Individualized incentives to improve financing outcomes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10453086-B1
Application number	US-201514676678-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Apr 1, 2015
Priority date	Apr 1, 2015
Publication date	Oct 22, 2019
Grant date	Oct 22, 2019

Abstract

A payment processing system is configured to provide financing to a merchant, the merchant having an account with a payment provider who operates the payment processing system to process a plurality of financial transactions between the merchant and buyers via a mobile point-of-sale (POS) terminal. The payment processing system receives repayment of the financing from the merchant by withholding a portion of funds from the plurality of financial transactions processed for the merchant by the payment processing system. The payment processing system evaluates financial transactions conducted by the merchant through the payment processing system and, based on the evaluation, provides the merchant with one or more offers defining an incentive of financing or modification of current financing arrangements in order to induce activity by the merchant. The payment processing system identifies that the merchant has performed the activity identified in the offer and implements the incentive in the offer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors of a payment processing system, from a plurality of merchant computing devices associated with a plurality of merchants, respectively, transaction information of transactions performed between the plurality of merchants and a plurality of customers, the merchant computing devices having respective instances of a merchant application installed thereon for configuring the plurality of merchant computing devices as a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) terminals, respectively, the respective instances of the merchant application configuring the respective POS terminals to communicate the transaction information over a network to the payment processing system;
training, by the one or more processors, a machine learning classifier using, as training data, the transaction information received from the plurality of merchants for transactions conducted with a plurality of customers and a respective business type of each merchant;
determining, by the one or more processors, using the machine learning classifier, based on a plurality of factors, a first merchant of the plurality of merchants who qualifies for a cash advance, the first merchant having a payments account with the payment processing system for receiving transaction payments for transactions processed for the first merchant using a first POS terminal of the plurality of POS terminals, wherein information for the plurality of factors is determined based at least on the transaction information received by the payment processing system for transactions processed by the payment processing system between the first merchant and customers of the first merchant;
determining, based at least partially on the transaction information received by the payment processing system for the transactions processed by the payment processing system, repayment terms for the cash advance based at least partially on the transaction payments processed for the first merchant;
sending, by the one or more processors, an electronic communication to provide the cash advance to a financial account of the first merchant based on receiving, from the first POS terminal, agreement of the first merchant to the cash advance and the repayment terms;
receiving, by the one or more processors, repayment of the cash advance from the first merchant by withholding a portion of funds from the financial transactions subsequently processed for the first merchant by the payment processing system, the portion of funds determined according to the repayment terms for the cash advance;
determining, by the one or more processors, based on the transaction payments processed for the first merchant, an offer for an incentive;
transmitting, by the one or more processors, the offer to the first POS terminal, wherein the offer is for the first merchant to increase the number of financial transactions processed for the first merchant by the payment processing system, the offer defining an incentive of a bonus payment toward repayment of the cash advance when the number of financial transactions processed for the first merchant by the payment processing system increases above a threshold;
determining, by the one or more processors, based on transaction information received from the first POS terminal, whether the number of financial transactions processed for the first merchant by the payment processing system has increased above the threshold; and
providing, by the one or more processors, in response to determining that the number of financial transactions processed for the first merchant by the payment processing system has increased above the threshold, the bonus payment toward repayment of the cash advance for the first merchant.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, by the one or more processors, to the first POS terminal, an offer to the first merchant to participate in another service provided by the payment processing service provider, the offer defining an incentive relating to the cash advance when the first merchant participates in the other service;
determining, by the one or more processors, whether the first merchant has participated in the other service; and
providing, by the one or more processors, in response to determining that the first merchant has participated in the other service, the incentive to the first merchant.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, by the one or more processors, to the first POS terminal, an offer to the first merchant to provide additional profile information to the payment processing system, the offer defining an incentive relating to the cash advance when the first merchant has provided the additional profile information;
determining, by the one or more processors, whether the first merchant has provided the additional profile information; and
providing, by the one or more processors, in response to determining that the first merchant has provided the additional profile information, the incentive to the first merchant.

4. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors of a payment processing system, from a plurality of merchant computing devices associated with a plurality of merchants, respectively, transaction information of transactions performed between the plurality of merchants and a plurality of customers, the merchant computing devices having respective instances of a merchant application installed thereon for configuring the plurality of merchant computing devices as a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) terminals, respectively, the respective instances of the merchant application configuring the respective POS terminals to communicate the transaction information over a network to the payment processing system;
training, by the one or more processors, a machine learning classifier using, as training data, the transaction information received from the plurality of merchants for transactions conducted with a plurality of customers;
determining, by the one or more processors, using the machine learning classifier, based on a plurality of factors, a first merchant of the plurality of merchants who qualifies for financing, the first merchant associated with a first POS terminal of the plurality of POS terminals, wherein information for the plurality of factors is determined based at least on the transaction information received by the payment processing system for transactions processed by the payment processing system between the first merchant and customers of the first merchant;
determining, based at least partially on the transaction information received by the payment processing system for the transactions processed by the payment processing system, repayment terms for the financing based at least partially on the transaction payments processed for the first merchant; and
sending, by the one or more processors, an electronic communication to provide the financing to an account of the first merchant.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein the instance of the merchant application on the first POS terminal is configured to serve as a register application configured to receive an input from the first merchant indicating a product or service for purchase by a customer and receive payment instrument information from a payment instrument reader coupled with the first POS terminal to facilitate a transfer of funds from the customer to the first merchant.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , further comprising:
receiving, by the one or more processors, repayment of a portion of the financing from the first merchant by withholding a portion of funds from the financial transactions subsequently processed for the first merchant by the payment processing

Assignees

• Square Inc

Inventors

• Scott John Bryan
• Boates Brian
• Fern Adam Jeremy
• Kimball Andrew

Classifications

• G06Q20/322

  Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices] · CPC title

• G06Q20/202

  Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR · CPC title

• G06Q30/0215 Primary

  Including financial accounts · CPC title

• G06Q20/24

  Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after" · CPC title