Reverse showrooming and merchant-customer engagement system

• US 10,217,133 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2013
• Issued: 02/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ellison, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Macasiano, Marilyn G
• Application Number:
  US13/946,575
• Publication Number:
  US 20150025967A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,048 Days
• Field of Search: 705 1458, 705 269, 705 272
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing a merchant-customer engagement system include a physical merchant location in which a customer may be tracked to determine products within the physical merchant location that the customer is interested in. A merchant may use a wearable merchant device that is configured to identify the customer via a camera that captures an image of the customer, and that image may be used to retrieve customer account information for that customer. Using the customer account information and the products that the customer is showing interest in, the wearable merchant device may be used to display merchant-customer engagement information next to a view of the customer to allow the merchant to help the customer while utilizing a variety of displayed information about the customer including, for example, past purchases, products browsed in-store and previously browsed online, time spent in an area of the physical merchant location, etc.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a non-transitory memory storing a plurality of customer records and product location data associated with a merchant physical location; and

one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to execute instructions to cause the system to perform operations comprising;

detecting, via communication through a network, a first customer device that is located in the merchant physical location;

identifying, in the non-transitory memory and in response to detecting the first customer device in the merchant physical location, a first customer record that is included in the plurality of customer records and that corresponds to a first customer that is associated with the first customer device, and retrieving first customer account information for the first customer from the first customer record;

tracking, via communication with the first customer device through the network, the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location as the first customer device moves through the merchant physical location;

determining, based at least on the tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location and timing data captured during that tracking, that the first customer has viewed a first product type in the merchant physical location that is identified by the product location data in the merchant physical location;

receiving, from a merchant mobile device that is different than the first customer device, at least one image;

analyzing the at least one image received from the merchant mobile device to recognize the first customer included in the at least one image; and

generating and providing, for display on the mobile merchant device and adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, a graphical user interface that include a graphical element displaying first product type information that identifies the first product type.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first customer account information includes purchase information corresponding to at least one previous purchase made by the first customer, and the operations further comprise:

determining, based at least on the tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location, a current location of the first customer device in the merchant physical location;

analyzing, based on the current location of the first customer in the merchant physical location, the purchase information to identify a first previous purchase made by the first customer;

retrieving, from the database, first previous purchase information corresponding to the first previous purchase; and

providing, for display on the mobile merchant device and adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, the first previous purchase information.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first previous purchase made by the first customer is an online purchase.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first customer has viewed the first product type in the merchant physical location based at least on the tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location and timing data captured during that tracking further includes:

tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location and timing data captured during that tracking indicates that the first customer device was located in an area of the merchant physical location that is associated with the first product type for a minimum time period.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing, for display on the mobile merchant device and adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, a total amount of time the first customer device was located in the area of the merchant physical location that is associated with the first product.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying, based on the first product, recommended product information for at least one recommended product; and

providing, for display on the mobile merchant device and adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, the recommended product information.

7. A method comprising:

detecting, by a system provider device via communication through a network, a first customer device that is located in a physical location;

identifying, by the system provider device in a database and in response to detecting the first customer device in the physical location, a first customer record that corresponds to a first customer that is associated with the first customer device, and retrieving first customer account information for the first customer from the first customer record;

tracking, by the system provider device via communication with the first customer device through the network the location of the first customer within in the physical location as the first customer device moves through the physical location;

determining, by the system provider device based at least on the tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location and timing data captured during that tracking, that the first customer has viewed a first product type in the merchant physical location that is identified by the product location data in the merchant physical location;

receiving, by the system provider device from a camera that is not included on the first customer device, at least one image;

in response to receiving an image from a mobile merchant device that is different from the first customer device, analyzing, by the system provider device, the at least one image to recognize the first customer included in the at least one image; and

in response to identifying that the first customer is included in the image, generating and providing, by the system provider device for display on a display device adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, a graphical user interface that include graphical element displaying product type information that identifies the first product type.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining, by the system provider device based at least on the tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location, a current location of the first customer device in the merchant physical location;

analyzing, by the system provider device based on the current location of the first customer in the merchant physical location, purchase information stored in the database to identify a first previous purchase made by the first customer;

retrieving, by the system provider device from the database, first previous purchase information corresponding to the first previous purchase; and

providing, by the system provider device for display on the display device and adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, the first previous purchase information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first previous purchase made by the first customer is an online purchase.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining that the first customer has viewed the first product type in the merchant physical location based at least on the tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location and timing data captured during that tracking further includes:

tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location and timing data captured during that tracking indicates that the first customer device was located in an area of the physical location that is associated with the first product type for a minimum time period.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

providing, by the system provider device for display on the display device and adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, a total amount of time the first customer device was located in the area of the physical location that is associated with the first product.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

identifying, based on the first product, recommended product information for at least one recommended product; and

providing, by the system provider device for display on the display device and adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, the recommended product information.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the tracking the first customer within the physical location includes receiving location information collected from the first customer device by at least one customer device location sensor that is located in the physical location.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

detecting, via communication through a network, a first customer that is located in a merchant physical location;

identifying, in a database and in response to detecting the first customer device in the merchant physical location, a first customer record that corresponds to a first customer that is associated with the first customer device, and retrieving first customer account information first the first customer from the first customer record;

tracking, by the system provider device via communication with the first customer device through the network the location of the first customer within in the physical location as the first customer device moves through the physical location;

determining, by the system provider device based at least on the tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location and timing data captured during that tracking, that the first customer has viewed a first product type in the merchant physical location that is identified by the product location data in the merchant physical location;

receiving, from a merchant mobile device that is different than the first customer device, at least one image;

analyzing the at least one image to recognize the first customer included in the at least one image; and

generating and providing, for display on the mobile merchant device adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, a graphical user interface that include a graphical element displaying first product type information that identifies the first product type.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, based at least on the tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location, a current location of the first customer device in the merchant physical location;

analyzing, based on the current location of the first customer in the merchant physical location, purchase information stored in the database to identify a first previous purchase made by the first customer;

retrieving, from the database, first previous purchase information corresponding to the first previous purchase; and

providing, for display on the mobile merchant device and adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, the first previous purchase information.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first previous purchase made by the customer is an online purchase.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the determining that the first customer has viewed the first product type in the merchant physical location based at least on the tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location and timing data captured during that tracking further includes:

tracking of the location of the first customer device within the merchant physical location and timing data captured during that tracking indicates that the first customer device was located in an area of the merchant physical location that is associated with the first product type for a minimum time period.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

and adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, a total amount of time the first customer device was located in the area of the physical location that is associated with the first product.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying, based on the first product, recommended product information for at least one recommended product; and

providing, for display on the mobile merchant device and adjacent the first customer included in the at least one image, the recommended product information.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the tracking the first customer within the merchant physical location includes receiving location information collected from the first customer device by at least one customer device location sensor that is located in the physical location.