Inventory management with capital advance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11501366-B1
Application number	US-202016777522-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 30, 2020
Priority date	Oct 23, 2014
Publication date	Nov 15, 2022
Grant date	Nov 15, 2022

Abstract

In some examples, a service provider may manage inventories of items by offering money advances to make inventory orders on behalf of a merchant. The service provider may determine a risk associated with advancing money to the merchant based on sales of items made by the merchant. The service provider may provide a money advance to the merchant when the risk associated with advancing money is within a threshold level. The money advance may be used to order inventory from a supplier. This may assist the merchant in managing inventory.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by at least one server computing device, transaction information from a plurality of computing devices associated with a plurality of merchants, the transaction information including item sales information for a plurality of items sold by the plurality of merchants;
determining, by the at least one server computing device, based at least in part on a portion of the transaction information associated with a merchant of the plurality of merchants, a current inventory of an item for the merchant;
determining, by the at least one server computing device, for the merchant and based at least in part on the current inventory of the item, a time that the merchant's inventory of the item is predicted to reach an inventory threshold;
determining, by the at least one server computing device, based at least in part on the portion of the transaction information associated with the merchant, a level of risk associated with advancing funds to the merchant;
based at least in part on (i) determining that the time that the merchant's inventory is predicted to reach the inventory threshold is within a threshold time and (ii) determining that the level of risk satisfies a risk threshold, automatically transferring funds for a purchase of additional inventory of the item to an account associated with the merchant, and causing, by the at least one server computing device, a recommendation that the merchant purchase the additional inventory of the item to be presented in a user interface on a display of a device associated with the merchant, wherein the user interface presents information about the current inventory determined for the item and further presents the recommendation including a quantity of the item for the purchase determined based at least on the time that the merchant's inventory is predicted to reach the inventory threshold, the user interface further including an interactive element selectable by the merchant to purchase an amount of the item and to finance at least a portion of the purchase with the funds transferred to the account of the merchant;
receiving, by the at least one server computing device, and via the user interface presented on the device of the merchant, an indication of a user input interacting with the interactive element presented on the display of the device of the merchant; and
based on receiving the indication of the user input interacting with the interactive element, purchasing the amount of the item using at least part of the funds transferred to the account for the purchase by sending, by the at least one server computing device, at least one instruction to a supplier of the item.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining an expected sales quantity associated with the additional inventory of the item, wherein the recommendation further comprises the expected sales quantity of the additional inventory of the item.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising associating a restriction with use of the funds, the restriction requiring that at least a particular portion of the funds be used to purchase the additional inventory of the item for the merchant.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising associating a restriction with use of the funds, the restriction requiring that an entirety of the funds be used to purchase the additional inventory of the item for the merchant.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the level of risk associated with advancing the funds to the merchant is further based at least in part on a quantity of sales of the item made by the merchant over a past time period.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the level of risk associated with advancing the funds to the merchant is further based at least in part on a profit of sales of the item made by the merchant over a past time period.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the level of risk associated with advancing the funds to the merchant is further based at least in part on a prediction associated with a portion of the funds that will be used for purchasing the additional inventory.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the time that the merchant's inventory is predicted to reach the inventory threshold is further based at least in part on a sales rate of the item with respect to at least one other merchant of the plurality of merchants that is determined to be in a same merchant category as the merchant.

9. A system comprising:
a first point-of-sale (POS) application executable by a first computing device of a first merchant of a plurality of merchants associated with a payment service, wherein the first POS application configures the first computing device of the first merchant as a first POS terminal and the first POS application generates first transaction information associated with first item sales of the first merchant;
a second point-of-sale (POS) application executable by a second computing device of a second merchant of the plurality of merchants associated with the payment service, wherein the second POS application configures the second computing device of the second merchant as a second POS terminal and the second POS application generates second transaction information associated with second item sales of the second merchant;
at least one server computing device associated with the payment service, wherein the at least one server computing device is configured to:
receive, by the at least one server computing device, the first transaction information and the second transaction information;
determine, by the at least one server computing device, based at least in part on the first transaction information and the second transaction information, item sales information for a plurality of items associated with the first merchant and the second merchant;
predict, by the at least one server computing device, based at least in part on the item sales information, a time that an inventory of an item of the first merchant is predicted to reach an inventory threshold;
determine, by the at least one server computing device, a level of risk associated with advancing funds to the first merchant for ordering the item;
based at least in part on (i) determining that the time that the inventory of the item of the first merchant is predicted to reach the inventory threshold is within a threshold time and (ii) determining that the level of risk satisfies a risk threshold, automatically transfer funds for a purchase of additional inventory of the item to an account associated with the first merchant, and cause, by the at least one server computing device, a recommendation to purchase the additional inventory of the item to be presented in a user interface on a display of the first computing device, wherein the user interface presents information about the current inventory determined for the item and further presents the recommendation, the user interface further including an interactive element selectable by the first merchant to purchase an amount of the item and to finance at least a portion of the purchase with the funds transferred to the account of the first merchant;

receive, by the at least one server computing device, and via the user interface presented on the display of the first computing device, an indication of a user input interacting with the interactive element presented on the display of the first computing device; and
based on receiving the indication of the user input interacting with the interactive element, purchase the amount of the item using at least part of the funds transferred to the account for the purchase by sending, by the at least one server computing device, at least one instruction to a supplier of the

Assignees

• Block Inc

Inventors

• Cieri Michael Morrissey
• Fern Adam Jeremy
• Zhou Ding
• Poursartip Ariana

Classifications

• G06Q40/03 Primary

  Credit; Loans; Processing thereof · CPC title

• G06Q10/087

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

• G06Q10/06315 Primary

  Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis · CPC title

• G06Q40/025 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q10/08726

  for replenishment processing, procedures, or recommendations using forecasting or optimisation · CPC title