Sales enhancement system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11062348-B1
Application number	US-201213460745-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Apr 30, 2012
Priority date	Apr 30, 2012
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

A sales enhancement system and method is disclosed. The sales enhancement system is configured to use one or more deal program collections, which are groupings or compilations of deal programs. The sales enhancement system manages deal programs in the deal program collections at various stages of use including: associating a deal program with multiple deal program collections; determining the number of deals to assign to the different deal programs; using triggers to select which deal program collections to access; transmitting an offer for a deal; and processing acceptances of the offers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
assigning, by a sales enhancement system, a first deal program level relevance feature to a first deal program collection and a second deal program level relevance feature to a second deal program collection,
wherein the first deal program collection comprises a number of a first plurality of first deal programs for a first predetermined period, the first deal program level relevance feature comprises at least a predetermined period in which to purchase or use associated units and the second deal program level relevance feature comprises at least a second predetermined period in which to purchase or use associated units,
wherein the second deal program collection comprises a number of a second plurality of second deal programs, for a second predetermined period, the first predetermined period being different than the second predetermined period, and wherein the number of the first plurality of first deal programs being different than the number of the second plurality of deal programs, wherein each of the first deal programs and the second deal programs comprises a plurality of deal units;
receiving, via input at a consumer device, a request for a deal program from a consumer, the request comprising a source of the request and a type of request, the source being information indicative of a type of electronic communication from which the request was received, including one of a webpage, email, or text message, and wherein the type of request being one of directly via a website, a third-party search engine system, an online advertising channel, or a syndication partner;
determining, by a relevance system, a particular trigger event from a plurality of trigger events, wherein trigger events cause examination of both the first deal program collection and the second deal program collection to determine from which of the first deal program collection and the second deal program collection a deal will be offered, wherein the particular trigger event comprises the request and a real-time location of the consumer device from which the request is received,
determining, by the relevance system, based on the particular trigger event comprised of the request and the real-time location of the consumer device from which the request is received, in combination with the first deal program level relevance feature and the second deal program level relevance feature, and using at least one processor, from which of the first deal program collection and the second deal program collection to offer the deal,
wherein at least a first trigger event of the plurality of trigger events is associated with a selection of the first deal program collection and at least a second trigger event of the plurality of trigger events is associated with a selection of the second deal program collection, and
wherein a first deal program having a first set of deal units is associated with the first deal program collection and wherein a second deal program having a second set of units is associated with the second deal program collection, and
wherein a quantity of the first set of deal units associated with the first deal program is different from a second quantity of the second set of deal units associated with the second deal program;
wherein the particular trigger event comprised of the request and the real-time location of the consumer device from which the request is received is adapted to facilitate searching for a deal program to offer with at least one shared deal attribute between the first deal program and the second deal program;
selecting, by the relevance system, the deal program to offer from the search results, wherein the relevance system scores and ranks one or more deal programs within the first deal program collection or the second deal program collection and the selected deal program is one which score and rank meet a predetermined threshold;
subsequent to the selection of the deal program to offer from the search results, selecting a particular offer from the selected deal program to offer;
generating an impression of the particular offer, the impression identifying the predetermined period in which to purchase the particular offer;
accessing a relational database, the relational database storing each of a plurality of impressions related to offers available in each deal program, to determine a predetermined period for use of the particular offer;
dynamically changing, by the sales enhancement system, the predetermined period for use of the particular offer based on real-time information including a real-time location of the consumer;
transmitting, from the sales enhancement system in combination with the relevancy system, the impression of the particular offer, to consumer device, in response to the request, via electronic communication, for display, the impression comprising an indication of the particular offer and the dynamically changed predetermined period for use; and
automatically assigning, by the sales enhancement system, a new value of one or more deal units to said first deal program collection or said second deal program collection based on historical information of the particular offer and said impression.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a deal program, the deal program having deal attributes;
separating the deal program into the first deal program and the second deal program;
associating the first deal program with the first deal program collection, where the first deal program comprises the deal attributes and a first period for offering deals; and
associating the second deal program with the second deal program collection, where the second deal program comprises the deal attributes and a second period for offering deals, where the second period is different in at least one aspect from the first period.

3. The method of claim 2 , where the deal program includes a plurality of deal units; and
where separating the deal program into the first deal program and the second deal program comprises separating the plurality of deal units in the deal program into the first set of deal units and the second set of deal units, the first set of deal units and the second set of deal units total to equal the plurality of deal units.

4. The method of claim 3 , where the first period is shorter than the second period; and
where the second period begins at or after the first period ends.

5. The method of claim 1 , where the trigger comprises determining that scores for deal programs in the first deal program collection fail to meet a predetermined threshold; and
where determining, based on the trigger, which of the first deal program collection or the second deal program collection to examine comprises determining to examine the second deal program collection.

6. The method of claim 1 , where the trigger comprises determining that the consumer is a newly registered consumer with an electronic commerce system.

7. The method of claim 1 , where the trigger comprises an identification of an upsell.

8. The method of claim 1 , where the trigger comprises receiving a deal request for use in real-time.

9. The method of claim 1 , where the trigger comprises receiving a request for search engine marketing.

10. The method of claim 1 , where the first deal program collection comprises a first set of deal programs with a first period for offering deals from the second set of deal programs; and
where the second deal program collection comprises a second set of deal programs with a second period for offering deals from the second set of deal programs, where the first period is shorter than the second period.

11. The method of claim 1 , furthe

Assignees

• Thacker David
• Hoover David
• Caliendo Anthony
• Gilfanov Ruslan
• Aggarwal Amit
• Groupon Inc

Inventors

• Thacker David
• Hoover David
• Caliendo Anthony
• Gilfanov Ruslan
• Aggarwal Amit

Classifications

• G06Q30/0257

  User requested · CPC title

• G06Q30/0235

  constrained by time limit or expiration date · CPC title

• G06Q30/0243 Primary

  Comparative campaigns · CPC title