SYSTEMS AND TECHNIQUES FOR RANKING ITEMS

• US 20160328787A1
• Filed: 05/04/2016
• Published: 11/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ContextLogic Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ContextLogic Incorporated
• Inventors: Szulczewski, Piotr, Zhang, Danny S., Fahmy, Tarek, Xie, Jack Z., Ye, Yuli
• Granted Patent: US 10,204,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers

Abstract

A method for ranking items may include determining a purchaseability score for each item of a specified type based on a number of impressions of the respective item provided to users during a time period, a quantity of the respective item purchased by the users, and a quantity of the respective item added to shopping carts of the users. The method may further include ranking the items based on the purchaseability scores, generating item feed data indicating an ordering of the items based on the rankings, and providing the item feed data to a user device. The user'"'"'s device may display a scrollable feed of item panels corresponding to the items, with the item panels ordered according to the ordering of the corresponding items.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a device of a user, data indicative of selection of a type of item;

for each of a plurality of items of the type, determining a purchaseability score for the respective item based, at least in part, on (1) a number of impressions of the respective item provided to a plurality of users during a time period, (2) a quantity of the respective item purchased by the plurality of users, and (3) a quantity of the respective item added to shopping carts of the plurality of users;

determining a ranking of the items included in the plurality of items based, at least in part, on the purchaseability scores of the respective items included in the plurality of items;

generating item feed data indicating an ordering of a set of items including the plurality of items, wherein the ordering of the items included in the set of items is determined based, at least in part, on the ranking of the items included in the plurality of items; and

providing the item feed data to the device of the user, wherein the device of the user is configured to display a scrollable feed of item panels corresponding to the items included in the set of items, and wherein the item panels in the scrollable feed are ordered according to the ordering of the corresponding items in the item feed data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the purchaseability score for the respective item is further based, at least in part, on a purchase price of the item.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the purchaseability score for the respective item is further based, at least in part, on a quantity of the respective item added to wish lists of the plurality of users.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the purchaseability score for the respective item is based, at least in part, on the expression:

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting users for inclusion in the plurality of users based, at least in part, on one or more similarities between the user and the users.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of items is a first plurality of items, wherein the method further comprises determining a ranking of a second plurality of items based, at least in part, on (1) the one or more similarities between the user and the users, and (2) data indicating whether the users purchased the respective items included in the plurality of items, and wherein the set of items further includes the second plurality of items.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the ordering of the set of items is further determined based, at least in part, on the ranking of the second plurality of items.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein an ordering among the first plurality of items within the set of items matches an ordering among the first plurality of items within the ranking of the first plurality of items, wherein an ordering among the second plurality of items within the set of items matches an ordering among the second plurality of items within the ranking of the second plurality of items, and wherein an ordering within the set of items between items included in the first plurality of items and items included in the second plurality of items is determined probabilistically.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the ordering of the set of items, including:

(a) probabilistically selecting between the first plurality of items and the second plurality of items, wherein a first probability of selecting the first plurality of items is P₁ and a second probability of selecting the second plurality of items is 1−

P₁;

(b) from the selected plurality of items, identifying a highest-ranked item that has not yet been assigned a position in the ordering of the set of items, and assigning the identified item to a next position in the ordering of the set of items; and

repeating steps (a) and (b) until a specified number of items have been assigned positions in the ordering of the set of items or until all the items in the first and second pluralities of items have been assigned positions in the ordering of the set of items.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising changing the first and second probabilities in response to passage of a specified period of time and/or in response to a request to change the ordering of the set of items.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising changing the rankings of the items included in the plurality of items by performing a weighted random shuffling of the purchaseability scores of the items included in the plurality of items.

12. A system comprising:

one or more computers programmed to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a device of a user, data indicative of selection of a type of item;

for each of a plurality of items of the type, determining a purchaseability score for the respective item based, at least in part, on (1) a number of impressions of the respective item provided to a plurality of users during a time period, (2) a quantity of the respective item purchased by the plurality of users, and (3) a quantity of the respective item added to shopping carts of the plurality of users;

determining a ranking of the items included in the plurality of items based, at least in part, on the purchaseability scores of the respective items included in the plurality of items;

generating item feed data indicating an ordering of a set of items including the plurality of items, wherein the ordering of the items included in the set of items is determined based, at least in part, on the ranking of the items included in the plurality of items; and

providing the item feed data to the device of the user, wherein the device of the user is configured to display a scrollable feed of item panels corresponding to the items included in the set of items, and wherein the item panels in the scrollable feed are ordered according to the ordering of the corresponding items in the item feed data.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the purchaseability score for the respective item is further based, at least in part, on a purchase price of the item.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the purchaseability score for the respective item is further based, at least in part, on a quantity of the respective item added to wish lists of the plurality of users.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the purchaseability score for the respective item is based, at least in part, on the expression:

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise selecting users for inclusion in the plurality of users based, at least in part, on one or more similarities between the user and the users.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of items is a first plurality of items, wherein the operations further comprise determining a ranking of a second plurality of items based, at least in part, on (1) the one or more similarities between the user and the users, and (2) data indicating whether the users purchased the respective items included in the plurality of items, and wherein the set of items further includes the second plurality of items.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the ordering of the set of items is further determined based, at least in part, on the ranking of the second plurality of items.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein an ordering among the first plurality of items within the set of items matches an ordering among the first plurality of items within the ranking of the first plurality of items, wherein an ordering among the second plurality of items within the set of items matches an ordering among the second plurality of items within the ranking of the second plurality of items, and wherein an ordering within the set of items between items included in the first plurality of items and items included in the second plurality of items is determined probabilistically.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise determining the ordering of the set of items, including:

(a) probabilistically selecting between the first plurality of items and the second plurality of items, wherein a first probability of selecting the first plurality of items is P₁ and a second probability of selecting the second plurality of items is 1−

P₁;

(b) from the selected plurality of items, identifying a highest-ranked item that has not yet been assigned a position in the ordering of the set of items, and assigning the identified item to a next position in the ordering of the set of items; and

repeating steps (a) and (b) until a specified number of items have been assigned positions in the ordering of the set of items or until all the items in the first and second pluralities of items have been assigned positions in the ordering of the set of items.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the operations further comprise changing the first and second probabilities in response to passage of a specified period of time and/or in response to a request to change the ordering of the set of items.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise changing the rankings of the items included in the plurality of items by performing a weighted random shuffling of the purchaseability scores of the items included in the plurality of items.

23. A computer storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a data processing apparatus, cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a device of a user, data indicative of selection of a type of item;

for each of a plurality of items of the type, determining a purchaseability score for the respective item based, at least in part, on (1) a number of impressions of the respective item provided to a plurality of users during a time period, (2) a quantity of the respective item purchased by the plurality of users, and (3) a quantity of the respective item added to shopping carts of the plurality of users;

determining a ranking of the items included in the plurality of items based, at least in part, on the purchaseability scores of the respective items included in the plurality of items;

generating item feed data indicating an ordering of a set of items including the plurality of items, wherein the ordering of the items included in the set of items is determined based, at least in part, on the ranking of the items included in the plurality of items; and

providing the item feed data to the device of the user, wherein the device of the user is configured to display a scrollable feed of item panels corresponding to the items included in the set of items, and wherein the item panels in the scrollable feed are ordered according to the ordering of the corresponding items in the item feed data.