Automatically initiating product replenishment

摘要

A facility for assessing product replenishment is described. The facility determines that a purchasing entity possesses an item, determines an expiration time for the item, and schedules, for a time preceding the expiration, a unilateral communication to the purchasing entity indicating that the item should be replenished. The facility can also manage automatic item replenishment, including determining a target date for replenishment of the item, transmitting to the purchaser in advance of the target date (when the purchaser is not engaged in an electronic shopping activity) a replenishment proposal, and ordering a replacement for the item. In some cases, the facility places an order within a predetermined tolerance of the target date without intervention by the consumer. The facility can also establish and test a condition for suggesting replenishment, can raise an event when the condition is satisfied, and can unilaterally make the replenishment suggestion when the event is raised.

主权项

1. A method in a data processing system for assessing item replenishment, comprising:
receiving, at a server computer system via the Internet, an electronic transmission from a purchasing entity, the received electronic transmission comprising an instruction to purchase a first item through an online item ordering facility; accessing, in a memory unit of the server computer system, purchase history information mapped to the purchasing entity; responsive to a determination, based on the purchase history information, that the purchasing entity purchased a second item, probabilistically determining, using one or more computer processors of the server computer system, that the purchasing entity follows a particular lifestyle preference; determining a target replenishment time for the first item based on at least the lifestyle preference followed by the purchasing entity; storing the target replenishment time in a replenish repository included in the memory unit; and responsive to receiving a request for a web page via the Internet from a computing device, the request associated with the purchasing entity via a website cookie:
accessing the replenishment repository to determine that the first item should be replaced; andtransmitting the web page to the computing device, wherein the web page causes to be displayed on a display of the computing device a name of the first item and a user interface element that enables the purchasing entity to replenish the first item from the online item online item ordering facility by interacting with the user interface element.