IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,248,946
Granted Patent B2
US 12,248,946 · App. 18/182,887 · Granted Mar 11, 2025

System for third party sellers in online retail environment

Inventors: Jorge A. Trujillo (Minneapolis, MN); Andrew Boerema (Minneapolis, MN); Dakota Reese Brown (Minneapolis, MN)
Assignee: Target Brands, Inc.
G06Q30/018G06F9/54G06F16/2365G06Q30/0185G06Q30/0607G06Q30/0613H04L67/53G06F40/279G06V30/40
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,248,946
App. No.
18/182,887
Granted
Mar 11, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A third party item listing management system useable for validation of third party items to be included on a retailer website is disclosed. The third party item listing management system includes an application programming interface (API) accessible by a plurality of third parties and configured to receive item data. An item management process receives the item data and calls an item validation pipeline which includes a plurality of item validation stages including an item legalization stage. In the item legalization stage, the item data and the identity of the third party are validated against a plurality of item listing rules to determine whether the one or more items are allowed to be offered via the retailer website by the third party. The item listing rules can include a rule preventing the third party from listing an item included in a core item collection offered by the retailer via the retailer website.

Claims (58)

1. A third-party item listing management system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one

processor, cause the third-party item listing management system to:

generate and provide a seller user interface to a third-party computing system, the seller user interface being configured to receive a submission from a third-party retailer for listing one or more items on a retailer website;

receive, by an application programming interface, the submission for listing the one or more items on the retailer website, the submission including an identity for the third-party retailer and a set of item listings associated with the one or more items;

call an item validation pipeline, by an item management process, the item validation pip eline including at least a taxonomy assessment stage and a legalization stage;

identify, at the taxonomy assessment stage, a retailer taxonomy location within which a n item listing of the set of item listings falls;

enrich, at the taxonomy assessment stage, the item listing, wherein enriching the item listing comprises including metadata associated with the retailer taxonomy location;

assess, at the legalization stage, the enhanced item listing relative to one or more rules;

based on assessing the enhanced item listing relative to the one or more rules, call, by the item validation pipeline, an image analysis service;

receive, by the item validation pipeline, additional information relating to the item from the third-party image analysis service;

based on the additional information, perform, by the item validation pipeline, at least one of:

enhancing the item listing with the additional information; and

flagging the item listing as requiring further review;

generate, by the item validation pipeline, a report indicating at least one of:

validation results for the rules;

a status indicating whether the item listing requires further review;

the retailer taxonomy location; and

an item listing enhancement; and

provide, by the item validation pipeline, the report, to the third-party computing system.

2. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein the third-party item listing management system is configured

to receive, by an application programming interface, submissions for listing items on the retailer website from a plurality of different third parties.

3. The third-party item listing management system of claim 2 , wherein the third-party item listing management system prioritizes submissions for listing items of a particular brand by a particular third party of the plurality of different third parties that is a brand owner of the particular brand.

4. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more rules includes a rule preventing the third-party from listing an item of a predetermined brand.

5. The third-party item listing management system of claim 4 , wherein

the predetermined brand corresponds to a brand sold by a second third-party on the retailer website.

6. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more rules includes a rule preventing the third-party from listing an item of a predetermined item type.

7. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein the item validation pipeline further includes a profanity assessment stage configured to detect presence of offensive content within the item listing.

8. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein the item validation pipeline further includes a field validation stage configured to determine accuracy of the item listing provided by the third-party.

9. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the third-party item listing management system to:

reject at least one item of the one or more items from being listed on the retailer website upon determining that the report includes at least one error for the at least one item.

10. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein a determination that the one or more items includes a duplicate item to an item that is included in a core item collection offered by the retailer website results in generation of an error in report.

11. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the third-party item listing management system to:

automatically list at least one item of the one or more items based on the report from the item validation pipeline indicating that no errors or conditions were identified for the at least one item.

12. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the third-party item listing management system to:

provide at least one item of the one or more items for retailer review based on a detected condition of the at least one item identified in the item validation pipeline.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions which, which executed by a computing system cause the computing system to:

generate and provide a seller user interface to a third-party computing system, the seller user interface being configured to receive a submission from a third-party retailer for listing one or more items on a retailer website;

receive, by an application programming interface, the submission for listing the one or more items on the retailer website, the submission including an identity for the third-party retailer and a set of item listings associated with the one or more items;

call an item validation pipeline, by an item management process, the item validation pip eline including at least a taxonomy assessment stage and a legalization stage:

identify, at the taxonomy assessment stage, a retailer taxonomy location within which a n item listing of the set of item listings falls;

enrich, at the taxonomy assessment stage, the item listing, wherein enriching the item listing comprises including metadata associated with the retailer taxonomy location;

assess, at the legalization stage, the enhanced item listing relative to one or more rules; based on assessing the enhanced item listing relative to the one or more rules, call, by the item validation pipeline, an image analysis service;

receive, by the item validation pipeline, additional information relating to the item from the third-party image analysis service;

based on the additional information, perform, by the item validation pipeline, at least one of:

enhancing the item listing with the additional information; and

flagging the item listing as requiring further review;

generate, by the item validation pipeline, a report indicating at least one of:

validation results for the rules;

a status indicating whether the item listing requires further review:

the retailer taxonomy location; and

an item listing enhancement; and

provide, by the item validation pipeline, the report, to the third-party computing system.

14. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more items comprises a plurality of items, and wherein the report is associated with the plurality of items.

15. The third-party item listing management system of claim 1 , wherein the item validation pipeline further includes a field validation stage configured to validate presence of one or more fields of the item listing.

16. The third-party item listing management system of claim 15 , wherein the report includes an error indicating one or more missing fields of the item listing.

17. The third-party item listing management system of claim 8 , wherein the field validation stage is configured to determine accuracy of the item listing received from the third-party based on at least one of text and image data associated with one or more items.

Continuity (3)
Division 16785105 · Feb 7, 2020
Provisional Application 62837063 · Apr 22, 2019
Related Publication 20230222516A1 · Jul 13, 2023
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