Location based alerts for shopper

• US 9,589,294 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2013
• Issued: 03/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal Mart Stores Inc (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: Cancro, Richard Neil, Acker, Joel Bennett Jr., Pedley, Douglas James
• Primary Examiner(s): Stoltenberg, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): LILLEMO, SHAWN D
• Application Number:
  US13/748,178
• Publication Number:
  US 20140207570A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,504 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0081 the reader being a portable scanner or data reader G07G1/009 takes precedence

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for generating reminders to shoppers to purchase products. Using a customer'"'"'s current location, products stocked at that location are identified and compared to the customer'"'"'s purchase history. Items regularly purchased by the customer found among the products stocked at the location are identified. Upon departing the location without adding the product to an electronic shopping cart an alert may be generated to remind the customer to purchase the product. In some embodiment, an alert is generate for a product found in the purchase history if an elapsed time since purchase of the product exceeds an expiration period or purchase period for that product. The methods disclosed herein may be used in the context of a self-checkout using an electronic shopping cart and navigational aids to facilitate retrieval of items on a shopping list.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating shopping, the method comprising:

providing one or more sale devices within a store;

providing a server system in communication with the one or more sale devices and one or more customer computers via a network;

providing an interface for installation on a customer computer of a customer;

storing in a database a stocking location for each product or for each class of products within the store;

detecting, with the one or more customer computers, a current location of a customer in the store;

detecting, with the customer computer of the customer, addition of products to a shopping cart of the customer by detecting a radio frequency identification (RFID) signal for each of the products wherein the shopping cart is a physical shopping cart;

identifying, with the server system, a listing of products from the database stocked within X meters of the current location of the customer using the determined current location of the customer;

comparing the stocked products within the X meters of the current location to a purchase history of the customer and identifying matching products;

detecting, with the server system, a need of the customer for at least one needed matching product stocked within the X meters of the current location and included in the purchase history of the customer;

detecting, with the customer computer, movement of the customer computer away from the current location from a global positioning system receiver included in the customer computer or by receiving a signal from one or more transmitters installed throughout the store, where the signal from one or more transmitters may be decoded by the customer computer to infer a location of the customer computer;

evaluating, with the customer computer, whether the at least one needed matching product is already found in the shopping cart of the customer, by failure of the customer computer to detect the radio frequency identification (RFID) signal for the at least one needed matching product from within the shopping cart;

detecting, with the customer computer, failure of the customer to add the at least one needed matching product to the shopping cart;

generating, with the server system communicating the failure to the customer computer, an alert perceptible by the customer to identify the at least one needed matching product; and

wherein the interface includes an indicator that communicates the alert comprising a message to the customer with respect to the at least one needed matching product and displays the message suggesting that the customer add the at least one needed matching product to the shopping cart of the customer, and a plurality of interface elements for displaying a map indicating a current location of the customer, a location of the least one needed matching product, a path leading the customer to the at least one needed matching product, and a simple indicator of a direction that the customer should turn in order to reach the at least one needed matching product, displaying a product image of the at least one needed matching product, displaying an electronic coupon for the at least one needed matching product, displaying information for other products related to the at least one needed matching product, displaying product information of the at least one needed matching product or other product information, displaying the purchase history of the at least one needed matching product, displaying a shopping list including adding the at least one needed matching product to the shopping list or invoking navigational aids for retrieving items of the shopping list, and displaying the addition of the at least one needed product to the shopping cart or the managing of the shopping cart.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting, with the server system, failure of the customer to add the at least one needed matching product to the cart further comprises:

detecting, with the server system, movement of the customer away from the location without having added the needed matching product to the shopping cart.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein detecting, with the server system, movement of the customer away from the location without having added the needed matching product to the shopping cart further comprises detecting movement of the one or more customer computers away from the location without detecting addition of the needed matching product to the shopping cart accessed by the customer computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating, with the server system communicating the failure to the customer computer, the alert perceptible by the customer and identifying the needed matching product further comprises displaying, to the customer, a promotion for the needed matching product.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating, by the customer computer, the alert perceptible by the customer and identifying the needed matching product further comprises displaying, to the customer, a promotion for a related product for the needed matching product.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating, with the server system communicating the failure to the customer computer, the alert perceptible by the customer and identifying the needed matching product further comprises displaying, to the customer, directions to the needed matching product.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting, with the server system, the need of the customer for the at least one needed matching product stocked within the X meters of the current location and included in a purchase history of the customer further comprises:

determining from the purchase history an elapsed time since a last purchase of a nearby product stocked within the X meters of the current location of the customer; and

if the elapsed time exceeds an expiration period for the nearby product, identifying the nearby product as the at least one needed matching product.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting, with the server system, the need of the customer for the at least one needed matching product stocked within the X meters of the current location and included in a purchase history of the customer further comprises:

determining from the purchase history a typical purchase period for a nearby product stocked within the X meters of the current location of the customer; and

if the elapsed time exceeds the typical purchase period for the nearby product, identifying the nearby product as the at least one needed matching product.

9. A system for facilitating shopping, the system comprising:

one or more sale devices within a store;

a server system in communication with the one or more sale devices and one or more customer computers;

a database in communication with the server system and having a stocking location for each product or for each class of products within the store;

an interface installed on a customer computer of a customer;

the server system communicating with the customer computer via a network and the customer computer including a processor configured to;

detect a current location of a customer in the store;

detect addition of products to a shopping cart of the customer by detecting a radio frequency identification (RFID) signal for each of the products if the shopping cart is a physical shopping cart;

the server system including a processor configured to;

identify a listing of products from the database stocked within X meters of the current location of the customer using the determined current location of the customer;

compare the stocked products within the X meters of the current location to a purchase history of the customer and identifying matching products;

detect a need of the customer for at least one needed matching product stocked within the X meters of the current location and included in the purchase history of the customer;

the processor of the customer computer being further configured to;

detect movement of the customer computer away from the current location from a global positioning system receiver included in the customer computer or by receiving a signal from one or more transmitters installed throughout the store, where the signal from one or more transmitters may be decoded by the customer computer to infer a location of the customer computer;

evaluate whether the at least one needed matching product is already found in the shopping cart of the customer;

detect failure of the customer to add the at least one needed matching product to the shopping cart as a failure by the customer computer to detect the radio frequency identification (RFID) signal for the needed matching product from within the shopping cart;

the processor of the server system being further configured to generate an alert perceptible by the customer to identify the at least one needed matching product; and

wherein the interface includes an indicator that communicates the alert comprising a message to the customer with respect to the at least one needed matching product and displays the message suggesting that the customer add the at least one needed matching product to the shopping cart of the customer, and a plurality of interface elements for displaying a map indicating a current location of the customer, a location of the least one needed matching product, a path leading the customer to the at least one needed matching product, and a simple indicator of a direction that the customer should turn in order to reach the at least one needed matching product, displaying a product image of the at least one needed matching product, displaying an electronic coupon for the at least one needed matching product, displaying information for other products related to the at least one needed matching product, displaying product information of the at least one needed matching product or other product information, displaying the purchase history of the at least one needed matching product, displaying a shopping list including adding the at least one needed matching product to the shopping list or invoking navigational aids for retrieving items of the shopping list, and displaying the addition of the at least one needed product to the shopping cart or the managing of the shopping cart.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor of the customer computer is configured to detect failure of the customer to add the at least one needed matching product to the shopping cart by detecting movement of the customer away from the location without having added the needed matching product to the cart.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor of the customer computer is configured to detect movement of the customer away from the location without having added the needed matching product to the shopping cart by detecting movement of the customer computer away from the location without detecting addition of the needed matching product to the shopping cart accessed by the customer computer.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor of the server system is configured to generate the alert perceptible by the customer and identifying the needed matching product by displaying, to the customer, directions to the needed matching product.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor of the server system is configured to detect the need of the customer for the at least one needed matching product stocked within the X meters of the current location and included in a purchase history of the customer by:

determining from the purchase history an elapsed time since a last purchase of a nearby product stocked proximate the location of the customer; and

if the elapsed time exceeds an expiration period for the nearby product, identifying the nearby product as the at least one needed matching product.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor of the server system is configured to detect the need of the customer for the at least one needed matching product stocked within the X meters of the current location and included in a purchase history of the customer by:

determining from the purchase history a typical purchase period for a nearby product stocked proximate the location of the customer; and

if the elapsed time exceeds the typical purchase period for the nearby product, identifying the nearby product as the at least one needed matching product.