JP2003331141A - Download vending system for charged software - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To widely spread download vending of charged software. <P>SOLUTION: A download vending system which vends the entity of charged software by downloading comprises an authenticating means of specifying a buyer of the charged software, a history registering means of registering the correspondence relation between the buyer specified by the authenticating means and the software that the buyer bought, a history database which stores the correspondence relation by buyers, and an afterservice means of providing an interface capable of specifying software bought in the past from the history database as to the buyer specified by the authenticating method and re- downloading the specified software for the terminal of the buyer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a download sales system, and more particularly to a download sales system for selling paid software entities by downloading.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, software download sales for individuals exist. The purchaser accesses the Internet site of the sales company, selects the software to be purchased, and applies for the purchase. If the purchase is permitted on the sales company site, the purchaser is notified by e-mail of the address of the download page of the purchased software. When the purchaser accesses the notified download page and starts the download, the program of the purchased software is copied to the purchaser's terminal and the software can be used.

[0003]

However, the download sale of paid software has not spread widely. That is because there is concern about purchasing only intangibles. For example, after downloading the purchased software, if the storage device of the computer that performed the download fails, not only the downloaded software will not be available, but also the email notified of the download page may not be opened. If so, there is a risk that it will not be possible to download and use it again. Due to such anxious sales methods, download sales of paid software for corporations are not performed.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to improve the inconvenience of the conventional example, and particularly to popularize the download sale of paid software.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, in the invention according to claim 1, in a download sales system for selling the substance of paid software by downloading, an authentication means for specifying a purchaser of the paid software, The history registration means for registering the correspondence relationship between the purchaser identified by the authentication means and the software purchased by the purchaser is provided. In addition, a history database that stores the correspondence relationship for each purchaser and software that has been purchased in the past from the history database for the purchaser identified by the authentication means are specified, and an interface that allows re-downloading of the specified software is provided for the purchaser. It is equipped with an after-sales service provided to the terminal.

According to the present invention, the history of software purchased by the purchaser in the past is managed for each purchaser in the history database, and an individual interface for re-downloading the software purchased in the past is provided for each purchaser. Provided by after-sales service means. Conventionally, the address of the download page was notified by e-mail at the time of the first purchase, and each purchaser had to individually manage the notification of the e-mail in preparation for re-downloading. According to the report, such management effort is released.

Here, as described in claim 2, when registering the correspondence between the purchaser and the software purchased by the purchaser, the history registration means associates the settlement date of the purchase with the history. The after-sales service means may be registered in the database, and the after-sales service means may be provided with a calendar to provide a re-downloadable interface for software identified from the history database and having not passed a certain period from the settlement date.

In this case, the conditions under which the purchaser can re-download the purchased software are determined by the period from the settlement date, and no limitation is imposed by the number of downloads or the downloading machine. Therefore, the feeling of restraint is reduced for the purchaser as compared with the conventional download restriction.

Further, in the invention according to claim 3, in a download sales system for selling the substance of paid software by downloading, a customer database in which a credit balance for purchasing paid software is stored for each customer,
When the customer requests the purchase of paid software, the credit means for comparing the purchase amount of this time with the credit balance of the customer, and the result of the comparison by the credit means, the purchase amount of this time exceeds the credit balance of the customer. It is equipped with a payment means that executes payment processing for the purchase of the software this time on the condition that it is not installed.

[0010] When the invention according to claim 1 or the invention according to claim 2 gives a greater sense of security in downloading and purchasing software than in the past, not only can individual customers be promoted for download sales, but also for corporate customers. The market for software download sales for customers is opened up. However, if there is no selling method suitable for corporate characters, it will be a barrier to promoting software download sales in the corporate market. According to the present invention, the purchase application is immediately settled and can be downloaded within the range of the credit balance, so that the credit sale can be introduced in the download sale of the software, and the momentum of incorporating a corporation in the market of the download sale is accelerated. To do.

Further, in the invention according to claim 4, in the download sales system for selling the substance of paid software by downloading, a customer database storing contact information of the approver who should approve the purchase of the software. , An approval requesting means for reading the contact information of the approver corresponding to the purchaser who wishes to make the purchase this time from the customer database before performing the payment processing for the software the purchaser wishes to purchase, and requesting the approval operation from the approver. And a payment means for executing a payment process for the purchase of the software that the purchaser wishes to purchase this time, provided that the approver has performed a predetermined approval operation.

As described above, in order for a corporation to participate in download sales of software, it is necessary to introduce a flow of approval of purchase that suits the constitution of the corporation. According to the present invention, the contents of the purchaser's request for purchase are transmitted to the contact information of the approver registered in advance corresponding to the purchaser, and the approval operation is performed by the approver. The settlement means executes the settlement process on condition that the approval operation is performed.

This is intended to achieve the above-mentioned object.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
It will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a download selling system according to the present invention. The download sales system 10 includes a communication interface 50.
Purchaser terminal 20 via (preferably the Internet)
And the approver terminal 30. In addition, the CCS 40 (Card Com
merce Service).

The download sales system 10 comprises an authentication means, an order receiving means, a sales promotion means, a credit means, an approval requesting means, a notifying means, a product providing means, an after-sales service means, a settlement means, and a history registration means. Each of these means is implemented by computer program processing. The computer does not need to be physically single, but preferably the operation of each means is realized by distributed processing of a plurality of computers. Here, the operation of each means will be described later.

The download sales system 10 is
It has a customer database (database is abbreviated as DB), a shopping cart, a product DB, and a history DB.
These DBs and shopping carts are provided in the storage area of the storage device. The storage device does not need to be physically single, and may be distributed in the storage areas of a plurality of storage devices.

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of the customer database. In this customer database, the customer ID, password,
General registration information such as individual / corporate type, customer's address, credit line and credit balance of each customer, e-mail address of customer purchaser and e-mail address of customer approver are associated with each customer ID.

FIG. 3 is a structural diagram of the product database. In this product database, product ID, product name, product specification description, product image, product price, product-related code,
And the substance of the product is associated with each product. Here, the related code between products is a code that links a certain product to another product that is highly related, and a common related code is registered in advance for such highly related products. . Further, since it is sufficient that the entity of the product is associated with it, it may be associated with the file storage destination address of the product (which is paid software in the present application) or the like. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the address of the dedicated download page prepared for each product is associated.

FIG. 4 is a structural diagram of the history database. For each customer ID, the product ID of the product purchased by the customer in the past and the settlement date when the settlement of the product is performed are recorded in association with each other.

In FIG. 1, the purchaser purchases a product from the purchaser terminal 20. First, the download sales system 10 is connected via the communication interface 50.

The authentication means is a customer ID for the purchaser terminal 20.
And provide the information acquisition interface to enter the password, and wait for the purchaser's input. When the purchaser inputs and sends the customer ID and password, the authentication means searches the customer DB for the corresponding relationship between the input customer ID and password, and identifies the customer whose ID and password match. Also, customer ID
Contact the ordering means.

Upon receiving this notification, the order receiving means reads out the product ID, product name, product specification description, product image, and product price from the product DB and sends them to the purchaser terminal 20. When the purchaser selects a desired product, the order receiving unit registers the product ID, the product name, and the price of the selected product in the cart associated with the customer ID of the current purchaser. that time,
The order receiving means activates the sales promotion means. The sales promotion means selects, from the product DB, a product having the same related code as the product registered in the cart by the ordering means, and acquires the product ID, product name, product usage description, product image, and product price from the purchaser terminal 20.
Send to.

If the purchaser has a desired product among the products introduced based on the related code, the purchaser selects the product. The order receiving means is the product ID of the product selected by the purchaser,
The product name and price are registered in the cart associated with the customer ID of the purchaser this time. The sales promotion means repeats the above-mentioned related product suggestion operation each time the purchaser selects a product to be purchased. Further, the purchaser selects payment when all the desired products are purchased. When the settlement is selected, the order receiving means notifies the settlement means together with the customer ID of the purchaser of this time.

The settlement means reads the price of the ordered merchandise from the cart corresponding to the customer ID notified from the order accepting means, and informs the credit means of the total price together with the customer ID.

The credit means refers to the customer DB and determines whether the type of customer corresponding to the customer ID this time is an individual or a corporation.

As a result, in the case of an individual, an information acquisition screen for inputting personal information for credit card payment is transmitted to the purchaser terminal 20 to have the personal information input. Upon receiving the input of the personal information, the credit means inquires the personal information to the CCS 40 via the communication interface 60. If the personal information is appropriate, the credit means notifies the settlement means to that effect. Upon receipt of this notification, the payment means executes the payment process with the contents of the cart. Here, if the purchaser is an individual, payment methods other than credit card payment cannot be selected. This allows payment to be completed promptly and software download to be started immediately.

On the other hand, when the purchaser is a corporation, the credit means is
The credit balance associated with the current customer ID is read from the customer DB and compared with the total of the current purchase amount notified from the settlement means. As a result, if the total purchase amount this time is within the range of the credit balance, the fact is notified to the settlement means.
Upon receipt of this notification, the settlement means then informs the approval requesting means of the customer ID of the purchaser of this time and the contents of the cart.

Upon receiving this notification, the approval requesting means is the customer D.
Referring to B, the e-mail address of the approver associated with this customer ID is specified. Then, an approval request notification including the contents of this cart and the approval link is sent to the approver's email address.

The approver receives the approval request notification at the approver terminal 30. Then, by accessing the approval link included in this notification, the approval request means is notified of the approval.

The approval requesting means, which has received the notification of the approval of the approver, reports the receipt of the notification to the settlement means. Upon receiving the approval report, the payment means executes the payment process with the contents of the current cart. At this time, the customer DB is accessed, and the current purchase amount is subtracted from the credit balance associated with the current customer ID.

Further, when the settlement is completed, the settlement means informs the notification means of the customer ID and the commodity ID which have been settled this time, and informs the history registration means of the customer ID, the commodity ID and the settlement date which are settled this time. To do.

When the notification means receives the contact of the customer ID and the product ID from the settlement means, the notification means reads out the mail address of the purchaser associated with the customer ID from the customer DB. Further, the product DB is accessed and the address of the dedicated download page corresponding to the product ID this time is read. Then, an e-mail notification describing the address of the dedicated download page is created and sent to the purchaser's e-mail address.

Also, the customer ID that has been settled this time from the settlement means.
The history registration means notified of the product ID and the payment date adds the association of the customer ID, the product ID, and the payment date to the record of the history DB.

Upon receipt of the above notification at the purchaser terminal 20, the purchaser first accesses the product providing means by accessing the address described in the electronic mail.
Upon receiving access from the purchaser terminal 20, the merchandise providing means requests the authenticating means to perform personal authentication. The authentication means provides the purchaser terminal 20 with an input screen for the customer ID and password, and accepts the input of the customer ID and password from the purchaser. Then, referring to the customer DB, it is confirmed that the correspondence between the acquired customer ID and password is registered, and if the authentication is successful, the result and the customer ID are returned to the product providing means. Upon confirming that the personal authentication has been performed correctly, the product providing means transfers the current access from the purchaser terminal 20 to the address of the download-only page transmitted from the purchaser terminal 20. On the download-only page displayed on the purchaser's terminal 20, there is a download link for the paid software that was just settled,
When the purchaser operates this download link, the download of the software just purchased is started.

After that, if the download is not successful, or if the downloaded file is lost due to a trouble after the download, the purchaser can request the system to re-download the purchased software. .

The purchaser operates the purchaser terminal 20 to access the after-sales service means. After receiving the access, the after-sales service means first requests the authentication means to authenticate the purchaser's identity, and if the authentication is performed in the same manner as described above, the customer ID of the purchaser who has accessed the after-sales service means from the authentication means this time. Will be contacted. The after-sales service means is the product ID associated with the contacted customer ID.
From the history DB, and compares the payment date associated with the product ID with the calendar to specify only the product ID of the product within a certain period from the payment date. Then, the address of the dedicated download page of each product associated with the product ID specified thereby is accessed and acquired in the product DB. Then, the after-sales service means generates a purchased software list page in which a link to the acquired dedicated download page of each product is inserted, and transmits the display information to the purchaser terminal 20. The purchaser selects a product desired to be re-downloaded from the purchased software list page displayed on the purchaser's terminal and accesses the dedicated download page for the selected product. You can re-download the purchased software from this dedicated download page.

[0038]

EXAMPLE A more specific example based on the above embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1) When the purchaser accesses the sales company site (download sales system) via the Internet, the authentication means requests the input of the authentication information, so the user inputs the authentication information and logs in. 2) When you click the link button from the top page after logging in to the product list, the ordering means provides product information, so search for the product and select the product you want to purchase. 3) The ordering means provides a detailed screen of the desired product for purchase, so check the details and click the purchase button only if you are willing to purchase. Then, the ordering means adds the product to the purchaser's cart. Here, the sales promotion means may introduce the related product, and the related product may be added to the cart. 4) Then, when the purchaser requests payment, the ordering means displays the terms of use (license) of the desired product for purchase, and the purchaser selects to proceed to the next process only when the purchaser agrees. 5) As a result, the settlement means is activated and credit is provided by the credit means. 5 — a) If the purchaser determined by the credit means is an individual, a personal information input screen for credit settlement is provided, and the purchaser inputs the personal information necessary for this. Then, the CCS is immediately referred to and the final purchase screen is provided. The purchaser confirms the purchase details again on the final purchase screen, and the settlement is completed when the purchaser agrees with the order details. 5_b) On the other hand, if the purchaser determined by the credit means is a corporation, it is determined whether the purchase amount this time exceeds the credit limit amount registered in the customer DB. If the purchase amount does not exceed the credit limit amount, the approval step is performed. move on. In the approval step, the approval request means specifies the approval requester corresponding to the purchaser, and sends a notification of the approval request to the email address of the requestee. Based on this notification, the approval requester accesses the final purchase screen and completes the settlement when he / she agrees to the order details. 6) When the payment is completed, the notification means sends the purchaser an e-mail containing the address of the download-only page. 7_A) When the purchaser accesses the download-only page, first, the user is authenticated by the authenticating means, and when appropriate authentication information is entered, the purchaser is redirected to the download-only page to download the software purchased earlier. . 7_B) After that, when logging in to the sales company site of 1) above, a purchased software list button is set on the purchaser-only page. When this list button is clicked, the after-sales service means operates. The after-sales service means refers to the history DB based on the currently logged-in customer ID, identifies the software purchased by the purchaser of the customer ID in the past, and identifies the software for which a certain period has not passed since the purchase. The screen is displayed and provided to the buyer's terminal. Any software included in this list can be re-downloaded. When the purchaser clicks the link of the software to be re-downloaded, the product providing means provides the download-only page of the selected software, so that the software can be re-downloaded.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and examples, and various ordinary alternative means by those skilled in the art can be applied.

[0040]

Since the present invention is constructed and functions as described above, according to this, the purchased software is managed for each purchaser by the history DB, and the after-sales service means refers to the history DB, Since re-downloading of purchased software is allowed, there is no need to worry about managing emails notified of download pages as in the past, and the purchaser's management burden when downloading and purchasing software is reduced, Promote the spread of download sales systems.

Further, since the credit means enables the credit sale, the spread to the corporation is promoted. Further, since the approval requesting means introduces the approval flow before settlement of the download sale, the spread to the corporation is also promoted.

As described above, it is possible to provide an unprecedented excellent download sales system that can widely spread the download sales of paid software.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of a customer database shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a structural diagram of a product database shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a structural diagram of a history database shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining a specific embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 download sales system 20 Purchaser terminal 30 Approver terminal 40 CCS 50,60 communication interface

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G06F 17/60 ZEC G06F 17/60 ZEC 1/00 15/00 330Z 15/00 330 9/06 660C

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. In a download sales system for selling the substance of paid software by download, an authentication means for specifying a purchaser of the paid software, a purchaser identified by this authentication means, and software purchased by the purchaser. A history registration unit that registers the correspondence, a history database that stores the correspondence for each purchaser, and software that has been purchased in the past from the history database for the purchaser identified by the authentication unit, and the identified software And a after-sales service means for providing a re-downloadable interface to the purchaser's terminal. 2. The history registration means, when registering the correspondence between the purchaser and the software purchased by the purchaser, registers the settlement date of the purchase in the history database in association with the settlement date, The service means comprises a calendar, and provides the re-downloadable interface for software that has not passed a certain period from the settlement date among the software identified from the history database. Download sales system. 3. In a download sales system for selling paid software by downloading, a customer database storing credit balances for each customer who can purchase paid software, and when the customer requests the purchase of paid software, The credit means for comparing the purchase amount of the customer with the credit balance of the customer, and as a result of the comparison in the credit means, the purchase of the software of this time is performed on the condition that the purchase amount of this time does not exceed the credit balance of the customer. And a payment means for executing payment processing. 4. In a download sales system for selling paid software entities by download, a customer database storing contact information of approvers who should be approved for purchase of software by the purchaser, and the purchaser wishes to purchase. Before performing the payment processing of the software, the contact information of the approver corresponding to the purchaser who wishes to purchase this time is read from the customer database, and the approval requesting means for requesting the approval operation to the approver, and the approver. A download selling system comprising: a payment means for executing a payment process for purchase of software that the purchaser desires to purchase this time on condition that a predetermined approval operation has been executed.