System and Method for Estimating Price Sensitivity and/or Price Aggregation for a Population Having a Collection of Items

A method for estimating price sensitivity and generating aggregate price adjustments for a population having a collection of items, comprising the steps of:

• electronically receiving, by a price sensitivity engine of a computer system, time-series information from a database in electronic communication with the computer system;
• determining, by the price sensitivity engine, a set of covariate coefficients based on the time-series information to estimate a population price sensitivity average for the collection of items, the population comprising a plurality of sub-populations;
• modeling, by the price sensitivity engine, a first set of vectors for the collection of items based on the covariate coefficients;
• modeling, by the price sensitivity engine, a second set of vectors for the collection of items based on the covariate coefficients and an indicator variable;
• estimating, by the price sensitivity engine, a sub-population price sensitivity for each of the plurality of sub-populations based on the first set of vectors and the second set of vectors, to generate a plurality of sub-population price sensitivities;
• comparing, by a price aggregation engine of the computer system, each of the sub-population price sensitivities to at least one of the population price sensitivity average or other sub-population price sensitivities of the plurality of sub-population price sensitivities;
• at least one of ranking, ordering, or clustering, by the price aggregation engine, the plurality of sub-populations based on the comparing;
• and
• determining, by the price aggregation engine, aggregate price adjustments for items in one or more of the plurality of sub-populations based on the at least one of ranking, ordering or clustering.

A computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer system comprising a price sensitivity engine and a price aggregation engine, cause the computer system to perform the steps of:

• electronically receiving, by the price sensitivity engine, time-series information from a database in electronic communication with the computer system;
• determining, by the price sensitivity engine, a set of covariate coefficients based on the time-series information to estimate a population price sensitivity average for the collection of items, the population comprising a plurality of sub-populations;
• modeling, by the price sensitivity engine, a first set of vectors for the collection of items based on the covariate coefficients;
• modeling, by the price sensitivity engine, a second set of vectors for the collection of items based on the covariate coefficients and an indicator variable;
• estimating, by the price sensitivity engine, a sub-population price sensitivity for each of the plurality of sub-populations based on the first set of vectors and the second set of vectors, to generate a plurality of sub-population price sensitivities;
• comparing, by the price aggregation engine, each of the sub-population price sensitivities to at least one of the population price sensitivity average or to other sub-population price sensitivities of the plurality of sub-population price sensitivities;
• at least one of ranking, ordering, or clustering, by the price aggregation engine, the plurality of sub-populations based on the comparing;
• and
• determining, by the price aggregation engine, aggregate price adjustments for items in one or more of the plurality of sub-populations based on the at least one of ranking, ordering or clustering.