Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-06
2001-11-06
Trieu, Van T. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S568100, C340S568500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06313745
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to electronic item tracking systems for use in retail facilities, and more particularly, to a system and method of tracking and recognizing merchandise items carried into a fitting room by a customer for providing more efficient customer assistance.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a typical retail facility, a store clerk's main role is to aid customers in making a purchasing decision. In most occasions, a customer enters a retail facility with only a vague idea of an item that the individual wants to purchase. The store clerk encountering such a customer has the task of asking questions that will help clarify features that the customer wants in the item, as well as features that the customer does not want. The store clerk then makes recommendations based on the customer's responses.
The customer, however, sometimes has difficulty articulating the features that he or she likes, often realizing that a feature is to the customer's liking after the individual actually sees, feels, and/or experiences the feature embodied in a particular item. Thus, customers many times roam the store in hopes of finding items that suit their tastes. Customers might then select several of such items for a closer inspection prior to purchasing.
In a clothing retail facility, the customer actually tries on the selected items. Thus, a store clerk assisting the customer can keep track of the items being selected for fitting, and make general inferences about the features the customer desires. The store clerk may then make recommendations on similar, alternative, or additional merchandises that the customer might like.
The described method of customer assistance, especially in a clothing retail store environment, has several drawbacks. First, a store clerk must remember a customer's face and the items chosen by the customer, as well as the fitting room number in which he or she is trying on the items. If a store clerk is not able to remember such details, the clerk will write down the information on paper. However, having a paper and pen/pencil constantly at hand is an added burden to the store clerk.
Second, in a retail store where the number of salespeople is limited, one store clerk might have to assist more than one customer at a time. This provides additional stress to the store clerk's ability to match customers with the items selected and the fitting rooms being utilized. When the number of customers substantially outnumber the number of salespeople, some customers are ultimately left with inadequate, or no assistance at all.
Even if a store clerk becomes available to assist a customer currently being assisted by a first store clerk, no efficient method exists for the first store clerk to share information about the customer in the fitting room (e.g., information on the items that the customer has tried on so far). Consequently, the first store clerk cannot be efficiently replaced by another store clerk. Without such an efficient method of sharing information, shifting of store clerks becomes unproductive, especially when the first clerk has a significant amount of information to share, such as information about the customer's preferences, tastes, and shopping habits, that have been accumulated through regular dealings with the customer.
Another drawback to the above-described method of customer assistance is that the quality of the assistance is highly dependent on the store clerk's expertise and knowledge of items in the store. For instance, even the most experienced store clerk might at times forget that an item exists in the store that matches a customer's preference, resulting in a loss to both the customer and the retailer if the item would have been purchased by the customer had it been recommended by the store clerk.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for tracking and recognizing merchandise items carried into a fitting room by a customer for further data processing. Such system should display the fitting room number being utilized by a particular customer on an in-store display terminal accessible to a store clerk. The system should further display information on the items being tried on, such as the number of such items, their style, brand, color, and price. In addition, the system should process the style, brand, color, and price data of the items in the fitting room, and provide recommendations of other items consistent with the analyzed data. When used in combination with a customer identification card, the recommendations provided by the system should also be consistent with the customer's profile information.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses and alleviates the above-mentioned deficiencies associated with the prior art. More particularly, the present invention comprises a system and method for recognizing and recommending items taken into a fitting room by a customer. Each item has an electronic tag for storing the item's product identifier such as a UPC code or product name. Each room has an interrogator unit so that when an item is taken into the fitting room and is placed in proximity to an interrogation area defined by the fitting room's interrogator unit, the interrogator unit receives the item's product identifier. A processor coupled to the interrogator unit uses the product identifier to retrieve product profile information about the item, and recommends other items based on this information.
In one particular aspect of the invention, the system recommends items based on the style of the item in the fitting room. The system also recommends alternative colors for the item, and provides promotional information and information on new products associated with the item's brand.
In another aspect of the invention, the system maintains a purchase and trial history data for each customer indicating the items that the customer has previously taken into a fitting room. The purchase and trial history data further indicates whether the item has been purchased or not. The purchase and trial history data may also identify a particular employee who assisted the customer with the item.
It will be appreciated, therefore, that the present invention allows store clerks can easily keep track of items being tried-on by the customers. The store clerks can also make real-time recommendations of additional or alternative items to a customer without having to maintain extensive hand written information or having to rely on his or her memory. This further allows one store clerk to efficiently assist more than one customer at a time. In addition, the clerks may be efficiently shifted from one customer to another without losing valuable information accumulated about the customer via observation of the items taken into the fitting room. The present system and method therefore helps bolster sales and increase customer satisfaction.
It will also be appreciated that the present invention allows a retailer to determine the popular items in the store based on the frequency of such items being taken into a fitting room. The retailer may use this information to place additional orders of the popular items. The retailer may also determine the type of customers or types of items a store clerk is most capable of handling. Based on this information, the retailer may also provide necessary training to a store clerk who is not producing sales in a particular area, or place the clerk in the position where he or she is most productive.
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Christie Parker & Hale LLP
Fujitsu Limited
Trieu Van T.
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