TRACKING AND SUMMARIZING PURCHASE INFORMATION

• US 20120203632A1
• Filed: 02/06/2012
• Published: 08/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Blum, Marc, Vasu, Madhu
• Application Number:
  US13/367,027
• Publication Number:
  US 20120203632A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.53
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

Embodiments track and summarize a user'"'"'s purchasing activity. Tracking a user'"'"'s purchasing activity, according to some embodiments, involves accessing user emails and payment transaction data, parsing the emails and payment transaction data to obtain relevant purchase data, and/or obtaining relevant purchase data via other channels from the user, merchants, financial institutions, and other entities. Summarizing a user'"'"'s purchasing activity, according to some embodiments, involves generating a summary report organized around the user'"'"'s individual purchase transactions. The summary reports, for example, help users track and manage their purchases, such as by enabling users to keep track of which items were purchased from which merchants and for how much, and whether the items have been shipped, delivered, canceled, etc.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing payment transaction data of a user, the payment transaction data being related to a plurality of payment transactions made using one or more payment accounts of the user;

parsing the payment transaction data to identify one or more online purchase transactions from among the plurality of payment transactions;

extracting a subset of data from the one or more online purchase transactions;

using the subset of data to create a summary of the one or more online purchase transactions; and

transmitting, via a communication network, the summary to a communication device of the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the payment transaction data includes a merchant identifier for some or all of the plurality of payment transactions.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein parsing the payment transaction data to identify one or more online purchase transactions from among the plurality of payment transactions, comprises:

parsing the payment transaction data to obtain merchant identifiers for some or all of the plurality of payment transactions;

comparing the obtained merchant identifiers to a list of merchant identifiers for known online merchants; and

when one of the merchant identifiers obtained from the plurality of transaction data matches one of the merchant identifiers on the list, identifying the payment transaction as an online purchase transaction.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the payment transaction data further includes a purchase amount, a purchase date, and at least one of a confirmation number, a shipment status, a shipment tracking number, and an item description for some or all of the plurality of payment transactions.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the summary, for each of the online purchase transactions, includes the purchase amount, the purchase date, the merchant identifier, and at least one of the item description, the confirmation number, the shipment status, and the shipment tracking number.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the summary of the one or more online purchases is created according to a request submitted by the user, the request including filter criteria for identifying the one or more online purchases to be included in the summary.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the filter criteria include at least one of a purchase date range, a purchase amount range, one or more merchant identifiers, a shipping status, and a payment account used.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the summary of the one or more online purchase transactions is created by an electronic wallet server.

9. A method comprising:

responsive to a request to provide a user with one or more promotional offers that may be of interest to the user,

accessing payment transaction data of a user, the payment transaction data comprising a plurality of payment transactions, wherein an item description is provided for each of the payment transactions, the item description describes an item the user purchased via the payment transaction;

accessing promotional offer data, the promotional offer data comprising a plurality of promotional offers, wherein an item description is provided for each of the promotional offers, the item description describes an item that corresponds to the promotional offer;

cross-referencing the item descriptions for the payment transactions with the item descriptions of the promotional offers to identify one or more promotional offers that correspond to one or more items purchased by the user; and

providing to the user the promotional offers that correspond to the one or more items purchased by the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the request provided by the user includes filter criteria for identifying the one or more promotional offers that may be of interest to the user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the filter criteria include at least one of a purchase amount range, one or more item category descriptions, and one or more merchant identifiers.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the promotional offers are identified and provided to the user by an electronic wallet server.

13. One or more computer-readable media collectively having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to collectively, at least;

access payment transaction data of a user, the payment transaction data being associated with one or more payment accounts of the user and including a purchase amount, a purchase date, and a merchant identifier;

parse the payment transaction data to identify a subset of the payment transaction data that is relevant to one or more online purchases made using the one or more payment accounts;

use the subset of the payment transaction data to create a summary of the one or more online purchases, the summary including the purchase amount, the purchase date, and the merchant identifier for the one or more online purchases; and

transmit, via a communication network, the summary of the one or more online purchases to a communication device of the user.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the payment transaction data further includes at least one of a confirmation number, a shipment status, a shipment tracking number, and an item description.

15. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the summary of the one or more online purchases further includes the item description and at least one of the confirmation number, the shipment status, and the shipment tracking number.

16. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the summary of the one or more online purchases is created according to a request submitted by the user, the request including filter criteria for identifying the one or more online purchases to be included in the summary.

17. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the filter criteria include at least one of a purchase date range, a purchase amount range, one or more merchant identifiers, a shipping status, and a payment account used.

18. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the summary of the one or more online purchases is displayed to the user via the communication device.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the summary of the one or more online purchases is created by an electronic wallet server.

20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein at least one of the online purchases was made using an electronic wallet.