Inventory management with capital advance

• US 10,565,642 B1
• Filed: 10/23/2014
• Issued: 02/18/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cieri, Michael Morrissey, Fern, Adam Jeremy, Zhou, Ding, Poursartip, Ariana
• Primary Examiner(s): Ludwig, Peter
• Assistant Examiner(s): Miller, James H
• Application Number:
  US14/522,287
• Time in Patent Office: 1,944 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

In some examples, a service provider may manage inventories of items by offering money advances to make inventory orders on behalf of a merchant. The service provider may determine a risk associated with advancing money to the merchant based on sales of items made by the merchant. The service provider may provide a money advance to the merchant when the risk associated with advancing money is within a threshold level. The money advance may be used to order inventory from a supplier. This may assist the merchant in managing inventory.

Claims

1. A system implementing a payment service for communicating over one or more networks with a plurality of merchant devices associated with a plurality of merchants regarding a plurality of point of sale (POS) transactions, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors, the instructions programming the one or more processors to;

receive, from the plurality of merchant devices associated with the plurality of merchants, transaction information for the plurality of POS transactions, wherein;

each merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices has an instance of a POS application stored thereon that configures the merchant device to determine transaction information associated with POS transactions processed via the merchant device and transmit the transaction information to a payment service;

the plurality of merchant devices are operable by a plurality of different merchants that are associated with the payment service; and

the transaction information indicates at least sales of an item offered for sale by the respective merchants;

store the transaction information in a database associated with the payment service;

determine, for a first merchant of the plurality of merchants and based at least in part on (i) an inventory maintained by the payment service and (ii) the transaction information, a current inventory for a particular item;

determine, based at least in part on merchant data associated with the first merchant and one or more second merchants different from the first merchant, that the first merchant and the one or more second merchants are associated with a same merchant category;

determine, based at least in part on a portion of transaction information associated with the one or more second merchants, sales rates for the particular item;

determine, based at least in part on (i) the current inventory for the first merchant and (ii) the sales rates for the one or more second merchants, a predicted time until the current inventory of the particular item for the first merchant reaches a threshold lower limit;

determine, based at least in part on a portion of the transaction information associated with the one or more second merchants, an expected sales quantity of the particular item for the first merchant over a future time period;

determine, based at least in part on the merchant data associated with the first merchant and the one or more second merchants, an amount of time for a supplier to provide the expected sales quantity of the particular item to the first merchant;

determine, based at least in part on a portion of the transaction information associated with the first merchant, that a risk associated with advancing money to the first merchant is within a threshold level, the risk being determined based at least in part on a quantity of sales made by the first merchant over a past time period; and

facilitate, based at least in part on (i) the amount of time for the supplier to provide the expected sales quantity and (ii) the predicted time until the current inventory of the particular item for the first merchant reaches the threshold lower limit, and based at least in part on determining that the risk is within the threshold level, an advance of funds to the first merchant by automatically ordering the expected sales quantity of the particular item from the supplier on behalf of the first merchant.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors to determine the threshold lower limit based at least in part on a quantity of sales of the particular item over a time period by the one or more second merchants.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors to determine the risk associated with advancing money to the first merchant based at least in part on an amount of profit for the quantity of sales made by the first merchant over the past time period.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors to facilitate the advance of funds to the first merchant automatically upon determining that a time period between a current time and the predicted time until the current inventory of the particular item for the first merchant reaches the threshold lower limit is less than a threshold time period.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors to:

send a communication to a merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices that is associated with the first merchant to offer a money advance to the first merchant; and

receive merchant input that accepts the offer for the money advance;

wherein the funds are advanced to the first merchant in response to receiving the merchant input.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors to:

withhold a portion of transactions processed at a point of sale of the first merchant as repayment for the funds that are advanced to the first merchant.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the portion of transactions are withheld on a periodic basis, the periodic basis including at least one of daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.

8. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media maintaining instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, program the one or more processors to:

receive, from a plurality of merchant devices associated with a plurality of different merchants, transaction information for a plurality of point of sale transactions, wherein;

each merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices has an instance of a POS application stored thereon that configures the merchant device to determine transaction information associated with POS transactions processed via the merchant device and transmit the transaction information to a payment service;

the plurality of merchant devices are operable by a plurality of different merchants that are associated with the payment service; and

the transaction information indicates at least sales of an item offered for sale by the respective merchants;

determine, for a first merchant of the plurality of merchants and based at least in part on (i) an inventory maintained by the payment service and (ii) the transaction information, a current inventory for a particular item;

determine, based at least in part on merchant data associated with the first merchant and one or more second merchants different from the first merchant, that the first merchant and the one or more second merchants are associated with a same merchant category;

determine, based at least in part on a portion of transaction information associated with the one or more second merchants, sales rates for the particular item;

determine, based at least in part on (i) the current inventory for the first merchant and (ii) the sales rates for the one or more second merchants, a predicted time until the current inventory of the particular item for the first merchant reaches a threshold lower limit;

determine, based on at least one of (i) a portion of the transaction information associated with the first merchant or (ii) the portion of the transaction information associated with the one or more second merchants, an expected sales quantity of the particular item over a future time period;

determine, based at least in part on the merchant data associated with the first merchant and the one or more second merchants, an amount of time for a supplier to provide the expected sales quantity of the particular item to the first merchant;

determine, based at least in part on the portion of the transaction information associated with the first merchant, that a risk associated with advancing money to the first merchant is within a threshold level, the risk being determined based at least in part on a quantity of sales made by the first merchant over a past time period; and

facilitate, based at least in part on (i) the amount of time for the supplier to provide the expected sales quantity and (ii) the predicted time until the current inventory of the particular item for the first merchant reaches the threshold lower limit, and based at least in part on determining that the risk is within the threshold level, an advance of funds to the first merchant by ordering the expected sales quantity of the particular item from the supplier on behalf of the first merchant.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors to determine the threshold lower limit based at least in part on a quantity of sales of the particular item over a time period by the one or more second merchants.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors to determine the risk associated with advancing money to the first merchant based at least in part on an amount of profit for the quantity of sales made by the first merchant over the past time period.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors to facilitate the advance of funds to the first merchant automatically upon determining that a time period between a current time and the predicted time until the current inventory of the particular item for the first merchant reaches the threshold lower limit is less than a threshold time period.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors to:

send a communication to a merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices that is associated with the first merchant to offer a money advance to the first merchant; and

receive merchant input that accepts the offer for the money advance;

wherein the funds are advanced to the first merchant in response to receiving the merchant input.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors to:

withhold a portion of transactions processed at a point of sale of the first merchant as repayment for the funds that are advanced to the first merchant.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the portion of transactions are withheld on a periodic basis, the periodic basis including at least one of daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.

15. A method comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of merchant devices associated with a plurality of different merchants, transaction information for a plurality of point of sale (POS) transactions, wherein;

each merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices has an instance of a POS application stored thereon that configures the merchant device to determine transaction information associated with POS transactions processed via the merchant device and transmit the transaction information to a payment service;

the plurality of merchant devices are operable by a plurality of different merchants that are associated with the payment service; and

the transaction information indicates at least sales of an item offered for sale by the respective merchants;

determining, for a first merchant of the plurality of merchants and based at least in part on (i) an inventory maintained by the payment service and (ii) the transaction information, a current inventory for a particular item;

determining, based at least in part on merchant data associated with the first merchant and one or more second merchants different from the first merchant, that the first merchant and the one or more second merchants are associated with a same merchant category;

determining, based at least in part on a portion of transaction information associated with the one or more second merchants, sales rates for the particular item;

determining, based at least in part on (i) the current inventory for the first merchant and (ii) the sales rates for the one or more second merchants, a predicted time until the current inventory of the particular item for the first merchant reaches a threshold lower limit;

determining, based on at least one of (i) a portion of the transaction information associated with the first merchant or (ii) the portion of the transaction information associated with the one or more second merchants, an expected sales quantity of the particular item over a future time period;

determining, based at least in part on the merchant data associated with the first merchant and the one or more second merchants, an amount of time for a supplier to provide the expected sales quantity of the particular item to the first merchant;

determining, based at least in part on the portion of the transaction information associated with the first merchant, that a risk associated with advancing money to the first merchant is within a threshold level, the risk being determined based at least in part on a quantity of sales made by the first merchant over a past time period; and

facilitating, based at least in part on (i) the amount of time for the supplier to provide the expected sales quantity and (ii) the predicted time until the current inventory of the particular item for the first merchant reaches the threshold lower limit, and based at least in part on determining that the risk is within the threshold level, an advance of funds to the first merchant by ordering the expected sales quantity of the particular item from the supplier on behalf of the first merchant.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining the threshold lower limit based at least in part on a quantity of sales of the particular item over a time period by the one or more second merchants.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining the risk associated with advancing money to the first merchant based at least in part on an amount of profit for the quantity of sales made by the first merchant over the past time period.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the facilitating the advance of funds comprises facilitating the advance of funds automatically upon determining that a time period between a current time and the predicted time until the current inventory of the particular item for the first merchant reaches the threshold lower limit is less than a threshold time period.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

sending a communication to a merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices that is associated with the first merchant to offer a money advance to the first merchant; and

receiving merchant input that accepts the offer for the money advance;

wherein the funds are advanced to the first merchant in response to receiving the merchant input.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

withholding a portion of transactions processed at a point of sale of the first merchant as repayment for the funds that are advanced to the first merchant.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the portion of transactions are withheld on a periodic basis, the periodic basis including at least one of daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.