JP6764804B2 - Coupon issuing system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a coupon issuing system that issues an optimum coupon for each customer based on the customer's purchasing trend at a retail store.

Traditionally, retail stores and the like have been offering benefits such as discounts by presenting coupons issued in advance when a customer purchases a product or service. These coupons are generally provided on paper media such as leaflets and publications and distributed to consumers. However, since such a distribution method distributes a large number of coupons to an unspecified number of consumers, only a small number of coupons are actually used in stores by consumers, which is cost-effective. There is also a problem that there is a lot of waste.

On the other hand, in recent years, a method has been adopted in which a consumer who visits a retailer's homepage on the Internet can obtain the coupon by printing it out (for example, Patent Document 1). See). Such an electronic coupon distribution method can be obtained by accessing the website and can be distributed directly to consumers who need the coupon, which has the advantage of being efficient and cost-effective. is there.

However, with both conventional paper coupons and online coupons distributed on the Internet, the products for which benefits can be obtained when using the coupons are not distinguished for each customer and are uniformly determined in advance. , The number of customers who want the coupon is limited. Therefore, even if they are obtained, they are often not used because they are not interested in using coupons, and the effect of promoting customer attraction by providing coupons is limited.

In addition, in a product sales data processing device such as a POS terminal, when a customer ID that identifies a customer is input, the customer's past purchase history and information about the customer (age, gender, store visit time zone, etc.) are used as the basis. If the discounted product code group corresponding to the customer ID is acquired and the product code entered at the time of payment of the purchase is included in the acquired discount product code group, the product corresponding to the product code is obtained. It is known that the unit price of a product is discounted (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

Then, there is also known a system that prints out a coupon ticket in consideration of the degree of contribution to sales to the store from the shopping history of each customer (for example, Patent Document 3).

JP-A-2002-352131 JP-A-2009-15661 JP-A-11-191183

Although it is different from the coupon issuing system, customer satisfaction can be improved by giving preferential treatment to products suitable for the customer from the purchase history as in Patent Document 2. However, in Patent Document 2, if the discounted product is not included in the products to be settled, the preferential treatment is not given. Therefore, if the preferential treatment is to be given to more customers, the types of the preferential product must be increased and retailed. The burden on the store will increase.

Further, in Patent Document 3, since the issuance of a coupon is only determined according to the degree of contribution of the customer to sales, the coupon is not always useful even if the customer obtains the coupon, and the customer satisfaction is not necessarily improved. Does not reach.

In view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide a coupon issuing system capable of issuing an appropriate coupon according to a customer's purchasing trend and degree of attachment to a store.

In order to solve the above problems, the coupon issuing system according to a first aspect of the present invention, a means for accumulating the purchase information of the goods or services for each customer, each customer identifier for identifying each customer from the purchase information The means for determining the degree of attachment of each customer to the store, the means for creating the purchased product axis purchase information that classifies the purchase information according to the product field, and the distance between the store and the customer's place of residence. It is provided with a means for creating classified store distance axis purchase information and a coupon type determining means for determining the type of coupon to be issued from the purchased product axis purchase information, the store distance axis purchase information, and the attachment degree. It is characterized by.

Coupon issuing system according to a second aspect of the present invention, a means for accumulating the purchase information of the goods or services for each customer, from said purchase information to store each customer for each customer identifier for identifying each customer A means for determining the degree of attachment, a means for creating purchase product axis purchase information in which the purchase information is classified according to the product field, and a means for creating a store visit day time axis purchase information in which the purchase information is classified by the store visit day time zone. The coupon type determination means for determining the type of coupon to be issued from the purchased product axis purchase information, the store visit day time axis purchase information, and the attachment degree is provided.

Coupon issuing system according to a third aspect of the present invention includes means for storing the purchase information of the goods or services for each customer, from said purchase information to store each customer for each customer identifier for identifying each customer A means for determining the degree of attachment, a means for creating purchase product axis purchase information in which the purchase information is classified by product field, and a store distance axis purchase information in which the purchase information is classified by the distance between the store and the customer's place of residence. The means for creating, the means for creating the store visit day time axis purchase information in which the purchase information is classified by the store visit day time zone, the purchase product axis purchase information, the store distance axis purchase information, and the store visit day time axis purchase information. It is characterized by providing a coupon type determining means for determining the type of coupon to be issued based on the attachment degree.

Here, the means for determining the degree of attachment in the coupon issuing system according to the first to third inventions is at least one of the last visit date, the visit frequency, and the cumulative purchase amount calculated from the purchase information. It is characterized in that the degree of attachment is determined based on the above. In this case, the frequency of store visits may be the cumulative number of store visits or the average number of days between store visits based on the purchase information. Then, the type of coupon to be issued is determined according to the determined degree of attachment, but there is also a decision not to issue the coupon depending on the degree of attachment. Then, efficiency can be improved by using the data collected by the point-of-sale management system for the purchase information.

The coupon issuing system according to the present invention classifies the purchase information, which is the purchase history of the customer, into the purchased product axis, the store distance axis, and / or the time axis of the visit day, and analyzes the customer's purchasing trend. In order to determine the type of coupon to be issued according to the degree of attachment to the customer, the coupon can be issued in detail according to the individual situation of the customer, and the customer satisfaction can be enhanced.

The block diagram explaining the whole structure of the coupon issuing system which concerns on this invention is shown. (A) shows a block diagram of the sales data record transmitted from the POS terminal to the store POS server 3, and (b) shows a block diagram of the store data record transmitted from the store POS server to the POS server 2. The functional configuration of the customer management server is shown in a block diagram. A schematic explanatory diagram of store distance axis purchase information is shown. A schematic explanatory diagram of purchased product axis purchasing information is shown. A schematic explanatory diagram of purchase information on the time axis of the day of the week is shown. An explanatory diagram is shown in which the degree of attachment of customers to the store is classified into four types: new customers, stable customers, excellent customers, and non-excellent customers. The flowchart explaining the processing procedure of coupon issuance is shown. A block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of another embodiment of the coupon issuing system according to the present invention is shown.

Hereinafter, the coupon issuing system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration diagram of the coupon issuing system 1 and is built on a point-of-sale management system (POS system).

The POS system here is a POS server 2 located at the retailer's center 30, a store POS server 3 installed at each of a plurality of stores under the affiliate, and a checkout counter located at the checkout counter in the store. It is composed of a terminal (POS terminal) 4. The POS server 2 and the store POS server 3 transmit and receive data through a communication network 10 using a public line or a dedicated line. Further, one or a plurality of POS terminals 4 are installed at the checkout counter of the store according to the scale of the store, and are connected to the store POS server 3 by a LAN (Local Area Network) 11.

When the store POS server 3 includes a PLU (Price Look Up) file in which the product code corresponds to the product name and the price, and an inquiry message including the product code read by the scanner 5 is transmitted from the POS terminal 4. , The product name and price corresponding to the product code are searched from the PLU file, and the inquiry message is returned to the POS terminal 4 that sent the message.

The POS terminal 4 processes the customer's shopping settlement based on the sent price, and when the settlement is completed, the printer issues a receipt regarding the transaction. Then, the POS terminal 4 contains the product code and the number of products purchased by the customer after the settlement is completed, the sales amount due to the product code, the sales date and time indicating the date and time at that time, and the purchase information including the terminal code of the POS terminal 4. The recorded sales data record 15 shown in FIG. 2A is transmitted to the store POS server 3. The store POS server 3 accumulates sales data records 15 sent from each POS terminal 4, and manages sales at the store based on the accumulated sales data records 15.

In this POS system, each POS terminal 4 is provided with a card reader (not shown) for reading a membership card distributed to customers who have registered as members in advance. The membership card is, for example, a card that proves that the member is a point member or a preferential member, and records customer identifier information such as a membership number for identifying the customer who owns the card, and is a magnetic card or an IC card. It is created using. Therefore, when the POS terminal 4 is reading the membership number from the membership card presented by the customer at the time of payment of shopping, the POS terminal 4 adds this membership number to the purchase information and transmits it to the store POS server 3.

Each time the sales data record 15 is transmitted from the POS terminal 4, the store POS server 3 creates a store data record 16 in which the store code of the store is further added to the sales data record 15 and transmits the store data record 16 to the POS server 2. To do. FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram showing the main data structure of the store data record 16, and the store code is added to the purchase information.

The POS server 2 stores the store data records 16 sent from each store POS server 3 in the database 20, and based on this, performs sales management in which a plurality of stores are integrated. Therefore, in the POS server 2, even when a member's customer makes a purchase across a plurality of stores, the shopping trend of the customer can be grasped by associating with the member number.

As shown in FIG. 3, the database 20 includes a customer database 21, a purchase information database 22, and a store address database 23.

The customer database 21 stores customer attribute information in association with each customer identifier given to each member customer. Customers who wish to join, such as point members and preferential members, are given a membership number as a customer identifier, and are asked to declare customer attribute information such as the gender, age, and place of residence of the customer declared at that time. These customer attribute information is stored in the customer database 21.

The purchase information database 22 stores store data records 16 sent from each store POS server 3 of affiliated stores. As described above, the store data record 16 includes information on the store code, product code, quantity, sales amount, sales date and time, and POS terminal code, but in the case of shopping by a member customer, the member number. Is further included.

The store address database 23 stores the address of each affiliated store in the store address database 23 in association with the store code of the store.

The coupon issuing system 1 of the embodiment of the present invention is constructed on the above-mentioned POS system by using the customer management server 6 and the coupon printer 8. In this case, the customer management server 6 is installed in the center 30 together with the POS server 2 and the database 20, and the coupon printer 8 is installed in each store. One or more coupon printers 8 are arranged in each store, but it is preferable to connect to each POS terminal 4 in the store and arrange the same number of coupon printers 8. By doing so, the coupon can be issued at the same time when the customer's shopping is settled on the POS terminal 4.

The customer management server 6 determines the degree of attachment of a customer having a membership number to a store based on the information accumulated in the customer database 21, the purchase information database 22, and the store address database 23 by periodic processing. At the same time, store function axis purchasing information, purchased product axis purchasing information, and store visit time axis purchasing information used to analyze purchasing trends for each member customer are created. In this case, as shown in the functional block diagram of FIG. 3, the customer management server 6 executes the control program to execute the attachment degree determining means 31, the store function axis purchasing information creating means 33, and the purchased product axis purchasing information. Each function of the creation means 34 and the store visit day time axis purchase information creation means 35 is realized. The operation of each means will be described below.

The attachment degree determination means 31 analyzes the purchase information representing the purchase history of the customer from the time when the customer identifier is given to the customer, for example, from the time when the customer joins the point member or the preferential member, by RFM analysis of the customer. Determine the degree of attachment to the store. In the case of a retailer having a plurality of stores as in this example, the “degree of attachment to the store” is not the degree of attachment to each store, but the degree of attachment to the retailer's brand common to these affiliated stores.

In this embodiment, the degree of attachment is classified into four types: new customers, stable customers, excellent customers, and non-excellent customers. Figure 7 illustrates these four types of attachment in a typical pattern graphed by the customer's interest in the retailer's store, with new customers joining point card members (starting transactions with retailers). Customers at the time when the degree of understanding / interest in retail stores grows from point t, customers at the time when stable customers increase their understanding / interest and become established as repeaters, and good customers at the time when the degree of understanding / interest further increases On the contrary, customers and non-excellent customers are customers at a time when their understanding and interest level decrease and they are separated.

RFM analysis is a method for evaluating the performance of the customer's most recent purchase (Recency: R), how often (Frequency: F), and how much he / she has bought (Monetary: M). Widely known. In the evaluation of R here, the more recent ones are given a higher score according to the number of days elapsed from the last visit date, in the evaluation of F, the higher the score is, the more the cumulative number of visits is, and in the evaluation of M, the cumulative purchase. The higher the amount, the higher the score. Further, as an evaluation of the store visit frequency of F, in addition to the cumulative number of store visits, there is a method of obtaining the average number of store visit intervals and giving a higher score as this is shorter, so that the frequency can be evaluated more accurately.

Then, the evaluation scores of R, F, and M are comprehensively analyzed, and it is determined which of the four states the degree of attachment of each customer to the store is. In the score analysis, the degree of attachment of the customer is determined by determining the position of the current score in the graph shown in FIG. 7 by comparing the latest score immediately before and the current score.

Here, in order to evaluate the degree of attachment by scoring R, F, and M, it is advisable to weight the evaluation points according to the situation of each store. For example, if the customer's most recent store visit date is emphasized, the score based on R's evaluation is weighted, and if the customer's visit frequency is emphasized, the score based on M's evaluation is weighted. Further, if any one of the evaluations of R, F, and M is particularly important, the degree of attachment of the customer may be determined only by the score based on this evaluation.

The store distance axis purchase information creating means 33 creates store distance axis purchase information classified by the distance between the store and the customer's place of residence. Specifically, the store distance axis purchasing information creating means 33 measures the store address stored in the store address database 23 and the distance from the customer's place of residence stored in the customer database 21 to the store. The store distance axis purchase information is created by classifying the purchase information of the customer stored in the purchase information database 22 according to the distance. Since the store distance axis purchase information is information for knowing which distance range the customer's shopping store is within from the place of residence, the distance from the customer's place of residence to the store is between two addresses. The straight-line distance of

FIG. 4 schematically shows the store distance axis purchase information created by the store distance axis purchase information creating means 33 for one member customer, and in this example, there are three types of store distance axis purchase information. (A) shows the total number of purchases classified into stores within a short distance of 0 to 5 km and stores with a long distance of 5 km or more, and purchases are made to customers whose place of residence is not registered. The total number of times is shown. In (b), the total number of purchases is shown at the stores within each distance range when the distance is subdivided. If the place of residence is not registered, the number of purchases at all stores is shown. The distance of 354 m is considered to be a close distance within 5 minutes on foot. (C) is the total number of stores purchased, the total number of stores purchased within a short distance of 0 to 5 km, and the total number of stores purchased at a long distance of 5 km or more. Is shown. If the place of residence is not registered, the total number of stores purchased is shown.

The purchased product axis purchasing information creating means 34 creates the purchased product axis purchasing information in which the purchasing information is classified according to the product field. Specifically, the number of purchases at all stores for each product field is calculated from the purchase information in the purchase information database 22.

FIG. 5 schematically shows the purchased product axis purchasing information created by the purchased product axis purchasing information creating means 34 for one member customer, and starts from 01 from the purchasing information of the customer stored in the purchasing information database 22. Purchased product axis purchase information is created by calculating the total number of purchases of all stores by product field up to 21.

The store visit day time axis purchase information creating means 35 creates the store visit day time axis purchase information by classifying the purchase information by the store visit day time zone. Specifically, the time-axis purchase information for the day of the week is created by calculating the total number of purchases at all stores during each time zone on weekdays and holidays.

FIG. 6 schematically shows the store visit day time axis purchase information created by the store visit day time axis purchase information creating means 35 for one member customer, and the number of purchases at all stores during each time zone on weekdays and holidays. It is shown.

If such store visit day time axis purchase information and store distance axis purchase information are created, for example, the number of purchases in the store visit day time axis purchase information is high from 11:00 to 13:00 on weekdays, and the store distance axis. If the purchase information indicates that the number of purchases is high at a store located at a distance of less than 10 to 20 km from the place of residence, it can be determined that this customer is using a store near the place of employment during lunch break. ..

In addition, the number of purchases in the time-based purchase information on the day of the week is high on weekdays from 17:00 to 19:00 or 20:00 to 22:00, and the number of purchases in the store distance-axis purchase information is high in stores close to the place of residence. If it is shown that, it can be determined that this customer is using it for shopping for dinner after work.

When the customer management server 6 analyzes the degree of attachment of the customer having the membership number to the store and the purchase trend, the determination result of the degree of attachment and the store distance axis purchase information / purchased product axis purchase information / visit day time axis purchase information Create a target list that lists and in association with the membership number and send it to each store's POS server.

Then, the store POS server 3 determines whether or not to issue a coupon and, when issuing a coupon, the type of coupon to be issued for each member customer based on the sent target list. Therefore, the store POS server 3 has a function of a coupon type determining means for determining the type of coupon to be issued from the purchased product axis purchase information, the store distance axis purchase information, the store visit day time axis purchase information, and the attachment degree.

In addition, the store POS server 3 has the contents of the coupon issuing service input in advance, for example, the specific privilege contents such as the coupon issuing implementation period, the coupon issuing target product and the discount rate for the product price, and the customer obtains the coupon. Issuance conditions that can be made and various other necessary information are stored in the internal storage device 3a as coupon service information.

FIG. 8 shows a flowchart for explaining the coupon issuance control by the store POS server 3. First, when the store POS server 3 receives the membership number read from the membership card presented at the time of payment of the customer's shopping from the POS terminal 4 (step S01), the store POS server 3 issues a coupon to the customer with this membership number. Whether or not it is possible is determined (step S02). The store POS server 3 stores coupon service information such as the coupon issuance execution period and the issuance condition in the storage device 3a, and is within the coupon issuance implementation period and as the issuance condition, for example, shopping by the customer at this time. If the settlement amount is equal to or greater than the preset amount, a coupon can be issued. In another example, the issue condition may be that the product purchased by the customer includes a specific product, or the product may be issued unconditionally if the member is a member. Then, when the coupon issuance period and the issuance conditions are not met, the coupon management server 6 ends the process. In addition, the issuance condition can include the degree of attachment of the customer.

When the store POS server 3 decides to issue a coupon, it determines the type of coupon to be issued from the target list data sent from the customer management server 6 (step S03). The "coupon type" here is a coupon for each product to be discounted, and includes, for example, a rice ball 20 yen discount coupon and a sandwich 50 yen discount coupon. Alternatively, the coupon may be a discount rate or a discount amount for all or some of the products in the store without specifying the product.

Explaining the processing in step S03 with a specific example, the store near the office is visited during the lunch break time as a purchasing trend from various purchasing information of the store distance axis, the time of the visit day, and the purchased product axis. If the products to be issued coupons that are predetermined at this time include products such as lunch boxes and rice balls that are purchased for lunch, they are selected from these products. At this time, when there are a plurality of candidate products, the better the customer's attachment to the store, the higher the price of the product or the larger the discount, the more the coupon type is selected. Alternatively, when the type of coupon is the discount amount or rate of the product, the coupon with the amount or rate that is more advantageous to the customer is selected as the customer's attachment to the store is better.

Then, the customer attribute information corresponding to the corresponding member number may be added to the determination of product selection at this time. For example, if a female customer finds that chilled desserts are purchased frequently based on the purchased product axis purchase information, and if the coupon-issued products include chilled dessert products, the dessert after lunch will be chilled. Coupons for dessert products are selected.

In addition, if we analyze the purchase trend of visiting a store near the place of residence during the time of returning from work, the coupon service information stored in the storage device 3a includes coupons for prepared foods and ready-to-eat products. If so, select coupons for these products. In this case as well, when there are a plurality of candidate products, the higher the customer's attachment to the store, the higher the price, or the larger the discount.

When the store POS server 3 determines the coupon type in this way, the store POS server 3 creates the coupon face image by the coupon face image creating means (step S04). The coupon service information stores the discount rate for each product subject to coupon issuance and, in some cases, the validity period of coupon use, and data on the coupon face image showing the product name and the discount rate is created. Then, the store POS server 3 transmits the coupon face image data to the POS terminal 4 that has transmitted the membership number (step S05).

As a result, the POS terminal 4 that has received the coupon face image data transfers the coupon face image data to the connected coupon printer 8, and the coupon is printed and provided to the customer (step S06).

FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment of the coupon issuing system according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the coupon controller 7 is installed in the store, and the function of the store POS server 3 that controls the issuance of coupons by exchanging data with the customer management server 6 is delegated to the coupon controller 7. In this case, the coupon printer 8 connected to the coupon controller 7 is preferably arranged side by side on each POS terminal 4 in the store, as in the first embodiment of FIG.

The coupon controller 7 monitors the store data record 16 sent by the store POS server 3 to the POS server 2, and when the store data record 16 including the member number is detected, transmits this data to the customer management server 6. Then, the customer management server 6 accumulates the store data record 16 including the member number in the database 20A.

Then, when the customer management server 6 analyzes the degree of attachment of the customer having the membership number to the store and the purchase trend by periodic processing as in the first embodiment, the determination result of the degree of attachment and the store distance axis A target list is created by associating purchase information, purchased product axis purchase information, and store visit time axis purchase information with a member number, and is transmitted to each coupon controller 7.

Then, the coupon controller 7 controls the issuance of coupons to the customers for each membership number based on this target list. Therefore, in the second embodiment, the coupon service information indicating the content of the coupon issuing service input in advance is stored in the storage device 7a of the controller 7, and the coupon controller 7 is used as the processing of the store POS server 3. By executing the procedure of the flowchart of FIG. 8 described, the coupon printer 8 issues a coupon. Therefore, the coupon controller 7 has a function of a coupon type determining means for determining the type of coupon to be issued from the purchased product axis purchase information, the store distance axis purchase information, the store visit day time axis purchase information, and the degree of attachment.

According to the second embodiment, by providing such a coupon controller 7, the store POS server 3 does not communicate with the customer management server 6 and issues a coupon from the coupon printer 8 in the store together with the POS terminal 4. You don't have to worry about the processing. Therefore, the function of issuing a coupon can be provided only by adding the coupon controller 7 and the coupon printer 8 to the existing POS system that does not have the coupon issuing function. Further, in this embodiment, the POS server 2 and the coupon management server 6 may be operated by different entities.

Further, in the first and second embodiments, the type of coupon to be issued is determined by the determination result of the degree of attachment and the store distance axis purchase information, the purchased product axis purchase information, and the store visit day time axis purchase information. Simply, the type of coupon may be determined by the degree of attachment and the purchased product axis purchase information / visit day time axis purchase information, or by the degree of attachment, the purchased product axis purchase information, and the store distance axis purchase information.

22 Purchasing information storage means (purchasing information database)
31 Attachment degree determination means 33 Store distance axis purchase information creation means 34 Purchased product axis purchase information creation means 35 Visit day time axis Purchase information creation means 36 Coupon type determination means (store POS server, coupon controller)

Claims (7)

A means of accumulating purchase information for goods or services for each customer,
A means for determining the degree of attachment of each customer to the store for each customer identifier for identifying each customer from the purchase information.
A means of creating purchased product axis purchasing information that classifies the purchasing information by product field,
A means for creating store distance axis purchasing information in which the purchasing information is classified by the distance between the store and the customer's place of residence, and
A coupon type determining means for determining the type of coupon to be issued from the purchased product axis purchasing information, the store distance axis purchasing information, and the attachment degree.
A coupon issuing system characterized by being equipped with. A means of accumulating purchase information for goods or services for each customer,
A means for determining the degree of attachment of each customer to the store for each customer identifier for identifying each customer from the purchase information.
A means of creating purchased product axis purchasing information that classifies the purchasing information by product field,
A means for creating the store visit day time axis purchase information in which the purchase information is classified by the store visit day time zone, and
A coupon type determining means for determining the type of coupon to be issued from the purchased product axis purchase information, the visit day time axis purchase information, and the attachment degree.
A coupon issuing system featuring the provision. A means of accumulating purchase information for goods or services for each customer,
A means for determining the degree of attachment of each customer to the store for each customer identifier for identifying each customer from the purchase information.
A means of creating purchased product axis purchasing information that classifies the purchasing information by product field,
A means for creating store distance axis purchasing information in which the purchasing information is classified by the distance between the store and the customer's place of residence, and
A means for creating the store visit day time axis purchase information in which the purchase information is classified by the store visit day time zone, and
A coupon type determining means for determining the type of coupon to be issued from the purchased product axis purchasing information, the store distance axis purchasing information, the store visit day of the week time axis purchasing information, and the attachment degree.
A coupon issuing system characterized by being equipped with. Claims 1 to 3 characterized in that the means for determining the degree of attachment determines the degree of attachment based on at least one of the last visit date, the frequency of visits, and the cumulative purchase amount calculated from the purchase information. The coupon issuing system described in any one of the above. The coupon issuing system according to claim 4, wherein the store visit frequency is the cumulative number of store visits or the average number of store visit interval days from the purchase information. The coupon issuing system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein it is determined whether or not to issue a coupon according to the degree of attachment. The coupon issuing system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the purchase information is data collected by a point-of-sale management system.

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