System of ordering and delivering merchandise in electronic mall and method thereof

• US 6,985,874 B1
• Filed: 06/27/2000
• Issued: 01/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Endoh, Kazuhiro, Ebihara, Toru
• Primary Examiner(s): Coggins, Wynn W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAQ, NAEEM U
• Application Number:
  US09/604,246
• Time in Patent Office: 2,023 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.81
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A system of ordering and delivering merchandise by accepting order of merchandise from any customer through a home page or a virtual store concerning sales of merchandise and constructed on a network by a sales merchant and through the network and delivering the ordered merchandise to a delivery destination designated by the customer on the basis of map information. A map having a dealer of a neighborhood of the delivery destination is retrieved on the basis of the address information of the customer in response to customer'"'"'s selection of the dealer as a delivery destination when order of the merchandise is accepted from the customer. The dealer is determined as a delivery destination of the merchandise by the customer while the retrieved map is displayed on the home page or the virtual store.

Claims

1. A method of ordering and delivering merchandise using a computer system opening virtual stores on a network, said computer system comprising:

a server;

a memory unit storing merchandise information, selection information about user'"'"'s merchandise reception, dealer information and delivery schedule information and including an order data file for storing orders from customers; and

a map information display unit for displaying a map concerning dealers, said method comprising the steps;

in said server,

accepting access to said virtual store from a user terminal connected to the server through the network;

providing merchandise information stored in said memory unit to said user terminal through the network;

accepting an order of merchandise from the user on the basis of said merchandise information and writing the accepted merchandise order in the order data file;

reading selection information concerning a way of receiving said ordered merchandise from said memory unit to provide the read selection information to said user terminal through the network;

accepting a way of receiving merchandise selected based on said read selection information from said user terminal to write the selected receiving way in said order data file;

determining that the selected receiving way indicates dealers capable of dealing or mediating merchandise as a delivery destination and retrieving map information by said map information display unit based on dealer information stored in said memory unit to provide any dealers among the retrieved map information to said user terminal that may be selected by said user, said map information including a dealer of a neighborhood of the delivery destination in the region of said map on the basis of a user'"'"'s address or an address input by said user;

accepting a specific dealer selected among the dealers in said provided map information from said user terminal through the network to write the accepted specified dealer in said data file;

providing the user terminal with confirmation information including the way of receiving merchandise to the user terminal through the network based on said order information;

determining that a contract of sales regarding said ordered merchandise is made and preparing a delivery schedule on the basis of a condition of the contract by referring to information on past delivery schedules stored in said memory unit;

determining that said receiving way indicates a dealer and reading out order information written in said order data file and sending a notice of a predetermined format including information of a merchandise arrival schedule to said dealer based on which arrival of the ordered merchandise is informed to a sales merchant, to a terminal of said dealer; and

monitoring whether inspection information indicating that said ordered merchandise has arrived at said dealer is received from said dealer terminal through a communication line in a predetermined period based on said delivery schedule.

2. A method of ordering and delivering merchandise according to claim 1, comprising determining that said merchandise inspection information exists and monitoring whether delivery information indicating that the merchandise has been handed over to the user at said dealer is received from said dealer in said predetermined period through the communication line.

3. A method of ordering and delivering merchandise according to claim 1, wherein when said specified dealer is selected, an outline data including an address and photograph of said specified dealer is provided to said user terminal based on said dealer information.

4. A method of ordering and delivering merchandise using a computer system, said computer system comprising a server and a map information display unit for displaying a map concerning dealers, said method comprising:

providing, in said server, merchandise information stored in a database on a network;

accepting, in said server, an order of merchandise offered from a user who has accessed said merchandise information on the network from a user terminal together with user information and storing the accepted merchandise order and the user information in a data file;

reading out, in said server, a display screen of selection information concerning a way of receiving said ordered merchandise from said database, said selection information including information of dealers from which reception of ordered merchandise is available;

rendering, in said server, the user to input a selected one of said available dealers;

displaying, in said map information display unit, a selection display screen including the read-out information of said dealers and a selection display screen including information concerning charge payment dealer on a display unit,

determining, in said map information display unit, that selected receiving dealer information is inputted and displaying a display screen of map information on the display unit based on the map information stored in said database to provide any dealers among the retrieved map information to said user terminal that may be selected by said user, said map information including merchandise receiving dealers of a neighborhood of the delivery destination in the region of said map on the basis of a user'"'"'s address or an address input by said user;

accepting, in said map information display unit, a specific dealer selected among the receiving dealers in said provided map information from said user terminal to display information of said accepted specific dealer on a screen of the display unit from a map information file to provide the display screen of the specific dealer information to said user terminal;

storing, in said server, information concerning said specific dealer and charge payment dealers in the data file;

determining, in said server, that a contract of sales regarding the ordered merchandise is made and reading out order information written in said order data file and sending a notice of a predetermined format including information of a merchandise delivery schedule based on which arrival of the ordered merchandise is informed to a sales merchant, to a terminal of said specific dealer;

preparing, in said server, a delivery schedule on the basis of a condition of the contract by referring to information on past delivery schedules stored in said database;

storing, in said server, the prepared delivery schedule in the data file;

sending, in said server, the delivery schedule to a terminal of said specific dealer from which the user is available to receive the ordered merchandise;

monitoring, in said server, whether inspection information indicating that said ordered merchandise has arrived at said dealer is received from said dealer terminal through the network in a predetermined period based on said delivery schedule; and

providing, in said map information display unit, the user terminal with the stored or input order of merchandise, user data, concerned dealer information and delivery schedule as confirmation display screen by displaying the same in the display unit to allow the user to provide confirmation information.

5. A method of ordering and delivering merchandise using a computer system according to claim 4, wherein said concerned dealer information displayed in said map information display unit which has accepted selection of dealer from which the ordered merchandise is received from said user terminal is outline data including picture data of the concerned dealer, and said information provided to said user terminal as the confirmation display screen by said map information display unit includes the outline data of the concerned dealer and the information of the charge payment dealer.