Patent Publication Number: US-2012046958-A1

Title: Systems and methods for providing a multi-channel retail layaway service

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     The subject invention generally relates to computer-based retail services and, more particularly, relates to systems and method for providing a multi-channel retail layaway service. 
     In the art, system and methods for providing retail layaway services are generally known. By way of example, eLayaway, Inc. provides a retail layaway service that, like traditional retail layaway services, allows a customer to make payments over time for items ordered online from a merchant. The customer can interact with an online calculator to customize the size of the monthly payments by adjusting how many payments are desired. The system then functions to automatically deduct the monthly payments from a specified bank account. When all of the payments have been made, the merchant will ship the items ordered to the customer. 
     SUMMARY 
     The following describes systems and methods for providing a multi-channel retail layaway service, i.e., a retail layaway service to which online retail channels and physical or “brick and mortar” retail channels are both linked. The described systems and methods thus allow a customer to use the online retail channel or the physical retail channel to form a layaway contract to purchase one or more ordered items (which ordered items may then be placed in holding stock, for example, at a retail store location), use the online retail channel and/or the physical retail channel to make payments on, view, or otherwise manage the formed layaway contract, and ultimately receive the ordered items upon completion of the terms of the formed layaway contract (for example, at the retail store location at which such ordered items were held in stock). 
     While the forgoing provides a general overview of some of the various features and functionalities of the subject invention, a better understanding of the objects, advantages, features, properties and relationships of the subject invention will be obtained from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings which set forth illustrative embodiments and which are indicative of the various ways in which the principles of the subject invention may be employed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       For a better understanding of the subject invention, reference may be had to preferred embodiments shown in the attached drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  illustrates in block diagram form components of an exemplary retail environment in which the principles of the subject invention may be employed; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates in block diagram form components of an exemplary host system of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a flow diagram of exemplary methods for forming a retail layaway contract via the retail environment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a flow diagram of exemplary methods for making payments on the formed layaway contract via the retail environment of  FIG. 1 ; and 
         FIG. 5  illustrates a flow diagram of exemplary methods for completing the formed layaway contract with a final payment via the retail environment of  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     With reference to the figures, the following describes various systems and methods for linking both online retail channels and physical or “brick and mortar” retail channels with a retail layaway service. In this manner a customer can use the online retail channel or the physical retail channel to form a layaway contract to purchase one or more ordered items (which ordered items may then be placed in holding stock, for example, at a retail store location), use the online retail channel and/or the physical retail channel to make payments on, view, or otherwise manage the formed layaway contract, and ultimately receive the ordered items upon completion of the terms of the formed layaway contract (for example, at the retail store location at which such ordered items were held in stock). 
     Turning now to  FIG. 1 , a processing device  20  is provided whereby a customer may access an online retail channel hosted by one or more host systems  68  to, among other things, view and order products and/or services, i.e., “items,” being offered for sale online, to access and interact with a centralized layaway contract management system supported by the host system(s)  68 , etc. While illustrated in the exemplary form of a personal computer, it is to be understood that the processing device  20  may be embodied in any type of device having the ability to execute instructions such as, by way of example only, a personal-digital assistant (“PDA”), a cellular telephone, or the like. Furthermore, while described and illustrated in the context of a single processing device  20 , those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the various tasks described hereinafter may be practiced in a distributed environment having multiple processing devices linked via a local or wide-area network, such as the Internet, whereby the executable instructions may be associated with and/or executed by one or more of the multiple processing devices. 
     More particularly, to provide a means for the customer to access the online retail channel (and to perform various other tasks as necessary) the processing device  20  preferably includes a processing unit  22  and a system memory  24  which may be linked via a bus  26 . Without limitation, the bus  26  may be a memory bus, a peripheral bus, and/or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. As needed for any particular purpose, the system memory  24  may include read only memory (ROM)  28  and/or random access memory (RAM)  30 . Additional memory devices may also be made accessible to the processing device  20  by means of, for example, a hard disk drive interface  32 , a magnetic disk drive interface  34 , and/or an optical disk drive interface  36 . As will be understood, these devices, which would be linked to the system bus  26 , respectively allow for reading from and writing to a hard disk  38 , reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk  40 , and for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk  42 , such as a CD/DVD ROM or other optical media. The drive interfaces and their associated physically embodied computer-readable media allow for the storage of instructions, data structures, program modules, and the like for execution by the processing unit  22  of the processing device  20 . Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that other types of physically embodied computer-readable media that can store data and/or instructions may be used for this same purpose. Examples of such media devices include, but are not limited to, magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital videodisks, Bernoulli cartridges, random access memories, nano-drives, memory sticks, and other read/write and/or read-only memories. Meanwhile, the program modules that may be stored in one or more of the memory/media devices may include a basic input/output system (BIOS)  44  which contains the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the processing device  20 , such as during start-up, an operating system  46 , one or more applications programs  48  (such as a Web browser), other program modules  50 , and/or program data  52 . 
     To allow a user to enter commands and information into the processing device  20 , input devices such as a touch pad or keyboard  54  and/or a pointing device  56  are provided. While not illustrated, other input devices may include a microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a scanner, a camera, etc. These and other input devices would typically be connected to the processing unit  22  by means of an interface  58  which, in turn, would be coupled to the bus  26 . Input devices may be connected to the processor  22  using interfaces such as, for example, a parallel port, game port, firewire, or a universal serial bus (USB). To view information from the processing device  20 , a monitor  60  or other type of display device may also be connected to the bus  26  via an interface, such as a video adapter  62 . In addition to the monitor  60 , the processing device  20  may also include other peripheral output devices, not shown, such as speakers and printers. 
     As noted above, the processing device  20  may also utilize logical connections to one or more remote processing devices, such as a host system  68  having associated data repository  68 A. While the host system  68  has been illustrated in the exemplary form of a server computer, it will be appreciated that the host system  68  may, like processing device  20 , be any type of device having processing capabilities. Similarly, it will be appreciated that the host system  68  need not be implemented as a single device but may be implemented in a manner such that the tasks performed by the host system  68  are distributed amongst a plurality of processing devices/databases located at the same or different geographical locations and linked through a communication network. Additionally, the host system  68  may have logical connections to other third party systems via the network  12  and, via such connections, will be associated with functions that are supported by and data repositories that are linked to such other third party systems. Such third party systems may include, without limitation, systems of banking, credit, or other financial institutions, systems of third party providers of goods and/or services, systems of shipping/delivery companies, systems that support social networking, etc. 
     For performing tasks as needed, the host system  68  may include many or all of the elements described above relative to the processing device  20 . In addition, the host system  68  would generally include executable instructions that are likewise stored on physically embodied memory devices for, among other things, providing online retail channel services, providing physical retail channel services, managing item orders, shipment, storage, managing retail layaway contracts, and/or managing financial accounts. To this end, the host system  68  may additionally include point-of-sale devices, e.g., cash registers, that are located within retail stores, mobile devices (e.g., to be used in a retail store by associates to pick items for layaway storage), informational kiosks, wireless access points, and the like without limitation. 
     Communications between the processing device  20  and the host system  68  may be exchanged via a further processing device, such as a network router  72 , that is responsible for network routing. Communications with the network router  72  may be performed via a network interface component  73 . Thus, within such a networked environment, e.g., the Internet, World Wide Web, LAN, or other like type of wired or wireless network, it will be appreciated that program modules depicted relative to the processing device  20 , or portions thereof, may be stored in the memory storage device(s) associated with the host system  68 . 
     As noted above, the subject invention, particularly the host system  68 , provides a multi-channel retail layaway service wherein online retail channels and physical or “brick and mortar” retail channels are linked. As particularly illustrated in  FIG. 2 , for this purpose the host system  68  includes an enterprise service bus (ESB)  200  that functions to manage communications between the various host system components including the system components that are located in the physical retail store  202  (such as point-of-sale devices, in-store kiosks, associate hand-held communication devices, etc.), the system components that comprise a layaway contracts management system (LCM)  204 , the system components that are used to provide online retail or “.com” services  206 , email system components  207 , etc. as well as with processing devices  20 . By way of example only and without limitation, the 
     LCM  204  may include executable instructions for calculating terms/payments for a proposed retail layaway contract  208 , for retrieving details of a formed retail layaway contract  210  (e.g., for provision to retail store systems or processing device  20 ), for modifying, managing, and monitoring details of a formed retail layaway contract  212 , for processing payments made on a formed retail layaway contract  214  (which may interact with third party financial systems and/or financial systems of the retailer), for communicating information to/receiving information from retail store system components  216  (e.g., for receiving information for a retail layaway contract being formed in a physical retail store, for informing a retail store that layaway items are to be placed on hold, etc.), for causing the mail system components to send notifications to processing device  20 , and the like. As a result of such executable instructions, the host system  68  provides mechanisms whereby a consumer may, again by way of example only and without limitation, browse online item catalogs as well as access additional online retail services  220 , invoke a retail layaway calculator  222  (e.g., to view and optionally determine payments for items that may be desired to be purchased via layaway), enter into a retail layaway contract  224  and  226 , cause payments to be made on a formed layaway contract  228  (which may involve communications being exchanged with third party financial systems), view and manage a formed layaway contract  230 , receive email status/reminder communications from the host system  68 , etc. 
     By way of further example with reference to  FIGS. 3-5 , via the online retail channel a customer may browse an online catalog of a retailer and from an item detail page, shopping cart checkout page, search results page, etc., cause a request  302  to be issued to the host system  68 , for example by activation of a hyperlink, icon, or the like, for the purpose of notifying the host system  68  that the customer would like to see layaway purchasing details for one or more items. It is to be appreciated that the retailer need not provide a layaway purchasing option for all items that are being sold and, as such, the retailer may selectively provide a layaway purchasing option for an item. By way of example only, an item may be eligible for layaway purchasing depending upon factors such as the stock status of the item, seasonal status of the item, or the like. In response to the request  302 , the online system component  206  of the host system will invoke  304  a layaway calculator component that is provided by the LCM  204  whereupon the layaway calculator component will function  306  to generally determine or estimate for an indicated item or items the details that would be applicable to a layaway contract to purchase the item or items. These details would typically include payment amounts that would need to be made over given periods of time, such as weekly, monthly, etc., to thereby purchase the indicated item by a given end date via the layaway purchase option. The details determined by the calculator are then returned to the online system component  206  whereupon the online system component  206  will cause the details to be displayed  308  for viewing  310  by the customer. During this process, it will be appreciated that the host system  68  may optionally provide for the customer to interact with a presented layaway calculator interface to thereby dynamically change one or more layaway conditions, e.g., length of contract, payment intervals, location where items are to be picked up, etc, and to thereby view how the layaway details, as determined by the calculator, are changed as the layaway conditions are changed by the customer. 
     In the event that the customer thereafter elects to order one or more items using the layaway purchase option  312 , for example by again selecting a hyperlink, icon, or the like presented on a product detail page, shopping cart checkout page, search results page, with the layaway calculator interface, etc., the online system component  206  will again invoke  314  the layaway calculator component that is provided by the LCM  204  whereupon the layaway calculator component will function  316  to determine for an indicated item or items the details that will be applicable to a layaway contract that is to be created pending a later check of customer and/or item eligibility, e.g., a check to determine if customer payment information is correct and/or item(s) ordered are in stock. As before, the details for the layaway contract would include the payment amounts that would need to be made over given periods of time, such as weekly, monthly, etc., to thereby purchase the indicated item or items by a given end date via the layaway purchase option. The details determined by the calculator for the layaway contract are then returned to the online system component  206  whereupon the online system component  206  will additionally calculate  318  a tax owed on the purchase, for example, by considering the zipcode which an item is be picked up at or delivered to upon completion of the layaway contract. The online system component  206  may again cause the details associated with the layaway contract to be displayed  320  for viewing, optional modification, and acceptance  322  by the customer. 
     Upon the customer indicating an acceptance of the currently presented terms of the layaway contract  324  and providing any initial payment fees if required, the host system  68  will proceed to check  326 / 328  the eligibility of the pending layaway contract  330 . In this regard, the host system  68  may perform post order processing to secure payment authorization (which may require an exchange of communications with a third party financial system) and to ensure that the item or items that are the subject of the pending layaway contract are in stock in the required quantities. In the event that all requested item(s) or quant(ies) of item(s) are not available, e.g., not at a retail store selected by the customer for pickup upon completion of the terms of the layaway contract, the customer may be notified, for example via an email sent using email systems  207 , whereupon the customer may access the host system  68  via the online retail channel (or via the physical retail channel with a visit to a retail store) to modify the details of the pending layaway contract, e.g., to cancel the pending layaway contract or to remove or reduce quantity of items present in the pending layaway contract. A pending layaway contract modified in this manner would cause the details for the pending layaway contract to be updated in the LCM  204  and would cause the performance of further action as necessary, e.g., to again check details of the contract with store inventory. If a customer does not modify a pending layaway contract wherein all requested item(s) or quant(ies) of item(s) are not available with a specified period of time or otherwise make any required fee payments in the event that payment authorization was not received, the host system  68  may function to automatically cancel the pending layaway contract whereupon the customer will be so notified, for example via an email sent using the email systems  207 , and the LCM  204  updated with the details for the canceled layaway contract. A retail store may also be notified of such a cancellation event if necessary to allow the retail store to remove any reserved layaway items from layaway storage. 
     When the eligibility of a created, pending layaway contract is confirmed and an initial payment thereon appropriately processed  332 , a retail store which was selected by the customer or otherwise determined to be a pickup location can be provided  334  with the details of the pending layaway contract whereupon that retail store can update its inventory database  336  and cause the quantity of item or items ordered to be placed into layaway holding storage. To this end, the host system  68  may cause a notification event to be sent  338  to a handheld device that is provided to an associate of the retail store whereupon the retail store associate will proceed  340  to collect the quantity of item or items that are the subject of the pending layaway contract and place the same into layaway holding storage at the retail location. When the quantity of item or items have been accordingly placed into layaway holding storage, the retail store associate may use the handheld device to cause a confirmation  342  of the perfected layaway holding to be sent to the LCM  204 , the store inventory database, and the customer via the host system  68  email system components  207 . 
     While the foregoing describes an example by which the online retail channel may be used to create, modify, and manage a pending layaway contract, it is to be appreciated that similar steps  344  may be performed in a retail store, i.e., the physical retail channel, with, for example, a customer interacting with a retail store associate. In this regard, the retail store associate may use a retail store computer, point-of-sale device, or the like to access the layaway calculator and other component of the LCM  204  and, with the customer, view, modify, create, and accept a pending layaway contract, collect any fees or downpayment (which may be tendered in cash in this case), commence eligibility checking, cause the ordered quantity of item(s) to be placed into layaway storage, etc. It will be appreciated that, in this case the retail store associate would also obtain from the customer online contact information, such as an email address, whereby the host system  68  can provide the customer with details concerning the pending layaway contract formed via the physical retail channel and whereby the customer can view, modify, make payments on, or otherwise manage the pending layaway contract formed via the physical retail channel via use of the online retail channel. 
     To make payments on a pending layaway contract via the online retail channel in accordance with the terms of the pending layaway contract, the host system  68  may be accessed by a customer  402  whereupon the customer will provide  404  the host system  68  with an ID that corresponds to the pending layaway contract that is of interest to the customer. The ID can be a layaway contract ID that was associated with the pending layaway contract when the pending layaway contract was created by the LCM  204 . In this regard, it will be understood that the ID associated with a pending layaway contract may be provided to a customer through use of email notifications or may be otherwise provided to the customer via a webpage when the customer is known to the host system  68 , for example by means of a system login or the like. It will also be appreciated that the ID can be provided to the host system  68  through use of a free-form text entry box, by clicking on a link displayed on a webpage, or the like. Once the host system  68  is provided with the ID corresponding to a pending layaway contract of interest to the customer, the host system  68  will proceed to request  405  that the LCM retrieve  406  the details of the pending layaway contract whereupon the details of the pending layaway contract are caused to be displayed  408  to the customer at their corresponding processing device  20 . By means of otherwise conventional user interface elements, the customer may then elect to cause  410  an online initiated payment to be made on the pending layaway contract whereupon the payment information will be provided  412  to the host system  68  for processing  413  (which may involve an exchange of communications with a third party financial system). 
     In the event that the payment is successfully processed, the system will initiate  416  an update to the pending layaway contract  418  at the LCM  204  and cause a verification of the accepted payment  420  to be sent to the customer, for example via use of the email system components  207 . If, however, the payment is not successfully processed, the system may optionally give the customer a time in which to cure the missed payment and, if not cured, may then function to automatically cancel the pending layaway contract with notification being provided to the customer, with LCM records being updated, and previously paid amounts (if any) being appropriately processed. To assist the customer in timely making payment, it will be appreciated that the host system  68  may function to send reminders to the customer as necessary. 
     As before, it is to be understood that similar payment related steps  422  may be performed in a retail store, i.e., the physical retail channel, with, for example, a retail store associate using a retail store computer, point-of-sale device, or the like to access a pending layaway contract of interest and process a payment (which may be tendered in cash) against the pending layaway contract. Any payment so made at the retail store will be reflected in the records of the pending layaway contract that are maintained by the LCM  204 , as is the same for a payment made via the online retail channel. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 5 , when a final payment  502  is made via the online retail channel on a pending layaway contract the payment will be processed  504  as described above, e.g., payment may be verified via an exchange of communications with a third party financial system. At this time, however, the customer may also interact with the host system  68  to schedule, via a provided user interface, a time at which the user would desire to pickup the order item or items at the retail store in which they were held in layaway storage. In the case where the final payment is not successfully processed, the host system  68  may, as before, notify the customer and request that proper payment be made or otherwise cancel the pending layaway contract. In the case where the final pay is successfully processed, the payment and pickup details would then be sent  506  to the LCM  204  whereupon the layaway contract status would be updated  508  (which status  510  may also be updated with the online systems accessible to the consumer) and the store notified  512  of the pickup details. In this regard, the pickup details can be sent  514  to a handheld device of an associated at the retail store to thereby notify the associate that the item or items have to be retrieved from layaway storage. At this time, a confirmation message may also be sent to the customer, for example via an email sent using the email systems  207 . The customer  516  may then proceed to pickup the item or items at the retail store as scheduled after which the pickup details will be sent to  518  and thereafter registered  520  with the host system  68  thus completing fulfillment of the layaway contract. As will be appreciated, in an alternative embodiment, the customer may arrange to have item or items shipped to a given destination in lieu of scheduling pickup. It will also be appreciated that similar final payment related steps  522  may be performed in a retail store, i.e., the physical retail channel, with, for example, a retail store associate using a retail store computer, point-of-sale device, or the like to access a pending layaway contract of interest and to process a final payment (which may be tendered in cash) against the pending layaway contract. Any payment so made at the retail store will be reflected in the records of the pending layaway contract that are maintained by the LCM  204 , as is the same for a payment made via the online retail channel and the item or items order will be retrieved for the customer. 
     While various concepts have been described in detail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and alternatives to those concepts could be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure. For example, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the ordering of the steps described herein and illustrated in the figures can be modified without departing from the scope of the invention claimed hereinafter. Similarly, those of skill the art will appreciate that certain of the steps described herein may be considered to be optional. Yet further, while various aspects of the invention have been described in the context of functional modules and components, it is to be understood that, unless otherwise stated to the contrary, one or more of the described functions and/or features may be integrated in a single physical device and/or a software module, or one or more functions and/or features may be implemented in separate physical devices or software modules. It will also be appreciated that a detailed discussion of the actual implementation of the modules used to perform the various described functions is not necessary for an enabling understanding of the invention. Rather, the actual implementation of such modules would be well within the routine skill of an engineer, given the disclosure herein of the attributes, functionality, and inter-relationship of the various functional modules in the system. Therefore, a person knowledgeable in the art, applying ordinary skill, will be able to practice the invention set forth in the claims without undue experimentation. It will be additionally appreciated that the particular concepts disclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of the appended claims and any equivalents thereof.