Online Ad Targeting with Digital Receipt Data

The value of online ads could be increased through precise audience targeting based on digital receipt information of items regularly purchased that consumers opt to share. The system would enable consumers to choose which purchase data they would like to share and the criteria the resulting ads should meet(i.e. products/services with lower price, higher quality etc., rational data-centric ads or comedy ads etc.) Besides receiving more relevant information, consumers could be motivated by access (financed by higher ad revenue) to site content presently subscription based or behind pay walls.

=Customer=

The customer for this ad targeting system would be the companies that present ads to people online such as Google, Valueclick, or potentially any web publisher.

=Product Development=

Using the paper receipt
At present, itemized receipt data is available to the customer in the form of a paper receipt which may or may not clearly identify the products purchased. Digitizing information on a paper receipt might be enabled by a mobile app. The customer would take a picture of the receipt and the image would be processed using information about that retailers receipt and product identification format.

Using cell phone and near field communication
Google Wallet may enable consumers at the register to receive, to their cell phone, an itemized receipt of their purchases. Roll-out of this or competing services would require the placement of new hardware at each register capable of using near field communication (NFC). Mobile devices would also have to be updated to use NFC.

Using loyalty or credit card
It is likely loyalty card systems already create digital itemized receipts of customer purchases. Agreements could be made with these organizations for use of the data or the case could be made that customers would value this data in their decisions of where shop. Credit card companies might be able to offer the same to their customers without requiring retailers to make any hardware changes though, no doubt, the software governing the transfer of credit data would need to be altered to include the itemized receipt.

Consumer Interface
The ad targeting software would need to allow consumers to select the items from their purchase history that should be included or excluded from being available to this service.

The consumer should also be able to choose the criteria for the ads they will see.

Criteria could include the following:


 * item type (products that have the same functionality as the products they purchase, or accessories, or broader )
 * price relative to purchased items per relevant unit (i.e. per use, volume, etc.)
 * quality or quality relative to purchased items (based on consumer reviews, standardized tests, other data)
 * ad genre (comedy, data-centric, testimonial, famous sponsor)
 * ad types (video w/o audio, still image, interactive)