Sales method and system for selling tangible and intangible products

• US 6,938,006 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2001
• Issued: 08/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ikeda, Kiyokazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Rosen, Nicholas D.
• Application Number:
  US09/891,840
• Publication Number:
  US 20020032615A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,526 Days
• Field of Search: 705/4, 705/14, 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

An intangible product sales server for selling intangible products and a tangible product sales server for selling tangible products associated with the intangible products cooperate to simplify purchase procedures to be followed by users in purchasing tangible and intangible products in combination.

Claims

1. A sales method for selling intangible and tangible products in which at least an intangible product sales server for selling an intangible product and a tangible product sales server for selling a tangible product are interconnected by a network for cooperatively selling said intangible product and said tangible product upon request from a user terminal operated by a user, comprising the steps of:

searching said intangible product sales server for an intangible product desired by said user based on an operation performed through said user terminal and displaying a search result on said user terminal;

displaying on said user terminal information about a tangible product associated with said retrieved intangible product, said tangible product being for sale by said tangible product sales server; and

discounting a sales price of one of said intangible product and said tangible product when said intangible product and said tangible product displayed on said user terminal are sold together to said user.

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

collecting user information about said user.

3. The sales method according to claim 2, wherein said collected user information is used by said intangible product sales server and said tangible product sales server in a shared manner.

4. The sales method according to claim 2, wherein a predetermined installer is selected from an installer server in which a plurality of installers for installing said tangible product on a vehicle of said user are stored, said installer server being connected to said network.

5. The sales method according to claim 4, wherein said user information includes a user address and said sales method further comprises the steps of:

extracting an installer nearest to said user from said installer server based on said user address; and

displaying extracted installer information on said user terminal.

6. The sales method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of:

settling a payment for said sold intangible and tangible products by communicating with an account server connected to said network.

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

sending said user information to said account server.

8. The sales method according to claim 1, wherein said intangible product is an insurance product covering a vehicle of said user.

9. The sales method according to claim 1, wherein said tangible product to be sold along with said intangible product is at least one of a car navigating system and a car safety device.

10. A sales system for selling an intangible product and a tangible product associated with said intangible product in cooperation between a plurality of servers interconnected via a network, said system comprising:

a user terminal apparatus connected to said network, said user terminal apparatus purchasing said intangible product and said tangible product by executing data communication with each of said plurality of servers based on an operation performed by a user;

an intangible sales server which;

handles a purchase of said intangible product from said user terminal;

sends to said user terminal information for recommending a purchase of said tangible product sold by an other of said plurality of servers; and

executes a discount process for discounting a sales price of said intangible product when said user has performed a purchasing process for purchasing a recommended tangible product in response to said recommendation by said intangible product sales server; and

a tangible product sales server which sends purchase decision information to said intangible product sales server when said user has performed said purchasing process in response to said recommendation by said intangible product sales server.

11. A cooperative sales system in which a plurality of servers interconnected via a network cooperatively sell a tangible product and an intangible product associated with each other, having:

a user terminal apparatus connected to said network, said user terminal apparatus transferring and receiving data about said sale with said plurality of servers and displaying and inputting said data based on an operation performed by a user of said user terminal apparatus;

an intangible product sales server connected to said network, said intangible product sales server transferring and receiving said data about said sale of said intangible product with said user terminal apparatus and signing a sales contract with said user about said intangible product; and

a tangible product sales server connected to said network, said tangible product sales server transferring data about said sale of said tangible product associated with said intangible product with said user terminal apparatus and signing a sales contract with said user about said tangible product, wherein

said user terminal apparatus comprises;

terminal communication means for transferring and receiving said data with said plurality of servers;

display means for displaying said data received by said communication means;

operator means for said user to input said data to be transmitted to any of said plurality of servers; and

terminal control means for controlling said communication means such that said communication means transfers and receives said data with any of said plurality of servers connected to said network based on said operation performed by said user through said operator means and controlling said display means such that said data received from any of said plurality of servers is displayed on said display means;

said intangible product sales server comprises;

intangible server communication means for transferring and receiving said data with an other device connected to said network;

intangible product data storage means for storing data about said intangible product;

intangible server user information storage means for storing intangible product data about said user supplied from said user terminal apparatus; and

intangible server control means for searching said intangible product data storage means for said intangible product requested by said user based on intangible product purchase request conditions received from said user terminal apparatus through said communication means, acquiring from said other device information about said tangible product associated with said retrieved intangible product, and transmitting said information about said tangible product to said user terminal apparatus; and

said tangible product sales server comprises;

tangible server communication means for transferring and receiving said data with an other device connected to said network;

tangible product data storage means for storing product data about said tangible product;

tangible server user information storage means for storing tangible product data about said user; and

tangible server control means for controlling said tangible server user information storage means such that information about said user received from said intangible product server is stored into said user information storage means, controlling said communication means such that said communication means searches said tangible product data storage means for a tangible product associated with the data about said intangible product requested by said user received from said intangible product sales server, and transmits data about the retrieved tangible product associated with said intangible product to said intangible product sales server through said network,

wherein when a purchase order for said tangible product by said user has been received by said communication means from said intangible product sales server, said tangible server control means executes a tangible product sales contract process based on said user information stored in said tangible server user information storage means, and

wherein when said user for whom said user information has been transmitted from said intangible product sales server has performed tangible product sales contract process as recommended by said intangible product sales server said tangible server control means transmits sales information about a sales contract of said tangible product to said intangible product sales server through said network; and

said control means of said intangible product sales server, upon reception of said sales information from said tangible product sales server, changes a sales price of at least one of said intangible product and said tangible product upon reception of said sales information from said tangible producer sales server.

12. The cooperative sales system according to claim 11, wherein said change of said sales price is a discount of said sales price.

13. The cooperative sales system according to claim 11, wherein said control means of said tangible product sales server transmits said user information to a service providing server connected to said network for installing said tangible product on a vehicle of said user.

14. The cooperative sales system according to claim 13, wherein said control means of said tangible product sales server selects said service providing server based on said user information stored in said tangible server user information storage means.

15. The cooperative sales system according to claim 11, wherein said intangible product for sale by said intangible product sales server is an automobile insurance product.

16. The cooperative sales system according to claim 15, wherein said tangible product for sale by said tangible product sales server is at least one of a car navigating system and a car safety device to be installed on a vehicle covered by said automobile insurance product.

17. An intangible product sales apparatus connected to a network connected with a user terminal apparatus and a tangible product sales server for selling a tangible product for selling an intangible product associated with said tangible product, comprising;

communication means which communicates with an other device connected to said network;

product data storage means which stores data about said intangible product;

user information storage means which stores information about a user of said user terminal apparatus transmitted via said network; and

control means which controls said user information storage means such that said user information based on a request for purchasing said intangible product and said user information received by said communication means from said user terminal apparatus via said network stored into said user information storage means, and which controls said communication means such that the intangible product desired by said user is searched for based upon said purchase request from said product data storage means information about said retrieved intangible product and data about said tangible product for sale by said tangible product sales server associated with said intangible product is transmitted to said user terminal apparatus via said network,

wherein when said user has performed a purchase process for said tangible product associated with said intangible product desired by said user, said control means changes a sales price of said intangible product.

18. The intangible product sales apparatus according to claim 17, wherein when purchase request information about the tangible product associated with the intangible product desired by said user has been received from an other device via said network, said control means transmits said user information from said user information storage means to said tangible product sales server which sells said tangible product.

19. The intangible product sales apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said control means transmits to said user terminal apparatus link information for linking to said tangible product sales server that sells a tangible product associated with an intangible product approval requested by said user.

20. The intangible product sales apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said change of said sales price is a discount thereof.