Communication beacon based promotions for mobile devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10643243-B1
Application number	US-201414454673-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Aug 7, 2014
Priority date	Apr 9, 2014
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

Systems and related methods of providing promotions to consumers based on proximity to communication beacons are discussed herein. Some embodiments may provide for a system including a communication beacon and a central system. The communication beacon may be associated with a merchant and located at a merchant shop. Based on receiving consumer presence data from the communication beacon indicating that a consumer device and the communication beacon has formed a direct wireless connection, the server may be configured to provide merchant information, promotions, or other messages to the consumer device. In some embodiments, messages may be generated by the merchant and targeted to consumers based on consumer device location, consumer demographics, among other things. Furthermore, the server may provide consumer information to a merchant device to facilitate consumer service, point-of-sale, and seamless transactions and promotion redemptions.

First claim

That which is claimed:

1. A system configured to facilitate location based networked communications, comprising:
a communication beacon configured to:
communicate with a consumer device via a direct wireless connection when the consumer device is within a wireless direct communicable range of the communication beacon; and
poll the consumer device via the direct wireless connection for presence; and

one or more servers connected with the communication beacon and the consumer device via an Internet connection, wherein the Internet connection between the one or more servers and the communication beacon is separate from the direct wireless connection, the one or more servers configured to:
associate beacon identifier data that identifies the communication beacon with a merchant;
receive consumer presence data and the beacon identifier data from the communication beacon indicating that the consumer device and the communication beacon has formed the direct wireless connection, wherein the one or more servers are configured to receive the consumer presence data from the communication beacon via the Internet connection and the one or more servers are further configured to relate the consumer presence data to a consumer profile record associated with consumer data, the consumer profile record and associated consumer data stored in a consumer database of consumer profile records;
receive message data from a merchant device associated with the merchant via the Internet connection, and wherein the message data defines a particular location of a plurality of locations at a merchant shop for providing the merchant message to consumer devices; and
subsequent to receiving the consumer presence data:
determine merchant information associated with the merchant by querying a merchant database based on the beacon identifier data;
determine, based on the consumer presence data, whether the consumer device is located at the particular location at the merchant shop, wherein the determination includes the one or more servers being configured to:
determine a threshold time period; and
determine, based on the polling of the consumer device by the communication beacon via the direct wireless connection, that the consumer device is located at the particular location at the merchant shop when the consumer device has maintained the direct wireless connection with the communication beacon within the threshold time period;
in response to determining that the consumer device is located at the particular location at the merchant shop, provide the merchant information to the consumer device, wherein at least a portion of the merchant information comprises the merchant message;
generate visitation data based on the consumer presence data received from the communication beacon; and
update the consumer data associated with the consumer profile based on the visitation data.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the message data defines a time that the merchant message can be sent; and
the one or more servers are further configured to:
determine whether a time at which the consumer presence data is received from the communication beacon corresponds with the time that the merchant message can be sent; and
in response to determining that the time at which the consumer presence data is received from the communication beacon corresponds with the time that the merchant message can be sent, provide the merchant information to the consumer device.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the message data defines a target consumer demographic; and
the one or more servers are further configured to:
determine whether the consumer data associated with the consumer profile corresponds with the target consumer demographic; and
in response to determining that the consumer data associated with the consumer profile corresponds with the target consumer demographic, provide the merchant information to the consumer device.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more servers are configured to:
provide a user interface to the merchant device including one or more preconfigured templates associated with target consumer demographics:
receive the message data from the merchant device including a selection of a preconfigured template and associated target demographic; and
generate the merchant message based on the preconfigured template.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the target consumer demographics include one of:
a new consumer demographic when the consumer profile record is new to the merchant;
a lapsed consumer demographic when the consumer profile record indicates a previous visitation to the merchant occurred before a first predefined time;
a regular visitor demographic when the consumer profile record indicates more than a threshold number of visits within a predefined period of time; or
a VIP demographic when the consumer profile record indicates more than a threshold amount of spending at the merchant.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the message data defines a number of instances of the merchant message that can be sent to consumer devices; and
the one or more servers are further configured to:
determine whether the number of instances of the merchant message that can be provided to consumer devices has been exhausted, wherein each merchant message provided to the consumer devices exhausts an instance of the merchant message that can be sent to the consumer devices; and
in response to determining that the number of instances of the merchant message that can be provided to consumer devices fails to be exhausted, provide the merchant information to the consumer device.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more servers are further configured to, subsequent to receiving the consumer presence data from the communication beacon, provide the consumer data associated with the consumer profile to the merchant device via the Internet connection, wherein the consumer data includes one or more of:
consumer preference data indicating a preference for an item;
consumer item purchase history data;
consumer identifying data that identifies the consumer; and
historical visitation data generated based on consumer presence data received from one or more communication beacons.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the particular location of the plurality of locations at the merchant shop includes a location outside of the merchant shop and within the wireless direct communicable range of the communication beacon.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more servers are configured to provide the consumer data associated with the consumer profile to the merchant device; and
the message data is generated at least in part based on the consumer data.

10. A machine-implemented method, comprising:
associating, by networked circuitry, a communication beacon with a merchant, the communication beacon configured to:
communicate with a consumer device via a direct wireless connection when the consumer device is within a wireless direct communicable range of the communication beacon; and
poll the consumer device via the direct wireless connection for presence;

receiving, by the circuitry, consumer presence data from the communication beacon indicating that the consumer device and the communication beacon has formed the direct wireless connection, wherein the circuitry is configured to receive the consumer presence data from the communication beacon via a network connection that is separate from the direct wireless connection between the communication beacon and the consumer device and the one or more servers are further configured to relate the consumer presence data to a consumer profile associated with consum

Assignees

• Groupon Inc

Inventors

• Krishna Varun
• Ciocirlan Marius
• Bergstrom Peter
• Kim Benjamin

Classifications

• G06Q30/0222 Primary

  During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions · CPC title

• G06Q30/0267 Primary

  Wireless devices · CPC title

• G06Q30/0261

  based on user location · CPC title

• G06Q30/0269

  based on user profile or attribute · CPC title

• H04W4/12

  Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements · CPC title