Display of popular, in-stock products of a merchant

• US 8,401,911 B1
• Filed: 03/22/2011
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Paul, Moisa, Dan, Chu, Christophe Franois
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaawat, Mussa A
• Application Number:
  US13/069,364
• Time in Patent Office: 728 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Displaying popular items that are available for sale at a merchant'"'"'s physical location comprises creating a electronic document corresponding to the merchant'"'"'s physical location. Then, a product availability database and a product popularity database are populated, the product availability database taking into account the inventory available at the merchant'"'"'s physical location. Next, a cross-referencing engine identifies the popular products that are available at the merchant'"'"'s physical location, and displays on the merchant'"'"'s electronic document a plurality of popular items that are available at the merchant'"'"'s physical location.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for presenting popular products that are in-stock at a merchant location, the method comprising the steps of:

creating, by a computer, an electronic document for a merchant corresponding to a physical location of the merchant, the electronic document comprising information regarding the merchant'"'"'s physical location;

estimating, by the computer, whether one or more products are in stock at the physical location of the merchant, the estimating comprising, for each of the one or more products;

receiving point of sale data, the point of sale data comprising a product identifier that identifies a product that was sold, a first store identifier that identifies the physical location of the merchant at which the product was sold, and a timestamp corresponding to a first time (t1) at which the product was sold,

determining based at least on the received point of sale data, a rate of sales events (r_e) for the product at the physical location of the merchant,

determining a second time (t2) corresponding to a time for the comparing step, wherein the second time is after the first time,

determining based at least on the rate of sales events (r_e), a probability of not seeing any sales events during a duration of time (t3), wherein the time (t3) is a function of the second time and the first time, and

determining an indication of product availability for the product at the physical location of the merchant, the indication of product availability comprising an “

in stock”

indicator when the probability of not seeing any sales events during a duration of time (t3) is greater than a first probability threshold;

populating, by the computer, a product availability database with product inventory that is in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location based at least in part on the estimation that the one or more products are in stock;

populating, by the computer, a product popularity database with popular products by identifying a popularity of each product relative to at least one other product;

comparing, by the computer, information from the product popularity database with information from the product availability database to identify at least two products that are (1) identified as popular in the product popularity database relative to at least one other product and (2) estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location as identified in the product availability database;

populating, by the computer, the electronic document with the at least two popular products that are estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location; and

presenting, by the computer, the electronic document comprising the information regarding the merchant'"'"'s physical location and the at least two popular products that are estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a popularity of each product relative to at least one other product is based on at least one of editorial product reviews, user reviews, consumer reviews, number of units sold, number of network searches for a product, or a combination of price per unit and number of units sold.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the merchant'"'"'s physical location comprises at least one of a physical address of the merchant'"'"'s location and a map showing the merchant'"'"'s location.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of providing a hyperlink that allows a user to search for products that are available at the merchant'"'"'s physical location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein populating the electronic document comprises presenting the top five most popular products that are estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein additional information related to the popular products is available, such information comprising at least one of user reviews, expert reviews, whether the at least one popular product is of limited availability, or whether availability of the at least one popular product is limited to a specified number of units.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the product availability database and the product popularity database comprise a single database.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document is presented as a web page.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document is presented in response to a selection of the merchant to get more information regarding the merchant, wherein the merchant information displays on a place page.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the point of sale data comprises data from a source other than the store at which the product was sold.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of product availability comprises a “

limited in stock”

indicator when the probability is less than the first probability threshold and greater than a second probability threshold, wherein the second probability threshold is less than the first probability threshold, or an “

out of stock”

indicator when the probability is less than the second probability threshold.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing r_e and the timestamp in a data object corresponding to the product and the store.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the probability of not seeing any sales events during the duration of time (t3) is determined according to an equation exp(−

r_e*t3).

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the rate of sales events (r_e) is determined according to an exponential moving average.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the rate of sales events (r_e) is determined according to an equation 1/<

t>

, where <

t>

is determined recursively as

<

t>

_i=(1−

k)*<

t>

_i-1+k*t_i

such that t_i is a period of time between sales events i and i−

1, and k is a constant in a range 0<

k<

1.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein k is in a range 0.02≦

k≦

0.5.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein k is in a range 0.03≦

k≦

0.1.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second probability thresholds are consistent for all products sold by the store.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second probability thresholds are static.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second probability thresholds are the same.

8. A system for presenting popular products that are in-stock at a merchant location, comprising:

a server that presents an electronic document that corresponds to a physical location of a merchant, the electronic document comprising information regarding the merchant'"'"'s physical location;

a product availability database comprising inventory that is available from the merchant at the merchant'"'"'s physical location, the product availability database identifying products that are estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location, the identifying the products that are estimated as in stock comprising, for each of the products;

receiving point of sale data, the point of sale data comprising a product identifier that identifies a product that was sold, a first store identifier that identifies the physical location of the merchant at which the product was sold, and a timestamp corresponding to a first time (t1) at which the product was sold,

determining based at least on the received point of sale data, a rate of sales events (r_e) for the product at the physical location of the merchant,

determining a second time (t2) corresponding to a time for the comparing step, wherein the second time is after the first time,

determining based at least on the rate of sales events (r_e), a probability of not seeing any sales events during a duration of time (t3), wherein the time (t3) is a function of the second time and the first time, and

determining an indication of product availability for the product at the physical location of the merchant, the indication of product availability comprising an “

in stock”

indicator when the probability of not seeing any sales events during a duration of time (t3) is greater than a first probability threshold;

a product popularity database comprising an identification of products that are each ranked by popularity relative to at least one other product; and

an analyzer that compares information from the product popularity database with information from the product availability database to identify at least two products that are identified as popular in the product popularity database relative to at least one other product and that are estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location as identified in the product availability database,

the server populating the electronic document with the information regarding the merchant'"'"'s physical location and the at least two popular products that are estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the analyzer identifies at least one popular product based on at least one of editorial product reviews, user reviews, consumer reviews, number of units sold, number of network searches for a product, or a combination of price per unit and number of units sold.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the information regarding the merchant'"'"'s physical location comprises at least one of a physical address of the merchant'"'"'s location and a map showing the merchant'"'"'s address.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the server further populates into the electronic document a hyperlink that allows a user to search for products that are available at the merchant'"'"'s physical location.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the server populates into the electronic document the at least two popular products by populating the top five most popular products that are estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the server populating into the electronic document the at least two popular products comprises populating additional information related to the at least two popular products comprising at least one of user reviews, expert reviews, whether the at least one popular product is of limited availability, or whether availability of the at least one popular product is limited to a specified number of units.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the product availability database and the product popularity database comprise a single database.

15. A computer-implemented method for presenting popular products that are in-stock at a merchant location, the method comprising the steps of:

estimating, by one or more computing devices, whether one or more products are in stock at a physical location of a merchant, the estimating comprising, for each of the one or more products;

receiving point of sale data, the point of sale data comprising a product identifier that identifies a product that was sold, a first store identifier that identifies the physical location of the merchant at which the product was sold, and a timestamp corresponding to a first time (t1) at which the product was sold,

determining based at least on the received point of sale data, a rate of sales events (r_e) for the product at the physical location of the merchant,

determining a second time (t2) corresponding to a time for the comparing step, wherein the second time is after the first time,

determining based at least on the rate of sales events (r_e), a probability of not seeing any sales events during a duration of time (t3), wherein the time (t3) is a function of the second time and the first time, and

determining an indication of product availability for the product at the physical location of the merchant, the indication of product availability comprising an “

in stock”

indicator when the probability of not seeing any sales events during a duration of time (t3) is greater than a first probability threshold;

identifying, by the one or more computing devices, products that are in stock at the physical location of the merchant based on the estimation that the one or more products are in stock;

identifying, by the one or more computing devices, popular products;

comparing, by the one or more computing devices, the estimated in stock products with the popular products to identify at least two products that are identified as popular and that are estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location; and

presenting, by the one or more computing devices, the at least two products that are identified as popular and that are estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifying of popular products is based on at least one of editorial product reviews, user product reviews, consumer product reviews, number of units sold for a product, number of searches for a product, or a combination of price per unit and number of units sold.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising presenting, with the popular products, a physical address of the merchant'"'"'s location and a map showing the merchant'"'"'s location.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising presenting a hyperlink that allows a user to search for products that are available at the merchant'"'"'s physical location.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein presenting the popular products comprises presenting the top five most popular products that are estimated as in stock at the merchant'"'"'s physical location.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the presenting step further comprises presenting additional information related to the popular products comprising at least one of user reviews, expert reviews, whether the popular products are of limited availability, or whether availability of the popular products is limited to a specified number of units.