JP2002519775A - Method and system for supplementary product sales in point of sale system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] In addition to the conventional transactions, the sales point system automatically processes credits for pre-registered up-sell products. The system receives a pre-registered identifier for the transaction used to determine the up-sell item and an instruction to adjust the purchase price of the transaction to provide the up-sell item credit. These instructions may dictate, for example, rounding up the purchase price, adding a predetermined amount to it, or adjusting the purchase price to equal the actual amount paid. Upsell credits are determined as the difference between the purchase price and this adjusted purchase price, but are accumulated over multiple transactions or applied directly for upsell purchases.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a continuation-in-part of co-pending application Ser. No. 08 / 920,116 entitled “Method and System for Supplementary Product Sales Processing at POS Terminals” filed on Aug. 26, 1997. . Further, co-pending application Ser. No. 08 / 920,116 describes
This is a continuation-in-part application of co-pending application Ser. No. 08 / 822,709 entitled "System and Method for Conducting Lottery Ticket Transactions Using POS Terminals" filed on Mar. 21, 1997. Each of these co-pending applications is incorporated herein by reference. CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS The present invention is a related invention of the following co-pending US patent applications: No. 09 / 045,036 to Andrew S. Walker et al., Entitled "Method and Apparatus for Promoting Split Lottery Transactions Using Point-of-Sale Terminals", Andrew Andrew
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 045,518 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Supplementary Product Processing at Point-of-Sale Terminals" in the name of S. Van Luchen, "Supplement Processing at Point-of-Sale Terminals" by Jay S. Walker et al. No. 09 / 045,386, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Control" and U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 09 / 0,086, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Processing Supplemental Product Sales at Point-of-Sale Terminals", Dean Alderucci et al.
No. 45,347 and US patent application Ser. No. 09/04, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Controlling Offer Offers at Point-of-Sale Terminals" in the name of Andrew S. Vanluchen.
5,084. Each of these U.S. patent applications is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is hereby incorporated by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates generally to point of sale terminals, and more particularly to systems and methods for change processing at point of sale terminals.

2. Description of the Related Art A point-of-sale information system (POS) terminal such as a cash register is used to execute processing such as calculation of the total amount of a purchase (product or service) and calculation of a change amount to be paid to a customer. Used in a wide range of industries. Such POS (
Depending on the degree of sophistication, point-of-sale terminals are also effective for performing related functions such as inventory management and credit card transactions. In addition, the POS terminal can be used as and / or as a featured offer system, presenting a sales operator and / or a prompting operator to provide a sales offer to a customer conducting a transaction at a point of sale. By using the offer system, the customer is provided with supplementary goods or services, for example, and the sales volume is increased for the operator. Such sales offers also have the ability to increase the average revenue per transaction recognized by the operator.

[0003] One type of offer system is a patent application cited above, namely "Method and System for Supplementary Product Sales Processing at Point-of-Sale Terminals" filed on August 26, 1997 in the name of Walker et al. No. 08 / 920,116. As disclosed therein, customers of point of sale (POS) terminals are offered "upsell" as an alternative to the change to be paid. In the above referenced application, the point of sale (POS) terminal functions to calculate the change amount to be paid, and further determines the up-sale items to be presented to the customer as an alternative to the change amount. For example, if a customer purchases a $ 1.74 item and pays $ 2.00, the change due is $ 0.26. The offer system determines one or more up-sell items to be presented to the customer as an alternative to the $ 0.26 change. The up-sell price of $ 0.26 depends on a purchase price of $ 1.74 and a payment of $ 2.00. Up-sell items themselves are selected based on many different parameters.
These parameters include the relationship to the goods or services purchased and the seller's interests.

[0004] Another type of offer system is a "sell offer" based on computer decisions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,219 discloses a system for proposing items that a customer can purchase at a conventional item price.

As mentioned above, many different criteria are used to select up-sell items to be presented to customers. For example, sales offers to fast-food restaurant customers include food items, which are typically available to the store owner with a slight increase in cost. Sales offers to drugstore customers include sample merchandise, coupons, or other items that are specific to the particular type of store. Exactly which merchandise to sell is to be presented is selected according to a predetermined program or is manually selected by the manager or another operator.

[0006] Win Dixie Store's "EVEN IT UP!" Program works in conjunction with the Salvation Army, which allows Win Dixie Store customers to purchase Can be selected as a donation to the Salvation Army. The funds converged in the "More Above!" Program will be allocated by the Salvation Army as food certificates for the needy. The food certificate can be redeemed at the Win Dixie store for nutritious perishable perishables. "More!
Although the program is noble in nature, it is very limited in its functionality in that it offers only one option regarding the use of customer change. Its use is a charity donation to the Salvation Army, and there is no option for the customer to use the change in the customer's own interests other than in the usual manner of receiving change in cash.

[0007] In US Patent Application No. 5,621,640 assigned to Burke, a point of sale system including a cash register is disclosed. This system utilizes a pre-established account to aggregate customer change and assign the change to a selected charity. First, a charity donated by the customer is selected, and then an account is opened for each selected charity. These accounts are identified through the use of cards issued to customers.

If the purchase is made at a qualified point of sale terminal, the change to be paid to the customer is calculated and whether the customer wants to receive the change or donates it to the previously set charity Instruct. If the customer wishes to donate the change to the charity, the customer inserts the card into the reader and enters data such as a customer identifier indicating the donation of the change to the charity. The point of sale system then automatically distributes the change to the charity via the pre-established account. The change is distributed to the charity in real time, or collected in an account with other donor's change until the minimum donation is reached.

In US Pat. No. 5,302,811 assigned to Fukatsu, a point of sale system is disclosed that includes many automatic features for processing credit card, banknote and coin transactions. In one aspect, the customer may choose to receive change from a prepaid card transaction. If the credit is aggregated on a prepaid card,
It can be used to pay for transactions in this point of sale system. The point of sale system further provides an option to deposit change into a pre-established account identified by a credit or cash card readable by the system. It provides customers with an alternative to receiving change, but only one such alternative is provided, which is the receipt of currency credits.

Generally, change distribution and processing is not desirable for all involved parties. This is an expensive burden on sellers, with several large industries estimating over hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to distribute and process change. Change distribution and processing is not desirable to customers. It is a common understanding that money is known to carry unhealthy bacteria and has a very low value compared to the processing burden on it. In addition, many banks often require significant fees for services that calculate coins and convert them to credit or banknote currency.

The above-mentioned system by Win Dixie, Burke and Fukatsu is limited in that change is given in the form of credit to a card or account. The Walker et al. System described above is the most flexible and useful system within the group described above. However, in the field of systems that efficiently and usefully provide systems and methods for both transaction processing, particularly for receiving and processing payments at POS terminals, both to customers and POS operators, Walker et al. Is expected to develop further. In summary, it would be highly desirable to provide systems and methods that flexibly process transaction payments at POS terminals.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method that allows a customer to pre-register transaction processing instructions at a POS terminal. It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method that enables a seller to provide supplementary goods and services to a buyer during a transaction according to pre-registered instructions provided by the buyer. According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method and apparatus for processing a transaction. The method comprises the steps of receiving an identifier of a customer account and determining an up-sell item corresponding to the identifier, wherein the up-sell item has an up-sell item price and a purchase price of the purchase corresponding to the identifier. And a step of determining an upsell commodity credit corresponding to the upsell commodity price. According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method and system for processing a transaction. The method comprises receiving an identifier for a customer account, determining up-sell items corresponding to the identifier, determining a purchase price for a purchase corresponding to the identifier, and determining an instruction. The instruction adjusts the purchase price corresponding to the identifier and provides an adjusted purchase price including credit for the up-sell item.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to the reader when the following detailed description of the invention is read and considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Will.

Although the parent patents to the Walker et al. Application above provide various systems and methods for up-sell products, the present invention supplements these systems and methods and follows pre-registered instructions. Provide an invention for currency processing associated with a transaction.

[0015] A system and method are provided in accordance with one aspect of the present invention that enables sellers to provide up-sell products and enable customers to buy them according to pre-registered and auto-executed instructions following a transaction in a POS system. You. Such POS systems include, for example, types used in retail stores such as supermarkets and drug stores. These instructions identify the goods / services being sold and adjust the purchase price to add the credit applied to the sold goods.

It is understood that the present invention has many different applications, but for convenience of description, will be described as a type of invention implemented in a POS system used in food stores and supermarkets. In such supermarkets, customers returning home are invited to join a regular shopper plan, and are then identified as a participant in such plans with a regular shopper account identifier, such as an identification number. Such regular shopper planning is well known in the prior art and stimulates the turn of the business as an alternative to the business stimulus offered to the store. The terms "customer" and "shopper" are used interchangeably and together refer to a buyer.

As used herein, the term “up-sale product” means a supplement product. Supplementary products are typically identified through a pre-registration process, and with conventional purchases, customers pay for the supplementary products during a transaction. Up-sell products are "immediate" in that they are purchased during a transaction and "stepwise" in that they are purchased by accumulating funds over one or more transactions. . As used herein, the terms “goods” and “product” are encompassed by goods and / or services.

As used herein, the term “round-up amount” refers to the rounding up of a purchase price to a larger denomination when added to the purchase price. That is, it indicates a currency amount resulting in rounding up a fraction of a coin or bill currency unit. The term “round-up price” means an amount equal to the sum of the purchase price and the round-up amount. The term "round-up multiple" means a multiple of a particular monetary monetary unit and is selected as the round-up price.

The term “layaway amount” refers to a customer-identified amount value to be added to the purchase price. The sum after the addition may be selectively rounded up to larger amounts (units). The term "change due" is the difference between the purchase price and the amount paid by the buyer, and refers to the amount that was repaid to the buyer as change in conventional transactions.

The term “adjusted price” is used to refer to a purchase price adjusted by a round-up amount (in this case, the adjusted price is equal to a round-up price), a layaway amount, or an expected change amount. You. The term "up-sell product credit" refers to the amount of adjustment price applied to the price of up-sell product, ie, alternatively, rounded up,
Used to indicate layaway amount or change due. The use of the above terms is further explained in connection with the description of the various figures described below.

Referring now to FIG. 1, POS system 10 includes POS registers 14, 16, 1
8 and a central store controller 12 connected in a conventional manner. POS registers are also known in the prior art as "cash registers" or "POS terminals." Many of these systems 10 are commercially available, including, for example, systems sold by IBM, National Cash Registers, etc.
It is well known to those skilled in the art. The connection between the controller 12 and the POS registers 14, 16, 18 includes any suitable communication path, such as a local area network (LAN) (wired or wireless), a radio frequency system,
A cellular radio system, and the like. In the figure, only three POS registers are connected to one store controller. However, multiple such POS registers are allowed, and the functionality of the controller is distributed among multiple store controllers in a straightforward manner.

With continuing reference to FIG. 2, the store controller 12 is installed in a POS system.
Conventional computer systems. As this computer system
For example, an IBMRS2000 programmed to operate in accordance with the present invention ^TM Enter from a network server or Digital Equipment Corporation
ALPHA available^TMAnd a network server. Illustrated
As described above, the store controller 12 is connected to the storage device 22 and the communication interface 2.
4 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 20. CPU 20 is selected
Including a conventional microprocessor of the type dependent on the computer system.
, For example, Intel PENTIUM^TM, DECALPHA^TMOr IB
M Power PC^TMCompatible microprocessors, and the like.

The storage device 22 comprises any suitable configuration of magnetic, semiconductor, and / or optical memory elements. Many of these memory elements are well known to those skilled in the art. As the communication interface 24, an interface compatible with the communication medium selected above is selected. This includes, for example, a conventional LAN card that connects to a LAN network, a conventional cellular interface that supports cellular communication, and the like.

As shown, the storage device 22 in the store controller 12 stores four databases according to the present invention. That is, the regular shopper account database 50, the up-sell product database 60, the transaction database 70, and the up-sell product database 80. Further, a component included in the storage device 22 is an up-sell product control program 90 that is included in the form of executable computer software. It has the function of operating the store controller 12 in response to the processing shown and described below.

Referring to FIG. 3, an exemplary embodiment of the POS register 14 including the processor 31 is shown. The processor includes an input device 32 such as an alphanumeric keyboard.
A display device 33 such as a light emitting diode display (LED), a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a video display, a printer 34, a storage device 35 including a POS control program 36, and a LAN card for connecting the POS register 14 to the store controller 12. Communication device 37. While the exemplary embodiment has been presented for convenience of description of the invention, many different detailed embodiments of the POS register will be familiar to those skilled in the art.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an alternative embodiment of the POS register 40 is shown.
The POS register includes all components of the POS register 14 and further includes a coupon controller 42 for printing and distributing coupons in accordance with the present invention.
It is connected to the. Controller 42 includes a processor 44 comprising a conventional processor of the type described above. The processor is connected to a printer 45 and a storage device 46 containing an up-sale coupon control program 47.

Although the POS registers 14 (FIG. 3) and 40 (FIG. 4) provide essentially the same functionality in implementing the present invention, the latter offers greater flexibility in operation. That is, the printer 45 of the coupon controller 42 may be specifically selected for the purpose of printing a coupon or a receipt according to the present invention. Further, data relating to the provision and / or printing of coupons is maintained in storage 46, providing quick and easy access for utilizing and updating such data. The present invention seeks to retain data in storage 46 in connection with a number of systems, including coupon controller 42. Further, the use of coupon printers is well known in the prior art and is found, for example, in grocery store coupon processing systems provided by Catalina.

For purposes of illustration and description, the present invention has been presented using three software programs. That is, the up-sell product program 90 (FIG. 2), the POS control program 36 (
FIG. 3) and the up-sale coupon ticket control program 47 (FIG. 4). actually,
The various functional aspects of these programs, detailed below, may be distributed in various ways across various systems and programs. Many of these systems and programs will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The invention is not limited to the implementation of particular software or data on one particular system. Further, in alternative embodiments of the present invention, the functions and features of central controller 12 may be contained within one or more POS registers.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a regular shopper account database 50 is shown in tabular form. Six records 54A-54F are noted for the specified date column 52, each record including seven columns 56A-56G. Columns 56A-G are regular shoppers,
Includes data identifying the overselling products and account credits they have selected. This data includes a regular shopper number column 56A including a unique identifier assigned to each regular shopper account, a name column 56B including a customer name, an address column 56C including a customer address, and a code for identifying a product to be sold upon customer selection. Registered on-sale product code column 56D, customer-selected on-sale product purchase price column 56E containing the price of the on-sale product, and account balance column showing the balance generated for the up-sell product purchase price 56E selected on table date 52. 56F, and an upsell product instruction column 56G used to store customer-specified instructions that determine the upsell value to be added to each purchase.

With continued reference to FIG. 5, the up-sell product instruction 56G of record 54A identifies a round-up multiple (RM) of $ 1.00. This indicates that for each customer transaction, the purchase price should be rounded up to the nearest multiple of this integer dollar amount. A similar upsell product instruction is included in record 54B. Record 54
C includes an upsell item indication that identifies the layaway amount (L) of $ 2.00.
This indicates that a $ 2.00 layaway amount should be added to the purchase price. Record 54D indicates that the amount to be aggregated and credited for up-sell items is equal to the change due (CD) to the customer. Record 54E indicates a $ 2.00 layaway amount to be added to the purchase price. Record 54F includes a round up multiple of $ 5.00. This means that the purchase price is the nearest multiple of $ 5.00 and is an integer dollar amount (ie, $ 5.00, 10.0
$ 0, $ 15.00, etc.).

According to record 54C, where the upsell purchase price is $ 5.00, the layaway amount may be implemented for a tiered upsell. Also, as in record 54E, where frequent flyer miles purchased for each transaction are up-sell items, the layaway amount may be implemented for immediate up-sell items. The difference between the layaway amount and the round-up multiple is that if a round-up multiple is used, the purchase price is rounded up to the nearest multiple of the selected round-up multiple,
That's what it means. If a layaway amount is used, the layaway amount may be added to the purchase price and then optionally rounded up.

X. A round-up multiple of $ 00 (i.e., the value of the selected "$$", which can be an integer or a partial dollar value) is such that the purchase price is greater than the purchase price by an X.00. Indicates that it should be rounded up to the nearest multiple of $ 00. For example, if the round-up multiple RM = $ 2.00, prices in the range of 0 to $ 1.99 are rounded up to $ 2.00 and prices in the range of 2.01 to $ 3.99 are 4.00. Rounded up to the dollar, prices in the range of 4.01 to $ 5.99 have been rounded up to $ 6.00, and so on. The round-up multiple need not be limited to an integer dollar value, but rather to the value of a coin (ie, rounded up to the nearest multiple of, eg, $ 0.25 or $ 0.50) or a larger bill value (ie, 10 It will be appreciated that it may be based on $ 0.00, $ 20.00, etc.). Many other round-up methods and formulas will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Referring now to FIG. 6, there is shown an up-sell product database 60 that includes identification data of available up-sell products. It includes six records 60A-60F, each record including three columns. That is, the up-sell product code column 62A corresponding to the registered up-sell product code column 56D of the regular shopper account database 50 including the unique identifier of each available up-sell product, a description 62B of each up-sell product, and each up-sell The upper selling product purchase price of the product is 62C. This purchase price data corresponds to the data in the sales product purchase price column 56E in the regular shopper account database 50.

Referring to FIG. 7, transaction database 70 stores each POS register 14, 16, 1
8 includes data of the transactions performed. In particular, each entry table in transaction database 70 includes data specific to a particular transaction corresponding to a particular patron identifier.
Looking at the transaction database header 72, the illustrated table shows a specific date 7
2E, at a particular POS register 72D, including transaction data corresponding to a regular shopper identifier 72 at a particular store 72B having a transaction number 72C assigned by the POS system 10. Based on patron shopper identifier # 123461, this illustrated transaction corresponds to “Phil Johnson” identified in record 54F of patron shopper database 50 (FIG. 5). Other such tables (not shown) of transaction database 70 include other specific transaction data.

With continued reference to FIG. 7, for the transaction identified above, database 70 includes two records 74A-74B. Each of these records includes four columns 76A-76D relating to the particular item purchased during the transaction identified in header 72. In particular, for each of the records 74A and 74B, an item code column 76A containing the unique identifier of the purchased item, a description column 76B containing the description of the purchased item, and a price column 76 containing the item price
C and a subtotal field 76D, which includes a management subtotal of item costs. Tax entry 78 includes tax calculations reflected in price and subtotal fields 76C, 76D, respectively. The adjusted price entry 79 is a rounded-up price 79A (
In this case, the adjustment price equal to $ 5.00 and the round-up price 79A equal to the difference between the round-up price 79A and the purchase price including tax ($ 3.74 in this case).
,including. Here, the up-sell product credit equal to the round-up amount 79B is thus 5.00-3.74 = 1.26 dollars.

In this case, the adjusted price 79A, which is a round-up price, is the actual purchase of the customer-selected product and / or service changed according to the up-sell product instruction in the column 56G of the regular shopper account database 50 (FIG. 5). It is a function of price.

In the above-described exemplary embodiment, the rounded-up price is calculated in accordance with the upper sale item designation column 56G (both shown in FIG. 5) of the record 54F indicating the rounded-up multiple of $ 5.00.
Thus, the $ 3.74 transaction subtotal is rounded up to the nearest multiple of $ 5.00, which is greater than the purchase price (in this case, $ 5.00), according to a round-up multiple of $ 5.00. Alternatively, if a layaway amount of, for example, $ 2.00 was pre-registered, 3.74 against the $ 5.74 adjustment price to be charged to the customer.
A $ 2.00 layaway amount would have been added to the dollar trading subtotal. If, for example, the "change to be paid" instruction is pre-registered in the up-sell product instruction, the adjustment price is the payment amount, and the up-sale product credit is the difference between the purchase price and the payment amount paid by the purchaser. Would have been set to.

Referring now to FIG. 8, purchase and sale merchandise database 80 includes identification data of upsell merchandise that has been fully paid and is in a delivery or delivery to customer stage. Purchased up-sell items are items that become the actual property of the customer (eg, the item delivered), direct use by the customer (eg, earned phone time entered into an account). Items that are in phase and items for which the customer has been granted ownership;
including.

With continued reference to FIG. 8, purchase and sale merchandise database 80 includes four records 84A-84D, each of which includes four columns 86A-86D. Code number column 86
A includes a code, which uniquely identifies each up-sell item that has been fully paid and is generated by the POS system 10 as needed for a particular transaction. The working day date column 86B contains the date of the transaction at which the purchase price of the up-sell product was agreed or exceeded. On the other hand, the transaction number column 86C contains the corresponding transaction number 72C from the transaction database 70.
including. The upsell product code 86D identifies the upsell item similarly referenced in the column 62A of the upsell item database 60.

Referring now to FIG. 9, a schematic diagram of up-sell product processing implemented in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIG.
00 is shown. This processing includes registration small processing 900A, transaction small processing 900B,
And small delivery or repurchase processing 900C. At step 92 of the registration sub-process, the customer, described here as a regular shopper, registers the up-sell product. Details of this registration process are shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B.

When shopping in a supermarket in accordance with transaction 900B, the customer initiates a transaction (step 94) in the POS register, for example, purchasing a product.
The POS system 10 assesses whether this shopper is a registered regular shopper who has an up-sell product registered in the regular shopper account (step 96). If no upsell has been registered, the transaction is processed in a conventional manner (step 98). If the up-sell product is registered, the transaction is processed in a regular shopper transaction manner (step 100).

With continued reference to FIG. 9, whether the up-sell product process corresponding to this regular shopper transaction results in the purchase of the up-sell item (step 102), ie, “this up-sell item is complete. Has been paid? ". If not, any suitable credit is applied to the upsell merchandise account (step 104). Note that payment of upsell items can be made in several ways. For example, if you have accumulated enough credit to pay the purchase price of an upsell product, or if you have purchased an "immediate" upsell product such as telephone time, you can transfer the upsell credit directly from the transaction , Etc. The transaction process highlighted here will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 11A to 11C below.

At step 106 of the small repurchase process 900C, it is determined whether the purchased up-sell item is an immediate up-sell item. If it is an immediate up-sell product, the up-sell product credit is converted to a service credit as provided by the item and / or as described in detail with reference to FIG. 13 below (step 108). If the purchase-for-sale item is not an immediate-up-sell item, an appropriate buy-back or delivery process is initiated (step 110) as described in more detail with reference to FIG. 12 below.

Referring now to FIGS. 10A and 10B, there is shown the up-sell product registration stage 90 (FIG. 9) of the up-sell product registration small process 900A. At this stage, the regular shopper registers the purchase of the up-sell product selected in advance. The up-selling merchandise registration small process 900A is preferably executed by customer input at a courtesy desk prepared by the supermarket. This courtesy desk is typically used by supermarket staff to provide customer services such as regular shopper registration.

At the start of the up-sell product registration process (step 902), an operator such as a customer service representative receives a customer's request for automatic up-sell registration and inputs it to the store controller 12 (step 904). Such demands are based, for example, on up-sale merchandise catalogs or other advertising materials. These advertising materials include information that identifies the various up-sell items that the customer obtains as a result of participating in regular shopper planning by the supermarket.

The customer is asked whether he is a registered regular shopper (step 906), otherwise the required regular shopper information is received and entered into the central controller 12 (step 908). The resulting regular shopper number / identifier is provided to the customer by the controller 12 (step 910). New regular shopper entry appears in column 5
The regular shopper account database 50, including the regular shopper identifier stored in 6A
(Step 912). The newly registered patron, along with the previously registered patron identified in step 906, is then presented with a selection of up-sell items (step 914).

As shown in the up-sell product database 60 in FIG.
Includes fixed price items such as dollar vouchers (record 60B), open toasters (record 60D), prepaid telephone cards (record 60C) and other commodities. High-priced fixed-price items are referred to herein as "tiered" over-sold items. The reason is that the purchase of these items usually requires the accumulation of money over several transactions.

The above-listed merchandise further includes a divided lottery ticket (record 60A), telephone time (record 6
0E) and mileage regular flyers (record 60F), etc., including immediate or "monetary" oversold products. These instant up-sell items are awarded in each transaction at an amount determined based on the corresponding up-sell item credit, i.e., round-up, lay-away, or due change (record 60A). Immediate up-sell products, such as telephone hours and mileage regular flyers, may be added to a pre-established account or given directions for their individual use. Immediate up-sell products also include other suitable products with rounded-up amounts converted to services.

[0049] Other normative types of up-sell products include fast food items, related products (
For example, a battery when an electronic device is sold), a service contract for a specific product,
Discount or credit coupons for future purchases, and "impulse purchase" items. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that a substantially myriad of up-sell products may be identified and sold for the particular environment of the POS transaction.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 10B, an appropriate input is input to store controller 12 in accordance with the customer's selection of a certain up-sell product, for example, up-sell product code 62A in up-sell product database 60 (step 916). . This input data is used to identify upsell items and retrieve upsell related data from the upsell item database 60 (FIG. 6) (step 918). Next, an upsell product instruction is received from the customer (step 919). In this upsell product instruction, the customer selects a layaway amount, a round-up amount or an expected change amount to be added to the purchase price of each transaction for paying for the upsell item. Column 62A of the upper selling product database 60
Upsell Product Data Code, Upsell Item Price, and Received Upsell Item Instructions from 62C and 62C are provided in appropriate columns 56D, 56E and 5 of regular shopper account database 50.
6G (step 920), whereby the up-sell item selected is associated with the regular shopper information. The registration process ends here (step 922). If the upsell available for sale by the customer is rejected in step 916, the registration process is similarly terminated.

Referring now to FIGS. 11A-C, there is shown an upsell merchandise transaction 900B in which a supermarket process includes upsell merchandise transactions according to the invention. This process is initiated at the POS register, such as 14, 16, or 18, based on the product purchased during the process and the data provided by the customer, and further includes data entry into the POS register and subsequent communication with the controller 12. .

At the start of the process (step 924), the operator receives the regular shopper number from the customer and inputs it to the POS terminal (step 926). The operator then scans the bar code of the food product, for example, and inputs the product code and / or price into the POS terminal (
Step 928). The POS terminal then cooperates with the controller 12 in a known manner to calculate a subtotal of the purchased item prices and create a transaction record in the transaction database 70 (step 930). Using the input regular shopper number that identifies this record,
The POS system verifies the data in column 56D of the regular shopper account database 50 to determine whether the shopper is a registered regular shopper with a registered up-sell product (step 934). If there are no merchandise on registration (step 934), or if a regular shopper code indicating a regular shopper has not been entered at step 926, the transaction is processed in a conventional manner (step 936).

If the shopper is a registered shopper of the up-sell merchandise, the up-sell merchandise instruction corresponding to the regular shopper number is retrieved from the column 56 G of the regular shopper account database 50 (step 937). For example, regular shopper Phil Johnson of record 54F in regular shopper account database 50 may have an up-sell product "D" or up-sell product database 60.
He is a registered shopper of Open Toaster in and ordered a round-up multiple of $ 5.00 per registration (column 56G).

In the preferred embodiment, the subtotal of the item prices calculated in step 930 above and shown in column 76 D of record 78 in transaction database 70 is adjusted according to the upsell instructions in column 56 G of FIG. You. For example, looking at this record illustrated in transaction database 70 corresponding to Phil Johnson's transaction with regular shopper number 123461, a purchase price of $ 3.74 will be rounded to an adjusted round-up price of $ 5.00. Rounded up. This round-up price is the nearest multiple of the indicated round-up multiple of $ 5.00, which is greater than the purchase price.

Other round-up multiples are processed according to the round-up process described above with reference to FIG. If the upsell merchandise indication dictates a layaway amount, the layaway amount would have been added to the purchase price to determine the adjustment price as an alternative to rounding up by a roundup multiple. For example, if a layaway amount of $ 3.00 is indicated in the upsell merchandise indication, the $ 3.74 layaway amount is added to the $ 3.74 purchase price for the $ 6.74 adjustment price. Will be. Also, if the upsell product instruction indicates the change amount to be paid as the upsell product credit, the amounts are aggregated from the customer based on the purchase price (ie, $ 3.74), and the adjustment price is the amount paid. / Payment, and the change due to be paid by the customer will be credited for the up-sell item registered. For example, if a customer pays $ 10.00 for a purchase price of $ 3.74, the difference of $ 6.26 (10.00-3.74) will be credited to the up-sell product. You.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 11B, the purchase price adjusted in accordance with the upsell merchandise instruction gives, in this example, the round-up price shown in column 76 D of record 79 in transaction database 70, which is It is output from the POS register (step 940) and presented to the customer. The payment is received from the customer and the payment receipt is entered into the POS terminal (step 942). Up-sell product credits can be applied to registered and up-sell products, and the amount of up-sell product credits depends on up-sell product instructions. In the transaction example illustrated in FIG. 7, the value of the up-sell commodity credit is $ 1.26, which is a round-up amount resulting from a round-up multiple of $ 5.00. In the present invention, a credit card provided by a customer to pay the above total transaction price,
The use of checks, travel checks or any other form of payment is, of course, contemplated.

The registered merchandise data in the column 56D of the regular shopper account database 50 is searched and used for indexing and searching for the upper merchandise data from the upper merchandise database 60 (FIG. 6) (step 944). An assessment is made as to whether the upsell item is an immediate upsell item or a tier upsell item (step 946). As mentioned above,
Immediate up-sell products are up-sell products that are awarded approximately at the time based on the round-up amount, the lay-away amount, or the estimated change amount to be paid to the customer. A tiered up-sell item is an up-sell item that requires accumulation of money in order to pay the registered item price.

Considering the immediate delivery of an up-sell item, an up-sell item code is generated by the controller 12 (step 948) and stored in the column 86A of the up-sell item database 80 for delivery to the customer. Printed on the customer receipt (step 950)
). The purchase sale product database 80 is updated through the creation of a record that stores the purchase sale product code and accompanying data (step 952). The up-sell product transaction process is now complete (step 954 in FIG. 11C), and the actual conversion of up-sell product to service credit is immediately initiated and performed according to FIG. 13 described below.

Next, considering the step-by-step delivery of up-sell products, the up-sell product credits calculated above (ie, rounded up amounts) are added to the account balance in the column 56 F of the regular shopper account database 50. (Step 958). As shown in FIG. 11C, the system then compares the account balance in column 56F with the up-sell item purchase price in column 56E (step 9).
60) Assess whether the up-sell product purchase is complete or whether additional up-sell product credits need to be accumulated during subsequent purchases. If the account balance is less than the up-sell item purchase price, the increased account balance is printed and provided to the customer (step 962), and the up-sell item transaction process ends.

Now, considering the situation where the account balance is equal to or exceeds the up-sell product purchase price, the up-sell product purchase price is subtracted from the up-sell product account balance in the regular shopper account database (step 964). Note that this operation leaves the credit balance in the upsell merchandise account. The credit balance may be applied to future purchases or returned to the customer, for example.

The controller 12 creates a purchase and sale product code (step 966) and creates an appropriate record in the purchase and sale product database 80 (step 968). The purchase and sale product code is printed and provided to the customer (step 970), and the up sale product transaction process ends (step 954). Next, a buy-back or delivery process described with reference to FIG. 12 is started.

If the upsell product instruction indicates the layaway amount or the expected change amount instead of the rounded-up multiple described, the upsell product credit is the layaway amount (fraction) instead of the illustrated roundup amount. It will be appreciated that it would have been calculated as rounded up or non-) or due due.

Referring now to FIG. 12, small repurchase processing 900 C for tiered up-sell products
One embodiment is shown. The up-sell product repurchase process includes data exchanged with the controller 12, and is executed in a location and manner dependent on the particular up-sell item. Small inventory items such as grocery items and lottery tickets are handed over at, for example, a courtesy desk in a supermarket. Larger items require remote delivery,
Or it may be shipped following confirmation of the transaction, for example by telephone, internet or email. Alternatively, shipping of merchandise for purchase may be automatically initiated by the POS system 10 according to instructions stored in the regular shopper account database 50.

At the start of the repurchase process (step 972), the information on the product for sale, particularly the code for the product for purchase, is received from the customer and input to the controller 12 via, for example, a POS terminal (step 974). The purchase sale product code is used to search the purchase sale product database 80 for the corresponding purchase sale product record (step 976). The data in this record is then compared to the data in the customer receipt (step 978), thereby confirming the code. If the information in the purchased and sold merchandise database does not match the information on the customer receipt (step 980), repurchase of the up-sold merchandise is rejected (step 982) and the process ends (step 984). If the customer receipt data matches the data in the database (step 980), the merchandise is offered for purchase or its delivery is prepared (step 986). Next, the purchased and sold merchandise database 80 is updated to reflect merchandise delivery, for example, by deleting the record of the merchandise delivered. Alternatively, a "delivery item" column may be added to the database in a conventional manner.

Referring now to FIG. 13, there is shown an alternative to the above process in which the rounded up amount of an up-sell product is converted to a service credit and a small repurchase process 900 C ′. At the start of this conversion process (step 990), the up-sell product credit (ie, rounded up) is automatically calculated according to the process described above with reference to FIGS. 11A-C (step 992). The conversion factor is retrieved from the up-sell product database 60, and the up-sell product credit is converted to a service credit value (step 994).
). For example, in entry 60E of the up-sell merchandise database, it can be seen that a minute call costs 12 cents per minute. Entry 60F indicates that mileage regular flyers are converted at a rate of 6 cents per mile. Therefore, 6
The round-up value of zero cents is converted to five minute calls or ten mile regular flyers.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 13, a test is performed to determine whether there is a pre-established service account (account) (step 996). A suitable account identifier is stored, for example, in an additional field of the regular shopper account database 50 (FIG. 5) or provided by the shopper during the transaction. If you cannot identify your pre-opened account,
The service credit value and the repurchase instruction are printed on the customer receipt (step 1004)
, 1006). If a pre-established account is identified, service credit resulting from the transaction is added to the account (step 998). Preferably, a confirmation of the newly added credit is provided to the customer on the customer receipt (step 1000). Once the service credit is properly set and notified to the customer, the conversion process ends (step 1002).

Referring now to FIG. 14, there is shown an example of a customer receipt for the transaction illustrated in transaction database 70 of FIG. This customer receipt (having data indicated by the same reference numbers as the data in the transaction record) has a transaction number 72C, a store identifier number 72B, a POS register identifier number 72D,
It includes a regular shopper identifier 72A and a transaction date 72E. Below the above data are the purchased items identified in records 74A and 74B of the transaction database, the tax listed in record 78, the rounded-up amount of $ 1.26 shown in record 79, and 5. $ 00 round-up price.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 14, items included in the customer receipt further include an up-sale item description “Open Toaster” and a “up-sale item database 80” from the column 62 B of the record 60 D in the up-sale item database 60. Is the code "2422281" from the column 86A of the record 84B. As evident from a discussion of record 54F of the regular shopper account database 50, the transaction illustrated concludes a complete purchase of an open toaster. Accordingly, an instruction 142 is provided on the receipt 140, which indicates that the receipt is redeemed at the service desk and an open toaster is obtained.

FIGS. 15, 16 and 17 are examples of other customer receipts for different up-sell products or up-sell environment. For simplicity, all identification data at the head of the receipt is excluded. Referring first to FIG. 15, a receipt 150 is created from the purchase of a product for sale on a 20-minute telephone card and includes a purchase code 152 and a description 154 that identifies it. Instruction 1
56 is provided for use with this telephone card. FIG. 16 shows a receipt 160. This indicates that the up-sell product is an open toaster, but the transaction that created this receipt is not its purchase. Information 162 indicates the status of the customer's account. FIG. 17 shows a receipt 170. This indicates that the up-sell merchandise credit has been converted from $ 1.26 credit to 21 mile regular flyers, including instructions 172 on how to bill it.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY A new and improved method and system has been provided in which buyers are charged for up-sell products and provided by sellers in accordance with pre-registered and automatically processed instructions. The invention has particular application in the retail industry, for example in supermarkets, fast food restaurants, pharmacies and the like. The present invention provides consumers with a convenient and simple way to purchase goods and / or services. The present invention provides merchants with valuable services that are useful not only to increase sales but also to attract and retain customers.

Although the invention has been described with respect to particular embodiments, it is not limited thereto. For example, while specific database formats and tables have been illustrated and described, other versatile embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Further, while the present invention has been described with respect to regular shopper planning in a supermarket, it is applicable to any other trading environment that allows registration of up-sell product instructions. The claims of the present invention are intended to cover the full scope of the appended claims.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a sales point system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing details of a store controller of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example embodiment of the POS register of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an alternative embodiment of the POS register of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a table showing sample contents of a regular shopper account database of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a table showing sample contents of a selectively sold product database of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a table showing sample contents of the transaction database of FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is a table showing sample contents of a purchase and sale product database of FIG. 2;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of up-sale product registration, transaction, and delivery processing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 10A and 10B are flowcharts showing a registration process of regular shoppers for up-sell products as a whole;

FIGS. 11A to 11C are flowcharts illustrating a process of executing a transaction with a regular shopper having a registered up-sell product.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a flowchart illustrating a buy-back process of an upper selling product.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a flowchart showing a process of converting a monetary value of an upper selling product into a service credit.

FIG. 14 is a plan view of a printed register receipt containing customer data according to the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a plan view of an alternative embodiment of a printed register receipt containing customer data according to the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a plan view of an alternative embodiment of a printed register receipt containing customer data according to the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a plan view of an alternative embodiment of a printed register receipt containing customer data according to the present invention.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme court ゛ (Reference) G06F 17/60 324 G06F 17/60 324 G07G 1/14 G07G 1/14 (81) Designated country EP (AT, BE, CH, CY, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, IT, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE), OA (BF, BJ, CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, GN, GW, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG), AP (GH, GM, KE, LS, MW, SD, SZ, UG, ZW), EA (AM, AZ, BY, KG) , KZ, MD, RU, TJ, TM), AL, AM, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BR, BY, CA, CH, CN, CU, CZ, E, DK, EE, ES, FI, GB, GE, GH, GM, HR, HU, ID, IL, IS, JP, KE, KG, KP, KR, KZ, LC, LK, LR, LS, LT , LU, LV, MD, MG, MK, MN, MW, MX, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, RU, SD, SE, SG, SI, SK, SL, TJ, TM, TR, TT, UA, UG, UZ, VN, YU, ZW

Claims (52)

[Claims] The method comprises the steps of: receiving an identifier of a customer account; and determining an upsell item corresponding to the identifier, wherein the upsell item has an upsell item price, and further comprises a purchase corresponding to the identifier. A transaction processing method, comprising the steps of: determining a purchase price of a product; and determining an upsell product credit and applying the credit to the upsell product price. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of outputting the upsell merchandise credit. 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: applying the upsell credit to the upsell price. 4. The step of determining the up-sell products includes the step of registering the up-sell products prior to the purchase, and the step of searching for the up-sell products according to the purchase. The method of claim 1. 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing a plurality of identifiers each corresponding to each customer account. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the up-sell product credit comprises determining a price adjustment corresponding to the identifier, and applying the price adjustment to the purchase price. The method of claim 1. 7. A means for receiving an identifier of a customer account, a means for determining an upsell item corresponding to the identifier, wherein the upsell item has an upsell item price, and further comprises a purchase corresponding to the identifier. A transaction processing system comprising: means for determining a purchase price of a product; and means for determining an upsell product credit and applying the credit to the upsell product price. 8. The method according to claim 8, further comprising: receiving an identifier of the customer account; and searching for an upsell item corresponding to the identifier, wherein the upsell item has an upsell item price, and further comprises a purchase corresponding to the identifier. Receiving a purchase price of the above, calculating an up-sell product credit and applying it to the up-sell product price, and preparing a customer receipt including the up-sell product credit. Operation method. 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising applying said upsell credit to said upsell price. 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of searching for the up-sell products includes the step of storing the up-sell products before the purchase, and the step of searching for the up-sell products according to the purchase. The method according to claim 8. 11. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of storing a plurality of identifiers each corresponding to each customer account. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining the up-sell product credit comprises determining a price adjustment corresponding to the identifier, and applying the price adjustment to the purchase price. Item 9. The method according to Item 8. 13. The method of claim 8, wherein said purchasing comprises selling goods traded by said POS system. 14. A processor, comprising: a memory connected to the processor for storing a program, wherein the processor cooperates with the program in the memory to receive a customer account identifier; Searching for a product, the up-sell product has an up-sell product price, further receiving a purchase price of a purchase corresponding to the identifier, calculating an up-sell product credit and applying to the up-sell product price; PO for creating a customer receipt including up-sell product credits
S system. 15. A method comprising: receiving an identifier of a customer account; determining an up-sell product corresponding to the identifier; determining a purchase price of a purchase corresponding to the identifier; and determining an instruction. The transaction processing method comprising: adjusting the purchase price according to the identifier to provide an adjusted purchase price including a credit for the up-sell product. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein said indication includes rounding up said purchase price. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the indication includes rounding the purchase price to a specific rounding multiple. 18. The method according to claim 15, wherein said instructions include adding a predetermined layaway amount to said purchase price. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein said instructions include a round-up of said purchase price and a sum of said predetermined layaway amount. 20. The method of claim 15, wherein said instructions include setting said purchase price equal to the amount paid for said purchase. 21. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of adding said credit to said customer account balance. 22. The method of claim 21, further comprising comparing the balance with the value of the up-sell item. 23. The method of claim 15, further comprising applying said credit substantially immediately to purchase said up-sell product. 24. A means for receiving an identifier of a customer account, a means for determining an up-sell product corresponding to the identifier, a means for determining a purchase price of a purchase corresponding to the identifier, and a means for determining an instruction. A transaction processing system, wherein the instructions adjust the purchase price corresponding to the identifier and provide an adjusted purchase price including credit for the up-sell product. 25. A method of operating a POS system, comprising: receiving an identifier of a customer account; determining an up-sell product corresponding to the identifier; and determining a price adjustment instruction corresponding to the identifier. Determining the purchase price of a purchase transaction corresponding to the identifier occurring in the POS system; and using the instruction, the instruction adjusting the purchase price to provide a credit for the up-sell item. Providing an adjusted purchase price that includes an adjusted purchase price, and generating a customer receipt that includes the adjusted purchase price. 26. The method according to claim 25, wherein said instructions include rounding up said purchase price. 27. The method of claim 26, wherein said instructions include rounding said purchase price to a specific rounding multiple. 28. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein said instructions include adding a predetermined layaway amount to said purchase price. 29. The method of claim 28, wherein said indication includes a sum of a round-up of said purchase price and said predetermined layaway amount. 30. The method of claim 25, wherein the instructions include setting the purchase price equal to the amount paid for the purchase. 31. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of adding said credit to said customer account balance. 32. The method of claim 31, further comprising comparing the balance with the value of the up-sell item. 33. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of applying the credit substantially immediately to purchase the up-sell item. 34. A processor, comprising: a memory connected to the processor for storing a program, the processor cooperating with the program in the memory to receive an identifier of a customer account; Determining an up-sale product corresponding to the identifier, determining an instruction to adjust the price corresponding to the identifier, determining a purchase price of a purchase transaction corresponding to the identifier generated in the POS system, using the instruction, The method of operating a POS system comprises the steps of: adjusting the purchase price to provide an adjusted purchase price including credit for the up-sell product; and creating a customer receipt including the adjusted purchase price. . 35. A method of operating a POS terminal, comprising: inputting transaction data including a customer account identifier to the POS terminal; and transmitting a pre-registered up-sell product corresponding to the customer account identifier from the POS terminal. An operating method comprising receiving an identifier. 36. The method of claim 35, further comprising creating a customer receipt that includes the pre-registered identifier of the up-sell item. 37. The method of claim 35, wherein said transaction data relates to a transaction originating at said POS terminal. 38. A method of operating a POS terminal, comprising: inputting transaction data including a customer account identifier and a purchase price to the POS terminal; and receiving an adjustment price from the POS terminal. Is determined by applying a pre-registered upsell product instruction corresponding to the customer account identifier to the purchase price. 39. The method according to claim 38, wherein said adjustment price is rounded up. 40. The method according to claim 38, wherein said adjustment price includes an added layaway amount. 41. The method according to claim 38, wherein the adjustment price is set equal to a payment amount for the purchase price. 42. Receiving an identifier of a customer account; determining up-sell products for a service corresponding to the identifier;
The up-sell product has a conversion factor, further determining a purchase price of the purchase corresponding to the identifier; determining an up-sell product credit and purchasing the service; A transaction processing method comprising the step of converting sales merchandise credits to said service. 43. The method of claim 42, further comprising generating a signal to initiate said service according to the amount of said service resulting from converting said upsell credit. 44. The method of claim 42, wherein said service comprises a telecommunications service and said conversion factor comprises a factor for converting currency to said telecommunications service. 45. The method of claim 42, wherein the service includes a mileage regular flyer and the conversion factor includes a factor that converts currency to the mileage regular flyer. 46. The method of claim 47, wherein determining the upsell product credit comprises adjusting the purchase price according to a preregistered upsell product instruction that provides the upsell product credit. 43. The method according to claim 42. 47. Means for receiving an identifier of a customer account, means for determining an upsell item for a service corresponding to the identifier, wherein the upsell item has a conversion factor, and further includes a purchase corresponding to the identifier. A transaction determining means for determining a purchase price of the above, a means for determining an up-sell commodity credit and purchasing the service, and a means for converting the up-sell commodity credit into the service using the conversion factor. Processing system. 48. Receiving an identifier of a customer account; determining up-sell products for a service corresponding to the identifier;
The up-sell product has a conversion factor, further receiving a purchase price of the purchase, determining the up-sell product credit and purchasing the service, and using the conversion factor to convert the up-sell product credit to the A method for operating a POS system, comprising the steps of: converting to a service; and creating a customer receipt including the display of the up-sell product credit and the display of the service. 49. The method of claim 48, wherein said service comprises a telecommunications service and said conversion factor comprises a factor for converting currency to said telecommunications service. 50. The method of claim 48, wherein the service includes a mileage regular flyer and the conversion factor includes a factor that converts currency to the mileage regular flyer. 51. The method of claim 51, wherein determining the upsell product credit comprises adjusting the purchase price according to a preregistered upsell product instruction that provides the upsell product credit. 49. The method according to item 48. 52. A processor, comprising: a memory connected to the processor for storing a program, wherein the processor cooperates with the program in the memory to receive an identifier of a customer account; and for a service corresponding to the identifier. Determine the up-sell product, the up-sell product has a conversion factor, further receive the purchase price of the purchase, determine the up-sell product credit, purchase the service, and use the conversion factor to perform the up sale A POS system that converts merchandise credits to the service and creates a customer receipt that includes the upsell merchandise credits and an indication of the service.