Targeted Electronic Commerce Based on Historical Purchasing Data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016012480-A1
Application number	US-201514791883-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 6, 2015
Priority date	Jul 9, 2014
Publication date	Jan 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electronic commerce method is provided. The electronic commerce method comprises storing transaction data of a plurality of account holders, each of the transaction data relating to a transaction initiated by the respective account holder with a merchant; determining a candidate group of merchants based on the transaction data; and providing at least one purchasing opportunity with at least one of the merchants in the determined group of merchants to at least one account holder, the opportunity promoting a transaction.

First claim

1 . An electronic commerce method comprising:
storing transaction data of a plurality of account holders, each of the transaction data relating to a transaction initiated by the respective account holder with a merchant; determining, by a computing device, a candidate group of merchants based on the transaction data; and providing at least one purchasing opportunity with at least one of the merchants in the determined group of merchants to at least one account holder, the opportunity promoting a transaction.

2 . The electronic commerce method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by the computing device, an indicia based on a merchant in the determined group of merchants, the indicia providing a likelihood that the account holder initiates a transaction with the merchant in the determined group of merchants.

3 . The electronic commerce method according to claim 2 , further comprising:
generating, by the computing device, another indicia based on another merchant in the determined group of merchants, the other indicia providing a likelihood that the account holder initiates a transaction with the other merchant in the determined group of merchants.

4 . The electronic commerce method according to claim 3 , further comprising:
ranking, by the computing device, the merchants in the determined group of merchants based on both the generated indicia.

5 . The electronic commerce method according to claim 4 , wherein the opportunity promoting a transaction provided to the account holder follows a sequence that is based on the ranking of the merchants.

6 . The electronic commerce method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the group of merchants based on the transaction data comprises:
obtaining transaction data of a plurality of account holders in a database, each of the transaction data of the plurality of account holders relating to a transaction initiated by one of the plurality of account holders in the database with a merchant; generating a list of merchants based on the transaction data of the plurality of account holders; and removing at least one merchant from the generated list of merchants, based on a filtering criteria applied on the transaction data of the plurality of account holders, so that the purchasing opportunity promotes a transaction with the remaining merchants from the determined group of merchants.

7 . The electronic commerce method according to claim 6 , wherein the filtering criteria applied on the transaction data of the plurality of account holders comprises:
determining if a merchant, related to the transaction data of the plurality of account holders, belongs to a group of merchants with which a number of account holders transact, the number being one which is above a threshold.

8 . The electronic commerce method according to claim 7 , wherein the threshold is a predetermined portion of the plurality of account holders in the database.

9 . The electronic commerce method according to claim 1 , further comprising receiving an input from the account holder, the input indicating an account number of the account holder; and
wherein the opportunity promoting a transaction is provided in response to the input.

10 . (canceled)

11 . The electronic commerce method according to claim 1 , wherein the account holder is a customer who initiates the transaction with the merchant; and/or
wherein the transaction is a payment transaction between the merchant and the account holder.

12 . (canceled)

13 . A server for providing information, comprising:
at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the server at least to: store transaction data of a plurality of account holders, each of the transaction data relating to a transaction initiated by the respective account holder with a merchant, and determine a candidate group of merchants based on the transaction data; and provide at least one purchasing opportunity with at least one of the merchants in the determined group of merchants to at least one account holder, the opportunity promoting a transaction.

14 . The server according to claim 13 , further configured to generate an indicia based on a merchant in the determined group of merchants, the indicia providing a likelihood that the account holder initiates a transaction with the merchant in the determined group of merchants.

15 . The server according to claim 14 , further configured to generate another indicia based on another merchant in the determined group of merchants, the other indicia providing a likelihood that the account holder initiates a transaction with the other merchant in the determined group of merchants.

16 . The server according to claim 15 , further configured to rank the merchants in the determined group of merchants based on both the generated indicia.

17 . The server according to claim 16 , wherein the opportunity promoting a transaction provided to the account holder follows a sequence that is based on the ranking of the merchants.

18 . The server according to claim 13 , further configured to:
obtain transaction data of a plurality of account holders in a database, each of the transaction data of the plurality of account holders relating to a transaction initiated by one of the plurality account of holders in the database with a merchant; generate a list of merchants based on the transaction data of the plurality of account holders; and remove at least one merchant from the generated list of merchants, based on a filtering criteria applied on the transaction data of the plurality of account holders, so that the purchasing opportunity promotes a transaction with the remaining merchants from the determined group of merchants.

19 . The server according to claim 18 , wherein the filtering criteria applied on the transaction data of the plurality of holders comprises:
determining if a merchant, related to the transaction data of the plurality of account holders, belongs to a group of merchants with which a number of holders of accounts transact, the number being one which is above a threshold.

20 . The server according to claim 19 , wherein the threshold is a predetermined portion of the plurality of account holders in the database.

21 . The server according to claim 13 , further configured to receive an input from the account holder, the input indicating an account number of the account holder;
wherein the opportunity promoting a transaction is provided in response to the input.

22 .- 24 . (canceled)

25 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer program code which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to:
store transaction data of a plurality of account holders, each of the transaction data relating to a transaction initiated by the respective account holder with a merchant; determine a candidate group of merchants based on the transaction data; and provide at least one purchasing opportunity with at least one of the merchants in the determined group of merchants to at least one account holder, the opportunity promoting a transaction.

26 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Mastercard International Inc

Inventors

• Sharan Ashutosh
• Tiwary Avyaktanand
• Balyan Jitender

Classifications

• G06F16/9535

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• G06Q30/0255 Primary

  based on user history · CPC title

• G06F17/30528

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/3053

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30867

  Physics · mapped topic