System and method for directing a customer to additional purchasing opportunities

• US 20060036510A1
• Filed: 10/06/2005
• Published: 02/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: WW Grainger Incorporated
• Original Assignee: WW Grainger Incorporated
• Inventors: Westphal, Geoffry A., Carroll, Thomas John
• Application Number:
  US11/244,965
• Publication Number:
  US 20060036510A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations

Abstract

A dynamic merchandising system creates for each of a plurality of products in a plurality of purchase orders a list of products purchased together. This information is then used to create ordered lists reflecting relationships between various product attributes, e.g., the relationships between different brand names purchased together, different product categories purchased together, different catalog pages of products purchased together, etc. From these ordered relationship lists information may be selected and presented to the customer for the purpose of directing the customer to additional purchasing opportunities.

Claims

1. A computer-readable media having instructions for presenting additional purchasing opportunities to a consumer, the instructions comprising:

using data provided by the consumer to select one or more product brand names from a plurality of ordered lists in which information indicative of relationships between brand names of products purchased together is maintained; and

presenting the selected product brand names to the consumer whereby the consumer may interact with the presented brand names to access information relevant to products sold under the selected brand names.

2. The readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the data provided by the consumer is at least one selected from the group consisting of a product brand name, a product SKU, a catalog page, and a product category.

3. The readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the data provided by the consumer is a product SKU and the instructions use a cross-reference index to discern a product brand name for the product SKU and the product brand name for the product SKU is used to select from the plurality of ordered lists the one or more product brand names presented to the consumer.

4. The readable media as recited in claim 3, wherein the cross-reference index comprises an electronic product catalog.

5. A computer-readable media having instructions for presenting additional purchasing opportunities to a consumer, the instructions comprising:

using data provided by the consumer to select one or more product categories from a plurality of ordered lists in which information indicative of relationships between categories of products purchased together is maintained; and

presenting the selected product categories to the consumer whereby the consumer may interact with the presented product categories to access information relevant to products sold under the selected product categories.

6. The readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the data provided by the consumer is at least one selected from the group consisting of a product brand name, a product SKU, a catalog page, and a product category.

7. The readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the data provided by the consumer is a product SKU and the instructions use a cross-reference index to discern a product category for the product SKU and the product category for the product SKU is used to select from the plurality of ordered lists the one or more product categories presented to the consumer as the purchasing recommendation.

8. The readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the cross-reference index comprises an electronic product catalog.

9. A computer-readable media having instructions for presenting additional purchasing opportunities to a consumer, the instructions comprising:

using data provided by the consumer to discern pairings of products that were purchased together;

using the pairings of select one or more catalog pages from a plurality of ordered lists in which information indicative of relationships between catalog pages of products purchased together is maintained; and

making the selected product catalog pages available to the consumer, the selected product catalog pages functioning to present additional purchasing opportunities to the consumer.

10. The readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the data provided by the consumer is at least one selected from the group consisting of a product brand name, a product SKU, a catalog page, and a product category.

11. The readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the data provided by the consumer is a product SKU and the instructions use a cross-reference index to discern a catalog page for the product SKU and the catalog page for the product SKU is used to select from the plurality of ordered lists the one or more catalog pages made available to the consumer.

12. The readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the instructions present a link to the selected catalog pages.

13. A method for presenting additional purchasing opportunities to a consumer, comprising:

using data within a plurality of purchase orders to discern pairings of products that were purchased together and that have at least one product attribute from a group of product attributes which differ;

creating from the pairings of products ordered lists which contain data indicative of degrees to which combinations of the different product attributes appear within the pairings of products;

in response to data provided by the consumer, using the data to select from the ordered lists one or more of the product attributes; and

presenting the selected product attributes to the consumer whereby the consumer may interact with the provided product attribute to access information relevant to products having the selected product attribute.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the group of product attributes comprise at least two selected from a product brand name, a product SKU, a catalog page, and a product category.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the selected product attribute is provided to the consumer as a hyperlink.

16. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the group of product attributes are selected from fields within an electronic catalog.