Patent ID: 8195500
Filing Date: 2012-06-05
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A system for market reporting according to point-of-sale (POS) data, the system comprising: an aggregation subsystem, communicatively coupled with a POS network comprising a plurality of POS terminals, and configured to aggregate POS datasets from the plurality of POS terminals in the POS network, each POS terminal being disposed at a merchant associated with terminal data indicating at least one of a plurality of merchant identifiers and at least one of a plurality of merchant classifiers, and each POS terminal being configured to collect transaction data as a function of transactions effectuated via the POS terminal, the POS dataset for each of the POS terminals comprising the terminal data and the transaction data; a data storage subsystem, communicatively coupled with the aggregation subsystem and configured to store the aggregated POS data from the plurality of POS terminals in the POS network, the aggregated POS data produced during a first timeframe and a second timeframe, wherein the first and second timeframes are one year apart in time; a trend processing subsystem, communicatively coupled with the POS data store, and configured to generate a market trend for a market based on the timeframes by: identifying a market dataset from the aggregated POS data for the first and second timeframes, each market dataset comprising the POS datasets corresponding to the respective timeframe and to POS terminals having terminal data indicating a merchant classifier corresponding to the market; identifying same store data from the POS datasets, wherein the same store data comprises data aggregated from an identical set of POS terminals or from a statistically insignificant change in a sample set; calculating a reliable portion of the market dataset as a function of the POS datasets in the market datasets, wherein the reliable portion comprises the same store data for the first and second timeframes; and generating the market trend as a function of the reliable portion of the market datasets, wherein the market trend comprises a comparison between the reliable portion of the market datasets for the first and second timeframes, and wherein the market trend is calculated in terms of a dollar volume trend and at least two of: a geographic location of the respective merchant, an outlet identifier corresponding to an outlet of the respective merchant at which the respective POS terminal is disposed, payment types corresponding to at least some of the transactions effectuated via the respective POS terminal, transaction types corresponding to at least some of the transactions effectuated via the respective POS terminal and good-or-service classifications corresponding to at least some of the transactions effectuated via the respective POS terminal; and a reporting subsystem, communicatively coupled with the trend processing subsystem, and configured to output graphical report data as a function of the market trend generated by the trend processing system, the graphical report data configured to be displayed on a user device, wherein the reporting subsystem is further configured to output report data that illustrates a correlation between the market trend and at least two of: macroeconomic data, seasonality data, social data and a market driver.