Product recommendations based on items frequently bought together

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10991026-B2
Application number	US-201615233804-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 10, 2016
Priority date	Aug 10, 2016
Publication date	Apr 27, 2021
Grant date	Apr 27, 2021

Abstract

This disclosure includes systems and methods for providing purchase recommendations to a user that may include items frequently purchased with a product selected by the user. The determination of which items are frequently purchased with which other items may account for both online and in-store transactions and may further account for both pairwise and multi-wise relationships. The recommendations may be provided on an electronic user interface, such as a website, in response to the user's selection of the product through the electronic user interface. The recommendations may be tailored to the user's selected product so that the recommended items are available in the same delivery channel as the user-selected product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of providing purchase recommendations to a user, comprising:
receiving, from a user, a selection of a product through an electronic user interface;
determining a delivery channel that is available for the selected product based on information stored in association with the selected product, the determined delivery channel selected from two or more delivery channels, wherein a given delivery channel is associated with a unique pair of source location and destination;
retrieving, from a storage device, a list of additional items that are associated with the product as being frequently purchased with the product, each additional item being associated with a respective one or more available delivery channels;
determining, by a processor, that at least a first one of the additional items is available in the delivery channel of the selected product based on the first at least one additional item being associated with the delivery channel of the selected product;
determining, by the processor, that at least a second one of the additional items is not available in the delivery channel of the selected product based on the second at least one additional item not being associated with the delivery channel of the selected product; and
presenting, on the electronic user interface, in response to the selection of the product from the user, the selected product and the first at least one additional item that is available for delivery in the delivery channel of the selected product.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing, on the electronic user interface, one or more graphical control elements with which the user is able to purchase the product and the presented at least one additional item, whereby the user is able to purchase the product and the presented at least one additional item with a reduced number of clicks.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving a selection of one or more of the graphical control elements from the user; and
adding the additional items associated with the selected one or more graphical control elements to the user's cart in response to the received selection.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the delivery channel is selected from the list consisting of:
ship-to-customer;
ship-to-store;
deliver from store; or
in-store pickup.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the list of additional items comprises a plurality of combinations of items that are frequently purchased with the product.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
suppressing presentation of one of the additional items that would void the warranty on the first item if combined with the first item;
suppressing presentation of one of the additional items that is not functional with the first item; or
suppressing presentation of one of the additional items that is a commodity item.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining if the at least one additional item available in the delivery channel has inventory available for provision in the delivery channel.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
creating a frequent pattern tree for a database of records of transactions, the transactions comprising purchases of the product and the additional items;
mining the frequent pattern tree to determine the set of additional items that are frequently purchased with the product in the transactions; and
storing the set of additional items in a computerized storage device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the records of transactions comprise records of purchases through a website or mobile application and records of purchases in one or more brick-and-mortar stores.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein creating a frequent pattern tree for the database of records of transactions comprises one or more of:
excluding transactions in which one or more items were later returned; or
excluding transactions in which one or more items were purchased on promotion.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining the set of additional items that are frequently purchased with the product in the transactions comprises one or more of:
weighting transactions according to location;
weighting transactions according to sales channel; or
determining a frequency with which a combination of the additional items is purchased with the product.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein:
determining the set of additional items that are frequently purchased with the product in the transactions comprises determining a frequency with which a quantity of two or more of one of the additional items is purchased with the product;
storing the set of additional items comprises storing an indication of the quantity;
the at least one additional item that is available for delivery in the delivery channel is the one of the additional items for which a quantity is determined; and
presenting the product and the at least one additional item that is available for delivery in the delivery channel comprises presenting the quantity.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
presenting, on the electronic user interface, along with the product and the at least one additional item that is available in the delivery channel, a further additional item that may be used to install the product, but is not included in the list of additional items that are associated with the product as being frequently purchased with the product.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the delivery channel is in-store pickup, the method further comprising presenting, along with the at least one additional item that is available in the delivery channel, at least one of:
a location in a store where the one or more additional items are located;
a map of a location in a store where the one or more additional items are located; or
a route to a location in a store where the one or more additional items are located.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising presenting, along with the product and the at least one additional item that is available in the delivery channel, one or more of:
an installation service associated with the product;
an equipment rental associated with the product; or
a warranty associated with the product.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising presenting, along with the product and the at least one additional item that is available in the delivery channel, one or more of:
information indicative of the frequency with which the product and the at least one additional item are purchased together;
information indicative of a compatibility between the product and the at least one additional item; or
information indicative of a functional relationship between the product and the at least one additional item.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a delivery date for the product;
determining that at least one of the additional items that is available in the delivery channel is also available for delivery on the delivery date; and
presenting, in the electronic user interface, in response to the selection of the product from the user, the product and the at least one additional item that is available for delivery in the delivery channel on the delivery date.

18. A system for providing purchase recommendations to a user, comprising:
a computer-readable memory storing instructions; and a processor configured to execute the instructions to:
receive, from a user, a selection of a product through an electronic user interface;
determine a delivery channel that is available for the selected

Assignees

• Home Depot Product Authority Llc

Inventors

• Agarwal Shubham
• Qu Huiming
• Coombs Shawn
• Afshar Estelle
• Devnath Rini
• Gundeti Ramesh
• Vemana Prat
• Hofmann Kevin

Classifications

• G06Q30/0631 Primary

  Recommending goods or services · CPC title

• G06Q30/0641

  utilising user interfaces specially adapted for shopping · CPC title

• G06Q30/012

  Providing warranty services · CPC title