WO2016151678A1

WO2016151678A1 - Information processing device, information processing method, and program

Info

Publication number: WO2016151678A1
Application number: PCT/JP2015/058486
Authority: WO
Inventors: 勇宇平手; 茶谷　公之
Original assignee: 楽天株式会社
Priority date: 2015-03-20
Filing date: 2015-03-20
Publication date: 2016-09-29
Also published as: JPWO2016151678A1; JP6053093B1

Abstract

In order to extract a product that has a factor as a product which is likely to sell during a certain period but the sales of which during said period has not increased under current circumstances: a sales increase period for each product is specified by using purchase history information in which the date and time each product was purchased are stored, and a plurality of products having a common sales increase period are specified as a product group; then, a common factor of at least two products among the plurality of products specified as the product group is detected; and a product that has the detected common factor but is not included in the product group is extracted as a recommended product.

Description

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program, and more particularly to a technical field relating to extraction of products expected to increase in sales.

JP 2005-196469 A

In an electronic commerce system using a network such as the Internet, products that are desirable or interesting for individual users are presented as recommended products. One method is known by so-called collaborative filtering. For example, by using the relevance of product purchase histories among users with common attributes, a product that is estimated to be of interest to the target user is determined and presented to the user as a recommended product.
Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for such collaborative filtering.

By the way, among various products, there is a product whose number of sales increases at a specific time. For example, pentagonal pencils and octopus figurines have a track record of increasing sales during the period (for example, from December to February) according to the test season because they are good for taking the test.
In this way, there are products whose sales volume increases at a specific time, but the sales volume at the same time even though there is a reason for sales to increase at the same time as those products (for example, good reason for taking an examination) There are also products that have not increased. In particular, products with a small number of sales are difficult to extract even by collaborative filtering. In addition, even if there is a reason to sell at a certain time, to extract a product that does not show a significant increase in sales at that time, the type, nature, function, price and other attributes of each product, Furthermore, it is necessary to make a very difficult analysis by collating sales data.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily extract a product that can be presumed to be sold at a specific time, although it is difficult to extract by collaborative filtering or the like.

The information processing apparatus according to the present invention specifies the sales increase time of each product using the purchase history information storing the purchase date and time for each product, and specifies a plurality of products having a common sales increase time as a product group Product group specifying unit, common element detecting unit for detecting a common element of at least two or more products among the plurality of products specified by the product group specifying unit, and common detected by the common element detecting unit And a recommended product extraction unit that extracts products that have elements and are not included in the product group as recommended products.
In this case, the product group is a group of products with a common sales increase timing, but if a common element of at least two or more products is detected in the product group, one reason for the sales increase at that time can be estimated. . A recommended product having a common element is a product that has not increased in sales at that time in spite of potentially having the same reason that sales increase. That is, the recommended product can be estimated as a product that is likely to be sold at the same time as the product in the product group.

In the information processing apparatus described above, select a handling store of recommended products extracted by the recommended product extraction unit or a store having handleability as a transmission target store, and at least for the terminal device of the selected transmission target store, It is conceivable to include a sales proposal information providing unit that controls transmission of sales proposal information including information on the recommended product and information on the sales increase timing of the product group.
In other words, an opportunity for preparation for sale is provided by notifying a store of a recommended product that is estimated as a product that is likely to be sold at an increase in sales of the products in the product group.

In the information processing apparatus described above, the sales proposal information providing unit may include information on common elements included in recommended products in the sales proposal information.
Since the information on the common element is information that is the basis for the estimation that the recommended product may be sold at the time of the sales increase of the commodity group that is the common element detection target, the store side also shares the information.

In the information processing apparatus described above, the sales proposal information providing unit transmits the sales proposal information to the transmission target store at a time before a predetermined date and time from the start date of the sales increase time notified by the sales proposal information. It is conceivable to perform control.
That is, the sales proposal information is transmitted at an appropriate timing so that the store can prepare for the sale of the product in accordance with the sales increase timing.

In the information processing apparatus described above, a recommendation having a common element with the target product of the user action in the user terminal in which the user action is performed in response to a specific user action targeting the product included in the product group It may be possible to provide a product introduction control unit that controls the product introduction information including the product information and the common element information to be presented.
A user who has performed a user action such as browsing a product web page for a product in a certain product group can be estimated to be a user who is considering purchasing the product for a certain purpose. Then, it can be said that a recommended product having a common element with the product is highly likely to match the purpose of the user's product purchase. Therefore, as the product introduction information, recommended products are presented as products that meet the user's purpose.

In the information processing apparatus described above, the product introduction control unit displays the product introduction information on the search result screen when a search request for a product included in the product group is performed as the user action. It is conceivable to control as presented.
That is, since the search request is made when interested in a certain product, a recommended product having a common element is presented together with the product presented as the search result.

In the information processing apparatus described above, the product introduction control unit performs control so that the product introduction information is presented as a user action on a screen related to a purchase procedure for a product included in the product group. Can be considered.
It is estimated that a purchase procedure has been performed for a certain product, or in the purchase procedure, the user considers other products having common elements as purchase candidates at the same time. Therefore, recommended products that have the same elements as purchased products are presented.

In the information processing apparatus described above, the product introduction control unit is configured such that, when the user action is detected at a time corresponding to the sales increase time of the product group, the product at the user terminal where the user action is performed. It may be possible to control the introduction information to be presented.
The recommended product is a product that is estimated to be sold at the time of sales increase of the product of a certain product group, so when it corresponds to the time of sales increase, it is a suitable introduction timing .

In the information processing apparatus described above, the product introduction control unit, when the specific user action is detected, the recommended product satisfies a predetermined price condition or store condition in relation to the target product of the user action. Accordingly, it may be possible to control the product introduction information to be presented at the user terminal where the user action is performed.
For example, product introduction information is presented according to price conditions such as the product price and recommended product of the user action are in the same price range, store conditions such as being a store handling recommended products, etc. Decide whether or not.

In the information processing apparatus described above, product introduction information as a product list including a plurality of products having common elements included in the product group and recommended products having common elements with the plurality of products is presented. It may be possible to provide a product introduction control unit for controlling the product.
In other words, the product introduction control unit displays a list of products that have common elements, including products that have been generally recognized by users, and products that may not be well known by users (recommended products). It is intended to make it.

The information processing method according to the present invention specifies, as an information processing method executed by the information processing apparatus, the sales increase time of each product using purchase history information storing the purchase date and time for each product, and the sales increase time A product group specifying step for specifying a plurality of products having a common product as a product group, and a common element detection for detecting a common element of at least two or more products among the plurality of products specified as the product group in the product group specifying step And a recommended product extraction step of extracting a product having a common element detected in the common element detection step and not included in the product group as a recommended product.
With this information processing method, it is possible to extract a product whose sales have not increased so much during the specific period even though it has a reason for the increase in sales at a specific period.
The program according to the present invention is a program that causes an information processing apparatus to execute the processing of each step as each of the above information processing methods.

According to the present invention, at present, sales are not so much increased at a specific time, but there is an effect that products that may increase can be easily extracted.

It is a block diagram of the electronic commerce system of an embodiment of the invention. It is a block diagram of the computer apparatus used by embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the function structure and database of an electronic commerce server of an embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the related term database and purchase history database of embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the recommended goods database and goods group database of embodiment. It is a flowchart of goods group specific processing of an embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the sales increase time of goods. It is a flowchart of a common element detection process of an embodiment. It is a flowchart of the recommended goods extraction process of embodiment. It is a flowchart of the sales proposal information transmission process of an embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the presentation aspect of the sales proposal of embodiment. It is a flowchart of merchandise introduction control processing of an embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the presentation aspect of the introduction goods of embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the presentation aspect of the introduction goods of embodiment. It is a flowchart of the modification of the goods introduction control process of embodiment. It is explanatory drawing of the presentation aspect of the goods list of embodiment. It is a flow chart of merchandise introduction information generation processing of a merchandise list of an embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in the following order.
<1. Electronic Commerce System Configuration>
<2. EC Server Functional Configuration and Database>
<3. Recommended product extraction based on product group>
<4. Sales proposal to store ＞
<5. Product introduction to users>
<6. Present product list to users>
<7. Summary and Modification>
<8. Program and Storage Medium>

In the embodiment, an electronic commerce server (EC server) that provides an electronic commerce system will be described as an example of the information processing apparatus described in the claims of the present invention. The electronic commerce server is realized by one or a plurality of information processing apparatuses. Therefore, the information processing apparatus according to the claims of the present invention is realized by one information processing apparatus or a plurality of information processing apparatuses in cooperation.
Further, main terms used in the embodiments have the following meanings.
User: A user who browses and purchases products using the electronic commerce system. Product: Products that are targeted for commercial transactions on the electronic commerce system. Including not only products as physical items but also products as various services ・ Stores: Stores opened in the e-commerce system ・ User actions: A general term for actions performed by the user using a user terminal, for example, link images Examples include click operations, search word input, search execution operations, favorite registration operations, purchase operations, and login operations.

<1. Electronic Commerce System Configuration>
FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a network system that functions as an EC (electronic commerce) system that realizes a virtual shopping street in which a plurality of stores open. An electronic commerce server (hereinafter referred to as “EC server”) 2 in FIG. 1 corresponds to an embodiment of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the EC system according to the present embodiment, an EC server 2, a plurality of store terminals 4, and a plurality of user terminals 5 are connected via a network 1 so that they can communicate with each other. The EC server 2 can access the electronic commerce database 6.
Hereinafter, “database” is referred to as “DB”.

Various examples of the configuration of the network 1 are assumed. For example, the Internet, intranet, extranet, LAN (Local Area Network), CATV (Community Antenna TeleVision) communication network, virtual private network, telephone line network, mobile communication network, satellite communication network, etc. are assumed. The
Various examples of transmission media that constitute all or part of the network 1 are also assumed. For example, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 1394, USB (Universal Serial Bus), power line carrier, telephone line etc. wired, infrared such as IrDA (Infrared Data Association), Bluetooth (registered trademark), 802.11 wireless It can also be used by radio such as a mobile phone network, satellite line, and digital terrestrial network.

The EC server 2 is a virtual shopping mall server that functions as a portal of a virtual shopping mall, for example. The EC server 2 executes processing based on the processing request received from the store terminal 4 or the user terminal 5. For example, providing search pages for products and services to users, providing store pages for each store, searching for products and services according to user searches, displaying a list of search results, advertising on each page, and recommended products for users Etc., processing related to product purchase, store management, user management, etc.

The store terminal 4 is shown as an information processing device used at a store opening a store in a virtual shopping mall. The store terminal 4 is used for registering information on products sold in the virtual shopping mall in the electronic commerce DB 6 via the EC server 2. For example, a dedicated screen provided from the EC server 2 is displayed on the display unit of the store terminal 4. The person in charge of the store registers product information and the like in the electronic commerce DB 6 via this dedicated screen.

The user terminal 5 is shown as an information processing apparatus operated by a user who purchases goods and services using a virtual shopping mall. The user terminal 5 is realized by an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, a mobile phone, or a portable information terminal.

In the present embodiment, for example, an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) daemon is activated in the EC server 2. In addition, a browser is activated at the store terminal 4 or the user terminal 5, and a processing request (HTTP request) is transmitted from the store terminal 4 or the user terminal 5 to the EC server 2 via the browser. From the EC server 2, a processing result (HTTP response) corresponding to the processing request is transmitted to the store terminal 4 or the user terminal 5. For example, page data described in a web page description language is transmitted to the store terminal 4 or the user terminal 5. And based on this page data, the web page (screen) based on a processing result is displayed on the display part of the shop terminal 4 or the user terminal 5. FIG.
The EC server 2 provides a web page as a virtual shopping mall to the user terminal 5 through such operations, and performs product search, product presentation, advertisement presentation, settlement processing, etc. in response to a request from the user terminal 5. The EC server 2 performs the same operation on the store terminal 4 as well, providing a product registration page, registering a product in response to a request from the store terminal 4, and the like.

Information necessary for the EC server 2 to perform these processes is stored in the electronic commerce DB 6. In the figure, user DB 6a, store DB 6b, product DB 6c, advertisement DB 6d, purchase history DB 6e, related term DB 6f, recommended product DB 6g, and product group DB 6h are illustrated as DBs related to processing described later in the present embodiment. Of course, there are various other DBs necessary for functioning as a portal of a virtual shopping mall.

In the user DB 6a, data related to users who use the virtual shopping mall is registered. For example, for each registered user, a user ID (identification) which is user identification information, a login password, an address, a name, attribute information such as sex and age, payment information, an e-mail address, and the like are registered. In addition, data relating to the history of transactions performed in the virtual shopping mall is registered as the purchase history of each user. For example, for each user ID, the product ID of the purchased product, information about the product, the purchase store, the purchase date and time, the purchase price, and the like are registered. Furthermore, browsing history of each user, favorite registration information, and the like are also stored.

In the store DB 6b, data related to stores that open in the virtual shopping mall is registered. For example, for each store, store ID, name, address, telephone number as store identification information, link information (URL (Uniform Resource Locator)) to a web page (store page) related to the store, and the like are registered.
Data related to products handled in the virtual shopping mall is registered in the product DB 6c. For example, in the product table 6b, for each product (including services), a product ID as product identification information, a store ID of a store selling the product, a product category, a name, a price, a stock, a web page (product) Link information (URL) to (page) is registered.
In addition, as product ID, ID which identifies one product corresponding to the model number etc. of goods, or ID which identifies the product of each store (that is, the same product, different ID in each store) may be used. However, the product ID in the present embodiment will be described assuming the former example. However, even in the latter example, the same processing as in the embodiment is possible.

Advertisement information registered by the store is registered in the advertisement DB 6d. Each advertisement information is associated with an advertisement image such as a product or a store photo or logo, text information as an advertisement text, a keyword for selecting an advertisement, a URL link, performance information, and advertisement unit price information. The performance information includes the display count (impression), click count, CTR (Click Through Rate), access count, conversion count, CVR (Conversion Rate), merchandise sales value, and the like.
The EC server 2 can display the advertisement image and text selected from the advertisement DB 6e on various web pages.

The purchase history DB 6e, the related term DB 6f, the recommended product DB 6g, and the product group DB 6h will be described later.
In the present embodiment, the EC server 2 accesses such an electronic commerce DB 6 and acquires information necessary for various processes.
The electronic commerce DB 6 may be constructed in a server computer different from the EC server 2 or may be constructed in the EC server 2.
For convenience of illustration and explanation, the electronic commerce DB 6 is shown. However, the user DB 6a, the store DB 6b, the product DB 6c, the advertisement DB 6d, the purchase history DB 6e, the related term DB 6f, the recommended product DB 6g, and the product group DB 6h are stored in the EC server 2. As long as it can be accessed, it may be realized in any form. For example, all of the DBs may be formed in a storage unit in the same system as the EC server 2, or a part or all of each DB may be provided in a computer system such as a separate body or a remote place. Of course, each DB does not need to be formed in one device (for example, one HDD). Each DB does not need to be configured as one DB. For example, information stored as the user DB 6a may be stored and managed by a plurality of user DBs (for example, a login user DB and a transaction user DB). Each of the above-described DBs described in the embodiments is merely an example of a storage unit for information related to the processing of the embodiment in the form of one DB.

Next, FIG. 2 shows the hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus that constitutes the EC server 2, the store terminal 4, and the user terminal 5 shown in FIG. Each device shown as EC server 2, store terminal 4, and user terminal 5 can be realized as a computer device as shown in FIG. 2 capable of information processing and information communication.

In FIG. 2, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101 of a computer apparatus performs various processes according to a program stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) 102 or a program loaded from a storage unit 108 to a RAM (Random Access Memory) 103. Execute the process. The RAM 103 also appropriately stores data necessary for the CPU 101 to execute various processes.
The CPU 101, ROM 102, and RAM 103 are connected to each other via a bus 104. An input / output interface 105 is also connected to the bus 104.
The input / output interface 105 includes an input unit 106 composed of a keyboard, mouse, touch panel, etc., an output unit composed of a display or speaker composed of an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), an organic EL (Electroluminescence) panel, etc. 107, a storage unit 108 composed of an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a flash memory device, and the like, and a communication unit 109 for performing communication processing and inter-device communication via the network 1 are connected.
A media drive 110 is also connected to the input / output interface 105 as necessary, and a removable medium 111 such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a semiconductor memory is appropriately mounted, and information can be written to the removable medium 111. Reading is performed.

In such a computer apparatus, it is possible to upload and download data and programs through communication by the communication unit 109, and to transfer data and programs via the removable medium 111.
When the CPU 101 performs processing operations based on various programs, necessary information processing and communication as the EC server 2, the store terminal 4, and the user terminal 5 are executed.
Note that the information processing apparatus that constitutes the EC server 2, the store terminal 4, and the user terminal 5 is not limited to a single computer apparatus as shown in FIG. 2, and a plurality of computer apparatuses are systematized. May be. The plurality of computer devices may be systemized by a LAN or the like, or may be arranged at a remote place by a VPN using the Internet or the like.

<2. EC Server Functional Configuration and Database>
FIG. 3 shows a functional configuration as the EC server 2 configured by one or a plurality of information processing apparatuses.
Each function as the EC server 2 is a function realized by processing executed by the CPU 101 in accordance with the program in the information processing apparatus. However, all or a part of the processing described below may be realized by hardware.
Further, when each function is realized by software, each function need not be realized by an independent program. Processing of a plurality of functions may be executed by one program, or one function may be realized by cooperation of a plurality of program modules.

The EC server 2 includes a communication unit 21, a web server 22, a management unit 23, a search unit 24, a product group identification unit 25, a common element detection unit 26, a recommended product extraction unit 27, a sales proposal information provision unit 28, and a product introduction control unit. 29.

The communication unit 21 performs various communications with the user terminal 5, the store terminal 4, or other information processing apparatuses via the network 1. For example, the communication unit 21 transmits HTML data that constitutes a web page presented on the browser at the user terminal 5 or the store terminal 4, or the input information on the web screen performed at the user terminal 5 or the store terminal 4. Receive etc. The communication unit 21 also includes a function of performing e-mail transmission to the user terminal 5 and the store terminal 4.

The web server 22 generates various web pages constituting the virtual shopping mall (HTML data generation). For example, various page data such as a portal screen, a search screen, a search result screen, a product screen, and a store screen are generated. For this purpose, necessary information is also acquired from the user DB 6a, the store DB 6b, the product DB 6c, and the advertisement DB 6d.
The management unit 23 performs processing necessary for the electronic commerce system, such as user registration, store registration, product registration, login processing from the user terminal 5 or the store terminal 4, advertisement registration, and payment processing. Further, according to these processes, management such as registration / update of information of the user DB 6a, the store DB 6b, the product DB 6c, the advertisement DB 6d, the purchase history DB 6e, and the related term DB 6f is also performed.
The search unit 24 performs a product search using the product DB 6c, a store search using the store DB 6b, an advertisement search using the advertisement DB 6e, and the like, and acquires information on products, stores, advertisements, etc. to be presented on the web page. These pieces of information are transferred to, for example, the web server 22 and used to generate a web page.

The product group identification unit 25 identifies the sales increase time of each product using the purchase history information stored in the purchase history DB 6e and stores the purchase date and time for each product, and selects a plurality of products having the same sales increase time. A process for specifying the product group is performed. That is, a plurality of products whose sales are favorable in the same period are detected, and these are set as one product group.

The common element detection unit 26 performs a process of detecting a common element corresponding to at least two or more products among a plurality of products specified by the product group specifying unit 25 as the products constituting the product group. This is a process of detecting a “reason for selling” common to products sold at the same time.
The common elements are various elements indicating “reasons for selling at that time” common among a plurality of products, and do not mean that the names, functions, structures, uses, etc. of the products are common. For example, “pentagonal pencil” and “octopus figurine” are completely different products, but the reason why sales increase at a specific time is “examination support goods”. And each has some kind of element that can be an examination support goods. In this way, the “reason for selling at the same specific time” for a plurality of products is called a common element. Alternatively, the basis of the “reason” (the basis itself is not necessarily the same, and the same reason may be derived) may be considered as a common element.
As a specific common element detection method, for example, related terms are used. The common element can be detected, for example, by searching for the same phrase or related phrase as a phrase that appears in the product description or user review of each product. For example, if there is a reason for "examination support goods" or there is a phrase such as "do not slip", "pass", or "do not fall" as a basis (related word) to guide the reason, it has a common element You just have to figure out.

The recommended product extraction unit 27 performs processing for extracting a product that has the common element detected by the common element detection unit 26 and that is not included in the product group including a plurality of products having the common element as the recommended product. Do.
As described above, the “product group” is a group of a plurality of products having the same sales increase timing. A common element common to all or a part (two or more) of those commodities is presumed to be the reason why sales are growing at the specific time. On the other hand, a product that has a common element with a product in the product group but is not included in the product group has a reason for selling at a specific time or a common element that is the basis for the reason, and at a specific time. This is a product whose sales have not increased significantly. The recommended product extraction unit 27 sets such products as recommended products.
In other words, the recommended product is a product whose sales have not increased so much during the specific period even though it has a potential reason for increasing sales during the specific period. In other words, the recommended product is a product that can be estimated as “a product that is likely to sell” at the same time as the product in the product group.

The sales proposal information providing unit 28 selects a store handling the recommended product extracted by the recommended product extracting unit 27 or a store having the handleability as a transmission target store, and at least the store terminal 4 of the selected transmission target store is selected. The sales proposal information including the information on the recommended product and the information on the sales increase time of the product group is controlled.
That is, the sales proposal information providing unit 28 performs processing for proposing a store with a product that is likely to be sold at a specific time.

The product introduction control unit 29 is a common element to the target product of the user action in the user terminal 5 in which the user action is performed in response to a specific user action targeting a product included in a product group. Control is performed so that product introduction information including information on recommended products having information and information on common elements is presented.
That is, the product introduction control unit 29 performs processing for introducing a product that is likely to be sold at a specific time to the user. In particular, since the recommended product is not sold at the specific time, the processing of the product introduction control unit 29 may be a process having a meaning of newly introducing a product suitable for the user's purpose.

Further, the product introduction control unit 29 receives product introduction information as a product list including a plurality of products having common elements included in a certain product group and recommended products having common elements with the plurality of products. The control process presented in is also performed.
In other words, the product introduction control unit 29 not only recommends a list of recommended products for a specific time period, but also has not been sold so far in the specific time period. It is assumed that the product you want to recommend (= recommended product) is included.

The purchase history DB 6e, the related term DB 6f, the recommended product DB 6g, and the product group DB 6h used for extracting these recommended products, making proposals to the store terminal 4, and introducing them at the user terminal 5, etc. are shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. Will be described.
FIG. 4 shows an example of the related term DB 6f and the purchase history DB 6e.

The related word DB 6f is a DB that collects various items and related words for the items. The “item” here indicates the reason why the sales increase at a specific time, and the “related word” is, for example, a phrase that is the basis of the reason.
For example, “items” as reasons for increasing sales at a specific time include time-based reasons that lead to product sales such as “examination support”, “Mother's Day”, “Father's Day”, and so on.
The related words may be words that lead to those items, and “pass”, “must win”, “do not slip”, “do not fall”, “octopass (pass when placed)”, “five-pointed” etc. are registered for “test support” The
These related terms may be set in advance by an administrator, or terms that frequently appear in product descriptions, user reviews, and the like may be additionally registered sequentially or automatically. For example, for examination support, it is conceivable to extract terms that frequently appear in explanations and review sentences of products already considered as examination support goods and register them as related words.

The purchase history DB 6e is a DB in which the date and time when each product is purchased from various users in the virtual shopping mall is registered. For example, as shown in the figure, for each product ID indicating one product, date and time information on the purchase of the product is registered.
Note that the purchase history DB 6e may be such that the product ID and purchase date and time are arranged along the time axis in a format such as purchase history log information, for example. In any case, the purchase history DB 6e only needs to be able to detect the date and time when purchase occurred for each product.

FIG. 5 shows a product group DB 6h and a recommended product DB 6g.
In the product group DB 6h, information is managed in units of product group IDs (gID1, gID2,...) Assigned to each product group, for example, for the product group set by the product group specifying unit 25.
The product group information includes sales increase timing, products included in the product group, common element information, and the like.
The sales increase period is a period when the number of sales increases for the products in the product group. Although various periods are assumed as the time, in the present embodiment, for the sake of simplicity of explanation, an example of monthly units from January to December is used. Therefore, in the example of FIG. 5, the product group (gID1) whose sales increase is in January is managed from the product group (gID12) whose sales are in December.
And about each goods group, a some corresponding goods are registered by goods ID, for example. In the drawing, the product ID is represented by a number with “m” attached, such as “m121536”.

Moreover, the information regarding the above-mentioned item or a related term is registered as common element information of a merchandise group.
For example, not all products whose sales increase at the same time are sold for common reasons. For example, sales of “New Year Goods”, “Examination Support Goods”, “Adult-style Goods”, “Winter Goods”, etc. will increase in January.
That is, for example, a product included in a product group (gID1) whose sales increase in January may include a product that is sold for a different reason.
Therefore, the common element information includes information that distinguishes the common elements of each product, such as products that have a common element called “examination support goods”, products that have a common element of “New Year goods”, etc. It is good to be.
In that sense, it is not simply to combine products with the same period of sales increase as a product group, but combine multiple products with the same period of sales increase and common elements as one product group. It can be considered to be a sub-product group in the period product group.

In the recommended product DB 6g illustrated in FIG. 5, the recommended product extracted by the recommended product extraction unit 27 is registered.
Each recommended product is assigned a recommended product ID (sID1, sID2,...). For each recommended product, information such as a product ID, common element information, common element product, product group ID, recommended time, and price range is registered.
The product ID is an ID of a product that is the recommended product. That is, it is information for specifying one product registered in the product DB 6c.
The common element information is information indicating an element that is the reason why the product is a recommended product (an element common to the product of the product group from which the product is extracted). For example, information such as “examination support goods” and “do not slip”.
The common element product is information on a product having a common element in the product group from which the product is recommended.
The product group ID is the product group ID of the product group from which the product is recommended. If the product group is set on a monthly basis as described above, a plurality of product group IDs may be registered because the same product may be extracted as a recommended product based on a plurality of product groups.
The recommended time is a time when the recommended product is estimated to be sold. That is, it is a time when each product of the original product group is sold.
The price range is the price range of the recommended product. For example, the information may be “less than 1000 yen”, “1000 to 4999 yen”, “5000 to 9999 yen”, or “10,000 to less than 30,000 yen”.

A specific example of information in the recommended product DB 6g is as follows. For example, it is assumed that the product group (gID1) includes “pentagonal pencil”, “octopus figurine”, and the like, and the product group (gID1) has a common element as an examination support goods. Assume that “non-slip hanger” based on this product group (gID1) is a recommended product.
In this case, a recommended product ID is set for “non-slip hanger”, the product ID, common element information (non-slip / examination support goods), common element product (“pentagonal pencil” “octopus figurine”), product group ID (GID1), recommended time (January), and price range are registered.
In addition, when “non-slip hanger” is extracted in the same way from the product group (gID2) for February and the product group (gID12) for December, that is, the examination support goods are 2 from December. If sales have increased over the month, the product group IDs, recommended times, and product IDs of products having common elements included in the product groups are also registered.
As a result, for one recommended product, a product that has already been sold for the same reason and its time are managed.

<3. Recommended product extraction based on product group>
Hereinafter, the recommended product extraction process executed by the EC server 2 will be described. This is a process from extracting a recommended product to registering it in the recommended product DB 6g. Broadly speaking, the EC server 2 performs a product group specifying process using the function of the product group specifying unit 25, a common element detecting process using the function of the common element detecting unit 26, and a recommended product extracting process using the function of the recommended product extracting unit 27. .

First, the product group specifying process will be described with reference to FIGS.
The EC server 2 performs the product group specifying process shown in FIG. 6A. This is a process from investigating the sales increase time of each product, setting a product group, and registering it in the product group DB 6h.

In step S101 of FIG. 6A, the EC server 2 specifies the sales increase time of each product. Among various products, there are some products whose sales increase at specific times. Now, using an example in which the time is in units of months, as shown in FIG. 7, for example, sales of various products vary (or do not vary) from month to month depending on their properties.
In FIG. 7, the sales of the products m1 and m3 are in December, January and February.
Sales of the product m2 will be in July, August, and September.
The merchandise m4 is a merchandise that has no sales increase in particular and that has sales throughout the year.

The process of step S101 in FIG. 6A is a process of specifying such a sales increase time or determining that there is no sales increase time for each product sold in the online shopping mall. Of course, this process may target all products handled in the online shopping mall, or may target a part of the products. Some products are, for example, selected products of one or more genres, selected products of one or more price ranges, and products whose annual sales are a predetermined number or more.

A specific example of the process in step S101 is shown in FIG. 6B. FIG. 6B shows a sales increase timing specifying process for one product. The EC server 2 performs the process of FIG. 6B for each product for all or some of the products handled in the online shopping mall.

First, in step S110, the EC server 2 specifies one product ID to be processed as a product for which the sales increase timing is specified.
In step S111, the EC server 2 acquires purchase history information about the specified product from the purchase history DB 6e. That is, the date and time information on the purchase of a specific product ID is acquired.
In step S112, the EC server 2 calculates the number of sales (number sold) for each product for the processing target. For example, the number of purchases for each month is calculated. For example, if there is a DB in which the number of sales for each period is managed for each product, it is only necessary to acquire information on the number of sales for each period from the DB.

In step S113, the EC server 2 determines a temporal change in the number of sales for the product. That is, it is determined whether a specific period is a sales increase period or a sales increase period does not exist.
For example, for the number of sales per month, the standard deviation or variance value is obtained. If the value is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, that is, if the value of the number of sales varies depending on the season, the product is subject to seasonal variations. If the value of standard deviation or variance is less than a predetermined value, it can be determined that the product has no temporal variation.
In the case of a product having no time variation, the processing of FIG. 6B for the product is finished from step S114. For example, this is the case for the product m4 in FIG.

When it is determined that the product has a time variation (for example, the products m1, m2, and m3 in FIG. 7), the EC server 2 proceeds from step S114 to S115, and sets a criterion for determining the sales increase timing. The criterion is a value for comparing the number of sales in each period, and is a threshold for determining whether each period is a sales increase period.
For example, a value obtained by adding a certain added value to the average value of the number of sales in units of months is set as a determination criterion. FIG. 7 shows an example of determination criteria rf1, rf2, and rf3 set for each of the products m1, m2, and m3. For example, the determination criterion rf1 is a value obtained by adding an addition value to the average value of the number of sales per month of the product m1.
The reason why the added value is added to the average value is to determine the time when the sales are remarkably increasing.

In step S116, the EC server 2 specifies the sales increase time for the product. Now, assuming that the product m1 in FIG. 7 is a processing target, the EC server 2 compares the number of sales in each period (month) with the determination criterion rf1, and determines the time when the number of sales exceeds the determination criterion rf1 as the sales increase timing. Identify.
In step S117, information on the sales increase timing of the product is stored. The information on the sales increase time may be registered as one of the attributes of the product in the product DB 6c, for example, or may be temporarily stored by the EC server 2 as information on the recommended product extraction process. But you can.

By completing the process of FIG. 6B for all the products to be processed, it is possible to specify the sales increase timing of each product, and the step S101 of FIG. 6A is completed.
Note that the determination criterion is set for each product in step S115, so that the average sales volume differs for each product so that the sales increase timing can be determined based on the determination criterion suitable for each product. It is to make it. In that sense, the added value may be set for each product. For example, 20% of the average value is added.

In step S102 of FIG. 6A, the EC server 2 extracts products having a common sales increase timing. This can be said to use the information on the sales increase time of each product specified in step S101 to group products that are sold well at each time.
For example, products for which January is the sales increase period are extracted. Similarly, for each of February, March,..., December, a product for which the month is the sales increase time is extracted.
In step S103, the EC server 2 sets a product group for a plurality of products extracted for each period.
For example, when there are a plurality of products whose sales are increased in January, they are grouped as a product group. The same applies to February to December. However, if the product extracted for the certain period (month) corresponding to the sales increase timing is 1 or 0, the product group is not set.

In step S104, the EC server 2 performs processing for registering each product group in the product group DB 6h. The information to be registered at this time is, for example, the product group ID, the sales increase time, and the information on the included products.
For example, each piece of information is registered as a product group (gID1) for a plurality of products for which January is the sales increase period. Similarly, in the case of a plurality of products corresponding to February to December, each information is registered as a product group (gID2 to gID12).

For the sake of explanation, the period is in units of months. Of course, the “period” assumed as the period of increase in sales is not limited to units in months. For example, weekly, arbitrarily set period, season (spring period, summer period, autumn period, winter period), for example, summer holidays (July and August), New Year period (January 1 to January 5), Periods such as the Bon Festival period (August 5 to August 15) and Christmas period (December 15 to December 25) are also assumed. These various periods may be used in combination. In any case, in the process of FIG. 6, a plurality of products having a common sales increase period may be extracted for a certain period and registered as one product group in the product group DB 6h.

Next, the common element detection process will be described with reference to FIG.
As the common element detection process shown in FIG. 8, the EC server 2 detects a common element for each product group and performs a process of registering in the product group DB 6 h as common element information for the product group. The processing of FIG. 8 is performed sequentially for each product group registered in the product group DB 6h in the processing of FIG. 6A.

In step S201, the EC server 2 specifies one product group (product group ID) to be processed this time from among the product groups registered in the product group DB 6h.
In step S202, the EC server 2 sets the number of products and the variable x = 1 in the variable X. The number of products to be assigned to the variable X is the number of products included in the product group that is currently processed.

In steps S203 to S206, product information is acquired for each product in the product group.
That is, the EC server 2 first acquires the product ID of the (x) product of the target product group from the product group DB 6h in step S203. In step S203, product information is acquired based on the product ID. For example, the product DB 6c is searched using the product ID, and the description text information about the product, the user review text information, and the like are acquired.
This is repeated while incrementing the variable x in step S206 until the variable x reaches the variable X in step S205.
That is, product information is sequentially acquired for each product registered as included in the product group to be processed.

If the merchandise information about each merchandise is acquired, the EC server 2 proceeds to step S207 and performs common element determination.
This is done by performing morphological analysis, phrase extraction, etc. on the product information (description / review text, etc.) of each product to search for commonly used phrases among products, or refer to the related term DB 6f, This is a process for determining whether or not a word used in each product corresponds to a related word for a common item.
For example, if the word “pass” is used in the description or review of a product, and the word “pass” is used in another product, the two products have a common element “pass”. It will be.
In addition, for example, it is assumed that the phrase “five-pointed” is used in an explanation or review of a certain product, and “put and pass (octopus)” is used in other products. With reference to the related word DB 6f, both are determined as related words of the examination support goods. In other words, the “pentagon” of a certain product and the “place and octopus” of other products are common elements.

When the common element between the products included in the target product group is determined as described above, the EC server 2 registers the information in the product group DB 6h as common element information of the product group in step S208. For example, the common element information may include “pass”, “five-pointed”, “put and pass (octopath)”, and information such as “examination” and “examination support”. Alternatively, the common element information may be information indicating a specific item (group of related words) in the related word DB 6f.
The EC server 2 executes the above processing for each product group, and registers common element information in the product group DB 6h for each product group.

The common element need not be an element common to all products in the product group. This is because, for example, products whose sales increase for different reasons at the same time can be considered.
For example, in Japan, assuming a product group in which sales increase in January, “New Year goods”, “examination support goods”, “adult-style goods”, “winter goods”, etc. may be mixed. Therefore, if a common element is detected in at least two products, the common element may be an effective common element registered in the common element information in the product group. This is because an element common to at least two products is considered to be valid as an element that can cause sales to increase at that time.
For this reason, there may be a case where a common element (examination-related, adult-style-related, etc.) related to a plurality of items is detected in one product group. Each may be registered as common element information.
From these circumstances, the common element information may include information indicating a product corresponding to the common element in the product group.

Next, the recommended product extraction process will be described with reference to FIG.
As the recommended product extraction process shown in FIG. 9, the EC server 2 performs a process of extracting a product that can be expected to increase in sales at a certain time as a recommended product and registering it in the recommended product DB 6g.

In step S301, the EC server 2 identifies one product group (product group ID) to be processed this time from among the product groups registered in the product group DB 6h.
In step S302, the EC server 2 reads the common element information for the identified product group from the product group DB 6h.
The EC server 2 then selects a product that has a common element (matching word or related word) stored as the common element information and is not included in the target commodity group in the processes of steps S303 to S309. Extract as recommended products.

First, in step S303, the EC server 2 sets a product ID.
Note that the products to be searched in steps S303 to S309 may be all the products handled in the online shopping mall or some products. Some products are, for example, selected products of one or more genres, selected products of one or more price ranges, and products whose annual sales are a predetermined number or more.
In step S303, the EC server 2 specifies one product ID included in the search target in such a range as the processing target.

In step S304, it is confirmed whether the product (product ID) to be processed is included in the product group specified in step S301. That is, it is only necessary to confirm whether or not the product ID is registered in the product group DB 6h as product information of the product group ID.
If the target product ID is included in the target product group, the process proceeds to step S309. If all the search target products have not been processed yet, the process returns to step S303 to set the next product as the processing target.

The case where the target product is not included in the target product group means that the product is not sold well at the same time as the product of the product group. That is, the product has no sales increase timing, or the sales increase timing is different from the products of the target product group.
In that case, the EC server 2 proceeds to step S305, and acquires the product information of the product. For example, the product DB 6c is searched using the product ID of the product, and the product name is acquired.

Next, in step S306, the EC server 2 performs element comparison between the product information (for example, product name) of the product and the common element information of the target product group. Specifically, it is determined whether or not the product name of the product includes the same or similar words as the common element information of the target product group or related words for the same matter (items in the related word DB 6f). . For the determination of the related word, the related word DB 6f is referred to.
For example, assume that the product name is “non-slip hanger”. Then, it is assumed that the common element information of the target product group is a phrase such as “examination support” item, “pass”, “five-pointed”, or “put a pass (octopass)”. Here, “do not slip” included in the product name is determined as a word in the same related word group as a related word in the “support for examination” item or a word such as “pass” by referring to the related word DB 6f.
Alternatively, if the product name is “Pentagon Manju”, it has a phrase that matches the common element information “Pentagon” of the target product group.
In this way, when there is a related word in the same name as the target product group or a phrase that matches the related word in the product name, it is determined that there is a common element.
Strictly speaking, it may be determined that there is a common element when there is a phrase that matches the pronunciation and has a similar pronunciation even if it does not match the related word.

In this case, it is assumed that the product name of the target product has a common element. However, as the product information of the target product, an explanatory text about the product or a user's review text is acquired, It may be determined whether or not there is a related word in it.
However, searching for a common element with a word or phrase included in the name is effective for allowing the user to recognize the reason for being recommended more directly.

If the product to be processed has no common elements with the target product group, the EC server 2 proceeds from step S307 to S309, and if the processing has not been completed for all the products to be searched, returns to step S303. The next product is the processing target.

If it is determined that there is a common element in the element comparison in step S306, the product is a product that has a reason to sell at the same time as the product of the product group, but is not currently sold at that time. It will be. In other words, it can be said that the product has a possibility of selling at that particular time.
Therefore, the EC server 2 performs a process of registering the recommended product in the recommended product DB 6g in step S308 for the product that has common elements. That is, the recommended product ID is assigned as the recommended product, and information such as the product ID, common element information, common element product, product group ID, recommended time, and price range is registered correspondingly. The common element information may include, for example, all of the common element information of the target product group and information of the elements determined to be common this time, for example, as information on items that summarize various related words such as “examination support goods” Also good. Or the information which shows the specific item (group of a related word) of related word DB6f may be sufficient.
The product group ID is the product group ID specified in step S301. The recommended time uses information on the sales increase time for the product group.

When the EC server 2 finishes the process for all the products in the range to be searched in step S309, the EC server 2 finishes the one process of FIG. That is, it is a process of extracting recommended products based on one product group. As a result, one or more recommended products are extracted based on one product group and registered in the recommended product DB 6g. Of course, recommended products may not be found.
The EC server 2 executes the above-described processing of FIG. 9 for each product group registered in the product group DB 6h, so that recommended products based on each product group are registered in the recommended product DB 6g. It becomes a state.

With the above processing, the recommended product is registered in the recommended product DB 6g.
The recommended product is likely to be sold at a certain time, but at present, the product does not significantly increase the sales at that time. This is a product that is generally not yet recognized or is a known product that the store side or the purchasing user side is not aware of a reason suitable for a certain purchase purpose.
For example, a product called “non-slip hanger” is considered suitable for supporting the examination based on the phrase “non-slip”, but since there is generally no such recognition, there is no particular increase in sales during the exam season. Such a case can be considered. In this case, the “non-slip hanger” is extracted as a recommended product whose recommended season is the test season (for example, December, January, and February).

<4. Sales proposal to store ＞
Next, use of the extracted recommended product information will be described. First of all, here are some sales proposals for stores. Since the extracted recommended product is presumed to be a product that is likely to sell, providing this information to the store creates a sales promotion opportunity for the store.

The EC server 2 performs the following sales proposal information transmission process of FIG. 10 mainly by the function of the sales proposal information providing unit 28.
In step S401 of FIG. 10, the EC server 2 confirms today's date, and extracts a recommended product having a recommended time of today + α from the recommended product DB 6g. Here, “α” is the number of days in consideration of preparation for selling recommended products, and may be the number of days in consideration of, for example, sales planning and purchasing in stores. For example, α may be a fixed value such as 30 days, 45 days, or 60 days, or may be a value set for each genre or type of product.
The recommended product that is the recommended time at + α today is, for example, a product that is today from the recommended time registered in the recommended product DB 6g. For example, when α = 60 days, if today is October 2, recommended products whose recommended time is “December, January, February” are extracted.

Subsequently, in step S402, the EC server 2 substitutes the number of recommended recommended products for the variable Z. In steps S403 to S409, the extracted recommended products are processed.
In step S403, the EC server 2 confirms whether or not the variable Z = 0. The variable Z = 0 is a case where there is no recommended product to be processed today, or processing for each extracted recommended product is finished.

If the variable Z is not 0, in step S404, the EC server 2 selects one of the extracted recommended products as a processing target. Then, the product ID of the selected recommended product is acquired.
In step S405, the EC server 2 acquires the product information of the selected recommended product from, for example, the product DB 6c using the product ID. For example, product names, genre information, product codes, product images, etc. are acquired.

In step S406, the EC server 2 selects a providing store that provides information on the recommended product to be processed. For example, it is useless to notify information on recommended products to be processed to stores that do not handle such products. Therefore, a store that handles the recommended product or a store that may be handled is selected. For example, using the information in the store DB 6b and the product DB, the products handled in each store are confirmed, and stores that already handle the recommended products are searched. Although not currently handled, stores that handle products of the same genre as the recommended product may be extracted as stores that may be handled.

In step S407, the EC server 2 generates sales proposal information about the selected recommended product. For example, using the information registered in the recommended product DB 6g for the target recommended product or the information acquired from the product DB 6c, information to be transmitted to one or a plurality of stores selected in step S406 is generated. For example, sales proposal information including information on a product name, a product code, a reason for recommendation, and a recommendation time is generated.

FIG. 11 shows an example of the sales proposal information generated in step S407. For example, the product name, product code, reason for recommendation, recommended time, and product image are included.
The product is specified by the product name and product code. The product image is not always necessary, but it is useful for conveying recommended products to the store staff.
As a reason for recommendation, information on common elements registered in the recommended product DB 6g for the recommended product may be used. For example, if there is common element information such as “examination support goods”, that is the recommended reason. By including such a reason for recommendation, the store staff can easily understand why this product has been proposed for sale.
For the recommended time, the recommended time information registered in the recommended product DB 6g for the recommended product is used as it is.

In step S408 of FIG. 10, the EC server 2 performs a process of transmitting the sales proposal information to the store selected as the transmission target. The transmission may be in the form of e-mail, for example, and if there is any message transmission function to the store terminal 4, that function may be used.
The EC server 2 decrements the variable Z in step S409 and returns to step S403 in response to finishing the transmission processing of the sales proposal information for one recommended product.
If the variable Z = 0 in step S403, the process in FIG. If the variable Z is not 0, the processes in steps S404 to S409 are similarly performed for the other recommended products extracted in step S401.

As a result of the above processing, the recommended product information estimated that the EC server 2 is likely to be sold at a specific time is transmitted to an appropriate store at an appropriate time.

<5. Product introduction to users>
Next, introduction of recommended products for users will be described.
The recommended product registered in the recommended product DB 6g by the EC server 2 is estimated to be a product that is likely to be sold at a specific time for a certain reason. Therefore, if information on recommended products is appropriately presented to the user, it is possible to introduce a product suitable for purchase for a user who is searching for the product for a certain reason.

The EC server 2 performs the following product introduction control process of FIG. 12 mainly by the function of the product introduction control unit 29.
The EC server 2 monitors a specific user action in step S501 of FIG.
The user action is various actions performed by the user using the user terminal. Among them, for example, a product search operation, a purchase procedure operation (an operation for shifting to a purchase procedure, an operation in the process), etc. are specified. User action.
When it is detected that a specific user action is performed at a certain user terminal 5, the EC server 2 proceeds to step S502, and specifies a product that is the target of the user action. For example, in the case of a product search operation, a product to be searched based on a search word is specified as a target product. In the case of purchase procedure operation, the product to be purchased is the target product.

In step S503, the EC server 2 checks whether or not there is a product corresponding to the target product identified in step S502 among the products registered as common element products in the recommended product DB 6g. A recommended product having the target product as a common element product is extracted. For example, the recommended products in which the products listed according to the search operation and the products to be purchased are common element products may be extracted from the recommended product DB 6g.
In step S504, the EC server 2 substitutes the number of recommended products extracted into the variable W. At this time, if the variable W = 0, that is, if the recommended product is not extracted, the processing is terminated without introducing the product in response to the specific user action detected this time.

If one or more recommended products are extracted and the variable W is not 0, the EC server 2 proceeds to step S506, and selects one of the extracted recommended products as a processing target. Then, the product ID of the selected recommended product is acquired.
In step S507, the EC server 2 confirms the recommended time registered in the recommended product DB 6g for the recommended product to be processed, and confirms whether the current time corresponds to the recommended time.
If the current time is within the recommended time of the recommended product, the EC server 2 proceeds to step S508, and acquires the product information of the selected recommended product from, for example, the product DB 6c or the advertisement DB 6d using the product ID. For example, product name, genre information, product code, product image, price information, advertisement information of the product, etc. are acquired. Moreover, the common element information of the recommended product is also acquired from the recommended product DB 6g.

In step S509, the EC server 2 generates product introduction information using all or a part of the product information, advertisement information, common element information, etc. regarding the target recommended product, and information presented in the user terminal 5 in step S510. Process as. For example, page data generation or transmission to the user terminal 5 is performed so that the product introduction information is displayed on the user terminal 5 in a state where the product introduction information is incorporated into predetermined page data.

Specifically, in this case, product introduction information is generated and output in a manner corresponding to a specific user action.
For example, in the case of a search operation, a display as shown in FIG.
FIG. 13 illustrates a search result screen 51. The search result screen 51 presents a list of products searched by the EC server 2 using the function of the search unit 24.
Here, as a search result screen 51 when a user searches for a pentagonal pencil, a state in which various products as a pentagonal pencil are presented in the search result area 53 is shown. An introduction area 52 is set on the search result screen 51, and information on the recommended recommended product is presented here.

The processing in this case is as follows.
In step S501, the EC server 2 detects that a search operation for a pentagonal pencil has been performed on the user terminal 5 as a specific user action. In step S502, the EC server 2 specifies a pentagonal pencil as a target product. In step S503, the recommended product DB 6g is referred to, and “non-slip hanger” is extracted as the recommended product in which the pentagonal pencil is registered as the common element product. In step S506, the EC server 2 sets “non-slip hanger” as a processing target. Since the current time is, for example, January, the process proceeds to step S508. In step S508, the EC server 2 acquires necessary information from among the product information, advertisement information, common element information, etc. of “non-slip hanger”, and generates product introduction information in step S509. For example, information that introduces “non-slip hanger” as an examination support goods is generated using advertisement information and common element information of “non-slip hanger”. The product introduction information is combined with the search result information into page data by the function of the web server 22 and then transmitted to the user terminal 5 to display as shown in FIG.

14A and 14B show examples of presentation when a user action is detected as a purchase-related operation.
FIG. 14A shows an example in which the user puts a pentagonal pencil in a shopping basket and starts a purchase procedure. In this case, an introduction region 56 is set together with a cart product region 55 for presenting products in the shopping cart, and information on the recommended recommended product is presented here.
The processing in this case is as follows. In step S501, the EC server 2 detects that a pentagonal pencil has been placed in the shopping basket and has shifted to the purchase procedure in the user terminal 5 as a specific user action. In this case, “non-slip hanger” is extracted as a recommended product in which the pentagonal pencil is the target product in step S502 and the pentagonal pencil is the common element product in step S503. In steps S508 and S509, the EC server 2 generates product introduction information of “non-slip hanger”. This product introduction information is combined with the purchase procedure page data by the function of the web server 22 and then transmitted to the user terminal 5 to display as shown in FIG. 14A.

FIG. 14B shows an example in which the user completes the procedure for purchasing a pentagonal pencil. For example, an introduction area 58 is set together with a notification area 57 indicating the completion of purchase, and information on the recommended recommended product is presented here.
As processing in this case, the EC server 2 detects that the purchase procedure of the pentagonal pencil has been completed in the user terminal 5 as a specific user action in step S501. The same processing is performed in and after step S502, product introduction information of “non-slip hanger” is generated, and the product introduction information is combined with page data of purchase completion by the function of the web server 22, and then the user terminal 5 Then, the display as shown in FIG. 14B is executed.

In the process up to step S510 in FIG. 12, the product introduction is performed in the user terminal 5 for one recommended product as in the above example.
The EC server 2 decrements the variable W in step S511 and returns to step S505.
If the variable W = 0 in step S505, the process in FIG. If the variable W is not 0, the processes in steps S506 to S511 are similarly performed for the other recommended products extracted in step S503.
When product introduction information is generated for a plurality of recommended products, the final transmission to the user terminal may be performed after the product introduction information for each recommended product is generated. For example, product introduction information of a plurality of recommended products may be combined as page data and then transmitted to the user terminal.

Incidentally, if it is determined in step S507 for a certain recommended product that the current time is not the recommended time for the recommended product, the process proceeds to step S511, the variable W is decremented, and the process returns to step S505. That is, the product introduction information for the recommended product is not generated, and the product introduction to the user is not performed.

In addition, as a specific user action serving as a trigger when introducing a product as shown in FIG. 12, a search operation and a purchase related operation are examples.
For example, a favorite registration operation for a certain product may be a specific user action. In that case, the recommended product may be introduced on the screen after favorite registration, for example, the favorite registration list screen. Alternatively, after a favorite is registered, recommended products may be introduced in the same manner as advertisements on various pages.
Also. Clicks on search result screens or clicks on advertisements for certain products are used as specific user actions, and recommended product introduction information is presented on pages that transition in these cases, such as product detail pages or store pages. Also good.
Of course, other user actions are possible. In any case, the same processing as in FIG. 12 may be performed.

Furthermore, it is also possible to present recommended product introduction information regardless of user actions. For example, it is an example in which a recommended product whose current time is recommended is selected and transmitted to the user terminal 5 at an arbitrary time. Alternatively, it is also possible to display an advertisement for a recommended product that is currently recommended.

Here, a modification of the processing of FIG. 12 is shown in FIG.
FIG. 15A is an example in which the process of step S520 is added between steps S507 and S508 of FIG.
In step S520, the EC server 2 confirms store conditions between the recommended product to be processed and the target product for the user action. For example, as a store condition, a process for confirming whether or not the recommended product is handled in the same store as the product targeted for the user action is performed.
For example, when a purchase-related operation as a trigger in the examples of FIGS. 14A and 14B is performed, it is confirmed from information such as the store DB 6b whether or not the recommended product is sold at the purchase store. Only when it is handled, the processing of steps S508 to S510 is performed.
Thus, the product introduction information of the recommended product is presented on the purchase procedure page, the store page, or the product detail page only when the recommended product is handled at the target store. Accordingly, the product introduction information can be information suitable for sales promotion at the store.

FIG. 15B is an example in which the process of step S521 is added between steps S507 and S508 of FIG.
In step S521, the EC server 2 confirms the price condition between the recommended product to be processed and the target product of the user action. For example, the condition is that the price range is the same. For this purpose, the price range of the recommended product is confirmed, and it is confirmed whether or not this is the same price range as the product subject to the user action. Only in the case of the same price range, the processing of steps S508 to S510 is performed.
Thereby, the product introduction information is presented only when the product targeted by the user action and the recommended product are in the same price range. Therefore, for the user, a product that is in the same price range as the product that is being searched for and that is suitable for purchase is introduced for the same reason as the product that is being searched for. That is, other purchase candidates are presented in accordance with the budget that the user expects to some extent.

The recommended product selection conditions to be presented to the user by the product introduction information can be considered other than the presence / absence of the store and the price range.
For example, when a plurality of recommended products are to be introduced, it may be possible to randomly select one or a predetermined number of products to be introduced, or to select recommended products to be introduced according to the user's history and attributes.
In addition, when multiple (n) product introduction information can be presented on a web page, if m (m> n) recommended products are eligible to be introduced, products in various price ranges are displayed. It is possible to introduce them evenly.

<6. Present product list to users>
Next, a product list presentation process to the user that can be executed by the EC server 2 as another function of the product introduction control unit 29 will be described.
FIG. 16 shows an example of a product list presentation mode. For example, a certain page of a virtual shopping mall provided by the EC server 2 may present a plurality of products as special products, bargain products, and the like. In this embodiment, when presenting a product list that matches a specific theme in such a manner, recommended products are also included.
For example, on the special feature page 59 for product support for examinations as shown in the figure, together with products MJ (for example, “Pentagonal Pencil” and “Passed Hachimaki”) that are usually recognized as test support products, The product MS (for example, “a non-slip hanger”, “a mask that does not fall out”, etc.) that is a recommended product by having the common elements is included. That is, even if it has not been recognized as an examination support goods until then, items recommended as common examination-related elements are included in the list of examination support goods.
In this way, a product that is not generally recognized as suitable for a certain theme can be introduced to the user as being consistent with the theme.

The processing of the EC server 2 for presenting such a product list is shown in FIG.
In step S601, the EC server 2 selects one of the product groups registered in the product group DB 6h. Here, for example, it is appropriate to select a product group that currently corresponds to the sales increase period.
In step S602, the EC server 2 extracts a product having a specific common element from the product group. For example, products having common elements as “examination support goods” are extracted. This is because, as described above, the product group that is grouped only by the sales increase period includes products that are sold at that time for different reasons (for example, “adult-type supplies”). If the product group is managed as having all the products in common, all products included in the product group may be extracted in step S602.

In step S603, the EC server 2 extracts recommended products having the same elements as the product extracted in step S602 from the recommended product DB 6g. Specifically, a recommended product in which the product extracted in step S602 is registered as a common element product may be extracted.
In step S604, the EC server 2 generates product list information. That is, list information is generated so as to include the plurality of products extracted in step S602 and one or more recommended products extracted in step S603. In step S605, the product list information is transmitted to the user terminal 5. Thereby, for example, a product list as shown in FIG. 16 is displayed on the user terminal 5.

<7. Summary and Modification>
Although the embodiment has been described above, the following effects can be obtained according to the present embodiment.
The EC server 2 (information processing apparatus) of the embodiment specifies the sales increase time of each product using information in the purchase history DB 6e in which the purchase date and time for each product is stored, and a plurality of sales increase times are common. A product group specifying unit 25 for specifying the product as a product group. In addition, the EC server 2 includes a common element detection unit 26 that detects a common element of at least two or more products among a plurality of products specified by the product group specifying unit 25 as a product group. Further, the EC server 2 includes a recommended product extraction unit 27 that extracts products that have the common elements detected by the common element detection unit 26 and are not included in the product group as recommended products.
Since the product group is a group of products that have a common sales increase time, if at least two or more common elements are detected in the product group, one reason for the increase in sales at that time can be estimated. A recommended product having a common element is a product that has not increased in sales at that time in spite of potentially having the same reason that sales increase.
Therefore, the EC server 2 according to the embodiment has an effect that a product that has an element that can be sold at a specific time but does not significantly increase sales at that time can be extracted as a recommended product. It is possible to provide efficient information and market operations using.
In particular, extracting products that are not sold at a specific time for reasons that are likely to sell in the past has been attributed to the type, nature, function, price, etc. It has been considered that a very difficult analysis is required by collating sales performance data. On the other hand, according to the method of the embodiment, since recommended products are extracted by focusing on common elements with products that are sold at a specific time, it is possible to extract products that are likely to be sold at a specific time with a very simple process. .

Also, the EC server 2 (product group specifying unit 25) sets a product group based on a specific sales increase time of a product whose sales number varies with respect to the sales increase time of each product. In other words, products with a small change in the number of sales depending on the time are not included in the product group (steps S113 and S114 in FIG. 6B). As a result, the common elements of the products in the product group become highly reliable as a reason for selling at a certain time.

Further, the EC server 2 (common element detection unit 26) detects at least two or more common elements in the commodity group (S207 in FIG. 8).
As a plurality of products included in the product group, the sales increasing times overlap with each other, a product whose sales increase for a certain reason and a product whose sales increase for other reasons may be mixed. For example, in terms of circumstances in Japan, sales of both examination support products and adult-related products will increase markedly in December and January. This is because products with the same sales increase period do not necessarily have the same elements. And conversely, if a common element of at least two products is detected in the product group, it can be said that the element is valid as a reason for increasing sales at that time.
Therefore, by detecting a common element of at least two or more products in the product group and extracting recommended products based on the common element, it is possible to widely and appropriately extract recommended products for various reasons.

In addition, the EC server 2 (recommended product extraction unit 27) uses, for example, a product whose common name is included in the product name as a recommended product (steps S305 and S306 in FIG. 9), but the common name is included in the product name. By making what is a recommended product, it is possible to make a product that is easy to understand why it is likely to sell explicitly as a recommended product.

Further, as shown in FIG. 10, the EC server 2 selects a store handling the recommended product extracted by the recommended product extraction unit 27 or a store having handleability as a store to be transmitted (S406), and a terminal of the selected store to be transmitted The apparatus includes a sales proposal information providing unit 28 that performs transmission control (S407, S408) of sales proposal information including at least information on the recommended product and information on the sales increase time of the product group.
Since the recommended product is estimated as a product that is likely to be sold at the time of increasing sales of the products in the product group, it is possible to activate electronic commerce by notifying the store so as not to miss a sales opportunity.
Further, since the handling store and the store with the possibility of handling are selected and notified as the transmission target store, the sales proposal information is useful information in the notified store.

The EC server 2 (sales proposal information providing unit 28) also includes information on common elements of recommended products in the sales proposal information (S407).
Since the information on the common element is information that is the basis for the estimation that the recommended product may be sold at the time of the sales increase of the commodity group that is the common element detection target, the store side also shares the information. This makes it easier for the store to understand why the proposed product is estimated to sell.

Further, the EC server 2 (sales proposal information providing unit 28) controls to send the sales proposal information to the transmission target store at a time before the predetermined date and time (α) from the start date of the sales increase timing notified by the sales proposal information. (S401).
As a result, the sales proposal information can be transmitted at an appropriate timing at which the store can prepare for product sales in accordance with the sales increase timing.

In addition, the EC server 2 determines a recommended product having a common element with the target product of the user action in the user terminal 5 in which the user action is performed in response to a specific user action for the product included in the product group. A product introduction control unit 29 is provided to control so that product introduction information including information and common element information is presented.
A user who has performed a user action such as browsing a product web page for a product in a certain product group can be estimated to be a user who is considering purchasing the product for a certain purpose. Then, it can be said that a recommended product having a common element with the product is highly likely to match the purpose of the user's product purchase. Therefore, as the product introduction information, recommended products are presented as products that meet the user's purpose. As a result, when the user is searching for a product for a certain purpose, it is possible to introduce a product that matches the purpose but is not noticed by the user, and the introduction of an appropriate product to the user is realized. .

Further, the EC server 2 (product introduction control unit 29) presents the product introduction information on the search result screen when a search request for a product included in the product group is made as a specific user action. (See FIG. 13).
Since the search request is made when interested in a certain product, it is possible to introduce the product accurately to the user by presenting the recommended product having a common element together with the product presented as the search result.

In addition, the EC server 2 (product introduction control unit 29) controls the product introduction information to be presented on the screen related to the purchase procedure for the product included in the product group as a specific user action (see FIG. 14). ).
It is estimated that a purchase procedure has been performed for a certain product, or in the purchase procedure, the user considers other products having common elements as purchase candidates at the same time. Therefore, it is possible to introduce the product accurately to the user by presenting the recommended product having the same elements as the purchased product.

In addition, the EC server 2 (product introduction control unit 29), when a specific user action is detected at a time corresponding to the sales increase time of the product group, the product introduction is performed at the user terminal 5 where the specific user action is performed. Control is performed so that information is presented (step S507 in FIG. 12).
The recommended product is a product that is estimated to be sold at the time of sales increase of the product of a certain product group, so when it corresponds to the time of sales increase, it is a suitable introduction timing . In addition, it is possible to prevent the user from feeling annoying by introducing too much at other times.

Further, the EC server 2 (product introduction control unit 29) responds to the fact that the recommended product satisfies a predetermined price condition or store condition in relation to the target product of the user action when a specific user action is detected. In addition, control is performed so that product introduction information is presented at a user terminal where a specific user action has been performed. For example, when the recommended product is handled at the same store as the target product as shown in FIG. 15A, the product introduction information is presented, or when the recommended product is in the same price range as the target product as shown in FIG. 15B. Product introduction information is presented.
Through such processing, recommended products are introduced in a more appropriate situation for the user or the store.

In addition, as described with reference to FIGS. 16 and 17, the EC server 2 (the product introduction control unit 29) has a plurality of products having common elements included in the product group and recommended products having common elements with the plurality of products. Control is performed so that product introduction information is displayed as a product list including.
In other words, the product introduction control unit displays a list of products that have common elements, including products that have been generally recognized by users, and products that may not be well known by users (recommended products). By doing so, new products can be presented as products of the same theme, and electronic commerce can be activated.
Note that when a certain product group is selected in step S601 in FIG. 17, by selecting a product group that is currently in a sales increase period, a list display of products that are expected to increase in sales can be realized, and the store side It is also preferable information for the user.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be considered.
In the recommended product extraction by the recommended product extraction unit 27, various conditions may be set in addition to the determination of the common element.
For example, a condition is set such that a plurality of products having common elements in the product group are products in the same price range.
Alternatively, it is conceivable that a price upper limit and a price lower limit are set as recommended products, and products that are too expensive or products that are too inexpensive are not set as recommended products.
Further, as the recommended product condition, a condition may be set such that the number of stocks in the entire virtual shopping mall is a predetermined number or more and the number of handling stores is a predetermined number or more.

The product group is a product whose sales increase time is the same period, but the product group may be managed as a group of products that are in the same period and have a common element. That is, this is an example in which all products included in the product group are managed as products having common elements.

<8. Program and Storage Medium>
As described above, the EC server 2 as an embodiment of the information processing apparatus of the present invention has been described. However, the program of the embodiment is at least a product group specifying unit 25, a common element detection unit 26, a recommended product extraction in the EC server 2. This is a program that causes an information processing device (CPU or the like) to execute the processing of the unit 27.

The program according to the embodiment specifies the sales increase time of each product using the purchase history information storing the purchase date and time for each product, and specifies a plurality of products having a common sales increase time as a product group A group identification procedure (S101 to S104), a common element detection procedure (S201 to S208) for detecting a common element of at least two or more products among a plurality of products identified as a product group in the product group identification procedure; The information processing apparatus is caused to execute a recommended product extraction procedure (S301 to S209) for extracting a product having a common element detected by the common element detection procedure and not included in the product group as a recommended product.
That is, this program is a program that causes the information processing apparatus to execute the processing described with reference to FIGS. 6, 8, and 9. Furthermore, it is good also as a program which performs the process of FIG.10, FIG.12, FIG.15 and FIG.

The information processing apparatus as the EC server 2 described above can be realized by such a program.
Such a program can be stored in advance in an HDD as a storage medium built in a device such as a computer device, a ROM in a microcomputer having a CPU, or the like. Alternatively, it can be stored (stored) temporarily or permanently in a removable storage medium such as a semiconductor memory, memory card, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, or magnetic disk. Such a removable storage medium can be provided as so-called package software.
Further, such a program can be installed from a removable storage medium to a personal computer or the like, or can be downloaded from a download site via a network such as a LAN or the Internet.

1 network, 2 EC server, 4 store terminal, 5 user terminal, 6 e-commerce DB, 6a user DB, 6b store DB, 6c product DB, 6d advertisement DB, 6e purchase history DB, 6f related word DB, 6g recommended product DB ,

Product group DB

6h, 21 communication unit, 22 web server, 23 management unit, 24 search unit, 25 product group identification unit, 26 common element detection unit, 27 recommended product extraction unit, 28 sales proposal information generation unit, 29 product introduction control Part

Claims

A product group identification unit that identifies the sales increase time of each product using the purchase history information in which the date and time of purchase for each product is stored, and identifies a plurality of products with a common sales increase time as a product group;
A common element detection unit that detects a common element of at least two or more products among a plurality of products specified by the product group specifying unit;
An information processing apparatus comprising: a recommended product extraction unit that extracts a product having a common element detected by the common element detection unit and not included in the product group as a recommended product.
Select a handling store of recommended products extracted by the recommended product extraction unit or a store having handleability as a transmission target store, and at least the information on the recommended products for the terminal device of the selected transmission target store, The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sales proposal information providing unit that performs transmission control of sales proposal information including information on a sales increase time of the product group.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the sales proposal information providing unit includes information on common elements of recommended products in the sales proposal information.
The said sales proposal information provision part performs control which transmits the said sales proposal information with respect to the said transmission object store at the time before a predetermined date from the start date of the sales increase time notified by the said sales proposal information. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3.
In response to a specific user action for a product included in the product group, in a user terminal in which the user action is performed, information on recommended products having a common element with the target product of the user action, and the common element The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising a product introduction control unit configured to control so that product introduction information including the information is presented.
The product introduction control unit controls the product introduction information to be presented on a search result screen when a search request for a product included in the product group is performed as the specific user action. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5.
The information according to claim 5, wherein the product introduction control unit controls the product introduction information to be presented on a screen related to a purchase procedure for a product included in the product group as the specific user action. Processing equipment.
The product introduction control unit presents the product introduction information at the user terminal where the user action is performed when the specific user action is detected at a time corresponding to the sales increase time of the product group. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the information processing apparatus is controlled as follows.
The product introduction control unit, when the specific user action is detected, in response to a recommended product satisfying a predetermined price condition or store condition in relation to the target product of the user action, the user action The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein control is performed so that the product introduction information is presented at a user terminal that has been operated.
A product introduction control unit that controls the product introduction information as a product list including a plurality of products having common elements included in the product group and recommended products having common elements with the plurality of products. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8.
As an information processing method executed by the information processing apparatus,
A product group specifying step for specifying the sales increase time of each product using the purchase history information storing the purchase date and time for each product, and specifying a plurality of products with a common sales increase time as a product group,
A common element detecting step of detecting a common element of at least two or more products among the plurality of products identified as the product group in the product group specifying step;
A recommended product extracting step of extracting, as a recommended product, a product that has a common element detected in the common element detection step and is not included in the product group.
A product group identification procedure for identifying the sales increase time of each product using the purchase history information storing the purchase date and time for each product, and specifying a plurality of products with a common sales increase time as a product group,
A common element detection procedure for detecting a common element of at least two or more products among a plurality of products identified as a product group in the product group identification procedure;
A recommended product extraction procedure for extracting a product that has a common element detected in the common element detection procedure and is not included in the product group as a recommended product;
For causing an information processing apparatus to execute the program.