Patent Application
20100318404
Many consumer stores serve consumers not only by providing a set of products for sale, but also by providing product-related services, such as informed recommendations by sales associates, customer service, and technical support. These services entail expenditures by the business, such as sales employee salaries and training, customer service, and technical support. The business usually recoups these expenditures from profits achieved from the sale of products.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key factors or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
In the “brick-and-mortar” business model, the consumer store profits from the sale of products, and uses such profits to provide pre-sale and post-sale services provided to consumers. However, e-commerce stores often provide a lower level of customer service, but may sell products at a lower price, thereby outcompeting the brick-and-mortar stores. Consumers often benefit from both business models by conducting pre-purchase research at a brick-and-mortar store to select a product, and then ordering that product at a lower price from an e-commerce store. This business reality may render such consumer stores unsustainable, and the closing of such businesses adversely affects both consumers, who may no longer receive free access to such product services, and suppliers, who may no longer rely on the venue of the consumer store to persuade consumers to purchase such products.
Instead, a consumer store (particularly a “brick-and-mortar” business) may endeavor to recover the costs of product-related services from the suppliers of such products. In particular, the consumer store may offer to stock a product of suppliers only if the suppliers agree to pay the consumer store for providing product-related services, particularly if the provision of such services influences consumers to purchase the product. For example, a consumer store may hire employees who are knowledgeable about a particular class of products and can provide valuable information to consumers, such as comparisons, recommendations, and product demonstrations. This arrangement may promote a sustainable consumer store; may benefit consumers, who may continue receiving free product-related services from the consumer store; and may permit suppliers to allocate the cost of such product-related services evenly to all retailers, e.g., by factoring the aggregate cost of such services into the wholesale price of the product offered to all suppliers.
However, it may be difficult to quantify the value of such services to particular suppliers as justification for compelling participation and payment. In particular, a supplier may not trust the claimed value of the influence asserted by the consumer store, particularly if the claimed value is based on an aggregated estimate of the consumer store without backing metrics. Therefore, techniques may be developed to correlate the fees charged to various suppliers to the consumer influence achieved by the consumer store, and to establish tightly correlated prices for such services. One such technique involves establishing with the supplier a per-service price for particular services that influence consumers, and then, using a computer, tracking instances of providing the service for a consumer regarding a product and charging the supplier an “influence fee” based on the provided services (factoring in the established per-service price.) By tracking and charging suppliers for the provision of such services in a demonstrable manner, these techniques may permit a consumer store to provide product-based services to consumers in a sustainable manner, while also pricing products competitively with both e-commerce stores and other brick-and-mortar businesses.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the following description and annexed drawings set forth certain illustrative aspects and implementations. These are indicative of but a few of the various ways in which one or more aspects may be employed. Other aspects, advantages, and novel features of the disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the annexed drawings.
The claimed subject matter is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the claimed subject matter. It may be evident, however, that the claimed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the claimed subject matter.
Many consumer stores serve not only as a source of offered products that may be purchased, but as a source of product-related services. Such services include both pre-sale services, such as advertising, recommendations, hands-on examination, product demonstrations and information, and post-sale services, such as accepting returns, providing warranty support, and providing installation and troubleshooting. The supplying of these services consumes resources of the business, such as sales employee salaries and training, infrastructure costs of customer service and technical support, shipping, and the stocking of parts. However, the business usually recoups these expenditures from profits realized from the sale of products, including (in a simplified view) the difference between the wholesale cost of the product and the retail price.
However, the advent of e-commerce businesses has impaired the viability of this business model. E-commerce stores often provide fewer services, such as a venue for physically browsing products in a product category or conducting a hands-on examination of a product; a restricted level of customer service; and little or no technical support. However, these e-commerce stores pass this cost savings to consumers by reducing the retail markup on products, thereby offering lower prices on the same products available at brick-and-mortar stores. Consumers may therefore prefer to buy at lower prices from online stores; however, these consumers still wish to receive pre-sale services, such as hands-on examination of the product before purchasing.
Therefore, consumers often visit a brick-and-mortar store for pre-sale support (such as browsing available goods, asking questions, and obtaining product demonstrations) and to select a product, but then order the product at the lower price from the e-commerce store.
As a result of the choices of the consumer 18, the consumer 18 has benefited both by obtaining pre-sale services from the consumer store 20 (e.g., the assistance of a sales associate 24 and the hands-on examination of the product 12), and by obtaining the product 12 at the discounted retail price 34 offered by the e-commerce store 32. The consumer 18 has thus obtained the benefit of the services provided by the consumer store 20 but has avoided paying for the services. Similarly, the e-commerce store 32 has benefited by allowing the consumer 18 to purchase the product 12 after being persuaded of the value of the purchase resulting from the services of the consumer store 20, but has also not paid for the services offered by the consumer store 20. The supplier 14 also benefits from this arrangement, because the consumer 18 has been persuaded by the services of the consumer store 20 to purchase the product 12 from the supplier 14 instead of from another supplier or simply foregoing the purchase; yet, the supplier 14 has also not paid for the services provided by the consumer store 20. However, the consumer store 20 is disadvantaged, because it has provided the services, such as the knowledge of the sales associate 24 and the inspection of stocked products, without obtaining the sale, and therefore cannot cover the costs of providing the services.
If the consumer store 20 continues to sustain losses through the arrangement depicted in
This negative feedback loop may cause steadily diminishing profits for the consumer store 20, and may eventually cause a market failure and store closure. In contrast with the advantages to the consumer 18, the e-commerce store 32, and the supplier 14 indicated in
It may be appreciated that the consumer store 20 is likely unable to recoup the value of the services by charging more for the product 12, because these costs do not impact other retailers, such as the e-commerce store 32. However, it may be feasible to distribute these costs by charging the value of the service back to the supplier 14. In particular, the consumer store 20 may be able to charge the supplier 14 for the incremental value of the services provided—i.e., the influence that the consumer store 20 has had on the consumer 18 in deciding to purchase the product 12. The supplier 14 might cover the costs of the service paid to the consumer store 20 by raising the wholesale price 16 of the product 12.
This scenario changes the dynamics of the exemplary scenario 40 in ways that provides advantages to all parties. The consumer 18 continues to benefit from the freely provided services of the consumer store 20. The supplier 14 achieves the benefit of selling one unit of the product 12 to the consumer 18, regardless of the retailer chosen by the consumer 18, because the consumer 18 may be able to recognize the advantages of the product 12 over competing products by other suppliers, or over an older model currently used by the consumer 18. Moreover, the supplier may distribute the cost more evenly over all retailers by raising the wholesale price 16 of the product 12 (e.g., to $70.) (It may be appreciated that the influence fee 42 only arises from a subset of the units of the product 12 sold, i.e., to the incremental number of additional units sold due to the persuasion of the consumer 18 by the services of the consumer store 20. Therefore, the influence fee 42 does not directly correlate to a dollar-for-dollar increase in the wholesale price 16, but is distributed across all units of the product 12, including units sold to consumers 18 who did not utilize the persuasive services of the consumer store 20.) The consumer store 20, having already covered the expenses of the product-related services (e.g., the employee salary 30 of the sales associate 24), may lower the retail price 22 of the product 12 (e.g., to $80.) While the e-commerce store 32 has to raise its discounted retail price 36 to $80 to retain the same net profit on a sale of the product 12, this higher retail price accounts for the persuasion of the consumer 18 to purchase the product 12 from the e-commerce store 32 based on the services provided by the consumer store 20, and permits the ongoing provision of such services in a sustainable business model. The consumer store 20 and the e-commerce store 32 may therefore compete for sales on a more traditional basis (e.g., by price wars and reduced profits) without particularly encumbering the consumer store 20 with the total costs of the shared public service.
However, a key problem in the provision of the influencing services to the supplier 14 is the difficulty in measuring the influence. The total sales of the product 12 at the consumer store 20 may not be a good metric of influence, because the consumer 18 may choose to purchase the product 12 at another retailer; alternatively, the consumer 18 might have purchased the product 12 at the consumer store 20 without engaging any of the product-related influencing services, e.g., without inspecting the product 12 or interacting with a sales associate 24. Moreover, the supplier 14 might not trust aggregate, speculative, or qualitative indicators of such influencing, because the consumer store 20 might be able to inflate such indicators in order to cover its costs or achieve more profit.
Therefore, the charging of influence fees 16 may only be feasible if more reliable, quantitative metrics of influence may be identified. One such technique involves using a computer to track the provision of consumer influencing services, such as interactions of sales associates 24 and consumers 18 regarding a product 12, a pre-sale interest expressed by the consumer 18 in the product 12, and pre-sale demonstrations of the product 12 for the consumer 18. Additional consumer influencing services may also be provided and tracked; e.g., the consumer 12 might be offered an opportunity for post-sale service of the product 12 by the consumer store 20 after speaking with a sales associate 24, even if the consumer 18 does not purchase the product 12 from the consumer store 20. If the consumer 18 later utilizes this offer for a purchased unit of the product 12, this utilization may be indicative of a consumer influence by the consumer store 20 in purchasing the product 12, even if the consumer 18 chose to purchase the product 12 at another retailer. Thus, the influencing can be tracked by a computer and may be charged to the supplier 14 as a reliable, quantitative metric of a consumer influencing service.
Still another embodiment involves a computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to apply the techniques presented herein. An exemplary computer-readable medium that may be devised in these ways is illustrated in
The techniques discussed herein may be devised with variations in many aspects, and some variations may present additional advantages and/or reduce disadvantages with respect to other variations of these and other techniques. Moreover, some variations may be implemented in combination, and some combinations may feature additional advantages and/or reduced disadvantages through synergistic cooperation. The variations may be incorporated in various embodiments (e.g., the exemplary method 4 of
A first aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniques relates to the manner of establishing the per-service price 54 for the consumer influencing services. As a first variation, the consumer store 20 may establish a per-service price 54 for respective services (e.g., demonstrating a product 12 for a consumer 18, allowing a consumer 18 to inspect a product 12, and providing a recommendation of the product 12 as compared with other products in the same product category) that may be charged to any supplier 14 of a product 12 in the consumer store 20. As a second variation, the consumer store 20 may establish different per-service prices 54 for different suppliers 14. This example may be helpful, e.g., in permitting smaller suppliers 14 with smaller budgets, or the suppliers 14 of products 12 with smaller manufacturing margins (e.g., cheaper items or commodities), to afford the placement of products 12 in the store 20 based on lower per-service prices 54, while charging higher rates to well-established suppliers 14 or suppliers 14 of higher margin products 12 (e.g., expensive items, such as automobiles and home appliances.) As a third variation, the consumer store 20 may utilize an automated system, such as the influence pricing component 98 in the exemplary system 96 of
A second aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniques relates to the tracking, using a computer, of consumer influence metrics 58 representing the provision of consumer influencing services to a consumer. Because the consumer influencing value of the services provided by the consumer store 20 may be difficult to demonstrate qualitatively or in the aggregate, the consumer store 20 may only establish a trusted relationship with suppliers 12 regarding the overall value of the consumer influencing services by carefully tracking the provision of such services to consumers 18. This tracking may be more thoroughly achievable through the use of a computerized system that is configured to track the provision of such services to consumers 18.
As a second variation illustrated in
As a third variation illustrated in
As a fourth variation illustrated in
As a fifth variation illustrated in
As a sixth variation illustrated in
A third aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniques relates to the manner of charging suppliers 14 the influence fees 60 based on the established per-service prices 54. As a first example, since the tracking performed by the computer 52 is able to identify separate instances of the provision of consumer influencing services, respective suppliers 14 may simply be charged the product of the per-influence fee 60 for each consumer influencing service and the instances of each consumer influence service performed for a product 12 of the supplier 14. Other variations may take into account other factors. As a second example, if sales of products 12 at the consumer store 20 or at other retailers may be linked to the provision of a consumer influencing service by the consumer store 20, a higher per-influence fee 60 might be charged due to the proven efficacy of the service. As a third example, the influence fees 60 may be additionally adjusted according to the overall influence of the consumer store 20. It may be recognized that the consumer store 20 may influence a consumer 18 in ways other than the direct provision of a consumer influencing service to the consumer 18 regarding a particular product 12, such as by observing the provision of the service to another consumer 18 at the consumer store 20; by word-of-mouth information from another consumer 18 to whom the consumer influencing service was provided; and by simply identifying the selection of products 12 by the consumer store 20, where the consumer 18 has learned to trust such selections through a prior series of positive experiences from purchases of products 12 at the consumer store 20. In order to capture these and other attenuated effects of the consumer influence earned by the consumer store, the influence fee 60 may be adjusted by other factors, e.g., a reputation metric of the consumer store 20 among other retailers measured by consumer surveys, or by a consumer traffic metric that is measured by the computer 52 to identify the number of visitors on a particular day. Those of ordinary skill in the art may select and include many types of factors on which basis the influence fee 60 may be computed and charged while implementing the techniques discussed herein.
A fourth aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniques relates to additional features that might be included in such embodiments. One significant feature is the selection of products by the consumer store 20, which may be performed in a manner that complements the influence-based focus discussed herein. Many retailers choose products 12 to be offered according to the estimated sales of such products in order to achieve high per-unit sales. However, if the focus of the consumer store 20 is providing consumer influencing services, products 12 may be selected for offering based on the influence value of offering such products 12 to consumers 18. As a first variation of this fourth aspect, products 12 may be selected that are likely to evoke a favorable consumer, such as products having a favorable consumer rating, a favorable consumer recommendation given to another consumer 18, or a favorable consumer purchase rate (e.g., fast-selling products.) By adjusting the set of offered products 12 toward popular and good products 12, the consumer store 20 may build a reputation for stocking only good products, and may therefore exert consumer influence simply by selecting a product 12 to be offered in the store. Additionally, this consumer influence may be charged back to the suppliers 14; i.e., if the product choices offered by the consumer store 20 demonstrably influence the purchasing choices of consumers 12 (because the consumer store 20 has earned a reputation for stocking good products 12), the consumer store may charge the supplier 14 for the consumer influencing service of offering the product 12 in the consumer store 20.
As a second variation of this fourth aspect, the consumer store 20 may choose to limit the products 12 offered within a particular product category to a small set of popular 12 or otherwise favorable products 12. For example, within the product category of digital cameras, the consumer store 20 may opt not for a large selection of products 12, which may include numerous cameras that evoke consumer dissatisfaction after purchase (e.g., by taking bad photos, by being difficult to use, or by being unreliable), that prompt a high rate of return to the store, and that reduce the influence of the consumer store 20. Instead, the consumer store 20 may endeavor to provide consumers 18 with a small range of options, such as the top five digital cameras on the market. This variation may be implemented, e.g., by establishing a product category limit that limits the products 12 within a product category that are offered by the consumer store 20 (e.g., establishing a limit of six digital cameras, or only the digital cameras that exceed a particular consumer satisfaction rating in a consumer product poll.) A product 12 within the product category may be added to the set of products 12 offered by the store only if the product category limit is satisfied.
Other variations of this technique may be achieved for additional improvements. As a first example, the set of products 12 within a particular product category may be limited to distinctive products 12, such as those having a particular model number or name brand that identifies the consumer store 20 as the source of the product 12. In this manner, the consumer store 20 may track and charge for its consumer influence based on the popularity of the distinctive models of the products 12. As a second example, the products 12 within a product category may be selected such that each product 12 is significantly differentiated by at least one product feature from the other products 12 in the product category, such as by price, capabilities, or compatibility with products 12 in other product categories (e.g., software that executes on particular computer platforms.) By limiting a product category to a restricted set of well-differentiated products 12, the consumer store 20 may improve the shopping experience of the consumer 18, who may make choices more easily among identifiably different products 12 within the product category.
As a third example, it may be advantageous to relate consumer satisfaction with the fees charged to a supplier 14, such that a supplier 14 may be charged less for products 12 that consumers 18 appreciate (e.g., products 12 that prompt a positive reaction from the consumer 18 during an interaction with the product 12 at the consumer store 20), and more for products 12 that consumers 18 do not appreciate. This adjustment may reflect the impact of the placement of the product 12 on the satisfaction of the consumers 18 in visiting the consumer store 20. This adjustment may also strongly incentivize suppliers 14 to provide products 12 that promote consumer satisfaction during such interactions. In such embodiments, the consumer satisfaction may be detected in various ways. For example, an embodiment of these techniques may be configured to detect an expression of a consumer 18 upon interacting with a product 12 (e.g., using a facial expression identification algorithm to analyze input from a camera; using a voice analyzer to analyze input from a microphone; or using a biorhythm sensor to identify various reactions, such as calmness, during an interaction of a consumer 18 with a product 12), and by identifying a consumer reaction of the consumer 18 to the product 12 based on the expression. The influence fee 42 charged to the supplier 14 of the product 12 may then be adjusted based on the consumer reaction to the product 12. Those of ordinary skill in the art may devise many techniques for choosing products 12 in a manner that improves the consumer influence of the consumer store 20, and that may be charged to suppliers 14, while implementing the techniques discussed herein.
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
As used in this application, the terms “component,” “module,” “system”, “interface”, and the like are generally intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a controller and the controller can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.
Furthermore, the claimed subject matter may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosed subject matter. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. Of course, those skilled in the art will recognize many modifications may be made to this configuration without departing from the scope or spirit of the claimed subject matter.
Although not required, embodiments are described in the general context of “computer readable instructions” being executed by one or more computing devices. Computer readable instructions may be distributed via computer readable media (discussed below). Computer readable instructions may be implemented as program modules, such as functions, objects, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), data structures, and the like, that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically, the functionality of the computer readable instructions may be combined or distributed as desired in various environments.
In other embodiments, device 142 may include additional features and/or functionality. For example, device 142 may also include additional storage (e.g., removable and/or non-removable) including, but not limited to, magnetic storage, optical storage, and the like. Such additional storage is illustrated in
The term “computer readable media” as used herein includes computer storage media. Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions or other data. Memory 148 and storage 150 are examples of computer storage media. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by device 142. Any such computer storage media may be part of device 142.
Device 142 may also include communication connection(s) 156 that allows device 142 to communicate with other devices. Communication connection(s) 156 may include, but is not limited to, a modem, a Network Interface Card (NIC), an integrated network interface, a radio frequency transmitter/receiver, an infrared port, a USB connection, or other interfaces for connecting computing device 142 to other computing devices. Communication connection(s) 156 may include a wired connection or a wireless connection. Communication connection(s) 156 may transmit and/or receive communication media.
The term “computer readable media” may include communication media. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions or other data in a “modulated data signal” such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” may include a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal.
Device 142 may include input device(s) 154 such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, infrared cameras, video input devices, and/or any other input device. Output device(s) 152 such as one or more displays, speakers, printers, and/or any other output device may also be included in device 142. Input device(s) 154 and output device(s) 152 may be connected to device 142 via a wired connection, wireless connection, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, an input device or an output device from another computing device may be used as input device(s) 154 or output device(s) 152 for computing device 142.
Components of computing device 142 may be connected by various interconnects, such as a bus. Such interconnects may include a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), such as PCI Express, a Universal Serial Bus (USB), firewire (IEEE 1394), an optical bus structure, and the like. In another embodiment, components of computing device 142 may be interconnected by a network. For example, memory 148 may be comprised of multiple physical memory units located in different physical locations interconnected by a network.
Those skilled in the art will realize that storage devices utilized to store computer readable instructions may be distributed across a network. For example, a computing device 160 accessible via network 158 may store computer readable instructions to implement one or more embodiments provided herein. Computing device 142 may access computing device 160 and download a part or all of the computer readable instructions for execution. Alternatively, computing device 142 may download pieces of the computer readable instructions, as needed, or some instructions may be executed at computing device 142 and some at computing device 160.
Various operations of embodiments are provided herein. In one embodiment, one or more of the operations described may constitute computer readable instructions stored on one or more computer readable media, which if executed by a computing device, will cause the computing device to perform the operations described. The order in which some or all of the operations are described should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. Alternative ordering will be appreciated by one skilled in the art having the benefit of this description. Further, it will be understood that not all operations are necessarily present in each embodiment provided herein.
Moreover, the word “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in this application, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims may generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form.
Also, although the disclosure has been shown and described with respect to one or more implementations, equivalent alterations and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art based upon a reading and understanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. The disclosure includes all such modifications and alterations and is limited only by the scope of the following claims. In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described components (e.g., elements, resources, etc.), the terms used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component which performs the specified function of the described component (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary implementations of the disclosure. In addition, while a particular feature of the disclosure may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “includes”, “having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description or the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.”
