Mobile-compatible offering of commercially identical items for post-retail sale

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatuses for mobile-compatible offering of commercially identical items for post-retail sale are described herein. A mobile application may be used to pair with a point-of-sale system and to record an availability of units from a retail package. The mobile application may receive information indicating a current location of the mobile device and select, based on the indicated location, a point-of-sale system. The mobile application may send information that identifies the mobile application to the point-of-sale system. The mobile application may receive an indication of a retail package that includes a plurality of commercially identical items and an indication of a quantity of the commercially identical items that a user wishes to purchase.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 transmitting, by a mobile device, payment information for a transaction to a point-of-sale system;   receiving, by the mobile device, purchase information for the transaction from the point-of-sale system that identifies a retail package purchased in the transaction, the retail package comprising a plurality of commercially identical items;   selecting, by the mobile device, a quantity of the commercially identical items of the retail package; and   transmitting, by the mobile device, a command to update an inventory associated with the mobile device to include the selected quantity of the commercially identical items.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein transmitting, by the mobile device, payment information comprises using the mobile device to transmit the payment information over a near-field communications channel. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein transmitting, by the mobile device, payment information is performed using a digital wallet. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the purchase information is received via a middle layer. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving, by the mobile device, an indication of a suggested quantity of the commercially identical items, wherein selecting, by the mobile device, a quantity of the commercially identical items comprises using the mobile device to accept the suggested quantity. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein further comprising selecting, by the mobile device, the retail package from among a plurality of retail items purchased in the transaction. 
     
     
         7 . A method comprising:
 receiving a first text message, from a first subscriber number, that identifies a provider, an item, and a quantity of commercially identical units within the item;   receiving a second text message, from a second subscriber number, that indicates a request relating to the item; and   transmitting, to the second subscriber number, a response to the request.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the item is a personal care item or a medication. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the first text message comprises a product code that identifies the item, and wherein the request relating to the item is a description of at least one symptom. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the response indicates an availability of at least one of the commercially identical units, or wherein the response comprises information identifying the provider. 
     
     
         11 . A method comprising:
 receiving, from a mobile software application resident on a second mobile device, a request to purchase an item;   determining, based on a query of an inventory database, that the item matches a plurality of commercially identical items purchased by a user of a first mobile device as part of a retail package that includes the plurality of commercially identical items;   providing, based on a location of the second mobile device and a location of the first mobile device, an indication that the user of the first mobile device has the plurality of commercially identical items available for purchase;   receiving, from a mobile wallet resident on a second mobile device, an indication of a purchase of one or more of the plurality of commercially identical items from a user of the first mobile device; and   updating, based the indication of the purchase, the inventory database to remove the purchased one or more of the plurality of commercially identical items from the quantity of one or more of the plurality of commercially identical items.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 receiving, from a mobile software application resident on the first mobile device, information indicating a current location of the first mobile device and an identifier of the mobile software application;   selecting, based on the location of the mobile device, a point-of-sale (POS) system;   transmitting, to the selected POS system, the identifier of the mobile software application resident on the first mobile device;   receiving, from the selected POS system and the mobile software application resident on the first mobile device, an indication of the retail package that includes the plurality of commercially identical items;   receiving, from the mobile software application resident on the first mobile device, an indication of a quantity of one or more of the plurality of commercially identical items; and   updating, based on the identifier of the mobile software application, the inventory database with the quantity of one or more of the plurality of commercially identical items.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , the identifier includes a label that identifies at least one among (A) a particular account of a loyalty program of a retailer associated with the POS system and (B) a particular payment account. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising, in response to receiving the indication of the retail package, transmitting an indication of a suggested quantity of the commercially identical items to the mobile software application resident on the first mobile device. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising, selecting one among a plurality of connection points that is associated with the selected POS system. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the identifier is transmitted to the selected POS system via the selected connection point. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein receiving the indication of the retail package indicates completion of a purchase transaction between the selected POS system and the first mobile device. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein selecting one of a plurality of connection points that is associated with the selected POS system further comprises:
 associating a location of each of a plurality of POS systems with a respective connection point of the plurality of connection points;   configuring each of the plurality of POS systems to connect to the respective connection point of the plurality of connection points through a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the respective connection point; and   determining a connection point, and an associated URL, of the plurality of connections points having an associated location nearest the location of the first mobile device as the selected one of the plurality of connection points.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising configuring each of the plurality of POS systems to connect to the respective connection point of the plurality of connection points through a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the respective connection point. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein each of the plurality of connection points is configured to:
 receive the indication of the quantity of one or more of the plurality of commercially identical items into a buffer according to a respective format;   verify that the indication of the quantity of one or more of the plurality of commercially identical items is properly formatted according to the respective format; and   return an error code in response to a determination that the indication of the quantity of one or more of the plurality of commercially identical items to the respective format.