WO2001065459A1

WO2001065459A1 - Retail sale system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2001065459A1
Application number: PCT/US2001/006895
Authority: WO
Inventors: Joseph L. Stern
Original assignee: Stern Telecommunications Corp.
Priority date: 2000-03-02
Filing date: 2001-03-02
Publication date: 2001-09-07
Also published as: AU2001241970A1

Abstract

Significant benefits are gained by joining Net shops (7) (on-line retailers and service organizations) and shops (2) (conventional retailers and organizations) together. A shop offers service or merchandise to customers in the normal fashion, selling the stock or service it has available at the time. If the desired goods or services are not available in the shop, the shopkeeper accesses a terminal and checks 'stock'. The shopkeeper advises the customer about the availability of the desired goods or service and offers to have them in the store by a certain date and/or have them delivered from the shop (or shipped directly) to the customer.

Description

RETAIL SALE SYSTEM AND METHOD

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to computerized methods and systems for selling merchandise and services and, more particularly, concerns a computerized system and method for supplementing merchandise and services offered by conventional businesses with those offered online.

Background of the Invention

While millions of people shop on the Internet, there are millions more who are not comfortable shopping with disembodied sales screens. The on-line retailers and service organizations (Net shops) try to compete with conventional retailers and organizations (shops) , but they cannot hope to match and/or replace the personal service of conventional shops, including the comfort of seeing and "feeling" the goods, and the confidence gained by talking with a knowledgeable salesperson.

On the other hand, shops, particularly boutiques, continue to suffer from the continually increasing burden of overhead. Two major components of overhead are the cost of physical ^'space and the cost of maintaining inventory. Moreover, the two cost are related in that maintaining a comprehensive inventory drives up real estate expenses. The reality of the situation is that increasing overhead is making it ever more difficult for small shops to stay in business, to the point that major chain stores have virtually replaced small shops in certain industries (e.g. computers, bookstores, and record stores). A business system than made large volumes of inventory conveniently available to shops on relatively short notice would go a long way towards improving the economics of operating shops, preserving our tradition of small neighborhood shops. In accordance with the present invention significant benefits are gained by joining the Net shops and the shops together. A shop offers service or merchandise to customers in the normal fashion, selling the stock or service it has available at the time. If the desired goods or services are not available in the shop, the shopkeeper accesses a terminal and checks "stock." The shopkeeper advises the customer about the availability of the desired goods or service and offers to have them in the store by a certain date and/or have them delivered from the shop (or shipped directly) to the customer. The sale is made in the normal fashion with the customer paying at the shop in cash or by credit card. The customer is pleased to have the goods or services in a timely fashion, the shop makes a sale that might otherwise be lost, and keeps the customer. The Net shop makes a new sale to an associated shop with no credit concerns, the customer has no e- commerce complications, and both the shop and Net shop profit.

If there is a need for a customer to review choices or options, the store can use the monitor display system of the terminal to show the customer available options, and/or can let the customer browse through the store-specific personalized presentation of the items of interest. The shop's display shows prices adjusted or personalized automatically to give the shop the desired profit margin and delivery options and other business matters. On the shop's terminal, alternate "backrooms" or suppliers can be searched, orders placed, delivery arranged, and all financial matters handled by a preset business agreement relative to the retailer's credit with the suppliers.

The customer' s display shows only the items and the pricing offered by the store, or optionally, pricing is given to the shopper verbally by the shopkeeper. The shops and the Net shops have made prior arrangements with a "facilitator" (herein referred to as e- Retail) who makes the business arrangements between both entities (and banks) , to provide access to the desired collection of suppliers, to establish priority services, to offer wholesale pricing which may be time/volume based, close-out pricing based, or simply negotiated, and to "push" information to the retailer by "Webcasting" or automated downloading on a regular basis. The shop' s computer is equipped by the e-Retail supplied software to "personalize" the incoming pushed-data so that it matches the shop's image, and presents the customer's display unit with the format and the features and information selected by the shop, with pricing selected by the shop to provide the desired profit margins .

Brief Description of the Drawings

The foregoing brief description, as well as other objects features and advantages of the present invention will be understood more completely from the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments in accordance with the present invention, with reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a functional block diagram of a system embodying the present invention, which useful in explaining its operation; and

Figure 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating the operational relationship among the various parties involved in a preferred system in accordance with the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments

A "third party" association/organization (e-Retail) joins Conventional retailers and service agencies of all types (shops) with on-line retailers and service organizations (Net shops) who act as the shops' secondary or back-up suppliers. When a shop does not have the item or service requested by a customer immediately available, the shopkeeper can use the system to contact the cognizant Net shop, either on-line or from an automatically updated and shop-personalized cache, to check the availability of the item or service and arrange to provide it to the customer. Additionally, the shopkeeper can use the system to display alternative items or optional services to the customer, using the extensive number of Net shop offerings to make a sale, and satisfy a customer.

When the customer selects the item or service on the display system terminal, the shopkeeper uses a one-key or touch screen entry system to order the "item" for delivery to the shop, or to customer specified location. The "item" is charged to the shopkeeper' s account with e-Retail, and the customer pays the shopkeeper in the fashion used by the shop. The shopkeeper can maintain a file of the regular customers' in-store credit account and/or Bank card numbers, regular shipping address, past purchase history, sizes, and other items. These can be "called up" automatically when a sale is being made, followed by charging the purchase, confirming the delivery and printing a receipt for the customer. In-store credit transactions as well as automatic bank credit card authorization services can be built into the program. e-Retail can be organized to perform a number of functions, which can include the following: - serve as a "bank", transferring funds between the shop and the Net shop,

- issue charge cards, and/or keep information on charge and Bank cards, maintaining related records of customer preferences, past purchases, sizes and shipping addresses. - supply and maintain the related shop and Net shop personalizing and proxy software, computer, display and printer system equipment, communication system installations and connections .

- serve as the designated portal if the Internet is the selected infrastructure, or - operate through a local direct phone call to it's servers.

The system can be viewed as an on-line virtual shopping mall, augmented with real conventional, and face-to-face shopping.

Business Method (the CYBER-STOCKROOM model) E-Retail presents a business plan to shops and net shops showing each entity how it can benefit from affiliation.

The e-Retail business plan includes proposed agreements with all of the proposed "links" for supplying the shop's goods and/or services, including Net shops as well as the shop's present wholesale suppliers.

The agreements can include, among other elements:

- schedule of each Net shop's discount structure offerings for shop's purchases,

- agreements with shop's wholesalers as to the types of service they are willing to offer

- proposal for computer display creative services

- presentation of the computer screen personalization offerings and options which display all shop and Net shop items and services as being offered by the shop

- proposal for the supply, installation and maintenance of computer system

- proposal for e-Retail' s financial service and/or banking offerings

- e-Retail' s fee structure for Net shop and shop services

Equipment An individual plan is developed for each shop, covering the number of computers, servers, single and dual monitor stations, credit card readers and printers required. For small shops a single, modest speed, business-type computer may suffice. Large shops may require a server with thin clients and an internal network. In all cases, a computer or server cache size is selected to match the offerings, since the majority of information to be used is either Webcast or automatically downloaded. A DSL connection, always-on, is the preferable communication option.

Each computer station or client chosen for use by both the shopkeeper and the customer will be equipped with two video cards feeding two separate monitors. Each monitor may display the same or different information as selected by the software commands for the sales or inquiry event in progress at the shop. The monitors or display stations may have keyboards for use by the shopkeeper and may be equipped with "touch screens" for control of the simplified and minimized commands offered to the customer.

Software The computer system is programed by e-Retail with presentation and graphics supplied by the shop and/or the Net shop, and/or the wholesaler or, can be custom developed by e- Retail to represent the items and services offered by the shop, This may also include goods and services the shop wishes to add to its offerings through the availability of the Net shop inventories .

All computer presentations are personalized as outlined in the simplified example below:

If the shop is a small bookstore, and the selected Net shop is www. amazon. com , a number of selected amazon.com web pages are made available, and are personalized with the small bookstore identification replacing amazon.com logos and identification . Prices for the books being offered are personalized by the software to include the shop markup, shipping costs, and the potential Net shop discount offered to the shop. The final price to the customer is shown on the customer monitor while the pricing details are available to be shown on the shopkeeper's display.

The software for this small bookstore can also be provided to interpret a credit card input or a typed name input and to present a listing of the customer' s previous book purchases, in a manner similar to that offered by amazon. com.

The small bookstore shop may elect to add gifts, flowers, and stationary items to its offerings from its "virtual back room" . e-Retail can accommodate such requests by making Net shop arrangements with www. holiday-gifts . com www. wellhome . com , www. am-21. com, or www. creative-cards . com, among others .

Support Marketing and service support can be offered to participants by e-Retail, using their own staff and consultants or using the Net shop's staff and experiences.

Cooperative advertising programs can be developed, which may include wholesalers who wish to promote brand names. The CYBER-STOCKROOM model may present a very appealing business method which can help shops compete by (1) offering fulfillment of almost every customer's request, (2) greatly expanding their offerings, (3) showing their customers that they can offer the same range of goods and services offered on the Web, and (4) showing that they can offer convenient one-on-one "friendly" services at the same time.

The Net shops are trying many different and expensive marketing campaigns to build their customer base. ^' The immense universe offered by the "cloud" of the web leaves them open to all manner of competitors who can create a copy-cat Net shop startup with minimum investment and seriously cut into sales. The Net shop may find the CYBER-STOCKROOM model a very appealing business method which can help improve their income by serving a new level of customer. Both the Net shops and the shops may be willing to pay an entry fee, or "franchise fee" to participate in the CYBER- STOCKROOM model.. A modest $1,000 initiation fee or "advance " investment against future fees, from a few thousand potential participants, would provide significant income to help in setting up the e-Retail company. Wholesalers would appear to be the natural "stockroom" suppliers, and they may be the best source for certain goods, particularly wholesalers who keep large stocks and are equipped for "just-in-time" shipping. The Net Shops, however, perform an aggregation service, and their number and variety of goods can offer a larger active stockroom than the wholesaler that serves the shop. The CYBER-STOCKROOM should include both .wholesalers and Net Shops .

The preferred embodiment will now be described further in terms of a number of operational scenarios.

SHOP SCENARIO I: CUSTOMER REQUESTS ITEM NOT IN STOCK (Fig. 1)

(a ) Shop customer requests an item that is not in stock

(b) Shopkeeper uses Shop terminal (1 ) to enter class/type/item information

(c) Shop computer (2 ) searches locally cached data, displaying available choices of items/categories/alternatives/sugges ions/sources

(d) If item/alternative not in cache (2) , Shopkeeper activates "more" request, which initiates search engine to canvass on-line Branch Shops (if any) , then Net shops (7) , then wholesalers, and other pre-programmed sources on the network (4) .

(e) Shopkeeper makes selection (s) and directs customer- filtered information display, automatically generated by software in the Shop computer, to Customer terminal (3) . This, display may contain the shop pricing, delivery options, suggestions for alternate offerings, related items, as well as "regular customer" -related information from previous visits to the sho . (f) Customer observes, and can use a touch-screen to navigate through selections, or Shopkeeper can assist the Customer, on the Customer terminal (3 ) or remotely from the Shop terminal (1) .

(g) When an item is selected the Shopkeeper can enter a request/query/bid to the computer (2) which is connected to the network (4) and to the selected one or more of branch shops, wholesalers, and/or Net shops (7), and receive pricing/availability/delivery information.

(h) If Customer agrees to purchase, Shopkeeper enters "buy", indicates delivery to Shop, or to customer, or to gift recipient, etc., entering any required information on the keyboard (1 ) , or using a macro to retrieve the customer's address from store files, etc.

(i) Order is sent over the network (4) , charges are automatically billed to Shop, debited from Shop's bank or factor account, C.O.D. or handled by another preselected financial procedure .

(j) Shopkeeper's order entry automatically prepares a charge slip or cash receipt for Customer, using store records for charge account, Bank card account, lay-away account or cash transaction.

(k) Customer signs on Electronic Tablet, the transaction is complete and a receipt is printed on the Shop printer (5) .

(1) Shop records are updated, confirmation from the supplier received over the network (4) is logged, a reminder is posted so that the customer can be called if the goods are being delivered to the Shop, a "Thank You" letter to the Customer may^¬ be generated, and if it is part of the business plan, the transaction is reported to the e-Retail transaction center (6) SHOP SCENARIO II CUSTOMER MAKES A PURCHASE (Fig. 1)

(a) Shop customer makes a purchase.

(b) Shopkeeper suggests complimentary/supplementary items not part of Shop regular offerings (to add to a gift, enhance a purchase, etc.) .

(c) Shopkeeper uses Shop terminal (1 ) to enter class/type/item information for complimentary/supplementary search, or purchased item for enhancement search) .

(d) Shop computer searches locally cached data (2 ) , displaying available choices of items/categories/alternatives/suggestions /sources

(e) If item/categories/suggestions /sources not in cache, Shopkeeper activates "more" request which initiates search engine (6) to canvass on-line Net shops over the network (4) , then affinity Shops, and other pre-programmed sources.

(f) Shopkeeper makes selectio (s) and directs customer- filtered information display automatically generated by software in the Shop computer, to Customer terminal (3) . This display may contain the shop pricing, delivery options, suggestions for alternate offerings, related items, as well as "regular customer" -related information from previous visits to the sho .

(g) Customer observes, and can use touch-screen (3 ) to navigate through selections, or Shopkeeper can assist the Customer, on the Customer terminal (2) or remotely on the Shop terminal (1 ) .

(h) When an item is selected the Shopkeeper can enter a request/query/bid and receive pricing/availability/delivery information. (i) If Customer agrees to purchase, Shopkeeper enters "buy", indicates delivery to Shop, to customer, to gift recipient, etc., entering any required information on the keyboard, or using a macro to give customers address from store files, etc.

(j) Order is sent, charges are automatically billed to Shop, debited from Shop's bank or factor account, C.O.D., or handled by another preselected financial procedure.

(k) Shopkeeper's order entry prepares a charge slip or cash receipt for Customer, using store records for charge account, Bank card account, lay-away account or cash transaction.

(1 ) Customer signs on Electronic Tablet, transaction is complete, and a receipt is printed on the shop printer (5) .

(m) Shop records are updated, confirmation from the supplier is logged, a reminder is posted so that the customer can be called if the goods are being delivered to the Shop, a "Thank You" letter to the Customer may be generated, and if the business plans includes it, the transaction is reported to the e-Retail transaction center (6)

SHOP SCENARIO III: CUSTOMER BROWSING FOR THINGS TO BUY (Fig. 1)

(a) Shop customer is browsing.

(b) Shopkeeper suggests a visit to the Shop computer system (2) to review items available in the categories discussed.

(c) Shopkeeper uses Shop terminal (l)to enter class/type/item information for search.

(d) Shop computer (2) searches locally cached data, displaying available choices of items/categories/alternatives/suggestions /sources

(e) If item/categories/suggestions /sources not in cache, Shopkeeper activates "more" request which initiates search engine to canvass on-line Net shops (7 ) , then affinity Shops, and other pre-programmed sources.

(f) Shopkeeper makes selection (s) and directs customer- filtered information display automatically generated by software in the Shop computer, to Customer terminal (3) . This display may contain the shop pricing, delivery options, suggestions for alternate offerings, related items, as well as "regular customer" -related information from previous visits to the sho .

(g) Shopkeeper may add items if Customer wishes to browse more .

(h) Customer observes, and can use touch-screen (3) to navigate through selections, or Shopkeeper can assist the

Customer, on the Customer terminal (3) or remotely on the Shop terminal (1) . (Customer pricing is shown on the Customer display , while the Shop display can indicate costs, discounts, etc.)

(i) When an item is selected the Shopkeeper can enter a request/query/bid and receive pricing/availability/delivery information from the cache (2) or from oth4er sources on te network (4) .

(j) If Customer agrees to purchase, Shopkeeper enters

"buy", indicates delivery to Shop, to customer, to gift recipient, etc., entering any required information on the keyboard, or using a macro to give customers address from store files, etc.

(k) Order is sent, charges are automatically (a) billed to Shop, (b) debited from Shop's bank or factor account, (c) C.O.D., or (d) handled by another preselected financial procedure .

(1) Shopkeeper's order entry prepares a charge slip or cash receipt for Customer, using store records for charge account, Bank card account, lay-away account or cash transaction.

(m) Customer signs on Electronic Tablet, the transaction is complete, and a receipt is printed on the shop printer (5) .

(n) Shop records are updated, confirmation from the supplier is logged, a reminder is posted so that the customer can be called if the goods are being delivered to the Shop, a "Thank You" letter to the Customer may be generated, and if the business plans includes it, the transaction is reported to the e-Retail transaction center (6).

OPERATIONS SCENARIO I

PERSONALIZATION OF NET SHOP INFORMATION (Fig. 2)

(a) Net Shop (7) and e-Retail (6) conclude business arrangements

(b) Agree on items to be offered, pricing, discounts, commissions, financing/banking, services offered, and fixed and/or interactive Web pages that will be available for personalization use by Shop (2) .

(c) Shop (2) and e-Retail (6) conclude business arrangements

(d) They agree on Net shops (7 ) , branch Shops, Wholesalers, and others to be available, items to be offered, pricing, discounts, commissions, financing/banking, services offered, and fixed and/or interactive Web pages that will be available for personalization use by Shop (2) , as well as equipment to be supplied, installed and maintained.

(e) Shop (2) agrees to perform local personalization of information , or accept personalization performed on Shop's behalf by e-Retail (6) .

(f) Web pages and other catalog information is supplied to Shop (2) or e-Retail (6) for personalization and is cached at either and/or both locations .

(g) New or updated information is Webcast to Shops performing local personalization, or to e-Retail (6) which in turn transmits personalized information and/or updates to individual or groups of Shops .

(h) For interactive Web pages, such as book searches and reviews, such as, e.g. from Amazon. com , personalization is performed at the Shop, interposing the Shop (2) identification is place of Amazon.com identification .

(i) For interactive Web pages such as style and color selection of clothing, personalization is performed at the Shop (2) , interposing the Shop (2) identification in place of the Net Shop (7) or service company supplying the service.

Although a preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that many additions, modifications and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the accompanying claims .

Claims

What Is Claimed Is:

1. A system utilizing a computer at a point-of-sale location to assist sales personnel with the sale of merchandise and services at the location, comprising: multiple display devices at the location to permit sales personnel and customers to view separately information personalized for them and relating to selectable merchandise and services; a computer connection to a first central data bank of merchandise and services available on-site; a computer connection to a second central data bank of merchandise and services available from other locations; a computer connection to a third central data bank of related and complementary merchandise and services available from other sources.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the merchandise or services in the first or second data bank are site specific to the point-of -sale location.

3. The system of claim 1 or 2 wherein the merchandise or services of the first data bank are personalized to one of the point-of -sale location and the customer

4. The system of claim 1 or 2 wherein one of the first, second and third data banks provides availability, pricing and discount information for the respective merchandise and services .

5. The system of claim 1, 2 or 4 wherein one of the second and third data banks provides delivery cost and sales commission information for the respective merchandise and services .

6. A system utilizing a computer at a point-of-sale location to assist sales personnel with the sale of merchandise and services at the location, comprising: multiple display devices at the location to permit sales personnel and customers to view separately information personalized for them and relating to selectable merchandise and services; a computer connection to a fourth central data bank of site-specific personalized customer purchase history and credit information; and a computer connection to a fifth central data bank of credit reference information,

7. A system utilizing a computer at a point-of-sale location to assist sales personnel to consummate a sale of merchandise and services at the location, comprising: multiple display devices at the location to permit sales personnel and customers to view separately information personalized for them and relating to selectable merchandise and services; and a computer connection to a sales fulfillment and inventory control system for processing orders, deliveries, sales discounts, commissions and billing.

8. The system of any one of Claims 1, 2, 4, 6 or 7, wherein the customer's display device is located remote from the point-of-sale location and connected to the system via a network.

9. The system of any one of Claims 1, 2, 4, 6, or 7 , wherein a single display device is located at the point-of-sale location and the display of sales personnel personalized information and customer personalized information is controlled by sales personnel.

10. A method utilizing a computer at a point-of-sale location to assist sales personnel with the sale of merchandise and services at the location, comprising: providing multiple display devices at the location to permit sales personnel and customers to view separately information personalized for them and relating to selectable merchandise and services; providing a computer connection to a first central data bank of merchandise and services available on-site; providing a computer connection to a second central data bank of merchandise and services available from other locations; providing a computer connection to a third central data bank of related and complementary merchandise and services available from other sources.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the merchandise or^' services in the first or second data bank are site specific to the point-of -sale location.

12. The method of claim 10 or 11 wherein the merchandise or services of the first data bank are personalized to one of the point-of -sale location and the customer

13. The method of claim 10 or 11 wherein one of the first, second and third data banks provides availability, pricing and discount information for the respective merchandise and services .

14. The method of claim 10, 11 or 13 wherein one of the second and third data banks provides delivery cost and sales commission information for the respective merchandise and services .

15. A method utilizing a computer at a point-of-sale location to assist sales personnel with the sale of merchandise and services at the location, comprising: providing multiple display devices at the location to permit sales personnel and customers to view separately information personalized for them and relating to selectable merchandise and services; providing a computer connection to a fourth central data bank of site-specific personalized customer purchase history and credit information; and providing a computer connection to a fifth central data bank of credit reference information,

16. A method utilizing a computer at a point-of-sale location to assist sales personnel to consummate a sale of merchandise and services at the location, comprising: providing multiple display devices at the location to permit sales personnel and customers to view separately information personalized for them and relating to selectable merchandise and services; and providing a computer connection to a sales fulfillment and inventory control system for processing orders, deliveries, sales discounts, commissions and billing.

17. The method of any one of Claims 10, 11, 13, 15 or 16, wherein the customer's display device is located remote from the point-of-sale location and connected to the system via a network.

18. The method of any one of Claims 10, 11, 13, 15, or 16, wherein a single display device is located at the point-of- sale location and the display of sales personnel personalized information and customer personalized information is controlled by sales. personnel

19. A method for selling merchandise and services at a point-of-sale in a physical shop, comprising the steps of providing a computer system with a communication link to be operated by sales personnel at the point-of-sale when a customer seeks a product which is not available on site, the sales personnel communicating with an online source of the sought product as if the source were the shop' s stockroom, whereby the shop may make sale and delivery of the sought product as if it were its own.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising making use of an intermediary party to pre-arrange the business relationship between the shop and the online source, including one of: providing financial and credit relationships therebetween or with suppliers, providing the hardware or software for the computer system s as to provide a custom appearance, and providing marketing or promotional services to the shop.