1
DUTY-FREE ARTICLE SHOPPING MALL
OPERATING METHOD ON COMPUTER
NETWORK AND SYSTEM USING THE
SAME
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical field
The present invention relates to a duty-free article shopping mall operating method and a system using the same for providing a user whose exit and/or entry is confirmed with services such as order, payment and delivery of duty-free articles via computer network.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The number of people having a business trip or enjoying a journey has steadily increased in accordance with globalization and a duty-free article market has been broaden. However it is inconvenient that a client should purchase duty-free articles in a duty-free shop of a departure nation or in an airplane and then carry the articles to a destined country in person in order to purchase the duty-free articles.
Also, resulting from lack of information such as allowance limit of the duty-free articles and customs system of the destined country, various losses and troubles may happen.
And there are disadvantages that the client has difficulty in acquiring information about the duty-free articles of each nation and each airline wastes unnecessary costs and labor forces in accordance with shipment of the articles.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the present invention is designed to overcome such disadvantages and inconvenience. It is an object of the present invention to provide a duty-free article shopping mall operating method and a system using the same for providing foreign travelers or the public with information related to duty-free articles of all the countries of the world and the other useful information and providing services such as order, payment and delivery of the duty-free articles only to a user whose exit and/or entry is confirmed (if the user is a foreigner, entry of the user should be confirmed, while, if the user is a native, exit of the user should be confirmed) via computer network for expansion of duty-free article markets and client's benefit.
In order to achieve the object, the duty-free article shopping mall operating method of the present invention on computer network interconnecting one or more client machine, an information institution for inquiry of exit and entry status of the user and an approval center for credit inquiry with a server of a duty-free article shopping mall site, the operating method comprises the steps of: (a) introducing duty-free article related-information or service information supported by duty-free shops of numerous nations to the client machine connected to the server through the network, and determining what kind of information is selected by the user; (b) requiring the user to input personal information and credit information in case that the user selects information of purchasing the duty-free articles, identifying and confirming the inputted information by comparing with information in server and inquiring the inputted information via the network, and determining whether the user has authorization of purchasing the dutyfree articles in accordance with exit and/or entry status and credit status of the user; and (c) providing the user having the authorization of purchasing the duty-free articles with the selected duty-free article-related information and/or the service information.
2
Also, the step (b) in the present invention comprises the steps of identifying and confirming the inputted personal information by comparing with the registration information in the server, transmitting the identified and confirmed
5 personal information to the information institution for inquiry of exit and/or entry status of the user in case that the user is registered, and comparing the personal information with a list of inbound and/or outbound passengers from the information institution via the network; transmitting the
10 inputted credit information to the approval center for credit inquiry via the network in case that exit and/or entry of the user is confirmed; and allowing the authorized user to reconfirm a list of the ordered articles and to confirm a payment list in accordance with a result of the credit inquiry.
15 The duty-free article shopping mall operating system on computer network according to the present invention for achieving the object connecting one or more client machine to a server of a duty-free article shopping mall site, wherein the server forms an introduction information database for
20 introducing duty-free article-related information or service information supported by duty-free shops of numerous nations to the client machine through the network and a registration information database for determining whether the user is registered; and wherein the server builds in an
25 application programmed for determining what kind of information is selected by the user, requiring the user to input personal information and credit information in case that the user selects information of purchasing the duty-free articles, identifying and confirming the inputted information by
30 comparing with information in the registration information database and inquiring the inputted information via the network, determining whether the user has authorization of purchasing the duty-free articles in accordance with exit and/or entry status and credit status of the user, and provid
35 ing the selected duty-free article-related information or service information in case that the user has authorization of purchasing the duty-free articles.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
40
These and other features, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings. In the drawings: 45 FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a duty-free article shopping mall operating system according to the present invention; and
FIG. 2 is a flow chart for illustrating a duty-free article shopping mall operating method according to the present 50 invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
55 Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a duty-free article shopping mall operating system according to the present inven
60 tion and FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a duty-free article shopping mall operating method according to the present invention.
Referring to FIG. 1, numerous client machines 13, 14, a financial institution 16 such as a bank or a credit card company, an information institution 18 for managing a list
65 of inbound or outbound passengers and corresponding information, an approval center 15 such as VAN co. or KFTC(Korea financial telecommunications and clearings
