Product catalog services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11769129-B2
Application number	US-202217872938-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 25, 2022
Priority date	Oct 30, 2015
Publication date	Sep 26, 2023
Grant date	Sep 26, 2023

Abstract

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are exposed by a service provider to point-of-sale (POS) devices of a plurality of merchants. Product catalogs including product specifications are received from merchants via a merchant support application executing on the POS devices. Pricing records are received from the POS devices of the merchants that indicate prices, locations, and time periods for the prices. Sales data including quantity, time, and location of historical sales is obtained. A price recommendation is provided to a merchant based at least in part on correlations between the historical sales data and pricing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
exposing, by a service computing device of a service provider, one or more Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to provide point-of-sale (POS) devices of a plurality of merchants access to the service computing device, wherein the service provider provides inventory, pricing, POS, and catalog services to the plurality of merchants;
receiving, by the service computing device via the one or more APIs and from a merchant support application executing on a first POS device of a first merchant of the plurality of merchants, a first product catalog indicating one or more products offered for sale by the first merchant, wherein the first product catalog includes a product specification associated with a product of the one or more products;
receiving, by the service computing device via the one or more APIs and from the merchant support application executing on a second POS device of a second merchant of the plurality of merchants, a second product catalog indicating one or more products offered for sale by the second merchant, wherein the second product catalog includes the product specification associated with the product;
storing, at a storage device associated with the service provider, one or more first data records associated with the first merchant and one or more second data records associated with the second merchant, wherein the one or more first data records and the one or more second data records include data corresponding to the product specification;
receiving, by the service computing device and via the one or more APIs and from the merchant support application executing on the first POS device, a plurality of first pricing records associated with the product, wherein each first pricing record of the plurality of first pricing records indicates at least a first price set by the first merchant for the product at a first location during a first time period;
receiving, by the service computing device and via the one or more APIs and from the merchant support application executing on the second POS device, a plurality of second pricing records associated with the product, wherein each second pricing record of the plurality of second pricing records indicates at least a second price set by the second merchant for the product at a second location during a second time period;
storing, at the storage device, (i) the plurality of first pricing records in association with the one or more first data records, and (ii) the plurality of second pricing records in association with the one or more second data records;
obtaining, by the service computing device, historical sales data indicating historical sales of the product by the first merchant and the second merchant, wherein the historical sales data indicates quantity, time, and location of the historical sales;
receiving, by the service computing device via the one or more APIs and from the merchant support application executing on a third POS device of a third merchant, a request from the third merchant for a price recommendation for the product;
determining, by the service computing device and based at least in part on the one or more first data records, the one or more second data records, and the historical sales data, one or more correlations between the historical sales of the product and prices of the product;
determining, by the service computing device and based at least in part on the one or more correlations, the price recommendation; and
sending, by the service computing device, the price recommendation to the third POS device.

2. The method as claim 1 recites, further comprising:
receiving, by the service computing device and via the one or more APIs and from the merchant support application executing on the first POS device, first inventory data for a time period corresponding to first historical sales of the first merchant; and
receiving, by the service computing device and via the one or more APIs and from the merchant support application executing on the second POS device, second inventory data for the time period corresponding to second historical sales of the second merchant,
wherein the historical sales data is based at least in part on the first inventory data and the second inventory data.

3. The method as claim 2 recites, wherein the first inventory data and the second inventory data comprises a plurality of instance data records for individual instances of the product.

4. The method as claim 1 recites, wherein the price recommendation comprises a recommendation for a price for the third merchant to charge for the product in a future time period.

5. The method as claim 1 recites, wherein the price recommendation comprises a recommendation for a price for the third merchant to charge for the product at a particular location.

6. The method as claim 1 recites, wherein at least one of the first product catalog or the second product catalog indicates at least one of a creator of the respective product catalog, an owner of the respective product catalog, a date of creation of the respective product catalog, a date of update of the respective product catalog, permissions indicating particular entities allowed to view the respective product catalog, or rules indicating particular entities allowed to view the respective product catalog.

7. The method as claim 1 recites, wherein the product specification includes at least one of a product family identifier, attribute names corresponding respectively to attributes of the product, or name value sets corresponding respectively to the attributes of the product.

8. The method as claim 7 recites, wherein the product family identifier comprises at least one of a universal product code (UPC), a stock keeping unit (SKU), or a global trade item number (GTIN).

9. The method as claim 1 recites, wherein at least one of the plurality of first pricing records or the plurality of second pricing records includes discount pricing records associated with the product.

10. The method as claim 1 recites, wherein at least one of the plurality of first pricing records or the plurality of second pricing records includes bundle pricing records associated with the product.

11. A system comprising:
one or more processors;
computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
exposing, by a service computing device of a service provider, one or more Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to provide respective point-of-sale (POS) devices of a plurality of merchants access to the service computing device, wherein the service provider provides inventory, pricing, POS, and catalog services to the plurality of merchants;
receiving, by the service computing device via the one or more APIs and from a merchant support application executing on a first POS device of a first merchant of the plurality of merchants, a first product catalog indicating one or more products offered for sale by the first merchant, wherein the first product catalog includes a product specification associated with a product of the one or more products offered for sale by the first merchant;
receiving, by the service computing device via the one or more APIs and from the merchant support application executing on a second POS device of a second merchant of the plurality of merchants, a second product catalog indicating one or more products offered for sale by the second merchant, wherein the second product catalog includes the product specification associated with the product;
storing, at a storage device associated with the service provider, one or more first data records associated

Assignees

• Block Inc

Inventors

• Jen Mark
• Morel Shawn

Classifications

• G06Q10/0874

  Inventory fulfillment (shipping G06Q10/083) · CPC title

• G06Q10/0877

  by inventory control or reporting using inventory tracking or counting · CPC title

• G06Q20/202 Primary

  Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR · CPC title

• G06Q10/087

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

• G06Q20/201

  Price look-up processing, e.g. updating · CPC title