Patent ID: 8175908

Claim:
A method, in a computer system for storing and manipulating transaction data including transaction purchase information, customer demographics information, and merchant information, the computer system comprising a storage device for storing the transaction data and a processor for processing the transaction data, the method comprising: obtaining, by the computer system, transaction purchase information generated from a plurality of sources; generating, by the computer system, customer profile information based on the transaction purchase information; obtaining, by the computer system, merchant information relating to at least one merchant; generating, by the computer system, merchant profile information based on the merchant information and transaction purchase information; processing, by the computer system, the customer profile information and the merchant profile information in combination to generate business information; and wherein the business information includes at least one selected from the group consisting of merchant profit information, merchant bankruptcy information, merchant revenue, merchant profit projections, and merchant market share; wherein the processing the customer profile information and the merchant profile information in combination to generate business information includes: analyzing the merchant profile information from a past time period, the merchant profile information being based on a selected merchant; analyzing the customer profile information from the same past time period; and generating interrelationship information between the analyzed merchant profile information and customer profile information from the past period time, the interrelationship information defining an interrelationship between the analyzed merchant profile information and the analyzed customer profile information; and wherein the processing profile information and the merchant profile information in combination to generate business information further includes: identifying a subsequent time period, which occurs after the past time period; analyzing customer profile information from the subsequent time period; and applying the interrelationship information in order to infer pseudo merchant profile information for the subsequent time period.