JPH09305356A - Electronic catalog device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide out of stock information on individual merchandise, its material, etc., at the time of selecting them and to eliminate the selection of the out of stock merchandise by a consumer so as to prevent confusion by confirming the presence or absence of the merchandise and permitting the merchandise confirmed as out of stock not to be displayed as a selection candidate at the time of selecting the merchandise. SOLUTION: An electronic catelogue device 10 is constituted by connecting ROM 30, a display device 40, RAM 50, a selecting device 60 and an external storage device 70 to CPU 20 which controls a whole system. When an access is given from the electronic catalague device 10 or at need, a host computer 80 transmits presence or absence information of the merchandise to the electronic catalogue device 10. Thus, presence or absence of the merchandise displayed on the merchandise selecting screen is compared with a list indicating stock information of the merchandise and the merchandise number and the merchandise selecting button of the merchandise recognized as out of stock are not displayed in the screen. Therefore, the comsumer is prevented from selecting the out of stock merchandise.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic catalog device for displaying and selecting products on the screen of a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a catalog for ordering a product has a photograph showing the product, a text explaining the product, a product name,
The product information such as price, size and material was printed on paper. In the case of a product such as clothes that provides multiple sizes for one product, unlike the case of selling at a store, it is not necessary to display products of all sizes in a catalog. It is sufficient to describe the size that can be provided by. Therefore, a variety of sizes can be prepared for each product and the number of options can be increased.

The consumer decides the product to be ordered by comparing the photograph of the catalog with the product information, and specifies the product verbally by telephone or by writing an order slip and sending it by mail or facsimile. Had been done by either.

[0004] In recent years, due to the improvement of personal computer performance and the development of personal computer communication represented by the Internet, instead of the above-mentioned paper medium product catalog, a product is selected on the screen of the personal computer and a communication line is established. Electronic catalog devices that use the products to order products are becoming widespread. This electronic catalog device displays a photograph of a product or the like on a screen of a personal computer, similarly to a catalog of a paper medium, and an operator can directly specify the screen and select the product. By using a personal computer, it has become possible to store a large amount of product information and display its details.For example, by specifying the product size, material, design, etc. from the consumer side, the enormous amount of product information can be displayed. It is now possible to reach the desired product from the inside.

[0005]

However, in such a paper medium catalog or electronic catalog device,
Even if the product is out of stock, the consumer cannot know it when selecting the product, and it is necessary to know the product is out of stock at a later date after ordering the product and reorder another product. There is a risk of confusion such as The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and by providing out-of-stock information regarding individual products and materials of the products to the consumer at the time of product selection, the consumer is out-of-stock products. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic catalog device that eliminates the need for selection and prevents confusion.

[0006]

In order to achieve this object, the electronic catalog device according to claim 1 of the present invention selects a desired product by designating product information such as the design of the displayed product. In the electronic catalog device for storing, a storage unit that stores product information, a display unit that displays the product information, a confirmation unit that confirms the product presence / absence information, and a selection that selects a desired product from the displayed product information. And a control unit that controls, when a product is selected by the selection unit, the product confirmed to be out of stock by the product presence / absence information obtained by the confirmation unit not to be displayed on the display unit. .

In this configuration, the presence or absence of the product is confirmed by the confirmation means, and the product confirmed to be out of stock is
Since the product is not displayed as a selection candidate when the product is selected, the consumer does not select the product out of stock.

The electronic catalog device according to the invention of claim 2 stores the product information in the electronic catalog device for designating the displayed product design and other product information and selecting a desired product. The storage means, the display means for displaying the product information, the confirmation means for confirming the product presence / absence information, the selection means for selecting a desired product from the displayed product information, and the case where the product is selected by the selection means. To
And a control unit that controls the display unit to display the product presence / absence information obtained by the confirmation unit.

In this structure, the presence / absence of the product is confirmed by the confirmation means, and the presence / absence information of the product is displayed by the display means when the product is selected, so that the consumer is prevented from selecting the out-of-stock product.

An electronic catalog device according to a third aspect of the present invention is the electronic catalog device according to the first or second aspect, in which the confirmation means accesses the host computer and the commodity is stored in the host computer. The presence / absence information is confirmed.

In this configuration, the presence / absence information of the product is received from the host computer which manages the inventory quantity of the product, and when the consumer selects the product based on this information, the out-of-stock product is displayed as a selection candidate. Without, or
Since the display means indicates that the product is out of stock, it is possible to prevent confusion caused by the consumer selecting the out-of-stock product. Moreover, since the latest information can be provided to the consumer, it is possible to provide more detailed support.

An electronic catalog device according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the electronic catalog device according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the product is clothes and the confirmation means is clothes. This is to confirm the presence / absence information of the cloth.

In this configuration, when the cloth is out of stock when the consumer selects clothes, the cloth is not displayed as a selection candidate or a display indicating that the cloth is out of stock is displayed. So consumers no longer have to choose out-of-stock dough.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment in which the present invention is embodied in an electronic catalog device for selecting products such as clothes will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic catalog device according to the present invention and a host computer connected to the electronic catalog device by a telephone line.
The electronic catalog device 10 includes a CPU 20 as a control unit for controlling the entire device 10, a ROM 30, a display device 40 as a display unit, a RAM 50, a selection device 60 as a selection unit, and an external storage as a storage unit. Device 7
It is formed by connecting 0 and 0. The ROM 30 stores a bootstrap program or the like that operates immediately after the power switch is turned on. Display device 4 such as CRT
0 displays a product image, size, price, cloth, operation buttons, etc. on the screen. The RAM 50 is loaded with product information such as product images, sizes, prices, and fabrics. The selection device 60 is a device such as a mouse or a touch panel for designating a desired product on the screen of the display device 40. The external storage device 70 stores product information such as product images, sizes, prices, and materials to be displayed on the display device 40.

The RAM 50 has an electronic catalog control program RAM area 51 and a product information RAM area 52.
A size information RAM area 53, a cloth information RAM area 54, and a display RAM area 55.

Further, the external storage device 70 is a RAM 50.
Corresponding to the electronic catalog control program area 71,
It comprises a product information area 72, a size information area 73, and a cloth information area 74.

Electronic catalog control program RAM area 5
A program for controlling the entire electronic catalog device 10 stored in the electronic catalog control program area 71 is loaded into the area 1. Further, in the product information RAM area 52,
The product image and size stored in the product information area 72,
Product information such as price is read. In the size information RAM area 53, information about the size of the product stored in the size information area 73 is read. The size here is based on the height or according to the JIS standard 9
It is possible to display the numbers such as No. 11 and No. 11, S / M / L display, etc. The cloth information RAM area 54 is loaded with information such as usable cloth colors and patterns corresponding to the respective products stored in the cloth information area 74. The display RAM area 55 is for transferring an image to a display device.

The host computer 80 is composed of a center CPU 90 that controls the host computer 80 as a whole, an input device 100, a display device 110, and a storage device 120. The product information input by the input device 100, product information collected from each electronic catalog device 10 through the telephone line 130, and the like are stored in the center CPU 90.
And the information is stored in the storage device 130 and displayed on the display unit 120 according to the operation of the operator. When accessed from the electronic catalog device 10 or when necessary, the host computer 80 transmits merchandise information, in particular, dough presence / absence information to the electronic catalog device 10.

The operation of the electronic catalog device 10 having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. When the electronic catalog device 10 is powered on,
The control program stored in the electronic catalog control program area 71 in the external storage device 70 is transferred to the electronic catalog control program RAM area 51 of the RAM 50 and activated. By this control program, the product information stored in the product information area 72 is transferred to the product information RAM area 5
2, the size information stored in the size information area 73 is transferred to the size information RAM area 53, and the cloth information stored in the cloth information area 74 is transferred to the cloth information RAM area 54. Next, the electronic catalog device 10 accesses the host computer 80 via the telephone line 130, and receives a list regarding the presence / absence information of the cloth for each product from the host computer 80 (S1). The presence / absence information of the cloth is stored in the cloth information area 74, and the cloth information RA is further stored.
It is transferred to the M area 54. When the product information, the size information, and the fabric information are expanded in the display RAM area 55, the display device 40 displays the product photograph 20 as shown in FIG.
1, the product selection button 202, and the out-of-stock mark 203 are displayed on the selection screen (S2).

This display method will be described in detail with reference to FIG. This figure is a flowchart showing the internal processing in S2 shown in FIG. The CPU 20 displays the product photograph 201 and the product selection button 202 (S21),
The design shown in the product photograph 201 is checked (S22). If the check is not made (NO in S22), the data of the design name and the fabric name shown in the product photograph are read (S23). Next, it is checked whether or not the read fabric name is in the list showing the fabric stock sent from the host computer 80 (S2).
4) If there is a fabric name (YES in S24), it is determined that there is stock, and the process returns to S22 and is checked (S22).
YES), the internal processing is ended, and the process returns to S2. When there is no fabric name (NO in S24), it is determined that the fabric is out of stock, the out-of-stock mark 203 is displayed next to the selection button indicating the product (S25), and the process returns to S22 to check ( (YES in S22), the internal processing ends, and the process returns to S2.

Next, the consumer selects the selection device 60 from the selection screen.
To select one or more favorite products (S
3). Since the presence / absence information of the product is displayed next to the selection button 202, the consumer can select the product without worrying about the product being out of stock. Further, it is possible to prevent the confusion caused by selecting the out-of-stock product.

The display method at the time of the screen display (S2) in FIG. 2 described above is to display the presence / absence information of the product on the screen, but for the product out of stock, the product number and the selection button are not displayed. Good. The internal processing method in S2 in this case will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The CPU 20 displays the product photograph (S3
1) Check the design shown in the product photograph (S32). If the check has not been made (NO in S32), the data of the design name and the fabric name shown in the product photograph are read (S33). Next, it is checked whether or not the read fabric name is in the list showing the fabric stock sent from the host computer 80 (S3).
4) If there is a fabric name (YES in S34), the product number is displayed because the product is in stock (S35). Next, the process returns to S32 to perform a check (YES in S32), the internal processing ends, and the process returns to S2.
If the fabric name is not in the list (NO in S34), the fabric is out of stock, so the item number and selection button are not displayed and the process returns to S32 to perform a check (Y in S32).
S), the internal processing is completed, and the process returns to S2.

When such internal processing is performed, for products confirmed to be out of stock, the product number and the product selection button are not displayed on the screen, so that the consumer does not select out of stock products. It is possible to prevent confusion that occurs when an out-of-stock product is selected.

[0025]

As is apparent from the above description,
According to the electronic catalog device according to claim 1 of the present invention,
Compare the presence or absence of the product displayed on the product selection screen with the list showing the inventory information of the product, and if the product confirmed to be out of stock does not display the product number and the product selection button on the screen, the consumer is out of stock. No more selecting products. As a result, it is possible to prevent the confusion that occurs when an out-of-stock product is selected.

According to the electronic catalog device of the second aspect, the presence or absence of the product displayed on the product selection screen is compared with the list showing the inventory information of the product, and the product confirmed to be out of stock is Since it is displayed on the screen that the product is out of stock, the consumer does not have to select the product out of stock, and the same effect as above can be obtained.

Further, according to the electronic catalog device of the third aspect, the host computer that manages and totalizes the product information such as the number of products in stock is accessed, the latest product information is received from this host computer, and this information is received. Since the presence / absence of the product is confirmed based on the above, it is possible to provide the latest product presence / absence information to the consumer, and it is possible to provide more detailed support.

Further, according to the electronic catalog device of the fourth aspect, since the product is clothes and the presence or absence of the cloth of the product is confirmed, the presence / absence information of the product is provided to the consumer. Does not select products whose fabrics are out of stock, and the same effect as above can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of an electronic catalog device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining a processing flow of the electronic catalog device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of internal processing during screen display processing according to this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of another internal process during the screen display process of this embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows a halftone image as a display example of a display device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 electronic catalog device 20 CPU (control means, confirmation means) 40 display device (display means) 60 selection device (selection means) 70 external storage device (storage means) 80 host computer

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G09G 5/00 510 G06F 15/40 310H

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electronic catalog device for selecting desired products by designating product information such as the design of the displayed product, a storage means for storing the product information, and a display means for displaying the product information. A confirmation means for confirming the presence / absence information of the product, a selection means for selecting a desired product from the displayed product information, and a product obtained by the confirmation means when the product is selected by the selection means. An electronic catalog device, comprising: a control unit that controls the display unit so as not to display the product confirmed to be out of stock by the presence / absence information. 2. An electronic catalog device for designating product information such as a design of a displayed product and selecting a desired product, the storage device storing the product information, and a display device for displaying the product information. A confirmation means for confirming the presence / absence information of the product, a selection means for selecting a desired product from the displayed product information, and a product obtained by the confirmation means when the product is selected by the selection means. An electronic catalog device, comprising: a control unit that controls the presence / absence information to be displayed on the display unit. 3. The electronic catalog device according to claim 1, wherein the confirmation means accesses a host computer and confirms the presence / absence information of the product in the host computer. 4. The electronic catalog device according to claim 1, wherein the product is clothes, and the confirmation means confirms the presence / absence information of the cloth of the clothes.