WO2019053683A1

WO2019053683A1 - System of determination and selection of promotional offerings

Info

Publication number: WO2019053683A1
Application number: PCT/IB2018/057125
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mark Robertson; Roy KUCUKATES
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
Priority date: 2017-09-18
Filing date: 2018-09-17
Publication date: 2019-03-21

Abstract

Systems and methods for determining and/or selecting promotional offerings are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes displaying to a user one or more eligible promotions based on a customer's current purchase selected products and the customer's past purchases. The method also includes calculating an amount of eligible discounts for each of the one or more eligible promotions and allowing the user to select one or more non-overlapping promotions from the one or more eligible promotions. In this way, revenue for the provider may be increased while also providing discounts to the customer.

Description

SYSTEM OF DETERMINATION AND SELECTION OF PROMOTIONAL

OFFERINGS

Related Applications

[0001] This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application serial number 62/559,867, filed September 18, 2018, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

[0002] The disclosure relates generally to modeling product offerings and specifically to modeling promotional offerings.

Background

[0003] Modeling the various products to be offered to a service provider's customers is a common activity. The associated modeling of the various products has both commercial and technical aspects which impact how the offerings are ultimately presented to the consumer either directly via a Web Care channel or via interactions with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system or Customer Service Representative (CSR) from the service provider.

[0004] One critical piece of the modeling of product offerings is capturing how the operator would like to promote selected products by offering promotions to be made available to the customer. Ultimately, a promotion will result in the reduction of the purchase price for the customer when applied. To provide a holistic view to the service provider in modeling their commercial offerings, the promotions are modeled along with and in the same Enterprise Product Catalog such that acquisition and presentation are driven by both the logical modeling of the product offerings along with the promotional offerings for the products providing one holistic view of the items to be made available to the customer or potential customer of the service provider.

[0005] There is an opportunity to better distinguish a product recommendation from a promotion to promote provider appreciation and build brand loyalty. Summary

[0006] Systems and methods for determining and/or selecting promotional offerings are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes displaying to a user one or more eligible promotions based on a customer's current purchase selected products and the customer's past purchases. The method also includes calculating an amount of eligible discounts for each of the one or more eligible promotions and allowing the user to select one or more non-overlapping promotions from the one or more eligible promotions. In this way, revenue for the provider may be increased while also providing discounts to the customer.

[0007] In some embodiments, the customer's past purchases are included in the customer's installed base. In some embodiments, the customer's installed base is obtained from a Customer Partner Management (CPM) module.

[0008] In some embodiments, at least one of the one or more eligible promotions is based on the customer's current purchase selected products, such as a Basket-Purchase Promotion (BPP). In some embodiments, at least one of the one or more eligible promotions is based on the customer's past purchases, such as a Historic-Purchase Promotion (HPP).

[0009] In some embodiments, at least two of the one or more eligible promotions require the same item from the customer's current purchase selected products.

[0010] In some embodiments, displaying the one or more eligible promotions includes displaying at least one promotion based on a customer's current purchase selected products and a stored promotion included in the customer's past purchases.

[0011] In some embodiments, the user is the customer. In some

embodiments, the user is not the customer.

[0012] In some embodiments, the method is performed by a Customer Partner Interaction (CPI) module.

[0013] In some embodiments, a device is configured to communicate with a user. The device includes processing circuitry configured to display to the user one or more eligible promotions based on a customer's current purchase selected products and the customer's past purchases. The device is also configured to calculate an amount of eligible discounts for each of the one or more eligible promotions and allow the user to select one or more non- overlapping promotions from the one or more eligible promotions.

[0014] It would be advantageous for a system to determine, display, and allow the customer to select promotional offerings resulting in discounts on the total purchase during the "purchase" session performed by the customer through any one of the provided channels supported by the provider's Omni-Platform solution.

[0015] During the customer "purchase" session, the Omni-Platform channel will consult with CPI services to acquire promotions which are applicable to the customer "purchase" session. As the customer is "purchasing," the system will make available a list of promotions which are available to the customer, thus informing the customer of the discounts being offered by and promoted by the provider based on a number of facets including:

· Previously Purchased Product Offerings

• Current Contents of the Customer Basket

[0016] At any point during the "purchase" session, the customer can decide to apply one or more promotional offerings during their session which would result in a reduction to the total price of their respective "basket."

• The applicable promotions are presented to the customer such that the customer can select from numerous opportunities to discount the total cost of services purchased from the provider building provider appreciation and customer savings, ultimately leading to increased revenue because of larger purchases.

• Places the opportunity with the customer such that the customer can consider future purchasing choices in the promotion selection. For example, the customer may opt out of the promotion as the customer may be considering a future purchase which would ultimately lead to more savings than applying an available discount on the current "shopping" session. Provides a solution which is much more configurable by the provider allowing for significantly more control of promotions. For example, the provider could configure the solution to only permit the selection of a single promotion during a "purchase" session. Reduces customer dissatisfaction because promotions are not displayed that are not applicable to the past, present of future purchasing behavior.

Promotions lead to total increase of revenue for the provider while also providing discounts to the customer.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0017] The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part of this specification illustrate several aspects of the disclosure, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

[0018] Figure 1 illustrates a generalized block diagram of system that could be used with some embodiments;

[0019] Figure 2 illustrates multiple possible promotions according to some embodiments of the current disclosure;

[0020] Figure 3 illustrates a method of displaying one or more promotions to be selected according to some embodiments of the current disclosure;

[0021] Figures 4 and 5 illustrate various aspects of the systems and methods according to some embodiments of the current disclosure;

[0022] Figures 6A through 6G illustrate a first example operation of a system according to some embodiments of the current disclosure;

[0023] Figures 7 A through 7D illustrate a second example operation of a system according to some embodiments of the current disclosure;

[0024] Figures 8A through 8G illustrate a third example operation of a system according to some embodiments of the current disclosure;

[0025] Figures 9A through 9C illustrate a more detailed operation of the system according to some embodiments of the current disclosure; [0026] Figures 10A through 10G illustrate a more detailed operation of the system according to some embodiments of the current disclosure;

[0027] Figure 1 1 illustrates multiple possible promotions and the selection of the most profitable one according to some embodiments of the current disclosure;

[0028] Figures 12A through 12E illustrate multiple possible promotions and the selection of the most profitable one according to some embodiments of the current disclosure;

[0029] Figures 13A through 13C illustrate multiple possible properties of modeling promotions and the selection of the most profitable one according to some embodiments of the current disclosure;

[0030] Figure 14 is a block diagram of a device according to some

embodiments of the current disclosure. Detailed Description

[0031] The embodiments set forth below represent information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and illustrate the best mode of practicing the embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosure and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure.

[0032] Omni Platform provides the means for "displaying" the products to be offered to the customer of the service provider both visually for Web Care channels and Customer Service Representative (CSR) Channels as well as via Interactive Voice Response. The Omni Platform interacts with the Customer Partner Interaction (CPI) services provided by the service provider infrastructure to capture important business interactions between the customer or his CSR performing purchasing of said product offerings as well as numerous other services offered by the provider. Examples of other services and interactions include the customer performing refill operations on existing services as well as potentially de-activating services previously acquired by the customer.

[0033] When the customer interacts with the service provider, a critical element is making the promotional offerings available to the customer. The system provided by the service provider must determine when a promotional offering should be available to the customer and when the provider should allow for the customer to select possible promotions which the customer can apply during the product acquisition business interaction performed via the Omni Platform. Because of the possibilities offered by the modeling available in the Enterprise Product Catalog and the information available for determining the applicability of a promotion, the service provider may for business reasons desire to allow in certain cases the customer to select a promotion to get a resultant discount off the cost of their purchase. In addition, the operator will want the ability to configure when a promotion is to be applicable and hence selectable by the customer. Likewise, the service provider may desire the CPI function to automatically select a promotion on behalf of the customer. However, for the customer to truly "appreciate" the value of the promotion, the service provider will need to make the customer aware of the promotion offered by the provider resulting in a reduced price to the customer. Hence, applying promotions and "displaying" promotions should be performed at the discretion of the provider such that the promotional choices are known to the customer and in certain cases result in offering a choice to the customer that must be made. Regardless of the selection technique, the promotion and resultant discount should always be known to the customer to build "appreciation" for the provider.

[0034] At present, modeling of product offerings and their associated promotions are disconnected such that the marketing organization's awareness of the associations requires more complexity for the marketing organization at the service provider. Because they are often different systems, modeling and tracking which promotional offerings are to be made available to the customer becomes difficult, consuming resources from the marketing department and potentially leading to lost revenue and lost customer appreciation. Sourcing for the information used in determining the total purchase price and ultimately impacting a purchase by a customer should be presented to the customer to build brand awareness and build customer appreciation for the services offered by the service provider. Present solutions typically attempt to address the required outcome through product recommendations based on analytics of previous customer interaction information resulting in a product recommendation versus a promotion offerings being available; a recommendation and a promotion are not distinguished, causing possible confusion for the customer resulting in loss of "appreciation" for the provider offerings. Current examples abound where providers utilization of a recommendation engine for modeling promotions ultimately leads to confusion for the customer regarding the difference between a product recommendation and a promotion. Thus, the connection of the promotion by the service provider leading to a discount for the customer is lost. Maintaining the relationship becomes difficult and error prone and due to the ultimate complexity of the solution. Ultimately when the promotion is not determined and made available to the customer in a proper and timely fashion the result is lost revenue and "appreciation" from the customer for the provider.

[0035] There is an opportunity to better distinguish a product recommendation from a promotion to promote provider appreciation and build brand loyalty.

[0036] Systems and methods for determining and/or selecting promotional offerings are provided. In some embodiments, a method includes displaying to a user one or more eligible promotions based on a customer's current purchase selected products and the customer's past purchases. The method also includes calculating an amount of eligible discounts for each of the one or more eligible promotions and allowing the user to select one or more non-overlapping promotions from the one or more eligible promotions. In this way, revenue for the provider may be increased while also providing discounts to the customer.

[0037] The system architecture enabling the purchase processes of the operator is given in Figure 1 . The end user (customer) or the CSR agents are interacting through the Front End (Omni Platform) applications. The

orchestration of the main process is managed by the Customer Partner Interaction (CPI) layer. CPI uses backend functionalities to support the purchase and determination of promotional offerings. The backend functionalities used in this architecture are:

• Customer Partner Management (CPM): managing customer's

installed base, therefore past purchased and provisioned products

• Charging (CHA): component mainly responsible for rule based

price calculations

• Enterprise Catalog Manager (ECM): enterprise product catalog manager that provides product offering browsing and rule based offering eligibility functionality

[0038] Service providers may have a large number of products and

promotions (discounts due to specific combinations of purchases). In order to increase the sales, the customer is presented with eligible promotions during the purchase process based on his current selections (basket content) and previous purchases (installed base).

[0039] A promotion can be applied only to a product (or set of products) purchase that is not already discounted by another promotion to avoid over discounting where the total discounts can be bigger than the original price of the product(s).

[0040] The promotion discounts the product's One Time Charge (OTC) and/or Recurring Charge (RC)

[0041] Embodiments disclosed herein solve these problems that may occur during the purchase:

• Displaying only the eligible promotions related to the customer's current/past purchases

• Displaying the historic purchase counter promotions in case these get activated with the new purchase

• Calculating the discount amounts of the PPM POs that are being displayed based on the customer's basket contents • Allowing the customer to select and put in his basket one or more BPP POs and/or HPP POs that do not target the same purchased product

• Guiding the customer to select the BPP PO or HPP PO that

maximizes his/her discount for the current and past purchases.

[0042] In some embodiments, it is assumed that the following functionalities are available to a system as described here:

• A product Catalog functionality where eligible POs for customer are filtered and returned to a Front End application

· A Customer Partner Interaction (CPI) application that orchestrates the browsing, purchase interactions and order fulfillment processes

• A price calculation functionality realized by the Charging System (CHA) that

^■ Calculates the amount of discount by multiplying the

discount % with the product's price

^■ Calculates the validity of the HPP POs based on the

aggregated inputs sent by the CPI: customer's past purchases (installed base), current basket contents, and eligible HPP POs.

■ Calculates the validity of the BPP POs based on the current basket contents sent by the CPI

[0043] Figure 2 illustrates multiple possible promotions according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. In this example, there are three POs available for purchase: PO A, PO B, and PO C. However, there are six possible promotions that could be applied to various groups of these products. Even with a small number of product offerings, there may be many combinations of promotions. During a purchase process it is difficult and time consuming to select an eligible and most profitable set of promotions that maximizes the total discount.

[0044] Figure 3 illustrates a method of displaying one or more promotions to be selected according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. First, the method includes displaying to a user one or more eligible promotions based on a customer's current purchase selected products and the customer's past purchases (step 100). Then, the method includes calculating an amount of eligible discounts for each of the one or more eligible promotions (step 102). The method also includes allowing the user to select one or more non-overlapping promotions from the one or more eligible promotions (step 104). In this way, revenue for the provider may be increased while also providing discounts to the customer. Various examples of such interactions will be discussed below.

[0045] In some embodiments, the user interacting with the system is the customer. In other embodiments, the user is not the customer but perhaps a customer service representative assisting the customer. In the discussions and examples below, the user is assumed to be the customer for simplicity.

However, the current disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0046] Also, the method described in Figure 3 is implemented in the CPI of Figure 1 in some embodiments. However, the current disclosure is not limited thereto and the embodiments described may be implemented in any appropriate location or combination of locations.

[0047] Figures 4 and 5 illustrate various aspects of the systems and methods according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. Common definitions for the examples (for the sake of simplicity only OTC prices and discounts are considered) are shown in Figure 4. Figure 4 illustrates a list of current product offerings that includes two POs with their accompanying prices. A section also illustrates the current basket-purchase promotions available while another section illustrates various historic-purchase promotions.

[0048] The purchase process requires four main components/groups shown in Figure 5. This is merely one example implementation of such a system. The embodiments disclosed herein could be implemented in any other suitable way. The first component includes a list of all eligible POs that displays what can be purchased. There is also a basket component that displays what is currently being purchased. [0049] The next component is the list of eligible promotions that displays which promotions can be applied based on basket contents. The installed base component displays what the customer already has.

[0050] Figures 6 through 8 include several specific examples of operating a system as described herein. Providers can quickly introduce product promotions into the solutions ultimately increasing product revenue and customer

appreciation through product promotions leading via discounted pricing to the customers.

[0051] In this section there will be following examples:

· Customer buying products with HPP PO

• Customer buying products with BPP PO

• Customer buying products with both HPP PO and BPP PO

[0052] Figures 6A through 6G illustrate a first example operation of a system according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. The example will illustrate the screen of the customer's purchase with eligible offerings, eligible promotions, basket, and installed base.

[0053] Figure 6A shows the customer is browsing for eligible product offerings. Two products are eligible; PO A and PO B. Figure 6B shows that the customer decides to purchase PO A. The user selects it, and puts it into the basket. System populates a hidden HPP PO A discount not applied. No eligible PPM PO yet. In Figure 6C, the first purchase is completed. The customer does not have any promotion yet. Basket is now empty and products are instantiated in Installed Base.

[0054] Figure 6D illustrates the user beginning a second purchase. Two products are eligible: PO A and PO B. Basket is empty; products are instantiated in Installed Base. In Figure 6E, customer selects PO A. HPP PO becomes eligible.

[0055] Figure 6F shows that the user selects HPP PO A. PO A is discounted by $10 in this example. In Figure 6G, the second purchase is completed. PO A is discounted by $10. HPP product A is consumed. No eligible promotions remain and the basket is empty. [0056] Figures 7 A through 7D illustrate a second example operation of a system according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. As can be seen in Figure 7A, a user is again browsing for products. Two products are eligible: PO A and PO B. In Figure 7B, the user selects products and puts them in the basket. Customer selects PO A and PO B. A BPP PO becomes eligible and is now shown in the eligible promotions panel.

[0057] In Figure 7C, the user selects BPP PO A+B. PO is discounted by $15. The promotion is no longer listed in the eligible promotions. In Figure 7D, the Purchase is completed. The basket is empty and the installed base includes the completed BPP.

[0058] Figures 8A through 8G illustrate a third example operation of a system according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. Again, Figure 8A shows a user browsing for products. Two products are eligible: PO A and PO B. In Figure 8B, the user selects products and puts them in the basket. In this example, the customer selects PO A. System populates a hidden HPP PO A discount not applied. There is no eligible PPM PO yet. Figure 8C shows that the user completes the Purchase. The basket is empty. Products are instantiated in Installed Base including an HPP that has not yet been used.

[0059] Subsequently, the customer wants to do a second round of purchase. Customer decides to purchase A and B together. This purchase enables two different types of PPM POs. For instance, Figure 8D shows that two products are eligible: PO A and PO B. Basket is empty; products are instantiated in Installed Base. In Figure 8E, the customer selects PO A. HPP PO which was previously stored in the installed base as unused now becomes eligible.

However, before completing the transaction, the customer selects PO B as shown in Figure 8F. BPP PO A+B now becomes eligible. The customer selects BPP PO A+B as the most profitable one and gets -$15 off from PO A. Figure 8G shows that the second purchase is complete. The customer gets -$15 off from PO A. HPP Product A is not consumed and still remains in the customer's installed base. [0060] Figures 9A through 9C illustrate a more detailed operation of the system according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. This includes detailed interactions between various components discussed previously.

Notably, these specifics are merely example implementations and the same objectives could be reached in any other suitable manner. Figures 9A through 9C illustrate a user interacting with the frontend to complete a first purchase of PO A where PPM PO A is instantiated but not activated as discussed above.

[0061] Figures 10A through 10G illustrate a more detailed operation of the system according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. This includes detailed interactions between various components discussed previously.

Notably, these specifics are merely example implementations and the same objectives could be reached in any other suitable manner. Figures 10A through 10G illustrate a user interacting with the frontend to complete a second purchase of PO A and a first purchase of PO B where PPM PO A is becoming valid and BPP PO A+B becomes eligible as discussed above.

[0062] Figure 1 1 illustrates multiple possible promotions and the selection of the most profitable one according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. In this example, there are only two non-overlapping selections. HPP PO A requires buying two PO As and receiving a $10 discount. BPP PO A+B requires buying a PO A and a PO B and receives a $15 discount. In this instance, the most profitable non-overlapping selection for the customer is the BPP PO A+B which results in a $15 discount.

[0063] Figures 12A through 12E illustrate multiple possible promotions and the selection of the most profitable one according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. In this example, the customer's installed base includes two PO Cs, a PO B, and a PO A. Figure 12A shows six possible promotions.

[0064] Figure 12B illustrates one option of three non-overlapping promotions that result in a total discount of $55. Figure 12C illustrates one option of two non- overlapping promotions that result in a total discount of $50. Note that none of the other promotions could be used because they would each require the use of a PO that is already being relied upon to receive a discount. [0065] Figure 12D shows only a single promotion that results in a discount of $18. This precludes any other promotion and is the worst selection for the customer. Figure 12E shows the maximum discount of $57 for the customer with two promotions: BPP PO A+B and HPP PO C.

[0066] Figures 13A through 13C illustrate multiple possible properties of modeling promotions and the selection of the most profitable one according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. As shown in Figure 13A, the selection of the best promotions becomes a selection of maximum total sum mapping. Figure 13A shows the eligible promotions modeled on the left with the products available to be purchased on the right. The selection shown in Figure 12E is modeled in Figure 13B which shows a total discount of $57.

[0067] Figure 13C shows that this model is a non-injective function. An injective function is a function that preserves distinctness. Distinct elements of its domain are not mapped to the same element. Although not shown in Figure 13C, this model is also non-surjective according to some embodiments. A function is surjective if every purchased product is mapped to by at least one promotion. This is not a requirement.

[0068] Figure 14 is a block diagram of a device 1400 according to some embodiments of the current disclosure. As shown in Figure 14, the device 1400 may contain both software 1402 and hardware 1404. The device 1400 comprises hardware 1404 including a communication interface 1406 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the system. The device 1400 further comprises processing circuitry 1408, which may have storage and/or processing capabilities. In particular, the processing circuitry 1408 may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The device 1400 further comprises software 1402, which is stored in or is accessible by the device 1400 and executable by the processing circuitry 1408. The software 1402 includes a host application 1410. The host application 1410 may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as a customer or other user.

[0069] While Figure 14 illustrates a single device 1400, the current disclosure is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, various functionalities may be provided by other physical or logical devices.

Numbered Embodiments

[0070] While not being limited thereto, some example embodiments of the present disclosure are provided below.

1 . A method comprising:

displaying to a user one or more eligible promotions based on a customer's current purchase selected products and the customer's past purchases;

calculating an amount of eligible discounts for each of the one or more eligible promotions; and

allowing the user to select one or more non-overlapping promotions from the one or more eligible promotions. 2. The method of embodiment 1 wherein the customer's past purchases are included in the customer's installed base.

3. The method of embodiment 2 wherein the customer's installed base is obtained from a Customer Partner Management, CPM, module.

4. The method of any of embodiments 1 through 3 wherein at least one of the one or more eligible promotions is based on the customer's current purchase selected products such as a Basket-Purchase Promotion, BPP. 5. The method of any of embodiments 1 through 4 wherein at least one of the one or more eligible promotions is based on the customer's past purchases such as a Historic-Purchase Promotion, HPP. 6. The method of any of embodiments 1 through 5 wherein at least two of the one or more eligible promotions require the same item from the customer's current purchase selected products.

7. The method of any of embodiments 1 through 6 wherein displaying the one or more eligible promotions comprises displaying at least one promotion based on a customer's current purchase selected products and a stored promotion included in the customer's past purchases.

8. The method of any of embodiments 1 through 7 wherein the user is the customer.

9. The method of any of embodiments 1 through 7 wherein the user is not the customer. 10. The method of any of embodiments 1 through 9 wherein the method is performed by a Customer Partner Interaction, CPI, module.

1 1. A device configured to communicate with a user, the device comprising processing circuitry configured to:

display to the user one or more eligible promotions based on a customer's current purchase selected products and the customer's past purchases;

calculate an amount of eligible discounts for each of the one or more eligible promotions; and

allow the user to select one or more non-overlapping promotions from the one or more eligible promotions. 12. The device of embodiment 1 wherein the customer's past purchases are included in the customer's installed base.

13. The device of embodiment 2 wherein the customer's installed base is obtained from a Customer Partner Management, CPM, module.

14. The device of any of embodiments 1 through 3 wherein at least one of the one or more eligible promotions is based on the customer's current purchase selected products such as a Basket-Purchase Promotion, BPP.

15. The device of any of embodiments 1 through 4 wherein at least one of the one or more eligible promotions is based on the customer's past purchases such as a Historic-Purchase Promotion, HPP. 16. The device of any of embodiments 1 through 5 wherein at least two of the one or more eligible promotions require the same item from the customer's current purchase selected products.

17. The device of any of embodiments 1 through 6 wherein displaying the one or more eligible promotions comprises displaying at least one promotion based on a customer's current purchase selected products and a stored promotion included in the customer's past purchases.

18. The device of any of embodiments 1 through 7 wherein the user is the customer.

19. The device of any of embodiments 1 through 7 wherein the user is not the customer.

20. The device of any of embodiments 1 through 9 wherein the device is a Customer Partner Interaction, CPI, module. [0071] At least some of the following abbreviations may be used in this disclosure. If there is an inconsistency between abbreviations, preference should be given to how it is used above. If listed multiple times below, the first listing should be preferred over any subsequent listing(s).

BPP Basket-Purchase Promotion

CHA Charging

CPI Customer Partner Interaction

CPM Customer Partner Management

CSR Customer Service Representative

ECM Enterprise Catalog Manager

HPP Historic-Purchase Promotion

IVR Interactive Voice Response

OTC One Time Charge

PO Product Offering

RC Recurring Charge

[0072] Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the embodiments of the present disclosure. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein.

Claims

Claims What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:

displaying (100) to a user one or more eligible promotions based on a customer's current purchase selected products and the customer's past purchases;

calculating (102) an amount of eligible discounts for each of the one or more eligible promotions; and

allowing (104) the user to select one or more non-overlapping promotions from the one or more eligible promotions.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer's past purchases are included in a customer's installed base.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the customer's installed base is obtained from a Customer Partner Management, CPM, module.

4. The method of any of claims 1 through 3 wherein at least one of the one or more eligible promotions is based on the customer's current purchase selected products.

5. The method of any of claims 1 through 4 wherein the at least one of the one or more eligible promotions based on the customer's current purchase selected products is a Basket-Purchase Promotion, BPP.

6. The method of any of claims 1 through 5 wherein the at least one of the one or more eligible promotions is based on the customer's past purchases.

7. The method of any of claims 1 through 6 wherein the at least one of the one or more eligible promotions based on the customer's past purchases is a Historic-Purchase Promotion, HPP.

8. The method of any of claims 1 through 7 wherein at least two of the one or more eligible promotions require a same item from the customer's current purchase selected products.

9. The method of any of claims 1 through 8 wherein displaying the one or more eligible promotions comprises displaying at least one promotion based on the customer's current purchase selected products and a stored promotion included in the customer's past purchases.

10. The method of any of claims 1 through 9 wherein the user is the customer.

1 1. The method of any of claims 1 through 9 wherein the user is not the customer.

12. The method of any of claims 1 through 1 1 wherein the method is performed by a Customer Partner Interaction, CPI, module.

13. A device (1400) configured to communicate with a user, the device (1400) comprising processing circuitry (1408) configured to:

allow the user to select one or more non-overlapping promotions from the one or more eligible promotions.

14. The device (1400) of claim 13 wherein the customer's past purchases are included in the customer's installed base.

15. The device (1400) of claim 14 wherein the customer's installed base is obtained from a Customer Partner Management, CPM, module.

16. The device (1400) of any of claims 13 through 15 wherein at least one of the one or more eligible promotions is based on the customer's current purchase selected products such as a Basket-Purchase Promotion, BPP.

17. The device (1400) of any of claims 13 through 16 wherein the at least one of the one or more eligible promotions is based on the customer's past purchases such as a Historic-Purchase Promotion, HPP.

18. The device (1400) of any of claims 13 through 17 wherein at least two of the one or more eligible promotions require a same item from the customer's current purchase selected products.

19. The device (1400) of any of claims 13 through 18 wherein displaying the one or more eligible promotions comprises displaying at least one promotion based on the customer's current purchase selected products and a stored promotion included in the customer's past purchases.

20. The device (1400) of any of claims 13 through 19 wherein the user is the customer.

21. The device (1400) of any of claims 13 through 19 wherein the user is not the customer.

22. The device (1400) of any of claims 13 through 21 wherein the device is a Customer Partner Interaction, CPI, module.

23. A device (1400) adapted to:

24. The device (1400) of claim 23 wherein the device (1400) is further adapted to perform the method of any of claims 2 to 12.

25. A computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any of claims 1 to 12.

26. A carrier containing the computer program of claim 25, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, a radio signal, or a computer readable storage medium.

27. A device (1400), comprising:

a display module operable to display to the user one or more eligible promotions based on a customer's current purchase selected products and the customer's past purchases;

a Customer Partner Interaction (CPI) module operable to calculate an amount of eligible discounts for each of the one or more eligible promotions; and a selection module operable to allow the user to select one or more non- overlapping promotions from the one or more eligible promotions.