Online marketing, monitoring and control for merchants

Abstract

Systems and methods of online marketing, monitoring and control for merchants are disclosed. Third party providers are crawled to obtain information about a plurality of merchants and correlate the merchant information to create a merchant database. Third party providers are monitored for merchant information, and information about the merchants is stored. Alerts are provided to subscribing merchants when an alert trigger is identified within the system or at a third party provider. The method allows the subscribing merchant to view and respond to reviews, view and maintain online listings, prepare and send consumer offers, and prepare and send communications to consumers, all directly from the system. The method allows the subscribing merchant to view information and analyses for competing merchants. An overall marketing score for merchants is prepared and displayed. The method may be performed on a server and accessed via an Internet browser and mobile device applications.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A system comprising:
 an electronic data store configured to store electronic records; and   a computing system comprising one or more hardware computing devices, said computing system in communication with the electronic data store, and configured to at least:
 automatically search one or more electronic repositories to extract identification information associated with each of a plurality of merchants identified in the one or more electronic repositories; 
 for each identified merchant of the plurality of merchants:
 identify a network-accessible page associated with the identified merchant; 
 retrieve the network-accessible page; 
 extract additional information associated with the identified merchant from the network-accessible page; and 
 create and store a new electronic record associated with the identified merchant in the electronic data store, wherein the new electronic record includes (a) the extracted identification information associated with the identified merchant from the one or more electronic repositories, and (b) the additional information associated with the identified merchant from the network-accessible page associated with the identified merchant; 
 
 automatically crawl a plurality of third-party network resources to electronically collect further information associated with one or more of the plurality of merchants, wherein crawling the plurality of third-party network resources comprises automatically searching the third-party network resources for at least a subset of information retrieved from the stored electronic records, wherein the third-party network resources comprise at least one of a merchant review resource or a social networking resource; 
 update at least one electronic record in the electronic data store at least in part by correlating the collected further information; and 
 for a first merchant of the plurality of merchants, determine a competitor of the first merchant by analyzing information stored in the electronic records stored in the electronic data store, wherein analyzing the stored information comprises comparing stored information associated with the first merchant to stored information associated with each of two or more different merchants. 
   
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the stored information considered in determining a competitor comprises at least one of: a category of the first merchant, a type of product associated with the first merchant, a type of service provided by the first merchant, or a geographic location associated with the first merchant. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the computing system is further configured to determine a recommended action for the first merchant based at least in part by comparing information associated with the first merchant and information associated with the determined competitor. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the extracted identification information for each merchant comprises name and contact information associated with the merchant. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein automatically searching the one or more electronic repositories is based at least in part on search criteria associated with a category and a geographic location. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein identifying a network-accessible page associated with the identified merchant comprises determining a URL of a web page associated with the merchant. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the computing system comprises two or more servers, wherein actions performed by the computing system are distributed across the two or more servers. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 2 , further comprising a second electronic data store, wherein the second electronic data store is configured to store consumer identification information associated with a plurality of consumers, wherein the computing system is further configured to at least:
 compare consumer identification information stored in the second electronic data store with consumer contact information provided by the first merchant to determine a count of unique consumers identified in the consumer contact information provided by the first merchant.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein determining the count of unique consumers includes considering whether a first contact entry in the consumer contact information provided by the first merchant is associated with the same consumer as a different second contact entry in the consumer contact information provided by the first merchant based on consumer identification information stored in the second electronic data store. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the first contact entry and the second contact entry each comprise a different one of: an email address, an identifier within a social networking service, an identifier within a review service, an IP address, or a cookie. 
     
     
         12 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific executable instructions,
 automatically searching one or more electronic repositories to extract identification information associated with each of a plurality of merchants identified in the one or more electronic repositories; 
 for each identified merchant of the plurality of merchants:
 identifying a network-accessible page associated with the identified merchant; 
 retrieving the network-accessible page; 
 extracting additional information associated with the identified merchant from the network-accessible page; and 
 creating and storing a new electronic record associated with the identified merchant in an electronic data store, wherein the new electronic record includes (a) the extracted identification information associated with the identified merchant from the one or more electronic repositories, and (b) the additional information associated with the identified merchant from the network-accessible page associated with the identified merchant; 
 
 automatically crawling a plurality of third-party network resources to electronically collect further information associated with one or more of the plurality of merchants, wherein crawling the plurality of third-party network resources comprises automatically searching the third-party network resources for at least a subset of information retrieved from the stored electronic records; 
 updating at least one electronic record in the electronic data store at least in part by correlating the collected further information; and 
 for a first merchant of the plurality of merchants, determining a competitor of the first merchant by analyzing information stored in the electronic records stored in the electronic data store, wherein analyzing the stored information comprises comparing stored information associated with the first merchant to stored information associated with each of two or more different merchants. 
   
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 12 , wherein the third-party network resources comprise at least one of a merchant review resource or a social networking resource. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 12 , further comprising determining a merchant category to assign to the first merchant based on an automated application of rules to information stored in the electronic records. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 12 , further comprising generating a marketing score for each of the plurality of merchants based on the information stored in the electronic records. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 15 , further comprising generating a user interface for display, wherein the user interface includes presentation of a generated marketing score for the first merchant and a generated marketing score for the determined competitor of the first merchant. 
     
     
         17 . A computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, configure the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:
 automatically searching one or more electronic repositories to extract identification information associated with each of a plurality of merchants identified in the one or more electronic repositories;   for each identified merchant of the plurality of merchants:
 identifying a network-accessible page associated with the identified merchant; 
 retrieving the network-accessible page; 
 extracting additional information associated with the identified merchant from the network-accessible page; and 
 creating and storing a new electronic record associated with the identified merchant in an electronic data store, wherein the new electronic record includes (a) the extracted identification information associated with the identified merchant from the one or more electronic repositories, and (b) the additional information associated with the identified merchant from the network-accessible page associated with the identified merchant; 
   automatically crawling a plurality of third-party network resources to electronically collect further information associated with one or more of the plurality of merchants, wherein crawling the plurality of third-party network resources comprises automatically searching the third-party network resources for at least a subset of information retrieved from the stored electronic records;   updating at least one electronic record in the electronic data store at least in part by correlating the collected further information; and   for a first merchant of the plurality of merchants, generating an automated recommended action for the first merchant based on a comparison of stored information associated with the first merchant and stored information associated with a competitor of the first merchant.   
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise providing an alert to the first merchant when an alert trigger is identified based at least in part on the correlating of collected further information. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein crawling the plurality of third-party network resources comprises analyzing reviews of one or more merchants on a third-party website. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein crawling the plurality of third-party network resources comprises analyzing social media feeds to identify references to one or more merchants.