Obtaining data from incomplete electronic forms
Visitors that abandon electronic or computer-generated forms before completing and submitting the form are lost to business entities. Data obtained from abandoned electronic or computer-generated forms is used to identify these lost visitors. Sometimes a unique script embedded on the webpages scrapes the data from the forms. The obtained data is further utilized to market or remarket to the lost consumers by sending personalized messages via a preferred communication medium.
1. A method to obtain data from incomplete electronic forms, the method comprising:
assessing an incomplete electronic form associated with at least one webpage, the incomplete electronic form having one or more fields configured to accept user-entered text entered by a user, the incomplete electronic form comprising at least one hypertext markup language (HTML) element associated with the one or more fields;
obtaining data from the incomplete electronic form by obtaining a protocol of the at least one webpage, writing a script tag associated with a script file to the at least one webpage according to the protocol, the script tag configured to place the script file onto the at least one webpage, the script file configured to locate the at least one HTML element, building a data structure based on the incomplete electronic form, and parsing the data structure to obtain the at least one HTML element;
storing one or more of the at least one HTML element and the user-entered text obtained from the incomplete electronic form;
communicating with one or more databases via an API to obtain additional information about the user based at least in part on the user-entered text obtained from the incomplete electronic form;
creating and storing a contact profile that comprises a least a portion of the user-entered text obtained from the incomplete electronic form and at least a portion of the additional information about the user obtained from the one or more databases;
determining a preferred communications medium based at least in part on the contact profile; and
sending a personalized message to the user with the preferred communication medium.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the assessment of the incomplete electronic form is based at least in part on one or more of a length of time that the incomplete electronic form is accessed, the user leaving a website associated with the incomplete electronic form, the user canceling the incomplete electronic form, and a failure of the user to input data into the incomplete electronic form.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the data is obtained from the incomplete electronic form without a product feed.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the incomplete electronic form does not include a payment gateway.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing an Internet protocol (IP) address associated with a computing device used to access the incomplete electronic form.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtained data comprises a preferred communication medium of the user.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising constructing a selector to identify the at least one HTML element.
8. The method of claim 7 further comprising applying the selector to the parsed data structure to obtain the identified at least one HTML element.
9. An apparatus to obtain data from incomplete electronic forms, the apparatus comprising:
computer hardware configured to assess an incomplete electronic form associated with at least one webpage, the incomplete electronic form having one or more fields configured to accept user-entered text entered by a user, the incomplete electronic form comprising at least one hypertext markup language (HTML) element associated with the one or more fields;
computer hardware configured to obtain data from the incomplete electronic form by obtaining a protocol of the at least one webpage, writing a script tag associated with a script file to the at least one webpage according to the protocol, the script tag configured to place the script file onto the at least one webpage, the script file configured to locate the at least one HTML element, building a data structure based on the incomplete electronic form, and parsing the data structure to obtain the at least one HTML element;
computer hardware configured to store one or more of the at least one HTML element, and the user-entered text; and
computer hardware configured to communicate with one or more databases via an API to obtain additional information about the user based at least in part on the user-entered text obtained from the incomplete electronic form;
computer hardware configured to create and store a contact profile that comprises a least a portion of the user-entered text obtained from the incomplete electronic form and at least a portion of the additional information about the user obtained from the one or more databases;
computer hardware configured to determine a preferred communications medium based at least in part on the contact profile; and
computer hardware configured to send a personalized message to the user based at least in part on the one or more of the at least one HTML element and the user-entered text obtained from the incomplete electronic form.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the assessment of the incomplete electronic form is based at least in part on one or more of a length of time that the incomplete electronic form is accessed, the user leaving a website associated with the incomplete electronic form, the user canceling the incomplete electronic form, and a failure of the user to input data into the incomplete electronic form.
11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the data is obtained from the incomplete electronic form without a product feed.
12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the incomplete electronic form does not include a payment gateway.
13. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising computer hardware configured to store an Internet protocol (IP) address associated with a computing device used to access the incomplete electronic form.
14. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the obtained data comprises a preferred communication medium of the user.
15. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising computer hardware configured to construct a selector to identify the at least one HTML element.
16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising computer hardware configured to apply the selector to the parsed data structure to obtain the identified at least one HTML element.
17. A method to obtain data from incomplete electronic forms, the method comprising:
assessing an incomplete electronic form comprising at least one hypertext markup language (HTML) element and user-entered text entered by a user;
obtaining a protocol of at least one webpage associated with the incomplete electronic form;
writing a script tag associated with a script file to the at least one webpage according to the protocol, the script tag configured to place the script file onto the at least one webpage, the script file configured to locate the at least one HTML element;
building a data structure based on the incomplete electronic form that comprises at least the user-entered text;
communicating with one or more databases via an API to obtain additional information about the user based at least in part on the user-entered text obtained from the incomplete electronic form;
creating and storing a contact profile that comprises a least a portion of the user-entered text obtained from the incomplete electronic form and at least a portion of the additional information about the user obtained from the one or more databases;
determining a preferred communications medium based at least in part on the contact profile; and
sending to the user, a personalized message with the preferred communication medium.
18. The method of claim 17 wherein the incomplete electronic form does not include a payment gateway.
19. The method of claim 17 further comprising determining when the incomplete electronic form has been abandoned by the user.
20. The method of claim 17 wherein obtaining the at least one HTML element from the incomplete electronic form comprises scraping the data from the incomplete electronic form.