Patent ID: 12229789

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Overview

A purchase analysis system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the purchase analysis system according to the present embodiment acquires information related to a product sold on a mall style shopping site hereinafter, also referred to as a “target product”) from a plurality of tools to perform analysis processing and outputs results. The purchase analysis system is a system that can be used by retailers selling products on the mall style shopping site, as well as by manufacturers and wholesalers wholeselling products to distributors. In the following description, such users may be collectively referred to as users of this system.

As illustrated inFIG.1, a purchase analysis system1is communicatively connected to a mall management server2, an external server3, and a user terminal4via a network NW. The mall management server2is a server for managing a mall style shopping site. The mall managing server2, for example, accepts a plurality of products from a plurality of sellers for lists. Further, the mall managing server2manages a purchase screen of a listed product, and displays the purchase screen to a purchaser terminal in response to an operation of the purchaser terminal. The mall management server2manages information of the products purchased through the mall style shopping site and information on purchasers who have purchased.

The external server3is a server that can acquire information related to the product on the Internet, and is, for example, a server to manage a search engine. The external server3acquires and stores a number of hourly searches for information related to the product on the search engines under its management. Further, the external server3may store date, time, a number of times, and the like, posted on a specific SNS (Social Networking Service). Although one external server3is illustrated in the figure, the purchase analysis system1may be capable of communicating with a plurality of external servers3via the network NW.

The information related to the product is not limited to a product name, and includes various phrases indicating the product such as an abbreviation of the product name, a nickname, a manufacture name, and a catch phrase of the product.

The user terminal4is a terminal used by a retailer who sells the product on the mall style shopping site or a manufacture or a wholesaler who wholesales the product to the sellers, and receives and displays analysis results by the purchase analysis system1.

The purchase analysis system1may be realized by executing a predetermined computer program, for example, in a personal computer, a tablet computer, a smartphone, or the like, and a part or a whole of functions may be realized by a cloud computer. Further, the purchase analysis system may be composed of a plurality of hardware configurations.

The purchase analysis system1is, for example, realized by a computing device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a computer program executed by the CPU, a server having an internal memory such as RAM (Random Access Memory) and ROM (Read Only Memory), and the like. As a result, the purchase analysis system1mainly constitutes functional blocks including a trading history acquisition unit11, an advertising information acquisition unit12, an attention level information acquisition unit13, a purchase screen information acquisition unit14, an analyzer15, a result output unit16, a communication processor17, a product information storage1A, a wholesaler information storage1B, an advertising information storage1C, and an acquisition information storage1D.

The trading history acquisition unit11is a functional unit to acquire a trading history of the product from the mall management server2via the communication processor17. The trading history includes, for example, information related to identification information of sold products, a number of purchases, a number of products, selling prices, shipping costs, shipping agents, shipping methods, date and time of sale, and purchasers. Further, the trading history may include information related to products purchased at the same time on the mall style shopping site.

The information related to the purchaser included in the trading history may be, for example, an attribute of the purchaser including a residential area or a shipping area, gender, age of the purchaser. Further, the information related to the purchaser include a purchase history on the mall style shopping site and may have information that can determine whether the purchaser is a new purchaser or a repeat purchaser.

Furthermore, the trading history may include information on whether a form of purchasing the product is a one-off purchase application or a subscription application. In addition, the trading history may include whether a coupon has been used and types of a coupon used. Further, the trading history may include information on whether the product has been purchased as a gift.

The trading history acquisition unit11may acquire a so-called time sale time zone in which the selling price is temporarily reduced in a predetermined time zone. This is because the indication that the time sale is in progress may be displayed in a conspicuous manner on the purchase screen in addition to changes of the selling price during the time zone of the time sale, and the indication has a sales promotion effect different from a mere reduction.

Further, the trading history acquisition unit11may acquire seller information of the sold products as the trading history. In a case of the mall style shopping site, a plurality of sellers may list products having the same identification information. Each of the sellers may be able to set different selling prices and shipping costs for the same product. The purchaser can purchase the product by designating the seller to purchase. In such a situation, the trading history acquisition unit11acquires the seller information of the sold products together, thereby it is easy for the manufactures or the whole salers to analyze distributions of the products.

The trading history acquisition unit11may acquire the trading history from the mall management server2by using an API (Application Programming Interface) provided by a manager of the mall management server2or an API provided by a third party. The trading history acquisition unit11may periodically acquire the trading history, or may acquire the trading history when a trade is performed.

The advertising information acquisition unit12is a functional unit to acquire advertising indicators (hereinafter, also referred to as an “ad indicator”) related to the target product via the communication processor17. The advertising information acquisition unit12acquires, for example, IMP (impression, a number of advertisement exposures, or a number of impressions), CT (a click through or a number of clicks on an advertisement), and the like, for each advertisement. The advertising information acquisition unit12acquires the indicator from the mall management server2. The advertising information acquisition unit12may also acquire the ad indicator of the advertisement posted on sites other than the mall style shopping site. This information may include, for example, IMP and CT in other advertising media, such as blogs.

The advertising information acquisition unit12periodically acquires the ad indicator. A timing of the acquisition by the advertising information acquisition unit12may be the same as a timing of the acquisition by the trading history acquisition unit11. The trading history acquisition unit11and the advertising information acquisition unit12can align the time axis to analyze the trading history and the ad indicator by acquiring a point of a time acquiring the information in accordance with each information.

The attention level information acquisition unit13is a functional unit to acquire information related to an attention level of the target product on the Internet via the communication processor17. The attention level information acquisition unit13acquires from the external server3, for example, the attention level of the target product on web sites, which is released separately from information intentionally exposed by the seller, the manufacture, such as a number of searches for information related to the product on search engines per hour, or dates and a number of times posted by general consumers on a specific SNS (social network service). Similar to the trading history acquisition unit11and the advertising information acquisition unit12, the attention level information acquisition unit13acquires a point of a time acquiring the information in accordance with each information, and can align the time axis to analyze the trading history and the ad indicator, and the information from the external server3. Further, the attention level information acquisition unit13may acquire attention levels of various words corresponding to the product, such as an abbreviation of the product name, a nickname, a manufacturer name, an advertising slogan of the product, various phrases that indicates the product and the like, other than the product name, and the attention level information acquisition unit13may use it as the attention level of the product. Furthermore, the attention level may be calculated for each word for which the attention level is acquired.

The purchase screen information acquisition unit14is a functional unit to acquire a purchase screen information displayed on the purchaser terminal by the mall management server2. The purchase screen information acquisition unit14has a character information extractor14aacquiring a source code of the purchase screen and an image extractor14bincluded in the purchase screen. In particular, the purchase screen information acquisition unit14acquires at least information displayed as character information on the purchase screen in the source code. Further, the purchase screen information acquisition unit14may acquire a part indicating a display image from the source code, or may acquire an image data indicated by the display image.

On the purchase screen, a product name, a product description image, an advertisement of other products related to the product, reviews of the product, and seller information set as a default value, are displayed. However, the display of the purchase screen is created and edited by the mall management server2, and is changed as needed for listing the same product by a new seller or for posting a review by the purchaser. Further, the advertisement of the other products is changed as needed for an entry of new advertisers, an investment of advertising expenses by existing advertisers, a change of images presented by the advertisers, and the like. Moreover, the purchase screen is a screen that the purchaser always browses when making any purchase decision, and is of high importance in terms of marketing. Therefore, according to the configuration in which the purchase screen information acquisition unit14acquires the purchase screen information, the purchaser may go back to confirm the screen browsed at a time of purchasing and can get a clear picture of a status when the purchaser made a purchase decision.

The purchase screen information acquisition unit14may periodically acquire information on the purchase screen, and when it detects that there is a change in the purchase screen, the purchase screen information acquisition unit14may notify the user terminal4connected via the network. The change in the purchase screen includes, for example, a change in a number of product images displayed on the purchase screen and a display order. According to the configuration in which the purchase screen is periodically acquired and information visually recognized by the purchaser is organized and presented, it can be immediately noticed when the information on the purchase screen is changed. In addition, the user of this system compares the changes in the information on the presented purchase screen with a number of visits, an average price, sales trends, a conversion rate and the like, to examine effects of the changes in the information on the presented purchase screen on the purchase status. The purchase analysis system1may notify the user terminal4when the purchase screen changes, or when the images are deleted or the display order is changed.

The information acquired by the trading history acquisition unit11, the advertising information acquisition unit12, the attention level information acquisition unit13, and the purchase screen information acquisition unit14, is stored in an acquisition information storage1D.

The analyzer15is a functional unit to analyze based on the information acquired by the trading history acquisition unit11, the advertising information acquisition unit12, the attention level information acquisition unit13, and the purchase screen information acquisition unit14. The analyzer15analyzes the purchase status of the target product based on at least one of the trading history, the advertising indicators, the information on the Internet, and the purchase screen information. The analyzer15, for example, calculates an advertisement cost effectiveness of the target product based on the trading history and the advertising indicators.

The result output unit16is a functional unit to output a result screen including analysis results. The result screen contains results analyzed based on the information acquired from at least two sources. Detailed analysis results and the result screen by the analyzer15and the result output unit16will be described later with reference toFIGS.3to8.

The product information storage1A is a functional unit to store information related to the product. The information related to the product includes, for example, a product name, product identification information, a product category, a selling price, and a cost price. Further, the information related to the product may include information on a brand to which the product belongs.

The wholesaler information storage1B is a functional unit to store wholesaler information of the product. The wholesaler information includes, for example, a name of the wholesaler, identification numbers, contact information of the wholesaler, and the like. The wholesaler information and identification information of the product wholesaled to the wholesaler are stored in the wholesaler information storage1B in association with each other. In addition to an aspect that the user of the system registers the wholesaler information, the wholesaler information storage1B may acquire the seller information selling the target product from the purchaser screen presented by the mall style site, or a web site screen, which is transitioned to display from the purchaser screen and which is visually recognized by the purchaser. In this case, the seller may include the wholesaler wholesaled by the user of the system, as well as an unauthorized trader, for example, a reseller.

The advertising information storage1C is a functional unit to store information related to an advertising invested by the user of the system. In the advertising information storage1C, an investment cost and a type of the product to be advertised are associated with each other for each advertisement. The advertisement refers to, for example, an image, a video, a sound, or the like, and is managed by different identification information for each type of the image, the video, the sound, or the like.

The advertisement may be stored in association with a campaign to which the advertisement belongs. For example, one campaign contains multiple advertisements. According to such a configuration, the analyzer15can extract an indicator related to the advertisement for each campaign and analyze the advertising cost effectiveness of the target product. Further, a plurality of products may be associated with one advertisement. This is because it may contribute to sales for multiple products if multiple products are displayed in one advertisement, or if the advertisement contributes to the brand image or the corporate image instead of a specific product. Further, a contribution rate of the advertisement to the product may be stored for each product. In addition to the campaign, an advertisement group to which the advertisement belongs may be associated and stored.

Processing Flow

FIG.2is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of processing executed by the purchase analysis system1. First, the trading history acquisition unit11acquires the trading history from the mall management server2(step S101). The advertising information acquisition unit12periodically acquires the ad indicators (step S102). The attention level information acquisition unit13periodically acquires information from the external server3(step S103). The purchase screen information acquisition unit14periodically acquires the purchase screen information (step S104). Steps S101to S104are in no particular order and may be executed at the same time. Further, execution cycles of each of the steps S101to S104may be different and may be synchronized or asynchronized. The acquisition of the trading history in step S101may be executed when the trading is performed or may be periodically executed.

Next, the analyzer15analyzes the information acquired in the steps S101to S104(step S105). Then, the result output unit16outputs an analysis result screen (step S106).

An Example of Screen

FIG.3is an example of an analysis result screen G10displayed on the user terminal4. In this analysis result screen G10, a graphing area G11, a product selecting area G12for selecting a brand or a product to analyze, a period selecting area G13for selecting a period to analyze, an analyzing area G14for displaying the analysis results, and the like are displayed.

In the example ofFIG.3, a number of visits (a number of sessions), a conversion rate (CVR), an average selling price, a number of page views (PV), a number of conversions (CV), sales, a cart winning rate (a cart acquisition rate), an average number of purchases, and an average number of sales, for each product or brand selected in the product selecting area G12are each displayed as a broken line graph in the graphing area G11. Moreover, each broken line graph is displayed on the same time axis. In the analyzing area G14, a result of calculating the CVR based on the number of sessions, a value multiplied by the average selling price, and total sales amount, is displayed.

In addition to or in addition to a part of the example inFIG.3, an indicator of the attention level acquired by the attention level information acquisition unit13, such as a number of searches on the search engines or a number of posts on a SNS, may be displayed on the same time axis as other indicators. According to this configuration, it becomes easy for the user of this system to consider an influence of the attention level outside the mall style site on the purchase. In addition, by identifying an SNS that tends to affect purchasing, it is possible to plan an effective advertising strategy, such as focusing on advertising on the SNS.

FIG.4is an example of an analysis result screen G20displayed on the user terminal4. In this analysis result screen G20, a graphing area G21, a product selecting area G22for selecting a brand or a product to analyze, a period selecting area G23for selecting a period to analyze, and the like are displayed. The same reference numerals are given to the same configurations as those of the analysis result screen G10. In the graphing area G21, a number of sales by hour, sales by time, a number of sales by day, daily sales, a number of sales by day of the week, sales by day of the week, and the like, for each product or brand selected in the product selecting area G12are each displayed as a column chart in the graphing area G21. Although the number of sales and the total sales are displayed in cumulative totals inFIG.4, graphs of average values may be displayed instead of or in addition to displaying the cumulative total.

FIG.5Ais an example of an analysis result screen G30displayed on the user terminal4. In this analysis result screen G30, a sales amount is shown by a radar chart on a map based on information of the residential area of the purchaser included in a sales history. In addition, a table illustrating a ranking of prefectures with a largest sales amount is also illustrated.FIG.5Bis an example of an analysis result screen G40displayed on the user terminal4. The analysis result screen G40displays sales per unit population obtained by dividing sales amount for each prefecture by a population of each prefecture on a map in color, and a table of a ranking of prefectures having a large amount of sales per unit population is displayed together.

FIG.6is an example of an analysis result screen G50displayed on the user terminal4. In this analysis result screen G50, an area GM, an area G52, an area G53, and the like, are displayed. The area G51cumulatively displays a number of sales by subscriptions, a hold amount, and a number of sales by one-off purchases, on a vertical bar graph of sales. The area G52numerically displays a subscription rate, a hold rate, and a sales rate at one-off purchase rate, at a time of analysis. The area G53displays a band graph with a length in a height direction as 100%, illustrating the subscription rate, the hold rate, and the one-off purchase rate.

FIG.7is an example of an analysis result screen G60displayed on the user terminal4. In this analysis result screen G60, the analysis results of a cost effectiveness of the advertisement for the sales can be browsed. The analysis result screen G60displays, for example, a selecting area G61for selecting information to display, an indicator displaying area G62for illustrating a relationship between each indicator as an indicator used for the sales advertisement rate and calculation, and an indicator list area G63for illustrating a list of indicators for each product. In addition, the analysis result screen G60illustrates an indicator displaying area G64of a product different from the target product, and a different product indictor list area G65for illustrating a list of indicators for each different product. The product different from the target product is, for example, a competing product by a competitor.

In the selecting area G61, a portfolio name, a campaign name, an advertising group name, a period, and the like to display is displayed in a selectable manner. By selecting the campaign name or the advertising group name by the selecting area G61, indicators related to the product belonging to the selected campaign or the advertising group is displayed in the indicator displaying area G62and the indicator list area G63. In addition, it may be possible to select one advertisement in the selecting area G61.

In the indicator displaying area G62and the indicator list area G63, an average price (AUP), a cost per click (CPC), a number of impressions (IMP), a click rate (CTR), a number of clicks (CT), a conversion rate (CVR), conversion (CV), and the like are displayed for each product. Further, it is clearly stated that a value obtained by multiplying CVR and CT is CV. In addition, it is clearly stated that a value obtained by multiplying IMP and CTR is CT. In the indicator displaying area G62, the sales amount obtained by multiplying AUP, CVR, and CT, is displayed. Further, the indicator displaying area G62displays an advertising cost obtained by multiplying CPC and CT. Furthermore, an advertising cost of sales (ACoS or an indicator called ROAS), obtained by dividing the advertising cost by the sales, is displayed as “ACoS.” Further, the rate at which each indicator has changed from the time of analysis to a predetermined time in the past is also displayed.

The advertising cost, CPC, IMP, CTR, CT and CVR displayed in the indicator displaying area G62are indicators having different values depending on the selected campaign name or advertising group name. According to such a configuration, it is possible to analyze an advertisement effectiveness for each of a type of the advertisement, a campaign, or an advertising group. Moreover, since a change rate of the indicator is clear at a glance, it is possible to understand a change in the purchase status due to the advertisement.

FIG.8is an example of an analysis result screen G70displayed on the user terminal4. In this analysis result screen G70, images acquired from the purchase screen are displayed at each point of time acquiring. In the example ofFIG.8, it can be noticed that an image of a sub-image (3) is deleted by the manager of the mall style site between a time point of an Information ID3to an Information ID2. Further, between a time point of the Information ID2to an Information ID1, a display order of a sub-image (1) and a sub-image (2) is exchanged.

As described above, according to the configuration in which the purchase screen is periodically acquired and the information visually recognized by the purchaser is organized and presented, it is possible to immediately notice a change in the information on the purchase screen.

According to the purchase analysis system according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to analyze the purchase status and the like from various kinds of information regarding the products displayed on the mall style shopping site.

In the purchase analysis system according to the present embodiment described above, the functional configuration of each terminal or unit is an example, and the functional units described in this example may be provided in a terminal or unit different from this example.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

1purchasing analysis system11trading history acquisition unit12advertising information acquisition unit13attention level information acquisition unit14purchase screen information acquisition unit15analyzer16result output unit17communication processor1A product information storage1B wholesaler information storage1C advertising information storage1D acquisition information storage2mall management server3external server4user terminal