Patent Application
20190251502
The present invention broadly relates to a goods search method and the like in a management system and the like that manage shipment and delivery of products and goods and, more specifically, to a method for searching for deliverable goods in retailing businesses and online shopping businesses.
Conventionally, a technique has been provided that reduces the transport time period by managing the stocks of products and goods, and improves the transport efficiency by optimizing the transport route.
For example, a product shipment management system has been proposed that prevents quantitative variation from occurring in the state of stocks of diversified types of products in a delivery warehouse in each sales area, eliminates product transportation between delivery warehouses as much as possible, and reduces transport means' forwarding time period, thereby improving the transport efficiency (Patent Literature 1).
That is, Patent Literature 1 discloses a product shipment management system including: stock management means; order management means; shipment management means; product allocation/assignment means; terminal apparatuses provided for respective dealers; and a communication line that connects the apparatuses, wherein a plurality of delivery warehouses are provided, the delivery warehouses being provided for respective areas of the dealers selling various types of products, the various types of products make-to-stock-produced in a production factory are conveyed into each of the delivery warehouses, a stock state of the products conveyed into each of the warehouses is stored in the stock management means, when the dealer transmits a product order based on an order placed by a customer to the order management means, the product allocation/assignment means allocates a type of stocked product according to the order in conformity with the stock state stored in the stock management means, and the shipment management means updates content of the stock management means, and wherein the product allocation/assignment means checks whether or not the product ordered by the customer is present in the stock state stored in the stock management means, and allocates the stocked product to the order by the customer if the stocked product stocked for a period longer than a predetermined period is present, but sorts, with respect to the stock time period, the stock products that are stored in the stock management means and are present in the delivery warehouse for each area of the dealer having placed the order if the stocked products are absent, and allocates the stocked products having the longest stocked time period to the order placed by the customer.
A merchandize flow control system setting a substantial, optimum transport path from the real-time information about the load of an automatic warehouse, the number of work items in standby, and the share of the transporting facility has also been proposed (Patent Literature 2).
That is, Patent Literature 2 discloses a merchandize flow control system (MCS) for calculating the anticipated transporting time from the starting place to the arriving place and select the optimum transport path, the system including a transport command management part to conduct the management upon receiving the layout information and the real-time working information about the load of the automatic warehouse grouped by unit links and the number of works in standby grouped by unit links, and an optimum path production part which receives the layout information of the transport command management part and the real-time working information in a certain cyclic period and calculates the anticipated transporting time through modeling, and on the basis of the result therefrom, selects the transport path having the minimum anticipated transporting time as the optimum transport path.
Meanwhile, various GUIs (graphical user interfaces) have been developed as a way of showing a target object (data) on a computer, and include a slider-type control program (Patent Literature 3).
That is, Patent Literature 2 discloses a user interface control program by which a process for controlling a user interface in a computer equipped with a control device and a display device is performed by the control device, the program causing the control device to execute: a step of displaying, on the display device, a slider-type graphic interface for instruction for a predetermined operation, with a state of a continuously changing predetermined index being designated; a step of issuing an instruction for the predetermined operation in which a state of the predetermined index corresponding to the instructed position is designated, in a case of an instruction on a position except an end of the graphic interface; and a step of issuing an instruction for an operation different from the predetermined operation, in a case of an instruction on a position of an end of the graphic interface is instructed.
However, in recent online shopping businesses, the competition between short-time delivery services is activated. Further system improvement for delivering goods in a short time period is required. In particular, it is expected that GUIs for a goods search method and the like including a way of showing goods deliverable within a predetermined time period will be further improved.
A goods search program according to one embodiment of the present invention is a computer program to be executed, for searching for goods, in a goods shipment management system including: a management server that manages, on an item-by-item basis, a goods shipment time period to a customer residence from one or more nearby bases based in a predetermined area allowing delivery to the customer residence within a predetermined time period; and a customer terminal in the customer residence, wherein upon execution on the system, the program executes: a step of providing the customer terminal with a user interface that includes a plurality of goods shipment time periods as scale marks; a step of allowing the customer terminal to designate one of the goods shipment time periods, through the user interface; a step of allowing the customer terminal to request the management server to search for goods that can be shipped within the designated goods shipment time period; and a step of causing the management server to execute the search and to extract the goods that can be shipped within the designated goods shipment time period and goods that cannot be shipped within the designated goods shipment time period in a manner discriminated from each other.
The user interface is a slider interface including a knob that a user can directly operate, and when the knob on the slider interface is directly operated to change a position of the knob to change the scale mark accordingly, the customer terminal is allowed to request the management server to re-search, based on the goods shipment time period on the changed scale mark.
The goods search program and the like according to one embodiment of the present invention exert advantageous effects of improved GUIs, a capability of capturing fine latent demands, and the like.
A goods search method according to one embodiment of the present invention and the like are hereinafter described in detail with reference to the drawings.
The numbers of distribution centers 11 to 13 and nearby bases 14 to 16 are not limited to these numbers. Any number of centers and any number of bases may be adopted. Hereinafter, to facilitate understanding the present invention, description is made based on the model shown in
The goods shipment management system according to one embodiment of the present invention includes at least two types of facilities, for example. More specifically, in addition to conventional distribution centers serving as distribution bases, the nearby bases are provided as geographical bases capable of distribution to customer residences within a predetermined time period.
That is, the nearby base is a delivery base provided so that goods and the like can be delivered to a customer in a relatively short time period (e.g., about 30 minutes to an hour; sometimes about several hours).
As shown in
Although not shown in
In
Likewise, a nearby area 150 indicates an area allowing goods and the like to be delivered from the nearby base 15 within a predetermined time period (e.g., 30 minutes, one hour or the like; sometimes about several hours). This area schematically includes the customer residences 151, 152, 153 and 199. Likewise, a nearby area 160 indicates an area allowing goods and the like to be delivered from the nearby base 16 within a predetermined time period (e.g., 30 minutes, one hour or the like; sometimes about several hours). This area schematically includes the customer residences 162, 163, 164, 165 and 199.
Here, in this diagram, the customer residence 199 is schematically included in both the nearby areas 150 and 160. This indication means that goods and the like can be delivered to the customer residence 199 from the nearby base 15 and also from the nearby base 16 within the predetermined time period (for example, the goods and the like can be delivered from the nearby base 15 to the customer residence 199 in 20 minutes, the goods and the like can be delivered from the nearby base 16 to the customer residence 199 in 30 minutes).
In the above description, the description parts “goods and the like can be delivered . . . from the nearby base within a predetermined time period”, “in a case where . . . no stock” and the like can be determined by the time period (expected time period) required for distribution and delivery and the fact that the number of stocks of goods and the like in the bases is managed on the system. An entire configuration example of the goods shipment management system that executes the goods search method and the like according to one embodiment of the present invention is described later with reference to
Consequently, each route in
For example, these alternative routes may be alternatively adopted according to the traffic situation at the time, and instructions may be issued to specific distribution facilities (bases) and distribution means (delivery vehicle).
The goods shipment management system that executes the goods search method and the like according to one embodiment of the present invention also performs sales management of goods and the like. The goods shipment management system according to one embodiment of the present invention also operates in conjunction with store POS register and a teleshopping (electronic transaction) system, and manages the sales performance in the store and the sales performance through teleshopping on a customer-by-customer basis. As databases therefor, the following databases (D1) to (D5) are provided in one embodiment, thereby allowing each terminal to refer thereto and issue an update request.
Note that the databases (D1) to (D5) are examples. Besides these databases, appropriate databases and tables are generated as required.
In this database, items pertaining to the customers are registered. Personal information, such as customer names, addresses, and phone numbers, and supplementary information, such as held points, and nearby bases, are registered.
In this database, items pertaining to goods are registered. Goods names, goods codes associated with JAN codes, and the like are registered and managed.
This database is for managing the stocked goods, appropriately cooperates with the goods management database, and required tables are derived and extracted.
This database is for managing the stocked goods stored in warehouses of the distribution centers and the like.
This database is a performance management database pertaining to goods sold at each base or store.
In the goods shipment management system according to one embodiment of the present invention, the nearby base has the following roles (system operations, and operations by operators, such as staff in the base, are collectively listed).
According to one embodiment of the present invention, delivery from the distribution center to the nearby base is executed as an operation in the same business entity, and no delegation is made to another delivery company. For example, the target goods are delivered several times a day by an intra-business delivery.
As shown in
Here, the access point is a wireless device for connecting wireless terminals, such as PCs and smartphones, to each other and to another network. Typically, the device operates according to a communication protocol of the first layer (physical layer) and the second layer (data link layer) in the OSI reference model.
Many mobile phones and mobile information terminals and tablets at the time of this application have processing capabilities comparing favorably to personal computers (PCs) (the communication processing speed, image processing capability, etc.), and are to be regarded as small computers.
Typically, the program and software required to execute the present invention are installed or stored in HDDs, SSDs and the like in storages of PCs and mobile information terminals, are read as a software module that is the entire or a part of the program or software in the memory in the storage as required during execution of the program and software, and are computed and executed by the CPU.
Alternatively, browser-based computers or mobile information terminals may be adopted. In this case, a configuration is adopted where the program is distributed from another server or a computer to the terminals as required and then the browsers on the terminals execute the program.
The hardware configuration of the management server 21 may also basically adopt that of a PC (for confirmation, description is made later with reference to
The goods search method and the like according to one embodiment of the present invention can be executed by the management server and an information processing apparatus (user terminal apparatus), described later.
In
These modules are appropriately connected to each other by a communication bus and a power supply line (in
Typically, the program and software executed on the management server 300 required to implement the present invention are installed or stored in a hard disk, SSD (Solid State Drive), a flash memory or the like that constitute the storage 302, are read as a software module that is the entire or a part of the program or software in the memory in the storage 302 as required during execution of the program and software, and are computed and executed by the CPU 301.
The computation is not necessarily executed in the central processing unit, such as CPU 301. An auxiliary processor, such as a digital signal processor (DSP), not shown, may be adopted.
The display 222 includes a multi-touch input panel. The coordinates of a touch-input position on the touch input panel are transmitted to the processing system (CPU) of the tablet terminal 22 through an input device interface (not shown), and are processed. The multi-touch input panel is configured to be capable of sensing multiple contact points on the panel at the same time. The sensing (sensor) can be achieved through any of various schemes. The scheme is not necessarily limited to the contact sensor. For example, an instruction point to the panel can be extracted using an optical sensor. Besides the contact sensor and the optical sensor, a capacitance sensor that senses a touch with human skin can be used.
Although not shown in
In
The sensor unit 509 may include a GPS sensor module for identifying the position of the tablet terminal 500 (22). Signals sensed by the image sensor, such as CMOS, the infrared sensor and the like, which constitute the sensor unit 509, can be processed as input information by the input unit 501.
Typically, the program and software executed on the tablet terminal 500 required to implement the present invention are installed or stored in a hard disk, SSD (Solid State Drive), a flash memory or the like that constitute the storage 502, are read as a software module that is the entire or a part of the program or software in the memory in the storage 502 as required during execution of the program and software, and are computed and executed by the CPU 503.
The computation is not necessarily executed in the central processing unit 503, such as CPU. An auxiliary processor, such as a digital signal processor (DSP), not shown, may be adopted.
The goods shipment management system according to one embodiment of the present invention in
The front system 610 is a software module that serves as the interfaces of transactions and procedures between the core system 620, and the website 602 for the customer terminal and the terminal application 603, such as the customer terminal, in the goods shipment management system according to one embodiment of the present invention, and operates on the management server 21 or another server. The front system 610 includes, as its submodules: a goods recommendation logic 611 that recommends goods for the customer terminal and the like, a behavior log logic 612 that is viewed from the customer terminal and tracks ordered goods and the like, and a logic 613 including another processing system.
The core system 620 includes: a sales management processing system 621 including a sales management DB; a warehouse management processing system 622 including a warehouse management DB; a stock management processing system 623 including a stock management DB; a customer management processing system 624 including a customer management DB; a goods management processing system 625 including a goods management DB; and another processing system 626 including another DB.
As shown in
The present invention is not specifically limited thereto. Typically, the data accumulated in the data warehouse is a large amount of integrated business data arranged in a time series manner, and the relationships between various items are analyzed. For example, the relationships between the elements having not been identified by the conventional simple aggregation are verified from sales data in the store 601; the relationships include “men in 40's and 50's who buy fitness goods often buy related books together” and “daily commodities, such as waterproof spray, sell well the day before a rainy day”.
At time t1 in
The base terminal in the nearby base having received the delivery instruction issues a shipment preparing instruction, and the shipment is prepared in the nearby base from time t2 to time t3 (step S704), and the ordered goods are delivered to the customer residence at time t3 (S705).
At time t4 in
The base terminal in the distribution center, which has received the delivery instruction, issues a shipment preparing instruction, and the shipment is prepared in the distribution center from time t5 to time t6 (step S713), and the ordered goods are delivered to the nearby base at time t6 (S714).
The goods shipped from the distribution center to the nearby base at time t6 arrive at time t10 as shown in this diagram. During this period, the following processing operation is executed.
First, at time t7, the management server 21 notifies the user terminal (customer terminal) that the previously ordered goods have been shipped, and transmits a guidance of an additional order for other goods stocked in the nearby base in the middle of the delivery route (step S715).
Next, at time t8, an additional order of other goods stocked in the nearby base is placed from the user terminal (customer terminal) to the management server 21 through a guidance screen, not shown (step S716). The management server 21 performs additional order receiving procedures (step S717), and issues an instruction of delivering the additionally ordered goods to the base terminal in the nearby base at time t9 (step S718).
At this time, the goods shipped from the distribution center at time t6 does not reach the nearby base, and in the nearby base, from time t9 to time t11, preparation for shipping the additionally ordered goods subjected to the delivery instruction is performed (step S720).
At time t10 during the preparation for shipping the additionally ordered goods in the nearby base, the goods shipped from the distribution center arrives at the nearby base (step S719). In the nearby base, an operation of bundling the goods having arrived and the additionally ordered goods is performed.
Lastly, at time t11, the bundled goods are shipped from the nearby base to the customer residence (step S721).
At time t30 in
The base terminal in the nearby base having received the delivery instruction issues a shipment preparing instruction, and the shipment is prepared in the nearby base from time t31 to time t32 (step S804), and the ordered goods are delivered to the customer residence at time t32 (S805).
At time t33, the goods shipped from the nearby base reaches the customer residence (step S806). However, since the customer is absent, an absence slip is put into the post or the like (step S807), and the goods are temporarily brought back to the nearby base (step S808).
At time t34, the management server 21 transmits, to the customer terminal, an absence notification accompanied by a guidance of an additional order (step S809).
Next, at time t35, an additional order of another goods is placed from the user terminal (customer terminal) to the management server 21 through the unshown guidance screen (step S810). The management server 21 performs additional order receiving procedures (step S811), and issues an instruction of delivering the additionally ordered other goods to the base terminal in the nearby base at time t36 (step S812). By this time, the goods being brought back reaches the nearby base. In the nearby base, from time t36 to time t37, preparation for bundling and shipping the brought-back goods and the other goods ordered to be delivered through the additional order is performed (step S813).
At time t37, the bundled goods are shipped from the nearby base to the customer residence (step S814).
To achieve the order/delivery variations described with reference to
Next, an operation and a display example on the user terminal in the goods shipment management system that executes the goods search method and the like according to one embodiment of the present invention are described. The embodiment described below can also operate to have an independent operation and display function for the user terminal, without limitation due to the characteristics of the goods list display and selection provided by the management server in the goods shipment management system described above and without limitation due to the unique configuration of the goods shipment management system of the present invention.
In
An operation and display field 904 in
Furthermore, a lower part of this field 904, the slider interface allowing the designation of the deliverable time to be changed is displayed. A knob 9041 of this interface is configured to be capable of changing a designation condition through a direct operation with a finger of the user or the like (the detailed operation is described later with reference to
That is, as described above, the other embodiment of the present invention is characterized by capabilities of simultaneous narrowing down of three types at the maximum (narrowing down by AND conditions), i.e., (1) narrowing down based on a keyword or the like in the search field 902, (2) narrowing down based on a category in the category designation field 903, and (3) narrowing down based on the deliverable time through the slider interface in the operation and display field 904. It is a matter of course that the narrowing down of these three types is not always required to be used. Narrowing down without use of the search field 902, but with the slider interface in the category designation field 903 and the operation and display field 904 or narrowing down with another combination is allowed. Alternatively, single narrowing down only with the search field 902 or only with the slider interface in the display field 904 is also allowed.
In a search result display field 905 in
This diagram shows that the goods C and goods D among the goods A to I displayed in the search result display field 905 are deliverable “within 10 minutes”.
This diagram further shows a pressable cart icon 9052. The cart icon 9052 is not displayed at a specific position in a fixed manner, but is displayed in a floating manner instead, for example. It is configured such that double tapping of the cart icon 9052 and the like can confirm the goods intended to be purchased at the current time.
At an upper right part of the cart icon 9052, for example, the number of goods stored in the cart by the customer at the current time can be displayed. The number of goods in the cart is zero in this diagram.
Results that cannot be displayed in the search result display field 905 can be viewed through an operation to a scroll bar, not shown.
In
The knob 1030a can be moved laterally on the slider after a touch until separation. Note that a range where the knob 1030a is movable on the slider is configured (typically, from the left end to the right end of the slider). If dragging beyond the range is tried, the knob 1030a cannot be moved.
At this time, one embodiment of the present invention is configured so that re-extraction (re-search) of the goods immediately deliverable within 30 min. can be executed (the details are described with reference to
In step S1150, which is the start of the description of this flow, for example, the user terminal is activated (application software is also activated as required), and a screen as shown in
If Yes in step S1151, this operation flow is finished (step S1160). If No, the processing proceeds to step S1152, in which it is determined whether the screen of the user terminal is touched or not (one type of event detection).
If there is no touch with a finger or not in step S1152 (No), the processing returns to step S1151. If there is a touch with a finger or not (Yes), the processing proceeds to step S1153.
In step S1153, it is assumed that the touch with the finger or the like in step S1152 continues, and it is determined whether the touching finger or the like is lifted off or the like (one type of event detection). If No in step S1153, the slider operation described with reference to (A) and (B) of
In step S1154 of
If No in step S1154, the processing returns to step S1153. If Yes, the processing proceeds to step S1155, in which it is determined whether (the position of the finger or the like dragging) the knob position is at an appropriate position or not. For example, if (the position of the finger or the like dragging) the knob position is largely deviating from the left or right of the slider (No in step S1155), the knob position is required to be left at the end of the slider, and the processing returns to step S1153. If Yes in step S1155, the processing proceeds to step S1156.
In step S1156, the slider knob is redrawn so as to be aligned with the position of the slightly moved finger or the like, and the processing returns to step S1153. Steps S1153 to S1156 are executed at several times to several tens of times per second. Accordingly, when the user drags the slider knob with the finger or the like, they can sense as if they were moving the knob with their own finger or the like.
In step S1157, the position of the slider knob at the time of the finger or the like of the user being lifted off (the screen of) the user terminal is obtained, and a grid operation through normalization of the knob position is performed to finalize (position) the knob position. Specifically, when the knob position is on the slider, it is determined which scale mark position is nearer between immediate right and left ones, and the nearer scale mark position is adopted as the position of the knob. When the knob position adheres to any one of the right and left ends of the slider (i.e., the knob is intended to be dragged with the finger beyond the range of the slider), the end (it must be the minimum or maximum scale mark position) is determined as the knob position.
Next, in step S1158, based on the grid determined as the settled position of the slider knob immediately after the finger or the like is lifted off the screen (the scale mark positions of 10 min., 20 min., 30 min., 60 min., 120 min., and all time slots serve as grids in 904 of
The management server receives the request or the query, this server executes a re-extraction or re-search process based on the content of the request or the query, and returns a part or all of hit goods information to the user terminal.
In step S1159, based on the part or all of the re-extracted or re-calculated result received by the user terminal from the management server, information on the part or all thereof is redisplayed on the screen of the user terminal, and the processing returns to step S1152.
In addition to the display of the list of goods deliverable within a designated time period designated through the slider interface, goods undeliverable within the designated time period are also displayed according to a predetermined display method (i.e., in a display mode allowing discrimination from the goods deliverable within the designated time period).
Goods that are deliverable physically within the designated time period designated through the slider interface but are unavailable in the user area (goods undeliverable to the user location) are also displayed according to a predetermined display method (i.e., in a display mode allowing discrimination from the goods deliverable within the designated time period).
Provided that goods newly displayed according to the improvements 1-1 to 1-2 are defined as “unpurchasable goods”, the user is allowed to switch whether to display the unpurchasable goods or not to display these goods (the mode before improvement) according to the user's selection.
As described above, advantages of displaying even goods undeliverable within the time period designated through the slider interface, with a specific decoration (shaded display or the like) being applied, and of displaying even goods that are unavailable in the user area (goods undeliverable to the user location), according to a predetermined display method (with a specific image decoration, such as shaded display) being applied, are as follows.
First, the user is notified that delivery within the designated time period cannot be performed but stocks are secured in another store, a base in another area or the like, with a specific message being accompanied, for example, the goods are displayed accompanied by a message “available with a delivery time slot within 120 minutes” or the like in a case where the goods deliverable within 120 minutes are available even though the designated time is within 60 minutes, thereby allowing a latent demand having not been detected by the search method or the like before improvement to be captured because there is a high possibility that a user who thinks that he/she can wait further for an extra hour purchases the goods.
There is a possibility that the user can buy goods that are unavailable in the area, by temporarily changing the delivery destination address or the like, if the goods are deliverable to the user's work site address, for example. Consequently, the latent demand having not been detected by the search method or the like before improvement can be captured.
Here, according to one embodiment of the present invention, the user area (or the user location or the delivery destination address of the goods) can be preregistered as user information and can be always displayed as default setting information during goods search, while the address can be temporarily changed for each individual purchase (as described above, changed from the user's reception address to the user's work site address).
The following cases are assumed as the situations where the goods that are unavailable in the user area occur.
An operation flow example for specific execution of the above technical concept is described in detail with reference to
In
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1203, in which the user's or customer's location (user area) is read. Typically, the delivery destination information indicated in the display field (e.g., 901) is used as the user area. The user area may be preregistered as the “reception address” serving as the main delivery destination of the goods.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1204, in which the time period (e.g., the delivery time period of 10, 20, 30, 60 minutes, . . . , or the like in
Each of steps S1202 to S1204 can be individually skipped if the values (the keyword, the designated area, time, etc.) designated in the last process are unchanged at the start of the re-search (re-extraction) process.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1205, in which it is determined whether the “unpurchasable goods” is set to be displayed, or set not to be displayed. In one embodiment of the present invention, the setting is switchable by the user (specifically, reference numerals 1304 and 1404 to be described later with reference to
If the setting is “ON” (Yes) in step S1205, the processing proceeds to step S1206 in order to perform normal display that does not display the “unpurchasable goods”, and first, in this step, a goods extraction process with a keyword or the like is performed.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1207, in which goods are narrowed down to goods deliverable to the user area.
The processing then proceeds to step S1208, in which the goods are narrowed down to goods deliverable within the time period designated through the slider interface. The deliverable time on an item-by-item basis can be referred to as needed, by managing, by recalculating in each case, and by applying update control to the number of stocked goods at each base, the delivery time between bases, and the delivery time to the customer residence on the core system (or the management server).
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1209, in which the goods list as a result of the re-search (re-extraction) process is set in a display memory, and the re-search (re-extraction) process is finished (step S1217). Note that the process order of steps S1207 to S1208 is allowed to be appropriately changed.
On the contrary, if the setting is “OFF” (No) in step S1205, the processing proceeds to step S1210 in order to display also “unpurchasable goods”, and first, in this step, a goods extraction process with a keyword or the like is performed.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1211, in which the goods deliverable to the user area are extracted, and a specific flag A is added to the extracted goods. Next, the processing proceeds to step S1212, in which a flag B different from the specific flag A described above is added to the goods undeliverable to the user area.
The processing then proceeds to step S1213, in which the goods deliverable within the designated time period are extracted through the slider interface, and a specific flag C is added to the extracted goods. Next, the processing proceeds to step S1214, in which a flag D different from the specific flag C described above is added to the goods undeliverable within the designated time period.
Note that the number of types of each of the flags A to D is not necessarily limited to one. For example, the flag B and the flag D may each include multiple types of flags. The process order of steps S1211 and S1212, and the process order of steps S1213 and S1214 may be appropriately changed.
As a specific example, an extraction process example is described where the keyword is “juice soda”(“juice” AND “soda”), the user area (user location) is “Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo” and the designated delivery time “3 hrs.”. First, in step S1210, it is assumed that 750 items of goods extracted with the keyword “juice soda” are hit. In step S1211, a flag “0” (indicating that the goods match the original condition) is added to each of (500 items of) goods deliverable to the user area. In S1212, a flag “1” is added to each of (250 items of) goods undeliverable to the user area.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1213, in which a flag “0” (indicating that the goods match the original condition) is added to goods deliverable within the time period designated through the slider interface. In step S1214, a flag “one or more” according to the time length is added to the goods undeliverable within the designated time period. For example, a flag “1” is added to the goods deliverable within six hours, and a flag “2” is added to the goods deliverable within the current day.
For example, the goods subjected to the flag process as described above is managed according to the following table (this table is appropriately created by a function, such as of a relational database).
In the above table, a “Goods No.” column stores a management number of the goods hit for the keyword (accompanying information, such as the goods name, manufacturer, and price, can be appropriately extracted by using this management number as a key as required). A “Keyword” column stores a result of match/unmatch for the user-designated keyword (although not specifically described in this embodiment, discrimination between perfect match, partial match, match as a synonym can be reflected). A “Delivery to user area” column stores a flag pertaining to deliverability to the user area (location). A “Delivery within designated time” column stores a flag pertaining to deliverability within the predetermined time.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1215, in which an extraction process based on various flags added to the extracted goods.
That is, the process is a narrowing-down process of determining the extent to which unmatched goods are displayed, in addition to the goods matching the original search condition. For example, in a case where the search condition is within “1 hr.”, it is determined, according to a predetermined condition, whether to display the goods deliverable within “3 hrs.” or not, and whether to display the goods deliverable within “6 hrs.” in addition to the goods deliverable within “3 hrs.” or not.
The “predetermined condition” described above can be set in various views. The simplest setting is a scheme of including the adjacent condition. Specifically, for example, in the case where the designation is within “1 hr.”, “3 hrs.” (
Alternatively, referring to the sales performance, a determination reference that extracts the goods (leaves the goods to the list presented to the user) even with the delivery time period largely deviating to some extent if the goods sell well (popular goods) may be adopted. Data collected and accumulated in the data warehouse for analysis, which has already been described, may be analyzed to find various relationships, thereby allowing such a condition to be set or changed.
Furthermore, for the goods that are deliverable if the delivery destination is changed to the work site, a message stating this situation may be controlled to be displayed.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1216, in which the goods list as a result of the re-search (re-extraction) process is set in the display memory, and the re-search (re-extraction) process is finished (step S1217).
Next, referring to
In
The display switch field 1304 is an interface for switching displaying/not displaying the unpurchasable goods. In the diagram, a check field 13041 is checked to achieve setting for not displaying the unpurchasable goods. The goods list extracted in this case is analogous to that before improvement.
Below the display switch field 1304, the slider interface 1305 allowing the designation of the deliverable time to be changed is displayed. A knob 13051 of this interface is configured to be capable of changing a designation condition through a direct operation with a finger of the user or the like. On the slider interface 1305, the knob 13051 is at the position “(within) 1 hour” and serves as an interface for designation of narrowing down to the goods deliverable within one hour.
In a search result display field 1306 in
This diagram shows that the goods A and goods D among the goods A to I displayed in the search result display field 1306 are deliverable “within 30 min.”.
Furthermore, in this diagram, a pressable cart icon 13062 is also displayed. The function is analogous to that of the cart icon 9052. Results that cannot be displayed in the search result display field 1306 can be viewed through an operation to a scroll bar or the like, not shown.
The search condition in the screen example shown in
As a result, in the search result display field 1406, the group of goods deliverable within the time period designated through the slider interface (the goods A, B, D, E, F, G and H in
Specifically, the goods C in the search result display field 1406 is subjected to shaded display or a transparent process 14063 as goods undeliverable to the user area, and indication of this situation (“Unavailable in your residential area”) 14063b is displayed. The specific examples of the goods C include those in a case of falling into the “specific-area-limited goods” described above, and those in a case of falling into alcoholic goods with the sales license having not been obtained yet for the user area.
The user to whom the goods C are presented can change the delivery place in the display field 1401 to another deliverable place through a predetermined operation, not shown, cancel the shaded display or the transparent process 14063 (in this case, a check button allowing the goods I to be selected may be displayed), select the goods and add the goods into the cart 14062.
The goods I in the search result display field 1406 is subjected to shaded display or a transparent process 14064 as goods undeliverable within the designated time period, and indication of this situation (“Available in time slot of 3 days or less”) 14064b is displayed. A specific example of the goods I is the goods in a case where stocks are present in a remote “nearby base”. If the user to whom the goods I are presented is interested even without complete match with the original search condition, the user can cancel the shaded display or the transparent process 14064 through a predetermined operation, not shown, (in this case, a check button allowing the goods I to be selected may be displayed), select the goods and add the goods into the cart 14062.
[(2) Narrowing Down Based on User Location and/or User-Designated Area (Originating Place)]
In addition to the display of the list of goods deliverable within a time period designated through the slider interface, goods undeliverable within the designated time period are also displayed according to a predetermined display method (i.e., in a display mode allowing discrimination from the goods deliverable within the designated time period).
Goods that are deliverable physically within the time period designated through the slider interface but are unavailable in the user area are also displayed according to a predetermined display method (i.e., in a display mode allowing discrimination from the goods deliverable within the designated time period).
Irrespective of whether delivery can be made within the time period designated through the slider interface or not, goods available in areas other than the user-designated area are also displayed according to the predetermined display method (i.e., in a display mode allowing discrimination from the goods deliverable within the designated time period) if other conditions are satisfied.
Provided that goods newly displayed according to the improvements 2-1 to 2-3 are defined as “unpurchasable goods”, the user is allowed to switch whether to display the unpurchasable goods or not to display these goods (the mode before improvement) according to the user's selection.
As described above, advantages of displaying even goods undeliverable within the time period designated through the slider interface, with a specific decoration (shaded display or the like) being applied, and of displaying even goods that are unavailable in the user area or the designated area, according to a predetermined display method (with a specific image decoration, such as shaded display) being applied, are as follows.
First, the user is notified that delivery within the designated time period cannot be performed but stocks are secured in another store, a base in another area or the like, with a specific message being accompanied, for example, the goods are displayed accompanied by a message “available with a delivery time slot within 120 minutes” or the like in a case where the goods deliverable within 120 minutes are available even though the designated time is within 60 minutes, thereby allowing a latent demand having not been detected by the search method or the like before improvement to be captured because there is a high possibility that a user who thinks that he/she can wait further for an extra hour purchases the goods.
If there are stocks of goods that are unavailable in the user area or the designated area, these goods may be displayed accompanied by, for example, a message “Unavailable in your residential area” or a message “Unavailable in designated area”; accordingly, limited goods, indigenous products or the like available in a remote place or the like are possibly purchased even with concessions to the delivery time or the like. In this case, the latent demand having not been detected by the search method or the like before improvement can be captured.
As to situations of occurrence of goods unavailable in the user area or the designated area, the following situations are assumed. (a) Since the goods are goods limited to a specific area or goods indigenous to an area, the goods are unavailable in the nearby base or the designated area. Additionally, (b) since selling alcohol as goods requires an alcohol sales license for each sales area, the goods cannot be sold to areas for which the license has not been obtained.
An operation flow example for specific execution of the above technical concept is described in detail with reference to
In
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1503, in which the user's or customer's location (user area) and the area designated by the user (user-designated area) are read. Typically, the delivery place information indicated in the display field (e.g., 901) is used as the user area. The user-designated area is an area designated by the user to designate the production area of the goods or the like (reference numerals 1603 and 1703 described later with reference to
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1504, in which the time (e.g., the delivery time period of 10, 20, 30, 60 minutes, . . . , or the like in
Each of steps S1502 to S1504 can be individually skipped if the values (the keyword, the designated area, time, etc.) designated in the last process are unchanged at the start of the re-search (re-extraction) process.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1505, in which it is determined whether the “unpurchasable goods” is set to be displayed, or set not to be displayed. In one embodiment of the present invention, the setting is switchable by the user (specifically, reference numerals 1704 and 1704 to be described later with reference to
If the setting is “ON” (Yes) in step S1505, the processing proceeds to step S1506 in order to perform normal display that does not display the “unpurchasable goods”, and first, in this step, a goods extraction process with a keyword or the like is performed.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1507, in which goods are narrowed down to goods deliverable to the user area and/or goods deliverable from the designated area.
The processing then proceeds to step S1508, in which the goods are narrowed down to goods deliverable within the time period designated through the slider interface. The deliverable time on an item-by-item basis can be referred to as needed, by managing, by recalculating in each case, and by applying update control to the number of stocked goods at each base, the delivery time between bases, and the delivery time to the customer residence on the core system (or the management server).
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1509, in which the goods list as a result of the re-search (re-extraction) process is set in the display memory, and the re-search (re-extraction) process is finished (step S1517). Note that the process order of steps S1507 to S1508 is allowed to be appropriately changed.
On the contrary, if the setting is “OFF” (No) in step S1505, the processing proceeds to step S1510 in order to display also “unpurchasable goods”, and first, in this step, a goods extraction process with a keyword or the like is performed.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1511, in which the goods deliverable to the user area and/or the goods deliverable from the designated area are extracted, and a specific flag E is added to the extracted goods. Next, the processing proceeds to step S1512, in which a flag F, which is different from the specific flag E described above, is added to the goods undeliverable to the user area and/or the goods undeliverable from the designated area.
The processing then proceeds to step S1513, in which the goods deliverable within the time period designated through the slider interface are extracted, and a specific flag G is added to the extracted goods. Next, the processing proceeds to step S1514, in which a flag H, which is different from the specific flag G described above, is added to the goods undeliverable within the designated time period.
Note that the number of types of each of the flags E to H is not necessarily limited to one. For example, the flag F and the flag H may each include multiple types of flags. The process order of steps S1511 and S1512, and the process order of steps S1513 and S1514 may be appropriately changed.
As a specific example, an extraction process example is described where the keyword is “sake”, the user area (user location) is “Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo”, the user-designated area is “Kanto, Shin-Etsu” and “Tokai, Hokuriku, Kinki”, and the designated delivery time is “By tomorrow”. First, in step S1510, it is assumed that 10,000 items of goods extracted with the keyword “Junmai Daiginjo” are hit. In step S1511, a flag “0” (indicating that the goods match the original condition) is added to each of (9,900 items of) goods deliverable to the user area and (1,300 items of) goods deliverable from the user-designated area. In S1512, a flag “1” is added to (100 items of) goods undeliverable to the user area, and a flag “one or more” is added to (8,700 items of) goods undeliverable from the user-designated area according to the distance from the area. An example is as follows. A flag “1” is added to areas “Tohoku” and “Chugoku, Shikoku”, which are near to the user-designated area “Kanto, Shin-Etsu” and “Tokai, Hokuriku, Kinki”. A flag “2” is added to farther areas “Hokkaido” and “Kyushu”. A flag “3” is added to a much farther area “Okinawa”.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1513, in which a flag “0” (indicating that the goods match the original condition) is added to goods deliverable within the time period designated through the slider interface. In step S1514, a flag “one or more” according to the time length is added to the goods undeliverable within the designated time period. For example, a flag “1” is added to the goods deliverable within three days, and a flag “2” is added to the goods deliverable within five days.
For example, the goods subjected to the flag process as described above is managed according to the following table (this table is appropriately created by a function, such as of a relational database).
In the above table, a “Goods No.” column stores a management number of the goods hit for the keyword (accompanying information, such as the goods name, manufacturer, and price, can be appropriately extracted as required). A “Keyword” column stores a result of match/unmatch for the user-designated keyword (although not specifically described in this embodiment, discrimination between perfect match, partial match, match as a synonym can be reflected). A “Delivery to user area” column stores a flag pertaining to deliverability to the user area (location). A “Designated area” column stores a flag of whether the goods are deliverable from the user-designated area or not. A “Delivery within designated time” column stores a flag pertaining to deliverability within the predetermined time.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1515, in which an extraction process based on various flags added to the extracted goods.
That is, the process is a narrowing-down process of determining the extent to which unmatched goods are displayed, in addition to the goods matching the original search condition. For example, in a case where the search condition is within “1 hr.”, it is determined, according to a predetermined condition, whether to display the goods deliverable within “3 hrs.” or not, and whether to display the goods deliverable within “6 hrs.” in addition to the goods deliverable within “3 hrs.” or not. Likewise, in a case where the user-designated area is designated as “Capital area” for the search condition, it is determined whether to display also goods that can be shipped from “Kanto, Shin-Etsu” areas or not, and whether to display also goods that can be shipped from “Tohoku” area in addition to the goods that can be shipped from “Kanto, Shin-Etsu” areas, on the basis of a predetermined condition.
The “predetermined condition” can be set in various views. The simplest setting is a scheme of including the adjacent condition. Specifically, the scheme may be a process of including “3 hrs.” (
Alternatively, referring to the sales performance, a determination reference that extracts the goods (leaves the goods to the list presented to the user) even with the delivery time period and the designated area that largely deviate to some extent if the goods sell well (popular goods) may be adopted. Data collected and accumulated in the data warehouse for analysis, which has already been described, may be analyzed to find various relationships, thereby allowing such a condition to be set or changed.
Next, the processing proceeds to step S1516, in which the goods list as a result of the re-search (re-extraction) process is set in the display memory, and the re-search (re-extraction) process is finished (step S1517).
Next, referring to
The display switch field 1604 is an interface for switching displaying/not displaying the unpurchasable goods. In the diagram, a check field 16041 is checked to achieve setting for not displaying the unpurchasable goods. The goods list extracted in this case is analogous to that before improvement.
Below the display switch field 1604, the slider interface 1605 allowing the designation of the deliverable time to be changed is displayed. A knob 16051 of this interface is configured to be capable of changing a designation condition through a direct operation with a finger of the user or the like. On the slider interface 1605, the knob 16051 is at the position “(within) 1 hour” and serves as an interface for designation of narrowing down to the goods deliverable within one hour.
In a search result display field 1606 in
This diagram shows that the goods A and goods D among the goods A to I displayed in the search result display field 1606 are deliverable “within 30 min.”.
Furthermore, in this diagram, a pressable cart icon 16062 is also displayed. The function is analogous to that of the cart icon 9052. Results that cannot be displayed in the search result display field 1606 can be viewed through an operation to a scroll bar or the like, not shown.
The search condition in the screen example shown in
As a result, in the search result display field 1706, the group of goods deliverable from the designated area and the group of goods deliverable within the time period designated through the slider interface (the goods A, B, D, E, F, G and H in
Specifically, the goods C in the search result display field 1706 is subjected to shaded display or a transparent process 17063 as goods undeliverable from the designated area, and indication of this situation (“Unavailable from designated area”) 17063b is displayed. A specific example of the goods C is a case of presence of a highly popular Junmai Daiginjo brewed in Iwate Prefecture in Tohoku. If the user to whom the goods C are presented is interested even without complete match with the original search condition, the user can cancel the shaded display or the transparent process 17063 through a predetermined operation, not shown, (in this case, a check button allowing the goods C to be selected may be displayed), select the goods and add the goods into the cart 17062.
The goods I in the search result display field 1706 is subjected to shaded display or a transparent process 17064 as goods undeliverable within the designated time period, and indication of this situation (“Available in time slot of 3 days or less”) 17064b is displayed. A specific example of the goods I is a case of presence of a highly popular Junmai Daiginjo brewed in Hiroshima Prefecture in Chugoku-Shikoku. If the user to whom the goods I are presented is interested even without complete match with the original search condition, the user can cancel the shaded display or the transparent process 17064 through a predetermined operation, not shown, (in this case, a check button allowing the goods I to be selected may be displayed), select the goods and add the goods into the cart 17062.
That is, in a case where the delivery base is assumed to be the Capital area and the user location (user area) 1801 is “Shinjuku, Tokyo”, as shown in
The user location is assumed to be the common location, which is “Shinjuku, Tokyo”. In
As described above, the goods search method and the like according to one embodiment of the present invention can adopt a flexible interface.
Based on the specific examples, the embodiments of the goods search method and the like have thus been described above. Alternatively, the embodiments of the present invention may be exemplary embodiments not only of a method or a program for executing the system or the apparatus but also of a storage medium storing the program (e.g., an optical disk, a magneto optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a CD-RW, a magnetic tape, a hard disk, a memory card) and the like.
The embodiments of the program are not limited to application programs, such as object code to be complied by a compiler, and program code to be executed by an interpreter, but may be an embodiment of a program module to be implemented in an operating system.
Not all the processes of the program are necessarily executed on the CPU on a control board. Alternatively, a configuration may be adopted where some or all of the processes are executed by another processing unit (DPS or the like) implemented on an extension board added to the board or on an extension unit, as required.
All the constituent elements described in this Specification (including the scope of claims, the abstract and the drawings) and/or all the steps of all the methods or processes disclosed therein can be combined to achieve any of the combinations excluding mutually exclusive combinations.
The characteristics described in this Specification (including the scope of claims, the abstract and the drawings) can each be replaced with alternative characteristics operating for the same object, equivalent objects, or similar objects, unless clearly denied. Consequently, unless clearly denied, each of the disclosed characteristics is only an example of a comprehensive series of the same or equivalent characteristics.
Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to any of the specific configurations of the embodiments described above. The present invention is broadly applicable to all the novel characteristics described in this Specification (including the scope of claims, the abstract and the drawings) or combinations thereof, or all the aforementioned novel methods or processing steps, or combinations thereof.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-169435 | Aug 2016 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2017/025757 | 7/14/2017 | WO | 00 |
