Patent ID: 8401911

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for presenting popular products that are in-stock at a merchant location, the method comprising the steps of: creating, by a computer, an electronic document for a merchant corresponding to a physical location of the merchant, the electronic document comprising information regarding the merchant's physical location; estimating, by the computer, whether one or more products are in stock at the physical location of the merchant, the estimating comprising, for each of the one or more products: receiving point of sale data, the point of sale data comprising a product identifier that identifies a product that was sold, a first store identifier that identifies the physical location of the merchant at which the product was sold, and a timestamp corresponding to a first time (t1) at which the product was sold, determining based at least on the received point of sale data, a rate of sales events (r e ) for the product at the physical location of the merchant, determining a second time (t2) corresponding to a time for the comparing step, wherein the second time is after the first time, determining based at least on the rate of sales events (r e ), a probability of not seeing any sales events during a duration of time (t3), wherein the time (t3) is a function of the second time and the first time, and determining an indication of product availability for the product at the physical location of the merchant, the indication of product availability comprising an “in stock” indicator when the probability of not seeing any sales events during a duration of time (t3) is greater than a first probability threshold; populating, by the computer, a product availability database with product inventory that is in stock at the merchant's physical location based at least in part on the estimation that the one or more products are in stock; populating, by the computer, a product popularity database with popular products by identifying a popularity of each product relative to at least one other product; comparing, by the computer, information from the product popularity database with information from the product availability database to identify at least two products that are (1) identified as popular in the product popularity database relative to at least one other product and (2) estimated as in stock at the merchant's physical location as identified in the product availability database; populating, by the computer, the electronic document with the at least two popular products that are estimated as in stock at the merchant's physical location; and presenting, by the computer, the electronic document comprising the information regarding the merchant's physical location and the at least two popular products that are estimated as in stock at the merchant's physical location.