JPH10224549A - Electronic mall system and its controlling method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it unnecessary to request the installation of an expensive communication terminal on a tenant and to accelerate customer invitation by transmitting order information to the tenant by using a facsimile(FAX). SOLUTION: When an electronic mall 3 is ordered by operating a customer's terminal 1, the contents of the order are stored in an order data file 16. An order notification control part 17 starts an imaging processing part 18 at suitable timing, reads out the order information of a part not notified from the file 16 to the tenant yet, edits the read information and informs of the image of a note of each tenant. The image of the note of each tenant is transmitted to a tenant side FAX equipment 4 through a FAX transmission control part 19. The FAX equipment 4 prints out a note 5. The tenant receiving the note 5 executes operation such as the preparation of a necessary commodity and the delivery of the commodity to a customer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mall system for setting up a virtual store on the Internet or a corporate network, and for carrying out mail order sales of products, and a control method therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As the number of users of the Internet and corporate networks has increased, systems for introducing products through these networks and selling them online have become widespread. Such a virtual store may be opened by a person who intends to mail order, but it is not always easy in terms of technology. Accordingly, an electronic mall system has been created that rents a system for transmitting product information with a WWW server upon receiving requests from a plurality of tenants who wish to conduct such mail-order sales. A fee corresponding to a tenant fee in the real world is acquired from each tenant, and this electronic mall system is operated. The customer places an order for this electronic mall system via the network. In the electronic mall system, the order information received from the customer is notified to the corresponding tenant. The corresponding tenant connects a dedicated terminal to the network and reads out the order information.

[0003]

The conventional electronic mall system as described above has the following problems to be solved. The profit of the operator of the electronic mall system increases as the number of tenants increases. Terminals and the like for reading order information will be provided for newly entered tenants.
However, tenants who newly participate in the electronic mall system are often unclear how much profit is obtained by participating. Therefore, some have forgotten to newly join the electronic mall system because expensive terminals must be purchased and communication fees must be paid every month. That is, introducing a system such as a terminal to a tenant has hindered an operator of the electronic mall system from increasing the number of tenants.

[0004]

The present invention employs the following structure to solve the above problems. <Configuration 1> In a system in which an electronic mall consisting of virtual stores is opened on a network, a customer order is received via the network, and a corresponding tenant participating in the electronic mall is notified of the corresponding order contents. A facsimile machine is installed on the side, and on the electronic mall side, an image processing unit that images a notice showing the contents of the order using a predetermined pattern for each tenant, and a tenant And a facsimile transmission control unit for performing facsimile transmission on the electronic mall system.

<Structure 2> In structure 1, on the electronic mall side, an order data file for storing the contents of an order for each tenant, and an order not yet notified to the corresponding tenant at a predetermined timing set in advance. An electronic mall system comprising an order notification control unit for requesting an image of a notice displaying contents.

<Configuration 3> A case where an electronic mall consisting of virtual stores is opened on a network, a customer order is received via this network, and the relevant order contents are notified to tenants participating in the electronic mall. An electronic mall system characterized in that on the electronic mall side, a notice for displaying the contents of the order is imaged using a predetermined pattern for each tenant, and the imaged notice is transmitted by facsimile to the tenant. Control method.

<Configuration 4> In configuration 3, while the contents of orders are accumulated for each tenant, the contents of orders that have not yet been notified to the corresponding tenant are collected at a predetermined timing and displayed. Imagine the book,
A method for controlling an electronic mall system, which performs facsimile transmission.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below using specific examples. <Example> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the system of the present invention. This system has a configuration in which a customer terminal 1 is connected to an electronic mall 3 via a network 2. The network 2 includes various networks such as the Internet and a corporate network. The customer is a general consumer or a user who accepts product information introduced by the electronic mall 3 and purchases a product. The electronic mall 3 is a management terminal device that forms a virtual store on the network 2. The customer terminal 1 is composed of a personal computer or the like, and is connected to a service provider (SP) near the customer's home using a modem (not shown) to access a network 2 such as the Internet.

The electronic mall 3 includes a firewall 1 connected to an internal LAN (local area network).
2. WWW server 13, mall server 14, database server 15, order data file 16 provided in the database server, order notification control unit 17, image processing unit 18, and facsimile transmission control unit 19. A facsimile machine 4 of a tenant who wants to transmit product information using the electronic mall 3 is connected to the electronic mall 3 via a public line 6. The internal LAN 11 of the cyber mall 3 is connected to the network 2 via a firewall 12. The firewall 12 is an interface for preventing unauthorized access.

The WWW server 13 is a part that activates a program called CGI (Common Gateway Interface) described in the HTTP protocol, and controls transmission of information, acceptance of data from customers, and the like. Also, the WWW server 13 sends out the merchandise information of the tenant requested by the mall server 14 to the network 2.
The database server 15 is a part that processes order information received from customers and stores the order information in the order data file 16. The order notification control unit 17 is a unit that outputs to the imaging processing unit 18 an instruction to create a notification to be transmitted to the tenant 4 at a predetermined timing. The image processing section 18 is a section for generating an image of the notice 5 to be transmitted for each tenant with reference to the order data file 16. The facsimile communication control unit 19 is composed of a facsimile modem or the like, and is a unit that transmits the image of the notice output by the image processing unit 18 to the facsimile device 4 of each tenant via the public line 6. The public line 6 includes a telephone line and the like.

As described above, the system of the present invention has a configuration in which order information is notified using a facsimile apparatus which is generally expected to be commercially owned by a general store or the like. That is, after order information received from the customer received by the WWW server 13 is stored in the order data file 16, the information is collectively taken out at an appropriate timing, and facsimile-transmitted to each tenant in a predetermined form.

Next, a specific operation of the electronic mall system shown in FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the electronic mall. The customer receives the product information from the electronic mall 3 by the system as shown in FIG. Then, when the customer operates the customer terminal 1 to place an order for the electronic mall 3, the contents are stored in the order data file 16 on the electronic mall side. As shown in FIG. 2, for example, the order data file 16 stores customer names, order details and tenant names handling the products.

On the other hand, when such order information is stored in the order data file 16, the order notification control unit 17 activates the image processing unit 18 at an appropriate timing. This control is performed by, for example, a timer 21 provided in the order notification control unit 17. The timer 21 operates, for example, once or twice a day, and requests the image processing unit 18 to start. Under the control of the order notification control unit 17, the imaging processing unit 18 reads out order information of a part that has not yet been notified to the tenant from the order data file 16,
This is edited to notify the image 22 of the notice for each tenant. The content of this image 22 is a list of customer names and order contents for individual tenants. The image 22 of these tenant-specific notices is the facsimile transmission control unit 1
9 is transmitted to the facsimile machine 4 on the tenant side.

The facsimile machine 4 on the tenant side prints out the notice 5. The tenant receives the notice 5 to make arrangements for necessary commodities, and performs operations such as shipping commodities to customers. The above is the operation of the entire system. Here, a more specific operation until the electronic mall transmits a facsimile will be described.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the electronic mall until facsimile transmission is performed. First, the customer accesses the Internet address of the electronic mall system to obtain the product information. Then, the order request is sent to the W
It reaches the WW server (step S1). Normally, the WWW server activates a program called CGI described in the HTTP protocol to perform processing. The CGI started here does not perform any processing on the WWW server, and transfers all data output from the browser used by the customer to the mall server 14 (FIG. 1) (step S).
2). In the next step S3, the mall server 14 (FIG. 1) interprets the received data, sends only the order information to the database server 15, and writes it in the order data file 16. The order data file 16 contains information on which tenant's product the customer ordered, product number, quantity, amount, name of customer, that is, purchaser, telephone number, etc.
Various information notified by the customer is written. The written data is text data, which must be converted to image data in order to be transmitted by facsimile. Therefore, a conversion process to image data is performed using the print driver of the mall server 14.
The imaging unit 18 is a functional block including such a print driver (step S4).

Further, in step S5, the image processing unit 18 determines the T.D. determined by the MMR (CCITT). The data is compressed by a 6-encoding method. This is the so-called G3
This is a facsimile compression method. This signal is sent to the facsimile transmission control unit 19. Facsimile transmission control unit 1
9 reads out the tenant's FAX telephone number from the database server 15 and transmits it to the tenant's facsimile machine 4 (step S6). Through the above-described processing, a notice in a predetermined format is transmitted to the customer.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the transmission timing of the notice. Such a notice may be transmitted by facsimile every time an order is generated from a customer. However,
In the case where orders are concentrated from a large number of customers, it is preferable to generate an appropriate number of notices collectively. As a result, the tenant does not receive an unnecessarily large number of notices. In addition, the electronic mall system can also reduce communication costs. For this reason, FIG.
As shown in (1), the order notification control unit 17 (FIG. 1) instructs the image processing unit 18 to transmit a notice, for example, by receiving a command M1, a tenant request M2, or a short delivery time interruption M3. Is preferred. For example, the command M1 by the timer has contents such as once a day in the morning and once in the afternoon, or once a day.

When a special request is made by the tenant, a notice is transmitted each time. Further, when an order with an extremely short delivery time is received, it is conceivable to urgently transmit the notice to the tenant. It is preferable that the image processing unit 18 prepares the notice pattern file 25 and operates so as to combine the order information with the image of the notice letter of a different type for each case and transmit the order information. The pattern of this notice may be prepared according to the type of notice, or may be a form desired by the tenant for each tenant. These enable more appropriate services for tenants.

[0019]

According to the above-described electronic mall system and the control method of the present invention, when an electronic mall consisting of virtual stores is opened on a network and a customer order is received, the order information is transmitted to the tenant. Is transmitted using facsimile, it is not necessary to request that tenants install expensive communication terminals. Therefore, the maintenance cost burden on the customer side is reduced, and a large number of customers can be invited to the electronic mall system.

Even if the customer has a terminal capable of receiving the order information via the network, the order information accumulated at regular time intervals or at regular time intervals is collected in a suitable form and faxed. With the transmission configuration, the tenant can save this notice as easy-to-handle order information. In addition, since the customer does not have to make inquiries about order information to the electronic mall system or collect order information, the burden on the tenant can be reduced, and the communication cost can be reduced as a whole. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a specific example of the system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the electronic mall.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a facsimile transmission operation.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a notice transmission timing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Customer terminal 2 Network 3 Electronic mall 4 Facsimile device 5 Notification 6 Public line 14 Mall server 15 Database server 16 Order data file 17 Order notification control unit 18 Image processing unit 19 Facsimile transmission control unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A system for establishing an electronic mall consisting of virtual stores on a network, receiving an order from a customer via the network, and notifying a tenant participating in the electronic mall of the corresponding order contents. A facsimile machine is installed on the tenant side, and on the electronic mall side, a notice that displays the contents of the order, an image processing unit that images using a predetermined pattern for each tenant, and a notice that is imaged An electronic mall system provided with a facsimile transmission control unit for performing facsimile transmission to a tenant. 2. The electronic mall according to claim 1, further comprising: an order data file for storing an order content for each tenant; and an order content not yet notified to the corresponding tenant at a predetermined timing set in advance. An electronic mall system, comprising: an order notification control unit that requests image formation of a notification letter that displays a message. 3. When an electronic mall consisting of virtual stores is opened on a network, a customer order is received via the network, and a tenant participating in the electronic mall is notified of the corresponding order contents. A control of the electronic mall system, wherein the electronic mall side images a notice for displaying the contents of the order using a predetermined pattern for each tenant, and transmits the imaged notice to the tenant by facsimile. Method. 4. The notice according to claim 3, wherein the contents of the order are accumulated for each tenant, while the contents of the order not yet notified to the corresponding tenant are collected at a predetermined timing and displayed. A method for controlling an electronic mall system, characterized in that an image is formed and transmitted by facsimile.