Systems and methods of optimizing pack size and customer-facing quantity of retail products at retail facilities

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12488303-B2
Application number	US-202117486474-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 27, 2021
Priority date	Sep 27, 2021
Publication date	Dec 2, 2025
Grant date	Dec 2, 2025

Abstract

Described are methods and systems for estimating an optimal product pack size and on-shelf customer facing quantity of the products in view of shelf capacity limitations of the shelves at a given retail store/product distribution center, with the aim of maximizing the total net profit of the store/distribution center. The systems and methods obtain inventory-related, retail facility product storage capacity-related, and product storage/handling-related data from one or more databases and estimate the net profit of multiple variations of pack size and customer-facing quantity for each product. Then, these results are processed via various inventory optimization algorithms obtained from one or more databases to estimate the pack size and customer-facing quantity for each of the products to be stocked at the retail facility that would be estimated to result in maximum net profit for the retail facility within a given period of time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented system of optimization of pack size and customer-facing quantity of retail products for at least one retail facility, the system comprising:
an electronic database configured to store electronic data including:
inventory data associated with the products stocked at the at least one retail facility;
cost data associated with storing and handling the products stocked at the at least one retail facility; and
optimization factor data associated with the pack size and the customer-facing quantity for the products stocked at the at least one retail facility;
a computing device including:
a control circuit including a programmable processor and being in communication with the electronic database, the control circuit programmed to:
obtain the electronic data from the electronic database; and
cause the electronic data obtained from the electronic database to be processed to estimate a daily demand and a lead time distribution for a selected retail item to be stocked at the at least one retail facility in a pack;

a simulator engine executable by the control circuit and programmed to:
download and sort the electronic data transmitted to the simulator engine from the electronic database; and
process the downloaded and sorted data to simulate projected sales, storing costs, and handling costs for the selected retail item to generate at least one simulation data file including electronic simulation data indicating an estimated profit associated with the selected retail item at different total unit quantities in the pack and at different customer facing unit quantities on a product display surface of the at least one retail facility;

an optimizer engine executable by the control circuit and programmed to:
obtain the at least one simulation data file including the electronic simulation data;
obtain the optimization factor data from the electronic database; and
correlate the optimization factor data obtained from the electronic database with the at least one simulation data file including the simulation data to generate at least one optimization data file including electronic optimization data representing the total unit quantity in the pack and the customer facing unit quantity on the product display surface of the at least one retail facility estimated to result in a highest net profit margin for the retailer with respect to the selected retail item; and

wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
process the at least one simulation data file and the at least one optimization data file to generate corresponding table format data storage files;
cause the table format data storage files generated by the control circuit to be stored in the electronic database;
associate the table format data storage files stored in the electronic database with a data indexing and visualization platform including a graphical user interface displayed to a user on a display screen of the computing device, wherein the graphical user interface is in a format of a dashboard including one or more interactive menus that, in response to an interaction by the user, cause the data indexing and visualization platform to:
obtain the table format data storage files from the electronic database; and
process and extract data from the table format data storage files obtained from the electronic database to generate within the graphical user interface, based on the data extracted from the table format data storage files, a table within the graphical user interface, wherein the table permits the user to retrieve, from the table, the total unit quantity in the pack and the customer facing unit quantity on the product display surface of the at least one retail facility estimated to result in a highest net profit margin for the retailer with respect to the selected retail item.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the inventory data stored in the electronic database includes historical data reflecting past purchases of the retail products by the retailer from one or more vendors for the at least one retail facility.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the inventory data stored in the electronic database includes business data indicating a dollar amount indicative of a current net profit associated with the selected retail item, the highest estimated net profit margin for the retailer determined by the control circuit with respect to the selected retail item, and a percentage net profit increase of the highest estimated net profit margin for the retailer determined by the control circuit with respect to the selected retail item in comparison to the current net profit associated with the selected retail item.

4 . The system of claim 1 ,
wherein the data stored in the electronic database further includes worker task data associated with the products stocked at the at least one retail facility; and wherein the worker task data includes break pack data reflecting a cost to the retailer of having a worker of the retail facility open the pack containing the selected retail item and having the worker of the retail facility transport the selected retail item from an opened pack to the product display surface at the retail facility.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the electronic database is further configured to store:
historical data reflecting past sales of the retail products at the at least one retail facility; and storage capacity data indicating a product display surface capacity of the at least one retail facility.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the retail sales facility is at least one of a retail store of a retailer and a product distribution center of the retailer.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the pack size includes at least one of:
a vendor pack size representing the total number of units of the selected product in a pack to be received by the product distribution center of the retailer; a warehouse pack size representing the total number of units of the selected product in a pack to be received by the retail store of the retailer from the product distribution center of the retailer.

8 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the inventory data stored in the electronic database includes inbound and outbound level data representing a total number of units of the selected product delivered from vendors to the distribution center of the retailer within a selected period of time and a total number of units of the selected product delivered from the distribution center of the retailer to the retail store of the retailer.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the optimization factor data associated with the pack size and the customer-facing quantity for the products stocked at the at least one retail facility includes at least one optimization factor, the at least one optimization factor including at least one of: capacity limitations of the at least one retail facility; cost of goods to the retailer associated with the products stocked at the at least one retail facility; transportation costs associated with the products stocked at the at least one retail facility; labor and inventory costs associated with the products stocked at the at least one retail facility; inbound lead time associated with the products stocked at the at least one retail facility; outbound lead time associated with the products stocked at the at least one retail facility; and estimated demand level associated with the products stocked at the at least one retail facility.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor of the control circuit is programmed to simulate the projected sales, storing costs, and handling costs for the selected retail item to generate the simulation data based on

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Guan Jackie L
• Gomez Juan P
• Zhang Jingying
• Ulrich Richard B
• Kim Seon Ki

Classifications

• G06Q30/0201

  Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data · CPC title

• G06Q10/06315 Primary

  Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis · CPC title

• G06Q10/087

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

• G06Q10/0633

  Workflow analysis · CPC title

• G06Q10/067 Primary

  Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title