Rewards program according to transaction frequency

An electronic record related to a first transaction of a user can be received at a point-of-sale device. A user interface with real-time transaction data can be generated and displayed on the user device. An eligibility of the first transaction for a reward program can be determined. A portion of the reward program based on said determined eligibility can be selected and the electronic record of the first transaction can be updated by modifying the real-time transaction data currently displayed within the UI.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for awarding a reward, and more specifically, awarding of a loyalty reward based on a spending frequency.

BACKGROUND

Typical reward systems may provide reward for purchase frequency. These programs typically require a first number of purchases (e.g., buy 3) to earn a second reward (e.g., get 1 free). However, these reward programs typically require that a customer return to a particular merchant to make purchases. These programs also typically require that the customer carry a reward tracker (e.g., a punch card).

SUMMARY

A system, method, and computer readable medium (collectively, the “System”) for administering a reward program may comprise operations and/or steps, including: determining, by the computer based system, that a first transaction is eligible for a first portion of a reward program and a second portion of the reward program, wherein the first transaction is from a plurality of transactions; determining, by the computer based system, a first reward associated with an amount of the first transaction, in response to the first transaction being eligible for the first portion of the reward program; associating, by the computer based system, the first transaction with a transaction account, in response to the first transaction being eligible for the second portion of the reward program; monitoring, by the computer based system, a number of transactions associated with the transaction account over a first period of time; determining, by the computer based system, a second reward of in response to the number of transactions associated with the transaction account over the first period of time exceeding a threshold, wherein the second reward is determined as a function of a total reward earned based on the amount of the transactions associated with the transaction account over the first period of time, and wherein the total reward includes the first reward. In various embodiments, the computer based system may be operated by a network connecting a point of sale to a payment processor.

In various embodiments, the first period of time may be a billing period. The number of transactions associated with the transaction account over the first period of time may include a set of transactions that were initiated during the billing period.

In various embodiments, at least one of the first reward and the second reward are provided in reward currency. The first reward and the second reward may be of the same reward type.

In various embodiments, the second portion of the reward program is associated with the threshold. The threshold is a number of transactions and a total transaction amount for the number of transactions.

In various embodiments, a number of transactions eligible for the second portion of the reward program is displayed via a micro-application in real-time.

In various embodiments, the System may further comprise analyzing, by the computer based system, the first transaction to determine that the first transaction is associated with the first period of time. The associating with a transaction account associated with the first transaction in response to the first transaction being eligible for the second portion of the reward program may be in response to the first transaction being associated with the first period of time. The first transaction may be received during a second period of time. The first transaction may also be received during the first period of time. In various embodiments, the System may further comprise determining, by the computer based system, the time when the transaction was initiated.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In various embodiments, and with reference toFIG.1A, a payment system100may comprise a POS110, a network120and a payment processor140. POS110may be in electronic communication with and/or operatively coupled to payment processor140via network120. Network120may be any suitable payment network including, for example, the American Express® Network, the Visa® network, the MasterCard® network, the Discover® card network, and/or the like. In this regard, network120may be configured to receive transaction information from POS110and/or an entity capable of gathering transaction information from POS110. Moreover, network120may be configured to facilitate the communications of the transaction information from POS110to the payment processor140in substantially real time. In this regard, network120may be capable of and/or configured to facilitate an authorization of a transaction initiated at POS110. In various embodiments, network120may include at least a portion of POS110and/or payment processor140, or at least a portion of the functions of POS110and/or payment processor140.

Phrases similar to a “payment processor” (e.g., payment processor140) may include a company (e.g., a third party) appointed (e.g., by a merchant) to handle transactions. A payment processor may include an issuer, acquirer, authorizer, network120and/or any other system or entity involved in the transaction process, and/or at least a portion of the functions of such entities. Payment processors may be broken down into two types: front-end and back-end. Front-end payment processors have connections to various transaction accounts and supply authorization and settlement services to the merchant banks' merchants. Back-end payment processors accept settlements from front-end payment processors and, via The Federal Reserve Bank, move money from an issuing bank to the merchant bank. In an operation that will usually take a few seconds, the payment processor will both check the details received by forwarding the details to the respective account's issuing bank or card association for verification, and may carry out a series of anti-fraud measures against the transaction. Additional parameters, including the account's country of issue and its previous payment history, may be used to gauge the probability of the transaction being approved. In response to the payment processor receiving confirmation that the transaction account details have been verified, the information may be relayed back to the merchant, who will then complete the payment transaction. In response to the verification being denied, the payment processor relays the information to the merchant, who may then decline the transaction. Phrases similar to a “payment gateway” or “gateway” may include an application service provider service that authorizes payments for e-businesses, online retailers, and/or traditional brick and mortar merchants. The gateway may be the equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in most retail outlets. A payment gateway may protect transaction account details by encrypting sensitive information, such as transaction account numbers, to ensure that information passes securely between the customer and the merchant and also between merchant and payment processor.

In various embodiments, a user130may be capable of interacting with POS110, network120, and/or payment processor140. For example, user130may interact with POS110(e.g., a merchant, a website, an app, a virtual point of sale, a physical point of sale, and/or the like) to initiate a transaction. Moreover, user130may interact with a payment processor to settle a transaction, fund a transaction, and/or the like.

In various embodiments, user130may interact with a payment processor or network120by registering with the payment processor or network120. In operation, payment processor or network120may be capable and/or configured to facilitate authorization and/or settlement of transactions by analyzing information from POS110and a payment processor140. However, networks may not be capable of and/or configured to monitor, track, and/or record, and/or count the number of transactions associated with a particular user. Moreover, the transaction information communicated between a point of sale and payment processor may not be sufficient to particularly identify user by a network.

In various embodiments, payment processor140and/or network120may be capable of providing a reward program and/or operating a reward system (e.g., reward system150). For simplicity, the disclosure will discuss operations by network120, but one skilled in the art will appreciate that payment processor140may perform one or more of the functions.

In order for network120to provide a reward program to user130, network120may provide and/or allow user130to register with network120. Network120may request information from user130, including, for example, a transaction account number, a transaction account identifier, and/or the like. This information provided by user130may allow and/or enable network120to identify, track, count, and/or otherwise monitor transaction information and/or information indicative of a transaction that is passed between POS110and/or payment processor140by network120.

In various embodiments, network120may be able to particularly identify and/or associate one or more transactions with a particular user130. Such identification may occur if user130registers with and/or opts-in to a reward program provided by network120. Moreover, information provided by user130may be used by network120to particularly identify transactions routed between POS110and payment processor140by network120.

In various embodiments, and with reference toFIGS.1A and1B, reward system150may comprise a transaction processing system152, a reward manager154, a reporting module158, and a user interface135. Reward manager154may further comprise a reward database156. Reward system150may be any suitable software, hardware and/or hardware-software system configured to provide a reward based on a purchase and a supplemental reward based on a number of purchases during a pre-determined period (e.g., a purchase frequency).

In various embodiments, reward system150may be operated by network120and/or payment processor140. Moreover, reward system150may be in electronic communication with POS110. In this regard, reward system150may be capable of communicating with user130via POS110and/or any other suitable communication medium, including, for example, e-mail, a mobile device via a micro-application, an SMS message, and/or any device or process discussed herein or otherwise known.

In various embodiments, transaction processing system152may be any suitable software, hardware and/or hardware-software system configured to process merchant submissions. In this regard, transaction processing system152may receive submission files containing transactions from a merchant. Transaction processing system152may process the transaction (Step210). Typically, the transactions are associated with transactions that occurred within days of the submission file being submitted to the transaction processing system152.

In various embodiments, reward manager154may be any suitable software, hardware and/or hardware-software system configured to manage a reward program, analyze a transaction, create reward credits and debits, create reward instructions, create reward notification instructions, track the progress of rewards, analyze reward criteria, and/or provide rewards to users. Reward manager154may be operatively coupled to and/or in communication with reward database156. Reward database156may be configured to store reward information and/or transaction information and track the frequency of transactions associated with a particular transaction account.

In various embodiments, reward manager154may administer a rewards program capable of providing frequency based rewards. The rewards program may comprise a first portion and a second portion. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the first portion and the second portion may include certain overlapping functionality and features, and certain separate functionality and features.

The first portion may be configured to provide a first reward (e.g., an award of loyalty points, a rebate amount, a reward currency, a loyalty currency, and/or the like) for each transaction (e.g., purchase made) using a transaction account based on an amount of the transaction. For example, the first portion may be a program similar to the American Express Membership Rewards® program. The reward program may also comprise a second portion. The second portion may be configured to prove a second reward, a supplemental reward, a compound reward, an ancillary reward, a substitute reward, a change of a reward, and/or the like (e.g., an award of loyalty points, a rebate amount, a reward currency, a loyalty currency, and/or the like). In this regard, the second portion may provide an additional benefit or reward beyond the reward provided in the first program.

In various embodiments, the first portion may provide a reward in a first reward currency. The second portion may provide a reward in a second reward currency. The first reward currency and the second reward currency may be the same reward currency. The first reward currency and the second reward currency may be different reward currencies. For example, in a first reward program, the first portion and the second portion may be configured to provide rewards based on the rules governing the first portion and the second portion. In a second reward program, the first portion may be configured to provide a first reward (e.g., a loyalty currency, points, a discount, a rebate, an item, access, an experience, a status level, monetary value, non-monetary value, and/or the like) and the second portion may be configured to provide a second reward (e.g., a loyalty currency, points, a discount, a rebate, an item, access, an experience, a status level, monetary value, non-monetary value, and/or the like) that is different than the first reward.

In various embodiments, reward manager154and/or reward database156may be configured to determine transaction eligibility (step220). Reward manager154and/or reward database156may also provide a first reward for eligible purchases (step225). In this regard, reward manager154and/or reward database156may be configured to provide a reward (e.g., points, a credit, and/or any other suitable reward) based on the amount of a purchase as would be typically provided in a reward program such as, for example, the American Express Membership Reward Program®. Moreover, reward manager154and/or reward database156may be capable of associating qualifying transaction with a transaction account (step230).

In various embodiments, reward manager154and/or reward database156may be configured to monitor the number of eligible transactions associated with a transaction account over a pre-determined period of time (step240). In this regard, reward manager154and/or reward database156may be configured to count, store, track and/or otherwise monitor the number of qualifying purchases associated with the transaction account over a pre-determined period of time (e.g., a billing period). In this regard, reward manager154and/or reward database156may count the number of transactions completed with a transaction account based on the number of transactions received by transaction processing system152. Reward manager154and/or reward database156may not consider authorizations in the number of eligible transactions and/or transactions received over the pre-determined period of time.

In various embodiments, as part of the eligibility determination and/or monitoring reward manager154may determine whether the transaction is associated with a particular period of time (e.g., billing period). This determination may be based on when the transaction was initiated (e.g., when the authorization request occurred) and/or when the transaction was received by the transaction account issuer (e.g., the time the transaction was posted). In this regard, a number of transactions may be correlated to a number of authorization requests received during a particular period of time. A number of transactions may also be determined in real-time as the transactions are received by transaction processing system152, reward manager154and/or a transaction account issuer. In this regard, the transaction may be associated with the date that the transaction was initiated regardless of when the transaction was received by transaction processing system152, reward manager154and/or a transaction account issuer. In this regard, transaction processing system152, reward manager154and/or a transaction account issuer may be capable of associating a period of time that has already past (e.g., a prior billing period).

In various embodiments, reward manager154and/or reward database156may be configured to communicate the number of eligible transactions received via transaction processing system152to reporting module158. Reporting module158may be configured to report the number of eligible transactions associated with the transaction account through user interface135. User interface135may be any suitable user interface, including for example a mobile channel, a web channel, an email and/or the like. For example, reward manager154and/or reward database156may communicate a number of purchases to reporting module158. Reporting module158may communicate and/or display the number of purchases on user interface135. In operation in a mobile channel, and with momentary reference toFIG.3A, reporting module158and/or user interface135may be configured to display progress toward a pre-determined number of transactions. For example, and as shown in mobile channel310, user interface135may display a progress tracker. The progress tracker may change as shown in mobile channel320in response to purchases that are received through transaction processing system152and processed and/or analyzed by reward manager154and reward database156. Moreover, reward manager154, reward database156, and/or reporting module158may communicate the progress of accumulated transactions (e.g., the number of transaction and/or a list of transaction details) for a particular transaction account through user interface135, as shown in mobile channel320(e.g.,18qualifying purchases within the billing period). Moreover, reporting module158may be configured to display a success message and/or indication when a sufficient number of transactions are received via transaction processing system152and analyzed as eligible transactions by reward manager154and/or reward database156as shown in mobile channel330.

In various embodiments, reporting module158and/or user interface135may be embodied in an on-line environment, as shown inFIG.3B, similar to the mobile environment shown inFIG.3A. User interface135in a web environment may be configured to track transactions received by transaction processing system152and determined to be eligible by reward manager154and/or reward database156. Moreover, the web interface of user interface135may be configured to track the progress and/or number of purchases completed during the pre-determined period (e.g., a billing period). In a web environment, user interface135may be interactive and/or selectable. User interface135and/or the tracker of qualifying transactions may be selectable. In this regard, the tracker may include a summary (e.g., the number of qualifying purchases) and a list of the qualifying purchases in the pre-determined time period. Moreover, and with reference toFIG.4, user interface135may be capable of listing qualifying purchases that are eligible for a supplemental reward, and summarizing the number of eligible purchases during the pre-determined period and the number of purchases required to reach the supplemental reward.

In various embodiments, and with reference toFIG.2, reward manager154and/or reward database156may be configured to determine second reward, in response to the number of qualifying transactions satisfying criteria in the pre-determined period of time (Step250). In this regard, a reward program being administered by reward manager154and/or reward database156may be configured with reward criteria for providing the second reward. The criteria may include a number of purchases and/or purchasing frequency. A purchasing frequency may include a number of purchases over a pre-determined period of time. For example, a reward program may provide a second award of a percentage of the total reward earned from qualifying purchases during a period, if the transaction account associated with the reward program makes a pre-determined number of purchases (e.g., 20) over a pre-determined period of time (e.g., a billing period). In this regard, the second award of points may be a function of the number of transactions initiated in a period of time and the total amount of those transactions. For example, if a user earns 1,000 points from 20 purchases in a billing period and is entitled to second award of points of 20 percent of the total number of points earned from the 20 purchases, then the second award of points would be 200 points and, for example, less returns and credits within the time period. While the returns and credits may not affect the numbers of transactions received during it period of time, the returns and credits may affect the number of points used to determine the second award. Moreover, the criteria of the reward program may provide that the number of purchases required is a minimum number, and that all transaction and all points earned during the billing period with be part of the second award of points. The criteria may also specify that the second award of points is limited to the first 20 purchases during a billing period. In this case, only the first 20 purchases and the total number of points associated with those purchases will be used to determine the second award of points.

In various embodiments, purchasing frequency may be defined in any suitable manner. For example, purchasing frequency may be defined as a number of purchases at a particular retailer over a particular time, a number of purchases for an item (e.g., a particular type or class of item, a number of items from a manufacturer or group of manufactures and/or the like) over a particular period of time. Moreover, purchasing frequency may include a number of purchases and an amount for each purchase (e.g., X number of purchases, where the transaction amount for the purchases is equal to or greater than a threshold Y) over a particular period of time.

In various embodiments, the second number of points may be determined based on a trigger. This trigger may include receiving the number of authorizations associated with the number of purchases required for a reward. This trigger may include receiving the number of transactions associated with the number of purchases required for a reward. In the case of transactions, reward manager154and/or transaction processing system152may be configured to analyze transactions and retroactively apply them to a period of time to meet a transaction frequency (e.g., a number of transactions initiated in a period of time), even though the transaction may be received after the period of time has passed (e.g. after the billing cycle is over). This trigger may include receiving payment of an outstanding bill for the transaction account and/or any other suitable trigger.

Reward manager154and/or reward database156may also be configured to credit the second award to the reward account associated with the transaction account (step260). In response to the crediting, reporting module158and/or user interface135may display an indication that the second reward was credited via a user interface including, for example, a mobile user interface, e-mail, and/or web user interface.

The phrases consumer, customer, user, account holder, account affiliate, cardmember or the like shall include any person, entity, business, government organization, business, software, hardware, machine associated with a transaction account, buys merchant offerings offered by one or more merchants using the account and/or who is legally designated for performing transactions on the account, regardless of whether a physical card is associated with the account. For example, the cardmember may include a transaction account owner, a transaction account user, an account affiliate, a child account user, a subsidiary account user, a beneficiary of an account, a custodian of an account, and/or any other person or entity affiliated or associated with a transaction account.

Phrases and terms similar to “account”, “account number”, “account code” or “consumer account” as used herein, may include any device, code (e.g., one or more of an authorization/access code, personal identification number (“PIN”), Internet code, other identification code, and/or the like), number, letter, symbol, digital certificate, smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or other identifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer to access, interact with or communicate with the system. The account number may optionally be located on or associated with a rewards account, charge account, credit account, debit account, prepaid account, telephone card, embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card, transponder, radio frequency card or an associated account.

In various embodiments, a transaction account may be may include any account that may be used to facilitate a financial transaction including, for example, a charge account, a credit account, a bank account (e.g., a checking or savings account), and/or the like. The transaction account may include a transaction instrument such as a charge card, credit card, debit card, awards card, prepaid card, telephone card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card, transponder, radio frequency card and/or the like having an account number, which cardholders typically present to Service Establishments (SEs), as part of a transaction, such as a purchase. An “account number”, as used herein, includes any device, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate, smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or other identifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer to interact or communicate with the system, such as, for example, authorization/access code, personal identification number (PIN), Internet code, other identification code, and/or the like which is optionally located on card. The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic, electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or optical device capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to a second device. A customer account number may be, for example, a sixteen-digit credit card number, although each credit provider has its own numbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used by American Express. Each company's credit card numbers comply with that company's standardized format such that the company using a sixteen-digit format will generally use four spaced sets of numbers, as represented by the number “0000 0000 0000 0000”. The first five to seven digits are reserved for processing purposes and identify the issuing bank, card type and etc. In this example, the last sixteenth digit is used as a sum check for the sixteen-digit number. The intermediary eight-to-ten digits are used to uniquely identify the customer.

In various embodiments, an account number may identify a consumer. In addition, in various embodiments, a consumer may be identified by a variety of identifiers, including, for example, an email address, a telephone number, a cookie id, a radio frequency identifier (“RFID”), a biometric, and the like.

The system may include or interface with any of the foregoing accounts, devices, and/or a transponder and reader (e.g. RFID reader) in RF communication with the transponder (which may include a fob), or communications between an initiator and a target enabled by near field communications (NFC). Typical devices may include, for example, a key ring, tag, card, cell phone, wristwatch or any such form capable of being presented for interrogation. Moreover, the system, computing unit or device discussed herein may include a “pervasive computing device,” which may include a traditionally non-computerized device that is embedded with a computing unit. Examples may include watches, Internet enabled kitchen appliances, restaurant tables embedded with RF readers, wallets or purses with imbedded transponders, etc. Furthermore, a device or financial transaction instrument may have electronic and communications functionality enabled, for example, by: a network of electronic circuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto or within the transaction instrument (and typically referred to as a “smart card”); a fob having a transponder and an RFID reader; and/or near field communication (NFC) technologies.

Phrases and terms similar to “transaction account” may include any account that may be used to facilitate a financial transaction.

Phrases and terms similar to “financial institution” or “transaction account issuer” may include any entity that offers transaction account services. Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” the financial institution may represent any type of bank, lender or other type of account issuing institution, such as credit card companies, card sponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract with financial institutions. It is further noted that other participants may be involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediary settlement institution.

Phrases and terms similar to “transaction” may include any purchase, exchange, lease, rental, deal, agreement, authorization, settlement, information exchange, item exchange, a record of charge (or “ROC”), record of transaction (“ROT”), including all related data and metadata, and/or the like. Moreover, the transaction, information associated with the transaction, and/or a record associated with the transaction may comprise a unique identifier associated with a transaction. A transaction may, in various embodiments, be performed by one or more account holders using a transaction account. The transaction account may be associated with a transaction instrument such as, for example, a gift card, a debit card, a credit card, and the like. A record associated with the transaction may, in addition, contain details such as location, merchant name or identifier, transaction amount, transaction date, account number, account security pin or code, account expiry date, and the like for the transaction.

Phrases and terms similar to “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably with each other and shall mean any person, entity, distributor system, software and/or hardware that is a provider, broker and/or any other entity in the distribution chain of goods or services. For example, a merchant may be a grocery store, a retail store, a travel agency, a service provider, an on-line merchant or the like.

The present system or any part(s) or function(s) thereof may be implemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof and may be implemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems. However, the manipulations performed by embodiments were often referred to in terms, such as matching or selecting, which are commonly associated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No such capability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of the operations described herein. Rather, the operations may be machine operations. Useful machines for performing the various embodiments include general purpose digital computers or similar devices.

Computer system also includes a main memory, such as for example random access memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory. The secondary memory may include, for example, a hard disk drive and/or a removable storage drive, representing a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, etc. The removable storage drive reads from and/or writes to a removable storage unit in a well-known manner. Removable storage unit represents a floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, etc. which is read by and written to by removable storage drive. As will be appreciated, the removable storage unit includes a computer usable storage medium having stored therein computer software and/or data.

In various embodiments, secondary memory may include other similar devices for allowing computer programs or other instructions to be loaded into computer system. Such devices may include, for example, a removable storage unit and an interface. Examples of such may include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as an erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), or programmable read only memory (PROM)) and associated socket, and other removable storage units and interfaces, which allow software and data to be transferred from the removable storage unit to computer system.

Computer system may also include a communications interface. Communications interface allows software and data to be transferred between computer system and external devices. Examples of communications interface may include a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernet card), a communications port, a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) slot and card, etc. Software and data transferred via communications interface are in the form of signals which may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or other signals capable of being received by communications interface. These signals are provided to communications interface via a communications path (e.g., channel). This channel carries signals and may be implemented using wire, cable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, a radio frequency (RF) link, wireless and other communications channels.

The terms “computer program medium” and “computer usable medium” and “computer readable medium” are used to generally refer to media such as removable storage drive and a hard disk installed in hard disk drive. These computer program products provide software to computer system.

In various embodiments, software may be stored in a computer program product and loaded into computer system using removable storage drive, hard disk drive or communications interface. The control logic (software), when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the functions of various embodiments as described herein. In various embodiments, hardware components such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardware state machine so as to perform the functions described herein will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s).

A web client includes any device (e.g., personal computer) which communicates via any network, for example such as those discussed herein. Such browser applications comprise Internet browsing software installed within a computing unit or a system to conduct online transactions and/or communications. These computing units or systems may take the form of a computer or set of computers, although other types of computing units or systems may be used, including laptops, notebooks, tablets, hand held computers, personal digital assistants, set-top boxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers, mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets of computers, personal computers, such as iPads, iMACs, and MacBooks, kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS) devices and/or terminals, televisions, or any other device capable of receiving data over a network. A web-client may run Microsoft Internet Explorer®, Mozilla Firefox®, Google® Chrome, Apple® Safari, or any other of the myriad software packages available for browsing the internet.

Practitioners will appreciate that a web client may or may not be in direct contact with an application server. For example, a web client may access the services of an application server through another server and/or hardware component, which may have a direct or indirect connection to an Internet server. For example, a web client may communicate with an application server via a load balancer. In an exemplary embodiment, access is through a network or the Internet through a commercially-available web-browser software package.

“Cloud” or “Cloud computing” includes a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Cloud computing may include location-independent computing, whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand. For more information regarding cloud computing, see the NIST's (National Institute of Standards and Technology) definition of cloud computing at http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf (last visited June 2012), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Phrases and terms similar to “transaction” may include any purchase, authorization, settlement, a record of charge (or “ROC”), record of transaction (“ROT”) and/or the like. Moreover, the transaction, information associated with the transaction, and/or a record associated with the transaction may comprise a unique identifier associated with a transaction. A transaction may, in various embodiments, be performed by a one or more members using a transaction account, such as a transaction account associated with a transaction account such as, for example, a gift card, a debit card, a credit card, and the like. A record associated with the transaction may, in addition, contain details such as location, merchant name or identifier, transaction amount, transaction date, account number, account security pin or code, account expiry date, and the like for the transaction.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques now available in the art or which may become available—e.g., Twofish, RSA, El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, POP, PKI, GPO (GnuPG), and symmetric and asymmetric cryptosystems.

The computing unit of the web client may be further equipped with an Internet browser connected to the Internet or an intranet using standard dial-up, cable, DSL or any other Internet protocol known in the art. Transactions originating at a web client may pass through a firewall in order to prevent unauthorized access from users of other networks. Further, additional firewalls may be deployed between the varying components of CMS to further enhance security.

Firewall may include any hardware and/or software suitably configured to protect CMS components and/or enterprise computing resources from users of other networks. Further, a firewall may be configured to limit or restrict access to various systems and components behind the firewall for web clients connecting through a web server. Firewall may reside in varying configurations including Stateful Inspection, Proxy based, access control lists, and Packet Filtering among others. Firewall may be integrated within a web server or any other CMS components or may further reside as a separate entity. A firewall may implement network address translation (“NAT”) and/or network address port translation (“NAPT”). A firewall may accommodate various tunneling protocols to facilitate secure communications, such as those used in virtual private networking. A firewall may implement a demilitarized zone (“DMZ”) to facilitate communications with a public network such as the Internet. A firewall may be integrated as software within an Internet server, any other application server components or may reside within another computing device or may take the form of a standalone hardware component.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or other Internet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. In one embodiment, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are used in conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT web server software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and a Microsoft Commerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access or Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc., may be used to provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant database management system. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used in conjunction with a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP, and/or Python programming languages.

As used herein, the term “end user”, “consumer”, “customer”, “cardmember”, “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably with each other, and each shall mean any person, entity, government organization, business, machine, hardware, and/or software. A bank may be part of the system, but the bank may represent other types of card issuing institutions, such as credit card companies, card sponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract with financial institutions. It is further noted that other participants may be involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediary settlement institution, but these participants are not shown.

Each participant is equipped with a computing device in order to interact with the system and facilitate online commerce transactions. The customer has a computing unit in the form of a personal computer, although other types of computing units may be used including laptops, notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes, cellular telephones, touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchant has a computing unit implemented in the form of a computer-server, although other implementations are contemplated by the system. The bank has a computing center shown as a main frame computer. However, the bank computing center may be implemented in other forms, such as a mini-computer, a PC server, a network of computers located in the same of different geographic locations, or the like. Moreover, the system contemplates the use, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over any network having similar functionality described herein.

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via a second network, referred to as a payment network. The payment network which may be part of certain transactions represents existing proprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for credit cards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. The payment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure from eavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the American Express®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer and issuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commerce system is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto the customer computer and the banking computing center. The merchant computer does not require any additional software to participate in the online commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.