SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DIRECTING CUSTOMERS TO PRODUCT LOCATIONS WITHIN A STORE

A method to provide directions to customers requesting information about the location of products in a store that brings the customer into the vicinity of other products in which the customer may have an interest to purchase receives customer identification data and product selection data, determines customer interest data from the customer identification data, and generates a customer path to a location corresponding to the product selection data that includes a location corresponding to the customer interest data. A customer following the generated path comes into the vicinity of one or more products in which the customer may have an interest to purchase. A customer may enter the identification data through a keypad or through a scanning device that reads a customer token. Preferably, the customer token may be a smart card or a card bearing a magnetic stripe. A keypad or touch screen may be used to provide product selection data. The location of a selected product and the location of the kiosk where the data was entered define an endpoint and a starting point for the customer's path, respectively. The customer identification data may be used to query a database for the customer's purchase history at the store or to ascertain demographic data. These data may be used to identify products that the customer may be interested in purchasing. The locations of these products are used to define a customer's path to the selected product. The display of this path is made without reference to the portions of the store containing other products not corresponding to the customer's interests. A system to implement the method is also disclosed.