Communication with shoppers in a retail environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9892424-B2
Application number	US-201313959177-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2013
Priority date	Aug 5, 2013
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

Communication plans are created, modified, and executed by a campaign server. The campaign server creates a retail environment communication plan that specifies communications to be made to unidentified shoppers in a retail environment that includes at least one sensor. The campaign server identifies a shopper in the retail environment by the at least one sensor, and creates a shopper communication plan, based on the retail environment communication plan, that specifies communications to be made to the identified shopper in the retail environment. The campaign server executes the retail environment communication plan and the shopper communication plan. In response to processing an event sensed by the at least one sensor, the campaign server modifies one or both of the retail environment communication plan and the shopper communication plan.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for creating, modifying, and executing a communication plan within a campaign server, the campaign server includes a pool of clustered computers that correspond to one or more cloud computing data centers, at least one of the clustered computers being a mainframe computer, the campaign server being wirelessly connected, via one or more networks, to a plurality of devices within a retail environment, the plurality of devices including: one or more display devices, one or more speakers, one or more RFID devices, one or more cameras, one or more personal shopping assistants fastened to one or more corresponding shopping carts, and one or more point of sale devices, the method comprising the steps of:
creating, a default retail environment communication plan that specifies communications to be made to unidentified shoppers in the retail environment that includes at least one sensor, the default retail environment communication plan being based at least on analyzing a first set of inventory data received from the one or more RFID devices, the first set of inventory data corresponding to a quantity of retail items that are currently available for purchase;
identifying, via analyzing video data from a first camera of the one or more cameras, a shopper in the retail environment;
modifying the default retail environment communication plan for the identified shopper, the shopper communication plan specifies communications to be made to the identified shopper in the retail environment based on: a shopping history of the identified shopper, a shopping list of the identified shopper, a previous purchase by the identified shopper, an up sell or cross sell of a first product that was bought earlier by the identified shopper, an offer about a second product the identified shopper considered but did not buy, the identified shopper's demographics on a current shopping trip, the identified shopper's specified preference about frequency of in store communication for each device or touch point used by the identified shopper, determining that the identified shopper is near a first device of the plurality of devices, and an association of each communication to a specific device based on characteristics of a content, historical success factors of communication, and location factors;
executing the shopper communication plan;
processing one or more events sensed at least by: a camera of the one or more cameras, a point of sale device of the one or more point of sale devices, and the one or more RFID devices;
dynamically modifying the shopper communication plan in response to one or more events by at least:
upscaling from one or more channels associated with a first shopping assistant of the one or more personal shopping assistants to one or more channels associated with a first display device of the one or more display devices, wherein the upscaling causes data associated with the shopper communication plan to be displayed on the first display device instead of the first shopping assistant, wherein the first display is a more suitable mode of communication to the identified shopper than the first shopping assistant;
receiving feedback at the one or more point of sale devices that a plurality of shoppers in the retail environment have inquired about a location of a third product, and in response to the receiving of the feedback, causing a second display device of the one or more display devices to display to an informational video about the location in the retail environment where the plurality of shoppers can find the third product,
determining, via data clustering techniques, that the plurality of shoppers have a common interest, and causing a third display device of the plurality of devices to display the content based on the common interest,
determining, via a second camera of the one or more cameras, that the identified shopper has placed a first item in a shopping cart, and in response to the determining that the identified shopper has placed a first item in the shopping cart, refraining from transmitting advertisements about the first item to the identified shopper, and
receiving a second set of inventory data received from the one or more RFID devices, the second set of inventory data indicating a change in the first set of inventory data, wherein the change corresponds to a stock outage of a second item of the retail items at a particular shelf, and wherein the second item is not currently available for purchase.

2. A computer program product for creating, modifying, and executing a communication plan within a campaign server, the campaign server includes a pool of clustered computers that correspond to one or more cloud computing data centers, at least one of the clustered computers being a mainframe computer, the campaign server being wirelessly connected, via one or more networks, to a plurality of devices within a retail environment, the plurality of devices including: one or more display devices, one or more speakers, one or more RFID devices, one or more cameras, one or more personal shopping assistants fastened to one or more corresponding shopping carts, and one or more point of sale devices, the computer program product comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer-readable tangible storage devices and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to create a default retail environment communication plan that specifies communications to be made to unidentified shoppers in the retail environment that includes at least one sensor, the default retail environment communication plan being based at least on analyzing a first set of inventory data received from the one or more RFID devices, the first set of inventory data corresponding to a quantity of retail items that are currently available for purchase;
program instructions to identify, via analyzing video data from a first camera of the one or more cameras, a shopper in the retail environment;
program instructions to create a shopper communication plan that modifies the default retail environment communication plan for the identified shopper, the shopper communication plan specifies communications to be made to the identified shopper in the retail environment based on: a shopping history of the identified shopper, a shopping list of the identified shopper, a previous purchase by the identified shopper, an up sell or cross sell of a first product that was bought earlier by the identified shopper, an offer about a second product the identified shopper considered but did not buy, the identified shopper's demographics on a current shopping trip, the identified shopper's specified preference about frequency of in- store communication for each device or touch point used by the identified shopper, determining that the identified shopper is near a first device of the plurality of devices, and an association of each communication to a specific device based on characteristics of a content, historical success factors of communication, and location factors;
program instructions to execute the shopper communication plan;
program instructions to process one or more events sensed at least by: a camera of the one or more cameras, a point of sale device of the one or more point of sale devices, and the one or more RFID devices in the retail environment; and
program instructions to dynamically modify the shopper communication plan in response to the one or more events by at least:
upscaling from one or more channels associated with a first shopping assistant of the one or more personal shopping assistants to one or more channels associated with a first display device of the one or more display devices, wherein the upscaling causes data associated with the shopper communication plan to be displayed on the first display device instead

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Abraham Subil M
• Hariharan Rajaraman
• Thomas Mathews
• Sampath Priyadarshini

Classifications

• G06Q30/0251 Primary

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