KR20020004085A - System for providing real-time price comparison information - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A compared price information providing system is provided to offer price information without connection with a price comparison site and automatically when a user is to buy a merchandise. CONSTITUTION: A system provides price comparison information of an article to a user for buying the article through an Internet shopping mall. A user information processing device provides the user with article buying information related to the article that the user is to buy, when the user buys the article through the Internet shopping mall. A price comparison information providing device is connected with the information processing device, and parses the article buying information to judge an article the user is to buy. The price comparison information providing device transfers price comparison information related to the article to the user information processing device.

Description

System for real-time price comparison information {SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING REAL-TIME PRICE COMPARISON INFORMATION}

The present invention relates to a method and system for providing price comparison information of a product in an electronic commerce. In particular, it relates to a method and system for automatically providing price comparison information at the time of actual commerce.

With the development of electronic commerce, many price comparison service websites have appeared. 1 is an example of such a conventional price comparison service system. The conventional price comparison service system is largely divided into a service area, a user area, and an Internet area, and the Internet area includes a plurality of shopping malls 150a to 150e. The user area is a web browser installed in a user information processing device (including a device that can access and surf the Internet via wired or wireless, such as a computer, a mobile phone, or a personal information processing device) for shopping in a shopping mall in the Internet area. 140. The service area includes a price comparison search web server 110 for operating a site providing price comparison information, a price information DB 120 for storing price information, and a price information collection robot for collecting price information from an internet shopping mall. 130). Alternatively, price information may be collected manually by the site administrator. When the user finds a desired product while shopping in the Internet area with the web browser 140, the user accesses the product price comparison search web server 110 to obtain price comparison information of various sites. After searching the price comparison information of the desired product on this web site to find a shopping mall that provides the product at the lowest price, the user accesses the shopping mall again and purchases the product.

In such a price comparison service through a web site, the homepage often provides only information on prices of specific products of companies related to the company. In such a price comparison site, if a desired product name or product code is inputted, price comparison information of this product, that is, price information of various shopping malls is provided. In addition, a search method may find information on a desired product. Although such a site is useful in that price comparison information can be obtained without visiting various shopping malls, in order to obtain price comparison information, a user must access a price comparison site and enter a target product as a search term. There is a point. In addition, it is mainly a simple price comparison, and often information on shipping costs and delivery dates is not provided.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for receiving price information without a user accessing a price comparison site.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of automatically providing price comparison information on a corresponding product when a user tries to purchase a predetermined product while monitoring a user surfing a shopping mall.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide information on price comparison information together with advertisement information, delivery date, and delivery cost of various shopping malls.

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, the user monitors the user's behavior in the information processing apparatus surfing the Internet shopping malls and transmits the information about the product that the user is currently shopping to the server, and the lowest price of the product It uses a real-time price comparison client, a software for receiving information about delivery costs and delivery periods from a server and displaying them on a user information processing device.

In addition, the server stores the price comparison information of each shopping mall, and transmits the information to the client when requested by the real-time price comparison client.

1 is a block diagram of a conventional price comparison information providing system.

2 is a block diagram of a price comparison information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating steps performed in a price comparison client program, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

4 is a flowchart showing the detailed steps of the price comparison and purchasing module of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing detailed steps of the purchasing agent module of FIG. 4.

6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a price comparison window that a price comparison client presents to a user.

7 is a database structure diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a detailed structural diagram of a price information storing unit of FIG. 7;

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

210: price comparison server

220: Price Information DB

230: Price information collection robot

250: price comparison client

According to an aspect of the present invention, in a system for providing price comparison information of a product in real time to a user who purchases the product by accessing the Internet shopping mall,

When a user purchases a product in an internet shopping mall, the user information processing device that provides product purchase information related to the product that the user wants to purchase through the Internet before the purchase is actually made;

A price comparison information providing device which is connected to a network of the user's information processing device and analyzes the product purchase information to determine a product to be purchased by the user, and transmits price comparison information about the product to the user information processing device.

There is provided a price comparison information providing system comprising a.

According to another aspect of the present invention, when a user purchases a product in an internet shopping mall, the user information processing apparatus for providing product purchase information related to the product to be purchased by the user via the Internet before the purchase is actually made-the user's information The processing device analyzes the product purchase information, determines a product to be purchased by a user, and is connected to a price comparison information providing device which transmits price comparison information about the product to a user information processing device. In the method of providing price comparison information,

When the user wants to purchase a predetermined product, providing product purchase information related to the product through the Internet;

Receiving and displaying price comparison information transmitted from the price comparison information providing device in response to product purchase information;

Price comparison information providing method comprising a.

According to another aspect of the present invention, when the user purchases a product over the network price comparison information providing apparatus connected with the user information processing device for providing product purchase information related to the product to be purchased by the user,

Means for determining a product to be purchased by a user by analyzing the product purchase information;

Storage means for storing price comparison information about the goods;

Means for retrieving price comparison information about a product to be purchased by the user from the storage means;

Means for transmitting the retrieved price comparison information to the user information processing apparatus when the price comparison information about the product to be purchased by the user is stored in the storage means;

Means for storing price information of a product to be purchased by the user in the storage means by using the product purchase information when price comparison information about a product to be purchased by the user is not stored in the storage means

Price comparison information providing apparatus comprising a.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a price comparison information providing system of the present invention. Similar to the conventional system, this system is divided into three areas: service area, user area, and Internet area. The Internet zone includes a number of shopping malls 150a-150e to which a user will shop. The user area is a web browser installed in a user information processing device (including a device that can access and surf the Internet via wired or wireless, such as a computer, a mobile phone, or a personal information processing device) for shopping in a shopping mall in the Internet area. 140. Unlike the conventional system, the user area in the present invention includes a price comparison client program 250, which is an Internet service application program installed in its information storage device at the will of the user. The client 250 operates with the operating system always running from the moment it is installed in the user's information processing apparatus. In an embodiment of the present invention, when installing the price comparison client 250 in the user's information processing apparatus, the user receives local information (zip code, address, etc.) from the user, stores the information, and requests product information from the price comparison server 210. Send this local information together. This local information can be used to determine the shipping fee as described below.

The price comparison client 250 monitors all the URLs (Universal Resource Locator) that a user surfs using the web browser 140. If the URL of the site visited by the user via the web browser 140 includes the domain of the target shopping mall (i.e., when surfing the purchase page of the product to be compared), information related to the product to be purchased ( "Hereinafter referred to as product purchase information", for example, the corresponding URL) is sent to the price comparison server 210, and in response to the price comparison information transmitted from the price comparison server 210 is output to the user. In the present specification, the price comparison information may include not only price comparison information of a product, but also shipping information provided with price comparison information and advertisement information for a shopping mall, as described below. When the user installs the price comparison client 250 in his information processing device, the user does not have to perform a series of troubles such as accessing the price comparison website through the Internet web browser 140 and entering a search word. Only by visiting the shopping malls 150a-150e using a web browser and shopping for a desired product, the product price comparison client 250 automatically displays the price comparison information of the corresponding product. The real-time price comparison client 250 is preferably distributed through a reliable verification procedure from the operator of the price comparison server. To this end, it is desirable to store several versions of the client program that can be used in the information providing processing apparatuses of various specifications on the server side (750 of FIG. 7) so that the user can download them appropriately to their information processing apparatus. When the client program is started to run on the user's information processing apparatus, it is connected to the server side to check whether the program has not been updated, and if it is revised, it is recommended that the user download the latest version of the program.

The service area includes a price comparison server 210 for providing price comparison information, a price information DB 220 for storing price information, and a price information collection robot 230 for collecting price information from an internet shopping mall.

The price collecting robot 230 collects price information while traveling to each shopping mall, and processes the price information in a predetermined format as described below with reference to FIG. 8 and stores the price information in the price information database 220. In an embodiment of the present invention, the price collecting robot 230 is an information collecting unit (not shown) for collecting information by visiting each shopping mall by itself, and an information processing unit (not shown) for processing the collected information in a predetermined format. ). In one embodiment of the present invention, the robot information on how to obtain price information from which shopping mall site (for example, which part of an HTML document of a page corresponds to price information, etc.) The shopping mall type information can be obtained by analyzing each site by the operator of the price information providing service of the present invention. By analyzing the HTML document of some pages of a certain site, the operator can find out what type of price information is in. Using this, the price information of other pages can be automatically detected by the robot. If there is a change in the format of the site, even if the price or product changes, It is possible to find out. Shop or type information may be provided directly from its shopping malls.

The price comparison server 210 of the service area receives local information such as a postal code of a user registered by the user from the price comparison client 250 installed in the user information processing apparatus together with the URL of the site visited by the user. The price comparison server 210 uses the received information as basic information, not only price information of the corresponding product itself, but also calculates an appropriate shipping cost based on the user's geographical location, and presents the user with the lowest price until the product is purchased. do. In one embodiment of the present invention, the server 210 may store information such as shopping propensity, product selection taste of a user (registered member) and provide information (for example, product recommendation information, etc.) suitable for a future user. have.

3 is a flowchart illustrating the steps performed in a price comparison client, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In one embodiment of the present invention, the client program starts operation when the user turns on the information processing apparatus such as his PC or when the user executes a web browser. The client program 250 requests the target domain information from the server side 210 at startup. On the server side, information about the target domain is previously examined and stored in the price information DB (810 of FIG. 8), and transmitted to the client in response to a request from the client side. In this case, the target domain information is information about a URL corresponding to a product item of a shopping mall that the user wants to monitor shopping. That is, in order for a user to select a product and to view detailed information about the product, the user must click a link of the product, which is information about a linked URL.

After receiving the target domain, the client enters a state that monitors the user's browsing. When entering the URL corresponding to the target domain during monitoring (330), the client determines that the user intends to purchase a specific product, proceeds to the price comparison and purchase module 340, as described below with reference to FIG. Provide price comparison information to the user. When the desired job is finished in the price comparison and purchase module 340, it returns to the monitoring state again and continues to monitor until the client program ends.

4 is a flowchart showing the detailed steps of the price comparison and purchasing module 340 of FIG. 3 and correspondingly performed in the price comparison server 210 according to one embodiment of the present invention.

If the client detects a visit to the URL belonging to the target domain of the user, that is, attempts to purchase the service target product, the client transmits the product purchase information to the server side (step 410). For example, the target domain information and the product purchase information will be described below.

For example, at the following URL:

http://www.ypbooks.co.kr/cgi-bin/db2www/specdm.mbr/pitput?p_isbn=XXXX

From the representative domain name of the shopping mall, "http://www.ypbooks.co.kr", it is possible to know whether the shopping mall is a target shopping mall that provides comparative information in the service, but in determining the intention of purchasing a product.

You should check the URL as "http://www.ypbooks.co.kr/cgi-bin/db2www". In addition, the entire URL must be present in order to determine which book to purchase. So in this example

"http://www.ypbooks.co.kr/cgi-bin/db2www" is target domain information, and the entirety of the URL is transmitted to the server side as product purchase information.

The server is in the standby state, receives the information sent by the user (412) and analyzes it (435) to extract information about the product. Based on the information on this product, price comparison information for the corresponding product is extracted from the price information DB 220 (440). If the information extracted from the DB is valid information, that is, information including price comparison information of various sites (450), the price information is transmitted to the client 250, and the server operation on the received product purchase information is terminated. Return to service standby. If the valid information is not extracted from the DB (for example, if there is no pre-stored price information), the received product purchase information, that is, the URL, is used to newly update the price of the product on the site where the user is currently shopping. Save 460 and the server returns to standby. Although the robot did not collect and store the appropriate price comparison information in advance before the current user's shopping time, the improved information can be used by future users by reflecting the price information of the site known by the current user in the DB. It is to ensure that. Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 4, when valid information is not obtained, the client is informed of this fact and the client displays it to the user.

The price comparison information transmitted by the server 210 is received by the client 415, which is displayed in the price comparison window form on the user's information processing device. In one embodiment of the present invention, this information is displayed in a price comparison window as shown in FIG. As described below, the price comparison information may include not only price information but also shipping cost information and banner advertisements of shopping malls. The display of the price comparison information includes a means for inputting a proxy purchase desire of the user (for example, the agency purchase button 660a of FIG. 6). Through this, when the user indicates the agency purchase desire, the process proceeds to the purchase agency module 427. When the price information window is closed, the client returns to monitoring the user's shopping behavior.

Hereinafter, the URL analysis step 435 of the above steps will be described in detail. In general, a shopping mall uses one unique URL for one product. The specific method is to use one or more key attribute values for the product as part of the URL, rather than assigning a URL with a different name for every product. The most important value at this time is called a keyvalue.

If you need to pass parameters to a server-side program like cgi, asp, jsp, serlvet, you need a name to determine this parameter and a value corresponding to that name. The value corresponds to a name.

One example is as follows.

http://www.yes24.com/home/bk.asp?SID=XXXXXXXX&pk=19282

The URL corresponds to one product, which contains values that the system uses as a parameter to identify the one product. At this time, the key name and key value for determining the required parameter are "pk" and "19282", respectively. A URL can contain several key attribute values, except that the name = value pair that appears in the URL is called a namevalue. In the above example, the SID is a value that is changed every time and does not correspond to a name value. When the analysis is performed in this manner, the key names are already stored in the database for each site and each product (810 of FIG. 8). Use this key value to retrieve price comparison information from the database.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating detailed steps of the purchasing agent module of FIG. 4 and corresponding steps performed by the price comparison server 210. When the client makes a purchase request 510, the server receives 520 this request and retrieves 530 additional information from the database regarding this purchase request. In one embodiment of the present invention, the purchase request includes an identifier for identifying a user and an identifier of a product to be purchased, and the additional information includes payment information registered in advance for each user. In addition, the purchase information may additionally include information such as a target shopping mall, a price of a product, an expected delivery date and time, etc. for which an agency purchase is requested. The purchase information is transmitted to the client to be shown to the user for confirmation (550). Thereafter, the user is asked whether to finally approve the purchase (560). When the user confirms the purchase information and finally approves the purchase, it is sent to the server side so that the agency purchase is actually processed and the data related to the purchase is updated. Since the agency purchase of the shopping mall is already implemented in various sites and known to those skilled in the art of electronic commerce through the Internet, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the user may re-enter not only the final purchase approval, but also a password for identifying the user. This is to prevent a case where a purchase is made by another person, for example, when the computer is left on. User information such as passwords are sent and received through encryption for security.

The client 250 returns to the monitored state after the final purchase approval or disapproval, and the server 210 returns to the standby state after the purchase process.

6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a price comparison window presented to the user by the price comparison client described above.

The price comparison window 600 includes a column 610 for displaying a shopping mall, a column 620 for displaying a product price, columns 630 and 640 for a shipping fee and a delivery period, and a column 660 including a button for inputting a purchase request. ), And the like. Each row displays information about one shopping mall. In the column 610 representing the shopping mall, the name of the shopping mall is not simply displayed, but advertisement banners 610a to 610d including advertisement contents to be delivered to the user in the shopping mall are displayed. As described above, since each shopping mall may also obtain an advertisement effect through the price comparison information providing service of the present invention, the shopping malls will provide the above-described shopping mall type information for use in the service of the present invention. Various advertisement texts are inserted into the banner area to encourage the user to visit the shopping mall. When the user clicks on the banner area, the banner area is connected to the shopping mall. When the agency purchase button (660a-660d) for a predetermined shopping mall is pressed, the price comparison server 210 asks the user for the final purchase approval as described above, and, upon approval, performs the purchase procedure for the shopping mall on behalf of the user. .

7 is a structural diagram of a database 220 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The database for operating the price information providing service according to the present invention includes a user management unit 710, order management unit 720, temporary storage unit 730, price information storage unit 740 and the client program unit 750, etc. can do.

The user manager 710 stores information about users who are members of the price information providing service according to the present invention. The user information includes data such as ID, password, address, telephone number, payment method when purchasing agent, and purchase results so far for each user.

The order management unit 720 receives information from the user for agency purchases and stores information on the orders being processed or already processed. This includes information such as order serial number, order product ID, order user ID, and processing status.

Temporary storage 730, for example, where the robot temporarily stores the information collected from the Internet before processing.

As described above, the client program unit 750 stores various versions of the client program.

FIG. 8 is a detailed structural diagram of the price information storage unit 740 of FIG. 7 according to an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to providing price information of a book, and includes a site table 810, a shipping policy table 820, and a book information table 830. ), A book table 840 and an advertising banner 850.

The site table 810 is a table created for each site targeted by the service according to the present invention and includes ID, name, domain name (URL), key name, and target domain information of each site. In another embodiment of the present invention, the target domain information is not stored separately for each site, and only the target domain information is collected and stored separately.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 6, the advertisement banner data 850 of each site is stored to provide the advertisement banner of the site together with the price comparison information. The advertisement banner data may include contents related to events of each site, and may be updated according to a request of an advertiser, that is, each shopping mall.

The book table 840 is prepared for each book and includes information on book ID, ISBN, author, translator, title, and the like.

The book information table 830 is created for each book for each book, has a book ID that is information indicating a book ID of the book table 840, and also includes a key value, a name value, a price, a site ID, and the like.

As described above, in order to provide information regarding the shipping fee together with the price information, a shipping policy table 820 storing information about the shipping fee may be provided for each site.

When the user accesses the URL corresponding to the target domain information (i.e., accesses the page of the corresponding product or attempts to purchase), the content of the URL is analyzed by referring to the pre-stored key name, and the site ID, key value, The name value and the like are found (step 435 of FIG. 4). Based on these values, first find out if the book exists in the book table 840 (i.e., if there is a book ID), and if so, if there is a book (i.e., if there is a book ID), then again the book information table 830 Retrieves all information about the book ID in step 440 of FIG. 4. In addition, the delivery fee information of each site that provides the book is retrieved from the delivery policy table 820 to provide the retrieved information to the client.

If the book ID corresponding to the key value and the name value is not found in the book table 840 (corresponding to No in step 450 of FIG. 4), the site related to the site ID is accessed to find price information and the like. New storage in the database (step 460 of FIG. 4).

Although the present invention has been described as a preferred embodiment as described above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto but includes various modifications and modifications within the appended claims. In particular, it can be easily seen that various modifications are possible in the structure of the database, the content of information to be presented to the user, the method of presenting the information, and the like.

The user is automatically provided with price comparison information on a product to be purchased by simply surfing in an internet shopping mall without having to perform a separate operation to obtain price comparison information. In addition, the present invention compares the costs necessary for the user's final purchase by providing information including shipping costs as well as simple price comparison information.

In terms of shopping malls, a target advertisement is provided which provides an advertisement to a user who wants to purchase a certain kind of product.

Claims (19)

In a system that provides price comparison information of a product in real time to a user who purchases the product by accessing an internet shopping mall, When a user purchases a product in an internet shopping mall, the user information processing device that provides product purchase information related to the product that the user wants to purchase through the Internet before the purchase is actually made; A price comparison information providing device which is connected to a network of the user's information processing device and analyzes the product purchase information to determine a product to be purchased by the user, and transmits price comparison information about the product to the user information processing device. Price comparison information providing system comprising a. The price comparison information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the product purchase information is a universal resource locator (URL) related to a product to be purchased by a user in an internet shopping mall. The price comparison information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the price comparison information providing apparatus includes storage means for storing prices of goods in a plurality of Internet shopping malls. 4. The price comparison information providing system according to claim 3, wherein said storage means further stores information on delivery policies in a plurality of Internet shopping malls. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the user information processing apparatus additionally transmits information about a user's region to the price comparison information providing apparatus. The price comparison information is a price comparison information providing system including a shipping fee and a delivery period determined based on the price of the goods in the plurality of Internet shopping malls and the local information. The price comparison information providing system of claim 1, wherein the price comparison information includes price of goods in the plurality of Internet shopping malls and advertisement information of each shopping mall. The system of claim 6, wherein the advertisement information of each shopping mall includes an advertising banner of each shopping mall. When a user purchases a product in an internet shopping mall, a user information processing device that provides product purchase information related to the product that the user wants to purchase through the Internet before the purchase is actually made. In the price comparison information providing method performed by the user to determine the product to be purchased by the user, the price comparison information providing apparatus for transmitting the price comparison information about the product to the user information processing apparatus- When the user wants to purchase a predetermined product, providing product purchase information related to the product through the Internet; Receiving and displaying price comparison information transmitted from the price comparison information providing device in response to product purchase information; Price comparison information providing method comprising a. The method of claim 8, wherein the price comparison information comprises price of a product in a plurality of Internet shopping malls and advertisement information of each shopping mall. The method of claim 8, wherein the displaying comprises opening a price comparison window and displaying the price comparison information in a price comparison window. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the displaying step includes displaying means for receiving a proxy request for purchasing a product at each shopping mall. When a user purchases a product in an internet shopping mall, a user information processing device that provides product purchase information related to the product that the user wants to purchase through the Internet before the purchase is actually made. A medium for storing a price comparison client program executed in a network connected to a price comparison information providing device which transmits price comparison information about the product to a user information processing device by analyzing The price comparison client program Means for detecting whether the user wants to purchase a certain product, Means for providing product purchase information related to the product through the Internet when the user detects that he / she wants to purchase a predetermined product; Means for receiving and displaying price comparison information transmitted from the price comparison information providing apparatus in response to product purchase information; Comparing price client program storage media comprising a. In the price comparison information providing device connected to the user information processing device that provides the product purchase information related to the product that the user wants to purchase when the user purchases the product over the network, Means for determining a product to be purchased by a user by analyzing the product purchase information; Storage means for storing price comparison information about the goods; Means for retrieving price comparison information about a product to be purchased by the user from the storage means; Means for transmitting the retrieved price comparison information to the user information processing device Price comparison information providing apparatus comprising a. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the user purchases a product at an internet shopping mall, and the product purchase information is a URL related to a product to be purchased by the user at the internet shopping mall. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the storage unit further stores information about a delivery policy in a plurality of Internet shopping malls. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the user information processing apparatus additionally transmits information about a region of the user to the price comparison information providing apparatus. The price comparison information is a price comparison information providing apparatus including a price of the goods in the plurality of Internet shopping malls, and the delivery fee and the delivery period determined based on the local information. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the price comparison information comprises price of goods in the plurality of Internet shopping malls and advertisement information of each shopping mall. 18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the advertisement information of each shopping mall includes an advertisement banner of each shopping mall. In the price comparison information providing apparatus connected to the user information processing device for providing a product purchase information related to the product to be purchased by the user when the user purchases the product over the network, Means for determining a product to be purchased by a user by analyzing the product purchase information; Storage means for storing price comparison information about the goods; Means for retrieving price comparison information about a product to be purchased by the user from the storage means; Means for transmitting the retrieved price comparison information to the user information processing apparatus when the price comparison information about the product to be purchased by the user is stored in the storage means; Means for storing price information of a product to be purchased by the user in the storage means by using the product purchase information when price comparison information about a product to be purchased by the user is not stored in the storage means Price comparison information providing apparatus comprising a.