Patent ID: 8775242

Claim:
A computerized method for calculating the effectiveness of a promotion, the method comprising: generating by a web site computer at least one promotional identifier that identifies a promotion being offered by a promotion merchant, wherein the promotional identifier is adapted to be entered into a point of sale terminal of the promotion merchant when redeeming the promotion; receiving at a host computer system transaction data from a plurality of point of sale terminals that are associated with a plurality of merchants, wherein the point of sale terminals are separate from the web site computer and are physically located in stores where goods are physically offered for sale, wherein the transaction data comprises a merchant identifier for each of the merchants and a transaction amount for each transaction involving the merchants, and wherein one of the merchants comprises a promotion merchant that is offering the promotion involving transactions made with the promotion merchant, and wherein the transaction data further comprises the promotional identifier for transactions where the promotion was redeemed by entering the promotional identifier that was generated by the web site computer into the point of sale terminal; aggregating a portion of the transaction data into control merchant aggregated data involving control merchants, wherein the control merchant aggregated data comprises transaction data obtained other than from the promotion merchant; calculating by the host computer system a characteristic of the purchases, both for transactions involving the promotion merchant and for the control merchants; providing an output showing a comparison of the calculation, wherein the report shows the comparison of a characteristic of the purchases made using the promotional identifier and those made without using the promotional identifier.