Providing insights to a merchant

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10242374-B2
Application number	US-201414564530-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2014
Priority date	Dec 9, 2014
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the generation and presentation of merchant insights to a brick-and-mortar merchant. More specifically, one or more embodiments of the present disclosure relate to detecting and identifying users visiting a merchant's retail location, determining product preferences of the identified users that relate to the merchant, and providing merchant insights to the merchant based on the determined product preferences.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
maintaining, using at least one processor, a plurality of social networking profiles for a plurality of users, each social networking profile comprising product preferences for a corresponding user;
receiving one or more indications that a subset of users from the plurality of users have visited a physical location associated with a merchant;
identifying, in response to receiving the one or more indications that the subset of users has visited the physical location associated with the merchant, one or more product preferences for the subset of users based on social networking profiles associated with the subset of users;
analyzing the one or more product preferences for the subset of users to determine online purchases at an online merchant by the subset of users that has visited the physical location associated with the merchant;
detecting, based on one or more presence detectors within the physical location associated with the merchant being triggered, a first area within the physical location associated with the merchant where the subset of users has lingered for at least a threshold amount of time; and
providing merchant insights to the merchant that provide a recommendation to add one or more products purchased at the online merchant to the first area within the physical location associated with the merchant where the subset of users has lingered for at least the threshold amount of time.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the merchant insights to the merchant comprises providing merchant insights corresponding to a particular product purchased at the online merchant based on the one or more product preferences.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining, based on analyzing a merchant profile associated with the merchant, that the merchant does not carry the particular product at the physical location associated with the merchant; and
wherein providing the merchant insights to the merchant corresponding to the particular product purchased at the online merchant further comprises providing a recommendation that the merchant introduce the particular product at the physical location associated with the merchant.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
analyzing the one or more product preferences to determine a common product category preferred by the subset of users that has visited the physical location associated with the merchant;
determine, based on analyzing a merchant profile, a specific area within the physical location associated with the merchant that corresponds to the determined common product category; and
wherein providing the merchant insights to the merchant corresponding to a particular product purchased at the online merchant further comprises providing a recommendation to add the particular product to the specific area within the physical location associated with the merchant.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the merchant insights further comprise a summary of the online purchases at the online merchant by the subset of users that has visited the physical location associated with the merchant.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the merchant insights to the merchant corresponding to a particular product purchased at the online merchant further comprises a purchase percentage breakdown showing the online merchants from which the subset of users purchased the particular product.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the product preferences are derived from online activity of a corresponding user.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting, by the one or more presence detectors within physical location associated with the merchant, one or more mobile devices associated with the subset of users at the physical location associated with the merchant; and
wherein receiving the one or more indications that the subset of users has visited the physical location associated with the merchant is based on the one or more presence detectors detecting the one or more mobile devices associated with the subset of users at the physical location associated with the merchant.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising detecting, by a first presence detector of the one or more presence detectors within physical location associated with the merchant, that the subset of users has lingered for at least the threshold amount of time in the first area of the physical location associated with the merchant.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein analyzing the one or more product preferences for the subset of users to determine online purchases at the online merchant comprises analyzing online purchases of the one or more products purchased at the online merchant by the subset of users that has visited the physical location associated with the merchant.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving product information from the merchant; and
generating a merchant profile for the merchant based on the received product information.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising determining a relevancy of the one or more product preferences to the merchant.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining the relevancy of the one or more product preferences to the merchant comprises comparing the online purchases at the online merchant by the subset of users that has visited the physical location to the merchant profile.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising determining whether to provide the merchant insights to the merchant based on the relevancy of the one or more product preferences.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, based on the one or more presence detectors within physical location associated with the merchant being triggered, that one or more mobile devices associated with the subset of users has visited the physical location associated with the merchant within a predefined time period; and
wherein receiving the one or more indications comprise receiving an indication that the subset of users has visited the physical location associated with the merchant within the predefined time period.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, based on the one or more presence detectors within physical location associated with the merchant being triggered, that one or more mobile devices associated with the subset of users has visited the first area within the physical location associated with the merchant at least a threshold number of times; and
wherein receiving the one or more indications comprise receiving an indication that subset of users has visited the first area within the physical location associated with the merchant at least the threshold number of times.

17. A method comprising:
maintaining, using at least one processor, a plurality of social networking profiles for a plurality of users, each social networking profile comprising product preferences for a corresponding user;
receiving a merchant profile from a merchant;
receiving one or more indications that a subset of users from the plurality of users have visited a physical location associated with the merchant;
identifying, in response to receiving the one or more indications that the subset of users has visited the physical location associated with the merchant, one or more product preferences for the subset of users based on social networking profiles associated with the subset of users;
identifying, from the one or more identified product preferences for the subset of users that has visited the physical location associated with the merchant, a prod

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Linden Lee Charles
• Lewis Benjamin
• Crow Dwight Ewing
• Shottan Jonathan
• Fan Peng

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06Q50/01

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q30/0202 Primary

  Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities · CPC title