Reprogrammable point-of-sale transaction flows

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018033014-A1
Application number	US-201615224117-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 29, 2016
Priority date	Jul 29, 2016
Publication date	Feb 1, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

Techniques and arrangements for allowing modification of transaction flows, user interfaces (UIs), receipt configuration and control of buyer-facing displays associated with transactions between a payment service, a merchant and a buyer are provided. Payment service payment functionality is exposed by the payment service via one or more application programming interfaces (API)s, software development kits (SDKs), or some other web-based communication technique (e.g., a uniform resource locator). The payment service payment functionality exposed by the payment service allows a merchant to customize one or more steps of a transaction between a user and a merchant. A merchant can use the exposed payment service payment functionality to configure and modify the look and feel and/or the steps within a transaction flow. The merchant can also modify a receipt to include other information from the information that is included in a default receipt.

First claim

1 . A system comprising:
a payment hardware device associated with a merchant; and a merchant device associated with the merchant, the merchant device comprising:
one or more processors; and
a payment service payment application that is executable by the one or more processors to run as a background process on the merchant device, the payment service payment application to cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
receiving, from a merchant application that is executable by the one or more processors to run as a foreground process on the merchant device, a first message indicating an association between a buyer and at least one item of the merchant;
determining, based at least in part on the first message, that a payment transaction with respect to the at least one item is likely imminent between the buyer and the merchant;
sending, during a time period before the payment hardware device is utilized for the payment transaction and at least partly in response to determining that the payment transaction is likely imminent, a second message that causes the payment hardware device to transition from an idle state to an active state; and
sending transaction data associated with the payment transaction to a payment service.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the merchant application is operative to communicate with the payment service payment application via an application programming interface (API) provided by the payment service.

3 . The system of claim 1 , the acts further comprising sending a third message including a request to pre-authorize a payment instrument associated with the buyer.

4 . (canceled)

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the payment service payment application is provided by the payment service.

6 . A point-of-sale (POS) device, comprising:
one or more processors; and a first application that is executable by the one or more processors to run as a background process on the POS device, the first application to cause the one or more processors to perform acts including:
receiving, from a second application that is executable by the one or more processors to run as a foreground process on the POS device, a first message indicating that a payment transaction with respect to at least one item is likely imminent between a buyer and a merchant; and
sending, during a time period before a payment hardware device is utilized for the payment transaction and at least partly in response to determining that the payment transaction is likely imminent, a second message to the payment hardware, the second message causing the payment hardware device to transition from an idle state to an active state.

7 . The POS device of claim 6 , wherein the second application is operative to communicate with the first application via an application programming interface (API) provided by a payment service.

8 . (canceled)

9 . The POS device of claim 6 , the acts further comprising sending a third message that includes a request to pre-authorize a payment instrument associated with the buyer.

10 . The POS device of claim 6 , the acts further comprising sending a third message that includes a request to perform a card-less payment.

11 . The POS device of claim 6 , wherein the first application is a payment service payment application provided by a payment service.

12 . The POS device of claim 6 , wherein the second application is a merchant application that is developed independently from a payment service.

13 . The POS device of claim 6 , wherein one or more of the first application or the second application is operative to communicate with a payment service via a web service application programming interface (API) provided by the payment service.

14 . A method comprising:
using computer-readable media configured with instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving, from a first application, a first message, the first message indicating that a payment transaction with respect to at least one item is likely imminent between a buyer and a merchant, wherein the first application is executable by the one or more processors to run as a foreground process on a point-of-sale (POS) device associated with the merchant; based at least in part on receiving the first message, causing a second application to initiate, wherein the second application is executable by the one or more processors to run as a background process on the POS device; and sending, from the second application, during a time period before the payment transaction is finalized and at least partly in response to determining that the payment transaction is likely imminent, a second message to payment hardware, the second message causing the payment hardware to transition from an idle state to an active state before the occurrence of the payment transaction.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the second application is operative to communicate with the first application via an application programming interface (API) provided by a payment service.

16 . (canceled)

17 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise sending a third message that includes a request to pre-authorize a payment instrument associated with the buyer.

18 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise sending a third message that includes a request to perform a card-less payment.

19 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the first application is provided by a payment service and wherein the second application is a third party application that is developed independently from the payment service.

20 . The method of claim 14 , wherein one or more of the first application or the second application is operative to communicate with a payment service via a web service application programming interface (API) provided by the payment service.

21 . The POS device of claim 6 , wherein sending the second message causes at least a portion of a receipt related to the transaction to be generated before the payment transaction is finalized.

22 . The POS device of claim 6 , the acts further comprising:
determining that a user device is within a threshold distance of the POS device; and wherein sending the first message is based at least in part on the user device being within the threshold distance of the POS device.

23 . The system of claim 1 , the acts further comprising receiving at least a portion of the transaction data from at least one of the merchant application or the payment hardware device.

Assignees

• Square Inc

Inventors

• Wolter Jonathan Andrew
• Ricau Pierre-Yves
• Dickerson Rob

Classifications

• 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

• G06Q20/20

  Point-of-sale [POS] network systems · CPC title

• G07G5/00

  Receipt-giving machines · CPC title

• G06Q20/42 Primary

  Confirmation, e.g. check or permission by the legal debtor of payment · CPC title