Systems and methods for demand tracking of products based on sales and controlling restocking as a function of the determined demand in a retail environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10733552-B2
Application number	US-201916405539-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 7, 2019
Priority date	Jul 30, 2014
Publication date	Aug 4, 2020
Grant date	Aug 4, 2020

Abstract

A demand tracking system in a retail environment including a retail store having a plurality of product displays is provided. The system includes at least one processor coupled to a memory storing information regarding a demand for each product of a plurality of products in the retail store, the demand for each product including a difference between a current quantity of each product on a respective product display and a maximum capacity of the respective product display, an interface configured to receive product sales information and user action information and to provide user action requests, and a demand tracking component. The demand tracking component is configured to adjust the demand for each of the plurality of products based on the product sales information and user action information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system to track demand in a retail environment including a retail store having a plurality of product displays, the system comprising:
a plurality of point of sale systems configured to obtain and communicate product sales information;
an inventory database maintaining inventory information for a plurality of products offered for sale from in the retail store;
a plurality of networked scanning devices and worker devices operated at the retail store; and
a demand tracking system communicatively coupled over a distributed communication network with the inventory database, the plurality of point of sale systems, the scanning devices and the worker devices, wherein the demand tracking system comprises:
at least one processor coupled to a memory storing information regarding a demand for each product of the plurality of products in the retail store, the demand for each of the plurality of products determined based at least in part on a difference between a determined current quantity of each of the plurality of products on a respective product display of the plurality of product displays on a sales floor and a maximum capacity of the respective product display for the respective one of the plurality of products;
an interface, executed by the at least one processor, configured to: receive over the communication network product sales information from the plurality of point of sale systems, receive over the communication network user action information from at least one of the plurality of networked scanning devices and the worker devices, and generate user action requests and communicate the generated user action requests to one or more of the plurality of networked scanning devices and the worker devices, wherein one or more of the user action requests comprise one or more restock requests to restock one or more products of the plurality of products based on the respective demands of the one or more products;
a demand tracking component, executed by the at least one processor, configured to:
obtain a first set of rules that track product demand as a function of product sales based at least in part on the product sales information;
execute the first set of rules to increase, responsive to receiving product sales information including an indication of a first product sold of the plurality of products and a quantity of the first product sold, the demand maintained in the inventory database for at least the first product by a value equal to the quantity of the first product sold; and
obtain a second set of rules that track product demand, and execute the second set of rules to determine when a percentage demand for the first product is in excess of an integer number of case items of the first product, determine whether the percentage demand in excess of the integer number of case items has a predefined relationship with a percentage threshold break level to the first product corresponding to whether an expected user action of restocking would be expected to overstock or understock, and set the demand to zero responsive to receiving the user action information and determining the percentage demand in excess of the integer number of case items has the predetermined relationship with the percentage threshold break level.

2. The demand tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the demand tracking component is further configured to obtain a third set of rules that track product demand as a function of user actions, and execute the third set of rules to set the demand to zero responsive to receiving the user action information including an indication that the first product has been restocked.

3. The demand tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the first product is one of a case item type and an individual item type.

4. The demand tracking system of claim 3 , wherein the demand tracking component is further configured to decrease the demand for the first product at least in part by setting the demand of the first product to zero responsive to the first product having the individual item type.

5. The demand tracking system of claim 3 , wherein the demand tracking component is further configured to decrease the demand for the first product at least in part by decreasing the demand by a value equal to an integer multiple of a case quantity responsive to the first product having the case item type.

6. The demand tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the demand tracking component is further configured to:
obtain a third set of rules that track product demand as a function of the expected user action, and execute the third set of rules to determine demand is understated for the first product based on the user action information and the expected user action; and
generate a first user action request including a first instruction to restock a first quantity of the first product to the product display, the first quantity equal to the understated demand of the first product.

7. The demand tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the demand tracking component is further configured to obtain a third set of rules that track product demand as a function of the user action information, and execute the third set of rules to determine whether the demand is overstated for the first product based on the user action information.

8. The demand tracking system of claim 7 , wherein the demand tracking component is further configured to decrease the demand for the first product responsive to determining that the demand is overstated.

9. The demand tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the interface is further configured to receive product receiving information including an indication of the product received and a quantity of the product received and wherein the demand tracking component is further configured to obtain a third set of rules that track product demand as a function of receiving information, and execute the third set of rules to decrease the demand for the received product responsive to receiving the product receiving information.

10. The demand tracking system of claim 1 , further comprising:
obtain a third set of rules that evaluates the demand relative to a first threshold;
execute the second set of rules and determine the demand for the first product has transgressed the first threshold; and
generate, responsive to the demand for the first product transgressing the first threshold, a first user action request including a first instruction to restock a first quantity of the first product to the respective product display, the first quantity equal to the demand of the first product; and
initiate an automated picking of the first quantity of the first product based on the demand to be restocked on the respective product display on the sales floor of the retail.

11. The demand tracking system of claim 1 , wherein the demand tracking component in determining whether the percentage demand in excess of the integer number of case items is configured to predict percentage demand in excess of a full case in determining that a worker is expected to overstock the respective product display in excess of the demand in order to stock all the products of an opened case item of the first product, or determining that the worker is expected to not open a subsequent case item of the first product based on an expectation that all of the products of the subsequent case item of the first product would not fit on the respective product display resulting in the worker under-stocking less than the demand.

12. A computer implemented method for tracking demand in a retail environment including a retail store having a plurality of product displays, the method comprising:
storing, by a demand tracking system communi

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Vann David L
• Taylor Robert J
• Jones Nicholaus A
• Jones Matthew A
• Shields Daniel R

Classifications

• G06Q10/08

  Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management · CPC title

• G06Q30/02

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title

• G06Q10/06315 Primary

  Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis · CPC title

• G06Q10/087

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