FR3090955A1 - Method for managing an electronic commerce system comprising steps for ordering online - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention presents a method of managing an electronic commerce system comprising steps of online orders, steps of managing delivery orders in an electronic locker comprising the allocation of a delivery compartment and the issuance of '' a message comprising an identifier of the compartment allocated to the user and the deliveryman, and steps for managing the withdrawal of the items stored in said electronic locker claim 1 characterized in that said central server controls the allocation of the same identifier compartment for a plurality of orders from the same user issued in a time interval between the delivery of a first order and the withdrawal of said first order, and the transmission of said identifier to the delivery person of at least a second order as well as user audit. Figure 2

Description

Description

Title of the invention: Method for managing an electronic commerce system comprising steps for ordering online.

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to the field of electronic commerce and more specifically the field of automatic lockers for the delivery of items in collective equipment temporarily assigned to the recipient of the order, who can collect the ordered items by accessing the compartment where his articles were deposited, thanks to an electronic message indicating the identifier of the compartment and an access code allowing him to unlock access to the compartment.

The withdrawal of the package from automatic collection points is an increasingly common solution offered by websites. The recipient himself does part of the "last mile" and this formula is between 20 and 30% cheaper than a home delivery. It makes it possible to avoid delivery failures which occur as soon as the ordered product could not be delivered to the end customer and which concern 10 and 40% of deliveries which cause for the deliverer the need to return or for the customer's go to the distribution point where his package was finally routed.

In 2017, around 12% of online shoppers said they chose the delivery option in automatic lockers such as Pickup station, Inpost, Abricolis, Amazon Locker, Fnac-Darty (trade names). This solution has many advantages:

· The average time to collect a parcel from the deposit is around ten seconds.

• A simple code received by SMS or email is enough to open the locker.

• Often accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the deposit allows you to withdraw your order at any time, and therefore not to depend on the opening hours of the merchant at a relay point and to avoid rush hours • The instructions complete the offer already existing in very dense urban areas.

State of the art

We know in the prior art different systems for placing an order online and recovering the property on a dedicated site.

Patent application WO2014111483 describes an electronic commerce system comprising:

[0007] - an electronic commerce platform for consulting articles and preparing an order from a computer connected to the server of said platform by a computer network,

- At least one equipment for providing a command, comprising at least one enclosure provided with a window controlled by a local computer and means for dialogue with a code reader Said enclosure comprises several mobile compartments able to be linking said counter to allow the withdrawal and / or introduction of articles in said compartment. This prior art system further comprises means for enabling the registration of a code corresponding to the compartment in which the items of an order are placed, the secure transmission of said code to the user who placed said order under form of an electronic notification and means to allow said user to present said code to activate the movement of the compartment considered opposite the counter and the opening of said counter for the withdrawal of articles corresponding to the order.

We also know the patent EP1636770B1 which describes a storage equipment intended for an implementation for electronic commerce. It is in the form of a dispenser intended for objects and comprising a plurality of compartments open on one side and formed on a round magazine mounted to pivot and at least partially surrounded by a housing or other delimitation, and at least one movable closure element in the housing relative to a predefined central access orifice making it possible to control, in particular to give or prevent access to certain or different lockers. The closing element comprises at least one flap mounted movable relative to the access orifice or to the housing and provided with openings of predefined size and / or height and adapted at least approximately to the locker openings and / or to the height of the lockers, and at least one door mounted upstream of the round store relative to the direction of access or depth of the lockers. This door allows and selectively prevents access to the shutter or a locker behind an opening.

European patent application EP2830026A1 describes another solution for optimizing systems intended for the dispatch of a postal item. This system includes:

- at least one calculation unit;

- A plurality of parcel lockers;

- A receiving device for receiving a shipping order, which includes recipient data and sender data;

- At least one storage device for storing an association between a parcel rack and a shipping order;

- at least one authentication device for authenticating a package receiver;

- At least one input device and / or an acquisition device intended for the input or the acquisition of a package identification code.

Patent application WO2002007119A1 also describes a method and a system making it possible to route / recover goods safely to / from a storage unit. This system uses a warehouse that can contain at least one commodity, and that can be closed with a door, via a locking mechanism. Access to the interior of the warehouse is controlled by a server which is in communication with the warehouse via the Internet or another network connection. This server controls access and operation of the warehouse either directly or in combination with a control unit. This control unit is located in a kiosk which has interfaces by means of which customers, sellers and / or delivery agents access and use the warehouse. The warehouse can be any storage container, such as a garage, a mailbox, a heating / cooling compartment, or other storage units. This kiosk can also include vending machines which, preferably, are controlled by a server.

The patents US2005 / 060063, EP1076213, and EP1255233 describe other similar solutions for the sale of articles.

Disadvantages of the solutions of the prior art

The solutions of the prior art are generally intended for a closed ecosystem, organized by a brand organizing the entire logistics chain from the taking of online orders to delivery. The "single-brand" solutions are therefore not optimized in terms of floor occupancy, since each brand implements its delivery system on the same territory. In addition, these solutions discard local suppliers who do not have sufficient capacity to meet the overall needs of customers.

The solutions of the prior art are sometimes also operated by logistics players, in the manner of an automatic deposit. In this case too, the floor space is not optimized because each order is processed in isolation. Thus, if a customer places several orders on different merchant sites, deliveries will occupy several compartments, generally sparse. Indeed, in an automatic locker, the compartments have a determined capacity to allow the storage of the largest orders, while the vast majority of orders have a very small volume. As a result, the overall size of an automatic locker is greatly oversized compared to the cumulative volume of items stored at a given time.

Solution provided by the invention

The present invention aims to optimize the size of the storage enclosure so as to allow to satisfy a number of orders greater than that of the solutions of the prior art, for a space requirement of the given enclosure .

To this end, the invention relates in its most general sense to a method of managing an electronic commerce system comprising steps of online orders, steps of managing delivery orders in an electronic locker comprising l allocation of a delivery compartment and the transmission of a message comprising an identifier of the compartment allocated to the user and to the delivery person, and steps for managing the withdrawal of the items stored in said electronic locker claim 1 characterized in that said central server orders the allocation of the same compartment identifier to a plurality of orders from the same user issued in a time interval between the delivery of a first order and the withdrawal of said first order, and the transmission said identifier to the delivery person of at least a second order as well as user audit.

Advantageously, said central server orders the edition of a withdrawal message when the time between delivery in the allocated compartment exceeds a predetermined period or in the event of receipt of withdrawal information.

Alternatively, said predetermined period corresponds to the consumption limit time.

Preferably, said central server controls the presentation of groups of configurable items and the calculation of order orders to one or more trading platforms, said order orders comprising a unique identifier for the delivery compartment for said items.

The invention also relates to an electronic commerce system for implementing the above process, comprising:

- at least one electronic commerce platform for consulting articles and preparing an order from a computer connected to the server of said platform by a computer network,

- at least one equipment for providing an order, consisting of at least one enclosure comprising several compartments each closed by an access flap to allow the withdrawal and / or introduction of the articles into said compartment,

- The system further comprising a centralized server comprising means for generating an access code associated with the compartment in which the articles of an order are deposited, for the secure transmission of said code to the user who placed said order in the form of an electronic notification and means to allow said user to present said code to activate the unlocking of the access flap to said compartment for the withdrawal of articles corresponding to the order, [0032] characterized in that at least part of said compartments has a first cooled zone and a second zone at ambient temperature, the two zones being protected by a common access flap controlled by a unique locking and unlocking means that can be activated by said access code.

Alternatively, at least part of said compartments further comprises a third frozen zone.

Preferably, each of the compartments constitutes a module which can be juxtaposed with another module to allow an evolution of the capacity of said enclosure.

Advantageously, said compartments comprise a weighing means, the system comprising means for comparing the weighing information determined by said means after delivery with the nominal weight of the items delivered.

According to a variant, said enclosure comprises a combination of compartments of different types, the central server executing a processing for allocating the identifier of one of said compartments to a new order according to the nature of said order and the distribution of the compartments occupied at the time of the allocation of a new allocation.

According to another variant, said enclosure comprises a combination of compartments of different capacities, the central server executing a processing of allocation of the identifier of one of said compartments to a new order according to the volume of said order and the distribution of the compartments occupied at the time of the allocation of a new allocation.

Detailed description of a nonlimiting example of the invention

The present invention will be better understood on reading the detailed description of a nonlimiting example of the invention which follows, referring to the accompanying drawings in which:

[Fig-1] Figure 1 shows a schematic view of the hardware architecture of a system according to the invention.

[Fig.2] Figure 2 shows a schematic view of the functional architecture of a system according to the invention.

The object of the invention is to allow the sharing of equipment for the provision of articles ordered online from a plurality of online merchant sites and, where appropriate, between several delivery services, in order to facilitate the 'organization of the withdrawal of articles by the users of a traffic area, with equipment whose congestion is optimized to allow installation in sites such as physical stores or covered public spaces.

The aim is to improve the flexibility of online business processes, in particular by facilitating access to small producers, offering a reduced number of articles, and allowing the development of a network of local players both for “last mile” delivery as spaces for the delivery of deliveries. Optimizing the size of the automatic deposit equipment compared to the delivery capacity makes it possible to disseminate in existing living spaces (town halls, existing public or private buildings, shops, etc.) and therefore to maintain a coexistence between activities with a human presence and the ease of access to commands over a wide range of time.

For this, it is necessary to provide technical responses to the limits of automatic deposit and electronic commerce solutions of the prior art.

General hardware architecture

The hardware architecture includes automatic lockers (200, 300, 400) which can be installed either in an isolated place, or inside a public or private building (310) such as a municipal building, a train station, shopping center, shop or café, or near a building, for example a car park (410).

The automatic lockers (200, 300, 400) include a plurality of compartments intended to receive the items ordered.

Each compartment is closed by a door or flap controlled by an electronic lock, the actuation of which is controlled by a computer, by the presentation of a code transmitted to the delivery person and to the customer by the management server (105). This code can be entered on a keyboard provided on an interaction zone for automatic instructions (200, 300, 400) or by presentation of a graphic code such as a matrix code of QrCode type or by a code transmitted by radio frequency , for example by NEC.

Customers receive information relating to the availability of delivery on cell phones (30, 31). The articles are delivered from a warehouse (49, 59) connected to the server (105).

To allow optimization of deliveries, the server (105) records for each delivery corresponding to a COMij command from a client Q, the identifier ID _; of the assigned automatic setpoint compartment, volume V _; j articles corresponding to the order, the time T j of delivery in the compartment ID _; and optionally the weight Ρ _Μ of the articles corresponding to the order as well as the period of availability D _; in the ID compartment _; .

If the client Q places a new command C0M _{ij +} i, the server (105) performs a processing taking into account the data recorded for the first command Q, as well as the data corresponding to the second COM command _{ij +} j.

If the time of delivery precedes the end of the period for making the items available from the first C0M order _; j and before their withdrawal by client C _; (determined for example by the weighing system integrated in each compartment), the server (105) checks whether the cumulative volume of the articles is compatible with the capacity of the compartment ID _; .

If this is the case, the server (105) assigns the identifier of the compartment ID to the delivery person _; as well as the opening code of this compartment, to allow delivery of the articles of the second order in the same ID compartment _; .

The server (105) will record the corresponding data and determine a new period of availability ϋ ^ ₊ ι and notify by email the new information to the client Q

If not, the second command will be associated with another available compartment. The server (105) can optionally receive warehouses (49, 59) the consumption time limit information corresponding to the perishable items.

In the event of the consumption deadline or article withdrawal alert being exceeded, the server (105) orders the sending of a notification to the client concerned as well as a message to a deliveryman containing the code access to the compartment (s) concerned, for the removal of the articles concerned.

Operation

Figure 2 shows a view of a particular embodiment where the electronic locker described in more detail later comprises several compartments divided into zones of different natures.

The user places an electronic order in known manner using a telephone, a tablet or a computer connects to the internet (40) and opens a session (41) with the server of a merchant site (48). He selects the items corresponding to his order, and the server (48) records the identifiers of the items ordered, the quantities, and associates with each of these pieces of information the type of product (fresh, frozen, other), as well as the cumulative weight and the estimated volume.

The order can also be placed through a meta-platform including price comparison and product quality functionalities, to aggregate information from a plurality of merchant sites. This metaplatform will also have the function of proposing optimized transport costs.

At the end of the order, the user selects a delivery center.

An electronic message (42) is transmitted by the merchant server (48) to the server (105) for managing the delivery warehouses. This message (42) includes the user identifier, the distribution by type of article and the cumulative volume of each type of article (for example fresh, frozen, other), the estimated date of delivery and the cumulative weight. items ordered.

In return, the delivery server (105) transmits an identifier of a compartment available on the estimated date of delivery and adapted to the nature of the order. The delivery server (105) applies for this purpose an optimization processing taking into account the current occupation of the compartments of the enclosure (100) concerned, as well as possibly the historical data making it possible to carry out an occupation forecast. future. The goal is to allocate a priori the smallest compartment available on the estimated date of delivery and comprising the areas necessary to satisfy the distribution of type of items of the order (40).

The merchant server (48) then transmits an electronic message (43) to the server of a storage warehouse (49). The delivery server (105) optionally transmits the delivery information to the server of a storage warehouse (49).

The order is prepared in the warehouse (or the warehouses when the articles are in different storage centers) and the articles are physically delivered (45) to the allocated enclosure (100), and then placed in the areas concerned. of the allocated compartment.

The delivery server (105) also transmits a message (47) to the user. This message (47) includes information relating to the time range for withdrawal of delivery (delivery date and date of return to stock of items not withdrawn), the designation of the compartment allocated to the order, as well as a code for access to this compartment, for example in the form of an alphanumeric code, a matrix code QR code (QRcode in English) or a digital NLC code.

If the user places a second order (50) before the end of the availability of the first order (40), the message (51) is usually transmitted to the merchant server (58) concerned.

At the end of the order processing, the merchant server (58) connects to the delivery server (105) which checks if the user's identifier corresponds to an order in progress. If necessary, the delivery server (105) checks whether the space available in the compartment allocated during the first order makes it possible to store the additional articles of the second order and allocates the optimal compartment, possibly with an instruction to move the articles. from the compartment allocated during the first order in a larger compartment suitable for grouping the two orders.

The merchant server (58) then transmits the information to the warehouse (59) by a message (53) which also optionally receives the information from the delivery server (105). The articles are then delivered (59) to the enclosure (100). The information (54) is transmitted by the delivery server (105) to the warehouse, as well as to the merchant server (58) in the form of messages (44, 52).

When the user comes to pick up the items, the weighing system determines the removal of all the items and transmits the item removal information to the delivery server.

Hardware infrastructure

The system implements enclosures (100) constituted by modular equipment grouping compartments (110, 120, 130, 140, 190) constituted by storage spaces closed by a shutter or a door lockable by an electric lock . The enclosure (100) comprises a computer (101) managing the operation of its equipment and in particular the electric locks releasing or locking the shutters or doors of each of the compartments, as well as the interaction with a man-machine interface (102). C5 on the user's telephone (103).

These compartments (110, 120, 130, 140, 190) are for example formed by metal cabinets having lateral hooking means to allow scalability of the installation. This cabinet has an electrically controlled lock to activate or deactivate the locking of the door or access flap to the compartment content.

The compartments of the same enclosure (100) have multiple capacities:

- some compartments (110, 120, 130) have a maximum capacity

- other compartments (140) have a minimum capacity

- other compartments (190) have an intermediate capacity.

The plurality of compartment types makes it possible to optimize the occupation of the enclosure, by an optimization calculation of the allocation of the compartments to each of the orders.

In addition, each compartment can include one or more storage areas of a different nature:

- zone (111, 121, 131, ...) at room temperature (in white in FIG. 1)

- refreshed area (112, 122, 192, 183), for example at 6 °, for fresh products (gray areas in Figure 1)

- Frozen area (113, 123, 133, 162) frozen (gray hatched areas in Figure 1).

A given compartment may have one or more zones of different natures.

Depending on the articles constituting an order, the compartment will be allocated according to its zone combination in order to allow delivery (55) in a single compartment of all the articles.

Claims (1)

Claims [Claim 1] Method of managing an electronic commerce system comprising steps of online orders, steps of managing delivery orders in an electronic locker comprising the allocation of a delivery compartment and the transmission of a message comprising a identifier of the compartment allocated to the user and the delivery person, and steps for managing the withdrawal of the items stored in said electronic locker, characterized in that said central server orders the allocation of the same compartment identifier to a plurality of commands d 'the same user issued in a time interval between the delivery of a first order and the withdrawal of said first order, and the transmission of said identifier to the delivery person of at least a second order as well as user audit. [Claim 2] A method of managing an electronic commerce system according to claim 1 characterized in that said central server controls the edition of a withdrawal message when the time elapsed between delivery in the allocated compartment exceeds a predetermined time or in case of receipt of withdrawal information. [Claim 3] A method of managing an electronic commerce system according to claim 2 characterized in that said predetermined period corresponds to the consumption time limit. [Claim 4] Method for managing an electronic commerce system according to claim 1 characterized in that said central server controls the presentation of groups of configurable articles and the calculation of order orders at one or more trading platforms, said order orders with a unique identifier for the delivery compartment for said items. [Claim 5] Electronic commerce system for implementing the method according to claim 1, comprising: at least one electronic commerce platform for consulting articles and preparing an order from a computer connected to the server of said platform by a computer network, -at least one equipment for providing an order, consisting of at least one enclosure comprising several compartments each closed by an access flap to allow the withdrawal and / or introduction of the articles into said compartment, the system further comprising a centralized server comprising means for generating an access code associated with the compartment in which the items of an order are deposited, for the secure transmission of said code to the user who has passed said order in the form of an electronic notification and means to allow said user to present said code to activate the unlocking of the access flap to said compartment for the withdrawal of articles corresponding to the order, characterized in that at least part of said compartments has a first cooled zone and a second zone at room temperature, the two zones being protected by a common access flap controlled by a unique locking and unlocking means that can be activated by said access code. [Claim 6] Electronic commerce system according to claim 5 characterized in that at least part of said compartments further comprises a third frozen zone. [Claim 7] Electronic commerce system according to claim 5 characterized in that each of the compartments constitutes a module which can be juxtaposed with another module to allow an evolution of the capacity of said enclosure. [Claim 8] Electronic commerce system according to claim 5 characterized in that said compartments include weighing means, the system comprising means for comparing the weighing information determined by said means after delivery with the nominal weight of the items delivered. [Claim 9] Electronic commerce system according to claim 5 characterized in that said enclosure comprises a combination of compartments of different types, the central server executing a processing of allocation of the identifier of one of said compartments to a new order according to the nature of the said order and the distribution of the compartments occupied at the time of the allocation of a new allocation. [Claim 10] Electronic commerce system according to claim 5 characterized in that said enclosure comprises a combination of compartments of different capacities, the central server executing a processing of allocation of the identifier of one of said compartments to a new order according to the volume of said order and of the distribution of the compartments occupied at the time of the allocation of a new allocation.