Patent ID: 8335722

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for providing a product availability indicator, comprising: receiving point of sale (POS) data on a computer, the POS data comprising a first product identifier that identifies a product that was sold, a first store identifier that identifies a store at which the product was sold, and a timestamp corresponding to a first time (t 1 ) at which the product was sold; determining, by the computer, based at least on the received POS data, a rate of sales events (r e ) for the product at the store; receiving, by the computer, at a second time (t 2 ), a query for the product, wherein the second time is after the first time; determining, by the computer, based at least on the rate of sales events (r e ), a probability of not seeing any sales events during a duration of time (t 3 ) corresponding to the second time less the first time (t 2 −t 1 ); and providing an indication of product availability for the product at the store in response to the query.