US 10,878,394 B1Granted

Intelligent inventory recommendations

AssigneeSquare, Inc.

InventorsNiels Gjertson, Matthew Capers

Life of this patent

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Abstract

Techniques for recommending actions for a merchant to perform to encourage a sale of an item based on an expiration associated therewith. A service provider may determine expiration data associated with inventory items offered for sale by the merchant. The expiration data may be based on a recommended date and/or time provided by the manufacturer, a merchant preference and/or a service provider setting. In some examples, the expiration data associated with an item may be determined based on expiration data associated with one or more similar items. The service provider may monitor the expiration data associated with each item of inventory and may determine that an expiration associated with a particular item is within a threshold period of time. Based on the expiration being within the threshold period of time, the service provider may send a recommendation to the merchant to perform an action to encourage the sale of the particular item.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method, performed in part by a server computing system of a payment processing service, comprising:

receiving, by the server computing system, transaction data associated with transactions processed by the payment processing service on behalf of merchants, the transaction data received via respective instances of a point-of-sale (POS) application configuring merchant computing devices as POS terminals for generating and transmitting at least the transaction data to the server computing system via a network;
storing, by the server computing system, inventory data associated with items offered for sale by the merchants;
determining, based at least in part on the transaction data and the inventory data, expiration data associated with individual items offered for sale by the merchants;
receiving, by the server computing system and from a merchant computing device associated with a merchant of the merchants, an indication that the merchant is adding a new item to a merchant inventory;
determining, by the server computing system and based on the inventory data of the merchants, an individual item that is similar to the new item;
determining, by the server computing system and based on expiration data of the determined individual item, an expiration date associated with the new item;
associating, by the server computing system, the expiration date with the new item in the merchant inventory of the merchant;
and
based at least in part on determining that a date is within a threshold period of time of the expiration date, sending, by the server computing system and to the merchant computing device, a recommendation comprising at least one of:
an adjustment to a location of the new item within a merchant location or on a listing of merchant offerings to emphasize the new item;
a use of the new item to encourage a sale or consumption thereof;
an offer to sell the new item at a discount;
or
another item with which to bundle the new item to expedite a sale of the new item.

11 more elements

A system comprising:

one or more processors;
and
one or more computer-readable media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors, wherein the instructions program the one or more processors to:
receive, by the one or more processors and from a merchant computing device, inventory data corresponding to inventory associated with a merchant and transaction data associated with transactions conducted between the merchant and customers, wherein the transaction data is received via an instance of a point-of-sale (POS) application configuring the merchant computing device as a POS terminal for generating and transmitting at least the transaction data via a network;
determine, by the one or more processors and based at least in part on the transaction data and the inventory data, expiration data associated with an item of the inventory;
receive, by the one or more processors, an indication that the merchant is adding a new item to the inventory;
determine, by the one or more processors, that the new item is similar to the item;
determine, by the one or more processors and based at least in part on a similarity between the new item and the item, that an expiration timing associated with the new item is within a threshold period of time;
and
cause, by the one or more processors, a recommendation to surface on a display of the merchant computing device, the recommendation comprising an action associated with the new item.

7 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions executable by one or more processors, wherein the instructions program the one or more processors to:

receive, by the one or more processors and from a merchant computing device via a network, inventory data corresponding to inventory associated with a merchant and transaction data associated with transactions conducted between the merchant and customers, wherein the transaction data is received via an instance of an application stored on the merchant computing device;
determine, by the one or more processors and based at least in part on the transaction data and the inventory data, expiration data associated with an item of the inventory;
receive, by the one or more processors, an indication that the merchant is adding a new item to the inventory;
determine, by the one or more processors, that the new item is similar to the item;
determine, by the one or more processors and based at least in part on a similarity between the new item and the item, that an expiration timing associated with the new item is within a threshold period of time;
and
cause, by the one or more processors, a recommendation to surface on a display of the merchant computing device, the recommendation comprising an action associated with the new item.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/204,583Filed 29 Nov 2018
Granted: 29 Dec 2020
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification15 codes

G06Q 20/203
Point-of-sale [POS] network systems: inventory monitoring
G06Q 10/087
Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management: inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling,…
G06Q 10/08726
Using inventory planning: for replenishment processing, procedures, or recommendations using forecasting or optimisation
G06Q 10/08776
By inventory control or reporting using inventory tracking or counting: by management of storage life of perishable or hazardous products