Patent Application
20210089981
This application relates generally to selling inventory from a retail sales establishment. The application relates more particularly to optimized, dynamic placement of sales personnel on a sales floor to improve customer satisfaction.
A traditional retail sales environment includes a sales floor wherein inventory is displayed for selection and purchase by visiting customers. Current retail stores include layouts wherein inventory is displayed throughout the premises. Selected purchases are paid for at checkout stations, typically positioned near exits. In department stores, checkout stations may be placed in or near areas where like goods are displayed, such as in a shoe section or appliance section. Department stores have advantages over stores where all checkout stations are near exits insofar as a sales clerk is available near the merchandise to assist in product placement or to answer customer questions. However, it can be expensive to build, maintain and staff checkout stations throughout a department store.
Various embodiments will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims and accompanying drawings wherein:
The systems and methods disclosed herein are described in detail by way of examples and with reference to the figures. It will be appreciated that modifications to disclosed and described examples, arrangements, configurations, components, elements, apparatuses, devices methods, systems, etc. can suitably be made and may be desired for a specific application. In this disclosure, any identification of specific techniques, arrangements, etc. are either related to a specific example presented or are merely a general description of such a technique, arrangement, etc. Identifications of specific details or examples are not intended to be, and should not be, construed as mandatory or limiting unless specifically designated as such.
In a store environment, a retailer may use various sales strategies to increase sales or foot traffic such as shelf placements, promotions, discounts, etc. However, a retailer may not properly anticipate the long lines for check outs due to the sales strategies. A retailer may incur opportunity loss when customers are waiting in long lines for check outs at the store. Customers may elect to not wait and go elsewhere, they may not return to shop as frequently due to the experience of waiting in the long lines, or in extreme cases they may never return.
Long lines can be alleviated by deploying salespersons on the retail floor space. Dispersed employees are available to answer customer's questions or otherwise assist them with their purchases. A mobile salesperson may be equipped with a portable device to allow them to immediately checkout customer purchases without waiting in lines. But how and when to deploy the salespersons can be problematic. For example, placing salespersons throughout a store can be expensive in human resource cost.
Example embodiments herein provide a real time dynamic heat map of a retailer's store floor plan. The heat map illustrates a recommendation of where the salespersons presence should be to assist the customers using analytical data from the retailer's store sales transactions, promotional data, product pricing and shelf product placements. By using historical and predictive patterns of customer purchasing behaviors, the retailer can quickly and effectively deploy salespersons to anticipated key areas of the floor space to support check outs. Thus, reducing the opportunity loss and retaining customer loyalty for future opportunity gains.
A recommendation engine system regularly receives a store sales transaction information, such as every 5 minutes, and also can distribute promotional methods to the store. Combined with other type of store data such as the daily product inventory, product price, shelf placements, and the store floor plan, the system can quickly predict which products customers may be drawn to and when there would be the most foot traffic for each hour of the business day. The system provides feedback to the retailer of when and where there is a need for an employee or mobile point-of-sale presence within a floor space and how many salespersons are desirable. With optimized deployment of salespersons in particular floor spaces of the store environment, the retailer can greatly minimize the opportunity loss by allowing customers to quickly check out through the salesperson with mobile point-of-sale device. Additionally, the retailer may utilize the salespersons for other activities at non-peak hours thus preventing underutilization of human resources.
Example embodiments herein provides recommendation on when, where, and how many salespersons should be present on the floor space. Utilizing a dynamic heat map on the store floor plan, the salespersons can quickly target specific areas of the store throughout the day and not be locked into one area.
In accordance with the subject application,
In the illustrated example, one or more cameras, such as cameras 148 and 152 are directed to sales floor 104 to capture one or more images thereof. Camera 148 is positioned to view area 154 while camera 152 is positioned to view area 156. It will be appreciated that suitable camera positioning facilitates image capture from most, if not all, of a retail floor. Cameras 148 and 152 are configured for digital image capture. Captured digital images can be used to determine locations of people on sales floor 104. In a particular example, heat sensitive imaging cameras, such as infrared cameras, are implemented. Humans exert a heat signature from their body heat relative to ambient temperature. When two or more humans are next to one another, a larger heat signature is formed from their combined body heat. A larger heat signature therefore provides a good depiction of an image where customers are clustered, which cluster detection can be simplified relative to recognition and placement of humans from digital photographs. Heat signatures 160 and 162 are sized so as to be each likely to be associated with a single human. Heat signature 166 is sized so as to be likely to be associated with two humans, and heat signature 170 is sized so as to be associated with three or more humans. It will be noted that sales clerks 140 and 142 are each associated with a heat signature, 141 and 143, respectively. A clustering area 174 is suitably isolated from heat signatures 162 and 170, which clustering area 174 is indicative of location of particular customer interest. In the illustrated example, clustering area 174 is associated with display table 108 which bears items for which prices have been marked down.
As will be detailed further below, sales associated 142 is suitably positioned to clustering area 174 in accordance with analysis of a current customer heat signature map, along with data indicative of both current store inventory as well as data corresponding to historic purchasing activity. Current inventory data, suitably housed on server 176, may include inventory stock, product locations, temporal information such as current time, day or date, store location, customer positions along the sales floor, promotions, such as sales, coupons or loyalty awards. Historic purchasing activity data may include activity associated with time, days, weeks or months, activity during earlier promotions, which may include identification of promotion types, activity when a sales clerk is present relative to activity when none is available, activity for a particular store location or activity relative to pricing levels and a cost of living at the store location.
Server 176 is suitably in data communication with network cloud 178, comprised of a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), which may comprised the Internet, or any suitable combination thereof. With such connectivity, current and historic information is suitably shared with a home office or one or more additional retail sales establishments.
A location of a roving sales clerk, such as sales clerk 142, is suitably determined via a positioning system. By way of example, sales clerk 142 may be positioned relative to triangulation between their point-of-sale device 144 and one or more wireless access points, such as access points 180, 182 and 184. A position check is suitably made to determine when an associate is present in a recommended position.
Processor 304 is also in data communication with a storage interface 306 for reading or writing to a data storage system 308, suitably comprised of a hard disk, optical disk, solid-state disk, or any other suitable data storage as will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art.
Processor 304 is also in data communication with a network interface controller (NIC) 330, which provides a data path to any suitable network or device connection, such as a suitable wireless data connection via wireless network interface 338. A suitable data connection to an MFP or server is via a data network, such as a local area network (LAN), a wide arear network (WAN), which may comprise the Internet, or any suitable combination thereof. A digital data connection is also suitably directly with an MFP or server, such as via BLUETOOTH, optical data transfer, Wi-Fi direct, or the like.
Processor 304 is also in data communication with a user input/output (I/O) interface 340 which provides data communication with user peripherals, such as display 344 via display generator 346, keyboard 348, as well as mice, track balls, touch screens, or the like. Also included is card reader 352 and printer 356. Data interface 360 provides for Bluetooth connection 368 and NFC connection 364. It will be understood that functional units are suitably comprised of intelligent units, including any suitable hardware or software platform.
At retail store level 524, a POS agent is engaged at block 550 using queue information from block 530 and 532 as noted above. A check for promotions is made at block 552. If they exist, they are provided via a gateway at block 554, stored in a master controller at block 556 and propagated to store terminals at block 558, after which the sub-process ends at block 560. If no promotions are present at block 552, the process proceeds to end at block 560.
As to retail salesperson 508 on POS device 520, they commence with a device login at block 570 and view the heat map at block 572. At retail store level 524, if the salesperson is deployed to the floor at block 574, then they proceed as directed at block 576 to check out customers at block 578. Sales transactions are completed at block 580 and the sub-process ends at block 582. If the salesperson is not deployed at block 574, progress is made directly to termination at block 582.
As to retail shopper 512, activity is limited to retail store 524 where shopping is commenced at block 590. Products are then selected at block 592, and a checkout of merchandise is completed at block 594 in concert with salesperson 508 with block 578. After checkout at block 594, the shopper sub-process ends at block 596.
Once positioning of the sales associated is determined to be acceptable at block 672, an updated camera image is obtained at block 680. If the cluster is determined to be growing at block 684, the process returns to block 660 to determine if another associated is available. When no associate is available as determined by block 660, progress returns to block 680 for image updating. If a monitored cluster is not growing, a check is made at block 688 to see if it is dissipating. If not, progress returns to block 680. If so, historical data is updated with newly acquired data at block 692 and progress returns to block 608.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the spirit and scope of the inventions.
