KR20040078636A - Store management system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a sales management system that checks a location of a customer and time related to a purchase using RFID, analyzes a customer's movement by tracking the movement of the customer, and performs store management and service using the same.

Store management system according to the present invention, the tag having a mobility corresponding to the customer; A plurality of readers or APs for detecting the tag by wireless communication; A database having the customer's location information, a stop time, a moving line and profile information of the customer; An agent that stores location information in the database, checks the stop shopping time of the customer with the location information, tracks and analyzes the movement of the customer, and provides the result; A system server for controlling the interworking between the database and the agent and managing the tracking and analysis results by the agent by communicating with the leader or AP; And a monitoring terminal that receives and displays a visual analysis result from the system server.

Description

Store management system {STORE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM}

The present invention relates to a store management system, and more particularly, to check a location of a customer and a time related to a purchase using RFID, and to analyze a customer's movement by tracking a customer's movement and to use the store management and service. A sales management system to perform.

Recently, researches on ubiquitous networking and ubiquitous computing have been actively conducted, and technologies for automatically detecting and locating object movements over the air and developing systems using the same have been raised.

Ubiquitous environment is an environment where users can receive the computing services they need anytime and anywhere. In order to implement such a ubiquitous environment, link technology is needed to connect the virtual world with the real world.

The automatic recognition technology is used to link the virtual world with the real world, and the automatic recognition technology includes a barcode system, an optical character recognition system, a smart card system, and an RFID system (hereinafter referred to as "RFID"). This can be discussed.

Among the above-described automatic recognition technologies, the RFID system has the highest practical applicability in large stores and the like.

RFID system implements radio identification technology using radio frequency.

An RFID system has as its basic components a reader or access point (AP), a transponder, commonly called a tag, and equipment capable of processing computers or other data.

The RFID system generates a signal containing information unique to a tag attached to a movable recognition object, and the reader or the AP receives the signal through an antenna, and the device connected to the reader or the AP analyzes the received information and analyzes the received information. Identifies the location of.

The tag can be implemented in various shapes, and according to the miniaturization trend, the tag can be inserted into the inside of the plastic card or the human skin tissue, and it is easy to embed and attach variously.

In addition, the tag may be classified into an active type and a passive type, and an active type may have a self-powered device therein and may be read and written, and a passive type may be used by receiving energy from a reader or an AP.

The RFID-based application described above has different characteristics from existing general applications.

In general applications, the flow of program execution is determined by the needs of the user.

However, applications based on RFID may determine the flow of the program by the user's needs. That is, tag recognition at the reader or AP generates an event in real time, and the program is operated by the event.

Therefore, in order to achieve complete ubiquitous computing, it is desirable to use RFID technology that can recognize and track individual objects, and it is urgent to develop an application that can be applied as a system for store management using this.

In particular, in the case of large stores used by many people, it is desired to apply a system that can utilize the results of analysis and analysis of product management and customer's purchase taste and preference in the ubiquitous environment.

The present invention to improve the above-mentioned problems, to identify the location and shopping time of customers in a large store by using RFID technology, to analyze the customer's movement, and to use the customer's purchasing patterns and services for optimal product management The purpose is to provide a store management system.

1 is a block diagram showing a preferred embodiment of a store management system according to the present invention.

2 is a block diagram illustrating the operation of an agent

3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a customer position detection method.

4 is a layout illustrating a customer movement

5 is a flowchart for estimating customer moving area estimation and product information

Store management system according to the present invention for achieving the above object, the tag having a mobility corresponding to the customer; A plurality of readers or APs for detecting the tag by wireless communication; A database having the customer's location information, a stop time, a moving line and profile information of the customer; An agent that stores location information in the database, checks the stop shopping time of the customer with the location information, tracks and analyzes the movement of the customer, and provides the result; A system server for controlling the interworking between the database and the agent and managing the tracking and analysis results by the agent by communicating with the leader or AP; And a monitoring terminal that receives and displays a visual analysis result from the system server.

In addition, since the customer further includes a wired and wireless terminal that can be checked at the time of entering the store, the system server may manage the profile of the customer by matching the customer information with the tag information and registering it in the database.

In addition, a POS terminal for settlement of the customer is further provided, and the system server may match customer information used for settlement of the POS terminal with the tag information and register it in the database to manage the profile of the customer. .

And the agent comprises: a customer location detector for detecting the location of the customer corresponding to the location of the tag as the tag signal detected from at least three readers or APs; A customer time checker that checks as a stop shopping time when the customer stops at a predetermined threshold or more in a preset area; And a customer copper tracker that associates the stop shopping time with a corresponding area to track the moving line of the customer, wherein the customer location, the stop shopping time, and information related to the moving line are stored in the database.

The agent may further include a product location analyzer to calculate the stop shopping time of the customer and the purchase rate of the product of the corresponding area, and store the result thereof in the database.

In addition, the agent may further include a purchase pattern analyzer to group the purchase patterns by items associated with the customer profile stored in the database to store the result of inferring the purchase pattern for the customer having similar profile information in the database. have.

In addition, the agent further includes a potential information reasoner to infer the customer's profile stored in the database, the purchase history and the movement to generate personalized information to the customer, the system server is a personalization provided by the potential information reasoner The transferred information may be transmitted to the ownable customer terminal of the corresponding customer.

Further, the agent may further include a product location analyzer to calculate the stop area weight of the customer and the purchase product weight of the customer, and as a result calculate the product preference of the customer and store it in the database. By using the reasoning device, the personalized information may be transmitted to the ownable customer terminal of the corresponding customer by analyzing the product preference and the moving line.

In addition, the purchase product weight is a value obtained by dividing the number of purchases of the corresponding area goods for a predetermined period including the final purchase time by the number of purchases of the corresponding area goods, and the stop area weight is 1-the purchase. The calculated product weight can be applied.

In addition, the stop zone weight is a value obtained by dividing a corresponding zone shopping time for a period including a final purchase time by the total corresponding zone shopping time for a product having no purchase experience, and the purchased product weight is 1-the stop zone. The weighted value can be applied.

The agent may further include a customer profile analyzer to update information related to a purchase history shopping path and time for the customer in the database.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a store management system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a store management system according to the present invention.

The store has a network 5 for communication, the tag 10 is attached to the carter 12, and the carter 12 is for use by the customer for purchases. Therefore, the carter 12 becomes a movable object for recognizing the location of the customer, and the copper wire of the carter 12 can be applied as the customer's copper wire.

The leader or AP 14 is installed in a specific fixed position such as a display stand or a cash register in a store to recognize a customer position. The reader or AP 14 wirelessly communicates with the adjacent tag 10, and communicates information related to recognition of the tag 10 with the system server 40 described later through the network 5. In FIG. 1, the leader or AP 14 is grouped and displayed as a leader or AP unit 15.

In addition, the POS terminal 16 for settlement is arranged at the checkout counter of the store, and the POS terminal 16 is configured to communicate with the system server 40 through the network 5. In FIG. 1, POS terminals 16 are grouped and displayed as POS terminal units 17.

In addition, a wired or wireless terminal 18 for checking a store entry of a customer may be disposed in a store. The wired / wireless terminal 18 is preferably configured to recognize a contact or contactless card that can be carried by the customer, and recognizes the tag 10 of the carter 12 owned by the customer at a location where the wired / wireless terminal 18 is installed. It is preferable that a reader or AP 14 be installed to enable this. In this case, the customer checks the contact or contactless card to the wired or wireless terminal 18 when entering the store, and the checked customer information can be managed by matching the tag 10 information of the cart 12 owned by the customer. have. The matched information may be used to update the profile information of the customer, analyze and infer necessary information while the customer is shopping, and implement a service provided to the customer terminal 34 (cell phone, PDA, etc.) that the customer can carry. Can be. In addition, the wired or wireless terminal 18 is preferably configured to communicate with the system server 40 to be described later via the network (5).

If the customer and the tag information are not matched with the wired / wireless terminal 18, the customer and the tag information may be matched at the checkout counter where the POS terminal 16 is located. In this case, the customer terminal 34 service for the customer located in the store to be described later is not implemented, and product location or purchase pattern and customer profile update based on the copper line analysis for store management are possible.

In addition, the system server 40 is configured to interwork with the agent 20, the monitoring terminal 32, and the customer terminal 34.

Here, the agent 20 stores the location information in the database 40, checks the stop shopping time of the customer as the location information, performs the function of tracking the customer's movement, and additionally, the location of the goods Analyze, purchase pattern analysis, potential information inference and user profile analysis.

In addition, the monitoring terminal 32 is configured to perform a function of displaying a visual analysis result provided by the system server at the manager level of the store.

In addition, the customer terminal 34 is preferably configured as a portable communication device equipped with a function that can receive the service content from the system server 40, such as a mobile phone or PDA that can be carried by the customer.

In the above, the agent 20 is a customer location detector 21, customer time check 22, customer tracker 23, product location analyzer 24, purchase pattern analyzer 25, potential information reasoner ( 26), and the customer profile analyzer 27, the configuration relationship of the agent 20 can be described with reference to FIG.

The customer position detector 21 detects the position of the customer corresponding to the position of the tag 10 as the tag signal detected at at least three fixed positions (an antenna of the reader or reader), and the customer position information is stored in the database 30. Register).

Customer location can be confirmed by triangulation as shown in FIG.

Specifically, the reader or AP 14 (indicated by A11, A12, B11, and B12 in FIG. 3) that can be installed in a display stand or the like in the store has a plurality of antennas to which separate addresses are assigned. For example, the reader or AP A11 has a plurality of antennas included in an area marked C.

The customer's location is computed and read by triangulation of the customer's distance as perceived by the antenna at three points in the same or different readers or APs.

That is, the position of the customer's tag 10 detected at the antenna P1 is located at the range distance of C1, the position of the customer's tag 10 detected at the antenna P2 is located at the range distance of C2, and the customer's tag detected at the antenna P3 (10) When the position is read as being located at a range distance of C3, the customer position detector reads the position P superimposed on each antenna P1, P2, P3 as the customer's position, and the read position is mapped to the coordinates so that the database ( 30).

In this case, when the store is divided into a plurality of zones, the customer's location is preferably managed as a zone corresponding to the coordinate value.

The customer time checker 22 checks the time when the customer stops in the read area, and if the customer stops more than a predetermined threshold, checks the stop shopping time and registers the information in the database 30.

In order to calculate the stop time, the customer position may be managed in units of display stands A1 and B1 or in units of readers or AP A11, A12, B11, and B12.

In case of managing by the display stand, the customer's "stop time" is managed by the time "X" stopped at the display stand A1. For example, when managing by the leader or AP unit, the "stop time" of the customer is an example in the leader or AP A11. Can be managed with the stopped time "X".

That is, the specific zone "stop time" of the above-described customer may be calculated as in <Equation 1>.

<Equation 1>

Here, "TinZone" means the time when a specific customer entered the zone, "ToutZone" means the time when the specific customer left the zone, and "TstayZone" means "stop time" for the customer's specific zone. .

However, the "stop time", ie TstayZone, must be greater than or equal to the "a" value, where "a" is the minimum allowable stop time value for the area. "a" is a threshold that arbitrarily sets the minimum time required to leave the area, and recognizes that "stop time" has occurred when more time is spent in the area than "a". For example, the threshold "a" may be arbitrarily set as shown in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1

product Clothing food Appliances furniture Personal goods Threshold 13 sec 10 sec 13 sec 14 sec 11 seconds

In addition, the customer copper tracker 23 associates the location information of the customer with the area where the “stop time” is generated and tracks the customer's copper line.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the customer copper tracker 23 connects the area where the customer moves, and thus tracks the copper wire according to A12-> B21-> A22-> B31.

For reference, FIG. 4 illustrates a state in which a POS terminal 16, a leader or an AP (A11, A12, ... C32) and a wired / wireless terminal 18 are installed and customers' wires, in consideration of arrangement of shelves and counters and entrances of a store. One drawing. Here, each of the display racks A1, A2, ... C3 is provided with a pair of readers or APs, and each of the readers or APs A11, A12 ... C32 has four antennas.

In addition, the leader or AP opened in FIG. 4 corresponds to an area not passed by the customer, the checked leader or AP corresponds to an area passed by the customer, and the area passed by the customer is indicated by a solid arrow. The moving line corresponding to the movement prediction area based on the inference result described below is indicated by a dotted arrow.

In addition, the customer movement tracker 23 may track the movement of the entire customer by movement and time zone, daily, and monthly for Carter's movement of an individual customer. In addition, it analyzes the frequency of passage and movement of the customer's area and stores it in the database.

The copper wire-related information stored in the database 30 may be grouped and stored according to a profile of the customer such as age and gender.

As described above, the customer location detector 21, the customer time checker 22, and the customer motion tracker 23 register data on the customer location, shopping time, stop area, and traffic line in the database 30. And, each data is preferably stored in association with the customer profile.

As described above, the data is stored so that product location analysis, purchase pattern analysis, potential information inference, and user profile analysis can be performed. In addition, the stop time and zone information of the customer provided by the customer copper tracker 23 may be directly provided or registered in the database 30 to analyze the location or purchase pattern of the product.

The commodity location analyzer 24 calculates the "stop time" of the customer and the purchase rate of the commodity in the region and stores the result thereof in the database.

The purchase rate for the product is "product preference", and "product preference" may be calculated with reference to "customer stop area weight" and customer's "purchase product weight".

That is, the "product preference" of the individual customer may be calculated as shown in Equation 2 below.

<Equation 2>

In Equation 2, i represents the number of shopping.

In addition, the customer's "stop zone weight" and the customer's "purchase product weight" may be differently applied according to the type of the product.

The reason is that the shopping time for the products is different according to the characteristics of the products by type, and the number of purchases for a certain period is different.

Until now, "product preference" is based on "stop area weight" of individual customers, and "product preference" is based on purchased product weight.

In the case of a product having a purchase experience, the "purchase product weight" may be applied by dividing the "number of purchases of the corresponding area goods for a certain period" divided by "the number of purchases of the corresponding area goods" including the time of the last purchase. The number of purchases of the corresponding area during the period may be applied by dividing the difference between the customer's last shopping day and the customer's first shopping day by the total number of shopping days.

As described above, when the "purchase product weight" of the product having a purchase experience is obtained, the "stop zone weight" may be a value obtained by subtracting the "purchase product weight" from the integer "1".

If the product has no purchase experience, the "purchase product weight" cannot be obtained. Therefore, the shopping time of the zone divided by the shopping time of the entire zone is calculated as the "stop zone weight" during the recent shopping period. The "purchase product weight" may be a value obtained by subtracting the "stop zone weight" from the integer "1".

As described above, if the product preference is calculated by the product location analyzer 24, the overall product preference may be inferred and used as a data for determining the adequacy of the product display for each zone within the store. The system server 40 may be set to be visually displayed through the monitoring terminal 32.

The potential information inference device 26 may provide the personalized information to the customer terminal 34 that can be carried by the customer by referring to the customer's purchase history, the line tracking result, the customer profile, and the product preference.

In addition, the user profile analyzer 27 provides the profile information required by the potential information inference device 26 with reference to the basic customer information registered in the database 30, the shopping history associated with the customer, and the next step history history.

By configuring as described above, the agent 20 may provide a personalized service to a customer as shown in FIG. 5.

That is, the customer position detector 21 detects the customer position (S10), and determines whether the stop time is greater than or equal to the threshold value by the customer time checker 22 (S12).

If the customer stops above a threshold in a particular zone, the interim information inference device 26 checks through the user profile analyzer 27 whether the current stop zone is included in the shopping history list (S14).

If it is determined that the current stop zone is included in the shopping history list of the customer, the potential information inference unit 26 selects the next step history list through the user profile analyzer 27 (S16), and predicts the movement in the next step history list. Inferring the area (S18), and transmits the product information of the selected moving prediction area to the customer terminal (S20).

Therefore, the customer can be provided with personalized information about the next area to be moved.

In addition, the potential predictor 26 may recommend the movement prediction area. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, information may be transmitted to the customer terminal 34 that can be carried by the customer with respect to the area designated by the dotted arrow. In this case, the movement prediction area may be recommended in consideration of the number of times of shopping or stopping time.

As described above, the results detected, checked, tracked, inferred and analyzed by the agent 20 may be provided to the monitoring terminal 32 by implementing the interface as a prototype, and the administrator may visually or quantitatively confirm the interface screen. It can easily analyze the status and refer to the relocation of the store or the display of goods if necessary with various information including the moving line.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the location of the customer is identified by the RFID tag, and the moving line is analyzed to perform the service and the optimal product management using the customer's purchasing pattern in the store. In particular, by providing personalized goods and area information, etc. at the current location of the customer has the effect of enabling a convenient purchase.

In addition, according to the present invention has an effect of improving the efficiency of the manager's store management by providing information to analyze the status visually or quantitatively through the monitoring terminal at the manager level.

Claims (15)

A tag having mobility corresponding to a customer; A plurality of readers or APs for detecting the tag by wireless communication; A database having the customer's location information, a stop time, a moving line and profile information of the customer; An agent that stores location information in the database, checks the stop shopping time of the customer with the location information, tracks and analyzes the movement of the customer, and provides the result; A system server for controlling the interworking between the database and the agent and managing the tracking and analysis results by the agent by communicating with the leader or AP; And And a monitoring terminal configured to receive and display a visual analysis result from the system server. According to claim 1, wherein the customer further comprises a wired and wireless terminal that can be checked at the time of entering the store, the system server matches the customer information and the tag information registered in the database to manage the profile of the customer, characterized in that Store management system. The system of claim 1, further comprising a POS terminal for settlement of the customer, wherein the system server registers in the database by matching customer information used for settlement of the POS terminal with the tag information to register the profile of the customer. Store management system, characterized in that the management box. The method of claim 1, wherein the agent, A customer location detector for detecting the location of the customer corresponding to the location of the tag with the tag signal detected from at least three readers or APs; A customer time checker that checks as a stop shopping time when the customer stops at a predetermined threshold or more in a preset area; And And a customer copper tracker that associates the stop shopping time with the corresponding area and tracks the customer's movement. And the customer location, the stop shopping time and the information related to the moving line are stored in the database. The method of claim 1, The agent further includes a product location analyzer to calculate the stop shopping time of the customer and the purchase rate for the product of the area, and stores the result thereof in the database to provide the store management system. The method of claim 1, The agent further includes a purchase pattern analyzer to group the purchase patterns by items associated with the customer profile stored in the database to store the result of inferring the purchase pattern for the customer having similar profile information in the database. Store management system. The method of claim 1, The agent further includes a potential information reasoner to infer the customer's profile stored in the database, the purchase history, and the traffic to generate personalized information to the customer, and the system server provides the personalized information provided by the potential information inference device. Store management system, characterized in that for transmitting to the customer terminal ownable by the customer. The method of claim 1, The agent further comprises a product location analyzer calculates the stop area weight of the customer and the purchase product weight of the customer, as a result of calculating the customer preferences of the customer, store management system, characterized in that . The method of claim 8, The agent further includes a potential information inferencing device, and analyzes the product preferences and traffic lines, and stores the personalized information to the ownable customer terminal of the customer. The method of claim 8, The purchase product weight is a store management system characterized by applying the value obtained by dividing the number of purchases of the corresponding area goods for a certain period including the last purchase point by the number of purchases of the area goods for the product having a purchase experience. The method of claim 10, The stop area weight is 1-store management system, characterized in that to apply a value calculated by the weight of the purchased goods. The method of claim 8, The stop area weight is a shop management system, characterized by applying the value obtained by dividing the corresponding area shopping time for the predetermined period including the final purchase time by the total corresponding area shopping time for the product having no purchase experience. The method of claim 12, The purchase product weight is 1-store management system, characterized in that to apply a value calculated by the weight of the stop zone. The method of claim 8, The above product preferences of individual customers, weight And i denotes the number of shopping times. The method of claim 1, And the agent further comprises a customer profile analyzer to update the database with information related to the purchase history shopping path and time for the customer.