SYSTEM AND METHODOLOGY FOR RECOMMENDING PURCHASES FOR A SHOPPING INTENT
First Claim
1. A machine implemented method for recommending purchases, the method comprising:
- determining a shopping intent of a user;
determining a candidate set of purchase items that satisfy said shopping intent;
generating a total purchasing cost for each purchase item in the candidate set, wherein the total purchasing cost of each purchase item is based on a set of one or more non-price purchasing cost factors;
wherein the set of one or more non-price purchasing cost factors do not affect how much the user has to pay at the point of sale for the purchase items;
based on the total purchasing costs generated for the purchase items in the candidate set, selecting one or more purchase items, from the candidate set of purchase items, to recommend to the user; and
generating a message that recommends to the user to purchase the selected one or more purchase items;
wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques are disclosed for optimizing shopping. In one aspect, purchase items are recommended to a user based on the total purchasing costs of the recommended purchase items. In one embodiment, the total purchase cost includes not just the price of the purchase item but also includes weighted costs based on non-price purchasing cost factors. In another aspect, data is maintained that represents social relationships between members of a network of users and purchase recommendations are made to a user based on the relatedness between the user, the item and the other members of the network. In yet another aspect, purchase recommendations are made based on the best time to purchase a purchase item. In another aspect, item retailers can offer purchase item incentives to users based on the identity of and information about the shopper to whom the incentive is offered including bundling incentives in a unified redemption code.
91 Citations
50 Claims
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1. A machine implemented method for recommending purchases, the method comprising:
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determining a shopping intent of a user; determining a candidate set of purchase items that satisfy said shopping intent; generating a total purchasing cost for each purchase item in the candidate set, wherein the total purchasing cost of each purchase item is based on a set of one or more non-price purchasing cost factors; wherein the set of one or more non-price purchasing cost factors do not affect how much the user has to pay at the point of sale for the purchase items; based on the total purchasing costs generated for the purchase items in the candidate set, selecting one or more purchase items, from the candidate set of purchase items, to recommend to the user; and generating a message that recommends to the user to purchase the selected one or more purchase items; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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16. A method for recommending purchases, the method comprising:
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maintaining data that represents social relationships between members of a network; determining a shopping intent of a user, the user being a member of the network; generating a list of recommended purchase items based on the shopping intent of the user and data that represents social relationships between the user and one or more other users that are also members of the network; and generating a message that recommends to the user to purchase the recommended purchase items in the list of recommended purchase items; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 38, 39, 40)
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19. A method for recommending purchases, the method comprising:
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determining a shopping intent of a user; identifying a purchase item that satisfies the shopping intent; determining a first cost value that represents the cost of purchasing the purchase item from a particular source during a first time period; determining second first cost value that represents the cost of purchasing the purchase item from said particular source during a second time period; determining a recommended time period based, at least in part, on said first cost value and said second cost value; and sending a message to the user, wherein the message recommends that said user purchase the purchase item from said particular source during the recommended time period; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices. - View Dependent Claims (20, 41, 42)
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21. A method for recommending purchases, the method comprising:
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storing information that reflects the user'"'"'s selection of one or more purchase items recommended to the user;
sending a message to an item retailer, wherein the message alerts the item retailer of the user'"'"'s selection; andreceiving, from the item retailer, information that represents (a) an offer of an incentive to the user of at least one of the one or more purchase items selected by the user and (b) one or more conditions related to the offer of the incentive; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices. - View Dependent Claims (22, 43, 44)
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Specification