Enhancing a user's shopping experience
View Patent ↗The subject disclosure provides systems and methods for enhancing a purchasing experience by enabling a purchaser to receive a variety of real-time updates or recommendations regarding products that the purchaser, such as a user, may need or intend to purchase. A recommendation provided by the system may be based upon comparing the product with a plurality of sources. The recommendation may include a recommendation that a product may near depletion and thus may need to be replaced, a recommendation that the user may already have a sufficient amount or number of the product, a recommendation that the product may or may not match an existing item owned by the user, or a recommendation not to purchase a product. A virtual closet may also be created according the systems and methods of the subject disclosure, allowing users and contacts selected by the user to collaborate on products.
1. An inventory server comprising:
a processor; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising
communicating with a sensor to receive, from the sensor, a product identifier associated with a product,
decoding the product identifier associated with the product to extract product information related to the product,
updating stored product information related to the product with the product information related to the product in response to receiving the product identifier associated with the product,
monitoring a state of the product, wherein monitoring the state of the product comprises monitoring a weight of the product remaining after a period of time,
determining, based on monitoring the state of the product, that the state of the product falls below a threshold, and
in response to determining that the state of the product is below the threshold, providing, to a mobile device via a wireless communication, a recommendation to attain a replacement for the product.
2. The inventory server of claim 1 , wherein the product information related to the product comprises at least one of the weight of the product, an amount of the product, an expiration data associated with the product, or a date when the product is purchased.
3. The inventory server of claim 1 , wherein monitoring the state of the product further comprises monitoring an expiration date associated with the product.
4. The inventory server of claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises a reader, and wherein the reader comprises an optical reader, a radio frequency identification reader, a barcode scanner, or a camera.
5. The inventory server of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving, from a user, an acceptance of the recommendation to attain the replacement for the product; and
in response to receiving the acceptance, performing a price comparison across a plurality of merchants selling the replacement for the product.
6. The inventory server of claim 5 , wherein the plurality of merchants is selected based on at least one of a geographical location of the user, a list of merchants designated by the user, or past purchases associated with the user.
7. A method comprising:
communicating, by an inventory server comprising a processor, with a sensor to receive, from the sensor, a product identifier associated with a product;
decoding, by the processor, the product identifier associated with the product to extract product information related to the product;
updating, by the processor, stored product information related to the product with the product information related to the product in response to receiving the product identifier;
monitoring, by the processor, a state of the product, wherein monitoring the state of the product comprises monitoring a weight of the product remaining after a period of time;
determining, by the processor based on monitoring the state of the product, that the state of the product falls below a threshold; and
in response to determining that the state of the product is below the threshold, providing, by the processor to a mobile device via a wireless communication, a recommendation to attain a replacement for the product.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the product information related to the product comprises at least one of the weight of the product, an amount of the product, an expiration data associated with the product, or a date when the product is purchased.
9. The method of claim 7 , wherein monitoring the state of the product further comprises monitoring an expiration date associated with the product.
10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the sensor comprises a reader, and wherein the reader comprises an optical reader, a radio frequency identification reader, a barcode scanner, or a camera.
11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving, from a user, an acceptance of the recommendation to attain the replacement for the product; and
in response to receiving the acceptance, performing a price comparison across a plurality of merchants selling the replacement for the product.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of merchants is selected based on at least one of a geographical location of the user, a list of merchants designated by the user, or past purchases associated with the user.
13. A mobile device comprising:
a processor; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
communicating with a first sensor to receive, from the first sensor, a product identifier associated with a product,
providing, to an inventory server, the product identifier associated with the product,
communicating with a second sensor monitoring a state of the product to receive, from the second sensor via a wireless communication, the state of the product, wherein the state of the product comprises a weight of the product remaining after a period of time,
providing, to the inventory server, the state of the product, and
receiving, from the inventory server in response to a determination that the state of the product is below a threshold, a recommendation to attain a replacement for the product.
14. The mobile device of claim 13 , further comprising a display, wherein the operations further comprise causing the recommendation to attain the replacement for the product to be displayed on the display.
15. The mobile device of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise providing an acceptance of the recommendation to attain the replacement for the product.
16. The mobile device of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise receiving, based on the acceptance of the recommendation to attain the replacement for the product, a price comparison across a plurality of merchants selling the replacement for the product.