JP2006040106A - Sales information management system cooperating with prepaid electronic money settlement mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a sales information management system performing a process corresponding to a refund, after settling a commodity charge of different sellers according to an existing electronic money settlement procedure. <P>SOLUTION: The system includes: a communication means with a settlement center computer; a data read/write means of an IC card having recorded electronic money; a table for storing a refund amount on a seller-by-seller basis, correspondingly to an IC card identifier; as a process based on charging information generated at the time of commodity sales, a first process of performing a third process after performing a second process when the refund amount from a seller A is existent in the table in regard to the commodity corresponding to the read IC card identifier, while performing the third process when the refund amount is not existent; the second process of subtracting the refund amount from the charging information; and a control means for performing the third process of subtracting the electronic money balance in the IC card after transmitting the charging information to the settlement center computer, and on receipt of a refund instruction, performing a process of recording the seller and the refund amount into the table, correspondingly to the read IC card identifier. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a sales information management system that cooperates with a prepaid electronic money settlement mechanism, and in particular, in a product sales form in which a purchaser can purchase different products in batches with electronic money, the seller individually The present invention relates to a sales information management system capable of performing processing equivalent to a cashback service with electronic money.

  The sales information management system linked to the prepaid electronic money settlement mechanism is based on the price of goods sold by the accounting device equipped with an IC card interface that reads and writes information recorded on the IC card. The billing information (IC card identifier, sales merchandise and its price, information on the vending machine manager, etc.) is notified to the settlement center computer managed by the electronic money issuing organization (settlement mechanism). The settlement center computer stores this billing information and completes the electronic money settlement related to this sales item. When the electronic money is accumulated on the IC card in exchange for cash at the depositing device, the settlement mechanism manages the cash inserted into the device, and when the electronic money settlement is completed, the payment amount is based on the billing information. Transition to post-payment processing, such as transferring electronic money to the merchant's designated account with real money. The documents related to the present invention are shown below.

  The advantage of electronic money settlement is that you do not need to carry cash and do not need to receive change. I don't bulge my wallet with coins.

At stores where electronic money can be paid, customers are freed from the hassle of paying cash or receiving change at a cash register. Unlike known credit card payments, it is not necessary to sign at a store in an actual store, and it is not necessary to send a secret recitation number to a communication network in online shopping. Since only the balance already recorded on the IC card can be used, there is little damage even if it is stolen. You can get IC cards and shop anonymously.
JP 2003-108904 A Bit Wallet Co., Ltd., “Edy”, [online], [Search June 8, 2004], Internet <URL: http://www.edy.jp>

  For example, in a shopping mall where a large number of specialty stores are located, if each specialty store joins the payment mechanism, no matter which specialty store the customer purchases, the purchase price of the product at each specialty store will be charged to the shopping mall. A common cash register can be used to make a store form that can be paid in bulk with electronic money. This shopping mall has the advantage that customers do not have to pay for each specialty store in addition to the various advantages of electronic money settlement. The customer may present the product bought at each specialty store and his IC card at the common cash register. The billing device at the cash register is a settlement center computer as billing information together with an IC card identifier (card identifier) obtained by reading the product, its price and the identifier of a specialty store (seller) selling it with an IC card interface. To complete the settlement.

  However, in the above shopping mall, when a customer wants to return a product, the price paid in advance with electronic money must be returned to the customer. For customers, it is only necessary to have the price for the item price that they wish to return returned in cash, or the electronic money balance of the IC card can be increased with a depositing device. Accompanying with returns such as processing to restore the balance related to payment to the state before payment, processing to have the cash returned from the seller if the electronic money payment mechanism has paid cash to the seller The refund procedure must be extremely complex. The refund agent system described in Patent Document 1 also requires the same processing. Actually, since the product price is settled according to the existing procedure defined by the electronic money payment mechanism side, it is going to respond to the return, so computers related to electronic money payment including the payment center computer already in operation Unless the system is fundamentally reconfigured, refunds related to returns are virtually impossible.

  In addition to refunds related to returned goods, there are many problems in the shopping mall of the above form even when the seller provides a cashback service or the like. The merchant issues a unique membership card and manages the cashback amount (return amount) associated with each membership card. If many stores in a shopping mall provide cashback services, customers must have as many membership cards as the number of stores offering the services. At the cash register, after presenting the IC card for electronic money settlement, present the membership card of the store that bought it for each purchased item, and add the refund amount or reduce the product price by the refund amount I have to tell the cashier. It is inevitable that the cash register is very crowded.

  The present invention created in view of the above-described problems is that electronic goods can be purchased without adding electronic money to an IC card after payment of goods with different sellers according to existing electronic money payment procedures defined by the payment mechanism side. The purpose is to realize a sales information management system capable of performing processing equivalent to refund regardless of the system related to settlement.

And this invention created in order to achieve the said objective is specified by the following matter (1)-(10).
(1) A sales information management system that includes an inter-center communication means, an IC card interface, a refund reservation table, and a control means, and cooperates with a prepaid electronic money settlement mechanism. ◎
(2) The center communication means communicates with a settlement center computer operated by the prepaid electronic money settlement mechanism.
(3) The IC card interface should be able to read and rewrite data of an IC card in which electronic money information is recorded.
(4) The refund reservation table stores the refund amount for each seller in association with the IC card identifier.
(5) The control means should enable sales price settlement processing and refund reservation processing.
(6) Sales price settlement processing is to perform first to third processing based on billing information at the time of product sales.
(7) The first process checks whether or not the refund amount of the seller of the product corresponding to the IC card identifier read by the IC card interface is recorded in the refund reservation table. The third process is performed after performing the process. If not recorded, the third process is performed.
(8) The second process is to reduce the refund amount from the billing information.
(9) The third process is to transmit the billing information to the settlement center computer and reduce the electronic money balance of the IC card based on the billing information.
(10) In the refund reservation process, a refund instruction is received and the IC card identifier read by the IC card interface is associated with the seller and the refund amount and recorded in the refund reservation table.

The present invention can also be a sales information management system specified by the following items (21) to (31).
(21) A sales information management system that includes an inter-center communication means, an IC card interface, a refund reservation table, a refund execution condition storage means, and a control means, and cooperates with a prepaid electronic money settlement mechanism.
(22) The inter-center communication means communicates with a settlement center computer operated by the prepaid electronic money settlement mechanism.
(23) The IC card interface shall be capable of reading and rewriting data of an IC card in which electronic money information is recorded.
(24) The refund reservation table stores the refund amount for each seller in association with the IC card identifier.
(25) The refund execution condition storage means stores the transaction condition and the refund execution condition including information for specifying the refund amount in association with the seller.
(26) The control means performs sales price settlement processing and refund reservation processing.
(27) The sales price settlement processing is to perform the first to third processing based on the billing information at the time of product sales.
(28) The first process checks whether or not the refund amount of the seller of the product corresponding to the IC card identifier read by the IC card interface is recorded in the refund reservation table. The third process is performed after performing the process. If not recorded, the third process is performed.
(29) The second process is to reduce the refund amount from the billing information.
(30) The third process is to transmit the billing information to the settlement center computer and reduce the electronic money balance recorded on the IC card read by the IC card interface based on the billing information.
(31) Refund reservation processing is an IC card in which the IC card interface reads the seller and the refund amount based on the refund execution conditions if the current transaction status matches the seller's refund execution conditions at the time of product sales. Record it in the refund reservation table in association with the identifier.

  According to the sales information management system of the present invention, after the price of a product with a different seller is completed according to the existing electronic money payment procedure defined by the payment mechanism side, it is refunded regardless of the system related to the electronic money payment. Corresponding processing can be performed.

=== Outline of the Invention ===
The sales information management system of the present invention stores the refund amount for each seller in association with the card identifier of the IC card in which the electronic money is recorded, and the product buyer purchases the product with the electronic money of his IC card. When the purchase is made at, if the card identifier stores a return amount corresponding to the seller of this product, the return amount is subtracted from the product price, and the amount after the subtraction is settled with electronic money.

  Further, when a certain product is sold, if a predetermined condition (refund execution condition) is met, the seller of the product and the refund amount are stored in association with the card identifier of the purchaser's IC card. FIG. 1 shows an outline of a refund reservation table in which a refund amount for each seller is associated with a card identifier. FIG. 2 shows an outline of the refund execution conditions.

  According to the sales information management system (hereinafter referred to as management system) in the embodiment of the present invention, for example, a refund amount of 100 yen is returned for a certain merchant (B) to a certain card identifier (A). Assume that they are associated by a table. One day, when the purchaser tries to purchase a product of 1000 yen of the seller B by using the IC card of the card identifier A, the sales price is 900 by subtracting the refund amount of 100 yen corresponding to the card identifier A from the product price of 1000 yen. The payment information including the sales price (billing amount) 900 yen, the card identifier A and the identifier of the seller B is notified to the settlement center computer. Then, the electronic money balance of the IC card with the identifier A is reduced by 900 yen. At this time, the refund amount corresponding to the seller B in the card identifier A in the refund reservation table is 0 yen.

  Also, it is assumed that a refund execution condition is described to give a refund amount of 100 yen when selling merchandise of seller C on Tuesday every week. If the purchaser purchases a 1000 yen product of seller C with an IC card with card identifier D on Tuesday, the payment center computer is notified of billing information including card identifier D, seller B, and a billing amount of 1000 yen. The electronic money balance of this IC card is reduced by 1000 yen. Further, the seller C and the refund amount of 100 yen are recorded in association with the card identifier D in the refund reservation table.

=== Configuration and Operation of Sales Information Management System ===
As an embodiment of the sales information management system of the present invention, an example applied to the above shopping mall will be given. FIG. 3 shows a network configuration mainly composed of the sales information management system of this embodiment. FIG. 4 shows a flow of processing related to electronic money settlement by the sales information management system 1. The management system 1 of the present embodiment is configured to include a communication interface 17 such as a plurality of cash register terminals 13 and routers with a management computer 11 as a center, and the components of the system 1 are provided in a LAN 18 laid in a shopping mall. It is connected.

  The database 12 attached to the management computer 11 stores product information in which the identifier of the product and the price are associated with the identifier of the specialty store (seller) in this embodiment, together with the refund reservation table and the refund execution conditions. . The cash register terminal 13 has a basic function as a billing apparatus for electronic money settlement, and has an IC card interface 15 for a non-contact type IC card. In addition, a barcode reader 14 for reading a barcode printed on the product tag is provided. When the bar code reader 14 reads the bar code, the cash register terminal 13 sends the product identifier described in the code to the management computer 11. The product information may not be read from the barcode. The store and the price may be printed on the price tag, and the cashier may directly input the identifier (for example, a sequence of numbers) and the price of the store.

  A customer possesses an IC card in which electronic money is recorded, picks up products desired for purchase at each specialty store in the shopping mall, and presents the products at a common cash register. The cashier makes the barcode reader 14 read the barcode of the product (s1). When the cashier terminal 13 starts accounting for a certain customer, it sequentially reads the barcodes and sequentially transfers the product identifiers described in the barcodes to the management computer 11 (s2). The management computer 11 identifies each cash register terminal 13 and inquires the database 12 of product identifiers successively transferred from a certain cash register terminal 13 during the transaction, and acquires the price of the product and the seller. Then, the prices of the acquired products are totaled for each seller, and the total sales amount for each seller is temporarily stored for each cash register terminal 13 (s11, s12).

  When the bar code reading operation for all the products is completed at a certain cash register, the customer follows his / her cashier's guidance or the like to insert his / her non-contact type IC card 20 into the antenna 16 of the IC card interface 15 of the cash register terminal 13. Hold it over. The cash register terminal 13 reads the card identifier and the electronic money balance of the IC card 20 and sends the card identifier to the management computer 11 (s3 → s4, s5). The refund reservation table is queried for the identifier of each seller and the card identifier sent this time in the total sales amount for each seller stored temporarily in (s13). If there is information associated with the merchant that is referred to the card identifier, the refund amount of the seller is obtained, and the amount obtained by subtracting the refund amount from the total sales amount of the seller is used as the charge amount of the seller. The merchant identifier, billing amount and card identifier are set and returned to the cash register terminal 13 (s14, s15).

  The cash register terminal 13 generates charging information for all commodities based on the charging amount for each seller returned from the management computer 11, and this charging information is transmitted to the predetermined information communication network such as the Internet via the communication interface 17. 30 is notified to the settlement center computer 40 located on 30 (s6, s7). When the cashier terminal 13 replies that the billing information has been received (settlement processing completion notification) from the settlement center computer 40 (s8), the electronic money balance recorded in the IC card 20 via the IC card interface 15 is returned. And the management computer 11 is notified that the electronic money settlement has been completed (s9, s10). The management computer 11 reduces the refund amount of each seller associated with the card identifier by the amount used for this discount, and updates the refund reservation table (s16).

  In the refund reservation table, when the refund amount of a certain seller exceeds the total amount of purchased products, the billing amount for the seller may be made free and the billing information notification process may not be performed. For example, in the refund reservation table, a refund amount of 1000 yen for seller A is associated with a certain card identifier, and when trying to purchase a product for 900 yen for seller A with this card, the product The refund amount of the seller A is updated to 100 yen in association with the card identifier in the refund reservation table.

  Further, if the electronic money balance of the IC card 20 is less than the charged amount at the time when the charged amount is determined, the cash register terminal 13 applies the entire amount of the electronic money balance, and the charge amount is still insufficient. Display on the display and tell the customer that the cashier pays the cash shortage. In this case, the billing information may be corrected to the electronic money allocation (balance), and the corrected billing information may be transmitted to the settlement computer 40.

  In addition, when the management computer 11 acquires the seller B corresponding to the product identifier sent from the cash register terminal 13 in s11, the sales status (transaction conditions) of the product matches the refund execution condition for the seller B. It is determined whether or not to perform (s17). If the current sales condition satisfies the refund execution condition, the refund reservation table is updated by associating the refund amount based on the condition and the seller B with the card identifier read by the IC card interface of the cash register terminal (s17 → s18). . For example, for seller B, it is assumed that a refund condition indicates that 5% of the product price is added to the refund amount when a product is bought today. Assuming that the merchandise of seller B is purchased for 2000 yen this time, the management computer 11 updates the refund reservation table by associating the refund amount of 100 yen with the card identifier received from the seller B and the cash register terminal 13. This refund will be used for the next product sales opportunity.

=== About refund instructions ===
In the above embodiment, the refund amount is recorded in the refund reservation table as a refund instruction to meet the refund execution condition. Instead of this configuration, for example, when the cashier receives a return request from the customer, the IC card interface 15 reads the card identifier of the customer's IC card 20, and the seller and price of the returned product May be input directly to the cashier terminal 13 as a refund instruction. Alternatively, a refund instruction is made by giving a return instruction at the cash register terminal 13 and a product identifier input by bar code input, and the seller of the corresponding product and the return amount corresponding to the price correspond to the identifier of the IC card. You may make it record on a refund reservation table.

  At this time, in the case of a return of a product that meets the refund execution conditions, a process of reducing the return amount that matches the refund execution conditions from the record in the refund reservation table may be performed.

It is the schematic of the refund reservation table which the sales information management system in the Example of this invention memorize | stores. It is the schematic of the refund execution conditions which the said sales information management system memorize | stores. It is a network block diagram of the said sales information management system. It is a flowchart of the refund process in the said sales information management system.

Explanation of symbols

1 Sales Information Management System 11 Management Computer 12 Database 13 Cash Register Terminal 15 IC Card Interface 17 Communication Interface 30 Information Communication Network 40 Settlement Center Computer

Claims (2)

A sales information management system comprising an inter-center communication means, an IC card interface, a refund reservation table, and a control means, and linked to a prepaid electronic money settlement mechanism,
The inter-center communication means communicates with a payment center computer operated by the prepaid electronic money payment mechanism,
The IC card interface enables reading and rewriting of data of an IC card that records electronic money information,
The refund reservation table stores the refund amount for each seller in association with the IC card identifier,
The control means enables sales price settlement processing and refund reservation processing,
The sales price settlement process performs the first to third processes based on the billing information at the time of product sales,
The first process checks whether or not the refund amount of the seller of the product corresponding to the IC card identifier read by the IC card interface is recorded in the refund reservation table. If it is recorded, the second process is performed. To perform the third process, if not recorded, perform the third process,
The second process subtracts the refund amount from the billing information,
The third process transmits the billing information to the settlement center computer, reduces the electronic money balance of the IC card based on the billing information,
The refund reservation process is a sales information management system that receives a refund instruction and associates the seller and the refund amount with the IC card identifier read by the IC card interface and records them in the refund reservation table. A sales information management system comprising an inter-center communication means, an IC card interface, a refund reservation table, a refund execution condition storage means, and a control means, and linked to a prepaid electronic money settlement mechanism,
The inter-center communication means communicates with a payment center computer operated by the prepaid electronic money payment mechanism,
The IC card interface enables reading and rewriting of data of an IC card that records electronic money information,
The refund reservation table stores the refund amount for each seller in association with the IC card identifier,
The refund execution condition storage means stores the transaction conditions and the refund execution conditions including information for specifying the refund amount in association with the seller,
The control means performs sales price settlement processing and refund reservation processing,
The sales price settlement process performs the first to third processes based on the billing information at the time of product sales,
The first process checks whether or not the refund amount of the seller of the product corresponding to the IC card identifier read by the IC card interface is recorded in the refund reservation table. If it is recorded, the second process is performed. To perform the third process, if not recorded, perform the third process,
The second process subtracts the refund amount from the billing information,
The third process transmits the billing information to the settlement center computer and reduces the electronic money balance recorded on the IC card read by the IC card interface based on the billing information.
Refund reservation processing corresponds to the IC card identifier when the IC card interface reads the seller and the refund amount based on the refund execution condition when the current transaction status matches the refund execution condition of the seller of the product at the time of sale. A sales information management system that records them in the refund reservation table.

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