JP2001351002A - Sales support server and sales support system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enrich services of a sales support site and to make a store objectively find the effect of an advertisement to clarify a basis of charging a commission. SOLUTION: The store registers commodity information in a sales support server 18 (S10) and presents it to a user (S12). The user reserves a commodity (S14) and pays the charge for reservation (S18). The sales support server 18 delivers a ticket to the user (S20). The user transmits the ticket to the store (S22). The store gives the user a privilege and sells the commodity for the price obtained by subtracting the charge for reservation from the fixed price of the commodity (S24). The store transmits the recovered ticket to the sales support server 18 (S16). The sales support server 18 subtracts the commission from the charge for reservation and sends money as the result to the store (S28).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to sales support technology. The present invention particularly relates to a server and a system for assisting sales by mediating a store and a user connected to a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Electronic commerce using the Internet is expanding at an exponential rate, but is not exaggerated. A virtual world constructed by a network such as the Internet can present a kind of Utopia because it is free from reality. When it comes to e-commerce, it has created an unprecedented trading environment in which, in addition to its image advantages, it can function as a store without actually having a store.

Under such circumstances, a thriving virtual mall is established when many shops exhibit products on a shopping specialty site on the WWW (World Wide Web), or on portal or search sites. Each store can obtain a large sales promotion effect at a relatively low cost by entrusting some functions of product introduction and settlement to a site having a large number of page views.

[0004]

The number of stores exhibiting products in virtual malls has exploded. For this reason, there are increasing cases where products registered in virtual malls are buried in too many products and do not attract the attention of consumers. The simple scheme of building a website and offering products at a low price will be bought by someone else is no longer feasible, and there is an eager need to develop a new promotion model that takes advantage of the characteristics of the network.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sales support technology for realizing a strategic business model for a consumer to purchase a product with a higher probability. .

Another object of the present invention is to provide a so-called "Win-Win-Win" sales support technology capable of providing profits to all three users, a store, and a sales support subject.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a secure sales support technology that does not require excessive honesty to any of a consumer, a store, and a sales entity.

[0008]

One embodiment of the present invention relates to a sales support server. The server, a store and a user are connected via a network, which supports the user to purchase products of the store, a product information providing unit that presents product information to the user terminal through the network, A purchase receiving unit that receives an indication of purchase of goods transmitted from the terminal of the user, and a request for reservation money that prompts the user who has performed the display of intention to pay a reservation money corresponding to a part of the price of the goods via the network. And a ticket issuing unit that, when payment of the reservation money is confirmed, distributes a ticket with a privilege to the user,
And a remittance control unit for issuing an instruction to deduct a predetermined fee from the reservation money and remittance to the store when the store presents the ticket collected from the user.

[0009] A "user" is a consumer who receives the sales support service. "Commodity" is not limited to tangible objects, but is a subject of commerce including a wide range of services. The “network” is not limited to a wired or wireless system. The “terminal” may be in any form such as a personal computer and a mobile phone.

In this configuration, when the user confirms the intention to purchase a certain product by referring to the product information, the purchase support is displayed on the sales support server online or offline. The reservation money requesting unit requests the user to pay a part of the price online or offline as a reservation money. The reservation fee can be fixed at a fixed rate for the product price, or fixed at a fixed price regardless of the product, etc.
In each case, it is generally decided to exceed the fees described below. Therefore, the fee may be determined in advance and then added to a predetermined amount, or may be determined by multiplying the fee by a predetermined coefficient.

When a user deposits a reservation money, a ticket with a privilege is distributed to the user. At this time, the ticket issuing unit may distribute information related to the distribution of the ticket to the store, for example, a copy of the ticket in which the user name is written. In that case, the ticket can be authenticated in the store, and the legitimate user who paid the reservation money can be confirmed.
For authentication, a digital signature of the ticket issuing unit or the operator of the sales support server (hereinafter, referred to as “server operator”) may be attached to the ticket.

[0012] A user can get a privilege such as a discount by bringing or transmitting a ticket to purchase a product at a store. When bringing the ticket, the ticket may be printed and used, or the terminal to which the ticket has been distributed, for example, the mobile phone itself may be brought. The user presents the ticket to the store as proof of payment of the deposit, but the presented ticket may be electronically invalidated so as not to be used twice as proof of payment.

[0013] The sales amount of the product to the user who presented the ticket is determined by subtracting the discount due to the privilege and the reservation money from the list price. The store that has sold the product presents or transmits the ticket received from the user online or offline to the sales support server also online or offline. Then, a remittance instruction is issued by the operation of the remittance control unit of the sales support server, and the amount obtained by subtracting the brokerage commission from the reservation money (hereinafter referred to as “deposit”) is remitted to the store. This ends a series of transactions.

According to this sales support server, first, the user can make a reservation for a product with a small reservation fee, and can obtain a privilege. The store can outsource the sales promotion and can expect to come to the store if the user pays the reservation money. Since the server operator is paid a fee from the reservation money, the server operator can determine the operating profit at an early timing. Therefore, it is a model that benefits all three.

The sales support server may include a ticket receiving unit for receiving the ticket transmitted by the store, and a ticket inspection unit for evaluating the validity of the received ticket.
The “validity of the ticket” means, for example, that the ticket is related to issuance by the ticket issuing unit, or that the ticket has not been transmitted from the store in the past. In the former case, it is to prevent a store from illegally obtaining a deposit with a fake ticket, and in the latter case, to prevent double billing of the deposit even if the ticket is a true ticket. The remittance control unit may issue a remittance instruction only when the validity of the ticket is confirmed.

The sales support server may include an electronic account to which the deposit is paid, and the deposit may be remitted from the electronic account to the store. Even if the electronic account is placed at a remote settlement bank or the like, it is considered here as a configuration of the sales support server as long as it can be paid and received according to a command of the sales support server.
Reservation fees are generally very low compared to the list price, and commissions are even lower. Therefore, the use of electronic money suitable for small payments is convenient, and from the immediacy of payment, it is a welcome means for both stores and server operators.

Another embodiment of the present invention also relates to a sales support server. The server includes a provisional payment function component group that operates via the network to deposit a deposit into a user who has indicated an intention to purchase a product via the network, and a ticket with a privilege through the network to the user who has deposited the deposit. A set of support function components for distributing the service, and a final settlement function component for performing a process for subtracting a predetermined fee from the reservation money and remitting the same to the store when the store presents the ticket collected from the user. Group. Each of these components includes a hardware element in some form, since at least a part of the processing is performed by an electronic procedure via a network. These components may be configured so as to include or share the various processing units described above, and a person having ordinary skill in the art will understand the degree of freedom in configuration.

Still another preferred embodiment according to the present invention relates to a sales support system. The system includes a store and a sales support server connected by a network. The sales support server includes a component group for depositing a reservation money for a user who has indicated intention to purchase a product, and a component group for distributing a ticket with a privilege to the user who has made the deposit.

On the other hand, when the terminal of the store brings or transmits the ticket and the user proposes to purchase the product, the terminal group of the store authenticates the ticket and the user who brings or transmits the authenticated ticket. And a component group for deducting the reservation money and selling the product at an amount considering the privilege, and then transferring the authenticated ticket to the sales support server.

[0020] The sales support server may further include a component group for performing a process for remitting to the store an amount obtained by subtracting a predetermined fee from the reservation money when the authenticated ticket is received from the terminal of the store. Including. These component groups also have a high degree of freedom in configuration as described above. The above summary illustrates the invention from several perspectives, and any combination of these components may also constitute another aspect of the invention.

[0021]

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a sales support system 10 according to an embodiment. The store terminal 12, the user terminal 14, and the mediation site 16 that handles their sales are all connected to a network, here the Internet. A sales support server 18 is located at the mediation site 16.

FIG. 2 describes the sale of a product in the sales support system 10 by the exchange between the store, the sales support server 18, and the user. Hereinafter, there is no special distinction between the store itself and the terminal of the store when it is simply referred to as “store”. Similarly, the term "user" does not particularly distinguish the user from the user's terminal. The detailed exchange will be described later with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, the store first registers the merchandise information in the sales support server 18 (S10) and presents it to the user (S12). The user refers to the merchandise information and, if there is something he likes, displays his / her intention to purchase in the form of a reservation on the sales support server 18 (S14). Sales support server 18
Is charged to the user as a part of the product price, here, for example, 10% as a deposit (S16), and the user deposits this (S18). After confirming the payment, the sales support server 18 issues an electronic ticket with a privilege and distributes it to the user (S
20). Here, it is assumed that when the user presents the ticket to the store, a larger discount is obtained,
There is no need to be limited to that.

The user sends the received ticket to the store (S22). The store sells the product while giving the privilege guaranteed by the ticket to the user (S24). At this time, the reservation fee is deducted from the list price of the product, and the user is charged after deducting a discount amount corresponding to the privilege. The store sends the ticket collected from the user to the sales support server 18 (S2).
6). After confirming the validity of the ticket, the sales support server 18 remits the amount obtained by subtracting the commission from the reservation money, that is, the deposit, to the store (S28). The above is a series of processes.

FIG. 3 shows the internal configuration of the sales support server 18. This configuration is realized by a hardware component such as a CPU of any computer, a memory, a program having a sales support function loaded with the memory, and the like. Here, functional blocks realized by their cooperation are illustrated. ing. Therefore, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by hardware only, software only, or a combination thereof.

The sales support server 18 mainly includes the main control unit 10
0, including the communication unit 102 and the storage device 104,
Act as a server. The communication unit 102 includes the main control unit 10
0, exchange information between the store terminal 12 and the user terminal 14. The communication unit 102 includes hardware such as a modem necessary for communication and a driver and other programs for controlling communication.

Various data and tables are stored in the storage device 104. The screen template T0 holds a screen provided by the sales support server 18 as a Web server to the store terminal 12 and the user terminal 14 as text data describing the markup language such as HTML or XML.

The product information database T1 stores information on products registered by the store. FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration, in which a store name column 200, a product name column 202, a list price column 204, and a privilege column 2
06 is provided. The reservation money is determined based on the list price column 204. In the privilege column 206, various privileges including the privilege for the user who presented the ticket are described. As an example, the price of the product “Tea Cup” of the store “TeaPraza” is “1000 yen”, the privilege is “20% discount” for the ticket presenter, and an additional “3% for the visitor in the morning. "Discount" is set. In addition to these, the product information database T1 may record a photograph of the product or a detailed product description.

The reservation information database T2 stores information on the user who has indicated the intention to purchase. FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration.
A billed column 214 and a paid column 216 are provided. The charged column 214 and the deposited column 216 respectively show a reservation deposit request completion "1" / incomplete "0" and a reservation deposit payment completion "1" / incomplete "0". As an example, the user "t
"omo" email address is "tomo@abc.com",
It is recorded that the user has already received the reservation money and has received a deposit.

The ticket list T3 stores management information relating to tickets distributed to the user who has paid the reservation fee. FIG. 6 shows an example of the configuration, which has a user name column 210, a ticket ID column 232, and a remittance column 234. Remittance column 234
Is a flag that is set to “1” when the deposit is paid from the sales support server 18 to the store at the end of a series of transactions, and is set to “0” before that. As an example, the user "t
omo ", the ticket" TICKET1 "is distributed,
The transaction with the ticket has been completed and the deposit has been paid. It is assumed that the ticket list T3 is appropriately encrypted for authentication of a ticket in a store described later and transmitted to the store.

The electronic account T4 may be the electronic account itself, the contents of the electronic account T4 may be held in a mirror table, or the account provided at a remote third party, such as a bank, may be sold. It may be under the control of the support server 18. Here, it is assumed that the server operator satisfies predetermined credit conditions and also has a settlement function, and operates an electronic account by himself. Hereinafter, a protocol such as SET (secure electronic transaction) or SECE (secure electronic commerce environment) may be used for digital authentication related to payment and the like.

The product registration screen generation unit 140 reads a screen for prompting the store to register a product from the screen template T0, and displays the screen on the store terminal 12 via the communication unit 102. The product information registration unit 142 has a CGI function, and records product information input by the store in the product information database T1 according to the guidance on the displayed screen.

FIG. 7 shows a registration screen 400 displayed on the store terminal 12 by the product registration screen generation unit 140. Here, the store name “TeaPraza” 402, the product name “Tea Cup” 404, and the list price “1000 yen” 406 are entered, and as a ticket privilege, “20
A discount 408 of "%" and a discount 410 of "3%" are further written for users who come to the store with a ticket in the morning.

The product information providing unit 110 causes the user terminal 14 that has accessed the Web page provided by the sales support server 18 to display the product information read from the product information database T1. The product information describes the price and benefits of the product, making it easy for the user to make a selection. In particular, by presenting a relatively large discount to the ticket holder, the purchase motivation is increased, and the effect of the advertisement by the sales support server 18 can be quantified by performing buying and selling through the ticket. For this reason, a large number of merchandise registrations can be induced by the optimal setting of the commission, and the commission income scheme can be optimized.

When the user finds what he / she wants to purchase, the user inputs his / her intention to purchase on the screen displayed by the product information providing unit 110 or on the screen of the related page. The purchase receiving unit 112 has a CGI function, accepts a user's input, and records this in the reservation information database T2.

The reservation money requesting unit 118 calculates a reservation money by referring to the list price of the commodity from the commodity information database T1, and requests the payer listed in the reservation information database T2 to pay the reservation money. The deposit is 10 of the list price of the product
%. Contact from the reservation money requesting unit 118 to the user is made by e-mail. Here, "tomo" is replaced by "TeaPl
Assuming that a “Tea Cup” with a fixed price of “aza” of 1,000 yen has been reserved, the reservation fee is charged at “100 yen”. After billing,
The billed column 214 of the reservation information database T2 is "1"
Is set to

The deposit receiving unit 130 receives the user "tomo"
Will accept the requested deposit when paid. It is assumed that payment is made by electronic money, and the reservation money is directly input to the electronic account T4. In addition, in response to the payment from “tomo”, the payment completed column 216 of the reserver information database T2 is set to “1”.

The payment confirming unit 132 checks the paid-in field 216 of the reservation information database T2, and finds the user name “tomo” with the flag “1” set in the ticket issuing unit 12.
Tell 0. The ticket issuing unit 120 determines that the user “tom
o ", an electronic ticket is issued and distributed as an attached file to an electronic mail. At the same time, the same ticket is transmitted to the store terminal 12.

FIG. 8 shows the structure of the issued ticket 420. The ticket 420 includes a reservation person, a store, a product, a list price,
A bibliographic area 422 including the discount and a digital signature 424 of the server operator are included. The discount is read from the privilege column 206 of the product information database T1 by the privilege setting unit 122, shaped into a form that can be written to the ticket 420, and notified to the ticket issuing unit 120. Here, a 20% “200 yen” discount for a “Tea Cup” by bringing a ticket,
If you come to the store in the morning, an additional 3% discount of "230 yen" is specified. The electronic signature 424 functions by, for example, encrypting and generating a plaintext of the signature using the server operator's secret key, and passing the server operator's public key to the user or store. Of course, the entire ticket 420 may simply be encrypted.

The user who has received the ticket 420 converts the ticket 420 into digital media with electronic data,
Here, it is stored in a memory card and brought to the store. FIG.
Shows the internal configuration of the store terminal 12. The communication unit 500 is connected to the user terminal 14 and the sales support server 1 through a network.
Communicate with 8. The ticket list T3 is sent from the sales support server 18. Memory card reader 50
6 reads the memory card brought by the user and sends the contents of the ticket 420 to the ticket authentication unit 502. At this time, the ticket 420 in the memory card may be deleted or invalidated.

The ticket authentication section 502 checks the contents of the ticket 420 against the ticket list T3, and
Or authenticate the user. If the ticket 420 is found to be authentic, the store sells the product to the user.
Here, for example, a store TeaPlaza sells a tea cup to user tomo with a 20% discount. Thereafter, the ticket transfer unit 504 stores the ticket 42 acquired from the user.
0 is transferred to the sales support server 18 via the communication unit 500. At this time, the store writes its own electronic signature to the ticket 420
May be added.

Here, the user has stored the ticket 420 in the memory card and brought it to the store. However, the user may bring the terminal itself such as a mobile phone and read the data. Also,
The user may attach his / her digital signature to the ticket 420 from home and send the ticket 420 to the store, and purchase and sell the product online.

Returning to FIG. 3, the ticket 420 sent from the store terminal 12 is received by the ticket receiving unit 114 and sent to the ticket inspection unit 116. Ticket inspection unit 116
Checks the ticket 420 against the ticket list T3, and confirms that the ticket 420 has indeed been issued by the ticket issuing unit 120. In addition, by checking the remittance column 234 of the ticket list T3, it is confirmed that the ticket 420 has not been sent from the store in the past. When these tests pass,
The ticket inspection unit 116 sends the ticket 4 to the remittance control unit 134.
Tell them that 20 is legitimate.

The remittance control unit 134 that has received the notification from the ticket inspection unit 116 outputs an instruction for remittance of the deposit to the store that transmitted the ticket 420. For this purpose, the fee calculation unit 136 sets the price list field 20 of the product information database T1.
Calculate the commission based on 4. Here, it is assumed that the commission is “4% of the list price”. The fee calculation unit 136 notifies the remittance control unit 134 of a “fee of 40 yen” for the fixed price of 1000 yen for the tea cup.

The remittance control unit 134 recognizes a deposit of 60 yen obtained by subtracting a fee of 40 yen from the reservation fee of 100 yen relating to the tea cup as a deposit, and uses this amount from the electronic account T4 to the store terminal 12
Send to

FIG. 10 shows the transfer of money between the store 300, the user 302, and the server operator 304. First, the server operator 304 presents the fixed price 1000 yen of the product and the reservation money 100 yen to the user 302 (). User 3
02 pays the reservation money of 100 yen to the server operator 304 (). When a user actually purchases a product, the user must pay a
Pay 700 yen excluding 0 yen and discount 200 yen to the shop 300 (). Finally, the server operator 304 pays the store 300 a deposit of 60 yen obtained by subtracting a commission of 40 yen from the reservation money of 100 yen (). Therefore, the total amount actually paid by the user 302 is 100 + 700 = 800 yen, which is a 20% discount. The store 300 obtains 760 yen, which is 24% lower than the list price, combining 20% for the user 302 and 4% of the commission. The server operator 304 obtains 40% of 4% of the list price as a commission.

FIG. 11 shows a series of sales support procedures. FIG. 2 is a subset of FIG. As shown in FIG. 11, the store first registers the product information in the sales support server 18 (S1).
00). In the sales support server 18, the product information database T1 is updated (S102). The product information is presented to the user (S104), and the user makes a reservation (S10).
6). In the sales support server 18, the reservation person is added to the reservation person information database T2 (S108), a reservation money is charged (S110), and the reservation money requested is recorded in the reservation person information database T2 (S112).

The user deposits the reservation money of 100 yen into the sales support server 18 (S114). The sales support server 18 records that payment has been made in the reservation information database T2 (S1).
16) A ticket is issued to the user (S118).
The content of the issued ticket or the ticket itself is also notified to the store (S120), and the ticket list T3 is updated (S122).

The user sends the issued ticket to the store (S124), and the store authenticates the ticket (S12).
6) Then, the product is sold (S128). The user remits 700 yen of the remaining price of the product to the store (S130).

The store sends the ticket collected from the user to the sales support server 18 (S132). The sales support server 18 checks the validity of the ticket with the ticket list T3 (S134), and calculates the commission (S13).
6) The deposit is transmitted to the store (S138). Thereafter, the sales support server 18 checks the remittance column 2 of the ticket list T3.
The flag "1" is set in S34 (S140), and one transaction is completed.

The electronic commerce according to the above procedure realizes a so-called “Win-Win-Win” model. The user secures the product with a small amount of reservation money with little resistance to the electronic money settlement and obtains a privilege. The store commissions the sales promotion to the server operator and prepares the product by paying the reservation fee by the user. Since the visit of the user to the store is almost certain, the sales can be predicted. Furthermore, the effect of advertising consignment can be grasped quantitatively. The server operator is expected to earn commission fee when the user pays the reservation fee, and the fee equivalent remains even if the deposit is paid to the store. Even if the store sends a clever fake ticket, the server operator will only have to pay the deposit once, as long as the server operator can prevent double billing, so the fee remains. Since the effect of advertising can be objectiveized, the fee is grounded.

As a merit common to the three, no special equipment is required. Various communications between the three parties may be online or offline depending on the operation model, and a highly convenient system can be constructed.

The system is also advantageous in terms of robustness with respect to trust. That is, since the user has paid the reservation money, the user cannot cancel the reservation of the commodity without going through a proper procedure. Because of the payment, it is difficult or meaningless to find a pinhole in the system and attempt to exploit it. Even if a store falsifies a ticket, a fee remains for the server operator. Even if the server operator attempts to deceive only the deposit, it is known that the ticket is issued to the store as long as the ticket has been transmitted to the user. Even if the service of sending a ticket is concealed and fraudulently attempted, the user must request some proof from the deposit and it is difficult to perform.

As a further pursuit of user convenience, there is the following modification technique. That is, the ticket issuing unit 120
Instead of issuing a ticket in the form of electronic data, may issue or notify in the form of a "secret word". The password is sent via encrypted e-mail or, if using a browser, SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
May be used. For example, in the ticket shown in FIG. 8, a password, "Our dog is pochi," is stored as a password, and this is encrypted and transmitted. By transmitting this slogan to the store, if the user comes to the store and announces "My dog is a hot dog," the store can authenticate the user and sell in consideration of the benefits.

Alternatively, the secret may be kept secret to the store. In this case, the store transmits the phrase “My dog is a potty” issued by the user to the sales support server 18 online or offline and requests the authentication thereof. If the user has paid the reservation fee, a reply of "valid" is returned, so that the store can sell with confidence. On the other hand, since the store cannot know the password unless the user comes to the store, the sales support server 18 can justify the payment of the deposit to the store when the store receives the confirmation from the store.

The present invention has been described with reference to the embodiment.
There are various other deformation techniques. For example, various combinations are possible in the configuration of FIG. A series of processing blocks related to the transfer of a deposit, for example, a deposit request unit 11
8. The payment receiving unit 130 and the like may be integrated as a temporary settlement function component group. A series of processing blocks for distributing a ticket with a privilege, for example, a payment confirmation unit 13
2. The ticket issuing unit 120 and the like may be integrated as a support function component group. Furthermore, when the store presents the ticket collected from the user, a series of processing blocks for remitting the deposit to the store, for example, the ticket receiving unit 114, the ticket inspection unit 116, the fee calculation unit 1
36, the remittance control unit 134, etc., may be integrated as a final payment function component group.

In the embodiment, "Repeater preferential service"
May be added. This is the reservation information database T2
A column for recording the past purchase history of each user is provided in the user, and a user whose product purchase history satisfies a predetermined condition, for example, a user who has purchased many times or a user whose accumulated purchase amount is large is given a special member as a special member. Is also good. Such a service is also advantageous in that it can be easily digitized and automated by searching the subscriber information database T2 and the like.

The remittance controller 134 of the sales support server 18
May have a function of performing the payment for goods between the store and the user by a third-party money deposit service. Third-party monetary deposit services are known as "escrow (escr)" in e-commerce.
ow) service, and when a sale of goods is concluded, a third party first receives the price of the goods from the user. Next, this service notifies the store that the price has been paid and, after confirming that the store has surely delivered the product, remits the stored product price to the store. The use of this service eliminates the drawbacks of online transactions, which are often problematic these days, such as payment received but no product delivered, and product delivered but no payment. Moreover, the advantage of the embodiment is that the remittance controller 134 transmits the deposit related to the reservation money to the store terminal 12. In other words, at the time of this settlement, if the product price deposited by the escrow service, that is, "700 yen" paid by the user to the store in the example so far, is remitted at the same time, the total deposit is 760 yen per remittance. Is completed. Therefore, there are great advantages in terms of operation costs and remittance costs.

The present invention has been described based on several embodiments. These embodiments are exemplifications, and it is understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to the combination of each component and each processing process, and that such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. Is about to be done.

[0060]

According to the present invention, a business model for a user to purchase a product with a higher probability is realized. From another viewpoint, it is easy to provide profits to all three users, the store, and the sales support entity. In yet another perspective,
A secure and robust sales support technology that does not require excessive honesty for any of the user, the store, and the sales entity is realized. In yet another aspect, the quantification of the sales promotion effect is realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a sales support system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a general procedure of shopping in a sales support system.

FIG. 3 is an internal configuration diagram of a sales support server.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing internal data of a product information database.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing internal data of a reservation information database.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing data of a ticket list.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a product registration screen.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of an electronic ticket.

FIG. 9 is an internal configuration diagram of a store terminal.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a flow of money between a store, a user, and a server operator.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a detailed procedure of a store transaction in the sales support system.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 sales support system, 12 store terminal, 14
User terminal, 18 sales support server, 110 merchandise information providing unit, 112 purchase receiving unit, 114 ticket receiving unit, 116 ticket inspection unit, 118 reservation deposit requesting unit, 120 ticket issuing unit, 130 payment receiving unit, 132 payment confirmation unit, 134 remittance controller,
136 commission calculation unit, 140 product registration screen generation unit, 142 product information registration unit, T1 product information database, T2 reservation information database, T3 ticket list, T4 electronic account, 502 ticket authentication unit, 504 ticket transfer unit.

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G06F 17/60 410 G06F 17/60 410A 412 412

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A server in which a store and a user are connected via a network and which electronically supports the user to purchase a product in the store, wherein the product presents product information to a terminal of the user through the network. An information providing unit, a purchase receiving unit that receives an indication of the purchase of a product transmitted from the terminal of the user, and a payment of a reservation fee corresponding to a part of the price of the product to the user who has displayed the intention via the network. A reservation issue requesting unit that prompts the user, when the deposit of the reservation is confirmed, a ticket issuing unit that distributes a ticket with a privilege to the user, and when the store presents the ticket collected from the user, A remittance control unit for issuing an instruction to deduct a predetermined fee from the reservation money and remittance to the store. Support server. 2. The sales support server according to claim 1, wherein the ticket issuing unit transmits the information to the store when the ticket is distributed to the user. 3. A ticket receiving unit that receives the ticket collected from the user when the store transmits the ticket, and a ticket inspection unit that evaluates the validity of the received ticket. 3. The sales support server according to claim 1, wherein 4. The sales support server according to claim 3, wherein the ticket checking unit checks whether the ticket is issued by the ticket issuing unit. 5. The sales support server according to claim 3, wherein the ticket inspection unit inspects whether the ticket has been transmitted from the store in the past. 6. The sales support server according to claim 3, wherein the remittance controller issues the instruction only when the validity of the received ticket is confirmed. 7. The remittance controller according to claim 1, further comprising an electronic account to which the deposit is paid, and wherein the remittance controller transmits the remittance from the electronic account to the store. Sales support server. 8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a product information registration unit that functions to register the product information from the store, wherein the privilege is set via the product registration unit. The sales support server according to any of the above. 9. The sales support server according to claim 1, wherein the ticket issuance unit distributes the ticket to the user in the form of a secret word to be transmitted to the store by the user. . 10. The remittance control unit has a function of acting as a third party cash deposit service for settlement of goods between the store and the user, and combines settlement of the commodity price and settlement of the reservation money. The sales support server according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the sales support server is implemented in one process. 11. A server in which a store and a user are connected via a network and which electronically supports the user to purchase a product in the store, wherein the user who has indicated an intention to purchase the product via the network is provided. A provisional settlement function component group that operates via the network in order to deposit a part of the price of the product as a deposit, and a support function for distributing a ticket with a privilege to the user who has made the deposit through the network. A set of components, and a main settlement function component group that performs processing for remitting to the store by subtracting a predetermined fee from the reservation money when the store presents the ticket collected from the user. Characterized sales support server. 12. A sales support system including a store and a sales support server connected to a network, wherein the sales support server reserves a part of the price of the product to a user who has indicated intention to purchase the product. And a component group for distributing a ticket with a benefit to the user who made the deposit, wherein the terminal of the store brought or transmitted the ticket and the user offered to purchase the product. When a group of components for authenticating the ticket, and for the user who brought or transmitted the authenticated ticket, after deducting the reservation money, and selling the product at an amount considering the privilege, A component group for transferring the authenticated ticket to the sales support server, wherein the sales support server further comprises: When the serial shop terminal has received the authenticated ticket sales support system, characterized in that it comprises a set of components forming a processing to transfer the amount obtained by subtracting a predetermined fee from the reservation deposit to the merchant.