Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Electronic shopping
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-25
2003-01-28
Millin, Vincent (Department: 3624)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Electronic shopping
C235S378000, C340S643000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06513015
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to electronic systems for facilitating point-of-sale retail transactions and, more particularly, to a computer based shopping system which uses a wireless ID card or tag and a videograph of an identified customer to provide customer recognition information to in-store terminals
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Contemporary retail stores compete fiercely to establish and maintain the store loyalty of their present customers and to attract new customers to their stores by offering various degrees of personalized service which is adapted to meet the particular expectations and needs of each member of a highly diversified clientele. Establishing personalized service, matched to a particularized customer base, particularly in large department stores, requires the taking and maintaining of large amounts of data and the processing of such data so as to compile a shopping profile of each customer.
Most modern retail stores implement some form of computerization or electronic technology in their operations. This typically consists of using point-of-sale (POS) systems for automating checkout procedures and for assisting sales personnel to improve the efficiency of one-to-one merchandising and customer assistance. POS systems generally include one or more automated check-out terminals which are capable of sensing and interpreting a Universal Product Code (UPC) which is printed or tagged on each item of merchandise to be purchased. Conventionally, a POS terminal, a kiosk terminal or a sales person's hand-held terminal is coupled to a computer system which recognizes and processes the UPC information. The database, accessible by the computer system, includes a list of merchandise items stocked by the store, a UPC for each of these items, and various types of merchandise identification information, including pricing, inventory, style, color, etc., associated with each UPC. When a customer is ready to make a purchase, a store clerk might use an automated POS terminal to read the UPC markings on each of the customer's selections. The computer interprets the UPC, accesses the database to determine the price for each item and maintains a running total of the purchase price.
Many stores also use computerized systems to convey pricing and other information about its merchandise to its customers and to acquire information about the kinds of merchandise purchased by a customer. Frequencies of purchase, the effect of advertising and in-store promotional activities, and other indicia of a customer's shopping habits. A retail store might use this information in order to control the costs of providing personalized services and products to its customers and to provide increased convenience and flexibility to the shopping experience.
Use of customer transaction information additionally might allow a retail store to establish and maintain a shopping history record of purchases by particular customers so as to award loyalty or incentive points to a customer based on the amount and frequency of their transactions. For example, a threshold number of loyalty or incentive points might qualify a customer for participation in a discount program or some similar promotion, in a manner similar to airlines awarding frequent-flyer mileage points for repeat customers. To improve the efficiency of a store's one-to-one marketing efforts, a retailer often issues a “loyalty” card (customer ID card) to customers which are then requested to present that card during each shopping visit to the retailer.
However acquired, and however used, customer data is conventionally captured during purchase transactions at one or more of a retail store's POS terminals. The data might be transferred to a store platform computer system where it is processed and appended to a particular customer's shopping transaction history. Incentive or loyalty points might be awarded based on the total dollar volume of the transaction. Coupon codes might be analyzed for applicability and the purchase of promotional items might be analyzed to determine the effectiveness of recent advertising. An updated transaction record, including any loyalty or incentive point award, is provided to the POS terminal for immediate applicability to a customer's purchases.
However, electronic shopping systems based on customer ID cards or data cards are most often configured such that the card is presented at a check out terminal in order to record the transaction and allocate any discounts or loyalty or incentive points to the appropriate customer. Accordingly, customer ID or data cards are only used to enhance the efficiency of a retail transaction after a customer has already selected which items they might wish to buy and has already made the purchase decision. Any customer loyalty or incentive system established by the retailer is only able to recognize a particular customer ID card at the checkout counter and could only contain information about items already considered for purchase.
Because of this inherent disadvantageous feature of contemporary ID or data card based electronic shopping systems, store clerks are not able to provide efficient shopping advice and personalized shopping assistance to customers because the store clerks do not have ready access to a particular customer's transaction history until that customer presents their ID card at a checkout terminal. In order to provide shopping advice and personalized assistance, a store clerk must remember a customer's face and be able to recall that customer's merchandise preferences and some indication of recently purchased items.
In the case of large dollar volume purchasers (VIP customers) a retail store manager might want to personally assist that customer and host the customer's store visit from initially greeting the customer as they enter the store to facilitating their purchase transactions when they are ready to leave. However, it is very difficult to greet such a customer when they arrive at the store in the absence of any advance notice. It is also very difficult to locate such a customer within a store, particularly when the store is very large and has a multiplicity of floors and departments.
Many specialty retail stores attempt to resolve the difficult problem of identifying VIP customers at their time of arrival by stationing specially trained “greeters” at each of the entrances to the stores. Greeters are familiarized with various customers' faces and are able to alert management when a recognized VIP customer enters the store. A store or department manager might then choose to personally assist the VIP customer or, alternatively, introduce the customer to a particularly effective member of the sales force for further personalized service. This type of customer recognition approach, however, is extremely labor intensive and also rather inefficient. Customers can easily be overlooked during a busy period or might be overlooked by a temporary mental lapse on the part of a greeter.
Some retail stores have established an alternative method for recognizing the presence of certain customer types within a facility by establishing wireless customer ID interrogator units at various locations throughout the facility. As a particular customer enters the radiation field established by an interrogator unit, the interrogator unit is able to identify the customer by accessing the customer's ID card. The customer ID is then transmitted to a store platform computer, for example where it is matched to a customer information entry in a customer database. The customer information might then be analyzed with respect to various threshold indicia, such as the number of loyalty or incentive points accrued to that customer, the customer's transaction frequency and the dollar volume of the customer's purchases. VIP customers can thus be identified as having entered the store and can also be identified as they move from department-to-department within the store.
Even though customer ID card
Akers Geoffrey
Christie Parker & Hale LLP
Fujitsu Limited
Millin Vincent
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