Payment Card Transaction Data for Local Price Comparison
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Solution Overview
Problem
Consumers face challenges in finding the best prices for products as current comparison shopping methods only provide advertised prices and do not account for local sales transactions, making it difficult to determine actual prices of products in their geographic area.
Innovation Solution
A system and method utilizing payment card transaction data to identify merchant entities that have sold a designated product within a specified geographic area, providing users with merchant comparison data including sales transaction prices, by integrating product selection information with geographic location data and payment card transaction records.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If consumers use traditional comparison shopping methods to check advertised prices, then they can see current merchant prices, but they cannot determine actual local sales prices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses payment card transaction data as an intermediary to bridge the gap between advertised prices and actual sales prices. The system leverages existing payment card networks (Visa, MasterCard, etc.) that already collect transaction data, using this intermediary data source to provide accurate local pricing information without requiring consumers to manually investigate each merchant's actual sales records
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a copy of actual sales transaction data from payment card records and makes it available for comparison shopping. Instead of requiring consumers to access complex merchant inventory systems or manually check sale histories, the system copies and presents simplified pricing information from actual transaction records, making the data accessible and usable for consumer decision-making
2Reliability
If consumers manually research all brands, models, specifications and reviews, then they can make informed purchase decisions, but they spend excessive time before purchase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-collecting and pre-processing payment card transaction data from numerous merchants before consumers need to make purchase decisions. This advance data gathering and organization eliminates the need for consumers to manually research and verify pricing information at the time of purchase, significantly reducing their research time while maintaining decision quality
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback to consumers by displaying actual sales prices from real transaction data, allowing them to see what prices other consumers have actually paid in their local area. This feedback mechanism enables faster, more informed decision-making by presenting verified pricing information rather than requiring consumers to manually verify prices across multiple sources
3Quantity of substance
If the system aggregates payment card transaction data from multiple merchants, then it provides comprehensive local pricing information, but it increases data processing complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the universal payment card transaction data infrastructure that already serves multiple purposes for merchants (processing payments, tracking sales, inventory management). By leveraging this existing multi-functional data source, the system can aggregate comprehensive pricing information from numerous merchants without building separate complex data collection systems for each function
Solution Approach 2:
The system transforms raw payment card transaction data into useful pricing comparison parameters by filtering, cleaning and reformatting the data to show only the relevant pricing information consumers need. This parameter transformation simplifies the complex raw data into presentation-friendly formats, reducing the perceived complexity while maintaining comprehensive data coverage
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for utilizing payment card transaction data to conduct product price comparisons are disclosed. In one example, the method includes receiving product selection information associated with a designated product from a user selection device and receiving geographic location information associated with the user selection device. The method also utilizing the product selection information and the geographic location information to identify merchant entities that have conducted sales transactions of the designated product within an area specified by the geographic location information and providing, to the user selection device, merchant comparison data that includes the identified merchant entities and the sales transaction prices of the designated product.