchant to form multiple coalitions with different group of merchants and wherein the merchants can choose participants in the coalition based on the specific need and can accordingly have a variant collaboration level agreement for each coalition regarding the earning of loyalty points at one merchant-participant of the coalition and redeeming thereof at other merchant-participant of the same coalition.

Still further aspect of the present invention is to provide a loyalty award system which automatically identifies a merchant based on the location and automatically displays the screen of that merchant with details regarding points available for redemption, expiry dates, current offers, etc., thereby each merchant feels as if he/she is running his/her own customized individual loyalty program.

Yet further aspect of the present invention is to provide multi merchant multi coalition loyalty system on a single platform, wherein a customer may earn loyalty points from multiple merchants across multiple coalitions on a single platform.

Still further aspect of the present invention is to provide loyalty award system, which enables the users to create one or more groups of people such as friends, family, colleagues, corporate group, etc. and carry out group transactions and earn points as a group with facility for transactor to either transfer the transaction to other member(s) of the group or split and transfer the points to rest of the members of the group upon their request.

Yet further aspect of the present invention is to provide loyalty award system which enables a user to view transaction history and bills in the form of electronic documents related to the transactions made.

Even further aspect of the present invention is to provide loyalty award system on a single platform, which enables a user to seek on-demand offers from different merchants for a product/service.

Further aspect of the present invention is to provide multi merchant multi coalition loyalty system on a single platform, which enables a user to redeem points at even third party merchants.

Still further aspect of the present invention is to provide multi merchant multi coalition loyalty system on a single platform, which enables a user to post reviews of transaction experience or product experience linked to the transaction made by him/her at a merchant's outlet, using the transaction code, so as to ensure that only users who have actually purchased the product or services can give the reviews/ratings thereby preventing fake reviews/ratings.

SUMMARY OF PRESENT INVENTION

The present invention provides a single platform based multi-merchant, multi-coalition system for loyalty award points and method of operating thereof. The system facilitates the formation of one or more merchant coalitions comprising different participating merchants, based on the specific need. The different coalitions may have different service level agreements for redemption of points. The customers can earn and redeem points from multiple participating merchants across multiple coalitions. Between any two participating merchants of a coalition, there can be different redemption agreements. Any two merchants within a coalition may have agreements that 100 points earned at one merchant will be taken as 100 points by another merchant or may have the collaboration agreement that 100 points earned at one merchant will be taken as 60 points by other merchant.

The system allows a user to form one or more groups of people, like family members, colleagues, corporate groups, friends, relatives etc. and to make group transactions and earn loyalty points as a group. After group transaction, the transactor can either transfer the transaction to a member of the group or split points earned to each member of the group, on the request by members of the group. On disbandment of a group, the system enables division of points either on the basis of percentage of points earned by a member or on the basis of a mutual understanding. The divided points could be considered as gifts from the group to the members of the group.

The system enables a user to seek on-demand offers for a particular product or service which the users intends to purchase from different merchants. The system provides algorithms which facilitate a user to choose the best offer from the offers received from the different merchants.

The single platform of the present invention further has the capability to identify a merchant on the basis of his/her proximity to particular point-of-sale terminal and to automatically display the customized screen of that merchant along with displaying merchant loyalty card information such as points available for redemption, current offers, etc. With this feature, every participating merchant feels as if the system has been customized to their requirements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES The invention will be illustrated with accompanying drawings which are intended to illustrate the working of the invention. These are not intended to be taken restrictively to imply any limitation on the scope of the present invention. In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. l : shows an embodiment of the OLPOINT loyalty system of the present invention Fig. 2: Shows the registration of the customer on the loyalty point program of the present invention referred to hereinafter as OLPOINTS.

Fig. 3 : shows possible scenarios of interaction by a Merchant with a customer.

Fig.4: shows adding of members to a group of people for making group transactions.

Fig.5(a): shows a customer seeking offers 'on-demand' from different merchants for a particular product

Fig.5(b): shows the flow chart for seeking offers On-demand'

Fig.6A: shows the formation of coalitions of participating-merchants

Fig. 6B: shows the variant collaboration agreement between two merchants within a coalition

DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION w.r.t. FIGURES

The invention relates to a single platform loyalty award program using which a user can earn and redeem loyalty points at any of the participating merchants. The system serves as an aggregator where it links different loyalty programs participated by a customer. The customer can see his transactions on his mobile. The transactions data would be available either on OLPOINTS database or on merchant's database and accordingly the details of transactions can be retrieved from OLPOINTS server or from merchant server over the internet on demand. The system of the present invention has several advanced performance features such as: group transactions, formation of one or more than one coalitions by participating merchants for earning and redeeming of loyalty points, earning of loyalty points from multiple merchants across multiple coalitions; redeeming of points at a third party merchant, seeking on-demand offers for a product from different merchants.

Fig. l shows an exemplary embodiment of the OLPOINTS loyalty system 100 of the present invention. The system comprises a plurality of merchant systems (105):-Merchant-1 system,

Merchant-2 system, Merchant-n system who have agreed to be participant in OLPOINTS loyalty program. These participant merchants can connect to OLPOINTS platform (1 10) by entering merchant unique UID. OLPOINTS platform (1 10) comprises centralized server referred to as OLPOINTS server(1 15); OLPOINTS database (120); OLPOINTS interface (125) and OLPOINTS website ( 126). The several users (130) comprising user- 1 , User-2 , user-n can register as members of OLPOINTs platform by downloading OLPOINTS app or through OLPOINTS website ( 126) followed by entering of their personal identification details whereby the system generates a user-specific unique ID generated by OLPOINTS app. The users can then connect to the OLPOINTS Program by entering the user specific ID thus generated. Each user of the system of the present invention may be equipped with a suitable computing means to facilitate online communications and transactions using OLPOINTS app and the OLPOINTS UID. For example, the users may have access to a computing means in the form of a personal computer, mobile, tablet, wearable and the like.

The communication between the participant merchants and OLPOINTS loyalty point system of the present invention is accomplished through any suitable communication means, such as, for example, a telephone network, Intranet, Internet, point of interaction device (point of sale device), personal digital assistant, cellular phone, kiosk, etc., online communications, off-line communications, wireless communications, and/or the like. One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons, any databases, systems, or components of the present invention may consist of any combination of databases or components at a single location or at multiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any of various suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes, encryption, de-encryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

In an embodiment, each of the merchant systems includes a merchant terminal (140), mobile ( 145), POS (150) and a merchant processor (155) in communication with merchant database (160). Merchant terminal includes any software, hardware and/or device capable of facilitating receipt, identification and/or transmission of a merchant's UID. Exemplary devices for identifying a merchant UID may include a keypad, a conventional card reader which recognizes a magnetic stripe or bar code associated with a merchant UID, a biometric device, a smart card reader which recognizes information stored on a microchip integrated with a merchant UID, and/or any device capable of receiving or uploading merchant UID data transmitted electronically, magnetically, optically, and/or the like.

A user may have been, for a quite few number of years, a member of loyalty award point program called "FIRST CITIZEN" ', which is an in-house program of a 'MERCHANT-A'. Assuming that the 'MERCHANT-A' has in the meantime moved its existing in-house loyalty points program "FIRST CITIZEN" to the single platform based multi-merchant, multi-coalition loyalty points award program of the present invention, hereinafter referred to as OLPOINTS. The user during visit to 'MERCHANT-A' comes to know through ads on the floor of 'MERCHANT-A' and/or through the interaction with 'MERCHANT-A' about the existence and superior features of the new loyalty point program OLPOINTS. The user may then decide to register with OLPOINTS.

Fig. 2, illustrates the process for registration of new customer who is not a participant in any loyalty point program as well as the registration of a customer who is a participant in a certain loyalty program of a particular merchant. As regards registration of a new customer who is not a member of any loyalty point program, such a customer can become member of OLPOINTS loyalty point program at a merchant by downloading (230) OLPOINTS app on their mobile/tablet (235), followed by entering personal identification details (245). Where the user does not download OLPOINTS app at the merchant's place, he receives a download link on his registered email address and mobile phone. Using that link, the user can download OLPOINTS app at his/her convenience. OLPOINTS App generates a unique user-specific UID (240) and the new user receives such OLPOINTS user-specific UID (240) though email, mobile number or through a social media handle. Such a new customer can also register for participation in OLPOINTS loyalty point program through OLPOINTS website (220) by accessing the website followed by entering his/her personal identification (PID) details (245). The personal identification details (245) (PID) may be like Name, Date of Birth, Email Address and Mobile Number. Upon submission of PID, the system generate unique user-specific ID.

Continuing with the description of Fig.2, where a user is already a member of any loyalty program of any merchant like Merchant- 1 , Merchant-2 Merchant-n shown in Figure-2, the new user enters the merchant-specific UID (250) of that merchant. Suppose for example the user has already membership of 'FIRST CITIZEN" Loyalty award program of MERCHANT- 1 , then the user need to enter the merchant specific UID of Merchant- 1. The user is matched in the existing merchant loyalty point database and the system displays the current standing of loyalty points of the user. This information is fed into the OLPOINTS database. The user need not ask the cashier at the Point-of-sale (POS) for loyalty point's balance as the system enables the user to check it online, anytime.

A new customer can also become member of OLPOINTS App through social media. It takes around a minute or two to download OLPOINTS Appl and register via a social media account. Thus a user can use his Face book account to log into the system and the social media handle becomes the unique identifier in this case.

When a user was under a certain "FIRST CITIZEN" loyalty program of MERCHANT-A, the family of the user while shopping at MERCHANT-A, were all using a common ID, identified by user's mobile number. Only such members of the family could use 'FIRST CITIZEN" loyalty program of MERCHANT-A, for which information had been stored in the Merchants database. For this purpose, the MERCHANT-A had captured and stored information like Spouse Name, Anniversary Date, Number of Children, etc. However, after registration with OLPOINTS loyalty point program, the customer has the flexibility of adding "other users" to the same loyalty number, using OLPOINTS interface.

After registration with OLPOINTS loyalty program, the OLPOINTS system makes available to the user the previous points history of his earlier loyalty program "FIRST CITIZEN" of which the user has been a member, via mobile interface. Depending upon integration of the earlier loyalty point program namely "FIRST CITIZEN" with OLPOINTS of the present, the user could get information on : total Points carried over as an aggregate; or total points carried over by date on which the points were earned; or total Points carried over along with transaction details.

An interesting feature here is that though the single platform of the present invention uses a unique identifier to link the entire loyalty program, it does not use these unique identifiers to run the show at the merchant. Each merchant though having access to the user's mobile number or email address or any such unique identifier, generates his own "n" digit number or any second unique identifier that appears for that user. Thus the single platform of the present invention becomes an aggregator of loyalty programs for various merchants where the user is the member, and is not a provider or responsible to provide a first unique identifier to merchant. Each merchant loyalty program runs in silos on the single platform server, and is virtually distinguishable from the others. Only the aggregated level information of the points available for the user - earned and to redeem - along with the date and amount spent is stored on the central server to facilitate the redemption of points other than the merchant home store.

OLPOINTS platform can also be used for online merchants. The benefit for online merchants would be to allow its customers to redeem points earned in brick and mortar world, as well as vice versa - earn redeem in brick and mortar world. The mechanism remains the same for both the mediums. The online merchants would provide their own loyalty number for the user. The points would be earned or redeemed and the loyalty number identified via the user login by the online merchants.

Referring to Fig.3, when a customer visits a merchant and the merchant familiarizes the customer about the advanced features of OLPOINTS loyalty point award program, the possible scenarios may be that the customer may either be "not interested" (3 10) or may consent to take the membership of OLPOINTS loyalty point program. In the event of customer agreeing to take the membership of OLPOINTS loyalty point program, the possibilities are that the customer may be having already OLPOINTS app (320) or may not be having OLPOINTS app (330). In case the customer does not have OLPOINTS app, the customer may either himself download the OLPOINTS app (340) and register for the membership of OLPOINTS loyalty point program or POS accepts (350) the personal details of the customer and registers the customer as member of OLPOINTS loyalty point program. In both the cases, the merchant database (360) registers the customer and generates a unique n-digit/alphanumeric code which is communicated to the customer directly or through the merchant as the case may be. Where a customer has already downloaded OLPOINTS app (340), he/she can view loyalty points, transactions history and the offers from the various merchants. Further, POS attendant scans the bar code (370) and processes (380) transaction of the customer using merchant rules for the award of loyalty points to the customer and the transaction details are stored in OLPOINTS database.

Referring to Fig.4, OLPOINTS enables users to form one or more group of people, like family, colleagues, corporate groups, friends, relatives etc. in any number or form and earn loyalty points as a group, instead of as individual, if allowed at point of transaction by the merchant or the group of participating merchants. The User makes selection (420) from his contact list/social circles (430) with whom he wants to form a group which may be referred to as a club. Then using OLPOINT interface, the user (410) can add (440) the selected people into his club. This information can be communicated to Merchants processor using merchant unique UID. After group transaction, the transactor can either transfer the transaction to other member(s) of the group or split points to each member of the group, on the request by the group members addressed to the transactor. However, this can be done provided the transactor has the intention to transfer the points to the rest of the group. If the points earned are not transferred within the defined number of days, the points remain with the transactor.

In a "group", the information regarding the history of transactions is available for all the members who are members of the group. Any offers made available would be available to all the members of the group. Thus a user can see the transactions made by his wife and his child. In case they want to have an exclusive points system, they can go for private membership at the Merchant Establishment, by registering separately.

A user may like to have the option of adding anybody to a "club" (group, circle) so that every participant can check points, earn in groups, etc. The user can add his wife and daughter to the "club" so that they can check their loyalty points anytime they want to. A user is happy with the fact that by using this App, his family members are free to redeem/spend points at participating outlets authorized by Merchant, without the physical presence of the user. Previously, any such attempts would require mobile authentication or presentation of the card at any participating establishment. But with single OLPOINTS platform of the present invention, the user need not be present in person to help facilitate the redemption or earning by any member of the group. The user can download the link and send to his wife and daughter to download the OLPOINTS app. They don't need to add the Merchant loyalty number again. The Merchant ID is already associated with their respective mobile number.

An interesting aspect of Clubs is though each of the Club members has the same n-digit identification number or second unique identifier, the Merchant can distinguish between the members of the club with the combination of the n-digit loyalty ID number, and their mobile number / email address / social handler or any unique identifier exclusive to the OLPOINTS platform. This enables a Merchant to identify the different taste of members in the club, who is calling the shots, making purchase decisions, frequency, habits etc. - which previously could be derived only from the nature of item purchased using the same loyalty card number.

Club formation is not restricted to just family members but it can be an ad-hoc group of people related beyond the ties of family, coming together and earning and redeeming points as a group. For example four friends who meet frequently at an outlet, could form a club. The entire group of four friends need not be always present at the outlet. Once the group has joined together to form a "club", irrespective of who pays, the loyalty points are available for redemption for each of the four friends.

A corporate can also form a club of sales executives who take clients out for dinner to treat them outside and it does not matter who redeems the points as it is the corporate account which is benefitting. Similarly, a group of friends sharing an accommodation could form a club. They need to purchase groceries or like to dine outside or order something. They would like to do such things as a group i.e. as a club rather than as individuals.

The club which is formed by the first initiator is by default the Administrator of the Group. The initiator can add other members and the Group once formed cannot be deleted. The Administrator can exit the Club, and appoint any other member(s) as Administrators. The administrative rights are limited to only adding members of the group, and application of decisions as decided by the system platform & Merchants - for example - not allowing member to redeem more than 30% of the group points or in divisio ;of. Consider a case where Person A, B, C and D are part of group, and the laid down administ options may be like, but not limited to - Allow to redeem once for each member not more thai of the redemption points. So if A spends says around 30%, he would not be allowed to : it again, till B and C have exhausted their redemption. D has not chosen to use the syste form user interface on mobile device, but can contribute to the group by earning points via I bile phone as a first unique identifier. Though the points are earned as a club, OLPOI TS tr £ individual points earned by each member in the group.

The redemption of points in a group is :tely faith driven, and any member can redeem the points at any merchant. There could be ules governing the redemption process - for example - a rule could be that the redemption t be approved by other members of the group, for example, a member of the group may c 0 redeem points on purchases of Bollywood merchandise from a high premium store. Oth ild be restricting redemption of points at only those locations where they are earning as a Ch groceries, restaurants etc.

Once a club is formed and it is to be di :d for whatsoever reason, the loyalty points can be shared on the basis of percentage of poinl :d. This is possible because even as a group - though they earn as a group - who among •up earns how many of the loyalty points, is recorded. For example, if user-A and user-B 3 group, and total points of the group is 1000, it would be recorded that user-A has individual id 350 and user-B has individually earned 650 points. Consider a scenario, where before bre >f the group, user-A has already redeemed 500 points. After breaking of the group, the use >uld be entitled to redeem the remaining 500 points. Consider another scenario where user user-B both have redeemed 200 points before breaking up of the group. After breaking of up, each user would be entitled to redeem the remaining points in the ratio of 35 :65.

In case the club is owned by an organ it would continue to own all the points solely,

In case all the employees are removed from b - the organization would continue to be the owner of the points earned by the club. Th s can be redeemed only by the owner of the organization. There could be instances w Dup would like to divide the points among themselves as per their mutual understanding. 1 cases (depending on the Merchant approval) it would be allowed as the Loyalty club is g( cease to exists and it make no sense for the Merchant to keep it live in its database. The d points would be considered as "Gift Points" from the Group. OLPOINTS does not allow transfer of points. For example, if a user-A decides to stop using loyalty points, he cannot transfer the points earned to another user-B. The gifting of points can be done within the members of the group based on the proportion decided by the group. Once the points are "gifted", they can be redeemed anywhere and restrictions of redemption placed on the customer - as a member of the group would be removed.

OLPOINTS App has a special feature of auto-selection of card at POS. OLPOINTS uses signal-based communication like GPS / Bluetooth light energy to sense the proximity of the user with the App at locations. When near to a POS machine, it would show that merchant loyalty card screen automatically without the user having the trouble of selecting the card from the list of cards. Merchant Screen is automatically displayed, along with current offers, point's status - earned, available for redemption etc. automatically without the user having the trouble of selecting the screen.

OLPOINTS App provide ability to search the transaction in the past by retrieving the details based on item nature, day date etc. A user can choose to receive a paperless bill on his mobile phone, rather than a print out. He can also check his previous bill details. OLPOINTS architecture allows transaction level details of the customer to be stored on the Merchant server, and on demand, retrieves data from the Server and displays it to the customer.

To avoid unauthorised sharing of transaction details with competitors, two staged authentications could be introduced so that the Merchant can authorize the pulling of transaction level data stored on the OLPOINTS server, and keep track of it.

OLPOINTS enables users to be rewarded "dynamically" by merchants in terms of points, discount, material etc. as decided by the merchant based on transaction history of the individual.

OLPOINTS enables users to obtain customized offers from different merchants, valid for a particular time limit as specified by the merchant. The offers could be cash discounts, additional points, free or anything additional to the value of the item against which the offer is to be availed. Customized offers are not restricted only to offers from merchants where the points are earned, but also from associate partners -where the points earned could be redeemed.

OLPOINTS enables sending of customized offers for redemption of points nearing completion identified by the duration, for example 50 points out of 250 points may be expiring in a particular month due to time limitation for the validity of the offer. The customized offer to use these 50 points can be made via OLPOINTS platform. Such customized offers are designed to increase the purchase cycle of the users which otherwise would have not been considered by the user. It benefits the users to avail discount on items which could have otherwise been lost. It benefits the merchants by decreasing the frequency of the user purchase.

When there is close integration of OLPOINTS with merchant POS system, OLPOINTS provides a mechanism to communicate with POS in real time. While a user is making purchases from a merchant, the user can present his mobile number to the cashier handling POS. On scan of the membership, all the items which the user has purchased would be checked against the merchant's offer database and all discounts that could be applied to the purchases would be automatically applied to the user's purchase, including any on demand.

OLPOINTS platform enables users to receive loyalty points from sources other than the point of transaction such as but not limited to - gift, corporate rewards, lotteries, meal coupons, coupons from third parties etc. which can redeem in the same manner as for the transaction. For example, an employer of an organization may like to provide some entertainment benefits to his employees and may give them a loyalty card which may be registered at certain selected merchants. The employees wishing to avail the benefit of discount under the loyalty card would be just required to flash the loyalty card at the billing counter. Besides the discount, the employees would also earn the loyalty points on the cash paid at the counter after adjusting the discount.

An employer of an organization may also like give cash incentives to his employees as a part of their compensation every month. OLPOINTS can run a system where the employer can load 1000 points for 900-930INR. These 70-100 points are absorbed by the participating outlets such as those where meal coupons are accepted. Similar points can be gifted by parents, friends or relatives, who purchase points from OLPOINTS and gift it. These points can be redeemed subject to participating merchants, governed by the rules as laid by them. Non participating outlets where loyalty is not a concern like automobiles or jewelry shop - instead of giving cash discount - points would be rewarded to the customer. For example - a person books a Hyundai Creta at 12 lakhs, and is pressing for discount - Instead of giving cash discount around l 5,000 points can be given to the customer which can be redeemed within 3 months, allowing Hyundai vendor to show actual cash on its register. Of these 15,000 points - a certain portion could be given back as commission.

The invention also provides ability for customers to transfer loyalty points earned by an individual A to any other individual B to whom A owes loyalty points, subject to the policies, such as commission based percentage deduction as laid by the merchants owning the point of transaction. The invention at anytime does not allow transfer of points from one member to another. The points can be given as a gift which is purchased. For example, person A purchased 1000 points from single platform directly or a gift voucher from merchant worth 1500 points; he can transfer this to his wife or daughter. Person A under no circumstances can transfer the points earned by him. The Person A can change the ownership of the transaction, for example, he purchased an LCD TV which is paid for by person B. The person A can say that the transaction and hence all the points associated with the transaction be transferred to person B.

Referring to Fig.5(a), the OLPOINTS system of the present invention enables users to seek offers On demand' for a particular product/service in real time by separately communicating intention via the OLPOINTS platform, to different merchants. For example, a user may be looking specifically for buying "hiking boots", which he usually does not purchase and is not having a readymade offer for the item. He communicates his intention separately to different merchants for an offer on "hiking boots" using OLPOINTS platform, and obtains on-demand (510) different offers from each of competing merchants (520,530,540) dealing with that product/service, on real time basis. OLPOINTS interface facilitates the user to choose the best offers from the different offers received from the competing merchants for that product/service. The offers (520,530,540) could be a cash discount, additional points, or some freebies such as socks along with shoes. The user may or may not choose to avail that offer.

Referring to Fig. 5(b), a customer intending to seek offer on-demand for a product or a service, uses Customer App (550) and enters a Generic Product name (555) or enters the nomenclature of the exactly identifiable product or service by scanning its Code or entering the SKU. The information is received by OLPOINTS server (560) which computes the profitability of customer and other information defined by the inbuilt algorithms. In case the merchant server (570) is available, the information on customer requirements and associated parameters is sent to the merchant server (570) using Merchant's Application Programming Interface (API) or API maintained in support with OLPOINTS. If the customer has entered specific product (580), the best price for the product or offer on the Product is computed along with recommended product (590) by Merchant Data Warehouse (DW) (575) and returned by API. In case the customer has sent a generic product name, a list of products with best prices/offers (585) is returned by Merchant DW. In case the Merchant Server is not available, OLPOINTS uses its Rule engine (595) using OLPOINTS DW (576) to give a generic discount say 10%, or 15%, or whatever depending upon the customer's history or other offers. OLPOINTS Server collates the results (600) thus formed and sends it back to the Customer App (550). The best offers may not necessarily be price- based. It may include, besides cash discount, additional points, rebates, or buy one more and get 50% discount on other.

OLPOINTS provides ability for users to redeem loyalty points via a single platform at one or more participating merchants under the rules laid down by the merchant or the group of participating merchants. It also provides ability for merchant to redeem a voucher using customer mobile by keying an authorization code or by a wireless mechanism such as NFC. It provides ability to dynamically specify the points that can be redeemed at point of transaction using an input such as, but not limited to, sliders, text field, to form a dynamic barcode or similar mechanism that can be read by the merchant devices - scanners, Merchant app. As mentioned earlier, a member-specific card is always auto-selected when it nears the POS powered by signals from Bluetooth devices or using GPS and proximity algorithms. The redemption is in real time where the points have to be deducted on the spot using internet, 3G/4G or any similar mechanism. In case of absence of any internet features, an SMS would be used to deduct the points and authorize the transactions.

The amount by which the transaction has to be reduced can be computed by the OLPOINTS server and returned along with the authorization code. The OLPOINTS server uses the Merchant rules and regulations to deduct the information based on the amount of points the customer wants to redeem.

If the internet is not reliable or available, one can use their smart phones to scan the QR code and use an SMS mechanism to get an authorized response. The authorization is required to deduct the redeemable points from the customer's account, and avoid double redemption of points.

OLPOINTS platform also enables redemption at third party outlets. In a simple scenario the points can be earned and spent at the same Merchant only. However, the merchants can allow points to be spent at specific third party outlets. There may be restrictions on places where the customers can spend the points - like non-competitive merchants, or there may be no restrictions at all. For the sake of illustration, suppose a third party merchant MERCHNAT-T accepts points say up to 25% of the food value from any location and two merchants-MERCAHNT-B and MERCHANT-C allow their loyalty points to be spent at MERCAHNT-T, then the points earned by the user from MERCAHNT-B and MERCHANT-C would be spent from the account of the user on first earn, first redeem basis or on the basis of the choice of the customer. Suppose, the user has 20 points from MERCAHNT-B, and 15 points from MERCAHNT-C and during subsequent purchase, the user has earned 15 points from MERCAHNT-B and 10 points from MERCAHNT-C. Thus the user has 35 points from MERCAHNT-B and 25 points MERCAHNT-C, i.e. a total of 60 points. When the user makes purchases at third party merchant namely MERCHANT-T, user is eligible to spend 25 points at MERCHANT-T, as per the restriction imposed by the MERCHANT-T. In case of default (no choice specified by the user), 20 loyalty points (points earned by the user during the first purchase) would be taken from MERCAHNT-B and 5 loyalty points (points earned by the user during second purchase) would be taken from MERCAHNT-C. Thus, the 20 points which were earned by the user from MERCAHNT-B during first transaction were deducted first and then 5 points which were earned by the user from the next transaction at MERCHANT-C were used at the third party merchant MERCAHNT-T, till the total number of points that needs to be redeemed for making purchases at MERCAHNT-T was satisfied.

In case the user specifies his choice redeeming of points at third party outlet, for example if

MERCHANT-C only allows redeeming of points at limited third-party outlets, the user might choose to overrule the first earn and first redeem rule to redeem all the points earned by him from MERCHANT-C. Thus the user can choose to redeem all 25 points from MERCHANT-C, keeping with him the balance all 35 points which he had earned at the earlier transaction at MERCHANT- B.

There may be difference in commission paid to the merchants where points are earned depending on the place where redemption is allowed. Third party merchant may expect a commission from the merchant whose points it is honoring. Some merchants in order to promote their products may offer to absorb all the points' redemption, benefitting the merchant from where the points were earned. This could incite the users to make purchases at such outlets. There can be customized redemption in the sense that MERCHANT-T can offer to user that he can take 20 points more from him provided he agrees to spend 55 points at MERCHANT-Z only. Thus special offers can be floated by merchants to incite redemption of loyalty points at places which pays more commission for business or absorb the total points of the merchant.

OLPOINTS platform provides ability for users to pool points together from a group of individuals and redeem them as group of individuals via a centrally available voucher for specific transactions like multiplex, restaurant, club where members of the group participate in the transaction. This relates to situation where a group of individuals having the OLPOINTS app come together for a purchase as a result of a collective decision. The group may not exist previously and people can join this group on invitation. Usually the settlement of purchases in such a group is done by a single individual. Remaining members contribute by pooling their transaction obligations either before or after the commencement of transaction. For the sake of illustration, four users: User-A, User-B, User-C, User-D have now started to work in the same office and form a group. They decided to go for a movie and then to a restaurant. They visit PVR cinemas and booked 4 tickets for 250 each. The User-A may make payment for tickets using his credit card. During the interval they went into buy popcorn and other refreshment. Here User-B made the payment. After watching the movie they went to have food at restaurant, where they enjoyed a sumptuous dinner and User-C made the payment. Instead of one person absorbing payment, each decided that they would make their respective part of payment. The users in a group may make transfer of such spending on transactions to other members of the group subject to rules of transfer governed by the merchant who may allow transfer in whole or in part. Thus the users can pool their points they want to redeem up to a limit as governed by the rules laid down by the merchant accepting the transaction.

Another scenario - User-C decides for an ad-hoc trip to Corbett National Park, and wants to check if any of his friends would like to join him. He uses the OLPOINTS interface to bring together various merchants that would help him complete the big trip. He goes via a Travel Agency who provides him the quote or he gets a reverse bidding from various elements - Tour Organizer, Hotels, Flight Services, etc. This reverse bidding could be associated with a rider "valid until" to encourage quick participation. Here individual members ready to travel with User-C on the said dates would make payment individually and even redeem points if any and join the trip. Here though User-C has created the group, and is the first organizer, each individual member is responsible for making their own payment, own redemption and own cancellation.

OLPOINT platform enables a user to transfer loyalty points earned by an individual A to any other individual B to whom A owes loyalty points, subjected to the policies, such as commission based, percentage deduction as laid by the merchants owning the point of transaction. OLPOINTS at anytime does not allow transfer of points from one member to another. The points can be given as a gift which is purchased. For example, a user purchased 1000 points from OLPOINTS directly or a gift voucher from a merchant worth 1500 points; he can transfer this to his wife or daughter. The user under no circumstances can transfer the points earned by him to any other user. The user can change the ownership of the transaction, for example a user-A purchased an LCD TV which is paid for by user-B. User-A can say that the transaction and hence all the points associated with the transaction be transferred to User-B. In cases where the transaction amount is split - say in a restaurant where a person pays in the form of division of the total bill and can be unequal - the rules are driven by the merchant. For example - If user-C transfers the entire restaurant bill to User-D - he, would be allowed to do so if the Merchant allows such transfer. There could be a situation where the Merchant would say that User-A needs to hold a part of transaction of at least 1 part divided by the total number of people splitting the bill. The merchant can also choose that there would be no ceiling on the minimum amount User-C can claim he paid and so on. The essential point of di fference here is that there is no direct transfer of points but a transfer of ownership of the entire or part of the transaction as governed by the rules laid down by the Merchant.

OLPOINTS platform enables individual users to register communication with the merchant to post reviews of transaction experience or product experience linked to the transaction made by him via the OLPOINTS platform. For giving reviews/ratings, the user need to use the transaction code, so as to ensure that only users who have actually purchased the product or services can give the reviews/ratings thereby preventing fake reviews/ratings. Thus OLPOINTS due to its interface does not only become a loyalty management app, but a powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) device that allows the customer to interact with the merchant. A user may be unhappy standing in the queue at a merchant's outlet and another user may be upset at the lethargic movement of the employees at the merchant's outlet. Another user is all appreciative of the hardworking store assistant that has helped him in making the purchase decision. OLPOINTS allow users to send feedback of individual transaction identified by the Bill No. to the merchant. The merchant can use this data in real time to fine tune its services if necessary.

OLPOINTS allow customers to write reviews of the products they have purchased at the merchant via OLPOINTS interface. Since these are identified against the bill receipt, they are of course but authentic buyers and users of the products. The valuable feedback helps a merchant to optimize its shelf space, post these reviews on website so that other customers can learn from experience of others and make informed decision. OLPOINTS also allow merchants to organize interaction such as getting a shopping assistant (wedding purchases for example), booking of trial rooms, pick up and drop of return goods or purchased items. OLPOINTS also provide users to scan the barcode of the items they have selected for purchase and add to their shopping cart, instead of lugging their products around. Real time recommendation and upgrades can be given on the shop floor for the purchased item. In restaurant - the menu items for food can be pulled in real time and order placed via mobile app. Pre-booking of tables and other elements of service can be done via OLPOINTS. Payment can also be facilitated by OLPOINTS.

Consider a scenario where OLPOINTS interface is used to scan the items that needs to be purchased, once added, the payment is done via the interface, destination for drop can be specified and the customer can leave the store without even bothering to stand in queue and pay at the POS. In case the items needs to be carried from the store itself instead of a drop by the customer - the customer can put the items on the front desk, showing them the payment code. The Merchant would use the merchant app to determine item purchased against the payment code, and pack the items accordingly. Thus OLPOINTS can bring the influence of recommendation in brick and mortar store - other than relying on the store assistant

Referring to Fig.6A, OLPOINTS enables the merchants to form multiple coalitions using a single platform of OLPOINTS. A merchant "A" can form one coalition (610) with merchants B, C and D. The same merchant "A" can form another coalition (620) with merchants E, F, G and H. For formation of coalitions, the merchants can choose partners for coalition based on specific need. The merchants can choose different service level agreements from one coalition to the next. The users can earn and redeem points from multiple merchants from multiple coalitions. Within a coalition, merchants can form their own business rule and chose to partner with other merchants at different levels of collaboration, as shown in Fig.6B. The level of collaboration can vary from 0% i.e. total non-collaboration to 100% collaboration i.e. total collaboration. The merchants can choose their level of collaboration based on the comparative nature of their business and/or taking into consideration other factors. Depending upon the level of collaboration, points earned at one merchant will be adjusted when redeemed at the other merchant. For example in case of 100% collaboration between two merchants, points earned at one merchant will not be adjusted( i.e. will not be reduced) when redeemed at other merchant within the same coalition i.e. 100 points earned at one merchant of the coalition will remain 100 points when redeemed at the second merchant within the same coalition. In case of 50% collaboration, 100 points earned at one merchant will be adjusted to 50 points when redeemed at the second merchant of the same coalition. Within a coalition, the level of collaboration between any two merchants does not have any effect on the level of collaboration between any two other merchants. For example, as shown in Fig.6B, the merchants "A" and "B" may have collaboration at 80% while merchant A and C and merchants "B" and "C" can collaborate at 60%.This allows the creation of an open business environment where merchants in a coalition earn points at one merchant and can conveniently redeem them at another merchant within the same coalition with whom the collaboration agreement exists.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many equivalent variations, adaptation, modifications and other applications of the invention may be made by the persons skilled in the art. Accordingly, the above description should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. The equivalent changes, adaptations, modifications to the present invention are intended to be within the scope of the present invention which is further set forth in the claims that follow.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1 . A single platform based multi-merchant, multi-coalition system for loyalty award points comprising:

(a) a centralized server ^"referred to as OLPOINTS server(l 15) connected to a user interface (125) and database (120) wherein said centralized server is provided with an application software hereinafter referred to as "OLPOINTS App" wherein said OLPOINTS App is capable of enabling a user for :

earning and redeeming of loyalty award points from across multiple participating merchants and across multiple coalitions (610, 620) comprising plurality of participating merchants;

formation of multiple groups of participating users and enabling earnings on group transactions and subsequent re-allocation of points to the members of the group;

auto-selection of a merchant specific screen for a user through sensing the proximity of the user and point-of-sale terminal through mobile communication device;

displaying merchant loyalty card information at the mobile communication device;

facilitating retrieval, search and related activity that can be performed on a transaction bill by a customer via its mobile interface;

seeking on-demand customized offers from different merchants for a particular product/service and facilitating to choose best offer by means of algorithms provided in the system;

earning of loyalty points from sources besides transactions, such as gift, corporate rewards, meal coupons from third parties;

formation of multiple coalitions by a merchant with other group of merchants as per the specific need and enabling variant and flexible collaboration agreements for redeeming of points between any two participating merchants within a coalition; and

posting of reviews/feedback by the buyers on the specific products purchased by them wherein buyer is authenticated by the bill number of the merchant;

(b) plurality of merchant systems (105), each said merchant system being provided with a merchant terminal ( 140), a mobile communication device (145), Point of Sales (POS) device (150), a merchant processor (155) connected to a merchant database (160) wherein each said merchant is provided with merchant app and wherein each merchant can communicate with said centralized server by entering a unique merchant UID (170) generated by the said OLPOINTS appl; and (c) plurality of user systems (130) wherein each said user system has one or more means selected from a terminal, a mobile communication device, a tablet and a wearable and wherein each user can communicate with said centralized server by downloading said OLPOINTs appl and entering a unique UID generated by the OLPOINTS appl;

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system serves as an aggregator by linking 1 loyalty programs offered by different merchants of which a user may be a participant.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1 which enables any member to earn and redeem points at any participating merchant subject to certain laid down governing rules.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1 which enable distribution of points earned on group transactions amongst the members of a group in the event of disbandment of a group, either on the basis of percentage of points earned by each participant of the group or on the basis of mutual agreement amongst the members of the group.

5. A system as claimed in claim 1 which has inbuilt mechanism to safeguard against viewing of transaction details by unauthorized persons.

6. A system as claimed in claim 1 which enables sending of customized offers for redemption of points whose validity term is due to expire.

7. A system as claimed in claim 1 which facilitates scanning and redemption of points using mobile phones, barcodes or similar such instrument at merchant's counter using said merchant app.

8. A system as claimed in claim 1 which facilitates the using of a slider, text input and voice recognition to specify the points that can be redeemed at the POS.

9. A system as claimed in claim 1 which enables transfer of ownership of a transaction or part of the transaction, from one member to another member, as governed by the rules laid down by the merchant.

10. A system as claimed in claim 1 which enables the members of a group to pool their points they want to redeem up to a limit as governed by the rule laid down by the merchant accepting the transaction.

1 1. A method for use of a single platform based multi-merchant, multi-coalition system for loyalty award points comprising:

(a) registration of a customer and a merchant to become member of OLPOFNTS loyalty point program of the system, comprising:

customer downloading OLPOINTS app on his mobile/tablet/desktop/wearable (235) at a merchant either himself or through a merchant using OLPOINTS App;

customer entering personal identification details (245) and membership number of any previous loyalty point programs of any merchant (250) wherein said personal identification details includes customer's name, date of birth, phone number, email address ;

(b) system registering the customer and generating of a user-specific unique ID for the customer and a merchant- specific unique ID for a merchant and communicates the same to the customer through email/mobile/social media handle; and

(c) using OLPOINTS interface or OLPOINTs web based interface, a user enters the user-specific unique ID and can make transactions at any of the participating merchants, r, earn loyalty points, view royalty points history, can make redemption, and also can offers on-demand for a product/service from different participating merchants.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1 1 wherein a new customer who does not download OLPOINTS app at the merchant's place, receives a download link on his registered email address and mobile phone and using that link, the customer can download OLPOINTS app at his convenience and can become member of the OLPOINTS loyalty point program.

13. A method as claimed in claim 1 1 , wherein using his user-specific ID and OLPOINTS interface, the user enters the personal identification details of selected persons with whom he wants to form a group for the purposes of group transactions which enables any member of the group to view and redeem royalty points on the basis of the combination of user-specific ID and personal ID of the member making transaction. .