RFID promotional compliance

• US 8,002,181 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2008
• Issued: 08/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores Texas LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Ulrich, Richard Bennett, Langford, Simon David
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Seung H
• Application Number:
  US12/196,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20090101712A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• Field of Search: 235/383, 235/385, 235/492, 705/26.1
• US Class Current: 235/383
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/12 Supports; Mounting means
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2208 associated with components used in interrogation type services, i.e. in systems for information exchange between an interrogator/reader and a tag/transponder, e.g. in Radio Frequency Identification [RFID] systems methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers, e.g. for reading patterns G06K7/00; record carrier for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings G06K19/00

Abstract

A method using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for managing a promotional merchandise display at locational spots in a store includes providing a locational spot in the store with a locational RFID tag uniquely identifying the locational spot, providing the locational spot with the promotional merchandise display associated with merchandise RFID tags, wherein each of the merchandise RFID tags uniquely identifies one or more products in the promotional merchandise display, scanning for radio frequency signals from the locational RFID tag and the merchandise RFID tags at or near the locational spot, transmitting information obtained from the scanning to a server, analyzing the information at the server for a determination of whether the promotional merchandise display is in compliance with a promotional display plan; and if not, generating a notice to the store, the notice including information relating to the locational spot and the promotional merchandise display.

Claims

1. A method using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for managing a promotional merchandise display at locational spots in a store, comprising:

attaching a first plurality of RFID tags to a plurality of locational spots in the store, each of the first plurality of RFID tags uniquely identifying one of the locational spots;

attaching a second plurality of RFID tags to the promotional merchandise display, each of the second plurality of RFID tags uniquely identifying one or more products in the promotional merchandise display;

providing the promotional merchandise display and the second plurality of RFID tags attached thereto to the locational spots;

at or near a locational spot in the store, scanning to detect radio frequency signals from the first and second plurality of RFID tags at or near the locational spot;

transmitting information from a detected at least one of the first plurality of RFID tags and a detected at least one of the second plurality of RFID tags to a server;

comparing the information against a promotional display plan, stored at the server, for a determination of whether the promotional merchandise display is in compliance with the promotional display plan, wherein the promotional display plan includes times and locations the promotional merchandise display is scheduled to appear at different locational spots and times in the store; and

if the promotional merchandise display is not in compliance with the promotional display plan, generating a notice to the store, the notice including information relating to the locational spot and the promotional merchandise display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the locational spot in the store is a hot spot desirable for a product placement in the store.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the each of the first RFID tags uniquely identifies the locational spot with a unique radio frequency.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first plurality of RFID tags uniquely identifies a single product.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first plurality of RFID tags uniquely identifies a group of products.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanning is carried out with a handheld RFID reader.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the RFID reader is a Gen-2 reader.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanning is carried out with a plurality of RFID readers mounted on fix locations within the store.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanning is carried out periodically or according to a schedule.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanning is carried out ubiquitously by mounting RFID scanners on mobile objects in the store.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanning of the first plurality of RFID tags and the second plurality of RFID tags at or near the locational spot is carried out at substantially the same time.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the information obtained from the scanning includes at least one of an identifying data stored in RFID tags, strengths of the radio frequency signals from RFID tags and time of the scanning.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the information obtained from the scanning is transmitted over a wireless communication channel.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the information obtained from the scanning is transmitted immediately after the scanning.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the information obtained from the scanning is transmitted in batch.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing of the information obtained from the scanning includes:

identifying information from the at least one of the first plurality of RFID tags and information from the at least one of the second plurality of RFID tags;

correlating the information from the at least one of the first plurality of RFID tags and the information from the at least one of the second plurality of RFID tags to generate a correlation data; and

comparing the correlation data with the promotional display plan.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotional display plan includes a schedule of the promotional merchandise display at the locational spot.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording a sale of the product in a promotional merchandise display at a checkout counter;

correlating information of the sale with information obtained from the scanning from the at least one of the first plurality of RFID tags and the at least one of the second plurality of RFID tags; and

generating a report, the report including at least one of sales statistics of products from a locational spot and a comparison of products sold from different locational spots.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the information of the sale of the product is obtained from one of a POS system, an RFID scan, and a combination of a POS system and an RFID scan.