Patent ID: 7668747

Claim:
An online method for presenting one or more incentives offered by an offeror and relating to associated goods or services to a user for viewing at a remote terminal, the method comprising the steps of: a) storing in a storage device at a central location incentive related information pertaining to one or more products or services each associated with at least one incentive offer; b) establishing an electrical communication between the central location and the remote terminal; c) determining at the central location if the user of the remote terminal is a registered user, and if the user is not registered transmitting a user profile inquiry to the remote terminal to be electronically completed by the user, the user transmitting the completed user profile to the central location where the user profile data is received and stored, thereafter the user being recognized as a registered user; d) presenting to and viewing by the registered user at the remote terminal information pertaining to goods or services associated with the one or more incentives and means for remotely selecting by the user a particular good or service, and presenting the user with information related to one or more incentives associated with the selected good or service; (e) upon receiving information from the remote user relating to parameters of a selected incentive, the central location generating at least one incentive data file, the incentive data file relating to the user selected incentive parameters and comprising a plurality of fields, including a redemption amount field, a user identification field, and an associated good or service identification field, the redemption amount field representing the value of the incentive offered to the user; (f) transmitting from the central location to the user at the remote terminal a prompt for payment of a user fee associated with disbursement of a redeemable certificate related to the incentive data file, receiving at the central location information from the user sufficient to effect payment of the user fee; and (g) disbursing from the central location the redeemable certificate for redemption by the user at a retail facility for acquiring possession of the desired good or service associated with the redeemable certificate.