Methods and systems for providing personal shopping services

Abstract

A method and system for providing personal shopping assistance via a computing device includes hosting a database of information regarding a customer, hosting a database of information regarding a personal shopper, and associating the customer with the personal shopper. The personal shopper is provided the ability to recommend at least one of a product or a service relevant to the customer and receiving an indication of the purchase of the recommended product or service by the customer. An incentive system may provide a reward to the personal shopper based upon the purchased product or service, including a commission or other reward. The system may be implemented on a desktop and/or mobile device as desired to provide flexibility in implementation.

1 - 36 . (canceled) 
     
     
         37 . A method, comprising:
 tracking a performance of a sales associate;   associating a customer with the sales associate based on a location and the tracked performance of the sales associate;   providing one or more graphical user interfaces to enable the sales associate to request to be a personal shopper for the customer via a selection of one or more graphical elements of the one or more graphical user interfaces;   causing, via a selection of one or more graphical elements of the one or more graphical user interface, a catalog to be created, wherein the catalog comprises one or both of a recommended product and a recommended service, one or both of a product offering and a service offering customized for the customer, and one or more comments by the sales associate;   providing the sales associate with a plurality of different graphical user interfaces that can be accessed, via a selection of one or more graphical elements of the one or more graphical user interfaces, to create a customized graphical user interface for the customer;   receiving an indication of a purchase of the recommended product or the recommended service; and   providing a reward to the sales associate based upon the purchased product or the purchased service.   
     
     
         38 . The method according to  claim 37 , comprising tracking one or both online activities and offline activities of the customer. 
     
     
         39 . The method according to  claim 37 , wherein the reward comprises a commission based on a sale price of the purchased product or the purchased service. 
     
     
         40 . The method according to  claim 37 , wherein associating the customer with the sales associate comprises determining a relationship between the customer and the sales associate, and wherein the customer initiates the association of the customer with the sales associate. 
     
     
         41 . The method according to  claim 37 , wherein associating the customer with the sales associate comprises determining a relationship between the customer and the sales associate, wherein the relationship comprises one or more social media connections. 
     
     
         42 . The method according to  claim 37 , wherein the one or more social media connections are determined via one or more queries of one or more social media applications. 
     
     
         43 . The method according to  claim 37 , comprising hosting one or more databases of information related to the customer, the sales associate, and a plurality of products or services, wherein the one or both of the recommended product and the recommended service are selected from the plurality of products and services. 
     
     
         44 . The method according to  claim 44 , wherein the one or more databases of information related to the plurality of products or services is hosted by a retail establishment. 
     
     
         45 . The method according to  claim 37 , wherein the one or both of the recommended product and the recommended service comprise a proactive recommendation by the sales associate. 
     
     
         46 . The method according to  claim 37 , comprising hosting one or more databases of information relating to an account manager; and associating the sales associate with the account manager. 
     
     
         47 . The method according to  claim 37 , comprising providing one or more user interfaces that comprise one or more graphical elements displayed on one or more computing devices to enable the customer and the sales associate to communicate with respect to the recommended product or the recommended service. 
     
     
         48 . The method according to  claim 48 , wherein the one or more user interfaces enable the customer and the sales associate to discuss the recommended product or the recommend service via one or more of an audio communication, a text communication, an email, a text chat, and a video communication. 
     
     
         49 . The method according to  claim 48 , wherein the one or more user interfaces enable the customer and the sales associate to share web browsing between the customer and the sales associate. 
     
     
         50 . The method according to  claim 37 , wherein the customer is associated with the sales associate as a reward for the tracked performance by the sales associate. 
     
     
         51 . The method according to  claim 37 , comprising hosting one or more databases with information about the customer that is obtained via data mining. 
     
     
         52 . The method according to  claim 37 , wherein the customer can be associated with a plurality of personal shoppers. 
     
     
         53 . The method according to  claim 37 , wherein, as part of a registration process of the sales associate, the sales associate is provided one or more graphical user interfaces to cull an established contact list to associate one or more customers with the sales associate. 
     
     
         54 . The method according to  claim 37 , wherein associating the customer with the sales associate is performed after authorization by one or both of the customer and the sales associate. 
     
     
         55 . The method according to  claim 37 , comprising:
 providing, via a selection of one or more graphical elements of one or more graphical user interfaces, access to an online personal shopper account via an online social network account, wherein the online personal shopper account and the online social network account are different accounts.