WO2007043723A1

WO2007043723A1 - System and method for providing information of customer's purchase pattern to affiliated stores

Info

Publication number: WO2007043723A1
Application number: PCT/KR2005/003423
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jin-Seok Choe
Original assignee: Jin-Seok Choe
Priority date: 2005-10-13
Filing date: 2005-10-13
Publication date: 2007-04-19
Also published as: JP2009512100A

Abstract

A customer information providing system and method for analyzing a purchase pattern of a customer from affiliated store usage information, generating customer management information, and providing the customer management information to an affiliated store. The customer information providing system includes a customer identification means to verify a membership of the customer at a visiting affiliated store; an affiliated store terminal for transmitting a customer information request after receiving the customer identification means of the customer, receiving customer management information generated by analyzing the purchase pattern of the customer, and transmitting the affiliated store usage information of the customer for the affiliated store; and a customer information providing server for transmitting and receiving data to/from the affiliated store terminal through network, analyzing a purchase preference style of the customer from the affiliated store usage information received from the affiliated store terminal, generating customer management information and transmitting the customer management information to the affiliated store terminal.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION OF

CUSTOMER S PURCHASE PATTERN TO AFFILIATED STORES

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to customer information providing system and

method, and in particular, to system and method for providing an affiliated store with

customer information extracted in consideration of business characteristic of the affiliated store from affiliated store usage information generated when a customer uses a

plurality of affiliated stores, so that the affiliated store provides a specialized service to

the customer.

BACKGROUND ART

Customer relationship management (CRM) analyzes and synthesizes all of

inside and outside materials related to customers thereby to plan, support and evaluate

marketing activities based on customers' characteristics.

Recently, merchandisers provide an optimum service suitable for each customer

and invest in a sale marketing based on CRM so that the customers are satisfied with products that they purchased, thereby itemizing and specializing a CRM technique.

For effective CRM, merchandisers try to obtain various customer information of

better quality by actively utilizing customer information obtained through membership and product purchase of customers for the purpose of customer satisfaction, and moreover sharing customer information through business cooperation with other companies. In particular, e-CRM, originated from CRM and currently progressing

flourishingly, is fundamentally equal to the offline CRM in aspect of concept, but it

achieved progress in aspect of collection and utilization of customer information because it is based on Internet. That is to say, e-CRM may collect data of dimension that

customers have not recognized over Internet and utilize it in customer relationship

management. For example, by use of cookie files generated in a computer Internet

communication process, a web site executor acquires information of site visitors, areas

of visitors, preferences of customers and their interest in a specific service or product,

and utilizes them in customer relationship management. A conventional e-CRM was mainly used in online sites of large-sized companies,

large-sized online shopping malls, or large-sized portal enterprises. The reason is that

large-sized companies already possess a large quantity of customer information and can

construct an e-CRM-based system easily through large-scale capital and techniques.

Because e-CRM technique is executed technically and systematically, small-sized offline stores have difficulty in introducing the e-CRM technique practically due to poor

technical know-how and burden on large-scale investment costs, in comparison with large-sized companies.

Also, because large-sized companies with e-CRM have customer information

specialized in their particular business, they do not have customer information available

in other business or a new business. Thus, companies have burden of initial investment costs required in constructing a new e-CRM suitable for their business.

Further, if offline stores, for example beauty salons, restaurants, clothing stores, and bookstores, are aware of affiliated store usage information of visiting customers for the whole affiliated stores, and their purchase pattern information analyzed based on the

affiliated store usage information, shop owners may grasp preferences or propensity of

the customers thereby to provide an active service and marketing to the customers.

However, the affiliated stores have no customer information and standard of its analysis method, thereby just providing a passive service to the customers.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The present invention is designed to solve the problems of the prior art, and

therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide customer management

information providing system and method for analyzing a purchase characteristic of a

visiting customer based on usage history of the customer for the whole affiliated stores,

generating customer management information and providing it to the affiliated store so

that the affiliated store provides a customer-friendly service to the customer.

It is another object of the present invention to provide customer management

information providing system and method for specializing the customer management

information provided to the affiliated store into customer management information for affiliated stores of the same business type as the corresponding affiliated store and

customer management information for affiliated stores of similarly related business type to the corresponding affiliated store, so that the affiliate store improves information

utility efficiency and provides an effective counseling service, a product

recommendation service and other services to the customer.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, a customer information

providing system according to the present invention for providing customer management information of a member customer to an affiliated store comprises a

customer identification means that a customer presents to a visiting affiliated store to

verify his/her membership; an affiliated store terminal for receiving the customer

identification means from the customer and transmitting a customer information request,

receiving customer management information generated by analyzing a purchase pattern

of the customer, and transmitting affiliated store usage information occurring whenever

the customer uses the affiliated store; and a customer information providing server for

transmitting and receiving data to/from the affiliated store terminal through network,

analyzing a purchase preference style of the customer from the affiliated store usage

information transmitted from the affiliated store terminal, generating and storing

customer management information, and transmitting the customer management information to the affiliated store terminal, whereby the customer information providing

system analyzes the affiliated store usage information of the customer for the whole

affiliated stores, generates the customer management information and provides the

customer management information to the affiliated store terminal in real time.

According to a customer information providing method for providing a customer

management information of a member customer to an affiliated store, in the customer information providing method of a customer information providing server for analyzing

affiliated store usage information of the customer for the whole affiliated stores, generating customer management information from a purchase pattern and providing the

customer management information to the affiliated store in real time, the customer

information providing method comprises the steps of: (1) the customer information providing server receiving a member subscription from a customer, receiving and storing personal information of the customer and registering a customer identification

means; (2) the customer information providing server receiving a member subscription

from an affiliated store, storing affiliated store information including business type and

product information of the affiliated store, and registering the affiliated store; (3) the customer information providing server receiving a customer information request from

an affiliated store terminal, retrieving affiliated store usage information of the customer,

analyzing the purchase pattern of the customer, and generating and providing customer

management information; and (4) the customer information providing server receiving and storing the affiliated store usage information of the customer transmitted from the

affiliated store terminal.

According to the customer information providing system and method of the

present invention for providing customer management information of a customer to an

affiliated store, a customer information providing server generates customer

management information by analyzing a purchase pattern of the customer based on affiliated store usage information of the customer for the whole affiliated stores, the affiliated store is provided with the customer management information specialized into

i) customer management information occurring when the customer uses the

corresponding affiliated store, ii) customer management information occurring when the

customer uses other affiliated stores, and iii) customer management information

occurring when a customer group having the same customer classification grade as the customer uses the corresponding affiliated store, from the customer information

providing server thereby to provide a customer-centered service in conformity with a purchase preference style of the customer. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of preferred embodiments of the present invention will be more fully described in the following detailed description,

taken accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a customer management providing system in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing information flow of the customer

management providing system in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a customer information providing server in

accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a customer information providing method in

accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a detailed flow chart illustrating a step for member subscription of a customer in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a detailed flow chart illustrating a step for member subscription of an

affiliated store in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a detailed flow chart illustrating a step for providing customer

management information in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a detailed flow chart illustrating a step for providing to the affiliated store customer management information of a customer group having the same purchase pattern as the customer in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present

invention.

FIG. 9 is an example view of a first screen showing customer management

information in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is an example view of a second screen showing customer management

information in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in

detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a customer management providing system 1 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The customer management providing system 1 according to an exemplary

embodiment of the present invention includes a customer information providing server 2,

an affiliated store terminal 3, and a customer identification means 4.

The customer information providing server 2 is connected to at least one

affiliated store terminal 3 through network, receives a customer information request

from the affiliated store terminal 3, retrieves affiliated store usage information of a customer for the whole affiliated stores and analyzes a purchase pattern of the customer

from the affiliated stroe usage information. The customer information providing server 2

also receives affiliated store usage information of the customer for the corresponding

affiliated store from the affiliated store terminal 3 and stores the affiliated store usage information in a database (DB) for generation of customer management information. The purchase pattern of the customer is analyzed on the basis of i) personal information

of a customer such as the name, gender, age, and address of a customer, ii) affiliated

store information such as the name and address of an affiliated store, and visit time of a

customer, and iii) product information such as the name and price of a product. The information analyzed based on the affiliated store usage information of the customer is

generated as customer management information and provided to the affiliated store

terminal 3.

Preferably, the customer information providing server 2 provides the affiliated store usage information and affiliated store usage statistic information of the customer to

the customer's terminal whenever the customer uses the affiliated store or in a

predetermined cycle.

The affiliated store terminal 3 is a computer terminal equipment having network function, for example a general PC or a PDA, and is installed in stores of various business types having a physical space, for example restaurants, clothing stores,

department stores, cosmetic shops, beauty salons, and bookstores. The customer

presents the member identification means 4 to the affiliated store terminal 3. The

affiliated store terminal 3 transmits a customer ID and an affiliated store ID to the customer information providing server 2 through network to make a customer information request. The affiliated store terminal 3 may have an auxiliary device, for

example a card reader, an IC chip recognition device of a portable phone, or a

fingerprint scanner according to the customer identification means.

In response to the customer information request, the affiliated store terminal 3 is

provided with customer management information including customer information, an affiliated store usage details, propensity, purchase habit, favorite products, recommended products, by the customer information providing server 2. The affiliated

store inputs usage information occurring when the customer uses the affiliated store, and

registers the whole affiliated store usage details such as product inquiry, product

purchase or other service request to the customer information providing server 2 through

the affiliated store terminal 3.

The customer identification means 4 is configured to verify that the customer is

a member enlisted in the customer information providing server 2 and includes for

example, a membership card, a portable phone of the customer, or biometric verification

means using fingerprint of the customer.

The network connecting the affiliated store terminal 3 to the customer

information providing server 2 according to the present invention is a communication

network of wire or wireless environment, and may be constructed under various

interface environment, network environment and platform environment. For example,

the affiliated store terminal 3 may be connected to a home page provided by the customer information providing server 2 and be provided with the customer

management information in a web browser method. Alternatively, a client-program of

the affiliated store terminal 3 may be provided with the customer management

information from the customer information providing server 2 in an exclusive program method.

Through the above-mentioned technical elements of the present invention, an

executor of the customer information providing system 1 may have the following profit

channels by running the customer information providing server 2: i) a first profit obtained by providing customer management information to an affiliated store , ii) a

second profit obtained by generating a statistic material from the accumulated affiliated

store usage information of the whole customers for the corresponding affiliated store

and providing it as a consulting material, and iii) a third profit obtained by statistically

providing to the customer an affiliated store usage material of the customer for the

whole affiliated stores.

In particular, when the customer information providing server 2 extracts the

purchase pattern of the customer from the affiliated store usage information to generate

the customer management information, the customer management information is

generated by analyzing the affiliated store usage information and extracting the

characteristic of the purchase pattern of the customer. The customer management

information provided to the affiliated store in response to the customer information

request is specialized into customer management information for the corresponding

affiliated store, customer management information for affiliated stores of the same business type as the corresponding affiliated store, and customer management

information for affiliated stores of different business type from the corresponding affiliated store.

The above-mentioned technical features of the present invention are described in

detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 as follows. Give an example for an affiliated store

of clothing business for understanding of technical configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows information flow of the customer management providing system 1 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. A customer visits an affiliated store and presents his/her customer identification

means 4 to the affiliated store. The affiliated store terminal 3 transmits a customer ID

and an affiliated store ID obtained from the customer identification means 4 to the customer information providing server 2 to make a customer information request.

The customer information providing server 2 receives affiliated store usage

information of the customer transmitted from the affiliated store terminal 3 and

generates customer management information using the affiliated store usage information

of the customer. The affiliated store usage information includes a customer ID, an

affiliated store ID, affiliated store visit time, product purchase time, duration time,

product name, product price, interested product, customer request item, and product

particular item having a plurality of items assigned according to characteristic of

products.

Here, the above-mentioned product particular item is critical to decide favorite

products and recommended products of the customer. For example, affiliated stores of clothing business have the product particular item classified into product classification

(i.e. shirts, pants, jacket and so on), size, color, style (i.e. formal, semi-casual, casual), and price range (i.e. high, middle, low) over the whole products. If the customer

repetitively purchases clothing products, the item value of a common item among the

product particular items is accumulated and a favorite product particular item

representing high frequency is extracted. Thereby, products corresponding to the

favorite product particular item are extracted and products corresponding to a purchase preference of the customer are estimated. Thus, the affiliated store can advise the customer recommended products selected through analysis with objectivity and reliability thereby to achieve a positive marketing activity.

The customer management information generated from the affiliated store usage

information of the customer by the customer information providing server 2 includes basic information including the name, age, customer classification grade, visit frequency

and latest visit date of the corresponding affiliated store, and visit frequency and latest

visit date of the whole affiliated stores of the customer; message information including a

purchase pattern of the customer analyzed by the affiliate store; detailed information

including favorite field of product, favorite area of affiliated stores, average duration

time, average usage amount, average visit time of the customer; and a recommended product list of the corresponding affiliated store extracted based on the favorite product particular item generated by accumulating product particular items of the affiliated store usage information DB for each item.

The above table shows that the customer information providing server 2

generates the customer management information from the affiliated store usage

information of the customer.

Table 1

In the Table 1, the interested product is a specific product that the customer

inquires about or is regarded as a favorite product of the customer. The customer request

item is a product that the customer requested, but the affiliated store did not provide a

service for a reason. If the latest affiliated store usage information of the customer is

filled with a value, the value is preferably processed as message information and

included in the customer management information. It is preferable to generate message information for the item matched with highest frequency among data items of the

affiliated store usage information. For example, if the product price "high" is frequently

matched, after analyzing the whole affiliated store usage information of the customer, a

message information, "This customer prefers high-priced products" is generated as the

message information.

Preferably, the customer management information generated by analyzing the purchase pattern of the customer by the customer information providing server 2 is classified into subdivisions. The classification category includes a main category

business type corresponding to the same business type affiliated stores, a subcategory

business type corresponding to the similarly related business type affiliated stores, and

the other business type. Preferably, each category business type has at least one business type, otherwise, it is assigned as a default category designated by the customer information providing server 2.

For example, if an affiliated store is a casual clothing store, "casual wear" as a

main category business type, "clothing business" and "fast food" as a subcategory

business type, and "restaurant business" as the other business type are set in the

customer information providing server 2 according to classification of the customer management information. Thereby, the affiliated store is provided with the customer management information analyzed by the affiliated store usage information of a specific

customer for the whole affiliated stores enlisted in casual clothing business, customer

management information analyzed by the affiliated store usage information

corresponding to clothing business and fast food business, and customer management

information analyzed by the affiliated store usage information corresponding to

restaurant business. Therefore, thanks to the customer management information for each

category, if a specific customer visiting an affiliated store has a low usage frequency in a

main category business type affiliated store, the affiliated store is provided with

customer management information corresponding to a different business type affiliated store and the affiliated store can refer to it as a marketing material. Further, in the case

of a new affiliated store, because the new affiliated store has a low quantity of

customers visited, the affiliated store is provided with customer management information analyzed based on materials that customers have used different affiliated

stores of the same business type as the affiliated store and the affiliated store can refer to

it as a marketing material.

Preferably, the affiliated store is provided with customer management

information of a customer group enlisted in the same customer classification grade, which has a similar purchase pattern to the customer. For example, the affiliated store is

provided with the customer management information for each of the above-mentioned

category business types and customer management information analyzed from affiliated

store usage information of a customer group having the same customer classification

grade as the visiting customer. Therefore, because the customer management

information for the same customer classification grade is generated based on a customer classification distribution of customers for a specific affiliated store, the affiliated store

can grasp which product is popular among a specific customer group.

The customer management information generated in the above-mentioned

manner is provided from the customer information providing server 2 to the affiliated

store terminal 3 and is displayed on a screen. Thus, an owner of an affiliated store can

provide a service in conformity with the purchase preference of a customer based on the customer management information displayed on a screen.

If the customer is provided with a service based on customer-centered

information and he/she purchases a product and pays for it, an affiliated store staff

fetches an input screen to the affiliated store terminal 3, inputs service usage details of

the customer, checks the input affiliated store usage information, and selects a

registration button. The affiliated store usage information may be generated in the case

that a customer does not purchase and just looks around products as well as in the case that the customer purchases.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the customer information providing server 2 in

accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The customer information providing server 2 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a customer member managing unit 21, an

affiliated store member managing unit 22, a customer management information

providing unit 23, a customer management information generating unit 24, and an

affiliated store usage information receiving unit 25.

The customer member managing unit 21 receives a member subscription request

of a customer through network, asks the customer to input personal information and to select a customer identification means, and stores the personal information (e.g. a

customer ID, a customer identification means, customer address, resident registration

number, a favorite affiliated store and so on) transmitted from the customer in a

customer information DB 211.

The affiliated store member managing unit 22 receives a member subscription

request of an affiliated store from the affiliated store terminal 3, receives affiliated store

information including ID, address, business type, main category business type, subcategory business type, the other business type of affiliated store input by an

affiliated store staff and stores it in an affiliated store information DB 221. The affiliated

store member managing unit 22 also receives an affiliated store ID, product name,

product code and product information including a plurality of product particular items

assigned according to characteristic of products, transmitted from the affiliated store

staff. The customer management information providing unit 23 receives a customer information request including the customer ID and the affiliated store ID transmitted

from the affiliated store terminal, and generates and transmits the customer management

information of the corresponding affiliated store and the customer. When the customer management information providing unit 23 receives the customer information request,

the customer management information generating unit 24 retrieves a main category business type, a subcategory business type and the other business type of the

corresponding affiliated store from the affiliated store usage information DB 221 using

the affiliated store ID. Next, the customer management information generating unit 24

retrieves the affiliated store usage information corresponding to affiliated stores of each

of the category business type from the affiliated store usage information DB 251 using the customer ID.

The customer management information generating unit 24 retrieves the customer

information DB 211 by the customer ID to obtain the personal information including the

name, age, customer classification grade of the customer and obtain basic information

including visit frequency, latest visit date of the affiliated store and visit frequency and latest visit date of the whole affiliated stores from the affiliated store usage information

of each category. The customer management information generating unit 24 also obtains

detailed information including the favorite field of product, favorite area of affiliated

store, average duration time, average purchase amount, and average visit time of the customer. The customer management information generating unit 24 also accumulates

the product particular items of the classified affiliated store usage information of each

item, extracts a favorite product particular item from the product particular item having

high accumulated frequency, retrieves the product information DB 222, and extracts products corresponding to the favorite product particular item to generate a recommended product list of the corresponding affiliated store. The customer

management information including basic information, message information, detailed information and recommended product list generated by retrieving the customer

information DB 211, the affiliated store usage information DB 251 and the product information DB 222 by the customer management information generating unit 24 is

generated by each category business type, stored in the customer management

information DB 241 and transmitted to the affiliated store terminal 3. The customer

management information may be generated in real time after receiving a customer

management information request, be generated in real time after receiving information from the affiliated store usage information receiving unit 25 through design change, or

be simultaneously generated through a periodical batch operation.

The affiliated store usage information receiving unit 25 receives the affiliated

store usage information input by an affiliated store staff through the affiliated store

terminal 3 and stores it in the affiliated store usage information DB 251 whenever the

customer uses an affiliated store, for example he/she purchases a product, inquires a

product, or window-shops.

A customer information providing method according to an exemplary

embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 8 as

follows.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating the customer information providing method

according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In a customer member subscription step (SlO), the customer information

providing server 2 receives a member subscription from the customer and stores personal information of the customer and the customer identification means selected by

the customer in the customer information DB 211 thereby to admit the member subscription of the customer.

In an affiliated store member subscription step (S20), the customer information

providing server 2 receives a member subscription from an affiliated store and stores

affiliated store information in the affiliated store information DB 221.

In a customer management information providing step (S30), the customer

information providing server 2 receives a customer information request transmitted from

the affiliated store terminal 3, retrieves the affiliated store usage information of the

customer, analyzes the purchase pattern of the customer to generate customer management information and provides the customer management information to the

affiliated store.

In an affiliated store usage information storing step (S40), the customer

information providing server 2 receives the affiliated store usage information of the

customer transmitted from the affiliated store terminal 3 and stores it in the affiliated store usage information DB 251. FIG. 5 is a detailed flow chart illustrating the customer member subscription step

according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In a member subscription request receiving step (Sl 1), the customer information

providing server 2 receives a member subscription from the customer. In a customer

personal information registering/storing step (S 12), the customer information providing

server 2 receives personal information of the customer input by the customer through a

member subscription input screen and stores it in the customer information DB 211.

In a customer identification means registering/storing step (S 13), the customer information providing server 2 asks the customer to select the customer identification means, receives the type of the customer identification means selected by the customer,

for example a membership card, a portable phone or a biometric identification means,

and stores it in the customer information DB 211 to update the customer information DB 211.

FIG. 6 is a detailed flow chart illustrating the affiliated store member

subscription step according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In a member subscription receiving step (S21), the customer information

providing server 2 receives a member subscription of an affiliated store from the

affiliated store terminal 3. In an affiliated store inforamtion registering/storing step (S22), the customer

information providing server 2 receives the affiliated store information from the

affiliated store terminal 3 and stores it in the affiliated store information DB 221.

In a category business type registering/storing step (S23), the customer

information providing server 2 receives a main category business type, a subcategory

business type and the other business type from the affiliated store terminal 3 and stores it in the affiliated store information DB 221 to update the affiliated store information

DB 221.

In a product information registering/storing step (S24), the customer information providing server 2 receives product information of the whole products being on sale in

the affiliated store from the affiliated store terminal 3 and stores it in the product information DB 222.

FIG. 7 is a detailed flow chart illustrating a step for providing customer management information in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In a customer information request receiving step (S31), the customer information

providing server 2 receives from the affiliated store terminal 3 a customer information

request including the customer ID and the affiliated store ID granted to the customer identification means 4 presented by the customer.

In a affiliated store information retrieving step (S32), the customer information

providing server 2 retrieves the affiliated store information DB 221 by the affiliated

store ID to retrieve a main category business type, a subcategory business type and the

other business type. In a affiliated store usage information retrieving step (S33), the customer

information providing server 2 retrieves the affiliated store usage information DB by the

customer ID and the affiliated store usage information corresponding to the category

business type retrieved in the above step (S32).

In a customer management information generating step (S34), the customer

information providing server 2 generates and stores the customer management

information including the recommended product list of the corresponding affiliated store extracted from the product information DB 222 based on the favorite product particular

item formed by accumulating favorite field of product, area of affiliated store, average

duration time, average purchase amount, average visit time and product particular item based on each item from the affiliated store usage information of each category business

type in the above step (S32).

In a customer management information transmitting step (S35), the customer

information providing server 2 transmits the customer management information generated for each category business type to the affiliated store terminal 3. The affiliated

store staff recommends products preferred by the customer based on the customer

management information displayed on a screen of the affiliated store terminal 3 thereby

to provide a customer-satisfaction service according to purchase propensity of the customer.

FIG. 8 is a detailed flow chart illustrating a step for providing customer

management information of a customer group having the same purchase pattern as the

customer to the affiliated store in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the

present invention.

In a customer classification grade retrieving step (S36), the customer information

providing server 2 retrieves the customer classification grade of the corresponding

customer from the customer information DB by the customer ID.

In a customer group retrieving step (S37), the customer information providing

server 2 retrieves the customer group having the same customer classification grade as

that of the customer retrieved in the step (S 36) from the customer information DB, and extracts the customer ID to generate a customer group table.

In an affiliated store usage information of the customer group retrieving step

(S38), the customer information providing server 2 retrieves the affiliated store usage

information of the customer group from the affiliated store usage information DB 251

by the customer ID and the affiliated store ID of the customer group recorded in the

customer group table generated in the step (S37).

In a group customer management information generating step (S39), the customer information providing server 2 generates the group customer management information from the affiliated store usage information retrieved in the step (S38).

In a group customer management information transmitting step (S40), the

customer information providing server 2 transmits the group customer management

information generated in the step (S 39) to the affiliated store terminal 3.

The customer management information displayed on the screen of the affiliated

store terminal 3 is described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10 as follows. Although an

affiliated store of clothing business was cited above, the description below instances an

Italian restaurant.

FIG. 9 is an example view showing a PC monitor of an affiliated store displaying

the customer management information in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

When a customer visits an Italian restaurant, an affiliated store asks the customer

to present a membership card. The membership card presented by the customer is read

by a card reader of a PC of the affiliated store. The PC transmits a customer ID and an

affiliated store ID recognized from the membership card to the customer management providing server 2 and makes a customer information request. The customer

management providing server 2 generates the customer management information using

the customer ID and the affiliated store ID, and transmits the customer management information to the PC of the affiliated store. The PC of the affiliated store displays the customer management information for each item.

At an upper portion in a PC monitor, a basic information space displays

information of the customer and the affiliated store. The customer classification grade is

classified based on the affiliated store usage frequency, the price range of a purchased product, the gender and age of the customer.

At a central portion in the PC monitor, a message space displays a message for

items matching with the value of a specific data item at a high frequency when the

customer management providing server 2 analyzes the affiliated store usage information.

The PC monitor shows that items, "silent" and "cozy" have high frequency among item

values of a restaurant environment item as a product particular item in the affiliated store usage information of the customer. The title, "message information" has a "main"

tab, a "sub" tab, a "the other" tab, and "the same customer group" tab. When each tab is

pressed, the basic information, the message information and the detailed information are

changed to the contents of a main category business type, a subcategory business type,

the other category business type and customer management information of the same

customer group, respectively.

At a lower portion in the PC monitor, a detailed information space displays

information about a purchase habit of the customer generated from the affiliated store usage information of the customer.

The affiliated store checks the customer management information displayed on

the screen, guides the customer to his/her favorite seat, for example window and

smoking seat, and prepares for order.

FIG. 10 is an example view showing a POS monitor of an affiliated store

displaying the customer management information in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. A POS is a wire or wireless portable terminal by

which the staff of the affiliated store carries and inputs order details received from

customers. In FIG. 10, the PC of the affiliated store receives the customer management

information transmitted from the customer information providing server 2 and transmits

the customer management information to the POS connected through wire or wireless

connection. The staff of the affiliated store recommends a favorite food and a

recommended food displayed on the terminal thereby to provide a positive customer

service.

When the customer pays for foods, the affiliated store inputs the affiliated store

usage details of the customer. The input affiliated store usage information is transmitted

from the PC of the affiliated store to the customer management providing server 2. The affiliated store usage information is transmitted to a terminal of the customer at the request of the customer or in a predetermined cycle so that the customer

is provided with details (e.g. visit date, food expenses, menu, seat, calories and so on)

regarding that the customer has used the affiliated store.

As described above, the customer management information providing system and method for providing customer management information of a member customer to

an affiliated store according to the present invention has been described in detail.

However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples,

while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of

the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

In a customer information providing system and method for providing customer management information of a member customer to an affiliated store according to the present invention, an information providing management server provides to the

affiliated store customer management information generated by analyzing a purchase

pattern of a customer generated using affiliated store usage information of the customer

so that the affiliated store has a marketing effect which provides a customer-centered

service based on the purchase style of the customer.

Also, the affiliated store is provided with customer management information analyzed in various aspects, for example customer management information for the

corresponding affiliated store, customer management information for different affiliated

stores of the same business type, and customer management information for affiliated

stores of different business type. Thereby existing affiliated stores can provide more

specialized service to customers, and new affiliated stores can be provided with

customer management information generated by analyzing the affiliated store usage

information of the customers for different affiliated stores of the same business type or

for different business type affiliated stores.

Further, the affiliated store is provided with customer management information

of a customer group having a predetermined purchase pattern as well as the customer

management information for affiliated stores of the same business type or different

business type thereby to perform a product marketing based on the preference trend of customers.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A customer information providing system for analyzing affiliated store usage

information of a customer for the whole affiliated stores on wire or wireless network to

generate customer management information, and providing the customer management

information to an affiliated store terminal in real time, the system comprising:

a customer identification means presented by the customer to a visiting affiliated store to verify a membership of the customer: an affiliated store terminal for transmitting a customer information request after

receiving the customer identification means from the customer, receiving customer

management information generated by analyzing a purchase pattern of the customer, and

transmitting affiliated store usage information occurring when the customer uses the affiliated store; and

a customer information providing server for transmitting and receiving data

to/from the affiliated store terminal through network, analyzing a purchase preference

style of the customer from the affiliated store usage information received from an affiliated store terminal, generating and storing the customer management information,

and transmitting the customer management information to the affiliated store terminal,

whereby the customer information providing system analyzes the affiliated store

usage information of the customer for the whole affiliated stores to generate the customer management information and provides the customer management information to the affiliated store terminal in real time.

2. The customer information providing system of claim 1 ,

wherein the customer information providing server receives from the affiliated

store terminal the affiliated store usage information including a customer ID, an

affiliated store ID, affiliated store visit time, product purchase time, duration time, a

product name, a product price, an interested product, a customer request item, and a

product particular item including a plurality of items assigned according to characteristic of products, and stores the affiliated store usage information in an affiliated store usage information DB to utilize as an analysis material for the customer management

information.

3. The customer information providing system of claim 1 , wherein the customer information providing server receives the customer

information request from the affiliated store terminal, analyzes the affiliated store usage

information stored in the affiliated store usage information DB, and generates and

transmits the customer management information including:

basic information including the name, age, customer classification grade, visit

frequency and latest visit date of a corresponding affiliated store, and visit frequency

and latest visit date of the whole affiliated stores of the customer;

message information including the purchase pattern of the customer analyzed by the affiliate store; detailed information including a favorite field of products, a favorite area of

affiliated stores, average duration time, average usage amount, average visit time of the

customer; and a commended product list extracted based on a favorite product particular item

generated by accumulating the product particular item of the affiliated store usage

information DB for each item.

4. The customer information providing system of claim 1 ,

wherein the customer information providing server registers at least one main

category business type corresponding to the same business type as the affiliated store, at

least one subcategory business type corresponding to similarly related business type to

the affiliated store and at least one the other business type from the affiliated store

terminal, and when providing the customer management information, provides main

category customer management information analyzed by usage information for the

whole affiliated stores of the main category business type, subcategory customer

management information analyzed by usage information for the whole affiliated stores of the subcategory business type, and the other category customer management

information analyzed by usage information for the whole affiliated stores of the other

category business type for each category, thereby providing usage information of the

customer for the whole affiliated stores related to business type of the affiliated store in each category.

5. The customer information providing system of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the customer information providing server includes: an affiliated store member managing unit for receiving a member subscription

request, and receiving and storing member subscription information, business type category information and product information from the affiliated store terminal;

an affiliated store information DB for storing affiliated store information including ID, address, business type, main category business type, subcategory business

type and the other business type of the affiliated store received from the affiliated store

member managing unit;

a product information DB for storing the product information including affiliated

store ID, product name, product code and a plurality of product particular items assigned

according to characteristic of products for the whole products of the affiliated store received from the affiliated store member managing unit; a customer management information providing unit for receiving the customer

information request from the affiliated store terminal and transmitting the customer

management information for a visiting affiliated store of the customer;

a customer management information generating unit for retrieving usage

information of the customer for the whole affiliated stores from the affiliated store usage

information DB after receiving the customer information request, analyzing the usage

information for each of a main category business type, a subcategory business type, and the other category business type of the corresponding affiliated store, generating and

storing the customer management information including the basic information, the

message information, the detailed information, and the recommended product list, and

transmitting the customer management information to the customer management

information providing unit; a customer management information DB for storing the customer management information generated by the customer management information generating unit; an affiliated store usage information receiving unit for receiving the affiliated

store usage information occurring when the customer uses the affiliated store from the

affiliated store and storing the affiliated store usage information; and an affiliated store usage information DB for storing the affiliated usage

information received by the affiliated usage information receiving unit.

6. The customer information providing system of claim 1,

wherein the customer information providing server further analyzes the affiliated

grade as the customer for the affiliated store, and generates and transmits group customer management information to the affiliated store terminal.

7. The customer information providing system of claim 1,

wherein the customer information providing server provides the affiliated usage

information of the member customer for the whole affiliated stores and a statistical

information of the affiliated store usage information to a terminal of the customer in a

predetermined cycle.

8. The customer information providing system of claim 1,

wherein the customer identification means includes a membership card, a

portable phone, and a biometric identification means.

9. The customer information providing system of claim 1, wherein the affiliated store includes a restaurant, a clothing store, a department store, a cosmetic store, a

beauty salon and a bookstore.

10. A customer information providing method for analyzing affiliated store usage information of a customer for the whole affiliated stores to generate customer

management information from a purchase pattern of the customer and providing the

customer management information in real time, the method comprising the steps of:

(1) a customer information providing server receiving a member subscription

from the customer, storing personal information of the customer and registering a

customer identification means to admit the customer;

(2) the customer information providing server receiving a member subscription

from an affiliated store and storing affiliated store information including business type

and product information of the affiliated store to admit the affiliated store;

(3) the customer information providing server receiving a customer information

request from an affiliated store terminal, retrieving affiliated store usage information of the customer, analyzing the purchase pattern of the customer based on business type and

product information of the affiliated store, and generating and providing customer management information including a recommended product list of the corresponding

affiliated store; and

(4) the customer information providing server receiving and storing the affiliated

store usage information of the customer transmitted from the affiliated store terminal,

including a customer ID, an affiliated store ID, affiliated store visit time, product purchase time, duration time, product name, product price, an interested product, a customer request item, and a product particular item including a plurality of items

assigned according to characteristic of product .

11. The customer information providing method of claim 10,

wherein the step of (1) includes the steps of:

(1-1) the customer information providing server receiving a member subscription of the customer transmitted from the customer;

(1-2) the customer information providing server receiving and storing personal

information of the customer transmitted from the customer; and

(1-3) the customer information providing server receiving and storing at least one of a membership card, a portable phone, or a biometric identification means which the customer selects as the customer identification means.

12. The customer information providing method of claim 10,

wherein the step of (2) includes the steps of:

(2-1) the customer information providing server receiving a member

subscription of the affiliated store from an affiliated store terminal;

(2-2) the customer information providing server receiving and storing the affiliated store information from the affiliated store;

(2-3) the customer information providing server receiving and storing a main

category business type, a subcategory business type, and the other category business

type from the affiliated store terminal; and

(2-4) the customer information providing server registering and storing product information of products that the affiliated store sells.

13. The customer information providing method of claim 10,

wherein the step of (3) includes the steps of:

(3-1) the customer information providing server receiving the customer

information request including a customer ID and an affiliated store ID given on the

member identification means presented by the customer from the affiliated store

terminal;

(3-2) the customer information providing server retrieving an affiliated store DB

by the affiliated store ID to retrieve a main category business type, a subcategory

business type and the other category business type;

(3-3) the customer information providing server retrieving the customer ID and the usage information of the customer for affiliated stores corresponding to the category

business type retrieved in the step of (3-2) from an affiliated store usage information

DB;

(3-4) the customer information providing server generating the customer management information including a favorite field of product, a favorite area of affiliated store, average duration time, average usage amount, average visit time and a

recommended product list of the corresponding affiliated store extracted from a product

information DB based on a favorite product particular item generated by accumulating

the product particular item for each item; and

(3-5) the customer information providing server transmitting the customer

management information to the affiliated store terminal.

14. The customer information providing method of claim 10,

wherein the step of (3) further includes the steps of:

(3-6) the customer information providing server retrieving a customer

classification grade of the customer from a customer information DB;

(3-7) the customer information providing server retriveing a customer group having the same customer classification grade from the customer information DB;

(3-8) the customer information providing server retrieving the affiliated store

usage information of the customer group by the customer ID and the affiliated store ID

of the customer group from the affiliated store usage information DB;

(3-9) the customer information providing server generating the favorite field of product, favorite area of affiliated store, average duration time, average purchase

amount, average visit time and a recommended product list of the corresponding

affiliated store extracted from the product information DB based on the favorite product

particular item generated by accumulating the product particular item for each item; and

(3-10) the customer information providing server transmitting the group

customer management information to the affiliated store terminal.