DYNAMIC ONLINE EXPERIENCE MODIFICATION AND INVENTORY OPTIMIZATION BASED ON STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT GEO-LOCATION PARAMETER

• US 20100094683A1
• Filed: 02/05/2009
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Fender, Miles, Bose, Piu, Symons, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 8,438,060 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions

Abstract

An online experience of a user is dynamically configured at the micro-regional level based to achieve an objective associated with sales of a product. A catchment zone is determined, which identifies the geographic region associated with the objective and the product. The online user experience for users in the catchment zone is modified to achieve the objective.

Claims

1. A system for dynamically determining modifications for online experiences based on an objective associated with sales of a product, the system comprising:

data storage storing online behavior data and offline sales data used to determine a smallest geo-location parameter of statistical significance;

a catchment zone determination module determining a catchment zone from the smallest geo-location parameter of statistical significance, wherein the catchment zone is a geographic area that is targeted based on the objective; and

an online modifications module 102 determining one or more modifications to the online user experience in the catchment zone to achieve the objective.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the online modifications module 102 uses MROI modeling to determine an impact of online behavior on offline sales of the product and to identify modifications to the online user experience for the catchment zone.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an online modifier implementing the one or more modifications to the online user experience for each user determined to be in the catchment zone.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more modifications to the online user experience comprise modified web pages and modified online promotions.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the smallest geo-location parameter of statistical significance is determined by estimating an impact of online behavior on offline sales of the product.

6. A computer system configured to dynamically determine modifications for online experiences based on an objective, the computer system comprising:

data storage storing online behavior data and offline sales data; and

a processor configured to

determine a smallest geo-location parameter of statistical significance for estimating an impact of online behavior on offline sales of a product;

determine a catchment zone from the smallest geo-location parameter and from an objective associated with sales of the product; and

determine one or more modifications to an online user experience related to the product and for the catchment zone.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the objective is associated with controlling inventory for the product, and the processor is configured to:

determine inventory of the product for stores in the catchment zone; and

the one or more modifications are modifications to the online user experience for the catchment zone to control the inventory of the product.

8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the one or more modifications include modifications for a website and the modifications are implemented only for visitors to the web site determined to be in the catchment zone.

9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the one or more modifications to the web site include at least one of changing contents of web pages at the website and providing online promotions of the product at the website.

10. At least one computer readable medium storing computer code that when executed on one or more computer systems performs a method of dynamically determining modifications to online experiences based on an objective, the method comprising:

determining a smallest geo-location parameter of statistical significance for estimating an impact of online behavior on offline sales of a product;

determining a catchment zone from the smallest geo-location parameter and from an objective associated with sales of the product; and

modifying an online user experience related to the product and for the catchment zone.

11. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the objective is associated with controlling inventory for the product, and the method further comprises:

determining inventory of the product for stores in the catchment zone; and

modifying an online user experience further includes modifying the online user experience for the catchment zone to control the inventory of the product.

12. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein modifying an online user experience further comprises:

determining whether a visitor to a web site is in the catchment zone; and

modifying the web site to control the inventory of the product if the user is in the catchment zone.

13. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein modifying the web site comprises:

changing contents of web pages at the website.

14. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein modifying the web site comprises:

providing online promotions of the product at the website.

15. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein determining a catchment zone comprises:

identifying the smallest geo-location parameter as the catchment zone.

16. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein determining a catchment zone comprises:

identifying a geo-location parameter having a granularity larger than the smallest geo-location parameter but still having statistical significance as the catchment zone.

17. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein determining a smallest geo-location parameter of statistical significance for estimating an impact of online behavior on offline sales of a product further comprises:

determining online behavior of users related to the product;

determining granularities of the geo-location parameters for the on-line behavior of users; and

determining a smallest granularity of the granularities of the geo-location parameters;

determining whether the smallest granularity is statistically significant for estimating an impact of the online behavior on the offline sales of the product;

in response to determining the smallest granularity is statistically significant, using the smallest granularity as the smallest geo-location parameter; and

in response to determining the smallest granularity is not statistically significant,

determining whether a next higher granularity of the granularities of the geo-location parameters is statistically significant; and

repeating the determination for each next higher granularity of granularities of the geo-location parameters until one of the granularities of the geo-location parameters is determined to be statistically significant.

18. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein determining the smallest geo-location parameter further comprises:

dynamically determining the smallest geo-location parameter as online and offline product data and one or more of the variables vary over time.

19. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein modifying an online user experience related to the product and for the catchment zone further comprises:

dynamically modifying the online user experience as online behavior and offline sales data and the objective vary over time.

20. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

determining one or more modifications to the online user experience based on marketing return on investment (MROI) modeling.