Stock management for electronic transactions

• US 10,083,417 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2013
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wayfair LLC (Wayfair Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wood Bradley, Lisa Marie, Li, Nan, Wiese, Charles E., Wood, Marissa A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ade, Oger Garcia
• Application Number:
  US14/144,117
• Publication Number:
  US 20150186835A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,730 Days
• Field of Search: 705 28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders

Abstract

Stock management for electronic transactions includes receiving an indication that an item of stock has been selected to be purchased by a purchaser. Stock management for electronic transactions also includes obtaining information relating to the purchaser, and determining whether to remove the item from stock based on the obtained information.

Claims

1. A computer program product for stock management of an inventory of items for sale via a computer network for electronic transactions, the computer program product comprising:

a tangible computer readable storage medium comprising computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising computer usable program code, when executed by a processor, to;

manage a database of the inventory of items available for sale, the items being physically located at one or more physical locations for shipping to purchasers;

receive an indication that an item of stock has been selected electronically to potentially be purchased by a purchaser in response to that item being placed in an electronic holding container prior to the item actually being purchased, the purchaser using a remote user interface for browsing the database of the inventory of items available for sale;

obtain purchase history information relating to the purchaser; and

determine whether to remove the item from stock based on the purchase history information, wherein based on the determination, the item is or is not listed as available to another purchaser in the database of the inventory of items so as to minimize instances of the item being unavailable to a second purchaser due to being in the electronic holding container of a first user who does not complete purchase of the item, the product thereby controlling the inventory of items available for sale.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising computer usable program code to, when executed by a processor, remove the item from stock before the item is purchased based on the purchase history information.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, in which the purchase history information indicates a group membership of the purchaser.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, in which the purchase history information indicates a correlation between use of the electronic holding container and completed purchases.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, in which the correlation is a ratio of the number of times an item was selected for purchase to the number of times an item was purchased.

6. The computer program product of claim 5, further comprising computer usable program code to, when executed by a processor, compare the ratio to a threshold value.

7. The computer program product of claim 5, further comprising computer usable program code to, when executed by a processor:

remove the item from stock when the ratio is greater than the threshold value; and

maintain the item in stock when the ratio is not greater than the threshold value.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, in which the item is a low availability item.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, in which the item is one of a number of selected items of stock.

10. The computer program product of claim 1, in which the purchase history information indicates a frequency of past purchases.

11. The computer program product of claim 1, in which the purchase history information indicates a quantity of past purchases.

12. The computer program product of claim 1, in which the purchase history information indicates a value of a number of past purchases.

13. The computer program product of claim 1, in which the purchase history information indicates a type of a number of past purchases.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, in which a type of a number of past purchases indicates a furniture purchase, appliance purchase, media purchase, electronic goods purchase, literature purchase, household items purchase, consumable items purchase, consumer goods purchase, services, or combinations thereof.