CN1395201A - Real-time display management system and method for online commodity inventory - Google Patents

Abstract

An on-line commodity stock state instant display system and method is used for combining with a web server providing on-line shopping, and when a customer clicks a commodity, the goods state of the commodity is displayed on the web page in real time, such as the current goods or the lack of goods. The system comprises: the commodity database stores commodity data, the client database records and stores various client information, the web server provides a shopping web service interface and a goods stock management module, the order management module is used for receiving order information transmitted by the web server and immediately confirming the quantity of ordered state and residual state in the stock commodities, and the order management module is used for managing the order data of the client and immediately sending out a message to inform the client waiting for the commodities when the commodities have redundant stock.

Description

Real-time display management system and method for online commodity inventory

technical field

The invention relates to online real-time display of stock status, in particular to real-time display of commodity stock status on an online shopping website.

Background technique

In general physical stores, customers take goods directly from the sales shelves. For customers, the items and quantities of goods on the shelves are clear at a glance. When customers enter a physical store, they can directly know whether the product is available from the arrangement of the products on the shelf, including the current quantity of the product on the shelf, or some products have been sold out and are out of stock. Therefore, when customers consume in general physical stores, they can know the current commodity items and quantities on the shelves, and then decide the items and quantities to purchase.

However, for online e-commerce transactions or online shopping, generally only the item of the product can be known, and the quantity and status of the product cannot be seen from the client side. Taking online shopping as an example, there are usually two shopping processes in online stores: one is that the inventory status of the products is not linked to the shopping interface. After the customer sends the product order on the online shopping website, the online shopping website receives the order When the order arrives, check the order content and check the current commodity inventory status. If the commodity inventory is insufficient or out of stock, the customer will be notified by email, telephone or fax based on the customer data. The problem with the above-mentioned online shopping is that before the customer sends the order, he has no way of knowing whether the purchased product is in stock, and he must wait until he receives a notification before he can confirm it.

Another well-known online shopping situation is that after the customer confirms the product order and sends a confirmed product order, the system of the shopping website first checks the customer's product list and checks the inventory. When the product is insufficient or out of stock , the out-of-stock or insufficient-quantity message of the product will be displayed on the shopping webpage to provide customer reference. Although this method provides the customer with the final confirmation of the quantity of the product, the status of the product must be determined after the entire order is ready to be sent. If the customer has a total budget limit and the consumption items are diversified, the final inventory confirmation action often makes the customer need to spend time reviewing the list of his product purchase combination when he knows that the product quantity is insufficient. Action to reorder.

From the above two well-known online shopping methods, it can be understood that the difference between online e-commerce or online shopping and general physical stores is that consumers can see at a glance the real-time status of commodities and quantities produced in physical stores.

However, for online e-commerce, such as online shopping, the items of commodities and their corresponding quantities are not real-time information as presented in physical transactions.

Contents of the invention

In order to provide e-commerce, such as online shopping, transparent information on commodity items and quantities, an object of the present invention is to provide a real-time display system and method for online commodity inventory status, and provide customers with a virtual shopping method. Before and after clicking the commodity item and quantity, you can get the commodity status information immediately.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a real-time display system and method for online commodity inventory status, which can provide customers with notifications about commodity status changes.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for real-time display of online commodity inventory status, which can display sales results in real time and make commodity inventory management faster and more accurate.

In order to achieve the above objects and advantages, the system and method for real-time display of online product inventory status of the present invention, combined with a web server for online shopping, provides remote customers with a network connection to select and order products, and the customer can click on the Before and after the commodity, the current status of the commodity can be known from the shopping webpage. In addition, when a customer cancels an order for a product, or when an out-of-stock product is added to the inventory, the system and method of the present invention can immediately notify other customers who are waiting for the product.

The real-time display system of online commodity inventory status of the present invention includes: a webpage server, used to provide an online shopping webpage to provide at least one customer to choose a commodity item and quantity via the network; a commodity database, used to store The data, inventory quantity, and demand quantity of the commodities provided by the online shopping webpage; a customer database for storing the online shopping customer data linked to the online shopping webpage; and a stock management module, according to the selected commodities Items and quantities, counting the total demand of the selected commodities. When the total demand of the commodities does not exceed the inventory, the selected commodity items and quantities are set to the shipping state. When the total demand of the commodities exceeds the inventory , set the excess quantity as a waiting state, and display the product selection result state on the customer's shopping webpage.

The real-time display method of the inventory status of online commodities of the present invention is applicable to at least one commodity with a predetermined inventory quantity, including: providing a shopping interface for at least one customer to select a commodity item and reservation quantity through a network connection; The reservation quantity of the product is added to the original total demand of the product to generate a new total demand; when the new total demand is less than or equal to the established inventory quantity, the reservation quantity of the product is set as available for shipment and displayed on the on the customer’s shopping interface; when the original total demand is greater than or equal to the established inventory quantity, the reservation quantity of the product is set to wait and displayed on the customer’s shopping interface; and when the established inventory quantity is less than the new The total demand, and form a first difference representing the shortage, and the predetermined inventory quantity is greater than the original total demand to form a second difference that can be shipped, and the first difference quantity is set as waiting and set The second difference quantity is set as shippable and displayed on the customer's shopping interface.

In one embodiment, the system of the present invention includes a commodity database to store various commodity data such as commodity items and inventory quantities, a customer database to record and store various customer information, and a web server to provide a shopping webpage The service interface is for customers to connect through the network, a goods inventory management module, to receive the reservation and/or order information transmitted from the shopping webpage and manage the goods inventory in real time, so as to confirm the goods status of the goods in stock, such as the ordered quantity, the ordered quantity, out-of-stock quantity, etc., and an order management module to manage the customer's order data, and at the same time, after the customer cancels the order or replenishes the inventory, a message can be sent to notify other customers who are waiting for the product.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the customer can first see the goods status of the goods on the shopping webpage, such as in stock or out of stock. When the customer clicks on the item to add to the shopping list on the shopping webpage, the status of the item can be displayed on the shopping list page immediately, such as: in stock, or insufficient quantity of the item, etc. The present invention can simulate the situation of a physical store, provide customers with real-time selection of goods, and immediately know the inventory status of the goods on the shopping webpage, and according to the real-time display of the goods and goods, customers can change their shopping list at any time.

In another embodiment of the present invention, through real-time management between orders and inventory, when a commodity is insufficient, if a client cancels the reservation or order of the commodity, or the logistics end makes up for the commodity Inventory, so that the commodity has an excess quantity, the order management module of the present invention can immediately provide a notification message to inform other waiting clients. In this way, an optimal management of the stock of goods can be achieved while providing immediate customer service.

In order to make the above objects, features, and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, a detailed description is given below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 shows a system structure diagram according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 shows an inventory management form according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 3 shows a customer order status form according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 4 shows a flow chart of a method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

5a-5c in FIG. 5 are graphs showing changes in the order quantity of commodities according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Symbol Description:

102A～B～client; 104～web server;

106～order management module; 108～stock management module;

112～commodity database; 114～customer database;

220～book title column; 240～stock quantity;

260～shopping list column; 262～confirmation column;

264～waiting column; 280～confirm order column;

282～confirmation column; 284～waiting column;

320～customer name column; 340～status column;

342～shopping list column; 344～confirm order column;

360～book title column; 382～confirmation column;

384～waiting bar; 52～the first difference;

54 to the second difference.

Detailed ways

Referring to FIG. 1 , in a preferred embodiment, an online book ordering is taken as an example to illustrate the real-time display system of online commodity inventory status of the present invention. The online book shopping website includes a web server 104, thereby providing a book buying web interface for customers 102A to 102C to connect to via the Internet via terminal computers. However, the present invention is not limited to the Internet, and is also applicable to online shopping in network modes such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The web server 104 is used to provide shopping web services, such as book search, book content introduction, etc., so the web server is also connected to databases of related information, such as: commodity database 112 and customer database 114 . The commodity database 112 is used to store commodity information, such as titles, authors, prices, and current inventory (quantity of unshipped goods still in storage) of books sold on the book buying web page. In the customer database 114, information about the client is recorded, such as: customer name (account number and password), delivery address, consumption records, payment records and customer orders, etc., and record the customer data logged on this shopping website.

Referring again to FIG. 1 , the real-time display system of online commodity inventory status of the present invention utilizes an inventory management module 108 to manage the current inventory status of commodities in real time. Wherein, the inventory management module can be implemented on at least one computer host or server. For example, when a customer 102A connects to the shopping webpage via the Internet, and selects a book A on the webpage and puts it into the shopping list, the inventory management module 108 then searches the goods status of the book A in the commodity database 112 to confirm whether there is still stock and current stock quantities. In another embodiment, the stock management module can also immediately display the goods status of each commodity on the shopping web page, such as book A is currently in stock, out of stock or sold out.

Referring to FIG. 2 , it shows the inventory status of commodities recorded by the inventory management module 108 . In the shopping webpage that provides the customer's shopping list or shopping cart, the goods managed by the inventory management module 108 refer to the quantity of goods [inventory 240], which refers to the total quantity of goods that are still in storage but not yet shipped. In addition, the status of the product is divided into two stages, one is [shopping list 260], which is the product reservation state, and the other is [confirm order 280], which is the product order state. [Shopping list 260] indicates that the customer clicks on the product to add to the shopping list, but has not yet sent confirmation to place an order. [Confirm Order 280] indicates that the customer has confirmed that the shopping list is correct and has sent an order instruction, but the logistics side has not yet shipped the goods from the warehouse.

Still referring to Fig. 2, in one embodiment, the current inventory of book A selected by customer 102A is 10. In the bit, the [confirmation column 262] in the [shopping list 260] is recorded as 1 (order quantity 1), and at this time, the column [wait 264], [confirm 282] and [wait 284] are all recorded as 0. After completing the inventory confirmation, the inventory management module 108 sends the information to the customer's shopping list on the shopping webpage, and the customer 102A can see that the selected book A is available in stock from the shopping webpage. If when the customer 102A confirms the order purchase, after the transmission order is completed, the stock management module 108 will transfer an order record in the book A [confirmation column 262] to [confirmation 282], and display the order from the shopping list status Change to confirm order status. At this time, the fields [Confirm 262], [Wait 264] and [Wait 284] are all recorded as 0. After the inventory management is completed, the inventory management module 108 sends the information to the order confirmation screen of the customer 102A on the shopping webpage, that is, confirms that the book A ordered by the customer 102A is in stock.

When the total quantity of goods in the two columns of [confirmation column 262] and [confirmation 282] exceeds the existing quantity in [stock quantity 240], the commodity selected by the customer will be listed in the column [waiting 264] or [Wait 284]. Referring to Fig. 2, the quantity in book B [inventory 240] is 10, and it is recorded as 9 in the field [confirmation 282], which means that nine books B have been confirmed to be ordered. When customer 102A selects 2 books on the shopping page When book B is added to the shopping list, the inventory management module 108 will record 1 in [confirmation column 262] in [shopping list 260], and record 1 in the column [waiting 264]. In the stock management module 108, at this time, the 10 books with a total amount of book B are reserved, and one book is yet to be replenished. After completing the inventory confirmation, the inventory management module 108 sends the information to the shopping list of the customer 102A on the shopping web page, showing that there is only one book B in stock at present, and the other one needs to wait. Therefore, the customer 102A can consider whether to change the order quantity of book B according to the real-time inventory status display, order only one book, or be willing to wait, or cancel the order of the whole book B.

In another embodiment, the inventory management module 108 may pre-display the goods status results on the shopping webpage. For example, there is only one reservation of book A at present, so there are still 9 books in stock, so on the shopping webpage, book A shows the status of being in stock. In addition, the inventory management module 108 can also provide further commodity information on the shopping webpage, such as: the quantity that has been ordered, the quantity that has been ordered, the quantity that is out of stock, or the quantity that is waiting for an appointment, etc., to provide customers with reference before ordering.

In addition, through the above-mentioned inventory management module 108, the inventory quantity and customer order status can be managed in real time, and the inventory management form can be obtained in real time. Regarding the status of book B, it can be known that book B is very popular, and the management personnel can consider increasing orders from the publisher. Or it is dispatched by other logistics terminals, and these real-time data can be used as management inventory and commodity flow forecast.

In a preferred embodiment, the system of the present invention further includes an order management module 106 connected to the inventory management module 108 to manage customer order data and provide a notification function of the latest status of the product. The order management module 106 can be implemented on at least one computer host or server. Referring to Fig. 3, shown in the figure is an example of a customer order management form, which shows the order status of a certain customer 102A (320), including the ordered book title 360 with A, B and C; the current status 340 is under confirmation Order 344 indicates that the customer 102A has confirmed this order and completed the ordering action of this order. Unlike the inventory management module 108 which manages the total quantity of goods in stock, the order management module 106 can manage the orders of each customer and track the order status of each customer in real time.

It can be seen from FIG. 3 that only one of the two books B ordered by the customer 102A is in stock, and the other is in a waiting state. However, when another customer cancels a predetermined book B in the shopping list, the inventory management module 108 counts an additional book B that can be shipped, and at this time, the order management module 106 finds that the customer 102A is still waiting For one book B, the client 102A is notified of the news by means of e-mail, fax or telephone, and informed that the two books B in waiting are available from stock. This function is especially suitable for limited-edition goods. In one embodiment, when an online book-buying website offers 20 limited-edition books for sale, and all 20 books are reserved, the above-mentioned order management module can provide more flexible opportunities for online consumers. When someone cancels a reservation, the opportunity is instantly transferred to other waiting customers.

In another embodiment, the inventory of book B may be increased due to the additional purchase of book B from the warehouse, which can meet the needs of customers waiting. Therefore, after the order management module 106 confirms that there is excess inventory, it may also send a message to notify the waiting customers. Customer, notify that there is currently a book.

In another preferred embodiment, the above-mentioned order management module 106 can notify the waiting customers according to a specific rule, such as: order time sequence, customer VIP level or consumption record level, etc. Taking the above situation as an example, when a customer cancels an order for a book B, and there are two customers waiting for book B, the customer who ordered first can be notified first that the book is ready to ship according to the order time of the two customers . Or according to the customer level of the two customers, for example: if one of the customers is a VIP member, the customer will be notified first.

In another preferred embodiment, the order management module 106 also includes a limiting mechanism, such as time, to limit the status of the customer's shopping list, such as: when the customer's shopping list exceeds 5 hours without order confirmation, if When a customer with a confirmed order is in a waiting state, the product will be transferred to the waiting customer with a confirmed order in priority. Through this restriction mechanism, customers can be prevented from being in the shopping list state for a long time without confirming the order, which will affect the subscription rights of subsequent customers.

Referring to FIG. 4 , it shows the flow of a method for real-time display of online commodity inventory status according to an embodiment of the present invention. Take the book A inventory of 10 as the situation description. In step 420, at first, a shopping interface is provided for at least one customer to select a product item and a reservation quantity through an Internet connection, and the customer can click on the desired commodity item and reservation quantity on the shopping web page, such as Book A, 3 books. Next, step 440, adding the reserved quantity of the product to the original total demand of the product to generate a new total demand of the product.

Next, referring to FIG. 5 , and steps 462 to 466 are used to illustrate possible situations.

As shown in 5a in Figure 5, when the inventory of book A is 10 books, the original total demand is 6 books, and the newly added reservations are 3 books, so the new total demand is 3+6=9 books, which are still in stock If within 10 copies, go to step 462, and set the order quantity of this commodity and 3 copies as the ready-to-ship status.

As shown in 5b in Fig. 5, when the newly added total demand is greater than the predetermined stock quantity, then proceed to step 464, and set the selection of this commodity as waiting. When the inventory of book A is 10, and the original total demand has reached 10, so the 3 books A ordered by the customer are not available in stock, so all 3 books are set as waiting.

As shown in 5c in Figure 5, when the predetermined inventory quantity is less than the newly added total demand, a first difference 52 representing a deficit is formed; and the predetermined inventory quantity is greater than the original existing total demand to form a possible For the second difference 54 of shipment, proceed to step 466: set the second difference 54 of the product reservation quantity as available for shipment, and the insufficient amount of the first difference 52 as waiting. As shown in 5c in Figure 5, when the inventory of book A is 10, and the original total demand is 8, plus the 3 books ordered by the customer, the new total demand is 11 at this time. The difference between the inventory and the total demand is 11-10=1, which is the first difference 52 of the shortage, and the difference between the inventory and the original total demand is 10-8=2, which is shippable The second difference is 54.

Therefore, among the 3 books A ordered by the customer, 1 book A with the first difference value 52 is set as waiting, and 2 books A with the second difference value 54 are set as ready to ship.

Finally, go to step 480: display the product setting status on the customer's shopping interface. After the above-mentioned customer's selection of commodity items and reservation quantity, after the above-mentioned current commodity status is set, the current status of the commodity will be displayed on the customer's shopping interface in real time, and the customer can instantly know whether the reserved goods are in stock Or have to wait.

Through the above method, the customer can immediately know the result of the personal reservation of the commodity. In another embodiment, the product status results after the product is ordered can also be displayed on the shopping web page, such as: currently reserved quantity, remaining quantity, etc. Then other customers can know the current status of the product before clicking on the product, as a reference for reservation or purchase.

Through the above-mentioned system and method of the present invention, a virtual environment like an entity can be provided, and the customers of the shopping website can immediately know whether the purchased goods are available in stock on the shopping webpage. The shopping method in the physical store, flexible and real-time management and combination of personal shopping list. In addition, through the present invention, for the service end providing e-commerce, the management of goods is more accurate, and the commitment to customers is achieved.

From the perspective of inventory management, through the present invention, it is possible to know in real time the customer's demand for various commodities, which commodities are pre-ordered or sold quickly, and respond immediately, reducing the management costs of online shopping companies and logistics terminals.

At the same time, the system of the present invention further provides the customer with a message notification that the product is in stock, so that the customer can make further order selections.

Although the present invention is disclosed above with preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Any person skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection of the present invention The scope should be defined by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (16)

1. An instant display system for the inventory status of online commodities, comprising: A web server, used to provide an online shopping webpage for at least one customer to select a commodity item and quantity via the network; A commodity database, used to store the data, inventory quantity and demand quantity of the commodities provided by the online shopping webpage; a customer database for storing online shopping customer data linked to the online shopping webpage; and A stock management module, according to the selected commodity item and quantity, counts the total demand of the selected commodity, and when the total demand of the commodity does not exceed the inventory, the selected commodity item and quantity are set as available When the total demand of the product exceeds the inventory, the excess quantity is set to the waiting state, and the result status of the product selection is displayed on the customer's shopping web page. 2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an order management module for managing customer order data, and sending a message to notify customers waiting for the product when the inventory of the product is greater than the total demand. 3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the message is one of email, fax and telephone. 4. The system according to claim 2, wherein the order management module also includes a restriction mechanism to cancel the order of the shippable commodity of the customer exceeding a certain time limit, and send a message to notify other people waiting for the commodity according to a specific rule client. 5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the message is one of email, fax and telephone. 6. The system according to claim 4, wherein the specific rule is one of the chronological order of customers waiting for the commodity, customer grades or customer consumption records. 7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the inventory management module further comprises displaying the goods status of the commodity on the shopping webpage. 8 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the online shopping webpage provides customers with a selection status of commodity items and quantities including a shopping list status and a confirmed order status. 9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the customer database stores customer name, delivery address, consumption record, payment record and customer order data. 10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the commodity database stores data of commodity items, manufacturers, commodity prices, commodity introductions, commodity inventory and demand. 11. A method for instantly displaying the inventory status of online commodities, applicable to at least one commodity with a predetermined inventory quantity, comprising: Provide a shopping interface for at least one customer to select a commodity item and order quantity through a network connection; Adding the reservation quantity of the product to the original total demand of the product to generate a new total demand; When the new total demand is less than or equal to the predetermined inventory quantity, set the reservation quantity of the product as available for shipment and display it on the customer's shopping interface; When the original total demand is greater than or equal to the predetermined inventory quantity, set the reservation quantity of the product as waiting and display it on the customer's shopping interface; and When the predetermined inventory quantity is less than the new total demand, a first difference representing a deficit is formed, and the predetermined inventory quantity is greater than the original total demand, forming a second difference that can be shipped, and the first difference is formed. The difference quantity is set as pending and the second difference quantity is set as shippable, and displayed on the customer's shopping interface. 12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising: displaying the order result of the commodity on the shopping interface. 13. The method according to claim 11, further comprising: when the predetermined stock quantity of the commodity increases, sending a message to notify customers waiting for the commodity. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the message is one of email, fax and telephone. 15. The method according to claim 11, further comprising: canceling the in-stock status of the product when the order of the in-stock product reserved by the customer exceeds a certain period of time, and canceling the order according to a specific rule Send a message to notify other customers who are waiting for the item. 16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the specific rule is one of the chronological order of customers waiting for the product, customer grades or customer consumption records.

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