BE1013810A3 - PROVIDING TARGETED MARKETING PROMOTIONS USING CUSTOMER IDENTIFICATIONS AND PURCHASE SELECTIONS VIA RFID TECHNOLOGY. - Google Patents

Abstract

Method and system using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to support the publication of targeted purchase promotions to retail customers and to support marketing analysis. RFID technology is used to determine the retail customer's current purchase selections and targeted sales promotions that are given to the customer based on the customer's current purchase selections, either individually , or in combination with the history of previous purchases. Customer shopping selections can be determined at different locations throughout the store and targeted promotions can be delivered during the shopping visit. Existing purchase selections can be added to a database for future use, where appropriate, in the selection of targeted promotions or in the analysis of purchasing models to support the development of marketing strategies. RFID technology, as well as other techniques, can be used to identify the customer and to allow the storage of customer identification data

Description

PROVIDING TARGETED MARKETING PROMOTIONS IN

USING CUSTOMER IDENTIFICATIONS AND PURCHASE SELECTIONS VIA RFID TECHNOLOGY

Basis of the invention Field of the invention

The present invention generally relates to improvements made in the selection and distribution of purchase promotions to a customer of a retail store, as well as the technology associated with data collection to support a profitability analysis, as well as targeting said promotions.

Prior art

Manufacturers of products for retail stores are constantly seeking to improve their promotional programs for customers of their stores with the goal of increasing their market share and overall sales. Promotion programs for retail customers show maximum profitability when promotions are given to customers who purchase competitive products or who indicate that they are willing to buy a product offered by the manufacturer while the customer has not recently purchased any product in this category. An example of the latter is a customer who purchases cat food without purchasing cat litter. Such a client indicates that he or she is willing to buy products in the cat litter category, either immediately or in the future.

Over the years, the use of barcodes has greatly increased the efficiency in generating a list of items that a customer has chosen to purchase from a retail store. The products that a customer of a retail store selects are all pre-marked with "barcodes" to identify the product. "Barcodes" are patterns printed on the product or attached to the product that can be read via scanning equipment in the retail store. The list of purchase selections of a customer who is currently in the retail store is required in order to determine the list of items that the customer is buying, to identify the price of each these items and calculate the total amount due to the store.

Existing technology to base sales promotions on a customer's current purchases, either individually or in combination with the customer's purchase history, is based on scanning barcode information printed on the product himself. Promotions include providing customers with discount coupons or information about special offers in the store. See for example US-A-5,173,851. US-A-5,173,851 and all references cited therein are incorporated herein by reference. This existing technology is limited by the fact that each item must be physically manipulated and individually scanned to determine the content of the retail store's complete shopping set. The physical manipulation of each of the customer's purchase selections limits the practical application of these techniques to the process of passing the customer through the checkout counter of the retail store when the articles, the purchase of which has been selected by a customer, must be specified in order to determine the total cost of purchases for payment.

Summary of the invention

An object of the present invention is to facilitate the targeting of purchase promotions to customers based on the demonstrated purchase models and on purchase selections that the customer has made.

Another object of the present invention is to facilitate the identification of a customer of a retail store, as well as their selection of purchases in order to support the collection of data associating the customer with his selection of purchases or to its models of shopping visits.

Another object of the present invention is to facilitate the collection of data defining a purchase or purchase models of retail store customers in order to support the targeting of purchase promotions to this customer.

Yet another object of the present invention is to improve the collection of general data from consumer purchasing models to support a statistical analysis of consumer purchasing behavior.

Yet another object of the present invention is to enable improved data collection to support characterization of the performance of a purchase promotion.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide greater variations for structuring purchase promotion programs.

The present invention achieves these and other objects using high frequency identification (RFID) stations located at one or more locations through a retail store to determine the items that a customer of the retail store has chosen to buy and which generate an electronic reading list of these purchase selections. The present invention optionally identifies the shopping cart or the customer himself of the retail store and makes it possible to associate the list of shopping selections with the shopping cart or with the individual in order to track changes in selection of purchases during the purchase visit. RFID stations determine which items have been selected for purchase by reading RFID devices placed on each item offered for sale in the retail store. Optionally, the customer can carry an RFID device with them to facilitate personal identification of the customer. The present invention also makes it possible to analyze the purchase selection lists for the purpose of selecting purchase promotions to be delivered to the customer and for the purpose of analyzing the profitability of the purchase promotions previously delivered to the customer. The present invention makes it possible to read and collect personal identifications of the client in order to further characterize the purchasing patterns of the client. An RPID station used at a payment location and at the checkout outlet through which the customer passes allows automatic application of purchase promotions offered to further facilitate the checkout process.

Brief description of the drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic view of a high frequency identification station (RFID) together with an illustration of the equipment associated with the RFID station and a shopping cart disposed at the RFID station.

Figure 2 is a diagram of the equipment comprising an RFID station.

Figure 3 is an illustration of the structure of a list of electronic reading items that a customer has chosen to purchase.

Description of preferred embodiments

The preferred embodiment shown in Figures 1 and 2 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention for use in a retail store. In FIG. 1, a "station" 100 for high frequency identification (RFID) is represented which represents a station provided with equipment which will determine the customer's purchase selections by reading high frequency identification devices ( RFID). Customer purchase selections represent items that a customer has chosen to purchase by placing them in their shopping cart. In FIG. 1, a shopping cart 101 is shown which constitutes a particular embodiment of a purchase selection support containing several articles whose purchase 102 has been selected, located at an RFID station.

The articles whose purchase 102 has been selected, together with all the articles offered for sale by the retail store using the present invention have high frequency identification devices (RFID) attached thereto (not shown). RFID devices are small high frequency transponders that include a radio frequency receiver and transmitter. RFID devices transmit a unique identification signal in response to a high frequency "request" signal from the station. Embodiments of the present invention allow the use of RFID devices which transmit signals which are different from all other RFID devices in a particular retail store and other embodiments of the present invention allow the use of RFID devices that emit the same identification signal when attached to the same type of product. These latter embodiments allow the use of RFID devices that identify products in a similar manner to universal product codes (UPCs) printed in general or attached to most products offered by retail stores.

The purchasing selection medium used by a particular embodiment can be either a conventional shopping cart as generally found in food stores and other retail stores, or any type of racks or products used by the retail store. Another embodiment of the present invention could allow customers to place articles on a shelf or other surface to allow the RFID station to read the RFID devices attached to the articles if the store is not in use or if the customer chooses not to use the equivalent of a shopping cart. In the description below, the embodiment of a purchase selection support is used in the form of a shopping cart.

In FIG. 1, it is further shown that the RFID station includes an RFID reading system 108 and an RF106 screen. The RFID reading system 108 uses RFID technology to produce a list of electronic reading shopping selections. When the RFID item is located in the shopping area of the retail store, the customer is free to add and remove items from and from cart 1 during their shopping visit. The RF screen 6 is used to prevent false detection of articles which are outside the customer's shopping cart 101, such as articles located in other shopping carts or on store shelves.

In FIG. 1, it is further shown that the RFID station includes an RF interface 105. The RFID interface 105 includes a microprocessor programmed to control the operations and the equipment required to produce and process the required RF signals used to interrogate the devices RFID and to monitor the signals transmitted by the RFID devices attached to the items contained in the shopping cart. The implementation of the questioning and monitoring of the signals emitted by the RFID devices is designated here by the term "reading" of the RFID devices. The use of RFID systems to determine the items that a customer has chosen to purchase is known to those skilled in the art. It is clear that the present invention can be used with any functional embodiment of an RFID system used to identify several products subject to purchase selection.

The present invention makes it possible to use RFID 100 stations at one or more locations in a retail store in order to determine the purchase selections that a customer has made at the time of the customer's visit to an RFID 100 station. When the customer presents his shopping cart to the RFID station 100, the RFID equipment will "read" the contents of the shopping cart to determine the purchase selections placed in the shopping cart. The RFID station can then issue a purchase promotion to the customer based on the content of the shopping cart, as determined by the reception of transmissions from RFID devices. Purchase promotions, which the RFID post can offer to a customer, are defined in more detail below and include a coupon or its equivalent offering a discount on the purchase of a specified product when the product is purchased at during this purchase visit. A customer can visit an RFID station several times during a shopping visit before going through the checkout and paying for their purchases.

The RFID stations 100 located within the shopping area of a retail store can communicate with the store's commodity price database to determine the cost of each item in the shopping cart. Thus, the RFID station 100 is allowed to calculate and display the total cost of the items determined to be in the shopping cart together with an optional list of items and of the price of each item contained in the shopping cart. The customer's motivation to visit RFID stations during his purchase visit will consist of receiving purchase promotions or being informed of the total price in effect of his purchase selections. The display can be a CRT screen or an equivalent thereof, or a printout given to the customer. The display may also contain additional information, including promotional information such as logos of other advertising from sponsors or the retail store itself.

The present invention is able to characterize changes in the customer's purchase selection between multiple visits to RFID stations during the same purchase visit when the customer or the shopping cart used by the customer is identifiable by the RFID station. . Embodiments of the present invention identifying in this way the customer or the shopping cart make it possible to store the identification of the customer or the shopping cart in association with the lists of the selection of purchases of this customer which are generated during different visits to RFID stations. The customer's purchase selection lists can be stored in a central location and a computer, which has access to the stored lists, can extract and compare the lists generated at different times. The profitability of purchase promotions offered to the customer can be characterized by noting the changes in purchase selections read during a subsequent visit to an RFID station, which were made after the offer of a purchase promotion to the client. Changes made between visits to RFID positions may have been caused by offers of purchase selections made during a previous visit to RFID positions and an analysis of the changes makes it possible to determine the fact that certain changes in selection of purchases are correlated with the offer of purchase promotions. An example includes an offer that includes a discount on a product that represents a product that is competitive with the product that the customer has already chosen to buy. If the customer has replaced the original product with the product advertised in the purchase promotion, it is clear that the purchase promotion has achieved its purpose.

The present invention makes it possible to determine the personal identification of the customer or the identification of the shopping cart used by the customer via various techniques. The personal identification of the customer can be carried out by providing the customer himself with an RFID device which will allow the RFID station to personally identify the customer together with the items contained in the shopping cart. The present invention also makes it possible to personally identify the client by asking the client to present a card or other device which is encoded with a clue relating to the identification of the client, as well as with other identification techniques, including biometric elements. The customer can present a loyalty card associated with the store, a credit or debit card that the customer uses to pay for his purchases or even a check with a current account number identifying the current account that the customer uses to pay for his purchases. Another option for personally identifying the customer is the customer's phone number, either entered manually into the RFID extension or read automatically from a card or other device. The use of an RFID device worn by the client is preferred, since it will facilitate and speed up the operation of the RFID station and the actions required to be taken by the client.

A retail store using an embodiment of the present invention, which personally identifies customers, stores personal information about customers who decide to register in the store. A customer, who signs up in the store, provides personal information to the store and receives an identification device such as an RFID device or machine-operated identification card to allow the retail store to automatically identify the customer. Personal information provided by the customer and stored in a database by the retail store in association with the identification of the customer includes the age of the customer, his family situation, the number and age of children in the household, whether or not you own pets, the status of a specific buyer, the characterization as a frequent or infrequent customer of the retail store, as well as other demographic data that may have an impact on the characteristics of purchases. Incorporating this information into the selection of purchase promotions to offer the customer increases the likelihood that a purchase promotion will be chosen, which will motivate the customer to make the associated purchase.

A retail store using an embodiment of the present invention encompassing personal automatic customer identification also allows for the accumulation and storage of purchase selection lists in association with customer identification. The customer’s purchase selection lists can be accumulated over several visits to better characterize the customer’s preferences and purchasing models. The unique identification of a customer will allow the present invention to store lists of selection of purchases made by the customer in association with the identification of the customer in order to support a statistical analysis of the purchasing behavior of the customer. , target sales promotions to the customer and track the delivery of sales promotions to the customer in the past. One embodiment, which personally identifies the customer, could include RFID items that extract the stored list of purchases made by the customer during previous visits for the purpose of determining and using customer purchasing patterns. models in combination with the purchasing selections in force to determine the promotions of purchases which are most likely to encourage the customer to react.

An embodiment of the present invention encompassing a personal automatic identification of the customer also makes it possible to collect and store only the identification of the customer without the lists of selection of purchases made by this customer. The fact of storing only the identification of the client makes it possible to analyze the frequency of the client's visits to the store or to the RFID stations by the present invention. We can increase the storage of customer identification by storing the time corresponding to the customer's visit or the value of purchase selections made by the customer. The stored time may include the time of the visit, the date of the visit, or both, depending on the requirements of the data analysis performed later. When a customer identification is read at the time the customer enters a retail establishment, the purchases made by the customer in the retail establishment can be recorded and correlated with purchases made during this visit or with the absence of any purchase made by the customer. If the customer's entry into the retail establishment is recorded, analysis of the recorded data can be used to determine whether the customer has made any purchases during this visit to the retail establishment as well. than the time spent by the client in the establishment. The frequency of a customer's visit to a retail establishment in the absence of purchases can be used to select promotions targeted at that customer or can be used to generally determine marketing strategies.

A variant to personally identifying the customer himself is to identify the shopping cart used by the customer. The shopping cart can be identified at the RFID station, either by attaching an RFID device to each shopping cart in the retail store, or by attaching an optical reader identification to the shopping cart and equipping the RFID station with a mechanism to read this identification. Examples of optical reader identification which can be attached to the shopping cart include a unique barcode for each shopping cart in the retail store or another marker which can be read with appropriate image processing. Recognition of bar codes and other symbols by the use of image processing is known to those skilled in the art.

Another alternative technique for identifying a particular customer who visits several RFID stations during the same purchase visit involves registering the items whose purchase has been selected at an RFID station and correlate to articles read during subsequent visits to RFID stations. This variant can be implemented by placing a unique RFID device on each item offered for sale in the retail store and by associating subsequent lists generated with RFID positions which contain most of the same items as those generated during a previous visit to RFID stations. The RFID devices used in this technique will provide a unique "serial number" for each item in the store and will not identify only the type of product and the volume of product sufficient to identify the price of the product and to support the control of the product. 'inventory. Since each item in the store is individually identifiable, a shopping cart containing the same items as those contained in a shopping cart scanned previously is likely to belong to the same customer. This technique is prone to errors, since a customer can remove most or all of the purchase selections from their shopping cart, but the technique will support sufficient data collection to support statistical analysis. If unique RFID devices are not used for each item and the RFID devices only support identification of the type and volume of the product, sufficient for the price of the product and to support inventory control, this technique can still be used, but it will be even more susceptible to error. One embodiment, which uses RFID devices only to identify the product type and product volume, will characterize the combination of purchase selections made by the customer and determined at an RFID station. A cart subsequently presented to an RFID station with most of the same purchase selections will be considered to be the same cart. The latter technique is susceptible to error in identifying customers, but it can be used to support statistical marketing analysis.

Embodiments of the present invention described above, which identify the shopping cart used by a customer, facilitate processing by identifying the shopping cart during the checkout process implemented and ceasing to associate this shopping cart with the customer after the customer has paid for their purchases.

In Figure 2, the elements of an RFID station and its associated components are shown schematically. The device driver 5 of the RFID system produces a selection list of purchases with electronic reading. The RFID station can also identify the customer or the shopping cart used by the customer, as described above. An illustration of the structure of the data contained in the purchase selection list is shown in FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, an electronic reading list of two articles whose purchase has been selected, one article per rank, is illustrated. The elements by rank are 1) the brand of the product; 2) the type of product (soup and milk in this example); and 3) the size of the product container whose purchase has been selected. The information included in the list can include information the number of which depends on the needs linked to the promotions processor 9. The list of purchase selections can be stored by the promotions processor 9 for the purpose of analyzing purchasing models. client. If the customer or the shopping cart that the customer uses is also identified at the RFID item, the promotions processor can store the list of purchase selections in association with the identification of the customer himself or with the identification of the customer's shopping cart. . Stored lists of customer purchase selections can be used to target customer purchase promotions or to support marketing analysis. The purchase selection lists and their associated customer identifications are stored in the purchase history database 20.

The RFID item can include equipment to identify the customer presenting their purchase selections. If the particular embodiment of the present invention implements customer identification via RFID devices, either in association with the customer, or with the shopping cart used by the customer, or with the products contained in the shopping cart, as described above, the RFID reader system 8 produces information to be used to identify the customer and routes this information to the promotions processor 9. If the customers are identified by devices which do not use RFID techniques, the RFID station will include a client ID reader 12 to read the client identification. Equipment used to determine customer identification in embodiments using customer identification techniques that are not of the RFID type includes equipment for optically reading bar codes on the shopping cart, as well as equipment for reading payment cards or tokens presented by the customer.

Embodiments of the present invention, which determine the identity of the customer with a shopping cart to be read at an RFID station, allow a wider range of techniques to be used to select a purchase promotion to offer to a customer and also have additional flexibility as to the type of promotions that can be offered. If the personal identification of the customer is determined, the promotions processor 9 will be able to store lists of selection of purchases in association with the identification of the customer and therefore will be able to base a selection of promotions of purchases on the purchasing preferences expressed by the customer.

By placing RFID positions across a retail store and identifying the customer or shopping cart used by a customer, the promotions processor is enabled to implement purchase promotions that encourage the customer to visit different parts of the store. detail. A purchase promotion, which will encourage the customer to visit other parts of a store, will inform a customer at an RFID station that he will receive a special purchase promotion such as a discount on a specified product if he visits a particular place in the retail store. The visit of the customer to the specified place will be a condition to be fulfilled to receive the benefit of the offer of purchase promotions. The specified location may have a second RFID station located nearby and the customer's visit to the location can be verified by visiting this second RFID station. The customer can receive an acknowledgment of receipt of the offer jointly with the reading of the customer's purchase selections by the second RFID station.

The promotions processor 9 is able to select definitions of purchase promotions from a database of defined purchase promotions stored in the promotions database 18. The definitions of purchase promotions stored in a promotions database 18 includes purchase promotions to offer to the customer and "events" that will trigger the offer of the purchase promotion to a particular customer. A purchase promotion is offered to a customer when a triggering event is observed. Triggering events may include noting that the customer has purchased a particular item or a specific combination of items. Combinations of purchased items can also be achieved during multiple purchase visits if customer identification is stored in conjunction with purchase selection lists from previous visits. The promotions processor will examine the list of electronic reading articles contained in the purchase selection medium which represents a shopping cart in the illustrated embodiments and will determine a purchase promotion to offer to the customer based on the contents of the shopping cart and, if applicable, other factors. The promotions database 18 is periodically updated to reflect new shopping promotions and new events triggering promotions. A promotion database and techniques used to design and implement such a database are disclosed in United States patent US-A-5,173,851. US-A-5,173,851 and all references cited therein are incorporated herein by reference.

The types of purchase promotions that the present invention provides for customers include providing information to customers regarding products whose purchase may be of interest to the customer, as well as offering a discount for a specified item or for a combination of items. The present invention provides information to the customer regarding products offered for sale in the retail store and such information may include a price related to a discount regarding the products which are available to all customers. The present invention makes it possible to choose specific products which will be the subject of information intended for the client based on the interest shown by the client via his purchase selections. The interests manifested by the customer can be determined by analyzing purchase selections that the customer has made before visiting an RFID item and which are currently in his shopping cart, or the interests of the customer can be further determined by the analysis. purchasing selections made during previous purchasing visits. The present invention also makes it possible to present a list of suggested purchases to the customer. Suggested purchases can be based on items whose purchase has already been selected by the customer and they can also be further refined by observing previous purchases made by that customer. Suggested purchases may include a recipe providing the customer with instructions on how to prepare a meal using items already purchased, as well as the items suggested on the list.

Purchase promotions including a discounted price on a specified item will allow the customer to purchase the specified item or a combination of items at a reduced price. The rebate purchase promotion can be structured to provide credit based on various combinations of purchases in accordance with the desired promotion. A purchase promotion offer in the form of rebate can be defined via a specification of the purchase promotion. The specification of a promotional purchase offer defines the two parts of the offer, the conditions of the offer and the profit to be granted after having satisfied the conditions of the offer. The conditions of the offer are the actions that the customer must perform in order to receive the benefit related to the promotional purchase offer. The benefit of the promotional purchase offer is what is given to the customer when he satisfies the conditions of the offer. An example of a specification of a promotional purchase offer relates to a profit consisting in receiving a rebate of 1 dollar after having satisfied the condition that the customer purchases product X. The purchase promotion in the form of rebate can be offered to the customer in the form of a printed coupon or the discount can be stored in association with the customer's identification. If the customer is personally identified, the customer can receive the discount during their current visit or during subsequent purchase visits when they identify themselves. If the embodiment of the present invention only identifies the purchase selection medium that the customer uses, purchase promotions which are not delivered in the form of a printed coupon will only be available during the visit of the customer. purchase in effect.

The promotions processor 9 can be implemented either in a PC compatible desktop computer or in a specifically designed microprocessor or in a device driver unit based on an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The design and development of such a device driver unit is known to those skilled in the art. An example of a promotions processor is described in United States patent US-A-5,173,851. US-A-5,173,851 and all references cited therein are incorporated herein by reference.

Once the desired purchase promotion offer has been determined by the promotion processor 9, the customer is then notified of the purchase promotion offer. Purchase promotions delivered in this embodiment include targeted coupons printed by the coupon printer 10 or a "paperless coupon" which may consist of adjusting the price for a specified item, including reducing the price to zero by giving the customer a free item for a specified item if the customer purchases the specified item. The discount provided in association with a promotional offer in the form of a "paperless" coupon is automatically received when the customer pays for the specified item, thereby eliminating the need to present a "paper" coupon at the time of purchase. as is the case with conventional coupons. The RFID station issuing a "paperless" coupon can always print a notice to the customer identifying the purchase promotion and providing associated information or other promotional data, but the customer is not required to produce the message printed during its passage through the checkout to receive the rebate. Customers are informed of a promotional offer of purchases in the form of printed coupons when the printed coupon is given to them by the RFID station. The RFID station can also have a visual display to warn the customer of the promotional offer of purchases credited to his account as is well known to those skilled in the art.

The price adjustment data associated with a "paperless" coupon is communicated to the point of sale (POS) system 14 used by the retail store. The POS system includes a price database for each item offered for sale in the retail store and uses the price database to determine the cost of each item purchased when the customer goes through the checkout counter. The expression "passage of the customer through the checkout counter" is used here to describe the steps taken by the customer before leaving a retail store to allow the retail store to identify the items and their costs, including the The purchase was selected by the customer, as well as the place where the customer pays for his purchased items. The design and specification of the components of the point of sale system are known to those skilled in the art. The place, where the customer goes through the checkout, has a POS terminal that allows the operator to perform payment and customer checkout functions. POS terminals at checkout and checkout locations can also incorporate RFID stations to facilitate determining customer purchase selections and distributing purchase promotions in conjunction with activities payment and passage through the checkout counter.

A retail store using an embodiment of the present invention and implementing paperless coupons includes a POS system that receives specifications for adapting paperless coupon price specifications for individual customers and stores these offer specifications promotional purchases in association with an identification of this customer. When the customer pays for their purchase selections when passing through the checkout outlet of the retail store, the POS system determines a second identification, namely the identification of the customer paying for their purchase selections, then extracts all the promotional purchase offers that have been stored in association with this customer. The second identification may be either an identification which personally identifies the customer himself, or the second identification may be an identification of the purchase selection medium used by the customer. Once the promotional purchase offers stored in association with the customer have been extracted, the POS system then determines whether the condition contained in any of the specifications extracted from promotional purchase offers has been satisfied. If a specification of a promotional offer has conditions that have been fulfilled, the POS system will apply the associated profit. The POS system can record the benefits of purchase promotions that have been given to customers where appropriate in conjunction with the total list of items purchased for the purpose of analyzing the profitability of the promotional purchase offer.

The RFID station includes a printer 10 which is able to print paper coupons or other notices to be delivered to the customer. The printer 10 can print discount coupons offering the customer a purchase price discount on a specified product when the product is purchased within a given period of time. The printer 10 can also simply print notices addressed to the customer of special offers internal to the store such as discounts on particular articles which are available to all customers. Printer 10 could also print a suggested shopping list based on items whose purchase has already been selected by the customer. A suggested shopping list could include items for which the customer has shown a purchasing trend through their current purchase selections. An example of such a suggested shopping list is a list of pet supplies to be given to customers who have purchased an item associated with a pet. Embodiments of the present invention, which store lists of purchase selections made during previous visits in association with personal identification of the customer, further allow these stored lists of purchase selections to be used to define a suggested shopping list.

RFID stations incorporated in payment and checkout locations can also offer purchase promotions to customers. Purchase promotions open to customers at the checkout location may differ from purchase promotions offered within the retail store, since the purpose of the first quotes is to encourage the customer to return to the store. store, the purpose of the last mentioned being mainly to encourage the purchase of another product during the current purchase visit. Embodiments of the present invention, which include RFID stations that personally identify the customer, allow payment account information associated with customers to be stored and customer purchases to be automatically placed on that account. An embodiment of the present invention, which delivers RFID devices to individual customers, which stores payment account information for each of these customers, which identifies the customer at the checkout location and which automatically sets up the cost of the purchase on the stored payment account will greatly accelerate and facilitate the process of switching from the customer to the checkout.

Embodiments of the present invention that personally identify the customer to whom purchase promotions are given, are able to notify the customer at their home of purchase promotions to which they are entitled, if the retail store retains the individual customer addresses. The retail store may use either the mailing address or the email address to send printed or electronic messages, as well as advertisements to customers who are offered purchase promotions. The retail store will keep a database with the addresses of customers to whom we will communicate the notification. Printed letters allow the use of duplicate coupons or customer-targeted coupons for other products. Electronic communications may notify the customer of discounts that are available to the customer, as well as special offers internal to the store available to all customers.

The present invention makes it possible to store the purchase selection lists generated at RFID stations to support the harvesting of statistical characterization of purchase models in order to support a marketing analysis. The purchase selection lists can be stored in association with a customer identification when the particular embodiment determines the customer identification in conjunction with the customer's visit to the RFID station. The fact of storing lists of selection of purchases in association with personal identifications of customers among a large number of purchasing visits makes it possible to carry out the characterization of long-term purchasing habits for the customer, which will support a selection of purchase promotions to offer to the customer most likely to lead the customer to respond to them and purchase the item specified in the purchase promotion. The use of purchase selection history to support marketing analysis is known to those skilled in the art.

The embodiment shown in Figure 2 illustrates the major components of the embodiment as it is contained in separate units or machines. It is not a requirement related to the invention and the various elements could be combined in a smaller number of machines, be distributed among different machines differently or in fact be contained in a single machine with a single computer. Embodiments using such redistributions can be devised by those skilled in the art.

Of course, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. Consequently, it will be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention can be implemented in another way than that specifically described here.

Claims (108)

1. A computerized method for targeting purchase promotions to a customer and for marketing analysis support, comprising the steps of: receiving several radio frequency signals from a corresponding number of radio frequency emission devices, each said signals containing data identifying a single item forming part of several items to be purchased that a customer has selected; determine a promotion to offer to a person based on at least one of said several articles; and notify said client of said promotional offer. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of receiving and notifying are completed before a transaction in which said customer purchases any one of said several unique items. 3. Method according to claim 1, in which said reception and notification steps are traversed in conjunction with customer activities carried out during their passage through the checkout counter. 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: calculating a total cost of said several items whose purchase has been selected by said customer; and display said total cost. The method of claim 4, wherein said step of displaying said total cost further comprises displaying promotional information. The method of claim 1, wherein said promotion comprises a printed list of special offers available in store and said notifying step comprises printing said list of special offers available in store for said customer. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said promotion comprises a printed list of several suggested purchases, said several suggested purchases being selected according to said several articles. 8. The method of claim 1, wherein said promotional offer has a prerequisite requiring said customer to visit a store located in another location. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein said promotion comprises a printed coupon and said notification step comprises printing said coupon for said customer. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of: storing a list of said plural items and a specification of said promotion in a computer database; storing the use of said printed coupon in said computer database; and analyze the content of said database in order to determine marketing statistics. 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: determining a first identification associated with said client; storing, in a computer database, a specification of said promotion in association with said first identification; determining a second identification associated with a second customer during a purchase transaction in which said second customer purchases a second group of items; extracting from said database a group of extracted promotions, said group of extracted promotions comprising promotions specifications stored in association with said second identification; and in response to determining that said second group of articles meets a specific condition contained in said group of extracted promotions, applying a profit associated with having satisfied said specific condition. The method of claim 11, further comprising the steps of: registering a first list specifying said plural articles and said promotion in association with said first identification; determining a second identification associated with a second client; in conjunction with said step of determining a second identification, generating a second list of a second group of purchase selections, wherein said generating step is based on the reception of several signals from high identification devices frequencies associated with items that said second customer has chosen to purchase; and characterizing the effectiveness of said promotion by determining the difference, as regards purchase selections, between said first list and said second list, and attributing this difference to said promotion. 13. The method of claim 11, wherein said step of determining a first identification comprises the step of personally identifying said client. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of performing personal identification comprises reading a personal identification device of high frequencies worn by said client. 15. The method of claim 13, wherein said step of carrying out personal identification comprises reading an identification card presented by said client. 16. The method of claim 13, wherein said step of carrying out personal identification comprises determining an account associated with said client. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein said account represents an account chosen from the group comprising: a current account, an account operating with a credit card, an account operating with a debit card, and a telephone account. 18. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of: calculating a total cost for said second group of purchase selections; and put said total cost on said account. 19. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of: storing the private address of said first client; and send a mail notification of said promotion to the private address of said first customer. 20. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of: storing the electronic address on the Internet or another electronic communication address of said first client; and communicate a notification of said promotion to the home of said first customer via his internet email address or via other electronic communications. 21. The method of claim 11, wherein said step of determining an identification comprises the step of making a single determination of a purchase selection medium used by said customer. 22. The method of claim 21, wherein said step of making a single character determination of a purchase selection medium comprises reading a high frequency identification device fixed on the selection medium d 'purchase. 23. The method of claim 21, wherein said step of making a one-time determination of a purchase selection medium comprises registering a list specifying said plural unique items which are contained in said medium. purchase selection. 24. The method of claim 23, wherein each of said high frequency signals makes a one-time distinction between individual items and similar items. 25. The method of claim 23, wherein said step of making a single character determination of a purchase selection medium comprises reading a single index and optical reading fixed on the selection medium purchase. 26. The method of claim 25, wherein said unique optical reading index comprises a barcode. 27. Computerized method for targeting purchase promotions to a customer and for supporting a marketing analysis, comprising the steps of: generating an electronic reading list of a group of purchase selections carried out by said customer, in which said generation step is based on the reception of several signals from high frequency identification devices associated with articles whose purchase has been selected by a customer; determining an identification which personally identifies said client; storing said electronic reading list in a computer database in association with said identification; determining a promotion to be delivered to said customer in which said step of determining a promotion comprises: (1) extracting a group of stored lists from said computer database, said group of stored lists comprising several lists of purchase selections which are stored in association with said identification; and (2) matching said promotion with said group of shopping selections and with additional shopping selections contained in said group of stored lists; and notify said client of said promotion. 28. The method of claim 27, wherein said identification comprises a device for personal identification of high frequencies worn by said client. 29. The method of claim 27, wherein said identification comprises an identification card presented by said client. 30. The method of claim 27, wherein said identification comprises an account associated with said client. 31. The method of claim 30, wherein said account represents an account chosen from the group comprising a current account, an account operating with a credit card, an account operating with a debit card, and a telephone account. 32. The method of claim 30, further comprising the steps of: calculating a total cost for said group of purchase selections; and put some or all of said total cost on said account. 33. The method of claim 27, further comprising the steps of: storing the private address of said retail store customer; and send an additional promotion by mail to the home of said first customer. 34. The method of claim 33, wherein said additional promotion comprises either advertisements, discount coupons, or both. 35. The method of claim 33, wherein said additional promotion is chosen in conjunction with the analysis of said group of stored lists. 36. The method of claim 27, further comprising the steps of: storing an electronic address on the Internet or another electronic communications address of said first client; and communicate an additional promotion to the domicile of said first customer via his electronic address or via other electronic communications. 37. The method of claim 36, wherein said additional promotion comprises either advertisements, discount coupons, or both. 38. The method of claim 36, wherein said additional promotion is chosen in conjunction with the analysis of said group of stored lists. 39. The method of claim 27, further comprising the steps of: storing a specification of said promotion in association with said identification; determining a second identification associated with a second customer during a purchase transaction in which said second customer purchases a second group of items; during payment for a second group of items by said second customer, extracting a group of stored promotions, wherein said group of stored promotions includes all of the promotions specifications stored in association with said second identification; and in response to determining that said second group of items meets a specific condition contained in said group of retrieved promotions, applying a profit associated with meeting said specific condition. 40. A computerized method for targeting purchase promotions to a customer and for supporting a marketing analysis, comprising the steps of: determining an identification which personally identifies said customer when shopping, said identification being determined by receiving a signal from a high frequency identification device associated with said client; store said identification in a purchase history database. 41. The method of claim 30, further comprising the steps of: determining a promotion to be delivered to said customer, wherein said step of determining a promotion comprises analyzing said customer history database; and notify said client of said promotion. 42. The method of claim 40, wherein said storing step further comprises storing a total purchase price of a purchase made by said customer in association with said identification. 43. The method of claim 40, wherein said storing step further comprises storing a time indication of said purchase visit in association with said identification. 44. The method of claim 40, wherein said identification comprises a device for personal identification of high frequencies worn by said client. 45. The method of claim 40, wherein said identification comprises an identification card presented by said client. 46. The method of claim 40, wherein said identification comprises an account associated with said client. 47. The method of claim 46, wherein said account represents an account chosen from the group comprising: a current account, an account operating with a credit card, an account operating with a debit card, and a telephone account. 48. The method of claim 46, further comprising the steps of: calculating a total cost for said group of purchase selections; and put some or all of said total cost on said account. 49. The method of claim 46, further comprising the steps of: storing the private address of said retail store customer; and send an additional promotion by mail to the home of said first customer. 50. The method of claim 49, wherein said additional promotion comprises either advertisements, discount coupons, or both. 51. The method of claim 49, wherein said additional promotion is chosen in conjunction with the analysis of said group of stored lists. 52. The method of claim 40, further comprising the steps of: storing an electronic address on the Internet or other electronic communications address of said first client; and communicate an additional promotion to the home of said first customer via their email address or other electronic communications. 53. The method of claim 52, wherein said additional promotion comprises either advertisements, discount coupons, or both. 54. The method of claim 52, wherein said additional promotion is chosen in conjunction with the analysis of said group of stored lists. 55. A system for targeting purchase promotions to a customer and for supporting a marketing analysis, comprising: means for receiving several high frequency signals from several corresponding radio frequency transmission devices, each of said signals containing data identifying a single item that is part of several items the purchase of which has been selected by a customer; means for determining a promotion to offer to a person based on at least one of said multiple items; and means for notifying said client of said promotional offer. 56. The system of claim 55, wherein the means for receiving and notifying works prior to a transaction in which said customer purchases any of said plural unique items. 57. The system of claim 55, wherein said means for reception and notification works in conjunction with customer activities carried out during their passage through the checkout counter. 58. The system of claim 55, further comprising: means for calculating a total cost of said plural items the purchase of which has been selected by said customer; and means for displaying said total cost. The system of claim 58, wherein said means for displaying said total cost further comprises means for displaying promotional information. 60. The system of claim 55, wherein said promotion comprises a printed list of special offers available in store and said notification means comprises means for printing said printed list of special offers available in store for said customer. The system of claim 55, wherein said promotion includes a printed list of multiple suggested purchases, said multiple suggested purchases being selected based on said multiple items. 62. The system of claim 55, wherein said promotional offer has a prerequisite requiring the customer to visit a store located in another location. 63. The system of claim 55, wherein said promotion comprises a printed coupon and said means for notification comprises means for printing said coupon for said customer. 64. The system of claim 63, further comprising: means for storing a list of said plural articles and a specification of said promotion in a computer database; means for storing the use of said printed coupon in said computer database; and means for analyzing the content of said database for the purpose of determining marketing statistics. 65. The system of claim 55, further comprising: means for determining a first identification associated with said client; means for storing, in a computer database, a specification of said promotion in association with said first identification; means for determining a second identification associated with a second customer during a purchase transaction in which said second customer purchases a second group of items; means for extracting from said database a group of extracted promotions, said group of extracted promotions comprising promotions specifications stored in association with said second identification; and means for applying a profit associated with having satisfied said specific condition, wherein said means for applying a profit works in response to determining that said second group of articles meets a specific condition contained in said group promotions extracted. The system of claim 65, further comprising: means for registering a first list specifying said plural items and said promotion in association with said first identification; means for determining a second identification associated with a second client; means for generating a second list of a second group of purchase selections, which works in conjunction with said means to determine a second identification and in which said generating means uses the reception of several signals from identification devices high frequencies associated with items that said second customer has chosen to purchase; and means for characterizing the effectiveness of said promotion by determining the difference, with respect to purchase selections, between said first list and said second list, and assigning this difference to said promotion. 67. The system of claim 65, wherein said means for determining a first identification comprises means for carrying out a personal identification of said client. 68. The system of claim 67, wherein the means for personal identification comprises means for reading a personal identification device of high frequencies worn by said client. 69. The system of claim 67, wherein said means for carrying out personal identification comprises means for reading an identification card presented by said client. 70. The system of claim 67, wherein said means for carrying out personal identification comprises means for determining an account associated with said client. 71. The system of claim 70, wherein said account represents an account selected from the group comprising: a checking account, an account operating with a credit card, an account operating with a debit card, and a telephone account. 72. The system of claim 70, further comprising means for calculating a total cost for said second group of purchase selections; and means for putting said total cost on said account. 73. The system of claim 67, further comprising: means for storing the private address of said first client; and means for mailing a notification of said promotion to the home of said first customer. 74. The system of claim 67, further comprising: a database storing the Internet electronic address or another electronic communications address of said first client; and means for communicating a notification of said promotion to the home of said first customer via their Internet email address or via other electronic communications. 75. The system of claim 65, wherein said means for determining an identification comprises means for making a single determination of a purchase selection medium used by said customer. 76. The system of claim 75, wherein said means for making a single character determination of a purchase selection medium comprises means for reading a high frequency identification device attached to the selection medium. purchase. The system of claim 75, wherein said means for making a one-time determination of a purchase selection medium comprises means for recording a list specifying said plural unique items which are contained in said selection medium purchase. 78. The system of claim 77, wherein each of said high frequency signals makes a one-time distinction between individual items and similar items. 79. The system of claim 77, wherein said means for making a single character determination of a purchase selection medium comprises means for reading a single, optical-reading index fixed to the purchase selection medium. . 80. The system of claim 79, wherein said unique, optical-reading index comprises a barcode. 81. A computerized method for targeting purchase promotions to a customer and for supporting a marketing analysis, comprising: means for generating an electronic reading list of a group of purchase selections made by said customer, wherein said generation means is based on the reception of several signals from high frequency identification devices associated with articles the purchase of which has been selected by a customer; means for determining an identification which personally identifies said customer; means for storing said electronic reading list in a computer database in association with said identification; means for determining a promotion to be delivered to said customer in which said means for determining a promotion comprises: (1) means for extracting a group of stored lists from said computer database, said group of stored lists comprising several selection lists purchases that are stored in association with said identification; and (2) means for matching said promotion with said group of shopping selections and with additional shopping selections contained in said group of stored lists; and means for notifying said client of said promotion. 82. The system of claim 81, wherein said identification comprises a personal high frequency identification device worn by said client. 83. The system of claim 81, wherein said identification comprises an identification card presented by said client. 84. The system of claim 81, wherein said identification comprises an account associated with said client. 85. The system of claim 84, wherein said account represents an account selected from the group comprising: a checking account, an account operating with a credit card, an account operating with a debit card, and a telephone account. 86. The system of claim 84, further comprising: means for calculating a total cost for said group of purchase selections; and means for putting some or all of said total cost on said account. The system of claim 81, further comprising: a database in which a personal address of said retail client is stored; and means for mailing an additional promotion to the home of said first customer. 88. The system of claim 87, wherein said additional promotion comprises either advertisements, discount coupons, or both. 89. The system of claim 87, wherein said additional promotion is selected in conjunction with the analysis of said group of stored lists. 90. The system of claim 81, further comprising: a database in which an electronic address on the Internet or another electronic communications address of said first client is stored; and means for communicating an additional promotion at the home of said first customer via their email address or via other electronic communications. 91. The system of claim 90, wherein said promotions include either advertisements, discount coupons, or both. 92. The system of claim 90, wherein said additional promotion is selected in conjunction with the analysis of said group of stored lists. 93. The system of claim 81, further comprising: a database in which a specification of said promotion is stored in association with said identification; means for determining a second identification associated with a second customer during a purchase transaction in which said second customer purchases a second group of items; means for retrieving a group of promotions stored during payment for a second group of items by said second customer, wherein said group of stored promotions consists of all of the promotions specifications stored in association with said second identification; and means for applying a profit associated with having satisfied said specific condition in response to determining that said second group of articles meets a specific condition contained in said group of extracted promotions. 94. Computerized system for targeting sales promotions to a customer and for supporting a marketing analysis, comprising: means for determining an identification which personally identifies said customer when shopping, said identification being determined by receiving a signal a high frequency identification device associated with said client; means for storing said identification in a purchase history database. 95. The system of claim 94, further comprising: means for determining a promotion to be delivered to said customer, wherein said means for determining a promotion comprises means for analyzing said customer history database; and means for notifying said client of said promotion. 96. The system of claim 94, wherein said storage means further comprises means for storing a total purchase price of a purchase made by said customer in association with said identification. The system of claim 94, wherein said storage means further comprises means for storing a time indication of said purchase visit in association with said identification. 98. The system of claim 94, wherein said identification comprises a device for personal identification of high frequencies worn by said client. 99. The system of claim 94, wherein said identification comprises an identification card presented by said client. 100. The system of claim 94, wherein said identification comprises an account associated with said client. 101. The system of claim 100, wherein said account represents an account selected from the group comprising: a current account, an account operating with a credit card, an account operating with a debit card, and a telephone account. 102. The system of claim 100, further comprising: means for calculating a total cost for said group of purchase selections; and means for putting some or all of said total cost on said account. 103. The system of claim 100, further comprising: means for storing the private address of said retail store customer; and means for mailing an additional promotion to the home of said first customer. The system of claim 103, wherein said additional promotion comprises either advertisements, discount coupons, or both. 105. The system of claim 103, wherein said additional promotion is chosen in conjunction with the analysis of said group of stored lists. 106. The system of claim 94, further comprising: a database in which an electronic address on the Internet or another electronic communications address of said first client is stored; and means for communicating an additional promotion at the home of said first customer via their email address or via other electronic communications. 107. The system of claim 106, wherein said promotions include either advertisements, discount coupons, or both. 108. The system of claim 106, wherein said additional promotion is selected in conjunction with the analysis of said group of stored lists.