KR102563379B1 - Technique of providing member grade-divided marketing service based on social networking activity information and purchasing pattern - Google Patents

Abstract

A method performed by a relay server device for providing marketing services using SNS, comprising the step of acquiring a customer's direct purchase history from an operating company server device storing information on membership of a shopping facility (the customer is a member of the shopping facility). has an account for SNS), acquiring the customer's SNS activity history from the SNS server device providing SNS, and based on the direct purchase history and SNS activity history, the customer selects a specific customer group among a plurality of customer groups and requesting an SNS server device to issue an electronic coupon corresponding to a particular customer group and configured for use at a shopping facility to the customer's account.

Description

Technique to provide member grade segmentation marketing service based on social networking activity information and purchasing patterns

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a technique for providing marketing services using social networking services (SNS), and more specifically, provide member class segmentation marketing services based on social networking activity information and purchasing patterns. related to the technique of

As various online businesses proliferate, traditional retail businesses are also under pressure to develop differentiated services. For example, a business that operates a shopping facility (which is typically associated with a website, its online counterpart) (which may be referred to hereinafter as an "operating business" or a "retail business") is entitled to members of that shopping facility. management information under his consent, and based on this, marketing policy is implemented. On the one hand, such retail businesses continue to try to adapt to the changing market environment, such as opening pages on social media platforms such as Facebook and WeChat, whose influence is increasing day by day. However, it is not desirable not only in terms of time and cost, but also in terms of efficiency, that marketing on SNS is performed separately from marketing to members of existing shopping facilities. Therefore, there is a need to solve such problems.

An improved technique for providing marketing services is disclosed herein.

Embodiments of the present invention take into account the following. If a member of a shopping facility has an account on some SNS, the retail business operating the shopping facility can use the services provided by the SNS (e.g., surveys, coupons, member cards, voting, games, quizzes, albums, e-commerce). It may be efficient and/or necessary to market a shopping establishment (and/or its website online) to him via a store, widget or application, etc.). Moreover, if the retail business has an account for the shopping facility on the SNS (particularly, an official account such as a commercial account or a service-type account) and its members follow it, the member of the shopping facility and the follower of the SNS ( It is beneficial in many ways (for example, in terms of expected increase in brand awareness, number of followers, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, number of transactions, sales, etc.) rather than managing followers separately. can

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method performed by a relay server device for providing marketing services using SNS is provided. The above method includes the steps of acquiring the customer's direct purchase history from the operating business server device storing information on membership of the shopping facility (the customer is a member of the shopping facility and has an account for the SNS), and the SNS obtaining an SNS activity history of the customer from an SNS server device provided, and determining that the customer belongs to a specific customer group among a plurality of customer groups based on the direct purchase history and the SNS activity history; and requesting the SNS server device to issue an electronic coupon corresponding to the specific customer group and configured for use in the shopping facility to the account.

The above-issued electronic coupon may be stored in an electronic wallet associated with the above account.

The electronic coupon issued above may be time-limited.

The method may, in response to receiving a notification from the operating business server device that another electronic coupon configured for use at the shopping facility has been used, prior to the determination, estimating a purchase amount involved in the use of the other electronic coupon. Further steps may be included.

The determination may also be based on the estimated purchase amount.

The notification may indicate that the electronic coupon has been used by the customer.

The notification may indicate that the electronic coupon is transferred from the account of the customer to another account for the SNS owned by a person other than the customer, and the electronic coupon is used by the other person.

The above other electronic coupons were issued to the above account of the above customer before the above judgment, or transferred to the above account of the above customer from another account for the above SNS held by a person other than the above customer before the above judgment, and remained in the above account of the above customer. can

The other electronic coupon may be transferred from the above account of the customer to another account for the above SNS of a person other than the customer before the above determination and remain in the other account.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computing device is provided. The computing device includes a processor and at least one computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processor, wherein the computer-readable storage medium includes a computer that, when executed by the processor, causes the computing device to perform the method. Executable instructions are stored.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable storage medium is provided. The computer-readable storage medium includes computer-executable instructions that cause the computing device to perform the method when executed by a processor of the computing device.

The foregoing summary is provided to introduce some aspects in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to delineate the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that provide any or all of the advantages discussed herein.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to increase loyal followers, increase customer satisfaction, and seek active detailed marketing through effective marketing for customers who follow the retail business's SNS account.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the inconvenience and additional costs incurred in performing marketing while the members of the shopping facility and the SNS followers are separated.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to target an appropriate customer group by classifying SNS followers according to the purchase level of the shopping facility member.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, an effective marketing strategy can be introduced by identifying not only followers who simply visit, but also members who generate direct sales as well as members who have a great influence on indirectly inducing sales.

1 schematically illustrates a system for providing SNS-based marketing services according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 shows exemplary four customer groups classified based on their SNS activity history and direct purchase history according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 shows an exemplary electronic coupon issued to a customer's SNS account and displayed on a customer's mobile terminal in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
4 illustrates a process for providing marketing services using SNS according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a schematic block diagram of a computing device suitable for an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention may have several embodiments, some of which are disclosed herein. However, it should be understood that this is provided as an example and not as a limitation to the present invention, and to cover all transformations, equivalents or substitutes falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Certain details are provided in the following detailed description to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of a method, apparatus, and/or system in accordance with disclosed embodiments, although some embodiments may be practiced without some or all of these details. In addition, specific descriptions of well-known art may be omitted so as not to unnecessarily obscure various aspects of the present invention.

The terms described below are used only to describe specific embodiments, and are not intended to be considered in a limiting sense. Expressions in the singular form include the meanings of the plural form unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, in this document, terms such as “comprise” or “having” are intended to indicate the presence of any feature, number, step, operation, component, information, or combination thereof, including one or more other features, It should be understood that the presence or possibility of any number, step, operation, component, information or combination thereof is not excluded.

Now, providing member class segmentation marketing services based on social networking activity information and purchasing patterns is described in detail below.

1 schematically illustrates a system for providing SNS-based marketing services according to an embodiment of the present invention. The shopping facility 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes facilities such as department stores, duty free shops, shopping malls, supermarkets, and convenience stores operated by retail business 101 . 1, a point-of-sales (POS) system 112 (which, not shown, includes multiple POS terminals) and one or more beacons within a shopping facility 100. (beacon) device 113 may be located. The POS system 112 and each beacon device 113 may include a communication link and/or network (eg, a wired network such as Ethernet, a wireless local area network (WLAN)) (eg, Wi-Fi ( Wi-Fi), Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) (e.g. Bluetooth, Zigbee, Near Field Communication (NFC), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) ))), a wireless network such as a wireless wide area network (WWAN), etc., or any suitable combination thereof) operated by the business entity 101 (hereinafter referred to as the "operating business entity"). may be communicatively coupled to the operating entity server device 120 and/or operate under the control of the operating entity server device 120 .

In addition, in the embodiment of FIG. 1, the operating business server device 120 provides a communication link and / or communicatively coupled via a network (eg, on a leased line), the relay server device 140 is a Social Networking Service (SNS) server device via a communication link and/or network (eg, on the Internet). Communicably coupled with (160).

Further, as shown in FIG. 1 , a mobile terminal 116 used by a customer 115 within the shopping facility 100 may be communicatively coupled with the SNS server device 160 . For example, mobile terminal 116 may be any suitable type of portable computing device, such as a cell phone, smart phone, tablet, notebook computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), and the like, and may be used in a telecommunications network. (e.g., 3rd Generation (3G), 4th Generation (4G), 5th Generation (5G) or later next-generation wireless communication networks) to WWAN, WLAN, WPAN, and/or others, such as It may be communicatively coupled with another computing device, eg, the SNS server device 160, through a communication network including a wireless network, a wired network such as Ethernet, or any suitable combination thereof. Additionally, the mobile terminal 116 may be communicatively coupled with the aforementioned beacon device 113 via a communication network, such as, for example, Bluetooth.

The marketing service according to the embodiment of the present invention may be accompanied by operating an SNS account for the shopping facility 100 of the operating business 101 as follows.

First of all, service postings in SNS accounts can be classified into text type, video type, etc., so the operating business 101 can easily reflect the latest strategies and issues pursued for the shopping facility 100 in the posting, and shopping Information such as shopping news related to facility 100 may be rapidly disseminated (eg, in the form of a push message).

In addition, by utilizing an O2O (Online-to-Offline) platform based on an SNS account, the operating business 101 can strengthen the customer attraction factor and can expect an increase in online/offline sales. For example, the operating business 101 may provide a member card of the shopping facility 100 of the operating business 101 and/or electronic/mobile coupons (eg, discount coupons, preferential coupons, exchange coupons, etc.) through SNS. As another example, the operating business 101 provides convenience functions such as a mobile guide (eg, including a floor map of the shopping facility 100, a brand map, etc.) that guides stores located in the shopping facility 100 through SNS. can provide. As another example, the operating business 101 is an area where various services (including marketing services according to the embodiment) are available (hereinafter referred to as a “service area”) within the area of the shopping facility 100 through SNS. It is possible to provide online and / or offline events by interworking with one or more beacon devices 113 located in (which may also be). Such interworking may include, for example, shaking the Bluetooth-enabled mobile terminal 116 near the location where the beacon device 113 is installed, which will cause an event program such as winning a gift to be displayed on the mobile terminal 116. In addition, signing up as a member of the shopping facility 100, following the SNS account of the shopping facility 100, allowing matching between the shopping facility 100 membership and the SNS account ID, etc. A screen or web page leading to may be displayed on the mobile terminal 116 .

Furthermore, with respect to a customer 115 who is a member of the shopping facility 100 and a member of SNS (i.e., has an account for SNS), the customer 115's SNS activity history is a customer at the shopping facility 100 ( 115), the operating business 101 can subdivide the customers 115 into one of several groups, and selectively target the customers 115 to carry out promotions. can proceed Such integrated management will enable the operating business 101 to obtain meaningful marketing data and perform systematic customer management based on this.

To this end, when the account of the customer 115 follows the official account of the operating business 101 on the SNS, the relay server device 140, for example, an application programming interface (API) prepared for the SNS By using , it is possible to obtain basic SNS information about the follower customer 115 from the SNS server device 160 . In some embodiments, such SNS basic information may include parameters such as:

- openid: unique ID of SNS user account, plaintext ID may be encrypted;

- nickname: Indicates the user's nickname;

- sex: indicates the gender of the user, eg 1 indicates male, 2 indicates female, and 0 indicates not set;

- city: the name of the city included in the user's (office, residence or any other postal) address;

- country: the country name included in the user's address;

- province: the name of the province included in the user's address;

- language: Indicates the user's preferred language;

- headimgurl: Indicates the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the user's profile picture file (but set to null if the user does not set a profile picture), e.g., after the actual URL of the profile picture file may be appended with a number indicating size (eg, 0 for a 640 x 640 image, or another number such as 46, 64, 96, 132, etc.); and/or

- subscribe_time: Indicates the timestamp of when the user followed the business account (or the last follow time if the user followed several times).

Acquired SNS basic information can be used as follows. First of all, in the marketing service according to an embodiment of the present invention, matching between the membership of the shopping facility 100 and the SNS account ID (ID) may be required to comprehensively manage both the SNS activity history and the direct purchase history. A webpage may be provided that enables matching (eg, on the premise of following an SNS account for the shopping facility 100). The customer 115 may allow the ID of his/her SNS account to be associated with his/her shopping facility 100 membership through such a web page. Then, the operating business server device 120 may associate the SNS account ID of the customer 115 with the membership of the shopping facility 100 and store the associated ID in the membership information database 122 . In particular, if the customer 115 is following the SNS account of the shopping facility 100, the operating business server device 120 may notify the relay server device 140 about the follower customer 115, and the relay server device As mentioned above, 140 obtains an SNS account ID (eg, openid) encrypted to have a unique value from the SNS server device 160, and obtains the obtained encrypted ID as additional necessary information (eg, openid). , authentication key), if any, can be transmitted to the operating business server device 120 for storage in the database 122. The obtained encrypted ID can now be shared between operating business server device 120 and relay server device 140, relay server device 140 can provide other personal information about customer 115 (e.g., shopping facility ( 100) associated with the membership of the operating business server device 120 (database 122) stored in (e.g. name, phone, address, credit card number, points/points, transaction history, etc.) without such encrypted data. By communicating with the SNS server device 160 as an ID (eg, using a corresponding API), events, electronic coupons, convenience functions, and other services for the SNS account of the customer 115 may be provided. Therefore, the operating business server device 120 may share with the relay server device 140 only the part determined necessary for use in the relay server device 140 among the information stored in the database 122 (for example, a purchase level described later). can This prevents the need for excessive and/or cumbersome sharing of personal information between server devices 120, 140, particularly when relay server device 140 is operated by a third party other than operating entity 101. will be advantageous in this respect.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the relay server device 140 receives an encrypted SNS account ID (eg, openid) of a customer (eg, customer 115) from the operating business server device 120, (eg, It is configured to obtain information associated with such ID from the SNS server device 160 (using the API provided for SNS). In particular, the relay server device 140 assigns customers of the shopping facility 100 under a predetermined condition (eg, a member class such as an SNS activity level indicating a level of SNS activity history and/or a purchase activity level indicating a level of direct purchase history). ), separate data is collected and managed for each group, and different push messages are sent from the SNS server device 160 for each group. This grouping of customers can make it easy to view customers' SNS activities and purchase activities, view statistics about them, or automatically create a report showing them.

In some embodiments, relay server device 140 dynamically classifies customers of shopping facility 100 into four customer groups based on each customer's SNS activity history and direct purchase history, as shown in FIG. 2 . (Of course, in other embodiments, it should be noted that classification into different numbers of customer groups is possible):

- First customer group 210: Customers with many direct purchase histories and many SNS activity histories belong to this group;

- Second customer group 220: Customers with many direct purchase histories but little SNS activity histories belong to this category;

- 3rd customer group 230: customers with little direct purchase history, but many SNS activity histories belong to this group; and

- Fourth customer group 240: Customers with little history of direct purchase and little history of SNS activity belong to this group.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the amount of the customer's SNS activity history depends on the amount of activities the customer is performing on the SNS (eg, an activity of introducing the shopping facility 100 to friends, acquaintances, and companions through the SNS). or indicate it. In some embodiments, for a customer (e.g., customer 115) who follows an SNS account of shopping facility 100, SNS activity information including an index such as the following to indicate social networking activity (e.g., can be obtained using an API provided for:

- Number of Visits: Indicates the number of times the customer has visited the SNS page of the shopping facility 100;

- Number of coupon sharing/downloads: indicates the number of times an electronic coupon issued to a customer's SNS account in relation to the shopping facility 100 has been shared or downloaded to another account (eg, another user's SNS account); and/or

- Event Participation Count: Indicates the number of times a customer participated in an event held on the SNS page of the shopping facility 100 (eg, the number of "likes" and/or the number of comments).

The relay server device 140 may determine the customer's SNS activity amount based on the acquired SNS activity information. For example, for each of two or more of the above indices, a customer having an average value or higher may be determined to have a large amount of SNS activity, and thus may be determined to belong to the first customer group or the third customer group. Customers who do not may be determined to belong to the second customer group or the fourth customer group. In addition, the determination of the amount of SNS activity of the customer may also be based on at least some of the above-mentioned basic SNS information (eg, city, country, province), whereby the amount of SNS activity of the customer in a specific situation can be determined. .

According to embodiments of the present invention, the amount of a customer's direct purchase history is dependent on or indicative of the amount and/or degree of sales he or she has generated at the shopping facility 100 from their direct purchases. In some embodiments, with respect to a customer, direct purchase information may be obtained (e.g., through interaction with POS system 112) indicating:

- purchase amount: indicates the amount of the customer's direct purchase at the shopping facility 100;

- Purchasing rank: Indicates a rank given according to the amount of direct sales attracted by the customer to the shopping facility 100; and/or

- Purchase frequency: Indicates the number of purchases made by the customer during a predetermined time period in the shopping facility 100.

The relay server device 140 may determine the amount and/or degree of direct sales of the customer based on the obtained direct purchase information. In this regard, in particular, when the relay server device 140 is operated by a third party other than the operating business 101, the relay server device 140 may not be notified of the purchase price for legal and/or business reasons. It should be noted that there are

Customer grouping by the relay server device 140 (eg, management of 4 divisions of customers as described above) allows customers such as customers 115 who are members of the shopping facility 100 and followers of the shopping facility 100's SNS account to actually shop A more efficient marketing service in that it considers not only the history of visiting the facility 100 and making purchases, but also the history of driving sales by inducing purchases by acquaintances around the customer through SNS activities such as sharing electronic coupons. can make it possible. For example, the relay server device 140 may, if necessary, enable promotions for a third customer group, which is difficult to target based solely on aggregated sales records at the shopping facility 100. should pay attention to In addition, the relay server device 140 further subdivides customers with many direct purchase histories into a first customer group and a second customer group according to SNS activity histories, thereby enabling more detailed marketing.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, relay server device 140 configures electronic coupons for use at shopping facility 100 of operating business 101 depending on which of a plurality of customer groups customer 115 belongs to. It is possible to request the SNS server device 160 to issue to the SNS account of the customer 115. The electronic coupon issued in this way to the SNS account of the customer 115 is, for example, according to the purchase amount (eg, when the purchase amount is greater than the preset lower limit (and less than the preset upper limit)) by a specific amount. Alternatively, it may be a coupon that provides a discount by a specific percentage of the purchase amount, a coupon that provides a discount by a specific amount regardless of the purchase amount, or a coupon that provides a discount by a specific percentage of the purchase amount, and an SNS server device. 160 into an electronic wallet associated with customer's 115 SNS account. Accordingly, the customer 115 can easily use the coupon stored in the electronic wallet, which is convenient. And, as shown in FIG. 3, a unique pin (PIN) code for each electronic coupon 300 (which is, for example, on the electronic coupon 300 in the form of a barcode 310 and / or a number string 320) can be displayed) can be given, if the electronic coupon 300 displayed on the mobile terminal 116 is presented at the counter at the time of purchase at the shopping facility 100, by the POS terminal provided at the counter Use of the coupon 300 may be checked through scanning/reading. Additionally, these pin codes can also be used to receive discounts in online shopping malls built on the website of the shopping facility 100 .

In some embodiments, the electronic coupon described above may be provided for the customer's 115 SNS account only when the mobile terminal 116 from which the customer 115 logs into the SNS is located within the service area of the shopping facility 100. there is. For example, only when the customer 115 waves the Bluetooth-enabled mobile terminal 116 around the beacon 113 (the location of the mobile terminal 116 is determined by the relay server device 140 through the operating business server device 120). By being notified to ), the relay server device 140 may request the SNS server device 160 to issue an electronic coupon to the SNS account of the customer 115 . As another example, if customer 115 allows location information of mobile terminal 116 to be made available (eg, from SNS server device 160), relay server device 140 may (eg, for SNS) A provisioned API may be used to determine if the mobile terminal 116 is located within a service area of the shopping facility 100 . On the other hand, additionally or alternatively, if the location information of the mobile terminal 116 is available in this way, the relay server device 140 (eg, using an API prepared for SNS) when issuing an electronic coupon, the mobile terminal ( 116) can be identified.

In some embodiments, electronic coupons provided to the customer's 115 SNS account may be distributed/forwarded by the customer 115 to the SNS accounts of others (eg, users such as friends, acquaintances, companions, etc., of the customer 115). can In this way, if the coupon is delivered to another person's SNS account (eg, in the electronic wallet associated with the account) and is used, according to the usage performance for the SNS account of the customer 115, who was originally the holder of the corresponding coupon ( For example, not only can a reserve amount be provided (which can be used at the shopping facility 100), but the relay server device 140 notifies that such an electronic coupon has been used and/or the amount of sales estimated from the use of such an electronic coupon and/or Alternatively, the amount of SNS activity of the customer 115 may also be determined based on how much. (For how to notify that the electronic coupon has been used, see the description below regarding notification that the electronic coupon of the customer 115 has been used. In addition, for estimating the amount and/or degree of sales from the use of the electronic coupon, the customer 115 Refer to the description below regarding the method of estimating the amount and/or degree of direct sales generated by (115).) As a result, the relay server device 140 provides not only the already acquired SNS activity history and direct purchase history, but also , It is possible to determine which customer group the customer 115 belongs to based on the above estimation. This method (ie, reward-type coupon distribution method) leads to an increase in followers of the SNS account for the shopping facility 100 and an increase in sales of the shopping facility 100 in a customer-friendly manner, and marketing collaboration with the corresponding SNS company However, it is possible to effectively promote customer recruitment activities through purchasing agents or group leaders.

Additionally, in addition to the obtained direct purchase information, the relay server device 140 determines the amount of sales directly generated by the customer 115 and also based on a notification that the electronic coupon remaining in the SNS account of the customer 115 has been used. /or can be configured to determine the degree. This configuration makes it possible, for example, to estimate the amount and/or degree of sales directly from the discount details presented by the used electronic coupon even when the purchase amount is not notified to the relay server device 140, as described above. useful in that it For example, suppose that the following coupon is provided for the customer 115's SNS account: Provide a discount of \10,000 when the purchase amount is greater than the preset lower limit of \100,000 and less than the preset upper limit of \200,000. Coupon to do. When the customer 115 presents the above coupon displayed on the mobile terminal 116 at the store while purchasing a total of \110,000 at the shopping facility 100, the customer 115 can pay with the amount applied with the coupon. The use of the coupon may be notified to the operating business server device 120 by scanning the coupon through the POS terminal. In response to this, the operating business server device 120 may transmit a notification that the corresponding coupon has been used to the relay server device 140 . This notification from the operating business server 120 may also indicate, for example, that the SNS account for which the electronic coupon was maintained at the time of use of the electronic coupon is the account of the customer 115 . Then, even if the purchase amount of the customer 115 is not separately delivered, the relay server device 140 responds to a notification that the corresponding coupon has been used (eg, including the coupon, a type of coupon having a specific discount history) It is possible to estimate the approximate purchase amount resulting from the coupons used (from the statistics on the average purchase amount involved when the coupon is used). For example, in response to a notification that the customer 115 has used an electronic coupon of the "preferential coupon" type that can receive a 2% discount on purchases of \200,000 or more, the relay server device 140 uses such a "preferential coupon" coupon. The purchase price of the customer 115 may be estimated based on the city's average purchase price. Furthermore, the relay server device 140 may determine which customer group the customer 115 belongs to based on the estimated purchase price as well as the SNS activity history and the direct purchase history.

Referring now to FIG. 4 , a further aspect related to an exemplary embodiment is described.

The exemplary process 400 shown in FIG. 4 may be performed by a computing device such as relay server device 140 to provide marketing services using SNS.

In operation 410, the relay server device 140 obtains the direct purchase history of the customer 115 from the operating business server device 120, in which information regarding membership of the shopping facility 100 is stored. The customer 115 is a member of the shopping facility 100 and has an account for that SNS. For example, direct purchase history may be obtained using direct purchase information as described above.

In operation 420, the relay server device 140 obtains the SNS activity history of the customer 115 from the SNS server device 160 that provides the SNS. For example, the SNS activity history may be obtained using the SNS activity information as described above.

In operation 430, the relay server device 140 selects the customer 115 from among a plurality of customer groups (eg, four customer groups 210, 220, 230, and 240) based on the direct purchase history and SNS activity history. determined to belong to a particular

At operation 440, relay server device 140 transfers an electronic coupon configured for use at shopping facility 100 (eg, a time-limited electronic coupon usable only within a set period of time) to customer 115's SNS account. Request to the SNS server device 160 to issue about. In some embodiments, these electronic coupons may be specific to a group of customers. For example, an electronic coupon requested when the customer 115 belongs to the first customer group 210 may be different from an electronic coupon requested when the customer 115 belongs to the other customer groups 220, 230, and 240. there is.

On the other hand, as shown, prior to operation 430, relay server device 140 may receive a notification from operating business server device 120 that another electronic coupon configured for use at shopping facility 100 has been redeemed. Yes (action 450). Such a notification may indicate, for example: an electronic coupon has been redeemed by customer 115; Or, the electronic coupon is delivered from the SNS account of the customer 115 to the SNS account of someone other than the customer 115, and the electronic coupon is used by the other person. In some embodiments, this electronic coupon (eg, which may be time-limited) is an electronic coupon that remained in customer 115's SNS account (eg, issued to customer 115's SNS account prior to operation 450 and/or , transferred to the SNS account of the customer 115 from another account for SNS held by a person other than the customer 115 prior to operation 450). The notification that this electronic coupon has been redeemed may also indicate that the electronic coupon has been redeemed by customer 115 by indicating customer 115's SNS account. In some embodiments, this electronic coupon (eg, which may be time-limited) is transferred from customer 115 to another person's SNS account (eg, a user such as a friend, acquaintance, companion, etc., of customer 115) prior to operation 450. It may be an electronic coupon that has been shared or forwarded and remained. The notification that this electronic coupon has been redeemed may also indicate that the electronic coupon has been used by that other person by indicating that other person's SNS account, and/or the electronic coupon from customer 115 by indicating the SNS account of customer 115. It may also indicate that the coupon originated. In response to receipt in operation 450, relay server device 140 may estimate the purchase price involved in the use of this electronic coupon (act 460). For example, when an electronic coupon is used by the customer 115, the purchase amount of the customer 115 may be estimated. As another example, when another SNS user who received an electronic coupon from customer 115 uses the coupon, the other person's purchase amount may be estimated, and the estimated amount is used to estimate the amount of SNS activity of customer 115. May be used by the relay server device 140. If the purchase amount associated with the use of the electronic coupon presenting specific discount details is estimated in this way, determining the customer group to which the customer 115 belongs in operation 430 includes not only the customer 115's SNS activity history and direct purchase history. Rather, it may also be based on an estimated purchase amount.

Referring now to FIG. 5 , another aspect related to an exemplary embodiment is described.

The various server devices 120, 140, and 160 shown in FIG. 1 may be any suitable type of computing device. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a computing device 500 suitable for an illustrative embodiment. 5 , the exemplary computing device 500 includes one or more processors 510, a computer-readable storage medium 520 coupled with the processor 510 and readable by the processor 510. and various peripherals 530 . In some embodiments, computing device 500 may be implemented as relay server device 140 for providing exemplary marketing services.

The processor 510 may include processing circuitry for controlling the operation of the computing device 500 . For example, the processor 510 may include a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a processor core, a microprocessor, and a microcontroller. , Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), other hardware and logic circuits, or Any suitable combination thereof may be included.

Computer readable storage medium 520 is any non-transitory medium for storing computer executable instructions or program code, program data, and/or other suitable form of information in a form readable by a computer. ), a computer readable storage medium. For example, the computer readable storage medium 520 may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), volatile memory, and non-volatile memory. memory, removable memory, non-removable memory, hard disk, flash memory, magnetic disk storage media, optical disk storage media, other storage devices and storage media, or any suitable Combinations may be included. In some embodiments, processor 510 may execute computer-executable instructions stored on computer-readable storage medium 520, which when executed by processor 510 cause computing device 500 to perform the present invention. to perform operations according to embodiments of, such as at least a portion of the example process 400 described above.

Peripherals 530 may include various input/output (I/O) devices, which may be used by computing device 500 to communicate with other devices, devices, devices, etc. ) and/or present output from the computing device 500 to the user. For example, the peripheral 530 may include a pointing device such as a mouse, a keyboard, a keypad, a microphone, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a touch-sensitive display, a speaker, a printer, a communication interface card, a serial It may include a serial port, Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, and the like.

Exemplary embodiments may include non-transitory computer readable storage media, such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tapes, including computer programs embodying the disclosed operations, techniques, processes, or any aspect or portion thereof. magnetic media, optical recording media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs, magneto-optical media such as floptical disks, and memory devices such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and solid-state memory. Such computer readable storage media may include program instructions, local data files, local data structures, etc. alone or in combination. A program that may implement or utilize the disclosed acts, techniques, processes, or any aspect or portion thereof, may be implemented in any type of (eg, compiled or interpreted) programming language that can be executed by a computer, such as It can be implemented in assembly, machine language, procedural language, object-oriented language, etc., and can be combined with hardware implementation.

Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, they should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Those skilled in the art will understand that various changes can be made to the details of the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments and should not be defined, but should be defined by the following claims and equivalents thereof.

100: shopping facility
120: operating business server device
140: relay server device
160: SNS server device

Claims (8)

A computing device communicatively coupled with an SNS server device providing a Social Networking Service (SNS) and providing marketing services using the SNS,
at least one processor;
At least one computer-readable storage medium coupled with the processor, wherein the computer-readable storage medium stores computer-executable instructions that cause the computing device to perform an operation when executed by the processor, The action is
segmenting customers of the shopping facility into multiple customer groups;
and requesting the SNS server device to issue an electronic coupon specific to the specific customer group to an SNS account of a customer belonging to a specific customer group among the plurality of customer groups among the customers; To classify as
Obtaining a purchase level assigned according to the amount instead of the amount of direct purchase of each of the customers, and estimating the amount of the direct purchase based on the obtained purchase level, wherein the purchase level is the value of the shopping facility. sharing between the computing device and the operating business server device where information relating to the membership is stored; and
Obtaining, from the SNS server device, an index associated with the SNS account ID of each customer and representing the SNS activity of each customer, and estimating the amount of the SNS activity based on the acquired index - the SNS An account ID is shared between the operating business server device and the computing device, and the computing device is associated with the membership and stores the SNS server device as the SNS account ID without other personal information about each customer. communicates with the device - and;
determining which of a plurality of customer groups each customer belongs to based on the estimated amount of direct purchase and the estimated amount of SNS activity;
computing device. delete According to claim 1,
Estimating the amount of the direct purchase of each customer comprises, in response to receiving a notification that another electronic coupon has been used by each customer, estimating a purchase amount involved in the use of the other electronic coupon. and estimating the amount of the direct purchase based on the obtained purchase level and also based on the estimated purchase amount.
computing device. According to claim 1,
Estimating the amount of the SNS activity of each customer may, in response to receiving a notification that another electronic coupon has been used by someone other than the respective customer, make a purchase entailed with the use of the other electronic coupon. estimating an amount and estimating the amount of the SNS activity based on the obtained index and also based on the estimated purchase amount,
computing device. As a computing device for providing marketing services based on Social Networking Service (SNS),
at least one processor;
At least one computer-readable storage medium coupled with the processor, wherein the computer-readable storage medium, when executed by the processor, causes the computing device to:
classify the customers of the shopping facility into a number of customer groups;
A computer-executable instruction for causing a different message to be sent from an SNS server device providing the SNS to each of the plurality of customer groups is stored, wherein each of the customers has an account for the SNS, and the customers are assigned to the plurality of customers. To classify into groups,
Obtaining a purchase level assigned according to the amount instead of the amount of each customer's direct purchase, and estimating the amount of the direct purchase based on the acquired purchase level, wherein the purchase level is the shopping facility shared between the computing device and the operating business server device where information regarding membership of is stored; and
Obtaining, from the SNS server device, an index associated with the ID of the account and representing the SNS activity of each customer, and estimating the amount of the SNS activity based on the acquired index - the ID is the operating business shared between a server device and the computing device, wherein the computing device communicates with the SNS server device by the identity without other personal information about the customer stored on the operating business server device associated with the membership;
determining which of the plurality of customer groups the respective customer belongs to based on the estimated amount of the direct purchase and the estimated amount of the SNS activity;
computing device. delete According to claim 5,
the computing device performing the communication to provide an electronic coupon for the account;
Estimating the amount of the direct purchase of the customer may include, in response to receiving a notification that another electronic coupon has been used by the customer, estimating a purchase amount involved in the use of the other electronic coupon; estimating the amount of the direct purchase based on the purchased purchase level and also based on the estimated purchase amount.
computing device. According to claim 5,
the computing device performing the communication to provide an electronic coupon for the account;
Estimating the amount of the SNS activity of the customer may include estimating a purchase amount accompanying use of the other electronic coupon in response to receiving a notification that another electronic coupon has been used by someone other than the customer. and estimating the amount of the SNS activity based on the obtained index and also based on the estimated amount.
computing device.