ITTO20070585A1 - SYSTEM AND METHOD OF ORGANIZING THE SALE OF CLOTHING ARTICLES, PARTICULARLY FOOTWEAR AND SIMILAR - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION of the industrial invention entitled: "SYSTEM AND METHOD OF ORGANIZING THE SALE OF CLOTHING ITEMS, ESPECIALLY FOOTWEAR AND SIMILAR"

TEXT OF THE DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to the organization of the sale of articles of clothing, particularly footwear and the like, in the context of a commercial exercise equipped with shelves containing the articles, typically provided with respective identification codes which can be detected electronically.

In the context of such commercial establishments, as well as more generally in the sales environments of articles and products of various kinds and types, computer systems have been used for some time to manage the items in the warehouse through the relative identification codes. In some cases the system is also operationally connected to at least one viewer that can be consulted by the customer to obtain information on the items of his interest, as well as to at least one cash desk for the payment of the items purchased and their unloading from the warehouse.

The customer, after having identified and possibly tried the chosen item, can obviously decide not to want to buy it. In this case, the relocation of the article from where it was taken is usually left to the free will of the customer who, due to ill will or even just by mistake or distraction, could reposition the article in a wrong place.

In this case, a subsequent customer will not be able to find the same item in the location indicated by the consultation viewer, with consequent loss of the sale.

Furthermore, this situation inevitably leads to a more or less important disorder of the items on the shelves, with the need for the staff to periodically arrange for their reordering.

The purpose of the present invention is to obviate the aforementioned drawbacks, and to provide a sales organization system that ensures the constant correct retrieval of the items, each time withdrawn but not purchased, even if they are repositioned in locations. other than those from which they were taken.

According to the invention, this object is achieved thanks to a sales organization system of the type defined at the beginning, essentially characterized by the fact that the shelves have a plurality of cells for housing the articles, each of which is assigned a respective and each of which is equipped with an optical reader operatively connected to said computer means and arranged for reading the identification codes of the articles, and by the fact that the aforementioned at least one display is equipped with, and more conveniently integrated with, an optical reader also connected to said computer means and arranged for reading the identification codes of the articles, in such a way as to provide through said display the identification of the cells in which these articles are actually positioned.

A device for printing a card containing the data of the articles selected by the customer and intended to be delivered to the sales staff for retrieval, picking and delivery to the customer can also be conveniently associated with the display.

The display can also be conveniently used by the sales staff also as a quick tax, with electronic payment methods.

The invention also relates to a method of organizing the sale which uses such a system.

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the attached drawing, provided purely as a non-limiting example, which shows the system components and the flow diagram of the relative operating method in the form of a block diagram.

The example of embodiment exemplified in the attached diagram typically refers to the case of a commercial establishment for the sale of articles of clothing, and more particularly of footwear, neatly housed in shelves equipped with a plurality of cells indicated generically with 1, for the orderly placement of the articles. These cells 1 can, for example, partly contain sample models directly accessible and withdrawable by customers, and partly the specimens intended for sale which are, however, accessible only by the staff of the commercial operation for sampling, delivery to the customer for testing. , and for the possible redeposit of the items in case of non-purchase.

The commercial operation will be equipped, in a generally conventional way and not described in detail as far as the skilled person can do it, with a computerized system for the management of the articles, through the relative identification codes with which they are normally equipped. Such identification codes typically consist of bar codes present on labels or coupons applied to the articles and detectable electronically by means of usual optical readers.

In the system according to the invention, each cell 1, la for housing the articles is associated with an identifier, for example simply consisting of a progressive number, and a respective optical reader, operatively connected to the computer system and set up for reading the codes. of the articles.

Typically each of the cells 1 can be arranged, in the case of footwear, to accommodate, for example, about 16/20 pairs of shoes. In a manner which is also generally known per se, the commercial establishment will be equipped with at least one display connected to the computer system and can be consulted by the customer to obtain information on items of potential interest. The display, indicated by reference 2 in the diagram, will typically be of the "touch screen" type to allow a comfortable and easy navigation and search of the articles by the customer in the database of the computer system.

According to another peculiar aspect of the invention, the display 2 is operatively associated, or more conveniently integrated directly with it, an optical reader also connected with the computer system and arranged for reading the identification codes of the articles.

Furthermore, other peripherals can be conveniently associated with the display 2, such as a printing device 3 and a possible bank POS device 4, by means of which this display 2 can also be used as a fast cash register for the electronic payment of the items purchased, as an alternative to the cash desks. power plants 5 normally present in commercial operations.

Finally, the system according to the invention can be completed with electronic reading authorization cards supplied to the sales staff, the function of which will be clarified below.

The sales organization methodology that can be implemented with the system according to the invention will now be described below, with reference to the flow diagram of the attached block diagram.

In the first phase, the customer searches for the article potentially of interest to him in two alternative ways. In a first way, the customer can identify the article directly on the shelves of the sample models, if present, and in this case he will pick it up and go to the viewer to read the relative identification code by the optical reader integrated therein. In the second case it will search directly on the viewer, querying the archive available in the computer system. The search can be carried out with subsequent queries relating to models and types of products, sizes, colors, etc.

In both cases, the viewer will then indicate on the screen a series of information including the image of the selected product, the initial price and any discounts, the color variants present, the sizes available for a certain color and the number of pieces available. As mentioned, navigation can be conveniently carried out by the customer directly on the screen thanks to its "touch screen" technology.

If the item of interest to the customer is not identified because it is not available, the procedure ends.

If, on the other hand, the article is identified, the display will also provide the information relating to cell 1 of the shelf in correspondence with which this article is located.

The customer will then annotate this information, or more conveniently can obtain the printing of a card with the information of the chosen item, including the identification of the relative cell, by means of the printing device 3.

Then the customer will go to the sales staff to request the article. The picking up of the article from cell 1 will be carried out by the staff, who will then deliver it to the customer for testing.

If the customer is satisfied, he will move on to the final payment phase, by going to one of the central cash desks 5 of the year or using, with the help of the sales staff, the fast cash box made available by the bank POS 4 operatively associated with the display 2 .

In the event that the customer is not satisfied and therefore decides not to proceed with the purchase, the item will be returned to the sales staff who will then reposition it. In this case the article does not necessarily have to be relocated in the cell 1 from which it was extracted, but can be placed in any other cell available there. In this case, the sales person must first submit his or her authorization card to be read by the optical reader associated with the selected cell, and then subject the identification code of the article to be read by the same optical reader.

In this way the computer system will have memorized the possible new location of the article, which can then be indicated to a subsequent customer who selects it, for its immediate retrieval by the sales staff.

In summary: the or each display 2 connected to the information management system of the articles consists of two primary elements integrated together (screen and optical reader), and can be associated with further peripherals such as the printing device 3 (thus making the display 2 usable as a "virtual" seller), and / or the bank POS 4 (thus making the display 2 usable as a fast cash register).

The research phase of the articles by the customer can take place either by navigating on the screen of the display 2, or by using the bar code of any sample articles on display.

The removal of the items for sale from the relative cells and their possible repositioning in case of non-purchase must be carried out by the sales staff, and are therefore removed from the customer's responsibility.

Even the fast cashier, which allows the electronic payment of the items purchased, can be used with the help of the sales staff. Naturally, the embodiments of the system may be widely varied with respect to what has been described and illustrated purely by way of example, without thereby departing from the scope of the present invention, as defined in the following claims.

Claims (8)

CLAIMS 1. System for organizing the sale of clothing items in a commercial establishment equipped with shelves containing the items for sale provided with respective identification codes that can be detected electronically, as well as a computerized system for managing the items operationally connected to at least one display (2) available for consultation by the customer to obtain information on the items, and of at least one case (5), characterized by the fact that: said shelves have a plurality of cells (1, la) to each of which a respective identification is assigned and each of which is equipped with an optical reader operatively connected to said computer system and arranged for reading the codes of the articles, - said at least one display (2) is equipped with an optical reader also connected to said computer means and arranged for reading the identification codes of the articles in such a way as to provide, through said display, the information of the cells in which such articles are actually placed. 2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the optical readers associated with said cells (1, la) are also predisposed for reading enabling cards supplied to the sales staff. 3. System according to claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that said at least one display (2) is operatively associated with a printing device (3) for printing the information relating to the item selected by the customer, to be delivered to sales staff. System according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that a POS payment device (4) is also associated with said at least one display (2) for the use of said display (2) as a fast pay station. 5. System according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said display (2) is of the "touch screen" type. 6. Method of sales organization by means of a system according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - by the customer, identify the item to be purchased directly by taking a sample model on display and submitting its identification code to the reading by the optical reader of said display (2), or by searching for it through said display (2) and obtaining from this the relative information including the identification of the cell (1) in which the item is actually present, and then contact the sales staff; - by the sales staff: take the item from the indicated cell (1) and deliver it as proof to the customer, receive payment from the customer or relocate the item even in a cell other than that (1) from which it was picked up, subjecting the article identification code to the reading of this cell (la) by the optical reader. 7. Method according to claim 8, characterized in that it comprises the step of subjecting the identification code of the article to the reading by the optical reader of said different cell (la) and is preceded by a validation step by the sales staff . 8. System and method substantially as described and illustrated.