Embodiments of the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for validating purchase of a product in a physical store. For the validation, a confirmation data for a payment for the product and a product Identification Detail (ID) associated with the product is received upon purchase of the product by a user in a physical store. Upon receiving the confirmation data and the product ID, an inventory database of the physical store is updated with the confirmation data and the product ID for the purchased product. The purchase is validated using the product ID and the updated inventory database when the user is exiting the physical store.

A motorized cart retriever, which may be a cart pusher or a cart puller, can apply a force to a nest of human-propelled, wheeled carts to facilitate retrieval of the carts. The cart retriever can include a transceiver configured to wirelessly receive cart status information from cart transmitters of the wheeled carts and wirelessly report event data to a control unit. The cart status information may include an identification of the cart transmitter, a location of the cart, a lock or unlock status of a cart wheel, a misuse condition, etc. The event data can include the cart status information, a number of wheeled carts being retrieved, etc. The cart wheel may include a brake. The transceiver may communicate a message to the cart wheel to keep the brake unactuated during retrieval. The control unit may analyze the event data to detect traffic patterns of the carts.

A system for providing and/or collecting information relating to at least one object is provided. The system comprises a radio-frequency identification, RFID, tag that is provided proximate to the at least one object, the RFID tag being configured to enable detection of a position and/or a movement of the at least one object; a server device configured to receive position and/or movement data about the at least one object; and a mobile device configured to: identify the at least one object; send a request to the server device for object information about the identified at least one object; wherein: the server device is further configured to, in response to the request, provide to the mobile device targeted object information about the identified at least one object, the targeted object information being at least partially based on the position and/or movement data; and the mobile device is further configured to display the targeted object information.

In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to perform an automatic self-checkout in a store. In some embodiments, an automatic in-store self-checkout system comprises products associated with active RFID tags affixed thereto and a shopping cart comprising a computer readable identifier, a magnetic element, and a shopping cart RFID reader. The system further comprises RFID readers and emitters positioned about the store, and a checkout zone comprising checkout RFID readers and emitters therein. The system electronically links the shopping cart to an online cart associated with a customer using the cart's readable identifier, adds and removes products to the online cart using the active RFID product tags and shopping cart RFID reader, and facilitates an automatic electronic payment transaction for the products in the cart as the customer passes through the checkout zone with their cart.

Sensors may detect a user's locations and interest level of a product. Based on the interest level, messages may be sent to a server in order to obtain information, such as location, about a category of products and further display the obtained information to a mobile device.

In one embodiment, a sales data processing apparatus has a first and a second antennas, and a processor. The first antenna receives, from a wireless tag attached to a commodity, tag information to uniquely identify the relevant commodity. The second antenna receives the tag information from the wireless tag recovered by a recovery device. The processor judges whether the wireless tag attached to the commodity is a wireless tag required to be detached from the commodity, based on the tag information received by the first antenna. The processor judges whether the second antenna has received the tag information of the wireless tag which is judged to be the wireless tag required to be detached from the commodity.

Methods and systems for inventory management are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, from a first device, product information associated with an article, receiving, from the first device, location information of the first device; identifying a merchant based on the location information, generating an online listing for the article in an online marketplace of the identified merchant, the online listing including the product information; and making the online listing accessible to a plurality of consumers.

Systems and methods for operating a marker. The methods comprise: storing energy collected by an energy harvesting element of the marker; using the stored energy to enable operations of the marker's communications element; receiving, by the marker's communications element, a marker deactivation signal transmitted from an external device; and causing either a resonator to be prevented from receiving transmit bursts emitted from an EAS system, a bias element's magnetic field to be normalized, or a resonator to be physically prevented from vibrating, in response to the marker deactivation signal's reception.

Aspects of the present disclosure include methods, systems, and non-transitory computer readable media for receiving a confirmation signal to unlock the security tag being detachably locked to a merchandise, wherein the confirmation signal includes a RFID device identifier associated with a RFID device of the security tag, and the RFID device is associated with a wireless device of the security tag, identifying the wireless device associated with the RFID device based on the RFID device identifier, transmitting a wireless signal to the wireless device to enable a controller to receive a release signal used to unlock the security tag from the merchandise, and transmitting the release signal to the controller to unlock the security tag from the merchandise.

Systems and methods for operating a marker. The method comprising: receiving, by a Radio Frequency Identification (“RFID”) element of the marker, an RFID deactivation signal transmitted from an external device; and responsive to the RFID deactivation signal, supplying power from the RFID element to a detuner element so that the detuner element switches from a first state to a second state. The marker's resonant frequency is changed to a first value that falls outside of an Electronic Article Surveillance (“EAS”) systems operating frequency range when the detuner element switches from the first state to the second state.