System and method for coupling a user computing device and a point of sale device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11263682-B2
Application number	US-201816050026-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2018
Priority date	Dec 5, 2013
Publication date	Mar 1, 2022
Grant date	Mar 1, 2022

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for providing shopping recommendations. Amounts and timing of user purchases are recorded and analyzed to determine consumption rates for various products. A list of recommended products is generated for a user including previous purchases. Expected runout dates for products may be determined based on previous purchases and consumption rates. The list of recommended products may be prioritized based on expected runout dates. A listing of products may be presented with one or both of validation and alternative indicators associated with items of the list. A validation indicator indicates that the product satisfies a criteria and an alternative indicator indicates that an alternative product satisfies the criteria better than the product.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system comprising one or more processors and one or more memory devices operably coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more memory devices storing executable and operational data effective to cause the one or more processors to:
receive at a point of sale device a request from a user computing device to use mobile self-checkout;
couple the user computing device to the point of sale device by:
generating and displaying a coupling code at the point of sale device for scanning by the user computing device;
receiving the coupling code and contents of an electronic shopping cart by a server system associated with a store;
interpreting, at the server system associated with the store, the coupling code to identify the point of sale device;
transmitting from the server system to the point of sale device the contents of the electronic shopping cart associated with a transaction in response to interpreting the coupling code to identify the point of sale device that generated the coupling code; and
receiving, from the server system, at the point of sale device, the contents of the electronic shopping cart;

receive a customer identifier associated with the transaction from the user computing device; and
conclude, on the point of sale device, the transaction including the contents of the electronic shopping cart received from the user computing device that is associated with the customer identifier.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the executable and operational data is further effective to cause the one or more processors to:
report the transaction associated with the customer identifier from the point of sale device to the server system.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the executable and operational data is further effective to cause the one or more processors to:
detect transactions by a consumer associated with the customer identifier.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the executable and operational data is further effective to cause the one or more processors to:
determine, at the server system, based on the transactions and the transaction including the contents of the electronic shopping cart received from the user computing device and that is associated with the customer identifier, for each product of a plurality of products represented in the transactions, at least one of: amounts of purchases of the each product and timing of the purchases, a consumption rate for the each product, a runout date for the product according to the consumption rate and the amount of a last purchase of the purchases of the each product, a shopping trip frequency of the consumer, an expected date of a next shopping trip of the consumer from the shopping trip frequency, and at least a portion of the plurality of products having the runout date prior to the next shopping trip.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the executable and operational data is further effective to cause the one or more processors to:
determine a prioritization of at least a portion of the plurality of products according to the runout dates thereof.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the executable and operational data is further effective to cause the one or more processors to:
transmit to the user computing device associated with the customer identifier, a listing of the at least the portion of the plurality of products ordered according to the prioritization.

7. The system of claim 4 , wherein the executable and operational data is further effective to cause the one or more processors to:
validate a first portion of the at least the portion of the plurality of products.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the listing includes validation indicators associated with the first portion in the listing of the at least the portion of the plurality of products.

9. The system of claim 4 , wherein the executable and operational data is further effective to cause the one or more processors to:
identify a second portion of the at least the portion of the plurality of products, each product of the second portion having at least one alternative product.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the listing includes alternative indicators associated with the second portion in the listing of the at least the portion of the plurality of products.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the listing includes associated with each product of the second portion the at least one alternative product associated therewith.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the at least one alternative product for each product of the second portion has a lower cost than the each product.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the user computing device associated with the customer identifier is configured to:
receive an interaction with an alternative indicator of the alternative indicators.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the user computing device associated with the customer identifier is further configured to:
in response to receiving the interaction, display on the user device a representation of the at least one alternative product associated with the alternative indicator.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the executable and operational data are further effective to cause the one or more processors to:
receive user selection of an element of the listing of the at least the portion of the plurality of products corresponding to the second portion.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the executable and operational data are further effective to cause the one or more processors to:
in response to the receiving the user selection, display a representation of the at least one alternative product corresponding to the element of the listing.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors of the system are implemented in a cloud computing environment.

18. A method for coupling a user computing device to a point of sale device to facilitate providing shopping assistance, the method comprising:
receiving at a point of sale device a request from a user computing device to use mobile self-checkout;
coupling the user computing device to the point of sale device by:
generating and displaying a coupling code at the point of sale device for scanning by the user computing device;
receiving the coupling code and contents of an electronic shopping cart by a server system associated with a store;
interpreting, at the server system associated with the store, the coupling code to identify the point of sale device;
transmitting from the server system to the point of sale device the contents of the electronic shopping cart associated with a transaction in response to interpreting the coupling code to identify the point of sale device that generated the coupling code; and
receiving, from the server system, at the point of sale device, the contents of the electronic shopping cart;

receiving a customer identifier associated with the transaction from the user computing device; and
concluding, on the point of sale device, the transaction including the contents of the electronic shopping cart received from the user computing device that is associated with the customer identifier.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:
reporting the transaction associated with the customer identifier from the point of sale device to the server system.

20. A system comprising one or more processors and one or more memory devices operably coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more memory devices storing executable and operational da

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Karmakar Anirvan
• Valeti Sreenu
• Sreedharan Sreejith
• Pillareddy Ananda

Classifications

• G06Q30/0633 Primary

  Managing shopping lists, e.g. compiling or processing purchase lists (shipping orders G06Q10/083; order filling G06Q10/087) · CPC title

• G06Q30/0631 Primary

  Recommending goods or services · CPC title

• G06Q20/3276

  using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being read by the M-device · CPC title