EMPLOYING CUSTOMER POINTS TO CONFIRM TRANSACTION
The claimed subject matter can provide a mechanism that facilitates a new advertising and/or referral architecture in the Internet advertising space, e.g., for advertising on search engine web pages and/or on content web pages. A mechanism is provided to confirm transactions even without monitoring them e.g., by issuing perishable, non-redeemable points to a merchant based upon an advertising budget. The points can then be issued as redeemable points to a customer, e.g., based upon the customer makes a purchase from the merchant. Points transferred to the customer can verify that a transaction occurred, and can be redeemed for products/services, including a convenient “micro-payment” mechanism.
1 . A computer implemented system that employs a points mechanism to confirm a transaction without monitoring the transaction, comprising:
a merchant that issues points to a customer when the customer completes a merchant transaction; and
an agent that issues points to at least one of the merchant and the customer as a result of an agent transaction.
2 . The system of claim 1 , the agent refers the customer to the merchant and the points are employed to confirm the merchant transaction occurred.
3 . The system of claim 1 , the agent issues points based on at least one of a purchase from the agent, a marketing budget allocated to the agent, an advertiser ranking, a consumer ranking, and a category of products or services offered by the merchant.
4 . The system of claim 1 , the points are issued to the customer as redeemable points and the points are issued to the merchant as non-redeemable points.
5 . The system of claim 4 , the non-redeemable points issued to the merchant perish if not distributed to the customer as redeemable points within a first predetermined period of time.
6 . The system of claim 4 , the redeemable points are exchangeable for a product or a service available from the agent.
7 . The system of claim 6 , the redeemable points issued to the customer perish if not exchanged within a second predetermined period of time.
8 . The system of claim 6 , the product or service available from the agent is at least one of non-transferable software, a media subscription a micro-subscription and a micro-payment.
9 . The system of claim 8 , the non-transferable software includes a licensing key that is associated with personal information about the customer.
10 . The system of claim 9 , the licensing key is obtained from a specific communication connection.
11 . The system of claim 1 , the customer receives an amount of points that is based upon a size of a transaction completed with the merchant or the agent.
12 . The system of claim 1 , the customer receives a notice that points will be received as a result of a transaction, the notice is provided by the merchant or the agent.
13 . The system of claim 1 , the points the customer receives are deposited in a points account associated with the customer, the points account is managed by the agent.
14 . The system of claim 1 , the customer obtains a frequent buyer status when the customer accumulates a predetermined number of points.
15 . The system of claim 14 , the frequent buyer status entitles the customer to a subsidy with a value that depends upon the frequent buyer status.
16 . The system of claim 15 , the subsidy is at least one of a discount on shipping costs for a purchase and a discount on a product or service.
17 . A computer implemented method for facilitating automatic micro-payments over the Internet, comprising:
clicking a link associated with a transaction that supports a micro-payment, the transaction includes a monetary obligation of a customer;
accessing a points account associated with the customer;
determining a number of points required to meet the monetary obligation; and
facilitating the micro-payment by deducting the number of points required from the points account.
18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising requiring additional funding prior to facilitating the micro-payment if a point balance of the points account is less than the number of points required.
19 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising requiring additional security measures prior to accessing a points account, the additional security measures are at least one of passing a CAPTCHA and reentering login information associated the points account.
20 . A computer implemented system that employs a points mechanism to confirm a transaction without monitoring the transaction, comprising:
computer implemented means for conveying non-redeemable points to a merchant based at least in part upon an advertising contract between an agent and the merchant;
computer implemented means for distributing redeemable points to a customer as a result of a completed transaction; and
computer implemented means for exchanging the redeemable points for a product or service made available by the agent.