FR2853428A1 - Receipt system for use during purchasing of articles e.g. clothing, has personalization unit which allow client to modify recorded data corresponding to part of chosen criteria from client account associated to identification data - Google Patents

Abstract

The system has a chosen criteria zone to permit definition and recording in association with a part of identification data called chosen criteria. A personalization unit allows each client to modify recorded data corresponding to a part of the chosen criteria of the zone from its client account associated to the identification data. A database (14) records the data representing definition rules of the chosen criteria. The personalization unit includes client server, base and terminal.

Description

PAYING SYSTEM ALLOWING ALLOCATION

  The invention relates to a system of cashing purchases of items made by customers from a merchant organization with a computer system, said merchant computer system.

  The purchase of articles from a merchant organization can be done in a specific place of sale such as a shop, or by correspondence 10 (mail, telematic telephone, Internet or other, computer network ...) with a site - especially a computer site such as a website- mail order.

  The same merchant organization can manage several places or sales sites.

  Throughout the text, the term "article" generically means any product and / or service offered for sale to the unit by a merchant organization, and 15 can be purchased individually by a customer. It can be products (agri-food, clothing, leisure ...) or services (travel, subscriptions, shows, restaurants, hotels ...) or a combination of products and services (telephone and subscription, computer and Internet subscription...). Articles may be marketed in the places and / or sales sites of mass retailers intended for the general public (retail stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, shopping malls, paper catalogs and / or computer sales site by correspondent ...) or on the contrary via smaller marketing networks, for example for certain professionals.

  By "commercial advantage" is meant any advantage constituting an economic gain for a customer to whom it is attributed.

  "Customer" means any entity (one or more natural or legal person (s) or other group) that can make purchases from the merchant organization, which is considered individually from the accounting point of view. the merchant organization, and which is associated with a set of digital data of its own, said customer account, with customer identification data, recorded on the merchant computer system.

  With the development of computing in POS systems, the latter have been equipped with increasingly complex functionalities. In particular EP-0173835 describes a system in which a flag in each record of the articles in a file of articles makes it possible to trigger, when the purchase of certain articles, the automatic printing of a discount coupon redeemable later for purchase of another item. Then, as early as the 1990s, it has been possible to consider that the recording of articles purchased with or without connection with the recording of customer identification data has made it possible to create databases which can then be the subject of an operation for marketing purposes, for example to automatically allocate discounts or other benefits allocated by traders and / or manufacturers, better targeted to the likely interests of customers, which are defined and stored in the database by 15 data representing customer profiles.

  Customer profiles can be based for example on demographic, psychographic (behavior and lifestyle), purchasing behavior, media preference, promotions or benefits obtained and / or used ...

  Thus, the publication "Prospects on electronic marketing" Carlene A. Thissen, The Food Research Institute Research Institute, 1990, describes a state of the possibilities, advantages, disadvantages known in 1990 of electronic marketing. In all the cases envisaged in this document, the initiative of the attribution of the commercial advantages belongs to the merchants and / or the 25 manufacturers who entirely define the criteria of attribution according to the results sought on the behavior of the consumers.

  It was also suggested to use information about customer preferences recorded individually in each customer profile to better target promotional offers or business benefits (whose content and attribution criteria are fully defined by merchants and / or the manufacturers). For example, WO 9720279 describes a system comprising a second machine for presenting promotional offers to customers, and a first machine for recording information on the selections that the 5 customers make of these offers. This information is recorded individually by the first machine, which uses it with the information on the products purchased by the customer, received from cash terminals, to generate a customer profile which is then used to present targeted offers to each customer who identifies himself. .

  Similarly, EP-0986016 relates to a system for delivering offers on products to consumers via a communication network, enabling an effective match between the products of the manufacturers, the offers defined by the manufacturers, and the consumers. via the traders. This document indicates that purchase preferences can be set on a personal page of each consumer, either from information provided by the consumer, or from the consumer's purchase history, and the product offers defined. manufacturers can be offered to each consumer in a better targeted way taking into account these preferences. It should be noted that this document merely announces these objectives but does not provide any concrete technical solution to achieve them.

  WO 9903051 also discloses a cashing system for automatically issuing commercial benefit notes providing for independent registration of bill types and ticketing criteria.

  In this way, the system presents increased performances with regard to the characteristics of the different notes, their attribution conditions, and the 25 configurations and options available to the stores which can entirely carry out their own management and setting. system day. Again, the award criteria are defined by traders and / or manufacturers.

  All prior devices and systems are based on the general principle that it is possible and desirable to configure and individualize the promotional offers offered to customers to encourage them to consume more. Nevertheless, this principle omits the fact that human nature is often more complex and less logical than statistics and figures can reflect. Thus, the targeted offers most often correspond to offers on products rarely or never purchased. In the first case, it is not certain that the allocation of a benefit further increases the purchase of the products. Indeed, if the customer already buys the products frequently, it means that he is satisfied and meets his needs. In the second case, the offer may appear to the customer as inappropriate or too aggressive, and does not necessarily create the need for the products in question. In addition, the systems do not take into account the buying habits or intelligence of the customers who for example use different sales sites according to the products, and without always choosing the site of sale only according to the price of the products.

  Thus, customers are also looking more and more often quality or a guarantee of quality, convenience and security of purchase, pleasure in the global context of the act of purchase ...

  Therefore, the inventors have found that customer loyalty can not be limited to simplistic techniques of granting promotional offers on products predefined by traders and / or manufacturers, but more generally assumes to seek to provide individually greater satisfaction to each customer.

  Nevertheless, this goal is a priori impossible to achieve by the retail market organizations that are in relation with a multitude of different customers and must ensure a permanent availability of their collection systems. In addition, it is impossible with previous systems such as that of WO 9903051 to change the criteria for awarding commercial benefits during the opening hours or operation of the cashing system and for immediate operation. This is technically not possible because it would require an interruption of the checkout servers and a reload of the calculation engine. This is also impossible for accounting or legal reasons that require in particular to be able to keep the accounting history of promotional operations, to be able to satisfy with certainty any offer made to customers, and treat all customers on a level playing field.

  In addition, the individual satisfaction of each customer must remain compatible with the global constraints of the merchant organization and the manufacturers, particularly in terms of economic profitability and compliance with the legislation.

  Therefore, the invention aims to propose a collection system 10 which from a technical point of view makes it possible to satisfy these objectives in a reliable, simple and compatible manner with real-time exploitation by commercial organizations-in particular, merchant organizations of the region. large distribution-.

  The invention aims more particularly at proposing a collection system by which each customer can himself define in advance the individualized criteria of attribution of commercial advantages that he receives from a merchant organization, and which is moreover compatible with the constraints of performance and availability - especially in terms of real-time processing - and with the overall economic and legal constraints related to practical industrial and commercial operation, for example in large-scale stores (supermarkets or hypermarkets) and / or on mail order sites such as websites.

  The invention also aims at proposing a collection system automatically attributing commercial advantages to customers, in particular according to their purchases, and which makes it possible to modify at any time, instantly and in real time without disturbing its collection functionalities. the individualized allocation criteria of each customer, but by guaranteeing, by automatic protection, that each modification made remains compatible with the overall economic and legal constraints of the merchant organization.

  To do this, the invention relates to a system for cashing purchases of items made by customers from a merchant organization with a computer system, said merchant computer system, which comprises: - registration means data specific to each client, said customer account, comprising customer identification data, - means, said means of collection, allowing the composition and recording of data representative of items making up each purchase of a customer , and data representing the corresponding commercial, accounting and financial transaction, these means of collection being adapted to be able to receive customer identification data provided by a customer making a purchase, means of calculating the commercial advantages suitable define and automatically assign business benefits to identified customers when purchasing items, based on identification data provided by each customer for a purchase of items and according to predetermined allocation criteria by previously recorded digital data defining said criteria, characterized in that: - for each customer account, it comprises a data recording area, said selected criteria area, adapted to allow the definition and recording in association with at least a portion of the identification data, criteria, said chosen criteria, granting of commercial advantages, said preferred benefits, the means calculating the commercial advantages being adapted so as to be able to automatically assign the preferred advantages to the customer at least according to the chosen criteria recorded in the selected criteria zone corresponding to his customer account, he comprises means, said means of personalization, allowing each client providing credentials to edit the recorded data corresponding to at least a part of the selected criteria of the selected criteria zone of his customer account associated with these identification data, - it comprises means for recording data representative of rules for defining the chosen criteria, and the computer system merchant is adapted to verify, when a customer changes the chosen criteria, whether these definition rules are satisfied or not, and to allow the registration of such a modification when all these definition rules are satisfied, and to forbid the recording of such a modification if at least one of these definition rules is not satisfied.

  The merchant computer system is controlled by the merchant organization and incorporates the customer account records and the commercial benefit calculation means. The cashing system according to the invention may comprise, at least in certain embodiments, means controlled by each client. In particular, in the case of a purchase of correspondence items via a computer network, each customer may be provided with a terminal or a computer device (computer) which allows him to communicate on the network to compose his orders, transmit them, or even carry out the payment transaction. Conversely, in the case of a collection system for a store, the entire collection system can be formed by the merchant computer system. In a variant, however, it is also possible to provide remote access by the customers who make purchases in the store from terminals or computer devices controlled by each customer. For example, customers can select the products they wish to purchase and order from their personal computer terminal or device, so that all they have to do is take delivery and pay for the corresponding purchases. store.

  The invention thus makes it possible for the first time for each client that can be identified, to access data from his customer account to enter or modify selected criteria for assigning preferred benefits that he can subsequently receive during his purchases. . It should be noted in this regard, from the technical point of view, that this invention differs from previous systems in which various predefined commercial advantages could be offered to customers, when they make their purchases, according to their customer profile, and in which each customer could choose whether or not to be given one and / or the other of the commercial advantages offered, for example by a manual selection on a screen disposed at the collection terminals. In fact, in this situation, the client has no power of control over the criteria for awarding benefits, and therefore can not, in particular, decide in advance on the criteria for awarding benefits according to its own criteria. interests.

  Conversely, in the context of the present invention, the assignment of a preferred advantage to a customer first of all presupposes that the latter has defined corresponding appropriate chosen criteria, and this according to his own interests and desires; and secondly, that the customer subsequently makes purchases that actually correspond to the automatic allocation of such a preferred advantage according to the chosen criteria that he himself has previously defined. Thus, from a technical point of view, the invention assumes that the system is able to take into account the chosen criteria defined by the customers themselves. At the same time, however, the system must provide a certain degree of security and a guarantee of efficiency, on the one hand, from the point of view of real-time processing, on the other, from the economic and legal point of view. This second objective is obtained by virtue of the presence of the specific defined definition rules which make it possible to authorize or not the recording of modifications proposed by a client on selected criteria, depending on whether or not this modification proposal is compatible with said modifications. definition rules.

  Under these conditions, it is understood that the system according to the invention makes it possible for the first time in practice to offer each customer 25 receiving preferred benefits according to criteria that he chooses himself according to his own wishes and interests and not according to the interests of the merchant organization and / or the manufacturers of the articles. The result is much greater customer satisfaction and significantly higher customer loyalty to the promotional system thus formed. Moreover, the cashing system according to the invention remains from a technical point of view perfectly compatible with traditional cashing systems and with their operation in real time. In this respect, they are simpler and more realistic than the previous proposals in which extremely complex computer processing was necessary to determine the 5 optimal commercial advantage propositions to be formulated to the different customers according to their customer profile, itself dependent on many parameters, including customer purchase history, demographics and psychographics ...

  In a particularly simple and advantageous embodiment according to the invention, the selected criteria comprise the definition of at least one article, said preferred article, for the purchase of which at least one commercial advantage, said preferred article advantage, is automatically assigned to the customer. Thus, the selected criteria area of the customer account essentially comprises identification codes of one or more preferred items chosen by the customer himself. From this data, the commercial benefit calculation means will automatically assign a commercial advantage (preferred item advantage) when the customer proceeds to purchase one of the preferred items.

  Advantageously and according to the invention, the preferred article advantage consists of a commercial advantage applying to a purchase of the preferred article. If the preferred article advantage applies immediately upon purchase of the preferred article, it may be for example an immediate reduction or an immediate discount. But it can also be a commercial advantage to deferred use, that is to say, requiring another subsequent purchase from the merchant organization. In particular, advantageously and according to the invention, the preferred article advantage consists of a good purchase. A purchase order is a deferred-use commercial benefit consisting of reducing the total price of a subsequent purchase by the customer of a predetermined value corresponding to this purchase order, regardless of whether or not '(the) item (s) purchased by the customer in this subsequent purchase. Alternatively, the preferred article advantage may also consist of any other known commercial advantage such as a discount coupon applying to a specific article (same or different from the preferred article), one or more articles (preferred article or not) for free ...

  In this first embodiment, the freedom that is given to each client consists in choosing the identity of each preferred item. In practice, this choice can be made by entering a universal article code (UPC or EAN) - especially by optical reading of a code, such as a barcode - through the personalization means.

  In a second advantageous embodiment of the invention which can be combined with the preceding one, the selected criteria comprise the definition of a group of articles, said preferred group, for the purchase of which at least one commercial advantage, says advantage. preferred group, is automatically assigned to the customer.

  Advantageously and according to the invention, the criteria chosen furthermore include the definition of conditions relating to the purchases of the different articles of the preferred group presiding over the allocation of the preferred group advantage. Thus, for example, the customer can choose that the preferred group advantage is automatically assigned to him only when he simultaneously purchases all the articles of the preferred group during the same purchase, or on the contrary, if he buys the various items of the preferred group over a certain predetermined period of time, or conversely, if he can purchase the different items of the preferred group in several successive purchases or not.

  As a variant, it is possible, on the contrary, to provide that the conditions relating to the different purchases of the different articles of the preferred group do not constitute a chosen criterion, but on the contrary a criterion imposed by the merchant organization.

  In addition, again, the preferred group advantage may be an immediately assigned business advantage or a deferred commercial advantage. Advantageously and according to the invention, the preferred group advantage consists of a purchase order.

  Furthermore, advantageously and according to the invention, the collection system is characterized in that it comprises means for recording data representative of criteria, called imposed criteria, of attributing at least part of the preferred advantages. which can be defined and modified by the merchant organization and not by the customers, and that the commercial benefit calculation means are adapted to apply both the imposed criteria and the criteria chosen to automatically calculate and attribute the benefits. preferred matches to a customer. Thus, in the second embodiment mentioned above, the conditions under which the different articles of the preferred group are to be purchased by the customer constitute an example of a criterion imposed. These imposed criteria can be defined by data common to all the customers, ie registered in an area not associated specifically with a customer account, for example in a zone defining a common type of preferred advantage or criteria common for each type of preferred benefit.

  It should thus be noted that in a cashing system according to the invention, the means of calculating the commercial advantages must be adapted at the time of each purchase by a customer, and for each preferred advantage whose general characteristics and type may be defined centrally and common to all customers, on the one hand, if the imposed criteria, also defined centrally and common to all customers, are satisfied, and, on the other hand, if the chosen criteria recorded in the chosen criteria area belonging to the customer making the purchase as identified by the identification data he presents, are satisfied.

  Advantageously and according to the invention, the criteria imposed include at least one of the following criteria: a maximum absolute value represented by all the commercial advantages attributed to the customer for at least one preferred benefit for each purchase and / or over at least a predetermined period T3, - a maximum relative value represented by all the commercial benefits attributed to the customer for at least one preferred benefit as a percentage of the amount purchased for each purchase and / or for at least a predetermined period T4, - a method of calculating the value of each preferred benefit attributed to the customer, - a minimum purchase amount for the current purchase and / or a predetermined period T5, - a minimum purchase amount for the purchase in and / or over a predetermined period T6 for items over which no preferred benefit applies.

  Other examples are possible. The definition of the criteria imposed allows the merchant organization to limit the abuses on the part of the customers that could result from the use of the preferred benefits. Depending on foreseeable or foreseeable abusive behavior, the imposed criteria may be changed and / or supplemented by the merchant organization.

  In yet another embodiment of the invention, the selected criteria comprise a total amount of minimum purchases to be made over at least a first predetermined period. In this case, advantageously and according to the invention, the imposed criteria define at least one preferred advantage amount assigned whose value is predetermined and depends on the total minimum purchase amount.

  This total purchase amount may or may not be calculated on purchases of specific items or groups of items, or otherwise valid on all items offered for sale by the merchant organization. It can be defined by an absolute value (monetary value or number of items) or by a relative value (percentage of a monetary value or a number of items, ratio between groups of items purchased ...). In any case, the merchant computer system includes data recording means corresponding to these different amounts, and the means for calculating the commercial advantages are adapted to take into account these values of amounts as a condition for granting the benefit. preferred match.

  Furthermore, advantageously and according to the invention, the preferred advantage consists of a commercial advantage attributed to purchases made during at least a second predetermined period. Here again, it is possible to limit the application of the commercial advantage attributed to the purchase of certain articles or groups of articles, or, on the contrary, to provide that these purchases may relate to all the articles offered for sale. sale by the merchant organization. This selection may consist of a chosen criterion, that is to say, be defined by the customer himself, or on the contrary, as a criterion imposed, that is to say, predefined by the merchant organization. In addition, again, the preferred advantage may be a benefit automatically attributed immediately upon purchase of items by the customer, or on the contrary, a commercial advantage of the delayed-use type and in particular advantageously a voucher .

  Moreover, several variants can be provided with regard to the personalization means for modifying the chosen criteria. In a first variant, advantageously and according to the invention, the personalization means comprise data representative of predefined and recorded criteria among which a choice of selection must be made by the client and recorded as criterion chosen in the chosen criteria zone. . It should be noted, again, in doing so, that the customer does not directly choose the preferred advantage that he gets during a purchase, but only the criteria that will later allow the automatic allocation of a preferred benefit in according to the purchases he will make or have made.

  In a second preferred embodiment, which can be combined with the preceding one, advantageously and according to the invention, the selected criteria comprise at least one value entered by the customer. For example, this value may consist of an item code such as an optical read code, in particular a bar code. It can also be a numerical value, for example a minimum purchase amount, either during each purchase, or over a predetermined period, for example weekly or monthly or defined by specific dates. Advantageously and according to the invention, for at least one value entered by the customers as a chosen criterion, the definition rules comprise at least one maximum value and / or at least one minimum value. In this way, we limit the possible choices of the customer with values that remain compatible from the economic and legal point of view.

  Moreover, advantageously and according to the invention, the definition rules are adapted to determine at least one period T1 during which the chosen criteria can be modified. This period may be predetermined by dates or times in absolute terms, or conversely, be of a repetitive and relatively definite nature (for example, the first three days of each month). Complementarily or alternatively, advantageously and according to the invention, the definition rules are adapted to determine at least one period T2 during which the criteria chosen can not normally be modified. During this period, which can also be defined absolutely or relatively, and be repetitive or otherwise, it is not normally possible to modify the chosen criteria. It is possible, however, to allow such a modification subject to the fulfillment of another condition, consisting for example in admitting the cancellation of a certain number of commercial advantages, for example all the preferred advantages, or even all the commercial benefits, already attributed to the customer.

  Advantageously and according to the invention, such a period T2 of nonmodification of the chosen criteria defined for a preferred advantage begins to run from the last modification performed on the chosen criteria of this preferred advantage. In this way, it is ensured that each customer does not permanently modify his chosen criteria as a function of each purchase he makes. However, in a variant of the invention, nothing prevents to provide that such changes made permanently can be authorized, and this according to the commercial and economic constraints of each trading organization.

  Advantageously and according to the invention, the definition rules comprise a maximum number of different definitions of preferred advantages (corresponding to a preferred type of advantage and to a set of chosen and possibly imposed criteria allowing the calculation and attribution of such preferred advantages) 5 that can be simultaneously active (that is to say taken into account by the commercial benefit calculation means) for the same customer. Thus, for example, the definition rules include a maximum number of preferred items that can be defined as selected criteria for the assignment of preferred item benefits. This maximum number is common to all customers and can be set by the merchant organization itself. Thus, for example, a merchant organization may decide that each of the customers will be able to define three preferred items of their choice on which they can automatically obtain commercial advantages (preferred article advantages), for example in the form of vouchers whose value can be either defined in absolute terms by a fixed amount, or by a percentage of the purchase price of the preferred item, also defined by the merchant organization as a prescribed criterion.

  The cashing system is adapted so that the definition rules and imposed criteria can be modified in their content by the merchant organization, but not by the customers. It should be noted that the definition rules are distinct from the imposed criteria. Indeed, the definition rules apply when defining or modifying the criteria chosen by the customers by means of personalization means, and do not apply in reverse in real time during the purchases of customers for the automatic determination of the commercial benefits attributed to them. On the contrary, the criteria imposed do not apply in the very definition of the chosen criteria, but apply when automatically allocating the commercial advantages according to the purchases of the customers.

  That being said, there is nothing to prevent the definition rules from incorporating a certain number of imposed criteria, that is to say that the criteria chosen by the customers are necessarily associated, according to the choice made by each customer for a chosen criterion. , to one or more imposed criteria that will apply elsewhere.

  This triple definition, independent from the point of view of the 5 computer records of the criteria chosen, the criteria imposed and the rules of definition, makes it possible at the same time to have a perfect control of the whole system of allocation of commercial advantages by the merchant organization, a functioning in real time optimal, a great simplicity of use and nevertheless results in the result that customers have a large freedom of control with respect to the criteria of attribution of the preferred advantages, which causes a great satisfaction individual and so good customer loyalty.

  Furthermore, a fourth level of parameterization can be provided in a collection system according to the invention to confer an additional degree of freedom to each customer. Indeed, advantageously and according to the invention, the cashing system is further characterized in that it comprises: means enabling each client supplying identification data to modify at least one part of recorded digital data representative of the characteristics of at least one preferred advantage, said type of preferred advantage, other than the criteria for allocating this preferred advantage, - data recording means representing rules for defining the types of preferred advantage, and the merchant computer system is adapted to verify, when a data client is changing a preferred type of advantage, whether these definition rules are satisfied or not, and to allow the registration of such a modification when all these definition rules are satisfied, and prohibit the registration of such a modification if at least one of these rules is not satisfied.

  For example, the customer may have the freedom to define himself or modify the type of preferred benefits he wishes to receive, which may include a purchase order, an immediate reduction, or the opposite. free articles ... Thus, and still only as an example, a customer will be able to choose one or more favorite items as a chosen criterion, then, decide that the preferred advantage that he gets during each purchase of Preferred items will be a coupon that will be refundable on another item. But he may also choose a preferred advantage consisting of a simple purchase order, or even an immediate discount on the purchase of the preferred item.

  Furthermore, advantageously and according to the invention, in the commercial computer system, the selected criteria areas are logically centralized into a single database common to all means of collection and means for calculating commercial benefits. Preferably, the same is true of centralized customer accounts on the same database with the selected criteria areas. The accounts receivable and the criteria areas selected may also be physically centralized entirely on the same computer system, in particular on the same mass memory of a server connected to a network 15 belonging to the merchant computer system. Alternatively, the data corresponding to the different selected criteria areas and / or different customer accounts can be distributed on different machines, that is to say on different mass memories. They can also be duplicated one or more times on different distinct mass memories, according to the architecture adopted for the commercial computer system. Nevertheless, in this case, an original reference version for all of these data is provided so that these data can be logically centralized and common to all the collection means and means for calculating the commercial benefits. In practice and according to the invention, the commercial computer system advantageously comprises a centralized single data base 25 physically registered on a single mass memory listing the different accounts and the criteria areas chosen for each of these client accounts.

  Advantageously and according to the invention, the commercial computer system comprises at least a first digital processing device forming the commercial benefit calculation means, and at least one second digital processing device forming the collection means, separate from the (a) first digital processing device (s), but connected to the first digital processing device (s) by a real-time link, preferably a local area network; the merchant organization. In practice, the first digital processing device may be formed of a specific server connected to a local network of the commercial computer system to which each second digital processing device is also connected.

  Advantageously and according to the invention, the client accounts and the selected criteria areas are recorded on a mass memory of the first digital processing device. Thus, all the data concerning the chosen criteria and the preferred advantages as well as the calculation and digital processing software modules allowing the automatic allocation of the preferred advantages according to the purchases of the customers are centralized on a specific server independent of the means. collection. The operation of this specific server does not disturb the cashing means and does not affect their real-time performance. Whenever a collection operation is performed, the cashing means may query the specific commercial benefit calculation server to determine the business benefits, including the preferred benefits that can be obtained by the customer's purchase. In progress. This calculation is performed extremely quickly and efficiently on the dedicated server for this purpose and its result is returned to the corresponding means of collection almost instantaneously. Similarly, in case of modification of the selected criteria, this modification is performed by implementing the dedicated server resources for this purpose (first digital processing device), without in any way disturbing the operation of the collection means.

  Moreover, advantageously and according to the invention, said customization means comprise at least one terminal, called personalization terminal, connected to the merchant computer system, and adapted to allow, after entering a customer's identification data, the Read and write access to the selected criteria area data associated with a customer account-in particular the selected criteria associated with the credentials of that customer.

  By "terminal" is meant any human / machine interface whether or not it is provided with memory or computation functionalities or specific localized digital processing. Advantageously and according to the invention, at least one customization terminal is associated with the cashing means so as to allow the modification of said selected criteria during a cashing operation. Therefore, with a collection system according to the invention, each customer can achieve the modification of his chosen criteria at the time of his purchases. In this case, the cashing system can advantageously be adapted to recalculate the preferred benefits that can be automatically attributed under the current purchase, or even under a previous purchase if purchase history data is kept in connection with the customer account.

  Advantageously, a collection system according to the invention is characterized in that each customer account comprises a set of data representing a preferred benefits account acquired by the customer and a preferred benefits account used by the customer, and in that that the means for calculating the commercial advantages are adapted to credit the account of preferred advantages acquired by the customer when assigning a preferred advantage to this customer.

  Furthermore, advantageously and according to the invention, the cashing means are adapted to edit a preferred advantage ticket (s) representative of the preferred advantage (s) attributed automatically to the customer upon each purchase. Thus, a preferred advantage may be a ticket possibly printed and provided to the customer, or, in any case, be represented by such a note. Such a ticket may also be in the form of a virtual message sent over the network to the customer, in particular via the Internet. Alternatively, it is possible to simply credit the benefit account acquired from the customer without necessarily issue him specific tickets.

  Advantageously and according to the invention, the collection system is adapted to edit a receipt representative of the criteria chosen after each modification entry made by the client on at least one chosen criterion. This receipt may be transmitted to the customer, in particular by network (Internet or other) and / or printed. It preferably lists all the criteria and characteristics associated with the definition of the corresponding preferred advantage.

  The invention also extends to the method implemented in the system according to the invention. The invention therefore also relates to a method for automatically granting commercial advantages when purchasing articles (one or more article (s)) by a customer from a merchant organization having a computer system, said system computer retailer, in which: - it records in the merchant computer system data specific to each customer, say customer account, with customer identification data, - at each purchase of a customer, it performs a transaction of collection during which data representative of the items comprising the customer's purchase are compiled and recorded, and data representing the corresponding commercial accounting and financial transaction, and the customer's identification data is recorded in the merchant computer system. provided by a customer making a purchase - business benefits are automatically defined and attributed to ident customers at their purchase of articles, according to the identification data provided by each customer for a purchase of articles, and according to predetermined allocation criteria by previously recorded digital data defining these criteria, characterized in that: for each customer account, there is provided a data recording area, called selected criterion area, adapted to allow definition and recording in association with at least a portion of the identification data, criteria, said chosen criteria; , awarding commercial advantages, so-called preferred benefits, and automatically calculating and automatically awarding the preferred benefits to the customer during his purchases at least according to the chosen criteria recorded in the chosen criteria zone corresponding to his customer account, - the merchant computer system is adapted to allow each customer providing identification data to change the the stored data corresponding at least to a part of the chosen criteria of the chosen criteria zone of its customer account associated with these identification data, the merchant computer system is adapted to check, when a customer modifies criteria. chosen, whether previously defined definition rules are satisfied or not and to authorize the registration of such a modification when all these definition rules are satisfied and prohibit the registration of such a modification if at least one of these definition rules is not satisfied.

  The invention further relates to a method and a collection system characterized in combination by all or some of the features mentioned above or below.

  Other features, objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent on reading the following description which refers to the appended figures in which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a cashing system according to an exemplary embodiment of FIG. FIG. 2 is an example of a data model for implementing a collection method in a collection system according to the invention; FIG. 3 represents a flow chart of an example; process implemented for modifying the criteria chosen by a customer in a cashing system according to the invention.

  The article purchase cashing system shown in FIG. 1 comprises a merchant computer system 1 which, in the example shown, is adapted to allow the collection at a store of a merchant organization, and also, the communication to distance through the Internet 2 with remote computer stations 3 of clients.

  The merchant computer system 1 generally comprises a network bus 4 forming a local network internal to the store to which is connected on the one hand, a computer system 5 of commercial management and accounting of the merchant organization, including the store. This management system 5 receives the data 10 concerning the various sales made which are provided to it via the network 4 by the different means of collection of the computerized trading system 1 allowing the composition and the recording of the data representing the purchases.

  These cashing means can take several embodiments depending on the case. When the purchases of the customers are made in a retail store, the means of collection may be formed of one or more cash register (s) 6 formed each of a standalone computer station, such as a workstation, equipped with digital processing means. It may also be a collection of payment terminals 7 connected individually or in groups to one or more control servers 8. In the latter case, the control server 8 is generally equipped with a payment system. UNIX type operation, whereas in the case of an autonomous box 6, the latter is generally equipped with a WINDOWS operating system (.The collection means also comprise, in the example shown, a server, called Internet server 9, forming a remotely accessible computer site, for example via the Internet 2, by client stations 3. The server 9 comprises a software module 10 and recorded data 11 making it accessible online the computer site It should be noted that in the representation of Figure 1, a single box 6, a single cash terminal 7, a single server 8 control, and a single server 9 are represented.In practice, a store comprises generally several boxes 6 or more terminals 7 or more servers 8 cash control, and one or more servers 9 forming one or more computer sites. The computer site can be subject to many variants of implementation as it allows only the remote control and / or payment of purchases of items made by customers on this site. Delivery of purchased items can be done at home or by moving the customer to the store.

  The registration boxes 6, collection terminals 7 (commonly referred to as "POS"), and their associated servers 8, as well as the remote article recording computer sites and the corresponding software modules are all well known and do not have to be described in more detail. In all cases, these different devices and software form collection means for the composition and recording of data representative of items comprising each purchase of a customer, and data representing the commercial transaction, accounting and corresponding financial contribution. The collection means are adapted to be able to also receive customer identification data provided by a customer making a purchase. For example, the cash register 6 and terminals 7 comprise a card reader 20 able to read identification cards (smart card, magnetic card, optical read code card, etc.) from the customer.

  The computer system 5 commercial management makes 20 accessible on the network 4 of the commercial and accounting information from the store, and includes an article file 12 containing information on the various items (universal code, price, identification ...) Proposed to sale by the merchant organization. This article file 12 may or may not be duplicated on the boxes 6 and / or on the cash control servers 8 and / or on the Internet server 9 hosting the computer site. On the other hand, the article file 12 can only be centralized on the commercial management computer system 5, the various other computer stations accessing this file 12 via the network 4 in real time. The choice of one or the other of the architectures depends on the required performances.

  The merchant computer system further comprises a specific server for the management of customer accounts, said CLIENTS server 13, connected to the network 4. This CLIENTS server is preferably an autonomous computer station comprising digital processing means (microprocessor) and a storage memory. This CLIENTS server 13 further comprises at least one client account management software module 15 stored in the database 14 and at least one software module 16 for calculating the client accounts. Preferred benefits.

  The merchant computer system 1 also includes terminals 17, 18, open access within the store and allowing customers to access at least a portion of the data representative of their customer account, including their chosen area of criteria to modify the chosen criteria.

  The diagram of FIG. 1 represents, by way of example, a terminal 17 formed of an autonomous computer station connected to the network 4, and a terminal 18 15 formed of a terminal or a station connected to the control server 8 of FIG. checkout. Of course, several terminals 17, 18 may be provided, regularly distributed in the store.

  In addition, there is provided a terminal 19 formed of a standalone computer station directly connected to the network 4 and also allowing access to the data of customer accounts. This terminal 19 is for example arranged at the reception point of the store and controlled by an operator. The terminals 17, 18 and the terminal 19 are equipped as the boxes 6 and the cash terminals 7 of a card reader 20 for reading the identification card presented by each customer.

  Any other ID reader can be used instead of a card reader. Such a card reader 20 can be a smart card reader or a magnetic stripe card reader, an optical reading code reader (bar code or other), a badge reader ... It can also be any simply be a keyboard on which a customer can enter an identification code. In any case, it must be provided means for receiving identification data provided by each customer individually, so as to identify said customer present near the terminal, the terminal or the corresponding box.

  Boxes 6, cash terminals 7, and the Internet server 9 constitute collection means for creating, for each purchase of articles of a customer, a computer ticket defining at least one list of one or more item (s) purchased by a customer, identified individually with the quantity purchased, and this, thanks to the data recorded in the computer system 5 management, including through the file articles 12. In a traditional way and preferably the different articles are identified in the computer ticket by a standard article code (EAN or UPC). The articles are generally recorded in the article file 12 which can be presented from a computer point of view in the form of a table, by recordings comprising a field CODEARTICLES and the corresponding selling price. Other information can be recorded for each item, depending on the application. The means 6, 7, 9 of cashing include means for recording purchased items, traditionally in the form of an optical reader of optical reading codes (bar codes or other) for the boxes 6 and the terminals. box 7 in the store, adapted to read the barcodes or EAN codes worn individually by each item. In the Internet server 9, the recording means are formed by a software functionality allowing the customer, from his personal computer station 3 to select the articles he wishes to purchase to form a corresponding virtual command.

  In the example shown, the CLIENTS server 13 makes it possible to implement the method according to the invention to allow each client to modify criteria, called chosen criteria, to attribute specific commercial advantages, so-called preferred advantages, in a particular embodiment. Selected criteria area associated with its customer account.

  The CLIENTS server 13 is also adapted to authorize such modifications only according to definition rules previously also recorded in the database 14 of the CLIENTS server 13. FIG. 2 represents an example of organization of the data in a cashing system according to the invention in order to allow the definition by the customers of selected criteria. In the traditional way in FIG. 2, the tables are represented with

  a header in which the fields representing the keys for the tables are indicated. The links between the tables illustrate their relative dependence with, at the level of each table, a code of two integers representing the minimum number, and respectively, the maximum number for the link considered.

  In general, the data is organized as described in WO 9903051 in separate files or tables, according to an architecture for automatically assigning the commercial benefits during checkout based on purchases made by customers. There is thus provided a TYPEBILLET table to define different types of commercial benefits that can be automatically assigned to the customer, in which are recorded the information defining characteristics common to different commercial advantages of the same type, regardless of their value of commercial advantage and attribution conditions for their automatic assignment to customers. There is also a CRITERESTICKET table setting attribution conditions for the purchase of items made by different customers for each type of ticket in the TYPEBILLET table. The TYPEBILLET table comprises the TYPEBILLET key and records defining the types of notes, as indicated for example by WO 9903051. The CRITERESTICKET table includes as key the TYPEBILLET field and a N0 ORDER field of the order number of the criterion corresponding to each type. of ticket. For each criterion thus defined, the CRITERES_TICKET table includes data identifying criteria as indicated for example in WO 9903051.

  Each customer account is represented by two tables, namely a table FOYERS, and a table CARRIERS, allowing to define for each home, one or more identification cards. In the FOYERS table, the key corresponds to the NUMEROFOYERS field identifying a customer, that is to say a customer account. For each household identified by a value in the NUMEROFOYERS field, there can be several cards in the CARRIERS table, each card can be issued for one of the members of the household. Each card thus constitutes a set of customer account identification data that can be provided by a customer. However, as can be seen, several different cards can identify the same customer account and make it possible to attribute commercial advantages, and in particular preferred advantages, to this customer account, or to use commercial advantages already acquired for this account. customer. Preferably, according to the invention, the chosen criteria are defined for each card, that is to say for each value of NUMEROCARTE. Thus, the different members of the same customer account can choose differently, according to their own personal criteria, chosen criteria. The identification data provided by a natural person during a purchase thus identifying this person, make it possible to attach it to a customer account, and allow him to modify selected criteria that are personal to him, and will be used to attribute benefits. home based on purchases made by that person.

  The customer account also includes a TICKETSFOYER table comprising as key a NUMEROFOYER field and a N0_ORDRE field, and which makes it possible to successively record the various purchases made by this customer, that is to say the various computer tickets issued during the last 20 days. different purchases from this client. This table in particular makes it possible to perform statistics on the customer's purchasing behavior.

  In the TICKETSFOYER table, each record includes, for each ticket recorded, a DATETICKET field giving the date of issue of the ticket, an IDTICKET field indicating a ticket identification number, a list of CODEARTICLES corresponding to the EAN code of the different items. purchased and the different values of the field MONTANTARTICLE for each item purchased. Other fields may be provided including a field for identifying the business benefits issued at the ticket and a field for identifying the business benefits used for ticket payment.

  The table AVANTAGESFOYER allows to count for each customer and for each type of commercial advantage, the amount of acquired commercial advantage (credited on his account) and the amount of commercial advantage used (refunded). This table includes as key the NUMEROFOYERS field and the TYPEBILLET field and notably includes as a record the field VALUECUMUL.

  All the tables described above are traditional in a collection system of the state of the art. For the implementation of the invention, there is provided an ARTICLESPREFERES table which defines selected criteria in the form of preferred articles defined by the customers. This table includes as header the fields TYPEBILLET, NUMEROCARTE, and a NUMEROARTICLEPREFERE field defining a preferred item number defined by the customer identified by its card number. Each record includes the CODEARTICLE field corresponding to the preferred article and a PERCENTAGE ATTRIBUTED field indicating the percentage reduction value that can be assigned when subsequently purchasing a preferred item. Each cardholder can define and modify the value of the field CODEARTICLE but not that of field PERCENTAGE ASSIGNED.

  According to the invention, this ARTICLESPREFERES table is managed as award criteria for a specific type of commercial advantage, and thus points to the TYPEBILLET table in which at least one record corresponding to a preferred advantage awarded according to the criteria defined in the ARTICLESPREFERES table is planned.

  For example, such a preferred benefit may simply consist of a purchase order whose value corresponds to the percentage of the selling price of the preferred item as defined by the field PERCENTAGE ATTRIBUTES in the ARTICLESPREFERES table.

  Furthermore, the PERIMETRES table allows the merchant organization to define for each type of ticket corresponding to a preferred advantage provided according to selected criteria, that is to say of preferred articles, the perimeter of the commercial operation. correspondingly defined by a list of items that can be defined as preferred items or on the contrary that are excluded from items that can be defined as preferred items. This PERIMETERS table includes as key 5 the fields TYPEBILLET and a field N0 ORDER. The corresponding records contain a CODEARTICLE in which one can define the codes of the articles authorized as preferred articles, a field CODEFAMILLE which is used when the CODEARTICLE is not indicated to define a family of articles or a ray or another type groups of articles corresponding to articles that can be defined as preferred articles, an INCLUSPERIMETRE_ON field for indicating whether the articles identified by any of the preceding fields should be included or excluded from the preferred articles. . It is thus possible to limit the application of the selected criteria to preferred advantages over items of a certain sector only of the store, for example groceries or beverages products.

  This PERIMETERS table can be modified in its content by the merchant organization itself but not by the customers. It therefore represents definition rules to be taken into account when defining or modifying the preferred articles by the customers and which may be imposed by the merchant organization itself.

  The PARAMETERS table also makes it possible to define definition rules and / or imposed criteria for the allocation of the preferred advantages. This table includes as key the TYPEBILLET field corresponding to the preferred type of advantage to be defined. In the example shown, the records include NBARTICLESPREFERESMAXI fields which determine the maximum number of preferred items that can be defined by a cardholder; NBJOURSLISTEFIGEE which indicates the duration during which a customer (cardholder) can not modify his list of preferred articles (for a predetermined customer, the reference date used is the date of last modification of his chosen criteria (preferred articles); PERCENTAGE_ATRI_DEFAULT which contains an ordered list of default percentage values that will be applied to the discounted sales price deducted from a customer's preferred items (this way we can define a first percentage for the preferred item # 1, a second percentage for the preferred article 5 n 2, ...); NB_ARTICLES_ACHETES_MINI which specifies the number of different minimum articles present on the ticket to be able to benefit from the preferred advantage, and which applies preferably on all the articles, with the exception preferred items of the cardholder present on the ticket (this is the number of different references of articles present d the ticket and not the number of item units in each reference); MONTANTACHAT_MINI which specifies a minimum purchase amount for the ticket to benefit from the preferred advantage considered; this minimum amount applies preferably to all items purchased, with the exception of the cardholder's favorite items present in the ticket; REGISTRATION_ACTIFON which indicates whether registration of preferred articles is allowed or not; DATE_DEBUT_ENREGISTREMENT which provides a date from which the recording of the preferred articles is possible (this field is significant only if REGISTRATION_ACTIFON has the value "O>"); DATE_END_NUMBER which indicates a date up to which the registration of the preferred articles is possible (which is significant only if 20 REGISTRATION_ACTIFON has the value "O"); DATE_DEBUT_EMISSION and DATE_FIN_EMISSION which define the period of emission of the corresponding preferred advantages; NB_AVANTAGES_MAXI_TICKET which sets the maximum number of preferred advantages that can be attributed to a card-carrying customer for each ticket and for each preferred item (this field is not used if the preferred advantage depends on the selling price and not the only presence of the preferred article in the ticket); PRIX_VENTE_MINI_1, ... PRIX_VENTE_MINI_5 and PRIX_VENTE_MAXI_1, ... PRIX_VENTE_MAXI_5 which determine sales price ranges of each item preferred for each ticket; NB_AVANTAGESMAXITICKETPV_ 1, ... NB ADVANTAGESMAXITICKET_ PV_5 which fix the maximum number of preferred advantages per preferred article and per ticket according to each range of sales prices indicated in the preceding fields (in the example, five price ranges are provided sales and five maximum numbers of preferred benefits).

  As can be seen, the PARAMETERS table makes it possible to define at the same time definition rules (fields NBARTICLESPREFERESMAXI and NBJOURLISTEFIGEE, RECORDEMENTACTIF_O_N, DATEDEBUTENREGISTREMENT and DATEFINENREGISTRREMENT), and moreover imposed criteria which are cumulated with the criteria chosen to determine if the preferred advantages are automatically assigned to the customer (other fields listed above). The PARAMETERS table can be modified in its content by the merchant organization but not by the customers.

  In the example of Figure 2, with each purchase of a preferred item, the cardholder is assigned a purchase voucher whose value depends on the field PERCENTAGE ATTRIBUTES. This voucher is credited as such in the BENEFITSFOYER table of his customer account.

  From the terminals 17, 18 or the terminal 19, each cardholder can modify the list of preferred articles of the table ARTICLESPREFERES which corresponds to its card number. It can thus define a number of preferred articles 20 which corresponds at most to the value of the NBARTICLESPREFERESMAXI field of the PARAMETERS table. But the preferred items defined by this cardholder must also meet the perimeter defined in the PERIMETRES table and the different operating rules specified in the table.

PARAMETERS table.

  In this way, each card-carrying customer can define the preferred articles on which he will obtain preferred benefits. This results in great customer satisfaction. Nevertheless, given the structure of the data described above and the presence of the definition rules on the one hand, and criteria imposed on the other hand, the merchant organization is certain to be able to control the operation of the system without drifting. economic crippling, and without disruption of means of collection.

  The different tables other than the table ARTICLES are preferably stored in the customer database 14 of the server CLIENTS 13. 5 Nevertheless, nothing prevents to distribute these different tables on different separate machines connected to the network 4. The organization centralized on the CLIENTS server 13 nevertheless allows greater efficiency in real-time processing, the CLIENTS server 13 being dedicated to the recording functions of the selected criteria and the treatment of the preferred advantages.

  FIG. 2 also represents a variant of a table of selected criteria that can be used in combination or as an alternative to the ARTICLESPREFERES table. In this variant, a table called PROMESSEACHAT is used containing as key fields NUMBER_CARTE, TYPEBILLET, a NUMERORAYONPREFERE field giving a number of 15 departments on which the cardholder must reach a minimum purchase amount over a period defined by the fields DATEDEBUT and DATEFIN also indicated in the key of the PROMESSEACHAT table. The records include the fields MONTANTACHATSEUIL which defines the minimum amount of purchases on the preferred department; PERCENTAGE ATTRIBUES indicating the percentage of commercial advantage subsequently awarded; CODERAYONACHAT giving a preferred radius identification code and a CODERAYONAVANTAGE field giving an identification code of a radius on which the cardholder can obtain a reduction or a purchase order according to the value of the field PERCENTAGE ASSIGNED.

  With such a table, it is understood that customers can commit to making a minimum purchase amount in at least one preferred radius over a period of time and then be given a certain business advantage corresponding to the PERCENTAGE ATTRIBUTE field for purchasing in one or more rays defined by the CODERAYONAVANTAGE field identical to the preferred radius (s) or other (s) of the preferred radius (s). For example, a customer making a minimum purchase from January to June on fresh produce can get a percentage of purchase order proportional to the amount he has committed, during his purchases of end of year on the toys.

  It is of course also possible to allow the customer to define the type of business advantage corresponding to the preferred advantage obtained. For example, in the two variants mentioned above, it suffices to replace the fields PERCENTAGE ASSIGNED in the tables defining the criteria chosen by the field TYPEBILLET which defines the type of commercial advantage (and to delete this field from the key of the table).

  The two examples mentioned above are only non-limiting examples and it is clear that the variations that can be envisaged from a purely commercial point of view on the chosen criteria, the rules of definition and the criteria imposed are almost infinite according to the imagination. marketing specialists.

  The input of the selected criteria can be carried out manually for example on an input mask issued by the CLIENTS server 13 and representing the corresponding chosen criteria table. In the case of preferred articles, the input can also be obtained by simply reading the UPC bar code carried by the article itself on a barcode reader or any other equivalent reader. In addition, it should be noted that the criteria chosen do not necessarily relate solely to purchases made by customers or even to items as indicated above. They can be more complex and can for example be based on a history of purchases or purchasing behavior, or even on geographic, demographic or psychographic data.

  In addition, the merchant computer system may be adapted to edit a representative ticket on the one hand, all the selected criteria defined by a cardholder when the latter carries out a modification of his chosen criteria, and secondly , in a more traditional way, a ticket representative of preferred advantages that he obtains during his purchases of articles.

  Given that the crates and / or cash terminals are connected to the same network 4 as the server CLIENTS 13, nothing prevents to provide that these boxes 6 and / or cash terminals 7 themselves are provided with a functionality to modify the criteria chosen at the time of the customer's checkout.

  An important feature of the invention is also that each customer can not permanently and at any time define the chosen criteria or modify them. The system is indeed adapted to prohibit any modification of the selected criteria for at least a certain predetermined period of time after the last modification made to the criteria chosen by the same cardholder (or by any cardholder of the same household, it is ie by any person associated with the same customer account). However, there may also be provision for a feature allowing modification of the selected criteria during the blackout period, but with the possibility of modifying an additional condition, including the removal of the acquired preferred benefits, or even all the commercial benefits previously acquired by the customer. It is also possible during each modification of a chosen criterion to ask the customer whether he wishes this modification to be taken into account on previous purchases, defined for example over a certain period of time, and provided that these purchases are made. previous ones have not been taken into consideration for the automatic allocation of other preferred benefits.

  All of these functionalities can be obtained by appropriate programming of the software module 15 used, in particular at the level of the CLIENTS server 13.

  FIG. 3 diagrammatically represents the method implemented for the recording of a modification of selected criteria in a cashing system according to the invention. In step 30, the CLIENTS server 13 launches the software module 15 for managing the accounts receivable. During this step, a cardholder is identified in particular by the identification data included in this card, which is associated with a predetermined customer account in the database 14.

  The subsequent step 31 corresponds to the data entry corresponding to the modifications desired by the cardholder on the chosen criteria. This step 31 can be performed by the cardholder from a computer station 3 at the home of the cardholder, or from a terminal 17, 18 in a store, or from a terminal such as 19 at welcome point of a shop. Once the input is complete, a request to write the entered changes is started in step 32, whereupon, in the test 33, it is examined whether or not the selected criteria definition rules are satisfied. If not, the changes are rejected and the process is reset. If the definition rules as defined by the PERIMETERS and PARAMETERS tables are satisfied, the desired changes in the selected criteria area of the corresponding client account are validated and confirmed in step 34.

  In the example shown in the figure, the method is continued by a test step 35 in which it is examined whether a purchase by the card-carrying customer is in progress or not. If so, the preferred benefits that can be automatically attributed by this current purchase, and taking into account the last changes that have occurred, are calculated at step 36. The customer account is then updated at the same time. step 37 to incorporate the new preferred advantages as calculated in step 36. After this step 37, or after the test 35 if there is no purchase in progress, a step of edition 38 of a receipt validating the taking into account of changes to the chosen criteria and to communicate them back to the cardholder. This receipt may only be electronic (virtual) and displayed and / or transmitted over the Internet to the client computer station 3 and / or automatically printed by the CLIENTS server 13 for delivery to the cardholder when he is present in the store or during one of his next passages. This receipt also preferably presents the possible imposed criteria (that is to say all the award criteria) and the other characteristics (in particular from the TYPEBILLET table) corresponding to the definition of the preferred advantage corresponding to the selected criteria that have been modified.

  As already mentioned above, the customer account management module 15 can also be adapted to allow the customer to modify the type of preferred benefit that can be associated with the chosen criteria. For example, a cardholder can associate with his card number as defined in the CARRIERS table, one and / or the other of the chosen criteria tables (PROMESSEACHAT or ARTICLESPREFERES), and even for each of the criteria tables selected, one and / or the other of the types of commercial benefits compatible with these selected criteria as defined in the TYPEBILLET table.

  Authorization of such modifications of the preferred type of advantage may also be accompanied by definition rules, which in their simplest embodiment merely provide that the preferred types of advantage may be selected and selected by the Customers themselves must be predefined in the TYPEBILLET table and be compatible with the corresponding chosen criteria table. However, nothing prevents a more complex embodiment variant from providing rules for defining the type of preferred advantage that are specific with the help of one or more tables, in particular enabling the merchant organization to define these rules. defining or defining boundaries (threshold values).

  It should be noted that a box 6 formed of an independent computer station connected to the real-time network can also be endowed itself with a functionality enabling it to serve as a personalization terminal, that is to say to allow access and modification of the criteria chosen by the cardholder at the very moment of making his purchases at such a cash register 6. For example, it is sufficient to program one of the keys of the cash register 6 (Hardware key or virtual key shown on a touch screen) for the latter to launch the software module 15 for managing customer accounts after action by the corresponding operator.

  Nevertheless, in order not to increase the waiting time at the checkout level, it is preferable that the clients define the chosen criteria on a separate stand-alone station, ie on a personalization terminal which does not belong the means of collection (for example one of the terminals 17, 18 of the store or the station 19 located at the reception of the store or from a station 3 belonging to the customer and connected to the Internet).

  It goes without saying that the invention can be the subject of many different embodiments with respect to the embodiments and variants described above and shown in the figures. In particular, the architecture of the database data of a database or logical files can be physically recorded in any appropriate manner on one and / or the other of the mass memories accessible on the network 4. It can be a single physical file containing the entire database or on the contrary of several separate physical files centralized or not on the same computer device. In addition, all or part of the data used in a cashing system according to the invention can be incorporated directly into the software modules (in the source programs) which provides greater efficiency in terms of real-time processing, but less flexibility of subsequent modifications. Thus, in any case, the data corresponding to the chosen criteria that can be modified by the clients are not incorporated in the software source programs, but are the subject of tables or 20 data files directly accessible in writing.

  The description above only mentions the functionalities and characteristics of the invention, the other general characteristics of an article collection system being themselves themselves well known, for example from WO 9903051.

  This is the case in particular of the method of automatically assigning preferred benefits in customer purchases which may be similar to that described by WO 9903051 for issuing commercial benefit notes. However, the TYPEBILLET table and selected criteria records that correspond to the preferred benefits can only be used if the customer has provided identification data (card) prior to the review of the corresponding award criteria.

  The invention is particularly advantageously applicable to a collection system of the type known under the name EVOLUTEL 5 marketed by INFOMIL France. It is nevertheless applicable to any other type of payment system in a similar way, since this collection system is provided with means for recording customer accounts and means for automatically calculating commercial benefits.

Claims (28)

  1 / - Cash collection system for purchases of articles made by customers from a merchant organization with a computer system, said merchant computer system (1), which comprises: - means (13, 14, 15 ) recording data specific to each customer, said customer account, including customer identification data, - means, said means (6, 7, 8, 9) encaissement, allowing the composition and registration data representative of articles 10 component each purchase of a customer, and data representing the corresponding commercial, accounting and financial transaction, these means (6, 7, 8, 9) cashing being adapted to receive data from identification of a customer provided by a customer making a purchase, means (13, 16) for calculating the commercial advantages 15 able to automatically define and attribute commercial benefits to the customers identified during their purchases of items, according to the data identification data provided by each customer for a purchase of items and according to predetermined allocation criteria by previously recorded digital data defining these criteria, characterized in that: - for each customer account, it includes a registration area selected data area, adapted to allow the definition and recording in association with at least a portion of the identification data, criteria, said chosen criteria, granting of commercial advantages, said preferred benefits, the means (13, 16) for calculating the commercial advantages being adapted so as to be able to automatically assign the preferred advantages to the customer at least according to the chosen criteria recorded in the selected criteria zone corresponding to his customer account, - he comprises means, said means (3, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19) of customization, allowing each client providing identification data ication to modify the recorded data corresponding to at least a part of the selected criteria of the chosen criteria zone of its customer account associated with these identification data; - it comprises means (14) for recording data representative of rules. defining the chosen criteria, and the merchant computer system (1) is adapted to check, when a customer changes the chosen criteria, whether these definition rules are satisfied or not, and to authorize the registration of such a criterion. modification when all these definition rules are satisfied, and prohibit the recording of such a modification if at least one of these 10 definition rules is not satisfied.   2 / - System according to claim 1, characterized in that the selected criteria comprise the definition of at least one article, said preferred article, for the purchase of which at least one commercial advantage, said preferred article advantage, is automatically attributed to customer.   3 / - The system of claim 2, characterized in that the preferred article advantage consists of a commercial advantage applying to a purchase of the preferred article.   4 / - System according to one of claims 2 or 3, characterized in that the preferred article advantage consists of a purchase order.   5 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the selected criteria comprise the definition of a group of articles, said preferred group, for the purchase of which at least one commercial advantage, said group advantage preferred, is automatically assigned to the customer.   6 / - System according to claim 5, characterized in that the criteria selected further comprise the definition of conditions relating to the purchase of different articles of the preferred group presiding over the allocation of the preferred group advantage.   7 / - System according to one of claims 5 or 6, characterized in that the preferred group advantage consists of a purchase order.   8 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that it comprises means (14) for recording data representative of criteria, said imposed criteria, of attributing at least a portion of the benefits preferred, which can be defined and modified by the merchant organization and not by the customers, and that the means (13, 16) for calculating the commercial benefits are adapted to apply both the criteria imposed and the criteria chosen for calculate and automatically assign the corresponding preferred benefits to a customer.   9 / - System according to claim 8, characterized in that the criteria imposed comprise at least one of the following criteria: a maximum absolute value represented by all the commercial advantages attributed to the customer for at least one advantage preferred to each purchase and / or over at least a predetermined T3 period, - a maximum relative value represented by all the commercial benefits attributed to the customer for at least one preferred benefit as a percentage of the amount purchased with each purchase and / or on minus a predetermined period T4, - a method of calculating the value of each preferred benefit attributed to the customer, - a minimum purchase amount for the current purchase and / or a predetermined period T5, - a minimum amount of purchase for the current purchase and / or a predetermined period T6 for items for which no preferred benefit applies.   10 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the selected criteria comprise a total amount of minimum purchases to be made on at least a first predetermined period.   11 / - System according to claims 9 and 10, characterized in that the imposed criteria define at least one preferred benefit amount awarded whose value is predetermined and depends on the total amount of minimum purchases.   12 / - System according to claims 10 and 1 1, characterized in that the preferred advantage consists of a commercial advantage attributed to purchases made for at least a second predetermined period.   13 / - System according to one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that the preferred advantage is a purchase order.   14 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the means (3, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19) personalization comprise data representative of predefined criteria and recorded among which a selection of selection must be done by the client and recorded as a selected criterion in the selected criteria area.   15 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that the selected criteria comprise at least one value entered by the customer.   16 / - System according to claim 15, characterized in that for at least one value entered by the customers as a chosen criterion, the definition rules comprise at least one maximum value and / or at least one minimum value.   17 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 16, characterized in that the definition rules are adapted to determine at least a period T1 during which the selected criteria can be changed.   18 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 17, characterized in that the definition rules are adapted to determine at least a period T2 during which the criteria chosen can not normally be modified.   19 / - The system of claim 18, characterized in that a period T2 defined for a preferred advantage begins to run from the last modification made on the chosen criteria of this preferred advantage.   20 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 19, characterized in that the definition rules comprise a maximum number of different definitions of preferred benefits that can be simultaneously active for the same client.   21 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 20, characterized in that it comprises: - means for each client providing identification data to modify at least a portion of recorded digital data 5 representative of the characteristics of at least one preferred advantage, said type of preferred advantage, other than the criteria for allocating this preferred advantage, means for recording data representative of rules for defining the types of preferred advantage, and the computer system merchant is adapted to check, when a data client 10 changes a preferred type of advantage, whether these definition rules are satisfied or not, and to allow the recording of such a modification when all these rules definition are satisfied, and prohibit the registration of such a change if at least one of these rules is not satisfied.   22 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 21, characterized in that in the computerized trading system (1), the selected criteria areas are logically centralized into a single database common to all means ( 6, 7, 8, 9) and means (13, 16) for calculating the commercial advantages.   23 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 22, characterized in that the commercial computer system (1) comprises at least a first device (13) for digital processing forming the means for calculating commercial benefits, and at least a second digital processing device (6, 7, 8, 9) forming the collection means, separate from the first digital processing device (s), but connected to to this (these) first device (s) (13) digital processing by a link (4) in real time.   24 / - System according to claim 3, characterized in that the customer accounts, and the selected criteria areas, are recorded on a mass memory of the first digital processing device (13).   25 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 24, characterized in that said means (3, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19) personalization comprise at least one terminal (3, 17, 18, 19), said personalization terminal, connected to the merchant computer system (1), and adapted to allow, after entering a client's identification data, read and write access to the data of the selected criteria zone associated with a customer account of this customer.   26 / - System according to claim 25, characterized in that at least one personalization terminal is associated with the means (6, 7, 8, 9) cashing so as to allow the modification of the criteria chosen during a 10 collection operation.   27 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 26, characterized in that each customer account comprises a set of data representing a preferred benefit account acquired by the customer and a preferred benefit account used by the customer, and in that the means (13, 16) for calculating the commercial advantages are adapted to credit the account of preferred advantages acquired by the customer when assigning a preferred benefit to that customer.   28 / - System according to one of claims 1 to 27, characterized in that the means (6, 7, 8, 9) cashing are adapted to edit a receipt representative of the criteria chosen after each modification input made on to 20 minus one criterion chosen.