Tracking online impressions to offline purchases

• US 8,688,524 B1
• Filed: 06/28/2011
• Issued: 04/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramalingam, Harsha, Carr, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): RUDY, ANDREW J
• Application Number:
  US13/171,035
• Time in Patent Office: 1,008 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.29, 705/14.4, 705/26.1, 705/26.81, 705/51, 705/64, 705/65, 705/26.8, 705/16, 705/22, 705/26.61, 705/28, 705/30, 705/34
• US Class Current: 705/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/22 Payment schemes or models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3827 Use of message hashing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising

Abstract

Customers receive advertisements or “impressions” related to brick and mortar merchants while accessing online content. The merchants or other entities track which impressions correlate with customers coming to a physical store and conducting a transaction (e.g., making a purchase) by comparing transaction information with information about the customer that is provided by the source of online impressions. In one implementation, the merchant creates a hash from the customer'"'"'s name and account number on a payment card. This hash is compared with a hash from the impression provider that is generated using the same technique. When a match is found, it is inferred that exposure to the online impression caused the customer to make a purchase at the physical store. Merchants may pay the impression providers an advertising or referral fee based on the matches.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving a first token uniquely identifying a customer and including a timestamp indicating a time when an online impression was provided to the customer, the online impression being related to a merchant;

computing a second token at least partly in response to the customer conducting a transaction at a physical location of the merchant;

identifying a match between the first token and the second token; and

attributing the transaction conducted at the physical location of the merchant to the online impression at least partly in response to the identifying of the match.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the identifying of the match is also based at least in part on determining that the transaction at the physical location of the merchant occurred within a predetermined time period after the time when the online impression was provided to the customer.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first token is based at least in part on an identifier of a product displayed to the customer together with the online impression.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first token is based at least in part on a name of the customer and a payment instrument associated with the customer.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first token includes a hash of a combination of a name of the customer and a last four digits of a credit card number associated with the customer.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the transaction conducted at the physical location of the merchant comprises a purchase of a product by the customer with a credit card, the credit card being associated with an account of the customer at an impression provider that provided the online impression to the customer.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first token includes a first hash value and the second token includes a second hash value and the identifying of the match comprises determining that the first hash value is the same as the second hash value.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising, responsive to the attributing, sending a payment to an impression provider that provided the online impression to the customer.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein an amount of the payment is based at least in part on an amount of the transaction.

16. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the transaction comprises a purchase.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving, at a clearance system, a first token including a first unique customer identifier for a customer and a timestamp indicating a time when an online impression related to a merchant was made to the customer;

receiving, at the clearance system, a second token including a second unique customer identifier derived from transaction data from a transaction conducted at a physical location of the merchant;

matching the first token with the second token based at least in part on the first unique customer identifier and the second unique customer identifier;

determining from a transaction time included in the transaction data that the transaction occurred within a predetermined time window following the time indicated on the timestamp; and

attributing the transaction conducted at the physical location of the merchant to the online impression related to the merchant based at least in part on the matching and the determining.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein data within the clearance system is available for audit by the merchant and an impression provider that provided the online impression to the customer.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the unique customer identifiers included in the first and second tokens are derived from a combination of a name of the customer and a number associated with a payment instrument of the customer.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the transaction conducted at the physical location of the merchant is paid for with a credit or debit card and the clearance system is located at least in part in a credit card or debit card interchange.

14. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising reporting a match between the first token and the second token to the merchant and an impression provider that provided the online impression to the customer.

15. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising providing an invoice to the merchant for payment to an impression provider, an amount of the payment being based at least in part on a value of the transaction conducted at a physical location of the merchant.

17. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the transaction comprises a purchase.

18. One or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, instruct a computing device to perform acts comprising:

receiving a first token uniquely identifying a customer and including a timestamp indicating a time when an online impression related to a merchant was provided to the customer;

obtaining a second token, the second token generated at least partly in response to the customer making a purchase of a product at a physical location of the merchant;

identifying a match between the first token and the second token; and

attributing the purchase conducted at the physical location of the merchant to the online impression at least partly in response to the identifying of the match.

19. The one or more computer-readable storage media recited in claim 18, wherein the online impression comprises a map showing a physical location of the merchant and one or more other merchants.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media recited in claim 18, wherein the online impression comprises an ordered list of a plurality of merchants including the merchant.

21. The one or more computer-readable storage media recited in claim 20, wherein an ordering of the ordered list of the plurality of merchants is based at least in part on location of the merchants, prices of the product at the merchants included in the ordered list, customer ratings of the merchants included in the ordered list, or conversion rates between online impressions and transactions at the physical locations of the merchants in the ordered list.

22. The one or more computer-readable storage media recited in claim 18, wherein the first token comprises a first customer identifier that identifies the customer based at least in part on a payment instrument associated with the customer and the second token comprises a second customer identifier that identifies the customer based at least in part on a payment instrument used by the customer to purchase the product.

23. The one or more computer-readable storage media recited in claim 22, wherein the first customer identifier and the second customer identifier are both generated at least in part by a predetermined hashing algorithm.