Identifying Recommended Merchants

• US 20130144800A1
• Filed: 12/01/2011
• Published: 06/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Fallows, Thomas Mackenzie
• Application Number:
  US13/309,472
• Publication Number:
  US 20130144800A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/341
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

Merchants are classified according to their reliability in shipping products when promised and ability to resolve complaints. A merchant trustworthiness evaluator (MTE) automatically gathers data from users about purchases online from a merchant, including an order identifier and an estimated ship date. In one embodiment, the MTE collects data from customers about their purchases through the use of a conversion pixel, transmitted to the customer by the merchant at the time of purchase. The MTE obtains shipment information from the merchant or shipment carrier once an order has been shipped. The MTE correlates the shipment data with the order data and compares for each order the estimated or promised and actual shipment dates. The MTE scores merchants and classifies each merchant based on its score. Merchant classifications can then be provided to prospective customers.

Claims

1. A method for scoring merchant performance, the method comprising:

for each of a plurality of transactions, each transaction between a merchant and one of a plurality of customers;

receiving customer order data, the customer order data including an order identifier;

receiving from the customer complaint information about the identified order;

transmitting to the merchant at a first time the complaint information and the order identifier;

receiving from the merchant an indication that the complaint was resolved at a second time;

receiving a confirmation from the customer that the complaint was resolved at the second time;

scoring each merchant according to an amount of time between the first time and the second time for each of the plurality of transactions including the merchant; and

storing classification indicia for each merchant, the classification determined according to the merchant'"'"'s score.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein customer order data is received from the customer.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the customer order data is received via a conversion pixel.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein customer order data includes an IP address associated with the customer.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein storing classification indicia for the merchant further comprises:

responsive to the merchant'"'"'s score exceeding a threshold score, classifying the merchant according to a first classification.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein storing classification indicia for the merchant further comprises:

responsive to the merchant'"'"'s score not exceeding a threshold score, classifying the merchant according to a second classification.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a request for a merchant'"'"'s classification;

retrieving the stored classification indicia associated with the merchant; and

providing the retrieved indicia in response to the request.

8. A computer program product for displaying merchant performance, the computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and including instructions configured when loaded into memory to cause a processor to perform steps comprising:

for each of a plurality of transactions, each transaction between a merchant and one of a plurality of customers;

receiving customer order data, the customer order data including an order identifier and an estimated ship date;

receiving merchant data, the merchant data including the order identifier and shipment information;

determining using the shipment information an actual ship date;

determining a difference between the estimated ship date and the actual ship date;

determining for each merchant an on-time shipment frequency by determining, for each shipment involving the merchant, a frequency with which the estimated ship date and the actual ship date are the same date; and

displaying in response to a request for product information about a product offered by a plurality of the merchants, identifiers for each of the merchants offering the product and the on-time shipment frequency determined for each merchant.