JP2000148848A - Commodity comparison and sales supporting system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the sales results of a commodity supplier and reduce the selling expenses of the supplier and, at the same time, to reduce the time, labor, and costs required by a purchaser by efficiently supplying or acquiring the information required by the purchaser for selecting an appropriate commodity out of similar commodities from different suppliers, such as manufacturers or distributors. SOLUTION: When a purchaser who wants to purchase a commodity selected out of similar commodities from different suppliers inputs the information which become a selecting element of the commodity from one of client computers 5A-5E, the purchaser can make access to the data bases 1A-1C of many computer systems 2A-2C. In addition, a computer server 3 presents commodity information obtained from the data bases 1A-1C after processing the information to a state where commodity comparison can be made easily.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a merchandise comparison / sales support system used when selecting and purchasing a similar merchandise from different merchandise sources, and in particular, a merchandise provider such as a manufacturer or a sales agency is different. Efficiently providing or acquiring information for selecting the appropriate product from similar products will improve the product provider's sales performance and reduce selling expenses, while also helping buyers reduce necessary labor and costs. It relates to a product comparison and sales support system that can be reduced.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Sales forms of products are diversifying. For example, there is electronic commerce (electronic commerce) using the Internet. In addition, product sales using call centers are expanding.

[0003] First, there is a kind of mail order environment for those using the Internet. For example, it is possible to apply for a quote for purchasing financial products such as insurance and investment trusts, make reservations for hotels and restaurants, and make inquiries to purchase cars in an Internet mail-order environment. In this case, in the past, a purchaser had to access the browser of an Internet terminal used by the purchaser individually for each of the manufacturers of the product and the vendors of the product, and made various inputs for each vendor. Enter the required data in a format and search for the desired product.

[0004] Here, in addition to ordinary products, the above-mentioned various financial products, hotels and other services, etc., which are provided in accordance with consideration, are simply referred to as purchased products or products. Call. In addition, a company that actually provides these products by manufacturing the purchased products and a company that mediates the provision of the products by selling the products are collectively referred to as a product provider hereinafter. In addition, by paying the price and obtaining products purchased from these product providers,
Called purchase. If the purchased product is a service, the purchase includes paying for and applying for such a service. A person who intends to make the purchase is hereinafter referred to as a purchase applicant or a purchaser.

Next, as in the case of using the Internet, there is also a kind of mail order environment when using a call center. When a call center is used, purchases and quotes for purchased products are made by calling the call center over the telephone.

[0006]

As described above, when using the Internet, there is a problem that it takes time and effort to select and purchase a similar product from a different product provider. When at least a part of the purchased merchandise is, for example, from a different merchandise provider and becomes another database, it is necessary to sequentially access a plurality of homepages and access a plurality of databases. Furthermore, at the time of a plurality of such accesses, it is necessary to input necessary data in various input formats, and to find a target product while utilizing various information displays obtained according to the input. This is a laborious task.

[0007] The same applies to the case where a call center is used as described above, and it may be necessary to call a plurality of call centers. There is a problem that the call center side cannot present recommended products to the purchaser only with limited information, and therefore cannot present the best products for the purchaser.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and efficiently provides information for selecting an appropriate product from similar products from different product providers such as a manufacturer and a distributor. Another object of the present invention is to provide a product comparison and sales support system that can improve the sales performance of a product provider and reduce sales expenses by acquiring the product, and can also reduce the required labor and cost for the purchaser. .

[0009]

First, a product comparison and sales support method according to the first invention of the present application provides a method for selecting and purchasing a similar product from different products provided by a different product provider. , And based on the purchaser product information, access to a plurality of databases through which at least a part of similar products are different via one computer server, and access these databases. The stored merchandise information regarding the purchased merchandise is acquired in the computer server, and the merchandise merchandise information is processed in the computer server so that the merchandise can be easily compared. This problem has been solved by presenting to the user.

Next, a computer server according to a second aspect of the present invention provides a client-side interface connected to a client computer used by a person who selects and purchases similar goods from different goods providers via the Internet. And a database-side interface for accessing a plurality of databases via the Internet, and a purchaser obtained from the client-side interface. A selection information processing unit that accesses the database via the database-side interface based on purchaser product information as a selection element for the purchased product, and sales related to the purchased product stored in these databases. User product information in the database interface Acquisition via a chair, processing the merchandise merchandise information to make it easy to compare merchandise, transmitting to the client computer via the client side interface, and presenting to the purchaser And a database information presenting section that solves the above-mentioned problem.

A computer-readable recording medium on which the computer program of the third invention of the present application is recorded is a computer-readable recording medium that implements the selection information processing section and the database information presentation section of the computer server of the second invention. By recording the information, it is possible to easily provide a computer server capable of solving the above-mentioned problem using the recording medium.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention will be briefly described.

According to the present invention, in any one of the first to third aspects of the present invention, the convenience of selecting and purchasing a similar product from a different product provider is provided. That is, a large amount of easily-accessible information can be obtained via one computer server.

According to these inventions, one computer server is provided based on purchaser merchandise information, which is a selection element, concerning a merchandise to be purchased and inputted by a purchaser who selects from similar merchandise from different merchandise providers. And access to multiple databases. That is, access is made to a plurality of databases in which at least some of similar products are different. In this way, the merchandise information about the purchased merchandise stored in these databases is acquired in the computer server. Further, the merchant merchandise information is processed in the computer server so that merchandise can be easily compared, and then presented to the purchaser.

Therefore, by accessing only one computer server, it is possible to access databases of a plurality of computer systems. The information obtained in this way is edited so that the user can easily use it. As described above, according to the present invention, by efficiently providing or acquiring information for selecting an appropriate product from similar products provided by different product providers such as a manufacturer and a seller, the sales performance of the product provider can be improved. In addition to reducing the cost and sales expenses, the purchaser can also reduce the required labor and cost.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of various devices used in an embodiment for selecting a purchased product by applying the present invention.

In this figure, reference numerals 2A to 2C denote computer systems possessed by any merchandise provider of the pertinent purchased merchandise. For example, in FIG.
Each of C is owned by three companies A to C. Similarly, reference numerals 1A to 1C denote databases held by some merchandise providers of the corresponding purchased merchandise. The present invention does not limit the number of target computer systems and databases. Further, the specific system configuration and processing capability of the computer system are not specifically limited.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a computer server connected to the computer systems 2A to 2C via the communication lines 4A to 4C. The configuration of the computer server 3 will be described later with reference to FIG.

The communication lines 4A to 4C are connected to the computer server 3 and the computer systems 2A to 2C.
It is used to transmit and receive data to and from the server.
Each of the communication lines 4A to 4C may be a dedicated line or a public line, and may use a specific protocol like the Internet.

Reference numerals 5A to 5E denote client computers equipped with browser software having a data input / output function. The client computers 5A to 5E are used for inputting purchaser product information according to the present invention. Although the client computers 5A to 5E are specifically personal computers, the present invention does not specifically limit them. Also, in this figure, the number of client computers 5A to 5E is five as an example, but in the present invention, the client computers 5A to 5E are used.
The number is not specifically limited, and a predetermined number may be considered as needed.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a communication network for transmitting and receiving data between the computer server 3 and the client computers 5A to 5E. In the present embodiment, an Internet line using an IP protocol is used, and this is recommended. However, the present invention does not specifically limit the communication network 6, and a dedicated line or a public line may be used.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the computer server 3 used in the present embodiment.

In FIG. 2, the computer server 3 includes a client-side interface 12, a database-side interface 13, a selection information processing unit 15,
And a database information presentation unit 16.

First, the client-side interface 12
Is connected via the Internet to a client computer used by a purchaser who selects and purchases similar products from different product providers. Next, the database-side interface 13 is used to access a plurality of databases via the Internet, which are at least partially different depending on the purchased product. The selection information processing unit 15 performs the database processing via the database-side interface based on purchaser-product information serving as a selection element, which is obtained from the client-side interface and is related to a product to be purchased input by the purchaser. To access. The database information presentation unit 16 acquires seller product information on purchased products stored in these databases via the database-side interface, and makes the seller product information easy to compare. And transmitted to the client computer via the client-side interface for presentation to the purchaser.

Further, the computer server 3 has a storage device 7 and a monitoring device 8. Note that these functions will be described later.

Hereinafter, a procedure of a process to which the present invention is applied in the present embodiment will be described.

The client computers 5A to 5E used by the purchaser or the client computers 5A to 5E used by the call center operator include:
Browser software with data input / output function is installed. The browser software can be interfaced with software of the computer server 3 via a communication network 6 such as the Internet.

For example, the computer server 3
(World wide web) Consider a case where a server function is added. In this case, the client computers 5A to 5E
Of the client computers 5A to 5E
From an Internet browser installed in the computer via an Internet communication network 6
A homepage on the server 3 can be accessed. In this case, the home page on the computer server 3 is configured to be a different web page for each type of product. For example, in the case of mail-order sales of car insurance, a web page dedicated to car insurance can be viewed from the Internet browser of the client computers 5A to 5E.

Next, the client computers 5A-
The user of 5E can use the computer server 3 that suits his purpose.
In order to obtain product information that meets the user's purpose, various types of information are stored on the web page as described above.
Keyboard input is performed in the computers 5A to 5E.
The information corresponds to purchaser product information in the present invention.
As the information to be input, a method of inputting necessary information to a screen form displayed on the web page by a keyboard is adopted. For example, in addition to the user's own identification information, address, name, telephone number, age, and the like, information necessary for selecting an optimum one from desired products is input. Such information is input according to a form displayed on the browser. The data of the input information is sequentially transmitted in real time or appropriately to the computer server 3 and stored in the storage device 7 of the computer server 3. In this way, the purchaser product information is stored in the storage device 7.

As information to be input in this way, for example,
If the purchased product is car insurance, the calculation of the insurance rate is of great interest to the purchaser. Therefore, the information entered by the user at this stage includes the purpose of use of the car,
Includes information on vehicle rate classes, compensation rate classes, personal insurance amounts, and the like.

When all necessary information is input in this way, the computer server 3 checks the rationality of the input data stored in the storage device 7.

If an input error is found, the browser computer of the client computers 5A to 5E is used.
Display an input error message on the software and prompt the user to input correct data.

On the other hand, if no input error or any other problem is found in the input data, the computer server 3 executes the computer systems 2A to 2C owned by the product provider and others.
The data of the purchaser merchandise information stored in the storage device 7 is transmitted to the computer 2 via the computer server 3.
If there are a plurality of computer systems 2A to 2C having databases 1A to 1C to be associated with the goods, such transmission of the data of the purchaser's goods information is performed on these at the same time. For example, when the product to be purchased is a car insurance, the computer systems 2A to 2C are generally computer systems of a general insurance company.

The computer systems 2A to 2C to which the data of the purchaser merchandise information are to be transmitted differ depending on the merchandise. Further, once the product and the type of the product are determined, it can be generally specified. Accordingly, which merchandise provider's computer system 2A to 2C should be transmitted is determined in advance for each web page in the computer server 3, that is, for each merchandise or each merchandise type.
Further, the transmission of the purchaser product information data may be performed only to the computer systems 2A to 2C determined in this way.

Next, in the computer systems 2A to 2C that have received the data of the purchaser's product information, the received data is used as key information, and the computer system 2A to 2C fetches the product that is suitable or optimal for the request for the purchaser's product information. System 2A ~
A recommended product is determined by searching the 2C databases 1A to 1C.

Then, the computer systems 2A-
The 2C transmits such a recommended product and information on the recommended product to the computer server 3 via the communication lines 4A to 4C. The information corresponds to seller merchandise information in the present invention. Here, if there is no product meeting the request in the databases 1A to 1C of the computer systems 2A to 2C, search error information indicating this is transmitted to the computer server 3 via the communication lines 4A to 4C. I do.

As described above, the computer server 3 converts the plurality of seller merchandise information relating to the most suitable merchandise to the purchaser merchandise information input by the users of the client computers 5A to 5E. Computer systems 2A to 2C owned by product providers
Can be obtained from

The computer server 3 transmits the data of the purchaser merchandise information to the computer systems 2A to 2C as described above, and then the computer systems 2A to 2C transmit the seller merchandise information to the computer systems 2A to 2C. The time required for transmission to the computer server 3 is monitored by the monitoring device 8. Thus, even though the time exceeds a predetermined time, the computer system 2
If the seller merchandise information is not transmitted from A to 2C, a retransmission request is transmitted to the computer systems 2A to 2C. Further, if the seller merchandise information is not transmitted after a predetermined number of retransmission requests, the monitoring device 8 outputs a communication error.

As described above, the merchandise merchandise information can be obtained from the computer servers 2A to 2C which have transmitted the merchandise merchandise information and have no communication error. Then, the computer server 3 edits the obtained merchandise item information into information in the form of a comparison table, and stores it in the storage device 7. Next, the computer server 3 transmits the information in the comparison table format to the client computers 5A to 5A.
Edit and display on the web page of the homepage provided to E. Then, the client computers 5A to 5E
Is the browser and browser
The web page can be displayed on the screen, and comparison data of purchased products required by the user can be displayed.

In this way, the user of the client computers 5A to 5E and the call center operator who is mediating the purchaser while using the client computers 5A to 5E can perform the above series of operations and each operation. Information suitable for comparing products can be obtained by the processing of the device. This allows the purchaser to compare and select appropriate products.

The client computers 5A to 5A
Even if the desired product cannot be immediately found in the information obtained in E, the purchaser or the mediation operator of the call center partially changes the purchaser product information with reference to the information obtained at that time. Thus, a series of processes can be tried again. If necessary, repeat this to find a satisfactory product.

Although the present invention relates to a product comparison and sales support system, there is no specific limitation on what kind of processing or procedure to perform after product comparison. For example, after a buyer has found the right product, they may request a more detailed quote or specification by mail, request an interview with a sales representative of the manufacturer or seller of the product,
There are various methods such as requesting the mailing of a purchase application form or making a purchase application on the Internet or a call center. However, the present invention does not specifically limit these.

The embodiments described above and the present invention can be applied to the following operations. However, the present invention does not specifically limit its application.

A1. Insurance brokerage services such as auto insurance, property insurance, and life insurance. A2. Public sales of financial products such as investment trusts. A3. Mail order sales of travel packages and tour products. A4. Reservation business for hotels and restaurants. A5. Car sales brokerage business. A6. Seat reservation business such as aircraft.

In the above description, the communication line 4A
4C are provided individually for the computer server 3 and each of the computer systems 2A to 2C. However, the communication lines 4A to 4C are not limited to such. For example, communication line 4A
The Internet may also be used for 4C.

In this case, for example, the hardware configuration may be as shown in FIG. In FIG. 3,
A modification of this embodiment is shown, and the communication network 6 and the communication lines 4A to 4C shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are a common communication network 20. Further, in FIG. 3, the client side interface 12 and the database side interface 13 shown in FIG. 2 may be, for example, common hardware. As described above, even in terms of hardware, it is common in terms of operation and software in terms of software, as in FIGS. 1 and 2, between the client computers 5A to 5E and the computer server 3, and between the client servers 5A to 5E. A connection can be made between the computer systems 2A to 2C.

[0048]

According to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently provide or acquire information for selecting an appropriate product from similar products provided by different product providers such as a manufacturer and a seller. In addition to improving sales performance and reducing sales expenses, buyers can also reduce necessary labor and costs.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of various devices used in an embodiment for selecting a purchased product by applying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a computer server used in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a modification of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1A-1C ... Database 2A-2C ... Computer system 3 ... Computer server 4A-4C ... Communication line 5A-5E ... Client computer 6 ... Communication network 7 ... Storage device 8 ... Monitoring device 12 ... Client side interface 13 ... Database side interface 15 ... Selection information processing unit 16 ... Database information presentation unit 20 ... Communication network

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A purchaser who selects and purchases a similar product from a different product provider inputs purchaser product information as a selection factor for the product to be purchased, and 1 based on the purchaser product information. A plurality of databases, at least a part of which are similar, are separated from each other via one computer server, and seller product information on purchased products stored in these databases is stored in the computer server. And processing the merchandise merchandise information in the computer server so that the merchandise can be easily compared, and then presenting the processed merchandise information to the purchaser. 2. A client-side interface connected to a client computer used by a purchaser who selects from among similar products from different product providers via the Internet, and at least a part according to the purchased product. A database-side interface for accessing a plurality of databases via the Internet, and a purchase, which is obtained from the client-side interface, as a selection factor for a product entered by a purchaser and purchased. A selection information processing unit that accesses the database via the database-side interface based on the merchandise item information; and stores the merchandise item information on the purchased items stored in these databases into the database-side interface. And the seller's merchandise And a database information presenting unit that processes the information to facilitate product comparison, transmits the information to the client computer via the client-side interface, and presents the information to the purchaser. A computer server characterized by the above-mentioned. 3. A computer-readable recording medium on which a computer program for realizing the selection information processing unit and the database information presentation unit according to claim 2 is recorded.