PROMOTION SYSTEM INCLUDING MERCHANT INFRASTRUCTURE
A system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption provides customers making online purchases to automatically retrieve and redeem all applicable rebates and coupons during an online purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system makes purchases from merchants or manufacturers using all applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system automatically retrieves coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site and to retrieve manufacturer's and merchant's coupons prior to an online purchasing activity for subsequent submission to an online merchant during a subsequent purchasing activity.
1 . A merchant infrastructure supported by a promotion based sales service, the merchant infrastructure comprising:
a computing device of a merchant located at a place of business having a first location, the merchant delivering a first sales product or service at the place of business;
a merchant account;
the computing device supporting a verification process involving a printed output that is conducted at least in part at the first location, the verification process relating to a payment received by a remote support system from a buyer, the payment including a service fee amount for the remote support system; and
the merchant account receives an electronic funds transfer in an amount relating to the payment received less the service fee amount.
2 . The infrastructure of claim 1 , wherein the computing device receives a communication from a computing device of the buyer.
3 . The infrastructure of claim 1 , wherein the printed output comprises redemption data.
4 . The infrastructure of claim 3 , wherein the redemption data comprises code data.
5 . The infrastructure of claim 4 , wherein the code data comprises geographical data.
6 . The infrastructure of claim 4 , wherein the code data comprises product data.
7 . The infrastructure of claim 1 , wherein redemption occurs without involvement of the remote support system.
8 . A method of processing a promotion, the method comprising:
delivering, by a first service, first pricing information for visual presentation to a buyer, the first pricing information relating to a normal price and a price reduction associated with a sales item offering;
receiving, by the first service, buyer input indicating an interest in the sales item offering by a seller;
collecting, by a second service from the buyer, a dollar amount relating to the sales item offering;
transferring, by the second service, a first part of the dollar amount collected to an account of the seller; and
retaining, by the second service, a second part of the dollar amount collected.
9 . The method of claim 8 comprising communicating redemption data to a computer of the buyer for storage thereon.
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the redemption data comprises code data.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the code data comprises merchant data.
12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the code data comprises product data.
13 . The method of claim 1 , comprising receiving, by the first service, a verification communication from the seller.
14 . The method of claim 1 , comprising communicating, by the first service, a number of purchases made corresponding to the sales item offering.
15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first service comprises a promotion service and the second service comprises an accounting service, both of a single promotion entity.
16 . The method of claim 15 comprising communicating redemption data to a computer of the buyer to enable redemption by the buyer without involvement of the single promotion entity.
17 . A sales portal supported by a multi-promoter system, the sales portal interacting with a plurality of buyer computers of a plurality of buyers, the sales portal comprising:
a first service that begins interacting with a first buyer via a first of the plurality of buyer computers based on a vectoring supported by the multi-promoter system, the vectoring occurring after the multi-promoter system has received a payment from the first buyer relating to a first sales item; and
a second service that receives first input from the first buyer before arranging for delivery of the first sales item, wherein a first portion of the payment is allocated to the multi-promoter system and a second portion of the payment is allocated to the sales portal.
18 . The sales portal of claim 17 , wherein the first input comprises redemption data.
19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the redemption data comprises code data.
20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the code data comprises product data.
21 . A sales portal that presents a plurality of sales item offerings to a plurality of buyers via a plurality of buyer computer, the sales portal comprising:
a first service, associated with a promotion listing service, that delivers web page data to a first of the plurality of buyer computers of a first buyer, the web page data related to a first of the plurality of sales item offerings, the first of the plurality of sales item offerings being originally identified by the promotion listing service; and
a second service that accounts for both a first dollar amount for the first of the plurality of sales item offerings and a second dollar amount as a service fee amount of the promotion listing service, the first buyer paying the first dollar amount and the second dollar amount, and at least a portion of the paying being conducted via the promotion listing service.
22 . The sales portal of claim 21 , comprising a third service that arranges for delivery of the first of the plurality of sales item offerings to the first buyer.
23 . The sales portal of claim 22 , wherein the third service receives input from the first buyer before arranging for delivery of the first of the plurality of sales item offerings.
24 . The sales portal of claim 23 , wherein the input comprises redemption data.
25 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the redemption data comprises code data.
26 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the code data comprises product data.