APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COLLECTING CUSTOMER INVENTORY INFORMATION

1 . A system for collecting customer inventory information, comprising:

a communication device configured to communicate with a shipment system;

a customer profile database storing customer profiles comprising estimated inventories of items at a customer location for each customer; and

a control circuit coupled to the communication device and the customer profile database and configured to:

receive, from the shipment system, returned item information from a first shipment delivered to a customer;

determine an estimated quantity of an item based at least on the returned item information; and

update an estimated inventory of items at the customer location for the customer in the customer profile database based on the estimated quantity of the item.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:

provide a user interface for the customer to enter an inventory quantity at the customer location associated with the item;

wherein the determining of the estimated quantity of the item is based at least on an customer estimated inventory quantity of the item.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:

determine a content of a second shipment based on the estimated inventory of items at the customer location.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the second shipment is associated with a list of items and any item in the list of items having a high estimated quantity in the estimated inventory of items at the customer location is excluded from the second shipment.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first shipment comprises every item from a list of items selected for the customer.

6 . The system of claim 5 wherein the list of items comprises a recipe and the items comprise ingredients of the recipe.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:

decrement estimated quantities of each item in the estimated inventory of items at the customer location according to a list of items associated with the first shipment.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to: update quantity information of items included in the first shipment and not returned by the customer based on a quantity of each item in the first shipment.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the estimated inventory of items at the customer location is determined based on a plurality of shipments.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to: select a list of items for a second shipment based on information stored in the customer profile database.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:

determine customer preference information based on the returned item information.

12 . A method for collecting customer inventory information, comprising:

establishing a customer profile, on a customer profile database, comprising an estimated inventory of items at a customer location for a customer;

receiving returned item information from a first shipment delivered to the customer;

determining, by a control circuit, an estimated quantity of an item based at least on the returned item information; and

updating the estimated inventory of items at the customer location for the customer in the customer profile database based on the estimated quantity of the item.

13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

providing a user interface for the customer to enter an inventory quantity at the customer location associated with the item;

wherein the determining of the estimated quantity of the item is based at least on an customer estimated inventory quantity of the item.

14 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising: determining a content of a second shipment based on the estimated inventory of items at the customer location.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the second shipment is associated with a list of items and any item in the list of items having a high estimated quantity in the estimated inventory of items at the customer location is excluded from the second shipment.

16 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the first shipment comprises every item from a list of items selected for the customer.

17 . The method of claim 16 wherein the list of items comprises a recipe and the items comprise ingredients of the recipe.

18 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising: decrementing estimated quantities of each item in the estimated inventory of items at the customer location according to a list of items associated with the first shipment.

19 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising: updating quantity information of items included in the first shipment and not returned by the customer based on a quantity of each item in the first shipment.

20 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the estimated inventory of items at the customer location is determined based on a plurality of shipments.

21 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising: selecting a list of items for a second shipment based on the customer profile.

22 . An apparatus for collecting customer inventory information comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium storing a set of computer readable instructions;

a control circuit configured to execute the set of computer readable instructions which causes to the control circuit to:

establish a customer profile, on a customer profile database, comprising an estimated inventory at a customer location for a customer;

receive, from a shipment system, returned item information from a first shipment delivered to a customer;

determine an estimated quantity of an item based at least on the returned item information; and

update the estimated inventory at the customer location stored on the customer profile database based on the estimated quantity of the item.