System and method for competitive product assortment

• US 9,928,515 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 03/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Home Depot Product Authority, LLC (The Home Depot, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Home Depot Product Authority, LLC (The Home Depot, Inc.)
• Inventors: Carvalho, Rodrigo Pierzchalski, Choi, Hajin
• Primary Examiner(s): Koneru, Sujay
• Application Number:
  US13/841,322
• Publication Number:
  US 20140136283A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,838 Days
• Field of Search: 705 732
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

A product assortment system includes a crawler obtaining product information from one or more domains and storing the product information in a database. A user interface determines one or more product categories associated with one or more products of a customer. A keyword module determines criteria for associating one or more products of one or more competitors with the product categories. The user interface generates a display indicating overlap of the one or more products of the customer with the one or more products of the competitors.

Claims

1. A product assortment method, the method comprising:

obtaining, by a processor, product information from one or more domains and storing the product information in a database, the product information comprising (i) information concerning products that are by a customer, and (ii) information concerning products that are sold by the competitors of the customer;

determining, by a processor, one or more product categories associated with products sold by the customer;

determining, by a processor, criteria for associating the products sold by the competitors with the product categories; and

generating, by a processor, a user interface on a display diagrammatically indicating an overlap of the products sold by the customer with the products sold by the competitors of the customer, unique products of the customer, and unique products of the competitors of the customer, wherein the diagrammatic indication is organized according to the product categories;

wherein obtaining product information from one or more domains comprises crawling the Internet to obtain raw product information from the one or more domains and applying one or more wrappers to the raw data to automatically extract the product information from the raw data, wherein each of the one or more wrappers extracts a respective portion of the product information from the raw data;

wherein generating the display comprises displaying a heat map comprising shaded boxes, each associated with a product category, wherein a darker shade indicates a higher overlap of the products sold by the customer with the products sold by the competitors of the customer, and wherein a lighter shade indicates a lower overlap of the products sold by the customer with the products sold by the competitors of the customer;

wherein the shaded boxes of the heat map are sized according to a number of products sold by the customer in the categories associated with the shaded boxes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the product information comprises obtaining domain product and pricing from an unbound number of domains.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the one or more product categories comprises determining product categories and subcategories associated with unique product identifiers for the one or more products carried by the customer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the criteria comprises determining keywords identifying what competitors'"'"' products are to be associated with which product category or subcategory.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the product information comprises associating the product information with retail products, including at least one of a product name, product attribute, product description, or product pricing.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more product categories comprises receiving one or more selections or product category information from a user authorized by the customer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the criteria comprises receiving, via the user interface, one or more selections or keywords for at least one of including products in or excluding products from at least one of a product category or subcategory.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the display comprises displaying a Venn diagram.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, responsive to a user selection of a product category in the heat map, further information about the product category.

10. A system, comprising:

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to;

obtain product information from one or more domains and store the product information in a database, the product information comprising (i) information concerning products that are sold by a customer, and (ii) information concerning products that are sold by the competitors of the customer;

wherein obtaining product information from one or more domains comprises crawling the Internet to obtain raw product information from the one or more domains and applying one or more wrappers to the raw data to automatically extract the product information from the raw data, wherein each of the one or more wrappers extracts a respective portion of the product information from the raw data;

determine one or more product categories associated with products sold by the customer;

determine criteria for associating products sold by the competitors with the product categories; and

generate a user interface on a display that diagrammatically indicates an overlap of the products sold by the customer with the products sold by the competitors of the customer, unique products of the customer, and unique products of the competitors of the customer, wherein the diagrammatic indication is organized according to the product categories;

wherein the processor is configured to generate the display by displaying a heat map comprising shaded boxes, each associated with a product category, wherein a darker shade indicates a higher overlap of the products sold by the customer with the products sold by the competitors of the customer, and wherein a lighter shade indicates a lower overlap of the products sold by the customer with the products sold by the competitors of the customer;

wherein the shaded boxes of the heat map are sized according to a number of products sold by the customer in the categories associated with the shaded boxes.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to obtain the product information by obtaining domain product and pricing from an unbound number of domains.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to determine the one or more product categories by determining product categories and subcategories associated with unique product identifiers for the one or more products carried by the customer.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to determine the criteria by determining keywords identifying what competitors'"'"' products are to be associated with which product category or subcategory.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to store the product information by associating the product information with retail products, including at least one of a product name, product attribute, product description, or product pricing.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to determine the one or more product categories by receiving one or more selections or product category information from a user authorized by the customer.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to determine the criteria by receiving one or more selections or keywords for at least one of including products in or excluding products from at least one of a product category or subcategory.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to display, responsive to a user selection of a product category in the heat map, further information about the product category.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:

code executable by a computer to obtain product information from one or more domains and store the product information in a database, the product information comprising (i) information concerning products that are sold by a customer, and (ii) information concerning products that are sold by the competitors of the customer;

wherein obtaining product information from one or more domains comprises crawling the Internet to obtain raw product information from the one or more domains and applying one or more wrappers to the raw data to automatically extract the product information from the raw data, wherein each of the one or more wrappers extracts a respective portion of the product information from the raw data;

code executable by a computer to determine one or more product categories associated with products sold by the customer;

code executable by a computer to determine criteria for associating products sold by the competitors with the product categories; and

code executable by a computer to generate a user interface on a display that diagrammatically indicates an overlap of the products sold by the customer with the products sold by the competitors of the customer, unique products of the customer, and unique products of the competitors of the customer, wherein the diagrammatic indication is organized according to the product categories;

wherein the code executable by a computer to generate the display comprises code executable by a computer to display a heat map comprising shaded boxes, each associated with a product category, wherein a darker shade indicates a higher overlap of the products sold by the customer with the products sold by the competitors of the customer, and wherein a lighter shade indicates a lower overlap of the products sold by the customer with the products sold by the competitors of the customer;

wherein the code executable by a computer to generate the display comprises code executable by a computer to display, responsive to a user selection of a product category in the heat map, further information about the product category.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the code executable by a computer to obtain the product information comprises code executable by a computer to obtain domain product and pricing from an unbound number of domains.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the code executable by a computer to determine the one or more product categories comprises code executable by a computer to determine product categories and subcategories associated with unique product identifiers for the one or more products carried by the customer.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the code executable by a computer to determine the criteria comprises code executable by a computer to determine keywords identifying what competitors'"'"' products are to be associated with which product category or subcategory.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the code executable by a computer to store the product information comprises code executable by a computer to associate the product information with retail products, including at least one of a product name, product attribute, product description, or product pricing.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the code executable by a computer to determine the one or more product categories comprises code executable by a computer to receive one or more selections or product category information from a user authorized by the customer.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the code executable by a computer to determine the criteria comprises code executable by a computer to receive one or more selections or keywords for at least one of including products in or excluding products from at least one of a product category or subcategory.