Method and System for Targeting Small Businesses

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016267495-A1
Application number	US-201514643380-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 10, 2015
Priority date	Mar 10, 2015
Publication date	Sep 15, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for identifying business service recommendations includes: storing merchant profiles, each profile including data related to a merchant including a merchant identifier and transaction for a plurality of payment transactions; receiving, a data file including a plurality of merchant entries, each entry including data related to a merchant including a merchant identifier and firmographics; identifying a specific merchant entry where the merchant identifier corresponds to a merchant identifier in a specific merchant profile; calculating transaction scores for the specific merchant entry based on the transaction data in the specific merchant profile; identifying a related merchant entry where the firmographics correspond to the firmographics in the specific merchant entry and where the merchant identifier is not included in a merchant profile; and identifying one or more business service recommendations for the merchant related to the related merchant entry based on transaction scores and firmographics in the related merchant entry.

First claim

1 . A method for identifying business service recommendations for targeted merchants, comprising:
storing, in a merchant database, a plurality of merchant profiles, wherein each merchant profile includes data related to a merchant including at least a merchant identifier and a plurality of transaction data entries, each transaction data entry including data related to a payment transaction; receiving, by a receiving device, a data file including a plurality of merchant data entries, wherein each merchant data entry includes data related to a merchant including at least a merchant identifier and a plurality of firmographics; identifying, by a processing device, a specific merchant data entry of the plurality of merchant data entries where the included merchant identifier corresponds to a merchant identifier included in a specific merchant profile stored in the merchant database; calculating, by the processing device, one or more transactions scores for the merchant related to the specific merchant data entry based on at least the data included in one or more transaction data entries included in the specific merchant profile; identifying, by the processing device, a related merchant data entry of the plurality of merchant data entries where the included plurality of firmographics correspond to the plurality of firmographics included in the identified specific merchant data entry and where the included merchant identifier is not included in a merchant profile stored in the merchant database; and identifying, by the processing device, one or more business service recommendations to adopt one or more business services for the merchant related to the identified related merchant data entry based on at least the calculated one or more transaction scores and the plurality of firmographics included in the identified related merchant data entry.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each merchant profile includes data related to a merchant associated with a specific payment network.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, by a transmitting device, the identified one or more business service recommendations to the merchant related to the identified related merchant data entry.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more business service recommendations include at least one of: information technology, information security, human resources, docketing, customer service, benefits, and office services.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of firmographics includes at least one of: business age, business size, organization type, ownership type, market data, stage data, trend data, customer type, property type, residency, manufacturing type, and technology data.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more transaction scores include a propensity to increase sales.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the processing device, a set of merchant data entries of the plurality of merchant data entries, wherein each merchant data entry in the set includes a merchant identifier included in a corresponding merchant profile of the plurality of merchant profiles stored in the merchant database, wherein calculating the one or more transaction scores includes calculating one or more transaction scores for each merchant related to a merchant data entry included in the identified set of merchant data entries based on at least the data included in one or more transaction data entries included in the corresponding merchant profile, and the specific merchant data entry is identified based on the one or more transaction scores calculated for the merchant related to the specific merchant data entry and the one or more transaction scores calculated for each merchant related to a merchant data entry included in the identified set of merchant data entries.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the data included in each transaction data entry includes at least one of transaction time and/or date, transaction amount, geographic location, merchant data, consumer data, payment method, product data, and offer data.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each transaction data entry includes data related to a payment transaction involving the related merchant.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each transaction data entry includes data related to a payment transaction involving one or more of a group of merchants including the related merchant.

11 . A system for identifying business service recommendations for targeted merchants, comprising:
a merchant database configured to store a plurality of merchant profiles, wherein each merchant profile includes data related to a merchant including at least a merchant identifier and a plurality of transaction data entries, each transaction data entry including data related to a payment transaction; a receiving device configured to receive a data file including a plurality of merchant data entries, wherein each merchant data entry includes data related to a merchant including at least a merchant identifier and a plurality of firmographics; and a processing device configured to
identify a specific merchant data entry of the plurality of merchant data entries where the included merchant identifier corresponds to a merchant identifier included in a specific merchant profile stored in the merchant database,
calculate one or more transactions scores for the merchant related to the specific merchant data entry based on at least the data included in one or more transaction data entries included in the specific merchant profile,
identify a related merchant data entry of the plurality of merchant data entries where the included plurality of firmographics correspond to the plurality of firmographics included in the identified specific merchant data entry and where the included merchant identifier is not included in a merchant profile stored in the merchant database, and
identify one or more business service recommendations to adopt one or more business services for the merchant related to the identified related merchant data entry based on at least the calculated one or more transaction scores and the plurality of firmographics included in the identified related merchant data entry.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein each merchant profile c des data related to a merchant associated with a specific payment network.

13 . The system of claim 11 , further comprising:
a transmitting device configured to transmit the identified one or more business service recommendations to the merchant related to the identified related merchant data entry.

14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more business service recommendations include at least one of: information technology, information security, human resources, docketing, customer service, benefits, and office services.

15 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of firmographics includes at least one of: business age, business size, organization type, ownership type, market data, stage data, trend data, customer type, property type, residency, manufacturing type, and technology data.

16 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more transaction scores include a propensity to increase sales.

17 . The system of claim 11 , wherein
the processing device is further configured to identify a set of merchant data entries of the plurality of merchant data entries, wherein each merchant data entry in the set includes a merchant identifier included in a corresponding merchant profile of the plurality of merchant profiles stored in the merchant

Assignees

• Mastercard International Inc

Inventors

• Bernard Serge
• Polycarpe Luckner

Classifications

• G06Q30/0201 Primary

  Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data · CPC title