Systems and methods for assisting with merchandise purchases at a retail facility

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12154145-B2
Application number	US-202217871061-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 22, 2022
Priority date	Jul 22, 2022
Publication date	Nov 26, 2024
Grant date	Nov 26, 2024

Abstract

There are provided systems and methods for assisting consumers with merchandise purchases at a retail facility. The system may include an application to facilitate purchase of merchandise items at a retail facility, which may be executed on a user's mobile device. The application may receive input regarding items scanned at the retail facility using the mobile device and may facilitate payment for the scanned items by the mobile device. The system may also include a control circuit that: accesses database(s) to determine the user's purchase history; determines candidate items to be considered for recommendation to the user; computes a ranking of candidate items based on a weighted combination of recency and frequency of purchases of each candidate item, merchandise category of other candidate items, and price of the candidate item; and causes the display on the mobile device of additional recommended merchandise items for purchase by the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for assisting with in-facility purchases comprising:
a mobile device including a sensing device for scanning merchandise items;
a merchandise purchase application executed by the mobile device to facilitate purchase of merchandise items during a user's shopping experience at a retail facility, the merchandise purchase application configured to:
receive input regarding merchandise items scanned at the retail facility by the sensing device;
display, via an interface of the user device, a shopping cart page that includes the scanned merchandise items;
facilitate payment for the scanned merchandise items by the mobile device at the retail facility; and
receive a checkout indication indicating that the user is ready to purchase the scanned merchandise items; and

a control circuit in communication with the merchandise purchase application and, in response to detecting the checkout indication, configured to provide the merchandise purchase application with additional merchandise items to present to the user for purchase during the user's shopping experience, the control circuit configured to provide the additional merchandise items by:
accessing at least one database to determine the user's purchase history of purchasing merchandise items;
determining candidate items sold at the retail facility to be considered for recommendation to the user based on the purchase history;
determining an affinity score and ranking for each candidate item, the affinity score and ranking being determined by recency and frequency of purchase of the candidate items;
computing an item score for each candidate item and re-ranking the candidate items, the item score for each candidate item being determined by a weighted combination of the affinity score of the candidate item, merchandise categories of the other candidate items, and price of the candidate item; and
displaying, via the user interface, recommended additional merchandise items for purchase by the user on the mobile device unless a determination has been made that the user should not receive the recommendation, wherein the recommended additional merchandise items are displayed via the user interface overlapping the shopping cart page and includes location information for locating the recommended additional items in the retail facility.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to:
eliminate from the candidate items one or more items of a predetermined subset of merchandise items that the user is unlikely to purchase based on a time interval between purchases of each merchandise item in the predetermined subset of merchandise items, wherein the time interval is based on a consumption rate of the merchandise item.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to:
determine whether the user should receive a recommendation based on past responses to recommendations and recency of purchasing merchandise.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one database includes a plurality of types of past merchandise purchases, the types comprising online purchases that were delivered to the user, in-facility purchases using the merchandise purchase application, in-facility purchases using a point-of-sale system other than the merchandise purchase application, and purchases that were ordered and picked up at retail facilities.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to determine the affinity score of each item by a decaying, non-linear function that provides disproportionate weight to candidate items purchased more recently than other candidate items.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computation of the item score based on the merchandise category of other candidate items is weighted to decrease the item score of a lower ranked candidate item that is in the same merchandise category as a higher ranked candidate item relative to other candidate items without this characteristic.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to compute the item score of each item by applying a greatest weight to the affinity score of the item, an intermediate weight to the merchandise category characteristic, and a least weight to the price of the item.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to:
access a database identifying a location in the retail facility where each recommended additional merchandise item is stocked,
wherein the displaying the location information of each recommended additional merchandise item in the retail facility is based on the identification location from the database.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to cause to display a predetermined number of recommended additional merchandise items corresponding to the candidate items receiving highest item scores.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control is configured to:
determine that the user has not responded to a predetermined number of past recommendations transmitted to the user's mobile device; and
block transmission of recommended additional merchandise items to the mobile device for a predetermined amount of time.

11. A method for assisting with in-facility purchases comprising:
executing, on a mobile device of a user, a merchandise purchase application to facilitate purchase of merchandise items during a user's shopping experience at a retail facility;
receiving, via the merchandise purchase application, input regarding merchandise items scanned at the retail facility using a sensing device of the mobile device;
displaying, on an interface of the user device via the merchandise purchase application, a shopping cart page that includes the scanned merchandise items;
facilitating payment, via the merchandise application, for the scanned merchandise items by the mobile device at the retail facility;
receiving, via the merchandise application, a checkout indication indicating that the user is ready to purchase the scanned merchandise items; and
by a control circuit in communication with the merchandise purchase application, and in response to detecting the checkout indication, providing the merchandise purchase application with additional merchandise items to present to the user for purchase during the user's shopping experience, the control circuit configured to provide the additional merchandise items by:
accessing at least one database to determine the user's purchase history of purchasing merchandise items;
determining candidate items sold at the retail facility to be considered for recommendation to the user based on the purchase history;
determining an affinity score and ranking for each candidate item, the affinity score and ranking being determined by recency and frequency of purchase of the candidate items;
computing an item score for each candidate item and re-ranking the candidate items, the item score for each candidate item being determined by a weighted combination of the affinity score of the candidate item, merchandise categories of the other candidate items, and price of the candidate item; and
displaying, via the user interface, recommended additional merchandise items for purchase by the user on the mobile device, wherein the recommended additional merchandise items are displayed via the user interface overlapping the shopping cart page and includes location information for locating the recommended additional items in the retail facility.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising, by the control circuit:
eliminating from the candidate items one or more items of a predetermined subset of merchandise items that the user is unlikely to pur

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Jetty Rajasekhar
• Domlur Seetharama Yogananda
• Ramakrishnan Maheshwar
• Vaidya Ieshan A
• Choi Jaehyuk
• Ho Chi-San

Classifications

• G06Q30/0631

  Recommending goods or services · CPC title

• G06Q30/0255

  based on user history · CPC title

• G06Q30/0281 Primary

  Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting · CPC title