Patent ID: 8387858

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving from a merchant via a point of sale (POS) capture device a total transaction data set for a transaction; receiving a consumer's unique identifier and a merchant identifier from the POS capture device as part of a total transaction data set; and adjusting a points balance for the merchant in the consumer's account hosted on a remote server based on the transaction data; wherein the consumer's account aggregates points for a plurality of disparate merchants, the points balance for at least one merchant being exclusive from the points balance of at least one other merchant, wherein each merchant account is private from other merchant's accounts and wherein a merchant cannot view exchange of good or service details gathered by any other merchant; wherein the method is capable of sharing the consumer's identity with the merchant, wherein said sharing requires the consumer's expressed consent to have said identity shared with the merchant, and wherein the method is also capable of keeping consumer's identity confidential from the merchant, and wherein each consumer account includes a consumer demographics module that solicits the consumer's demographics, the demographics module allowing the merchant to create and run various queries related to sales of particular goods or services, and evaluate the demographics of purchasing trends of those who are buying or not buying those goods or services, wherein remote server access is prioritized such that the POS capture device receives highest priority to the remote server.