Using commercial share of wallet to analyze vendors in online marketplaces

• US 8,326,671 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2006
• Issued: 12/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Haggerty, Kathleen, Lyon, Charles Christopher, Okoh, Benedict O., Phelan, Robert E., Ruterman, Jon Kevin, Turner, Geraldine A., Yuan, Chao M., Biswas, Arnab
• Primary Examiner(s): CHOI, PETER H
• Application Number:
  US11/497,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20070067207A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,316 Days
• Field of Search: 705 7- 11, 705/38
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Commercial size of spending wallet (“CSoSW”) is the total business spend of a business including cash but excluding bartered items. Commercial share of wallet (“CSoW”) is the portion of the spending wallet that is captured by a particular financial company. A modeling approach utilizes various data sources to provide outputs that describe a company'"'"'s spend capacity. Online marketplaces that allow small businesses to advertise their services can use this CSoW/CSoSW modeling approach to provide a rating that gives an indication of the business prospects of the vendors listed on their sites. Further, such marketplaces can combine this information with their own internal analytics to provide a single holistic rating.

Claims

1. A method of rating a vendor in a marketplace, comprising:

modeling, by a computer-based system tor rating a vendor in a marketplace comprising a processor and a non-transitory, tangible memory, industry spending patterns using individual corporate data and aggregate corporate data, including financial statement data;

calculating, by the computer-based system, total known business spending of the vendor;

determining, by the computer-based system, the total operating expenses of the vendor;

identifying, by the computer-based system, cardable operating expenses of the vendor from the total operating expenses of the vendor;

estimating, by the computer-based system, a commercial size of spending wallet of the vendor based on, at least, known financial statement data of the vendor, the total known business spending of the vendor, trade credit data and the model of industry spending patterns, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet comprises the vendor'"'"'s cost of goods sold plus the cardable operating expenses of the vendor, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet is the total business spending of the vendor that can be transacted using a payment instrument, wherein the payment instrument is associated with a transaction account, and wherein the model of industry spending patterns is used to infer financial statement data and spending data that is not known; and

rating, by the computer-based system, the vendor based on at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the vendor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the rating to the marketplace.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the marketplace is an online marketplace, the vendor conducts business online, and the rating is provided to the online marketplace.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

using the rating to determine whether to retain the vendor in good standing in the online marketplace.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

providing to the marketplace an additional rating of the vendor.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing to the marketplace an additional rating of the vendor, wherein the additional rating includes customer satisfaction information.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

using the rating and the additional rating to determine whether to retain the vendor in good standing in the online marketplace.

8. A method of rating a plurality of vendors in an online marketplace, comprising:

modeling, by a computer-based system for rating a plurality of vendors in a marketplace comprising a processor and a non-transitory, tangible memory, industry spending patterns using individual corporate data and aggregate corporate data, including financial statement data;

for each vendor;

calculating, by the computer-based system, total known business spending of the vendor;

determining, by the computer-based system, the total operating expenses of the vendor;

identifying, by the computer-based system, cardable operating expenses of the vendor from the total operating expenses of the vendor;

estimating, by the computer-based system, a commercial size of spending wallet of the vendor based on, at least, known financial statement data of the vendor, the total known business spending of the vendor, trade credit data and the model of industry spending patterns, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet comprises the vendor'"'"'s cost of goods sold plus the cardable operating expenses of the vendor, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet is the total business spending of the vendor that can be transacted using a payment instrument, wherein the payment instrument is associated with a transaction account, and wherein the model of industry spending patterns is used to infer financial statement data and spending data that is not known;

rating the vendor based on at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the vendor; and

providing the rating to the online marketplace,

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

for each vendor, using the respective rating to determine whether to retain the vendor in good standing in the online marketplace.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing to the online marketplace an additional rating of each vendor.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of providing an additional rating comprises:

providing to the online marketplace an additional rating of each vendor, wherein the additional rating includes customer satisfaction information.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

for each vendor, using the respective rating and the respective additional rating to determine whether to retain the vendor in good standing in the online marketplace.

13. A computer-based system for rating a vendor in a marketplace, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory in communication with the processor for storing a plurality of processing instructions for directing the processor to;

model industry spending patterns using individual corporate data and aggregate corporate data, including financial statement data;

calculate, by the processor, total known business spending of the vendor;

determine, by the processor, the total operating expenses of the vendor;

identify, by the processor, cardable operating expenses of the vendor from the total operating expenses of the vendor;

estimate, by the processor, a commercial size of spending wallet of the vendor based on, at least, known financial statement data of the vendor, the total known business spending of the vendor, trade credit data and the model of industry spending patterns, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet comprises the vendor'"'"'s cost of goods sold plus the cardable operating expenses of the vendor, wherein the commercial size of spending wallet is the total business spending of the vendor that can be transacted using a payment instrument, wherein the payment instrument is associated with a transaction account, and wherein the model of industry spending patterns is used to infer financial statement data and spending data that is not known; and

rate the vendor based on at least the commercial size of spending wallet of the vendor.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory further stores processing instructions for directing the processor to provide the rating to the marketplace.