Systems and methods for facilitating shopping in a physical retail facility

• US 10,592,959 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2017
• Issued: 03/17/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Wilkinson, Bruce W., Jones, Matthew A., Vasgaard, Aaron J., Taylor, Robert J., Webb, Tim W., Mattingly, Todd D., Todd, Jason R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, Florian M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Poffenbarger, Whitney
• Application Number:
  US15/487,728
• Publication Number:
  US 20170300999A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing

Abstract

In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to facilitate expedient shopping in a physical retail facility. In one embodiment, a shopping system directed to pre-filling shopping carts with retail items prior to a customer'"'"'s arrival at the physical retail shopping facility includes a user database of user profiles having one or more partialities associated with customers, a product database of retail products with identified vectorized characterizations or product vectors, a plurality of physical shopping carts, and a control circuit. By one approach, the control circuit is configured to access the user database and the product database and identify suggested retail items for a particular customer based, in part, on comparisons between the identified partialities and the identified vectorized product characterizations of the retail products.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a database of user profiles, the user profiles having one or more partialities associated therewith and the user profiles being associated with particular customers;

a database of retail products, at least some of the retail products having identified vectorized product characterizations;

a control circuit configured to access the database of user profiles and the database of retail products and configured to identify one or more suggested retail items for a particular customer based, in part, on comparisons between the identified partialities of the user profile associated with the particular customer and the identified vectorized product characterizations of the retail products;

a plurality of physical shopping carts at a retail shopping facility, one of the plurality of shopping carts being designated for the particular customer and filled with at least one of the one or more suggested retail items prior to the particular customer arriving at the retail shopping facility;

a rejection bin where the particular customer may deposit unwanted suggested retail items, the rejection bin having a bin sensor configured to detect placement of the unwanted suggested retail items; and

a product support system and a product routing system communicatively coupled to the control circuit, the product support system configured to present products to consumers that are loaded thereon by an automated loading system;

wherein the control circuit is further configured to;

receive identification information from the bin sensor regarding unwanted suggested retail items placed in the rejection bin and to update the one or more partialities in the database of user profiles based, in part, on the particular customer associated with the user profile placing one of the unwanted suggested retail items in the rejection bin; and

receive a product information query from a user computing device, identify a set of products having product attributes corresponding to the product information query received, and instruct the product support system to physically present at least one product of the identified set of products by loading the at least one product of the identified set onto the product support system by one or more retrieval devices of the automated loading system, for physical presentation to the particular customer at the retail shopping facility.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a staging area within the retail shopping facility with numerous shopping carts designated for use by particular customers, the designated shopping carts filled with at least one of the one or more suggested retail items for the particular customers, the staging area being where the particular customers retrieve their designated shopping carts.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the user profile has purchased retail products associated therewith and at least one identified partiality associated with the purchased retail products.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising one or more point of sale terminals and the control circuit is further configured to update the user profile associated with the particular customer based, in part, on retail products purchased by the particular customer at the point of sale terminal and the identified vectorized product characterizations associated with the purchased retail products.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a user computing device and wherein the control circuit is configured to receive, from the user computing device associated with the particular customer, a collection time and a collection location for picking up the particular customer'"'"'s designated shopping cart filled with the at least one of the one or more suggested retail items.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising a user computing device and wherein the control circuit receives location information from the user computing device associated with the particular customer and the at least one of the one or more suggested retail items are loaded into the designated shopping cart as the particular customer is identified as approaching approaches the retail shopping facility.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the database of user profiles further includes a purchase history and the control circuit is further configured to identify the one or more suggested retail items based, in part, on the purchase history of the particular customer.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is configured to update the database of user profiles according to purchases at multiple retail facilities.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the partialities are represented by partiality vectors and can include values, preferences, and affinities.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the control circuit is further configured to analyze the partiality vectors and the vectorized product characterizations and identify an overlap therebetween.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is further configured to select the at least one product of the identified set of products for physical presentation based, in part, on the user profile associated with the particular customer submitting the product information query.

17. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

selecting the at least one product of the identified set of products for physical presentation based, in part, on the user profile associated with the particular customer submitting the product information query.

12. A method comprising:

maintaining a database of a plurality of user profiles having one or more identified partialities associated therewith and the user profiles being associated with particular customers;

maintaining a database of retail products, at least some of the retail products having identified vectorized product characterizations;

identifying, via a control circuit, one or more suggested retail items for a particular customer based, in part, on comparisons between the identified partialities of the user profile associated with the particular customer and the identified vectorized product characterizations of the retail products;

loading a designated shopping cart, at a retail shopping facility, for the particular customer with at least one of the one or more suggested retail items prior to the particular customer arriving at the retail shopping facility;

receiving unwanted suggested retail items deposited into a rejection bin, the rejection bin having a bin sensor configured to detect placement of the unwanted suggest retail items and to notify the control circuit;

receiving, at the control circuit, identification information regarding the unwanted suggested retail items and updating the one or more partialities in the database of user profiles based, in part, on the particular customer associated with the user profile placing one of the unwanted suggested retail items in the rejection bin;

receiving a product information query at the control circuit from a user computing device;

identifying, via the control circuit, a set of products having product attributes corresponding to the received product information query;

instructing a product support system and a product routing system communicatively coupled to the control circuit to physically present at least one product of the identified set of products; and

physically presenting the at least one product of the identified set of products to the particular customer on the product support system at the retail shopping facility wherein the at least one product of the identified set of products is loaded onto the product support system by one or more retrieval devices of an automated loading system or physically presenting the at least one product of the identified set of products to the particular customer on the product support system at the retail shopping facility wherein the at least one product of the identified set of products is loaded onto a display portion of the product support system that is transported to the particular customer at the retail shopping facility by one or more conveyors of the product routing system.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising providing the designated shopping cart at a staging area within the retail shopping facility.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising updating the user profile based, in part, on information received about the particular customer from a point of sale terminal visited by the particular customer before exiting the retail shopping facility.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising receiving, from a user computing device associated with the particular customer, a collection time and a collection location for picking up the particular customer'"'"'s designated shopping cart filled with the one or more suggested retail items.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising receiving location information from a user computing device associated with the particular customer and loading the one or more suggested retail items into the designated shopping cart as the particular customer approaches the retail shopping facility.

18. A system comprising:

a database of user profiles, the user profiles having one or more partialities associated therewith and the user profiles being associated with particular customers;

a database of retail products, at least some of the retail products having identified vectorized product characterizations;

a control circuit configured to access the database of user profiles and the database of retail products and configured to identify one or more suggested retail items for a particular customer based, in part, on comparisons between the identified partialities of the user profile associated with the particular customer and the identified vectorized product characterizations of the retail products;

a plurality of physical shopping carts at a retail shopping facility, one of the plurality of shopping carts being designated for the particular customer and filled with at least one of the one or more suggested retail items prior to the particular customer arriving at the retail shopping facility;

a rejection bin where the particular customer may deposit unwanted suggested retail items, the rejection bin having a bin sensor configured to detect placement of the unwanted suggested retail items; and

a product support system configured to present products to consumers that are loaded onto a display thereof;

wherein the control circuit is further configured to;

receive identification information from the bin sensor regarding unwanted suggested retail items placed in the rejection bin and to update the one or more partialities in the database of user profiles based, in part, on the particular customer associated with the user profile placing one of the unwanted suggested retail items in the rejection bin; and

receive a product information query from a user computing device, identify a set of products having product attributes corresponding to the product information query received, and instruct the product support system to physically present at least one product of the identified set of products by transporting by one or more conveyors of a product routing system, the display of the product support system loaded with the at least one product of the identified set to the particular customer at the retail shopping facility for physical presentation of the at least one product of the identified set.