Merchant-consumer bridging platform apparatuses, methods and systems

• US 10,204,327 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2012
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Katzin, Edward, Kumnick, Phillip L., Harris, Theodore David, Faith, Patrick, Schulz, Jennifer A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart, Matthew S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ross, Scott M
• Application Number:
  US13/366,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20120303425A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,566 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/027 involving a payment switch or gateway
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/32 using wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/384 using social networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/386 using messaging services or messaging apps using mobile network messaging services for payment, e.g. SMS G06Q20/3255
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4016 involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing

Abstract

The MERCHANT-CONSUMER BRIDGING PLATFORM APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS (“MCB-Platform”) various activity requests (e.g., transaction request, merchant information update request, offer issuance request, etc.) via MCB-Platform components into transaction records and merchant database updates outputs. In one implementation, a method is disclosed, comprising: receiving an activity request including merchant information associated with a merchant; retrieving a previously stored merchant record from a database; determining merchant information update indicia based on a comparison of the merchant information and the previously stored merchant record; determining a confidence metric for the merchant information update; retrieving a confidence requirement based on the activity request; determining, within a low-latency processing time-frame, whether the determined confidence metric satisfies the retrieved confidence requirement; performing the requested activity and updating the previously stored merchant record with the merchant information update indicia when the determined confidence metric satisfies the retrieved confidence requirement; and declining the activity request when the determined confidence metric satisfies the retrieved confidence requirement.

Claims

1. A merchant consumer bridging low-latency processor-implemented method for updating a previously stored merchant record at a platform server that is remote from a merchant point of sale terminal, the method comprising:

receiving, via a computer network by one or more data processors of the platform server, an activity request including merchant information associated with the previously stored merchant record on a merchant database at the platform server, the merchant information including a merchant URL;

wherein the activity request is received via the computer network from the merchant point of sale terminal;

retrieving, via the computer network by the one or more data processors, the previously stored merchant record from the merchant database at the platform server;

determining, by the one or more data processors, merchant information update indicia based on a comparison of the received merchant information and the previously stored merchant record;

determining, by the one or more data processors, a confidence metric for the received merchant information by;

scraping, by the one or more data processors, contents from one or more pages of the merchant URL;

extracting, by the one or more data processors, linked URLs from the scraped contents;

scraping, by the one or more data processors, further contents from one or more pages of the linked URLs;

processing the contents and the further contents to determine further merchant information;

comparing, by the one or more data processors, the further merchant information to the received merchant information to determine a match between the further merchant information and the received merchant information, wherein the match between the further merchant information and the received merchant information indicates a value for the confidence metric;

popping each scraped URL from a hash table and adding it to a list of seen URLs;

retrieving, by the one or more data processors, a threshold value that was previously defined for an activity type of the activity request, the activity type including one or more of a merchant information update request, and a consumer bridging offer issuance request, and the threshold value having a higher or lower value based on the activity type;

determining, by the one or more data processors, within a low-latency processing time-frame, whether the determined confidence metric satisfies the retrieved threshold value;

performing, by the one or more data processors, the requested activity and updating the previously stored merchant record with the merchant information update indicia only when the determined confidence metric satisfies the retrieved threshold value;

and declining, by the one or more data processors, the activity request when the determined confidence metric does not satisfy the retrieved threshold value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity request further comprises any of a transaction payment request, a merchant database update request, and an offer issuance request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the transaction payment request further comprises consumer wallet information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant record comprises any of a merchant ID, merchant address, merchant inventory, merchant alias, and merchant name.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the previously stored merchant record comprises any of a merchant URL, merchant web server ID, and merchant web server address.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forming a query on the merchant database based on a merchant ID.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein merchant information update indicia comprises an inconsistent data field between the received merchant information and the previously stored merchant record.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the confidence metric comprises a numeric value.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the confidence metric is determined by a scoring component.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the scoring component receives a variety of merchant related information.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the variety of merchant related information comprises web crawls from merchant websites.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the variety of merchant related information comprises merchant statistics.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the variety of merchant related information comprises prior transaction history with the merchant.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the scoring component generates the confidence metric based on the received variety of merchant related information, wherein the confidence metric is indicative of a confidence level of accuracy of the merchant information update indicia.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold value equaling 0.8 allows performance of a transaction request.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold value equaling 0.5 allows performance of an offer issuance request.

17. A merchant consumer bridging system for updating a previously stored merchant record at a platform server that is remote from a merchant point of sale terminal, the system, comprising:

a platform server including a memory and a processor disposed in communication with said memory, the processor configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions stored in the memory, wherein the memory includes processing instructions to;

receive an activity request including merchant information associated with the previously stored merchant record on a merchant database at the platform server, the merchant information including a merchant URL;

wherein the activity request is received from the merchant point of sale terminal;

retrieve the previously stored merchant record from the merchant database at the platform server;

determine merchant information update indicia based on a comparison of the received merchant information and the previously stored merchant record;

determine a confidence metric for the received merchant information by;

scraping contents from one or more pages of the merchant URL;

extracting linked URLs from the scraped contents;

scraping further contents from one or more pages of the linked URLs;

processing the contents and the further contents to determine further merchant information;

comparing, by the one or more data processors, the further merchant information to the received merchant information to determine a match between the further merchant information and the received merchant information, wherein the match between the further merchant information and the received merchant information indicates a value for the confidence metric;

popping each scraped URL from a hash table and adding it to a list of seen URLs;

retrieve, by the one or more data processors, a threshold value that was previously defined for an activity type of the activity request, the activity type including one or more of a merchant information update request, and a consumer bridging offer issuance request, and the threshold value having a higher or lower value based on the activity type;

determine, by the one or more data processors, within a low-latency processing time-frame, whether the determined confidence metric satisfies the retrieved threshold value;

perform, by the one or more data processors, the requested activity and updating the previously stored merchant record with the merchant information update indicia only when the determined confidence metric satisfies the retrieved threshold value;

and decline, by the one or more data processors, the activity request when the determined confidence metric does not satisfy the retrieved threshold value.

18. A merchant consumer bridging non-transitory processor-readable storage medium for updating a previously stored merchant record at a platform server that is remote from a merchant point of sale terminal, the merchant consumer bridging non-transitory processor-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions executable by a processor to:

receive an activity request including merchant information associated with the previously stored merchant record on a merchant database at the platform server, the merchant information including a merchant URL;

wherein the activity request is received from the merchant point of sale terminal;

retrieve the previously stored merchant record from the merchant database at the platform server;

determine merchant information update indicia based on a comparison of the received merchant information and the previously stored merchant record;

determine a confidence metric for the received merchant information by;

scraping contents from one or more pages of the merchant URL;

extracting linked URLs from the scraped contents;

scraping further contents from one or more pages of the linked URLs;

processing the contents and the further contents to determine further merchant information;

comparing, by the one or more data processors, the further merchant information to the received merchant information to determine a match between the further merchant information and the received merchant information, wherein the match between the further merchant information and the received merchant information indicates a value for the confidence metric;

popping each scraped URL from a hash table and adding it to a list of seen URLs;

retrieve, by the one or more data processors, a threshold value that was previously defined for an activity type of the activity request, the activity type including one or more of a merchant information update request, and a consumer bridging offer issuance request, and the threshold value having a higher or lower value based on the activity type;

determine, by the one or more data processors, within a low-latency processing time-frame, whether the determined confidence metric satisfies the retrieved threshold value;

perform, by the one or more data processors, the requested activity and updating the previously stored merchant record with the merchant information update indicia only when the determined confidence metric satisfies the retrieved threshold value;

and decline, by the one or more data processors, the activity request when the determined confidence metric does not satisfy the retrieved threshold value.