Inventory and delivery management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10242336-B1
Application number	US-201414558494-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 2, 2014
Priority date	Dec 2, 2014
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

Techniques for determining an inventory level for an ordered item and offering delivery for the ordered item within a time frame may be provided. Information about a plurality of merchants may be maintained. An inventory level of the plurality of merchants for an item ordered by a customer may be determined based on the information and a threshold associated with the item. A particular merchant that is within a geographic range of the customer may be selected based on the inventory level and the merchant information. In an example, delivery instructions may be provided to a delivery service for delivering the item to the customer within the time frame.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for managing inventory of items offered by a plurality of merchants within a geographic range of a customer, comprising:
maintaining, by a computer system, information about the plurality of merchants associated with an electronic marketplace, the information comprising categories of the items offered by the plurality of merchants and geographic location information of the plurality of merchants;
receiving, via a user interface, a request from the customer for an item offered by, the electronic marketplace;
identifying a subset of merchants from the plurality of merchants for fulfilling the request within a time frame based at least in part on the geographic range, the geographic range based at least in part on a geographic location of the customer;
identifying, for each merchant of the subset of merchants, an inventory level for the item based at least in part on previously fulfilled orders for the item;
identifying, for each merchant of the subset of merchants, a merchant rating based at least in part on the inventory level, past deliveries made by each merchant for the item, and indications that the past deliveries for the item were made within the time frame;
determining, by the computer system, a probability that a merchant of the subset will fulfill the request within the time frame and below a price, the probability based at least in part on a machine learning algorithm utilizing merchant responses to previous requests for the item by other customers, the inventory level for the item associated with the merchant, and the merchant rating for the merchant;
requesting the merchant responses from the subset of the merchants regarding the request based at least in part on the probability exceeding a threshold for the item, the threshold determined based at least in part on the item included in the request;
selecting the merchant of the subset based at least in part on the merchant responses and the geographic location of the merchant being within the geographic range of the customer;
updating the user interface to indicate that the item is available within the time frame; and
providing instructions to a delivery service to deliver the item within the time frame in response to the customer interacting with the user interface to order the item.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold is associated with an identified quantity of the item available from the subset of the merchants within the time frame.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the geographic location of the customer based at least in part on customer information; and
requesting the merchant responses from the plurality of merchants regarding the request based at least in part on the geographic location of the customer.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 ; further comprising selecting the merchant of the subset based at least in part on the determined geographic location of the customer and the information about the plurality of merchants.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the price is determined based at least in part on the machine learning algorithm utilizing the merchant responses, the information about the plurality of merchants, and item information of the item included in the request that is maintained by the electronic marketplace.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for managing inventory of items offered by a plurality of merchants within a geographic range of a customer that, when executed by a computer system, configure the computer system to perform operations comprising:
maintaining information about the plurality of merchants associated with an electronic marketplace, the information comprising categories of the items offered by the plurality of merchants and geographic location information of the plurality of merchants;
receiving, via a user interface, a request from the customer for an item offered by the electronic marketplace;
identifying a subset of merchants from the plurality of merchants for fulfilling the request within a time frame based at least in part on the geographic range, the geographic range based at least in part on a geographic location of the customer;
identifying, for each merchant of the subset of merchants, an inventory level for the item based at least in part on previously fulfilled orders for the item;
identifying, for each merchant of the subset of merchants, a merchant rating based at least in part on the inventory level, past deliveries made by each merchant for the item, and indications that the past deliveries for the item were made within the time frame;
determining a probability that a merchant of the subset will fulfill the request within the time frame and below a price, the probability based at least in part on a machine learning algorithm utilizing merchant responses to previous requests for the item by other customers, the inventory level for the item associated with the merchant, and the merchant rating for the merchant;
requesting the merchant responses from the subset of the merchants regarding the request based at least in part on the probability exceeding a threshold for the item; the threshold determined based at least in part on the item included in the request;
selecting the merchant of the subset based at least in part on the merchant responses and the geographic location of the merchant being within the geographic range of the customer;
updating the user interface to indicate that the item is available within the time frame; and
providing instructions to a delivery service to deliver the item within the time frame in response to the customer interacting with the user interface to order the item.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the threshold is associated with an identified quantity of the item available from the subset of the merchants within the time frame.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , further comprising:
determining the geographic location of the customer based at least n part on customer information; and
requesting the merchant responses from the plurality of merchants regarding the request based at least in part on the geographic location of the customer.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , further comprising selecting the merchant of the subset based at least in part on the determined geographic location of the customer and the information about the plurality of merchants.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the price is determined based at least in part on the machine learning algorithm utilizing the merchant responses, the information about the plurality of merchants, and item information of the item included in the request that is maintained by the electronic marketplace.

11. A computer system for managing inventory of items offered by a plurality of merchants within a geographic range of a customer, comprising:
a processor; and
memory including computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to at least:
maintain information about the plurality of merchants associated with an electronic marketplace, the information comprising categories of the items offered by the plurality of merchants and geographic location information of the plurality of merchants;
receive, via a user interface, a request from the customer for an item offered by the electronic marketplace;
identify a subset of merchants from the plurality of merchants for fulfillin

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Agarwal Vaibhav
• Gangwani Udit
• Sisodia Shubham
• Subramanian Venkataramanan

Classifications

• G06Q10/087 Primary

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06Q30/0635

  replenishment orders; recurring orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/083

  Shipping · CPC title