Generating a layout of products

• US 10,269,026 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2010
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: One Door, Inc.
• Original Assignee: One Door, Inc.
• Inventors: Cook, Neil, Ferrara, Raymond
• Primary Examiner(s): Yesildag, Mehmet
• Application Number:
  US12/788,456
• Publication Number:
  US 20110295764A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,253 Days
• Field of Search: 705 11, 705300-301, 705348
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Generating a product layout includes obtaining attributes of a retail location; correlating the attributes of the retail location to information relating to a product in order to determine whether the product is appropriate for the retail location; and if the product is appropriate for the retail location, generating a layout of the product within the retail location relative to like products according to one or more predefined rules.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving by one or more computing systems, assignments of products to product groups that group products according to characteristics of the products, and with the products ordered in the product groups according to a priority;

accessing by the one or more computing systems, a database storing templates, with the templates corresponding to physical layouts of display areas of corresponding fixtures, and the templates containing placeholders in positions that are substitutes for actual products and, which placeholders specify placement locations and placement priorities of products on a given one of the corresponding fixtures;

for a given one of the corresponding fixtures

selecting one or more of the templates;

for the selected one or more templates,

populating by the one or more computing systems, a graphical user interface with one or more listings of products from one or more of the product groups;

associating by the one or more computing systems products in a given one or more of the product groups according to the ordered priority, with one or more corresponding placeholders in the selected one or more templates, according to the placement priorities of the placeholders;

determining by the one or more computing systems layout information of the fixture based at least in part on the one or more templates;

generating from the determined layout information by the one or more computing systems, data to produce a first electronic image for the determined layout of the fixture showing placement of the associated products on the fixture;

electronically sending the first electronic image of the generated layout to an electronic device;

receiving by the one or more computer systems a second electronic image representing an actual layout of products at the store;

comparing the first image of the generated layout to the second image of the actual layout; and

sending a notification to the store based on comparing the first image with the second image.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing by the one or more computing systems, a table of related products that have a relationship to the product groups, with the table including priorities for related product placements; and

wherein the related products comprise accessories, and a rule dictates arranging accessories in corresponding placeholders of the one or more selected templates proximate to a corresponding product if the accessories are usable with the corresponding product.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing by the one or more computing systems, a table of related products that have a relationship to the one or more product groups, with the table including priorities for related product placements;

wherein the related products comprise accessories, and a rule dictates arranging accessories in corresponding placeholders of the selected one or more templates proximate to a product if both the accessories and the product are produced by a same manufacturer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing by the one or more computing systems a data model to determine product placements, and a store profile comprising information identifying attributes including fixtures, a geographic location, and demographic information of customers who visit the store, with analyzing of the data model determining the assignments for the products for placement based on the store profile.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the layout comprises:

accessing by the one or more computing systems, a table of related products that have a relationship to the one or more product groups, with the table including priorities for related product placements;

determining by the one or more computing systems, the layout of the fixture based at least in part on the one or more templates, a first set of rules for the product groups according to priorities for the products in the product group, and a second set of rules for related products associated with the products according to priorities for the related products obtained from the table;

producing a layout plan according to the given fixture, the layout plan specifying where the products are located on the given fixture based on the priorities of the products and related products.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the products include a cellular telephone, and the store profile identifies cellular coverage associated with a geography of the store.

7. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media storing instructions that are executable by one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:

analyzing by a data model a profile of a store, the profile comprising information identifying attributes including fixtures, a geographic location, and demographic information of customers who visit the store for providing results identifying product placements in the store, and with the results including assignments of products to product groups by grouping identified products into the product groups, according to a plurality of characteristics of the products, with each product group containing products having a common characteristic, and with the common characteristic being different for each product group, and with the products ordered in the product groups according to a priority;

accessing a database storing templates, with templates corresponding to physical layouts of display areas of corresponding fixtures, and the templates containing placeholders in positions that are substitutes for actual products and, which placeholders specify placement locations and placement priorities of products on a given one of the corresponding fixtures;

selecting one or more templates;

for the selected one or more templates,

accessing a table of related products having a relationship to the product groups, with the table indicating priorities for related product placements;

populating a graphical user interface with one or more listings of products from one or more of the product groups and a listing of related products from the table;

associating the products in the one or more the product groups, according to the ordered priority, with one or more corresponding placeholders in the selected one or more templates, according to the placement priorities of the placeholders and the related products from data entered into the graphical user interface;

determining a layout of the fixture based at least in part on the one or more templates, a first set of rules for the products according to the priorities for products in the product groups, and a second set of rules for the related products that are associated with the products according to the priorities for the related products obtained from the table;

generating from the determined layout information data to produce a first electronic image for the determined layout of the fixture, with the first electronic image showing placement of the associated products and the associated related products on the fixture;

electronically sending the first electronic image of the generated layout to an electronic device;

receiving by the one or more computer systems a second electronic image representing an actual layout of products at the store;

comparing the first image of the generated layout to the second image of the actual layout; and

sending a notification to the store based on comparing the first image with the second image.

8. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 7, wherein the related products comprise accessories, and a rule dictates arranging accessories proximate to a product if the accessories are usable with the product.

9. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 7, wherein the related products comprise accessories, and a rule dictates arranging accessories proximate to a product if both the accessories and the product are produced by a same manufacturer.

10. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 7, wherein the attributes of the store comprise a display configuration of the store and one or more priorities associated with the display configuration.

11. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 7, wherein generating the layout comprises:

producing a layout plan according to the given fixture, the layout plan specifying where the products are located on the given fixture based on the priorities of the products.

12. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 7, wherein the products include a cellular telephone, and the profile identifies cellular coverage associated with a geography of the store.

13. A system comprising:

memory storing instructions that are executable; and

one or more processing devices to execute the instructions to perform operations comprising;

analyzing by a data model a profile of a store, the profile comprising information identifying attributes of the store, the attributes comprising at least a geographic location of the store and demographic information of customers who visit the store to provide results identifying product placements in the store, and with the results including assignments of products to product groups by grouping identified products into the product groups, according to a plurality of characteristics of the products, with each product group containing products having a common characteristic, and with the common characteristic being different for each product group, and with the products ordered in the product groups according to a priority;

accessing a database storing templates, with templates corresponding to physical layouts of display areas of corresponding fixtures, and the templates containing placeholders in positions that are substitutes for actual products and, which placeholders specify placement locations and placement priorities of products on a given one of the corresponding fixtures;

selecting one or more templates according to a fixture in the store;

for the selected one or more templates,

accessing a table of related products having a relationship to the products, with the table indicating priorities for related product placements;

populating a graphical user interface with one or more listings of products from one or more of the product groups and a listing of related products from the table;

associating the products in one or more of the product groups, according to the ordered priority, with one or more corresponding placeholders in the selected one or more templates, according to the placement priorities of the placeholders and the related products, from data entered into the graphical user interface;

determining a layout of the fixture based at least in part on the one or more templates and a first set of rules for the products according to the priorities for products in the product groups, and a second set of rules for the related products that are associated with the products according to the priorities for the related products obtained from the table; and

generating from the determined layout information data to produce a first electronic image for the determined layout for the fixture, with the first electronic image showing placement of the associated products on the fixture and the associated related products;

electronically sending the first electronic image of the generated layout to an electronic device;

receiving by the one or more computer systems a second electronic image representing an actual layout of products at the store;

comparing the first image of the generated layout to the second image of the actual layout; and

sending a notification to the store based on comparing the first image with the second image.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the related products comprise accessories, and a rule dictates arranging accessories proximate to a product if the accessories are usable with the product.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the related products comprise accessories, and a rule dictates arranging accessories proximate to a product if both the accessories and the product are produced by a same manufacturer.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the attributes of the store comprise a display configuration of the store and one or more of the priorities associated with the display configuration.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein generating the layout comprises producing a layout plan according to the given fixture, for the products, the layout plan specifying where each product is located on the given fixture based on the priorities of the products and related products.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the products include a cellular telephone, and the profile identifies cellular coverage associated with a geography of the store.