Encouraging spending goals and discouraging impulse purchases

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10210569-B1
Application number	US-201514747805-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 23, 2015
Priority date	Jun 23, 2015
Publication date	Feb 19, 2019
Grant date	Feb 19, 2019

Abstract

This disclosure describes, in part, techniques for collecting customer information of users at a centralized location and utilizing the information in an intelligent manner to assist customers in improving spending habits and in meeting budgetary goals. In some instances, the centralized location is a payment service that functions to both authorize payment instruments of users for costs of transactions conducted at the merchant, and to collect, generate and propagate budgetary profiles, to make budgetary suggestions and perform budgetary operations with regard to interactions of the merchants and the users.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a first point-of-sale (POS) device operated by a first merchant and configured to receive payment information from a payment instrument of a customer of the first merchant using a payment instrument reader and further configured to process, at least in part, a payment for one or more items purchased by the customer in a transaction with the first merchant; and
a payment service system that processes, at least in part, payment transactions at the first POS device and a second POS device operated by a second merchant, the payment service system including:
one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors, wherein the instructions program the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
receiving information of the customer;
determining a budgetary goal of the customer;
receiving, from the first POS device, ticket information for the transaction of the customer with the first merchant including the one or more items to be purchased by the customer;
accessing feedback data associated with one or more previous purchases of the customer at the second POS device, the feedback data indicating one or more other items that were impulse purchase items;
determining, by a trained impulsiveness analysis module, that a particular item of the one or more items to be purchased by the customer is an impulse purchase, wherein the determining that the particular item is an impulse purchase is based at least in part on:
the information of the customer;
the budgetary goal of the customer; and
the feedback data;

prior to a payment authorization for the transaction, prompting the customer with an alternative option that is an alternative to purchasing the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase, the prompt including a stimulus associated with the budgetary goal of the customer, and the alternative option comprising removing the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase from the ticket information and transferring, from a payment source of the customer, an amount of funds equal to a cost of the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase to a savings account associated with the budgetary goal of the customer;
receiving approval of the alternative option from the customer;
altering the ticket information in accordance with the alternative option; and
processing the payment for a cost of the transaction and transferring the amount of funds equal to the cost of the particular item determined to be an impulse purchase to the savings account associated with the budgetary goal of the customer.

2. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the acts further comprise the trained impulsiveness analysis module comprises at least one of:
a customer specific impulse module that is based on feedback received from the customer; or
a non-specific impulse module that is based on feedback received from a plurality of customers.

3. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the budgetary goal is a first budgetary goal, the ticket information is first ticket information, the transaction is a first transaction, and the acts further comprise:
determining a second budgetary goal of the customer;
receiving second ticket information for a second transaction of the customer;
determining, based on the second budgetary goal of the customer and second ticket information, a second budgetary operation to perform based on the second transaction being a type of transaction associated with the second budgetary operation; and
performing the second budgetary operation with regard to the second transaction of the customer, the second budgetary operation comprising automatically setting a spending limit for the second transaction.

4. A system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the ticket information is first ticket information, the transaction is a first transaction, the information of the customer includes transaction information for a plurality of previous transactions of the customer, and the acts further comprise:
receiving second ticket information for a second transaction of the customer;
determining, based on the transaction information for the plurality of previous transactions of the customer and the second ticket information, a spending pattern of the customer with regard to a type of item included in the second ticket information;
comparing the spending pattern of the customer with regard to the type of item to spending patterns of a plurality of other customers to determine a ranking of the spending pattern of the customer among the other customers; and
in response to the ranking of the customer being above a threshold rank, performing a second budgetary operation with regard to the second transaction of the customer, the second budgetary operation comprising suggesting the customer reduce the amount of the type of item the customer purchases.

5. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions executable by one or more processors of a payment service system that processes payment transactions at a first point-of-sale (POS) device and a second POS device operated by a first merchant and a second merchant, respectively, wherein the instructions program the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
determining a budgetary goal of a customer;
receiving interaction information for an interaction of the customer with the first merchant, wherein the interaction information comprises ticket information for a transaction of the customer at the first POS device including one or more items to be purchased by the customer;
accessing feedback data associated with one or more previous purchases of the customer at the second POS device, the feedback data indicating one or more other items that were impulse purchase items;
determining, using one or more trained impulsiveness analysis modules and based at least in part on the budgetary goal and the feedback data, that a particular item of the one or more items to be purchased by the customer is an impulse purchase;
determining, based at least in part on the determining that the particular item is an impulse purchase, a budgetary operation to perform with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant, wherein the budgetary operation includes one or more of transferring funds, altering the ticket information, or setting a spending limit; and
performing the budgetary operation with regard to the interaction of the customer with the first merchant.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5 , wherein the acts further comprise:
receiving information of the customer;
wherein the determining that the particular item is an impulse purchase is further based at least in part on the information of the customer.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5 , wherein the one or more trained impulsiveness analysis modules comprises at least one of:
a customer specific impulse module that is based on feedback received from the customer; or
a non-specific impulse module that is based on feedback received from a plurality of customers.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 7 , wherein the acts further comprise:
prompting the customer to provide an evaluation of whether an item from a previous transaction was an impulse purchase;
receiving the evaluation from the customer; and
adapting, using machine learning, at least one of the customer specific impulse model or the non-specific impulse model based on the evaluation.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5 , the acts further comprising:
prior to processing the payment f

Assignees

• Square Inc

Inventors

• Kim Wesley
• Wolter Jonathan Andrew
• Tsou Victor

Classifications

• G06Q20/108

  Remote banking, e.g. home banking · CPC title

• G06Q40/00 Primary

  Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes · CPC title

• G06Q20/40

  Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists · CPC title

• G06Q20/102

  Bill distribution or payments · CPC title

• G06Q20/0855

  involving a third party · CPC title