Patent Document ID: 9412109
Application ID: 13677996
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method comprising: determining, by a computing system, incremental values associated with a plurality of clustering solutions, wherein each of the clustering solutions groups stores of a retailer into clusters in a different way, wherein for each clustering solution in the plurality of clustering solutions, the incremental value associated with the clustering solution indicates a difference between an estimated revenue associated with the clustering solution and revenue associated with a baseline clustering solution, wherein determining the incremental values associated with the plurality of clustering solutions comprises, for each respective clustering solution from the plurality of clustering solutions: determining, by the computing system, incremental values associated with each of the clusters into which the respective clustering solution groups the stores, wherein the incremental value associated with each of the clusters into which the respective clustering solution groups the stores is an aggregation of incremental values associated with the stores in the cluster, and the incremental value associated with each store in the cluster is an estimated change in a revenue of the store if a current assortment of items in the store is swapped with another assortment of items; and determining, by the computing system, the incremental value associated with the respective clustering solution based on a sum of the incremental values associated with each of the clusters into which the respective clustering solution groups the stores; determining, by the computing system and based on the incremental values associated with the plurality of clustering solutions, an appropriate number of clusters into which to group the stores of the retailer, wherein the appropriate number of clusters corresponds to a turning point of a best fit curve through a plurality of points, each respective point of the plurality of points corresponding to a respective clustering solution of the plurality of clustering solutions, the respective point having a first coordinate corresponding to a number of clusters associated with the respective clustering solution and a second coordinate corresponding to the incremental value associated with the respective clustering solution; selecting, based at least on part on the appropriate number of clusters, a particular clustering solution in the plurality of clustering solutions; and distributing, based at least in part on the particular clustering solution, merchandise to the stores.