Method and system for selection, filtering or presentation of available sales outlets

• US 8,868,480 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2012
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
• Original Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
• Inventors: McBride, Jason, Sullivan, Thomas J., Swinson, Michael, Wang, Zixia
• Primary Examiner(s): Starks, Wilbert L
• Application Number:
  US13/534,930
• Publication Number:
  US 20130006916A1
• Time in Patent Office: 846 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 706/52
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/00 Computing arrangements based on specific mathematical models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods for the filtering, selection and presentation of vendors accounting for both user characteristics and vendor characteristics, such that the systems and methods may be used by both customer and vendor alike to better match customer needs with the resource-constrained vendors with whom a successful sale has a higher probability of occurring. Embodiments may include filtering, selecting and/or presenting vendors to a user sorted by the probability that the particular vendor will possess the characteristics that appeal to a particular customer and therefore result in a large probability of sale and suppress presentation of those vendors that are unlikely to be selected by the customer since their characteristics are less consistent with those needed by the customer and, therefore, are unlikely to result in a sale.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a server computer; and

at least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions translatable by the server computer to perform;

for each vendor in a set of vendors;

determining a probability of a vendor selling a product to a user interested in purchasing the product (P_s) given that the vendor is presented in the set of vendors;

determining a probability of the user buying the product from the vendor (P_b) given a historical preference of the user; and

determining a probability of closing a sale (P_c) where P_c is a function of P_s and P_b;

selecting one or more vendors from the set of vendors based on P_c associated therewith; and

presenting the one or more vendors to the user interested in purchasing the product via a user interface on a user device associated with the user, the user device being communicatively connected to the server computer over a network connection.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein P_s comprises a first component expressing features associated with the vendor and a second component expressing the features relative to other vendors in the set of vendors.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the features comprise a historical sales performance rate of the vendor.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein P_b comprises a first component expressing features associated with the user and a second component expressing interactions between the user and the vendor.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the first component comprises a socioeconomic status of the user.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the second component is associated with a drive time between the user and the vendor.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein each vendor in the set is within a distance to the user, the distance being less than a threshold or within a geographical boundary.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the selecting the one or more vendors from the set is based at least in part on an expected revenue of each vendor in a specific area.

9. A method comprising:

for each vendor in a set of vendors;

determining a probability of a vendor selling a product to a user interested in purchasing the product (P_s) given that the vendor is presented in the set of vendors;

determining a probability of the user buying the product from the vendor (P_b) given a historical preference of the user; and

determining a probability of closing a sale (P_c) where P_c is a function of P_s and P_b;

selecting one or more vendors from the set of vendors based on P_c associated therewith, wherein the selecting is performed by a computer; and

presenting the one or more vendors to the user interested in purchasing the product via a user interface on a user device associated with the user, the user device being communicatively connected to the computer over a network connection.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein P_s comprises a first component expressing features associated with the vendor and a second component expressing the features relative to other vendors in the set of vendors.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the features comprise a historical sales performance rate of the vendor.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein P_b comprises a first component expressing features associated with the user and a second component expressing interactions between the user and the vendor.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first component comprises a socioeconomic status of the user.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the second component is associated with a drive time between the user and the vendor.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein each vendor in the set is within a distance to the user, the distance being less than a threshold or within a geographical boundary.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the selecting the one or more vendors from the set is based at least in part on an expected revenue of each vendor in a specific area.

17. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions translatable by a computer to perform:

for each vendor in a set of vendors;

determining a probability of a vendor selling a product to a user interested in purchasing the product (P_s) given that the vendor is presented in the set of vendors;

determining a probability of the user buying the product from the vendor (P_b) given a historical preference of the user; and

determining a probability of closing a sale (P_c) where P_c is a function of P_s and P_b;

selecting one or more vendors from the set of vendors based on P_c associated therewith; and

presenting the one or more vendors to the user interested in purchasing the product via a user interface on a user device associated with the user, the user device being communicatively connected to the computer over a network connection.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the selecting the one or more vendors from the set is based at least in part on an expected revenue of each vendor in a specific area.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein P_s comprises a first component expressing features associated with the vendor and a second component expressing the features relative to other vendors in the set of vendors.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein P_b comprises a first component expressing features associated with the user and a second component expressing interactions between the user and the vendor.