Abstract: An online concierge identifies orders to shoppers, allowing shoppers to select orders for fulfillment. The online concierge system may generate batches that include multiple orders, allowing a shopper to select a batch to fulfill multiple orders. As orders are continuously being received, delaying identification of orders to shoppers may allow greater batching of orders. To allow greater opportunities for batching, the online concierge system estimates a benefit for delaying identification of an order by different time intervals and predicts an amount of time to fulfill the order. The online concierge system then delays assigning orders for which there is a threshold benefit for delaying and selects a time interval for delaying identification of the order that does not result in greater than a threshold likelihood of a late fulfillment of the order.

Abstract: An online concierge system receives two types of orders, one of which requires fulfillment in a specific time interval, while the other can be fulfilled anytime up to a specific time interval. A machine learning model, trained on historical data about available shoppers in discrete time intervals, is used to predict how many shoppers will be available to fulfill orders in each time interval. For each time interval, the system retrieves the relevant orders of both types and creates candidate groups including orders of both types. For each group, the system determines a fulfillment cost based on items in the orders. The candidate group with the lowest cost is selected, and the orders in the selected group are sent to devices of available shoppers in that interval, prompting the shoppers to view and fulfill the orders.

Abstract: An online concierge identifies orders to shoppers, allowing shoppers to select orders for fulfillment. The online concierge system may generate batches that include multiple orders, allowing a shopper to select a batch to fulfill multiple orders. As orders are continuously being received, delaying identification of orders to shoppers may allow greater batching of orders. To allow greater opportunities for batching, the online concierge system estimates a benefit for delaying identification of an order by different time intervals and predicts an amount of time to fulfill the order. The online concierge system then delays assigning orders for which there is a threshold benefit for delaying and selects a time interval for delaying identification of the order that does not result in greater than a threshold likelihood of a late fulfillment of the order.

Abstract: An online concierge system receives information describing orders from its customers and generates a route for each order based on this information. The routes are partitioned into multiple sets of routes and multiple candidate generation processes are executed in parallel. During execution of a candidate generation process, one or more routes included in each set of routes are paired with shoppers of the system based on a set of constraints, producing multiple route-shopper pairs. A cost associated with each route-shopper pair is determined based on attributes associated with each shopper and/or information associated with each route of the pair. During an optimization process, which is executed asynchronously with the candidate generation process, one or more route-shopper pairs are selected based on pairing-cost data identifying route-shopper pairs and their associated costs. One or more requests to fulfill orders are sent to one or more shoppers based on the selected route-shopper pair(s).

Abstract: An online concierge system allows users to order items within discrete time intervals later than a time when an order was received. The online concierge system allocates a specified percentage of an estimated number of shoppers during a discrete time interval to fulfilling orders received before the discrete time interval. An order may include a flag authorizing flexible fulfillment of the order along with a discrete time interval, which allows the order to be fulfilled earlier than the identified discrete time interval. The online concierge system generates groups of multiple orders authorizing flexible fulfillment and determines a cost for fulfilling different groups of orders. The online concierge system identifies a group of orders authorizing flexible fulfillment having a minimum cost for fulfillment by a shopper, allowing for more allocation of shoppers by enabling grouping of orders identifying different discrete time intervals.

Abstract: An online concierge identifies orders to shoppers, allowing shoppers to select orders for fulfillment. The online concierge system may generate batches that include multiple orders, allowing a shopper to select a batch to fulfill multiple orders. As orders are continuously being received, delaying identification of orders to shoppers may allow greater batching of orders. To allow greater opportunities for batching, the online concierge system estimates a benefit for delaying identification of an order by different time intervals and predicts an amount of time to fulfill the order. The online concierge system then delays assigning orders for which there is a threshold benefit for delaying and selects a time interval for delaying identification of the order that does not result in greater than a threshold likelihood of a late fulfillment of the order.

Abstract: An online concierge system allows users to order items within discrete time intervals later than a time when an order was received. The online concierge system allocates a specified percentage of an estimated number of shoppers during a discrete time interval to fulfilling orders received before the discrete time interval. An order may include a flag authorizing flexible fulfillment of the order along with a discrete time interval, which allows the order to be fulfilled earlier than the identified discrete time interval. The online concierge system generates groups of multiple orders authorizing flexible fulfillment and determines a cost for fulfilling different groups of orders. The online concierge system identifies a group of orders authorizing flexible fulfillment having a minimum cost for fulfillment by a shopper, allowing for more allocation of shoppers by enabling grouping of orders identifying different discrete time intervals.