Patent Issued for Systems and methods to analyze product pricing (USPTO 11900429): United Services Automobile Association
2024 MAR 05 (NewsRx) -- By a
Patent number 11900429 is assigned to
The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “A person shopping at a physical retail store cannot as easily compare prices to save money as that person can with shopping on the Internet For instance, a person shopping on the Internet can easily compare prices offered by at least two online sellers to purchase a product from a seller offering the product for the lowest price. However, when a person is shopping at a physical retail store or is about to shop for a product at a physical retail store, the person does not readily have price comparison information. Often, the person may stop shopping and search for the product online to compare the price offered by an online seller to the price offered by the retail store. This search process may include searching for the product with a single online seller who, along with the retail store, may not offer the lowest price for the product. Furthermore, the person may have to perform this tedious process for each product for which the person would like a price comparison. However, such a conventional system does not easily provide a consumer with information to allow the consumer to purchase products at the best prices.
“The techniques introduced here may be better understood by referring to the following Detailed Description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals indicate identical or functionally similar elements. Moreover, while the technology is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to limit the technology to the particular embodiments described. On the contrary, the technology is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alterative falling within the scope of the technology as defined by the appended claims.”
In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Prior to this technology, a person shopping for a product at a physical retail store compares prices for that product using a familiar process. A person may use his or her mobile device to search an online seller’s website for that product. Next, the person determines whether the physical retail store or the online seller offers the lowest price for that product In some cases, the person may search multiple websites associated with other physical retail stores or online sellers to determine a lowest price for a product. And, in some cases, the person may perform this process to compare prices for each product that the person wants to purchase. This process is cumbersome and may not provide the person with the lowest price for the product. This is because the person may obtain a price for a product by searching a website from a seller
“The embodiments described in this disclosure describe systems and methods to provide a graphical user interface on a mobile device that can provide information about the lowest price offered for one or more products. For instance, when a person at a physical retail store places one or more products in a physical shopping cart, a scanning device may scan the one or more products to obtain information about the one or more products, the scanned information is then sent to a server that provides pricing and store location information to a mobile device based on the scanned information, and the pricing and store location information can be analyzed by the mobile device to display the lowest price and store location for each product.
“The embodiments describe techniques to perform certain operations passively or automatically without requiring a person to take many steps to request a price comparison for the product(s) that the person wants to purchase. In some embodiments, the scanning operation, the providing of the pricing and store information operation, and the analyzing of the pricing and store information operation may be performed on product(s) place in a physical shopping cart without requiring any request from the person to perform price comparison. For instance, the scanning operation (and subsequent operations) may be triggered when a physical shopping cart detects that a product is placed or is about to be placed in the physical shopping cart. Thus, the exemplary embodiment improves current technology at least because the process to obtain information about the product(s) located in a physical shopping cart and the process to analyze the information associated with the product(s) may be done passively, i.e., without requiring much input from a person.
“In this disclosure, example headings for the various sections below are used to facilitate the understanding of the disclosed subject matter and do not limit the scope of the claimed subject matter in any way. Accordingly, one or more features of one example section can be combined with one or more features of another example section. Section I describes embodiments for the price comparison feature that may be performed while a person is shopping at a physical retail store. Section II describes a price matching policy feature that allows a mobile device to display information indicative of whether a store where the user is currently shopping has a price matching policy. Section III describes a budgeting feature that allows a user to be informed of purchases that may affect the user’s budget. Section IV describes a total cost feature that allows a mobile device to display a total cost of the products that the user may want to purchase. The mobile device may display a total cost for each seller that offers the products that the user wants to purchase. Section V describes a price comparison feature that the user may initiate before entering a physical retail store or performing an online search at an online seller’s website. Section VI describes historical prices feature that allows a mobile device to display prices obtained by the remote server over a certain time period (e.g., six months or one year).
“I. Price Comparison Feature-Shopping at a Physical Retail Store”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“1. A method for analyzing products located in a physical cart using a dynamic graphical user interface (GUI), comprising: determining, by a mobile device via communication with one or more servers, a respective price, from a plurality of prices for each of a plurality of products for purchase and locations of two or more sellers that offer each of the plurality of products for purchase, wherein the two or more sellers include the first seller at a current location of the mobile device, wherein the two or more sellers include a second seller at a second location separate from the current location and within a pre-determined proximity of the current location, wherein the plurality of products are located in a smart cart, at the store of the first seller, of a user of the mobile device, and wherein the plurality of products are scanned by the smart cart proximate in time to being placed in the smart cart and identifiers for the products are wirelessly communicated from the smart cart to the mobile device in response to the scanning; in response to determining the respective prices for each product of the plurality of products, determining, by the mobile device, for each seller, a respective total cost associated with the one plurality of products offered for purchase by each seller; displaying, on a GUI of the mobile device, a display that includes (A) a listing of the plurality products located in the smart cart in a first section, and (B) a plurality of display components associated with the two or more sellers, wherein each of the plurality of display components includes one or more prices for the one plurality of products offered for purchase by each seller, and wherein each of the plurality of display components includes the respective total cost associated with the plurality of products offered for purchase by each seller; displaying, for at least one of the plurality of products, a plurality of options on the GUI, wherein the plurality of options include: a first option to remove the at least one product from the smart cart for purchase or return of the product, a second option to keep the at least one product for purchase; and in response to activation of the first option for the at least one product, dynamically altering the GUI to remove the at least one product from the listing of the plurality products displayed on the GUI of the mobile device, wherein the respective total cost associated with the one plurality of products offered for purchase by each seller changes to reflect the removal of the at least one product, and wherein after the user removes the at least one product from the smart cart, the dynamically altered listing of products displayed by the GUI corresponds to the plurality of products physically located in the smart cart.
“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of options on the GUI further comprise a third option to determine a distance to the second seller, and the determining the distance from the current location of the mobile device to the second seller is performed in response to activation of the third option.
“3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying a first indication that the store has a price matching policy, wherein the first indication is displayed proximate to the second option to keep the product.
“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying a second indication in response to determining that the respective total cost for the plurality of products offered for purchase by at least one seller exceeds a pre-determined value for total spending by the user.
“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the smart cart comprises a scanner for performing a scan of each product placed in the smart cart.
“6. The method of claim 1, wherein, after the user removes the at least one product from the smart cart, the one or more products located in the smart cart are to be purchased by the user of the mobile device.
“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: dynamically displaying at the GUI, in response to user selection of an indicator for a given one of the plurality of products, a graph that visualizes historical prices for the given product.
“8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations for analyzing products located in a physical cart using a dynamic graphical user interface (GUI), comprising: determining, by a mobile device, via communication with one or more servers a respective price, from a plurality of prices for a plurality of products for purchase of two or more sellers that offer the plurality of products for purchase, wherein the two or more sellers include the first seller, at a current location of the mobile device, and a second seller, and wherein the plurality of products are located in a smart cart, at the store of the first seller, of a user of the mobile device, and wherein the plurality of products are scanned by the smart cart proximate in time to being placed in the smart cart and identifiers for the products are wirelessly communicated from the smart cart to the mobile device in response to the scanning; in response to determining the respective prices for each product of the plurality of products determining, by the mobile device, for each seller, a respective total cost associated with the plurality of products offered for sale by each seller; displaying, on a GUI of the mobile device, a display that includes (A) a listing of the plurality of products located in the smart cart in a first section and (B) a plurality of display components associated with the two or more sellers, wherein each of the plurality of display components includes one or more prices for the plurality of products offered for purchase by each seller, and wherein each of the plurality of display components includes the respective total cost associated with the plurality of products offered for purchase by each seller; displaying, for at least one of the plurality of products, a plurality of options on the GUI, wherein the plurality of options include: a first option to remove the at least one product from the cart for purchase or return of the product, and a second option to keep the at least one product for purchase; and in response to activation of the first option for the at least one product, dynamically altering the GUI to remove the at least one product from the listing of the plurality products displayed on the GUI of the mobile device, wherein the respective total cost associated with the one or mere plurality of products offered for purchase by each seller changes to reflect the removal of the at least one product, and wherein after the user removes the at least one product from the smart cart, the dynamically altered listing of products displayed by the GUI corresponds to the plurality of products physically located in the smart cart.
“9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the second seller is an online seller.
“10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise: displaying a first indication that the store has a price matching policy, wherein the first indication is displayed proximate to the second option to keep the product.
“11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise: displaying a second indication in response to determining that the respective total cost for the plurality of products offered for purchase by at least one seller exceeds a pre-determined value for total spending by the user.
“12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the smart cart comprises a scanner for performing a scan of each product placed in the smart shopping cart.
“13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein, after the user removes the at least one product from the smart cart, the one or more products located in the smart cart are to be purchased by the user of the mobile device.
“14. The transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise: dynamically displaying at the GUI, in response to user selection of an indicator for a given one of the plurality of products, a graph that visualizes historical prices for the given product.”
There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.
URL and more information on this patent, see: Contreras,
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