JPH1139405A - Virtual store system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce personal expenses to answer to inquiry without having to respond to telephone, etc., on the side of a virtual store by processing inquiry via a network and automatically returning a result when the inquiry about treatment state of merchandise is received from a customer at the time of running a virtual store utilizing a WWW server. SOLUTION: A database server 7 of a virtual store 3 is provided with a treatment state file 13 which associates the order number 14 of merchandise with its treatment state 15 and stores them. When a customer performs inquiry with an order number through a network 2, a treatment state inquiring part 9 is operated and notifies the customer of the treatment state of corresponding merchandise through the network 2. Thereby, it is possible to inquire the treatment state of merchandise through a network and to automate inquiry.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a virtual shop system for selling goods online through an open network such as the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The Internet is used for collecting and utilizing various information by terminals such as personal computers owned by individuals. There is a system for mail order sales of merchandise using the Internet. This is called a virtual store system. The virtual store is provided with a WWW (World Wide Web) server and transmits product information. The customer who has browsed the product information transmits the order information to the virtual store via the Internet. The virtual store stores the order information in a database for order management, and arranges, ships, and delivers the goods.

[0003]

However, the conventional system as described above has the following problems to be solved. After a customer places an order for a certain product with a virtual store system, he or she may want to know the state of the product ordered by the customer. In such a case, the customer calls the seller that sells the product, and confirms whether the product has already been sent or payment has been completed.
However, when the sales scale increases and the number of inquiries from customers to the sales source increases, there has been a problem that the labor cost of the sales staff in response to the inquiry increases significantly.

[0004]

The present invention employs the following structure to solve the above problems. <Configuration 1> A virtual store unit that introduces a product through a network and receives a customer's order, and a handling status storage unit that records the handling status of the product in association with an order number issued when the customer's order is received. When the customer inputs the order number through the network and inquires about the handling status of the ordered product, the handling status inquiry unit notifies the customer of the corresponding handling status by referring to the handling status storage unit through the network. A virtual store system comprising:

<Structure 2> In the system described in Structure 1, the handling status inquiry unit stores a customer identification code for specifying the customer and a password set in advance by the customer, and the customer, together with the order number, stores the customer identification code, the password, and the like. When the customer confirms that the customer of the corresponding customer identification code has ordered the product of the order number, the customer refers to the handling status storage unit and notifies the customer of the corresponding handling status through the network. A virtual store system characterized by the following.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below using specific examples. <Specific Example> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a specific example of the virtual shop system according to the present invention. In the illustrated system, a customer terminal 1 such as a personal computer is connected to a network 2
Is connected to the virtual store 3 through the Internet. Network 2
Is an open network such as the Internet, and the virtual store 3 is composed of a workstation or the like having a function for selling goods. The virtual store 3 is provided with a firewall 4, a WWW server 5, a virtual store server 6, a database server 7, an administrator terminal 8, a handling status inquiry unit 9, and the like. With such a system, the customer terminal 1
Is a service provider SP using a modem (not shown)
To access the network 2 such as the Internet.

[0007] The firewall 4 is for appropriately protecting data and programs of servers and terminals provided in the virtual store 3 from the network 2. The WWW server 5 starts a program called CGI (Common Gateway Interface) described in the HTTP protocol (protocol for transmitting and receiving standardized hypertext data), and controls transmission of information and reception of data from customers. This is the part to do. WWW server 5
Has a function of transferring data received from a customer to the virtual store server 6 via the CGI, and sending out product information extracted from the virtual store server 6 to the network 2.

The database server 7 is a part for processing order information received from customers and storing the order information in the order data file 11. The member data file 12 provided in the database server 7 is a part for registering a customer of the virtual shop 3 in advance and storing the data. The member data file 12 stores personal information such as the customer's age, gender, address, name, etc. Numbers, passwords, etc. are recorded. The member number is an identification code for identifying a customer. The handling status file 13 includes a corresponding order number 14 each time each process is executed, in a case where the corresponding product is arranged, dispatched, and settled according to the customer's order received by the virtual store server 6, This file stores the handling status 15 indicating the completed processing in association with each other. The handling status file 13 can be stored integrally with the order data file 11.

[0009] The administrator terminal 8 is composed of a personal computer or the like operated by an administrator who manages the virtual store 3. The handling status inquiry unit 9 operates according to the present invention, and is activated when a customer inquires about the handling status of a product already ordered separately from receiving an order for the product of the customer. When receiving the order number for inquiry from the customer terminal 1, the handling status inquiry unit 9 searches for the handling status corresponding to the order number by referring to the handling status file 13, and uses the result by the customer terminal 1. It has a function to return to the display software that is running.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the member data file and the order data file. FIG. 2A is an explanatory diagram of the member data file 20, in which a member number,
Record 21 of each customer such as password, name and age
Is stored. The record 21 is generated for each customer, and increases according to the number of customers. (B) shows an order data file 30, and a record 31 is generated every time there is an order for a product. The record 31 includes data for specifying the contents of an order such as an order number, a member number, a product name, and a total amount and necessary processing.

The operation of the system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to a flowchart. FIG. 3 shows a handling operation flowchart in the virtual store. On the left side of the flowchart, the contents of the handling status after the customer places an order are illustrated. First, the customer, in step S1,
Operate the terminal through the Internet and place an order for a product. In step S2, when an order arrives at the virtual store, the virtual store server 6 generates an order number and returns it to the customer terminal 1 together with the result of the order request. The customer makes a note of the order number displayed on the customer terminal. This state is an order receiving state.

Thereafter, the manager of the virtual store retrieves the order data stored in the order data file 11 shown in FIG. 1, and checks whether the goods of the received order are available for sale, whether the goods are in stock or damaged. Check if there are any. In this way, inventory is allocated (step S
3). As a result of these processes, the order is fixed. When the order is confirmed, the product is delivered in step S4.
This state is a state during product delivery. Thereafter, when the delivery is completed, the order price is deducted from the customer's bank account and settlement is performed (step S5).

[0013] As described above, when various handling operations relating to merchandise are performed on the virtual store side, the respective handling statuses are expressed as shown on the left side of the figure. “Order acceptance” indicates a state in which the order has been delivered to the virtual store. At this stage, it has not been confirmed that the contents of the order form or the ordered product is available for sale.

Next, when the assignment process in step S3 is completed, the handling status is "order accepted". here,
This shows a state where the ordered product is available for sale and delivered near to the customer. “Delivering” indicates a state in which the ordered product is being delivered to a shipping company or the like and is being delivered, and “delivery completed” indicates a state in which the ordered product has been delivered to the customer. The “cooling-off period” indicates that a certain period of cooling-off is being performed after the product has been delivered to the customer, and the virtual store does not settle and waits for a return from the customer. "Payment completed" indicates a state in which the payment has been deducted from the customer's bank account. Such handling status is notified to the administrator in various forms. The administrator updates the contents of the handling status file 13 each time.

Next, the operation when the customer inquires about the handling status will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the handling status inquiry operation. As a basic procedure, when the customer indicates the order number and inquires about the handling status of the product, the handling status of the product with the corresponding order number may be searched and notified to the customer. However, it is not always possible to judge whether or not the inquiry is made by the customer who made the order by only the inquiry using the order number. Therefore, in order to prevent leakage of customer information, in this specific example, the handling status can be referred to only when a registered member makes an inquiry using a password. That is, the following authentication is performed to determine whether or not the orderer is the person who placed the order.

First, in step S1, authentication as to whether or not a member is performed is performed. Whether a member is a member or not is determined by checking whether the identification code registered in the member data file 12 of the database server 7, that is, the member number and the password match those entered by the customer. Further, authentication is performed as to whether or not the order is made. To determine whether or not the orderer has made an inquiry about the handling status, search the order record file corresponding to the order number sent at the time of inquiry from the order data file, and the transmitted member number exists in that record Determine if you want to. As a result, it can be determined that the actual orderer and the person who is inquiring the handling status this time are the same person. The flowchart shown in FIG. 4 performs such authentication.

In step S1, the customer inputs a handling status inquiry command on the terminal 1, and simultaneously inputs a member number, a password, and an order number. This is transmitted to the virtual store 3 via the network 2. This transmission uses a special C
A GI is used, and a command name, a member number, a password, an order number, and the like for invoking the handling status inquiry function are set as designated CGI parameters. The WWW server 5 of the virtual store 3 transfers the received parameters to the virtual store server 6 as it is.

When the virtual store server 6 determines that the command name included in the received parameter is a handling status inquiry command, it searches for whether the member number passed by the parameter exists in the member data file 12. Request is made to the database server 7 (step S2). At the same time, an inquiry is made as to whether the transmitted password character string exists in the member information including the member number. If there is, the process proceeds from step S2 to step S3, and this time, the order data file 11 is searched to determine whether there is order data including the order number and the member number. If a corresponding record exists, the process proceeds to step S4, where the handling status corresponding to the corresponding order number is read from the handling status file 13 and returned to the customer terminal 1.

Thus, the customer can easily and promptly and accurately know at which stage the processing for his order is shown in FIG. Further, in this case, the staff of the dealer does not directly respond by telephone, so that the labor cost of the dealer can be reduced. If there is any discrepancy in the member number, password, order number, or the like in step S2 or step S3, the process proceeds to step S5, and a message indicating that the handling status cannot be checked is displayed on the customer terminal 1.

In the above description, the network 2 is described using the Internet as an example. However, the network 2 may be a corporate network (intranet) or other various networks. Further, the functional block configuration of the virtual store may be arbitrary, and the format of the data file stored in the database server is also free. The data may be stored in any format and in any order.
Further, each data file may be integrated or may be partially divided. In addition, the handling status inquiry section only needs to have a function of referring to the handling status file and returning the corresponding data to the customer terminal, and the type, content, display method, etc. of the handling status can be freely selected and changed. it can.

[0021]

According to the virtual store system of the present invention described above, when a virtual store using a WWW server is operated, when a customer receives an inquiry about the handling status of a product, this is processed via a network. Since the result can be returned automatically, there is no need to answer the telephone at the virtual store side, and labor costs for responding to inquiries can be greatly reduced. In addition, there is an effect that the customer can refer to the handling status of the product for his / her order 24 hours a day without being restricted by the reception time of the virtual store.

Further, by using the order number, the member number, the password, and the like, it is possible to avoid a case where a person other than the orderer inquires about the handling status of the product and uses the product illegally. As a result, it is possible to prevent leakage of the customer's personal information, maintain the security of the commercial transaction using the virtual store, and prevent the misuse of the personal information.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a virtual shop system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a data file.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a handling operation in a virtual store.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a handling status inquiry operation;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Customer terminal 2 Network 3 Virtual store 5 WWW server 6 Virtual store server 7 Database server 8 Administrator terminal 9 Handling status inquiry part 13 Handling status file 14 Order number 15 Handling status

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A virtual store section for introducing a product through a network and receiving a customer's order, and a handling status storage for recording a handling status of the product in association with an order number issued when the customer's order is received. And a handling status inquiry unit for notifying the customer of the corresponding handling status by referring to the handling status storage unit by referring to the handling status storage unit when the customer inputs the order number via the network and inquires about the handling status of the ordered product. A virtual store system comprising: 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the handling status inquiry unit stores a customer identification code for specifying the customer and a password set by the customer in advance, and stores the customer identification code and the password together with the order number by the customer. Inputting, and when confirming that the customer of the corresponding customer identification code has ordered the product of the order number, refer to the handling status storage unit and notify the customer of the corresponding handling status through the network. A virtual store system characterized by the following.