Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
  • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10S707/00—Data processing: database and file management or data structures
  • Y10S707/99941—Database schema or data structure
  • Y10S707/99943—Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Definitions

• E-commerce refers to the use of the technical means of electronic data networks to promote the economic and sales processes of a company and new ones
• Online shopping e.g. B. Advertising, product information, customer / seller interaction,
• the DeutscheInstitut AG (DTAG) e-commerce system which is similar to the e-commerce systems of many other companies, is described in more detail below as a known solution.
• Intershop is a fully equipped medium that enables smooth entry into the online market. Intershop technology goes beyond the typical limits of HTML pages and opens its own shopping center. Intershop is the world's first standardized software that makes it possible to design interactive, multimedia online shops. Intershop can be easily linked to existing ERP or accounting systems, operated as an autonomous system, or both.
• the Intershop software programs are connected to the WWW server that offers the HTLM pages. Intershop has integrated a database that contains the product catalog data. On the server side, e-commerce is usually provided by three components.
• the customer has the following options on the T-Versand homepage of DTAG:
• the customer In the left menu bar, he has the option to switch to another category at any time. If the customer has selected the "Corded phones" link, the next step is to get the list of corded end devices as a result. The customer will therefore be taken to a product selection list after his third selection. This is an important principle that e-commerce shops always have In the product selection list you can now see a picture, the name, the price and a brief description of the selected phone. Once the customer has selected a phone, they can display the product data sheet, which shows the most important features the customer looks at the features and chooses the product, then the customer can:
• the shopping cart fulfills the function of storing the products until the customer has finally decided to place his order.
• the shopping cart offers the following functionalities:
• the customer either wants to buy a product, find out about products and then buy them, or just find out about products.
• a customer who wants to buy a product and already knows his goal and usually also the desired product that he wants to select can easily shop using the system described above.
• the hesitant or information-seeking customers have a harder time. You have to change pages very often to find out about the differences in the products on offer. The reason for this is that products can only be compared directly using the values in the product data sheet.
• the current system offers the presentation of the DTAG catalog on the Internet with complete sales processing, but there is still not enough support for the customer to find the right product for him. This is particularly due to the fact that the length of the product lists makes them suitable for a search.
• the invention is based on the object of developing a method for customer-specific selection of products from a product catalog via the Internet, in which the complete range (product list) and the comprehensive product information are retained, and in which the above-mentioned. Defects are eliminated.
• the invention is intended to offer the customer a better and faster way of comparing the products.
• Known e-commerce applications are based on a database in which the products of the catalog to be represented are managed and maintained.
• the medium Internet offers the possibility to present products from the databases much more effectively for the customer than is possible with the known e-commerce applications, in which the relevant information, e.g. the current price, is only available when a product is called up Database read and output.
• the method according to the invention which is referred to below as product finder, is also based on a product catalog.
• the difference to known e-commerce applications is based on the fact that there is no connection to a group of products, but rather that certain products are selected with the help of parameters previously defined by the customer during online access.
• the product finder consists of static components that do not change or always run the same way and dynamic components that adapt to the parameters that were previously defined, for example, by an administrator of the product finder. These parameters ensure that the correct ones are found in the product finder interface
• Components are set up so that the correct data are fetched from the database and that the further processing of the data also proceeds correctly with the interaction of the user.
• Components of a universally applicable product finder are:
• the first five components also have dynamic components.
• the new Component parameter list is used by all other components to initialize the product finder.
• Control button type control button label
• Initial values of the operating button are important for the graphical user interface and for processing the data from their value range.
• the comparison operator connects a value of the value set of the operating button with attributes of the internal data structure in order to compare them and to determine the valid objects.
• the graphical user interface of the product finder consists of four components:
• buttons - Button bar and - Groupings of operating buttons.
• the method for database-supported selection of products for electronic commerce applications on the Internet is based on access to a database management system in which the user controls the product selection with the aid of operating buttons. As shown in FIG. 1, the process is composed of several process steps.
• data is read from the database of the database management system after the system is started and into an internal data structure (product of Product Finders) converted.
• a product list is formed from the instances of the product data structure.
• a comparison function is used to check whether the objects in the product list are valid.
• the valid objects are copied into a result list (list of valid objects).
• the comparison function is triggered by calling up the product finder or by changing an operating button by the user. If the status of an operating button changes, the validity of the objects in the product list is checked using a comparison function compiled by the user / customer according to his or her wishes.
• the comparison function consists of the selected values of the control buttons and the associated ones
• Attribute values from an object of the product list and a comparison operator for each selected value of the control button are Attribute values from an object of the product list and a comparison operator for each selected value of the control button.
• the valid objects determined using the comparison function are entered in a result list.
• the result list is displayed to the user in a result list field.
• the user can make his selection based on the objects from the result list field.
• Data structure of the product finder are required can be dealt with by a static SQL statement and transferred to the product data structure.
• an administrator In order to generate correct dynamic SQL statements, an administrator must first define the set of table names and the corresponding ones
• the number of tables or attributes also determines the number of attributes of an object in the product list.
• Fig. 2 shows how two dynamic and a static SQL statement are handled and how the respective attributes of the product list are filled.
• An operating button is identified by the label field, the type of button and the set of values.
• the label field specifies the text that shows the later user of the product finder which features he can set with the operating button.
• the type specifies the type of control button, e.g. B. Checkbox or selection field.
• the set of values is the amount of values that can be set in the operating button, which can be numbers, strings or even truth values. In order to set up the control button in the product finder, the administrator must specify the type and the label field.
• the set of values for the operating buttons comes from attribute values from the product list. To get the correct attribute values of the product list, there is a projection on their respective objects in the product list.
• the filling of the value set is always determined by the operating button and the associated values of an object in the product list.
• the parameters that have already been defined (table name / attribute name of the administrator's database) also determine the origin of the set of values when extended by the type and label field of the operating buttons.
• FIG. 3 shows an example in which two dynamic and one static attribute of all objects in the product list fill the set of values for operating buttons.
• a result list is created from the product list. Three components are provided to fill the result list: - certain attributes of the product,
• Figure 4 the process of interactive selection is illustrated using an example.
• the system or the user sets the value W2 from the set of values in the operating button B2.
• This value is linked with the help of the comparison operator 2 with the attribute Att. 2 of the product list and checked for validity. If this validity is given and all other validities are given, then exactly this object is copied into the result list. This also happens with all other objects in the product list. The values of all valid objects are now in the result list.
• the result list field is displayed so that it is visible to the user.
• the result list field is a projection from the result list, i.e. H. only certain attribute values of each object in the result list are transferred to the result list field. With most product finders, it makes sense to output the name and color of the product to the user.
• the product finder runs on the server side and only input / results are transferred from / to the customer.
• the second possibility is that the product finder is transferred as a program to the customer's computer or browser.
• the first alternative can be solved with the help of CGI programming.
• An HTML form is sent to the customer by a server.
• the customer makes his or her entries in the selection settings form.
• a "Submit” button sends the results of the selection to a server-side CGI script. This would send the Use settings to select the right products from a database in the database management system and the result would be sent back to the customer as an HTLM form.
• An advantage of this method is that the form is very small and can be sent to the customer quickly. Another advantage results from the fact that a database query on a powerful server runs very quickly.
• the transmission of the result in the form of an HTML page is also not time-critical.
• a disadvantage of this method is seen in the fact that the customer would have to press the "Submit” button with every variation of his selection settings and would therefore have to establish a server connection again and again. Such a server connection delays the provision of the desired result to the customer.
• the first implementation option is based on a script running on the client, such as. B. Java Script or Visual Basic Script.
• the second way to implement the product finder on the client side is based on programs that are integrated in the HTML pages to be transferred.
• Such programs are e.g. B. Java applets or ActiveX components.
• An advantage of this variant is that immediate interactivity with the customer is possible. This means that the customer can make selections that are processed immediately and in which the result is available to the customer without delay.
• the method according to the invention can advantageously be used in e-commerce applications on the Internet, since it makes it easier for the customer to find the product.

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• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• Strategic Management (AREA)
• Economics (AREA)
• Marketing (AREA)
• Development Economics (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)
• Information Retrieval, Db Structures And Fs Structures Therefor (AREA)
• Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)

Priority Applications (5)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=7885701

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (7)

Cited By (6)

Families Citing this family (14)

Citations (4)

Family Cites Families (5)

• 1998
  • 1998-10-19 DE DE19849354A patent/DE19849354A1/de not_active Withdrawn
• 1999
  • 1999-09-30 EP EP99948908A patent/EP1131752B1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-09-30 AT AT99948908T patent/ATE230505T1/de active
  • 1999-09-30 US US09/807,856 patent/US6658424B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-09-30 DE DE59903935T patent/DE59903935D1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-09-30 JP JP2000577596A patent/JP2002528796A/ja active Pending
  • 1999-09-30 ES ES99948908T patent/ES2189495T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-09-30 WO PCT/EP1999/007246 patent/WO2000023923A1/de not_active Ceased

Patent Citations (4)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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