System and Method For Providing Incentives to Purchasers

An online system configured to present a user with a user interface to access incentives over a distributed network, the user being a potential purchaser of goods or services associated with the incentives, the system comprising:

• one or more processors configured to generate a graphical user interface for presentation to a user on an electronic display, the graphical user interface being adapted to present incentive offers to the user, to facilitate user payment for incentives by the user, and to enable the user to redeem user selected incentives, the graphical user interface comprising:
• an incentive display field that displays an incentive offer and an associated user fee to the user;
• a payment acceptance field that requests and is configured to receive payment information from the user for payment of the associated fee in exchange for the incentive associated with the incentive offer;
• and
• an incentive distribution field that presents, responsive to reception of the payment information, incentive information to the user to enable the user to redeem the incentive.

A system configured to present incentives to users over a network, the system comprising:

• one or more servers that communicate with remote user terminals over a network, the one or more servers comprising:
• non-transient electronic storage that stores incentive information pertaining to incentive offers available from a plurality of offerors, product information pertaining to goods or services associated with the incentives, and user profile information pertaining to users of the system, wherein the incentive information includes user fees for individual incentives, and wherein the user profile information includes demographic information;
• and
• one or more processors that execute computer modules, the computer modules comprising:
• an incentive data output module that determines which if any of the incentives should be offered to the individual users based on the incentive information and the demographic information in the user profile information;
• an incentive data input module that receives user acceptances of individual incentives that have been received by the users from the remote user terminals, wherein a given user acceptance includes payment information for a user fee associated with the accepted incentive;
• and
• an incentive dispersal module that determines whether to disperse accepted incentives based on amounts of received user acceptances for the individual incentives, and, responsive to determinations that the accepted incentives should be dispersed, to disperse transmit incentive information to the remote user terminals to enable the users to redeem the dispersed incentives.

A method of discount retailing in which an offer does not become valid until a minimum number of offers are purchased, comprising a network server, a microprocessor, a memory and computer software, said computer software being located in said memory and run by said microprocessor, said computer software comprising a discount retailing algorithm, wherein said discount retailing algorithm comprises the steps of:

• (a) obtaining consent from a merchant to market and advertise an item normally provided by said merchant at a standard offer price;
• (b) determining a discount offer price for said item, said discount offer price being a reduction in amount from the standard offer price of that item;
• (c) deciding on a tipping point at which time the discount offer price becomes valid;
• (d) generating an advertisement to present said discount offer price and said tipping point to potential consumers;
• (e) displaying said advertisement over a network through said network server for a predetermined period of time for potential consumers to review;
• (f) receiving acceptances of the discount offer price for the item over the network for the predetermined period of time;
• (g) determining if the tipping point has been attained;
• and
• (h) informing each consumer that accepted the discount offer whether or not the tipping point has been attained.