Method and system for designing a catalog with optimized product placement

Abstract

The current invention provides a method, system and computer program product for designing a catalog with optimized placement of items. Past user transactions are used to estimate the effect of nature and placement of an item on the response of users to the catalogs in terms of items clicked on or items purchased. These estimations are used to optimize the placement of items in a catalog in order to maximize the gains for a merchant specified objective, which can be in terms of revenues, sales or the number of clicks. Various stochastic and deterministic optimization functions are used for the purpose of optimization.

1 . A method for automatically designing a catalog for a plurality of items using a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
 estimating a relationship between placement of an item in a catalog and corresponding user responses, the user responses being obtained from a transaction history;   determining an optimized position for each item using the estimated relationships; and   forming a catalog with the items being placed at determined optimized positions.   
     
     
         2 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, further comprising the steps of:
 deploying a plurality of initial catalogs with different item placements; and   obtaining user responses for the initial catalogs, wherein the plurality of initial catalogs refer to any of different catalogs for different groups of users over a same period of time, different catalogs for a same group of users over different periods of time, and a combination of both.   
     
     
         3 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the step of estimating a relationship between placement of the items in a catalog and corresponding user responses comprises the steps of:
 computing item differentials from the user responses; and   computing search costs from the user responses.   
     
     
         4 . The method as recited in  claim 3 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the step of computing item differentials comprises the steps of:
 computing an effect of the nature of an item on said user responses; and   computing an effect of the nature of an item on said user responses for other items in the catalog.   
     
     
         5 . The method as recited in  claim 3 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the step of computing search costs comprises the steps of:
 computing an effect of placing an item at a particular position in the catalog on said user responses; and   computing an effect of relative positions of items on said user responses.   
     
     
         6 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the step of determining an optimized position comprises the steps of:
 modeling a merchant specified objective as an optimization function in terms of item placement, item differentials, and search costs; and   evaluating the optimization function to identify an optimal placement of each item in the catalog.   
     
     
         7 . A system for automatically designing a catalog for a plurality of items, the system comprising:
 a mechanism operable for estimating a relationship between placement of an item in a catalog and corresponding user responses, the user responses being obtained from a transaction history;   a unit operable for determining an optimized position for each item using the estimated relationships; and   a device operable for forming a catalog with the items being placed at determined optimized positions.   
     
     
         8 . The system as recited in  claim 7 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, further comprising:
 a first sub-unit operable for deploying a plurality of initial catalogs with different item placements; and   a second sub-unit operable for obtaining user responses for the deployed catalogs, the obtained responses forming the transaction history.   
     
     
         9 . The system as recited in  claim 7 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein said mechanism comprises:
 a first sub-unit operable for computing item differentials from the user responses; and   a second sub-unit operable for computing search costs from the user responses.   
     
     
         10 . The system as recited in  claim 9 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the first sub-unit comprises:
 a first computer operable for computing an effect of the nature of an item on said user responses; and   a second computer operable for computing an effect of the nature of an item on said user responses for other items in the catalog.   
     
     
         11 . The system as recited in  claim 9 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the second sub-unit comprises:
 a first computer operable for computing an effect of placing an item at a particular position in the catalog on said user responses; and   a second computer operable for computing an effect of relative positions of items on said user responses.   
     
     
         12 . The system as recited in  claim 7 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the unit comprises:
 a first sub-unit operable for modeling a merchant specified objective as an optimization function in terms of item placement, item differentials, and search costs; and   a second sub-unit operable for evaluating the optimization function to identify an optimal placement of each item in the catalog.   
     
     
         13 . A program storage device readable by computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by said computer to perform a method for automatically designing a catalog for a plurality of items, the method comprising:
 estimating a relationship between placement of an item in a catalog and corresponding user responses, the user responses being obtained from a transaction history;   determining an optimized position for each item using the estimated relationships; and   forming a catalog with the items being placed at determined optimized positions.   
     
     
         14 . The program storage device as recited in  claim 13 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, further comprising:
 deploying a plurality of initial catalogs with different item placements; and   obtaining user responses for the deployed catalogs, wherein the plurality of initial catalogs refer to any of different catalogs for different groups of users over a same period of time, different catalogs for a same group of users over different periods of time, and a combination of both.   
     
     
         15 . The program storage device as recited in  claim 13 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the program instruction means for estimating relationship between placement of the items in a catalog and corresponding user responses comprises:
 computing item differentials from the user responses; and   computing search costs from the user responses.   
     
     
         16 . The program storage device as recited in  claim 15 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the program instruction means for computing item differentials comprises:
 computing an effect of the nature of an item on said user responses; and   computing an effect of the nature of an item on said user responses for other items in the catalog.   
     
     
         17 . The program storage device as recited in  claim 15 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the program instruction means for computing search costs comprises:
 computing an effect of placing an item at a particular position in the catalog on said user responses; and   computing an effect of relative positions of items on said user responses.   
     
     
         18 . The program storage device as recited in  claim 13 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the program instruction means for determining an optimized position comprises:
 modeling a merchant specified objective as an optimization function in terms of item placement, item differentials, and search costs; and   evaluating the optimization function to identify an optimal placement of each item in the catalog.   
     
     
         19 . A method for placement of a plurality of items in a catalog, the placement being directed to achieve a specified objective, the method comprising the steps of:
 deploying a plurality of initial catalogs with different placements for the plurality of items;   obtaining user responses for the plurality of initial catalogs, wherein the plurality of catalogs refer to any of different catalogs for different groups of users over the same period of time, different catalogs for the same group of users over different periods of time, and a combination of both;   computing catalog parameters from the user responses; and   optimizing placement of items in the catalog using the catalog parameters.   
     
     
         20 . The method as recited in  claim 19 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the step of computing catalog parameters comprises the steps of:
 computing item differentials from the user responses; and   computing search costs from the user responses.   
     
     
         21 . The method as recited in  claim 20 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the step of computing item differentials comprises the steps of:
 computing an effect of the nature of an item on said user responses; and   computing an effect of the nature of an item on the said user responses for other items in the catalog.   
     
     
         22 . The method as recited in  claim 20 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the step of computing search costs comprises the steps of:
 computing an effect of placing an item at a particular position in the catalog on said user responses; and   computing an effect of relative positions of items on said user responses.   
     
     
         23 . The method as recited in  claim 19 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, wherein the step of optimizing placement of items comprises the steps of:
 modeling a merchant specified objective as an optimization function in terms of item placement, item differentials, and search costs; and   evaluating the optimization function to identify an optimal placement of items in the catalog.   
     
     
         24 . A method for dynamically optimizing an online catalog, the catalog being designed based on user response data of previously initial catalogs, the method comprising the steps of:
 computing catalog parameters from user response data;   modeling a merchant specified objective as an optimization function in terms of placement of item in a catalog and catalog parameters;   evaluating the optimization function to identify an optimal placement of items in the catalog;   forming a catalog with the items being placed at positions obtained from evaluating the optimization function;   deploying a formed catalog; and   updating user response data based on response to the formed catalog,   wherein steps a to f are repeated to dynamically update the catalog based on recent user responses.   
     
     
         25 . The method as recited in  claim 24 , all the limitations of which are incorporated herein by reference, further comprising the steps of:
 deploying a plurality of initial catalogs with different placement for a plurality of items; and   obtaining user response data for the deployed catalogs, wherein the plurality of catalogs refer to any of different catalogs for different groups of users over the same period of time, different catalogs for the same group of users over different periods of time, a combination of both.