Inventory availability

• US 9,165,278 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2013
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores Texas LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Vasantham, Madhavan Kandhadai, Tare, Vikrant, Sreedhararaj, Sreekanth, Tyagarajan, Mahesh
• Primary Examiner(s): ZARE, SCOTT A
• Application Number:
  US13/907,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20140358739A1
• Time in Patent Office: 872 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

The present disclosure extends to maintaining an item inventory status at an inventory cache management system. The inventory cache may be refreshed regularly by a threshold-based triggering mechanism. In embodiments, as item inventory breaches certain thresholds, the inventory cache may be refreshed with increased frequency to mitigate overselling or underselling scenarios and reduce overall network traffic for items having relatively high inventory levels.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of updating an inventory cache management system, comprising:

at an inventory management application module, receiving an item inventory level quantity;

storing the item inventory level quantity at an inventory database;

at the inventory management application module, comparing the item inventory level quantity with a predetermined high threshold;

determining that the item inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined high threshold;

while the item inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined high threshold, transmitting a first Limited Stock Alert and the item inventory level quantity from the inventory management application module to an inventory cache;

while the item inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined high threshold, transmitting a subsequent Limited Stock Alert from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache, the subsequent Limited Stock Alert is transmitted at a predetermined time interval after transmitting the first Limited Stock Alert and the subsequent Limited Stock Alert is retransmitted at the predetermined time interval while the item inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined high threshold;

at the inventory cache, storing an inventory status corresponding to the item inventory level quantity; and

from the inventory cache, transmitting the inventory status to a web/app server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

from the web/app server, transmitting the inventory status for display at a user computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the inventory management application module, comparing the item inventory level quantity with a medium threshold less than the predetermined high threshold; and

if the item inventory level quantity is less than the medium threshold, transmitting an Out of Stock Alert from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the subsequent Limited Stock Alert is transmitted upon completion of each one of at least one subsequent transaction while the item inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined high threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising while the item inventory level quantity is greater than or equal to the predetermined high threshold, transmitting an in-stock status signal from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein transmitting the in-stock status signal from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache comprises:

transmitting the in-stock status signal without transmitting the item inventory level quantity from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the predetermined time interval comprises approximately 30 minutes.

8. A computer-implemented method of maintaining an item inventory system comprising:

at an inventory management application module, setting a high threshold for an inventory item;

at the inventory management application module, receiving a transaction confirmation completion;

at an inventory database, updating an item inventory level;

at the inventory management application module, comparing the item inventory level to the high threshold;

determining that the item inventory level is less than the high threshold;

while the item inventory level is equal to or less than the high threshold, transmitting a first Limited Stock Alert and the item inventory level from the inventory management application module to an inventory cache;

while the item inventory level is equal to or less than the high threshold, transmitting a subsequent Limited Stock Alert from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache, the subsequent Limited Stock Alert is transmitted at a predetermined time interval after transmitting the first Limited Stock Alert and the subsequent Limited Stock Alert is retransmitted at the predetermined time interval while the item inventory level is less than the high threshold; and

at the inventory cache, saving an inventory status.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

from the inventory cache, transmitting the inventory status to a web/app server.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

from the web/app server, transmitting the inventory status for display at a user computing device.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting the first Limited Stock Alert from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache comprises:

transmitting the item inventory level to the inventory cache.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

at the inventory management application module, comparing the item inventory level with a predetermined medium threshold; and

if the item inventory level is less than the predetermined medium threshold, transmitting an Out of Stock Alert from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising while the item inventory level is greater than the high threshold, transmitting an in-stock status signal from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein transmitting the in-stock status signal from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache further comprises:

transmitting the in-stock status signal without transmitting the item inventory level from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the predetermined time interval comprises approximately 30 minutes.

16. An inventory cache management system comprising:

an inventory cache, adapted to;

receive an inventory level quantity for at least one item; and

transmit an inventory status for the at least one item to a web/app server;

the web/app server, adapted to transmit a graphical user interface object to a user, the graphical user interface object comprising the inventory status;

an inventory database, adapted to store the inventory level quantity; and

an inventory management application module, adapted to;

compare the inventory level quantity to a predetermined high threshold;

determine that the inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined high threshold;

while the inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined high threshold, transmit a first Limited Stock Alert and the inventory level quantity to the inventory cache; and

while the inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined high threshold, transmitting a subsequent Limited Stock Alert from the inventory management application module to the inventory cache, the subsequent Limited Stock Alert is transmitted at a predetermined time interval after transmitting the first Limited Stock Alert and the subsequent Limited Stock Alert is retransmitted at the predetermined time interval while the inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined high threshold.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the inventory management application module is further adapted to:

compare the inventory level quantity to a predetermined medium threshold; and

if the inventory level quantity is less than the predetermined medium threshold, transmit an Out of Stock Alert to the inventory cache.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the inventory management application module is further adapted to:

while the inventory level quantity is greater than or equal to the predetermined high threshold, transmit an in-stock status signal to the inventory cache.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the inventory management application module is further adapted to:

while the inventory level quantity is greater than or equal to the predetermined high threshold, transmit the in-stock status signal without transmitting the inventory level quantity to the inventory cache.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein:

the predetermined time interval comprises approximately 30 minutes.