System and method for setting a product watch on transaction data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9811837-B2
Application number	US-201213537737-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 29, 2012
Priority date	Jun 29, 2012
Publication date	Nov 7, 2017
Grant date	Nov 7, 2017

Abstract

A system and a method for determining at least one of availability and price of a product includes an electronic storage device having a database of merchant transactions stored therein; an access path for allowing access to information concerning the transactions, including when a given product has been sold and the price at which the product was sold, and a processor for assembling the information concerning at least one of sales of the given product and the price at which it was sold, to provide at least one of locations where the product is available, and the price at which the product was sold at the location or locations. A computer readable non-transitory storage medium stores instructions of a computer program which, when executed by a computer system, results in performance of steps of the method for determining at least one of availability and price of a product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
an electronic storage device having a database of merchant transaction records that includes confidential customer sensitive information stored therein and a filtered transaction database including filtered merchant transaction data from which confidential customer sensitive information is removed, the filtered merchant transaction data including a product transaction time and a product transaction price for each transaction, the system being configured to identify filtered transaction data as no longer current after a predetermined amount of time;
a filter configured to remove the confidential customer sensitive information from the merchant transaction data and store the filtered merchant transaction data in the filtered transaction database;
an internet connected access interface configured to provide a user with direct access to the filtered transaction database for filtered merchant transaction data, and
a processor and a storage medium including program instructions embodied in a non-transitory memory configured to search and assemble the filtered merchant transaction data from the filtered transaction database and to provide at least one location where at least one identified product is available, and a price at which the at least one identified product was sold at that location, wherein the processor is configured to execute the program instructions to at least:
receive, via the access interface, a location of the user,
receive, via the access interface, a transaction rule, wherein the transaction rule identifies parameters of a product watch,
receive, via the access interface, a specified notification preference for providing match results of the product watch to the user;
access and search the filtered transaction database, wherein the database comprises the filtered merchant transaction data;
compare the parameters of the product watch identified by the transaction rule to the filtered transaction data,
identify matches resulting from the comparison of the transaction rule to the filtered merchant transaction data, and
provide the identified matches to the user according to the specified notification preference, wherein the identified matches include at least one location where the product was available and the price at which the product was sold at that location.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the location of the user is received by a method selected from the group consisting of received GPS coordinates, location information provided by the user, and any combination of same.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the transaction rule parameter is selected from the group consisting of a price requirement, a price range requirement, user location information, product identification information, merchant location information, a geographically selected maximum user travel distance, a default user distance, a transaction time deadline, and any combination of same.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the specified method for providing results of the product watch is selected from the group consisting of telephone calls, text messages, instant messages and e-mails, SMS messages, and any combination of same.

5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the results of the product watch are pushed out to the user.

6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the confidential customer sensitive information that the filter is configured to remove includes a credit card number and an expiration date.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the identified matches are provided to the user as displayed information selected from the group consisting of a list of merchant names, a list of merchant addresses, a list of merchant telephone numbers, a map indicating the location of merchants, a price at which the product was sold by merchants, and any combination of same.

8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to remove filtered transaction data from the filtered transaction database after the predetermined amount of time to conserve memory in the filtered transaction database.

9. A method for determining at least one of availability and price of a product, comprising:
storing in an electronic storage device a database of merchant transactions;
removing the confidential customer sensitive information from the merchant transaction data with a filter;
storing the filtered merchant transaction data in a filtered transaction database;
identifying filtered transaction data as no longer current after a predetermined amount of time;
receiving, via an access interface, a location of a user;
receiving, via an access interface, a transaction rule from the user, wherein the transaction rule identifies a parameter of a product watch;
receiving, via an access interface a specified notification preference for providing results of the product watch to the user;
accessing and searching the filtered merchant transaction data in the filtered transaction database, the filtered merchant transaction data, the filtered merchant transaction data including a product transaction time and a product transaction price for each transaction;
comparing the parameters of the product watch identified by the transaction rule to the transaction data;
identifying matches resulting from the comparison of the transaction rule to the filtered merchant transaction data; and
assembling the filtered merchant transaction data from the filtered transaction database to provide the identified matches with the at least one product transaction time and the at least one product transaction price for each transaction, to provide at least one location where the product was available, and the price at which the product was sold at that location.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the location of the user is received by a method selected from the group consisting of received GPS coordinates, location information provided by the user, and any combination of the foregoing.

11. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the transaction rule parameter is selected from the group consisting of a price requirement, a price range requirement, user location information, product identification information, merchant location information, a geographically selected maximum user travel distance, a default user travel distance, a transaction time deadline, a SKU line item, and any combinations of same.

12. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the specified method for providing results of the product watch is selected from the group consisting of telephone calls, text messages, instant messages, e-mails, SMS messages, and any combinations of same.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the results of the product watch are pushed out to the user.

14. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the confidential customer sensitive information that the filter is configured to remove includes a credit card number and an expiration date.

15. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the identified matches are provided to the user as displayed information selected from the group consisting of a list of merchant names, a list of merchant addresses, a list of merchant telephone numbers, a map indicating the location of merchants, a price at which the product was sold by merchants, and any combinations of same.

16. The method according to claim 9 , further comprising:
removing filtered transaction data from the filtered transaction database after the predetermined amount of time to conserve memory in the filtered transaction database.

Assignees

• Groarke Peter
• Mastercard International Inc

Inventors

• Groarke Peter

Classifications

• G06Q30/0201 Primary

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

• G06Q40/02

  Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance (credit or loans G06Q40/03) · CPC title