JP2018515848A - Match the display of the product provided by the user to the seller of the product - Google Patents

Abstract

The present disclosure describes a system and method for matching user-provided images including product displays with sellers of these products. The management service may provide a website that allows users to post images, view images, share images, interact with other users, etc., as described herein. The management service may identify the products displayed in the image and determine one or more sellers who will sell these products. When another user requests viewing of a user-provided image, to initiate purchase with the image, merchant information identifying the merchant determined to sell the merchandise displayed in the image, and / or merchant Sales controls are presented that may be selectable by the user. [Selection] Figure 4

Description

  This application is a continuation of US patent application Ser. No. 14 / 726,929, entitled “Matching User Provided Representations Of Items With Sellers Of These Items”, filed June 1, 2015. Claimed the benefit of US Application No. 14 / 964,307 entitled “Item Selling On Multiple Websites” filed on May 9, and “Matching User Provided Representations Of” filed May 12, 2015. It claims the benefit of US Provisional Application No. 62 / 160,456, entitled “Items With Sellers Of Those Items”. Entirely incorporated herein by.

  People are increasingly interacting with computers and other electronic devices in new and interesting ways. Electronic devices have become popular and have been used for many everyday activities as processing power, connectivity, and location tracking have increased. For example, to name just a few, people are looking for products, watching videos, listening to music, researching, buying both digital and physical products (“electronic commerce”) and receiving news Electronic devices are often used. Other uses include communication with social communities, friends and family, photography and many others.

  E-commerce market sellers typically build websites that contain product information about the products they sell, and users visit the website to view various web pages within the website. obtain. Users typically get product details, reviews of products posted by other users, and / or purchase merchandise from product sellers. When the product is purchased, the seller packs the product and delivers the product to a delivery destination designated by the user.

  The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanying figures. In the drawings, the leftmost digit (s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference numbers in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.

1 is a diagram of an exemplary environment including a server system and client devices communicatively connected via a network. FIG. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example implementation that places a seller's merchandise on multiple websites, according to one implementation. FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an example implementation that matches merchandise sellers with a display of merchandise provided by a user, according to one implementation. FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an example implementation that matches merchandise sellers with a display of merchandise provided by a user, according to one implementation. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an embodiment that assists a user in purchasing display merchandise, according to one implementation. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an embodiment that assists a user in purchasing display merchandise, according to one implementation. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a purchase process according to one implementation. FIG. 6 is another block diagram of a purchase process according to one implementation. FIG. 6 is a representation of a segmented image according to one implementation. 7 is a display of segmented images with purchase controls associated with display merchandise that can be purchased from one or more merchants, according to one implementation. FIG. 6 is a representation of products and product variants available from a product seller, according to one implementation. It is a display of the purchase confirmation of the product according to one implementation. FIG. 4 illustrates an example process for matching a merchant and a display of merchandise provided by a user according to one implementation. FIG. 6 illustrates an example process for processing an image provided by a user to match a product displayed in the image with a merchant of the product, according to one implementation. 3 illustrates an example purchase request process according to one implementation. 4 illustrates an example purchase execution process according to one implementation. FIG. 2 is an illustration of an example implementation of a server system that may be used for various implementations.

  Although implementations are described herein as examples, those skilled in the art will recognize that such implementations are not limited to the examples or drawings described. The drawings and detailed description are not intended to limit the implementation to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope defined by the appended claims. It should be understood that the intention is to include. The headings used herein are used only for the purpose of configuring the present specification and are not intended to be used to limit the scope of the specification or the claims. The word “may” as used throughout this application is not an obligatory meaning (ie meaning “should”), but an acceptable meaning (ie “may be”). Meaning). Similarly, the words “include”, “including”, and “includes” mean “include” but do not limit the subject.

  The present disclosure provides a system and method that allows a seller to sell products directly and further sell these products as a merchant through the management service without maintaining separate inventory and / or purchase processing information in the management service. Will be explained.

  Currently, a number of e-commerce merchants advertise and sell products through their websites or applications that are hosted by the merchant or e-commerce “shopping cart” platform (E.g. MAGENTO, SHOPIFY, BIGCOMMERECE). In order to allow the user to purchase merchandise, the merchant owns a shopping cart, and a payment processor (eg, AUTHORIZE.NET, PAYPAL, etc.) that actually processes the merchandise payment so that the user can send funds to the merchant. (STRIPE, BALANCED).

  With the rapid growth of e-commerce, merchants often believe that they need to increase awareness from potential customers, such as participating as merchants on third-party websites or applications held by management services. Sell sales products through management services. The merchant typically needs to pay the management service a cost that is incurred on an ongoing basis to own the right to sell the merchandise through a share or fee and / or management service for each sale. Similarly, the merchant must maintain a merchant account for the management service, and in the management service, updating of the number of products in stock, posting of sales products, price adjustment, delivery management, order processing, etc. are performed manually. Such an independent merchant account is an opportunity to learn about management services, while sellers need more effort, and to name a few, problems arise in inventory management and order processing.

  For example, if the seller has 5 units of product A to be sold, the seller assigns individual inventory numbers to different sales channels (for example, 3 units are sold directly from the seller himself, 2 units are managed services) Sell in), and you must either update the quantity in stock every time the item is ordered. For example, if a seller places 5 units of inventory on their website and places 5 units of inventory through a management service, the seller accesses the merchant account each time the unit is sold directly through the seller. You will need to update inventory quantities through management services. Similarly, each time a unit is sold through a management service, the merchant will have to go to his website and update the inventory quantity.

  Similarly, since the management service and the seller are independent, the host requests the order processing, payment and order management to be performed directly by the management service. This may require the merchant to work with the first payment authentication entity for the merchant and to work with the second payment authentication entity for the merchant account in the management service. These dual efforts create additional work for the merchant and can result in an unpleasant customer experience when the user places an order, with no unit at hand of the merchant.

  As described further below, in the described implementation, the merchant is a merchant through the management service without maintaining individual inventory, manually updating information to the management service and / or managing orders from the management service. Sales products can be sold directly. Each transaction performed in the management service is sent to the merchant for processing and completion as if the user purchased the item directly from the merchant.

  For example, a merchant may create a merchant account in the management service so that information exchange between the management service and the merchant is authenticated. The merchant sends a merchandise catalog to the management service, which identifies the merchandise that the merchant sells and that the user can purchase from the merchant. The product catalog is a source location identifier, such as a uniform resource locator (“URL”) of a web page where a product, product browsing and / or product purchase from a seller can be performed for each product, product image, product Information, image information, etc. can be specified.

  The management service may be a service that allows the user to post images, view images, share images, interact with other users, purchase products, and the like. The management service may use information from the merchandise catalog provided by the seller to determine whether any of the images accessible by the user of the management service include a display of the merchant's sales merchandise. For example, in some examples, a user of a management service may post an image obtained from another web page, such as a web page of a merchant website, to the management service. In such an example, the posted image may include image information, also referred to as alias metadata, and the metadata may include a URL from which the image was acquired. When the URL of the user-provided image matches the URL included in the product catalog, the image provided to the management service by the user includes a display of products that can be sold from the seller, and the user-provided image is a product and / or sale of the product It may be determined to be associated with the person.

  In another example, if the user-provided image does not include a URL, or if the URL included in the image information does not match the URL from the product catalog, the image is processed using one or more image processing algorithms, Products displayed within can be detected. The processed image can then be compared with images and / or image information contained in a merchandise catalog provided by the seller to determine if the merchant's merchandise is displayed in the image. If it is determined that the sales product of the seller is displayed in the user provided image, the user provided image is associated with the product and / or the seller of the product.

  When a user or another user of the management service requests browsing of a user-provided image that is determined to be included in the seller's display of merchandise, a purchase control is presented on the user-provided image. Additionally, merchant information identifying the merchant and / or merchandise may be presented in the same manner as presenting the user-provided image. The user can browse the image and select purchase controls, obtain variant information regarding the product displayed in the image, and / or purchase the product displayed in the image from the seller. The item “variant information”, as used herein, is additional information regarding a product and / or sale of the product. For example, merchandise variant information may include the quantity of merchandise that the seller can sell, the price of the merchandise, the size of the merchandise, the color of the merchandise, the shipping fee for delivering the merchandise, the delivery time, and / or other information.

  When a user requests that a product displayed in a user-provided image be purchased from a seller determined to sell the displayed product, the management service assists the purchase between the user and the seller To do. For example, the management service may send a product reservation request to the seller and reserve one or more units of the product so that a user viewing the product can purchase. If the user chooses to purchase the merchandise, the purchase information is provided to the merchant from the management service without requiring the merchant to maintain a payment authentication service in the merchant account. In some implementations, the encrypted credit card information may be sent to the merchant as part of the merchandise information. In other implementations, the credit card associated with the user may be displayed as a unique token managed by the storage service. The storage service is credit card information in a secure form. The storage provider replaces the token with a credit card and provides purchase information to the merchant for authentication. When the seller authenticates the purchase, the seller sends an authentication confirmation to the management service, and the management service notifies the user that the purchase of the product from the seller is complete.

  By providing purchase information to the merchant and enabling the merchant to work with their payment processor for purchase authorization, the merchant need only maintain a single relationship with the payment processor, All inventory can be managed in one place and there is no need to update different merchant accounts separately.

  In another example, in response to a purchase request, the management service may provide a product identifier, product information (eg, a selected variant), a user identifier, etc. In some implementations, the management service may also assist the user in paying for the item, for example through a third party payment processor. Alternatively, payment information may be provided to the merchant for merchandise payment processing. Finally, the purchase of the product is completed and the merchant can deliver the product to the user.

  A “product” can be anything that can be displayed and sold. For example, the merchandise can be a physical article (clothing, hardware, painting, etc.), a digital merchandise (eg, audio, video, images), a service (eg, landscaping, banking, home painting).

  FIG. 1 illustrates a user 101, such as users 101 (1), 101 (2) -101 (N), and one or more server computers 100 (1), 100 (2), communicatively connected via a network 108. ) To 100 (N), one or more client devices 104, such as client devices 104 (1), 104 (2), 104 (3) to 104 (N), merchant A 106 (1), FIG. 2 is an example environment that includes one or more merchants 106, such as merchant B106 (2) -merchant C106 (N). As will be appreciated, any number and / or type of server systems 100, client devices 104, and / or merchants 106 may be included in the environment, and what is illustrated in FIG. 1 is merely exemplary. Similarly, any number of users 101 can be included in the environment. For discussion purposes, the term “user” interacts with the management service 110 (discussed below) to post an image or otherwise provide an image, view an image, share an image, other It is used herein to refer to an individual who interacts with a user, purchases a product displayed in a browse image, and the like.

  The network 108 may include a local area network, a wide area network such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), a cable television network, a satellite network, a collection of networks, a public internet protocol network, a private internet protocol network, or combinations thereof. Further, the network 108 can be wired, wireless, or a combination of the two. The server system 100 may further include a mapping data store 111, an image data store 113, a merchandise catalog data store 115, and / or a user profile data store 117. As further described below, the data store may include lists, arrays, databases, and other data structures used for data storage and retrieval. Similarly, although this disclosure describes multiple data stores, in some implementations a data store may be configured as a single data store or multiple data stores.

  The mapping data store 111, the image data store 113, the product catalog data store 115, and the user profile data store 117 may be integrated into the server system 100 or may be communicatively coupled to the server system 100. For example, one or more of the mapping data store 111, the image data store 113, the product catalog data store 115 and / or the user profile data store 117 are located in a remote computing resource (not shown) and can communicate with the server system 100. Can be linked to. In some implementations, the mapping data store 111, the image data store 113, the merchandise catalog data store 115, and / or the user profile data store 117 are one or more CD-RW / DVD-RW drives, hard disk drives, tape drives or Other storage devices utilized to store digital content and information may be included. The server system 100 can individually or together with the mapping data store 111, the image data store 113, the product catalog data store 115 and / or the user profile data store 117 to post images, view images, share images, It is possible to provide a management service 110 that supports exchanges with other users, browsing of product variant information of products displayed in images, and the like. Similarly, the management service 110 may assist the user in purchasing the product displayed in the image from the determined product seller.

  Server system 100 may be further configured to exchange information with one or more merchants 106. Merchant 106 may include any type of entity and / or individual (s) that sells merchandise. For example, merchants 106 may include electronic commerce websites that sell and deliver merchandise, service offerings, traditional retail or wholesale stores, and the like.

  In some implementations, the merchant 106 may interact with the management service 110 to provide and / or update a merchandise catalog listing the merchant's merchandise. The product catalog may include product information regarding each product sold by the seller. For example, product information may include product name, product price, URL of a merchant's web page where the product can be viewed and / or purchased from the merchant, the geographic location of the merchant, to promote the product and / or user provided image May include advertising costs, etc. that the merchant wants to pay to associate the item with the product. For example, a merchant may sell thousands of items via his e-commerce website, each of which is associated with one or more web pages on the merchant's website or one or more It may be displayed on a web page. The merchant 106 may provide the management service 110 with a merchandise catalog that lists one item, some items, or all items that the seller sells. As described further below, the management service 110 stores the product catalog provided by the seller in the product catalog data store 115 and any of the user-provided images held in the image data store 113 is provided by the seller. It may be determined whether to include a display of a product listed in the product catalog. Images held in the image data store 113 include display of merchandise identified by the merchant in the merchandise catalog, and these images are associated with the merchandise and / or merchant. The association is held in the mapping data store 111.

  Advertising costs may refer to the amount that the seller is willing to pay, such as for associating a product with a user-provided image that includes the display of the product, for promoting the product. In some implementations, advertising costs may be based on the number of views or impressions that the product receives from a user of the management service. In another implementation, the advertising costs may be a prescribed period or the like. In an implementation, if two or more merchants sell the same or similar merchandise, promotional costs may be used as an element to determine which merchant (s) are associated with a user-provided image that includes a display of the merchandise.

  The merchant 106 may further identify extra products sold by the merchant and delete the merchandise from the merchandise catalog, provide updated variant information for the merchandise identified in the merchandise catalog, and / or By changing the advertising costs of the product, the provided product catalog can be updated periodically. The latest information is reflected in the product catalog data store 115 and can be used by the management service 110 when presenting an image to the user.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the client device 104 is a wireless device such as a personal computer, a tablet computer, an electronic book reader device, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a netbook, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable game machine, a smartphone, or a mobile phone. It may include a communication device, set-top box, game console, camera, audio recorder / player or any combination thereof. As described with respect to the implementation presented herein, the server system 100 is configured to exchange data and information with the client device 104, including users, images, merchants, merchandise, merchandise variants and other similar information. . For example, the management service 110 interacts via the server system 100 to present an image to the user 101, presents product variant information to the user 101, and purchases a product between the user and the product seller. Can be supported.

  Similarly, the user 101 interacts with the management service 110 via the client device 104 to start providing images, viewing images, sharing images, interacting with other users, and purchasing products from the product seller. And so on. As described herein, a user providing an image that includes a display of a product may be a different person or entity than the merchant of the product displayed in the image.

  The mapping data store 111 stores information related to the association between the product displayed in the user-provided image and the sales product of the seller. For example, the product is displayed in the user-provided image, and it can be determined that the product can be sold from three different sellers (published in the product catalog). In such an example, the mapping data store 111 holds the association between the user-provided image held in the image data store 113 and the matching product listed in the product catalog provided by each seller.

  The user profile data store 117 stores information related to the user 101 of the management service 110. Any type of information can be stored in the user profile data store 117. For example, user profile information such as attributes, name, address, gender, browsing history, purchase history, billing information, delivery information, purchase information, social network and / or friends exchanged by the user 101 is stored in the user profile data store 117. Can be remembered. The user profile information is between the user and the seller when interacting with the management service 110 (eg, clickstream data when the user searches for the management service 110), when posting, viewing and / or sharing images. Can be provided directly from user 101 of client device 104 and / or collected from user 101, such as when assisting with the purchase of. In some implementations, users of the management service 110 limit the amount of information contained in their user profile, limit access to their user profile information, and / or share from their user profile information. You may choose to limit the information (if any). The user profile information held in the user profile data store 117 is used in the management service 110 and can assist the user in purchasing products from the seller.

  In addition to maintaining information about mappings, merchandise catalogs, images, and users, management service 110 may return usage information to user 101 and / or merchant 106. For example, the management service 110 may return usage and / or purchase information (eg, purchase history) to the user 101 through communication between the server system 100 and the client device 104. Such information may include identification of recently browsed, provided or shared images, identification of others who viewed images posted by the user, user product purchases, and the like. Similarly, the management service 110 may provide information to the seller 106 through communication between the server system 100 and the seller 106. Such information may include an analysis regarding the merchandise sold by the seller, such as the number of user-provided images including display of each merchandise, the purchase history of the merchandise, and the like.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example implementation that posts merchant sales merchandise through multiple paths, according to one implementation. The implementation example starts when the seller 206 creates a sale product for the seller, and the user can directly purchase a saleable product from the seller. For example, merchants may create their own e-commerce websites, and may create websites hosted by e-commerce platform providers such as SHOPIFY, MAGENTO, BIGCOMMERCE, VOLUSION, BIGCARTEL, 3DCART, etc. In order to enable the purchase of merchandise, the merchant must have an AUTHORIZE. Associated with payment processors such as NET, STRIPE, PAYPAL, BALANCED.

  In addition to establishing the merchant's direct sales, merchant 206 creates an account in management service 210, referred to herein as a merchant account. With the merchant account, the management service 210 and the seller 206 can share information. In one example, merchant 206 creates a merchant account and presents a dialog requesting management service 210 to authenticate information sharing with the merchant. Upon receipt of the authentication, the management service 210 sends a token to the merchant over the network 208 so that the merchant and management service 210 can establish a communication link and exchange information over the network 208 so that the merchant can Request person information. The token may be used by merchant 206 to identify information transmitted by management service 210 as being associated with merchant 206. In response, the merchant sends merchant information to the management service 210, which uses the merchant information to identify information received from the merchant as associated with the merchant 206. The seller 206 authenticates the sale of the product through the management service. For example, the seller information necessary for authenticating the seller 206 may include, but is not limited to, transaction history information, a payment refusal rate, a seller's merchandise sales period, seller contact information, and the like.

  When the merchant 206 is approved by the management service 210, a link is established between the merchant and the management service so that the merchant can send information to the management service 210 and the management service 210 sells. Information can be sent to the person. In addition, a merchandise catalog is created by the seller 206. The merchandise catalog specifies each merchandise that the seller 206 wants to sell through the host site held by the management service 210. The merchandise catalog is a source location, such as a uniform resource locator (“URL”) of the web page of the merchant's website, where each merchandise can be viewed, viewed and / or purchased from the merchant. The identifier, product image, product information, image information, quantity available for sale, price, delivery information, product description, product category information, product size, product shape, product color, etc. may be specified.

  As described below, the merchandise catalog and / or portions thereof may be periodically updated by the merchant so that the management service has current information regarding the merchandise that the merchant sells through the management service. For example, if a unit of merchandise is sold directly by a merchant, the merchandise catalog may be updated automatically, which makes the units that can be sold through the management service accurate. This can be done without merchant intervention.

  Referring now to FIG. 3, the seller 306 provides a merchandise catalog to the management service 310. The product catalog is sent to the management service 310 over the network 308, and the management service 310 stores the product catalog in the product catalog data store 315. Upon receiving the product catalog from the seller 306, the management service 310 processes the user-provided image stored in the image data store 313, called a stored image, and any stored image is used as the product sold by the seller. It is determined whether the display of the product specified in is included.

  Processing of the stored image can be performed in stages. For example, in the initial processing, a source location identifier such as a URL of a product listed in a product catalog is compared with a source location identifier included in image information of a stored image, and any of the source location identifiers is the same or similar. Determining whether or not. For example, when the source location identifier is a URL and the two URLs of the source location identifier of the existing image and the source location identifier listed in the product catalog are the same, it can be determined that they are the same. Similarly, if two URLs of the stored image source location identifier and the source location identifier listed in the product catalog have the same domain address (from the same website or domain), they are determined to be similar. obtain.

  If the source location identifier is the same, the stored image may be determined to include a display of the merchant's merchandise. When the stored image includes a source location identifier that is similar to the source location identifier included in the product catalog, the stored image is further processed using one or more image processing algorithms, and the stored image is included in the product catalog. It can be determined whether the image or image information corresponding to the similar source location identifier is similar. For example, a hash value may be determined for the stored image and compared with a hash value included in the product catalog. Alternatively, one or more image processing algorithms such as an edge detection algorithm, an object detection algorithm, etc. may be used to determine the features of a stored image that can be represented as a feature vector. Images provided to the product catalog may be similarly processed to generate feature vectors (or feature vectors may be provided to the product catalog). The feature vector of the stored image may then be compared to the feature vector of the product (s) identified in the product catalog as having a similar source location identifier, and if the feature vector is similar, the stored image is sold It may be determined that the display of the merchandise sold by the person is included. In some implementations, additional image processing may be performed on images having the same source location identifier as well.

  The source location identifier may be either a physical or virtual location and is associated with the product and / or any other identifier that can be used to identify the product. For example, as described above, the source location identifier may be a URL of a web page from which information about a product can be obtained. In another implementation, the source location identifier may include physical coordinates of one or more physical locations (eg, the seller's physical store) where the item can be viewed and / or purchased. In such an implementation, the user-provided image may include location information, such as global positioning system (GPS) coordinates, which is compared to the coordinates contained in the product catalog. In yet another implementation, the source location identifier may include a unified product code (UPC), barcode, baud code, etc. associated with the product.

  In some implementations, as part of the initial processing, stored images that do not match the product in the product catalog may be further processed. For example, the feature vector of the processed stored image may be used to determine whether the product is displayed in the image, and if displayed, the product category may be determined. For example, the management service may maintain a list of product categories and corresponding feature vectors, where the corresponding feature vectors indicate a typical product associated with the product category. A product category can be a classification or categorization of any type of product. For example, merchandise categories can include shoes, shirts, bags, sports equipment, clothes, hats, cars, and the like. For each product category, the feature vector, color, shape and / or other features of the product associated with that category are retained and can be used to compare with the feature vector and / or other information of the stored image . If there is a similarity between the feature vector and / or other information associated with the product category and the feature vector and / or other information of the stored image, the stored image may be associated with that product category.

  Similarly, merchandise identified in the merchandise catalog as a merchant and / or merchant's merchandise may be further associated with a merchandise category. Associating the merchandise identified as related to the category by the merchant with the category can be done in a manner similar to that described above with respect to associating the stored image with the category. Alternatively or additionally, the merchant may identify the product category, for example, by identifying the product category of each product listed in the product catalog.

  Based on the category determined for the stored image and the category associated with the seller 306 and / or the seller's product sold, the stored image may include an indication of the product listed in the provided product catalog. Determine if there is any. For example, if the product category determined for the stored image matches the product category associated with the seller and / or the product catalog provided by the seller, the stored image may include a display of the seller's sold product It can be determined that there is sex. When the stored image includes a display of a product that may be listed in the product catalog, an additional process may be performed to determine the product displayed in the image. The additional processing may include additional analysis of the stored image and / or comparison of the feature vector and / or other image information between the stored image and a product in the product category associated with the same product category. In another example, a person may manually review a stored image and compare it with a product listed in a product catalog that has the same product category, and the product displayed in the image is listed in the product catalog. It may be determined whether or not it matches the existing product. The person may be an employee of the management service 310, an independent evaluator, a user (or user group) of the management service 310, a representative or employee of the seller 306, and the like.

  When it is determined that the display of the product listed in the product catalog provided by the seller 306 is included in the stored image, the management service establishes an association between the product listed in the product catalog and the stored image. The association is stored in the mapping data store 311. Similarly, the management service may establish an association between the stored image and the merchant 306 and maintain the association in the mapping data store 311. As described further below, when a user requests to view a stored image, the management service 310 determines an association between the stored image and the seller's product for sale, and provides merchant information and / or purchase controls to the product image. Present to the presentation.

  Turning now to FIG. 4, the user 401 may further provide an image that may match the merchant's merchandise. In this example, the user 401 uses the client device 404 to provide an image to the management service 410 via the network 408. When the management service receives the image, it stores the image in the image data store 413, processes the provided image, compares the processed image with the product identified in the product catalog data store 415, and the user provided image is It is determined whether to include the display of the merchandise sold by the seller. The processing of user-provided images can be performed in a step-wise manner similar to that described above with respect to FIG. For example, the source location identifier of the user-provided image may be compared with the source location identifier held in the merchandise catalog data store 415, and the feature vector of the merchandise identified by the merchandise catalog data store 415 by processing the user-provided image; Feature vectors may be generated, image information associated with user-provided images may be compared with image information from the merchandise catalog data store 415, and so on.

  If it is determined that the user-provided image includes a display of a product listed in the product catalog data store 415, the user-provided image is associated with the product and / or the seller that sells the product, and the association is the mapping data store 411. Is remembered.

  5-6 are block diagrams of embodiments that support purchase of display merchandise by a user, according to one implementation. Turning first to FIG. 5, the implementation starts when the user 501 requests to view an image through the client device 504, and the image is provided to the management service 510 by the user (user 501 or any other user). And stored in the image data store 513. The request is sent from the client device 504 to the management service 510 over the network 508. When the management service 510 receives a user request, the management service 510 queries the mapping data store 511 to determine whether there is any association between the requested image and the merchandise sold by the seller. If there is an association between the image requested by the user and the seller's merchandise identified in the merchandise catalog data store 515, the management service 510 provides the requested image and purchase controls presented to the user. . As described further below, purchase controls are selectable by the user to obtain additional details regarding the product displayed in the requested image and / or initiate a product purchase from a seller selling the product. Is for. In some implementations, the management service 510 may further provide merchant information that identifies the merchant of the item displayed in the image.

  In addition to providing images and purchase controls for presentation to the user 501, the management service 510 may further send a merchandise variant request to the merchant 506 for merchandise displayed in the image and available for purchase from the merchant 506. . In response to receiving the request for the product variant, the seller 506 may provide the current product variant for the product displayed in the image and available for purchase from the seller 506. In another implementation, the management service 510 does not send a request to the seller 506, or in addition to the management service 510 sending a request to the seller 506, the seller manages the product variant update information. It can be sent periodically to the service 510. For example, the merchant 506 may specify an update interval (eg, hourly, daily, weekly) and send the product catalog and / or product variant updates to the management service, and the product catalog and / or product variant updates. Information is held and used by the management service 510. In some implementations, the seller 506 may be configured to send the latest information on the product variant to the management service 510 when the product variant changes (eg, price change, inventory quantity change). In such an implementation, the management service 510 does not send a request for product variant information to the seller 506, but the management service 510 provides a product variant provided and stored in advance for the product displayed in the request image. Information can be used.

  Turning now to FIG. 6, a request is sent to the management service 610 when the user 601 selects or otherwise activates the purchase control provided in the image. For example, the requested image and the corresponding purchase control may be sent by management service 610 to client device 604 over network 608 and presented to user 601 on the display of client device 604. When the user selects purchase control, the client device 604 sends a request to the management service 610 via the network 608.

  In response to receiving the request, the management service 610 transmits to the client device 604 product variant information that is displayed in the image and that corresponds to the product associated with the selected purchase control. In some implementations, the product variant information may be sent along with additional image (s) of the product, the seller and / or additional details regarding the sale of the product. In addition, the management service 610 transmits a reservation request for the seller 606 to temporarily reserve a product to the seller 606 via the network so that there is a quantity of the product that can be sold to the user 601. Can do.

  When the seller selects the purchase of the product, as illustrated in FIG. 6, a purchase request is transmitted from the client device 604 to the management service 610, and the management service 610 transmits the product between the product seller 606 and the user 601. Support purchases. In some implementations, the user 601 may complete the purchase of the item without being redirected to the seller 606. For example, the management service 601 may obtain or possess information necessary to complete the purchase and send the information to the seller 606. For example, as part of a purchase, the user can enter product details (eg, size, color), quantity, delivery details (eg, delivery speed, delivery address), payment credentials (eg, credit card number, bank account number) and Purchase information such as / or other information may be provided. As described further below with respect to FIG. 7, the management service may provide purchase information to the seller, who may complete the purchase of the item for the user. In such implementations, all purchase aspects may be performed by the seller 606, including communicating with the payment processor for purchase authorization, updating the inventory quantity for sale, etc., or on behalf of the seller 606 May be done. If the purchase is authenticated, a purchase confirmation is returned from the seller 606 to the management service 610.

  In another example, the management service may assist the user to pay for the item (eg, via a third party payment processor) on behalf of the merchant and provide the merchant with a payment confirmation. In addition to payment confirmation, the management service 610 may provide merchants with product variants (eg, size, color, delivery options) selected by the user, delivery destinations specified by the user, and the like.

  The seller 606 starts delivering the product to the user when the purchase is completed and / or when a purchase confirmation is received. For example, when the product is a physical product, the seller 606 can deliver the product to a delivery place designated by the user. Similarly, if the product is a digital product, the product may be transmitted from the seller to the user 601 via the network 608, for example. The management service 610 may provide the user 601 with a confirmation message that the purchase of the product from the seller 606 has been completed.

  As described, the implementation can determine the products displayed in the user-provided image and match these products with sellers who sell the products. Although the examples described herein mention that a single merchant sells merchandise, in another implementation, merchandise displayed in a user-provided image may be sellable from multiple merchants. For example, if the merchandise displayed in the image is sports shoes, the merchandise may be available from a plurality of different sports shoe vendors. In such an implementation, user-provided images of merchandise may be associated with each seller and the mapping is stored in the mapping data store by the management service. In some implementations, a single merchant may be associated with the purchase control when the user-provided image and the corresponding purchase control are sent to the requesting user. A single merchant may be selected randomly, may be selected based on price, and may be selected based on the user's past purchase history, the location of the user and merchant, and / or other factors. Alternatively, a list of merchants may be provided to the user upon activation of purchase control.

  FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a purchase process according to one implementation. As described above, the management service 710 can support product purchases between the user 701 and the seller 706. In the implementation described herein, a user of a management service may purchase merchandise from a seller other than the management service without ever leaving the management service website. At the same time, the seller can promote and sell his / her goods through the management service, even if the image provided by the seller and / or the user of the management service independent of the management service is used.

  When the user 701 selects a desired product variant and starts purchasing a product, the management service 710 receives a purchase request and the selected product variant. The management service may further maintain user purchase information (eg, credit card, billing information and delivery information) in the user profile data store, and / or the user may provide such information as part of the purchase request. Good.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 7, the management service 710 acquires all information necessary for the seller 706 to complete the purchase of the product. Purchase information may include a user name or identifier, address, billing address, product information, selected product variant, delivery information, price, payment credentials, and the like. In some implementations, some of the purchase information may be maintained in a management service data store. For example, when a user establishes a user account with a management service, the user's profile may include a user name or identifier, an address, delivery information, a billing address, and / or payment credentials. In some implementations, payment credentials, such as a credit card, may be stored in the payment credential repository 703, where the repository is AUTHORIZE. It may be held by a third party such as NET, STRIPE, BRAINTREE, etc. Once the user's payment credentials are stored in the payment credential repository 703, a token may be associated with the payment credentials provided to the management system and maintained in the user profile.

  If the user has provided a new payment credential, the provided payment credential may be sent to the payment credential repository 703 by the management service 710, which returns a token representing the payment credential to the management service. You may.

  When purchase information is sent by the management service, the token provided by the payment credential repository is included in the purchase information without including the actual payment credentials. In some implementations, purchase information including tokens rather than actual payment credentials may be sent directly from the management service 710 to the merchant 706. For example, if the payment processor 702 used by the merchant 706 to process the payment is the same entity as the payment credential repository 703, the purchase information with the token may be sent directly to the merchant 706 and the merchant can then The token may be sent to the payment processor 702 for payment processing and authentication. Since the payment processor 702 has information about both the token and the payment credentials associated with the token, the payment processor 702 can process and authenticate the payment based on the associated payment credentials.

  In another implementation, merchant 706 may forward the received token to payment credential repository 703, which sends the payment credential to the merchant and / or a payment processor associated with the merchant, Thereby, it becomes possible to process and authenticate the payment of the purchased product. In such an implementation, the payment credential repository may determine that the recipients who are eligible for payment credentials are compliant with one or more criteria, such as Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance criteria. Additionally, the payment credential transmission may be transmitted using a secure connection. In such an implementation, a purchase identifier that identifies the purchase and / or a merchant identifier that identifies the merchant of the merchandise may be included in the token and sent to the payment credential repository 703. Similarly, purchase information may be sent to merchant 706 along with a purchase identifier. The purchase identifier is then used by merchant 706 and payment credential store 703 to reconcile and confirm purchase payments.

  Alternatively, the purchase information comprising the token may be sent from the management service to the payment credential store 703 along with a merchant identifier indicating the merchant for whom payment information is to be transferred. Upon receipt of the purchase information, the payment credential vault replaces the token with the payment credential and sends the purchase information and the actual payment credential to the seller 706. In such an implementation, the payment credential repository may determine that a recipient that is subject to payment credentials is compliant with one or more criteria, such as a PCI compliance standard. Additionally, payment credentials can be sent using a secure connection. Upon receipt of the payment credentials, the merchant provides the payment credentials to the associated payment processor 702 for processing and authentication.

  The payment processor 702 performs processing, confirms that the payment is authorized, and returns a payment transaction identifier and an indication that the payment is authorized to the merchant 706. In response, the merchant may send a purchase confirmation back to the management service 710 confirming that the purchase is complete. In some implementations, purchase confirmations sent from the seller 706 to the management service 710 are sent directly from the seller 706 to the management service 710. Alternatively, the purchase confirmation can be sent from the merchant 706 to the management service 710 via the payment credential repository 703. Upon receiving the purchase confirmation, the management service 710 may send a notification to the user confirming that the seller has confirmed the purchase of the product. When the merchant begins delivering goods, funds may be collected from the payment processor to complete the transaction.

  If the payment processor is unable to authenticate the payment, the payment processor returns a notification to the merchant that the payment is not authorized. If the payment is not authorized, one or more reasons (eg, payment information is invalid) may be provided in the notification that the payment is not authorized. The merchant 706 may then send the reason for the failure to the management service 710, which may obtain the necessary information from the user to complete the payment.

  In the implementation described with respect to FIG. 7, the user can purchase goods directly from the merchant 706 through the management service 710, where the management service does not need to send payment credentials to the merchant. Similarly, purchases are processed by the seller and associated payment processor 702 as if a direct purchase with the seller has occurred. In such a configuration, the inventory available to both the seller and the management service is automatically updated, and details of all orders are integrated and held by the seller or the like.

  FIG. 8 is a block diagram of another purchase process, according to one implementation. As described above, the management service 810 can support product purchases between the user 801 and the seller 806. In the implementation described herein, a user of a management service may purchase merchandise from a seller other than the management service without ever leaving the management service website. At the same time, the seller can promote and sell his / her goods through the management service, even if the image provided by the seller and / or the user of the management service independent of the management service is used.

  When the user 801 selects a desired product variant and starts purchasing the product, the management service 810 receives a purchase request and the selected product variant. The management service may further maintain user purchase information (eg, credit card, billing information and delivery information) in the user profile data store, and / or the user may provide such information as part of the purchase request. Good.

  Based on the relationship between the management service and the merchandise seller, the payment for the merchandise can be completed separately. In one implementation, the merchant of the item may maintain a payment account at the third party payment processor 802, which authorizes payment for purchases supported by the management service 810. In such a configuration, the details of the user's purchase are not provided to the seller 806, and the seller remains the seller on record. Once the purchase is made, the payment is processed by the third party payment processor 802 and the payment is made to the merchant account held by the third party payment processor 802. In another configuration, the merchant may be his own payment processor. In such an arrangement, the user purchase details may be provided from the management service 810 to the seller 806, and the seller may process the payment for the item.

  In either configuration, when the management service 810 receives a purchase request from the user 801, the total cost for the purchase (eg, price, tax, delivery), the payment token identifying the purchase transaction, and the merchant identifier are displayed in the payment processor 802 ( Sent to either the third party payment processor or the merchant payment processor). The payment processor 802 performs processing, confirms that the payment has been authenticated, and returns a payment transaction identifier and an indication that the payment has been authenticated to the management service 810.

  When the management service receives the payment transaction identifier, it sends a payment transaction identifier to the seller 806 confirming that the purchase has been authenticated. In response, the merchant may return a purchase confirmation to the management service 810 confirming that the purchase is complete. Similarly, the management service may send a notification to the user confirming that the seller has confirmed the purchase of the item. When the merchant begins delivering goods, funds may be collected from the payment processor to complete the transaction.

  In yet another implementation, the management service 810 may purchase merchandise, merchandise variant information (eg, quantity, color, size), delivery information, and user information required for the seller to complete the sale of the merchandise to the user (eg, , User information, payment information), etc., all prepared orders can be prepared. The fully configured order can then be sent directly to the merchant 806. When merchant 806 receives the fully configured order from management service 810, it will process the order and indicate that the purchase was not completed due to purchase confirmation or one or more reasons (eg, payment information is invalid). Any error is returned to the management service 810. The management service 810 may send a notification to the user 801 confirming that the seller has confirmed the purchase of the product or that there was an error in the purchase request. When an error occurs, the management service 810 can obtain information necessary for resolving the error from the user, and provide the information to the seller 806 to complete the product purchase from the seller.

  In addition to determining multiple sellers for products displayed in the image by the management service, in some implementations multiple products may be displayed in a single user-provided image. In such an example, the images may be segmented based on the various positions of the displayed products, the seller may be determined for the various products, and various purchase controls are presented to each of these products. It's okay.

  For example, referring to FIG. 9, there is illustrated a display of a segmented user-supplied image that includes a plurality of items sold from various sellers, according to one implementation. An image, such as image 900, may be segmented using image segmentation techniques. For example, the background of the image may be determined (eg, based on out-of-focus areas and / or similar colors) and excluded from processing. Similarly, six objects were identified and the image was segmented into six different regions. Specifically, a body object 902, a head object 904, a shirt object 906, a trouser object 908, a bag object 910, and a shoe object 912. As part of the segmentation, the root object, which is the body object 902 in this example, was determined, and the locations of the other objects 904-912 were considered when identifying these other objects. Image segmentation is described in further detail in US patent application Ser. No. 14 / 279,871, entitled “Image Based Search”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

  In other implementations, other segmentation and specification techniques may be used to segment the image. For example, the image may be segmented using crowdsourcing techniques. For example, when a user views an image, an image area including the object may be selected, and the image may be segmented based on the position of the object in the image. The more users identify the objects in the image, the more reliable the identification of these objects. Based on the segmentation and specification provided by the user, the object in the image can be specified and a determination is made as to whether the object is a merchandise for sale by the seller.

  For example, each segment may be processed to generate feature vectors for the products displayed in the segments, and these feature vectors are compared with the feature vectors associated with the products identified in the product catalog data store. May be. Alternatively or additionally, image segments may be processed to categorize products into one or more categories. For example, the shirt object 906 of the image 900 may be processed to detect objects (shirts) that are displayed within the segment that includes the shirt object 906, where the segment is associated with a category (or another related category) that represents the shirt. May be. As described above, the display of the object (shirt) may be compared to the merchant's merchandise associated with the shirt category and / or may be compared to the merchandise associated with the shirt category, It is determined whether the object displayed in the segment matches the merchandise sold by the seller. This process may be performed for each object and / or segment of the image to determine products for sale by one or more sellers displayed in the image.

  FIG. 10 is a representation of a segmented image 1000 presented on the display of a client device 1004, according to one implementation, purchased for an object of an image that has been determined to be an item for sale by one or more sellers. The control is associated. For each item that is determined to be available for purchase from one or more sellers in the segmented image, a purchase control may be presented near the item that the user has determined to be selectable. In this example, a shirt 1006 is determined in the first segment 1005 of the image 1000 and a purchase control 1026 is presented near the presentation of the shirt. Similarly, a bag 1010 has been determined in the second segment 1009 of the image and a purchase control 1020 has been presented near the presentation of the bag. Pants 1008 are determined in the third segment 1007 of the image 1000 and a purchase control 1028 is presented near the presentation of the pants 1008. Finally, a shoe 1012 has been determined within the fourth segment 1011 of the image 1000 and a purchase control 1022 has been presented near the presentation of the shoe 1012.

  Most segments of the image 1000 have been determined to include the display of the merchandise sold by the seller, but the segment 1003 that includes the human head object is determined not to contain the merchandise sold by the seller. Since it is determined that the object (the person's head) displayed in the segment 1003 is not a merchandise sold by the seller, no purchase control is presented near the presentation of the object.

  A user may view the image 1000 on the client device 1004 to selectively interact with one or more purchase controls to obtain additional details regarding the product associated with the purchase control. For example, FIG. 11 is a display of merchandise and merchandise variants of shirt merchandise, according to one implementation. Information 1100 presented on the display of client device 1104 is generated in response to the user selecting purchase control 1026 (FIG. 10) associated with the shirt item. In this example, upon selection of the purchase control 1026, an additional view 1110 of the shirt product is presented to the user along with the merchant name 1106, in this example merchant A, and the merchandise may be purchased from merchant A. The presented information 1100 may further include a trade name “Ladies Summer Casual Shirt” 1108. The management service may further obtain and provide product variant information 1112 such as size, fit, color, delivery method and / or shirt quantity as described above. A user may change or select product variant information, for example, by interacting with the presentation of product variant information. Additionally, purchase and / or delivery information 1114 may be further presented to the user, where the purchase and / or delivery information 1114 is currently associated with the user of the client device 1104 and the user “buy now”. When the control 1116 is selected, the management service is used to assist in the purchase of goods. The user may change the purchase and / or delivery information 1114 by selecting the “Edit” control 1118 to provide or select other information. The type or form of payment method can be used in the implementations described herein. For example, a user profile associated with the user maintained by the management service may include credit card information, as illustrated, and may be used to assist purchases between the user and the merchandise seller. . In other implementations, other forms of payment such as bank transfer, e-commerce payment processor, etc. may be utilized as well.

  In some implementations, a discount code 1119 or other promotion may be associated with the item displayed in the additional view 1110. For example, if merchant A 1106 is promoting a received product and discount code 1119 is provided as part of the checkout process, discount code 1119 is automatically identified and displayed on the display of client device 1104. It may be included in the presented information 1100. In some implementations, the discount code 1119 is provided by the merchant as a merchandise variant of the merchandise. In another implementation, the user may change, update or provide discount code 1119 by selecting discount code 1119 and providing such information.

  Additional view of product 1110 includes digital still images, video files, animations. It can be in a format such as a gif file. For example, the additional view 1110 is an animation .. that can be operated by the user to change the displayed view of the product. May include presentation of gif files. For example, if the client device 1104 includes a touch-based display, the user can move his / her finger on the touch-based display. The presentation of the gif file may be manipulated or controlled to obtain another view of the presented product. In one implementation, the user may control the presentation of the image and rotate the image to obtain a front, back, side and / or other view of the image, effectively reducing a 360 degree view of the image. provide.

  In some implementations, the user may view and / or provide comments, reviews, ratings, and / or other information regarding the products displayed in the additional view 1110. In some implementations, the user may be further presented with identification of related products that are often viewed or purchased with the products displayed in the additional view 1110. The related product is a product that is often viewed by the user when viewing a product that is often purchased together with the product or a product displayed in the additional view 1110. For example, if another user of the management service often purchases the product “Ladies Summer Casual Shirt” from Seller A and purchases more suitable shorts, the information 1100 is displayed in the additional view 1110. As a product that is often purchased together with the user, a suitable short pants can be further specified for the user. The user can acquire additional information regarding suitable shorts by selecting the specified suitable shorts.

  When the user selects the “Buy Now” control 1116, the management service assists the product purchase between the user and the seller. Product purchase support is described above with respect to FIGS. In addition to supporting the purchase, the management service may further send a confirmation message to the user, as illustrated in FIG. In this example, the management service sends a confirmation message 1202 to the client device 1204, which confirms that the merchandise seller has received an order for the merchandise from the user and that the merchant sends a confirmation email to the user. It is to confirm that.

  FIG. 13 illustrates an example process 1300 for matching merchants and merchandise, according to one implementation. Each of the example processes 1300 and other processes described herein are illustrated as a collection of blocks in a logical flow diagram. Some of the blocks represent operations that can be performed in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. With respect to software, blocks represent computer-executable instructions that are stored on one or more computer-readable media and that perform the operations detailed when executed by one or more processors. Generally, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular functions or implement particular abstract data types.

  Computer readable media include hard drive, floppy diskette, optical disk, CD-ROM, DVD, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, magnetic or optical card, solid state memory device Non-transitory computer readable storage media may be included, which may include other types of storage media suitable for storing electronic instructions. Additionally, in some implementations, a computer readable medium may include a temporary computer readable signal (compressed or uncompressed form). Examples of computer readable signals are configured to be accessible by a computer system that hosts or executes a computer program, including signals that are downloaded or uploaded over the Internet or other network, whether modulated using a carrier wave or not. However, it is not limited to this. Ultimately, the order in which operations are described is not intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of illustrated operations may be combined in any order and / or in parallel to perform a process. Is possible. Similarly, various implementations described herein may utilize more or less operations than these descriptions.

  The example process 1300 begins at 1302 by determining whether there is a source location identifier, such as URL, GPS coordinates, barcode, etc., included in the image information of the user provided image. As described above, the user-provided image may already be stored in the image data store of the management service or may be provided to the management service by the user. The user provided image can be any image or display of an object that the user provides to the management service. For example, the user-provided image may be an image acquired with an image capture device of the user's client device, an image copied from another website, an image from an electronic message, or the like.

  The image may include a source location identifier such as a URL if the image is obtained from another location on a network such as the Internet (eg, a website). In another example, the source location identifier may identify the physical location of an image captured by an image capture device (camera). For example, when the camera acquires an image, the image information may include GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) that specify the position of the image capture device when the image is acquired.

  If it is determined that the user-provided image does not include a source location identifier, the example process 1300 proceeds to an example process 1400 described below in FIG. However, if it is determined that the user-provided image includes a source location identifier, the source-location identifier of the user-provided image is compared at 1304 to the source location identifier maintained in the merchandise catalog data store. As described above, the merchandise catalog data store holds a list of merchandise sold by one or more sellers. Once the source location identifiers are compared, a determination is made at 1306 as to whether the source location identifier of the user-provided image matches the source location identifier of the item identified in the item catalog.

  If the source location identifier of the user-supplied image is determined not to match any source location identifier of the product in the product catalog data store, the example process 1300 proceeds to an example process 1400 described below with respect to FIG. If the source location identifier of the user-provided image matches the source location identifier of the product in the product catalog data store, at 1308, the user-provided image is a match product from the product catalog data store and / or a sale that sells the product. Associated with a person. This association is maintained in the mapping data store by the management service.

  The user-provided image is presented to the user based on the association between the user-provided image and the merchandise identified in the merchandise catalog data store and / or the merchant of the merchandise, such as when the user requests viewing of the user-provided image. Each time, at 1310, the presentation of the image will include purchase controls and / or merchant information. The purchase control may be selectable by the user to obtain additional information about the product displayed in the user-provided image and / or initiate a product purchase, as described above. The seller information specifies the seller of the product displayed in the image. When multiple sellers are associated with the product displayed in the image, the seller information is one of the sellers, one seller determined based on the advertising costs provided for the product, multiple sellers Identifying two sellers, providing an indication that two or more sellers are selling the product displayed in the user-provided image, and the like. The user requesting to view the user provided image may be the user who provided the image or any other user of the management service.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 13, the matching of the user-provided image to the seller in the case where the source location identifier of the user-provided image matches the source location identifier of the product listed in the product catalog data store has been described. In some implementations, additional analysis may be performed before determining that the user-provided image includes a display of merchant sales items. For example, the user-provided image may be processed to determine whether the image is similar or matches an image or image information included in the product identified as having a matching source location identifier in the product catalog. In another implementation, additional image information such as creation date, file size, hash value, color histogram, etc. may be compared to obtain an additional confirmation that the user-provided image contains a display of the merchant's products for sale. . In some implementations, all or part of FIG. 14 may be performed in parallel with the example process 1300.

  FIG. 14 illustrates an example process 1400 for processing a user-provided image to match the merchandise displayed in the image with the merchant of the merchandise, according to one implementation. The example process 1400 begins at 1402 by receiving an image from a user. The received image is then processed at 1404 using one or more image processing algorithms, such as edge detection, object detection, grayscale analysis, etc., to determine which objects are displayed in the image. In some implementations, feature vectors representing the image and / or objects in the image may be further generated.

  In addition to processing the image, at 1406 the source location identifier, the comment added by the user who provided the image, the comment added by the user who viewed and / or shared the image, the time, date and / or location associated with the image. The image information such as can be further examined. Based on the processed image and image information, a determination is made at 1408 as to whether the product category for the object displayed in the image can be determined. In some implementations, the management service may maintain a list of merchandise categories for merchandise sold from various merchants. Each merchandise category may include one or more merchandise features such as a description, a typical image of the merchandise associated with the merchandise category, a typical shape, size, and / or color of the merchandise that may be associated with the merchandise category. Similarly, a merchant can be associated with a merchandise category based on the merchant's type of merchandise sold. Similarly, based on the type of product, a sold product can be associated with one or more product categories.

  When determining whether an object displayed in a user-provided image can be associated with a product category, the processed image and / or image information is compared with the characteristics of each product category, and the object displayed in the image Determine if is similar to the product category. For example, the size, shape and / or color of the determined object is compared with the product category size (s), shape (s) and color (s) characteristics, and between the object and the product category The similarity may be determined.

  If the object displayed in the user-provided image cannot be associated with the product category, at 1410 the image is sent for manual review and categorization. Manual review and categorization may include one or more people reviewing the user-provided image to determine the category of objects displayed in the image. The person (s) may be an employee of the management service, a user of the management service, a seller, etc.

  If it is determined that the object displayed in the image can be associated with a category, or upon manual categorization, the object displayed in the user-provided image is associated with the determined category at 1412. Similarity between images in the product catalog is determined. For example, image information processed from user-provided images (eg, feature vectors, histograms) is compared with image information relating to images that match the product identified in the product catalog to determine the similarity between these images. You may judge.

  In 1414, based on the similarity between the user-provided image and the stored image, the probability of the stored image having the highest similarity to the user-provided image is determined, which matches the stored image with the user-provided image. It shows the possibility of doing. Probability may be based on the difference between the determined similarity scores. For example, when the highest similarity score is 95% and the next highest similarity scores are 45% and 34%, the probability that the stored image having the highest similarity score matches the user-provided image may be high. In contrast, when the highest similarity score is 95% and the next highest similarity scores are 94% and 93%, the images are similar, but any of these images is displayed in the user-provided image. Since the product may actually be included, the probability that the stored image having the highest similarity score matches the user-provided image is low.

  At 1416, a determination is made as to whether the probability exceeds a reliability threshold based on the probability score of the stored image having the highest similarity. A confidence threshold can be any number, score or other indicator that the probability score must reach above the threshold. The reliability threshold may vary with different images, different users, different times, etc.

  If the probability score does not exceed the threshold, at 1418 the image is sent for manual association by one or more people. In some implementations, images associated with products in the product catalog corresponding to the same category, image data, stored images, and / or stored images with the highest similarity score are manually associated by one or more people. Could be sent to do. The one or more users may be employees of management services, employees of potential merchants of goods, users of management services, and so on.

  If it is determined that the probability score exceeds the threshold or is a manual association, at 1420 the user-provided image is associated with a product identified in the product catalog and / or a seller of the product identified in the product catalog. The association is maintained in the mapping data store by the management service.

  The user-provided image is presented to the user based on the association between the user-provided image and the merchandise identified in the merchandise catalog data store and / or the merchant of the merchandise, such as when the user requests viewing of the user-provided image. Each time, at 1422, the presentation of the image will include purchase controls and / or merchant information. The purchase control may be selectable by the user to obtain additional information about the product displayed in the user-provided image and / or initiate a product purchase, as described above. The seller information specifies the seller of the product displayed in the image. When multiple sellers are associated with the product displayed in the image, the seller information includes one of the sellers, one seller based on the advertising costs provided for the product, and multiple sellers. Specifying may provide an indication that two or more sellers are selling the product displayed in the user-provided image. The user requesting to view the user provided image may be the user who provided the image or any other user of the management service.

  FIG. 15 illustrates an example purchase request process 1500 according to one implementation. The example process 1500 begins at 1502 when a user selects a purchase control. As described above, the purchase control is presented on the user-provided image when it is determined that the user-provided image includes the display of the merchandise sold by the seller.

  Upon receipt of a purchase control selection, at 1504 the merchant is queried for current product variant information corresponding to the product displayed in the image. As mentioned above, in some implementations, in response to a purchase control selection, the merchant may be queried for product variant information, and the merchant may periodically send product variant information to the management service, And / or the merchant may provide the latest information on the product variant information when the product variant is changed.

  The example process 1500 further transmits, at 1506, product details and current product variant information to the user's client device for presentation to the user. As illustrated and described above with respect to FIG. 11, the presentation to the user may include additional views of products, current product variant information, purchase details, and the like. Similarly, as described above, the user may modify and / or select a particular product variant for the product, which may be used to complete the purchase of the product. For example, the user may select a specific size, color, and / or other information for the item, which may be used when purchasing and / or delivering the item.

  Thereafter, at 1508, a determination is made as to whether a purchase request has been received. For example, a user may select to purchase a product when selecting a desired variant and providing purchase details (eg, delivery destination, credit card information, delivery time). If a purchase request is not received, the example process is completed at 1509. However, if it is determined that a purchase request has been received, at 1510 the selected merchandise variant, delivery information and user information for the user to initiate purchase are sent to the merchant of the merchandise.

  In response to sending the selected product variant, delivery information, and user information to the merchant, example process 1500 identifies purchase transactions and purchase details (eg, shipping, identification tag, delivery time) at 1512. The purchase identifier to be received is received from the seller.

  Based on user-provided information and purchase information provided by the seller, example process 1500 assists in 1514 in purchasing goods between the user and the seller. Additional details for supporting product purchases between users and merchandise sellers are described above with respect to FIGS. Finally, once the purchase is complete, a purchase confirmation is sent to the user at 1516. The purchase confirmation may be sent in the form of a presentation on the user's client device, an electronic message (“e-mail”), a text message, or the like.

  FIG. 16 illustrates an example purchase execution process 1600 according to one implementation. The example process 1600 provides additional details corresponding to box 1514 (FIG. 15). The example process 1600 begins at 1604 by obtaining purchase information and a payment token. As described above, the purchase information may include product identification, desired quantity, delivery details (eg, delivery address, delivery speed), and selected product variants (eg, size, color, etc.). The payment token is a unique identifier provided by the payment credential repository and is associated with the payment credential selected by the user purchasing the item and used to authenticate the purchase. If the payment token is not yet stored, the payment credentials can be obtained from the user and provided to the purchase credential repository to obtain the payment token.

  Upon obtaining the purchase information and payment token, at 1606, the purchase information and payment token without payment credentials are sent to the merchant selling the product that the user purchases. As described above, purchase information and payment tokens can be sent from the management service to the merchant via the payment credential repository. Upon receipt of the purchase information and payment token, the payment credential vault provides the merchant with the payment information displayed by the purchase information and token, thereby processing the purchase of the item.

  As described above, the merchant uses his or her associated payment processor to process the payment as if the purchase was made directly by the merchant. The payment processor can be the same or different entity as the payment credential repository. In an example of an entity with the same payment processor and payment credential repository, the payment credential repository may process the payment for the item based on the token received from the management service, rather than providing the payment credential to the merchant.

  When the merchant confirms the purchase with the payment processor, the merchant returns the purchase confirmation to the management service. The purchase confirmation may be sent directly to the management service by the merchant and / or sent to the management service via a payment credential repository. If the purchase is not confirmed, the merchant returns a failure and / or request for additional information to the management service.

  Returning to example process 1600, at 1608, after sending purchase information and a payment token, a determination is made as to whether a purchase confirmation has been received. If it is determined that a purchase confirmation has been received, at 1610 a notification is provided to the user confirming to the user that the product purchase from the seller has been successful and completed. The purchase confirmation may be sent in the form of a presentation on the user's client device, an electronic message (“e-mail”), a text message, or the like.

  If it is determined that a purchase confirmation has not been received, at 1612 insufficient information or necessary additional information is obtained from the user. For example, if the billing address or payment credentials have expired, the user may be required to update such information. Upon obtaining information from the user, the updated purchase information is sent to the seller at 1614 and the example process continues back to decision block 1608.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram of an exemplary implementation of a server system, such as server system 1700, that may be used with the implementations described herein. Server system 1700 may include a processor 1701, such as one or more redundant processors, a video display adapter 1702, a disk drive 1704, an input / output interface 1706, a network interface 1708, and a memory 1712. The processor 1701, the video display adapter 1702, the disk drive 1704, the input / output interface 1706, the network interface 1708, and the memory 1712 may be communicatively coupled to each other via a communication bus 1711.

  Video display adapter 1702 provides a display signal to a local display (not shown in FIG. 17) to allow an operator of server system 1700 to monitor and configure the operation of server system 1700. Similarly, input / output interface 1706 communicates with external input / output devices not shown in FIG. 17, such as a mouse, keyboard, scanner, or other input / output device that can be operated by an operator of server system 1700. Network interface 1708 includes hardware, software, or any combination thereof for communicating with other computing devices. For example, the network interface 1708 may be configured to provide communication over the network 108 between the server system 1700 and other computing devices such as the client device 104, as shown in FIG.

  Memory 1712 typically comprises random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory, and / or other volatile or persistent memory. Memory 1712 is shown storing an operating system 1714 for controlling the operation of server system 1700. A binary input / output system (BIOS) 1716 for controlling the low level operation of the server system 1700 is also stored in the memory 1712.

  Memory 1712 further stores program codes and data for providing network services that allow client devices and merchants to exchange information and data files with server system 1700 and / or management service 1710. The data store manager application 1720 may be a mapping data store 1711, an image data store 1713, a merchandise catalog data store 1715 and / or a user profile data store 1717 and a client device such as the client device 104 shown in FIG. Supports data exchange and mapping with merchants such as merchant 106.

  As used herein, the term “data store” refers to any device or combination of devices that can store, access and retrieve data, and in any standard distributed or clustered environment. Any combination and number of data servers, databases, data storage devices and data storage media may be included. Server system 1700 may optionally be integrated with a data store 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 that implements one or more application aspects for client devices, merchants and / or management services 1710, as appropriate. Appropriate hardware and software may be included. Server system 1700 cooperates with data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 to provide access control services, such as text, graphics, audio, video and / or images transferred to client devices and / or merchants. Content can be generated.

  Data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 may include a number of individual data tables, databases or other data storage mechanisms and media for storing data relating to particular aspects. For example, the exemplary data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 include mechanisms for storing images, user information, mappings and product catalogs from merchandise sellers, which can be used to create content (eg, user Offer images and purchase controls) can be generated and sent to client devices and / or merchants to control the actions performed.

  It should be understood that there can be many other aspects such as access rights information, preferred merchants, etc. that can be stored in the data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717. These can be stored in any of the above mechanisms, or any of the additional mechanisms in the data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 as needed. Data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 are operable to receive instructions from server system 1700 through their associated logic and to retrieve, update, or otherwise process data in response to the instructions. .

  The memory 1712 may further include the management service 1710 described above. Management service 1710 may be executable by processor 1701 to perform one or more of the functions of server system 1700. In one implementation, management service 1710 may represent instructions embodied in one or more software programs stored in memory 1712. In another implementation, the management service 1710 can represent hardware, software instructions, or a combination thereof.

  Server system 1700 is a distributed environment that, in one implementation, utilizes a number of computer systems and components interconnected via communication links using one or more computer networks or direct connections. However, it will be recognized by those skilled in the art that such a system can work equally well with a system having fewer or more components than illustrated in FIG. Accordingly, the depiction of FIG. 17 is to be considered as illustrative in nature and should not be considered as limiting the scope of the present disclosure.

  Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodical acts, the subject matter defined in the claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. It should be understood that there is no. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as exemplary forms of implementing the claims.

Implementations of the present disclosure can be described in view of the following provisions.
1. Receiving an image containing a display of the product from a user of the management service;
Processing the image to determine product information about the product;
Associating the image with a product category based at least in part on the product information;
Determining a plurality of potential sellers of the product displayed in the image;
Requesting confirmation from each of the potential merchants as to whether the product will be sold;
Receiving confirmation from the plurality of potential sellers confirming that the seller sells the item;
Associating the image with the merchant;
Presenting the image to the second user with a purchase control that allows the second user to purchase the merchandise displayed in the image from the seller.

  2. The product variant information of claim 1, further comprising receiving product variant information from the seller, wherein the product variant information identifies at least one of a price of the product, a size of the product, or a color of the product. Computer mounting method.

  3. The computer-implemented method of clause 1, wherein presenting the image and the purchase control further comprises presenting merchant information identifying the merchant of the item.

4). Storing the image in an image data store maintained by the management service;
Associating the image with product information held in a product catalog held by the management service;
The computer-implemented method according to clause 1, further comprising:

5. When executed by the processor,
Receiving a first image including a display of the first product from a first user of the management service;
Determining the first product displayed in the first image;
Determining a seller who sells the first product, different from the first user;
Associating the first image with the merchant;
Presenting to the second user the first image and merchant information identifying the merchant of the first product displayed in the first image;
A temporary computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions that cause at least the processor to execute.

  6). The instructions further cause at least the processor to present a purchase control selectable by the second user to initiate purchase of the first product from the merchant when executed by the processor. The temporary computer-readable storage medium according to clause 5.

7). The instructions are executed by the processor,
Receiving a selection of the purchase control from the second user;
Product variant information including at least one of the product delivery fee, the product delivery time, the product delivery method, the product size, the product color, or the product quantity is sent to the second user. Presenting,
7. The temporary computer readable storage medium of clause 6, further causing at least the processor to perform.

  8). The temporary computer readable storage medium of clause 7, wherein the product variant information is obtained from the merchant in response to receiving the selection of the purchase control.

  9. The temporary computer-readable storage medium according to clause 7, wherein the product variant information is periodically received from the seller and maintained by the management service.

10. The instructions are executed by the processor,
Receiving a product catalog containing product information for each of the seller's plurality of sales products from the seller;
For each of the plurality of products, the product information includes at least one of a second image representing the product, a source location identifier associated with the product, or product variant information. Receiving from the
6. The temporary computer readable storage medium of clause 5, further causing the processor to at least store the product catalog in a product catalog data store maintained by the management service.

11. The instructions cause the processor to determine the first product when executed by the processor, and
Comparing a first source location identifier associated with the first image with the product information held in the product catalog data store;
Determining the first product based on a match between the first source location identifier and a stored source location identifier held in the product catalog data store;
11. The temporary computer readable storage medium of clause 10, comprising instructions that cause at least the processor to perform.

12 The instruction causes the processor to determine the first product when executed by the processor;
Processing the first image with an image processing algorithm and determining a first feature vector representing the product displayed in the image;
Comparing the first feature vector with the product information held in the product catalog data store;
Determining the first product based on the similarity between the first feature vector and a stored feature vector held in the product catalog data store;
11. The temporary computer readable storage medium of clause 10, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to at least perform.

13. The instructions are executed by the processor,
Processing a plurality of images held in the image data store of the management service with an image processing algorithm;
For each of the plurality of images,
Determining a feature vector representing a product displayed in the image;
Comparing the feature vector with a stored feature vector held in the merchandise catalog data store;
Determining the product and a seller of the product based at least in part on the comparison;
11. The temporary computer readable storage medium of clause 10, further causing the processor to at least further associate the image with the merchandise and the merchant of the merchandise.

14 The first image includes a display of a second product;
The instructions are executed by the processor,
Determining the second product displayed in the first image;
Determining a second seller for selling the second product;
Presenting the first image and second seller information identifying the second seller of the second product displayed in the image to the second user;
6. The temporary computer readable storage medium of clause 5, further causing at least the processor to perform.

15. The instructions are executed by the processor,
Presenting a first purchase control selectable by the second user to initiate a first purchase of the first product from the seller;
Presenting a second purchase control selectable by the second user to initiate a second purchase of the second product from the second seller;
15. The temporary computer readable storage medium of clause 14, further causing at least the processor to perform.

16. one or more processors;
Coupled to the one or more processors, and when executed by the one or more processors,
Receiving from the first seller product information for the merchandise sold by the first seller;
Storing the product information for the product in a product catalog data store maintained by a management service;
Receiving a first image including a display of a first product from a first user different from the seller;
Comparing the first image with the product information for the product;
Determining whether the first product displayed in the first image matches the product sold by the first seller based at least in part on the comparison;
Associating the first image with the product;
The first user is provided with the first image, the identifier of the first seller, and a sales control that the first user can select to initiate the purchase of the product from the first seller. Presenting,
And a memory for storing program instructions that cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

17. The method
Determining that the product is available for purchase from a second seller;
Presenting the user with an option to select to purchase the product from the first seller or the second seller;
The computing system of clause 16, further comprising:

18. The method
Requesting the first seller to confirm that the display of the product is included in the first image;
Receiving confirmation that the display of the product is included in the first image,
Determining that the first product displayed in the first image matches the product is further based at least in part on the confirmation;
The computing system according to clause 16.

19. The comparison of the first image is as follows:
17. The computing system of clause 16, comprising comparing the product information with first image information that includes a source location identifier corresponding to a source of the first image.

20. The method
Receiving the purchase control selection;
The product is to support the purchase of the product, and the purchase is performed between the first user and the first seller, and the first seller delivers the product to the first user. 17. The computing system of clause 16, further comprising:

Claims (15)

Receiving an image containing a display of the product from a user of the management service;
Processing the image to determine product information about the product;
Associating the image with a product category based at least in part on the product information;
Determining a plurality of potential sellers of the product displayed in the image;
Requesting confirmation from each of the potential merchants as to whether the product will be sold;
Receiving confirmation from the plurality of potential sellers confirming that the seller sells the item;
Associating the image with the merchant;
Presenting the image to the second user with a purchase control that allows the second user to purchase the merchandise displayed in the image from the seller.   The product variant information further comprising receiving product variant information from the seller, wherein the product variant information identifies at least one of a price of the product, a size of the product, or a color of the product. Computer implementation method. Storing the image in an image data store maintained by the management service;
Associating the image with product information held in a product catalog held by the management service;
The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: When executed by the processor,
Receiving a first image including a display of the first product from a first user of the management service;
Determining the first product displayed in the first image;
Determining a seller who sells the first product, different from the first user;
Associating the first image with the merchant;
Presenting to the second user the first image and merchant information identifying the merchant of the first product displayed in the first image;
A temporary computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions that cause at least the processor to execute.   The instructions further cause at least the processor to present a purchase control selectable by the second user to initiate purchase of the first product from the merchant when executed by the processor. The temporary computer-readable storage medium according to claim 4. The instructions are executed by the processor,
Receiving a selection of the purchase control from the second user;
Product variant information including at least one of the product delivery fee, the product delivery time, the product delivery method, the product size, the product color, or the product quantity is sent to the second user. Presenting,
The temporary computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, further causing at least the processor to perform. The instructions are executed by the processor,
Receiving a product catalog containing product information for each of the seller's plurality of sales products from the seller;
For each of the plurality of products, the product information includes at least one of a second image representing the product, a source location identifier associated with the product, or product variant information. Receiving from the
The temporary computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, further causing at least the processor to store the product catalog in a product catalog data store maintained by the management service. The instructions cause the processor to determine the first product when executed by the processor, and
Comparing a first source location identifier associated with the first image with the product information held in the product catalog data store;
Determining the first product based on a match between the first source location identifier and a stored source location identifier held in the product catalog data store;
The temporary computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, comprising instructions that cause at least the processor to perform. The instruction causes the processor to determine the first product when executed by the processor;
Processing the first image with an image processing algorithm and determining a first feature vector representing the product displayed in the image;
Comparing the first feature vector with the product information held in the product catalog data store;
Determining the first product based on the similarity between the first feature vector and a stored feature vector held in the product catalog data store;
The temporary computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising instructions that cause at least the processor to perform. The first image includes a display of a second product;
The instructions are executed by the processor,
Determining the second product displayed in the first image;
Determining a second seller for selling the second product;
Presenting the first image and second seller information identifying the second seller of the second product displayed in the image to the second user;
The temporary computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, further causing at least the processor to perform. One or more processors;
Coupled to the one or more processors, and when executed by the one or more processors,
Receiving from the first seller product information for the merchandise sold by the first seller;
Storing the product information for the product in a product catalog data store maintained by a management service;
Receiving a first image including a display of a first product from a first user different from the seller;
Comparing the first image with the product information for the product;
Determining whether the first product displayed in the first image matches the product sold by the first seller based at least in part on the comparison;
Associating the first image with the product;
The first user is provided with the first image, the identifier of the first seller, and a sales control that the first user can select to initiate the purchase of the product from the first seller. Presenting,
And a memory for storing program instructions that cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising: The method
Determining that the product is available for purchase from a second seller;
Presenting the user with an option to select to purchase the product from the first seller or the second seller;
The computing system of claim 11, further comprising: The method
Requesting the first seller to confirm that the display of the product is included in the first image;
Receiving confirmation that the display of the product is included in the first image,
Determining that the first product displayed in the first image matches the product is further based at least in part on the confirmation;
The computing system of claim 11. The comparison of the first image is as follows:
The computing system of claim 11, comprising comparing first product information including a source location identifier corresponding to a source of the first image with the merchandise information.
The method
Receiving the purchase control selection;
The product is to support the purchase of the product, and the purchase is performed between the first user and the first seller, and the first seller delivers the product to the first user. The computing system of claim 11, further comprising: