JP2002133224A - Order receipt system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To decrease the customer's operation workload for ordering a commodity. SOLUTION: An intermediate server 101 examines the stock of a store specified in an internal database upon receipt of an order from a customer's client 30. When the commodity is out of stock, the order is accepted after examination of stocks of other stores in the same area.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an order receiving system suitable for a public communication network such as the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a communication network such as the Internet, there has been known a system for performing a product sales service called virtual shopping. In this system, when a client (personal computer) of a product purchaser reads an HTML document prepared in a server, a product guidance screen is displayed. Product buyers,
When you find the product you need, you will see the HT
The ML document is read from the server and displayed. On the purchase application screen, the user inputs personal information such as the name, address, and payment of the purchaser, information on payment conditions, and product information on the product to be purchased. The input information is received by the server and delivered to the merchandise seller. The merchandise seller sends out the merchandise based on the transferred information and performs payment of the price.

Further, a system (virtual mall) in which a server provides merchandise information screens of a plurality of stores is also implemented. In this system, a client accesses a server and first displays a screen for selecting a plurality of stores. When the client user selects a desired store, a product guide screen corresponding to the selected store is sent from the server to the client. Thereafter, the client places an order for the same product as described above.

[0004] The server that has received the order information checks the stock information of the selected store, determines whether or not the product ordered by the client user is in stock, and accepts the order if there is stock.

[0005] On the other hand, if there is no stock of the ordered product, the server informs the client user to that effect.

[0006]

The conventional system has a problem that when the ordered product is out of stock, the user must display a product information screen for another store and perform a product ordering operation.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an order receiving system which can guide an order for a product to be sold at a plurality of stores and reduce the operation labor of the orderer when accepting the order. .

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a product to be sold in a plurality of stores is guided to an external device of a customer, and a store name is transmitted from the external device. In the order receiving system that receives the designation of the product and receives the order of the product with the specified store name, a database that stores inventory information that corresponds to a plurality of store names and that includes at least the number of stocks of sold products And, a store name designated by the external device, storage means for indicating the content of the order of the product, and storing order information including the number of orders for the product, and when the order information is sent from the external device, A determination unit that determines whether or not the inventory of the product of the number of orders indicated by the order information is in a store with the specified store name based on the inventory information in the database, and a determination of no stock is obtained. Search means for searching stock information of other store names in the database, and searching for store names having stock satisfying the number of orders indicated by the order information. When the judgment is obtained, the order information sent from the external device and the designated store name are registered, and when the judgment of the stock is obtained by the judgment means, the order is searched by the search means. An order from a customer is accepted by registering the store name and order information sent from the external device in the storage means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the order receiving system according to the first aspect, a name of a region to which the store indicated by the store name belongs is added to the stock information, and the search means transmits the information from an external device. Only stock information of a store name having the same area name as the designated designated store name is searched.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the order receiving system according to the first or second aspect, the transport-related information in the order information registered in the storage means can be read by an external device of a transport company. Alternatively, transmission is possible to an external device of the transportation company.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an entire system to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, a mediation server 10 and a plurality of clients 21 to 23 and 30 are connected to a communication network 30 such as the Internet. The client may be connected to the communication network 40 via a provider communication server (not shown). The hardware of the mediation server 10 and the clients 21 to 23 and 30 can use the same commercially available computer as that of the related art, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The mediation server 10 functions as the order receiving system of the present invention. More specifically, guidance information on merchandise sold at a plurality of stores is provided to the client 30 of the customer, and an order for the merchandise is received from the client 30 of the customer. The mediation server 10 checks the stock of the store that handles the ordered product, and if there is no stock, searches for another store that has the ordered product. When another store has the ordered product, the mediation server 10 accepts the order from the customer. In the present embodiment, the stock of another store in the same area as the store that received the order (the store with no stock) is checked.

The mediation server 10 includes a communication program, an information processing program, and an HTML document. The communication program is called a WEB server, and provides an HTML document described below to the clients 21 to 23 and 30 and receives information sent from the clients. The information processing program is also called a gateway program, and performs predetermined information processing using information sent from the clients 21 to 23 and 30. In the present embodiment, a process for registering order information sent from a client of a customer in a database in the mediation server 10, a process for checking whether or not a product is in stock when an order is received, and a process for checking inventory of a product from clients 21 to 23 in a store. It executes processing such as accepting information and registering it in a database.

As the HTML documents, there are prepared an HTML document for displaying a product guide, an HTML document for inputting order information on a display screen, and an HTML document for inputting stock information on a display screen.

It is assumed that a database (installed on a hard disk) in the server 10 is provided with a storage area for storing stock information and order information from a customer for each store name in advance. The stock information includes the name of the region where the store handling the product is included, the name of the stock product, the number of stock, the price, and other information. Order information and inventory information may be stored in separate databases.

The order information includes the orderer's name, address, telephone number, payment method, price, and other information. The information included in the product information and the order information may be appropriately determined by the operating company of the mediation server 10.

The clients 21 to 23 and 30 include:
A communication program (called a browser) for reading the HTML document and displaying it on a display screen is installed.

The operation of such a system configuration will now be described.

The store clients 21 to 23 access the intermediary server 10 and register their own HTM for inventory information.
Read and display the L document. The client user fills in the stock information on the display screen and sends it to the mediation server 10.

In the mediation server 10, the W
The stock information is delivered to the gateway program via the EB server. The gateway program updates the stock information received in the stock information storage area of the database.

The client 30 of the customer accesses the mediation server 10 and reads out the first page of the HTML document for product guidance and displays it as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 100 denotes a button for selecting a store. When a client user operates any of the buttons with a mouse, an HTML document corresponding to the operated button, that is, a corresponding store is handled. An HTML document for guiding the product (name, product content, price, etc.) is read by the client 30 of the customer and displayed on the display screen. When the client user operates the button 101, for example, an HTML document for the B store is displayed. As before, the client user checks the product information, calls the order HTML document,
Enter order information. The input order information and the store name corresponding to the selected button 101 are sent from the client 30 of the customer to the mediation server 10. The process of identifying the selected button and the process of transmitting the order information and the store name may be defined in the HTML document.

The gateway program of the mediation server 10 executes the processing procedure shown in FIG. 3 and receives order information from a customer.

More specifically, when the gateway program receives the order information from the WEB server (Step S)
10), the stock information of the corresponding store (B store) in the database information is checked, and it is determined whether or not the product ordered by the customer is in stock (step S20).

If there is stock, a message indicating that the order has been received is transmitted to the client 30 of the customer. The client 30 of the customer displays the transmitted message to notify the customer. The gateway program of the mediation server 10 further newly registers the order information received from the client 30 of the customer in the order information storage area of the database (step S25).

When the stock information is checked in step S20,
If there is not enough stock to make up for the shortage, that is, if the order quantity <the stock quantity, the shortage quantity (order quantity-stock quantity) is calculated, and then the stock of another store, for example, store A is checked. For this purpose, the stock information of another store having the same region name as the store to which the order is placed belongs is sequentially read (step S3).
0). Based on the read stock information, it is determined whether or not there is a stock of a shortage product. If there is stock (stock number> deficient number), the gateway program registers the order information received from the client 30 of the customer in the order information area for store A (step S50).

On the other hand, if the store A does not have any stock, the stock information of the other store in the same area is read from the database, and the stock is confirmed (step S30 → S60 → S30 loop). processing). When inventory is checked for all stores in the same area and inventory sufficient to compensate for the shortage is not found (NO in step S60)
In the determination, the gateway program transmits a message indicating that there is no stock for the number of orders and the shortage number to the client 30 of the customer. HT at customer client 30
The message transmitted by the ML document and the shortage number are displayed (step S70).

Various types of messages can be prepared. For example, if even one order can be fulfilled, a message asking the customer to confirm the change in the number of orders may be prepared. If the customer agrees to change the number of orders, the previously received order information is changed to the changed number of orders and written to the database. In this case, the order information is written in the order information area of one or a plurality of stores that can provide the ordered product.

As another method, in order to eliminate the complexity of shipping products from a plurality of stores, if one store cannot cover the shortage of other stores, a message indicating that there is no stock is returned to the customer. A message notification method is conceivable.

The clients 21 to 23 of the store periodically access the mediation server 10 and use the H for displaying the order information.
Read the TML document. According to a command defined in the HTML document for displaying the order information, a read command of the order information is sent to the mediation server 10 from each client.
The gateway program of the mediation server 10 sends the order information of each store to the client in response to the order information read command. Each client displays the order information sent and confirms the order of the product to its own store.

In addition to the above-described embodiment, the following embodiment can be implemented. 1) In the above-described embodiment, since the order is placed to the store B, the other store (store A) that provides the insufficient product can sell the product on behalf of the store. In this case, the customer may be notified of a message indicating that the merchandise arrives from store A. 2) In the above-described embodiment, an example has been described in which a store that sells products reads order information. However, a shipping company (client) that delivers products also receives order information (transportation-related information, such as a name, an address, and a product name. ) May be read. In this case, it is preferable that information unrelated to the transportation of the product cannot be read. Further, the transportation-related information in the order information may be distributed to the client of the transportation company using an e-mail or the like. 3) In the above-described embodiment, the order information sent from the client 30 of the customer is registered in the database (installed on a storage unit such as a hard disk) of the mediation server 10,
Although the order information is read by the clients 21 to 23 of each store, the order information may be distributed from the mediation server 10 to each store. As a delivery method,
A well-known communication method such as e-mail or FAX may be used.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Even if the specified store does not have the stock of the product, the order receiving system detects the store having the stock and places an order for the store, so the customer does not need to search for a store having the stock newly. . In addition, when the store where the order is placed has no stock, the product is ordered to another store in the same position, so that the product is quickly delivered to the customer. Furthermore, the transportation company can know the goods to be delivered from the order information, so that preparations for transportation can be made earlier.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a store selection screen.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing contents of a mediation server.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Mediation server 21-23, 30 Client 40 Communication network

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An order receiving system for guiding a product sold at a plurality of stores to an external device of a customer, accepting designation of a store name from the external device, and accepting an order for a product having the designated store name. A database that stores inventory information that includes at least the number of items in stock for sale, which is inventory information corresponding to a plurality of store names, a store name designated by the external device, and content of an order for a product, Storage means for storing order information including the order number of the product; and when the order information is sent from the external device, the inventory of the product corresponding to the order number indicated by the order information is stored in the store having the specified store name. A determination unit that determines whether or not there is a stock based on the stock information of the database; and if a determination of no stock is obtained, the stock information of another store name in the database is searched for. Search means for searching for a store name having a stock satisfying the number of orders indicated by the order information, and when the determination means determines that there is stock, the order information and the designation sent from the external device are specified. The registered store name is registered, and when the determination unit determines that the store is out of stock, the store name searched by the search unit and the order information sent from the external device are registered in the storage unit. An order receiving system characterized by receiving orders from customers. 2. The order receiving system according to claim 1, wherein the stock information includes a name of an area to which the store indicated by the store name belongs, and the search means includes a designated store name sent from an external device. An order receiving system for searching only stock information of a store name having the same area name as that of the order. 3. The order receiving system according to claim 1, wherein the transport-related information in the order information registered in the storage means can be read by an external device of a transport company or the order information of the transport company. An order receiving system characterized in that transmission is possible to an external device.