System and method for distribution, redemption and processing of electronic coupons

A method of executing a transaction using an electronic coupon, comprising:

• communicating with an engine using a personal electronic device to execute a coupon search, the engine storing coupon campaign information, the coupon campaign information defining a discount value, and a product family, each coupon within the coupon campaign having a coupon identification (ID);
• selecting a coupon from a list of search results generated by the coupon search to retrieve coupon data from the engine, the coupon data including a coupon ID and being stored in the personal electronic device;
• using near-field communications (NFC) to transmit the coupon data to a point of sale (POS) system using the personal electronic device to initiate a transaction, the personal electronic device being one of an NFC-enabled global system for mobile communications (GSM) station and an NFC-enabled code division multiple access (CDMA) phone, the personal electronic device operating a Java Card Applet for coupon management and a Java MIDlet for user interfacing, the POS system communicating with the engine to verify a validity of the coupon ID;
• entering a personal identification number (PIN) into the POS to authorize the POS to modify the coupon data stored on the personal electronic device;
• and
• after the transaction is complete, receiving an instruction from the POS to modify a status of the coupon data.

A computer program storage medium usable with a programmable computer processor and having a computer readable program code embodied therein, comprising:

• computer readable program code which retrieves coupon data from a machine-readable portion of a coupon publication, the machine-readable portion of the coupon publication encoding coupon data describing coupon campaign information, the coupon campaign information defining a discount value, and a product family, each coupon within the coupon campaign having a coupon identification (ID);
• computer readable program code which communicates with an engine to verify a validity of the coupon data;
• computer readable program code which uses near-field communications (NFC) to transmit the coupon data to a point of sale (POS) system to initiate a transaction using a personal electronic device, the personal electronic device being one of an NFC-enabled global system for mobile communications (GSM) station and an NFC-enabled code division multiple access (CDMA) phone, the personal electronic device operating a Java Card Applet for coupon management and a Java MIDlet for user interfacing, the POS system communicating with the engine to verify a validity of the coupon ID;
• and
• computer readable program code which, after the transaction is complete, receives an instruction from the POS to modify a status of the coupon data.