AU7212400A

AU7212400A - Method and system for membership sales in internet shopping mall

Info

Publication number: AU7212400A
Application number: AU72124/00A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Sea Hyoung Oh
Original assignee: EWEB21 CORP
Current assignee: EWEB21 Corp
Priority date: 2000-05-10
Filing date: 2000-12-08
Publication date: 2001-11-15
Also published as: KR20010103450A; JP2001319083A

Description

S&F Ref. 525496

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

Name and Address of Applicant: eWeb2l Corporation 21 st Floor, Techno-Mart Building, 546-4 Kui Dong, Kwangjin Gu Seoul Republic of Korea (South) Actual Inventor(s): Address for Service: Invention Title: Sea Hyoung Oh Sprdsatt Fefguwoi' St Mfftints Tcer 31 -M44ket Street SydneyNSIV2000 A 7 p Method and System for Membership Sales in Internet Shopping Mall The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us:- 5845c METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MEMBERSHIP SALES IN INTERNET SHOPPING MALL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates in general to methods and systems for membership sales in Internet shopping malls, and more particularly to a method and system for membership sales in an Internet shopping mall, wherein homepages are assigned respectively to members to allow them to conduct selling and sales promotion on the Internet, and dividends from the results of sales of the members are paid respectively to them and parent members who invited the respective members to join.

The Internet enables an electronic market to be formed over the whole world at a low cost and high speed. This characteristic allows a variety of shopping malls functioning as department stores, discount stores, etc. to be formed on the Internet.

S- As a number of shopping malls are operated on Internet, it is not an easy matter for ordinary consumers to know which commodity is sold in which shopping mall under which conditions. Also, they cannot compare which mall offers them more favorable conditions than others.

*oo.

In addition, shopping malls have to make their utmost to advertise them the consumers with every means in order to survive among so many S°rival shopping malls.

Under the circumstances, shopping malls have offered customers sales with premiums or held events for premiums, etc., or advertise them to much expense, in order to publicize their existence. Especially, in web sites operated under the membership system, it has been not unusual to collect new members by offering them premiums through drawings when they first join the web sites or holding events for collecting new members.

However, most of shopping malls respectively host a variety of sales promotional activities, the effect thereof is not so satisfactory in terms of the high cost consumed.

Actually, not a little new brands of corporations, new movies, new internet web sites, etc. have been advertised mouth to mouth. If a user had a favorable feeling when first visiting a web site, he or she is likely to let third parties such as friends, families, etc. know the web site. In this case, the information the third parties obtains is of highly reliable, for which the effect of advertisement is very high. Specially, the advertisements through mouth to mouth is little costly but highly effective. For this reason, methods for systematically publicizing the concerned shopping mall to its registered members as much as possible, are needed.

If an individual wishes to operate a shopping mall over the internet, he or she have to spend a lot of money and time to construct and maintenance a homepage, delivery of commodities, and construct payment system and delivery system, etc. in addition to sales promotional activities. Thus, even if he or she is confident in marketing, it would be actually difficult to open the internet shopping mall.

Therefore, in terms of an individual who intends to open an internet shopping mall, he or she needs a method capable of handling general matters relevant to the internet shopping mall as a whole and obtaining profits from sales.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION .0 With the background in mind, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for membership sales in an Internet shopping mall, which provides a powerful tool for aid the members to take active part in goods sales.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for membership sales in an Internet shopping mall, which allows a person to obtain the effect of opening an Internet shopping mall simply by conducting sale activities without actually creating an Internet shopping mall.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for membership sales in an Internet shopping mall, which can motivate members to actively attract new members.

In one embodiment of the present invention, members of a shopping mall are classified into general members and dealer members.

General members can only purchase the commodities therein but dealer members can both purchase and sell the commodities therein. The general members can changed to dealer members. A new member is 15 requested to insert an ID of the member who invited him or she to join the shopping mall. A space for the homepage and the web address thereof are allotted to the dealer members. The homepage for each dealer member is automatically constructed by a homepage construction aid tool provided in the shopping mall site or individually constructed by each dealer member. If a member purchases a commodity in the shopping mall web site or in the home page for the concerned dealer member, allowance for performance is paid to him or her at a given rate.

The dealer members are allowed to buy programs for constructing and maintaining their homepages and maintaining performances in the shopping mall. The relationship between dealers is organized with levels. The allowance for performance is payable to some higher levels.

For performance maintenance of dealer members, a tool for performance maintenance may be provided in the shopping mall web site.

In another embodiment of the present invention, general members and dealer members can do marketing activities, but only deader members can have homepages for marketing. The dealer members can purchase programs for constructing and maintaining their homepages and maintaining their performance according to sales, in the shopping mall.

In a still other embodiment of the present invention, every member is allowed to collect new members, and the existing member who invited a new member is paid an allowance at a given rate depending upon the sales performance of the child member joined according to the parent member's invitation activities.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a network structure diagram showing the connection of general members and dealer members to a shopping mall center 100 via a computer communication network 400 in accordance with the method and system of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing the internal organization of the shopping mall center in accordance with the method and system of the present invention; Fig. 3 is a flow diagram showing the joining of Internet users as general members in the shopping mall center through a homepage of a dealer member and through the homepage of the shopping mall Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of a member DB; Fig. 5 is a flow diagram showing a procedure through a general member is converted into a dealer member; Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the hierarchy structure between dealer members and general dealers; Fig. 7 is a flow diagram showing a procedure through a member buys goods; Fig. 8 is a flow diagram showing a procedure through a nonmember buys goods; and Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram showing the hierarchy structure among members.

DETAILED

EMBODIMENTS

DESCRIPTION THE PREFERRED <EMBODIMENT 1> With reference to Fig. 1, there is a network structure diagram showing the connection of general members 200a,...,200n and dealer members 300a,...,300m to a shopping mall center 100 via a computer communication network 400 in accordance with the method and system of the present invention.

To the shopping mall center 110, as shown in the diagram, the general members 200a,...,200n, who are allowed only to purchase goods, and the dealer members 300a,...,300m, who join in the system through a separate application procedure and are admitted to buy and sell goods, both have access.

Each of the dealer members 300a,...,300m has his or her own homepage in the shopping center 100. General members 200a,...,200n can purchase goods in the homepage of the shopping mall center 100 and/or in the homepages of dealer members 300a,...,300m.

When joining in the shopping mall center 100, the general members 200a,...,200n must input the IDs of the dealer members who give advice to them to subscribe for the shopping mall center 100 (hereinafter referred to as "recommendation dealer members").

Afterwards, when a member buys goods, the corresponding recommendation dealer member gains a predetermined actual result bonus.

The bonus allowance is also applied for the recommendation dealer members for recommendation dealer members (hereinafter referred to as "secondary recommendation dealer members"). In this case, primary recommendation dealer members preferably gain more actual result bonuses than do secondary recommendation dealer members. Likewise, the bonus is also paid to tertiary, quaternary, and higher hierarchy recommendation dealer members.

Referring to Fig. 2, there is a schematic block diagram showing the internal organization of the shopping mall center 100 in accordance S 15 with the method and system of the present invention.

ooo-: Using Web browsers, the members gain access to the shopping mall center 100 through a Web server 110.

In the organization of the shopping mall center 100, a DB server 120 plays a role in managing databases. The DB server 120 of the shopping mall center 100 comprises at least a member DB 121 for storing the information about the members, a goods catalogue DB 123 for storing the information about goods to be sold, and a dealer member homepage DB 124 for storing the contents of the dealer member S° homepages. The DB server, if it does not belong to a shopping mall S 25 which does not produce and sell goods for itself, further comprises a business acquaintance DB 122 for storing the information about goods providers.

As for the member DB 121, it comprises at least a membership ID field 1211 for storing membership IDs with which members can be uniquely identified, a field 1212 for storing personal affair information, including names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, member genders, and the like, a secret number field 1213 for storing the secret numbers that the members draw, a dealer identification field 1214 for determining whether members of interest are dealer members or a recommendation dealer ID field 1215 for storing the IDs of the dealer members who propose the joining of members of interest, as shown in Fig. 4.

-In addition, the shopping mall center 100 further preferably comprises an actual result management module 130 for managing actual results of dealer members 300a, 300m, and a dealer member actual result DB 131 for storing information about the actual results of dealer members 300a, 300m. Through the actual result management module 130, each of the dealer members 300a, 300m can be aware of his or her bonus acquired as a result of the goods purchase of the recommended members by periods of time and by members. In particular, there remains a need to limit the access to the actual result 0 management module 130 in order to prevent the leakage of the information about the actual results. In this regard, secret numbers are useful so that corresponding dealer members only have access to the actual result management module 130.

In the shopping mall center 100, a supporting tool 140 is provided to aid dealer members to construct their own homepages. To a person who is allowed to join as a dealer member, the shopping mall center 100 automatically constructs a homepage for him or her using the homepage constructing tool 140 and the homepage is stored in the dealer S. membership homepage DB 124. Alternatively, the dealer member can select the goods to be dealt and designs for the construction of his or her own homepage.

Of course, it is possible that dealer members construct their own homepages individually without use of the homepage supporting tool 140 equipped in the shopping mall center 100. That is, dealer members may construct homepages for themselves and store them in the dealer membership homepage DB 124.

Further, the shopping mall center 100 contains a communication module 150 through which members can have communication with one another. The communication module 150 may be an electronic mail server for sending and receiving electronic mails, a gateway for sending character messages to mobile phones, or a universal messaging system (UMS) for universally supporting electronic mails, voice messages, fax massages, etc.

A description will be given of the procedure through which Internet users subscribe for the shopping mall center 100 as general members in connection with Fig. 3.

Internet users join the shopping mall center 100 with a proposition of dealer members. There are two ways for Internet users to join the shopping mall center 100: for the joining, they can enter homepages of dealer members and the shopping mall center 100 First, the joining way through the entrance of the homepages of dealer members will be described with reference to Fig. 3a.

20 Internet users obtain access to the homepage of a dealer member o* through the Internet (S 110). In the homepage of the dealer member, not oooo only the same content as in the shopping mall, but also a button for general membership joining is provided. When the Internet user clicks the button for the joining as a general member, a personal affair information input screen appears (S120).

*Then, the Internet user inputs his or her personal affa i rs, including name, address, and the like (S130). After completion of the inputting of personal affairs, the shopping mall center 100 gives an ID and a temporary secret number to the general member (S140). Later, the general member may change the temporary secrete number into a desired one.

Alternatively, it is also possible for the Internet user to input a desirable ID and a desirable secrete number. In this case, there must be no duplications in IDs. Accordingly, the shopping mall center 100 determines whether the newly input ID is duplicated with a preexisting one and guides the selection of another ID if the input ID is the same as a preexisting one.

When personal affairs are input and a membership ID and secrete number is determined, a record for the corresponding member is established in the member DB 121 of the shopping mall center 100, thereby completing the joining procedure. The member DB 121 is previously described in conjunction with Fig. 4. Because the Internet user is in connection with the homepage of the dealer member, the shopping mall center 100 regards the corresponding dealer member as the recommendation dealer member of the Internet user and stores the ID of the dealer member in the recommendation dealer member ID field 1215.

Next, the joining way through the entrance of the homepage of the shopping mall center 100 will be described with reference to Fig. 3b.

An Internet user obtains access to the homepage of the shopping mall center 100 through the Internet (S210). The connection to the Internet can be achieved by using a dedicated line, a modem, or a wireless communication tool and the present invention is not limited to these.

In the homepage of the shopping mall center 100, not only the ***same content as in an ordinary shopping mall, but also a button for general membership joining is provided. When the Internet user clicks the button for the joining as a general member, a personal affair information input screen appears (S120).

Then, the Internet user inputs his or her personal affairs, including name, address, and the like (S230). Along with the personal affairs, the Internet user must input the ID of the dealer members who give advice to them to subscribe for the shopping mall center 100 (S240).

After completion of the inputting of personal affairs and the dealer member ID, the shopping mall center 100 gives an ID and a temporary secret number to the general member (S250). Later, the general member may change the temporary secrete number into a desired one.

Alternatively, as mentioned above, it is also possible for the Internet user to input a desirable ID and a desirable secrete number.

When personal affairs and the recommendation dealer ID are input and a membership ID and secrete number is determined, a record for the corresponding member is established in the member DB 121 of the shopping mall center 100, thereby completing the joining procedure.

Although a joining procedure is described in the connection state to the homepages of the dealer homepages or the shopping mall center 100, the present invention is not limited to this on-line condition. That is, the membership joining can be done by filling out a general member application document, submitting the document to the shopping mall center 100 and allowing IDs and secrete numbers from the shopping mall 100.

Next, a description will be given of a procedure of changing a 0°oo0 S 25 general member to a dealer member, with reference to Fig. All general members can be changed to dealer members. In order to become a dealer member, each general member may purchase programs for constructing and managing a homepage and managing the actual results. Further, each general member may utilize the above programs free of charge if the results of purchase exceed a predetermined amount within a given period of time.

For the change to a dealer member, a general member accesses a homepage of the shopping mall center 100 online or draws up papers for application for dealer membership offline at step S310.

Then, the general member draws up a contract document for the change to the dealer member and pays the fee for purchasing an actual result management program at step S320. In the case where the general member does not utilize the actual result management program or in the case where the general member becomes the dealer member free of charge, for example, he is changed to the dealer member according to the results of purchase, he need not pay the purchasing fee.

Provided that the general member is changed to the dealer member, he is assigned with a URL. The assigned URL may be, for example, in the form of "shopping mall center URL/member ID". In 15 other words, if the ID of the dealer member is "sam" and the URL of the shopping mall center is "www.ewebltd.com", a homepage address of the dealer member is "www.ewebltd.com/sam".

The contents of the homepage with the above address may be automatically created by virtue of the homepage construction support tool 140 or semiautomatically created according to conditions selected by the dealer member. Such conditions may be, for example, a background image, a layout of a Web page, goods to be sold, a language, etc. Of course, the dealer member himself may create and upload the homepage.

Fig. 6 shows a layered structure of general members and dealer members created according to the above procedure.

Namely, a general member Aa, dealer member Ab, general member Ac, are present in the lower layer of a dealer member A, and a general member Aba, general member Abb, general member Abn, dealer member Aba, dealer member Abm are present in the lower layer of the dealer member Ab. Further, either the dealer member Aba or dealer member Abm may have another general member or dealer member in its lower layer, as well.

In this case, the dealer member Ab is the primary recommendation dealer member for the general member Aba and the dealer member A is the secondary recommendation dealer member for the general member Aba.

In such a layered structure, a dividend from the results of commodity purchase of the general member Aba is directed to the dealer t0 member Ab who invited the general member Aba to join. As an alternative, a predetermined rate, or 70%, of the dividend from the results of commodity purchase of the general member Aba is directed to the primary recommendation dealer member Ab and the remaining is paid to the secondary recommendation dealer member A.

15 The number of degrees of recommendation dealer members to be paid with the divided resulting from the actual results and the detailed dividing rate can be decided at option, and the present invention is not limited to a specific dividing method.

Next, a description will be given of a procedure where a member accesses the homepage of the shopping mall center 100 or the homepages of the dealer members 300a, with reference to Fig. 7.

,**First, the member accesses the homepage of the dealer member 300a or the homepage of the shopping mall center 100 using the Web S. C S browser at step S410. The homepage of the dealer member 300a or 5555*5 S 25 shopping mall center 100 may be configured in a similar manner to that of a general shopping mall and a detailed description thereof will thus 0 *.be omitted.

All goods in the shopping mall center 100 are provided to the homepage of the dealer member 300a. Alternatively, only part of the goods in the shopping mall center 100 may be provided to the homepage of the dealer member 300a. In this case, the provided goods may be ones being specially treated by the dealer member 300a.

The member selects desired ones of the goods provided in the homepage of the dealer member 300a or shopping mall center 100 at step S420.

Then, a picture for the entry of a member ID and password is displayed on the screen and the member enters his ID and password in the displayed picture at step S430. The entered member ID and password are compared with those stored in the member DB 121. If the two member IDs and passwords are the same, a picture related to payment is displayed and the member thus pays the associated fee at step S440. A procedure of payment is performed in the same manner as that of a general electronic commercial transaction and a detailed description thereof will thus be omitted. Herein, the above steps S430 S 15 and S440 may be performed in the opposite order.

Even though the member purchases goods from the homepage of the dealer member 300a, all the contents entered by him are transferred "to the shopping mall center 100. As a result, the member authentication procedure, payment procedure, etc. are all conducted in the shopping mall center 100.

case If goods are purchased in the above manner, then the shopping *act mall center 100 reads an ID of a recommendation dealer member for the associated member from the member DB 121 and adds actual results to the actual result DB 131 of the recommendation dealer member at step S450.

In this case, predetermined rates of the actual results may be .added to even upper dealer members of several steps. For example, of the total dividend may be assigned to the primary recommendation dealer member, 20% to the secondary recommendation dealer member and 10% to the tertiary recommendation dealer member, respectively.

In more detail, the shopping mall center 100 reads an ID of a primary recommendation dealer member from the member DB 121 of the member and adds actual results (70% of the total dividend) to the actual result DB 131 of the primary recommendation dealer member. Also, the shopping mall center 100 reads an ID of a secondary recommendation dealer member from the member DB 121 of the primary recommendation dealer member and adds actual results (20% of the total dividend) to the actual result DB 131 of the secondary recommendation dealer member.

Similarly, the shopping mall center 100 reads an ID of a tertiary recommendation dealer member from the member DB 121 of the secondary recommendation dealer member and adds actual results of the total dividend) to the actual result DB 131 of the tertiary recommendation dealer member.

Finally, the shopping mall center 100 delivers the ordered goods to the ordering member at step S460, resulting in the goods purchasing S• procedure being completed.

<EMBODIMENT 2> e•.

Although the first embodiment permits only sales by dealer members, the second embodiment permits sales by all members. But, in the second embodiment, only dealer members can receive favors such as a tool capable of constructing a homepage or managing actual results S• and dividends based on sales. Such a tool is provided free of charge or S 25 with charge.

Further, although the first embodiment allows only members to purchase goods, the second embodiment enables non-members as well as members to purchase goods. Therefore, members individually conduct marketing activities for sales promotion with respect to non-members and receive dividends based on the results of sales.

In a similar manner to the first embodiment, the second embodiment may be implemented to pay a predetermined dividend based on the results of sales to a recommendation member who invited the member to join. Further, dividends may be paid up to recommendation members higher by several steps as well as by one step.

A member joining procedure is performed in a similar manner to that in the first embodiment and a detailed description will thus be omitted. A procedure where a general member is changed to a dealer io member is performed in a nearly similar manner to that in the first embodiment and a detailed description thereof will thus be omitted.

A procedure where a member purchases goods is performed in the same manner as that in the first embodiment and a detailed description thereof will thus be omitted. Hence, a procedure where a non-member purchases goods will hereinafter be mentioned with reference to Fig. 8.

First, an Internet user as a non-member accesses the homepage of S the dealer member 300a or the homepage of the shopping mall center 100 using the Web browser at step S510. The homepage of the dealer member 300a or shopping mall center 100 may be configured in a similar manner to that of a general shopping mall and a detailed S" description thereof will thus be omitted.

All goods in the shopping mall center 100 are provided to the homepage of the dealer member 300a. Alternatively, only part of the goods in the shopping mall center 100 may be provided to the homepage S 25 of the dealer member 300a. In this case, the provided goods may be ones being specially treated by the dealer member 300a. Provided that the dealer member is a car specialist, he will provide information related to cars to his homepage and conduct marketing activities with respect to persons wanting to purchase cars, as a main target.

The Internet user selects desired ones of the goods provided in the homepage of the dealer member 300a or shopping mall center 100 at step S520 and pays the purchasing fee at step S530. This payment procedure is performed in the same manner as that of a general electronic commercial transaction and a detailed description thereof will thus be omitted.

Upon purchasing goods from the shopping mall center 100, the non-member may or must enter an ID of a member who induced him to purchase the goods.

Even though the internet user purchases goods from the homepage of the dealer member 300a, all the contents entered by him are transferred to the shopping mall center 100. As a result, the member authentication procedure, payment procedure, etc. are all conducted in the shopping mall center 100.

If goods are purchased in the above manner, then the shopping mall center 100 recognizes information about a member who induced the non-member or Internet user to purchase the goods, from the homepage of the dealer member accessed by the Internet user or the ID entered by .i him. The shopping mall center 100 adds actual results to the actual i result DB 131 of the associated member on the basis of the recognized information at step S540.

According to the present embodiment, general members are allowed to invite other members. In this case, the general members invited by an existing general member can be converted to dealer members, there may be dealer members among the children members of oooo.

S 25 the existing general member.

Fig. 9 illustrates such a state as described in the above. To specify, Fig. 9 shows a case where a general member named Aa invited a new general member named Aaa who has later been converted into a dealer member.

In this case, in the structure of member DB 121 depicted in Fig. 4, a field for inviting dealer member ID 1215 is changed to a field for inviting member ID. Thus, when applying for registration as a member, a user is allowed to just insert an Id of a member without distinction of general or dealer member, not inserting an ID of the dealer member as in the first embodiment of the present invention. The member ID inserted through this process is stored in the field for inviting member ID of the member DB.

In the present embodiment, an allowance for performance can be paid to members over some higher level at a given rate, as in the first embodiment. For example, a member who actually sells a commodity (called "sales member") is paid 70% of the whole allowance, the other member who invited the member to join (called "2 d inviting member") is paid 20%, and the other member who invited the 2 nd inviting member (called "3' rd inviting member") is paid In this case, the paid performance (70% of the total allowance) is :added to the performance DB 131 of the sales member. Then, the ID of the 2 nd inviting member is read from the member DB 121 of the sales member and the paid performance (20% of the total allowance) is added to the performance DB 131 of the 2 nd inviting member. Subsequently, the ID of the 3 rd inviting member is read from the member DB 121 of the 2 rd inviting member and the paid performance (10% of the total performance) is added to the performance DB 131 of the 3 rd inviting member.

If a member purchases a commodity, an allowance for oooi S 25 performance can be paid to the concerned member, and the allowance o can be paid to higher-leveled inviting members at a given rate.

o It has been described in the present invention that only the dealer members can have their respective homepages. However, it can be modified so that general members can have their respective homepages.

In this case, the general members and the dealer members can be discriminated depending upon whether or not they have a tool for maintaining their performance.

The present invention has been described in terms of the cases where general members and dealer members are managed in a single DB, and where the performance DB is separately managed only for the dealer members. However, the present invention is not limited to those cases.

Rather, databases both for general members and dealer member can be independently maintained.

According to another embodiment, it is possible to provide performance databases for general members. In this case, to discriminate general members and dealer members, their rights accessible to the performance DB may be differentiated, or the tool for performance maintenance can be provided only to the dealer members.

According to the above description, dealer members are converted from general members. In addition, it is possible for new members to ~'obtain directly the membership as dealer members. In this case, in the i step for registering a dealer member in Fig. 5, fields for entering the ID of an inviting member (S230 of Fig. for allowing a password (S140 of Fig. 3) and for establishing the member record (S250 of Fig. 3) are added.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as S 25 disclosed in the accompanying claims.

According to the present invention, the members of a shopping mall web site actively participate in marketing activities in order to increase their performance for which the shopping mall can effectively increase its sales result without spending higher marketing cost.

Furthermore, an allowance for performance in favor of a member who actually purchase a commodity is also paid to a member having invited him or her to join, the members positively participate in inviting new members, thereby effectively increasing the number of members of the shopping mall.

According to another embodiment, non-registered users are allowed to purchase commodities in the shopping mall, and in this case, an allowance for performance is paid to a member who sold the commodity. Thus, the members are also active in marketing activities, resulting in increasing the total selling amount.

Each of the dealer members is allotted a space and an address for homepage. The homepage is automatically constructed and procedures for payment and for verifying the authenticity of the member are performed in the shopping mall. For this reason, an individual can obtain the same result as establishing an internet shopping mall, only with the promotional activities but without establishing his or her .i independent shopping mall which is complicated and cost-consuming.

o o• °•oe• ooo

Claims

1. A membership marketing method of an internet shopping mall having general members who can buy goods and dealer members who can buy and sell goods, the method comprising the steps of: admitting an internet user as a general member to said internet shopping mall by submission of said internet user's personal information and- an ID -of a dealer member who i-nvited said internet user to join said internet shopping mall; storing personal information of said general member and said ID of said dealer member who invited said general member to join said internet shopping mall to a member DB; allowing a general member to change to a dealer member and to construct a home page; and 15 in response to the purchase of a member in said internet shopping mall or a home page of a dealer member, paying result dividend of a predetermined percentage to said dealer member who invited said member using the ID of said dealer member stored in said member DB.

2. A membership marketing method of claim 1, wherein said step of admitting an internet user as a general member comprises the steps Sof: providing an internet user with access to a home page of a dealer member; admitting said internet user as a general member by submission of said internet user's personal information in said home page of said dealer member; assigning a member ID to said internet user from said internet shopping mall.

3. A membership marketing method of claim 1, wherein said step of admitting an internet user as a general member comprises the steps of: providing an internet user with access to the web site of said internet shopping mall; admitting said internet user as a general member by submission of said internet user's personal information and an ID of a dealer member who invited said internet user to join in said web site of said internet shopping mall; assigning a member ID to said internet user from said internet shopping mall.

4. A membership marketing method of claim 1, wherein result dividend of a predetermined percentage is paid in said step of paying result dividend to the higher dealer member who invited said dealer member to join besides the dealer member who invited said general member to join.

A membership marketing method of claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein result dividend of a predetermined percentage is paid in said step of paying result dividend to the member who purchased goods.

6. A membership marketing system of an internet shopping mall having general members who can buy goods and dealer members who oo *I can buy and sell goods, the system comprising: database server administrating a member DB storing a member ID, personal information of the member, password and a recommender dealer member ID of the dealer member who invited said member to join, goods catalog DB storing information about selling goods and dealer member home page DB storing information about the home pages of the dealer members; a web server enabling a user to access to said internet shopping mall using a web browser; and a results management module storing data about sales results of the dealer members; and wherein said system pays result dividend of purchase, in response to the purchase of a-member, to the recommender dealer member who invited said member to join using the ID of the dealer member stored in the member DB.

7. A membership marketing system of claim 6, wherein said system pays result dividend to the higher dealer member who invited said dealer member to join using the ID of the higher recommender dealer member stored in the member DB besides said recommender dealer member who invited said member to join. S.

8. A membership marketing method of an internet shopping mall, i the method comprising the steps of: assigning an ID to an internet user according to joining said internet user as a general member to said internet shopping mall by submission of said internet user's personal information and an ID of a recommender member who invited said internet user to join said internet Sshopping mall, storing personal information of said member and said ID S 25 of said recommender member who invited said member to join and providing said general member with home page area; allowing said general member to construct home page in said home page area; allowing said general member to change to a dealer member; providing said dealer member with a results management tool from said internet shopping mall; and paying result dividend to the member in response to the purchase of goods of an internet user who is not a member of said internet shopping mall.

9. A membership marketing method of claim 8, further comprising a step of: in response to the purchase of goods of a member in said internet shopping mall or said home page of the member, paying result dividend of a predetermined percentage to the member who purchased goods and the recommender member who invited said member who purchased goods to join using the ID of the recommender member stored in the member database.

10. A membership marketing method of claim 8 or 9, wherein said S-step of joining said internet user as a general member comprises the steps of: ~providing an internet user with access to a home page of a member; admitting said internet user as a general member by submission of said internet user's personal information in said home page of said member; assigning a member ID to said internet user from said internet shopping mall.

11. A membership marketing method of claim 8 or 9, wherein said step of joining said internet user as a member comprises the steps of: providing an internet user with access to the web site of said internet shopping mall; admitting said internet user as a general member by submission of said internet user's personal information and ID of the member who invited said internet user to join in said web site of said internet shopping mall; assigning a member ID to said internet user from said internet shopping mall.

12. A membership marketing method of claim 8 or 9, wherein result dividend of a predetermined percentage is paid in the step of paying result dividend to the recommender member who invited said member to join besides the member who constructed home page where said internet user purchased goods.

13. A membership marketing method of an internet shopping mall, 15 the method comprising the steps of: assigning an ID to an internet user according to joining said S.internet user as a general member by submission of said internet user's personal information and an ID of a recommender member who invited internet user to join said internet shopping mall and storing personal information of said member and said ID of the recommender member who invited said member to join; 99 allowing a general member to change to a dealer member and to construct home page to sell goods; paying result dividend to said dealer member in response to the purchase of goods of an internet user who is not a member of said *internet shopping mall in the home page of said dealer member; and paying result dividend to the member who recommend said shopping mall to purchase goods to said purchaser who is not a member of said internet shopping mall using member ID which is inputted by said purchaser.

14. A membership marketing method of claim 13, further comprising a step of: in response to the purchase of goods of a member in said internet shopping mall or a home page of a member, paying result dividend of a predetermined percentage to said member who purchased goods and the recommender member who invited said member who purchased goods to join using the ID of the recommender member stored in the member DB.

15. A membership marketing method of claim 13 or 14, wherein said step of joining said internet user as a member comprises the steps of: providing an internet user with access to a home page of a dealer member; 15 admitting said internet user as a general member by submission of said internet user's personal information in said home page of said dealer member; C assigning a member ID to said internet user from said internet shopping mall.

16. A membership marketing method of claim 13 or 14, wherein said step of joining said internet user as a member comprises the steps of: providing an internet user with access to the web site of said internet shopping mall; admitting said internet user as a general member by submission of said internet user's personal information and ID of the member who invited said internet user to join in said web site of said internet shopping mall; -26- assigning a member ID to said Internet user from said Internet shopping mall.

17. A membership marketing method of claim 13 or 14, wherein result dividend of a predetermined percentage is paid to the higher member who invited said member who is paid result dividend to join.

18. A membership marketing method substantially as described herein with reference to any one of the embodiments as that embodiment is shown in the drawings.

19. A membership marketing system substantially as described herein with reference to any one of the embodiments as that embodiment is shown in the drawings. DATED this Nineteenth Day of October 2000 eWeb21 Corporation Patent Attorneys for the Applicant SPRUSON FERGUSON S 9S I I. *r S S 0 a.. [R:\LIBPP]021 12.doc:iad