Tracking off-line commerce and online activity

Abstract

Systems and methods for tracking a user's off-line commerce and merging that data with online activity are disclosed. The off-line transaction data is associated with off-line purchases of a user and includes identification information that can be used to identify the user. A scone or modified cookie is created that includes the off-line transaction data. Online activity can also be tracked and merged with the user's off-line commerce data.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, at a monitoring system, data relating to online activity of a user including online identification information;   receiving, at the monitoring system, data relating to off-line purchasing activity of the user including off-line identification information; and   correlating the off-line purchasing activity of the user to the online activity of the user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the online activity of the user includes researching a product or a merchant. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the online activity of the user includes viewing advertisements about a product or a merchant. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the off-line purchasing activity includes collecting the off-line purchasing activity from an online credit card statement. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the off-line purchasing activity includes a customer ID, a merchant ID, a time of a purchase, data of the purchase, and an amount of the purchase. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the online identification information and the off-line identification information include at least one of a credit card number or login credentials. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 creating a scone that includes offline transaction data of the user. 
 
     
     
         8 . A system comprising:
 a point of sale device to receive off-line transaction data relating to an off-line purchase of a user;   a gateway system communicably coupled to the point of sale device, wherein the gateway is configured to receive the off-line transaction data from the point of sale device;   a monitoring system communicably coupled to the gateway system and configured to receive the off-line transaction data from the gateway and aggregate and identify purchasing patterns from the off-line transaction data;   a web-accessible device associated with the user, the web-accessible device having a scone that includes information about the purchasing patterns from the off-line transaction data.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the monitoring system is further configured to determine one or more user-specific advertisements based on the purchasing patterns in the scone. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the point of sale device is further configured to receive a request from the user to deliver an electronic receipt via e-mail, and upon receiving the request, accessing the monitoring system to receive a user-specific advertisement to be embedded within the receipt. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the scone is dropped on the web-accessible device through a web portal. 
     
     
         12 . A method comprising:
 receiving, at a monitoring system, data relating to online activity of a user including online identification information, wherein the online activity includes the user viewing advertisements about a product or merchant;   receiving, at the monitoring system, data relating to off-line purchasing activity of the user including a customer ID, a merchant ID, a time of a purchase, data of the purchase, an amount of the purchase;   collecting the off-line purchasing activity from an online credit card statement;   correlating the off-line purchasing activity of the user to the online activity of the user; and   creating a scone object that includes offline transaction data of the user.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the online activity of the user further includes the user researching a product or a merchant. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the online identification information and the off-line identification information include at least one of a credit card number or login credentials. 
     
     
         15 . A system comprising:
 means for receiving, at a monitoring system, data relating to online activity of a user including online identification information, wherein the online activity includes the user viewing advertisements about a product or merchant;   means for receiving, at the monitoring system, data relating to off-line purchasing activity of the user including a customer ID, a merchant ID, a time of a purchase, data of the purchase, an amount of the purchase;   means for collecting the off-line purchasing activity from an online credit card statement;   means for correlating the off-line purchasing activity of the user to the online activity of the user; and   means for creating a scone object that includes offline and online transaction data of the user.   
     
     
         16 . A method including tracking online and offline activity of a user characterized by combining representations of the online and offline activity into at least one scone file holding data specific to the user and a website, the at least one scone file accessible by either a web server or a client computer enabling delivery of webpages tailored to the user.