Integrated online and physical location merchandizing

• US 8,548,874 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2010
• Issued: 10/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Chad R. Gourley, Joe Stewart, Nations Gregory M, Patricia Korth-Mcdonnell
• Inventors: Nations, Gregory M., Gourley, Chad R., Korth-McDonnell, Patricia, Stewart, Joe
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Civan, Ethan D
• Application Number:
  US12/973,868
• Publication Number:
  US 20120158544A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,016 Days
• Field of Search: 705 26- 27, 705 261- 272
• US Class Current: 705/26.61
• CPC Class Codes: B42P 2221/06 with information carrying means, e.g. advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation

Abstract

An on-item tag displays information about an item in a fixed retail location. The on-item tag is associated with an online collage tag for the same item on a web page of a web site associated with a retail location. The on-item tag has an ornamental appearance substantially the same as an online collage tag for the same item displayed on a web page of the web site. The on-item tag has a first part that includes a user review. An online item includes an online collage tag that includes the first part of the on-item tag along with additional information for the product that includes, but is not limited to, user reviews, product cost, product description, product status, and product availability. The on-item tag includes the first part along with a second part that provides additional product information.

Claims

1. An on-item tag for a retail item located in a physical retail store operated by an enterprise, the tag comprising:

a first region including a first graphic and conveying a polling result in human readable form, the first graphic corresponding substantially to a second graphic contemporaneously viewable on a retail web site associated with the enterprise, the second graphic forming at least a portion of an online tag, the online tag being contemporaneously viewable adjacent a third graphic displaying the retail item on the retail web site; and

a second region including a fourth graphic and conveying a product review in human readable form, the product review being contemporaneously viewable on the retail web site operated by the enterprise,

wherein

the polling result and the product review for the retail item are obtained from a retail system operated by the enterprise and

the polling result represents data collected in part through the retail web site.

2. The on-item tag of claim 1, wherein the retail item is a garment.

3. The on-item tag of claim 1, wherein the online tag has substantially the same ornamental appearance as the first region of the on-item tag, the second region of the on-item tag including indicia directing a user to a snapshot product web page, the snapshot product web page including the online tag, the third graphic and the product review, the snapshot product web page being configured such that if a user accesses the snapshot product web page after a date the on-item tag was created, the product review conveyed by the snapshot product web page is the same as the product review conveyed by the on-item tag.

4. The on-item tag of claim 1, wherein the polling result includes a user voting result and an average user rating.

5. The on-item tag of claim 1, wherein the polling result includes one or more of an example user review, a total number of user reviews indicator, an online user voting result, one or more user instructions, and one or more user review categories, wherein each respective review category has an associated user rating.

6. The on-item tag of claim 5, wherein the on-item tag includes, in human readable form, an example user review, a total number of user reviews indicator, an online user voting result, one or more user instructions, and a plurality of user review categories, wherein each respective review category has an associated user rating, the one or more user instructions include a universal resource locator of a web page of the retail web site.

7. A method for creating an on-item tag, the method comprising:

selecting an item from one or more items available for sale through a retail web site and in a retail store location associated with the retail web site;

determining user review results for the item, the results gathered from online user votes and ratings for the item entered by users on one or more web pages of the retail web site;

creating a first region of the on-item tag, the first region including content comprising a polling result for the item in human readable form;

displaying the first region of the on-item tag as an online tag, the online tag presented with a graphic of the item on a retail web page of the retail web site;

creating a second region of the on-item tag, the second region including content comprising a user review result for the item in human readable form; and

printing the on-item tag, wherein the on-item tag includes the first region and the second region.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the on-item tag is a sticker affixed directly to the item.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising displaying a selected review along with the graphic of the item and the first region on the retail web page, the selected review being selected from the one or more user reviews for the item, the selected review and the first region combining to form an online collage tag for the item.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the polling result comprises a user voting result and an average user rating.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the user review result comprises, in human readable form, an example user review, a total number of user reviews indicator, an online user voting result, one or more user instructions, and one or more user review categories, and

a user rating is associated with each of the one or more user review categories.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more user instructions include a universal resource locator of an item-specific web page presenting information regarding the item.

13. A method for creating an on-item tag, the method comprising:

selecting an item from one or more items available for sale through a retail web site and in a retail store location associated with the retail web site;

determining user review results for the item, the results gathered from online user votes and ratings for the item entered by users on one or more web pages of the retail web site;

creating a first region of the on-item tag, the first region including content comprising a polling result for the item in human readable form;

creating a second region of the on-item tag, the second region including indicia directing a user to a snapshot product web page, the snapshot product web page including the first region of the on-item tag displayed as an online tag adjacent a pictorial graphic of the item, the snapshot product web page further including a polling result for the item, the snapshot product web page being configured such that if a user accesses the snapshot product web page after a date the on-item tag was created, the polling result conveyed by the snapshot product web page is the same as the polling result conveyed by the on-item tag; and

printing the on-item tag, wherein the on-item tag includes the first region and the second region.

14. The method recited in claim 13 including the further steps of:

forming the on-item tag as a sticker and directly affixing the on-item tag to the item.

15. The method recited in claim 13, wherein the first region and the second region are formed from paper.

16. The method recited in claim 13, further including the steps of:

providing a tag builder used to create an on-item tag and an online tag; and

,

using the tag builder to create an on-item tag for a first item and an online tag for the first item at substantially the same time.

17. The method recited in claim 13, further including the steps of:

providing a tag builder used to create an on-item tag and an online tag; and

,

using the tag builder to create an on-item tag for a first item at a first time, the on-item tag conveying a first polling result;

subsequently using the tag builder to create an online tag for the first item conveying the first polling result conveyed by the on-item tag for the first item even though at the time of creating the online tag the first polling result changed.

18. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the second region of the on-item tag includes, in human readable form, an example user review, a total number of user reviews indicator, an online user voting result, one or more user instructions, and one or more user review categories, and

a user rating is associated with each of the one or more user review categories.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more user instructions include a universal resource locator of the snapshot product web page.

20. The method recited in claim 13, further including the steps of:

providing a tag builder to create an on-item tag conveying a first set of information regarding user reviews and an online tag conveying the first set of information regarding user reviews even when the online tag is created after the on-item tag and the information regarding user reviews changed at a time when the online tag is created.