CONTACT RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON PURCHASE HISTORY

• US 20150269595A1
• Filed: 09/15/2014
• Published: 09/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Jagota, Arun, Haardt, Gregory, Ming, Lei, Fuchs, Matthew, Vitchev, George, Wong, Fang, Ramachandran, Govardana Sachithanandam
• Granted Patent: US 10,354,264 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/105 Human resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

Contact recommendations based on purchase history are described. A system creates a directed graph of nodes in which at least some of the nodes are connected by directed arcs, wherein a directed arc from a first node to a second node represents a conditional probability that previous users who purchased a first contact also purchased a second contact. The system identifies a set of contacts purchased by a current user. The system estimates a prospective purchase probability based on a historical probability that previous users purchased a specific contact and a related probability that previous users who purchased the specific contact also purchased a contact in the set of contacts, for each candidate contact. The system outputs a recommendation for the current user to purchase a recommended candidate contact based on a corresponding prospective purchase probability.

Claims

1. A system for contact recommendations based on purchase history, the apparatus comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions, which when executed, cause the one or more processors to;

create a directed graph of a plurality of nodes in which at least some of the plurality of nodes are connected by a plurality of directed arcs, wherein a directed arc from a first node to a second node represents a conditional probability that previous users who purchased a first contact also purchased a second contact;

identify a set of contacts purchased by a current user;

estimate a prospective purchase probability based on a historical probability that previous users purchased a specific contact and a related probability that previous users who purchased the specific contact also purchased a contact in the set of contacts, for each candidate contact; and

output a recommendation for the current user to purchase a recommended candidate contact based on a corresponding prospective purchase probability.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a number of outgoing directed arcs from the first node is limited to a maximum number of outgoing directed arcs based on a corresponding conditional probability associated with each potential outgoing directed arc.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein estimating the prospective purchase probability is further based on another related probability that previous users who purchased the specific contact also purchased another contact in the set of contacts, for each candidate contact.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the historical probability that previous users purchased the specific contact is adjusted for purchase recency.

5. The system of claim 1, comprising further instructions, which when executed, cause the one or more processors to identify each candidate contact based on identifying a number of outgoing directed arcs from a candidate contact to contacts in the set of contacts.

6. A computer program product comprising computer-readable program code to be executed by one or more processors when retrieved from a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the program code including instructions to:

create a directed graph of a plurality of nodes in which at least some of the plurality of nodes are connected by a plurality of directed arcs, wherein a directed arc from a first node to a second node represents a conditional probability that previous users who purchased a first contact also purchased a second contact;

identify a set of contacts purchased by a current user;

estimate a prospective purchase probability based on a historical probability that previous users purchased a specific contact and a related probability that previous users who purchased the specific contact also purchased a contact in the set of contacts, for each candidate contact; and

output a recommendation for the current user to purchase a recommended candidate contact based on a corresponding prospective purchase probability.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein a number of outgoing directed arcs from the first node is limited to a maximum number of outgoing directed arcs based on a corresponding conditional probability associated with each potential outgoing directed arc.

8. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein estimating the prospective purchase probability is further based on another related probability that previous users who purchased the specific contact also purchased another contact in the set of contacts, for each candidate contact.

9. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the historical probability that previous users purchased the specific contact is adjusted for purchase recency.

10. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the program code comprises further instructions to identify each candidate contact based on identifying a number of outgoing directed arcs from a candidate contact to contacts in the set of contacts.

11. A method for contact recommendations based on purchase history, the method comprising:

creating a directed graph of a plurality of nodes in which at least some of the plurality of nodes are connected by a plurality of directed arcs, wherein a directed arc from a first node to a second node represents a conditional probability that previous users who purchased a first contact also purchased a second contact;

identifying a set of contacts purchased by a current user;

estimating a prospective purchase probability based on a historical probability that previous users purchased a specific contact and a related probability that previous users who purchased the specific contact also purchased a contact in the set of contacts, for each candidate contact; and

outputting a recommendation for the current user to purchase a recommended candidate contact based on a corresponding prospective purchase probability.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein a number of outgoing directed arcs from the first node is limited to a maximum number of outgoing directed arcs based on a corresponding conditional probability associated with each potential outgoing directed arc.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein estimating the prospective purchase probability is further based on another related probability that previous users who purchased the specific contact also purchased another contact in the set of contacts, for each candidate contact.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the historical probability that previous users purchased the specific contact is adjusted for purchase recency.

15. The method of claim 11, the method further comprising identifying each candidate contact based on identifying a number of outgoing directed arcs from a candidate contact to contacts in the set of contacts.

16. A system comprising:

a processor-based application, which when executed on a computer, will cause the processor to;

create a directed graph of a plurality of nodes in which at least some of the plurality of nodes are connected by a plurality of directed arcs, wherein a directed arc from a first node to a second node represents a conditional probability that previous users who purchased a first contact also purchased a second contact;

identify a set of contacts purchased by a current user;

estimate a prospective purchase probability based on a historical probability that previous users purchased a specific contact and a related probability that previous users who purchased the specific contact also purchased a contact in the set of contacts, for each candidate contact; and

output a recommendation for the current user to purchase a recommended candidate contact based on a corresponding prospective purchase probability.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein a number of outgoing directed arcs from the first node is limited to a maximum number of outgoing directed arcs based on a corresponding conditional probability associated with each potential outgoing directed arc.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein estimating the prospective purchase probability is further based on another related probability that previous users who purchased the specific contact also purchased another contact in the set of contacts, for each candidate contact.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the historical probability that previous users purchased the specific contact is adjusted for purchase recency.

20. The system of claim 16, the method further comprising transmitting code to identify each candidate contact based on identifying a number of outgoing directed arcs from a candidate contact to contacts in the set of contacts.