WO2016197139A1

WO2016197139A1 - Associating competitive product and price data with website analytics

Info

Publication number: WO2016197139A1
Application number: PCT/US2016/036087
Authority: WO
Inventors: Daniel Pohl; Ali Resutov
Original assignee: Ql2 Software, Llc
Priority date: 2015-06-05
Filing date: 2016-06-06
Publication date: 2016-12-08

Abstract

A method includes receiving at least one search criterion identifying at least one reservation-based product offered by a client website. The at least one search criterion is submitted to a competitor website offering the at least one product A first descriptor of a first said product matching the at least one search criterion and a first purchase price for which the first product may be purchased from the client website is received from the client website, A second descriptor of a second said product snatching the at least one search criterion and a second purchase price for which the second product may be purchased from the competitor website is receiving from the competitor website. The second descriptor and the second purchase price are submitted to the web analytics system.

Description

ASSOCIATING COMPETITIVE PRODUCT AND PRICE DATA WITH

WEBSITE ANALYTICS

PRIORITY CLAIM

[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/171,954 filed June S, 2015, which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] It is easy for a website administrator to track online user behavior in web analytics systems such as, for example, Google® Analytics. It is also reasonably easy to scrape product information, such as airfares, from a competing airline's website.

[0003] However, it is very difficult to combine the web analytics or the like data (about online users' behaviors) with the competing airfare data (about products and prices). The challenge is to answer questions like "what was the effect of competing airfares (simultaneously offered on competing websites) on behavior of any of the users of my website?"

[0004] A web analytics system may have a data model of "users," "sessions," "products," and "transactions." Products are typically identified by a SKU that is common across many retailers. Product attributes, such as the product name and price, are typically associated with the SKU.

[0005) Some industries, such as travel (airlines, hotels, etc.), don't use SKUs or product names. Travel products don't fit neatly into the data model of web analytics systems or the like. Also, travel prices can change every time a user executes a search.

[0006] It may also be assumed that each online consumer is also concurrently browsing one or more competitors' websites or systems for similar competing products. Ideally, one could discover the products and prices that a competitor is offering at the time mat the consumer is browsing our website, and we could see this competitive product and price data in our web analytics system alongside information about what products and prices our website offered to each user.

[0007] However, even if one fetched data from the competitor's website at regular intervals for updated competitive product and price information, one could not import this fetched data into the web analytics system in a useable way. It would be technically or commercially difficult to fetch competitive data about every possible product at sufficiently short intervals to capture every product and price change made by competitors. Using prior art methods, one might try to proactively import such competitive data (about competitors' product and prices changes) into the web analytics system, but such methods would corrupt the competitive product and price information associated with one's past users. In summary, using prior art methods, there is no good way to associate information about what products and prices users would see on competing websites or systems with the information about what products and prices users concurrently saw on our website or systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] Preferred and alternative examples of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings:

[0009] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an exemplary operating environment in which an embodiment of the invention can be implemented; [0010] FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of an exemplary operating environment in which an embodiment of the invention can be implemented;

[0011) FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0012] FIGS. 4A-4C show a flow diagram illustrating in greater detail the method illustrated in FIG. 3;

[0013] FIGS. 5-6 illustrate exemplary comparative data according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0014] This patent application is intended to describe one or more embodiments of the present invention. It is to be understood that the use of absolute terms, such as "must," "will," and the like, as well as specific quantities, is to be construed as being applicable to one or more of such embodiments, but not necessarily to all such embodiments. As such, embodiments of the invention may omit, or include a modification of, one or more features or functionalities described in the context of such absolute terms.

[0015] An embodiment enables an entity to discover what reservation-based products online consumers are searching for, discover competitive product and price data from competitors' websites or systems, and associate on a web analytics system the discovered competitive data with only that particular entity's data and/or the data associated with the search information entered by a particular consumer. For purposes of this disclosure, "reservation-based product" refers to services, such as air travel reservations, hotel reservations, car-rental reservations, and the like, that can be purchased online. These services may be dynamically created/packaged based on the search criteria entered by a consumer.

[0016] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an electronic device 100 in which one or more embodiments of the invention may be implemented or with which one or more embodiments may cooperate. The electronic device 100, as illustrated, is an example of a suitable computing environment; however it is appreciated that other environments, systems, and devices may be used to implement various embodiments of the invention as described in more detail below.

[0017] Embodiments of the invention may be operational with numerous general- purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with embodiments of the invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set-top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.

[0018] Embodiments of the invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Embodiments of the invention may also be practiced in distributed-computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices. Additionally, the entity that may implement, or otherwise provide the ability to implement, elements of embodiments of the invention may be referred to herein as an "administrator."

[0019] With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system for implementing an embodiment of the invention includes an electronic device 100. The electronic device 100 typically includes at least one processing unit 102 and memory 104.

[0020] Depending on the exact configuration and type of electronic device, memory 104 may be volatile (such as random-access memory (RAM)), nonvolatile (such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.) or some combination of the two. This most basic configuration is illustrated in FIG. 1 by dashed line 106. [0021] Additionally, the device 100 may have additional features, aspects, and functionality. For example, the device 100 may include additional storage (removable and/or non-removable) which may take the form of, but is not limited to, magnetic or optical disks or tapes. Such additional storage is illustrated in FIG. 1 by removable storage 108 and nonremovable storage 110. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Memory 104, removable storage 108 and non-removable storage 110 are all examples of computer storage media. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by device 100. Any such computer storage media may be part of device 100.

[0022) The device 100 may also include a communications connection 112 that allows the device to communicate with other devices. The communications connection 112 is an example of communication media. Communication media typically embodies computer- readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term "modulated data signal" means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, the communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio-frequency (RF), infrared and other wireless media. The term computer-readable media as used herein includes both storage media and communication media.

[0023] The device 100 may also have an input device 114 such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice-input device, touch-input device, etc. Further, an output device 116 such as a display, speakers, printer, etc. may also be included. Additional input devices 114 and output devices 116 may be included depending on a desired functionality of the device 100.

[0024) According to one or more embodiments, the combination of software or computer-executable instructions with a computer-readable medium results in the creation of a machine or apparatus. Similarly, the execution of software or computer-executable instructions by a processing device results in the creation of a machine or apparatus, which may be distinguishable from the processing device, itself, according to an embodiment.

[0025] Correspondingly, it is to be understood that a computer-readable medium is transformed by storing software or computer-executable instructions thereon. Likewise, a processing device is transformed in the course of executing software or computer-executable instructions. Additionally, it is to be understood that a first set of data input to a processing device during, or otherwise in association with, the execution of software or computer- executable instructions by the processing device is transformed into a second set of data as a consequence of such execution. This second data set may subsequently be stored, displayed, or otherwise communicated. Such transformation, alluded to in each of the above examples, may be a consequence of, or otherwise involve, the physical alteration of portions of a computer-readable medium. Such transformation, alluded to in each of the above examples, may also be a consequence of, or otherwise involve, the physical alteration of, for example, the states of registers and/or counters associated with a processing device during execution of software or computer-executable instructions by the processing device.

[0026] As used herein, a process that is performed "automatically" may mean that the process is performed as a result of machine-executed instructions and does not, other than the establishment of user preferences, require manual effort.

[0027] Referring now to FIG. 2, an embodiment of the present invention may take the form, and/or may be implemented using one or more elements, of an exemplary computer network system 200. The system 200 includes an electronic client device 210, such as a personal computer or workstation, tablet or smart phone, that is linked via a communication medium, such as a network 220 (e.g., the Internet), to an electronic device or system, such as a server 230. The server 230 may further be coupled, or otherwise have access, to a database 240 and a computer system 260. Although the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2 includes one server 230 coupled to one client device 210 via the network 220, it should be recognized that embodiments of the invention may be implemented using one or more such client devices coupled to one or more such servers.

[0028] The client device 210 and the server 230 may include all, more than or fewer than all of the features associated with the device 100 illustrated in and discussed with reference to FIG. 1. The client device 210 includes or is otherwise coupled to a computer screen or display 250. The client device 210 may be used for various purposes such as network- and local-computing processes.

[0029] The client device 210 is linked via the network 220 to server 230 so that computer programs, such as browser 270, running on the client device 210 can cooperate in two-way communication with server 230. An embodiment may include a script element 280, which may consist of or otherwise include JavaScript, hosted on server 230 and executed in browser 270.

[0030] The server 230 may be coupled to database 240 to retrieve information therefrom and to store information thereto. Database 240 may have stored therein data (not shown) that can be used by the server 230 to enable performance of various aspects of embodiments of the invention. Additionally, the server 230 may be coupled to the computer system 260 in a manner allowing the server to delegate certain processing functions to the computer system. In an embodiment, the client device 210 may bypass network 220 and communicate directly with computer system 260.

[0031] FIG. 3 illustrates a process 300 according to an embodiment of the invention by at least one processing device communicating across a network with at least one of a user browser application, a client website and a web analytics system/service such as, for example, Google® Analytics. The process 300 is implementable in an electronic system coupled to or including a storage device. The process 300 is illustrated as a set of operations shown as discrete blocks. The process 300 may be implemented in any suitable hardware, software, firmware, or combination thereof. The order in which the operations are described is not to be necessarily construed as a limitation.

[0032) At a block 310, search criteria identifying at least one reservation-based product (e.g., airline travel) offered by the client website is received by an administrator of a system according to an embodiment. For example, and referring to FIGS. 4A-4C (collectively referred to hereinafter simply as FIG. 4), a user (consumer), at step 1, submits search criteria via browser 270 and network 220 to the website of a client (identified in FIG. 4 as Airline A) of the administrator (identified in FIG. 4 as QL2). Such search criteria may include any combination of, for example, flight destinations), number of passengers, date(s) on which flight(s) will occur, preferred time of flight(s) on such date(s), etc.

[0033] In an embodiment, and as is illustrated at step 3a in FIG. 4, the administrator automatically receives at server 230 the search criteria from the client website in response to the user submitting the search criteria to the client website. The client website may also generate and provide to the administrator a search-result identifier that uniquely corresponds to the search generated by the user upon the user's submission of the search criteria to the client website. Alternatively, the administrator can receive the search criteria and search- result identifier directly from the script element 280 via the browser application 270.

[0034] At a block 320, the search criteria are submitted, preferably within fifteen minutes (i.e., "near-simultaneous" as defined in the travel-booking industry) of receiving the search criteria from the client website, to a competitor website offering the product. For example, and referring to FIG. 4, at step 4 the server 230 of the administrator provides the search criteria to die websites of Airline A's competitors, Airlines B and C, via network 220. In an embodiment, the search criteria are simultaneously submitted to Airlines B and C. Alternatively, the search criteria are submitted to Airline C within a predetermined time period (e.g., 15 minutes) after the search criteria are submitted to Airline B.

[0035] At a block 330, and in response to receiving the search criteria from the user, a descriptor of a product matching the search criteria and a purchase price for which the product may be purchased from the client website are received from the client website system. For example, and referring to FIG. 4, at step 3b Airline A's website provides to the server 230 of the administrator an identification of a flight meeting the search criteria and the purchase price for the flight. Alternatively, if the script element 280 described above herein is employed, the server 230 of the administrator can directly receive the flight identification and purchase price from the browser 270. Additionally, at step 3c Airline A's website provides to the web analytics system the identification of a flight meeting the search criteria and the purchase price for the flight, as well as the associated search-result identifier.

[0036] In an embodiment, the server 230 of the administrator receives the search criteria from the client website before the client website identifies the descriptor and purchase price. As such, die search criteria are available to die server 230 for submission to the websites of Airlines B and C even before Airline A has returned results of the criteria-based search.

[0037] At a block 340, the server 230 of the administrator receives from the competitor websites competitor descriptors of products matching the search criteria and competitor purchase prices for which such products may be purchased from the competitor websites. For example, and referring to FIG. 4, at step 5 the websites of Airlines B and C provide to the server 230 of the administrator an identification of respective flights offered by Airlines B and C meeting the search criteria and the purchase prices for each such flight.

[0038] In an embodiment, and upon receiving from Airlines A, B and C values associated with the identification of flights meeting the search criteria and the purchase prices for such flights, server 230 can calculate or otherwise determine comparative data that may include, for example, maximums, mini mums and differences among such values. Examples and descriptions of such comparative data is shown in FIGS. 5-6.

[0039] At a block 350, the server 230 of the administrator submits the comparative data to the web analytics system over network 220, along with the associated search-result identifier, as illustrated at step 7 of FIG. 4. The search-result identifier provided to the administrator at step 3a allows the web analytics system to correlate the information sent to the web analytics system by Airline A at step 3c exclusively with the information sent to the web analytics system by the server 230 of the administrator at step 7.

[0040) Consequently, the inventive concepts discussed herein yield a distinct economic benefit: expressed in the context of FIG. 4, Airline A, by viewing the comparative data via the web analytics system, is provided an opportunity to dynamically adjust and optimize its pricing, in near-real-time and before Airlines B, C, etc. can similarly competitively adjust their pricing. Additionally, Airline A can discover the effect of competitors¹ prices on Airline A's consumers. For example, Airline A might find that Airline B providing lower prices for comparable flights affects Airline A's sales, whereas Airline C having providing lower prices for comparable flights does not affect Airline A's sales. Consequently, Airline A knows to match Airline B's prices but not Airline C's prices.

[0041] While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of the preferred embodiment. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by at least one processing device communicating across a network with a client website and a web analytics system, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving from the client website at least one search criterion identifying at least one reservation-based product offered by the client website, the at least one search criterion being automatically received from the client website in response to a user submitting the at least one search criterion to the client website;

submitting the at least one search criterion to a first competitor website offering said at least one product;

receiving from the client website a first descriptor of a first said product matching the at least one search criterion and a first purchase price for which the first product may be purchased from the client website;

receiving from the first competitor website a second descriptor of a second said product matching the at least one search criterion and a second purchase price for which the second product may be purchased from the first competitor website; and

submitting to the web analytics system the second descriptor and the second purchase price.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the client website identifies the first descriptor and first purchase price in response to receiving the at least one search criterion from a user; and

the at least one search criterion are received from the client website before the client website identifies the first descriptor and first purchase price.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

calculating a difference between the first and second purchase prices; and submitting to the web analytics system the calculated difference.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:

simultaneously with submitting the at least one search criterion to the first competitor website, submitting the at least one search criterion to a second competitor website offering said at least one product; receiving from the second competitor website a third descriptor of a third said product matching the at least one search criterion and a third purchase price for which the third product may be purchased from the second competitor website; and

submitting to the web analytics system the third descriptor and the third purchase price.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

within a predetermined time period of submitting the at least one search criterion to the first competitor website, submitting the at least one search criterion to a second competitor website offering said at least one product;

receiving from the second competitor website a third descriptor of a third said product matching the at least one search criterion and a third purchase price for which the third product may be purchased from the second competitor website; and

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one search criterion is submitted to the first competitor website within fifteen minutes of receiving the at least one search criterion from the client website.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the calculated difference comprises a numeric price difference.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the calculated difference comprises a percentage price difference.

9. A method performed by at least one processing device communicating across a network with a user browser application, a client website and a web analytics system, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving from the browser application at least one search criterion identifying at least one reservation-based product offered by and submitted by the user to the client website; submitting the at least one search criterion to a first competitor website offering said at least one product; receiving from the client website a first descriptor of a first said product matching the at least one search criterion and a first purchase price for which the first product may be purchased from the client website;

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first descriptor and first purchase price are received directly from the browser application.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the at least one search criterion are received from the client website before the client website identifies die first descriptor and first purchase price.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

calculating a difference between the first and second purchase prices; and

submitting to the web analytics system the calculated difference.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one search criterion is submitted to the first competitor website within fifteen minutes of receiving the at least one search criterion from the client website.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the calculated difference comprises a percentage price difference.

IS. At least one computer-readable medium on which are stored instructions that, when executed by at least one processing device communicating across a network with a web analytics system, enable the at least one processing device to perform a method, the method comprising the steps of: receiving at least one search criterion identifying at least one reservation-based product offered by the client website;

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein:

17. The medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises the steps of: calculating a difference between the first and second purchase prices; and

submitting to the web analytics system the calculated difference.

18. The medium of claim IS, wherein the method further comprises the steps of: simultaneously with submitting the at least one search criterion to the first competitor website, submitting the at least one search criterion to a second competitor website offering said at least one product;

19. The medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one search criterion is submitted to the first competitor website within fifteen minutes of receiving the at least one search criterion from the client website.

20. The medium of claim 17, wherein the calculated difference comprises a numeric price difference.