HK1182205A - System and method for a commerce window application for computing devices - Google Patents

Description

System and method for commerce window application for computing devices

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED CO-CUSTOMER APPLICATIONS

The present APPLICATION claims the benefit of commonly assigned U.S. provisional APPLICATION serial No. 61/291,807 entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR communications WINDOW APPLICATION FOR MOBILE DEVICES", filed 12/31/2009 and the contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.

This application is a partially-filed, co-assigned U.S. application serial No. 12/198,944 entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR computing fng RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS FOR removal computing devices" filed on 27.8.2008 and the contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a system and method for a commerce window application for a merchant to provide commerce functions to a consumer computing device.

Background

Merchant web sites with shopping carts for conducting business transactions represent an "e-commerce 1.0" method by which consumers enter order parameters (i.e., quantity, size, color), billing, shipping, and payment information using the merchant web site (owned by the merchant or a third party) to complete a transaction. This means that the consumer needs to leave the original web site or application that he or she visited, add or link to the merchant's commerce site through the flag to complete the transaction.

It is also currently difficult for businesses or application developers or content providers or advertisers within mobile applications to deliver secure commerce capabilities. Likewise, it is difficult to communicate time-sensitive and related product offers or requests to the consumer's own mobile phone and then allow the consumer to conveniently pay for the product or request to complete the purchase transaction. Marketing companies may send text messages or multimedia messages with advertisements or offers to consumers' mobile phones, but it is still difficult to complete a purchase transaction on the spot on a mobile device. Payment gateways that can process transactions for merchants typically do not pass dynamic offers to various mobile phones, do not make transactions occur securely, and do not fulfill fulfillment requests that are returned to the merchant. Today, for many mobile shopping applications, mobile consumers are redirected to the URL link of the merchant's website through the mobile device browser, and the consumer can then go through the shopping process and check out as other website customers do. This process is often cumbersome, slow for the user to experience on the browser, and many customers forego the process before completing the transaction. It is more difficult for many merchants to display offers to mobile customers on a single mobile application that is capable of conducting transactions. Today, there is no intermediary service that can provide service trust points for the convenience of mobile consumers while offering offers on behalf of merchants. It is not easy for developers of mobile applications to build mobile applications with secure commerce capabilities, especially if the developers want merchants to complete transactions within their applications, because the developers must maintain the requirements of PCI verification and PA DSS verification to secure cardholder information and be able to securely send transactions to a payment processor to provide shopping orders back to the merchant's fulfillment system. It is cumbersome for consumers to force them to access one mobile application storefront at a time and install a different payment method for each mobile storefront. Therefore, there is a need for a better method to enable commerce on mobile devices and to deliver product offers and requests directly to the consumer's mobile phone while allowing the consumer to easily make purchases.

Today, most conventional electronic transactions are accomplished by one of the following methods.

1. Traditional POS (point of sale) terminal retail transactions: at the POS terminal the customer can swipe a credit/debit card or enter card information into a POS terminal held by the merchant, which has the merchant's own MID (merchant ID), and the MID is embedded in the payment application on the POS terminal. The transaction is then electronically transmitted for authorization and settlement either directly through the payment processor/bank or through the payment gateway, and the money is deposited into the merchant's account associated with the MID.

2. Traditional e-commerce transactions: the user/consumer visits the merchant's website to make a purchase, adds the merchandise to the shopping cart, then the user/consumer checks out/pays by inputting card information, the e-commerce transaction is sent through the e-commerce gateway through the API or directly to the payment processor, and the money is deposited into the merchant's account associated with the MI D.

3. Traditional Mail Order Telephone Order (MOTO) transactions: the user provides credit card information by telephone or mail order, and the merchant uses its payment processor to authorize these payments remotely from its headquarters via a Card Not Present (CNP) transaction, which is sent via virtual terminal input or via electronic batch processing to the processor of the merchant with that merchant's MI D.

4. Traditional mobile application store transactions (like apple, Get It NowCatalog by Verizon, or agregators, etc.): the consumer views the offer from a centralized location, and the store operator charges a fee and then settles with the merchant who provides the digital content product (e.g., application, game, ring) that the consumer wants to purchase. The charging method may be implemented by a stored credit card account or a billing system of the mobile operator. In either case, rather than passing the mobile offer to the customer to prompt a transaction and to push the offer from the merchant to the customer of the merchant, the application store simply waits for the customer to shop at the application store or catalog. Furthermore, there is no direct relationship between the merchant and the consumer, and money does not flow to the merchant first. The application store does not process the payment transaction as the merchant's own MID, but rather charges the consumer's account and then shares the resulting revenue with the merchant providing the product or service. The application store model is an aggregate model that charges and shares revenue with merchants on behalf of the merchants.

5. The merchant creates its own mobile application with purchasing capabilities: essentially the same as a traditional e-commerce transaction conducted through the merchant's own website. The merchant's own applications are simply tied to the merchant's existing e-commerce infrastructure and its payment providers. The consumer must complete the transaction and purchase within the merchant's application.

Accordingly, there is a need to generate and deliver product offers to mobile devices of mobile customers, and to provide the mobile customers with the option of completing purchase transactions with multiple merchants via their mobile phones.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention relates to a system and method for communicating and completing mobile commerce and remote commerce transactions. These mobile commerce transactions can be used to target one-to-one marketing, remote coupon offers, bill payment alerts, and the like. A Commerce Window (CW) application is used to generate product offers, communicate product offers to a mobile customer, and properly complete marketing and payment transactions with the customer on behalf of various merchants, and to ensure that the merchants process the correct order information to fulfill the transaction.

The present invention provides a commerce window system for a consumer computing device. The commerce window system includes a consumer computing device carried by the consumer, a commerce gateway server, the consumer's electronic wallet, and a plurality of merchants that can generate offers for the consumer to shop on any mobile application, or scatter offers that can be embedded into other content provider's applications or advertisements (mobile phone, television, web, print, radio, etc.) so that the scattered offers can be displayed and traded on the consumer's own mobile phone. The consumer computing device includes a commerce window initiated application and may also include an application player for playing player pushed applications. The gateway server includes a shopping mall application/commerce application, an offer management system, and a push marketing campaign management system, and communicates with the consumer computing device over a first network connection. Merchants provide product offers to consumer computing devices through shopping mall applications, or advertise through various media, prompting consumers to activate mobile offers and complete transactions on the spot using their mobile phones. The shopping mall application may include multiple mobile storefronts that respectively provide products for sale by multiple merchants, or may contain a single mobile storefront for a single merchant. Each mobile storefront is associated with a particular merchant and includes a particular mobile storefront application. A particular mobile storefront application of a particular merchant is played by a mall application player in a consumer computing device and product offers from the particular merchant are displayed for the consumer computing device. Each product offer is associated with a product offer identifier and a particular merchant identifier. Each product offer may be a separate offer embedded in the mobile application or website content, or may be delivered separately when invoked by the consumer by clicking on the "buy now" button in the advertisement, or a short message is sent to a number I D, enabling the product offer to be delivered to the consumer's phone in real time, enabling the consumer to view the product and make a purchase.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features a commerce window system that enables a merchant to communicate commerce functions to a consumer computing device, such that the consumer does not need to log into the merchant's website to complete a purchase transaction. The commerce window system includes a consumer computing device, a commerce window gateway server, and a plurality of merchants. The consumer computing device includes a commerce application player executable by the consumer computing device. The commerce window gateway server includes a commerce application and a secure payment application, and the commerce window gateway server communicates with the consumer computing device over a first network connection. The plurality of merchants provide product offers to the consumer computing devices through the commerce application and receive payment through the secure payment application. The commerce application includes a plurality of commerce offer managers, each commerce offer manager being associated with a particular merchant and including a commerce offer application that presents offers of products sold by the particular merchant. A particular commerce offer application for a particular merchant is downloaded and executed by a commerce application player in a consumer computing device and product offers from the particular merchant are displayed on the consumer computing device. Each commerce offer manager also includes an offer management application for generating product offers by particular merchants. Each product offer is associated with a product offer identifier and a particular merchant identifier.

Implementations of this aspect of the invention may include one or more of the following features. Each product offer includes a product description, price, shipping mode, and order parameters. Each product offer may also include collected demographic and marketing information. The product offer identifier includes an automatically generated ID, a barcode reader generated ID, or a Near Field Communication (NFC) tag. Each commerce offer manager also includes a marketing application for a particular merchant to respond to consumer requests for product offers and to push product offers from the particular merchant to the consumer computing device. Product offers are embedded into the business offer application. The consumer request is made by entering a product offer ID, clicking on a screen image, clicking on a "buy now" button, selecting from a browsing list, sending a text message, sending an email, or making a phone call. Product offers are pushed to consumer computing devices by the commerce offer manager through text messaging or messaging devices that use open sockets that can listen to push commands. The system may also include one or more additional consumer computing devices, each additional consumer computing device including a commerce application player. Each consumer computing device includes a device identifier, and each product offer is further related to the device identifier of the consumer computing device selected to receive the product offer. The commerce application player is configured for downloading and executing a plurality of commerce offer applications displaying products offered by a plurality of merchants, and the plurality of merchants were previously selected by a user of the consumer computing device. The commerce window gateway server further includes a first table that includes an association between each product offer and a product offer identifier, a particular merchant identifier, a device identifier, and an affiliated third party identifier. The system may further include one or more payment processors. The payment processor communicates with the secure payment application of the commerce window gateway server and processes payments for products offered for sale by the plurality of merchants. The commerce window gateway server further includes a second table associating each particular merchant identifier with one or more payment processors. The secure payment application stores the payment means previously used in the user account associated with each consumer. Each consumer accesses the user account through an authentication mechanism that may provide one of a username and password, voice authentication, or biometric authentication. The secure payment application communicates payment information to a payment processor associated with the particular merchant, the payment information including means of payment, amount of payment, and the particular product purchased. When the payment is complete, the secure payment application further receives a payment confirmation from the payment processor and forwards the payment confirmation to the commerce offer manager of the particular merchant. Each business offer manager further includes a fulfillment application. The fulfillment application processes order fulfillment and product delivery upon receipt of payment confirmation. The consumer computing device includes a managed code environment within which the business application player executes. The managed code environment may be a small technology interoperability platform virtual machine (STIP VM), J2ME,. NET, or Flash Lite. The commerce application player includes a rich and secure client application configured to display product offers through text, graphics, video or audio. The business application player is configured to be manually or automatically awakened through a text message or TCP/IP socket listener. The commerce application player is dynamically downloaded to the consumer computing device via a link embedded in the product offer advertisement, or in response to a user request for a particular product offer. The commerce application player is preloaded to the consumer computing device. The consumer computing device may be a mobile phone, PDA, payment module, portable computer, personal computer, set-top box, netbook, tablet, iPad, e-reader, or internet appliance. The system may further include an advertising application for presenting advertisements of product offers to the consumer computing devices through the commerce offer application. The advertisement application is included within the commerce window gateway server or an affiliated third party API. Included in the product advertisement is a link to a merchant's commerce offer application that provides a product offer. Product offers for a particular merchant are requested by a user of a consumer computing device through a particular commerce offer application downloaded by the merchant or through an affiliated third party application. The commerce application player further includes a product offer request application to pull (pull) product advertisements and product offers provided by the commerce offer manager. The product offer request application pulls product advertisements and product offers through product codes, barcodes, NFC tags, phone calls, network requests, or text messages. The commerce application player may further include an account manager, security data, and user authentication data.

In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method for a merchant to communicate commerce functions to a consumer computing device, such that the consumer does not need to log into the merchant's website to complete a purchase transaction. The method comprises the following steps: providing a consumer computing device comprising a commerce application player executable by the consumer computing device; providing a commerce window gateway server including a commerce application and a secure payment application; and providing a plurality of merchants configured to provide product offers to the consumer computing devices through the commerce application and receive payment through the secure payment application. The commerce window gateway server communicates with the consumer computing device over a first network connection. The commerce application includes a plurality of commerce offer managers, each commerce offer manager being associated with a particular merchant and including a commerce offer application that presents offers of products sold by the particular merchant. A particular commerce offer application for a particular merchant is downloaded and executed by a commerce application player in a consumer computing device and product offers from the particular merchant are displayed on the consumer computing device. Each commerce offer manager also includes an offer management application for generating product offers by a particular merchant, and each product offer is associated with a product offer identifier and a particular merchant identifier.

In general, in yet another aspect, the invention features a method for a merchant to communicate commerce functions to a consumer computing device, such that the consumer does not need to log into the merchant's website to complete a purchase transaction. The method comprises the following steps: the method includes providing a consumer computing device, providing a commerce window gateway server including a commerce application, and registering a plurality of merchants in the commerce application and generating a commerce offer manager for each merchant through the commerce application. The commerce offer manager includes a commerce offer application configured to provide product offers from merchants to consumer computing devices through a commerce window gateway server. Next, a user of the consumer computing device is registered to purchase a product provided by the merchant through the commerce offer application. A commerce application player is downloaded and installed in a consumer computing device. A commerce offer application for a merchant is downloaded and executed in a consumer computing device with a commerce application player and product offers from a particular merchant are displayed on the consumer computing device. Each product offer is associated with a product offer identifier and a particular merchant identifier. The commerce window gateway server further includes a payment application for storing previously used payment means in a user account associated with each consumer computing device. The method further includes communicating the payment information to a payment processor associated with the particular merchant via a payment application. The payment information includes means of payment, amount of payment, and specific product purchased through the consumer computing device.

Advantages of the invention may be one or more of the following. The Commerce Window (CW) of the present application represents the "e-commerce 2.0" method according to which an intermediary service or system is used to facilitate order presentation, consumer payment and collection of related information, order parameters, and to complete transactions on mobile or computing devices on behalf of merchants and consumers. The commerce window intermediary service may be owned by a third party or the merchant itself. The business window (CW) consists of three main components: 1) payment processing on behalf of a particular merchant, 2) order parameters and fulfillment processing on behalf of a particular merchant, (size, quantity, color, etc.), and 3) management of consumer payment means (e-wallet) and receipts, thereby adding convenience to consumers. The CW may embed the commerce transaction process in any application or web site on behalf of any merchant without leaving the application and redirecting the consumer to the merchant's shopping web site to complete the transaction. The commerce window may be embedded in the merchant's own shopping application or embedded in the advertisement of a third party application so that when the consumer clicks on the "buy now" button in the shopping application or clicks on the advertisement, the rest of the commerce transaction can be conducted securely through the commerce window. The commerce window may also be activated by the consumer via SMS and other means delivered to the consumer's own mobile phone to invoke the advertisement via print, television, web, radio, and other mobile content applications, etc. The commerce window may be a stand-alone application that is pushed to the consumer's mobile or computing device, the only purpose being to complete a single transaction between the merchant and the consumer. The "push" may be initiated by the consumer when sending a bid to his phone by various means, such as scanning a barcode or sending a short text request with a bid ID, or the "push" may be generated by a merchant who knows the consumer and who typically has permission from the consumer to bid through a "push marketing" campaign management system. The commerce window may also be embedded in various mobile applications themselves or various advertisements themselves, enabling consumers to request product information and to conduct transactions.

The commerce window application of the present invention is similar to a quote or ticket sent to the consumer by mail, with the mail having an order form and a postage stamped envelope mailed to the consumer for the consumer to mail back the order and make payment. Currently, there is no such mechanism or system for mobile phones. The commerce window application of the present invention allows product offers and bills to be sent to the consumer's mobile phone and allows the purchase transaction to be completed immediately on the spot using entered or system stored payment information. This is the next generation of electronic transactions to facilitate remote commerce.

Unlike Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) links that direct users to another web site, commerce window applications always remain with a secure commerce gateway server, so users are not easily spoofed. The product offers for the commerce window may be personalized and targeted between the merchant and the consumer. The commerce window application provides the merchant with a direct path to the consumer. Any type of goods and services may be offered by this method. The commerce window application utilizes the risk model of a traditional credit card payment processor, rather than utilizing the mobile phone operator's billing system, which is not designed to handle the risk of purchasing tangible goods. One-to-one marketing offers, coupons, reminders, and bill payment reminders may be sent simultaneously with payments made through the commerce window application. These offers may come in the form of text, graphics, and even audio and video Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages. The commerce window application may be presented on a PC or set-top box for display to the user and for evoking a transaction response. The commerce window application is unique in that it can associate a merchant's own identifier (MID) with a particular offer identifier or offer ID. Thus, the commerce window application does not have to take the consumer to a different website, which may or may not be secure, through a web browser, subjecting the consumer to a cumbersome shopping cart and payment process. The transaction may be completed on the spot. Many mobile devices or set-top boxes do not have a good browser or user interface, so the commerce window application is a secure and efficient way to conduct remote offers and transactions.

Drawings

FIG.1A is an overview diagram of a commerce window system;

FIG.1B is a detailed diagram of the commerce window gateway server of FIG. 1A;

FIG.1C is a detailed view of the commerce application player of FIG. 1A;

FIG.2 is a screen shot of a product offer presented by a commerce application player in a mobile phone;

FIG.3 is a screen shot of a "secure Fastpay" screen in a mobile phone;

FIG.4 is a screen shot of a "find transaction" screen in a mobile phone;

FIG.5 is a screen shot of an order placement screen in a mobile phone;

FIG.6 is a flow chart of a commerce window transaction;

FIG.7 depicts screen shots of selecting a product, searching for the selected product, and entering order parameters in a mobile phone using the commerce window system of FIG.1A and the commerce application player of FIG. 1C;

FIG.8 depicts a screenshot of confirming the purchase of the product of FIG.7, payment for the product, and sending a fulfillment request and receipt;

FIG.9 depicts a screenshot of searching for product offers, finding a price on the day, and making a purchase in a mobile phone using the commerce window system of FIG.1A and the commerce application player of FIG. 1C;

FIG.10 depicts screen shots in a mobile phone to send a push marketing text message to a customer's mobile phone, to show a transaction, and to make a purchase using the commerce window system of FIG.1A and the commerce application player of FIG. 1C;

FIG.11 depicts a screen shot of searching for daily prices, making purchases, and redeeming coupons in a mobile phone using the commerce window system of FIG.1A and the commerce application player of FIG. 1C;

FIG.12 depicts a screenshot of product offers from three different merchants shown on a consumer's personal computer using the commerce window system of FIG.1A and the commerce application player of FIG. 1C;

FIG.13 depicts a screenshot of a product offer presented on a mobile phone using the commerce window system of FIG.1A and the commerce application player of FIG. 1C;

FIG.13A depicts a screenshot of selecting product parameters for the product of FIG. 13;

FIG.13B depicts a screenshot of selecting a quantity for the product of FIG. 13;

FIG.14A depicts a screenshot of logging into a consumer-stored wallet using the commerce window system of FIG.1A and the commerce application player of FIG. 1C;

FIG.14B depicts a screenshot of selecting a particular credit card for payment using the commerce window system of FIG.1A and the commerce application player of FIG. 1C;

FIG.15 depicts a screenshot of confirming purchase parameters for the product of FIG. 13;

FIG.16 depicts a screenshot of confirming purchase of the product of FIG. 13; and

FIG.17 depicts a screenshot of confirming completion of purchasing the product of FIG. 13.

Detailed Description

Referring to fig.1A, a commerce window system 100 for a mobile device includes mobile telephone devices (or consumer computing devices) 132, 134 and 135 that interact with a roaming gateway server 110 (or commerce window gateway server) through a network connection 520. The roaming gateway server 110 includes a shopping mall application 111 (or commerce application) that manages a plurality of merchant storefronts 112, 114, 116 and 118 (or commerce offer managers) and a secure payment application ("secure Fas tpay") 180. Referring to fig.1B, each merchant storefront (commerce offer manager) includes a specific mobile storefront application 152 (or commerce offer application), an offer management application 154, a marketing campaign management application 156, and a fulfillment application 159. The merchant generates product offers through the offer management application 154 and then presents the product offers to the consumer's mobile device using the commerce offer application 152. Marketing campaign application 156 responds to consumer requests for specific product offers and pushes the product offers to selected customers via text messages, as described below. Upon receipt of payment confirmation from the payment application 180, the fulfillment application 159 fulfills the purchase order and schedules delivery of the purchased product. The roaming gateway server 110 also includes an advertising application 190 that exposes advertisements of product offers to the consumer computing devices 132, 134, and 135 through the commerce offer application 120 by the advertising application 190. The advertisement application 190 is included in the commerce window gateway server 110, as shown in FIG.1B, or in an affiliated third party Application Programming Interface (API)185, as shown in FIG. 1A. The product advertisement includes a link to the merchant's commerce offer application 152 that provides the product offer. Product offers for a particular merchant are also requested by consumers through a particular commerce offer application 152 downloaded by the merchant or through an affiliated third party application 185.

Mobile devices 132, 134, and 135 may be any type or format of mobile device using any type of operating system. Referring to fig.1C, mobile devices 132, 134, and 135 include a "my mall roaming player," which is a virtual machine type application 120 (or commerce window player) for playing and/or displaying a mobile storefront application 152 of a merchant selected by a consumer. In the example of FIG.12, commerce window player 350 displays three different mobile storefronts 352, 354, and 355 on a personal computer. The different mobile storefront applications (business offer applications) 152 may be different applications played by the player or may be contained by a larger application having many storefronts in one application. In the example of FIG.1A, the user of phone 1 is selected to have storefronts 122 and 124 for merchants 1 and 2, respectively. The user of phone 2 is selected to have storefronts 122 and 128 for merchants 1 and 4, respectively. Similarly, the user of phone 3 is selected to have storefronts 126 and 124 for merchants 3 and 2, respectively. The commerce window player 120 also includes an account manager 153 and security 157 and authentication 158 data, as shown in FIG. 1C. The account manager 153 manages detailed account information such as name, address, shipping information, and payment method. The authentication data 158 includes a username and password, or an authentication token, or voice or other biometric authentication data. The commerce window player 132 also includes a "product offer request" application 151 for use by a user of the computing device to pull product advertisements and product offers provided by various commerce offer managers, as shown in fig.9 and 11. This is an example diagram and thus system 100 may include fewer or more than three mobile devices and fewer or more than four merchants. The mobile phones 132, 134 and 135 belong to the consumers who use the devices to conduct purchase transactions. The mobile devices 132, 134, and 135 may be mobile phones, personal computers, set-top boxes, netbooks, electronic readers (Kindle), and other internet appliances. The roaming gateway server 110 is also connected to payment processors 161, 162, and 163 for processing payments for products offered and purchased through the commerce window system 100.

The Commerce Windows Gateway (CWG)110 is a gateway server that provides and supports a commerce windows application 111. The CWG communicates and manages product offers to the remote terminals 132, 134, and 135, including associations between offers and given product offer IDs with merchant IDs (mids), and to which consumers/users or devices (device IDs) the offers are provided. The product offer ID may also be associated with the affiliated third party 185 if the product is being presented to the consumer through the affiliated third party. This association between the product ID and the merchant ID, device ID, and affiliate ID is stored in table 1161, as shown in fig. 1B. The MID is also associated with a given payment processor 161, 162, 163. Each payment processor may process a different payment instrument that primarily functions to authorize payment and deposit funds into the merchant's account if the payment instrument used is valid and has sufficient funds. Table 2162 stores these payment data in association with merchant IDs. If the consumer completes the payment transaction through the commerce window, the order information, total amount, and payment information is sent to the CWG 110. Payment information may be obtained directly from the consumer (i.e., credit card information) at each consumer transaction ("normal payment"). The consumer may also register "secure Fastpay" 180, which allows previously used payment means to be stored in the user account or e-wallet 182 and then quickly reused by authentication of the user, as shown in fig.1B, 3, 8,9, 10, 11 and 14B. The payment means may be a credit card (as shown in fig. 14B), a prepaid debit card, a PayPal account, ACH, etc. User authentication may be performed by a username and password as shown in fig. 14A. In other embodiments, user authentication is based on an authentication token or method, voice, or other biometric information. The commerce window application completes the payment transaction by passing the correct payment means (stored or new) and the correct total to the correct processor for the correct MID based on the correct offer ID. The CWG 110 also tracks whether the sent quote is opened, viewed, rejected or accepted. The CWG 110 can access various payment processors at which the merchant receives payment so the CWG 110 can route the transaction from each offer to the correct processor. The CWG is a PCI adapted to properly secure cardholder information. The commerce window application is written in multiple languages and uses multiple technologies to display offers, securely communicate with the CWG (secure server), and deliver and confirm the correct transaction. In one example, the CWG is a nomadic server 3000 as described in commonly assigned U.S. application serial No. 12/198,944, filed on 27.8.2008, entitled SYSTEMAND METHOD FOR DEVELOPING RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS FOR roaming DEVICES, the contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.

The merchant may use marketing campaign management application 156 to customize product offers targeted to a group of users or to an individual user. The user can be identified by a cell phone number, an email address, a set-top box ID, or the like. In the case of one-to-one marketing, the more information about the targeted user/consumer is known, the more secure the content of the product offer and the stronger the relevance. The user/consumer may "opt-in" to learn promotions and offers, in which case the user/consumer may voluntarily provide their account information in the CWG store, or the merchant may provide such account information for completing a transaction with the user/consumer. If the user/consumer does not use the "opt-in" model, it is important that the associated timely quotes do not create the effect of network spam.

The commerce window player 120 is a rich and secure client application. Referring to fig.10, in a "push" marketing application, the commerce window player 120 is awakened by receiving an SMS/MMS message 330 or by a transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) socket listener and displays product offers and prompt responses and actions to the user in the form of text, graphics, video and audio. As shown in fig.10, the user opens a "daily group purchase" offer 332 and completes the purchase 334. The commerce window player 120 displays offers from any merchant that wishes to present the offers through the CWG. Referring to fig.9 and 11, the commerce window player 120 may also be used to browse product offers 320, "pull" or request offers 340, complete purchases 342, and redeem coupons 344. The requested offer may come from a particular store, or for a particular product, or just the best "daily price" offer. The display of the product offer includes a short description of the product, technical specifications, price information, store location, coupons, and the like. Offers for a particular product may be searched by snapping the product image and sending a text message to the commerce window server 110, as shown in FIG. 7. In other embodiments, the product offers are searched by clicking on the product image, clicking on the product offer link, or clicking/clicking on the "buy now" button 362, as shown in FIG. 13. The searched product quotes are then displayed 304, as shown in FIG.7, and product order parameters are entered 306, as shown in FIG. 7. The product order parameters include color, size, parts, quantity, etc.

The commerce window player 120 may be preloaded to the computing device or dynamically loaded through a link when an offer is presented. The commerce window player 120 may also be available through an application store as a mobile application that may provide remote commerce and bill payment capabilities. Alternatively, the commerce window player 120 can download over the air through a link to the CWG's provisioning server. In the case of a PC/MAC computer, the commerce window player 120 is simply downloaded to the user/consumer's PC/MAC at the time of the offer in the form of a Java application. To ensure the authenticity and security of the commerce window player 120 (i.e., the authentic commerce window player from a trusted CWG provider) to the consumer, an appropriate authentication token is displayed. Of course, as with counterfeit ATMs and POS devices, there are also counterfeit commerce window players, but appropriate measures should be taken to ensure that the consumer feels secure when using the commerce window player. If a remote terminal, such as a mobile device, does not load commerce window player 120, the merchant may provide some benefit requesting its consumer/user to voluntarily load the commerce window player. Fig.2 depicts a screenshot 155 of a lipstick product offer presented to a consumer via the commerce window player 120 in the consumer's mobile phone. In one example, the commerce window player is a roaming player 1110 as described in commonly assigned U.S. application serial No. 12/198,944, filed on 27.8.2008, entitled SYSTEM and method FOR device usage RICH INTERNET application FOR mobility computing DEVICES, the contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.

Referring to FIG.6, a process 200 for conducting commerce window transactions includes the following steps. First, merchants 102, 104, 106, and 108 register with a trusted third party Commerce Window Gateway (CWG)110, (i.e., roaming data gateway), and generate mobile storefront applications 112, 114, 116, and 118, respectively, using a roaming Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The roaming I DE is described in commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 12/198,944, filed on 27.8.2008, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR device roaming information FOR REMOTE COMPUTTING DEVICES, the contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. Merchants 102, 104, 106, and 108 use their mobile storefront applications to provide products and services to consumers 132, 134, and 135 through their mobile devices and to perform "pull marketing" or "push marketing". Once the application is completed, the merchants 102, 104, 106, and 108 place their corresponding storefronts 112, 114, 116, and 118 into the roaming shopping mall 111 (202). Next, the merchants 102, 104, 106, and 108 persuade and direct their customers to register their mobile storefront applications 112, 114, 116, and 118 (204). The merchant also tries to persuade its customers to choose to join their "special offers over cellular" (216). A consumer registering a mobile storefront application receives a special software called a roaming player or commerce window player 120 on their phone 132 (206). The roaming player 120 enables the consumer to have a variety of roaming applications, including mobile storefront applications 122 and 124 for shopping on the consumer's mobile phone, and mobile storefronts 112 and 114, respectively, that enable the consumer to access the merchant. The merchant that registers the consumer first will have his mobile storefront 122 at the top of the list. The consumer may add other mobile stores to their mobile mall through a web interface or through the roaming player application itself. The consumer can then shop at any time at his or her selected mobile storefront (208). When the first actual purchase is made, the consumer may choose to register "secure Fastpay" 160, as shown in FIG. 3. The "secure Fastpay" 160 obtains the user's cardholder information 163 and generates a password 164 for verifying future payments. The consumer's mobile phone number is checked through various sources to confirm and improve authentication. In one example, the name of the telephone number matches the name of a credit card, or matches the mailing address of a credit card. If a match is confirmed, a "secure Fastpay" 160 is established on the mobile telephone 1. If not, the CWG server 110 denies the transaction. Multiple denials may result in termination of the roaming player 120 or continued access to the system by the cell phone number. When the consumer "opts in" a special offer via cell phone (216), "push marketing" may be done by waking up the roaming player software application 120's private SMS or MMS prompt, and then the roaming player software application 120 exposes a commerce window to complete the offer and transaction based on the offer ID, as shown in fig.10 (218). A merchant 102 that wants an offer generates the offer using a "push marketing" campaign manager (PMCM) in the mobile storefront application 112 and associates the offer with a unique offer ID. The start and end times of the quote, SKU, price, description, maximum and minimum numbers, and images are all specified and loaded onto the PMCM software. The merchant may then select a recipient based on a plurality of filters and criteria, and the merchant sends the offer to the recipient. Examples of such filters and criteria include demographics, interests, consumption patterns, own customers only, all mobile customers with roaming players (opt-in), customers who purchase certain products, etc. Alternatively, a recipient or consumer that is not registered to "opt-in" may search for and select an offer by themselves ("pull marketing") by punching a short code, snapping a product image, entering a barcode or NFC tag through a text message, or other method, to request that the offer be delivered to their mobile phone (220), as shown in fig. 4. When a quote is completed by a particular quote ID and the recipient is identified within the system, the Commerce Window Gateway (CWG) delivers the quote at a given time through a private SMS or MMS, or TCP/IP socket listener. CWG measures and tracks adoption and click-through rates. The recipient/consumer receives the offer and may choose to:

"buy now" or "yes" -open the rest of the quotes and shop/buy.

"buy temporarily" or "no", then further select:

i. forward-to another phone number or email.

Save-save to SMS for later action.

If the recipient selects "buy now" or "yes," then the merchant's mobile storefront application that presented the offer appears, and the consumer can select quantities and parameters based on the offer and check out (208). The commerce window checks against the CWG before the commerce window completes the check, the CWG checks against the PMCM for validity of the offer, and checks with the merchant for inventory or date that the offer is still valid before making payment. Once confirmed (if necessary), a checkout is performed. The recipient can select "normal payment" or "secure Fastpay". In the case of "normal payment", the customer enters new payment card information for the first time. At the end of the "normal payment" session, the consumer may choose to register "secure Fastpay". Selecting the "secure Fastpay" option results in confirming payment and cardholder information and specifying a password for authentication. Near Field Communication (NFC) payment or card swiping payment (SCPP), and an automatic clearing system (ACH) and Paypal, etc. may also be registered as "secure Fastpay" as a payment means. The secure Fastpay may store a variety of payment means for user selection. In one example, the user may select between "account end number is XXXX 2035" and "account end number is XXXX 1135". The "secure Fastpay" 180 then directs the payment to payment processors 161, 162, and 163 to process credit card payments, debit card payments, and direct wire transfer payments (210), as shown in fig. 1. FIG.3 depicts a screenshot 160 of a secure Fastpay window 162 including an account 163 for selecting payment and an authentication password 164. To complete the transaction, roaming gateway 110 needs to receive an order with information, including confirmation of purchase of a certain amount of product/service, (order info 000) and total XXX, quote ID yyyy and payment means ZZZ, as shown in fig. 5. Based on the offer ID YYY, the roaming gateway 110 matches the data table with the merchant ID AAA on the payment processor BBB and completes a corresponding payment transaction for a corresponding amount to be paid to the corresponding merchant ID AAA. Once payment is confirmed by the payment processor, the order information 000 is sent by the roaming gateway server 110 to the merchant for further processing (212). The merchant sends confirmation of the order and roaming gateway 110 notifies the customer of the order completion on their mobile phone (214). The merchant then fulfills the order using the fulfillment application 159 and sends a fulfillment confirmation to the consumer. And also sends an email receipt to the consumer based on the registered information. The consumer also has a "my roaming" account for checking which transactions were made, and a mobile storefront that the consumer wants to add/delete or opt-in to receive offers.

The "commerce window" transaction differs from a traditional e-commerce transaction in that: the "commerce window" transaction combines the principles of POS transactions and e-commerce transactions in one embodiment with the delivery of a specific offer with a unique offer ID associated with the merchant's MID to the consumer's mobile phone. Unlike POS terminals and e-commerce web sites where the MID is associated with a terminal or web site, a "commerce window" has a dynamic MID concept, i.e., the MID is associated with a "offer" or offer ID, rather than the terminal or web site. The "commerce window" brings the price of the embedded payment directly to the user/consumer. Instead of linking the user back to the merchant's website to complete the payment, the payment may be received with the offer and processed for the merchant via an intermediary service. The MID associated with the offer receives payment. Essentially, each mobile phone or internet appliance becomes a dynamic POS terminal, and anyone who presents offers, rather than the person who owns the POS terminal, accepts and receives payments. In addition, once payment is authorized, the correct order is communicated to the merchant through a "commerce window" to inform the merchant to fulfill the order. This is in contrast to conventional e-commerce web sites that do not rely on a "commerce window" to authorize payment nor communicate order fulfillment requests. The presentation of the quote is accomplished through a trusted third party or intermediary service (CWG) that guarantees to the user that the merchant to whom the quote is being quoted is legitimate, not any random web site or URL. It is still the responsibility of the merchant if there is a chargeback denial, but the consumer trusts the "commerce window" service provider and must "opt-in" because the "commerce window" service provider trusts the merchant. With two known parties, mobile quotes become meaningful, relevant, and trustworthy. Each merchant that presents offers has a MID and merchant account and a trusted third party (trusted intermediary service) is required to present these offers to its customers.

Applications of

Imagine that on the evening of monday you have previously ordered from Dominos and "opt-in" to receive special offers from them. At 4:30 pm you will receive a reminder on the phone to "business window": "is a tonight game to order pizza? Special offers from Dominos (damimerle), 30% discount, plus one free bottle of soda! If you click yes, go directly to a menu to complete the order and pay for the delivery. For ease, the "same last" button helps you transfer the same order. Your means of payment may already be stored so you can simply enter a password to confirm the order and payment. The transaction is authorized, notification is made to domios, an e-mail receipt is sent, and the pizza is delivered at the designated time.

The next day, when you are going to work on the train, you receive another offer on the handset, saying: "from 1800Flowers, next Tuesday is valentine's day, order immediately, and save 20%, and deliver free. "you can click" yes "and thus bid for a profit. The same process occurs as described above. If the birthday and the anniversary are stored, the user can be reminded in time, and more convenience is provided for the user. You can always reject or ignore the offer, or "opt out" if you no longer like the merchant.

You are driving to listen to the NPR radio station, the local radio station is doing annual financing, and you feel like to want to contribute money, but are inconvenient to register home or dial an 800 number to pay with a credit card. Instead, you enter the short code provided by the station (e.g., 27771, by text), and associate the short code with an internal bid ID and your cell phone number. Alternatively, you can call to tell the operator to send a payment request to your mobile phone. After a few seconds, the "business window" pops up "WBUR, thank you generously, please click yes" to complete the donation. If you click yes, the pop-up menu lets you choose to select $ 25, $ 50, $ 100 or to enter their own amount, pay with a stored account, or enter a new credit card number. The transaction is confirmed and a receipt is sent via e-mail.

This may be applicable to any offer of goods and services. You can also sit in front of the television or see a billboard, and just to get this offer into your "business window" for purchase, you just need to enter a short code to send the offer to your cell phone to facilitate the transaction.

In another example, a merchant may want to place an offer for a customer with a cell phone number 7815551212. It knows that the customer will run out of his nutritional products, want to send a quote or prompt for a monthly reorder, and has a special offer for a new product, i.e., a 25% discount is available if ordering today. The offer is sent to the mobile phone to wake up an application and "business window" where the offer is presented to the user/consumer in the form of an SMS or MMS. The user may then discard or open the quote, and if the user decides to want to purchase, as part of the menu selection, the user may simply click on "buy," the user may enter his credit card information, SKU, quantity and shipping information if desired, or simply select "secure Fastpay" to fulfill the order and complete the transaction through the merchant's MID. Through the "commerce window" the merchant may require additional verification to be made to determine that the offer and payment was in fact made by its customer. This may be implemented in the form of a username password, or a security token stored on a remote terminal like an NFC chip (mobile phone etc.), or a security ID. A card reader and a remote terminal like a card reader may be added to the interface to ensure another level of authentication. The multiple ways of identifying the terminal from the cell phone number to the terminal unique identifier makes it more secure than a standard web browser. While ensuring a level of one-to-one marketing to the appropriate end user/consumer and maintaining a high level of security and trust in the system.

Advantages of the invention may be one or more of the following. Targeting and reaching their customers and getting back business and loyalty means a better approach for merchants. Keeping customers more profitable than finding new customers, while the "business window" application may also help attract new customers who browse roaming shopping malls. It is convenient for consumers to get reminders from merchants they know and to pay by trusted third parties that secure payment information to the merchant, without having to mine payment card information each time payment is needed, which is easier than surfing the internet or calling to an 1800 number or going to a brick and mortar store to buy something.

Some embodiments of the invention have been described above. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

Claims (63)

1. A commerce window system for a merchant to communicate commerce functions to a consumer computing device to enable a consumer to complete a purchase transaction without logging into the merchant's website, the system comprising:

a consumer computing device comprising a commerce application player executable by the consumer computing device;

a commerce window gateway server including a commerce application and a secure payment application, wherein the commerce window gateway server communicates with the consumer computing device over a first network connection;

a plurality of merchants configured to provide product offers to the consumer computing devices through the commerce application and receive payment through the secure payment application;

wherein the commerce application comprises a plurality of commerce offer managers and wherein each commerce offer manager is associated with a particular merchant and comprises a commerce offer application that presents offers of products sold by the particular merchant;

wherein a particular commerce offer application of a particular merchant is downloaded and executed by the commerce application player in the consumer computing device and product offers from the particular merchant are displayed on the consumer computing device;

wherein each commerce offer manager further comprises an offer management application for generating product offers by the particular merchant; and

wherein each product offer is associated with a product offer identifier and a particular merchant identifier.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each product offer includes a product description, a price, a shipping method, and order parameters.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the each product offer further comprises collected demographic and marketing information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the product offer identifier comprises one of an automatically generated ID, a barcode reader generated ID, or a Near Field Communication (NFC) tag.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each commerce offer manager further comprises a marketing application for the particular merchant to respond to consumer requests for product offers and to push product offers from the particular merchant to the consumer computing device, and wherein the product offers are embedded in the commerce offer application.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the consumer request is issued by one of entering a product offer ID, clicking on a screen image, clicking on a "buy now" button, selecting in a browsing list, sending a text message, sending an email, or making a phone call.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the product offer is pushed to the consumer computing device by the commerce offer manager through a text message or messaging device using an open socket that can listen to push commands.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more additional consumer computing devices, and wherein each additional consumer computing device comprises the commerce application player.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein each consumer computing device includes a device identifier, and wherein each product offer is further associated with a device identifier of a consumer computing device that has been selected to receive the product offer.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the commerce application player is configured for downloading and executing, respectively, a plurality of commerce offer applications displaying products offered by a plurality of merchants, and wherein the plurality of merchants were previously selected by a user of the consumer computing device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the commerce window gateway server further comprises a first table including an association between each product offer and a product offer identifier, a specific merchant identifier, a device identifier, and an affiliated third party identifier.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, further comprising one or more payment processors, wherein the payment processors communicate with the secure payment application of the commerce window gateway server and process payments for products offered for sale by the plurality of merchants.

13. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the commerce window gateway server further comprises a second table associating each of the particular merchant identifiers with the one or more payment processors.

14. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the secure payment application stores payment means previously used in a user account associated with each consumer.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein each consumer accesses the user account through an authentication mechanism that can provide one of a username and password, voice authentication, or biometric authentication.

16. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the secure payment application communicates payment information to a payment processor associated with a particular merchant, wherein the payment information includes means for payment, amount of payment, and a particular product purchased through the consumer computing device.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the secure payment application further receives a payment confirmation from the payment processor and forwards the payment confirmation to the merchant's commerce offer manager when payment is complete.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein each commerce offer manager further comprises a fulfillment application, and wherein the fulfillment application processes offer fulfillment and product shipment upon receipt of the payment confirmation.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the consumer computing device includes a managed code environment, and wherein the commerce application player executes within the managed code environment, and wherein the managed code environment includes one of a small technology interaction platform virtual machine (STIP VM), J2ME,. NET, or Flash Lite.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the commerce application player comprises a rich and secure client application configured to display the product offer by text, graphics, video, or audio.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the commerce application player is configured to be manually or automatically awakened through a text message or a TCP/IP socket listener.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the commerce application player is dynamically downloaded to the consumer computing device via a link embedded in an advertisement for a product offer.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the commerce application player is dynamically downloaded to the consumer computing device in response to a user request for a particular product offer.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the commerce application player is preloaded to the consumer computing device.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the consumer computing device comprises one of a mobile phone, a PDA, a payment module, a portable computer, a personal computer, a set-top box, a netbook, a tablet, an iPad, an e-reader, or an internet appliance.

26. The system of claim 1, further comprising an advertising application, wherein the advertising application is to present advertisements of product offers to the consumer computing device through the commerce offer application.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the advertisement application is included within the commerce window gateway server or an affiliated third party API.

28. The system of claim 26 wherein the product advertisement includes a link to a commerce offer application of a merchant that provides the product offer.

29. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein a user of the consumer computing device requests product offers of a particular merchant through a particular commerce offer application downloaded by the merchant or through an affiliated third party application.

30. The system of claim 1, wherein the commerce application player further comprises a product offer application request to pull product advertisements and product offers provided by the commerce offer manager, and wherein the product offer request application pulls product advertisements and product offers through one of a product code, a barcode, an NFC tag, a phone call, a network request, or a text message.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein the commerce application player further comprises an account manager, security data, and user authentication data.

32. A method for a merchant to communicate commerce functions to a consumer computing device such that a consumer can complete a purchase transaction without logging into the merchant's website, the method comprising:

providing a consumer computing device comprising a commerce application player executable by the consumer computing device;

providing a commerce window gateway server comprising a commerce application and a secure payment application, and wherein the commerce window gateway server is in communication with the consumer computing device over a first network connection;

providing a plurality of merchants configured to provide product offers to the consumer computing devices through the commerce application and receive payment through the secure payment application;

wherein the commerce application comprises a plurality of commerce offer managers and wherein each commerce offer manager is associated with a particular merchant and comprises a commerce offer application that presents offers of products sold by the particular merchant;

wherein a particular commerce offer application of a particular merchant is downloaded and executed by the commerce application player in the consumer computing device and product offers from the particular merchant are displayed on the consumer computing device;

wherein each commerce offer manager further comprises an offer management application for generating product offers by the particular merchant; and

wherein each product offer is associated with a product offer identifier and a particular merchant identifier.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein each product offer includes a product description, a price, a shipping method, and order parameters.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the each product offer further comprises collected demographic and marketing information.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein the product offer identifier comprises one of an automatically generated ID, a barcode reader generated ID, or a Near Field Communication (NFC) tag.

36. The method of claim 32 wherein each commerce offer manager further comprises a marketing application for the particular merchant to respond to consumer requests for product offers and to push product offers from the particular merchant to the consumer computing device, and wherein the product offers are embedded in the commerce offer application.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the consumer request is made by one of entering a product offer ID, clicking on a screen image, clicking on a "buy now" button, selecting in a browsing list, sending a text message, sending an email, or making a phone call.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the product offer is pushed to the consumer computing device by the commerce offer manager through a text message or messaging device using an open socket that can listen to push commands.

39. The method of claim 32, further comprising one or more additional consumer computing devices, and wherein each additional consumer computing device comprises the commerce application player.

40. The method of claim 39 wherein each consumer computing device includes a device identifier, and wherein each product offer is further associated with the device identifier of the consumer computing device selected to receive the product offer.

41. The method as recited in claim 32, wherein the commerce application player is configured for downloading and executing, respectively, a plurality of commerce offer applications displaying product offers provided by a plurality of merchants, and wherein the plurality of merchants were previously selected by a user of the consumer computing device.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the commerce window gateway server further comprises a first table including an association between each product offer and a product offer identifier, a specific merchant identifier, a device identifier, and an affiliated third party identifier.

43. The method as recited in claim 42, further comprising one or more payment processors, wherein the payment processors communicate with the secure payment application of the commerce window gateway server and process payments for products offered for sale by the plurality of merchants.

44. The method as recited in claim 43, wherein the commerce window gateway server further comprises a second table associating each particular merchant identifier with the one or more payment processors.

45. The method as recited in claim 44, wherein the secure payment application stores payment means previously used in a user account associated with each consumer.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein each consumer accesses the user account through an authentication mechanism that can provide one of a username and password, voice authentication, or biometric authentication.

47. The method as recited in claim 45, wherein the secure payment application communicates payment information to a payment processor associated with a particular merchant, the payment information including means for payment, amount of payment, and a particular product purchased through the consumer computing device.

48. The method as recited in claim 47, wherein, when payment is complete, the secure payment application further receives a payment confirmation from the payment processor and forwards the payment confirmation to the merchant's commerce offer manager of the particular merchant.

49. The method of claim 48 wherein each commerce offer manager further comprises a fulfillment application, and wherein the fulfillment application processes offer fulfillment and product shipment upon receipt of the payment confirmation.

50. The method of claim 32, wherein the consumer computing device includes a managed code environment, and wherein the commerce application player executes within the managed code environment, and wherein the managed code environment includes one of a small technology interaction platform virtual machine (STIP VM), J2ME,. NET, or Flash Lite.

51. The method of claim 32, wherein the commerce application player comprises a rich and secure client application configured to display the product offer by text, graphics, video, or audio.

52. The method of claim 32, wherein the commerce application player is configured to be manually or automatically awakened through a text message or a TCP/IP socket listener.

53. The method of claim 32, wherein the commerce application player is dynamically downloaded to the consumer computing device via a link embedded in an advertisement for a product offer.

54. The method of claim 32, wherein the commerce application player is dynamically downloaded to the consumer computing device in response to a user request for a particular product offer.

55. The method of claim 32, wherein the commerce application player is preloaded to the consumer computing device.

56. The method as recited in claim 32, wherein the consumer computing device comprises one of a mobile phone, a PDA, a payment module, a portable computer, a personal computer, a set-top box, a netbook, a tablet, an iPad, an e-reader, or an internet appliance.

57. The method of claim 32, further comprising an advertising application, wherein the advertising application is used to present advertisements of product offers to the consumer computing device through the commerce offer application.

58. The method of claim 57, wherein the advertisement application is included within the commerce window gateway server or an affiliated third party API.

59. The method of claim 57 wherein the product advertisement includes a link to a commerce offer application of a merchant that provides the product offer.

60. The method as recited in claim 32, wherein a user of the consumer computing device requests product offers of a particular merchant through a particular commerce offer application downloaded by the merchant or through an affiliated third party application.

61. The method of claim 32, wherein the commerce application player further comprises a product offer request application to pull product advertisements and product offers provided by the commerce offer manager, and the product offer request application pulls product advertisements and product offers through one of a product code, a barcode, an NFC tag, a phone call, a network request, or a text message.

62. The method of claim 32, wherein the commerce application player further comprises an account manager, security data, and user authentication data.

63. A method for a merchant to communicate commerce functions to a consumer computing device such that a consumer can complete a purchase transaction without logging into the merchant's website, the method comprising:

providing a consumer computing device;

providing a commerce window gateway server including a commerce application;

registering a plurality of merchants in the commerce application and generating a commerce offer manager for each merchant through the commerce application, wherein the commerce offer manager includes a commerce offer application configured to provide product offers from the merchants to the consumer computing devices through the commerce window gateway server;

registering a user of the consumer computing device to purchase a product provided by the merchant through the commerce offer application;

downloading and installing a commerce application player in the consumer computing device;

downloading and executing, with the commerce application player, the commerce offer application of the merchant in the consumer computing device and displaying product offers from the particular merchant on the consumer computing device;

wherein each product offer is associated with a product offer identifier and a particular merchant identifier;

wherein the commerce window gateway server further comprises a payment application, and wherein the payment application is for storing payment means previously used in a user account associated with each consumer computing device; and

communicating payment information through the payment application to a payment processor associated with a particular merchant, wherein the payment information includes means for payment, an amount of payment, and a particular product purchased through the consumer computing device.