阅读说明：本技术 香烟商品管理系统以及香烟商品管理方法 (Cigarette commodity management system and cigarette commodity management method ) 是由 尾岛厚志 于 2020-03-16 设计创作，主要内容包括：香烟商品管理系统具备：除了品牌操作显示之外,还使第一香烟商品相关信息的显示显示于订购终端的显示部的单元,该品牌操作显示使得能进行指定应从多个品牌的香烟商品中进行取出的香烟商品的品牌的指定操作或者订购操作；获取顾客的顾客标识符的单元；以及在显示有第一香烟商品相关信息的订购终端中受理了特定操作的情况下,进行处理以便与获取到的该顾客标识符对应的顾客移动终端能够获取第二香烟商品相关信息的单元。(The cigarette product management system includes: means for displaying, on a display unit of an ordering terminal, a display of first cigarette article related information in addition to a brand operation display enabling a designation operation or an ordering operation of designating a brand of a cigarette article to be taken out from a plurality of brands of cigarette articles; a unit that acquires a customer identifier of a customer; and a unit that, when a specific operation is accepted by the ordering terminal on which the first cigarette product related information is displayed, performs processing so that the customer mobile terminal corresponding to the acquired customer identifier can acquire the second cigarette product related information.)

1. A cigarette product management system including an order terminal capable of displaying brand information of a plurality of brands of cigarette products and accepting an order operation of a brand from which a customer wants to order from among the plurality of brands, and a support device that supports taking out of a cigarette product of a brand that is set as a target of the order operation accepted by the order terminal, the cigarette product management system comprising:

a display processing unit that displays, on a display unit of the ordering terminal, a display of first cigarette article related information in addition to a brand operation display that enables a designation operation of designating a brand of a cigarette article to be taken out from a plurality of cigarette articles of the brands or the ordering operation;

an identifier acquisition unit that acquires a customer identifier of a customer; and

an information providing unit that, when a specific operation is accepted at the ordering terminal on which the first cigarette product related information is displayed, performs processing so that a customer mobile terminal corresponding to the acquired customer identifier can acquire second cigarette product related information,

the second cigarette product related information is the same as or related to the first cigarette product related information, or information related to a cigarette product of a brand that is a target of the ordering operation accepted at the ordering terminal.

2. The cigarette merchandise management system of claim 1,

when the order operation is accepted by the order terminal, the information providing unit performs processing so that the customer mobile terminal corresponding to the acquired customer identifier can acquire the second cigarette commodity-related information.

3. The cigarette merchandise management system of claim 1 or 2, wherein,

further comprising a designation holding unit that holds display designation information generated by the operation of the customer mobile terminal by the customer in association with a customer identifier of the customer,

when the customer identifier of the customer is acquired, the display processing unit determines whether or not the first cigarette article related information needs to be displayed on the display unit of the order terminal or determines the content of the first cigarette article related information displayed on the display unit of the order terminal, based on the display specification information associated with the customer identifier.

4. A cigarette merchandise management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3,

further comprises a main information storage unit for storing main information relating to a cigarette product including at least one of questionnaire survey information on a question item to a customer, bonus information indicating that an offer can be given to the customer, and offer information indicating that an offer can be given to the customer according to a specific requirement,

the display processing unit selects at least one of the questionnaire survey information, the bonus information, and the offer information from the cigarette-item-related main information as the first cigarette-item-related information displayed on the display unit of the ordering terminal.

5. A cigarette merchandise management system according to any one of claims 1 to 4,

the display processing unit switches a mode of a question item of displayed question sheet survey information according to whether or not the customer identifier has been acquired when the question sheet survey information including a question item for a customer is displayed as the first cigarette commodity-related information on the display unit of the ordering terminal.

6. A cigarette merchandise management system according to any one of claims 1 to 5,

when the order terminal accepts the order operation, the display processing means displays the first cigarette article related information including information prompting the specific operation on the display unit of the order terminal.

7. The cigarette merchandise management system of claim 4, wherein,

further comprises a generation unit that generates entry information indicating that the customer indicated by the acquired customer identifier has entered an entry for an offer that enables a customer to be offered a preference according to a specific requirement,

the first cigarette merchandise related information is the bonus information or the offer information,

the generation unit generates the entry information of the customer when a specific operation is performed in the order terminal on which the information relating to the first cigarette article is displayed.

8. A method for managing a cigarette product, which is executed by a system including an order terminal capable of displaying brand information of a plurality of brands of cigarette products and accepting an order operation of a brand from which a customer wants to order from among the plurality of brands, and a support device that supports removal of a cigarette product of a brand that is set as a target of the order operation accepted by the order terminal, the method comprising:

displaying, on a display unit of the ordering terminal, a display of first cigarette article related information in addition to a brand operation display enabling a designation operation of designating a brand of a cigarette article to be taken out from a plurality of cigarette articles of the brands or the ordering operation;

obtaining a customer identifier of a customer; and

processing, when a specific operation is accepted at the ordering terminal on which the first cigarette commodity-related information is displayed, so that a customer mobile terminal corresponding to the acquired customer identifier can acquire second cigarette commodity-related information,

the second cigarette product related information is the same as or related to the first cigarette product related information, or information related to a cigarette product of a brand that is a target of the ordering operation accepted at the ordering terminal.

9. The cigarette merchandise management method according to claim 8,

the information providing process is executed after the ordering terminal accepts an operation for designating a cigarette product of the target brand displayed by the brand operation.

10. The cigarette merchandise management method according to claim 8 or 9,

further comprising: when a customer identifier of the customer is acquired, determining whether or not the first cigarette merchandise related information needs to be displayed on the display unit of the order terminal or determining the content of the first cigarette merchandise related information displayed on the display unit of the order terminal based on display specification information associated with the customer identifier,

the display specification information is generated by the operation of the customer mobile terminal by the customer, and is held in association with a customer identifier of the customer.

11. A cigarette merchandise management method according to any one of claims 8 to 10,

further comprising: selecting at least one of the questionnaire survey information, the bonus information, and the offer information from the master information on the cigarette commodity as the first information on the cigarette commodity displayed on the display unit of the ordering terminal,

the main information related to the cigarette merchandise is stored in a main information storage unit in a state of including at least one of questionnaire survey information, bonus information and discount event information,

the questionnaire survey information includes a question item for the customer,

the bonus information indicates that offers are given to the customer,

the offer information indicates that offers can be given to customers according to specific requirements.

12. A cigarette merchandise management method according to any one of claims 8 to 11,

switching a mode of a question item of displayed question sheet survey information according to whether the customer identifier is acquired when the question sheet survey information including a question item for a customer is displayed as the first cigarette article related information on the display unit of the order terminal.

13. A cigarette merchandise management method according to any one of claims 8 to 12,

the first cigarette article related information includes information that urges the specific operation, and is displayed on the display unit of the order terminal after the order terminal accepts an operation for designating a cigarette article of a target brand displayed by the brand operation.

14. The cigarette merchandise management method according to claim 11,

further comprising: generating entry information indicating that the customer indicated by the acquired customer identifier has entered an entry for an offer that can give a preference to the customer according to a specific requirement,

the first cigarette merchandise related information is the bonus information or the offer information,

the entry information is generated when a specific operation is performed in the order terminal on which the information relating to the first cigarette article is displayed.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a technology for managing cigarette commodities.

Background

In stores such as convenience stores, cigarette products of various brands are displayed on so-called cigarette shelves for each brand, and when purchasing a cigarette product, a store clerk selects a cigarette product of a brand designated by a customer from the cigarette shelves. The cigarette products are generally distributed to stores in the form of a cigarette pack (carton) and sold in a cigarette pack unit or a packaged unit (single pack) obtained by peeling the cigarette pack.

Patent document 1 listed below describes a commodity carrying-out device that automatically carries out a cigarette commodity of a desired brand. The commodity carrying-out device is provided with an operation panel, and cigarette commodities of a desired brand of a desired number are automatically carried out by operating a brand selection switch and a number input switch of the operation panel.

Thus, there are cases where: when purchasing a cigarette product, a customer or a store operator operates an order terminal (operation panel) to specify a cigarette product of a desired brand. Such an order terminal can be used even in a device that does not have an automatic delivery function of cigarette products, for example, a device that instructs a display position of a cigarette product of a designated brand.

[ Prior Art document ]

[ patent document ]

Patent document 1: japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2011-207575

Disclosure of Invention

Problems to be solved by the invention

In the above-described ordering terminal (operation panel) that can be ordered only by a customer who has been confirmed to be an adult, since the advertisement or the promotion information of the cigarette product can be presented, it is desirable to provide the advertisement or the promotion information to the customer who ordered the cigarette product at the ordering terminal.

In stores such as convenience stores, however, the ordering terminal for cigarette commodities is generally installed at or near a checkout counter and operated when a commodity is checked out. Therefore, if the use of the order terminal takes time, the time taken for the customer to check out increases, causing the customer to wait in line before the checkout counter.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and provides a technique for presenting desired information of a customer related to a cigarette product to the customer who orders the cigarette product by operating an ordering terminal provided in a store.

In the present specification, the term "cigarette product" means not a single cigarette roll for smoking but a cigarette product in a single package in which a plurality of (for example, 20) cigarette rolls or other cigarettes are packed, or a cigarette product in a stick package in which a plurality of (for example, 10) cigarette products in the same package are packed in a lump, which is a purchase unit. Other cigarettes include snuff and pipe tobacco, and related articles such as cartridges (cartidges) used in cigarettes called electronic cigarettes and heated cigarettes.

In the present specification, when it is necessary to distinguish between individual packs and strip packs, the individual packs of cigarette goods are referred to as "individual packs of goods", and the strip packs of cigarette goods are referred to as "strip packs of goods".

Means for solving the problems

According to the present invention, there is provided a cigarette product management system including an order terminal capable of displaying brand information of a plurality of brands of cigarette products and accepting an order operation of a brand from which a customer wants to order from among the plurality of brands, and a support device that supports taking out of a cigarette product of a brand set as a target of the order operation accepted by the order terminal, the cigarette product management system including: a display processing unit that displays, on a display unit of the ordering terminal, a display of first cigarette article related information in addition to a brand operation display that enables a designation operation of designating a brand of a cigarette article to be taken out from a plurality of cigarette articles of the brands or the ordering operation; an identifier acquisition unit that acquires a customer identifier of a customer; and an information providing unit that, when a specific operation is accepted at the ordering terminal on which the first cigarette product related information is displayed, performs processing so that a customer mobile terminal corresponding to the acquired customer identifier can acquire second cigarette product related information that is the same as or related to the first cigarette product related information or information related to a cigarette product of a brand that is a target of the ordering operation accepted at the ordering terminal.

In addition, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cigarette product management method executed by a system including an order terminal capable of displaying brand information of cigarette products of a plurality of brands and accepting an order operation of a brand from which a customer wants to order from the plurality of brands, and a support device supporting taking out of a cigarette product of a brand that is a target of the order operation accepted by the order terminal, the cigarette product management method comprising: displaying, on a display unit of the ordering terminal, a display of first cigarette article related information in addition to a brand operation display enabling a designation operation of designating a brand of a cigarette article to be taken out from a plurality of cigarette articles of the brands or the ordering operation; obtaining a customer identifier of a customer; and processing, when a specific operation is accepted at the ordering terminal on which the first cigarette product related information is displayed, so that a customer mobile terminal corresponding to the acquired customer identifier can acquire second cigarette product related information, the second cigarette product related information being identical to or related to the first cigarette product related information or information related to a cigarette product of a brand that is a target of the ordering operation accepted at the ordering terminal.

In addition, as another aspect, the present invention can provide a program for causing one or more computers to execute the above-described cigarette product management method, or one or more computer-readable storage media on which such a program is recorded.

Effects of the invention

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a technique for presenting desired information of a customer related to a cigarette product to a customer who orders the cigarette product by operating an ordering terminal provided in a store.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a cigarette product management system according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of installation of the cigarette product management system according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a loading shelf.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a magazine provided in each loading shelf.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a hardware configuration of the support PC and the order terminal.

Fig. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of a processing configuration of the support PC, the order terminal, the first control unit, and the second control unit.

Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the retrieval report display.

Fig. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the customer information table.

Fig. 9(a) is a diagram showing an example of a brand master table, and fig. 9(b) is a diagram showing an example of each store brand information table.

Fig. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a brand selection screen.

Fig. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a brand order screen.

Fig. 12 is a diagram showing an example of the offer summary screen.

Fig. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a bonus summary screen.

Fig. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a questionnaire screen.

Fig. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a coupon information screen displayed on the customer mobile terminal.

Fig. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a bonus information screen displayed on the customer mobile terminal.

Fig. 17 is a sequence diagram showing an operation example related to the order and removal of cigarette commodities in the cigarette commodity management system according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 18 is a sequence diagram showing an operation example related to display of cigarette article related information after ordering a cigarette article in the cigarette article management system according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 19 is a diagram showing a first modification of the brand order screen.

Fig. 20 is a diagram showing a second modification of the brand order screen.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The following embodiments are illustrative, and the present invention is not limited to the configurations of the following embodiments.

[ summary ]

Before describing in detail the cigarette merchandise management system according to the present embodiment (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as the present system), an outline of the features of the present system will be described.

The system mainly comprises an ordering terminal and a supporting device.

In the present embodiment, an example is given in which both of the cigarette commodities, i.e., the individual commodity and the packaged commodity, are sold, but only the individual commodity or only the packaged commodity may be sold.

The ordering terminal is configured to be capable of displaying brand information of a plurality of brands of cigarette products and accepting an operation of designating a brand from which a customer wants to order.

The order terminal is a so-called computer that can be operated by a customer or a clerk, and may be a stationary computer, a portable computer such as a tablet, or a wearable computer, as in order terminal 20 described later.

Here, the "ordering operation of a brand that a customer wants to order" that the ordering terminal can accept is an operation indicating the intention of the customer to order, and the specific operation content is not limited at all. The order operation may be, for example, an operation of pressing an order determination operation section G32 (refer to fig. 11) of a brand order screen G3 described later, or may be an operation for determining an order in a confirmation screen displayed after the order determination operation section G32 is pressed. In addition, when a voice operation or a gesture operation is possible, the order operation may be a voice operation or a gesture operation corresponding to execution of an order or specification of an order.

In the present specification, the "brand" of a cigarette product is information that can identify the type of each cigarette product, and is described by the product name of the cigarette product. Specifically, the brand name of the cigarette product is not only the name of the brand group, but also a name displayed by adding the amount of tar, the package form, and the like to the name of the brand group. The name of the brand group is, for example, a trade name such as "MEVIUS (registered trademark)", "SEVEN STARS (registered trademark)". For convenience of explanation, when the name of the brand group is "cigarette a", for example, each brand of the cigarette product has brand names such as "cigarette a", "cigarette a/hard BOX (BOX)", "cigarette a · 10 mg", "cigarette a · 100's/hard BOX", "cigarette a · light flavor", "cigarette a · 7 mg", and "cigarette a · light flavor/hard BOX".

The support device is communicably connected to the order terminal, and supports the taking out or shipment of the cigarette product of the brand name to be ordered received by the order terminal. The communication mode between the support apparatus and the subscribing terminal may be either wired communication or wireless communication, and is not limited to a specific communication mode.

The support device is an information Processing device including at least one Processor (information Processing circuit (Unit)) such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an MCU (Micro Controller Unit), an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), or the like. The support device may be 1 or more so-called general-purpose computers, may be a dedicated computer (embedded microcomputer) including 1 or more printed circuit boards called embedded systems, or the like, or may be a combination thereof.

The support device may be associated with only the support PC10 described later, or may be associated with the support PC10 described later and one or both of the first control unit 30 and the second control unit 40. That is, the support apparatus is not limited to 1 apparatus.

The support device for supporting the removal of the cigarette commodities may be a device having a function of automatically discharging the cigarette commodities, such as the commodity carrying-out device described above, may be a cigarette shelf which does not have an automatic discharge function and is displayed so that the cigarette commodities can be manually removed by an operator, or may be both of them.

In the case of supporting the former device, the support device can support the shipment by, for example, transmitting an instruction of shipment including an identifier of a brand of a cigarette product to be shipped to the device. In the case of supporting the latter cigarette shelf, the supporting device supports the cigarette shelf by presenting a place where a brand of cigarette product to be shipped is stored to a store clerk or the like. In the present embodiment, the location of the magazine 513 on the individual loading rack 50 is reported by the projection image projected by the projector 56, and the storage area in the strip loading rack 60 is reported by the strip position report LED62, so that the extraction location or the replenishment location of the cigarette product of the target brand is presented to the clerk. In addition, the support can be performed by displaying the front appearance image of the cigarette shelf at the storage location of the cigarette product of the report target brand on the display device. The specific contents supported by the support device are not limited at all, as long as the removal of the brand of cigarette merchandise targeted for the ordering operation by the ordering terminal is supported in some form.

The system is provided with at least a display processing unit, an identifier acquisition unit, and an information providing unit. These units are realized by executing a computer program stored in a memory by one or more processors in either one or both of the ordering terminal and the support device. That is, these units may be provided in the ordering terminal, the support device, or both.

The display processing means displays, on a display unit of the ordering terminal, a display of information relating to a first cigarette article, in addition to a brand operation display enabling a designation operation of designating a brand of a cigarette article to be taken out from a plurality of brands of cigarette articles, or the ordering operation

The "brand operation display" herein is not limited in particular as long as it is a display that enables a customer or a store clerk to perform a designation operation for designating a certain brand of cigarette product or the ordering operation. As a specific example of the "brand operation display", a brand selection screen (see fig. 10) or a brand order screen G3 (see fig. 11) is exemplified in the present embodiment.

In addition, the "operation of specifying a brand of a cigarette product" is not limited in specific operation contents if it is an operation of specifying a certain brand of a cigarette product regardless of the presence or absence of an order by a customer. The designation operation may be, for example, an operation in which a customer or a clerk selects a certain brand with respect to a touch panel of the order terminal, an operation in which a customer or a clerk places a certain brand of cigarette merchandise in a barcode reader of the order terminal, or an operation in which a customer or a clerk utters a name of a certain brand of customer with respect to a microphone of the order terminal. In other words, the operation may be performed by registering certain brand information in a terminal carried by a customer (hereinafter, referred to as a customer mobile terminal or a mobile terminal) such as a smartphone in advance and placing the customer mobile terminal in an antenna for short-range wireless communication of an order terminal.

The "information relating to a cigarette product" is not limited to specific contents if it is information relating to a cigarette product. The "cigarette article related information" may be information related to a cigarette article of a brand to be subjected to an order operation received at the order terminal, or may be information related to a brand different from the brand of the ordered cigarette article.

Examples of the "cigarette product-related information" include detailed information on a certain brand of cigarette product (brand history information such as development background, manufacturing information, material information, smoking taste information, and the like), gift information given to a certain brand of cigarette product, discount information, questionnaire survey information on a cigarette product or smoking, and the like. Details of the bonus information, the offer information, and the questionnaire survey information will be described later.

Further, guidance information (switching timing, contents, and the like) related to a package (package) and a brand name switching schedule may be displayed as "cigarette commodity-related information", guidance information (canceling timing, alternative brand, and the like) related to a brand cancellation schedule may be displayed as "cigarette commodity-related information", and information related to a recommended brand or a brand in new sale may be displayed as "cigarette commodity-related information". Further, guidance for registration of a customer identifier or guidance for downloading an application program that operates on a customer mobile terminal owned by a customer, which will be described later, may be displayed as "information related to a cigarette product".

The identifier acquisition unit acquires a customer identifier of a customer.

The client identifier may be an identifier that can identify a client in the system, and may be an identifier that can be a communication destination, such as a mail address or information given to a client mobile terminal owned by the client, an identifier that can identify a client in another Service, such as an account number of an SNS (Social Network Service), or an identifier that can identify a client's living body obtained from the client's living body information (stillness, fingerprint, face shape, iris, etc.).

The method of acquiring the customer identifier by the identifier acquisition unit is not limited. The identifier acquisition means may hold information corresponding to the customer identifier and the biometric information of the customer, extract the biometric information from the biometric image taken by the customer, and specify the customer identifier from the biometric information. The identifier acquisition means may acquire the customer identifier from a display screen of the customer mobile terminal on which a bar code or a two-dimensional code obtained by encoding the customer identifier is displayed, or may directly acquire the customer identifier from the customer mobile terminal through communication.

When the ordering terminal on which the first cigarette product related information is displayed accepts a specific operation, the information providing unit performs processing so that the customer mobile terminal corresponding to the customer identifier acquired by the identifier acquiring unit can acquire the second cigarette product related information.

The "specific operation" herein is an operation on the order terminal on which the information on the first cigarette product is displayed, and if the operation is a predetermined operation, the specific operation content is not limited thereto. The "specific operation" may be, for example, a designation operation or an order operation of a certain brand of cigarette product, or may be a specific operation such as a slide operation of a display unit of the order terminal, or may be an operation of selecting a "view with smartphone" button or a "perform with smartphone" button displayed on the order terminal as in the example described later.

The "customer mobile terminal corresponding to the customer identifier" means a customer mobile terminal owned by the customer identified by the customer identifier or a customer mobile terminal identified by the customer identifier.

The specific processing content performed by the information providing unit is not limited as long as the customer mobile terminal corresponding to the customer identifier acquired by the identifier acquisition unit can acquire the second cigarette article related information. For example, the information providing unit itself may transmit the second cigarette article related information to the customer mobile terminal, and the information providing unit may instruct the transmission to another device. In the former case, the information providing means can perform pairing using near field communication or the like, and transmit the second cigarette product related information transmission to the customer mobile terminal identified by the customer identifier.

The information providing unit may display information that can access the information relating to the second cigarette product, such as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or a two-dimensional code in which the URL is encoded, on the ordering terminal, or may transmit the information to the customer mobile terminal.

The display processing unit may not execute the processing for enabling the customer mobile terminal to acquire the second cigarette merchandise related information, or may not accept the specific operation at the ordering terminal, in a case where the customer identifier is not acquired and the second cigarette merchandise related information cannot be acquired at the customer mobile terminal.

Here, the second cigarette product related information may be the same information as the first cigarette product related information or may be different information from the first cigarette product related information. In the latter case, the second cigarette item-related information may be information related to the first cigarette item-related information, or information related to a cigarette item of a brand that is a target of the ordering operation received at the ordering terminal, regardless of the first cigarette item-related information.

In an example described later, the summary of the offer information or the bonus information given to the cigarette product of the order brand that has received the order operation at the order terminal 20 corresponds to the first cigarette product-related information, and the details of the offer information or the bonus information correspond to the second cigarette product-related information. Note that questionnaire survey information described later is an example similar to the first cigarette product-related information and the second cigarette product-related information.

The combination of the first cigarette product-related information and the second cigarette product-related information is not limited to the example of the present embodiment. The first cigarette product related information indicates only whether the ordered brand of cigarette product is targeted for a coupon or a gift, the second cigarette product related information may be the detailed information of the targeted coupon or gift, and both the first and second cigarette product related information may be the detailed information of the coupon or gift.

As described above, in the present embodiment, in addition to the brand operation display enabling the brand designation operation or the ordering operation of the designated cigarette product to be taken out or delivered, the display of the first cigarette product related information is displayed on the ordering terminal, the customer identifier of the customer is acquired, and when the ordering terminal on which the first cigarette product related information is displayed receives a specific operation, processing is performed so that the customer mobile terminal corresponding to the acquired customer identifier can acquire the second cigarette product related information.

Thus, the customer can view the first cigarette product related information not only at the ordering terminal that accepts the ordering of the cigarette products, but also at the mobile terminal of the customer by performing a specific operation. As a result, information relating to the cigarette product desired by the customer can be presented to the customer who orders the cigarette product by operating the ordering terminal provided in the store. In other words, in the case where there are many customers in the shop, the customer can view the second cigarette product information at the customer's mobile terminal slowly after the payment or the like by performing a specific operation at the ordering terminal without causing trouble to other customers waiting for the payment.

[ cigarette merchandise management System ]

The cigarette product management system (present system) 1 according to the present embodiment having the above-described features will be described in detail below.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a cigarette product management system 1 according to the present embodiment, fig. 2 is a diagram showing an installation example of the cigarette product management system 1 according to the present embodiment, fig. 3 is a perspective view of an individual loading shelf 50, fig. 4 is a perspective view of a magazine 513 provided in the individual loading shelf 50, and fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a hardware configuration of a support PC10 and an order terminal 20.

As shown in fig. 2, the present system 1 is installed in a store such as a convenience store. Hereinafter, a store provided with the present system 1 may be referred to as a present store.

As shown in fig. 1, the present system 1 includes a support pc (personal computer)10, an order terminal 20, a first control unit 30, a second control unit 40, individual racks 50, a rack bar 60, a rack management terminal 70, and the like.

The support PC10 is a so-called computer, and as shown in fig. 5, includes: a CPU11, a memory 12, an input/output interface (I/F)13, a communication unit 14, and the like. The CPU11 is connected to other units via communication lines such as a bus.

The CPU11 includes an MCU, an MPU, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), a GPU (Graphics processing unit), and the like in addition to a general CPU.

The Memory 12 is a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), or an auxiliary storage device (hard disk or the like).

The input/output I/F13 can be connected to user interface devices such as the display device 15 and the input device 16. The Display device 15 is a device such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) Display that displays a screen corresponding to drawing data processed by the CPU11 or the like. The input device 16 is a device such as a keyboard or a mouse that accepts input from a user operation. The display device 15 and the input device 16 may be an integrated touch panel, or may not be connected.

The communication unit 14 performs wired or wireless communication with another computer, exchange of signals with another device, and the like. In the present embodiment, the communication unit 14 communicates with the first control unit 30, the second control unit 40, the order terminal 20, and the server apparatus (not shown). The communication method performed by the communication unit 14 is not limited in any way. Note that a portable recording medium or the like may be connected to the communication unit 14.

As shown in fig. 2, the order terminal 20 is a stationary computer that can be installed on the cashier desk of the store so that the customer and the clerk can operate the computer. However, the installation location of the order terminal 20 may be other than the cash register.

As shown in fig. 5, order terminal 20 has CPU21, memory 22, touch panel unit 23, communication unit 25, photographing unit 26, and the like. The CPU21 is connected to other units via communication lines such as a bus.

The touch panel unit 23 includes: a display unit including a monitor and performing display processing; and a touch sensor sensing a contact or proximity state from the outside. In the present embodiment, the touch panel unit 23 is provided in two opposite orientations, one in a back-to-back orientation facing the customer and the other in an orientation facing the clerk. The same display is output on each of the display panels of the two touch panel units 23. This allows the clerk to confirm the touch panel operation by the customer, and the customer to confirm the touch panel operation by the clerk. Further, a series of cigarette product ordering operations using the touch panel can be executed by the customer and the clerk in cooperation.

The photographing unit 26 is a unit that photographs an image. In the present embodiment, the imaging unit 26 includes: a barcode scanner capable of reading a barcode, a two-dimensional barcode (QR code (registered trademark), or the like); and a vein imaging unit for vein authentication. The barcode scanner can read a barcode or a QR code (registered trademark) attached to a package of a cigarette commodity or displayed on a mobile terminal of a customer, and the vein imaging unit can capture a vein image from a finger or a palm of a person. The specific imaging method of the imaging unit 26 is not limited at all.

The communication unit 25 performs wired or wireless communication with another computer, exchange of signals with another device, and the like. In the present embodiment, the communication unit 25 performs short-range wireless communication with the mobile terminal of the customer, and performs wired communication or wireless communication with the order terminal 20. The communication method performed by the communication unit 25 is not limited at all.

The CPU21 and the memory 22 are similar to the CPU11 and the memory 12 described above.

The hardware configurations shown in fig. 5 are examples, and the hardware configurations of the support PC10 and the order terminal 20 are not limited to the examples shown in fig. 5. The support PC10 and the order terminal 20 may have other hardware elements not shown, or the number of the hardware elements is not limited to the example of fig. 5. For example, the support PC10 or the order terminal 20 may have a plurality of CPUs.

The first control unit 30 is a control board for controlling the individual racks 50, and the second control unit 40 is a control board for controlling the strip racks 60. Specifically, the first control unit 30 and the second control unit 40 are embedded systems each having a CPU, a memory, a communication unit, an input/output interface, and the like, and control the individual racks 50 or the rack bars 60 by the CPU executing a control program stored in the memory. The details of the control of the individual loading shelves 50 by the first control unit 30 and the details of the control of the strip loading shelves 60 by the second control unit 40 will be described later.

The first control unit 30 is connected to the components of the individual racks 50 via a communication means or an input/output interface, and exchanges signals with the respective components. The second control unit 40 is connected to the components of the rack bar 60 via a communication unit or an input/output interface, and exchanges signals with the components.

The first control unit 30 and the second control unit 40 are communicably connected to the support PC10 via communication means, and exchange signals with the support PC 10.

The shelf management terminal 70 is a portable computer having the same hardware configuration as the order terminal 20. The shelf management terminal 70 is not shown in fig. 2, but is provided around the individual racks 50, such as the side surface portions of the individual racks 50.

The shelf management terminal 70 has a touch panel, and a shelf management menu allowing management of the individual racks 50 or the strip racks 60 is displayed on the touch panel. The shelf management terminal 70 is communicably connected to the support PC10 via a communication unit, and transmits information corresponding to the contents of operations on the shelf management menu to the support PC 10.

In addition, a barcode scanner may be connected to the shelf management terminal 70. In this case, the barcode scanner reads the barcode attached to the replenished individual commodity or the package of the commodity, and the read information is transmitted from the shelf management terminal 70 to the support PC 10.

In the example of fig. 2, the individual racks 50 and the rack bar 60 are stacked one on top of the other, and are provided on the back surface (back counter side) of the cashier desk of the store. However, the positional relationship or the arrangement position of the individual racks 50 and the strip racks 60 such that the individual racks 50 are arranged on the back counter and the strip racks 60 are arranged under the back counter is not limited to the example of fig. 2.

In the following description, for the sake of making the description easier to understand, one loading rack 50 and one strip loading rack 60 are described, but the two loading racks 50 and the strip loading rack 60 may be formed one by one. That is, two rack bars 60 may be arranged side by side, and one rack bar 50 may be arranged on each rack bar 60. The number of the racks 50 and the rack bars 60 installed in the store is not limited.

Each loading shelf 50 includes a magazine shelf 51 and a projection unit 55.

The magazine rack 51 includes: a magazine housing shelf 512 having a plurality of shelf plates 511, a plurality of magazines 513 mounted on the shelf plates 511, and a display 520 disposed at the center in the width direction of the front surface of the magazine shelf 51.

The number of the magazines 513 mounted on the magazine housing shelf 512 is not particularly limited, and in the present embodiment, for example, the magazine housing shelf 512 includes shelf boards 511 provided with 5 steps on each of the left and right sides of the display screen 520, and 5 magazines 513 are mounted on each shelf board 511.

As shown in fig. 4, the magazine 513 includes: a mounting portion 514 on which a plurality of loaded commodities 5 are mounted in an aligned state in which they are arranged in a row from front to back, a slider 515 provided so as to be movable forward and backward along the mounting portion 514, a biasing portion 516 for biasing the slider 515 forward, and the like.

The mounting portion 514 includes, for example, a front wall 517, a pair of left and right side walls 518, a bottom plate portion, and a rear wall. The front wall 517 may be fixed to the front ends of the side walls 518 and the bottom plate portion, or may be held by the front ends of the pair of side walls 518 in a forward tilting manner.

The slider 515 biases the individual packaged goods 5 mounted on the mounting portion 514 forward. As the remaining number of the individual packaged products 5 in the mounting portion 514 decreases, the slider 515 moves forward.

The biasing portion 516 is mounted on the slider 515. The biasing portion 516 may be, for example, a plate spring wound in a spiral shape, or may be a sheave.

The projection unit 55 has: a pair of left and right pillar portions 551, and a support portion 552 supported by these pillar portions 551.

For example, one of the column portions 551 is disposed along a left side wall portion of the magazine rack 51, and the other column portion 551 is disposed along a right side wall portion of the magazine rack 51. The support portion 552 includes, for example: a pair of left and right side wall portions 552a, and a front wall portion 552b connecting the front ends of these side wall portions 552a to each other. The left and right side wall portions 552a are supported by the left and right pillar portions 551, respectively. The front wall portion 552b is disposed forward of the front surface of the magazine rack 51 and above the magazine rack 51.

The projection unit 55 further has: projector 56, camera 57, and first control unit 30 (not shown in fig. 3). As shown in fig. 3, the projector 56 and the camera 57 are provided, for example, on the back side of the front wall portion 552b of the support portion 552.

The projector 56 performs display in a projection range including the front wall 517 of the plurality of magazines 513 and the display screen 520 by projecting an image to the range. The number of light sources included in the projector 56 is not particularly limited, and may be 1, but is preferably plural.

In the present embodiment, the projector 56 projects an image in the projection range described above, thereby displaying a retrieval report or a supplementary report on the front wall 517 or the display screen 520 of the magazine 513. For example, the removal report display reports the location of the magazine 513 containing the individual packaged items 5 to be removed to the operator (clerk) by projecting an image in which the front wall 517 of the magazine 513 containing the individual packaged items 5 to be removed in the projection range is colored in a specific color (for example, red) and the other areas are colored in white. The replenishment report display is a display of the front wall 517 of the target magazine 513, and reports the location of the magazine 513 of the individual packaged item 5 to be replenished to the operator (clerk).

In this specification, in addition to loading the cigarette commodities into the storage area of the magazine 513 of the individual loading shelf 50 or the drawer rack 61 of the strip loading shelf 60 that has previously stored the cigarette commodities, newly loading the storage area of the magazine 513 or the drawer rack 61 announces that the newly sold cigarette commodities belong to "replenishment" of the cigarette commodities.

The camera 57 continuously captures images of the front walls 517 of the plurality of magazines 513, and outputs the captured results to the first control unit 30. As will be described in detail later, based on the image thus sent from the camera 57, image recognition is performed on the operation of the operator to take out the individual packaged goods 5 from the magazine 513, the operation of replenishing the individual packaged goods 5 to the magazine 513, and the like. This makes it possible to detect, for example, a false removal operation in which an individual loaded item 5 that should not be removed is removed, a false replenishment operation in which an individual loaded item 5 is replenished to another magazine 513 that is not the magazine 513 that should be replenished, or the like.

The rack 60 includes a cubic frame and a plurality of drawer racks 61 held by the frame. In the example of fig. 2, 8 drawer racks 61 are shown, but the number of drawer racks 61 provided in the rack bar 60 is not limited to the example of fig. 2.

Each drawer frame 61 includes: a tray-like rack main body supporting a plurality of strip-packaged commodities by a bottom plate; and a front wall portion provided at the front end of the frame body so as to vertically stand, and each drawer frame 61 can be pulled out from the casing by an operator and stored in the casing. In a state where the drawer frame 61 is housed in the casing, the front wall portion thereof is substantially flush with the front end portion of the casing and the front face portion of the loading shelf 50.

The drawer frame 61 includes: a plurality of longitudinal partitions extending forward and rearward and dividing the inside of the drawer frame 61 in the left-right direction; and a plurality of horizontal partitions that divide the respective internal regions divided by the vertical partitions in the front-rear direction. Thus, in the present embodiment, the internal area of each drawer frame 61 is divided into 4 left and right rows and 9 front and rear rows, and a total of 36 storage areas are formed, and one packaged product is stored in each storage area. That is, in the present embodiment, 36 packaged goods can be stored in each drawer frame 61.

Further, a strip position report LED62 for reporting the position of the storage area of each drawer frame 61 is provided at an upper portion of the front wall portion of each drawer frame 61 and at a vertical partition portion of each drawer frame 61, and this strip position report LED62 is used for reporting the position of the storage area of each drawer frame 61.

The bar-mounted position notification LED62 provided on the front wall portion notifies the drawer frame 61 in which the storage area is formed, and also notifies the left-right direction position of the storage area disposed in the drawer frame 61, which is defined by the vertical partition portion. The bar-mounted position reporting LED62 provided at the vertical partition of each drawer frame 61 reports the position in the front-rear direction of the storage area partitioned by the horizontal partition in the drawer frame 61.

In other words, since the positions of the drawer frame 61 and the drawer frame 61 in the left-right direction are reported by the bar position reporting LED62 provided on the front wall portion, and the positions of the drawer frame 61 in the front-rear direction are reported by the bar position reporting LED62 provided on the longitudinal partition portion, the operator can immediately access the target storage area.

The lighting and the lighting of the bar mounted position report LED62 are controlled by the second control section 40.

Each drawer frame 61 is provided with a detection sensor that detects a packaged product when the packaged product is stored in each storage area. The detection sensor may be, for example, a weight sensor provided on the bottom plate of the rack main body. The detection sensor may be an optical sensor, a capacitance sensor, or another type of sensor.

Further, the rack bar 60 is provided with a lock mechanism for enabling each drawer frame 61 to be selectively pulled out from the frame. In the normal state, the lock mechanism is in the locked state so that all the drawer frames 61 cannot be pulled out from the casing, and is selectively brought into the unlocked state by the control of the second control unit 40 so that only the designated drawer frame 61 can be pulled out from the casing. Therefore, the drawer frame 61 and the lock mechanism thereof according to the present embodiment can be referred to as a storage access unit in which at least a part (storage area) of the plurality of product storage units is in a state accessible or inaccessible to the operator.

By providing the drawer frame 61 with the lock mechanism, it is possible to prevent the storage area of the packaged goods from being accessed improperly.

[ treatment constitution ]

Next, the processing configuration of the support PC10, the order terminal 20, the first control unit 30, and the second control unit 40 will be described with reference to fig. 6. Fig. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of the processing configuration of the support PC10, the order terminal 20, the first control unit 30, and the second control unit 40.

[ first control section ]

The first control unit 30 includes a projection control unit 31, a motion determination unit 32, and the like. These are software elements, and are realized by the CPU executing a control program stored in a memory such as a RAM or a ROM.

The projection control unit 31 controls the projection of the projector 56 of each of the racks 50 based on the projection instruction sent from the support PC 10. The projection instruction includes a report designation of the removal report display, the supplement report display, or the collective removal report display, and when the report designation of the projection instruction indicates the removal report display, the projection instruction further includes the position information of the magazine 513 and the number of the individual packaged goods 5 to be removed, and when the report designation of the projection instruction indicates the supplement report display, the projection instruction includes the position information of the magazine 513, and when the report designation of the emission instruction indicates the collective removal report display, the projection instruction further includes the position information of the magazine 513.

The projection control unit 31 holds the positional information of each magazine 513 in the magazine shelf 51 and the correspondence between the display screen 520 and the local area information in the projection image, and causes the projector 56 to project the projection image in which the local area corresponding to the position of the magazine 513 is a specific color (for example, red) and the other areas are other colors (for example, white) based on the positional information of the magazine 513 included in the projection instruction. This makes it possible to report the position of the magazine 513 to be taken out or replenished to the operator (store clerk).

Further, the projection control unit 31 may cause the projector 56 to project the projection image including the specific character string (for example, "please take 1 cigarette article from a red place" or "please replenish a cigarette article to a bright blue place") to a local area corresponding to the position of the target magazine 513 or a local area corresponding to the display 520 based on the number of the articles 5 included in the projection instruction. The projection control unit 31 can generate the specific character string as described above by holding a predetermined character string for each report designation (extraction report display and supplementary report display) of the projection instruction.

Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the retrieval report display.

As shown in fig. 7, in the retrieval report display, the display of the position of the magazine 513 to be reported is displayed more conspicuously than the display of the positions of the other magazines 513. For example, the position of the magazine 513 to be reported is displayed in red, and the positions of the other magazines 513 are displayed in white. The position of the magazine 513 to be reported may be displayed in a blinking manner.

In this way, the front wall 517 of the magazine 513 to be reported is more conspicuous than the surroundings by taking out the report display. This allows an operator (clerk) to easily and quickly recognize the position of the magazine 513 from which the individual packaged goods 5 are to be taken out, and to take out the individual packaged goods 5 without fail and quickly.

As shown in fig. 7, as a normal display, the name of the item 5 stored in each magazine 513 may be displayed on the front wall 517 of each magazine 513. The information displayed as the normal display may include the price, tar value, nicotine value, and the like of each packaged item 5 in addition to the brand name. Such normal display may be realized by a projected image of the projector 56, or may be realized by providing a paper surface on which the information is printed on the front wall 517. When the normal display is realized by projecting an image, the periphery of the magazine 513 to be notified may be set as the normal display, and the position of the magazine 513 to be notified may be set as a display that is more conspicuous than the periphery in the extraction report display.

In the example of fig. 7, a specific character string "please take out 2 cigarettes from a bright red place" is displayed on the display screen 520 as a take-out report display. ". As described above, the specific character string can be generated from the predetermined character string (in fig. 7, "please take out from a bright red place" and "box cigarette") corresponding to the report specification (in fig. 7, the take-out report display) included in the projection instruction and the character string (in fig. 7, "2") corresponding to the number of the articles 5 included in the projection instruction.

When the report designation instruction of the emission instruction instructs to collectively take out the report display, the projection control unit 31 reports the position of the target magazine 513 as described above, and causes the projector 56 to project an image urging the display 520 to collectively take out (for example, a specific character string "please take out all cigarettes from a bright red place").

The operation determination unit 32 receives the image captured by the camera 57, and applies image recognition processing to the image to detect an operation of taking out the individual packaged goods 5 from the magazine 513 or an operation of replenishing the individual packaged goods 5 to the magazine 513 by the operator. The image recognition processing is not particularly limited as long as it is processing using an existing image recognition technology.

The operation determination unit 32 determines whether the detected removal operation is an operation of removing the individual packaged items 5 from the magazine 513 at the position indicated by the position information included in the projection instruction, and can determine whether the removal operation is normal or abnormal. Similarly, the operation determination unit 32 can determine whether the replenishment operation is normal or abnormal by determining whether the detected replenishment operation is an operation of replenishing the individual packaged goods 5 to the magazine 513 at the position indicated by the position information included in the projection instruction.

For example, the operation determination unit 32 can specify the position of the magazine 513 to be the target of the detected removal operation or the replenishment operation from the image, and determine whether the removal operation or the replenishment operation is normal or abnormal, based on whether or not the specified position of the magazine 513 matches the position indicated by the position information included in the radiation instruction.

The motion determination unit 32 may further determine the number of the individual packaged items 5 to be taken out by the taking-out motion by image recognition. In this case, the operation determination unit 32 may determine whether the removal operation is normal or abnormal, based on whether or not the number of the specified individual loaded items 5 matches the number included in the radiation instruction. Similarly, the motion determination unit 32 can further determine the number of the individual packaged items 5 to be supplemented by the supplementary motion by image recognition.

However, the first control unit 30 may acquire the number of individual packaged goods 5 actually taken out and the number of individual packaged goods 5 actually replenished by another method without using the image recognition by the motion determination unit 32.

In the present embodiment, each magazine 513 is configured such that the slider 515 moves forward as the number of remaining articles 5 decreases, and therefore, for example, a means for detecting the position of the slider 515 is provided in each magazine 513, so that the number of remaining articles 5 in each magazine 513 can be detected based on the detected position of the slider 515. The position of the slider 515 may be determined by a distance to the slider 515 detected by a distance measuring sensor provided behind the magazine 513, may be determined by a state of the biasing portion 516 biasing the slider 515 forward, or may be determined by another method. In addition, in the case of using the distance measuring sensor, the remaining number in the magazine 513 can be detected based on the distance to the rearmost (innermost) merchandise 5 instead of the position of the slider 515. In other words, a weight sensor may be provided on the bottom plate of the mounting portion 514 of each magazine 513, and the remaining number of the individual commodities 5 may be detected from the weight measured by the weight sensor.

The first control unit 30 may detect the remaining number of the articles 5 for each magazine 513 in advance by this method, and set the variation (number) of the remaining number in the magazine 513 corresponding to the position information included in the projection instruction as the number of the articles 5 to be taken out or replenished. The method of acquiring the number of the articles 5 actually taken out and the number of the articles 5 actually replenished is not limited at all. The number of the packaged articles 5 thus acquired is sent from the first control unit 30 to the support PC 10.

In other words, the first control unit 30 can specify the magazine 513 that has been subjected to the removal operation or the replenishment operation by a change in the remaining number of magazines 513 (which may be a change in the position, distance, or weight of the slider 515 as it is). In this way, the normal and abnormal states of the respective operations can be determined by detecting the extraction operation and the supplement operation without relying on the image recognition by the operation determination unit 32.

When the extracting operation or the replenishing operation is determined to be abnormal, the first control unit 30 may instruct the projection control unit 31 to display a malfunction report indicating that the extracting operation or the replenishing operation is abnormal. In this case, the projection control unit 31 causes the projector 56 to perform an error notification display (for example, "error in the removal place", "error in the replenishment place") in response to the instruction, and as a result, performs such an error notification display on the display 520.

On the other hand, when the removal operation or the replenishment operation is determined to be normal, the first control unit 30 notifies the support PC10 of the completion of the removal or the replenishment together with the number of the removed or replenished individual commodities.

[ second control section ]

The second control unit 40 includes: a position report processing unit 41, an operation determination unit 42, a drawer cabinet management unit 43, and the like. These are software elements, and are realized by the CPU executing a control program stored in a memory such as a RAM or a ROM.

Upon receiving the removal instruction or the supplement instruction from the support PC10, the position report processing unit 41 turns on the corresponding package position report LED62 provided in the package rack 60 based on the instruction. Specifically, the removal instruction and the replenishment instruction include position information of the storage area in the drawer frame 61 where the packaged goods are to be removed or replenished, and the position report processing unit 41 turns on the packaged position report LED62 corresponding to the position information. The position report processing unit 41 can identify the bar-mounted position report LED62 corresponding to the position information of the storage area included in the removal instruction or the supplement instruction, based on the correspondence information, while holding the correspondence information between the position of each storage area and the corresponding bar-mounted position report LED 62.

The retrieval instruction for collectively retrieving may include position information of a plurality of storage areas. In this case, the position report processing unit 41 may collectively turn on the plurality of barcode position report LEDs 62 corresponding to the plurality of pieces of position information.

The operation determination unit 42 determines whether the operation of taking out the packaged article from the storage area of the drawer frame 61 by the operator or the operation of replenishing the packaged article to the storage area is normal or abnormal.

When the removal instruction is received, the operation determination unit 42 determines that the removal operation is normal when it is confirmed that the packaged product has been removed from the target storage area based on the sensing information from the detection sensor. On the other hand, if it is confirmed that the packaged product has been taken out from the storage area other than the target storage area, it is determined that the taking-out operation is abnormal.

When the replenishment instruction is received, the operation determination unit 42 then determines that the replenishment operation is normal if it is confirmed that the packaged goods are stored in the target storage area based on the sensing information from the detection sensor, and determines that the replenishment operation is abnormal if it is confirmed that the packaged goods are stored in the storage areas other than the target storage area.

When the operation determination unit 42 determines that the removal operation or the replenishment operation is normal, it is sufficient to notify the support PC10 of the completion of the removal or the replenishment. On the other hand, when the operation determination unit 42 determines that the removal operation or the replenishment operation is abnormal, the barcode position notification LED62 corresponding to the storage area to be removed or replenished may be blinked, or a buzzer or the like may be caused to output an error.

However, when the removal or replenishment of the plurality of packaged goods is instructed, the removal instruction or replenishment instruction may include position information of the plurality of storage areas. At this time, the position report processing unit 41 may turn on the plurality of package position report LEDs 62 corresponding to the position information of the plurality of storage areas, and the operation determination unit 42 may determine the removal or supplement operation of the package products from the plurality of storage areas.

The drawer cabinet manager 43 controls the locking mechanism of the drawer cabinet 61. Specifically, the drawer cabinet management unit 43 turns on the corresponding package position report LED62 based on the removal or replenishment instruction transmitted from the support PC10, and then sets the lock mechanism of the corresponding drawer cabinet 61 to the unlocked state. After that, when the drawer rack management unit 43 detects that the drawer rack 61 is completely stored, the locking mechanism of the drawer rack 61 is locked.

[ support PC ]

The support PC10 includes: a shelf support unit 101, a customer management unit 102, an order terminal support unit 103, a management operation processing unit 104, a customer management Database (DB)105, a store Database (DB)106, and the like. These are software elements, and are realized by the CPU11 executing a control program stored in the memory 12 such as a RAM or a ROM.

The customer management DB105 stores customer registration information.

Fig. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the customer information table. In the present embodiment, the customer registration information is stored in the customer information table.

As shown in fig. 8, the customer information table stores a customer ID, a master attraction ID, a display designation type, point information, and the like for each customer. The customer registration information stored in the customer information table is managed by a customer management server device outside the present system 1 and is reflected in the customer management DB 105.

The customer ID is an identifier capable of identifying a customer (smoker). The customer ID in the present embodiment is set as unique identification information for all customers managed by the customer management server device. The customer ID may be a communication destination identifier such as a mail address or an ID assigned to a mobile terminal of the customer, or may be an identifier that can identify the customer in another service such as an account number of sns (social Network service).

The master attraction brand ID is the brand ID of the customer's master attraction brand. The brand ID is an identifier that can identify the brand of the cigarette product, and may be an identifier uniquely assigned to the system, or an identifier assigned to the outside of the system, such as a jan (japan Article number) code. In the present embodiment, individual packaged goods and packaged goods of the same brand cannot be distinguished only by the brand ID.

In the present specification, the term "main smoking article" means a brand of a cigarette article registered by each customer (smoker) in the present system 1, and may also be referred to as a registered brand. A plurality of main attraction brands may be registered for one customer (smoker), in which case a plurality of main attraction brand IDs are associated with one customer ID.

The display specification type is customer specification information related to display of cigarette product related information (hereinafter, may be simply referred to as related information) in the ordering terminal 20, and may also be referred to as customer display specification information.

In the present embodiment, gift information, offer information, and questionnaire survey information are exemplified as the information related to the cigarette merchandise. The details of the information relating to the cigarette merchandise will be described later.

Therefore, in the display designation type, it is set that: a type (hereinafter, referred to as a NON type) in which the relevant information is not displayed at the order terminal 20, a type (hereinafter, referred to as an OK type) in which any relevant information is allowed to be displayed at the order terminal 20, a type (hereinafter, referred to as a PR type) in which display is allowed at the order terminal 20 if the relevant information is bonus information, a type (hereinafter, referred to as a PRCP type) in which display is allowed at the order terminal 20 if the bonus information or the offer information is, and a type (hereinafter, referred to as a QU type) in which display is allowed at the order terminal 20 if the offer information is questionnaire survey information are specified. In the example of fig. 8, the display specification type of customer a having customer ID "067723" is the PRCP type, and the display specification type of customer B having customer ID "067724" is set to the NON type. In the present embodiment, the type of display permission is not set if it is the offer information, and the type of display permission is not set if it is the questionnaire survey information and the offer information or the bonus information, but such a display designation type may be set, or a display designation type other than this may be set.

The display designation type will be described in detail later, but the setting can be changed by an operation of the customer mobile terminal, and the initial value thereof is set to, for example, an OK type.

As described above, the customer management DB105 can be referred to as a designation holding means and holds display designation information (display designation type) generated by a customer operating a customer mobile terminal in association with a customer identifier (customer ID) of the customer.

The point information is information indicating points assigned to each customer.

The store DB106 stores brand master information, store brand information, shelf setting information, shelf event logs, and the like.

Fig. 9(a) is a diagram showing an example of a brand master table, and fig. 9(b) is a diagram showing an example of each store brand information table. In the present embodiment, the brand name information is stored in the brand name table, and the store brand information is stored in the store brand information table.

As shown in fig. 9(a), the brand master table is a master table in which brand information such as brand ID, brand name, brand image, price, tar amount, nicotine amount, number of pieces of clothing, bar code, and the like is stored for each brand. In the present embodiment, brand information of all brands from which information can be obtained from cigarette makers is stored in the brand master table. That is, information on a newly released brand or a rare brand that has not been distributed in the store and a revoked brand that has been distributed before the store but is not currently distributed is stored in the brand master table. However, the information of the revoked brand may not be stored in the brand master table. Further, other brand information such as smell, which is not illustrated in fig. 9(a), may be stored in the brand master table.

The individual package code is a JAN code attached to a package of the individual package goods of the corresponding brand, and the barcode code is a JAN code attached to a package of the barcode package goods of the corresponding brand.

The support PC10 obtains the latest brand information from an external server device and reflects the brand information in the brand master table.

As shown in fig. 9(b), each store brand information table stores brand information of the same item (field) as the brand master table. However, each store brand information table is different from the brand master table in that only brand information of a brand currently being distributed by the store is stored.

In the present embodiment, as described above, the main information relating to the cigarette items includes at least one of gift information, offer information, and questionnaire survey information. Such master information on the cigarette product is managed by, for example, one or more external server devices. In the present embodiment, the main information on the cigarette merchandise is managed by an external sales promotion support server device. Therefore, the support PC10 obtains the latest master information on the cigarette merchandise from the external sales support server device, and stores the information in the store DB 106.

The bonus information and the discount information are information for promotion of cigarette merchandise. Although there is no clear difference between the bonus and the preferential event, in the present embodiment, the bonus and the preferential event are used separately as follows. That is, the bonus indicates that the customer is given an offer on the condition that the purchase of the cigarette item of the determined brand is made, and the preferential event indicates that the customer is given an offer on the condition that at least the customer registers and wins a prize. Therefore, the bonus information is information indicating that a preference is given to the customer, and the offer information is information indicating that a preference can be given to the customer according to a specific requirement (a requirement including at least an entry and a lottery winning).

For example, sample distribution performed on the condition of purchase of a cigarette product of a certain brand, and a reward (referred to as instant win or the like) determined whether or not selection is currently performed correspond to the bonus. Thus, the bonus information may include sample allocation information, instant win information.

The bonus information and the offer information are information related to bonus and offer, and indicate the content of an offer, the requirement for giving an offer, the period of the bonus or offer, and the like.

The questionnaire survey information is information including a question item for the customer.

However, the information on each cigarette product included in the main information on the cigarette product is not limited to those exemplified in the present embodiment, as described in the summary item.

Each piece of cigarette article related information (related information) included in the cigarette article related master information may be associated with a brand ID of a specific brand of cigarette article. For example, in the case where bonus information conditioned on purchase of a certain brand of cigarette goods exists, the bonus information may be associated with a brand ID of the brand. In addition, when an offer is made for a certain brand group, a brand ID group of brands of cigarette products belonging to the brand group may be associated with the offer information. In addition, in the case where the questionnaire survey information is not about the brand of the cigarette merchandise, the questionnaire survey information may not be associated with any brand ID.

In addition, the cigarette commodity-related main information may include, as the cigarette commodity-related information, 2 or more types of questionnaire survey information in which patterns of questioning items are different from each other. In this case, a flag may be associated with each type of questionnaire survey information so that different types of questionnaire survey information can be displayed depending on whether or not the customer ID is acquired when the cigarette product related information is displayed.

As described above, the store DB106 can be referred to as a main information storage unit that stores main information on a cigarette product including questionnaire survey information on a question item to a customer, bonus information indicating that an offer is given to the customer, and offer event information indicating that an offer can be given to the customer in accordance with a specific requirement.

The shelf setting information includes individual shelf management information, strip shelf management information, and sale stop offer information.

The individual loading shelf management information stores magazine information in which brand IDs, the setting positions of the magazines 513, and the remaining number are associated with the total number of magazines 513 set in the frame of the individual loading shelf 50.

The positional information of the magazine 513 is information for specifying the position of each magazine 513 in the image projected by the projector 56 as described above. Therefore, the position information of the magazine 513 may be, for example, a position identifier formed by the number of the magazine storage shelf 512, the number of the shelf 511, and a position number on the shelf 511 (the number from the right or left, etc.). Further, as long as the projection control unit 31 of the first control unit 30 can specify a local area corresponding to the position of each magazine 513 in the projected image, the position information of the magazine 513 may be a magazine identifier that can identify each magazine 513.

In the individual rack management information, the brand ID of the brand of the cigarette product stored in the magazine 513 specified by the position information of the magazine 513 is associated with the remaining number of the cigarette product.

The rack management information is information that associates positional information of all housing areas formed in the rack 60 with brand IDs indicating brands of the packaged goods housed in the housing areas and housing states (presence or absence) of the packaged goods. The positional information of each storage area included in the rack management information is formed by, for example, the number of the drawer rack 61, the row number in the left-right direction in the drawer rack 61, and the division number in the front-rear direction in the drawer rack 61. However, as long as the position report processing unit 41 of the second control unit 40 can specify the package position report LED62 corresponding to each storage area, the position information of each storage area may be a storage area identifier that can identify each storage area.

The sale prohibition offer information is information set by the operator by specifying a brand (described as a sale prohibition brand) that is currently distributed but is to be suspended from distribution in the future in the menu displayed on the shelf management terminal 70, and may be information specifying a sale prohibition brand that is to be offered for replacement in the future. The sale suspension offer information includes a brand ID of the sale suspension brand.

The shelf event log includes information such as the occurrence time of an event (described as time only), a shelf ID for identifying a shelf on which the event occurred, an event ID for identifying the content of the event, a brand ID, and the number for each event generated on the individual shelf 50 or the strip shelf 60.

The shelf ID includes an ID indicating the individual shelf 50 and an ID indicating the strip shelf 60.

The event ID includes an ID indicating that shipment of an individual packaged product or a packaged product has been performed, an ID indicating that replenishment of an individual packaged product or a packaged product has been performed, an ID indicating that shipment of a packaged product of the same brand has been performed for replenishment of an individual packaged product, and the like.

The brand ID and number indicate the brand and number that was distributed at the corresponding event.

Such a shelf event log is updated by the shelf support unit 101 described later.

The rack support unit 101 supports and manages the operations of the individual racks 50 and the strip racks 60 by communicating with the first control unit 30 and the second control unit 40.

When the shelf support unit 101 acquires order brand information from the order terminal 20, it sends an instruction relating to the order brand to the first control unit 30 or the second control unit 40 based on the order brand information. Specifically, the shelf support unit 101 specifies whether the order unit is one or both of the individual package product and the strip package product based on the order unit ID included in the order brand information, and sends a projection instruction to the first control unit 30 when the order unit includes the individual package product. At this time, the shelf support unit 101 extracts the position information of the magazine 513 corresponding to the brand ID from the shelf management information included in the shelf setting information of the store DB106 based on the brand ID of the order brand included in the order brand information, and includes the position information and the number included in the order brand information in the projection instruction.

On the other hand, when the order unit includes the commodity in a carton, the rack support unit 101 sends a take-out instruction to the second control unit 40. At this time, the shelf support unit 101 extracts the position information of the storage area corresponding to the brand ID from the rack management information included in the shelf setting information of the store DB106 based on the brand ID of the order brand included in the order brand information, and includes the position information and the number included in the order brand information in the retrieval instruction.

After that, when receiving the notification of the completion of the withdrawal from the first control unit 30, the shelf support unit 101 adds a record relating to the withdrawal of the individual packaged goods to the shelf event log of the store DB 106. The date and time, shelf ID (individual shelf 50), event ID (removal), brand ID (brand ID of ordered brands), and number (number of ordered brands) are set in the record.

Similarly, when the notification of the completion of the removal is received from the second control unit 40 (operation determination unit 42), the shelf support unit 101 adds a record relating to the removal of the packaged product to the shelf event log of the store DB 106. The date and time, shelf ID (rack 60), event ID (take-out), brand ID (brand ID of ordered brands), and number (number of ordered brands) are set in the record.

On the other hand, when the order brand information is acquired from the order terminal 20 when the lock mechanism of at least one drawer frame 61 in the rack 60 is in the unlocked state, the rack support unit 101 keeps transmitting the removal instruction along with the order brand information until the lock mechanism is in the locked state. The shelf support unit 101 can acquire the state of the lock mechanism of the drawer frame 61 from the drawer frame management unit 43 of the second control unit 40.

Further, while the rack support unit 101 keeps transmitting the take-out instruction, the management operation processing unit 104 described later may cause the rack management terminal 70 to output a display for reporting the order reception. In this way, the operator (clerk) who performs the replenishment work on the rack 60 can immediately recognize the order received.

When the rack management terminal 70 performs the replenishment request operation, the rack support unit 101 determines whether or not the replenishment brand to be targeted is allocated to the storage area of the magazine 59 or the rack 60 of the individual loading rack 50 in the replenishment request operation, and then sends an instruction relating to the replenishment brand to the first control unit 30 or the second control unit 40. By a supplementary brand is meant the brand of the cigarette goods to be supplemented.

Here, when the shelf management terminal 70 performs the replenishment request operation, there are a case where cigarette products are replenished and a case where cigarette products are newly loaded. In the case of replenishing a cigarette product, since the cigarette product of the replenishment brand is already stored in the individual packing rack 50 or the strip packing rack 60, brand information of the replenishment brand is stored in each store brand information table of the store DB 106. On the other hand, when a cigarette product is newly loaded, the brand information of the brand to be replenished is not stored in the store brand information table because the cigarette product of the brand to be replenished is not stored in any of the individual shelves 50 and the strip shelf 60.

Therefore, the shelf support unit 101 can determine whether or not the brand of the replenishment brand is assigned to the housing area of the magazine 59 or the rack bar 60 of the individual shelf 50 by referring to the store brand information table of the store DB106 based on the brand ID, the individual code, or the barcode related to the brand of the replenishment brand.

In other words, in the present embodiment, whether or not a brand of replenishment is assigned to the magazine 59 of the individual shelving 50 or the storage area of the rack 60 can be determined by whether or not a record in which a brand ID of the replenishment brand is set exists in the individual shelving management information and the rack management information of the shelf setting information stored in the store DB 106.

In the following description, these arbitrary determinations may be described as a determination as to whether or not a brand is assigned to the magazine 59 or the storage area.

Here, the replenishment request operation in the case of replenishing the cigarette product is roughly three kinds of operations as follows.

The first type is a replenishment request operation in which an operator (clerk) selects a brand to be replenished from a brand list of cigarette products stored in the individual shelves 50 or the strip shelf 60. The display and selection of the brand list are performed in the shelf management terminal 70. Hereinafter, this will be referred to as a first replenishment request operation.

The second type is a replenishment request operation in which the operator causes a barcode scanner connected to the shelf management terminal 70 to read the JAN code of the individual product to be replenished and specifies the brand to be replenished. In this case, a menu of "scan individual packaged goods for replenishment" is also selected from the menus displayed on the shelf management terminal 70. This is hereinafter referred to as a second replenishment request operation.

The third is a replenishment request operation in which the operator causes a barcode scanner connected to the shelf management terminal 70 to read the JAN code of the barcode product to be replenished and specifies the brand to be replenished. In this case, a menu of "scan the packaged product for replenishment" is also selected from the menus displayed on the shelf management terminal 70. This operation is hereinafter referred to as a third replenishment request operation.

The rack support unit 101 acquires the operation ID from the rack management terminal 70, which can specify the first, second, and third replenishment request operations, and performs the following replenishment processing based on the operation ID.

When the operation ID indicating the second replenishment request operation and the JAN code of the item are acquired from the shelf management terminal 70, the shelf support unit 101 specifies the brand information in which the JAN code is stored as the item code from each store brand information table of the store DB 106. Then, the shelf support unit 101 extracts the position information of the magazine 513 of the shelf 50 associated with the brand ID from the shelf management information of the shelf setting information of the store DB106 based on the brand ID of the specified brand information, and sends a projection instruction including the extracted position information and a report designation of the supplemental report display to the first control unit 30. Thus, the projector 56 is controlled in each of the racks 50 to output a supplemental report display for reporting the position of the magazine 513 assigned to the brand ID of the supplemental brand.

After that, when receiving the notification of completion of replenishment from the first control unit 30, the shelf support unit 101 updates the remaining number of the target magazines 513 in the individual shelf management information of the shelf setting information of the store DB106 based on the number included in the notification. Further, the shelf support unit 101 adds a record related to replenishment of the individual commodities to the shelf event log of the store DB 106. The record includes date and time, shelf ID (each shelf 50), event ID (replenishment), brand ID (brand ID of replenishment brand), and number (replenishment number).

When the operation ID indicating the third replenishment request operation and the JAN code of the packaged product are acquired from the shelf management terminal 70, the shelf support unit 101 specifies the brand information in which the JAN code is stored as the package code from each store brand information table of the store DB 106. The shelf support unit 101 sends a supplement instruction of the brand ID including the brand information to the second control unit 40. Thus, in the rack 60, the rack position notification LED62 that notifies the position of the storage area assigned to the brand ID of the replenishment brand is turned on, the lock mechanism of the drawer rack 61 having the storage area is set to the unlocked state, and the rack can be replenished with the rack product in the storage area.

After that, when receiving the notification of completion of replenishment from the second control unit 40, the shelf support unit 101 sets the brand ID of the replenishment brand in the record of the target storage area in the item of shelf management information of the shelf setting information of the store DB106, and sets the storage state "present". Further, the shelf support unit 101 adds a record related to replenishment of the packaged product to the shelf event log in the store DB 106. The record is set with time, shelf ID (rack 60), event ID (replenishment), brand ID (brand ID of replenishment brand), and number (replenishment number is 1).

When the rack support unit 101 acquires the operation ID indicating the first replenishment request operation and the brand ID of the replenishment brand from the rack management terminal 70, first, an instruction to take out the brand ID including the replenishment brand is sent to the second control unit 40. Thus, in the rack 60, the rack position notification LED62 that notifies the position of the storage area in which the brand-added rack commodity is stored is turned on, and the lock mechanism of the drawer rack 61 having the storage area is set to the unlocked state.

Thus, the operator (clerk) can take out the brand-supplemented packaged goods from the storage area of the drawer frame 61. When the removal of the packaged product is detected by the detection sensor of the drawer frame 61, the shelf support unit 101 can instruct the shelf management terminal 70 to start the barcode scanner upon receiving the completion of the removal from the second control unit 40.

In this case, the shelf support unit 101 sets the storage status "none" in the record of the target storage area in the rack management information of the shelf setting information of the store DB106 in response to the reception of the retrieval completion, and adds the record related to the shipment of the packaged product to the shelf event log of the store DB 106.

The operator (clerk) tears the package of the removed stick packs to remove a plurality of individual packs, and supplies the individual packs to the individual shelves 50. At this time, the operator causes the barcode scanner of the shelf management terminal 70 to read the JAN code of the packaged product.

The shelf support unit 101 acquires the JAN code of the brand-supplemented item from the shelf management terminal 70, specifies the brand information in which the JAN code is set as the item code from each store brand information table of the store DB106, and extracts the brand ID corresponding to the JAN code from the brand information. Thus, the shelf support unit 101 checks that the brand ID acquired together with the operation ID of the first replenishment request operation and the brand ID corresponding to the JAN code of the individual item match, extracts the position information of the magazine 513 assigned to the brand ID from the individual shelf management information of the shelf setting information of the store DB106, and sends a projection instruction specified by a report including the position information and the replenishment report display to the first control unit 30. Thus, the projector 56 is controlled in each of the racks 50 to output a supplemental report display for reporting the position of the magazine 513 assigned to the brand ID of the supplemental brand.

After that, when receiving the notification of completion of replenishment from the first control unit 30, the shelf support unit 101 updates the remaining number of the target magazines 513 in the individual shelf management information of the shelf setting information of the store DB106 based on the number included in the notification. Further, the shelf support unit 101 adds a record related to replenishment of the individual commodities to the shelf event log of the store DB 106. The record includes time, shelf ID (individual shelf 50), event ID (replenishment), brand ID (brand ID of replenishment brand), and number (replenishment number).

The second and third replenishment request operations described above are also performed when a cigarette product is newly replenished.

In this case, the JAN code of the item delivered from the shelf management terminal 70 is stored as brand information of the item code, which is not stored in each store brand information table of the store DB 106. Also, the brand information in which the JAN code of the packaged product sent from the shelf management terminal 70 is stored as the package code is not stored in the shop brand information table. Note that the record in which the brand ID corresponding to the JAN code of the individual package or the slip package is set does not exist in the individual shelf management information and the slip package management information of the shelf setting information of the store DB 106.

Therefore, the shelf support unit 101 refers to the shelf setting information of the store DB106 by the second replenishment request operation, and thereby searches for a magazine 513 to which a brand is not assigned. Similarly, the shelf support unit 101 searches for a storage area not assigned to the brand name in accordance with the third replenishment request operation.

The magazine 513 not assigned to a brand can be determined by looking up the position information of the magazine 513 not set with a brand ID in the individual rack management information. The housing area not assigned to the brand can be determined by searching the rack management information for the position information of the housing area not assigned with the brand ID.

When the shelf support unit 101 can specify a magazine 513 not assigned to a brand, it sends a projection instruction including position information of the magazine 513 not assigned and a report designation of a replenishment report display to the first control unit 30, and performs the same processing as in the case of replenishing the cigarette product described above.

On the other hand, when the shelf support unit 101 can specify the storage area not assigned to the brand, the shelf support unit sends a supplement instruction including the position information of the storage area not assigned to the brand to the second control unit 40, and performs the same processing as that in the above-described case of supplementing the cigarette product.

The brand ID of the new supplemental brand is obtained from the brand master table of the store DB 106. Specifically, the shelf support unit 101 can specify, in the brand master table of the store DB106, that the JAN code of the individual package item sent from the shelf management terminal 70 is stored as the brand information of the individual package code, and can acquire the brand ID as the brand ID of the new brand to be replenished from the brand information. Further, the shelf support unit 101 can specify, in the brand master table of the store DB106, that the JAN code of the packaged product sent from the shelf management terminal 70 is stored as brand information of the package code, and can acquire the brand ID as the brand ID of the new brand to be replenished from the brand information.

However, there may be a case where there is no magazine 513 or housing area not assigned to a brand. In this case, the shelf support unit 101 checks whether or not the sales stop offer information is set in the shelf setting information of the store DB 106. When the sale stopping offer information is set, the shelf support unit 101 extracts all the position information of the magazine 513 of the individual shelf 50 associated with the brand ID of the sale stopping brand from the individual shelf management information of the shelf setting information of the store DB106 based on the brand ID of the sale stopping brand indicated by the sale stopping offer information, and transmits a projection instruction including all the extracted position information and a report designation of a collective extraction report display to the first control unit 30. The shelf support unit 101 extracts all the position information of the storage area of the rack 60 corresponding to the brand ID of the brand under sale from the rack management information of the shelf setting information of the store DB106, and sends an extraction instruction including all the extracted position information to the second control unit 40. Thus, in each rack 50, the projector 56 is controlled to report the positions of all the magazines 513 assigned to the brand IDs of the sold brands and to perform a supplementary report display for prompting the customer to collectively take out the magazines, and the positions of all the storage areas for storing the packaged goods of the sold brands are collectively reported by the package position report LED 62.

When the operator takes out the cigarette products of the sale-stopped brand from the individual racks 50 and the strip racks 60 in accordance with the collective take-out instruction, the same processing as that in the case of performing the second or third replenishment request operation described above is performed as follows. That is, the shelf support unit 101 can replenish the cigarette product of the new brand refill by sending a projection instruction or a replenishment instruction to the first control unit 30 or the second control unit 40, the projection instruction or the replenishment instruction including the position of the magazine 513 or the position of the storage area to which the individual package product and the packaged product of the new brand refill are assigned.

On the other hand, when the sale stoppage offer information is not set, the shelf support unit 101 instructs the shelf management terminal 70 to display a sale stoppage brand selection screen to the management operation processing unit 104 to be described later. Thereafter, the shelf support unit 101 acquires the sales suspension designation information transmitted from the shelf management terminal 70, and performs the same processing as in the case where the sales suspension offer information is set.

The customer management unit 102 mainly manages customer registration information.

Specifically, when the customer ID is acquired from the order terminal 20, the customer management unit 102 extracts the attraction brand ID, the display designation type, and the point information corresponding to the customer ID from the customer management DB105, and transmits the extracted information to the order terminal 20. When the customer management DB105 does not store the attraction brand ID corresponding to the customer ID, the customer management unit 102 transmits attraction brand unset information indicating that the attraction brand ID is unset to the ordering terminal 20.

Thus, when the main suction brand ID is sent to the ordering terminal 20, as will be described later, a display (a brand order screen, which will be described later) is output, which enables easy ordering of the cigarette products of the brand identified by the main suction brand ID in the ordering terminal 20.

When a plurality of master attraction brand IDs are associated with a customer ID in the customer management DB105, the customer management unit 102 extracts the plurality of master attraction brand IDs from the customer management DB105 and transmits the extracted plurality of master attraction brand IDs to the ordering terminal 20.

Thus, the ordering terminal 20 is displayed to be able to collectively specify a plurality of brands of cigarette products identified by the plurality of main smoking brand IDs. Therefore, even a smoker (customer) who changes brand according to environment, situation, or the like can easily specify a desired brand of cigarette product in the ordering terminal 20.

Further, the customer management unit 102 performs processing associated with the information on the cigarette product in accordance with the operation of the customer on the order terminal 20.

Specifically, the customer management unit 102 confirms whether or not gift information or coupon information associated with the brand ID is present in the master information on the cigarette product stored in the store DB106, based on the brand ID of the order brand included in the order brand information received from the order terminal 20. When there is bonus information or offer information associated with the brand ID of the ordered brand, the customer management unit 102 determines whether or not the offer item indicated by the bonus information or offer information includes purchase of a cigarette product of the brand, and if so, transmits the purchased cigarette product of the brand together with the customer ID to an external sales promotion support server device. As a result, information (e.g., point information) corresponding to the offer is associated with the customer ID in the sales support server device.

In addition, when the customer management unit 102 performs an entry operation of an offer on the order terminal 20 as described later, entry information of the subject offer is generated and transmitted to an external sales promotion support server device. The entry information generated by the customer management unit 102 is not limited to specific contents and format if it is determined to be contents and format by the sales support server device. For example, the entry information includes information that can identify a customer ID or a subject offer. As described above, the customer management unit 102 can be referred to as a generation unit that generates entry information indicating that the customer indicated by the customer identifier has been entered when a specific operation is performed in the ordering terminal on which the bonus information or the discount information is displayed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the order terminal 20 orders a cigarette product, since the registration of the offer can be directly performed at the order terminal 20, the customer can easily accept the offer without missing the opportunity to obtain the offer.

Similarly, when the order terminal 20 performs an answer operation to the questionnaire, as described later, the customer management unit 102 transmits the questionnaire answer information to the external sales promotion support server device.

The customer management unit 102 also performs a process of transferring the relevant information to the customer mobile terminal. Specifically, when the ordering terminal 20, on which the summary of the bonus information or the offer information is displayed, receives a specific operation (for example, pressing a "view with smartphone" button described later), the customer management unit 102 performs a process so that the customer can view details of the relevant information at the customer mobile terminal. When the ordering terminal 20 on which the questionnaire survey information is displayed accepts a specific operation (for example, pressing a "perform with smartphone" button described later), the customer management unit 102 performs processing so that the customer can answer the questionnaire survey information at the customer mobile terminal. Therefore, the customer management part 102 can be referred to as an information providing unit.

In the present embodiment, upon receiving the transfer instruction information from the ordering terminal 20, the customer management unit 102 transmits a related information transmission instruction including the previously acquired customer ID and the brand ID of the target brand or the ID of the questionnaire survey information to the external sales support server apparatus. As a result, the sales promotion support server device that has received the instruction transmits questionnaire survey information, gift information associated with the brand ID, or preferential event information to the customer mobile terminal corresponding to the customer ID. However, the customer management unit 102 may directly transmit the relevant information to the customer mobile terminal without instructing it. The customer management unit 102 may instruct the order terminal 20 to transmit the relevant information to the customer mobile terminal. In this case, the related information is transmitted from the ordering terminal 20 to the customer mobile terminal using short-range wireless communication or the like.

The customer management unit 102 may also generate a two-dimensional code in which information related to the information, such as a URL, is encoded for access, and transmit the two-dimensional code to the order terminal 20, so that the order terminal 20 can display the two-dimensional code. In this case, the customer can read the relevant information by reading the two-dimensional code at his/her own customer mobile terminal.

The order terminal support unit 103 supports processing in the order terminal 20, and particularly manages various screens displayed on the order terminal 20. In the present embodiment, the order terminal support unit 103 generates or updates screen data of a brand selection screen to be displayed on the order terminal 20, and transmits the screen data to the order terminal 20.

For example, when the above-described cigarette goods of the newly supplemented brand are supplemented, the order terminal support unit 103 automatically updates the screen data of the brand selection screen so that the cigarette goods of the newly supplemented brand can be selected on the brand selection screen of the order terminal 20, and transmits the updated screen data to the order terminal 20. In addition, when the cigarette products of the stop-selling brand are collectively delivered, the order terminal support unit 103 automatically updates the screen data of the brand selection screen so that the cigarette products of the stop-selling brand cannot be selected on the brand selection screen of the order terminal 20, and transmits the updated screen data to the order terminal 20.

Then, the order terminal support unit 103 updates the screen data so as to provide an image (PR image or CP image, described later) showing the brand associated with the bonus information or the coupon information to the display area of the brand in the brand selection screen.

Here, in order to change the brand selection screen, various modes are considered for the screen data transmitted from the order terminal support unit 103 to the order terminal 20 and the display method of the brand selection screen after the change in the order terminal 20, and the present embodiment is not limited at all. For example, brand information including a brand name, a brand image, and the like, and position information indicating the brand information may be transmitted to the ordering terminal 20 as screen data, the ordering terminal 20 may automatically change the brand selection screen based on the screen data, and the changed brand selection screen may be displayed. The order terminal support unit 103 may generate Web page data of the brand selection screen by HTML (HyperText Markup Language), XML (Extensible Markup Language), or the like, transmit the data to the order terminal 20, and the order terminal 20 may read the data by a browser and display the brand selection screen.

The order terminal support unit 103 transmits the latest master information on the cigarette product stored in the customer management DB105 to the order terminal 20. This transmission timing is executed, for example, each time the master information relating to the cigarette article is updated. Thus, the ordering terminal 20 presents the existence of the bonus information or the offer information on the brand order screen of the brand to be set as the bonus or the offer. The specific display form of each piece of related information (gift information, offer information, and questionnaire survey information) included in the master information related to the cigarette product will be described later.

The management operation processing unit 104 manages the shelf management terminal 70, and particularly, controls the display of the shelf management terminal 70, manages the information on the individual racks 50 or the strip racks 60 set by the operation of the shelf management terminal 70, and the like.

For example, when the order brand information is acquired from the order terminal 20 during a cigarette product replenishment operation, the management operation processing unit 104 causes the shelf management terminal 70 to output a display for reporting the order reception as described above.

In addition, when the menu displayed on the shelf management terminal 70 is selected or a brand is selected and a reservation for the sale suspension of the brand is selected, the management operation processing unit 104 acquires the sale suspension reservation information including the brand ID of the brand from the shelf management terminal 70 and sets the acquired sale suspension reservation information as the shelf setting information of the store DB 106.

When the sale suspension offer information is not set when a new brand of cigarette product is replenished, the management operation processing unit 104 instructs the shelf management terminal 70 to display a brand list for allowing the operator to select a brand to be sold. Thus, the shelf management terminal 70 displays the brand list to allow the operator to select the sale-stopped brand, and the management operation processing unit 104 acquires the sale-stopped specifying information including the brand ID of the selected sale-stopped brand from the shelf management terminal 70.

[ shelf management menu ]

Next, a shelf management menu displayed on the shelf management terminal 70 will be described.

Shelf management menus include a replenishment order menu, a decommissioning brand selection menu, and the like. Hereinafter, a replenishment request menu and a sale stop brand selection menu, which are part of the shelf management menu, will be described.

The replenishment request menu includes a menu for selecting a brand to be replenished by a screen operation, a menu for replenishing by scanning individual commodities, a menu for replenishing by scanning a strip of commodities, and the like.

When the menu selected by the screen operation is executed, a brand list is displayed, and the operator selects a brand to be supplemented. The operator operation corresponding to the menu corresponds to the first replenishment request operation described above.

When the menu "scan individual commodities for replenishment" or the menu "scan barcode commodities for replenishment" is executed, the barcode scanner connected to the shelf management terminal 70 is activated, and the barcode attached to the package of the cigarette commodity is made readable. The operator operation corresponding to these menus corresponds to the second or third supplementary request operation described above.

When the off-sale brand selection menu is executed, an off-sale brand selection screen is displayed in order to select a brand (off-sale brand) that is currently being operated but is to be stopped in the future. The stop-selling brand selection screen includes a brand list, and when the menu is executed when the cigarette product is not newly replenished, the brand selected in the brand list is in an offer state of the stop-selling brand. That is, as described above, the sale suspension information including the brand ID of the selected brand is transmitted from the shelf management terminal 70 to the support PC10 and stored therein.

In addition, the off-sale brand selection screen can also be displayed when a cigarette product is newly replenished. At this time, the sales stoppage specification information including the brand ID of the selected brand is transmitted from the shelf management terminal 70 to the support PC10 as described above.

[ ordering terminal ]

The order terminal 20 includes an information acquisition unit 201, a display processing unit 202, an order reception unit 203, and the like. These are software elements, and are realized by the CPU21 executing a control program stored in the memory 22 such as a RAM or a ROM.

The information acquisition unit 201 can acquire a captured image from the imaging unit 26, and can also acquire customer information received from a mobile terminal of a customer from the communication unit 25.

When the captured image obtained represents a barcode attached to a package of a cigarette product, the information obtaining unit 201 can obtain the JAN code by applying a conventional barcode reading process to the captured image.

When the acquired captured image indicates a two-dimensional code (QR code (registered trademark) or the like) displayed on the mobile terminal of the customer, the information acquisition unit 201 can acquire the brand ID or the JAN code of the master attraction by applying the conventional two-dimensional code reading processing to the captured image. In this case, a dedicated application is provided, and the dedicated application is installed and executed in the mobile terminal of the customer, so that the two-dimensional code in which the attraction brand ID of the customer stored in the mobile terminal is encoded is displayed on the mobile terminal. The customer causes the imaging unit 26 of the order terminal 20 to image the display of the two-dimensional code, whereby the information acquisition unit 201 can acquire the master attraction ID from the two-dimensional code.

In addition, when the acquired captured image is a biological image (for example, a vein image) used for biometric authentication, the information acquiring unit 201 can acquire biometric information from the biological image. The acquired biometric information may be used for user authentication as it is, or may be used as a customer ID. The information acquisition unit 201 transmits the acquired biometric information to the support PC 10.

Further, the information acquisition unit 201 can acquire the customer ID from the customer information acquired by communication. Even in this case, by executing a dedicated application installed in the mobile terminal of the customer, the customer ID can be transmitted from the mobile terminal to the ordering terminal 20 by short-range wireless communication or the like. The information acquisition unit 201 transmits the acquired customer ID to the support PC 10.

The display processing unit 202 displays a brand order screen on the display unit of the touch panel unit 23 in addition to the brand selection screen, and when a user operation on the brand selection screen or brand order screen is detected by the touch sensor of the touch panel unit 23, executes various processes corresponding to the detected user operation.

Fig. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a brand selection screen, and fig. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a brand order screen.

The brand selection screen displayed on the ordering terminal 20 is formed of a brand group selector G1 for selecting a brand group, and an individual brand selector G2 for displaying brand information of cigarette products of a plurality of brands belonging to the brand group selected by the brand group selector G1.

In this way, the brand group of the cigarette product is classified into brand groups by the common name (trade name) included in each brand name. In the example of fig. 9, the brand group "a series" having a brand name including the common brand name "a" is selected by the brand group selector G1, and brand information of all brands of cigarette products including the common brand name "a" is displayed in a predetermined arrangement in the individual brand selector G2. When all the brand information cannot be displayed in 1 screen, a group of brand information that is a partial set of the "a series" of the brand group is sequentially displayed by scrolling or the like.

Note that, a display G11 indicating a brand associated with bonus information or a display G12 indicating a brand associated with offer information is given to the display area of each brand group displayed by the brand group selector G1, and if there is no such brand, the display G11 and the display G12 are not given.

The display G11 and the display G12 make it possible for the customer to easily grasp the brand group of the brand to be the target of the bonus or the preferential event, and as a result, the sales promotion of the brand group can be facilitated.

Further, of the brand information of the plurality of brands displayed by the individual brand selection unit G2, a PR image G22 showing the brand to be given as a gift or a CP image G23 showing the brand to be given as a coupon is assigned to the display area of the brand information of the brand to be given as a gift or a coupon.

The PR image G22 and the CP image G23 enable the customer to easily recognize the brand of cigarette merchandise that is the target of a gift or a coupon, and as a result, can contribute to the promotion of the brand of cigarette merchandise.

When ordering a cigarette product of a desired brand by operating the ordering terminal 20, the customer or the clerk operates the brand selection screen to find the desired brand, and presses the image portion of the desired brand in the brand selection screen, thereby pop-up displaying a brand order screen G3 shown in fig. 11 for the cigarette product of the brand.

Therefore, the brand selection screen can be referred to as a brand operation display that enables an operation of designating a brand of a cigarette article to be taken out from a plurality of brands of cigarette articles.

The brand order screen G3 is a screen for specifying an order of a cigarette article of a brand selected on the brand selection screen, includes brand information of the selected cigarette article of the brand, and includes an order unit specification section G31, an order specification operation section G32, and an order cancellation operation section G33. As shown in fig. 11, the brand order screen G3 showing the cigarette products of the brand targeted for the bonus or the offer includes an area G35 for presenting the brand targeted for the bonus or the offer. The area G35 may be omitted from the brand order screen G3 showing cigarette products of brands that are not targets of gifts or offers, or no information may be shown in the area G35.

The purchase order specification unit G31 is configured with buttons such that "1 item", "2 item", "3 item", and "4 item" can be specified as the number of orders of the packaged items, and "1 package" and "2 package" can be specified as the number of orders of the packaged items by one operation. Thus, the customer or the clerk can input the order unit and the number by a simple operation without performing a troublesome operation such as a number input. On the other hand, when the order unit is not designated, the number of the individual or packaged items is selected and displayed for each screen.

When the customer or the clerk presses the order specification operation unit G32, the customer or the clerk can order cigarette products of the selected brand in the specified order unit and number.

Therefore, the brand order screen G3 can be referred to as a brand operation display that enables an order operation for a target brand of cigarette product.

When the brand ID or the JAN code is acquired by the information acquisition unit 201, the display processing unit 202 can display the same state as the state of selecting a brand of cigarette product identified by the brand ID or the JAN code on the brand selection screen, that is, can display the brand order screen G3 related to the brand of cigarette product on the brand selection screen at a time, without performing a selection operation of a desired brand on the brand selection screen.

Further, even when the display processing unit 202 acquires the main attraction brand ID from the support PC10 (the customer management unit 102) as the customer ID is transmitted to the support PC10 by the information acquisition unit 201, the brand order screen G3 relating to the cigarette products of the brand identified by the main attraction ID can be displayed on the brand selection screen at once, as described above.

Thus, the customer can easily order a cigarette product of a desired brand without having to perform an operation of finding a cigarette product of a desired brand from among a plurality of brands of cigarette products by causing the customer mobile terminal to communicate with the order terminal 20, causing the order terminal 20 to photograph biometric information of the customer, or causing the order terminal 20 to photograph a two-dimensional code displayed on the mobile terminal.

When a plurality of main smoking brand IDs are acquired from the support PC10 (the customer management unit 102), the display processing unit 202 may display a collective brand order screen on the brand selection screen at once, the collective brand order screen being capable of collectively ordering a plurality of brands of cigarette goods identified by the plurality of main smoking brand IDs.

The merged brand order screen may include, for example, brand information and an order unit designating unit, which are distinguished for each of a plurality of brands of cigarette products, and may include an order specification operation unit and an order cancellation operation unit.

The customer or the clerk can order one or more brands of cigarette goods (or all brands) to be ordered among the plurality of brands of cigarette goods displayed on the combined brand order screen in the order unit designated by the order specification operation unit by pressing the order specification operation unit.

The display processing unit 202 may display a brand selection screen when acquiring the master smoking brand unset information from the support PC10 (customer management unit 102).

When the order specification operation unit G32 is pressed and the order brand information is sent to the support PC10 via the order acceptance unit 203 as described later, the display processing unit 202 eliminates the brand order screen and determines whether or not to display the information relating to the cigarette products based on the display designation type or the like sent from the support PC10 together with the main suction brand ID.

Specifically, when the display specification type is the OK type or the PRCP type, the display processing unit 202 determines whether the brand ordered on the brand order screen is a gift or coupon target. When the order brand is a target of a bonus or a coupon, the display processing unit 202 displays the summary of bonus information or coupon information.

Fig. 12 is a diagram showing an example of the offer summary screen, and fig. 13 is a diagram showing an example of the bonus summary screen.

As shown in fig. 12, the offer summary screen G4 includes a summary (summary) of offer information in addition to brand information of subscribed brands, and includes a detailed specification section G41, a forwarding specification section G42, and a cancellation specification section G43. In the example of fig. 12, information of the preference "baseball double ticket for watching baseball", the number of winning players "100", and the entry period "12/27" are shown as the summary of the preferential event information.

As shown in fig. 13, the gift summary screen G5 includes a summary (summary) of gift information in addition to brand information of the subscription brand, and includes a detailed specification section G51, a forwarding specification section G52, and a cancellation specification section G53. In the example of fig. 13, the acquisition of the predetermined point "2 points" is shown as the offer as the summary of the bonus information, and the presence of the offer related to the point is also suggested.

When the pressing operation of the cancellation specification part G43 of the coupon summary screen G4 or the cancellation specification part G53 of the gift summary screen G5 is detected, the display processing unit 202 cancels the coupon summary screen G4 or the gift summary screen G5.

When the pressing operation of the transfer specifying unit G42 of the offer summary screen G4 or the transfer specifying unit G52 of the gift summary screen G5 is detected, the display processing unit 202 transmits transfer instruction information to the support PC 10. For example, the forwarding indication information includes either or both of a brand ID or a customer ID of the subscription brand. Thus, as described above, the customer management unit 102 performs a process of transferring the relevant information to the customer mobile terminal.

On the other hand, when the pressing operation of the detailed specification section G41 of the offer summary screen G4 or the detailed specification section G51 of the gift summary screen G5 is detected, the display processing section 202 displays the gift information or the details of the offer information. Here, details of the bonus information or the offer information displayed on the ordering terminal 20 are the same as those transferred and displayed on the customer mobile terminal in accordance with the operation of the transfer specification unit G42 or G52. Therefore, although the details will be described later, the registration operation of the offer can be performed in the order terminal 20. When the registration operation is detected at the order terminal 20, the display processing unit 202 transmits information indicating that registration is performed to the support PC 10. The information includes, for example, either or both of a brand ID or a customer ID of the subscription brand.

However, when a prize is indicated as bonus information when a winning or losing decision is to be made, summary information on the prize is displayed on the bonus summary screen G5, and when a pressing operation of the detailed specification section G51 is detected, a screen for making the winning or losing decision can be displayed. In this case, when the pressing operation of the transfer specification section G52 is detected, the prize winning or losing determination of the prize can be executed on the customer mobile terminal.

In addition, when sample distribution is shown as the gift information, the information related to the sample distribution is displayed on the gift summary screen G5, and the ordering terminal 20 can transmit the sample distribution information to the shelf management terminal 70 via the support PC10 in association with the detection of the pressing operation of the "OK" button in the screen G5. Thus, the store clerk can recognize the sample assignment based on the display of the shelf management terminal 70, and can surely hand over a predetermined sample to the customer.

When the display specification type is the PR type and the brand ordered on the brand order screen is the target of the bonus, the display processing unit 202 displays the outline of the bonus information as shown in fig. 12. As described above, the following description will be made.

When the display specification type is the PRCP type or the PR type and the brand ordered on the brand order screen is not a gift or coupon target, the display processing unit 202 does not display the relevant information.

When the specified type is the OK type or the QU type and the brand ordered on the brand order screen is not the subject of any of the bonus and the coupon, the display processing unit 202 determines whether or not the information on the cigarette merchandise acquired from the support PC10 includes questionnaire information, and when the information includes questionnaire information, determines whether or not the questionnaire information is displayed.

In this determination, the display processing unit 202 holds time slot information with a small number of guests in advance, and determines to display questionnaire survey information in the time slot, and determines not to display questionnaire survey information in the time slots other than the time slot. The display processing unit 202 may determine the display of questionnaire survey information for the same customer at a predetermined frequency (for example, once for three times). This may be achieved by, for example, storing the number of times that questionnaire survey information is not displayed in the customer management DB105 in association with the customer ID, and determining the display of the questionnaire survey information when the number of times reaches a predetermined value. In addition, when the questionnaire information is included in the information relating to the cigarette merchandise, the display processing unit 202 may determine to display the questionnaire information.

The display processing unit 202 switches the type of questionnaire survey information to be displayed (the mode of question items) depending on whether or not the customer ID is acquired at this time. For example, when the customer ID is acquired, questionnaire survey information (mode of question items) of a type associated with the customer ID or associated with a flag indicating that the customer ID is acquired may be displayed, and when the customer ID is not acquired, questionnaire survey information of a type associated with a flag indicating that the customer ID is not acquired may be displayed. Thus, the questioning items can be changed according to the customer who has registered the customer ID and the customer who has not registered the customer ID, and the statistical information specific to each customer can be obtained.

When the display of the questionnaire survey information is determined, the display processing unit 202 displays a questionnaire survey screen G6 shown in fig. 14.

Fig. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a questionnaire screen.

The questionnaire survey screen G6 includes one or more question items for the customer, and can perform an input operation of an answer to each question item. The questionnaire survey screen G6 includes a reply completion specification section G61, a transfer specification section G62, and a cancellation specification section G63. When the pressing operation of the cancellation designation section G63 is detected, the display processing section 202 cancels the questionnaire survey screen G6.

When the pressing operation of the answer completion specifying unit G61 is detected, the display processing unit 202 generates questionnaire answer information including answer information for each question item input on the questionnaire screen G6, and transmits the questionnaire answer information to the support PC 10. However, the display processing unit 202 may transmit questionnaire response information to the support PC10 after displaying a screen for confirming responses to the respective question items.

On the other hand, when the pressing operation of the transfer specification unit G62 is detected, the display processing unit 202 transmits transfer instruction information to the support PC 10. For example, the forwarding instruction information includes information that can identify the customer ID and questionnaire survey information. Thus, as described above, the customer management unit 102 performs a process of transferring questionnaire survey information to the customer mobile terminal.

When the designated type is QU type and the brand ordered on the brand order screen is the target of a gift or a coupon, the questionnaire survey information can be displayed without displaying the gift information and the coupon information.

In the present embodiment, when bonus information or offer information is displayed, the display processing unit 202 does not display questionnaire survey information thereafter. In addition, when the order brand is set as both the gift and the offer, the display processing unit 202 may display only either the gift information or the offer information according to the display specification type. For example, when the display specification type is the PR type, only the bonus information is displayed, and when the display specification type is the PRCP type, only either the bonus information or the offer information is displayed.

This prevents the customer from staying in front of the ordering terminal 20 for too long, and can suppress the loss of the checkout time at the checkout counter. However, when the display specification is the PRCP type, the outlines of both the bonus information and the offer information may be displayed.

In this way, the display processing unit 202 determines whether or not it is necessary to display the related information (gift information, offer information, or questionnaire survey information) on the order terminal 20 and the content of the related information displayed on the order terminal 20 (that is, gift information, offer information, or questionnaire survey information) based on the display specification type corresponding to the acquired customer ID.

Since the display designation type can be changed by the operation of the customer mobile terminal as described later, the customer can appropriately adjust the display of the related information in the order terminal 20 when ordering a cigarette product using the order terminal 20 by setting the display designation type in advance.

The display processing unit 202 may select at least one of questionnaire survey information, gift information, and coupon information from the master information on the cigarette merchandise transmitted from the support PC10 as the related information to be displayed on the order terminal 20.

When the pressing operation of the order specification operation unit G32 or G42 of the brand order screen G3 is detected, the order acceptance unit 203 specifies the brand ID, the individual package product, the stick package product, or the order unit ID indicating both of them, and the number of the selected cigarette product.

The order acceptance unit 203 transmits order brand information including the specified brand ID, individual package product, strip package product, or order unit ID indicating both of them, and the number to the support PC 10. The order brand information is acquired by the shelf support unit 101 of the support PC10, and controls the individual racks 50 or the strip racks 60.

On the other hand, when the order cancel operation unit G33 of the brand order screen G3 is pressed, the brand order screen G3 is cleared, and the selected brands, the number of brands, and the like are cleared.

[ customer mobile terminal ]

The customer mobile terminal is a Computer having a communication function carried by a customer, and examples thereof include a mobile phone such as a smartphone, a tablet terminal, and a notebook PC (Personal Computer). The customer mobile terminal that can receive the services of the present system 1 is a terminal that has a dedicated application installed therein and that implements the various functions described above by the operation of the application.

The customer mobile terminal can have a function of causing the ordering terminal 20 to acquire a customer ID. For example, as described above, the customer mobile terminal may transmit the customer ID to the order terminal 20 by short-range wireless communication or the like, or may display a two-dimensional code in which the customer ID is encoded so that the order terminal 20 can read the two-dimensional code.

In addition, the customer mobile terminal can have a function of setting and changing the display designation type stored in the customer management DB 105. For example, when the display designation type is changed, the customer mobile terminal displays a screen for selecting any one of the display designation types (in the present embodiment, the OK type, the PRCP type, the PR type, the QU type, or the NON type), and transmits the changed display designation type to the support PC10 together with the customer ID, either directly or via another server device. In this way, the display designation type of the customer stored in the customer management DB105 may be updated.

The customer mobile terminal can have a function of displaying information relating to the cigarette merchandise transmitted via the support PC10 as described above and enabling operations relating thereto. Specifically, as described above, details of bonus information, details of preferential event information, or questionnaire survey information are displayed.

Fig. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a preferential event information screen displayed on the customer mobile terminal, and fig. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a bonus information screen displayed on the customer mobile terminal.

As shown in fig. 15, the offer information screen G7 includes details of offer information in addition to brand information of subscription brands, and includes an entry specification section G71 and a deletion specification section G72. In the example of fig. 15, as details of the offer information, in addition to the outline of the offer information (information of the offer "baseball double ticket for baseball viewing", the number of winning players "100", and the entry period "12/27") shown in fig. 12, details of the offer (time and place, etc.), entry key, drawing date, winning issue, and the like are shown.

As shown in fig. 16, the bonus information screen G8 includes details of bonus information in addition to brand information of the subscription brand, and includes an entry specification section G81 and a deletion specification section G82. In the example of fig. 16, as the details of bonus information, in addition to the outline of bonus information shown in fig. 13, the details of total point information, offer information that can be registered at the point, and the like are shown.

When the pressing operation of the cancellation specification part G72 of the coupon information screen G7 or the cancellation specification part G82 of the gift information screen G8 is detected, the coupon information screen G7 or the gift information screen G8 is cancelled.

When the pressing operation of the entry specifying part G71 of the offer information screen G7 or the entry specifying part G81 of the gift information screen G8 is detected, the customer mobile terminal transmits the entry information of the subject offer to the external sales support server device. The entry information is the same as the entry information generated by the customer management unit 102 described above. In this way, the present information screen G8 can perform an entry operation for the associated coupon.

When the pressing operation of the detailed specification section G41 of the offer summary screen G4 or the detailed specification section G51 of the gift summary screen G5 is detected, the offer information screen G7 and the gift information screen G8 are similar to the display of the gift information or the detailed display of the offer information by the order terminal 20. Therefore, the offer information or the gift information is also displayed on the ordering terminal 20, and the entry of the subject offer can be made by the pressing operation of the entry specifying unit G71 or G81.

In addition, the customer mobile terminal can output the questionnaire information screen similar to questionnaire survey screen G6 in response to the pressing operation of transfer specification unit G62 of questionnaire survey screen G6 displayed on order terminal 20.

In this way, in the present embodiment, when a specific operation (pressing operation of the transfer specifying unit) is detected on the offer summary screen G4, the gift summary screen G5, or the questionnaire survey screen G6 displayed on the ordering terminal 20, details of the offer information or gift information, or questionnaire survey information are displayed on the customer mobile terminal. As a result, the customer can confirm the information on the cigarette merchandise on the customer mobile terminal, and can make an entry for an offer or an answer to a questionnaire survey.

This suppresses the time that the customer stays in front of the ordering terminal 20, and promotes sales of the cigarette merchandise.

[ operation example of supporting PC10 ]

Next, an operation example of the present system 1 will be explained. In particular, with reference to fig. 17 and 18, an example of the operation of the support PC10 and the order terminal 20 when ordering a cigarette product using the order terminal 20 will be described. Fig. 17 is a sequence diagram showing an operation example related to the order and removal of a cigarette product in the present system 1, and fig. 18 is a sequence diagram showing an operation example related to the display of cigarette product-related information after the order of a cigarette product in the present system 1.

Here, it is assumed that the customer places his/her mobile terminal in the order terminal 20, and transmits the customer ID from the mobile terminal to the order terminal 20 by wireless communication.

The order terminal 20 (information acquisition unit 201) acquires a customer ID from a mobile terminal of a customer by wireless communication (S101). The order terminal 20 transmits the acquired customer ID to the support PC10 (S102).

Upon receiving the customer ID from the order terminal 20, the support PC10 (customer management unit 102) searches the customer management DB105 for the customer ID, and determines whether or not the customer ID is associated with the attraction brand ID (S103). When the association with the attraction brand ID is established (YES at S103), the support PC10 returns the attraction brand ID to the order terminal 20(S104), and when the association with the attraction brand ID is not established (NO at S103), transmits attraction brand non-setting information to the order terminal 20 (S105).

The support PC10 (the customer management unit 102) extracts the display designation type and the point information corresponding to the customer ID from the customer management DB105 and transmits them to the order terminal 20(S106 and S107).

When the order terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) receives the master brand ID from the support PC10 (S108: yes), the brand order screen G3 related to the cigarette goods of the brand identified by the master brand ID is displayed on the brand selection screen without performing the operation of selecting the desired brand on the brand selection screen (S110).

On the other hand, when the order terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) receives the owner brand unset information from the support PC10 (S108: NO), it displays a brand selection screen (S109). When the image portion of the desired brand in the brand selection screen is pressed, the order terminal 20 pops up and displays a brand order screen G3 related to the cigarette products of the brand (S110).

The order unit of either one or both of the number of orders of the individual packaged items and the number of orders of the individual packaged items is designated on the brand order screen G3, and the order specification operation unit G32 is pressed (S111).

However, although not shown in fig. 12, when the order cancellation operation unit G33 is pressed down on the brand order screen displayed as the master attraction ID is received from the support PC10, the brand order screen is withdrawn and the brand selection screen is displayed (S109).

When the operation of the order specification operation unit G32 is detected, the order terminal 20 (order reception unit 203) specifies the brand ID of the selected cigarette product, the order unit ID indicating the individual package product, the strip package product, or both (S112).

At this time, the identified brand ID may be the main attraction ID itself transmitted in (S104), or may be different from the main attraction ID. For example, the case where the order cancellation operation unit G33 is operated on the brand order screen displayed for the cigarette products of the main smoking brand and the order determination operation unit G32 is operated on the brand order screen displayed for the cigarette products of the other brand selected on the brand selection screen corresponds to the latter case.

The order terminal 20 (order reception unit 203) transmits order brand information including the identified brand ID, the order unit ID indicating the individual package, the strip package, or both, and the number of the items to the support PC10 (S113).

When the operation of the order specification operation unit G32 is detected, the brand order screen is exited.

When the support PC10 (shelf support unit 101) receives the order brand information from the order terminal 20, it determines whether or not the order unit includes an individual packaged item based on the order unit ID included in the order brand information (S114), and when the order unit includes an individual packaged item (S114: yes), it sends a projection instruction to the first control unit 30 (S115). At this time, the support PC10 (shelf support unit 101) extracts the position information of the magazine 513 corresponding to the brand ID from the shelf management information included in the shelf setting information of the store DB106 based on the brand ID of the order brand included in the order brand information, and includes the position information and the number included in the order brand information in the projection instruction.

Thus, the first control unit 30 (projection control unit 31) controls projection by the projector 56 of each of the racks 50 based on the projection instruction, and outputs a take-out report display reporting the position of the magazine 513 accommodating the individual packaged items of the brand identified by the brand ID.

On the other hand, the support PC10 (shelf support unit 101) determines whether or not the order unit includes the packaged goods (S116), and when the order unit includes the packaged goods (yes at S116), sends a take-out instruction to the second control unit 40 (S117). At this time, the support PC10 (shelf support unit 101) extracts the position information of the storage area corresponding to the brand ID from the rack management information included in the shelf setting information of the store DB106 based on the brand ID of the order brand included in the order brand information, and includes the position information and the number included in the order brand information in the retrieval instruction.

Thus, the second control unit 40 (position report processing unit 41) turns on the barcode position report LED62 corresponding to the position information based on the position information base included in the extraction instruction.

The support PC10 (customer management unit 102) determines whether or not there is bonus information or offer information included in the offer providing item for purchase of a cigarette product of an order brand indicated by the order brand information, based on the master information on cigarette products stored in the store DB106 (S118). When the purchase of the cigarette product of the ordered brand is included in the bonus information or the offer information of the offer (S118: "yes"), the support PC10 (customer management part 102) transmits the purchased cigarette product of the ordered brand (purchase information) to the external sales promotion support server device together with the customer ID (S119). As a result, information (e.g., point information) corresponding to the offer is associated with the customer ID in the sales support server device.

The order terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) performs processing related to the display of the information related to the cigarette product based on the display designation type acquired at (S106) after the order brand information is transmitted to the support PC10 (S113). Although not shown, when the display specification type is the NON type, the operation flow shown in fig. 10 is not executed. In addition, when the display specification type is the QU type, the execution is not performed (S131) and the execution is performed (S141).

The ordering terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) determines whether or not there is bonus information or offer information suitable for the acquired display designation type (S131). In the present embodiment, when the display specification type is the OK type or the PRCP type, it is determined whether the order brand indicated by the order brand information is a gift or a coupon, and when the display specification type is the PR type, it is determined whether the order brand is a gift. Here, whether or not the ordered brand is the target of the bonus or the discount can be determined based on the determination of whether or not there is bonus information or discount information associated with the brand ID of the ordered brand in the held master information on the cigarette goods acquired previously from the support PC 10.

When there is bonus information or offer information suitable for displaying the designated type (S131: YES), the ordering terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) displays the summary of the bonus information or offer information (the offer summary screen G4 of FIG. 12, the bonus summary screen G5 of FIG. 13) (S132). When the pressing operation of the transfer specifying unit G42 of the coupon summary screen G4 or the transfer specifying unit G52 of the gift summary screen G5 is detected (S133: "yes"), the display processing unit 202 transmits transfer instruction information to the support PC10(S134), and cancels the summary display.

When the support PC10 (customer management unit 102) receives the transfer instruction information (S161: YES), it instructs the external sales promotion support server apparatus to transmit the details of the coupon information or the offer information including the customer ID acquired at S102 and the brand ID of the order brand included in the order brand information acquired at S113 to the customer mobile terminal corresponding to the customer ID (S162). Thus, the sales promotion support server device that has received the instruction transmits the bonus information or the discount information associated with the brand ID to the customer mobile terminal corresponding to the customer ID, and the discount information screen G7 shown in fig. 15 or the bonus information screen G8 shown in fig. 16 is displayed on the customer mobile terminal.

When the pressing operation of the detailed specification section G41 of the offer summary screen G4 or the detailed specification section G51 of the gift summary screen G5 is detected (S135: yes), the order terminal 20 (display processing section 202) displays the gift information or the details of the offer information after the display of the summary is canceled (S136). Here, the details of the gift information or the offer information displayed on the ordering terminal 20 are the same as those displayed on the customer mobile terminal in association with the instruction (S162).

The detailed display of the bonus information or the offer information displayed on the ordering terminal 20 includes operation buttons similar to the entry designation portion G71 of the offer information screen G7 or the entry designation portion G81 of the bonus information screen G8. When such a pressing operation of the entry specifying unit is detected in the order terminal 20 (S137: yes), the order terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) transmits information indicating that the entry is made to the support PC10 (S138).

After the transmission (S138), the ordering terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) cancels the detailed display of the bonus information or the offer information. When the pressing operation of the cancellation specifying unit is detected in the detailed display of the bonus information or the preferential event information, the detailed display is also cancelled.

When the support PC10 (customer management unit 102) receives the information indicating that the entry has been made (YES in S171), it generates entry information for the subject offer and transmits the entry information to the external sales promotion support server device (S172).

When there is bonus information or offer information suitable for displaying the designated type (S131: NO), or when the designated type is displayed as the QU type, order terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) determines whether there is questionnaire survey information suitable for displaying the designated type (S141).

In this determination (S141), when the display specification type is the PRCP type or the PR type and the brand ordered on the brand order screen is not set as the subject of any of the gift and the coupon, it is determined that the questionnaire survey information does not fit the display specification type (S141: NO), and the related information is not displayed. In addition, when the display designation type is the OK type or the QU type and the master information on the cigarette merchandise acquired from the support PC10 previously does not include questionnaire survey information, it is determined that there is no questionnaire survey information suitable for displaying the designation type (S141: no).

On the other hand, when the display specification type is the OK type, and the brand ordered on the brand order screen is not set as any one of the gift or the coupon (S131: "NO"), and the cigarette product related main information includes questionnaire survey information, or when the display specification type is the QU type, and the cigarette product related main information includes questionnaire survey information, it is determined that there is questionnaire survey information suitable for the display specification type (S141: "YES").

If it is determined that there is questionnaire survey information suitable for displaying the designated type (S141: yes), order terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) displays questionnaire survey information on questionnaire survey screen G6 shown in fig. 14 (S142). In the present embodiment, the order terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) determines whether or not to display the questionnaire survey information under a certain condition as described above, and displays the questionnaire survey information only when it is determined to display (S142).

When the pressing operation of the transfer specification unit G62 of the questionnaire survey screen G6 is detected (S143: "yes"), the order terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) transmits transfer instruction information to the support PC10(S144), and the questionnaire survey display is canceled.

When the support PC10 (customer management unit 102) receives the transfer instruction information (S181: yes), it transmits a questionnaire survey information transmission instruction including information for identifying the customer ID acquired at (S102) and the questionnaire survey information included in the transfer instruction information to the external sales promotion support server device (S182). In this way, the sales promotion support server device that has received the instruction transmits the questionnaire survey information identified by the identification information to the customer mobile terminal corresponding to the customer ID, and the questionnaire survey information is displayed in a state in which the input operation can be performed on the questionnaire survey information on the customer mobile terminal.

When the pressing operation of the answer completion specifying unit G61 of the questionnaire survey screen G6 is detected (S145: yes), the order terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) generates questionnaire survey answer information including answer information for each question item input on the questionnaire survey screen G6, and transmits the questionnaire survey answer information to the support PC10 (S146). At this time, order terminal 20 (display processing unit 202) eliminates the questionnaire display.

When the support PC10 (customer management unit 102) receives the questionnaire response information (yes in S191), it transmits the questionnaire response information to the external sales promotion support server device together with the customer ID (S192).

As described above, in the present embodiment, after the order brand information is transmitted from the order terminal 20 to the support PC10(S113), the gift information, the coupon information, or the questionnaire survey information, that is, the cigarette product related information is displayed on the order terminal 20. That is, it can be said that, after the ordering terminal 20 receives an ordering operation for a cigarette product of a target brand on the brand ordering screen (brand operation display), the display processing unit 202 can display, on the ordering terminal 20, cigarette product-related information (gift information, offer information, or questionnaire information) including information urging a specific operation (pressing operation of the forwarding specifying unit G42, G52, or G62). Therefore, if the coupon summary screen G4, the gift summary screen G5, and the questionnaire survey screen G6 are after the detection of the pressing operation of the order determination operation unit G32 in the brand order screen G3 (S111), the order brand information may be displayed before being transmitted from the order terminal 20 to the support PC 10.

In this way, by displaying the information relating to the cigarette product (gift information, coupon information, or questionnaire survey information) on the ordering terminal 20 after the ordering terminal 20 receives the ordering operation of the cigarette product of the target brand, the store clerk can view the information while the store clerk takes the ordered cigarette product of the brand after the ordering.

In the present embodiment, after the order brand information is transmitted from the order terminal 20 to the support PC10(S113), gift information, coupon information, or questionnaire survey information, that is, information relating to the cigarette product can be displayed on the customer mobile terminal. That is, after the ordering terminal 20 receives an ordering operation for a cigarette product of a target brand on the brand ordering screen (brand operation display), the support PC10 (customer management unit 102) may perform processing so that the customer mobile terminal can acquire information relating to the cigarette product (gift information, coupon information, or questionnaire survey information).

Thus, after the customer orders a cigarette product of a desired brand using the ordering terminal 20, the customer can view the information on the cigarette product on the customer portable terminal at a favorite timing.

[ modified examples ]

The above embodiments are illustrative, and the above can be modified as appropriate without departing from the scope of the invention.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the first control unit 30 that controls the individual racks 50 and the second control unit 40 that controls the strip racks 60 are provided separately, but one control unit that controls both the individual racks 50 and the strip racks 60 may be provided instead. The support PC10 and its control unit may be realized by one control device.

The individual racks 50 and the strip racks 60 are not limited to the above-described structure.

Instead of using the projection image of the projector 56 as in the above-described embodiment, the individual loading rack 50 may be configured to provide an electronic shelf label in each of the magazines 513, and perform the extraction report display or the replenishment report display by setting the display of the electronic shelf label of the magazine 513 in which the cigarette products of the target brand are stored to a different form from the display of the other magazine 513.

Further, each of the racks 50 may include an LED (position notification unit) that notifies the position of each of the magazines 513, and the extraction report display or the supplement report display may be performed by lighting the LED corresponding to the position of the storage box 513 that stores the cigarette products of the target brand.

The racks 50 and the bar racks 60 may be devices having an automatic shipment function.

In the above-described embodiment, the shelf setting information such as the correspondence between the position of the magazine in each rack 50 and the brand ID of each packaged product stored in the magazine and the correspondence between the position of the storage area in the rack 60 and the brand ID of each packaged product stored in the storage area is managed by the support PC10, but the shelf setting information may be shared between the first control unit 30 and the second control unit 40 and the support PC10, or may be managed only by the first control unit 30 and the second control unit 40.

As described above, the customer management DB105 and the customer management DB105 stored in the support PC10 may be stored anywhere in the system 1, or may be stored in a device outside the system 1 as long as communication with the support PC10 is possible.

For example, the customer management DB105 may be provided in an external server device that can communicate with the support PC 10.

Further, a customer ID, a master attraction ID, a display designation type, and point information are stored in a mobile terminal of a customer, and an application installed in the mobile terminal can manage these pieces of information. In this case, the ordering terminal 20 can directly acquire the customer ID, the main attraction ID, the display designation type, and the point information from the mobile terminal. Therefore, in the timing chart of fig. 9, (S102), (S103), (S104), (S105), (S106), and (S107) are not necessary.

For example, the application of the mobile terminal of the customer causes a two-dimensional code in which the master attraction ID and the customer ID are encoded to be displayed on the display unit of the mobile terminal, and causes the order terminal 20 to read the two-dimensional code, thereby enabling the order terminal 20 to acquire the customer ID and the master attraction ID at the same time. Accordingly, at least (S102), (S103), (S104), and (S105) of fig. 9 are not required.

By causing the ordering terminal 20 to acquire the customer ID in this way, the present system 1 can maintain purchase history information of the cigarette product for each customer, and further can store the purchase history information of the cigarette product for each customer across a plurality of stores in an external server device. By using the cigarette product purchase history information thus accumulated, the external sales promotion support server apparatus can provide promotion information such as a coupon (coupon) or a reward (rewarded) offer to the support PC10 or the customer portable terminal as cigarette product related information in accordance with the intention of each customer.

In the above-described embodiment, the support PC10 instructs the customer mobile terminal to transmit the relevant information to be targeted, but the order terminal 20 may transmit the relevant information directly to the customer mobile terminal. In this case, in the sequence chart of fig. 18, (S162), (S172), and (S182) are executed not by the support PC10 but by the subscribing terminal 20.

In the above-described embodiment, the gift information, the offer information, and the questionnaire survey information are exemplified as the cigarette product-related information, but the cigarette product-related information is not limited to such an example.

For example, detailed information (brand history information such as development background, manufacturing information, material information, smell information, and the like) about each brand of cigarette product may be included in the cigarette product-related main information in a state in which the detailed information is associated with the brand ID. In this case, after eliminating the brand order screen G3, the display processing unit 202 may display the screen displaying the detailed information on the order brand associated with the brand ID of the order brand by replacing it with the coupon summary screen G4 (see fig. 12) or the gift summary screen G5 (see fig. 13). This screen includes the detailed information of the ordered brand in addition to the brand information of the ordered brand, and may include a transfer specification unit (e.g., G52 of fig. 13) and a deletion specification unit (e.g., G53 of fig. 13), and the customer management unit 102 may execute processing of transferring the detailed information of the ordered brand to the customer mobile terminal in accordance with detection of a pressing operation by the transfer specification unit. Thus, the customer can read the detailed information about the brand of the ordered cigarette product at the ordering terminal 20 and can read the information at the customer mobile terminal at a preferred time.

In the case where there is a brand name for which a switching package (package) or brand name is scheduled, information of the switching timing or the switched brand name or package (package) may be included in the cigarette product related master information in a state in which the brand ID of the switching brand is associated with the switching brand. In this case, after eliminating brand order screen G3, display processing unit 202 may display a screen displaying the switching timing of the order information associated with the brand ID of the ordered brand or information on the brand name or package (package) after switching. The screen may similarly include a transfer specification unit (e.g., G52 in fig. 13) and a cancel specification unit (e.g., G53 in fig. 13), and the customer management unit 102 may execute processing for transferring information relating to the brand switching to the customer portable terminal in accordance with detection of a pressing operation by the transfer specification unit.

When there is a brand for which revocation is scheduled, information on a revocation time or an alternative brand which can replace the revocation brand may be included in the cigarette product-related main information in a state where the brand ID of the revocation brand is associated in the same manner. At this time, information on the cigarette product such as the expiration time is also displayed.

Thus, the customer can reliably know information on switching of the package and the brand name of the ordered cigarette product, or information on canceling the order.

Further, information on a recommended brand, a newly issued brand, a best-selling brand, and a brand frequently purchased at the same time may be included in the cigarette-related-product-related main information in a state in which the information is associated with a brand ID of a specific brand. Accordingly, the customer can obtain the information of the recommended brand or the like as a brand other than the brand of the ordered cigarette product on the ordering terminal 20 or the customer portable terminal.

In other words, after slightly viewing the information on the kind of cigarette merchandise displayed on the order terminal 20, the customer can specify whether or not to transfer the information to his or her customer portable terminal depending on whether or not to perform a specific operation with respect to the order terminal 20. As a result, the willingness (movement) of the customer to view the information relating to the cigarette product can be improved as compared with the case where the information is suddenly transmitted to the customer's portable terminal.

When the order terminal 20 orders the recommended cigarette products of other brands, the customer management unit 102 may generate entry information of the subject offer and transmit the entry information to an external sales promotion support server device.

When the customer ID is not acquired when the brand selection screen or brand order screen G3 is displayed, the display processing unit 202 may display an ID registration guidance screen for guiding registration of the customer ID in place of the coupon summary screen G4 (see fig. 12), the gift summary screen G5 (see fig. 13), and the like after the brand order screen G3 is erased.

The ID registration guidance screen may include URL information of a WEB page for registering a customer ID or destination address information to be a transmission destination of an electronic mail, or may include a two-dimensional code in which the URL information or the destination address information is encoded. The screen may include a transfer specification unit (e.g., G52 in fig. 13) and an erasure specification unit (e.g., G53 in fig. 13), and the customer management unit 102 may execute a process of transferring the URL information or the destination address information to the customer mobile terminal in response to detection of a pressing operation by the transfer specification unit. Thus, the customer can perform a registration job of the customer ID by reading the two-dimensional code displayed on the order terminal 20 at the customer mobile terminal, or can also perform a registration job of the customer ID using the forwarded URL information or destination address information.

Further, the customer ID may be registered in the server apparatus via the support PC10 by an operation of the order terminal 20 via the ID registration guidance screen. For example, by performing a predetermined operation on the ID registration guidance screen, the imaging device of the order terminal 20 is activated to capture a biological image such as a face image, a vein image, or a fingerprint image, and the biological information extracted from the biological image is registered as the customer ID, or may be registered in association with a separately acquired customer ID. In this case, the customer management unit 102 can request the external server device to extract the biometric information from the biometric image acquired from the subscription terminal 20, and register the biometric information as or in association with the customer ID. The customer management unit 102 may transmit a registration request of the biological information, generate entry information of the subject offer, and transmit the entry information to the external sales promotion support server device.

The display processing unit 202 may display an application guidance screen for guiding the downloading of the dedicated application to the customer mobile terminal instead of or together with the ID registration guidance screen. The order terminal 20 may also instruct the customer mobile terminal to start a predetermined application (dedicated application, mail application, or the like) installed in the customer mobile terminal by communicating with the customer mobile terminal by near field wireless communication or the like.

In the above-described embodiment and modification, after the order brand information is transmitted from the order terminal 20 to the support PC10 or after the brand order screen G3 is erased, the general or detailed information such as bonus information and coupon information, questionnaire information, brand detailed information, brand switching information, brand cancel information, and other various information are displayed as the cigarette-related information.

As illustrated in fig. 19 and 20, the information on the cigarette merchandise items may be displayed on the ordering terminal 20 before the ordering operation is performed, that is, before the brand information is ordered and sent from the ordering terminal 20 to the support PC10 or before the brand ordering screen is removed.

Fig. 19 is a diagram showing a first modification of the brand order screen. The brand subscription screen shown in fig. 11 displays, in addition to the display content of the brand subscription screen G3 (see fig. 11) in the above-described embodiment, an outline (summary) of the offer information included in the offer summary screen G4 (see fig. 12), and further includes a detailed specification unit G41, a transfer specification unit G42, and a deletion specification unit G43. When the transfer instruction unit G42 is pressed on the brand order screen, the display processing unit 202 transmits transfer instruction information to the support PC10 before the order operation is performed. Thus, as described above, the customer management unit 102 executes a process of transferring the offer detail information (cigarette product related information) to the customer mobile terminal.

Fig. 20 is a diagram showing a second modification of the brand order screen. The brand order screen shown in fig. 20 displays, as recommended product information, information on a cigarette product of a brand different from the brand to be ordered, in addition to the display content of the brand order screen G3 (see fig. 11) in the above-described embodiment. Then, by pressing the selection button G91 or G92 related to the brand presented as the recommended article, a brand order screen related to the cigarette article of the brand is displayed.

In other words, the information related to the cigarette merchandise may be notified to the customer portable terminal directly from an external sales promotion support server device. For example, this is achieved by the system 1 further including a transmitter of a specific radio wave (for example, a Bluetooth signal) such as a beacon (beacon) terminal, and by the cooperation of the client portable terminal with the transmitter and an external sales promotion support server device. Specifically, when a customer arrives at a shop in which the system 1 and the transmitter are installed, the customer's mobile terminal receives a specific radio wave from the transmitter. The application of the customer portable terminal transmits certain information (for example, identification information indicating a transmitter, identification information indicating a store, and the like) to the external sales promotion support server device according to the reception state of the specific radio wave. In this way, the external sales promotion support server device transmits the cigarette product related information such as advertisement information or notification information related to the cigarette product to the customer portable terminal, and the application program displays the cigarette product related information on the display unit of the customer portable terminal. In this case, the external sales promotion support server device can also transmit information on the cigarette products corresponding to the store entered by the customer.

In the above-described timing chart, a plurality of steps (processes) are described in sequence, but the order of execution of the steps executed in the present embodiment is not limited to the described order. In the present embodiment, the order of the illustrated steps can be changed within a range that does not affect the contents.

A part or all of the above-described contents may be determined as follows. However, the above description is not limited to the following description.

(1) A cigarette product management system including an order terminal capable of displaying brand information of a plurality of brands of cigarette products and accepting an order operation of a brand from which a customer wants to order from among the plurality of brands, and a support device that supports taking out of a cigarette product of a brand that is set as a target of the order operation accepted by the order terminal, the cigarette product management system comprising:

a display processing unit that displays, on a display unit of the ordering terminal, a display of first cigarette article related information in addition to a brand operation display that enables a designation operation of designating a brand of a cigarette article to be taken out from a plurality of cigarette articles of the brands or the ordering operation;

an identifier acquisition unit that acquires a customer identifier of a customer; and

an information providing unit that, when a specific operation is accepted at the ordering terminal on which the first cigarette product related information is displayed, performs processing so that a customer mobile terminal corresponding to the acquired customer identifier can acquire second cigarette product related information,

the second cigarette product related information is the same as or related to the first cigarette product related information, or information related to a cigarette product of a brand that is a target of the ordering operation accepted at the ordering terminal.

(2) The cigarette merchandise management system according to (1),

when the order operation is accepted by the order terminal, the information providing unit performs processing so that the customer mobile terminal corresponding to the acquired customer identifier can acquire the second cigarette commodity-related information.

(3) The cigarette merchandise management system according to (1) or (2),

further comprising a designation holding unit that holds display designation information generated by the operation of the customer mobile terminal by the customer in association with a customer identifier of the customer,

when the customer identifier of the customer is acquired, the display processing unit determines whether or not the first cigarette article related information needs to be displayed on the display unit of the order terminal or determines the content of the first cigarette article related information displayed on the display unit of the order terminal, based on the display specification information associated with the customer identifier.

(4) The cigarette merchandise management system according to any one of (1) to (3),

further comprises a main information storage unit for storing main information relating to a cigarette product including at least one of questionnaire survey information on a question item to a customer, bonus information indicating that an offer can be given to the customer, and offer information indicating that an offer can be given to the customer according to a specific requirement,

the display processing unit selects at least one of the questionnaire survey information, the bonus information, and the offer information from the cigarette-item-related main information as the first cigarette-item-related information displayed on the display unit of the ordering terminal.

(5) The cigarette merchandise management system according to any one of (1) to (4),

the display processing unit switches a mode of a question item of displayed question sheet survey information according to whether or not the customer identifier has been acquired when the question sheet survey information including a question item for a customer is displayed as the first cigarette commodity-related information on the display unit of the ordering terminal.

(6) The cigarette merchandise management system according to any one of (1) to (5),

when the order terminal accepts the order operation, the display processing means displays the first cigarette article related information including information prompting the specific operation on the display unit of the order terminal.

(7) The cigarette merchandise management system according to (4), wherein,

further comprises a generation unit that generates entry information indicating that the customer indicated by the acquired customer identifier has entered an entry for an offer that enables a customer to be offered a preference according to a specific requirement,

the first cigarette merchandise related information is the bonus information or the offer information,

the generation unit generates the entry information of the customer when a specific operation is performed in the order terminal on which the information relating to the first cigarette article is displayed.

(8) A method for managing a cigarette product, which is executed by a system including an order terminal capable of displaying brand information of a plurality of brands of cigarette products and accepting an order operation of a brand from which a customer wants to order from among the plurality of brands, and a support device that supports removal of a cigarette product of a brand that is set as a target of the order operation accepted by the order terminal, the method comprising:

displaying, on a display unit of the ordering terminal, a display of first cigarette article related information in addition to a brand operation display enabling a designation operation of designating a brand of a cigarette article to be taken out from a plurality of cigarette articles of the brands or the ordering operation;

obtaining a customer identifier of a customer; and

processing, when a specific operation is accepted at the ordering terminal on which the first cigarette commodity-related information is displayed, so that a customer mobile terminal corresponding to the acquired customer identifier can acquire second cigarette commodity-related information,

the second cigarette product related information is the same as or related to the first cigarette product related information, or information related to a cigarette product of a brand that is a target of the ordering operation accepted at the ordering terminal.

(9) The method for managing cigarette merchandise according to (8), wherein,

the information providing process is executed after the ordering terminal accepts an operation for designating a cigarette product of the target brand displayed by the brand operation.

(10) The method for managing cigarette merchandise according to (8) or (9), wherein,

further comprising: when a customer identifier of the customer is acquired, determining whether or not the first cigarette merchandise related information needs to be displayed on the display unit of the order terminal or determining the content of the first cigarette merchandise related information displayed on the display unit of the order terminal based on display specification information associated with the customer identifier,

the display specification information is generated by the operation of the customer mobile terminal by the customer, and is held in association with a customer identifier of the customer.

(11) The method for managing cigarette merchandise according to any one of (8) to (10), wherein,

further comprising: selecting at least one of the questionnaire survey information, the bonus information, and the offer information from the master information on the cigarette commodity as the first information on the cigarette commodity displayed on the display unit of the ordering terminal,

the main information related to the cigarette merchandise is stored in a main information storage unit in a state of including at least one of questionnaire survey information, bonus information and discount event information,

the questionnaire survey information includes a question item for the customer,

the bonus information indicates that offers are given to the customer,

the offer information indicates that offers can be given to customers according to specific requirements.

(12) The method for managing cigarette merchandise according to any one of (8) to (11), wherein,

switching a mode of a question item of displayed question sheet survey information according to whether the customer identifier is acquired when the question sheet survey information including a question item for a customer is displayed as the first cigarette article related information on the display unit of the order terminal.

(13) The cigarette merchandise management method according to any one of (8) to (12),

the first cigarette article related information includes information that urges the specific operation, and is displayed on the display unit of the order terminal after the order terminal accepts an operation for designating a cigarette article of a target brand displayed by the brand operation.

(14) The method for managing cigarette merchandise according to (11), wherein,

further comprising: generating entry information indicating that the customer indicated by the acquired customer identifier has entered an entry for an offer that can give a preference to the customer according to a specific requirement,

the first cigarette merchandise related information is the bonus information or the offer information,

the entry information is generated when a specific operation is performed in the order terminal on which the information relating to the first cigarette article is displayed.

The present application claims priority based on the japanese application (japanese application No. 2019-55660), filed on 3/22/2019, and the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety.