Patent ID: 7835936
Filing Date: 2010-11-16
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer implemented method of modeling customer response to promotional programs for controlling a retail commerce system, comprising: moving goods between members of a retail commerce system; recording transactional data from customer sales involving the movement of goods between the members of the retail commerce system, the transactional data including store number, product number, time of transaction, quantity, price, and promotion identifier; transmitting the transactional data through an open-architecture computer network and storing the transactional data on a mass storage device; retrieving the transactional data from the mass storage device; providing a first expression of an expected value of customer traffic within a store as a component of the retail commerce system, the first expression being defined as an exponential function of Q providing a second expression of an expected value of selecting a product, the second expression being defined as exp{V(t)−β[(P−P providing a third expression of an expected value of quantity of selected product as an average of count of product P in transactions containing at least one product P; solving, by a computer processor, for the expected value of customer traffic, expected value of selecting the product, and expected value of quantity of selected product using the transactional data from customer sales; providing a customer response model as a multiplicative combination of the expected value of customer traffic and the expected value of selecting a product and the expected value of quantity of selected product, the customer response model generating a forecast of demand for the goods based on a promotional program; and reporting the forecast of demand for the goods to a member of the commerce system to control the movement of goods in the retail commerce system.