Patent Publication Number: US-2021174335-A1

Title: Simple order payment system and method for omni-channel shopping

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present disclosure relates to a simple order payment system and method for omni-channel shopping, and more particularly, to a simple order payment system and method for omni-channel shopping, which enable a product to be conveniently delivered to a destination by only reading a QR code, indicated in the product to be purchased, through a terminal without a wait process for separate payment processing in purchasing the product at an offline store. 
     2. Related Art 
     In general, when people try to visit an offline store, for example, a hypermarket or a shopping center and purchase products, they have to frequently stand and wait in a long line for payment processing in the state in which they have selected the products. 
     Furthermore, such a wait time for payment processing may act, as a great burden and stress, on customers who are busy settling their other affairs. If payment processing is further delayed, a customer may give up a purchasing decision for a product and visit another store where payment processing can be rapidly performed. 
     In particular, in the case of an online shopping mall managed in the equivalent manner to an offline store, in a process for a consumer to select a product and to pay for the product using his/her personal terminal, there is a problem in that a hacker intercepts a certification number by generating an error upon SMS certification, certification using an authentication certificate, ARS certification, or certification using an OTP through a malcode installed in the personal terminal. Accordingly, personal information leakage is very serious. 
     Moreover, if information on a person is leaked to a hacker, the person may suffer a pecuniary loss due to the payment made by the other persons, although the person has not directly performed payment processing. Such personal information is also used for a method using another piece of marketing means. 
     Accordingly, there is an urgent need to develop improved technologies capable of solving such problems. 
     Prior Art Document 
     Patent Document 
     (Patent Document 0001) Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2013-0084274 [entitled “ 3 -dimensinal Virtual Reality Shopping Mall”] 
     SUMMARY 
     Various embodiments are directed to providing a simple order payment system and method for omni-channel shopping, which enable a person to receive an article at his or her desired destination by only selecting the article without the need to stand and wait in a long line for payment processing related to the article to be purchased in an online shopping mall or an offline store equivalent thereto and improve the reliability of e-commerce by guaranteeing the safety of payment in an article purchase process in an online shopping mall. 
     In an embodiment, a simple order payment system for omni-channel shopping may include a terminal of a consumer configured to select a product by reading a QR code or RFID tag of the product sold at an offline store or an online shopping mall equivalent thereto, a store server constructed in the offline store and configured to operate in conjunction with a mobile app activated by recognizing a unique digital number of the offline store contained in the QR code or RFID tag read from the terminal, a payment server configured to identify orderer information on the selected product through a monitor of the store server and to perform payment processing on the ordered product, and an artificial intelligence (AI) approval unit configured to intelligently perform approval necessary for the payment processing by identifying the authenticity of the consumer through a “consumer&#39;s general personal identity information” database (DB) for safe payment in the payment server. 
     In an example of the simple order payment system, a beacon is further constructed and installed in the offline store. 
     In an example of the simple order payment system, the beacon detects information on the terminal when the terminal reads the QR code or RFID tag of the product provided at the offline store, and transmits the information to the store server. 
     In an example of the simple order payment system, the store server transmits the mobile app to the terminal when receiving the information on the terminal from the beacon. 
     In an example of the simple order payment system, the payment server determines whether the orderer information obtained from the mobile app is identical with the information on the terminal received from the beacon, performs the payment processing on the selected product when the orderer information and the information on the terminal are determined to be identical, and performs the payment processing by performing “mutual question inducement and answers” provided by the AI approval unit. 
     In an embodiment, a simple order payment method for omni-channel shopping may include steps of a) selecting, by a terminal of a consumer, a product, provided in an offline store, b) intercepting, by a beacon constructed in the offline store, information on the terminal and transmitting the information to a store server, c) identifying orderer information of the selected product based on the information on the terminal through a monitor of the store server, and d) performing, by a payment server, payment processing on the selected product. 
     In an example of the simple order payment method, the step d) may include a step d′) of intelligently performing, by an artificial intelligence (AI) approval unit, approval necessary for the payment processing by identifying the authenticity of the consumer through a “consumer&#39;s general personal identity information” database (DB) for safe payment in the payment server. 
     In an example of the simple order payment method, at the step b), the beacon detects information on the terminal when the terminal reads a QR code or RFID tag of the product and transmits the information to the store server, the store server transmits a mobile app to the terminal when receiving the information on the terminal from the beacon, and the QR code contains a unique digital number of the offline store. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of an order payment system for simple omni-channel shopping according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating, as a simple concept, the state in which the elements of the order payment system perform payment processing through the mutual question inducement and answers of an AI approval unit  400 . 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating, as a simple concept, a communication method through a communication window  410  of the AI approval unit  400  of  FIG. 2 . 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart sequentially illustrating an order payment method for simple omni-channel shopping according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present disclosure should be interpreted as including even the scope of a right to a technical spirit through various modified embodiments. The embodiments are provided only to complete the present disclosure and to allow those skilled in the art to fully understand the category of the present disclosure. The present disclosure is only defined by the category of the claims. 
     Moreover, it is to be noted that drawings related to a prior art are omitted because the technical spirit of the present disclosure may be understood by the detailed description of the present disclosure. It is to be noted that a product and an article among terms to be described later have the same meaning and may be interchangeably used according to circumstances. 
     The term “product and article” described in the present disclosure may be interchangeably described and may be interpreted as terms having the same meaning. A simple order payment system and method for omni-channel shopping according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail as follows. 
     An omni-channel is a term in which “omni” meaning all and a “channel” meaning a distribution channel are combined, and is generally used as a meaning that all channels are used. 
     That is, the omni-channel indicates a service which enables a consumer to search for and purchase an article (or service) through various channels, such as online, offline, and a mobile. The omni-channel may provide a shopping environment in which characteristics of distribution channels are combined so that a consumer can feel as if he or she uses the same store through any channel. 
     A wireless Internet technology may include a wireless LAN, Wi-Max, WiBro, IEEE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, REID, ZigBee, ultrasonic communication, BLE, etc. A wired communication technology may include power line communication, USB communication, Ethernet, serial communication, an optical/coaxial cable, etc. 
     A communication unit may include technical standards or communication methods for mobile communication (e.g., a global system for mobile communication (GSM), code division multi access (CDMA), code division multi access 2000 (CDMA2000), enhanced voice-data optimized or enhanced voice-data only (EVDO), wideband CDMA (WCDMA), high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA), long term evolution (LTE), and long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A)). 
     The simple order payment system for omni-channel shopping according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may be used to implement the transmission of data based on the technical bases of the wireless Internet technology and the communication unit. For example, the simple order payment system may be configured to include a terminal  100  of a consumer who selects a product by reading a QR code of the product provided in a hypermarket or shopping center, that is, an example of an offline store, a store server  200  constructed in the offline store and configured to operate in conjunction with a mobile application (hereinafter referred to as a “mobile app”) activated by recognizing a unique digital number of the offline store contained in the QR code read from the terminal, a payment server  300  configured to identify orderer information on the selected product through a monitor of the store server and to perform payment processing on the ordered product, and an artificial intelligence (AI) approval unit  400  configured to intelligently perform approval necessary for the payment processing by identifying the authenticity of the consumer through a consumer&#39;s general personal identity database (DB) for the safe payment in the payment server. For this configuration, reference may be made to the drawings illustrated in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . 
     The store server  200  may provide a supermarket or a shopping center, that is, an offline store, in the form of an online shopping mall service on the Internet. The online shopping mall may have a website form or a cloud platform form. The online shopping mall may be interpreted to include all forms which do not specially affect the operation of a shopping mall through Internet access. 
     The QR code contains a unique digital number of an offline store in addition to unique numbers of products, which are provided in an online shopping mall to the offline store and are equivalent to products provided in the offline store. When the QR code is read by the terminal  100  of a consumer, the store server  200  constructed to operate the offline store and the online shopping mall together based on the unique digital number contained in the QR code may induce the terminal  100  of the consumer to install a mobile app by transmitting the mobile app to the terminal  100  of the consumer that has read the QR code. 
     The unique digital number of the offline store contained in the QR code may be detected by a beacon constructed in the offline store through wireless communication with the terminal  100 . In this case, the beacon may intercept information on the terminal  100  based on the detected unique digital number, and may transmit the information to the store server  200 . 
     Accordingly, the store server  200  may transmit the mobile app to the terminal  100  of the consumer based on the information on the terminal  100  received from the beacon. 
     When the mobile app transmitted to and installed in the terminal  100  of the consumer is activated, the orderer information on the selected product contained in a shopping basket may be identified through the monitor of the store server  200 . 
     The terminal  100  may be configured as the personal PC or personal portable terminal of a user, that is, a consumer, as in  FIG. 1 , for example. In particular, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a smartphone capable of an online order using the Internet network, such as 3G, LTE, or 5G, may be used as the personal portable terminal. 
     Such orderer information may include the unique number of a model name of the terminal  100  that reads a QR code or an RFID tag, the name, contact address, and destination address of a consumer, for example, as identity-related information on the consumer, that is, the owner of the terminal  100 , and one or more pieces of payment information, among micropayment information, card payment information, account payment information, and card point payment information, for example, as payment information for a product. 
     The orderer information identified through the monitor of the store server  200  as described above is transmitted to the payment server  300 . When it is determined that the orderer information is identical with the information on the terminal  100  of the consumer, the payment server  300  may perform the payment processing on the selected product using payment information on the consumer based on the orderer information. 
     When the payment server  300  performs the payment processing, the consumer can identify the contents of the payment processing through the terminal  100  of the consumer because information related to the payment processing details of the product is transmitted to the terminal  100  of the consumer. 
     In particular, the payment server  300  may perform payment processing only when receiving approval, necessary for the payment processing, from the AI approval unit  400  in a payment processing process for a product. For safe payment processing of the payment server, the AI approval unit  400  provides the terminal  100  of the consumer with a communication window  410  for identifying the authenticity of the consumer, in the approval process as in  FIG. 3 , and also determines whether to transmit approval by identifying the authenticity of the consumer through a web communication form “mutual question inducement and answers” based on “consumer&#39;s general personal identity information.” 
     The AI approval unit  400  transmits the web communication form “mutual question inducement and answers” to the terminal  100  of the consumer and determines the authenticity of the consumer by analyzing the contents of answers received through “mutual question inducement and answers”, which is installed in the terminal  100  of the consumer, based on the “consumer&#39;s general personal identity information.” 
     The consumer&#39;s general personal identify information refers to a massive amount of personal information left online by a consumer through electronic behaviors. The examples thereof may include an ID, a password, an address, a social security number, an academic background, a network of friends, and other personal information. The AI approval unit  400  may learn, accumulate and store such personal information in a “consumer&#39;s general personal identity information” DB form. 
     The AI approval unit  400  accumulates knowledge information on a consumer to an extent equivalent to knowledge information on the identity of the consumer. Accordingly, the contents of answers received through the “mutual question inducement and answers” provided from the AI approval unit  400  to the terminal  100  of the consumer in an approval process for payment cannot be handled by personal information intercepted through a malcode of a hacker. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent a problem of payment approval through the interception of personal information, which occurs in the existing SMS certification, certification using an authentication certificate, ARS certification, or OTP payment approval. As a result, the safety of payment can be guaranteed. 
     The method “mutual question inducement and answers” is a method in which the AI approval unit  400  provides the terminal  100  of the consumer with questions, which induce answers for determining the authenticity of the consumer, several times and the consumer answers the questions, provided through the terminal  100 , several times. 
     If the consumer determines that a question, which induces an answer and is provided by the AI approval unit  400 , is not suitable, the consumer may request, through the terminal  100 , the AI approval unit  400  to provide a question that induces an answer. The AI approval unit  400  can give an answer to the request for the question. Accordingly, communication necessary for payment approval can be performed between both parties. 
     As described above, the AI approval unit  400  determines the authenticity of the consumer based on the “consumer&#39;s general personal identity information” DB that has already learnt the contents of answers transmitted through the web communication form called “mutual question inducement and answers.” 
     In particular, the AI approval unit  400  may isolate and control a network of a terminal. Although a hacker remotely accesses a certification terminal and intercepts certification information, the contents of answers received through the web communication form “mutual question inducement and answers” cannot be handled by intercepted personal information of the hacker, thereby invalidating key logging hacking by the hacker. 
     That is, the web communication form “mutual question inducement and answers” requests the contents of answers that proves a consumer himself or herself in such a manner that the AI approval unit  400  provides the terminal  100  with questions for various types of personal information which the consumer knows the best and can prove the consumer. Accordingly, questions for various types of personal information for proving a consumer himself or herself, requested through the web communication form “mutual question inducement and answers”, cannot be handled by personal information intercepted by key logging hacking using a malcode, thereby inevitably invalidating the personal information intercepted by key logging hacking. 
     As illustrated in  FIG. 4 , a simple order payment method for omni-channel shopping according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured to include steps of a) selecting, by the terminal  100  of a consumer, a product, provided in an offline store or an online shopping mall managed in an equivalent manner to the offline store, according to a scan method, b) intercepting, by the beacon, information on the terminal  100  that has read the QR code or RFID tag of the product selected at the offline store or the online shopping mall and transmitting the information to the store server  200 , c) identifying orderer information on the selected product based on the information on the terminal  100  through the monitor of the store server  200 , and d) performing, by the payment server  300 , payment processing on the selected product, with reference to  FIGS. 1 to 3 . 
     The step a) of selecting, by the terminal  100  of a consumer a product, provided at an offline store or an online shopping mall managed in an equivalent manner thereto, according to a scan method is a process in which a consumer visits an offline store or an online shopping mall and selects a product to be purchased, by reading a QR code or an RFID tag, indicated in the product, using the terminal  100  of the consumer. 
     The step b) of intercepting, by the beacon, information on the terminal  100  that has read the QR code or RFID tag of the product selected at the offline store or the online shopping mall and transmitting the information to the store server  200  is a process in which when the QR code or RFID tag of the product to be purchased is read by the terminal  100  of the consumer, information on the terminal  100  is transmitted to the store server  200  through the beacon. 
     In this case, the beacon may intercept the information on the terminal  100  by detecting the information when the terminal  100  reads the QR code or RFID tag indicated in the product. In particular, the beacon may be used to rapidly and accurately perform wireless communication with other electronic devices within an offline store. The beacon can rapidly perform data communication within several meters, more precisely, several centimeters. 
     As described above, if the information on the terminal  100  intercepted by the beacon is wirelessly transmitted to the store server  200 , the store server  200  transmits a mobile app to the terminal  100  of the consumer based on the information on the terminal  100  received from the beacon. The mobile app transmitted to the terminal  100  incorporates orderer information therein in a process of being installed in the terminal  100  and activated. 
     In particular, an online shopping mall managed in an equivalent manner to an offline store is registered and associated with portal sites (e.g., Naver, Daum, and Amazon), SNS (e.g., Twitter and Facebook), and cloud platforms, for example, according to a mobile webpage form, which makes it possible to provide marketing services for products through the portal sites, SNS (e.g., Twitter and Facebook), and the cloud platforms in addition to the online shopping mall itself. Accordingly, consumers can purchase products, provided in the online shopping mall, in various ways through the portal sites, the SNS, and the cloud platforms. 
     The online shopping mall may also be managed in a mobile webpage form in order to obviate inconvenience in web surfing through the terminal  100 . To this end, a browsing technology for a mobile version may be applied to a mobile webpage so that the webpage can be viewed even on a device screen of the terminal  100 . The terminal  100  may generally refer to a device capable of Internet access. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a smartphone is suitable for the terminal  100 . 
     The step c) of identifying orderer information on the selected product based on the information on the terminal  100  through the monitor of the store server  200  is a process of identifying the orderer information, incorporated through the mobile app, through the monitor of the store server  200 . 
     Such orderer information may include any one piece of payment information, among micropayment information, card payment information, account payment information, and card point payment information, as payment information for a product, in addition to the unique number of a model name of the terminal  100  that has read a QR code or an RFID tag and the name, contact address, and destination address of a consumer, for example, as identity-related information on the consumer, that is, the owner of the terminal  100 . 
     In particular, the mobile app is a mobile-dedicated app that enables the payment server  300  to perform certification processing and payment processing in such a manner that order information and payment means are received from a mobile webpage of an online shopping mall and payment processing is performed. 
     The step d) of performing, by the payment server  300 , payment processing on the selected product is a process in which after the orderer information identified through the monitor of the store server  200  is transmitted to the payment server  300 , when it is determined that the orderer information is identical with the information on the terminal  100  of the consumer, the payment server  300  performs payment processing on the selected product using payment information on the consumer, that is, the owner of the terminal  100  identical with the orderer information. 
     In this case, the orderer information identified through the monitor of the store server  200  is the orderer information incorporated through the mobile app that has been transmitted to the terminal  100  and activated. The information on the terminal  100  owned by the consumer is the information on the terminal detected and obtained by the beacon. 
     Accordingly, when it is determined that the orderer information obtained through the mobile app is identical with the information on the terminal  100  obtained from the beacon, the payment server  300  performs payment processing on the selected product based on the orderer information. 
     In particular, in the payment process of the payment server  300 , a step d′) of intelligently performing, by the AI approval unit  400 , approval necessary for the payment processing, by identifying the authenticity of the consumer based on “consumer&#39;s general personal identity information” for safe payment in the payment server may be further performed in order to strengthen security. 
     If the step d′) is performed, questions for various types of personal information that proves a consumer, requested through the web communication form “mutual question inducement and answers”, cannot be handled by personal information intercepted from the terminal  100  of the consumer, thereby invalidating the information intercepted by key logging hacking. 
     Moreover, the contents which are requested by a question-inducing box and an answer box illustrated in FIG. through the web communication form “mutual question inducement and answers”, may be provided several times. The contents of questions provided by the AI approval unit  400  through the question-inducing box of the communication window  410  may include various question pattern methods necessary to recognize the authenticity of a consumer himself or herself, by grafting a security channel generated based on a “virtualization-based network separation technology” onto the AI of the AI approval unit  400  that performs autonomous learning. Such various question pattern methods cannot be handled by only intercepted personal information. 
     The grafting of the “virtualization-based network separation technology” onto the AI technology fundamentally blocks or removes a hacker&#39;s behavior to remotely access a certification terminal and intercept certification information, by isolating and controlling a network of the certification terminal, or makes a hacker unable to handle various question pattern methods, obtained through intelligent learning of AI, although certification information is intercepted. In this case, a separate dedicated network (e.g., VPN) for transmitting only the certification information may be set up in order to exchange the certification information. An input method may also be automated in order to invalidate a key logging hacking method by a hacker. 
     When the payment server  300  performs payment processing, information related to the details of the payment processing for a product is transmitted to the terminal  100  owned by a consumer. The consumer can identify the details of the payment processing. The product for which the payment has been completed can be delivered to a destination address of the consumer provided through a terminal of a delivery person. 
     As described above, according to the present disclosure, it is possible to expect an effect in that a user can conveniently purchase and receive a product, provided at an offline store, without the need to wait for payment at the offline store by selecting the product in a way to read a QR code, indicated in the product, using a terminal. 
     Furthermore, according to the present disclosure, it is possible to expect effects in that the reliability of e-commerce is improved because the safety of payment is guaranteed in a process of purchasing an article in an online shopping mall and damage to consumers is prevented by invalidating the interception of personal information by a hacker. 
     While various embodiments have been described above, it will be understood to those skilled in the art that the embodiments described are by way of example only. Accordingly, the disclosure described herein should not be limited based on the described embodiments.