Abstract:
Targeted customer loyalty promotions are managed by an application through a point of sale contact. The application recognizes a customer visiting a store through communication (e.g. near field communication) with a customer device. The application receives a customer identifier (ID) from the customer device. Using the customer ID, the application retrieves a customer record matching the customer ID from a local data store of the point of sale, a networked data store, or a social network data store. The application determines customer loyalty promotions associated with the customer record and transmits the customer loyalty promotions to the customer.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     Customer loyalty rewards are frequently used sales promotion techniques to entice customers for continued sales. Customer loyalty rewards vary in form and substance. Some retailers provide discount coupons to entice customers to purchase the retailers inventory. Other retailers entice purchasers through free items accompanying a purchase. Yet other retailers provide in store redeemable cards to be used for purchasing an item. Most loyalty rewards have expiration dates. Some loyalty rewards are also event driven and depend on calendar events or time of the year. 
     Customer loyalty rewards redemption is a task intensive process. Loyalty reward redemption usually includes locating the right reward for the purchase of an item. Customers may end up paying full price when unable to redeem expired rewards. Additionally, on the spot redemption is difficult if not impossible during a check-out process if the customer does not provide the reward. Coupons are easily misplaced and may not apply to item that the customer may wish to purchase. Loyalty points may continue to accrue. However, loyalty points are usually reserved for major redemptions such as flight fair and hotel costs. Loyalty points rarely entice subsequent purchases through value discounts at the time of purchase. On the spot offers such as coupon books at check-out are also seldom used during the present purchase. On the spot offers may entice the customer for a follow up visit but may not apply to an item that the customer wishes to purchase. 
     SUMMARY 
     This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to exclusively identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. 
     Embodiments are directed to managing targeted customer loyalty promotions. According to some embodiments, a retail customer record may be created through social loyalty web service lookup. At point of sale or similar locations, a three-tiered customer search may be performed with social loyalty web service as the third tier. A universal customer identifier may be used for customer lookup at retail point of sale and customer purchase history and social loyalty preferences may be used to email promotions and/or push promotions to a mobile device for redemption through the point of sale. In some embodiments, near field communications (e.g. through the customer&#39;s mobile device) may be used to communicate customer identifier with no prior customer record existing in the retailer&#39;s system. Customer specific, current promotions may be delivered to the customer upon entry at a retailer&#39;s site based on previously offered promotions and promotions applicable to the customer&#39;s stated interests via a social network. Moreover, email may be used to deliver a customer purchase record with promotions based on social network interests and purchase history. 
     According to other embodiments, advertisement services may enable retailers to formulate promotions and publish to web service which interfaces with a social network to deliver advertisements to customers based on social network interests and purchase history. Customers may be enrolled into a social network application, which may be accessed by retailers for customer record creation and an advertising network may deliver customer specific promotions. Customer access to club retailers may also be enabled through a near field communications enabled mobile phone. Furthermore, ad hoc transaction retrieval may be enabled from the cloud based on customer identifier entry via a near field communication enabled mobile device. 
     These and other features and advantages will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are explanatory and do not restrict aspects as claimed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates an example conceptual network diagram of a system managing targeted customer loyalty promotions; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates example components of a system managing targeted customer loyalty promotions according to embodiments; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates other example components of the system managing targeted customer loyalty promotions according to embodiments; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates example user interfaces displaying targeted customer loyalty promotions according to embodiments; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates another example user interface managing access to targeted customer loyalty promotions according to other embodiments; 
         FIG. 6  illustrates yet another example user interface displaying targeted customer loyalty promotions according to some embodiments; 
         FIG. 7  is a networked environment, where a system according to embodiments may be implemented; 
         FIG. 8  is a block diagram of an example computing operating environment, where embodiments may be implemented; and 
         FIG. 9  illustrates a logic flow diagram for a process of managing targeted customer loyalty promotions according to embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     As briefly described above, an application may manage targeted customer loyalty promotions. The application may receive a customer identifier (ID) from a customer device at a point of sale (POS). The application may retrieve a customer record matching the customer id from a local data store at the POS, a retailer data store common to multiple POS, or a social networking application. The customer record may store customer sales preferences such as sales history. Subsequently, the application may determine customer loyalty promotions associated with the customer record. The application may compare prior sales transactions and match identified purchased items to available customer loyalty promotions. Next, the application may transmit the customer loyalty promotions to the customer. The application may transmit the customer loyalty promotions to the customer device or to another device. 
     In the following detailed description, references are made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustrations specific embodiments or examples. These aspects may be combined, other aspects may be utilized, and structural changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. The following detailed description is therefore not to be taken in the limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents. While the embodiments will be described in the general context of program modules that execute in conjunction with an application program that runs on an operating system on a personal computer, those skilled in the art will recognize that aspects may also be implemented in combination with other program modules. 
     Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, and other types of structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and comparable computing devices. Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. 
     Embodiments may be implemented as a computer-implemented process (method), a computing system, or as an article of manufacture, such as a computer program product or computer readable media. The computer program product may be a computer storage medium readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program that comprises instructions for causing a computer or computing system to perform example process(es). The computer-readable storage medium is a computer-readable memory device. The computer-readable storage medium can for example be implemented via one or more of a volatile computer memory, a non-volatile memory, a hard drive, a flash drive, a floppy disk, or a compact disk, and comparable media. 
     According to embodiments, a POS may be a location conducting sales of for-sale items. The POS may be enabled to detect customers and customer transactions through devices on the customers. A customer device may be a mobile phone. Alternatively, the customer device may be simple circuitry embedded in proximity to the customer. An example may be a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag to identify the customer. An application utilizing a customer ID detected at the POS may provide the customer with customer loyalty promotions. Customer loyalty promotions may be variety of sales techniques to promote subsequent sales. Examples include future sales discounts, free items with future purchasers, points offered for a past, present or future sale, etc. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an example conceptual network diagram of system managing targeted customer loyalty promotions. Diagram  100  displays network components interacting with an application managing targeted customer loyalty promotions. The application may run in sales server  104 . The sales server  104  may be a single server or a cluster of servers providing sales related services to a retailer or similar organization. Sales services may include item inventory and sales transaction management. 
     The sales server  104  may receive customer loyalty promotions from third parties such as advertising services. Advertising services may be managed by an advertising server  106 . The customer loyalty promotions may be targeted to the customer with customer preference information from a social networking application. The sales server  104  may retrieve customer information from a social networking application within a social networking server  102 . The sales server  104 , advertising server  106 , and social networking server  102  may communicate with each other through network(s)  110 . 
     The sales server  104  may deliver a targeted customer loyalty promotion to the customer through customer devices. The sales server  104  may transmit the customer loyalty promotion to a mobile phone  120  or to another device such as a tablet  122 . The customer loyalty promotion may be formatted for optimum display to meet mobile device screen requirements. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates example components of a system managing targeted customer loyalty promotions according to embodiments. Diagram  200  displays entities managing the customer loyalty promotion generation process. In an embodiment, the customer loyalty promotion may be initiated when a customer enters or approaches a point of sale (POS) location  214 . POS location  214  may be a store or any such location capable of detecting a customer device  210  through communications such as near field communications (NFC). For example, a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag embedded into a customer&#39;s device  210 , a Bluetooth transceiver, a Wi-Fi transceiver, or infrared signals (IR) may be used for near field communications between a POS terminal and the customer&#39;s device. 
     The customer device  210  may transmit a customer identifier (ID)  212  to the POS terminal upon proximity. The POS terminal may communicate with one or more server and utilize the customer ID to record transaction information  216 . A transaction may be a sale of a for-sale item. Alternatively a transaction may be a price inquiry. In an example scenario, a customer device may be used to retrieve a for-sale item identifier by querying the for-sale item through various communication technologies such as NFC. The customer device may transmit the for-sale item identifier to the POS terminal and retrieve a price for the for-sale item. 
     The POS terminal may transmit the transaction information  216  to an advertising engine  218 . The advertising engine may analyze the transaction information for customer preferences. The advertising engine  218  may compare the transaction information to previous transaction information located in a customer record to generate an associated customer loyalty promotion. Alternatively, the advertising engine  218  may utilize customer preference information from external sources to create a customer loyalty promotion. According to an embodiment, the advertising engine  218  may transmit the customer loyalty information to a social networking application  222  to expose the customer to the customer loyalty promotion through the customer&#39;s account within the social networking application. According to another embodiment, the advertising engine  218  may directly transmit the customer loyalty promotion to the customer device  210  by integrating the customer loyalty promotion to a receipt  220  of the customer transaction. The customer may keep the receipt  220  for record keeping purposes while having convenient access to the customer loyalty promotion for future purchase transactions. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates other example components of the system managing targeted customer loyalty promotions according to embodiments. Diagram  300  displays entity interactions to retrieve a customer record. POS terminal  314  may query variety of sources to retrieve the customer record. The customer record may be analyzed to extract customer preference information. The customer preference information may be used to create a customer loyalty promotion. 
     According to an embodiment, the POS terminal  314  may initiate a customer ID search  310  with a local data store  308 . The local data store may be a customer database maintained by a sales system associated with the POS terminal  314  to manage a customer record  312 . The customer record  312  may include transaction history. The customer record  312  may also include customer profile information such as name, address, phone number, etc. The POS terminal  314  may use the customer record  312  to generate the customer loyalty promotion. The POS terminal  314  may stop a customer record search upon receiving customer record  312 . However, the POS terminal  314  may continue the customer record search with other entities upon an inability to locate a customer record within local data store  308 . Alternatively, the POS terminal  314  may be configured to search multiple data stores for retrieving customer preference information from multiple customer records. Additionally, the application may create the customer record upon an inability to retrieve the customer record and store the customer record in the local data store or the retailer data store 
     According to another embodiment, the POS terminal  314  may continue with another customer ID search  304  with other entities such as a retailer data store  302 . The retailer data store  302  may be a common database utilized by multiple POS. As such, the retailer data store  302  may have additional customer preference information such as customer sales transaction history from multiple POS locations. The retailer data store  302  may transmit a customer record  306  upon matching the customer ID to a stored customer record. Alternatively, the POS terminal  314  may query a social networking application  322  with a customer ID search  316 . The social networking application  322  may have a customer record  318  containing customer preference information. The customer record  318  from the social networking application  322  may have additional information such as customer interaction information with other users of the social networking application. An example may be gifts sent to other users of the social networking application. Upon matching the customer ID  316  to the customer record  318 , the social networking application  322  may transmit the customer record  318  to the POS terminal  314 . 
     According to an embodiment, an application may manage the targeted customer loyalty promotions at the POS location. The application may transmit one or more customer loyalty promotions to the customer device. Alternatively, the application may transmit the customer loyalty promotions to another customer device. An example of another device may be a tablet device with a larger screen to aid ease of viewing multiple customer loyalty promotions. 
     According to another embodiment, the application may analyze a customer purchase history from the customer record and evaluate a social loyalty preference from the customer record. The social loyalty preference may include information from a customer&#39;s user profile at a social networking application. Additionally, upon detecting the customer device in a retailer location, the application may determine a previous customer loyalty promotion associated with the customer record and a social loyalty preference from the customer record. The application may combine the previous customer loyalty promotion and social loyalty preference to create the customer loyalty promotion. Alternatively, the application may retrieve a list of active customer loyalty promotions from a retailer and determine the customer loyalty promotion to send to the customer device from the list of active customer loyalty promotions. 
     According to other embodiments, the application may transmit a receipt of a purchase transaction and the customer loyalty promotion within an email message. Additionally, the application may provide a web service interface for an advertising service to access the customer record. The application may receive the customer loyalty promotion from the advertising service through the web service interface. 
     According to further embodiments, the application may enroll the customer to a service of the social networking application. The application may provide third party access to the service to deliver the customer loyalty promotion. The third party may access the social networking application in order to deliver the customer loyalty promotion to the customer&#39;s user profile. Additionally, the application may replace personal information in the customer record with anonymous information. In an example embodiment, the application may replace credit card numbers and user identifiers with a character such as an asterisk during access by third party. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates example user interfaces displaying targeted customer loyalty promotions according to embodiments. Diagram  400  displays multiple example user interfaces of a mobile device screen. 
     According to an embodiment, mobile device  402  may present a user with a question whether they would like to share a customer ID associated with the mobile device  402  with a retailer store  408 . The inquiry may be triggered upon proximity to the retailer. The mobile device  402  may display generated customer loyalty promotions through another inquiry  410 . Additionally, the mobile device may inquire whether the customer would like to use loyalty points to pay for a transaction  412  at the retailer. 
     According to another embodiment, a mobile device  404  may display an inquiry  414  to determine customer payment methods. The payment methods may be associated with the customer loyalty promotions. Examples may include credit cards that register points for transactions. The user interface may display example credit cards  416  and  418  and await a user selection to complete a payment with the selected credit card. 
     According to yet another embodiment, a mobile device  406  may display a receipt  420  of a customer transaction. The mobile device  406  may display an integrated customer loyalty promotion  422  with the receipt. The customer loyalty promotion may promote a future sale at the retailer. Additionally, the customer loyalty promotion may generate advertising revenue for the advertising services generating the customer loyalty promotion. 
     According to some embodiments, an application may manage the targeted customer loyalty promotion at a location of the sale. The customer device may be an NFC enabled mobile phone. The application may receive the customer ID from the mobile phone through near field communications (NFC). The application may determine payment options associated with the customer loyalty promotion and transmit the payment options to the customer device through NFC for displaying at the end of a sale transaction. Additionally, the application may receive a selected payment option through NFC, determine another customer loyalty promotion associated with the selected payment option, and transmit the other customer loyalty promotion through NFC. The application may provide the other customer loyalty promotion to promote future sales. 
     According to a further embodiment, the application may receive a for-sale item identifier from the customer device through Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID, infrared signal, or similar communications. The application may determine a customer loyalty promotion associated with the for-sale item identifier and transmit the customer loyalty promotion to the customer device. 
     According to other embodiments, the application may retrieve customer transactions including a price scan of a for-sale item identifier from the customer record. The application may determine the customer loyalty promotion associated with the customer transaction. Alternatively, the application may retrieve customer sales information including interactions with a for-sale item identifier from the NFC enabled mobile phone. The application may determine a customer loyalty promotion associated with the customer sales information. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates another example user interface  500  managing access to targeted customer loyalty promotions according to other embodiments. User interface  500  is a social networking application user interface on a customer device  502  such as a tablet. The social networking application user interface may display an icon  504  representing the customer. Contacts  506  of the customer may also be displayed. Additionally, the social networking application may display search interface  508  to browse the social networking application user information. 
     The social networking application may inquire ( 510 ) the customer whether they would like to grant access to the customer&#39;s user profile. The grant access inquiry may be for a service to interact with external customer loyalty promotion providers. The external customer loyalty promotion providers may interact with the customer&#39;s social networking profile to retrieve customer preference information. The customer may provide full ( 512 ) or customized ( 514 ) access. Customized ( 514 ) access may limit exposure of customer&#39;s user profile information such as private information. Alternatively, the customer may deny ( 516 ) the third party&#39;s user profile access request  510 . 
       FIG. 6  illustrates yet another example user interface  600  displaying targeted customer loyalty promotions according to some embodiments. The customer device  602  may display customer loyalty promotions formatted for optimum display according to the customer device&#39;s display screen&#39;s requirements. 
     The customer device  602  may display customer loyalty promotions  606  associated with a retailer  604 . The customer loyalty promotions may be displayed through a social networking application user interface. The customer loyalty promotions  606  may be specific to a store of the retailer  604 . Alternatively, the customer loyalty promotions may be usable at any POS location within the retailer&#39;s network. The social networking application user interface may also inquire ( 608 ) whether to enable services such as joining the retailer&#39;s promotion group to receive subsequent customer loyalty promotions. 
     The example customer ID, customer record, customer loyalty promotions, and configurations depicted in  FIGS. 1 through 6  are provided for illustration purposes only. Embodiments are not limited to the shapes, forms, and content shown in the example user interfaces, and may be implemented using other textual, graphical, and similar schemes employing the principles described herein. 
       FIG. 7  is a networked environment, where a system according to embodiments may be implemented. In addition to locally installed applications, such as application  822  discussed below, managing targeted customer loyalty promotions may be also be employed in conjunction with hosted applications and services that may be implemented via software executed over one or more servers  706  or individual server  708 . A hosted service or application may communicate with client applications on individual computing devices such as a handheld computer  701 , a desktop computer  702 , a laptop computer  703 , a smart phone  704 , a tablet computer (or slate),  705  (‘client devices’) through network(s)  710  and manage a customer loyalty promotion presented to customers. 
     As previously discussed, a customer loyalty promotion may be managed by the hosted service or application. The customer loyalty promotion may be generated from an analysis of a customer record received from a local data store, a retailer data store, a social networking application, etc. 
     Client devices  701 - 705  are used to access the functionality provided by the hosted service or application. One or more of the servers  706  or server  708  may be used to provide a variety of services as discussed above. Relevant data may be stored in one or more data stores (e.g. data store  714 ), which may be managed by any one of the servers  706  or by database server  712 . 
     Network(s)  710  may comprise any topology of servers, clients, Internet service providers, and communication media. A system according to embodiments may have a static or dynamic topology. Network(s)  710  may include a secure network such as an enterprise network, an unsecure network such as a wireless open network, or the Internet. Network(s)  710  may also coordinate communication over other networks such as PSTN or cellular networks. Network(s)  710  provides communication between the nodes described herein. By way of example, and not limitation, network(s)  710  may include wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. 
     Many other configurations of computing devices, applications, data sources, and data distribution systems may be employed to manage targeted customer loyalty promotions. Furthermore, the networked environments discussed in  FIG. 7  are for illustration purposes only. Embodiments are not limited to the example applications, modules, or processes. 
       FIG. 8  and the associated discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which embodiments may be implemented. With reference to  FIG. 8 , a block diagram of an example computing operating environment according to embodiments is illustrated, such as computing device  800 . In a basic configuration, computing device  800  may be any point of sale (POS) device in stationary, mobile, or other form such as the example devices discussed in conjunction with  FIG. 1 , and include at least one processing unit  802  and system memory  804 . Computing device  800  may also include a plurality of processing units that cooperate in executing programs. Depending on the exact configuration and type of computing device, the system memory  804  may be volatile (such as RAM), non-volatile (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.) or some combination of the two. System memory  804  typically includes an operating system  805  suitable for controlling the operation of the platform, such as the WINDOWS ®, WINDOWS MOBILE®, or WINDOWS PHONE® operating systems from MICROSOFT CORPORATION of Redmond, Washington. The system memory  804  may also include one or more software applications such as program modules  806 , customer loyalty application  822 , and advertising engine  824 . 
     Advertising engine  824  may operate in conjunction with the operating system  805  or application  822  and create customer loyalty promotions as discussed previously. Advertising engine module  824  may also receive third party generated customer loyalty promotions. This basic configuration is illustrated in  FIG. 8  by those components within dashed line  808 . 
     Computing device  800  may have additional features or functionality. For example, the computing device  800  may also include additional data storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in  FIG. 8  by removable storage  809  and non-removable storage  810 . Computer readable storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. System memory  804 , removable storage  809  and non-removable storage  810  are all examples of computer readable storage media. Computer readable storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by computing device  800 . Any such computer readable storage media may be part of computing device  800 . Computing device  800  may also have input device(s)  812  such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, an optical capture device for detecting gestures, and comparable input devices. Output device(s)  814  such as a display, speakers, printer, and other types of output devices may also be included. These devices are well known in the art and need not be discussed at length here. 
     Computing device  800  may also contain communication connections  816  that allow the device to communicate with other devices  818 , such as over a wireless network in a distributed computing environment, a satellite link, a cellular link, and comparable mechanisms. Other devices  818  may include computer device(s) that execute communication applications, other directory or policy servers, and comparable devices. Communication connection(s)  816  is one example of communication media. Communication media can include therein computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. 
     Example embodiments also include methods. These methods can be implemented in any number of ways, including the structures described in this document. One such way is by machine operations, of devices of the type described in this document. 
     Another optional way is for one or more of the individual operations of the methods to be performed in conjunction with one or more human operators performing some. These human operators need not be collocated with each other, but each can be only with a machine that performs a portion of the program. 
       FIG. 9  illustrates a logic flow diagram for a process of managing targeted customer loyalty promotions according to embodiments. Process  900  may be implemented as part of an application or an operating system of any computing device capable of receiving customer ID, customer records, customer transaction information and customer loyalty promotions. 
     As mentioned previously, near field communication (NFC) embedded in a mobile phone or similar device may be used to provide a customer ID in a retail environment. A retailer may use the ID to query a social network and obtain minimum information to create a customer record where it did not previously exist. The universal customer ID may then be used as an alias to reference the retailer&#39;s own customer ID moving forward. Customers may use this ID at multiple retailers that support the customer lookup system. Customer preferences as indicated on the social network may then be coupled with items purchased to generate strategic advertisements with maximum relevance for the customer. The advertisements or promotions may be sent to the customer along with a receipt for the transaction via email. Upon returning to the retailer, the customer may “check in” to view relevant active promotions based on buying history, preferences and offers previously included with receipts sent via email. The promotions can then be redeemed at the point of sale at the time of purchase through the same NFC interaction that provides the customer ID. 
     Process  900  begins with operation  910 , where an application managing customer loyalty promotions may receive a customer ID from a customer device. Receiving the customer ID may be triggered by proximity of the customer device to a sale location such as a check-out counter. Subsequently, the application may retrieve a customer record matching the customer ID from a data store at operation  920 . The data store may be a local data store, a retailer data store, or a social networking application. Next, the application may determine customer loyalty promotions associated with the customer record at operation  930 . The application may analyze the customer record for customer history information to determine customer preference information. At operation  940 , the application may transmit customer loyalty promotions to the customer. The transmission may be through NFC and may include payment options. 
     The operations included in process  900  are for illustration purposes. Managing targeted customer loyalty promotions according to embodiments may be implemented by similar processes with fewer or additional steps, as well as in different order of operations using the principles described herein. 
     According to some embodiments, a retail customer record may be created through social loyalty web service lookup. At point of sale or similar locations, a three-tiered customer search may be performed with social loyalty web service as the third tier. A universal customer identifier may be used for customer lookup at retail point of sale and customer purchase history and social loyalty preferences may be used to email promotions and/or push promotions to a mobile device for redemption through the point of sale. Advertisement services may enable retailers to formulate promotions and publish to web service which interfaces with a social network to deliver advertisements to customers based on social network interests and purchase history. Customers may be enrolled into a social network application, which may be accessed by retailers for customer record creation and an advertising network may deliver customer specific promotions. 
     In some embodiments, near field communications (e.g. through the customer&#39;s mobile device) may be used to communicate customer identifier with no prior customer record existing in the retailer&#39;s system. Customer specific, current promotions may be delivered to the customer upon entry at a retailer&#39;s site based on previously offered promotions and promotions applicable to the customer&#39;s stated interests via a social network. Moreover, email may be used to deliver a customer purchase record with promotions based on social network interests and purchase history. Customer access to club retailers may also be enabled through a near field communications enabled mobile phone. Furthermore, ad hoc transaction retrieval may be enabled from the cloud based on customer identifier entry via a near field communication enabled mobile device. 
     The above specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the embodiments. Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims and embodiments.