JP2002056315A - Electronic commerce method and service providing system using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To properly associate various commercial transactions conducted by users via affiliated sites with the induced affiliated sites, pay appropriate incentives to the affiliated sites, and accurately guide the affiliated sites Provided is an electronic commerce method and a service providing system using the electronic commerce method. In an e-commerce method for paying a cooperative site to which a user is guided, a cooperative site ID of the cooperative site is recorded on a user terminal in response to an access from the user via the cooperative site. Then, at the time of a request for a business transaction including at least one of membership, purchase, and exhibition from the user 3, the information of the user 3 and the affiliated site ID recorded on the user terminal 4 are acquired, and the affiliated site ID is acquired.
Determine the reward based on

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic commerce method using a network and a service providing system using the same, and more particularly to an electronic commerce that pays a reward to an affiliate site that has guided a user to various types of commercial activities of the user. About the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the rapid spread of the Internet in recent years, there are many service providing sites on the Internet that provide various services online. These sites are provided with service providing systems corresponding to the services to be provided, and usually provide services to users through interface screens called web pages. The services to be provided are various, such as merchandise sales, brokerage of merchandise sales, auction services, and information provision. Users can access a web page of a desired service providing site from a user terminal such as a personal computer connected to the Internet. By accessing, you can easily receive these services. In order to receive such a service, the user often needs to first perform an enrollment procedure at the service providing site and become a member.

[0003] Usually, in providing services using the Internet, in order to acquire many members and to increase the frequency of use of the users, the users are linked to other sites on the Internet. It leads to the service providing site. Specifically, the URL (UnUn
In many cases, the setting is made such that by embedding an iform resource locator and clicking a predetermined location, the user jumps from the Web page to the Web page of the service providing site. Hereinafter, another site to which the link is set in this manner will be referred to as a partner site. When a user accesses a service providing site via such an affiliated site and joins or uses a service, usually, a reward for guiding the user to the affiliated site (hereinafter referred to as an incentive). Is paid from the service providing site. The e-commerce activities of the user who is a target of the incentive include enrollment, purchase, and exhibition.

[0004]

In the case where the incentive is paid to the partner site as described above, the service providing system uses the incentive target performed by the user via the partner site and the partner site that guided the user. In the past, the association was performed only when the user performed a corresponding action immediately after jumping from the affiliated site.

[0005] Therefore, after jumping from the affiliated site to the service providing site, after browsing various pages prepared on the service providing site or browsing a web page prepared on another site, the incentive target is set. If such an act was taken, the affiliated site that led to the act was not associated with the act, and no incentive based on this act was paid to the affiliated site. However, in such cases, the guidance effect of the affiliated site is considered to be almost the same as the case where the relevant act is performed immediately after the guidance, so that such a conventional response is appropriate for the affiliated site In addition, the conventional method has not been able to accurately grasp the guiding effect of affiliated sites.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to appropriately associate various commercial transactions performed by a user via an affiliated site with the induced affiliated site, pay an appropriate incentive to the affiliated site, and obtain an effect of inducing the affiliated site. It is an object of the present invention to provide an e-commerce method and a service providing system using the same that enable accurate grasp.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, one aspect of the present invention is an electronic commerce method for paying a cooperative site that has led a user to an access from a user via the cooperative site. In response, the affiliated site ID of the affiliated site is recorded on the user terminal, and at the time of a request for a commercial transaction including at least one of membership, purchase, and exhibition from the user, the information of the user and the information of the user are recorded on the user terminal. That is, to acquire a partner site ID and determine a reward based on the partner site ID. Therefore, according to the present invention, even when a predetermined commercial transaction is not performed immediately after accessing through the affiliated site, the user who performed the commercial transaction can be associated with the induced affiliated site, and an incentive to the affiliated site can be provided. Payment is more appropriate.

[0008] In order to achieve the above object, another aspect of the present invention is to pay a reward to an affiliate site that has guided a user for a user's commercial activity performed through a user terminal connected via a network. In the e-commerce method, in response to an access from a user terminal by a link set in the affiliated site, displaying the accessed web page, and recording the affiliated site ID of the affiliated site in the user terminal, When requesting the commercial transaction action from the user terminal, a procedure for acquiring the recorded affiliated site ID together with user information, and a procedure for determining the reward based on the acquired affiliated site ID It is characterized by.

Further, in the above-mentioned invention, a preferable mode is that, after the procedure for recording the affiliated site ID, when the user terminal is accessed by a link set in another affiliated site, It is characterized in that the partner site ID recorded in the user terminal is updated to the partner site ID of the other partner site.

[0010] Further, in the above invention, another aspect is:
The recording of the partner site ID on the user terminal is performed according to a dedicated Web page provided for each partner site.

[0011] In order to achieve the above object, another aspect of the present invention is to pay a reward to an affiliate site that has guided a user for a user's commercial activity performed through a user terminal connected via a network. In the e-commerce method, in response to an access from a user terminal by a link set to an affiliate site, the accessed web page is displayed, and the affiliate site ID of the affiliate site is recorded on the user terminal, and at least the aforementioned A first procedure for recording access information including an affiliated site ID, and a second procedure for acquiring and recording the recorded affiliated site ID together with user information at the time of a request for the commercial transaction from the user terminal. And a step of totalizing the information recorded in the first and second procedures based on the partner site ID.

[0012] In order to achieve the above object, still another aspect of the present invention comprises a web page connected to a user terminal and a partner site via a network and providing a predetermined service via the user terminal. In a service providing system in which a user pays a partner site that has guided the user for a commercial transaction performed on a web page, in response to access from a user terminal by a link set in the partner site, the Web A page is displayed, and the affiliated site ID of the affiliated site is recorded on the user terminal. When the commercial transaction is requested from the user terminal, the recorded affiliated site ID is displayed together with the user information.
And determining the reward based on the acquired affiliated site ID.

Further, in the above invention, one aspect is characterized in that the predetermined service is an auction service.

[0014] Further, in any of the above inventions, a preferred embodiment is characterized in that the commercial transaction is an electronic commercial transaction including at least one of membership, purchase, and exhibition.

[0015] Further objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the embodiments of the present invention described below.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, such embodiments do not limit the technical scope of the present invention.
In the drawings, the same or similar components are denoted by the same reference numerals or reference symbols.

The electronic commerce method of the present invention can be applied to various service providing systems using a network. Here, as an example, a case where the present invention is applied to an auction system for providing an auction service will be described. In addition, as described above, commerce transactions that associate with a partner site that has guided the user include enrollment, purchase, and exhibition. However, here, the case where association with the enrollment act is performed will be described.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of an auction system to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, an auction system 1 is an auction system to which the present invention for providing an auction service to users widely via the Internet 2 is applied. The auction system 1 prepares a Web page (interface screen) for providing an auction service at a site (auction site) specified by a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) which is an address on the World Wide Web (WWW). I have. This page is usually HTML (Hype
r Text Mark-up Language) and can be viewed from each terminal connected to the Internet 2.

A user 3 using this service accesses an auction site providing the auction service from a user terminal 4 connected to the Internet 2. The connection from the user terminal 4 to the Internet 2 is made via a corporate LAN or the like or via a telephone line in a dial-up format. The user terminal 4 has installed therein a program for connecting to the Internet 2 and a Web browser 30 for browsing each site on the WWW. The Web browser 30 is set to accept a cookie 40.

The above provided by the auction system 1
The web page is a web server 2 in the auction system 1
0, and is composed of a plurality of hierarchical pages, like other Web pages on the WWW. As the plurality of pages, a top page 22 initially accessed by a user 3 who intends to receive an auction service on this auction site, an enrollment page 2 for enrollment
4. Necessary pages such as a pre-receive page 21 described later are prepared.

The auction system 1 has a DB server 10 for managing various information necessary for executing an auction service. Member data 12, which is personal information of the user 3 who has joined, and exhibit data (not shown) ,
Stores bid data and so on. Further, pre-received page access data 11 described later is also stored here.

The user 3 uses the auction system 1
When using the auction service provided by
Access to 4 and perform the enrollment procedure. At that time, personal information such as a name, an address, and an e-mail address is input according to the instructions on the enrollment page 24, and the data is registered in the auction system 1 as the member data 12.

With this registration, the user can freely participate in the auction on the auction site.
If you want to purchase an item, the bidding procedure for the desired item is performed on each Web page. The auction system 1 performs a successful bid process for each exhibit when the conditions for a successful bid are satisfied, and notifies the successful bidder and the exhibitor of the successful bid by e-mail or the like.

On the other hand, the affiliate site 5 shown in FIG. 1 is another site on the Internet 2 linked to the auction site to guide the user 3 to the auction site. Although not shown, this affiliate site 5
May be plural. Partner sites 5 are each We
It has a b server 50, and prepares a Web page unique to the partner site (page 51 in the partner site). User 3
Can browse directly to the main auction site by clicking on the main auction site URL 52 embedded in a predetermined location while browsing the affiliated site page 51. Specifically, the affiliate site 5
Jumps to the pre-receive page 21 provided independently for the user.

On the auction system 1 side,
For each affiliate site 5, an affiliate site ID, which is information for identifying the affiliate site 5, is set, and a pre-receive page 21 corresponding to the affiliate site ID is prepared. Therefore, the pre-receive pages 21 for the number of partner sites 5 are prepared. In the example shown in the figure, the partner site ID is “a0001”
URL of “www.xxxauction.
com / a0001 "is prepared, and the user 3 jumps from the affiliate site 5 to this page.

Next, the operation when the user 3 accesses the auction system 1 configured as described above via the affiliate site 5 and joins the system will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the flow. 3 to 7 are diagrams for explaining the operation.

First, the user 3 who is browsing the Web page of the partner site 5 (the page 51 in the partner site) clicks a predetermined part (URL 52) for jumping to the auction site by guiding on the page. (Step S1 in FIG. 2). Then, as described above, the user 3 jumps to the pre-receive page 21 corresponding to the affiliated site 5 prepared in the Web server 20 of the auction system 1 (Step S2 in FIG. 2). FIG. 3 is a diagram showing this state.

Nothing is displayed on the screen of the user terminal 4 of the user 3 by the accessed pre-receive page 21, but the following three operations are performed instantaneously. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing this state. First, the partner site ID of the partner site 5 of the jump source is written as a cookie 40 in the user terminal 4 of the user 3 (step S3 in FIG. 2). In the example of FIG. 4, the partner site ID “a0001” is written and stored as shown in part a. If there is a partner site ID already written before, the data is updated.

Next, as a second operation, the pre-received page access data 11 is written to the DB server 10 in the auction system 1 (step S4 in FIG. 2).
The pre-received page access data 11 includes, as shown in part b of FIG. 4, the affiliated site ID of the jump source, the access time, the type of the Web browser 30 of the user terminal 4, and the like.

When the above operation is completed, as a third operation, a jump from the pre-receive page 21 to the top page 22 is performed, and the contents of the top page 22 are displayed on the user terminal 4 (FIG. 2). Step S5). FIG. 5 is a diagram showing this. The operation described above (steps S3 to S5 in FIG. 2) is instantaneously performed by the pre-receive page 21 and nothing is displayed on the user terminal 4 during that time. It is felt that the user jumped directly to the top page 22 of the auction site (steps S1 → S5 in FIG. 2).

User 3 who accessed top page 22
Can freely select the following operation, but here, it is assumed that the user does not immediately perform the enrollment procedure for the auction site, but browses another page 23 prepared on the auction site and then joins I do. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing this state. In this case, the user 3 sets another page 23
During the browsing, the affiliated site ID (“a0001” in FIG. 6) stored in the user terminal 4 is stored without being erased (Step S6 in FIG. 2).

The user 3 who browses the other page 23 and decides to join accesses the joining page 24 and performs the joining procedure (steps S7 and S8 in FIG. 2). FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the operation. In the enrollment procedure, user 3
According to the instructions on the enrollment page 24, the user inputs personal information as shown in part a of FIG. When the enrollment procedure is performed, the personal information (a in FIG. 7) input by the user 3
) Is added to the affiliated site ID stored in the user terminal 4 (part b in FIG. 7), and those data are stored as member data 12 in the DB server 10 of the auction system 1 (see FIG. 7). Step S9 in FIG. 2). Thus, the operation until the user 3 joins is completed.

In the above description, as described above, the partner site 5
It is assumed that you do not join immediately after jumping to the auction site from, but if you join immediately after jumping (step S5 → S7 in FIG. 2),
Similarly, at the time of the enrollment procedure, the personal information of the user 3 and the partner site ID of the jump source are associated and registered as the member data 12.

In the above description, browsing another page before joining (step S6 in FIG. 2) is described as browsing another page 23 in the auction site. When browsing a page on the site, the affiliated site stored in the user terminal 4
The ID is stored without disappearing, and when the member subsequently joins, the ID is similarly stored as the member data 12 together with the personal information. In addition, another affiliated site 5
Is included, and if you perform an operation to jump to this auction site using the same link prepared there,
As described above, each time the partner site ID stored as the cookie 40 in the user terminal 4 is updated,
Before the enrollment procedure, the affiliated site ID of the affiliated site 5 that was last guided to the auction site is stored as the member data 12.

As described above, in the present auction system, even when the user does not join immediately after jumping from the affiliated site, the association between the affiliated site finally guided to the auction site and the new user at the time of the membership is performed. As a result, incentive payment for the affiliated site can be made. In general, it is rare to join immediately after jumping to a new site, and as mentioned above, if you join immediately after jumping and if you join after browsing other pages, you will be rewarded There is no big difference, and this auction system enables more appropriate response to affiliated sites than before.

When the effect of the guidance from the affiliated site is considered to be discontinued at the time of terminating the Web browser 30, and the achievement of the affiliated site guided during the session of the Web browser 30 before the enrollment is not considered, When the Web browser 30 is terminated, a method of deleting the affiliated site ID information stored in the user terminal 4 as the cookie 40 can be adopted.

Next, how to use the partner site ID stored in the DB server 10 in the course of the above-described operation will be described. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating this state. In this auction system, it is assumed that a scheme is used in which incentives are paid for all commissions paid by the enrolled user 3 after the enrollment to the affiliate site 5 that was guided when the user 3 was enrolled. Therefore, the incentive to pay to each affiliate site 5 is member data 1
2, the members who have been invited to join are extracted using the affiliated site ID as a key, and various fees paid by the extracted members are totaled from the successful bid data 13 stored in the DB server 10 and the like. Can be determined automatically. Part a of FIG. 8 illustrates an example of the result of counting commissions for each partner site ID. In the present auction system, as described above, even when the member is not enrolled immediately after the guidance, the affiliated site ID of the affiliated site 5 that has induced the enrollment is associated with the enrolled user as the member data 12, and thus the above-described totaling is performed. Even if it is not the enrollment immediately after, the incentive will be paid to the affiliate site 5 which induced the enrollment.

As described above, every time the user jumps from the affiliate site 5 to the auction site, the access record is recorded as the pre-received page access data 11 in the DB server 10, so As shown, the number of accesses to the auction site via the affiliate site 5 and the enrollment rate can be easily tabulated for each affiliate site ID. As a result, the guiding effect of the affiliated site can be accurately grasped, and such data can be used as marketing data for developing the affiliated site.

In the present embodiment described above,
Although the pre-receive page 21 is prepared for each affiliate site 5, the function of writing the affiliate site ID to the user terminal 4 and the function of writing the pre-receive page access data 11 performed by the pre-receive page 21 are described in the present embodiment. The top page 22 of the auction site may have a configuration. Also in this case, the URL for jumping to the top page 22 embedded in the page 51 in the affiliated site
52 includes the partner site ID of the partner site, and the top page 22 executes the above two functions by the partner site ID. Such a configuration has an advantage that it is not necessary to prepare the pre-received pages 21 for several times of the partner site 5.

As described above, in the auction system according to the present embodiment, even if the user does not join immediately after the guidance, it is possible to associate the information of the affiliated site that led the membership with the information of the user who has joined. As a result, it is possible to pay an appropriate incentive for membership induction.

In this embodiment, the user's commercial activity associated with the affiliated site is enrollment. However, in other commercial activities, for example, an auction service,
It may be an exhibition, a bid, a successful bid, or the like. Even in such a case, it is possible to associate the commercial transaction with the induced affiliate site by the same system configuration and method regardless of whether or not the commercial activity has been performed immediately after the induction. Also,
Here, an auction system has been described, but the present invention is not limited to a system that provides an auction service.

The scope of protection of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but extends to the inventions described in the claims and their equivalents.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention, even if a predetermined commercial transaction is not performed immediately after accessing via an affiliated site, the act can be associated with the induced affiliated site. Regardless of whether or not the payment is performed immediately after the guidance, the incentive is paid to the induced partner site, and the effect of paying the incentive to the partner site is more appropriate. Also, by keeping a record every time an access is made via the affiliated site, it is possible to accurately grasp the guidance effect of the affiliated site.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for describing an embodiment of an auction system to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation when a user joins via a partner site.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a situation where a user jumps from an affiliate site to an auction site.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an operation performed by a pre-receive page.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state of jumping from a pre-received page to a top page.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a case in which a user joins after browsing another page without performing an enrollment procedure immediately after jumping to an auction site.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an operation when an enrollment procedure is performed.

FIG. 8 is a diagram exemplifying how to use an affiliated site ID stored in a DB server.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Auction system 2 Internet 3 User 4 User terminal 5 Affiliated site 10 DB server 11 Pre-received page access data 12 Member data 13 Successful bid data etc. 20 Web server 21 Pre-received page 22 Top page 23 Other page 24 Enrollment page 30 Web browser 40 Cookie 50 Web server 51 Affiliated site page 52 URL

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Ryu Okada 5-3 Kamiyama-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo FNA term in D.N.A. Co., Ltd.

Claims (9)

[Claims] Claims: 1. An electronic commerce method for paying a user to a cooperative site for guiding a user for a commercial transaction performed through a user terminal connected via a network, the method comprising the steps of: In response to the access from the user terminal, displaying the accessed web page and recording the affiliated site ID of the affiliated site on the user terminal; and upon requesting the commercial transaction action from the user terminal, An electronic commerce method comprising: a step of acquiring the recorded affiliated site ID together with the information of the user; and a step of determining the reward based on the acquired affiliated site ID. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein after the procedure of recording the affiliated site ID, when the user terminal accesses by a link set to another affiliated site, the information is recorded in the user terminal. An e-commerce method characterized by updating an affiliated site ID to an affiliated site ID of the other affiliated site. 3. The electronic commerce method according to claim 1, wherein the recording of the partner site ID in the user terminal is performed according to a dedicated web page provided for each partner site. 4. The electronic commerce method according to claim 1, wherein the commercial transaction is an electronic commerce including at least one of membership, purchase, and exhibition. 5. An electronic commerce method for paying a user to a cooperative site for guiding a user for a commercial transaction performed through a user terminal connected via a network, the method comprising the steps of: In response to the access from the user terminal, displaying the accessed web page, recording the affiliated site ID of the affiliated site in the user terminal, and recording access information including at least the affiliated site ID. A second procedure of acquiring and recording the recorded affiliated site ID together with the information of the user at the time of the request for the commercial transaction from the user terminal; and a first procedure and a second procedure. The recorded information is transferred to the affiliated site
An electronic commerce method comprising a step of counting based on an ID. 6. The electronic commerce method according to claim 5, wherein the commercial transaction is at least one of membership, purchase, and exhibition. 7. A web page connected to a user terminal and an affiliate site via a network, and provided with a predetermined service via the user terminal, wherein the user performs a commercial transaction on the web page. A service providing system for paying the affiliated site for guiding the user to the affiliated site, wherein the web page is displayed in response to an access from the user terminal by a link set in the affiliated site, and the affiliated site is displayed. The affiliated site ID is recorded in the user terminal, and when the commercial transaction is requested from the user terminal, the recorded affiliated site ID is acquired together with the information of the user, and based on the acquired affiliated site ID, A service providing system for determining the reward. 8. The service providing system according to claim 7, wherein the predetermined service is an auction service. 9. The service providing system according to claim 7, wherein the commercial transaction is an electronic transaction including at least one of membership, purchase, and exhibition.