Online merchandising system, online catalog presenting method, server, computer program product, and computer data signal

• US 20030139976A1
• Filed: 01/23/2003
• Published: 07/24/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Shinohara, Eiji, Hanai, Atsushi, Kataoka, Keisuke, Satoh, Maki, Sakita, Keiko, Yamane, Noriko, Itoh, Keiichi, Otsuka, Atsumi, Fushimi, Hiroshi, Ono, Hiroaki, Misumi, Sachiko, Yuasa, Kohichi
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,557 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

The shopping server provides an online shopping service with retrieving information of items handled, relations among the items, user'"'"'s purchase history, user'"'"'s request, and the like via the internet or the intrafirm network. The shopping server generates electronic catalogs personalized for each user based on the retrieved information so as to show useful and helpful information to each user. The catalogs are categorized in accordance with the purposes. Some of the categories are fulfilled by the automatic entry in accordance with the item relations or the user'"'"'s purchase through the online shopping service, while the others are fulfilled by the user'"'"'s arbitrary designation. The shopping server presents the generated catalogs to the users via the internet, so that the categories are switchable and customizable by the user.

Claims

1. An online merchandising system for an online shopping service using a telecommunications network comprising:

an item information storage for storing information of items to be merchandised;

an item information presenter for presenting the item information stored in said item information storage to a user of the online shopping service via said telecommunications network;

a catalog generator for generating user'"'"'s own electronic catalogs; and

a catalog presenter for presenting the electronic catalog to the user concerned via said telecommunications network.

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

said catalog generator generates the user'"'"'s own catalogs including information of the items designated by the user concerned.

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

said catalog generator generates the user'"'"'s own catalogs including information of the items in accordance with the purchase history of the user concerned.

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

said catalog generator generates plural kinds of the user'"'"'s own catalogs for each user, and

said catalog presenter presents said plural kinds of the user'"'"'s own catalogs so as to be switchable by the user concerned.

5. An online catalog presenting method being applicable to an online shopping service, comprising the steps of:

storing information of items being handled by the online shopping service;

selecting items regarding to each user of the online shopping service from the stored items information;

generating plural kinds of catalogs personalized for each of the users to show information of the selected items; and

presenting the generated catalogs to the users via a telecommunications network, so that the plural kinds of the catalogs are switchable by the user and the items shown in the presented catalog are purchasable by the user through the online shopping service.

6. The method according to claim 5 further comprising the step of detecting purchase history of each user, and

said selecting step selects the items purchased by the user concerned through the online shopping service.

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

detecting what items being owned by the users; and

finding relations among the items handled by the online shopping service, and

said selecting step selects the items relating to the items owned by the user concerned.

8. The method according to claim 5 further comprising the step of detecting purchase history of each user, and

said selecting step selects items frequently purchased by the user concerned.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein,

said selecting step selects the items in accordance with designation given by the user concerned via said telecommunications network.

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

accepting user'"'"'s designation of item and asking prices of the items concerned via said telecommunications network; and

obtaining the current sales price information of the items designated by the user, and

said generating step generates a catalog which shows both the current sales prices and the user'"'"'s asking prices so as to be comparable with each other.

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

accepting users'"'"' designations of items and asking prices of the items via said telecommunications network;

obtaining the current sales price information of the items designated by the user;

comparing the current sales prices with the users'"'"' asking prices;

detecting the difference between the current sales price and the user'"'"'s asking price whether the difference being within a predetermined range; and

notifying the user that the sales price is close to the asking price when it is detected that the difference between the current sales price and the asking price being within the range with introducing a catalog showing both the current sales prices and the asking prices generated by said generating step.

12. The method according to claim 5 further comprising the step of updating stored item information, and

said generating step generates the catalogs based on the updated item information.

13. The method according to claim 5, wherein,

said presenting step presents the catalogs to the user so that the contents of the catalogs are exchangeable with each other by the user.

14. A server applicable to a provider of an online shopping service using a telecommunications network, comprising:

an item information storage which stores information of items to be handled by the online shopping service;

a users'"'"' instruction accepting unit which accepts users'"'"' instructions given by user terminals of the users of the online shopping service via said telecommunications network,

an item selecting unit which selects items regarding to users from the items represented by the information stored in said item information storage;

a selected item memory which stores information of the items selected by said item selecting unit with categorizing the information by the users;

a catalog generating unit which generates personalized electronic catalogs to be presented to the users through the online shopping service, showing items represented by the information stored in said selected item memory; and

a catalog presenting unit which presents the personalized catalogs generated by said catalog generating unit to said user terminal concerned via said telecommunications network, so as to enable the user concerned to order the items shown in the presented catalog through the online shopping service.

15. The server according to claim 14, wherein,

said users'"'"' instruction accepting unit accepts users'"'"' designation of items via said telecommunications network,

said item selecting unit selects the items in accordance with the user'"'"'s designation accepted by said users'"'"' designation accepting unit, and

said catalog generating unit generates user'"'"'s own catalogs of the selected items.

16. The server according to claim 14 further comprising a purchase detecting unit which detects purchases of the users through the online shopping service, wherein,

said item selecting unit selects items in accordance with the purchases of the users detected by said purchase detecting unit, and

said catalog generating unit generates a personalized catalog showing purchase history of the user concerned.

17. The server according to claim 14 further comprising:

a possession detecting unit which detects what items owned by the users; and

an item linking unit which links items with relational items in said item information storage, wherein,

said catalog generating unit generates a personalized catalog showing the relational items linked to the items owned by the user concerned.

18. The server according to claim 14 further comprising:

a users'"'"' designation accepting unit which accepts users'"'"' designation of items and asking prices of the items concerned via said telecommunications network; and

a price monitoring unit which obtains the current sales price information of the items designated by the user, wherein,

said catalog generating unit generates a personalized catalog showing the current sales prices and the user'"'"'s asking prices comparable with each other.

19. The server according to claim 14, wherein

said item information storage constantly updates the item information therein,

said selected item memory updates the selected item information in accordance with the update by said item information storage, and

said catalog generating unit generates the personalized catalogs showing the latest item information.

20. The server according to claim 14, wherein

said catalog presenting unit presents the personalized catalogs to the terminal devices of the users so that the contents of the catalogs are customizable by the users, and

said selected item memory further categorizes the information into plural kinds of the catalogs to be generated by said catalog generating unit, and updates the information in accordance with the customization by the users.

21. The server according to claim 14, wherein,

said users'"'"' instruction accepting unit accepts a user'"'"'s order instruction through the catalog presented by said catalog presenting unit, and

said selected item memory updates the selected item information in accordance with the order instruction accepted by said users'"'"' instruction accepting unit.

22. The server according to claim 14, wherein,

said item information storage constantly updates the item information therein so that the item information represents the current sales prices of the items;

said users'"'"' instruction accepting unit accepts user'"'"'s designation of items and asking prices of the items concerned;

said catalog generating unit generates a price comparison catalog showing both the current sales prices and the user'"'"'s asking prices of the items designated by the user concerned, and

said catalog presenting unit presents the price comparison catalog the user terminal of the user concerned when the current sales prices are close to the user'"'"'s asking prices.

23. A computer program product storing a program which functions a computer as an online merchandising server for providing a online shopping service via a telecommunications network, comprising:

a user information handler for storing information of users of the online shopping service, accepting users'"'"' instructions from user terminals being connected to the telecommunications network, and updating the user information in accordance with the users'"'"' instructions;

an item information handler for storing information of items to be merchandized through the online shopping service with updating the information constantly, and for selecting items in accordance with the user'"'"'s instruction or the updated user information handled by said user information handler with categorizing the selected items, and;

a catalog handler for generating categorized electronic catalogs for each user to show items selected by said item information handler, and for presenting the generated catalogs to the user terminals so that the catalog categories are switchable and customizable by the users.

24. A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave to be downloadable to a computer, by which said computer functions as an online merchandising server for providing an online shopping service via a telecommunications network comprising:

a user information handler for storing information of users of the online shopping service, accepting users'"'"' instructions from user terminals being connected to the telecommunications network, and updating the user information in accordance with the users'"'"' instructions;

an item information handler for storing information of items to be merchandized through the online shopping service with updating the information constantly, and for selecting items in accordance with the user'"'"'s instruction or the updated user information handled by said user information handler with categorizing the selected items, and;

a catalog handler for generating categorized electronic catalogs for each user to show items selected by said item information handler, and for presenting the generated catalogs to the user terminals so that the catalog categories are switchable and customizable by the users.