REVERSE SHOWROOMING AND MERCHANT-CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20150025967A1
• Filed: 07/19/2013
• Published: 01/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ellison, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 10,217,133 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.53
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing a merchant-customer engagement system include a physical merchant location in which a customer may be tracked to determine products within the physical merchant location that the customer is interested in. A merchant may use a wearable merchant device that is configured to identify the customer via a camera that captures an image of the customer, and that image may be used to retrieve customer account information for that customer. Using the customer account information and the products that the customer is showing interest in, the wearable merchant device may be used to display merchant-customer engagement information next to a view of the customer to allow the merchant to help the customer while utilizing a variety of displayed information about the customer including, for example, past purchases, products browsed in-store and previously browsed online, time spent in an area of the physical merchant location, etc.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a non-transitory memory storing customer account information identifying a plurality of customers;

one or more hardware processors coupled to the memory and operable to read instructions from the memory to perform the steps of;

detect a first customer entering a merchant physical location;

retrieve first customer account information for the first customer from the non-transitory memory;

track the location of the first customer within the merchant physical location and associate first product information for a first product in the merchant physical location with the first customer account information based at least partly on the proximity of the first customer to the first product;

receive an identification of the first customer from a mobile merchant device;

provide the first product information over the network to the mobile merchant device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the customer account information includes at least one purchase associated with each of the plurality of customers, and the one or more hardware processors are operable to read instructions from the memory to perform the steps of:

retrieve a first purchase from the first customer account information based at least partly on a current location of the first customer in the merchant physical location; and

provide the first purchase over the network to the mobile merchant device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first purchase is an online purchase associated with the first customer account information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are operable to read instructions from the memory to perform the steps of:

track the amount of time the first customer spends in at least one designated location within the merchant physical location, wherein the first product information for the first product in the merchant physical location is associated with the first customer account information based at least partly on a first amount of time the first customer spends in the proximity of the first product.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more processors are operable to read instructions from the memory to perform the steps of:

retrieve a total amount of time tracked for the first customer in the merchant physical location; and

provide the total amount of time over the network to the mobile merchant device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are operable to read instructions from the memory to perform the steps of:

retrieve recommended product information for at least one recommended product based on the first product information; and

provide the recommended product information over the network to the mobile merchant device.

7. A method for providing merchant-customer engagement, comprising:

detecting a first customer entering a merchant physical location;

retrieving first customer account information for the first customer from a database;

tracking the location of the first customer within the merchant physical location and associating first product information for a first product in the merchant physical location with the first customer account information in the database based at least partly on the proximity of the first customer to the first product;

receiving an identification of the first customer from a mobile merchant device;

providing the first product information over the network to the mobile merchant device.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

retrieving a first purchase from the first customer account information based at least partly on a current location of the first customer in the merchant physical location; and

providing the first purchase over the network to the mobile merchant device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first purchase is an online purchase associated with the first customer account information.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

tracking the amount of time the first customer spends in at least one designated location within the merchant physical location, wherein the first product information for the first product in the merchant physical location is associated with the first customer account information in the database based at least partly on a first amount of time the first customer spends in the proximity of the first product.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

retrieving a total amount of time tracked for the first customer in the merchant physical location; and

providing the total amount of time over the network to the mobile merchant device.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

retrieving recommended product information for at least one recommended product based on the first product information; and

providing the recommended product information over the network to the mobile merchant device.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the tracking the location of the first customer within the merchant physical location includes receiving customer location information from at least one customer sensor located in the merchant physical location.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, are adapted to cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

detecting a first customer entering a merchant physical location;

retrieving first customer account information for the first customer from a database;

tracking the location of the first customer within the merchant physical location and associating first product information for a first product in the merchant physical location with the first customer account information in the database based at least partly on the proximity of the first customer to the first product;

receiving an identification of the first customer from a mobile merchant device;

providing the first product information over the network to the mobile merchant device.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

retrieving a first purchase from the first customer account information based at least partly on a current location of the first customer in the merchant physical location; and

providing the first purchase over the network to the mobile merchant device.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first purchase is an online purchase associated with the first customer account information.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

tracking the amount of time the first customer spends in at least one designated location within the merchant physical location, wherein the first product information for the first product in the merchant physical location is associated with the first customer account information in the database based at least partly on a first amount of time the first customer spends in the proximity of the first product.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

retrieving a total amount of time tracked for the first customer in the merchant physical location; and

providing the total amount of time over the network to the mobile merchant device.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

retrieving recommended product information for at least one recommended product based on the first product information; and

providing the recommended product information over the network to the mobile merchant device.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the tracking the location of the first customer within the merchant physical location includes receiving customer location information from at least one customer sensor located in the merchant physical location.