Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Discount or incentive
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-28
2001-06-05
Voeltz, Emanuel Todd (Department: 2162)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Discount or incentive
C705S001100, C705S014270, C705S032000, C705S400000, C235S378000, C235S383000, C235S378000, C235S381000, C221S001000, C221S008000, C221S036000, C222S001000, C700S002000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06243687
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an electronic retail system and, more particularly, to a system and method for distributing and processing discount coupons.
2. Description of Related Art
Discount coupons are a popular means to stimulate sales of products such as grocery store items. In 1992, approximately 310 billion coupons were distributed and 7.7 billion coupons were redeemed, saving customers $4 billion. It has been estimated that in-store couponing coupled with advertising increases sales by 544%.
A typical marketing scheme involves placing coupons in a newspaper, by printing the coupons in the newspaper or by inserting coupon inserts into the newspaper, and allowing customers to bring the printed coupons to a store for redemption. One problem with this scheme is that the redemption rate is typically only a few percent of the coupons printed, the unredeemed coupons representing an overhead associated with this scheme. To alleviate this overhead, another marketing scheme involves distributing the coupons in the store, thereby avoiding the cost of printing coupons in a newspaper, and capitalizing on the fact that 66% of buyer decisions are made at the time of product purchase. Both the in-store scheme and the newspaper scheme, however, are susceptible to fraud by an unscrupulous retailer that requests reimbursement payments by presenting unredeemed coupons to the clearing house. Other schemes include delivering coupons to customers through the mail, distributing coupons in or on the product package, and distributing coupons at checkout. All of these schemes have an overhead cost of handling the coupons and of sending the redeemed coupons to a clearing house to enable product manufacturers to reimburse retailers for the reduction in proceeds resulting from coupon redemptions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a convenient and stimulating shopping environment, having relatively low overhead.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a discounting system that does not generate paper waste.
To achieve these and other objects of the present invention, a system comprises a plurality of products; a dispenser including a plurality of portable cards each having a random access memory (RAM), means for receiving a first signal characterizing a customer, a mechanism for ejecting one of the cards from the dispenser, the ejected card storing a respective second signal, and means for storing an association between the first signal and the second signal; a checkout area including means for receiving a plurality of third signals from the RAM of the ejected card, each third signal corresponding to a product, means for receiving a fourth signal corresponding to a product, and means for determining a price depending on whether the fourth signal corresponds to one of the received third signals.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a system comprises a plurality of products; a dispenser including a plurality of portable cards each having a random access memory (RAM), means for receiving a first signal characterizing a customer, an electronic display, means for selecting a plurality of products by detecting a selection of locations on the display, means for sending a plurality of second signals to the RAM of a card in the plurality of cards, the second signals corresponding to the selected products, a mechanism for ejecting the card from the dispenser, the ejected card storing a respective third signal, and means for storing an association between the first signal and the third signal; and a checkout area including means for receiving the plurality of second signals from the RAM of the ejected card, means for receiving a fourth signal corresponding to a product, and means for determining a price depending on whether the fourth signal corresponds to one of the received second signals.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, in a system including a plurality of products, a dispenser including a plurality of portable cards each having a random access memory (RAM), and a checkout area, a method of operating the system comprises the steps, performed in the dispenser, of receiving a first signal characterizing a customer; rejecting one of the cards from the dispenser, the ejected card storing a respective second signal; and storing an association between the first signal and the second signal, and the steps, performed in the checkout area, of: receiving a plurality of third signals from the RAM of the ejected card, each third signal corresponding to a product; receiving a fourth signal corresponding to a product; and determining a price depending on whether the fourth signal corresponds to one of the received third signals.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, in a system including a plurality of products, a dispenser including a display, a plurality of portable cards each having a random access memory (RAM), and a checkout area, a method of operating the system comprising the steps, performed in the dispenser, of receiving a first signal characterizing a customer; selecting a plurality of products by detecting a selection of locations on the display; sending a plurality of second signals to the RAM of a card in the plurality of cards, the second signals corresponding to the selected products; ejecting the card from the dispenser, the ejected card storing a respective third signal; and storing an association between the first signal and the third signal, and the steps, performed in the checkout area, of receiving the plurality of second signals from the RAM of the ejected card; receiving a fourth signal corresponding to a product; and determining a price depending on whether the fourth signal corresponds to one of the received second signals.
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Kevin Higgins, Manufacturer acceptance is next step for high-technology coupon dispenser, Marketing News, pp. 16, Sep. 1984.*
Printout from www.slb.com/et/card-dispensing-machine.html, Copyright 1997, received via the World Wide Web on Jun. 16, 1998.
Fancher, Carol H.,Smart Cards, Scientific American, Aug. 1996, pp. 40-45.
Alvarez Raquel
Jackson Jerome D.
SoftCard Systems, Inc.
Todd Voeltz Emanuel
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