A system and method for providing awards and rewards to social media users for the content/posts they upload to their social media profiles is disclosed. The system uses a content management manager for creating, managing, and displaying a user timeline for each of the social media users, an ad insertion engine for creating, managing, and inserting ads into the user timeline for each of the social media users, an awards manager for awarding each of the social media users rewards in exchange for watching ads before viewing content, and a marketsquare manager for creating, managing, and displaying items for sale in an online marketplace in which each of the social media users may be buyers and seller.

An online consignment shopping system supports an aggregated marketplace for consignment vendors. The online consignment shopping system has a network interface and one or more processors. The system receives a request for a consignment article that has user-specified measurements. The system searches through one or more inventory databases for a match to the request. The inventory database(s) have inventories of a plurality of consignment vendors. The system sends information about the matching consignment article that has the user-specified measurements, for potential purchase by the user.

Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for semi-opaque sales with bundles of items. An example bundle can include hotel lodging and a bonus service, status, or item associated with that hotel. An system can identify a first bundle of a first base and bonus item, and a second bundle of a second base and bonus item. The system can present a semi-opaque offer comprising the first bundle, the second bundle, and a discount price, wherein the semi-opaque offer does not identify which of the first bundle and the second bundle will be sold at the discount price to the user upon acceptance of the semi-opaque offer, and wherein the discount price is a full price of the first base item. After receiving acceptance of the semi-opaque offer from the user, the system can disclose that the user has purchased the first bundle at the discount price.

An interactive transaction system is provided. A terminal, located adjacent or in proximity to a merchandise display, comprises a touch screen device, associated with the product category, configured to present a subset of products within the product category, determining the subset of products within the product category according to an algorithm that may take into account a profile of a shopper interacting with the terminal, a location of the terminal inside the physical merchant store, and products that are located in proximity to the terminal. The terminal is further configured to receive a shopper selection associated with at least one of the products in the subset of products within the product category for fulfillment.

A distributed network transaction system and method includes a central exchange computer connected via the Internet (world wide web) to multiple remote computers associated with, for example, individual brokers. A central database is provided with the exchange computer and each remote computer can have a respective database for information that the individual brokers was to maintain separate from the system. E-commerce transactions are conducted by the system, which performs a number of transaction-related functions, such as pushing tickets up to the system for sale, purchasing tickets online, shipping, web site-related and bookkeeping. The system and methodology accommodate price event functions where non real-time tickets can be sold and the orders filled with tickets acquired on the system.

Various embodiments described herein utilize multiple levels of generative adversarial networks (GANs) to facilitate generation of digital images based on user-provided images. Some embodiments comprise a first generative adversarial network (GAN) and a second GAN coupled to the first GAN, where the first GAN includes an image generator and at least two discriminators, and the second GAN includes an image generator and at least one discriminator. According to some embodiments, the (first) image generator of the first GAN is trained by processing a user-provided image using the first GAN. For some embodiments, the user-provided image and the first generated image, generated by processing the user-provided image using the first GAN, are combined to produce a combined image. For some embodiments, the (second) image generator of the second GAN is trained by processing the combined image using the second GAN.

Certain example embodiments relate to techniques generating a database of virtual families for real-time generation of part numbers for configurable products. For instance, certain example embodiments may include receiving a search request for part numbers and determining virtual families including entities matching the search request. The number of matching products matching the search request and the part numbers may be determined based on the virtual families and the independent groups stored in the virtual families that match the search request. The part numbers may be determined based on allowed characters, number and/or symbols for the part number positions defined in the independent groups of the virtual families including the entities matching the one or more configurable properties of the user input search request. Facet counts for the configurable product may also be determined based on the results of the user input search request.

Systems and methods are disclosed that provide for a linking of a product database across different search platforms and then managing payments by a generalized search entity such that users are not transitioned to a merchant site from advertisements or search results. A method includes establishing, at a generalized search entity, a link to a product database of a merchant, offering, by the generalized search entity and based on a correlation of search terms to the product database of the merchant, search results across at least a first search platform and a second search platform and receiving, from a user, a confirmation of a payment for a product associated with a search result presented on the first search platform by the generalized search entity. The generalized search entity processes the payment for the product without transitioning the user to a site operated by the merchant. A universal shopping cart can be used to pay once for a plurality of products selected from different merchants as managed by the generalized search entity.

A method for assisting product selection according to haptic properties involves obtaining at least one product search criterion in a user interface, identifying relevant products, based on the at least one product search criterion, and displaying the relevant products in the user interface. The method further involves obtaining haptic properties for the relevant products, and updating the user interface based on the haptic properties of the relevant products. The haptic properties include values for a multitude of dimensions of touch, previously measured using sensing modalities of a haptic measurement system.

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing a subscription travel service. The systems and methods include operations for determining a geographical location of a user of a subscription-based travel service; searching a list of travel services that are available for the user to consume on a travel date to identify candidate travel services; computing a likelihood of consumption value for the user based on transportation criteria associated with arriving at a given travel service in the list of travel services from the geographical location of the user; determining that the likelihood of consumption value for the user is less than a threshold; increasing a travel cost value associated with the given travel service in response to determining that the likelihood of consumption value is less than the threshold; and generating, for display in a graphical user interface to the user, an interactive visual representation of the given travel service.