Customer history management method and system in online shopping

• US 6,466,915 B1
• Filed: 07/12/1996
• Issued: 10/15/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Knapp Investment Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Suzuki, Tetsujiro, Kashu, Yuriko
• Primary Examiner(s): Stamber, Eric W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Myhre, James W.
• Application Number:
  US08/679,098
• Time in Patent Office: 2,286 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/14, 395/600, 395/800
• US Class Current: 705/14.53
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

In online shopping, customer information when a customer selects and buys a desired article from goods information provided to a customer terminal from a center which provides online shopping information including the goods information to the customer terminal is managed. When the customer performs the online shopping, the goods information is stored for each customer individually, which goods information is goods information selected by the customer from goods information provided by the center. Then, the stored goods information is read out the next time a goods information search request is made by the customer, and the read goods information is displayed for the customer.

Claims

1. A customer history management method, in online shopping, for managing customer information when a customer selects and buys a desired article from goods information provided to a customer terminal from a center which provides online shopping information including said goods information to said customer terminal, said method comprising the steps of:

a) individually storing as customer history information goods information for said customer, that is selected but not bought by said customer from goods information provided by said center, in a storage device; and

b) selecting information to display depending on the customer history information when a goods information search request is subsequently made, including displaying the stored goods information, wherein the information read in step b) includes attributes of the goods.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

c) displaying goods information which has been provided by said center;

d) selecting desired articles from said goods information;

e) displaying a list of articles which were selected;

f) selecting, from said list of articles, articles to be bought; and

g) storing information of articles which were brought and information of articles which were selected but were not bought, separately.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

h) storing either a list of articles selected in said step d) or a list of articles bought in said step f) in said storage means for each customer individually; and

i) determining customer tendency from either said list of articles selected or said list of articles bought, and storing said tendency in said storage means for each customer individually.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

c) inputting an identifier of said customer;

d) displaying a list of articles that said customer of said identifier marked previously;

e) determining articles that said customer buys from said list of articles;

f) marking said articles that said customer buys in said step e), and storing information about said articles in said storage device for said customer individually, the stored information including attributes of the articles.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

g) storing a list of articles bought in said step e) in said storage device for each customer individually; and

h) determining customer tendency from said list of articles bought, and storing said tendency in said storage device for each customer individually.

6. A customer history management method in online shopping, comprising the steps of:

storing as customer history information, for each store which sells goods, either history information of article selection or article buying, or history information of each access to said store for each customer individually, wherein the storing step stores information of articles which were selected but not purchased separately from information of articles which were bought; and

displaying the customer history information, including the information of the articles which were selected but not purchased when the customer again accesses the store.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

a) storing a time said customer comes to said store and a time said customer leaves said store; and

b) with reference to said stored times, appropriately changing information provided for said customer on a screen while said customer is shopping.

8. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

a) storing a total sum of money said customer spent in said store or goods information of articles that said customer selects or buys in said store; and

b) with reference to information stored in said step a), appropriately changing information being provided for said customer on a screen.

9. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

a) deriving a tendency of said customer from said history information; and

b) selecting screen image goods information being provided to said customer depending on said tendency.

10. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the step of providing store member registration screen image information to said customer only when said customer has not become a member of said store.

11. A customer history management method in online shopping, for managing customer information when a customer selects and buys a desired article from goods information provided to a customer terminal from a center which provides online shopping information including said goods information to said customer terminal, said method comprising the steps of:

a) storing, as customer history information, goods information which was selected but not bought by said customer from goods information provided by a store; and

b) referring to said customer history information stored in said step a) when said customer subsequently requests a provision of goods information, and providing the customer history information, including said selected but not bought goods information to said customer, wherein the information provided in step b) includes attributes of the goods.

12. A customer history management system, in online shopping, for managing access history of a customer, said management system comprising:

a center to provide shopping information to the customer through an online system; and

a terminal to input a selection of a desired article from said shopping information provided by said center,

wherein said center further comprises;

article selection information storage device for storing as customer history information article selection information about-articles that said customer selects;

article buying information storage device for storing as the customer history information article buying information about articles that said customer buys;

marked information storage device for storing information after marking said information, said information being a difference between all of said article selection information stored in said article selection information storage device and said article buying information stored in said article buying information storage device;

marked information providing means for selecting information to provide through said terminal depending on the customer history information when provision of said shopping information is requested upon a subsequent access to the center by the customer through said terminal, and providing the customer history information, including said marked information through said terminal, wherein the information provided by said marked information providing means includes attributes of the goods.

13. A customer history management system, in online shopping, for managing access history of a customer, said management system comprising:

a center to provide shopping information through an online system; and

a terminal to input a selection of a desired article from said shopping information provided by said center,

wherein said center further comprises;

article selection information storage device for storing as customer history information article selection information about articles that said customer selects;

article selection information providing means for providing the customer history information, including said article selection information, through said terminal;

bought-article-removed information storage device for storing as the customer history information article selection information which remains after removing article selection information of articles which said customer has bought, from said article selection information provided by said article selection information providing means;

marked information storage device for storing information obtained as a result of marking information stored in said bought-article-removed information storage device; and

marked information providing means for, when provision of said shopping information is requested upon a subsequent access to the center by the customer through said terminal, selecting information to provide through said terminal depending on the customer history information and providing the customer history information, including said marked information through said terminal.

14. A customer history management system, in online shopping, for managing access history of a customer, said management system comprising:

a center to provide shopping information through an online system; and

a terminal to input a selection of a desired article from said shopping information provided by said center,

wherein said center further comprises;

history information storage device for storing history information of a store that said customer accesses in online shopping, and storing article selection history information separately from article buying history information; and

screen image information selection means for selecting screen image information provided through said terminal depending on said history information stored in said history information storage device.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein said history information storage device further comprises tendency information storage device for storing information indicating a tendency of said article selection history information or said article buying history information.

16. The system according to claim 14, wherein said center further comprises registration screen image information providing means for providing member registration screen image information for said customer only when said customer has not been registered in said store in said online shopping.

17. A customer history management system, in online shopping, for managing customer information when a customer selects and buys a desired article from goods information provided to a customer terminal from a center which provides online shopping information including said goods information to said customer terminal, said system comprising:

a storage device for storing, as customer history information, goods information which was selected but not bought by said customer from goods information provided by a store; and

goods information providing means for referring to said customer history information stored in said storage device, when said customer subsequently requests provision of goods information, and providing said goods information to said customer, wherein the information provided by said goods information providing means includes attributes of the goods.

18. A computer-implemented customer history management method, comprising the steps of:

a) storing a customer'"'"'s shopping history information, including information of goods selected but not ordered, when said customer accesses a store; and

b) referring to said shopping history information stored in said step a), when said customer subsequently accesses said store, and providing customer shopping information which is selected based on said shopping history information, which includes the information of the goods selected but not ordered in a previous access to the store by the customer, wherein the information provided in step b) includes attributes of the goods.

19. A customer history management system, comprising:

a storage device for storing customer history information, including information of goods selected but not ordered, corresponding to a customer when said customer accesses a store; and

shopping information providing means for referring to said customer history information stored in said storage device, when said customer subsequently accesses said store, and providing customer shopping information which is selected based on said customer history information, which includes the information of the goods selected but not ordered in a previous access to the store by the customer, wherein the information provided by said shopping information providing means includes attributes of the goods.

20. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium, said computer readable program code means comprising;

first program code means for storing customer history information, including information of goods selected but not ordered, corresponding to a customer when said customer accesses a store; and

second program code means for referring to said customer history information stored by said first program code means, when said customer subsequently accesses said store, and providing for said customer shopping information which is selected based on said customer history information, which includes the information of the goods selected but not ordered in a previous access to the store by the customer, wherein the information provided by said second program code means includes attributes of the goods.

21. An online shopping customer history management method, comprising the steps of:

storing as customer history information either history information of article selection or article buying, or history information of a customer access to a store;

storing a time the customer comes to the store and a time the customer leaves the store; and

changing information provided for said customer on a screen with reference to the stored times and the stored customer history information while said customer is shopping.

22. An online shopping customer history management system, comprising:

a storage device for storing as customer history information goods information selected but not bought by a customer from goods information provided by a store as previously selected goods information; and

goods information providing means for selecting information to provide to the customer depending on the customer history information, including providing the previously selected goods information, in addition to subsequently requested goods information, when the customer subsequently requests goods information, wherein the information provided by said goods information providing means includes attributes of the goods.

23. A customer history management method in online shopping, for managing customer information when a customer selects or buys a desired article from goods information provided to a customer terminal from a online shopping center, comprising:

storing as customer history information goods information which were selected but not ordered by the customer from goods information provided by the online shopping center;

storing as the customer history information goods information which were purchased by the customer from goods information provided by the online shopping center, wherein the purchased goods information is stored separately from the selected goods information; and

presenting information to the customer depending on the customer history information, including presenting the stored selected but not ordered goods information to the customer, when the customer subsequently requests a provision of goods information, wherein the presented goods information includes attributes of the goods, and the attributes comprise information in addition to the names of the goods.

24. A customer history management method, comprising:

storing a list of articles selected but not bought by a customer in an online shopping center;

determining customer tendencies from the stored list of articles selected but not bought,

storing the tendencies in a storage device for each customer individually; and

preparing a selection of articles for presenting to the customer, based on the stored tendencies from the stored list of articles selected but not bought, before the customer actually inputs a selection in the online shopping center.

25. A computer-implemented customer history management method, comprising:

a) storing the time a customer comes to a store and the time the customer leaves the store;

b) storing information of articles selected but not bought by the customer during the times the customer is at the store, based on the times stored in step a); and

c) providing, when the customer subsequently accesses the store, information to the customer that an article stored in step b) that was out of stock during the time stored in step a) is now in stock. subsequently requests goods information, wherein the information provided by said goods information providing means includes attributes of the goods.

26. A computer-implemented customer history management method, comprising:

storing a customer'"'"'s shopping history information, including information of articles selected but not ordered, when said customer accesses a store; and

referring to said stored shopping history information, when said customer subsequently accesses said store, and providing to the customer introductions to articles, the introductions being selected based on said shopping history information, which includes the information of the articles selected but not ordered in a previous access to the store by the customer.

27. A customer history management system, comprising:

a storage device storing customer history information, including information of articles selected but not ordered, corresponding to a customer when the customer accesses a store; and

shopping information providing unit in communication with the storage device and referring to said stored customer history information, when the customer subsequently accesses the store, and providing to the customer introductions to articles based on the stored customer history information, which includes the information of the articles selected but not ordered in a previous access to the store by the customer.