Building-integrated lot management system

A method for preparing items for a customer in advance of a customer fitting session comprising:

• receiving one or more preliminary item selections from the customer through an online portal;
• determining a fitting date and time for the customer fitting session at a fitting location;
• determining the final item selection from the last of the one or more preliminary item selections not more than 48 hours before the fitting session, the final item selection comprising a plurality of items from an available assortment of items, the available assortment of items being maintained between a plurality of locations comprising at least the fitting location and a warehouse location, the customer not committing to purchase any of the items in the final item selection;
• after determination of the final item selection:
• locking the one or more items in the final item selection from the available assortment of items;
• locating each of the preliminary items between the plurality of locations in an electronic inventory system;
• using an automated mechanical system, assembling the preliminary items located at the warehouse location into a lot;
• using the automated mechanical system, sorting the lot into at least one transfer bin;
• and
• transferring the at least one bin from the warehouse location to the fitting location in advance of the date and time of the fitting session;
• and
• at the date of the fitting session, before the time of the fitting session:
• preparing a final lot at the fitting location from the transferred at least one bin;
• and
• storing the prepared final lot in a temporary storage system operating in a building at the fitting location;
• and
• using an automated storage and retrieval system of the temporary storage system to deliver the final lot to a fitting room in the building at the fitting location.

A system configured for preparing items for a customer in advance of a customer fitting session, the system comprising:

• one or more hardware processors configured by machine-readable instructions to:
• execute an online portal that:
• receives one or more preliminary item selections from the customer through;
• determines a fitting date and time for the customer fitting session at a fitting location;
• determines the final item selection from the last of the one or more preliminary item selections not more than 48 hours before the fitting session, the final item selection comprising a plurality of items from an available assortment of items, the available assortment of items being maintained between a plurality of locations comprising at least the fitting location and a warehouse location, the customer not committing to purchase any of the items in the final item selection;
• execute a processing agent that, after determination of the final item selection:
• locks the one or more items in the final item selection from the available assortment of items;
• locates each of the preliminary items between the plurality of locations in an electronic inventory system;
• using an automated mechanical system, assembles the preliminary items located at the warehouse location into a lot;
• using the automated mechanical system, sorts the lot into at least one transfer bin;
• marks the at least one bin for transfer from the warehouse location to the fitting location in advance of the date and time of the fitting session;
• execute the processing agent that, at the date of the fitting session:
• before the time of the fitting session, prepare a final lot at the fitting location from the transferred at least one bin;
• before the time of the fitting session, store the prepared final lot in a temporary storage system operating in a building at the fitting location;
• after preparing the final lot. use an automated storage and retrieval system of the temporary storage system to deliver the final lot to a fitting room in the building at the fitting location.

A non-transient computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors to perform a method for preparing items for a customer in advance of a customer fitting session, the method comprising:

• receiving one or more preliminary item selections from the customer through an online portal;
• determining a fitting date and time for the customer fitting session at a fitting location;
• determining the final item selection from the last of the one or more preliminary item selections not more than 48 hours before the fitting session, the final item selection comprising a plurality of items from an available assortment of items, the available assortment of items being maintained between a plurality of locations comprising at least the fitting location and a warehouse location, the customer not committing to purchase any of the items in the final item selection;
• after determination of the final item selection:
• locking the one or more items in the final item selection from the available assortment of items;
• locating each of the preliminary items between the plurality of locations in an electronic inventory system;
• using an automated mechanical system, assembling the preliminary items located at the warehouse location into a lot;
• using the automated mechanical system, sorting the lot into at least one transfer bin;
• and
• transferring the at least one bin from the warehouse location to the fitting location in advance of the date and time of the fitting session;
• at the date of the fitting session:
• before the time of the fitting session, preparing a final lot at the fitting location from the transferred at least one bin;
• before the time of the fitting session, storing the prepared final lot in a temporary storage system operating in a building at the fitting location;
• and
• after preparing the final lot, using an automated storage and retrieval system of the temporary storage system to deliver the final lot to a fitting room in the building at the fitting location.