CLIAMS:We claim:

1. A method comprising:
a. obtaining of user preferences data from their mobile and/or desktop devices and similar devices worn on body of an individual;
b. determining the purchase intent of the user in relation to the said data mentioned in (a);
c. obtaining of sellers and/or service providers data along with their business’s specific events and or information including offers, new arrivals, stock exhaustion, closures etc;
d. determining the sell intent of the business in relation to the said data mentioned in (c);
e. associating the purchase intent of the user with the sell intent of the business, to predict Transaction Completion Probability Score in relation to a particular transaction between a particular user and a particular business.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:
a. rendering of information of businesses specific to those businesses which includes information on inventory position, closure days, timings.
3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:
a. determination of the eligibility of the businesses to rank them in an orderly fashion to appear for a transaction requested by the user;
4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:
a. rendering of real-time accurate contact information of the businesses;
5. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:
a. notifications of the transaction likely/ought to be happening in a particular point of time;
b. notifications, which are given to user/consumers, as a reminder sort of.

6. A system comprising:
a. use of computerised mechanisms to obtain user preferences data from their mobile and/or desktop devices and similar devices worn on body of an individual;
b. intent engine rules to determine the purchase intent of the user in relation to the said data mentioned in (a);
c. use of computerised mechanisms to obtain sellers and/or service providers data along with their business’s specific events and or information including offers, new arrivals, stock exhaustion, closures etc;
d. intent engine rules to determine the sell intent of the business in relation to the said data mentioned in (c);
e. computation engine that associates the purchase intent of the user with the sell intent of the business, to predict Transaction Completion Probability Score in relation to a particular transaction between a particular user and a particular business.

7. A system according to claim 6, wherein:
a. information of businesses specific to that business which includes information on inventory position, closure days, timings are rendered.
8. A system according to claim 6, wherein:
a. one or more eligibility engine rules that determines the eligibility of the businesses in order to rank them in an orderly fashion to appear for a transaction requested by the user;
9. A system according to claim 6, wherein:
a. real-time accurate contact information of the businesses are rendered;
10. A system according to claim 6, wherein:
a. users are notified in advance of the transaction likely/ought to be happening in a particular point of time;
b. notifications, which are given to user/consumers, as a reminder sort of. ,TagSPECI:METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PREDICTING TRANSACTION COMPLETION PROBABILITY SCORE

Inventors: Rahul Suresh Kulkarni, Srinivasa Venkoba Rao, Vik Mohapatra & Anand Jay Ghorpade

FIELD OF INVENTION

[0001] In the present application, “User” means the person who is using mobile or desktop devices or similar devices worn on body of the person. User may be referred to as “Buyer” or “Consumer” at certain places. Here in the whole document, User, Buyer and Consumer would mean the same whether in singular or plural sense.

[0002] In the present application, the “Business” means the business that is selling products of any kind and /or service provider who is rendering services of any kind. Business is also referred to as “Seller” or “Service Provider” at certain places. Here in the whole document, Business, Service Provider and Seller would mean the same whether in singular or plural sense.

[0003] This invention broadly relates to the prediction of transaction completion probability score for the purchase of goods and /or services by a user and probability of selling of those goods and/or services by a business. This invention mainly intends to help the consumers in making effective purchases from the most appropriate seller of goods and/or services.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION (STATE OF ART)

[0004] Now-a-days many websites have started disseminating contact information of businesses and service providers, including the information of the products and / or services provided by them. This information further helps the users in making an appropriate choice and proceeding with the Business Transaction, either online or offline. Most of the time the information presented to the users is either presented from a buyer’s perspective or from a seller’s perspective. Hence, it is lacking a combined perspective for the success of that transaction.

[0005] Currently, some websites just provide information related to basic parameters of the seller such as inventory/stock position and user ratings. These websites fail to account for the propensity of the seller to sell the product at the time the buyer wants to buy, at the place the buyer wants to buy, so as to facilitate the user the best possible scenario for the success of the transaction, they intend to make.

[0006] For example, an user who is very hungry wants to pick an Italian restaurant to go to on Tuesday 8pm when it's raining. He considers going to a restaurant named “Tuscany”. On Tuesday at 8pm, this restaurant is known to be very crowded and there is a less likelihood of being served food quickly, which is the primary objective of the user in addition to wanting to eat Italian food. Moreover, when it rains, the availability of parking near the restaurant decreases significantly. Even if the user went to the restaurant, the probability that he will actually get a parking spot and then wait around to get a table is very minimal, thus leading to a very low probability of this transaction being completed. This can be avoided by the present invention. In this particular case i.e. when the user searches for an Italian restaurant on Tuesday at 8pm when it's raining, the Transaction Completion Probability Score would be low for the said Italian restaurant taking into account user preference around time-to-food, current weather conditions co-relating to availability of parking near the restaurant and the real-time, hyperlocal insight about the time it takes to get served in that particular restaurant at a particular time. The user will be offered similar Italian restaurants that would be less crowded at that time but that the user has frequented before multiple times, indicating that the food is acceptable to the user. As a result, not only will the transaction with the suggested restaurant be completed, but also will result in a good user experience.

[0007] Therefore, there is a need in the art for improvement in methods and systems for helping the user in increasing their chances of completing a transaction which they intend to make at any particular point of time. It would also greatly help the sellers who want to sell, to get the buyers at the right time at which they can sell.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] A method and system for predicting transaction completion probability score for a particular transaction between a particular user and a particular business. User preferences data and business signals data are collected and stored. User purchase intent and business sell intent are arrived at on the base of user preferences data and business signals data. A combination of user purchase intent and business sell intent derives the transaction completion probability score.

[0009] In the present invention, the intention is to help users (who are ultimately the consumers of products and services) by suggesting to them the best possible transaction for their enquiry for purchase of product(s) or for availing of service(s) from a particular business or a particular service provider. Hence, when a particular user searches for a particular product or service by using the mobile application and/or website, the system through its intent engine, identifies the purchase intent of the user and combining with the computed available sell intent of various businesses, arrives at the “Transaction Completion Probability Score” for each of the businesses in the descending order (highest at the top, lowest at the bottom).

[0010] On the basis of the Transaction Completion Probability Score for the query of the user, the user decides which business he has to select for his transaction. The business having highest score is the most advisable one for going ahead with the transaction.

OBJECT OF INVENTION

[0011] The primary object of this invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the known art.

[0012] The objective of this invention is to provide platforms to the consumers to identify and suggest the best possible transactions with businesses for buying of goods and/or services for respective query of the consumer, strongly backed with the real time and historical data of their intentions and /or needs.

[0013] Another objective of the invention is to address the day to day information needs of the consumers by serving them with the most relevant business information for any particular point of time in a day.

[0014] Another object is to help the consumers by notifying them in advance of the latest and best offers for purchase of goods or availing of services available in the area or shops they are visiting regularly.

[0015] Another object of this invention is to address the need and bridge the gap in lack of sufficient and relevant business information and data, including the information on events of a business or businesses in total of an area at the hyperlocal level. The trigger for this event may relate to a particular business or a business community of a certain ethnicity or arising out of an occasion during certain period of time or season or even triggered by the occurrence of certain events not anticipated earlier.

[0016] Another object of this invention is to make available this facility, in an application system, which can be used in any handheld devices such as Mobile, Smartphones, Tablets, iPads, Watch and/or any other Handheld devices and or devices which can be worn on a body such as spectacles or as may be evolved from time to time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] Having thus generally described the invention, reference will be made to the accompanying drawings, illustrating an embodiment thereof, in which:

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating overall method & system for transaction completion probability score.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the process of collation of user preferences data.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the process of collation of business signals data.
FIG. 4 is a system diagram illustrating the method of determining user purchase intent and business sell intent.
FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting the end result of the present invention.

[0018] The figures depict a preferred embodiment of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the systems and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] The following detailed description describes the whole process, including various methods and systems involved, in arriving at the final result from the present invention i.e. the transaction completion probability score 109. The output out of the present invention is mainly derived out of the intelligence arrived at from the combination of various data gathered, mostly automated, by use of appropriate technology.

[0020] In the following detailed description references are being made to the respective drawings provided herein, which are further described by way of illustrations of various examples. Drawings are referred by means of several figures, and within each figure numerals have been assigned to various aspect of the present invention. In the below description these numerals are being referred at the respective places.

[0021] Referring to FIG. 1, it is a flow diagram illustrating the overall method of transaction completion probability score 109. As illustrated there, the users 101 who are using mobile, desktop and similar devices (may be worn on body) wherein through the use of data network 103 (telecom sim & internet connection) they install and use the mobile application and/or website 104 to search for information of various businesses and enquiring about some products and/or services. Now, it is essential that this mobile application and website must provide the information of such businesses and their products and/or services, for which the Business 102 information are also collected and updated from time to time. These businesses also use the data network 103 to install the mobile application and/or website 104 to input, in advance or from time to time, their information as described in detail in Fig. 3. All these information about the businesses are combinedly called as the “Business Signals Data” 106. Further user preferences data 105 is collected by means of various methods as described in detail in Fig. 2.

[0022] In the present invention, the intention is to help users 101 (who are the ultimate consumers of products and services) by suggesting to them the best possible transaction for their enquiry for purchase of product(s) or availing of service(s) from business 102. Hence, when a particular user searches for a product or service by using the mobile application and/or website 104, the system 402 through intent engine 403 identifies the purchase intent 107 of the user and combining with the already available sell intent 108 of various businesses, arrives at the “Transaction Completion Probability Scores” 109 for each of the businesses in the descending order (highest at the top, lowest at the bottom). This indicates that the user should go ahead for his transaction with the business having the highest Transaction Completion Probability Score 109.

[0023] In the FIG. 2, a block diagram is shown to describe the process of collation of user preferences data 105. User preferences data 105 is a very important element of the present invention. User preferences data 105 are collated from various sources by use of different methods. In the process of the collation of this data, the first step is that the user 101 must install the mobile application and/or use the website 104 and then use the data network 103 to access the data in this mobile application / website. At various times the users searches for different businesses 206 and their products / services 207, this application / website 104 stores all these search history herein called as “search habits” 205 of the user in the system 402.

[0024] One of the most important aspect of the present invention is the “Real time GPS” 201 of the user. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system. To find the latitude longitude of a particular place at a hyperlocal level, the GPS system is used. This means the mobile application and/or website 104 tries to ascertain the exact location where the user is present while searching for any business 206 or products/services 207 by use of the mobile application and/or website 104. With the use of GPS, the mobile application and/or website 104 stores the user’s geographic information in the system 402. The constituents of these geographic information are mainly the exact location, landmark, street address, city, pin code etc. These geographic information are information of the locality to which the user regularly goes like home 202, office 203, areas where he does shoppings 204, and/or social purposes etc. These all geographic information of the users are referred to as the ‘Geo habits’ 201 of the user. It is referred to as “Habits” as it happens more often/repeatedly.

[0025] Contextual data 208 mainly refers to the data relating to a particular situation i.e. in the context in which the user is placed. Here, for example, weather data 209, religion data 210, and any other similar info 211 of the user would also help the mobile application and/or website 104 to give better transaction completion probability score 109. Let’s say the in the location from which the user is searching the weather is very rainy and therefore, the businesses which are very nearest ones would get preference over the businesses which are little far. Similarly in the case of a unfortunate catastrophic events occurring like earthquake, floods, hurricane or even communal riots, the services most sought after i.e. hospitals, doctors, NGO’s, help centres, counselors etc would get preference in being showcased automatically on the initiation of the mobile application and/or website 104. And accordingly scores would be assigned. Likewise, if the user is of a particular religion or a social behaviour or habituated to certain routine like playing golf every weekend, walking every evening in a park, visiting a temple/church/mosque on a particular day of a week or on special festive occasions the businesses which are selling the products/services relating to that particular religion of the user would get preference and will derive higher scores.

[0026] All these data relating to the users i.e. Geo habits 201, Search habits 205 and Contextual data 208 are combinedly referred to as the “User Preferences Data” 105. As it determines various preferences of a particular user, it is called as user preferences data.

[0027] It may noted that the tracking of information is being done with the consent of the users and/or businesses. The terms and conditions are being made aware to the users and businesses before initiation of the mobile application and/or website 104 i.e. during installation.

[0028] FIG. 3 is a block diagram that depicts the process of collation of business signals data 106. Another vital requirement of the present invention is business signals data 106. There are mainly two ways of collation of this data. No.1. Businessmen will be using mobile application and/or website 104 in his mobile and will be updating information 302 on his own; No. 2. The applicant has already acquired and keeps on acquiring and updating data 301 of the businesses.

[0029] The constituents of Business signals data are mainly divided into 4 parts, 1. contact details 303, 2. Products & Services 310, 3. Location code 313 and 4. Business Specific Info. 314. Contact details 303 information of the business which mainly includes the name 304, address 305, phone no. 306, email 307, website 308, and other info 309 like contact person’s name, etc. Products & Services 310 mainly includes the category information of the products/services, various offers/discounts/coupons/events 311 information which may be given by the business. It would also include the stock/ inventory availability 312 position of the particular product with the business i.e. the quantity of the products and availability of the services with the business. Location code 313 of a business is the latitude and longitude of that particular business which is obtained by use of GPS. GPS as described above is the Global Positioning System (GPS) which is a satellite-based navigation system used to find the latitude longitude of a particular place at a hyperlocal level.

[0030] Further, Business Specific Info. 314 play a vital role in this present invention. Now-a-days, there is a huge scarcity of REAL TIME information about a business i.e. specific days when a business is closed, specific time when any of the products/services are sold or offered by the business, is available to user, etc. All these information are captured to derive the ultimate result from the present invention and provide the best Transaction Probability Completion Score 109 for the user’s query 401.

[0031] FIG. 4 is a system diagram illustrating the method of determining purchase intent 107 and sell intent 108. Here, in this drawing, the internal process of determining these 2 most vital aspects, which help in arriving at the final Transaction Completion Probability Score 109 is described. The User preferences data 105 and the Business signals data 106 are collated and stored in the system 402. The system 402 is a server (which is a computer which manages access to a centralized resource or service in a network). When an user 101 uses the mobile application and/or website 104 and searches for any products and services and enters a query 401 in the application, the system 402 by using its Intent engine 403 determines the purchase intent 107 of the user and sell intent 108 of the business with relation to that query 401. The intent engine 403 is a computerised mechanism which has one or more conditions defined to ascertain the intent of the user and business. The ‘intent’ described here is the intention of the user to buy one or more products or avail services.

[0032] For Example: An user is searching for businesses providing Air Conditioners in Pune. Here the intent engine 403 on the base of the User preferences data 105 and the Business signals data 106 ascertains that user’s purchase intent 107 that could be “To buy air conditioner in Pune”, and further it tries to ascertain the sell intent 108 of the business that could be “Business which has the inventory of the air conditioner and is giving highest discount in the nearest locality for air conditioner”.

[0033] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting the end result of the whole invention. Once the purchase intent 107 and sell intent 108 is arrived at, the next step is to give the end result to the user in relation to his query 401. The Computation Engine 501, which has certain defined one or more transaction completion rules, takes into account the purchase intent 107 of the user and sell intent 108 of the business, to finally derive at the Transaction Completion Probability Score 109.

[0034] For example, an user who wants to buy a refrigerator and there are 3 refrigerator stores in his locality. He is trying to decide which one to go for among these 3. Now, consider a scenario wherein one refrigerator store is closed at the time user wants to buy and another is currently out of stock for the brand he is looking for. Whereas the 3rd store is open and also has the desired brand of refrigerator. Here highest score is assigned to the 3rd store, and other two stores get low scores. It greatly helps the user by suggesting to go for the 3rd store and hence saving his valuable time which could have been spent by visiting the other two stores where the transaction would have never happened.

[0035] While the primary intention of the present invention is to give the Transaction Completion Probability Score 109, additionally, it also helps the user by depicting certain other vital information which is as follows:

a) 503 Alerts / notification - one more vital aspect of the present invention is providing advance notification to the users, on their day-to-day and or periodic requirements. On the basis of the user preferences data 105, accumulated for a particular user, the mobile application and/or website 104 provides alerts to the user in advance. The Alerts Engine 502 which has one or more notification rules determines the best suitable time to notify the user.

Example: An user is accustomed to visit a particular Domino's pizza counter at a particular locality in a city, in the evening time of most of the Saturdays. The same user has been searching on internet, through Mobile or Desktop device 104, for footwear items since last 3-4 days. Thereby, the mobile application and/or website 104 having a track of these information/user habits tries to put an alert notification in the mobile application and/or website 104 in advance in the afternoon time of the next Saturday, the notification could be like “Avail 50% discount in footwear items at Bata Showroom near Domino's pizza at that particular locality in the city.”

Another example is of certain businesses selling certain goods only on an appointed day. These are goods/services needed by the user. ‘Purohit Sweets’ (a sweetened product seller) in Anand Nagar locality, Pune city makes and sells Hot Jalebi (an Indian Sweet) only on Sunday, between 8am to 12 noon. Users, habituated to buying these Jalebis, are notified in advance on Saturday night to visit ‘Purohit Sweets’ on Sunday during 8am to 12noon only. Going further and providing additional inputs, the same Purohit Sweets does not sell Jalebi during Diwali (a festival) time when it’s expert chef go on a month’s vacation to his home town. This intelligence is captured on a real time basis and notification is provided to the user in advance to save his time and effort in going to Purohit Sweets and discovering absence of the chef and hence no Jalebi.
b) 505 Realtime info - Business specific information 314 as described above is also provided to the user. Business specific information such as timing of the business, closing days etc. Some community of business follows certain regular trend of closing their business for the whole day once in a month in addition to the Sundays.
c) 506 Realtime Up to date products and services 310 information of the business is displayed along with the inventory stock status.
d) 507 Realtime Precise contact information 303 of the business is provided. Information like name, address, phone no., email, website etc.
e) 508 Businesses are ranked in order of the best suitability for the user’s query 401. The Eligibility engine 504 has eligibility rules which derive the ranking order of the Businesses. Hence suggesting the user to select the business in the priority order.

[0036] The above description explains the best mode of the invention with the examples to describe the invention, which would enable a layman to understand the invention. This description does not limit the invention to the precise terms set forth herein. Thus, while the invention has been described in detail with reference to the examples set forth above, those of ordinary skill in the art may effect alterations, modifications and variations to the examples without departing from the scope of the invention.

ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION

[0037] The present invention has the following advantages:

a) The present invention helps the consumers in making effective buying decisions within a shortest time period and saves time of the consumer by not suggesting transactions which will be unsuccessful.
b) The present invention also helps the consumers by notifying them in advance of the latest and best offers for purchase of goods or availing of services available in the area or shops they are visiting regularly.
c) The present invention improves the chances of successful transaction between buyer and seller of goods or services, as the invention helps the buyers to choose best seller for their choice of products/services. Hence it also benefits the sellers.