JP2860690B2 - Product guidance method and system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a product guidance method and system, and more particularly, is suitable for supporting sales operations requiring a wide range of product knowledge such as department stores and general clothing stores. Product guidance method and system.

[Prior art] As a conventional product guide system for supporting sales operations in a general clothing store, for example, a "high-tech merchandising method in the United States III. In-store / in-mall merchandising (Nikkei Data Pro Marketing) There is an electronic fitting system called “Magic Mirror” described in “System Magazine 1988.10)”.

In this electronic fitting system, a customer specifies his favorite clothes and accessories from a catalog. The store clerk enters the designated clothing and accessory numbers and the customer's body shape and face into the system. Then, the designated clothes and accessories are projected on the customer's body shape, and an image with the customer's face attached is captured.

That is, the customer can determine whether or not to purchase by looking at the image as if the user tried on the product without actually trying on the product.

Therefore, both the store and the customer can save the time required for fitting.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] In the above-mentioned conventional electronic fitting system, since the number of clothes and accessories must be input, it is necessary to specifically specify clothes and accessories. However, there are many cases where customers cannot specifically specify clothes and accessories.
In particular, even when clothes can be specifically specified, accessories cannot often be specifically specified. In such a case, the store clerk listens to the image of the fashion that the customer wants to make a decision, evaluates the customer, selects a specific product candidate from the catalog, Let the customer decide.

However, the products to be selected as candidates depend on the product knowledge and sense of the person in charge of the store, so that there is a problem that the products desired by the customer cannot be selected accurately and missed sales opportunities are missed.

In addition, there is a problem that the sales person does not necessarily support the sales operation because the image of the desired fashion is explained to the person in charge of the store, and the customer avoids the troublesomeness evaluated.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to properly select and present a product desired by a customer and present it to the customer, and to explain a desired fashion image, and to provide a customer with a troublesome evaluation that is not given to the customer. It is to provide a system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a product guidance method and system for collecting customer needs.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention relates to a key product specifying step of specifying a key product, and a product to be combined with the key product based on the specified key product, the coordinating product matching the product. And a coordinated product output step of outputting the specified coordinated product.

Further, the present invention provides a product guidance system for implementing the above product guidance method.

[Operation] In the merchandise guidance method and system of the present invention, when a key merchandise is specified, a merchandise database is searched using the specified key merchandise, and a coordinated merchandise to be combined with the key merchandise is specified and presented.

Therefore, it becomes possible to accurately select a coordinated product suitable for the key product and present it to the customer. In addition, the image of the desired fashion is not explained to the clerk, and the customer is not troubled by the clerk.

Further, in the product guidance method and system of the present invention, customer needs are obtained by counting the frequency at which products are selected by customers.

Therefore, it is possible to always check what kind of merchandise the customer wants.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited by this.

FIG. 1 is a schematic processing flow chart of the product guiding method of the present invention.

In step 101, key product information and coordinated product information are input. That is, the ID code (for example, “12345678”) or the attribute data (for example, a sweater or a V-neck) of the central product that the customer has a purchase intention and the product that the customer wants to combine with the central product is input. When the attribute data of the key product is inputted, the ID code of the key product is specified by searching the product database 100.

In step 102, coordinate information is created.
That is, a product database is searched from the ID code of the identified key product and the coordinated product information, and the ID code of the coordinated product that matches the key product (for example, “87
654321 ") and / or predetermined attribute data (for example, skirts, pleats, etc.) are extracted.

In step 103, the coordinate information is output. For example, the coordinate information is imaged and displayed on a display.

Since the customer can obtain information on the coordinated merchandise that matches the key merchandise, the purchase is facilitated. That is, sales are promoted.

On the other hand, the product information input by the customer is stored in a product DB (database) 100.

Then, in step 104, the data is totaled and customer needs data is created.

 In step 105, it is output as customer need information.

As a result, customer needs can be collected and analyzed.

Next, the product guidance method and the product guidance system of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the product guide system of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation of the product guide system of FIG.

This product guidance system 1 handles only clothing-related products (this is equivalent to setting clothing as attribute data of key products), and is installed in a clothing store of a department store.

First, in step 301, the workstation 202
Displays the first screen 801 shown in FIG. 8 (a) on the display.

The customer enters the gender and age of the person wearing the key product.
Input operation is performed on the touch panel 204 attached to the display.
Is performed by touching a finger on the screen and selecting a corresponding part or icon on the screen. For example, when a part corresponding to the age of 28 of a woman is selected, the selected part is displayed in high brightness as shown by the diagonal lines in FIG. 8 (a). After confirming that the selected part is correctly displayed with high brightness,
Select the icon with.

Then, the workstation 202 displays a second screen 802 shown in FIG. 8B on the display.

The customer enters the clothing type, use, and feeling of the key product.
For example, if “sweater”, “private”, or “urban” is selected, a portion indicated by oblique lines in FIG. After confirming that the selected portion has been correctly displayed in high brightness, select the icon with the "Confirmation" display.

Then, the workstation 202 displays a third screen 803 shown in FIG. 8C on the display.

The customer inputs the material, shape, and the like of the key product, confirms that the selected portion has been correctly displayed with high brightness, and selects an icon with a "confirmation" display.

In step 3020, the input processing unit 211 receives the attribute data of the key product input as described above. In addition, these input histories are stored in the product selection history management file 22.
Store in 1. FIG. 7 shows an example of the product selection history management file 221.

If the attribute data of the input key product has been selected for a plurality of attribute data items in one item, the workstation 202 connects them by OR, and if there is no selection input, the workstation 202 considers that all the selection options have been selected. , And attribute data of different items are connected by AND, search the product DB227 by attribute,
Products that meet the conditions are identified as key product candidates and their IDs
Get the code. FIG. 4 shows the attribute-specific product DB 227.
Then, an appearance image of the key product is obtained from the product image DB 224 by using these ID codes.

On the other hand, the workstation 202 captures the customer's face image by the camera 201 and stores it in the captured image storage file 222 via the input processing unit 211.

The image synthesis processing unit 213 synthesizes the appearance image of the key product and the face image stored in the captured image storage file 222, and displays the synthesized image on the display via the output processing unit 215.

This is the output of the key product information in step 3021. FIG. 8D is a display example of a composite image on a display.

In step 303, the customer selects a desired key product from among the key product candidates displayed in the composite image.
If there is no key product to be sought, select the “initial” icon to return to the first screen or select the “return” icon to return to the previous screen. That is, the process returns to step 301. Then, the attribute data is changed. This is repeated until a key product is obtained.

When the desired key product is selected, the process proceeds to step 304.

In step 304, the coordinate information creation processing unit 212
Searches the coordinate DB223 based on the ID code of the key product, extracts candidates for the coordinated product that matches the key product, and stores the attribute data (eg, hat, skirt,
Shoes) on the display. Coordinate DB223
Is shown in FIG. A display example is shown in the window screen of FIG. 8 (e). The customer selects the desired item from the attribute data of the coordinated product candidate.

In step 305, the coordinate information creation processing unit 212
Retrieves the coordinate DB 223 again based on the attribute data of the key commodity and the attribute data of the selected coordinated commodity, and obtains an ID code of the coordinated commodity that satisfies the condition.

In step 306, the image synthesis processing unit 213 extracts the appearance image of the coordinated product from the product image DB 224 according to the ID code of the coordinated product, synthesizes it with the appearance image of the key product and the face image of the customer, and outputs the processed image.
Display on the display via 215. FIG. 8 (e)
The image at the center of indicates the composite image.

In step 307, if the customer is satisfied with the coordinated product displayed in the composite image, the customer selects the “confirm” icon. If not, select the "return" icon to return to the previous screen. That is, step 30
Return to 4. Then, the attribute data is changed. Repeat until the coordinating product for this is obtained.

Note that the coordination information creation processing unit 212 reflects the attribute data of the coordination product input by the customer for the key product in the coordination DB 223 as additional data.

When the coordinated product is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 3080.

In step 3080, the customer selects a desired product to be purchased from the key product and the coordinated product.

In step 3081, the workstation 202 refers to the product master file 226 and accepts an order for the reserved product if the desired product is a reserved product that is not in stock. An example of the product master file 226 is shown in FIG.

In step 309, if the desired product is a spot sale product in stock, the sales floor guidance map creation processing unit 214 is activated.
The sales floor guide map creation processing unit 214 searches the product master file 226 by the ID code of the spot sale product, extracts the sales point and the sales location code, extracts the sales floor guide map from the sales floor layout drawing DB 225 by the sales location code, and generates a composite image. Is created, and via the output processing unit 215,
Display on the display. The display of this composite image is illustrated in FIG. 8 (f).

The workstation 202 outputs the ID code of the spot sale item and predetermined attribute data (eg, item name) from the printer 203 as a hard copy. The map of the sales location is output as a hard copy from the printer 203.

Therefore, the customer can quickly purchase a product by going to a counter where the desired product is sold by specializing these hard copies. That is, it is also useful as a sales floor guidance system.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a method of creating the coordinate DB 223.

Coordination knowledge of the expert (experienced salesperson) is interactively input from the registration terminal 901.
The knowledge organizing unit 902 organizes the information and registers it in the coordinate DB 223.

The data stored in the product selection history management file 221 is
Aggregated and used to analyze customer needs. For example, if the attribute data item has a color that occupies the top 50% of the total for “color”, that color is determined to be “fashionable color” and used as a reference for product selection and customer targeting strategies.

In another embodiment, the present invention is applied to a product group that requires specialized knowledge in a combination of products such as furniture and audio products.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, a key product can be used as a clue and a coordinated product desired by a customer can be accurately presented, so that the customer's willingness to purchase is stimulated and one visit to the store (sales opportunity).
Can help customers buy more products and promote sales.

In addition, customer needs can be collected and analyzed from product information selected by customers, which can be used for sales strategies.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic flow chart of the product guide method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the product guide system of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation of the product guide system of FIG. 2, and FIG. Configuration diagram of product DB by attribute, Fig. 5 is configuration diagram of coordinate DB,
FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a product master file, FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a product selection history management file, and FIGS. 8 (a) to (f).
Is an illustration of the display screen, Fig. 9 is the coordinate
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a method for creating a DB. (Explanation of symbols) 1. Product guide system 100. Product database 202. Workstation 204. Touch panel 212. Coordinate information creation processing unit 223. Coordinate DB 227.

(72) Inventor Tadashi Tenma 1099 Ozenji Temple, Aso-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside Hitachi, Ltd.System Development Laboratory Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yoshizo Akashi 1099 Ozenji Temple, Aso-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd. Hiroshi Koyama (72) Inventor Hiroshima Koyama 890 Kashimada, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Information Systems Factory, Hitachi, Ltd. (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G09F 5 / 04 G09F 27/00 G09G 5/34 G06F 15/21

Claims (11)

(57) [Claims] A key product attribute data specifying step of specifying attribute data of a key product; and a key product candidate presentation for searching a product database based on the attribute data of the specified key product to select and present candidates for the key product. Performing a key product attribute data designating step and a key product candidate presentation step one or more times to specify a key product; and searching a product database using the specified key product for a key. A coordinated product candidate presenting step of selecting and presenting a coordinated product candidate to be combined with the product, a coordinated product attribute data designating step of designating attribute data of the coordinated product, and a coordinate presented as the candidate by the attribute data of the designated coordinated product Product A coordinated product narrowing down step for narrowing down candidates from among the above, a coordinated product specifying step of specifying the coordinated product by performing the coordinated product attribute data specifying step and the coordinated product narrowing down step one or more times, and a specified key product and coordinates A product presenting step of presenting a product, a product order receiving step of receiving at least one order of a key product or a coordinated product, and a product counter presenting step of presenting at least one of a key product or a coordinated product. Product guide method to do. 2. A product database for storing attribute data and coordinate data of a large number of products, key product attribute data input means for inputting attribute data of key products, and the product database based on the input key product attribute data. A coordinated product specifying means for searching for a coordinated product, and product information output means for obtaining predetermined attribute data including the appearance image data of the specified coordinated product from the product database and outputting it as product information. Product guide system characterized by becoming. 3. A merchandise guidance system according to claim 2, wherein one of the predetermined attribute data output as merchandise information is merchandise sales location data. 4. A merchandise guidance system according to claim 2 or 3, wherein one of the predetermined attribute data output as merchandise information is merchandise sales location map data. . 5. A merchandise guidance system according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein customer data input means for inputting at least one of body image data or face image data of the customer as one of the customer data, Image synthesizing means for obtaining a synthesized image obtained by synthesizing at least one of the appearance image data of the specified key product or the coordinated product and at least one of the body shape image data or the face image data of the customer, wherein the product is clothing and clothing A product information output means for outputting the composite image; 6. A key product specifying step of specifying a key product, and a coordinated product specifying step of specifying, based on the specified key product, a product to be combined with the key product and coordinating with the product. And a coordinated product output step of outputting the specified coordinated product. 7. The product guidance method according to claim 6,
A method for presenting a product, comprising a step of presenting the specified coordinated product and the key product in combination. 8. A merchandise guide system for displaying merchandise stored in a merchandise database, wherein information for specifying a key merchandise that a user of the merchandise guide system wants to purchase and the user can combine the key merchandise with the key merchandise. Input processing means for receiving an input of information on a product desired to be made; and a product to be combined with the key product from the product database in accordance with the input received by the input processing means, and a coordinated product matching the key product A product guidance system comprising: a processing unit for specifying the information; and an output processing unit for outputting information on the coordinated product specified by the processing unit. 9. The product guidance system according to claim 8, wherein said input processing means receives an input from an information processing device, and said output processing means outputs said information to said information processing device. A featured product information system. 10. The merchandise guidance system according to claim 9, wherein the key merchandise is clothing, the coordinated merchandise is a merchandise coordinated with the clothing, and the display device outputs an output from the output processing means. A product guidance system, comprising: a display device for displaying, wherein the display device displays a face image of a customer, an appearance of the key product, and an appearance of the coordinated product in a combined manner. 11. The product guidance system according to claim 9, wherein the information processing device has a display device for displaying an output from the output processing means, and after the output is displayed on the display device. When the user inputs to the information processing device that the user is not satisfied with the coordinated product, another coordinated product is displayed on the display device.