Online merchandising system, server, estimation managing method, computer program product, and computer data signal

• US 20030126046A1
• Filed: 12/26/2002
• Published: 07/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Misumi, Sachiko, Hanai, Atsushi, Torikai, Tatsuto, Kamimura, Shizuo, Kataoka, Keisuke, Shinohara, Eiji
• Granted Patent: US 7,979,325 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation

Abstract

A shopping server accepts a request for estimation of arbitrary designated items given by a client terminal, and generates estimation data for the designated items in accordance with the accepted request. The shopping server stores the generated estimation data at a shopping DB system. In response to retrieval of inventory status information for the items indicated by the estimation data stored in the shopping DB system, the shopping server updates the estimation data concerned in accordance with the retrieved inventory status information. The shopping server presents the updated estimation data to other client terminal in response to a request given by the client terminal which requested the estimation.

Claims

1. An online merchandising system for merchandising items in response to request from user terminals connected via a telecommunications network, comprising:

an estimation request acceptor for accepting a request for generating an estimate for arbitrary items designated by the user terminal;

an estimation generator for generating information of an estimate of the designated items based on the request accepted by said estimation request acceptor;

an estimation storage for storing the estimate information generated by said estimation generator;

an inventory status retriever for retrieving information of inventory status of the items indicated by the estimate information stored in said estimation storage;

an estimation updater for updating the estimate information in said estimation storage based on the inventory status information retrieved by said inventory status retriever; and

an estimation presenter for, in response to a request given by said user terminal which requested the estimate generation, presenting the estimate information updated by said estimation updater to the other user terminal.

2. The online merchandising system according to claim 1, wherein

said estimation presenter comprises:

a consultation request acceptor for accepting a consultation request designating a consultant who consults the estimate for approval given by the user terminal; and

an estimation provider for providing the user terminal handled by the designated consultant of the updated estimate information in response to the acceptance of the consultation request by said consultant request acceptor.

3. The online merchandising system according to claim 1 further comprising:

a reply acceptor for accepting reply information indicating whether the estimate is approved or rejected from the user terminal to which the estimate information was presented by said estimation presenter; and

an order acceptor for accepting an order for the items included in the estimate presented by said estimation presenter when said reply acceptor accepts the reply information indicating that the estimate has been approved.

4. The online merchandising system according to claim 1 further comprising a notice provider for providing the user terminal which requested the estimate of notice information indicating that the estimate has been approved, when said reply acceptor accepts the reply information indicating that the estimate has been approved.

5. An online merchandising system including a requestor terminal to be operated by a requester who requests a consultation of an estimate for approval, a consultant terminal to be operated by a consultant who consults the estimate, and a server for online merchandising, being connected to each other via a telecommunications network, wherein,

said requestor terminal comprises:

a estimation request transmitting unit which transmits estimation request information for requesting estimate of arbitrary designated items to said server; and

a consultant request transmitting unit which transmits consultation request information for requesting the consultant to consult the estimate for approval,

said consultant terminal comprises;

an address receiving unit which receives address information for indicating estimation data stored in said server, from said server;

an estimation retrieving unit which retrieves the estimation data stored in said server in accordance with the address information received by said address receiving unit; and

a reply transmitting unit which transmits reply information indicating whether the estimate represented by the estimation data retrieved by said estimation retrieving unit is approved or rejected, to said server, and

said server comprises;

an inventory data storage unit which stores inventory data indicating stock status of the items to be merchandised;

an estimation generating unit which, in response to the estimation request given by said requestor terminal, generates data representing estimation of in-stock items in accordance with the inventory data stored in said inventory data storage unit;

an estimation storage unit which stores the estimation data generated by said estimation generating unit;

an address transmitting unit which, in response to the consultation request given by said requestor terminal, transmits the address information indicating the estimation data stored in said estimation storage unit to said consultant terminal;

an estimation retrieving unit which, in accordance with the address information given by said consultant terminal, retrieves the estimation data stored in said estimation storage unit;

an estimation updating unit which updates the estimation data retrieved by said estimation retrieving unit to estimation data representing estimation for in-stock items;

an estimation transmitting unit which transmits the updated estimation data to said consultant terminal;

a reply receiving unit which receives reply information from the consultant terminal to which the estimation data was transmitted by said estimation transmitting unit; and

an order accepting unit which accepts order for the items corresponding to the approved estimation, when said reply receiving unit receives the reply information indicating that the estimation is approved.

6. The online merchandising system according to claim 5 wherein,

said server further comprises a reply forwarding unit which forwards the reply information received by said reply receiving unit to said requestor terminal.

7. A server being connected to user terminals via a telecommunications network, comprising:

an estimation request accepting unit which transmits an item menu data to said user terminal, and accepts a request for estimating selected items given by said user terminal concerned;

an estimation generating unit which generates estimation data representing estimate of the selected items based on the estimation request accepted by said estimation request acceptor;

an estimation storage unit which stores the estimation data generated by said estimation generating unit;

an inventory data retriever which retrieves information representing inventory status of the items indicated by the estimation data stored in said estimation storage unit;

an estimation updating unit which updates the estimation data stored in said estimation storage unit in accordance with the inventory status information retrieved by said inventory data retriever;

a presentation request acceptor which transmits image data of consultant designator page to said user terminal, and accepts request for presenting the estimation data to the designated consultant given by said user terminal concerned; and

an estimation presenting unit which presents the estimation data updated by said estimation updating unit to the other user terminal operated by the designated consultant, based on the presentation request accepted by said presentation request acceptor.

8. The server according to claim 7, wherein

said estimation presenting unit comprises:

an address transmitting unit which transmits address information indicating the estimation data stored in said estimation storage unit to the user terminal operated by the designated consultant; and

an estimation transmitting unit which transmits the estimation data updated by said estimation updating unit in accordance with the address information given by the user terminal of the consultant.

9. The server according to claim 7 further comprising:

a reply accepting unit which accepts reply information indicating whether the estimate is approved or rejected, from the user terminal to which the estimation data was presented by said estimation presenting unit; and

an order accepting unit which accepts order for the items indicated by the estimation data presented by said estimation presenting unit, when said reply accepting unit accepts the reply information indicating that the estimate was approved.

10. The server according to claim 7 further comprising a notice transmitting unit which transmits information notifying that the estimate was approved to said user terminal which requested the estimate, when said reply accepting unit accepts the reply information indicating that the estimate was approved.

11. A server connected to a telecommunications network which interconnects a requestor terminal operated by a requestor who requests consultation of estimate for approval and a consultant terminal operated by a consultant who consults the estimate, comprising:

an inventory data storage unit which stores inventory data representing inventory status of items to be merchandised;

an estimation generating unit which, in response to a request for estimating designated items given by said requestor terminal, generates estimation data regarding to the available items in accordance with the inventory data stored in said inventory data storage unit;

an estimation data storage unit which stores the estimation data generated by said estimation generating unit;

an address transmitting unit which, in response to information requesting said consultant terminal to consult the estimate, transmits address information indicating the estimation data stored in said estimation data storage unit to said consultant terminal;

an estimation retrieving unit which, in response to the address information given by said consultant terminal, retrieves the estimation data stored in said estimation data storage unit;

an estimation updating unit which updates the estimation data retrieved by said estimation retrieving unit to estimation data for available items, in accordance with the inventory data stored in said inventory data storage unit;

an estimation data transmitting unit which transmits the estimation data updated by said estimation updating unit to said consultant terminal;

a reply receiving unit which receives reply information given by said consultant terminal to which said estimation data transmitting unit transmitted the estimation data; and

an order accepting unit which accepts an order for the items indicated by the approved estimation when said reply receiving unit receives the reply information indicating that the estimate was approved.

12. The server according to claim 11 further comprising a reply transmitting unit which transmits the reply information received by said reply receiving unit to said requestor terminal.

13. An estimation managing method applicable to a system for online merchandising in response to user terminals being connected to a telecommunications network, comprising the steps of:

accepting a request for estimation of designated items given by said user terminal;

generating estimation data representing estimation of the designated items in accordance with the accepted request for estimation;

storing the generated estimation data at a predetermined storage;

retrieving information representing inventory status of the items indicated by the stored estimation data;

updating the stored estimation data in accordance with the retrieved inventory status information; and

presenting the updated estimation data to the other user terminal in accordance with a request given by said user terminal which requested the estimation.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein

said presenting step comprises the steps of:

accepting a request for consulting the estimate by designated consultant, given by said user terminal; and

transmitting the updated estimation data to the other user terminal operated by the designated consultant in accordance with the accepted request.

15. The method according to claim 13 further comprising the steps of:

accepting reply information indicating whether the estimate was approved or rejected, given by said user terminal to which the estimation data was presented; and

accepting an order for the items indicated by the presented estimation data in a case where the accepted reply information represents that the estimate was approved.

16. The method according to claim 13 further comprising the step of transmitting notice information indicating that the estimate was approved to said user terminal which requested the estimate in a case where the accepted reply information represents that the estimate was approved.

17. A method for managing estimation data applicable to a server connected to a telecommunications network which interconnects a requestor terminal operated by a requestor who requests a consultant to consult the estimate for approval and a consultant terminal operated by the consultant who consults the estimate, comprising the steps of:

retrieving information representing inventory status of items to be merchandised;

generating estimation data in response to a request for estimation of designated items given by said requestor terminal so that the estimation data represents estimate of available items in accordance with the retrieved inventory status data;

storing the generated estimation data at a predetermined storage;

transmitting address information representing address of the stored estimation data to said consultant terminal in response to information requesting said consultant terminal to consult the estimate for approval given by said requester terminal;

retrieving the stored estimation data in accordance with the address information given by said consultant terminal;

updating the retrieved estimation data to estimation data representing estimate of available items in accordance with the retrieved inventory status information;

transmitting the updated estimation data to said consultant terminal;

receiving replay information given by said consultant terminal to which the estimation data was transmitted; and

accepting an order for the items indicated by the approved estimation in a case where the received reply information indicates that the estimate was approved.

18. The method according to claim 17 further comprising the step of transmitting the received reply information to said requester terminal.

19. A computer program product for causing a computer to execute an estimation managing method comprising the steps of:

accepting a request for estimation of designated items given by said user terminal;

generating estimation data representing estimation of the designated items in accordance with the accepted request for estimation;

storing the generated estimation data at a predetermined storage;

retrieving information representing inventory status of the items indicated by the stored estimation data;

updating the stored estimation data in accordance with the retrieved inventory status information; and

presenting the updated estimation data to the other user terminal in accordance with a request given by said user terminal which requested the estimation.

20. A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave for causing a computer to execute an estimation managing method comprising the steps of:

accepting a request for estimation of designated items given by said user terminal;

generating estimation data representing estimation of the designated items in accordance with the accepted request for estimation;

storing the generated estimation data at a predetermined storage;

retrieving information representing inventory status of the items indicated by the stored estimation data;

updating the stored estimation data in accordance with the retrieved inventory status information; and

presenting the updated estimation data to the other user terminal in accordance with a request given by said user terminal which requested the estimation.