Inventory pooling for multiple merchants
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorsMichael G. Brown, Gregory Niejadlik, Stefan M. Haney, Luis Felipe Cabrera
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed are various embodiments for implementing inventory pooling for multiple merchants. A first inventory of an item held at a first fulfillment center on behalf of a first merchant is contributed to a common pool of inventory. A second inventory of the item held at a second fulfillment center on behalf of a second merchant is contributed to the common pool of inventory. Fulfillment of an order placed by a customer of the first merchant is initiated from the second inventory of the item that was contributed by the second merchant to the common pool of inventory.
Claims21
A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in a computing device, the program comprising:
- code that obtains a request from a first merchant to contribute a first inventory of a product to a common pool of inventory, the inventory of the product being held on behalf of the first merchant in at least one fulfillment center in a fulfillment network;
- code that determines whether the product is fungible;
- code that contributes the first inventory of the product to the common pool of inventory in response to the request when the product is fungible, the common pool of inventory including a second inventory of the product contributed by a second merchant and held in at least one other fulfillment center in the fulfillment network;
- code that associates a quantity of inventory credits for the product with the first merchant, the quantity corresponding to the first inventory of the product contributed by the first merchant to the common pool of inventory;
- code that initiates a transfer of at least a portion of the common pool of inventory held at a first fulfillment center in the fulfillment network to a second fulfillment center in the fulfillment network in response to a projected demand for the product in a region served by the second fulfillment center;
- code that obtains an order for the product from a customer of the first merchant in the region served by the second fulfillment center;
- code that initiates fulfillment of the order from the common pool of inventory held at the second fulfillment center;
- code that debits the quantity of inventory credits associated with the first merchant in response to the order;
- and
- wherein the order is fulfilled from the second inventory of the product contributed by the second merchant, and a quantity of inventory credits associated with the second merchant is not debited in response to the order.
A system, comprising:
- at least one computing device;
- and
- an inventory management application executable in the at least one computing device, the inventory management application comprising:
- logic that contributes a first inventory of an item held at a first fulfillment center on behalf of a first merchant to a common pool of inventory;
- logic that contributes a second inventory of the item held at a second fulfillment center on behalf of a second merchant to the common pool of inventory;
- and
- logic that initiates fulfillment of an order for the item placed by a customer of the first merchant from the second inventory of the item that was contributed to the common pool of inventory.
A method, comprising the steps of:
- obtaining, in at least one computing device, a request from a merchant to contribute an inventory of an item to a common pool of inventory, the inventory of the item being held on behalf of the merchant in at least one fulfillment center in a fulfillment network;
- contributing, in the at least one computing device, the inventory of the item to the common pool of inventory in response to the request, the common pool of inventory including another inventory of the item contributed by at least one other merchant and held in at least one other fulfillment center in the fulfillment network;
- and
- associating, in the at least one computing device, a quantity of inventory credits for the item with the merchant, the quantity corresponding to the inventory of the item contributed by the merchant to the common pool of inventory.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.