Generating a region- and source-agnostic database of items available in multiple regions

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform steps comprising:

• retrieving, at an online system, a set of item data for each item of a plurality of items available at a plurality of source locations, wherein each source location of the plurality of source locations is located in a different region of a plurality of regions;
• generating a plurality of candidate nodes based at least in part on the set of item data for each item of the plurality of items, wherein each candidate node of the plurality of candidate nodes represents a group of items having at least a threshold measure of similarity to each other;
• accessing a machine-learning model trained to predict a matching score for a combination of an item and a candidate node;
• for each combination of an item of the plurality of items and a candidate node of the plurality of candidate nodes, applying the machine-learning model to predict the matching score for a corresponding combination based at least in part on the set of item data for a corresponding item and a set of attributes of the group of items represented by a corresponding candidate node;
• assigning each item of the plurality of items to a candidate node of the plurality of candidate nodes based at least in part on the matching score predicted for each combination;
• retrieving availability information describing an availability of each item of the plurality of items in each region of the plurality of regions;
• identifying an average availability of one or more items assigned to each candidate node of the plurality of candidate nodes across the plurality of regions based at least in part on the availability information describing the availability of each item of the plurality of items in each region of the plurality of regions;
• for each candidate node of the plurality of candidate nodes, identifying whether the average availability of the one or more items assigned to a corresponding candidate node across the plurality of regions is at least a threshold availability;
• selecting, from the plurality of candidate nodes, a set of nodes to include in a region- and source-agnostic item database, wherein the average availability of the one or more items assigned to each selected node is at least the threshold availability;
• and
• storing information describing the selected set of nodes included in the region- and source-agnostic item database.

A computer system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform actions comprising:
• retrieving, at an online system, a set of item data for each item of a plurality of items available at a plurality of source locations, wherein each source location of the plurality of source locations is located in a different region of a plurality of regions;
• generating a plurality of candidate nodes based at least in part on the set of item data for each item of the plurality of items, wherein each candidate node of the plurality of candidate nodes represents a group of items having at least a threshold measure of similarity to each other;
• accessing a machine-learning model trained to predict a matching score for a combination of an item and a candidate node;
• for each combination of an item of the plurality of items and a candidate node of the plurality of candidate nodes, applying the machine-learning model to predict the matching score for a corresponding combination based at least in part on the set of item data for a corresponding item and a set of attributes of the group of items represented by a corresponding candidate node;
• assigning each item of the plurality of items to a candidate node of the plurality of candidate nodes based at least in part on the matching score predicted for each combination;
• retrieving availability information describing an availability of each item of the plurality of items in each region of the plurality of regions;
• identifying an average availability of one or more items assigned to each candidate node of the plurality of candidate nodes across the plurality of regions based at least in part on the availability information describing the availability of each item of the plurality of items in each region of the plurality of regions;
• for each candidate node of the plurality of candidate nodes, identifying whether the average availability of the one or more items assigned to a corresponding candidate node across the plurality of regions is at least a threshold availability;
• selecting, from the plurality of candidate nodes, a set of nodes to include in a region- and source-agnostic item database, wherein the average availability of the one or more items assigned to each selected node is at least the threshold availability;
• and
• storing information describing the selected set of nodes included in the region- and source-agnostic item database.