GB2375193A

GB2375193A - Fulfilment of on-line orders in a dealer/supplier system

Info

Publication number: GB2375193A
Application number: GB0111051A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Catalina Mcgregor
Original assignee: Richemont International Ltd; Richemont International SA
Current assignee: Richemont International Ltd; Richemont International SA
Priority date: 2001-05-04
Filing date: 2001-05-04
Publication date: 2002-11-06
Also published as: GB0111051D0

Abstract

A dealer web site discloses web content supplied from a brand server within a frame. Users attempt to purchase products displayed and, on receipt of a purchase order, the dealer checks local availability at its warehouse. If the product is not available locally, the dealer notifies a brand server which then determines if the order can be met from a brand warehouse, or a specified one of a number of brand warehouses, or whether the order can be met from one of a number of further dealers by sending a message to their dealer servers. The order may ben be fulfilled directly by the party that has the stock or via the original dealer. Preferably, the brand server determines at least some of the web content on the dealer server and may remove product advertising for out-of stock products.

Description

FULFILMENT OF ON-LINE ORDERS IN A DEALER/SUPPLIER SYSTEM This invention relates to the offering of a party's goods for sale via a third party web site.

It is known to provide space on a dealer or distributor's web site for display of material provided from a third party web site. Typically, a frame is defined and the HTML code for the web page points to an image and/or text which is retrieved from the third party's server for display in the frame when a user accesses the trader's web site. Such a system provides a convenient way for traders or distributors to carry up-to-date information about the third party products they offer.

It is also known to monitor, by means of an intermediate portal, the activity related to third party displays within frames on such trader web sites. The applet may, for example, record details on the number of hits of items on the web site, the number of purchases, if the web site offers e-commerce, and other useful statistical information relating to interest in the third party's products displayed within the trader's web site. This statistical information can be provided to the third party for analysis.

A known system is illustrated in Figure 1. Such a system is provided by Imediation Limited of England. In Figure 1, a brand owner 10, holds details of its brands at its web server. These will typically be held as HTML or other mark-up language coded pages and are made available to the web sites of authorised dealers 12. The displayed pages of the authorised dealers will typically define a frame within which HTML code from the brand owner site is displayed. Around the frame, for example in a strip above the frame and a column to the left of the frame, will be displayed information relating to the authorised dealer, for

example, menu information to enable navigation to other parts of the dealer's web site.

A user 14 accesses the dealer's web site in the conventional way using the dealer's URL. To the user, all the information displayed appears to come from the dealer and the user is unaware that the frame content is provided from the brand owner's site. Data pas'sing between the brand owner and the authorised dealers passes through a hub 16, where statistical information collected by an intermediate portal can be collected and processed for use by the brand owner.

The example provided above is useful in that it enables a brand owner to provide its own content to authorised dealers and collect various information relating to customer interest and activity.

However, it is limited in its usefulness to the brand owner as the brand owner has no control of the sales process that takes place at the dealer's site. For example, if one dealer site receives a lot of interest for a given product, there is no way that the brand owner can tell whether that dealer is in a position to meet customer orders for that product.

We have appreciated that there is a need for a system which allows more complex interaction between a brand owner and a distributor in an online trading environment.

The invention aims to meet the need outlined above and to overcome the limitations of the prior art systems.

In its broadest form, the invention provides for orders to a given dealer, to be fulfilled on-line from the brand server site or from a different dealer if the dealer to whom the product request was made cannot fulfil the order.

More specifically, there is provided a system for fulfilment of online product orders, comprising: a plurality of dealer web sites, each dealer web site having an associated server and an associated warehouse of products in stock; and a brand server having a database of web pages relating to products offered for sale at the dealer web

sites; wherein the dealer web sites each display web content provided by the brand server and wherein each of the dealer servers includes means for notifying the brand server if an ordered product is not in stock, the notification including details of the product not in stock; and wherein the brand server further comprises means for determining from where the product out of stock at the dealer can be supplied, in response to the notification from the dealer, and for notifying the dealer if the product can be supplied.

The invention also provides a method of conducting online commercial transactions between customer and dealers wherein the dealer's web sites include web content provided by a remote brand server, the method comprising: on receipt of an order for purchase of a product at a dealer web site, sending a message to the brand server giving details of the product order if the product can be supplied from the dealer's product stock; at the brand server, determining if the order can be fulfilled; and notifying the dealer if the product can be supplied to fulfil the order.

Embodiments of the invention have the advantage that local inability to fulfil an order, due to lack of stock is overcome and the stock may be provided, for example, from the brand warehouse, or from a different dealer.

Furthermore, to the user it appears as if the order is fulfilled by the dealer to who the order was first made.

Preferably, the web content from the brand server displayed at the dealer site is controlled so that only product in stock is displayed. This stock may either be in stock locally or at the brand site of another dealer.

This has the advantage that customers are not disappointed by not being able to buy products they see displayed on their screens.

Embodiments of the invention have the further advantage that the brand owner can better track the movement of stock and the sales of product. As a result, they can ensure that stock delivered to a given dealer targets local trends and local preferences.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a system for providing selective web content to a web site, comprising: a plurality of dealer web sites, each dealer web site having an associated server; and a brand server having a database of web pages relating to products offered for sale at the dealer web sites; wherein the dealer web sites each display web content provided by the brand server and wherein each of the dealer servers includes means for notifying the brand server of customer preferences, wherein the brand server further comprises means for controlling the web content provided to each of the dealer web site in accordance with the customer preferences provided from the respective sites.

The second aspect of the invention also provides a method of providing selective web content to a web site, in an on-line system comprising a plurality of dealer sites and a brand site, wherein the dealer sites carry web content provided from the brand site and indicative of products provided by the brand site owner and available for purchase through the dealers, the method comprising: each of the dealers notifying the brand server of customer preferences; and controlling the web content provided to each of the dealer web site from the brand site in accordance with the customer preferences provided from the respective sites.

The second aspect of the invention has the advantage that customer trends and preferences at each of the dealer web sites are reported back to the brand site which can monitor them and adjust the web content that is made available to the dealer sites accordingly. Thus, the web content to a given dealer site can concentrate and promote products which are known to be popular to customers of that dealer.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a prior art system described above;

Figure 2 is a schematic representation of a first embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 is a schematic view of a modification of the embodiment of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a flow chart outlining the process performed in operation of the system of Figure 2; and Referring to Figure 2, the first embodiment of the invention, in essence, examples the brand owner to control sales of products from local distributors by being made aware of the capacity of the local distributor to fulfil orders.

If a local distributor cannot fulfil an order, the order is passed on to the brand owner who can either fulfil it from its own central warehouse or pass the order onto another distributor who is known to have the relevant product in stock. In an alternative, the brand owner may control a number of different brands and distribute a product request to the warehouse or central control for each brand who then assumes responsibility for meeting the order.

The system embodying the invention uses a portal similar to the channel of the prior system of figure 1 to collect information relating to the activity at the dealers' web sites. This means that the brand site does not actually need access to the dealers'sites to get stock information.

It will be appreciated that the arrangement described is highly advantageous for the brand owner. Not only can they increase sales by meeting orders that would otherwise be unfulfilled, but also they can monitor trends in customer purchasing enabling them to target distribution of particular products to the market, or country in which they are most popular. This is important as it is preferable to be able to supply a product from a local distributor's warehouse as it is quicker and less expensive, especially where that distributor is in a different country.

In Figure 2, the distributor's web site is shown at 22.

It is again divided into two parts, the outer part 24, comprising material supplied from the distributor's server

26, and a frame 22, carrying content provided from the brand owner's web site shown as WWW B. In the prior art example, any specific images of products and associated text are displayed in the frame. In this embodiment, the user may be given access to the entire web site of the brand owner, or all the products sold under one brand.

This is possible due to the ability of the embodiment to fulfil orders which cannot be fulfilled locally.

The process of linking to the brand web site is well known and uses tags in the HTML. Those tags can be specific, identifying particular images or text for display or can point to whole web pages or series of web pages.

The distributor server is linked to the distributor warehouse 28. This enables the distributor to keep track, electronically of the stock levels in the warehouse and, therefore, to be able to tell whether a product order can be met locally.

Various types of stock monitoring are possible. The more sophisticated will notify the server every time a product is placed in or removed from stock. The simpler will provide the server with a list of stock items and their quantities and the server will update this list as orders are received without reference to the warehouse.

At the brand owner, a web server 30, communicates with a portal (shown as part of the Internet) across the Internet 32 or some other communications link to receive details of activity at the distributor's web site. The portal includes a database holding details of activity at the various dealers sites which are reported back to the portal as they happen. The brand owner site includes the web server 30, and a database 34, which holds the web pages which are distributed by the web server 30 to the various distributor web sites. The database and the web server also communicate with a central brand warehouse 36.

In practice there will be many distributors and, to illustrate this a second distributor server 34, is shown. The messages sent from the first distributor server 26, may

include an indication that a customer has ordered a product which is not in stock in the distributor's warehouse 28. On receipt of such a message the central brand warehouse will be interrogated to determine whether the product is in stock and, if it is, the distributor will be notified and the product will be dispatched from the central warehouse. As with the distributor, stock levels'could be held in the database and the query resolved by interrogating the database depending on the sophistication of the stock monitoring system used.

Additionally or alternatively, brand web server 30 can send a message to other distributors to determine whether they can fulfil the order. In practice, it may be convenient only to pass the message to a subset of dealers. For example, those in the vicinity of the dealer who cannot fulfil the order or in the vicinity of the customer.

Figure 3 shows a modification to the system of Figure 2 in which the brand web site controls a number of different brands each of which have their own warehouses at different locations. In this case, the main brand site determines to which of individual brand sites the order request should be sent so that the local brand site can fulfil the order or, if desired, can return it to the main brand site to be passed to other distributors of a subset of distributors.

Figure 4 shows a flow chart illustrating the process of order fulfilment. At step 100, a user accesses the distributor site. At step 102, the user's PC displays within its browser, the distribution web site with the brand owners web site within a frame. At step 104, the user selects an item for purchase. The distributor site then interrogates its warehouse, or a record of warehouse stock, at 106 to determine if that product is in stock. If it is in stock, the distributor completes the order, including the usual steps of taking and checking payment details and then arranges for the product to be shipped to the purchases.

If the product is not in stock, the distributor server sends a message to the brand owner server indicating that

the product is not in stock at step 110. At step 112 the brand owner interrogates its own warehouse or database to determine if the product is in stock. If it is, at 114 the brand server returns a message the distributor server which can then complete the order. The brand owner then arranges shipment at 116 of the product either to the distributor or direct to the customer. j If the brand owner does not have the product in stock it can broadcast a message at 118 to all other, or a subset of other distributors asking whether the article is in stock. On receipt of a positive response at 120, the brand server notifies the original distributor at 120. The original distributor then completes the order and either deals directly with the distributor who has the product or deals via the brand owner.

It will be appreciated that steps 112 to 116 may be omitted and the brand owner may notify the other distributor immediately.

In the foregoing discussion it should be appreciated that the processing is performed at the portal which receives the messages from the dealers web sites and also from the brand site.

In a second embodiment of the invention, the web content from the brand owner displayed in an individual distributor's web site is determined by the stock that distributor has in its warehouse. The distributors each send details of stock levels to the portal which reports to the web server which tailors the web content it makes available to the distributor. As the known reporting software reports details of sales back to the brand server, the web content is changed accordingly. Similarly, when a distributor reports availability of fresh stock, the web pages made available are expanded to reflect that new stock.

This aspect of the invention has broader application and extends to systems in which trading is not conducted online but in which products are merely advertised on the dealer web sites. The dealer can provide information to the

brand owner of the products which are of most interest to their customers. This can be done, for example, by monitoring the number of times a given product image is requested from the brand server. This information can be used to control the web content that is provided from the brand server to each of the dealers. Thus the web content from the brand site is tailored according to the customer preferences of each of the dealers. This increases the relevance of the web content viewed by the users at each dealer and takes into account factors such as regional preferences.

This is advantageous as it avoids customers being disappointed when they try to buy items that are not in stock. In effect, each distributor is provided with its own version of the brand web site which is unique to that distributor.

The second embodiment of the invention may be combined with that of Figures 2 to 4. In that case, the individual distributors have made available to them details of products which can be supplied either locally, or from the central brand warehouse or from one of a defined set of other distributors.

Many modifications to the embodiments described are possible and will occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention which is defined by the following claims.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A system for fulfilment of online product orders, comprising: A plurality of dealer web sites, each dealer web site having an associated server and an associated warehouse of products in stock; and a brand server having a database of web pages relating to products offered for sale at the dealer web sites; wherein the dealer web sites each display web content provided by the brand server and wherein each of the dealer servers includes means for notifying the brand server if an ordered product is not in stock, the notification including details of the product not in stock; and wherein the brand server further comprises means for determining from where the product out of stock at the dealer can be supplied, in response to the notification from the dealer, and for notifying the dealer if the product can be supplied.
2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the determining means includes means for interrogating a central database or warehouse to fulfil the order.
3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the determining means includes means for passing the request to a selected local database or warehouse to fulfil the order.
4. A system according to claim 1,2 or 3, wherein the determining means comprises means for enquiring of one or more further dealer servers whether they can fulfill the order.
5. A system according to any of claims 1 to 4 comprising means at the brand server for determining the brand web page

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content displayable at a given dealer web site in accordance with information received from the dealer server relating to product in stock, whereby, only web content related to product in stock is made available.
6. A system according to claim 5, wherein web content related to product in stock at the local warehouse and the brand warehouse is made available to the dealer web site.
7. A system according to claim 5, wherein web content related to product in stock at the local warehouse at a one or more other dealer warehouses is made available to the dealer web site.
8. A method of conducting on-line commercial transactions between customer and dealers wherein the dealer's web sites include web content provided by a remote brand server, the method comprising: on receipt of an order for purchase of a product at a dealer web site, sending a message to the brand server giving details of the product order if the product can be supplied from the dealer's product stock; at the brand server, determining if the order can be fulfilled; and notifying the dealer if the product can be supplied to fulfil the order.
9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the step of determining the order comprises interrogating a central brand database or warehouse.
10. A method according to claim 8, wherein the step of determining the order comprises interrogating a selected one of a number of remote brand databases or warehouses.
11. A method according to claim 8, wherein the step of determining the order comprises interrogating one or more

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further dealer servers to determine whether they can fulfil the order.
12. A method according to any of claims 8 to 11, comprising determining at the brand server the content of web pages made available to each dealer in accordance with information received from the dealer servers relating to product in stock at the dealers.
13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the determination of web page content further takes into account product available at the brand database or warehouse.
14. A method according to claim 12 wherein the determination of web page content further takes in account product available at one or more further dealers.
15. A system for providing selective web content to a web site, comprising: A plurality of dealer web sites, each dealer web site having an associated server; and a brand server having a database of web pages relating to products offered for sale at the dealer web sites; wherein the dealer web sites each display web content provided by the brand server and wherein each of the dealer servers includes means for notifying the brand server of customer preferences, wherein the brand server further comprises means for controlling the web content provided to each of the dealer web site in accordance with the customer preferences provided from the respective sites.
16. A method of providing selective web content to a web site, in an on-line system comprising a plurality of dealer sites and a brand site, wherein the dealer sites carry web content provided from the brand site and indicative of

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products provided by the brand site owner and available for purchase through the dealers, the method comprising: each of the dealers notifying the brand server of customer preferences; and controlling the web content provided to each of the dealer web site from the brand site in accordance with the customer preferences provided from the respective sites.
17. A system for fulfilment of online product orders, substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 2 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.
18. A method of conducting on-line commercial transactions between customers and dealers substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 2 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.
19. A system for providing selective web content to a web site, substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 2 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.
20. A method of providing selective web content to a web site, substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 2 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.