Patent Application
20170236160
Retailers (e.g., whether eCommerce or “brick and mortar”) and other types of merchants often wish to provide customers or prospective customers with specific information or content to encourage sale of the retailers' or merchant's products or services. The content may take any suitable form or structure, including images, video, text, documents, messages, links to content, etc., and is typically intended to encourage a customer to purchase a product or service that they have shown an interest in or are expected to be interested in. The interest or expected interest may be a result of the product or service being looked at, browsed, searched for, researched, placed into a “shopping cart”, etc. The overall desire on the part of the retailer or merchant is to increase the likelihood that the customer will convert their expressed or expected interest in a product or service into an actual purchase transaction. As noted, the content may also be used to assist a customer or prospective customer to “discover” a product or service that they were not previously aware of but that the retailer or merchant believes would be of interest (where this “discovery” may be facilitated by providing an advertisement, coupon, review, testimonial, recommendation, etc.).
Identifying content that may be of value to present to a customer or prospective customer may be part of a process of accessing, processing, and evaluating certain types of data relevant to the customer and/or the retailer/merchant. Such data may include, for example, location data, customer demographic/profile data, customer prior shopping or transaction behavior, customer browsing behavior, customer click-through behavior, retailer/merchant inventory or sales data, etc.
Conventional approaches to enabling a retailer or merchant to identify content that they wish to make available to customers typically provide the user with a limited set of attributes that can be used to identify potentially relevant or desired content. While useful, this approach is inherently limited as it does not permit the retailer/merchant user to specify attributes, criteria, conditions, or rules that are more relevant to that user and its business. Further, because a retailer/merchant continues to develop insights into their business and into the behavior of customers over time, the optimal set of useful and desirable attributes or criteria may change over time and therefore is not fully known when the attributes or criteria are initially set. This can cause the factors or methods used to identify content to be presented to a customer or prospective customer to become less relevant to a business or to the customer over time. Embodiments of the invention are directed toward solving these and other problems individually and collectively.
The terms “invention,” “the invention,” “this invention” and “the present invention” as used herein are intended to refer broadly to all of the subject matter described in this document and to the claims. Statements containing these terms should be understood not to limit the subject matter described herein or to limit the meaning or scope of the claims. Embodiments of the invention covered by this patent are defined by the claims and not by this summary. This summary is a high-level overview of various aspects of the invention and introduces some of the concepts that are further described in the Detailed Description section below. This summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used in isolation to determine the scope of the claimed subject matter. The subject matter should be understood by reference to appropriate portions of the entire specification of this patent, to any or all drawings, and to each claim.
Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems, apparatuses, and methods for identifying and delivering content to customers that is intended to encourage purchase of a product or service. In one embodiment, the invention provides two primary processes, operations, or functional elements (as illustrated by the set of steps related to definition of data sources, etc. and the separate set of steps related to content access and presentation in
As noted, in some embodiments, a “tag” may be used to associate an element of content with the identifier, so that when a specified data location is accessed, content elements with that tag are retrieved for presentation. In some embodiments, the content location, content elements found at a location, or both may be determined by evaluating one or more rules or conditions, with those rules or conditions associated with the tag or identifier.
In some embodiments, the rule or rules may depend on one or more of retailer specific data (e.g., inventory levels, sales levels, revenue, profit margin, rate of change of inventory or another parameter, etc.), customer specific data (e.g., prior purchases, average spend, seasonal spend, browsing behavior, prior or current relationship with retailer, customer social media activity, customer location, other customer activities or hobbies, etc.), customer profile data (e.g., type of device being used, type of network being used, etc.), customer demographic data (e.g., actual or inferred characteristics, such as age, income, education, marital status, number of children, etc.), season, or other potentially relevant data. A rule “evaluation” process may be used to determine the value of the specified attributes or factors; in one embodiment, this is done by reference to data and information located on a multi-tenant data processing platform. Such a platform may contain data corresponding to multiple tenant users and applications related to one or more of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), eCommerce, Human Resources, or other business-related functions. The evaluation of the specified attributes or factors may be based on real-time values of the data/information, on an average value of the data/information over a specified time period, on a peak value of the data/information, or by other suitable method.
In one embodiment, a rule may be of any suitable logical form, such as “If [certain parameters have specified values], then access content from location X”, but “If parameter A has a value within a range of {a . . . b}, then access content part Y from location X1”. In one embodiment, a rule may have the form of a “trigger” such that if a certain parameter (or group of parameters) have a value that exceeds a specified threshold, then certain content is accessed and presented (this might be used to offer a customer a special sale price based on inventory levels, the expected availability of a new model, trends in customer spending, etc.). In one embodiment, a rule may depend on a rate of change of one or more parameters; for example, if inventory levels are changing at a certain rate, then one set of content is presented, but if the levels are changing at a different rate, then a different set of content is presented. In one embodiment, a rule may depend on business related parameters (inventory) and real-time values of consumer behavior (browsing, rate of click-through, conversion rate, etc.). In one embodiment, a rule (and hence the content presented and/or its placement when presented) may depend on the characteristics of a customer's device (type, display size, etc.).
A second process to obtain and present the relevant content for a particular customer or use case (which as noted, may include determining that content by evaluating any applicable rules or conditions, accessing the content, and presenting the content in a desired manner) is then executed, typically at a later time. As will be described, this process may be triggered, initiated, or configured by “discovery” of one or more relevant customer, device, network, retailer, or other characteristics. This process locates (and if necessary searches) potentially relevant data and information to identify the content to present to the customer. Typically this involves accessing a network location (such as a specific web-site or web-sites, or a data storage location) containing content that may itself be “tagged” with criteria or an identifier specified by the retailer/merchant. The second process evaluates any applicable rules or conditions and, based on the outcome(s), identifies the relevant content (such as a banner, promotional offer, alert, news item, webpage arrangement, display format, recommendation, query, etc.). The process then retrieves the content and provides the content to the viewer (typically a customer or shopper) in a presentation format that may be determined by the retailer. The result is to present relevant information to a customer or prospective customer, where the relevancy is based on current (and if desired, real-time) values of one or more of business operating characteristics, customer characteristics, device characteristics, and other information specified by a business owner or operator.
In one embodiment, the invention is directed to a multi-tenant data processing system, where the system includes:
one or more business related data processing applications installed in the system and accessible by a plurality of tenants of the multi-tenant data processing system;
a data storage element coupled to the one or more business related data processing applications;
a processor programmed with a set of instructions, wherein when executed by the processor the instructions cause the system to
In another embodiment, the invention is directed to a method for presenting content to a customer, comprising:
generating a user interface for a user;
receiving a selection of an identifier from the user for a process to select and present content to the customer;
receiving a description of a rule or condition from the user, wherein the rule or condition specifies one or more aspects of content to be accessed and presented to the customer upon satisfaction of the rule or condition;
determining a value or values of one or more data associated with the user and/or the customer, wherein the data associated with the user is related to the user's business operations;
evaluating the rule or condition based at least in part on the determined data value or values;
if the rule or condition is satisfied, then initiating a process to access the specified content for presentation to the customer; and
presenting the accessed element or elements of content to the tenant customer.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the detailed description of the present invention and the included figures.
Embodiments of the invention in accordance with the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings, in which:
Note that the same numbers are used throughout the disclosure and figures to reference like components and features.
The subject matter of embodiments of the present invention is described here with specificity to meet statutory requirements, but this description is not necessarily intended to limit the scope of the claims. The claimed subject matter may be embodied in other ways, may include different elements or steps, and may be used in conjunction with other existing or future technologies. This description should not be interpreted as implying any particular order or arrangement among or between various steps or elements except when the order of individual steps or arrangement of elements is explicitly described.
Embodiments of the invention will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, exemplary embodiments by which the invention may be practiced. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy the statutory requirements and convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
Among other things, the present invention may be embodied in whole or in part as a system, as one or more methods, or as one or more devices. Embodiments of the invention may take the form of a hardware implemented embodiment, a software implemented embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. For example, in some embodiments, one or more of the operations, functions, processes, or methods described herein may be implemented by one or more suitable processing elements (such as a processor, microprocessor, CPU, controller, etc.) that are part of a client device, server, network element, apparatus, or other form of computing or data processing device/platform and that are programmed with a set of executable instructions (e.g., software instructions), where the instructions may be stored in a suitable data storage element. In some embodiments, one or more of the operations, functions, processes, or methods described herein may be implemented by a specialized form of hardware, such as a programmable gate array, application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or the like. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.
Prior to describing one or more exemplary embodiments of the inventive system and methods, it is noted that in the context of the invention, the following terms are to be considered to have at least the indicated meaning(s);
As described, embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems, apparatuses, and methods for enabling a retailer to specify or define content that they wish to be presented to a customer/shopper, based on one or more identifiers/tags and/or “rules” that the retailer is able to define. An identifier or tag may be defined in terms of one or more of a customer characteristic (i.e., attribute), a network characteristic, a retailer characteristic, the device being used by the customer, the value of certain ERP, CRM, eCommerce or other data relevant to the retailer, etc.
The retailer may also define one or more content rules (e.g., in the form of conditions, tests, decision processes, etc.) based on an attribute value or values, where the content rule(s) may use any applicable or relevant attribute or data value, condition, relationship, threshold, characteristic, or criteria to specify when and/or which content is to be presented to a customer/shopper. In one embodiment, when a process coupled to a data processing system (such as a multi-tenant data processing platform) determines the value of one or more of the specified/defined attributes or other relevant data, the applicable content rule or rules are evaluated and applied to determine the characteristics of content (such as type, storage location, or placement) that are to be accessed and delivered to the shopper.
In one embodiment, a rule may be of any suitable logical form, such as “If [certain parameters have specified values], then access content from location X”, but “If parameter A has a value within a range of {a. . . b}, then access content part Y from location Xl”. In one embodiment, a rule may have the form of a “trigger” such that if a certain parameter (or group of parameters) have a value that exceeds a specified threshold, then certain content is accessed and presented (this might be used to offer a customer a special sale price based on inventory levels, the expected availability of a new model, trends in customer spending, etc.). In one embodiment, a rule may depend on a rate of change of one or more parameters; for example, if inventory levels are changing at a certain rate, then one set of content is presented, but if the levels are changing at a different rate, then a different set of content is presented. In one embodiment, a rule may depend on business related parameters (inventory) and real-time values of consumer behavior (browsing, rate of click-through, conversion rate, etc.).
In general, a rule may depend on or be a function of one or more of customer specific attributes/data (customer type, device type, customer purchase history, customer browsing history, customer actual or inferred demographic data, etc.), retailer specific attributes/data (inventory level, profit margin, rate of change of inventory level, location of warehouse, location of store, etc.), and other relevant data (season, relationship to upcoming event, etc.). The flexibility in defining the data to be presented, the conditions under which to present it, and the placement of the data (such as the delivery format and arrangement) provided by an embodiment of the inventive system and methods permits a retailer to deliver targeted content to a customer based on multiple and in some cases dynamic parameters. This enables the delivered content to be more relevant to the customer and more closely aligned with the retailer's business operations.
In one embodiment, a process may search for and identify the content that satisfies a content rule or rules (which may involve consideration of attribute or data values, thresholds, criteria, rules, conditions, comparisons, relationships, rates of change, etc. among one or more sources of data resident on a data processing platform). The content satisfying the applicable content rule or rules is returned to a process which presents the content to the shopper. As noted, the presented content and/or its format may depend on one or more of the shopper's browsing behavior, the shopper's previous purchase behavior, the shopper's demographics, the device or data connection being used by the shopper, the location of the shopper, the shopper's profile with the retailer, the retailer's current ERP, CRM, eCommerce or other operational data (such as inventory level, sales, revenue, profit margin, etc.), the retailer's local promotions or events, etc.
As noted, in some embodiments, the invention may be implemented in the context of a multi-tenant, “cloud” based environment (such as a multi-tenant business data processing platform), typically used to develop and provide web services and business applications for end users. This exemplary implementation environment will be described with reference to
Modern computer networks incorporate layers of virtualization so that physically remote computers and computer components can be allocated to a particular task and then reallocated when the task is done. Users sometimes speak in terms of computing “clouds” because of the way groups of computers and computing components can form and split responsive to user demand, and because users often never see the computing hardware that ultimately provides the computing services. More recently, different types of computing clouds and cloud services have begun emerging.
For the purposes of this description, cloud services may be divided broadly into “low level” services and “high level” services. Low level cloud services (sometimes called “raw” or “commodity” services) typically provide little more than virtual versions of a newly purchased physical computer system: virtual disk storage space, virtual processing power, an operating system, and perhaps a database such as an RDBMS. In contrast, high or higher level cloud services typically focus on one or more well-defined end user applications, such as business oriented applications. Some high level cloud services provide an ability to customize and/or extend the functionality of one or more of the end user applications they provide; however, high level cloud services typically do not provide direct access to low level computing functions.
The ability of business users to access crucial business information has been greatly enhanced by the proliferation of IP-based networking together with advances in object oriented Web-based programming and browser technology. Using these advances, systems have been developed that permit web-based access to business information systems, thereby allowing a user with a browser and an Internet or intranet connection to view, enter, or modify business information. For example, substantial efforts have been directed to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that integrate the capabilities of several historically separate business computing systems into a common system, with a view toward streamlining business processes and increasing efficiencies on a business-wide level. By way of example, the capabilities or modules of an ERP system may include (but are not required to include, nor limited to only including): accounting, order processing, time and billing, inventory management, retail point of sale (POS) systems, eCommerce, product information management (PIM), demand/material requirements planning (MRP), purchasing, content management systems (CMS), professional services automation (PSA), employee management/payroll, human resources management, and employee calendaring and collaboration, as well as reporting and analysis capabilities relating to these functions.
In a related development, substantial efforts have also been directed to integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, with a view toward obtaining a better understanding of customers, enhancing service to existing customers, and acquiring new and profitable customers. By way of example, the capabilities or modules of a CRM system can include (but are not required to include, nor limited to only including): sales force automation (SFA), marketing automation, contact list, call center support, returns management authorization (RMA), loyalty program support, and web-based customer support, as well as reporting and analysis capabilities relating to these functions. With differing levels of overlap with ERP/CRM initiatives and with each other, efforts have also been directed toward development of increasingly integrated partner and vendor management systems, as well as web store/eCommerce, product lifecycle management (PLM), and supply chain management (SCM) functionality.
Integrated business system 102, which may be hosted by a dedicated third party ASP, may include an integrated business server 114 and a web interface server 116, coupled as shown in
The ERP module 118 may include, but is not limited to, a finance and accounting module, an order processing module, a time and billing module, an inventory management and distribution module, an employee management and payroll module, a calendaring and collaboration module, a reporting and analysis module, and other ERP-related modules. The CRM module 120 may include, but is not limited to, a sales force automation (SFA) module, a marketing automation module, a contact list module (not shown), a call center support module, a web-based customer support module, a reporting and analysis module, and other CRM-related modules. The integrated business server 114 (or multi-tenant data processing platform) further may provide other business functionalities including a web store/eCommerce module 122, a partner and vendor management module 124, and an integrated reporting module 130. An SCM (supply chain management) module 126 and PLM (product lifecycle management) module 130 may also be provided. Web interface server 116 is configured and adapted to interface with the integrated business server 114 to provide one or more web-based user interfaces to end users of the enterprise network 104.
The integrated business system shown in
The distributed computing service/platform (which may also be referred to as a multi-tenant business data processing platform) 208 may include multiple processing tiers, including a user interface tier 216, an application server tier 220, and a data storage tier 224. The user interface tier 216 may maintain multiple user interfaces 217, including graphical user interfaces and/or web-based interfaces. The user interfaces may include a default user interface for the service to provide access to applications and data for a user or “tenant” of the service (depicted as “Service UI” in the figure), as well as one or more user interfaces that have been specialized/customized in accordance with user specific requirements (e.g., represented by “Tenant A UI”, . . . , “Tenant Z UI” in the figure, and which may be accessed via one or more APIs). The default user interface may include components enabling a tenant to administer the tenant's participation in the functions and capabilities provided by the service platform, such as accessing data, causing the execution of specific data processing operations, etc. Each processing tier shown in the figure may be implemented with a set of computers and/or computer components including computer servers and processors, and may perform various functions, methods, processes, or operations as determined by the execution of a software application or set of instructions. The data storage tier 224 may include one or more data stores, which may include a Service Data store 225 and one or more Tenant Data stores 226.
Each tenant data store 226 may contain tenant-specific data that is used as part of providing a range of tenant-specific business services or functions, including but not limited to ERP, CRM, eCommerce, Human Resources management, payroll, etc. Data stores may be implemented with any suitable data storage technology, including structured query language (SQL) based relational database management systems (RDBMS).
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, distributed computing service/platform 208 may be multi-tenant and service platform 208 may be operated by an entity in order to provide multiple tenants with a set of business related applications, data storage, and functionality. These applications and functionality may include ones that a business uses to manage various aspects of its operations. For example, the applications and functionality may include providing web-based access to business information systems, thereby allowing a user with a browser and an Internet or intranet connection to view, enter, process, or modify certain types of business information.
As noted, such business information systems may include an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that integrates the capabilities of several historically separate business computing systems into a common system, with the intention of streamlining business processes and increasing efficiencies on a business-wide level. By way of example, the capabilities or modules of an ERP system may include: accounting, order processing, time and billing, inventory management, employee management/payroll, and employee calendaring and collaboration, as well as reporting and analysis capabilities relating to these functions. Another business information system that may be provided as part of an integrated service platform is an integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which is designed to assist in obtaining a better understanding of customers, enhance service to existing customers, and assist in acquiring new and profitable customers. By way of example, the capabilities or modules of a CRM system may include: sales force automation (SFA), marketing automation, contact list management, call center support, and web-based customer support, as well as reporting and analysis capabilities relating to these functions. In addition to ERP and CRM functions, a business information system/platform (such as element 208 of
Note that both functional advantages and strategic advantages may be gained through the use of an integrated business system comprising ERP, CRM, and other business capabilities, as for example where the integrated business system is integrated with a merchant's eCommerce platform and/or “web-store.” For example, a customer searching for a particular product can be directed to a merchant's website and presented with a wide array of product and/or services from the comfort of their home computer, or even from their mobile phone. When a customer initiates an online sales transaction via a browser-based interface, the integrated business system can process the order, update accounts receivable, update inventory databases and other ERP-based systems, and can also automatically update strategic customer information databases and other CRM-based systems. These modules and other applications and functionalities may advantageously be integrated and executed by a single code base accessing one or more integrated databases as necessary, forming an integrated business management system or platform.
As will be described in greater detail, this ability to store, access, and process a variety of business related data within one platform or “suite” of applications enables embodiments of the invention to provide users with greater flexibility in defining the parameters of a customized content delivery process for customers. For example, embodiments include methods of content selection and delivery that may depend at least in part on real-time or pseudo real-time values of business data (e.g., revenue, sales levels, inventory levels, operating costs) and/or customer characteristics (e.g., type of device, location, location relative to a store, current spend, expected spend, etc.).
The integrated business system shown in
Rather than build and maintain such an integrated business system themselves, a business may utilize systems provided by a third party. Such a third party may implement an integrated business system/platform as described above in the context of a multi-tenant platform, wherein individual instantiations of a single comprehensive integrated business system are provided to a variety of tenants. One advantage to such multi-tenant platforms is the ability for each tenant to customize their instantiation of the integrated business system to that tenant's specific business needs or operational methods. Each tenant may be a business or entity that uses the multi-tenant platform to provide business data and/or functionality to multiple users (such as employees and customers). Some of those multiple users may have distinct roles or responsibilities within the business or entity. In some embodiments, the invention provides a method for enabling a user (such as a retailer) to define/specify content that is to be delivered to a shopper who is visiting the user's eCommerce website. This may provide a more effective way to encourage a shopper to make a purchase, enroll in a warranty or loyalty program, participate in a local event, view content that is formatted for the customer's device, etc.
In some cases, a tenant may desire to modify or supplement the functionality of an existing platform application by introducing an extension to that application, where the extension is to be made available to the tenant's employees and/or customers. In some cases such an extension may be applied to the processing of the tenant's business related data that is resident on the platform. The extension may be developed by the tenant or by a 3rd party developer and then made available to the tenant for installation. The platform may include a “library” or catalog of available extensions, which can be accessed by a tenant and searched to identify an extension of interest. Software developers may be permitted to “publish” an extension to the library or catalog after appropriate validation of a proposed extension.
Thus, in an effort to permit tenants to obtain the services and functionality that they desire (which may include providing certain services to their end customers, such as functionality associated with an eCommerce platform), a multi-tenant service platform may permit a tenant to configure certain aspects of the available service(s) to better suit their business needs. In this way aspects of the service platform may be customizable, and thereby enable a tenant to configure aspects of the platform to provide distinctive services to their respective users or to groups of those users. For example, a business enterprise that uses the service platform may want to provide additional functions or capabilities to their employees and/or customers, or to cause their business data to be processed in a specific way in accordance with a defined workflow that is tailored to their business needs, etc.
Tenant customizations to the platform may include custom functionality (such as the capability to perform tenant or user-specific functions, data processing, or operations) built on top of lower level operating system functions. Some multi-tenant service platforms may offer the ability to customize functions or operations at a number of different levels of the service platform, from aesthetic modifications to a graphical user interface to providing integration of components and/or entire applications developed by independent third party vendors. This can be very beneficial, since by permitting use of components and/or applications developed by third party vendors, a multi-tenant service can significantly enhance the functionality available to tenants and increase tenant satisfaction with the platform. As one example, some or all of the functionality of the inventive processes or methods may be executed by an extension that is made available to one or more tenants.
As noted, in addition to user customizations, an independent software developer may create an extension to a particular application that is available to users through a multi-tenant data processing platform. The extension may add new functionality or capabilities to the underlying application. One or more tenants/users of the platform may wish to add the extension to the underlying application in order to be able to utilize the enhancements to the application that are made possible by the extension. Further, the developer may wish to upgrade or provide a patch to the extension as they recognize a need for fixes or additional functionality that would be beneficial to incorporate into the extension. In some cases the developer may prefer to make the upgrade available to only a select set of users (at least initially) in order to obtain feedback for improving the newer version of the extension, to test the stability of the extension, or to assist them to segment the market for their extension(s).
As noted,
The application layer 310 may include one or more application modules 311, each having one or more sub-modules 312. Each application module 311 or sub-module 312 may correspond to a particular function, method, process, or operation that is implemented by the module or sub-module. Such function, method, process, or operation may include those used to implement one or more aspects of an ERP, CRM, eCommerce, or other business related data processing operation. Such function, method, process, or operation may also include those used to implement one or more aspects of the inventive system and methods, such as for:
The application modules and/or sub-modules may include any suitable computer-executable code or set of instructions (e.g., as would be executed by a suitably programmed processor, microprocessor, or CPU), such as computer-executable code corresponding to a programming language. For example, programming language source code may be compiled into computer-executable code. Alternatively, or in addition, the programming language may be an interpreted programming language such as a scripting language. Each application server (e.g., as represented by element 222 of
The data storage layer 320 may include one or more data objects 322 each having one or more data object components 321, such as attributes and/or behaviors. For example, the data objects may correspond to tables of a relational database, and the data object components may correspond to columns or fields of such tables. Alternatively, or in addition, the data objects may correspond to data records having fields and associated services. Alternatively, or in addition, the data objects may correspond to persistent instances of programmatic data objects, such as structures and classes. Each data store in the data storage layer may include each data object. Alternatively, different data stores may include different sets of data objects. Such sets may be disjoint or overlapping.
Note that the example computing environments depicted in
In general terms, the processes illustrated in
In the exemplary embodiment shown in
The value of the selected attribute may be used by the retailer to determine the content elements presented to a customer for purposes of advertising, encouraging a purchase, providing information, requesting an opinion or comments, or other types of campaigns or interactions. Typically, the content elements will be presented to the customer in the form of a webpage (directly or via a provided link/URL), although the content elements may also be presented in other forms, including but not limited to, email, an image, a video, etc.
In the next set of steps or stages (identified as “User/Retailer Defines Data Sources, Content Placement and Rules/Conditions” in the figure, and which may occur in an order or sequence different than that illustrated), the retailer may specify or select a desired destination for presenting the determined content elements (typically in the form of a URL or other location address, as in step or stage 412). In some embodiments, this may represent a webpage which the customer will be provided for viewing after it is constructed from the determined content elements (which may include a banner, text, images, video, etc.). The retailer may also specify a rule or condition which partially or wholly determines when certain content elements are to be used for presentation to a customer (as in step or stage 414).
In one embodiment, this rule or condition may take the form of “If attribute value=X, then content to be presented is Y” (where “Y” may describe something about the desired content elements, such as an identifier or common characteristic), or “If attribute value=X, then content to be presented is located at Z” (as suggested by step or stage 416). For example, if the attribute is a device type, then if the device type equals “mobile”, a rule may direct the process to access content elements located in a specific directory, network location, folder, etc. Such a directory, network location, or folder may contain a group of content elements (banners, display advertisements, coupons, images, etc.) that the retailer wishes to present to a customer using a mobile device. In one embodiment, the location may contain content elements that are themselves tagged or otherwise identified by the attribute value so that the process can select them from among a larger group of elements.
The retailer may also specify or select a desired arrangement or presentation of the content elements (as suggested by step or stage 418). This may involve specifying a template or form of layout into which the content elements are to be inserted. It may also or instead involve specifying a name or location of a directory, network location, or folder that contains a definition or description of a webpage or other form of display that will be constructed using the content elements. The information, data, rules, etc. provided by the retailer are then saved and stored for later access and execution.
At a later time (typically when a customer navigates to a URL (such as a retailer's home page or a page of a catalog) or submits a query), one or more attribute values may be discovered or determined by a process or system element (as suggested by step or stage 420). For example, by processing a customer's search query, it may be possible to identify certain information about the customer's device, the network being used by the customer, the customer's general location, etc. In some embodiments, an application or process that is executed by a point of sale terminal (POS), eCommerce application installed on a customer's device, or a retailer's web-site may derive, access, or otherwise obtain data that represents an attribute value. This discovered information, either alone or in combination with other information known to the system (such as season, date, events promoted by the retailer, etc.) may then be used to determine one or more attribute values. These attribute values may then be used to determine the location and presentation of a set of desired content elements (as suggested by the steps or stages identified as “Desired Content Determined, Accessed and Presented” in the figure, and which may occur in an order or sequence different than that illustrated).
Based on the discovered or determined value for one or more attributes, a Content Acquisition and Placement application or process may then use that information to access information regarding the location, placement, and applicable rules or conditions for that attribute and value, or attributes and values (step or stage 422). This may involve using the attribute/value to determine a directory, URL, folder, etc. which contains a set of content elements and/or applicable rules or conditions. A rule or condition may then be evaluated to determine the specific content elements to utilize from that location (e.g., “If attribute value=X, then present content element set 1”, or “If attribute value=Y, then present content element set 2”, etc.), as suggested by step or stage 424 of
Next, the process accesses the appropriate set of content elements and generates the desired presentation of those elements, as suggested by step or stage 426. Note that the identification of the appropriate content elements and their presentation may be determined by a rule or condition that takes into account the value of one or more attributes. For example, the presentation may depend on a “tag” or identifier associated with a content element, or a template, style sheet, or webpage definition associated with a specific attribute or attribute value, etc. For instance, if the attributes of interest are “season” and “device type”, then a rule may cause the process to access a specific folder and presentation template when “season =fall” and “device type =mobile”, but a different folder and presentation template when “season =fall” and “device type =laptop”, etc. Further, the presentation template may define spaces or locations on a webpage for various content elements based on a “tag” or identifier associated with an element or some other way of determining where a specific element or type of element should be placed for presentation to a customer. After evaluating any applicable rules or conditions, accessing the appropriate content elements, and generating the appropriate presentation of the content elements, the elements are presented to the customer in the form of a webpage, form, image, document, etc. (as suggested by step or stage 428 of the figure).
Note that the embodiment incorporating the process, method, function, or operation described with reference to
In another embodiment, these steps or sub-processes may be extended/expanded to include a more complex and data-dependent implementation of these or other aspects of the inventive systems and processes. For example:
As examples of an identifier that may be used in implementing an embodiment of the invention, the following represent possible use cases where a different set of content might be presented to a customer:
In general, the identifier is a short-hand label or code for a set of content that the retailer or user desires to have delivered to a customer based on a specific characteristic of the customer (such as type of device, location relative to a store, typical spending habits, etc.) or another relevant factor (such as season, time of day, etc.). Note that in some embodiments, the label or identifier itself might be determined as the result of evaluating one or more attribute values, such as an attribute based on the season, month, time of day, etc.
As described, once the user has created an identifier (or selected an existing one for purposes of editing), a set of steps related to definition of data sources, the determination of desired content, and the placement of that content are executed. As described with reference to step or stage 412, the user is requested to specify the desired location or destination for the selected content. In one example, this might be a URL such as “www.business.mobile”, a network data storage location from which the desired content will be accessed in generating a webpage to serve to a customer, etc. Next, the user may be requested to specify or define one or more rules, conditions, threshold values, or other forms of determining whether certain content should be provided to the customer (as described with reference to step or stage 414 of
As described herein, a retailer may define one or more content rules (e.g., in the form of relationships, conditions, tests, decision processes, etc.) to be applied to determine which content elements (e.g., banners, advertisements, text, images, etc.) to present to a customer. In one embodiment, the content rule(s) may use any applicable or relevant data value, condition, relationship, threshold, characteristic, or criteria to determine when and/or which content is to be presented. In one embodiment, when a process or application coupled to a data processing system (such as a multi-tenant data processing platform) determines the value of one or more of the specified/defined data or data types, the applicable content rule or rules are evaluated and the result applied to determine the characteristics of the content that is to be accessed and delivered to the customer.
These characteristics may include one or more of type, format, storage location (based on a URL, network address, or an identifier/label for a folder, category, event, or item), presentation location (based on a URL, network address, an identifier for content of a specific type and having an associated presentation location (such as an item ID, event name, season), etc.), the set of content that is to be presented and that is contained within a larger set of content (based on an identifier or tag), the presentation format or description (based on reference to a template, style sheet, web-page definition, outline, etc.), etc. In one embodiment, a process controlling the selection and presentation of content elements may submit a query, access a data store, receive and interpret a “published” stream of data, or use other means to obtain information it needs to evaluate one or more rules or conditions.
The content elements are accessible by the process at a location (data storage location, network location, etc.) associated with the user specified identifier, and may themselves be identified by that identifier. As an example, content elements to be used for a summer sale may be stored in a directory or file associated with the identifier “Sale: summer”. In another example, content elements may be identified by a “tag” that specifies a content element type (e.g., banner). In another example, such content elements may be identified by a “tag” that specifies a use case (e.g., Summer Sale) and a content element type (e.g., banner). In addition, the user may specify the arrangement or placement of the content elements with reference to a template or structure for a display, webpage, etc.
As described, in one embodiment, a rule may be of any suitable logical form, such as “If [certain parameters have specified values], then access all content elements from location X”, but “If parameter A has a value within a range of {a . . . b}, then access content element Y from location X1 ”. In the same or another embodiment, the rule may have the form of a “trigger” such that if a certain parameter (or group of parameters) have a value that exceeds a specified threshold, then certain content is accessed and presented (this might be used to offer a customer a special sale price based on inventory levels, the expected availability of a new model, trends in customer spending, etc.). In the same or another embodiment, the rule may depend on a rate of change of one or more parameters; for example, if inventory levels are changing at a certain rate, then one set of content is presented, but if the levels are changing at a different rate, then a different set of content is presented. In the same or another embodiment, a rule may depend on business related parameters (inventory) and real-time values of consumer behavior (browsing, rate of click-through, time spent viewing a specific product or page, conversion rate, etc.).
In general, a rule may depend on or be a function of one or more of customer specific attributes/data (customer type, device type, customer purchase history, customer browsing history, customer actual or inferred demographic data, etc.), retailer specific attributes/data (inventory level, profit margin, rate of change of inventory level, location of warehouse, location of store, etc.), and other relevant data (season, relationship to upcoming event, etc.). The flexibility in defining the data to be presented, the conditions under which to present it, and the placement of the data (such as the delivery format and arrangement) provided by embodiments of the inventive system and methods permits a retailer to deliver targeted content to a customer based on multiple and in some cases dynamic parameters. This enables the delivered content to be more relevant to the customer and more closely aligned with the retailer's business operations and interests.
In order to implement an embodiment of the invention, it may be helpful to define a data schema that can be used to represent some of the relations or data types used by the systems and processes that are part of the embodiment. Although not required, this may provide a more efficient way of organizing and processing data used to perform one or more of the processes or operations described herein.
As an example,
Embodiments of the inventive system and methods may be used to define and apply one or more rules or conditions that when satisfied, result in specific content being accessed and presented to a customer. The rules or conditions may be based on current or time averaged values of one or more business parameters (such as revenue, sales level, profit margin, inventory level, rate of change of inventory, relative sales at a specific store location, etc.) in combination with customer specific data (such as customer location, customer browsing behavior, customer transaction history, expected customer spend level, etc.). The content accessed and presented may be related to business advertising, promotional offerings, discounts, product information, business announcements, local activities, etc. In this way embodiments of the invention leverage the multiple types of business data available on a multi-tenant platform (and the associated business applications) to permit a business owner or operator to identify and provide targeted content to a customer or prospective customer in ways that conventional systems cannot. As noted, the ability to store, access, and process a variety of business related data within one platform or “suite” of applications enables embodiments of the invention to provide users with greater flexibility in defining the parameters of a customized content delivery process for customers.
For example, a business owner can use an embodiment of the invention to implement one or more of the following example scenarios or “campaigns”:
As described, in some embodiments, a front-end application such as a website, shopping application, point of sale (POS) terminal application, etc. may be used to determine the value(s) of one or more specified attributes that are relevant to determining the storage location and/or specific content to be delivered to a customer (as described with reference to the step or stage 420 of
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the system, apparatus, methods, processes, functions, and/or operations for enabling efficient configuration and presentation of a user interface to a user based on the user's previous behavior may be wholly or partially implemented in the form of a set of instructions executed by one or more programmed computer processors such as a central processing unit (CPU) or microprocessor. Such processors may be incorporated in an apparatus, server, client or other computing or data processing device operated by, or in communication with, other components of the system. As an example,
It should be understood that the present invention as described above can be implemented in the form of control logic using computer software in a modular or integrated manner. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will know and appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement the present invention using hardware and a combination of hardware and software.
Any of the software components, processes or functions described in this application may be implemented as software code to be executed by a processor using any suitable computer language such as, for example, Java, Javascript, C++ or Perl using, for example, conventional or object-oriented techniques. The software code may be stored as a series of instructions, or commands on a computer readable medium, such as a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such as a hard-drive or a floppy disk, or an optical medium such as a CD-ROM. Any such computer readable medium may reside on or within a single computational apparatus, and may be present on or within different computational apparatuses within a system or network.
All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and/or were set forth in its entirety herein.
The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in the specification and in the following claims are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms “having,” “including,” “containing” and similar referents in the specification and in the following claims are to be construed as open-ended terms (e.g., meaning “including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely indented to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value inclusively falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate embodiments of the invention and does not pose a limitation to the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to each embodiment of the present invention.
Different arrangements of the components depicted in the drawings or described above, as well as components and steps not shown or described are possible. Similarly, some features and sub-combinations are useful and may be employed without reference to other features and sub-combinations. Embodiments of the invention have been described for illustrative and not restrictive purposes, and alternative embodiments will become apparent to readers of this patent. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above or depicted in the drawings, and various embodiments and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the claims below.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/987,368, entitled “System and Method for Using User-Defined Tags to Specify Content Targeting Rules,” filed May 1, 2014, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety (including Appendix) for all purposes.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61987368 | May 2014 | US |
