JP2002032632A - Commodity ordering system and commodity list generation method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a commodity ordering system which enables a customer to easily order a desired commodity and prevents erroneous input. SOLUTION: The system is provided with an order contents storage means where past order contents of the customer are stored, a customer information storage means where customer information related to the customer is stored, and a commodity information storage means where commodity information related to commodities is stored, and the system has a server 1 which can be connected to a terminal through the Internet. When customer information is inputted from a terminal 2, the server 1 extracts commodities in the order of order frequency from past order contents of the customer stored in the order contents storage means and retrieves commodity information of each of these commodities from the commodity information storage means and generates a commodity list from retrieved commodity information. This commodity list can be perused through the terminal 2 of the customer, and the customer cam order a commodity from the commodity list.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a product ordering system capable of efficiently ordering products.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when ordering a product in a building hardware, a code name and a quantity of a desired product are written on a paper or the like from a catalog or a price list made of paper or the like as shown in FIG. This is done by facsimile or mailing to the dealer who sells the product. Architectural hardware
As shown in FIG. 7, the types of products are subdivided, such as those having the same product name (see product name 1) but different sizes (see product name 2), and those having the same product but different colors. There are hundreds of thousands of types of products listed on the website, and the number of pages is hundreds of pages.

[0003]

However, when ordering a product as in the above-mentioned conventional method, the customer side has to purchase hundreds of thousands of types of catalogs and price lists of hundreds of pages as described above. It is necessary to select a desired product from the products and enter a desired quantity and a desired delivery date. In addition, architectural hardware has a bias in the products used for each customer due to the convenience of the products and maintenance such as breakdown, and the same product is often ordered repeatedly, each time a catalog with a large number of pages -You must select the product you want to order from a price list. Therefore, there is a problem that it takes a lot of trouble for the customer just to select a product to place an order.

[0004] Further, the types of products are subdivided as described above, and there is a problem that a product may be selected by mistake, for example, when the same product name is different in size.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a product ordering system capable of easily ordering a desired product and preventing erroneous input. Make it an issue.

[0006]

A merchandise ordering system according to the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problem is a merchandise ordering system for ordering merchandise from a customer terminal 2 via the Internet 3. , A customer information storage means 7 for storing customer information on customers, and a product information storage means 6 for storing product information on products, and a terminal via the Internet. The server is further provided with a product list generating means, and when the customer information is input from the terminal 2, the product list generating means is stored in the order content storing means 8. From the past order contents of the customer, products are extracted in the order of the number of orders, and the product information is retrieved from the product information storage means 6 for each product, From the serial retrieved product information is intended to create a product list, the Product List is the customer of the terminal 2
, And can order products from the product list. In this way, a product list is created by extracting products from the past order contents of the customer in descending order of the number of orders, and if a product can be ordered from the product list, a product that is frequently ordered for the customer is Since a product can be ordered in a pre-selected state, the product to be ordered can be selected easily and in a short time.

[0007] Further, such a commodity ordering system can be configured such that the commodity includes building hardware. As described above, if the product is architectural hardware, the number of products to be sold is enormous, and the rate at which the customer repeatedly orders a specific product is high, so that the customer can efficiently select the product to order. .

[0008] Further, such a commodity ordering system, when the terminal is constituted by a portable information terminal, is particularly urgent when the customer is working at a construction site or the like, especially if the customer is a construction shop or a sheet metal shop. In this case, it is possible to place an order immediately.

A feature of the product list creating method according to the present invention is that when an order is requested from a customer, the products are extracted in descending order of the number of orders based on the past order contents of the customer, and then extracted. The point is to generate a list of selected products.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of a product ordering system according to the present invention.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a server that fulfills both a role as a database server for storing data such as customer information and product information, and a role as a web server capable of providing a site via the Internet. The server 1 is connected to the Internet 3 via a telephone line. Reference numeral 2 denotes a customer terminal constituted by, for example, a personal computer capable of browsing a site provided by the server 1 via the Internet via a telephone line using a browser or the like. Further, the terminal 2 has a display unit composed of a liquid crystal display and the like, and an input unit such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a numeric keypad.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a terminal of a delivery center that delivers products to customers. Similarly to the terminal 2, the terminal 4 has a display unit and an input unit, and can browse a site provided by the server 1 using a browser or the like. Furthermore,
Information necessary for delivery, such as the location of a customer to whom the product should be delivered, can be obtained from the server 1 by an appropriate method such as e-mail or file browsing.

Next, the configuration of the server 1 will be described. FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram illustrating the configuration of the server 1.
In FIG. 2, reference numeral 5 denotes a control means, which comprises a CPU or the like, and performs data transfer, control of each unit, various calculations, and the like. Further, the server 1 has the Internet 3
An input / output control unit 10 is provided for controlling data input from the terminals 2 and 4 connected via the PC and data output from the server 1.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a product information storage means in which product information is stored. Examples of the product information include information for specifying a product, such as a product name, a product code, a product manufacturer (or a seller), a size, a color, a unit price, and a product image. Reference numeral 7 denotes a customer information storage unit in which customer information is stored. The customer information includes a company name of the customer, a customer code, contact information such as a location, credit information, an identification ID for identifying the customer, a password, and the like.

Reference numeral 8 denotes an order content storage unit that stores a history of order contents ordered by a customer for each customer. The order content includes a product name, a product code, a quantity, and the like.

Reference numeral 9 indicates storage means for storing a main program. The main program is
The display unit of each terminal includes a program for displaying sites and various information, and the like.
It works by. When the main program in the storage unit 9 is operated by the control unit 5, the main program and the information in the storage units 6 and 7 are associated with each other so that the information stored in the storage units 6 and 7 is appropriately referred to. .

Further, when an identification ID, a password or the like for identifying the customer is input from the terminal 2 of the customer via the input / output control means 10 to the main program, the customer is specified. A program is built in to create different product lists for different customers. Such a program for creating a product list and the control means 5 serve as a product list generating means for creating a product list.

Next, a method of ordering a product using the product ordering system configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 shows an example of a screen for ordering, FIG. 4 shows an example of a product list, and FIG.
4 shows an operation flow of the server 1 when a customer ID is received. In the present embodiment, a case will be described as an example where a product is ordered from a store selling architectural hardware.

First, a connection is made from the customer terminal 2 to the URL of the store provided by the server 1. At this time, an identification ID and a password unique to the customer are input. The identification ID and the password input from the terminal 2 are received by the server 1 via the input / output control means 10 (see step S1 in FIG. 5).
The server 1 searches whether or not the input identification ID exists in the customer information storage means 7 (Step S in FIG. 5).
2). If the identification ID is present in the customer information storage means 7, the customer refers to the order content storage means 8 and searches for a past order history of the customer (see step S3 in FIG. 5). If the identification ID does not exist in the customer information storage means 7, an error message is displayed to prompt customer registration.

The past order history is searched, products are ordered in descending order of the number of orders, and product information on the products is searched from the product information storage means 6 to create a product list (step S4 in FIG. 5). When purchasing for the first time, top-selling products and the like are created in advance as a product list, and the product list is output (step S5 in FIG. 5).

At this time, for the customer, data is transmitted to the customer terminal 2 so that a screen as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed. In order to display a product list as shown in FIG. 4, a blank of a product is linked to a product list.

When the product to be ordered is determined, the product is selected by clicking the product name, and "order" is selected.
When the button is clicked, the display screen returns to the screen for ordering shown in FIG. 3, and the selected product name is displayed in the blank of "commodity" in FIG. Then, if the order quantity, delivery destination, and desired delivery date shown in FIG. 3 are input, and the “OK” button is clicked, the order content is transmitted to the server 1 together with the customer ID. As for the method of payment on the customer side, a place for setting the payment method may be provided in the order screen described above, or may be configured on another screen.

When the server 1 receives the above-mentioned order from the customer (step S6), an order confirmation and a reply of the delivery date are transmitted to the customer by e-mail (step S7). That is, the server 1 also serves as a mail server.

After that, the server 1 notifies the terminal 4 of the distribution center of a product delivery request by an appropriate method such as mail (S8). Here, the information necessary for the delivery is posted on the mail from the server 1 and sent to the terminal 4 as described above.
To the server 1 or a request for browsing from the terminal 4 to the server 1. In this way, based on the information obtained at the terminal 4 of the distribution center, the distribution center distributes the product to the customer.

As described above, when a product list arranged for each customer in descending order of the number of orders is presented, particularly for architectural hardware and the like, the number of products sold is enormous, and the customer repeatedly orders specific products. As a result, the customer can efficiently select a product to order. In addition, since the store does not need to re-enter the data of the order form, which was necessary when ordering on paper as in the past, it was possible to reduce labor costs required for inputting, In addition, it is possible to reduce costs such as telephone calls for confirming the order form. Since the cost can be reduced in this way, as shown in FIG. 3, a percentage of the normal price can be returned to the customer in the form of a discount, and the use of the customer can be increased. it can.

In the above embodiment, a personal computer is used as an example of a customer terminal, but a portable information terminal such as a mobile phone or a small computer can also be used as a terminal. When a portable information terminal is used, the server prompts the customer to input a mail address of the portable information terminal (in FIG. 6, a portable telephone is used as an example of the portable information terminal). The server automatically transmits a URL of a site connectable from the portable information terminal to the input mail address. When the server receives a call from the portable information terminal, the server stores the telephone number of the called portable information terminal in the customer information. in this way,
If the telephone number of the portable information terminal is stored in the customer information, the customer can be identified by inputting the telephone number when connected to the URL for the portable information terminal.

As described above, if an order can be made from the portable information terminal, for example, a customer such as a construction company or a sheet metal shop can order necessary building hardware at the site while staying at the site. . Therefore, the convenience is high and it is possible to place an order promptly even in an urgent case.

In the above embodiment, the server 1
Played the role of both the database server and the web server, but separately configured the database server and the web server, provided storage means for storing customer information and product information and product list generation means in the database server, the web server May be provided with various means for providing a site, and data required for displaying the site may be called from the database server to the web server.

In the above description, the customer has made an order to the store via the Internet. For example, in the above description, the product list displayed on the display unit is output from printing means such as a printer, and is output to the output product list. The order may be made by writing the order of the desired product and sending it to the store by an appropriate method such as facsimile. In these cases, the product list will still be based on the customer ’s past orders,
Since the products are displayed in order from the product with the largest number of orders, the customer can easily select a desired product from the product list.

Further, in the above embodiment, the order content storage means for storing the order content and the customer information storage means for storing the customer information are separately provided. The customer information storage means may be configured to function as the content storage means.

[0031]

According to the merchandise ordering system of the present invention, the customer can select a merchandise based on a merchandise list arranged in order from the most frequently ordered merchandise, so that the merchandise can be selected in a short time. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a product ordering system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a server.

FIG. 3 is an example of a screen for ordering.

FIG. 4 is an example of a screen showing a product list.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the operation of the server when a customer ID is received.

FIG. 6 is an example of a screen when browsing a site from a portable information terminal.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a conventionally used catalog.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 server 2 terminal 3 internet

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A product ordering system for ordering a product from a customer terminal via the Internet, comprising: an order content storage means for storing a customer's past order content; and a customer information storage means for storing customer information. , A product information storage unit for storing product information is provided, and a server connectable from a terminal via the Internet is provided. The server further includes a product list generation unit. When the customer information is input from the terminal, from the past order content of the customer stored in the order content storage means, the products are extracted in the order of the number of orders,
For each of the products, product information is searched from the product information storage means, and a product list is created from the searched product information. The product list can be browsed from a customer terminal, and from the product list. A product ordering system characterized by the ability to order products. 2. The commodity ordering system according to claim 1, wherein the commodity includes building hardware. 3. The commodity ordering system according to claim 1, wherein said terminal comprises a portable information terminal. 4. When an order request is issued from a customer, products are extracted in descending order of the number of orders based on the past order contents of the customer, and a list of the extracted products is generated. Product list creation method.