Methods for providing decentralized product and rewards delivery platform are provided. The method includes: issuing, by an asset management unit, a number of fungible tokens according to a number of products related to the company in a predetermined period of time provided by the company; distributing the fungible tokens into wallets of users who purchase one of the products of the company from a platform; issuing drawing tickets to the wallets of the users who redeem the fungible tokens, where the drawing tickets are automatically entered into a rewards pool for drawing; drawing rewards in the rewards pool to determine winners from the users who have the drawing tickets, according to reward rules; and issuing the rewards using smart contracts and depositing the rewards into wallets of the winners. The winners redeem the rewards by claiming the drawing tickets in their wallets.

Systems and methods to select recipes for a customer. A request for at least one recipe is received for a customer. A plurality of questions are dynamically presented to the customer. This dynamic presentation of questions includes: selecting a next question from a dynamic-question-selection data structure based on a previous question presented to the customer and a previous answer received from the customer; presenting the next question to the customer; and receiving a next answer to the next question from the customer. A plurality of recipe attributes associated with the plurality of questions presented to the customer are identified. A group of initial recipes are selected from a plurality of recipes for the customer based on the plurality of recipe attributes. The at least one recipe for the customer is selected from the group of initial recipes and provided to the customer.

Methods and apparatuses are provided for use in monitoring product placement within a shopping facility. Some embodiments provide an apparatus configured to determine product placement conditions within a shopping facility, comprising: a transceiver configured to wirelessly receive communications; a product monitoring control circuit coupled with the transceiver; a memory coupled with the control circuit and storing computer instructions that when executed by the control circuit cause the control circuit to: obtain a composite three-dimensional (3D) scan mapping corresponding to at least a select area of the shopping facility and based on a series of 3D scan data; evaluate the 3D scan mapping to identify multiple product depth distances; and identify, from the evaluation of the 3D scan mapping, when one or more of the multiple product depth distances is greater than a predefined depth distance threshold from the reference offset distance of the product support structure.

Various systems and methods that may relate to referral and/or delivery services are described. Some embodiments may include billing merchants for delivery services in a consolidated fashion, some embodiments may include interactions with point of sale systems.

Systems and methods which provide localized item procurement fulfilment using virtual distribution center inventory are described. For example, stocking locations of one or more intermediaries may provide virtual distribution center inventory for use by a supplier in facilitating localized item procurement fulfilment for acquirers. A supplier may provide a web based sales platform allowing acquirers to purchase items of the supplier's goods wherein the item procurement fulfilment is configured to utilize a network of intermediaries to facilitate competitive and satisfactory delivery timeframes, such as next day, same day, and even on-demand delivery of the goods, using economy shipping options. An intermediary may share inventory data and/or account information to facilitate operation of the web based sales platform to provide transparent and seamless order and/or checkout processing for items of the supplier's goods purchased by the acquirer that are to be fulfilled out of the intermediary's stocking location.

A vehicle theft-prevention apparatus can include a locking mechanism with an engagement component. The locking mechanism can be engaged via a first action to apply a force on the vehicle when in an engaged state. The locking mechanism can disengage, via a second action, to withdraw the force from the vehicle when in the engaged state. The locking mechanism can maintain a current state of the force in response to the first action and the second action when in a disengaged state. One or more computing devices can receive a command to enable or disable the locking mechanism. In response to receiving the command, the computing device can cause the engagement component to transition the locking mechanism from the disengaged state to the engaged state or from an engaged state to a disengaged state.

An online concierge system allows users to order items within discrete time intervals later than a time when an order was received or for short-term fulfillment when the order was received. To account for a number of shoppers available to fulfill orders during different discrete time intervals and numbers of orders for fulfillment during different discrete time intervals, the online concierge system specifies a target rate for orders fulfilled later than a specified discrete time interval and a threshold from the target rate. A trained machine learning model periodically predicts a percentage of orders being fulfilled late, with an order associated with a predicted percentage when the order was received. The online concierge system increases a price of orders associated with predicted percentages greater than the threshold from the target rate. The increased price of an order is determined from a price elasticity curve and the predicted percentage.

Technologies are described for determining possible routes using pre-processing operations. The pre-processing operations determine possible routes from an origin location to a destination location by dynamically generating representations of the transportation networks at runtime. For example, the pre-processing operations can dynamically determine a geographic area, and/or multiple sub-areas, that covers the origin location and the destination location. Possible routes from the origin location to the destination location can then be determined using only those locations within the geographic area and/or sub-areas. The locations that make up the possible routes can be provided for route optimization that utilizes transportation schedules and/or additional transportation requirements.

A method and system for conducting an online payment transaction through a point of sale device. The method includes receiving input from a user selecting an item for purchase through the point of sale device; calculating a total purchase amount for the item in response to a request from the user to purchase the item; and sending payment authorization for the total purchase amount from the point of sale device to a payment entity, in which the payment authorization is sent to the payment entity via a mobile communication device of the user. The method further includes receiving a result of the payment authorization from the payment entity through the mobile communication device; and completing the payment transaction based on the result of the payment authorization.

A purchased product pickup system includes a management server that communicates with a terminal of a customer and manages pickup of a purchased product by the customer in a pickup area provided in or outside a store, the pickup area is provided with a management gate for managing entrance to and exit from the pickup area and a storage shelf for temporarily storing the purchased product, and the management server allocates the storage shelf for storing the purchased product when the purchased product is ordered from the terminal of the customer, and notifies the terminal of the customer of the allocated storage shelf and an entrance code for passing through the management gate of the pickup area.