Customer-Centric Supply Index Generation for Merchant Promotions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for determining the health or quality of available supply fail to accurately provide a metric that correlates with business output, as they typically count inventory by location or category without considering customer-specific information, leading to an inability to identify where an increase in supply would most positively impact value.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that generate a supply index by calculating and aggregating a supply metric from the perspective of individual customers, using weighted renderable data objects, coverage caps, and travel propensity to identify locations where an increase in supply would most benefit customers, incorporating GPS data and customer location clustering for real-time processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional methods count inventory by location or category, then the measurement process is simple, but the accuracy of supply quality assessment deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the supply assessment into multiple components: renderable data objects, weights, coverage caps, and customer-specific metrics. Instead of treating supply as a single aggregate value, the system divides it into discrete elements that can be individually evaluated and combined to produce a comprehensive supply index that accurately reflects supply quality from customer perspectives.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new dimension to supply measurement by incorporating customer-specific perspectives and travel propensity. Rather than measuring supply solely by location or category, the system adds the dimension of customer reach and accessibility, creating a multi-dimensional supply index that accounts for how far customers will travel to access promotions and what value they derive from available supply.
2Measurement precision
If customer-specific information is incorporated into supply metrics, then the accuracy of identifying high-impact locations improves, but the computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating travel propensity for different customer segments and pre-defining coverage caps for various geographic regions. These preliminary calculations are stored and reused when generating supply indices, avoiding the need to recalculate them from scratch for each assessment. This approach maintains high measurement precision while reducing the computational burden of repeated evaluations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by tailoring the supply index calculation to specific geographic regions and customer segments. Rather than using a uniform assessment method everywhere, the system adjusts weights, coverage caps, and travel propensity parameters to reflect local conditions, such as urban versus rural areas or different demographic regions. This enables accurate identification of high-impact locations while managing computational complexity through localized rather than universal calculations.
3Speed
If real-time processing of GPS data and customer locations is implemented, then the responsiveness of supply index generation improves, but the processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuity of useful action by maintaining continuous updates of customer locations and supply indices through mobile applications and backend systems. Rather than periodic batch processing, the system continuously receives GPS data, updates customer locations, and regenerates supply indices in real-time. This continuous operation enables immediate identification of supply gaps and high-impact locations, improving responsiveness while distributing processing load over time to manage energy consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, apparatus, and computer program, each configured for gauging the health or quality of available supply, are provided. An exemplary method for generating a supply index indicative of a quality or health of supply by calculating and aggregating a supply metric calculated from a perspective of each of a plurality of individual customers to identify those locations where an increase in supply would most positively impact value to customers comprises identifying a location of a user, identifying at least a portion of each of one or more renderable data objects available to a user located at the location, applying a first weight to each of the portion of each of the one or more renderable data objects, calculating a total of each of the weights, applying a coverage cap to determine a capped total, and generating a supply index comprised of aggregated capped totals.