초록 ▼

An automated product pricing system including a physical store system, a virtual store system, and a control system. The physical and virtual store systems are capable of transmitting sales data indicative of the number of sales of identified respective products. The control system is adapted to rec

An automated product pricing system including a physical store system, a virtual store system, and a control system. The physical and virtual store systems are capable of transmitting sales data indicative of the number of sales of identified respective products. The control system is adapted to receive the sales data from the physical store system and the virtual store system. In response thereto, the control system generates price change data including a changed price of an identified product based on the sales data received from at least one of the physical and virtual store systems. The price change data is then transmitted by the control system to at least one of the physical and virtual store systems to thereby change the price of the identified product.

대표청구항 ▼

An automated product pricing system including a physical store system, a virtual store system, and a control system. The physical and virtual store systems are capable of transmitting sales data indicative of the number of sales of identified respective products. The control system is adapted to rec

An automated product pricing system including a physical store system, a virtual store system, and a control system. The physical and virtual store systems are capable of transmitting sales data indicative of the number of sales of identified respective products. The control system is adapted to receive the sales data from the physical store system and the virtual store system. In response thereto, the control system generates price change data including a changed price of an identified product based on the sales data received from at least one of the physical and virtual store systems. The price change data is then transmitted by the control system to at least one of the physical and virtual store systems to thereby change the price of the identified product. including a database of customer specific entries, each entry identified by a corresponding unique customer ID number, each entry containing that customer's information record. 7. The electronic shopping system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the control unit causes a customer's information record to be bundled with their recorded visual image into a customer specific data set. 8. The electronic shopping system according to claim 1, wherein the in-store terminal is coupled to a store server, the store server including storage means for hosting the data base of customer specific entries, the store server bundling each customer's information record with that customer's recorded visual image into a customer specific data set, in operative response to a command from the control unit. 9. The electronic shopping system according to claim 8, further comprising a multiplicity of in-store terminals, including a plurality of point-of-sale terminals, the multiplicity of in-house terminals coupled to the store server over a local-area-network configuration, the store server transmitting a customer specific data set to each of the in-house terminals connected to the server over the local-area-network configuration. 10. The electronic shopping system according to claim 1, wherein the in-store terminal is a hand-held mobile terminal. 11. The electronic shopping system according to claim 10, wherein the communication means includes an RF antenna and a transmitter/receiver circuit integrated into said hand-held mobile terminal, the mobile terminal configured to receive at least the customer ID from the card over the antenna and transmitter/receiver circuit. 12. In an electronic shopping system for use in a retail facility, a method for assisting the facility's sales staff to identify particular customers as they enter/leave the facility and to recognize such customers visually, the method comprising: positioning an entrance/exit sensor in proximity to the entrance/exit of a retail facility, so as to identify the presence of a customer as the customer moves through the entrance/exit; capturing a visual image of a customer as they pass through the entrance/exit of the retail facility, the customer's image recorded in response to a trigger signal provided by the entrance/exit sensor; providing an interrogator unit, including an antenna, positioned in proximity to the entrance/exit of the retail facility, each interrogator defining an interrogation area characterized by a radiation field; providing a portable customer ID card including at least a memory storage area, the memory storage area holding at least a customer indicia, the customer indicia being communicated to the interrogator unit when a customer moves in proximity to the interrogation area; receiving the customer indicia; bundling the captured visual image of the customer together with the customer indicia into a customer specific data set; providing at least one in-store terminal, the in-store terminal including communication means for receiving customer specific data sets and a display; and displaying a customer's recorded visual image on the in-store terminal's display such that a store employee may recognize that customer from their recorded image. 13. The customer recognition method according to claim 12, the customer indicia held by the memory storage area comprising a unique customer ID number, the ID number being read from the customer ID card by the interrogator unit. 14. The customer recognition method according to claim 13, further comprising the step of associating each unique customer ID number to a corresponding customer information record, each information record characterized by a multiplicity of information fields, each information record containing profile entries specific to that customer including a personal identification information, demographic information, information relating to a customer's personal shopping preferences and a customer' shopping