JP2002007780A - Method for electronic commerce - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for electronic commerce, utilizing the characteristic of an article having the characteristic of a market price being fixed uniquely by specifications and quality, such as diamond. SOLUTION: A market, in which wholesale companies, retail companies and users participate, is constructed over a network. An intermediation center registers the selling and purchasing desires of participants, who are desirous of selling or purchasing the article with the hierarchical kind of the participant and the specifications and quality information of the article to match these selling desires and the purchasing desires.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to an electronic commerce method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is said that 40% of adult women own jewelry such as rings, brooches, and necklaces using diamonds. However, they are generally expensive, and are recognized for their high property value. Therefore, many people own jewelry using diamonds as property, and it is thought that quite a few of them want to redeem their diamonds. Also, more than 200,000 divorces are reported annually.
Most of them are likely to have diamonds that are no longer needed, and many want cash. However, when actually trying to redeem money, the fact is that there is no means for redeeming diamonds other than pawn shops. On the other hand, diamonds flowing to pawn shops are not immediately returned to diamond retailers and wholesalers, but only through black markets operated by underground organizations.

[0003]

Therefore, those who wish to redeem diamonds have to use pawn shops,
When using a pawn shop, it is difficult to use because of its dark image, but there are few people who have official diamond qualifications and it is not possible to properly evaluate the property value of diamonds Is common,
Despite their high property value, they are currently valued at a very low price when redeemed. In addition, diamonds returned from pawn shops to retailers and wholesalers via the black market are used as a funding source for underground organizations, and their prices have not been properly evaluated.

[0004] By the way, diamonds used in jewelry are distributed worldwide, and cut,
The market price is determined by the specification and quality of the diamond such as color, clarity, carat, etc., and the fluctuation range is very small, and the price is stable. Also, diamonds are hard and hard to scratch, so they hardly change over time, and once ordinary products are used in the hands of consumers, the price of used products is only significantly lower than at the time of purchase. In the case of diamonds, the concept of second-hand goods does not apply to diamonds.For example, apart from non-diamond parts such as the ring part of a ring, the diamond itself is not distinguished from new or used. .

[0005] From the characteristics of such diamond,
Although the property value of diamonds is maintained over time, when converted into cash, the price is remarkably low as described above. Creation is desired. In addition, transactions between wholesalers and retailers are orders placed by telephone or facsimile, and trading partners are also made in a limited market, but in order to solve this point, a wide range of easy and smooth transactions It is desired to create a market in which the evaluation of goods is performed correctly, the commercial market is taken into consideration, and the black market operated by the underground organization is eliminated. Therefore, the present invention has been made in response to such a demand, and provides an electronic commerce method utilizing characteristics of an article such as diamond having a characteristic whose market price is uniquely determined by specifications and quality. What you want to do.

[0006]

The present invention is an electronic commerce method as described below. In other words, a market price is uniquely determined based on specifications and quality, and this is an electronic commerce method for articles with a small price fluctuation range. In the process from upstream to downstream of merchandise distribution, a retailer located in the middle hierarchy The members belonging to different hierarchies of a wholesaler who is located at an upper level in commerce with the retailer and a user who is located downstream of the retailer as a general consumer in commerce have access to commerce together as participants. An authorized market is established on the network, and a mediation center is established which is neutral with respect to the stakeholders, and the mediation center has a request to sell and / or purchase goods. The participant's request for sale and / or purchase is described by the class type of the participant and the specification and quality information of the article. Along with the accompanied not by accepting registration, and while regulating the commerce of other than between the hierarchy that is found on the commerce convention, which is an electronic commerce method which is the aim of matching with purchase requests and sale requests that have been registered.

[0007] This electronic commerce method includes, for example, a server provided on an information network such as the Internet.
A mediation center function for commerce,
In this e-commerce method, it should be noted that since the market price of the article to be traded is uniquely determined based on the specification and quality of the article, it is possible to conduct a commercial transaction only based on the specification and quality. Then, the mediation center matches the sale request and the purchase request based on the specification and the quality information. That is, the sale request and the purchase request are separately registered in the mediation center with the specification and quality of the article of sale or purchase request, and the mediation center searches for these registrations, and the specification of the registered article is If it is determined that there is a request for sale and a request for purchase of the same quality, the trade between them is established. In this method, the price of the article is determined only based on the specification and quality of the article. Therefore, even if the user who is a general consumer is the seller, the price of the sale is determined to be appropriate based on the specification and quality of the article only. Since the price is maintained at a reasonable level, it can be sold advantageously compared to the case where the price is evaluated only extremely low when using a pawn shop, and this method can be said to be a transaction method with great merit for the user.

[0008] Further, in a transaction market, there are three types of hierarchies, a wholesaler, a retailer, and a user, depending on the transaction size and the like. In this electronic commerce method, a market provided on an information network such as the Internet requires: Members belonging to any one of these hierarchies participate as participants. Except for special cases, trading is usually performed between these hierarchies, and trading between these hierarchies is limited to a specific hierarchies in terms of trading conventions. That is, as a normal transaction, it is observed that sales are performed separately from wholesalers to retailers and retailers to retailers, and prices are different depending on these sales routes. Is set. Therefore, in the electronic commerce method of the present invention, it is necessary to reflect this mechanism in order to comply with commercial transaction customs. However, in the electronic commerce method of the present invention, when accepting registration of a sale request and a purchase request, , Since the tier type of these requesters is also registered at the same time, the sales route can be set based on this tier type,
Compliance with the above commercial practices can be maintained. still,
In the present invention, a transaction form of selling a user from a user to a wholesaler is also assumed.

In this electronic commerce method, for example, a server provided on an information network such as the Internet is provided with a mediation center function for commerce, and by participating in this information network and accessing the server, However, smooth and easy transactions are possible, and a network in which many people participate can be constructed, so that transactions over a wide range are possible.

[0010] In the electronic commerce method described above, a store attached to the mediation center may be provided, and the form of the commercial transaction may be specified and specified as follows. That is, in the electronic commerce method described above, as the inter-tier commerce permitted by the commerce custom, the commercial transaction from the wholesaler to the retailer, the commercial transaction from the retailer to the user, and the user from the user The form of the commercial transaction to the wholesaler is provided, and in order to mediate the commercial transaction other than between the tiers permitted by the commercial practice, to purchase once from the wholesaler and then sell to the user A method of providing, on the network, an affiliated store of the brokerage center, which plays a role of a retailer or plays a role of the wholesaler for purchasing from the user and then selling to the retailer.

[0011] According to the above method, it is possible to clarify the inter-tier commerce that is allowed according to the commerce custom, and to intervene the commerce other than between the inter-tiers allowed according to the commerce custom while observing the commerce custom. Therefore, it is possible to give a participant a posture of observing commercial transaction customs, and to give a sense of trust to the commercial transaction by the above-mentioned electronic commerce method. In addition, if it is not possible to immediately match the sale request with the purchase request, the affiliated store of the brokerage center can receive the sale for the time being, and can widely respond to the requests of the participants.

Further, a transaction form for dealing with the disposal of defective stock may be added to the above method. That is, in the above electronic commerce method, between the wholesalers,
And / or a method of adding the form of the transaction between the retailers.

[0013] According to the above method, a business transaction between wholesalers and / or retailers is permitted under the condition that disposal of defective inventory is dealt with. Accordingly, even in the case of commerce between the same levels, it is possible not to violate the commerce custom, and it is possible to give flexibility to the electronic commerce method.

It is recommended to add the following method to the above-mentioned method in order to make a better electronic commerce method. In the method, the brokerage center is provided with a price database for each of the tiers determined in advance based on the specifications and quality of the article, and two-stage price presentation is performed prior to the registration. The first price presentation is performed by referring to the price database based on the specification and quality according to the declaration of the sale request participant, and the second price is presented.
Is presented by referring to the price database based on the specifications and quality found by the appraisal of the current article provided by the sale request participant, and after each of the price presentations, a sale or non-sale is selected. Is the way.

[0015] In this method, the brokerage center is provided with a price database for each tier determined in advance based on the specifications and quality of the article. Prior to registering a request, a mediation center refers to a price database to provide a two-stage price presentation.
That is, indeed, in the e-commerce method of the present invention, since the market price of the article to be traded is uniquely determined based on the specification and quality of the article, improper price setting can be performed without each price offer. Is not done. However, price is an important factor in commerce, and in particular, novice users generally have little knowledge of goods and little knowledge of the price of the goods. You must clearly state the price at which you can sell. It is needless to say that the most important factor in deciding whether or not to sell a user is the selling price, but in order to know the selling price, it is necessary to send an article such as a diamond to an intermediary center in advance. Is very complicated, and because diamonds and other goods are expensive, there is a risk. Without knowing such complicated and dangerous work, if the sale price is known,
It is convenient for the user.

Therefore, first, in order for the user to judge whether or not to sell, the mediation center refers to the price database provided in the mediation center based on the specifications and quality declared by the user as a participant, and 1 is presented. And even if the user decides to sell in this first price offer, unless the object is objectively confirmed to have the specifications and quality as declared, the previous price cannot be declared to be appropriate. In order to correctly evaluate the goods, in the next stage, the user who is a participant provided the goods to be sold from the participant, and the appraiser of the goods performed an appraisal, and based on the specifications and quality found as a result, Then, a second price is presented. Therefore, according to this method, it is possible to perform a correct evaluation on the article.
In addition, the user who is a participant makes a final selection as to whether or not to sell by the second price presentation. In this way, by performing the two-stage price presentation,
If the user decides not to sell at the first price offer, it is possible to omit troublesome sending of the article and the second price offer, so this method is a reasonable method without waste. It can be said.

A method of making a final selection as to whether or not to sell after the above-mentioned two-step price presentation has been described for a user as a sales request participant. Of course, it can also be applied. However, in the case of a wholesaler or a retailer who values the credibility of commercial transactions as compared with the user, it is conceivable to omit the second price presentation only with the first price presentation.

Instead of the price database for each tier in the above method, a method for presenting prices using a basic price database and a price index for each tier may be considered. That is,
In the above electronic commerce method, instead of the price database for each layer, a basic price database determined in advance based on the specifications and the quality of the article and a price index for each layer are provided, and the price index for each layer is provided. In this method, each price is obtained by multiplying the basic price data of the basic price database by the price index.

According to the above method, it is sufficient to prepare only the basic price database as price data, and it is possible to avoid an increase in the amount of database due to preparing a price database for each tier.

Further, the following method may be added to the above-mentioned method so that the contents of the first price offer can be confirmed later. That is, in the electronic commerce method described above, the first
At the time of price presentation, identification information for identifying the first price presentation is presented, and prior to the second price presentation, the same as the first price presentation based on the identification information. When re-presentation of the content is requested, the re-presentation is added.

In the above-mentioned method, the contents of the first price offer can be re-presented by using identification information such as a serial number for specifying the contents of the first price offer. However, according to the above method, even if a participant in a sale request such as a user hesitates to sell and gives up the second price offer by the first price offer, the second price offer is made again later. Since the contents of the first price offer can be confirmed and the second price offer can be received, an opportunity for the sales request participant to reconsider the sale can be given.
This re-presentation may be performed only within a certain validity period. Further, by using the identification information, it is possible to prevent the contents of the first price offer once presented from being known to a third party other than the sale request participant.

[0022] In addition, the following method using an escrow service may be added to the provision of the current article for the second price presentation to the above method. That is, in the electronic commerce method described above, when instructing the sale request participant to provide the present article for the second price presentation, the present article is securely returned or sold until the sale. To instruct the use of escrow services to ensure safe storage.

In the above electronic commerce method, the participant in the sale request needs to provide the current article to the brokerage center in order to receive the second price appraisal.
If the current item is a valuable item, it is generally uneasy whether it will be returned if it is not finally sold, or if it will be securely stored and cashed until sold if it is sold. Therefore, the escrow service is used. An escrow service is a contract between a party and an object which is obliged to be delivered to the other party based on a contract between the parties under certain conditions. This is a service in which the object or money is delivered to the intended recipient. There are major financial institutions and lawyers as third parties who provide this escrow service. For example, when the current article is sent to the brokerage center, on condition that the sale is finally completed, the current article is deposited with the above third party, and if the sale is finally established, a sale request is made. Participants can be assured of keeping and paying for the current item until it is sold,
If you do not finally sell, you can surely receive the return of the current item. Therefore, according to the above-mentioned method, by using the escrow service, the anxiety of the participant in the sale request can be resolved.

After the two-stage price presentation, the following method may be used following the above-described method of making a final selection whether or not to sell. That is, when the non-sale is detected, the participant in the sale request is requested to input a reason for the non-sale. By doing so, it is possible to grasp the reason why the participant, especially the user, does not want to sell, and this can contribute to the activation of the electronic commerce method of the present invention.

The following method may be added to the method described above. It is a method of providing a first auction for a specific tier and a second auction for a tier lower than the tier in response to the sale request that cannot be matched.

In the electronic commerce method of the present invention, due to the characteristics of articles whose market prices are uniquely determined based on specifications and quality, usually, if a sale request is issued, a purchase request appears without delay and a trade is established. Conceivable. However, for example, after a certain period is set and a sale request is registered, if there is no purchase request within the certain period, it is reasonable to conduct an auction. Therefore, this auction is also incorporated in the electronic commerce method of the present invention, and has a two-stage configuration for different hierarchies. For example, the first auction is an auction between Participants whose hierarchy is a retailer, and if no sale is made there, as the next stage,
An auction is performed between participants whose hierarchy is a user. In this way, by setting the auction to have two stages, it is possible to increase the possibility of the conclusion of the sale.

[0027]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The present invention relates to an article having a characteristic that a market price is uniquely determined by specifications and quality,
Although an electronic commerce method utilizing characteristics is to be provided, in the present embodiment, an object of the transaction is a jewelry diamond itself using diamond. Then, a diamond trading market is established on the Internet. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram schematically showing the configuration of a system used in the electronic commerce method of the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, an intermediary center server 1 having a homepage for mediating the sale and purchase of diamond e-commerce on the Internet 2 and a participant who wishes to make a transaction on this transaction market using this mediation A participant client terminal 3 to be used is provided. The participant client terminal 3 is provided with hardware and software necessary for accessing the home page of the mediation center server 1.
In this embodiment, the request for sale or purchase of diamonds is separately registered with the mediation center together with the specifications and quality of the diamond, and the mediation center searches and matches these registrations, and if the specifications and quality are matched, The sale is completed. In addition, a participant registers in advance as a member, or registers when registering a sale request or a purchase request.

In FIG. 1, a mediation center server 1 has a specification price database 11 that records the correspondence between specifications and quality and price of diamonds, and a member database 1 that records participants who have been accepted to participate in the electronic commerce.
7. A sale request registration area 12 for registering a diamond sale request of a member, a purchase request registration area 13 for registering a purchase request, a registration processing program 14 for performing these registration processes, and matching between the registered sale request and the purchase request. And an auction processing program 16 for performing auction processing performed when the matching is not established. These databases and programs can be used by accessing the home page of the mediation center server 1 from the participant client terminal 3.

In the present embodiment, a participant registered and recorded in the member database 17 is given a layer type according to a transaction form as an attribute thereof. There are three types of hierarchies: diamond wholesalers, retailers, and users who are diamond general consumers, and these are denoted as S1, S2, and S3, respectively. Also,
As the transaction form of the diamond in the present embodiment, three types of sale are assumed: wholesale sale from wholesaler S1 to retailer S2, retail sale from retailer S2 to user S3, and user sale to sell from user S3 to wholesaler S1. are doing.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the specification price database 11 provided in the mediation center server 1. Although the specification and quality of diamonds are determined in detail and the items are various, in this embodiment, in order to simplify the explanation, the items related to specification and quality are shape, cut, clarity, color. And 5 carats. As can be seen from FIG. 2, in the present embodiment, a specification number is set as an index indicating the specification and quality of an individual diamond determined by the above five specifications and quality. Therefore, based on the specification and quality of diamond, the specification price database 1
1, the specification No. is determined, and conversely,
If the specification number is known, the specification price database 11 clarifies the specification and quality of the diamond in detail.

A specific basic price corresponds to a diamond corresponding to each specification number. This base price can be said to be the global price of diamonds, for example, Rapap issued in New York, USA
or Reports, etc., and are said to have relatively stable prices. Also, the diamond is
The price differs depending on the distribution process of wholesale, retail or user sale, and it is necessary to set a price corresponding to this type of distribution process, but in this embodiment,
The price is determined by setting a price index corresponding to the class of the seller in the distribution process. That is, the price in each distribution process is obtained by multiplying the basic price by the corresponding price index. According to this, specifically, for example, FIG.
In the wholesale price of the diamond corresponding to the specification No. 1, the base price BP1 is the tier type of the seller of the wholesale, ie,
It is obtained by multiplying C11 which is a price index for the wholesaler S1. Therefore, as can be seen from the above description, the market price of diamond is uniquely determined based on the specification and quality as long as it is based on the specification price database 11.

In the above description, as can be seen from FIG. 2, not only the class type of the seller, but also the specification and quality determined by the specification No. are factors forming the price index. , A wholesaler, retailer or user alone may be the forming element. In this case, the price index is 3
Only kind. For example, the base price is a retail price, the retail price index is 1.00, the wholesale price index is 0.85, and the user selling price index is 0.60. Or, for example, Ra
Price fluctuation factors such as the price fluctuation rate in the paport report may be added to the price index formation factor. Alternatively, market fluctuations may be included in the base price, with the price itself in the Rapaport Report as the base price. In these cases described above, it is sufficient to prepare only the database of the basic price as price data, and it is possible to avoid an increase in the amount of database due to preparing the price database for each tier.

Next, an electronic commerce method according to the present embodiment will be specifically described. The electronic commerce method in the present embodiment is roughly divided into four parts. These are sale request registration processing, purchase request registration processing, sale / purchase request matching processing, and auction processing. Among these, the sale request registration processing and the purchase request registration processing are performed by the registration processing program 14 provided in the mediation center server 1.
The sale / purchase request matching process is processed by the matching process program 15, and the auction process is processed by the auction process program 16. Next, each of these processes will be described.

First, the sale request registration process will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating this process. This process is roughly divided into a first stage and a second stage. The first stage is for the user to judge whether to sell or not, and the second stage is for objectively confirming that the article has the specification and quality as declared. Things. Note that, in this specification, a number with S attached to a flowchart represents a step number. In FIG. 5, the first stage (S11) is a process in which an initial price is presented based on a specification number determined based on a report from a participant, and a temporary selection is made based on this. On the other hand, the second stage (S17)
In the first stage, the sale request provisional registration was performed (S1
2) Used in the case and sent to the mediation center (S1
3) A process in which an appraiser appraises the actual diamond and presents the final price based on the determined specification and quality based on the determined specifications and quality (S14, S15), and based on this, makes a final decision on whether to sell or not. It is. FIG.
FIG. 3B is a diagram showing a configuration of a sale request registration area 12 in which a sale request is registered in accordance with the sale request registration process. FIG. 3B shows a state at the end of the first stage.
(C) shows the state before the start of the second stage, and FIG.
(A) shows a state where the sale request registration is formally registered at the end of the second stage. As shown in FIG. 3A, in the sale request registration area 12, the registration items are registration No., member N
o., layer type, specification number, and registration date. The S in each registration number is an acronym for SALE.

Next, the first stage of the sale request registration process will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the first stage. In FIG. 6, when a participant having a diamond sale request, for example, a general consumer, accesses the homepage of the mediation center server 1 via the participant client terminal 3 and selects a sale request registration process, The center server 1 asks whether the member is qualified to use the e-commerce market (S2).
1) If not a member, register as a member, and if a member, immediately enter a member number (S23). Here, when a member is registered, registration processing is performed on the member database 17,
At this time, the hierarchy type of the participant, that is, the wholesaler S1,
The retailer S2 or the user S3 is added. For example, the participant corresponding to the user has the member type No. 14 and the hierarchy type S3.
It is registered as a participant. Hereinafter, in the description of the sale request registration process, a user of member No. 14 and a layer type of S3 (hereinafter, referred to as the user) will be used as a participant who performs sale request registration. When the input of the member number is completed (S23), the process proceeds to the specification number determination (S24). This specification N
o. The determination is to determine which specification number in the specification price database 11 corresponds to the specification and quality of the diamond that the user wants to sell. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating this determination method.

In FIG. 7, the specification and quality items of the specification price database 11 are sequentially asked for the user (S41 to S45). At this time, all ranks of the item are displayed on the screen to which the user answers, so that the user completes the answer only by selecting a suitable one from among them. When all the items are answered, the mediation center server 1 searches the specification price database 11 to determine the specification No. (S46).
For example, the user may order the shape and round, cut the good,
Clarity is D, color is E, and carat is 0.7
When the answer is “00”, the mediation center server 1 searches the specification price database 11 of FIG. 2 and determines the specification No. 136.

When the specification No. is determined in this way, in FIG. 6, based on the specification No. 136 and the hierarchy type S3 of the user, the mediation center server 1 obtains the base price from the specification price database 11 of FIG. To
In addition, C1136 is extracted as a price index, whereby the initial price is determined as the amount obtained by multiplying BP136 by C3136 (S25), and the initial price is displayed as an initial price offer (S26). Based on this initial price, the user makes a tentative selection of whether to sell or not (S27), and selects non-sale,
A screen asking for the reason for non-sale is displayed, the reason for non-sale of the user is collected (S31), and the process ends. Provisional selection for sale (S
When the sale is selected in 27), the sale request is temporarily registered in the sale request registration area 12 (S28). For example, if the sale request registration is registered up to the 140th, and the user selects the sale in the provisional selection for sale (S27),
It is registered at the 141st position and registered as shown in FIG.
That is, as shown in FIG. 3B, an asterisk * is added to the registration No. and the specification No. to indicate that the registration is provisional. Adding an asterisk * to the specification number indicates that the specification number is determined based on the declaration of the participant. When the temporary registration is completed, the registration number is displayed to the user (S29), and the user is requested to send the diamond to the mediation center (S30).

In response to the request to send the diamond to the mediation center, the user needs to send the actual diamond that he wants to sell to the mediation center. Since the actual diamond is valuable, Whether the user will be sure to return the product if it is not sold even after receiving the appraisal, or if the product will be stored and cashed until the sale, if the user will be sold finally, It is common to hold. Therefore, in order to resolve these concerns, the escrow service is used when sending the actual diamond. The escrow service is to deposit the goods and money that are obliged to be delivered to each other based on the contract between the parties under a certain condition, and confirm that the goods are free from defects. Is a service in which the contract becomes valid when the conditions such as the above are satisfied, and the object or money is delivered to the intended recipient. There are major financial institutions and lawyers as third parties who provide this escrow service. In the electronic commerce method of the present embodiment, for example, when sending the actual diamond to the brokerage center, the actual diamond is deposited to the third party on condition that the sale is finally completed. If the sale is finally completed, the user can surely receive the payment, and if not finally sold, the user can surely receive the actual diamond. For this purpose, when the above-mentioned diamond transmission request is sent to the mediation center, an instruction to use the escrow service is given to the user.

As described above, in FIG. 5, the user sends the diamond to the mediation center (S1).
3) and based on the specification and quality found by the appraiser appraising the actual diamond sent to the brokerage center, the brokerage center searches the specification price database 11 and determines a new specification number (S14). This is reflected in the above-mentioned sale request temporary registration (S15). That is, as shown in FIG. 3C, the specification No. is replaced with the newly determined specification No., and the asterisk * added is deleted.
For example, if the new specification No. determined based on the specification and quality found by the appraisal is exactly the same as that at the time of the provisional registration, only the asterisk * is deleted in FIG. Is the same. When the mediation center finishes the above processing, it notifies the user of the end of the appraisal by e-mail or the like (S16).

Next, the second step of the sale request registration process (S1)
7) will be described. This second stage is a process for presenting the price determined by the specification number based on the appraisal and for making a final decision whether to sell or not. FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the second stage. In FIG. 8, the user who has received the notification of the end of the appraisal inputs a member No. and a registration No. from the participant client terminal 3 (S51, S52). Then, the mediation center server 1 extracts the sale request registration data from the sale request registration area 12 (S53), and replaces the replaced new specification N.
Based on o., the final price is determined by the specification price database 11 in the same manner as in the first stage (S54), and the final price is presented (S55). With this final price, the user
A final selection is made for the sale (S56). When the user selects non-sale, after deleting the temporary sale request registration in the sale request registration area 12 (S58), a screen for asking the reason for non-sale is displayed, and the reason for non-sale of the user is collected (S59).
finish. When the user selects the sale, the sale request temporary registration in the sale request registration area 12 is changed to the sale request formal registration (S57). Specifically, the registration in FIG.
By deleting the asterisk * added to the No., the display of the temporary registration is deleted, and the final registration is made in the state shown in FIG.

The above-described method of registering a sale request registers the first stage for the user to judge whether or not to sell, and objectively confirms that the article has the specification and quality as declared. Since it is composed of two stages of the second stage for confirmation, the user can know the selling price without having to send the diamond to the mediation center in advance, which is troublesome and dangerous. This is convenient, and if the user decides not to sell in the first step, the troublesome second step can be omitted. This is a reasonable method that eliminates waste even for the mediation center. Further, when the user selects unsold in the first stage or the second stage, the reason for unsold is collected, so that the reason why the user does not want to sell can be grasped. Activation can be achieved.

The sale request registration processing method composed of these two stages can be applied not only to a hierarchy other than the user but also to a wholesaler or a retailer who values the credit of the business transaction more than the user. In this case, the second stage may be omitted only in the first stage. In some cases, a method in which only the second stage is used is also conceivable.

Next, the purchase request registration process will be described. FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the purchase request registration process, and FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a purchase request registration area 13 in which a purchase request is registered in accordance with the purchase request registration process. In FIG. 9, as in the first stage of the sale request registration process, when the participant accesses the home page of the mediation center server 1 via the client terminal 3 for the participant and selects the purchase request registration process, 1 asks whether the member is qualified to use the e-commerce market (S71). If the member is not a member, the member is registered (S72). If the member is a member, the member number is immediately input (S73). Then, the process proceeds to specification No. determination (S74). The specification No. determination is exactly the same as the first step of the sale request registration process, and the contents are shown in FIG. When the specification No. is determined, a purchase request is registered in the purchase request registration area 13 (S75). FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the purchase request registration area 13.
As shown in FIG. 4, in the purchase request registration area 13, registration items include a registration number, a member number, a hierarchy type, a specification number, and a registration date. The B superimposed on each number of the registration number is the initial of BUY.

Next, the sale / purchase request matching process will be described. As described above, the sale request registration area 12
In the purchase request registration area 13, a sale request and a purchase request for diamond are registered, respectively. In this sale / purchase request matching processing, the market price of diamond is uniquely determined based on the specification and quality of the article. Therefore, attention is paid to the fact that commercial transactions can be performed based only on specifications and quality, and matching between a sale request and a purchase request is intended.

In the trading market, there are three types of hierarchies, a wholesaler, a retailer, and a user, depending on the size of the transaction, and trading between these hierarchies is based on customs. Is limited to That is, as a normal transaction, it is observed that sales are performed separately from wholesalers to retailers and retailers to retailers, and prices differ depending on these sales routes. Is set. Therefore, in the electronic commerce method of the present embodiment, in order to comply with the commercial transaction customs,
It is necessary to reflect this mechanism, but as a method, the above-mentioned registered sale request and purchase request,
The fact that the classification of the layers of the sale requester and the purchase requester is recorded is used. That is, three types of diamond trading are set: wholesale for sale from wholesaler S1 to retailer S2, retail for sale from retailer S2 to user S3, and user sale for sale from user S3 to wholesaler S1. I do. In other words, the seller is the wholesaler S1
And the buyer is the retailer S2 and the seller is the retailer S
At 2, the buyer is the user S3, and the seller is the seller at the user S3 and the buyer is the wholesaler S1. And the specifications and quality of the diamond matched, that is, the specification No.
A mechanism is adopted in which the establishment of a sale is recognized only when the tier type of the seller and the buyer matches any of the above combinations between the sale request and the purchase request that match.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the sale / purchase request matching process. In FIG. 10, the mediation center server 1 has a sale request registration area 12
From the sale request formal registration (S81),
Next, one purchase request registration is taken out from the purchase request registration area 13 (S82), and it is checked whether or not these specification numbers match (S83). Check that the tier type of seller and buyer is
It is determined whether or not the matching is performed with the set combination (S84). If the matching is determined, the trade is established, and the sale request registration and the purchase request registration indicate that the trade has been established (S86). This is not shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Then, the fact that the sale is completed is notified to the participant who registered the sale request and the purchase request (S87). S83
Does not match or does not match in S84,
It is determined whether or not the collation check has been completed for all the purchase request registrations (S85). If not, the next purchase request registration is taken out and the same check is performed. When all the collation checks on the purchase request registration are completed, it is determined whether all the collation checks on the sale request registration have been completed (S88).
Returning to the beginning of the flowchart, the next sale request registration is taken out, and the same processing as described above is performed.

The sale / purchase request matching process will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3A and 4 using examples.
First, registration of registration of sale request of registration No. S-003 and registration No. B-
Since the purchase request registration of 002 is the same as the specification No. 6 and the layer type of the sale request registration is S1 and the layer type of the purchase request registration is S2, the transaction form is the wholesaler S.
1 to the retailer S2, which corresponds to wholesale, so that a sale is made between the sale request and the purchase request. In addition, the registration of sale request and registration No. of registration No. S-006
The purchase request registration of B-005 is the same as the specification No. of 18, the sale request registration is of the hierarchy type S2, and the purchase request registration of the hierarchy type is S3. Since this is a sale to the user S3 and corresponds to a retail, a trade is established between the sale request and the purchase request. In addition, sale request registration and registration N of registration No. S-141
The purchase request registration of o.B-125 is the same as the specification No. of 136, the sale request registration is of the hierarchy type S3, and the purchase request registration is of the hierarchy type S1, so the transaction form is the user S3. Is sold to the wholesaler S1 and corresponds to a user sale. Therefore, a trade is established between the sale request and the purchase request. In this case, the price is the basic price BP of the specification No. 136 in the specification price database 11 of FIG.
136 is multiplied by the price index C3136 of S3. This price is a price purchased by a wholesaler and is appropriately set in accordance with commercial practices. Therefore, the member No. who registered the sale request for S-141
It can be said that the 14 users have a great merit in using the electronic commerce method of the present embodiment, as compared with the fact that the price is evaluated only extremely low when using the pawn shop.

As described above, in this embodiment, the price is determined only based on the specification and quality of the diamond.
Even if a consumer who is a general consumer is a seller, the price of the sale is maintained at an appropriate price reflecting the specification and quality of the diamond, so that the price is remarkably low only when using a pawn shop. It can be said that this method is a transaction method with great merits for users.

Finally, the auction process will be described. This is to perform an auction on the net when the registered sale request does not match the purchase request. For example, a method of determining whether or not to perform an auction may be a method of setting a certain period of time and, after registering a sale request, performing an auction if there is no purchase request within the certain period. As a specific example, in FIG. 3 (a), although the registration date of the sale request is recorded in the sale request registration area 12, three months have passed since the registration date, and the sale request has been responded to. For example, an auction is performed when a purchase request to be made does not appear. In addition, a method of conducting an auction even when such conditions are not satisfied in order to activate the trading market may be considered. This auction is a two-stage auction targeting different hierarchies. For example, an auction targeting the retailer S2 is firstly held, and if a sale is not established in this auction, the auction targeting the user S3 is executed. hold. In this way, by setting the auction to have two stages, it is possible to increase the possibility of the conclusion of the sale.

In the present embodiment, in the first stage of the sale request registration process, if the non-sale is selected by the temporary selection of sale in FIG. 6 (S27), the second stage of the sale request registration process, ie, the actual diamond Will not be able to receive the final price offer based on the appraisal, but if you give up on the final price offer, you can check the details of the initial price offer again later and receive the final price offer A method is also conceivable. Hereinafter, this method will be described.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the entire sale request registration process in this method, and FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the first stage of the sale request registration process.

FIG. 11 is almost the same as FIG. 5, and as a first step of the sale request registration process, S11 shown in FIG. 12 is used instead of S11 shown in FIG.
The only difference is that S12A is used instead of S12 in order to use and adapt A. FIG.
In, having a request to sell diamonds, for example,
The procedure processing flow until the user receives the initial price offer is almost the same as S21 to S26 in the flowchart of FIG. 6 (S91 to S97, where S94 is NO). After presenting the initial price, the mediation center server 1 makes a temporary registration of the sale request (S98), and displays the registration number to the user (S99). However, although not shown, the content of the initial price offer provided here has a validity period of, for example, two weeks, and is displayed to that effect. Then, the user is requested to temporarily select whether to sell or not (S100). When the sale is selected, the user is requested to send the diamond to the mediation center to the user, and the sales request registration processing first is performed. End the phase. (S101). When non-sale is selected in the temporary selection of sale right or wrong (S100), a screen asking for the reason of non-sale is displayed as in the flowchart of FIG. However, in this case, when the user wants to confirm the contents of the initial price offer again, the user again performs the procedure according to the procedure processing flow from the top of the flowchart in FIG. 12 (S91). Then, after inputting the member number (S93), it is asked whether or not to request the initial price re-presentation (S94). If YES is selected, and the registration number displayed at the time of the initial price presentation is input (S93). (S102) If the reconfirmation time is within the validity period of the content of the initial price presentation already received (S103), the initial price is resubmitted (S104). After that,
This is exactly the same as when receiving the initial price offer (S100
~). If the reconfirmation time is not within the validity period of the content of the first price offer already received (S103), the mediation center server 1 deletes the temporary registration of the sale request and ends (S106). When the sale is selected in the provisional selection for sale (S100), in FIG.
From the step S11A, the process proceeds to the second step S17 of the sale request registration process via S12A (YES), and as can be seen from the content of the second stage of the sale request registration process shown in FIG. 8, the final price can be presented. .

According to the above-mentioned method, for example, even if the user once hesitates to sell and gives up the final price presentation by the initial price presentation in the first stage of the sale request registration process, the user can re-enter the initial price again later. The contents of the price offer can be confirmed, and the user can proceed to the first stage of the sale request registration process and receive the final price offer, thereby giving the user an opportunity to reconsider the sale. Also, by using the registration number, it is possible to prevent the contents of the initial price offer once presented from being known to a third party other than the user.

Further, in this embodiment, as a condition for matching the demand for sale and the demand for purchase, from the viewpoint of observing commercial transaction customs, the transaction form between different hierarchies is sold from the wholesaler S1 to the retailer S2. Wholesale and retailers S2
From the user to the user S3, and the user sale from the user S3 to the wholesaler S1. However, in addition to these three types of transactions, in order to enable intermediaries of transactions other than the above-mentioned levels, which are permitted by commercial practices, retailers who purchase once from wholesalers and sell them to users It is also conceivable to provide, on the network, an affiliated store of the mediation center, which plays the role of a wholesaler for playing the role of a wholesaler for purchasing once from a user and selling it to a retailer.

In this method, the affiliated store of the brokerage center receives the sale from the wholesaler and sells it to the user, or receives the sale from the user and sells it to the retailer, thereby complying with the business customs. Since it is possible to mediate the above-mentioned commercial transactions other than between the hierarchies permitted by the commercial transactions, it is possible to give a participant a posture of observing the commercial transactions, and to give a sense of trust to the commercial transactions by the electronic commerce method. In addition, if it is not possible to immediately match the sale request with the purchase request, the affiliated store of the brokerage center can receive the sale for the time being, and can widely respond to the requests of the participants.

It is also conceivable to add a transaction mode for dealing with disposal of defective inventory to the transaction mode of the present embodiment. That is, in the above-described transaction form of the present embodiment, a transaction form between wholesalers applying the sale price of the user and a transaction form between retailers applying the sale price of the wholesale for disposal of defective inventory. It is a way to add.

The transaction for disposal of defective inventory is not a normal transaction form, but actually exists due to the structure of the liberal economy. By satisfying the conditions for e-commerce, it is possible to prevent even the commercial transaction between the same layers from violating the commercial practice, and to give flexibility to the electronic commerce method of the present embodiment.

In the above-described embodiment, the article to be subjected to the electronic commerce is diamond. However, the article of the present invention is not limited to this, and is an article having a characteristic whose market price is uniquely determined by the specification and quality. Anything is acceptable.

[0058]

According to the electronic commerce method of the present invention, the price of an article is determined only based on the specification and quality of the article. Is maintained at a fair price based solely on the specifications and quality of the goods, compared to prices that are significantly lower when using a pawn shop.
There is an advantage that it can be sold advantageously. In addition, when accepting the registration of a sale request and a purchase request, the tier type of the requester is also registered at the same time, so that a sales route can be set based on this tier type, and compliance with commercial transaction customs can be maintained. . In addition, since an information network such as the Internet is used, anyone can easily and smoothly conduct transactions by accessing it, and a network involving many people can be built. It is possible to do.

According to the electronic commerce method of claim 2,
It is possible to clarify inter-tier commerce that is allowed under commercial practice, and, while complying with commercial practice, to mediate the above-mentioned commercial transactions that are not between hierarchies that are allowed under commercial practice. Can be given to the participants, and a sense of trust can be given to the commercial transaction by the electronic commerce method described above. In addition, if it is not possible to quickly match the sale request with the purchase request, the affiliated store of the brokerage center can receive the sale for the time being,
It can widely meet the needs of participants.

According to the electronic commerce method of the third aspect,
With the condition of dealing with defective inventory disposal,
And / or allows commercial transactions between retailers, so that the prices and the like in this commercial transaction can be made to conform to the above conditions so that even a commercial transaction between the same tiers does not violate commercial practices, and E-commerce methods can be flexible.

According to the electronic commerce method of the fourth aspect,
Before a participant in this e-commerce transaction registers a sale request, a two-stage price presentation is performed, including a first price presentation determined based on the declaration content of the participant and a second price presentation determined based on appraisal of the actual product. Therefore, by performing the first price presentation, the participant can know the selling price without having to send complicated articles to know the selling price. Further, if the user decides not to sell in the first price presentation, it is possible to omit complicated and troublesome sending of the article and the second price presentation, so that a transaction method that reduces waste can be constructed. In addition, by performing the second price presentation, a transaction method that can perform a correct evaluation on an article can be constructed.

According to the electronic commerce method of claim 5,
It is sufficient to prepare only the basic price database as price data, and it is possible to avoid an increase in the amount of database due to preparing a price database for each tier.

According to the electronic commerce method of claim 6,
Even if a participant in a sale request such as a user hesitates to sell and once gives up receiving a second price offer by the first price offer, the content of the first price offer is confirmed again later. As a result, it becomes possible to receive the second price offer, so that the sale request participant can be given an opportunity to reconsider the sale.

According to the electronic commerce method of claim 7,
Participants in the sale request need to provide the current item to the brokerage center for appraisal to receive the second price offer, and at that time, if the current item is valuable, it will not be sold finally It is common to be concerned about whether the goods will be returned, or if they are sold, will be securely stored and redeemed until they are sold. Can be eliminated.

According to the electronic commerce method of claim 8,
When the non-sale of a participant who has a request for sale is detected, the input of the reason for non-sale is collected, so that the participant, especially the user, can grasp the reason why he or she does not want to sell, and activate electronic commerce. Can be.

According to the electronic commerce method of the ninth aspect,
Since two-stage auctions are provided for different hierarchies, it is possible to increase the possibility of a successful sale.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a system used in an electronic commerce method according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a specification price database.

FIG. 3A shows a configuration diagram of a sale request registration area, FIG. 3B shows a configuration diagram of the sale request registration area at the time of temporary registration, and FIG. FIG. 3 shows a configuration diagram at the time of reflection.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a purchase request registration area.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a sale request registration process.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the first stage of a sale request registration process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing specification number determination processing;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a second stage of the sale request registration process.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a purchase request registration process.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a sale / purchase request matching process.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing another example of the sale request registration process.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the first stage of the sale request registration process in another example of the sale request registration process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Broker Center Server 2 Internet 3 Participant Client Terminal 11 Specification Price Database 12 Sale Request Registration Area 13 Purchase Request Registration Area 14 Registration Processing Program 15 Matching Processing Program 16 Auction Processing Program 17 Member Database S1 Wholesaler S2 Retailer S3 User

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06F 17/60 330 G06F 17/60 330

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An electronic commerce method for articles whose market price is uniquely determined based on specifications and quality and whose price fluctuation is small, and which is located in an intermediate layer in a process from upstream to downstream of commodity distribution. Members belonging to different tiers of a retailer, a wholesaler located upstream in the transaction with the retailer, and a general consumer located downstream in the transaction with the retailer, as members, A market with access to commerce is established on the network, and a mediation center is established that is neutral with respect to the stakeholders, and this mediation center responds to requests for sale and / or purchase of goods. The participant having, the sale request and / or purchase request, the participant's hierarchy type and the specification of the article and While accepting registration along with quality information,
An electronic commerce method in which a registered sale request and a purchase request are matched while regulating the above-mentioned commercial transactions other than between the hierarchies that are permitted by commercial transactions. 2. The inter-tier commerce permitted by the commerce custom, the commerce from the wholesaler to the retailer, the commerce from the retailer to the user,
And the form of the commercial transaction from the user to the wholesaler is provided, and in order to mediate the commercial transaction except between the hierarchies, which is recognized in the commercial practice, the user is purchased once from the wholesaler, An affiliated store of the brokerage center, which plays the role of the retailer for selling to the user or the role of the wholesaler for purchasing from the user and then selling to the retailer, is located on the network. The electronic commerce method according to claim 1, wherein the electronic commerce method is provided in: 3. Disposal of defective inventory, between said wholesalers,
3. The electronic commerce method according to claim 1, wherein the form of the commercial transaction between the retailers is provided. 4. The intermediary center is provided with a price database for each of the layers, which is determined in advance based on the specifications and quality of the article, and a two-stage price presentation is performed prior to the registration. The first price offer is made by referring to the price database based on the specifications and quality of the sale request participant's declaration, and the second price offer is the appraisal of the current goods provided by the sale request participant. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which is performed by referring to the price database based on the specification and quality determined by (1), and after each of the price presentations, a sale or a non-sale is selected. E-commerce method. 5. A basic price database determined in advance based on the specification and the quality of the article and a price index for each tier are provided in place of the price database for each tier, and a price index for each tier is provided. 5. The electronic commerce method according to claim 4, wherein the price is obtained by multiplying the basic price data of the basic price database by the price index. 6. At the time of the first price presentation, identification information for identifying the first price presentation is presented, and before reaching the second price presentation, based on the identification information. When re-presentation of the same content as the first price offer is required,
6. The electronic commerce method according to claim 4, wherein the re-presentation is performed. 7. When instructing the sale request participant to provide the present article for the second price presentation, the return of the present article or the secure storage until the sale is performed. The electronic commerce method according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein use of an escrow service is instructed to secure the e-commerce service. 8. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when the non-sale is detected, an input of a reason for non-sale is requested.
Electronic commerce method described in the section. 9. A method comprising: providing a first auction for a specific tier and a second auction for a tier lower than the tier in response to the sale request that cannot be matched. An electronic commerce method according to any one of claims 1 to 8. 10. The electronic commerce method according to claim 1, wherein the article is diamond.