Frictionless shopping method and system
A frictionless shopping platform supports modular systems to outfit any physical store with a secure self-checkout experience. The frictionless shopping platform can communicate with a kiosk or mobile application to obtain customer information including payment information; a shopping sensor platform that tracks a user in the store to obtain anonymous shopper identification and associated shopping cart items; and a financial services provider to affect payment.
1. A frictionless shopping method, comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors of a frictionless shopping platform, aggregate data on inventory of a plurality of items and customer traffic from an anonymous shopping cart resource of a shopping sensor platform with a plurality of sensors, wherein the aggregate data comprises a number of each of the plurality of items that are available for purchase, a number of items that are purchased from a merchant store, and a number of customers that enter the merchant store;
applying, by the one or more processors, one or more optimizing criteria to the aggregate data;
adjusting, by the one or more processors, a price of at least one of the plurality of items based on the one or more optimizing criteria or adjusting inventory of the number of at least one of the plurality of items that are available for purchase;
receiving, by the one or more processors, payment information of a customer and an identifier of the customer, wherein the payment information of the customer and the identifier of the customer are received via a kiosk application of a kiosk at the merchant store or a mobile application of a customer computing device;
storing, by the one or more processors, the identifier of the customer;
sending, by the one or more processors, a pre-authorization package comprising the payment information of the customer to a payment processor of a financial services provider;
receiving, by the one or more processors, a payment pre-approval for the customer from the payment processor of the financial services provider;
in response to receiving the payment pre-approval, authorizing, by the one or more processors, the customer to begin shopping including providing an indication that the customer is approved for entering the store to the shopping sensor platform, wherein authorizing the customer to begin shopping further comprises communicating a code to the customer;
after providing the indication that the customer is approved for entering the store, receiving, by the one or more processors, an anonymous shopper identifier from the shopping sensor platform;
receiving, by the one or more processors, item information associated with the anonymous shopper identifier from at least one of the plurality of sensors of the shopping sensor platform, wherein the item information comprises at least the price of at least one of the plurality of items;
maintaining, by the one or more processors, a relationship between the identifier of the customer, the anonymous shopper identifier, and the item information;
determining, by the one or more processors, a conclusion of a shopping session for the customer;
upon the conclusion of the shopping session, generating, by the one or more processors, an invoice based on the item information and providing the invoice to the payment processor of the financial services provider for payment processing;
receiving payment confirmation of the invoice from the payment processor of the financial services provider; and
in response to receiving the payment confirmation of the invoice, transmitting, by the one or more processors, a digital receipt to the customer computing device indicating the payment confirmation of the invoice.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein communicating the code to the customer comprises sending a QR code to the customer.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifier of the customer is an email address or telephone number.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the one or more optimizing criteria comprises a ratio of the number of one of the plurality of items that are sold by an amount of foot traffic.
5. A frictionless shopping platform comprising:
one or more processors;
a storage resource;
instructions stored at the frictionless shopping platform that when executed by the one or more processors, direct the frictionless shopping platform to at least:
receive aggregate data on inventory of a plurality of items and customer traffic from an anonymous shopping cart resource of a shopping sensor platform with a plurality of sensors, wherein the aggregate data comprises a number of each of the plurality of items that are available for purchase, a number of items that are purchased from a merchant store, and a number of customers that enter the merchant store;
apply one or more optimizing criteria to the aggregate data;
indicate an adjustment for a price of at least one of the plurality of items based on the one or more optimizing criteria or adjusting inventory of the number of at least one of the plurality of items that are available for purchase;
receive payment information of a customer and an identifier of the customer, wherein the payment information of the customer and the identifier of the customer are received via a kiosk application of a kiosk at the merchant store or a mobile application of a customer computing device;
store the identifier of the customer in the storage resource;
send a pre-authorization package comprising the payment information of the customer to a payment processor of a financial services provider;
receive a payment pre-approval for the customer from the financial services provider;
in response to receiving the payment pre-approval, authorize the customer to begin shopping including providing an indication that the customer is approved for entering the store to the shopping sensor platform, wherein authorizing the customer to begin shopping further comprises communicating a code to the customer;
after providing the indication that the customer is approved for entering the store, receive an anonymous shopper identifier from the shopping sensor platform;
receive item information associated with the anonymous shopper identifier from at least one of the plurality of sensors of the shopping sensor platform, wherein the item information comprises at least the price of at least one of the plurality of items;
maintain a relationship between the identifier of the customer, the anonymous shopper identifier, and the item information;
determine a conclusion of a shopping session for the customer;
upon the conclusion of the shopping session, generate an invoice based on the item information and provide the invoice to the payment processor of the financial services provider for payment processing;
receive payment confirmation of the invoice from the payment processor of the financial services provider; and
in response to receiving the payment confirmation of the invoice, transmit a digital receipt to the customer computing device indicating the payment confirmation of the invoice.
6. The platform of claim 5 , wherein instructions to communicate the code to the customer direct the platform to send a QR code to the customer.
7. The platform of claim 5 , wherein the identifier of the customer is an email address or telephone number.
8. The platform of claim 5 , wherein one of the one or more optimizing criteria comprises a ratio of the number of one of the plurality of items that are sold by an amount of foot traffic.
9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, that when executed by a computing system, direct the computing system to:
receive aggregate data on inventory of a plurality of items and customer traffic from an anonymous shopping cart resource of a shopping sensor platform with a plurality of sensors, wherein the aggregate data comprises a number of each of the plurality of items that are available for purchase, a number of items that are purchased from a merchant store, and a number of customers that enter the merchant store;
apply one or more optimizing criteria to the aggregate data;
indicate an adjustment for a price of at least one of the plurality of items based on the one or more optimizing criteria or adjusting inventory of the number of at least one of the plurality of items that are available for purchase;
receive payment information of a customer and an identifier of the customer, wherein the payment information of the customer and the identifier of the customer are received via a kiosk application of a kiosk at the merchant store or a mobile application of a customer computing device;
store the identifier of the customer in the storage resource;
send a pre-authorization package comprising the payment information of the customer to a payment processor of a financial services provider;
receive a payment pre-approval for the customer from the financial services provider;
in response to receiving the payment pre-approval, authorize the customer to begin shopping including providing an indication that the customer is approved for entering the store to the shopping sensor platform, wherein authorizing the customer to begin shopping further comprises communicating a code to the customer;
after providing the indication that the customer is approved for entering the store, receive an anonymous shopper identifier from the shopping sensor platform;
receive item information associated with the anonymous shopper identifier from at least one of the plurality of sensors of the shopping sensor platform, wherein the item information comprises at least the price of at least one of the plurality of items;
maintain a relationship between the identifier of the customer, the anonymous shopper identifier, and the item information;
determine a conclusion of a shopping session for the customer;
upon the conclusion of the shopping session, generate an invoice based on the item information and provide the invoice to the payment processor of the financial services provider for payment processing;
receive payment confirmation of the invoice from the payment processor of the financial services provider; and
in response to receiving the payment confirmation of the invoice, transmit a digital receipt to the customer computing device indicating the payment confirmation of the invoice.
10. The medium of claim 9 , wherein one of the one or more optimizing criteria comprises a ratio of the number of one of the plurality of items that are sold by an amount of foot traffic.
11. The medium of claim 9 , wherein instructions to communicate the code to the customer direct the platform to send a QR code to the customer.
12. The medium of claim 9 , wherein the identifier of the customer is an email address or telephone number, wherein the digital receipt is transmitted to the email address or telephone number.