Products and Processes for Determining Allocation of Inventory for a Vending Machine
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- determining a plurality of product types that are available to be sold via a vending machine;
determining inventory management data for each of the product types,in which the inventory management data includes at least one of the following categories;
inventory data,slotting requirement data,profitability data,subscription account data,soft demand data,seasonality data, andproduct tenure data;
determining an inventory allocation based on the inventory management data for each of the product types, in which the inventory allocation specifiesa set of product types which are each selected from the plurality of product types; and
outputting an indication of the determined inventory allocation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
According to an embodiment, an allocation of inventory for a vending machine (e.g., a mix or set of types of products and respective quantities of products to be loaded into a snack or beverage vending machine) is determined. In an embodiment, a computer or other computing device may be configured to (i) identify one or more vending machine products (e.g., from a universe of available products), (ii) determine an inventory allocation based on inventory management data associated with the products (e.g., data regarding the profitability of one or more particular products), and (iii) output an inventory allocation recommendation indicating an inventory allocation (e.g., a chart instructing an agent how to stock a particular vending machine). In various embodiments, inventory management data may comprise such criteria as slotting requirements, sales rates (e.g., the number of units of a particular product type sold per day), profitability (e.g., the retail price of a unit of a particular product type minus the unit cost of the product; the profit margin of a product type multiplied by a sales rate), outstanding product “subscription” data, seasonality considerations, weather considerations, product “tenure,” product mix (i.e., variety) considerations, expiration data, “soft demand” data (e.g., customers who have indicated a prospective willingness to purchase a product if stocked), and the like.
23 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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determining a plurality of product types that are available to be sold via a vending machine; determining inventory management data for each of the product types, in which the inventory management data includes at least one of the following categories; inventory data, slotting requirement data, profitability data, subscription account data, soft demand data, seasonality data, and product tenure data; determining an inventory allocation based on the inventory management data for each of the product types, in which the inventory allocation specifies a set of product types which are each selected from the plurality of product types; and outputting an indication of the determined inventory allocation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method comprising:
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determining inventory management scores for each of a plurality of product types that are available to be sold via a vending machine, in which the inventory management scores are based on at least one of the following categories; inventory data, slotting requirement data, profitability data, subscription account data, soft demand data, seasonality data, and product tenure data; in which the determining of inventory management scores includes consideration of a weight metric for at least one of the categories; ranking each of the plurality of product types based on the inventory management scores; determining an inventory allocation based on the ranking; and outputting an indication of the determined inventory allocation. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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Specification