Systems and methods for recommending merchants

A computer-implemented method of recommending at least one merchant of a plurality of merchants to a candidate cardholder using a merchant analytic (MA) computer system, wherein the MA computer system is in communication with a memory device, said method comprising:

• receiving, at the MA computer system, transaction information for a plurality of cardholders including the candidate cardholder from a payment network, the transaction information including data relating to purchases made by the plurality of cardholders at the plurality of merchants, wherein the purchases satisfy a first criteria;
• receiving candidate cardholder preference information for at least one merchant of the plurality of merchants;
• determining a merchant rank for each merchant of the plurality of merchants based on the received transaction information and the candidate cardholder preference information;
• determining a neutral merchant rank for each merchant of the plurality of merchants based on the received transaction information and neutral cardholder preferences associated with the plurality of cardholders;
• and
• using the MA computer system to determine a merchant score for each merchant of the plurality of merchants by comparing the merchant rank to the neutral merchant rank.

One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for recommending at least one merchant of a plurality of merchants to a candidate cardholder, wherein when executed by at least one processor, the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to:

• receive transaction information for a plurality of cardholders including the candidate cardholder from a payment network, the transaction information including data relating to purchases made by the plurality of cardholders at the plurality of merchants, the purchases satisfying a first criteria;
• receive candidate cardholder preference information for at least one merchant of the plurality of merchants;
• determine a merchant rank for each merchant of the plurality of merchants based on the received transaction information and the candidate cardholder preference information;
• determine a neutral merchant rank for each merchant of the plurality of merchants based on the received transaction information and neutral cardholder preferences associated with the plurality of cardholders;
• and
• determine a merchant score for each merchant of the plurality of merchants by comparing the merchant rank to the neutral merchant rank.