Enhanced customer shopping experience in physical store locations

• US 10,445,807 B1
• Filed: 11/29/2012
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Commons, Peter Varnum, Edwards, Jr., David John, Lee, Tony Jay, Mason, Llewellyn James, McKee, Scott James, Pinto, Elton Victor, Porter, Brandon William, Trautmann, Tyson Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Casey, Alexis M
• Application Number:
  US13/689,450
• Time in Patent Office: 2,511 Days
• Field of Search: 705 261, 705 271, 705 2661
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation

Abstract

This disclosure is directed to, in part, providing customers with an enhanced shopping experience during a visit to a physical store location. The enhanced shopping experience may include providing the customer with customized delivery of product information. The product information may include demonstrations of product use, samples of products, recommendations of related products or areas of interest to a customer, etc. To provide the customized information, the customer may register to be identified while at the physical store location. The physical store location may include sensors that identify a location of the registered customer. A presentation module may then push relevant content to a device located near the customer, possibly in response to a request from the customer and/or a location of the customer.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying, by one or more store servers, a customer based at least in part on a device associated with the customer;

tracking, by the one or more store servers, physical locations of the device within a zone;

selecting a presentation, using the one or more store servers, to provide to the customer based at least in part on a current physical location of the device within the zone and previous physical locations of the device within the zone;

causing, by the one or more store servers, delivery of the presentation to the customer via at least one of the device or one or more other devices;

automatically transporting, by a conveyor belt or an automated item delivery mechanism, at least one tangible item available for purchase into view of the customer at least partially in response to the current physical location of the device within the zone;

receiving feedback from the customer at least partially in response to the presentation or transporting the tangible item into view of the customer; and

reconfiguring, based at least in part on the feedback, the zone by automatically updating a presentation of one or more items in the zone.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the presentation is at least one of audio data or imagery data; and

the presentation is delivered to a stationary presentation device affixed within the zone from the one or more store servers.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the presentation is at least one of audio data or imagery data; and

the presentation is delivered wirelessly to the device from the one or more store servers, the device comprising at least one of a mobile telephone or a tablet computer.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the presentation includes at least one of specifications of the at least one tangible item available for purchase or a demonstration of functionality of the at least one tangible item available for purchase.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the presentation includes at least one of an audio sample of the at least one tangible item available for purchase or a video sample of the at least one tangible item available for purchase.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein

automatically transporting the at least one tangible item available for purchase into view of the customer is based at least in part on feedback about another item received from the customer.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining historical information about the customer based at least in part on the identifying of the customer;

wherein automatically transporting the at least one tangible item available for purchase into view of the customer is based at least in part on the historical information about the customer.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of the at least one tangible item available for purchase from the customer;

adding the at least one tangible item available for purchase to a virtual shopping cart;

determining that the customer paid for the at least one tangible item available for purchase; and

based at least in part on determining that the customer paid for the at least one tangible item available for purchase, delivering the at least one tangible item available for purchase to the customer at a designated pickup location within the zone.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the device based at least in part on an identifier associated with the device; and

tracking the physical locations of the device within the zone based at least in part on the identifier.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the identifier is at least one of a radio frequency identifier (RFID) or an optical code able to be scanned by sensors, and wherein the tracking is performed at least in part by the sensors.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

generating biometric data associated with the customer; and

determining the identifier based at least in part on the biometric data.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein generating the biometric data associated with the customer further comprises:

performing a retinal scan of the customer to generate retinal scan data; and

determining the identifier based at least in part on the retinal scan data.

13. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

receiving global positioning system (GPS) data from the device associated with the customer; and

determining the identifier based at least in part on the GPS data.

14. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

causing, at a first time, the delivery of the presentation via a second device at a first physical location within the zone located within a predetermined distance of the device; and

causing, at a second time, the delivery of the presentation via a third device at a second physical location within the zone located within the predetermined distance of the device.

26. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein reconfiguring the zone includes at least one of repositioning the one or more items in the zone or selectively displaying particular items in the zone.

15. A store system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a computer-readable medium having thereon computer-executable instructions, that when executed by the one or more processors, configure the store system to;

identify a customer based at least in part on a device associated with the customer;

track physical locations of the device within a zone;

determine an interaction with the item within the zone by the customer;

select a presentation to provide to the customer based at least in part on a current physical location of the device within the zone and the interaction with the item within the zone by the customer;

cause delivery of the presentation to the customer via the device; and

automatically transport into view of the customer, by a conveyor belt or an automated item delivery mechanism, at least one tangible item available for purchase at least partially in response to the current physical location of the device within the zone being within a threshold distance of the at least one tangible item available for purchase.

16. The store system as recited in claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions further configure the store system to:

receive, from a sensor within a physical store location, location data associated with the device; and

track the physical locations of the device based at least in part on the location data.

17. The store system as recited in claim 15, wherein:

the presentation is at least one of audio data or imagery data; and

the computer-executable instructions further configure the store system to cause delivery of the presentation to a stationary presentation device affixed within the zone.

18. The store system as recited in claim 15, wherein:

the presentation is at least one of audio data or imagery data; and

the computer-executable instructions further configure the store system to cause delivery of the presentation wirelessly to the device, the device comprising at least one of a mobile telephone or a tablet computer.

24. The store system as recited in claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions further configure the store system to:

determine an identifier associated with the device; and

identify the device based at least in part on the identifier;

wherein tracking the physical locations of the device within the zone is performed based at least in part on the identifier.

25. The store system as recited in claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions further configure the store system to:

receive, from the device, registration data associated with the device; and

register the device with the store system based at least in part on the registration data.

27. The store system as recited in claim 15, wherein determining the interaction with the item within the zone by the customer includes at least one of determining that the customer viewed the item based at least in part on a direction of sight of the customer or determining that the customer touched the item.

19. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors of one or more store systems, configure the one or more store systems to performs acts comprising:

identifying a customer based at least in part on a device associated with the customer;

tracking physical locations of the device within a zone;

determining an interaction with the item within the zone by the customer;

selecting a presentation to provide to the customer based at least in part on a current physical location of the device within the zone and the interaction with the item within the zone by the customer;

causing a delivery of the presentation to the customer via one or more other devices; and

causing transportation, by an automated delivery mechanism, of at least one tangible item available for purchase into view of a customer at least partially in response to the current physical location of the device within the zone being within a threshold distance of the at least one tangible item available for purchase.

20. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the presentation includes at least one of an audio sample of the at least one tangible item available for purchase or a video sample of the at least one tangible item available for purchase.

21. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the presentation includes a recommendation for the customer to visit a location within the zone, the recommendation based at least in part on the previous physical locations of the device within the zone.

22. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein causing the transportation of the at least one tangible item available for purchase into view of the customer is based at least in part on feedback received from the customer about another item.

23. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, further comprising:

obtaining historical information about the customer based at least in part on an identification of the customer;

wherein causing the transportation of the at least one item into view of the customer is based at least in part on the historical information about the customer.