Inventory tracking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9916560-B2
Application number	US-201313931728-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2013
Priority date	Jun 28, 2013
Publication date	Mar 13, 2018
Grant date	Mar 13, 2018

Abstract

The present disclosure extends to maintaining an item inventory status at an inventory cache management system. The inventory cache may be refreshed regularly by a threshold-based triggering mechanism. In embodiments, as item inventory breaches certain thresholds, the inventory cache may be refreshed with increased frequency to mitigate overselling or underselling scenarios and reduce overall network traffic for items having relatively high inventory levels.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of updating an inventory cache management system, comprising:
providing an e-commerce web site over an internet from a front end server to a user computing device, the e-commerce website comprising an inventory status indicator;
at a backend inventory management module, receiving a first item inventory level quantity located at one or more warehouse locations;
storing the first item inventory level quantity at an inventory core database;
at a store inventory database module, receiving and storing a second item inventory level quantity located at a retail store location different from the one or more warehouse locations;
at the backend inventory management module, comparing the first item inventory level quantity with a first item high threshold;
if the first item inventory level quantity is less than the first item high threshold, transmitting a first Limited Stock Alert from the backend inventory management module to a backend inventory cache;
at the backend inventory cache, storing a first inventory status corresponding to the first item inventory level quantity;
at the store inventory database module, comparing the second item inventory level quantity with a second item high threshold;
if the second item inventory level quantity is less than the second item high threshold, transmitting a second Limited Stock Alert from the store inventory database module to a store inventory cache;
at the store inventory cache, storing a second inventory status corresponding to the second item inventory level quantity;
at the front end server, receiving a data request for an item from the user computing device;
at an inventory availability orchestration layer, receiving the data request for the item from the front end server;
at the inventory availability orchestration layer, determining if the data request for the item is for data related to at least one of the first inventory status stored at the backend inventory cache or to at least one of the second inventory status stored at the store inventory cache;
at the inventory availability orchestration layer, calling the backend inventory cache or the store inventory cache for the data according to the data request;
at the inventory availability orchestration layer, receiving each response from the backend inventory cache and the store inventory cache to be combined into an aggregated inventory status;
transmitting the data related to the aggregated inventory status to the front end server for display at the e-commerce website on the user computing device as the inventory status indicator in response to the data request from the user computing device, wherein:
the inventory status indicator allows a user to purchase the item from a store inventory or a warehouse inventory; or
if the item is not available for purchase from the store inventory or the warehouse inventory, the inventory status indicator allows the user to place a backorder for the item based on a future inventory availability of the item in the store inventory or the warehouse inventory; and

at the inventory availability orchestration layer, requesting the second item inventory level quantity from the store inventory database module and the backend inventory management module and bypassing the store inventory cache and the backend inventory cache when transmitting the data related to the aggregated inventory status to the front end server fails.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
from the front end server, transmitting the first inventory status for display at the e-commerce website on the user computing device.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting the first item inventory level quantity to the backend inventory cache.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting the second item inventory level quantity to the store inventory cache.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
at the backend inventory management module, comparing the first item inventory level quantity with a medium threshold; and
if the first item inventory level quantity is less than the medium threshold, transmitting an Out of Stock Alert from the backend inventory management module to the backend inventory cache.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
at the store inventory database module, comparing the second item inventory level quantity with a medium threshold; and
if the second item inventory level quantity is less than the medium threshold, transmitting an Out of Stock Alert from the store inventory database module to the store inventory cache.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting a request from the inventory availability orchestration layer to one of the backend inventory management module or the store inventory database module; and
at the inventory availability orchestration layer, receiving one of the first item inventory level quantity or the second item inventory level quantity in response to the request.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the second item inventory level quantity is different than the first item inventory level quantity; and
the second item inventory level quantity comprises a quantity of an item available only after a selected starting date.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving the selected starting date; and
after receiving the selected starting date, transmitting the second inventory status to the front end server for display at the e-commerce website as a second inventory status indicator.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
the second item inventory level quantity is different than the first item inventory level quantity;
the second item inventory level quantity comprises a quantity of an item available only after a selected starting date;
receiving the selected starting date;
after receiving the selected starting date, transmitting the second inventory status to the front end server for display at the e-commerce website as a second inventory status indicator;
from the front end server, transmitting the second inventory status for display at the user computing device;
transmitting the first item inventory level quantity to the backend inventory cache;
transmitting the second item inventory level quantity to the store inventory cache;
at the backend inventory management module, comparing the first item inventory level quantity with a medium threshold;
if the first item inventory level quantity is less than the medium threshold of the first item inventory level quantity, transmitting an Out of Stock Alert from the backend inventory management module to the backend inventory cache;
at the store inventory database module, comparing the second item inventory level quantity with a medium threshold;
if the second item inventory level quantity is less than the medium threshold of the second item inventory level quantity, transmitting an Out of Stock Alert from the store inventory database module to the store inventory cache;
transmitting a request from the inventory availability orchestration layer to one of the backend inventory management module or the store inventory database module; and
at the inventory availability orchestration layer, receiving one of the first item inventory level quantity or the second item inventory level quantity in response to the request.

11. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
after transmitting the Out of Stock alert from the backend inventory management module to the backend inventory cache, ceasing sales activities of a first item associated with a first item inventory level quantity unit, the first item inventory level quantity i

Assignees

• Wal Mart Stores Inc

Inventors

• Vasantham Madhavan Kandhadai
• Tare Vikrant
• Gupta Manish

Classifications

• G06Q10/087 Primary

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

• G06Q20/203

  Inventory monitoring · CPC title

• G06Q10/0877

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

• G06Q10/0872 Primary

  using inventory planning · CPC title