FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to a single platform based multi-merchant,
multi-coalition system for loyalty award. points and method of operating
5 thereof. The invention, in particular, relates to a royalty point award
system wherein participating merchants can form one or more of their
own coalitions based on the nature and location of their business and two
i coalition partners may have different collaboration agreements for relative
adjustment of loyalty points. The system .enables a transacting customer
1.0 to earn loyalty points from multiple merchants across multiple coalitions in
a single platform and redeem loyalty points at any of the participating
merchants. The system enables users to form multiple groups and carry
out group transactions and facilitates the transactor to either transfer the
transaction or split and transfer the points to other members of the group.
15 The system enables a customer to obtain offers "on-demand" for a
product/service by separately communicating with different merchants.
BACKGROUND TECHNICAL INFORMATION
In the prior art, in order to attract, retain customers and to
promote loyalty of customers for repeat business, different merchants
20 such as merchandise stores, airlines, hotels, car rental companies, chain
retailers, telecom providers, etc. have historically introduced frequent use
programs that offer awards of loyalty or reward points (e.g. frequent flyer
miles) or other such incentives schemes based on the distance travelled or
purchases made by that customer. The loyalty points or reward points are
25 generally calculated using a predetermined formula or as a percentage of
the money value of the purchases or distance travelled, etc. The different
merchants typically keep an individual's. loyalty point accounts which
record the loyalty points earned by an individual customer, points
redeemed by an individual consumer and other related information.
I P O DELWI 143-03-2016 17 1 5 8
Incentive programs also tend to modify the behavior of individual
consumers and direct the consumers to some pre-determined action, such '
as purchase of products or services upon visiting a retailer, viewing
advertising, testing a product, or the like. Companies use awards and
5 incentives also to increase awareness of product offerings, to launch new
products, to attract the attention of .a newly identified audience, to
differentiate products to encourage certain behavior, .to obtain
information, and for other purposes. The introdu.ction of the digital
computer and the computer network has eliminated some of the
l o inconveniences of conventional incentive programs, particularly those that
relate to data tracking and manipulation.
I Large scale merchants such as chain hotels.and various airlines are
I
able to implement their own loyalty or reward point's schemes since they
have the infrastructure in place to maintain user loyalty point accounts.
1s Thus, these large entities are able to build brand loyalty via their own
loyalty reward schemes. They are able to operate independently by
awarding their own reward points and redeeming the reward points by
offering their own products and services. Mid-size an,d smaller merchants
are often unable to implement their own loyalty reward programs due to
20 the high cost of the infrastructure required, including -server computers
that maintain user reward accounts and administration costs.
Recently there has been steady .proliferation in the loyalty point :
programs. Several merchants are having their own loyalty' programs and
issuing a plastic card to the customers pertaining to their loyalty
2 s programs. Thus a customer going for shopping has to carry the plastic
cards of different merchants who may be offering redeeming of loyalty
points. Since a customer's wallet can carry limited number of such plastic
cards, the consumer is left with two choices, either to carry the fat bulging
wallet containing the plastic cards of different merchants every time while
going for buying goods or services or to carry plastic cards of some
merchants while keeping at home loyalty plastic cards of some of the
merchants.. The former is inconvenient and cumbersome and even though
the consumer may be a member of multiple loyalty programs, he/she may
5 not like to carry all the cards all the. time. The latter option leaves the . .
consumer with missed opportunities to earn or redeem loyalty points at
those merchants whose plastic card he/she may not, be carrying at the
time of making purchases. Hence, there is 'a need for a loyalty system
which eliminates the use of plastic cards of different merchants offering
l o loyalty points and thus to provide relief to the customer from physically
carrying of plastic cards of different merchants.
With the advent of technology and hand held devices, the
merchants have now started launching their loyalty programs on the
mobile applications ("apps") exclusively designed and made for them and
1s according to their needs. This has made the wallet of the consumer much
lighter and life of the consumer easier. However, since usually the size of
these apps is big and space available on the smart phones is limited; it
again puts the consumer in a fix as to which app he/she should install on
his/her mobile and which he/she should not. It also creates confusion in
20 the mind of the consumer as to which Mobile ,app is related to which
merchant. There are systems in which the merchants have a coalition
between them and operate through a single app. The drawback ,of such
systems is that, there is a service provider which chooses the member
merchants to the coalition. These merchants are chosen in the best
25 interest of the service provider rather than keeping in view the interest of
the merchant or the consumer. Further, usually this model does not take
into account the nature and location of the merchant and hence at many
times the coalition is neither fruitful to the merchant nor to the consumer.
Hence there is a need for a Multi Merchant Multi Coalition Loyalty Program
which runs through a single platform and which gives the merchants .
- liberty to form their own coalition based on their nature of business and
their physical location.
US 7,742,943 discloses a system which utilizes a pre-existing
s infrastructure of network such as credit card infrastructure to provide
merchant branded reward points ti the customers making purchase
transactions with these merchants. An acquiring bank administers the
reward program on behalf of merchants and users.The system allows any
merchant, regardless of its size, to award their own branded loyalty points
10 on the basis of money-va(ue of transactions using prescribed calculations.
The system allows users to accumulate royalty points or allow users to
selectively redeem their reward points at merchants that are part of the
network. The system includes a central server residing on the credit card
network and tracks the transaction between the merchant, the acquiring
1.5 bank making payment and/or the issuing bank which issued the
creditldebit card and wherein the acquiring bank administers the loyalty
award program on behalf of the customers and the merchants. For this
purpose, a reward account is maintained in a database at the central
server. The system allows users to aggregate reward points earned from
20 various merchants into a reward exchange account, wherein. the
aggregated reward points may be advantageously used to purchase goods
or services from any selected merchant in the system.
A limitation of the system of the above patent 'is that the customer
has to present hislher credit card to the merchant while making
25 . transaction and the transaction is approved by swiping of the card at a
POS (point of sale) terminal. Thus the consumer has to physically carry
hislher credit card in his/her wallet which involves problems associated
with such physical carrying of cards, as described above as well as the
problems arising from the loss of credit cards.
Another limitation of the system is that it has no provision to enable
a 'user to view the offers on a product/service or to seek offers on-demand
for a specific or a generic product. The customer has to be on look out for
himself for available offers by different merchants on a product/service
5 which he may be intending to'purchase and in that process he/she may
miss some opportunities of. loyalty points offers by merchants. on the
purchase of product.
Further limitations of the system of the cited patent are that it does
not enable group transactions and subsequent splitting of points earned.
l o It has also no provision for formation of multiple coalitions with variant
collaboration agreements between partners in the coalition. It has also no
provision for redemption of loyalty points at a third party merchant who is
not a participant in the loyalty program.
US 2005/0043992 discloses an invention relating to transfer,
1s gifting and/or pooling of geographic area loyalty points between accounts
wherein geographic area may include all or any portion of any street, city,
country, state, country, continent, region. The geographic area may relate
to any of the participants, products, services, or identifications. The points
may be earned based upon everyday purchases of products and services
20 in a certain geographic area, accrued 'across retailers and/or
manufacturers in a certain. geographic area. The system administrator
maintains an account for each participating consumer and apprises the
consumer of the point totals and account activity. The consumer may view
points based upon geographic area designation' or combination of
as designations. The system may allow the consumer to transfer points from
one geographic area designation to another geographic area designation.
The system administrator offers a catalog of products and services from
which consumers may select rewards in exchange for the applicable
accrued points. The system also facilitates.the gifting of loyalty points to
PPQ DELHI 1Q-83-281G 17: 5 0
charitable organizations on a recurring basis. The system also facilitates
conversion of loyalty points to a monetary value. When an item is
purchased, the purchase data is processed and stored by a retailer
processor. The retail regional processor processes similar information from
5 each of the retailer processors owned by the same retailer. The reward
terminal informs the consumer about number of reward points in a certain
geographic area that they have accumulated from all system participants
and the type of awards that may be obtained using reward points.
A limitation of the system of the cited patent, is that it is
l o geographic-area specific. The reward terminal informs the customer of the
number of reward points which have accumulated from the purchases
made in a certain geographic area and the type of awards that may be
obtained using those reward points. The offers accordingly are limited to
the merchants in the geographic area.
15 Another limitation of the system is that it has no provision for
customers to seek offers on-demand by separately communicating with
different merchants for a particular product/service.
Further limitations of the system of the cited patent are that this
system also does not enable group transactions and subsequent splitting
20 of points earned. It has also no provision for formation of multiple
coalitions with variant collaboration agreements between partners in the
coalition. It has also no provision for redemption of loyalty points at a
third party merchant who is not a participant in the loyalty program.
US 5,774,870 and US 6,009,412 describe disclose an integrated on-
25 . line, interactive frequency incentive and award red,emption program
accessible to an on-line user. The system enables an'.on-line user to
browse a product catalogue for shopping and to electronically place an
order for the desired product. The system checks the user's credit and
electronically issues a purchase order to the supplying company. The
system calculates award points, updates the award account of enrolled
users, and communicates that. number of awarded points to the user.
Additionally, enrolled users can browse through an award catalogue and
electronically redeem an amount of awarded points toward an award.
5 A limitation of the award programs disclosed by the '870 and '412
patents is the process of identifying a product and the associated loyalty
points that would be earned on buying the product is time consuming. A
product homepage provides information regarding the products sold by a
particular brand, program homepage provides information regarding
l o incentive programs for different products and Qualified wards page
provides entire award catalogue of awards which could be arranged such
as awards of value up to 500 points, awards of value up to 1000 points.
Thus a customer has to browse through different catalogues to identify
the product and the incentive program associated with that product.
15 There is' no provision to enable customers to communicate with different
merchants for on-demand offers on a product/service.
Further limitations of the system of the cited patent are that it does
not enable group transactions and subsequent splitting of points earned.
It has also no provision for formation of multiple coalitions with variant
20 collaboration agreements between partners in the coalition. 1thas also no .
provision for redemption of loyalty points at a third party merchant who is
not a participant in the loyalty program.
US 5,056,019 discloses an automated purchase reward accounting
system 'and method. In particular, it discloses a marketing method for
25 providing manufacturer purchase reward offers by automatically tracking
the purchases of member consumers through the use of bar-coded
membership cards and using the purchase records in a data processing
system to determine if the required purchases have been made to earn a
reward. The purchase incentive offers are compiled into a reward booklet
and each member consumer receives such booklet periodically, disclosing'
the available reward offers with conditions for earning them, a periodic .
status report indicating the member consumer's progress toward earning
rewards, and'a .reward certificate for those rewards earned. As soon as a
s consumer joins the program, he receives machine readable consumer
identification code and a member identification. card.
A limitation of the, system disclosed in the above cited patent is
that it necessitates physical carrying of member identification card which
the user has to present at the check-out counter at the merchant's outlet
l o while making purchases. he system therefore suffers from the problems
associated with physical carrying of such membership cards in wallet, as
described earlier.
Another limitation of the system disclosed in the above cited patent
is that the system involves considerable processing and paper work. The
15 reward offers are compiled periodically in the form of booklet containing
information about the product and also the eligibility criteria to earn the
reward on the product. Such booklet is sent to the consumers and the
potential consumers and is also displayed on the shelves on the merchant
floor. The user has also to select the offers from the reward booklet.
20 Besides, a monthly status report is sent to the consumers to apprise them
of the purchases made and the status of earning points and also a reward
certificate for the rewards earned is sent to the consumer. Further, the
product for which reward points are available are distinctively identified at
the retailer's outlet by means of stickers.
25 Still another limitation of the system of the above patent is that the
reward booklet is compiled weekly and sentto consumers. Thus the offers
may be around 10 days old and may not contain award points information
about the products which may have been launched during the intervening
period thereby resulting in missed opportunities for the consumer. The
system does not enable a user to seek offers "on-demand" from different
'merchants.
Further limitations of the system of the cited patent.are that it does
not enable group transactions and subsequent splitting of points earned.
5 It has also no provision for formation of multiple coalitions with variant
collaboration agreements between partners in the coalition. It has also no
provision for redemption at a third party merchant who is not a participant
in the loyalty program.
US2009/0150237 discloses a system for loyalty points based online
1.0 auction. The patent discloses a system for point based auction over a
computerized network wherein several merchants may bid on an
opportunity to sell. to a group of consumers who have indicated a desire to
purchase certain goods and/or services. In the described system the
consumers may combine one or more loyalty accounts and the system
15 calculates, according to a point to currency conversion, a currency value
of a balance of points. The merchant is able to see the currency value of
the consumer's points, wherein the merchant may determine to place a
bid in the reverse auction.
A limitation of the above system is that it relates onljl to the
20 redemption of loyalty points through the system of auction wherein a. .
provider of a product determines the currency value of the loyalty points
in the account of customers and' makes a bid to provide a product based
on the number of award points. It caters for reverse auction wherein
provider merchant gives the. bid for number of. points required for a
25 particular product/service but it does not enable a customer to seek ondemand
offers from different merchants for a product intended to be
purchased by him/her. Another limitation of the system is that it does not
enable group transactions and subsequent splitting of points earned. It
has also rio provision for. formation of multiple coalitions with variant
collaboration 'agreements between partners in the coalition. It has also no
provision for redemption at a third party merchant who is not a participant
in the loyalty program.
In the present offer systems, the merchants use predictive
5 techniques which study the transaction history of the consumers and
predict what according to their opinion, the customer will want to
purchase next. Despite such predictive techniques, the industry average of
offer redemption is less than 3% which shows that prediction techniques
are far from accurate in predicting what the consumer would like to buy.
lo Further, these offers are not tailor-made and are generalized towards the
customers at large, which makes the predictive technique as very less
accurate technique since one offer may only be useful to a handful
number of consumers and may not be appropriate for other customers.
Another drawback of using the predictive technique to give offers is that
15 the consumers get unnecessary emails, SMS, etc. regarding these offers
(even if they are not interested), which makes them irritated and
consumers may actually fall out of the loyalty program.
Hence, there is a need for replacing the predictive techniques with
interactive technique so that instead of merchant trying to guess what a
20 customer wants to purchase and' making offers based on such guess., a
. customer communicates with different merchants and seeks on-demand
customized offers for the product which he/she intends to purchase.
OBJECTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a single platform
25 based multi-merchant, multi-coalition system for loyalty award points
which enables a user to earn loyalty award points from one or more
participating merchants by transacting with the merchants using a single
platform of the present invention.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a loyalty
award system on a single platform which enables a user to receive loyalty
points from sources other than the' points of transaction such as gift,
corporate rewards, lotteries, meal coupons and coupons from third parties
5 which can be redeemed like points earned from the transactions.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide .a loyalty
award system on a single platform which enables a user to redeem loyalty
points at one or more participating merchants under the rules laid down
by the participating merchant or group of participating merchants.
10 Another object of the present invention is to provide multi
merchant multi coalition loyalty system on a single platform, which
enables a merchant to form multiple coalitions with different group of
merchants and wherein the merchants can choose participants in the
coalition based on the specific need and can accordingly have a variant
15 collaboration level agreement for each coalition regarding the earning of
loyalty points at one merchant-participant of the coalition and redeeming
thereof at other merchant-participant of the same coalition.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a loyalty
award system which automatically identifies a merchant based on the
20 location and automatically displays the screen of that merchant with
details regarding points available for redemption, expiry dates, current
offers, etc., thereby each merchant feels as if he/she is running his/her
own customized individual loyalty program. . .
Still another object of the present invention is to provide multi
25 merchant multi coalition loyalty system on a single platform, wherein a
customer may earn loyalty points from multiple merchants across multiple
coalitions on a single platform.
Further object of the present invention is to provide loyalty award
system, which enables the users to create one or more groups of people
- 12 -
such as friends, family, colleagues, corporate group, etc. and carry out
group transactions and earn points as a group with facility for transactor.
to either transfer the transaction to other member(s) of the group or split .
and transfer the points to rest. of the members of the group upon their
5 request.
Yet further object of the present invention is to provide loyalty
award system which enables a user to view transaction history and bills in
the form of electronic documents related to the transactions made.
Still further object of the present invention is to provide loyalty
lo award system on 'a single platform, which enables a user to seek ondemand
offers from different merchants for a productlservice.
Further object of the present invention is to provide multi merchant
multi coalition loyalty system on a single platform, which enables a user to
1s redeem points at even third party merchants.
Still further object of the present invention is to provide multi
merchant multi coalition loyalty system on a single platform, which
enables a user to post reviews of transaction experience or product
experience linked to the transaction made by himlher at a merchant's
20 outlet, using the transaction code, so as to ensure that only users who
have actually purchased the product or services can give the
reviewslratings thereby preventing fake reviews/ratings.
SUMMARY'OF PRESENT INVENTION .
2s ' The present invention provides a single platform based multimerchant,
multi-coalition system for loyalty award points and method of
operating thereof. The system facilitates the formation of one or more
merchant coalitions comprising different participating merchants, based on
the specific need. The different coalitions may have different service level
- 13 -
HP8 DELWI PO-03-
agreements for redemption of points. The customers can earn and
redeem points from multiple participating merchants across multiple
coalitions. 'Between any two participating merchants of a coalition; there
can be different redemption agreements. Any two merchants within a
coalition may have agreements that 100 points earned at one merchant
will be taken as 100 points by another merchant or may have. the
collaboration agreement that 100 points earned at one merchant will, be
taken as 60 points by other merchant.
The system allows a user to form one or more groups of people,
l o like family members, colleagues, corporate groups, friends, relatives etc.
and to make group transactions and earn loyalty points as a group. After
group transaction, the transactor can either transfer the transaction to a
member of the group or split points earned to each member of the group,
on the request by members of the group. On disbandment of a group, the
15 system enables division of points either on the basis of percentage of
points earned by a member or on the basis of a mutual understanding.
The divided points could be considered as gifts from the group to the
members of the group.
The system enables a user ' to seek on-demand offers for a
20 particular product or service which the users intends to purchase from
. different merchants. The system provides algorithms which, facilitate a
user to choose the best offer from the offers received from the different
merchants.
The single platform of the present invention further has the
25 capability to identify a merchant on the basis of his/her proximity to
particular point-of-sale . terminal and to automatically display the
customized screen of that merchant along with displaying merchant
loyalty card information such as points available for redemption, current
offers, etc. With this feature, ,every participating merchant feels as if the
system has been customized to their requirements.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES
The invention will be illustrated with accompanying drawings which
5 are intended to illustrate the working of the invention. These are not
intended to be taken restrictively to imply any limitatio" on the scope of
the present invention. In the accompanying drawings:
Fig.1: shows an embodiment of the OLPOINT loyalty system of the
present invention
10 Fig. 2: Shows the registration of the customer on the loyalty point
program of the' present invention referred to hereinafter as OLPOINTS.
Fig. 3: shows possible scenarios of interaction by a ~erchanwt ith a
customer.
Fig.4: shows adding of members to a group of people for making
15 group transactions.
Fig.5(a): shows a customer seeking offers 'on-demand' from
different merchants for a particular product
Fig.S(b): shows the flow chart for seeking offers 'on-demand,'
Fig.6A: shows the formation of coalitions of participating-merchants
20 Fig. 68: shows the variant collaboration agreement between two
merchants within a coalition
DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION w.r.t. FIGURES
The invention relates to a single platform loyalty award program
25 using which a user can earn and redeem loyalty points at any of the
participating merchants. The system serves as an aggregator where it
links different loyalty programs participated by a customer. The customer
can see his transactions on his mobile. The transactions data would be
available either on OLPOINTS database or on merchant's database and
accordingly the details of transactions can be retrieved from OLPOINTS
server or from merchant sewer.over the internet on demand. The system
of the present invention has several advanced performance features such
as: group transactions, formation of one or more than one coalitions by
5 participating merchants for earning and redeeming of loyalty points,
earning of loyalty points from multiple merchants across multiple
coalitions; redeeming of points at a third party merchant, seeking ondemand
offers for a product from different merchants.
Fig.1 shows an exemplary embodiment of the OLPOINTS loyalty
10 system 100 of the present invention. The system comprises a plurality of
merchant systems (105):-Merchant-1 system, Merchant-2 system,
........ Merchant-n system.who have agreed to be participant in OLPOINTS
loyalty program. These participant merchants can connect to OLPOINTS
platform (110) by entering merchant unique UID. OLPOINTS platform
15 (110) comprises centralized sewer referred to as OLPOINTS sewer(ll5);
OLPOINTS database (120); OLPOINTS interface (125) and OLPOINTS
website (126). The several users (130) comprising user-1, User-2
,..... user-n can register as members of OLPOINTs platform by
downloading OLPOINTS app or through OLPOINTS website (126) followed
20 by entering of their personal identification details whereby the system
generates a user-specific unique ID generated by OLPOINTS app. The
users can then connect to the OLPOINTS Program by ei~tering the user
specific ID thus 'generated. Each user of the system of the present
invention may be equipped with a suitable computing means to facilitate
2s online communications and transactions using OLPOINTS app and the
OLPOINTS UID. For example, the,users may have access to a computing
means in the form of a personal computer, mobile, tablet, wearable and'
the like.
The communication between the participant merchants and
OLPOINTS 'loyalty point system of .the present invention is accomplished
through any suitable communication means, such as, for example, a
telephone network, Intranet, Internet, point of interaction device (point of
5 sale device), personal digital assistant, cellular phone, kiosk, etc., online
communications, off-line communications, wireless communications,
and/or the like. One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security
reasons, any databases, systems, or components of the present invention
may consist of any combination of databases or components at a single
l o location or at multiple locations, wherein each database or system
includes any of various suitable security features, such .as firewalls, access
codes, encryption, de-encryption, compression, decompression, and/or the
like.
In an embodiment, each of the merchant systems includes a
15 merchant terminal (140), mobile (145), POS (150) and a merchant
processor (155) in communication with merchant database (160).
Merchant terminal includes any software, hardware and/or device capable
of facilitating receipt, identification and/or transmission of a merchant's
UID. Exemplary devices for identifying a merchant UID may include a
20 keypad, a conventional card reader which recognizes a magnetic stripe or
bar code associated with a merchant UID, a biometric device, a smart
card reader which recognizes information stored on a microchip integrated
with a merchant UID, and/or any device capable of receiving or uploading
merchant UID' data transmitted electronically, magnetically, optically,
25 and/or the like.
A user may have been, for a quite few number of years, a member
of loyalty award point program called "FIRST CITIZEN" ', which is an inhouse
program of a 'MERCHANT-A'. Assuming that the 'MERCHANT-A' has
in the meantime moved its existing in-house loyalty points program
"FIRST CITIZEN" to the single platform based multi-merchant, multicoalition
loyalty points award program of the present invention,
hereinafter referred to as OLPOINTS. The user during visit to 'MERCHANTA'
comes to know through ads on the floor of 'MERCHANT-A' and/or
5 through the interaction with 'MERCHANT-A' about the existence and
superior features of the new loyalty point program OLPOINTS. The user
may then decide to register with OLPOINTS.
Fig. 2, illustrates the process for registration of new customer who
is not a participant in any loyalty point program as well as the registration
lo of a customer who is a participant in a certain loyalty program of a
particular merchant. As regards registration of a new,customer who is not
a member of any loyalty point. program, such a. customer can become
member of OLPOINTS loyalty point program at a merchant by
downloading (230) OLPOINTS app on their mobile/tablet (235), followed
1s by entering personal identification details (245). Where the user does not
download OLPOINTS app at the merchant's place, he receives a download
link on his registered email address and mobile phone. Using that link, the
user can download OLPOINTS app at hislher convenie'nce. OLPOINTS App
generates a unique user-specific UID (240) and the new user receives
20 such OLPOINTS user-specific UID (240) though errkil, mobile number or
through a social media handle. Such a new customer can also register for
participation in OLPOINTS loyalty point program through OLPOINTS
website (220) by accessing the website followed by entering his/her
personal identification (PID) details (245). The personal identification
25 details (245) (PID) may be like Name, Date of Birth, Email Address and
Mobile Number. Upon submission of PID, the system generate unique
user-specific ID.
Continuing with the description of Fig.2, where a user is already a
member of any loyalty program of any merchant like ~erchant-1,
Merchant-2 ...... Merchant-n shown in Figure-2, the new user enters the
merchant-specific UID (250) of that merchant. Suppose for example the
' user has already membership of 'FIRST CITIZEN" Loyalty award program
of MERCHANT-1, then the user need to enter the merchant specific UID of
5 Merchant-1. The user is matched in the existing merchant loyalty point
'database and the system displays the current standing of loyalty points of
the user. This information is fed into the OLPOINTS database. The user
need not ask the cashier at the Point-of-sale (POS) for loyalty point's
balance. as the system enables the user to check it online, anytime.
10 A new customer can also become member of OLPOINTS App
through social media. It takes around a minute or two to download
OLPOINTS Appl and register via' a social media account. Thus a user can
use his Face book account to log into the system and the social media
handle becomes the unique identifier in this case.
15 When a user was under a certain "FIRST CITIZEN" loyalty program
of MERCHANT-A, the family of the user while shopping at MERCHANT-A,
were all using a common ID, identified by user's mobile number. Only
such members of the family could use 'FIRST CITIZEN" loyalty program of
MERCHANT-A, for which information had been stored in the Merchants
20 database. For this purpose, the MERCHANT-A had captured and stored
information like Spouse Name, Anniversary Date, Number of Children, etc.
However, after registration with OLPOINTS loyalty point program, the
customer has the flexibility of adding "other users" to the same loyalty
number, using OLPOINTS interface.
25 After registration with OLPOINTS loyalty program, the OLPOINTS
system makes available to the user the previous points history of his
earlier loyalty program "FIRST CITIZEN" of which the user has been a
member, via mobile interface. Depending upon integration of the earlier
loyalty point program namely "FIRST CITIZEN" with OLPOINTS ' of the
I P Q BELHI 10-03-2016 17150
present, the user could get information on : total Points. carried over as an
aggregate; or total points carried over by date on which the points were
earned; or total Points carried over along with transaction details.
An interesting feature here is that though the single platform of the
5 present invention uses a unique identifier to link the entire loyalty
program, it does not use these' unique identifiers to run the show at the
merchant. Each merchant though having access to the user's mobile
number or email address or any such unique identifier, generates his own
"n" digit number or any second unique identifier that appears for that
l o user. Thus the single platform of the present invention becomes an
aggregator of loyalty. programs for various merchants where the user is
the member, and is not a provider or responsible to provide a first unique
identifier to merchant. Each merchant loyalty program runs in silos on the
single platform server, and is virtually distinguishable from the others.
15 Only the aggregated level information of the points available for the user -
earned and to redeem - along with the date and amount spent is stored
on the central server to facilitate the redemption of points other than the
merchant home store.
OLPOINTS platform can also be used for online merchants. The
20 benefit for online merchants would be to allow its customers to redeem
points earned in brick and mortar world, as well as vice versa - earn
redeem in brick and mortar world. The mechanism remains the same for
both the mediums. The onli'ne merchants would provide their own loyalty
number for the user. The points would be earned or redeemed and the
25 loyalty number identified via the user login by the online merchants.
Referring to Fig.3, when. a customer visits a merchant and the
merchant familiarizes the customer' about the advanced features of
OLPOINTS loyalty point award program, the possible scenarios may be
that the customer may either be "not interested" (310) or may consent to
take the membership of OLPOINTS loyalty point program. In the event of
customer agreeing to take the membership of OLPOINTS loyalty point
program, the possibilities are that the customer may be having already
OLPOINTS app (320) or may not be having OLPOINTS app (330). In case
5 the customer does not have OLPOINTS app, the customer may either
himself download the OLPOINTS app (340) and register for the
membership of OLPOINTS loyalty point program or POS accepts (350) the
personal details of the customer and registers the customer as member of
OLPOINTS loyalty point program. In both the cases, the merchant
l o database (360) registers the customer and generates a unique ndigit/
alphanumeric code which is communicated to the customer directly
or through the merchant as the case may be. Where a customer has
already downloaded OLPOINTS app (340), he/she can view loyalty points,
transactions history and the offers from the various merchants. Further,
15 POS attendant scans the bar code (370) and processes (380) transaction
of the customer using merchant rules for the award of loyalty points to
the customer and the transaction details are stored in OLPOINTS
database.
Referring to Fig.4, OLPOINTS enables users to form one or more
20 group of people, like family, colleagues, corporate groups, friends,
relatives etc. in any number or form and earn loyalty points as a group,
instead of as individual, if allowed at point of transaction by the merchant
or the group of participating merchants. The User makes selection (420)
from his contact list/social circles (430) with .whom he wants to form a
25 group which may be referred to as a club. Then using OLPOINT interface,
the user .(410) can add -(4 40) the selected people into his club. This
information can be communicated to Merchants processor using merchant
unique UID. After group transaction, the transactor can either transfer the
transaction to other member(s) of the group or split points to each
member of the group, on the request by the group members addressed to
the transactor. However, this can be done provided the transactor has the
intention to transfer the points to the rest of the group. If the points
earned are not transferred within the defined number of days, the points
5 remain with the transactor.
In a "group'', the information regarding the history of transactions
is available for all the members who are members of the group. Any offers
made available would be available to all the members of the group. Thus
a user can see the transactions made by his wife and his child. In case
10 they want to have an exclusive points system, they can go for private
membership at the Merchant Establishment, by registering separately.
A user may like to have the option of adding anybody to a "club"
(group, circle) so that every participant can check points, earn in groups,
etc. The user can add his wife and daughter to the "club" so that they can
15 check their loyalty points anytime they want to. A user is happy with the
fact that by using this App, his family members are free to redeemlspend
points at participating outlets authorized by Merchant, without the physical
presence of the user. Previously, any such attempts would require mobile
authentication or presentation of the card at any participating
20 establishment. But with single OLPOINTS platform of the present
invention, the user need not be present in person to help facilitate the
redemption or earning by any member of the group. The user can
download the link and send to his wife and daughter to download the
OLPOINTS app. They donlt need to add the Merchant loyalty number
25 again. The Merchant ID is already associated with their respective mobile
number.
An interesting aspect of Clubs is though each of the Club members
has the same n-digit identification number or second unique identifier, the
Merchant can distinguish between the members of the club with the
combination of the n-digit loyalty ID number, and their mobile number /
email address / social handler or any unique identifier exclusive to the
OLPOINTS platform. This enables a Merchant to identify the different taste
of members in the club, who is calling the shots, making purchase
5 decisions, frequency, habits etc. - which previously could be derived only
from the nature of item purchased using the same loyalty card number. .
Club formation is not restricted to just family members but it can be
an ad-hoc group of people related beyond the ties of family, coming
together and earning and redeeming points as a group. For example four
l o friends who meet frequently at an outlet, could form a club. The entire
group of four friends need not be always present at the outlet. Once the
group has joined together to form .a "club", irrespective of who pays, the
loyalty points are available for redemption for each of the four friends.
A corporate can also form a club of sales executives who take
1s clients out for dinner to treat them outside and it does not matter who
redeems the points as it is the corporate account which is benefitting.
Similarly, a group of friends sharing an accommodation could form a club.
They need to purchase groceries or like to dine outside or order
something. They would like to do such things as a group i.e. as a club
2 o rather than as individuals.
The club which is formed by the first initiator is by default the
Administrator of the Group. The initiator can add other members and the
Group once formed cannot be deleted. The Administrator can exit the
Club, and appoint any other: member(s) as Administrators. The
25 administrative rights are limited to only adding members of the group, and
application of decisions as decided by the system platform & Merchants -
for example - not allowing member to redeem more than 3O0/0 of the
group ,points or in division thereof. Consider a case where Person A, B, C
and D are part of group, and the laid down administrative options may be
like, but not limited to - Allow to redeem once for each member not 'more
than 5O0/0 of the redemption points. So if A spends says around 3O0/0, he
would not be allowed to spend it again, till B and C have exhausted their
redemption. D has not chosen to use the system platform user interface
5 on mobile device, but can contribute to the group by earning points via his
mobile phone as a first unique identifier. Though the points are earned as
a club, OLPOINTS tracks the individual points earned by each member in
the group.
The redemption of points in a group is completely faith driven, and
l o any member can redeem the' points at any merchant. .There could be
some rules governing the redemption process - for example - a rule could
be that the redemption request be approved by other members of the
group, for example, a member of the group may desire to redeem points
on purchases of Bollywood merchandise from a high premium store.
1-5 Others could be restricting redemption of points at only those locations
where they are earning as a Club - say groceries, restaurants etc.
Once a club is formed and it is to be disbanded for whatsoever
reason, the loyalty points can be shared on the basis of percentage of
points earned. This is possible because even as a group - though they
20 earn as a group - who among the group earns how many of the loyalty
points, is recorded. For example, if user-A and user-B form a group, and
total points of the group is 1000, it would be recorded that user-A has
individually earned 350 and user-B has individually earned 650 points.
Consider a scenario, where before breaking of the group, user-A has
25 already redeemed 500 points. After breaking of the group, the user-B
would be entitled to redeem the remaining 500 points. Consider another
scenario where user-A and user-B both have redeemed 200 points before
breaking up of the' group. After breaking of the group, each user would be
entitled to redeem the remaining points in the ratio of 35:65.
In case the club is owned by an organization, it would continue to
own all the points solely. In case all the employees are removed from the
club - the organization would continue to be the owner of the points
earned by the club. The points can be redeemed only by the owner of the
organization. There could be instances where group would 'like to divide
the points among themselves as per their mutual understanding. In such
cases (depending on the Merchant approval) it would be allowed as the
Loyalty club is going to cease to exists and it make no sense for the
Merchant to keep it 'live in its database. The divided points would be
considered as "Gift Points" from the Group.
OLPOINTS does not allow transfer of points. For example, if a user-
A decides to stop using loyalty points, he cannot transfer the points
earned to another user-B. The gifting of points can be done within the
members of the group based on the proportion decided by the group.
15 Once the points are "gifted", they can be redeemed anywhere and
restrictions of redemption placed on the customer - as a member of the
group would be removed.
OLPOINTS App has a special feature, of auto-selection of card at
POS. OLPOINTS uses signal-based communication like GPS / liet tooth
. .
20 light energy to sense the proximity of the user with the App at locations.
When near ,to a POS machine, it would show that merchant loyalty card
screen a'utomatically without the user having the trouble of selecting the
card from the list of cards. Merchant Screen. is automatically displayed,
along with current offers, point's status - earned, available for redemption
25 etc. automatically .without the user having the trouble of selecting the
screen ;
OLPOINTS App provide ability to search the transaction in the past ,
by retrieving the details based on item nature, day date etc. A user can
choose to receive a bill on his mobile phone, rather than a print
IQQD ELHI PB-03-
out. He can also check his previous bill details. OLPOINTS architecture
allows transaction level details of the customer to be stored on the
Merchant server, and on demand, retrieves data from the Server and
displays it to the customer.
5 To avoid unauthorised sharing of transaction details with
competitors, two staged authentications could be introduced so that the
Merchant can authorize the pulling of transaction level data stored on the
OLPOINTS server, and keep track of it. .
OLPOINTS enables users to be rewarded "dynamically" by
lo merchants in terms of points, discount, material etc. as decided by the
merchant based on transaction history of the individual.
OLPOINTS enables users to obtain customized offers from different
merchants, valid for a particular time limit as specified by the merchant.
The offers could be cash discounts, additional points, free or anything
15 additional to the value of the item against which the offer is to be availed.
Customized offers are not restricted only to offers from merchants where
the points are earned, but also from associate partners -where the points
earned could be redeemed.
OLPOINTS enables sending of customized offers for redemption of
20 points nearing completion identified by the duration, for example 50
points out of 250 points may be expiring in a particular month due to time
limitation for the validity of the offer. The customized offer to use these
50 points can be made via OLPOINTS platform. Such customized offers
are designed to increase the purchase cycle of the users which otherwise
25 would have not been considered by the user; It benefits the users to avail
discount on items which could have otherwise been lost. It benefits the
merchants by decreasing the frequency of the user purchase.
When there is close integration of OLPOINTS with merchant POS
system, OLPOINTS provides a mechanism to communicate with POS in
real time. While a user is making purchases from a merchant, the user can
present his mobile number to' the cashier handling POS. On scan of the
membership, all the items which. the user has purchased would be
checked against the merchant's offer database and all discounts that could
5 be applied to the purchases would be automatically applied to the user's
purchase, including any on demand.
OLPOINTS platform enables users to receive loyalty points from
sources' other than the point of transaction such as but not limited. to -
gift, corporate rewards, lotteries, meal coupons, coupons from third
l o parties etc. which can redeem in the same manner as for the transaction.
For example, an employer of an organization may like to provide some
entertainment benefits to his employees and may give them a loyalty card
which may be registered at certain selected merchants. The employees
wishing to avail the benefit of discount under the loyalty card would be
15 just required to flash the loyalty card at the billing counter. Besides the
discount, the employees would also earn the loyalty points on the cash
paid at the counter after adjusting the discount.
An employer of an organization may also like give cash incentives
. .
to his employees as a part of their compensation every month. OLPOINTS
20 can run a system where the .employer can load 1000 points for 900-
930INR. ~hese7 0-100 points are absorbed by the participating outlets
such as those where meal coupons are accepted. Similar points can be
gifted by parents, friends or relatives, who purchase points from
OLPOINTS and gift it. These points can be redeemed subject to
25 participating merchants, governed by the rules as laid by them. Non
participating outlets where loyalty is not a concern like automobiles or
jewelry shop - instead of giving cash discount - points would be rewarded
to the customer. For example - a person. books .a Hyundai Creta at 12
lakhs, and is pressing for discount - Instead of giving cash discount
around15,OOO points can be given to the customer which .can be
redeemed within 3 months, allowing Hyundai vendor to show actual cash
on its register. Of these 15,000 points - a certain portion could be given
back as commission.
5 The invention also provides ability for customers to transfer loyalty
points earned by an individual A to any other individual B to whom A owes
loyalty points, subject to the policies, such as commission based
percentage deduction as laid by the merchants owning the point of
transaction. The invention at anytime does not allow transfer of points
10 from one member to another. The points can be given as a gift which is
purchased. For example, person A purchased 1000 points from single
platform directly or a gift voucher from merchant worth 1500 points; he
can transfer this to his wife or daughter. Person A under no circumstances
can transfer the points earned by him. The Person A can change the
15 ownership of the transaction, for example, he purchased an LCD TV which
is paid for by person B. The person A can say that the transaction and
hence all the points associated with the transaction be transferred to
person B.
Referring to Fig.S(a), the OLPOINTS system of the present
20 invention enables users to seek offers 'on demand' for a particular
product/service in real time by separately communicating intention via the
OLPOINTS platform, to different merchants. For example, a user may be.
looking specifically for buying "hiking boots:, which he usually does not
purchase and is not having a readyrnade offer for the item. He
25, communicates his intention separately to different merchants for an offer
on "hiking boots" using OLPOINTS platform, and obtains on-demand (510)
different offers from each of competing merchants (520,530,540) dealing
with that product/service, on real time basis. OLPOINTS interface
facilitates the user to choose the best offers from the different offers
EPO DEhH% 10'-892-0 1G 17 - 5 0
received from the competing merchants for that product/service. The
offers (520,530,540) could be a cash discount, additional points, or some
freebies such as socks along with shoes. The user may or may not choose
to avail that offer.
5 Referring to Fig. 5(b), a customer intending to seek offer ondemand
for a product or a service, uses Customer App (550) and enters a
Generic Product name (555) or enters the nomenclature of the exactly
identifiable product or service by scanning its Code or entering the SKU.
The infoimation is received by OLPOINTS server (560) which computes
lo the profitability of customer and other information defined by the inbuilt
algorithms. In case the merchant server (570) is available, the
information on customer requirements and associated parameters is sent
to the merchant server (570) using Merchant's Application programming
Interface (API) or API maintained in support with OLPOINTS. I f the
15 customer has entered specific product (580), the best price for the
product or offer on the Product is computed along with recommended
product (590) by Merchant Data Warehouse (DW) (575) and returned by
API. In case the customer has sent a generic product name,. a list of
products with best prices/offers (585) is returned by Merchant DW. In
20 case the Mercharit Server is not available, OLPOINTS uses its Rule engine
(595) using OLPOINTS DW (576) to give a generic discount say 10%, or
15%, or whatever depending upon the customer's history or other offers.
OLPOINTS Server collates the results (600) thus formed and sends it back
to the Customer App (550). The best offers may not necessarily be price-
25 based. It may include, besides cash discount, additional points, rebates, or
buy one more and get 50% discount on other.
OLPOINTS provides ability for users to redeem loyalty points via a
single platform at.one or more participating merchants under the rules laid
down by the merchant or the group of participating merchants. It also
provides ability for merchant to redeem a voucher using ,customer mobileby
keying an authorization code or by a wireless mechanism such as NFC.
It provides ability to dynamically specify the points that can be redeemed
at point of transaction using an input such as, but not limited to, sliders,
5 text field, to form a dynamic barcode or similar mechanism that can be
read by the merchant devices - scanners, Merchant .app. As rhentioned
earlier, a member-specific card is always auto-selected when it nears the
POS powered by signals from Bluetooth devices or using GPS and
proximity algorithms. The redemption is in real time where the points
10 have to be deducted on the spot using internet, 3G/4G or any similar
mechanism. In case of absence of any interriet features, an SMS would be
used to deduct the points and authorize the transactions.
The amount by which the transaction has to be reduced can be
computed by the OLPOINTS server and returned along with the
1s authorization code. The OLPOINTS server uses the Merchant rules and
regulations to deduct the information based on the amount of points the
customer wants to redeem.
I f the internet is not reliable or available, one can use their smart
phones to scan the QR code .and use an SMS mechanism to get an
20 authorized response. The authorization is required to deduct the
redeemable points from the custome?~ account, and avoid double
redemption of points.
OLPOINTS platform also enables redemption at third party 'outlets.
In a simple scenario the points can be earned and spent at the same
25 Merchant only. However, the merchants can allow points to be spent at
specific third party outlets. There may be restrictions on places where the
customers can spend the points - like non-competitive merchants, or there
may be no restrictions at all. For the sake of illustration, suppose a third
party merchant MERCHNAT-T accepts points say up to 25% of the food
value from any location and two merchants-MERCAHNT-B . and
MERCHANT-C allow their loyalty points to be spent at MERCAHNT-TI then
the points earned by the user from MERCAHNT-B and MERCHANT-C would
be spent from the account of the user on first earn, first redeem basis or
5 on the basis of the choice of the customer. Suppose, the user has 20
points from MERCAHNT-B, and 15 points from MERCAHNT-C and during
subsequent purchase, the user has earned 15 points from MERCAHNT-B
and 10 points from MERCAHNT-C. Thus the user has 35 points from
MERCAHNT-B and 25 points MERCAHNT-C, i.e. a total of 60 points.
l o When the user makes purchases at third party merchant namely
MERCHANT-TI user. is eligible to spend 25 points at MERCHANT-TI as per
the, restriction imposed by the MERCHANT-T. In case of default (no choice
specified by the user), 20 loyalty points (points earned by the user during
the first purchase) would be taken from MERCAHNT-B and 5 loyalty points
1s (points earned by the user during second purchase) would be taken from
MERCAHNT-C. Thus, the 20 points which were earned by the user from
MERCAHNT-B during first transaction were deducted first and then 5
points which were earned by the user from the next transaction at
MERCHANT-C were used at the third party merchant MERCAHNT-TI till the
20 total number of points that needs to be redeemed for making purchases
at MERCAHNT-T was satisfied.
In case the user specifies his choice redeeming of points at third
party outlet, for example if MERCHANT-C only allows redeeming of points
at limited third-party outlets, the user might choose to overrule the first
25 earn and first redeem rule to redeem all the points earned by him from
MERCHANT-C. Thus the user can choose to redeem all 25points from
MERCHANT-C, keeping with him the balance all 35 points which he had .
earned at the earlier transaction at MERCHANT- B.
There may be difference in commission paid to the merchants
where points are earned depending on the place where redemption is
allowed. Third party merchant may expect a commission from the
merchant whose points it is honoring. Some merchants in order to
5 promote their products may offer to absorb all the points' redemption,
benefitting the merchant from where the points were earned. This could
incite the users to make purchases at such outlets. There can be
customized redemption in the sense that MERCHANT-T can offer to user
that he can take 20 points more from him provided he agrees to spend 55
10 points at MERCHANT-Z only. Thus special offers can be floated by
merchants to. incite redemption of loyalty points at places which pays
more commission for business or absorb the total points of. the merchant.
OLPOINTS platform provides ability for users to pool points
together from a group of individuals and redeem them as group of
15 individuals via a centrally available voucher for specific transactions like
multiplex, restaurant, club where members of the group participate in the
transaction. This relates to situation where a group of individuals having
the OLPOINTS app come together for a purchase as a result of a collective
decision. The group may not exist previously and people can join this
20 group on invitation. Usually the settlement of purchases in such a group is
done by a single individual.. Remaining members contribute by pooling
their transaction obligations either before or after the commencement of
transaction.
For the sake -of illustration, four users: User-A, User-B, User-C,
2s User-D have now started to work in the same office and form a group.
They decided to go for a movie and then to a restaurant. They visit PVR
cinemas and booked 4 tickets for 250 each. The User-A may make
payment for tickets using his credit card. During the interval they went
into buy popcorn and other refreshment. Here User-B made the payment.
I P Q DEBNP 10-03-283.6 17 150
After watching the movie they went to have food at restaurant, where
they enjoyed a sumptuous dini~era nd User-C made the payment. Instead
of one person absorbing payment, each decided that they would make
their respective part of payment. The users in a group may make transfer
5 of such spending on transactions to other members of the group subject
to rules of transfer governed by the merchant who may allow transfer in
whole or in part. Thus the users can pool their points they want to redeem
up to a limit as governed by the rules laid down by the merchant
accepting the transaction.
10 -Another scenario - User-C decides for an ad-hoc trip to Corbett
National Park, and wants to check if any of his friends would like to join
him. He uses the OLPOINTS interface to bring together various merchants
that would help him complete the big trip. He goes via a Travel Agency
who provides him the quote or he gets a reverse bidding from various
15 elements - Tour Organizer, Hotels, Flight Services, etc. This reverse
bidding could be associated with a rider "valid until" to encourage quick
participation. Here individual members ready to travel with User-C on the
said dates would make payment individually and even redeem points if
any and join the trip. Here though User-C has created the group, and is
20 the first organizer, each individual member is responsible for making their
own payment, own redemption and own cancellation.
OLPOINT platform enables a user to transfer loyalty points earned
by an individual A to any other individual B to whom A owes loyalty points,
subjected to the policies, such as commission based, percentage
25 deduction as laid by the merchants owning the point o f transaction.
OLPOINTS at anytime does not allow transfer of points from one member
to another. The points can. be given as a gift which is purchased. For
example, a user purchased 1000 points from OLPOINTS, directly or a gift
voucher from a merchant worth 1500 points; he can transfer this to his
wife or daughter. The user under no circumstances can transfer the points
earned by him to any other user. The user can change the ownership of
the transaction, for example a user-A purchased an LCD TV which is paid
for by user-B. User-A can say that the transaction and hence all the points
5 associated with the transaction be transferred to User-B. In cases where
the transaction amount is split - say in a restaurant where a person pays
in the form of division of the total bill and can be unequal - the rules are
driven by the merchant. For example - I f user-C transfers the entire
restaurant bill to User-D - he, would be allowed to do so if the Merchant
lo allows such transfer. There could be a situation where the Merchant would
say that User-A needs to hold a part of transaction of at least 1 part
divided by the total number of people splitting the bill. The merchant can
also choose that there would be no ceiling on the minimum amount User-
C can claim he paid and so on. The essential point of difference here is
1s that there is no direct transfer of points but a transfer of ownership of the
entire or part of the transaction as governed by the rules laid down by the
Merchant.
OLPOINTS platform enables individual users to register
communication with the merchant to post reviews of transaction
20 experience or product experience linked to the transaction made by him
via the OLPOINTS platform. For giving reviews/ratings, the user need to
use the transaction code, so as to ensure that only users who have
actually purchased the product or services can give the reviewslratings
thereby preventing fake reviewslratings. Thus OLPOINTS due to its
25 interface does not only become a loyalty management app, but a powerful
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) device that allows the
customer to interact with the merchant. A user may be unhappy standing
in the queue at a merchant's outlet and another user may be upset at the
lethargic movement of the employees at the merchant's outlet. Another
- 34 -
user is all appreciative of the hardworking store assistant that has helped
him in making the purchase decision. OLPOINTS allow users' to send
feedback of individual transaction identified by the Bill No. to the
merchant. The merchant can use this data in real time to fine tune its
services if necessary.
OLPOINTS allow customers to write reviews 'of the products they
have purchased at the merchant via OLPOINTS interface. Since these are
identified against the bill receipt, they are of course but authentic buyers
and users of the products. The valuable feedback helps a merchant to
l o optimize its shelf space, post these reviews on website so that other
customers can learn from experience of others and make informed
decision. OLPOINTS also allow merchants to organize interaction such as
getting a shopping assistant (wedding purchases for example), booking of
trial rooms, pick up and drop of return goods or purchased items.
15 OLPOINTS also provide users to scan the barcode of the items they have
selected for purchase and add to their shopping cart, instead of lugging
i their products around. Real time recommendation and upgrades can be
I given on the shop floor for the purchased item. In restaurant - ~ the menu
items for food can be pulled in real time and order placed via mobile app.'
20 Pre-booking of tables and other elements of service' can be done via
OLPOINTS. Payment can also be facilitated by OLPOINTS.
Consider a scenario where OLPOINTS interface is used to scan the
items that needs, to be purchased, once added, the payment is done via
the interface, destination for drop.can be specified and the customer can
25 leave the store without even bothering to stand in queue and' pay at the
POS. In case the items needs to be carried from the store itself instead of
a drop by the customer - the customer can put the items on the front
desk, showing them the payment code. The Merchant would use the
merchant app to determine item purchased against the payment code,
PPQ DELHI 10-03-2016 17':50
and pack the items accordingly. Thus OLPOINTS can bring theinfluence of
recommendation in brick and mortar store - other than relying on the
store assistant
Referring to 'Fig.6AI OLPOINTS enables the merchants to form
5 multiple coalitions using a single platform of OLPOINTS. A . merchant 'A"
can form one coalition (610) with merchants 6, C and D. The same
merchant "A" can form another coalition (620) with merchants El F, G and
H. For formation- of coalitions, the merchants can choose partners for
coalition based on specific need. The 'merchants can choose different
1.0 service level agreements from one coalition to the next. The users can
earn and redeem points from multiple merchants from multiple coalitions.
Within a coalition, merchants can form their own business rule and chose
to partner withother merchants at different levels of collaboration, as
shown in Fig.68. The level of collaboration can vary from 0% i.e, total
15 non-collaboration to 100% collaboration i.e. total collaboration. The
merchants can choose their level of collaboration based on the
comparative nature of their business and/or taking into consideration
other factors. Depending upon the level of collaboration, points earned at
one merchant will be adjusted when redeemed at the other merchant. For
20 example in case of 100% collaboration between two merchants, points
earned at one merchant will not be adjusted( i.e. will not be reduced)
when redeemed at other merchant within the same coalition i.e. 100
points earned at one merchant of the coalition will remain 100 points
when redeemed at the second merchant within the same coalition. In case
25 of 50% collaboration, 100 points earned at one merchant will be adjusted
to 50 points when redeemed at the second merchant of the same
coalition. Within a coalition, the level of collaboration between any two
merchants does not have any effect on the level of collaboration between
any two other merchants. For example, as shown in Fig.66, the merchants
"A'' and "0" may have collaboration at 80% while merchant A and C and
' merchants "0" and "C" can collaborate at 6O0/0.This allows the creation of
an open business environment where merchants in a coalition earn points
at one merchant and can conveniently redeem them at another merchant
s within the same coalition with whom the collaboration agreement exists.
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited
number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many equivalent
variations, adaptation, modifications and ' other applications of the
invention may be' made by the persons skilled in the art. Accordingly, the
10 above description should not be takei as limiting the scope of the
invention. The equivalent changes, adaptations, modifications to the
present invention are intended to be within the scope of the present
invention which is further set forth in the claims that follow.

WE CLAIM:
1. A single platform based multi-merchant, multi-coaliion system for
loyalty award points comprising:
5 (a) a centralized server 'referred to as OLPOINTS server(ll5)
connected to a user interface (125) and database (120) wherein said
centralized server is provided with an application software hereinafter
referred to as "OLPOINTS App" wherein said OLPOINTS App is capable of
enabling a user for :
10 earning and redeeming of loyalty award points from across multiple ~ 'participating merchants and across multiple coalitions (610, 620) ~ comprising plurality of participating merchants;
formation of multiple groups of participating users and enabling earnings
on group transactions and subsequent re-allocation of points to the
1.5 members of the group;
auto-selection of a merchant specific screen for a user through sensing
the proximity of the user and point-of-sale terminal through mobile
communication device;
displaying merchant loyalty card information at the mobile communication
20 device;
facilitating retrieval, search and related activity that can be performed on
a transaction bill by a customer via its mobile interface;
seeking on-demand customized offers from different merchants for a
particular product/service and facilitating to choose best offer by means of
2 5 algorithms provided in the system;
earning of loyalty points from sources besides transactions, such as .gift,
corporate rewards, meal coupons from third parties;
formation o f multiple coalitions by a merchant with other group of
merchants as per the specific need and enabling variant and flexible
collaboration agreements for redeeming of points between any two
participating merchants within a coalition; and
posting of reviewslfeedback by the buyers on the specific products
purchased by them wherein. buyer is authenticated by the bill number of
5 the merchant;
(b) plurality of merchant systems (105), each said merchant system being
provided with a merchant terminal (140), a mobile communication device
(145), Point of Sales (POS) device (150), a merchant processor (155)
lo connected to a merchant database (160) wherein each said merchant is
'provided with merchant app and wherein each merchant can
communicate with said' centralized server by entering a unique merchant
UID (170) generated by the said OLPOINTS appl; and
15 (c) plurality of user systems (130) wherein each said user system has one
or more means selected from a terminal, a mobile communication device,
a tablet and a wearable and wherein each user can communicate with
said centralized server by downloading said OLPOINTs appl and entering a
unique UID generated by the OLPOINTS appl;
20
2. A system as claimed in claim1 wherein the system serves as an
aggregator by linking I loyalty programs $offered by different merchants
. of which a user may be a participant.
25 3. A system as claimed in claim 1 which enables any member to earn and
redeem points at any participating merchant subject to certain laid down
governing rules.
4. A system as claimed in claim 1 which enable distribution of points
earned on group trarisactions amongst the members .of a group in the
event of disbandment of a group, either on the basis of percentage of
points earned by each participant of the group or on the basis of mutual
5 agreement amongst the members of the group.
5. A system as claimed in claim 1 which has inbuilt mechanism to
safeguard against viewing of transaction details by unauthorized persons.
lo 6. A system as claimed in claim 1 which.enables sending of customized
offers for redemption of points whose validity term is due to expire.
7. A system as claimed in claim 1 which facilitates scanning and
redemption of points using mobile phones, barcodes or similar such
15 instrument at merchant's counter using said merchant app.
8. A system as claimed in claim 1 which facilitates the using of a slider,
text input and voice recognition to specify the points that can be
redeemed at the POS.
20
9. A system as claimed in claim 1 which enables transfer of ownership of a
transaction or part of the transaction, from one member to another
member,.as governed by the rules laid down by the merchant.
25 10. A system as claimed in claim 1 which enables the members of a group
to pool their points they want to redeem up to a limit as governed by the
rule laid down by the merchant accepting the transaction.
- 40 -
HPO BEtHH 1 0 - 0 . 3 - E O P G 17 : 5 0
11. A method for use of a single platform based multi-merchant, multi-
, .
coalition system for loyalty award points comprising:
(a) registration of a customer and a merchant to become member of
OLPOINTS loyalty point program of the system, comprising:
5 customer downloading OLPOINTS ' a'PP on his
mobile/tablet/desktop/wearable (235) at a merchant either himself or
through a merchant using OLPOINTS App;
customer entering personal identification ,details (245) and
membership number of any previous loyalty point programs of any
l o merchant (250) wherein said personal identification details includes
customer's name, date of birth, phone number, email address ;
(b) system registering the customer and generating of a user-specific
unique ,ID for the customer and a merchant- specific unique ID for a
merchant and communicates the same to the customer through
15 email/mobile/social media handle; and
(c) using OLPOINTS interface or OLPOINTs web based interface, a user
enters the user-specific unique ID and can make transactions at any of the
participating merchants, r, earn loyalty points, view royalty points history,
can make redemption, and also can offers on-demand for a
2 o produd/service from different participating merchants.,
12. A method as claimed in claim 11 wherein a new customer who does
not download OLPOINTS app at the merchant's place, receives a
download link on his registered email address and mobile phone and using
25 . that link, the customer can download 'OLPOINTS app at his convenience
and can become member of the OLPOINTS loyalty point program.
13. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein using his user-specific ID
and OLPOINTS interface, the user enters the personal identification details
of selected persons with whom he wants to form a group for the purposes
of group transactions which enables any member of the group to view and
redeem royalty points on the basis of the combination of user-specific ID
and personal ID of the member making transaction.