Facilitating location-based sales venue transaction payments using non-location-based identity targets

A server configured for use in the processing of payments for at least one location-based sales venue containing a plurality of customer locations and at least one network-connected venue-associated POS system, wherein each customer location has a physical identity target attached in proximity thereto comprising a unique system-wide identifier readable by mobile customer devices, the server comprising:

• a) a non-transient computer-readable storage medium having executable instructions, being a payment processing software component, embodied thereon;
• b) one or more hardware processors configured to execute the instructions;
• c) a network interface capable of two-way communication via at least one data network with mobile customer devices as well as with all of the venue-associated POS systems;
• d) a transaction gateway through which customer payments can be processed;
• and
• e) a location database comprising a venue record corresponding to each location-based sales venue and containing venue payment details via which payments to the venue can be electronically processed by a transaction gateway and network address details for each venue-associated POS system by which the server can communicate with same, and a location record corresponding to each physical customer location in each managed venue and containing the unique system-wide identifier of the associated physical identity target and identification of the venue-associated POS system affiliated with the customer location;
• said server operable to:
• f) in a customer-initiated payment step, facilitate a desired payment transaction by a customer seeking to pay the outstanding service bill in respect of at least one selected customer location by:
• i) receiving at the server a location transmission containing the identifier of the physical identity target of the at least one selected customer location from a customer mobile device having read and captured the identifier;
• ii) parsing the location transmission to extract the received identifier of the physical identity target for each of the at least one selected customer locations contained therein;
• iii) selecting the location records corresponding to each selected customer location by matching the received identifiers with the details of associated identifiers stored within the location records;
• iv) querying the venue-associated POS system for each selected customer location to obtain the required payment details and determining the total payment amount required from the customer;
• v) receiving customer payment method details from the mobile customer device of the customer;
• vi) triggering a payment transaction for the total payment amount via the transaction gateway using the customer payment method details from the mobile customer device and the venue payment details from the venue record associated with the selected customer locations;
• and
• vii) on completion of the payment transaction, transmitting a payment completion indication in respect of the selected customer locations to each associated venue-associated POS system;
• wherein the system-wide identifier displayed on each identity target does not include any identifying information related to the location-based sales venue or customer location and is not repeated between any two customer locations;
• and
• wherein each physical identity target contains no human-readable indication of the location-based sales venue or the customer location.