method

Abstract

Improve the technology used to estimate customer purchasing intent. [Solution] The information processing device 10 detects customer information of customers who visit the store using one or more sensors installed in the store. Next, the information processing device 10 determines the customer's attribute information from the detected customer information. Then, based on the attribute information, the information processing device 10 estimates the degree of the customer's willingness to purchase the store's products.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a method.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, techniques for estimating customers' purchase intentions are known. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an advertisement distribution control device that estimates a purchase intention from the acquisition time and balance of gift certificates by customers.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] In recent years, with the development of machine learning and the like, improvements are desired in techniques for estimating customers' purchase intentions.

[0005] In view of such circumstances, an object of the present disclosure is to improve techniques for estimating customers' purchase intentions.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] A method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is a method executed by an information processing apparatus, including detecting customer information of a customer who has visited a store using one or more sensors provided in the store, determining attribute information of the customer from the detected customer information, and estimating the degree of the customer's purchase intention for products in the store based on the attribute information.

Effects of the Invention

[0007] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, techniques for estimating customers' purchase intentions are improved.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0008] [Figure 1] This is a block diagram showing the schematic configuration of the information processing device related to this disclosure. [Figure 2] This is a flowchart showing the operation of the information processing device related to this disclosure. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] The embodiments of this disclosure will be described below.

[0010] (Summary of the embodiment) Referring to Figure 1, the configuration of the information processing device 10 according to this embodiment will be described. The information processing device 10 is, for example, a server device, a computer such as a PC (Personal Computer), or a general-purpose or dedicated electronic device. The information processing device 10 provides a service used by staff of a store, such as a car dealership. The information processing device 10 may be a terminal device used by the service users, who are store staff, a server belonging to a cloud computing system, or it may be composed of a terminal device and a server.

[0011] First, an overview of this embodiment will be described, and details will be described later. The information processing device 10 detects customer information of customers who visit the store using one or more sensors installed in the store. Next, the information processing device 10 determines the customer's attribute information from the detected customer information. Then, based on the attribute information, the information processing device 10 estimates the degree of the customer's willingness to purchase the store's products.

[0012] Conventional technology required obtaining customer information in advance to estimate the purchase intent of customers who visited a store. In contrast, this embodiment estimates customer purchase intent using information detected by one or more sensors installed in the store. Therefore, it is possible to estimate customer purchase intent even when customer information cannot be obtained in advance. Furthermore, the estimated customer purchase intent is real time. Thus, this embodiment improves the technology for estimating customer purchase intent by enabling the estimation of customer purchase intent even when customer information cannot be obtained in advance, and by providing real time data. In addition, this improvement in the technology for estimating customer purchase intent can reduce the workload for stores dealing with customers with low purchase intent.

[0013] Next, the configuration of the information processing device 10 will be described in detail.

[0014] (Configuration of information processing device) The information processing device 10 comprises a communication unit 11, a storage unit 12, and a control unit 13.

[0015] The communication unit 11 includes one or more communication interfaces connected to a network. These communication interfaces are compatible with, but are not limited to, mobile communication standards such as 4G (4th Generation) or 5G (5th Generation). The communication unit 11 receives information used in the operation of the information processing device 10 and transmits information obtained through the operation of the information processing device 10. The communication unit 11 enables the information processing device 10 to send and receive information with other devices via the network, such as one or more sensors installed in a store.

[0016] The storage unit 12 includes one or more memories. The memories are, for example, semiconductor memories, magnetic memories, or optical memories, but are not limited to these. Each memory included in the storage unit 12 may function as, for example, a main memory, an auxiliary memory, or a cache memory. The storage unit 12 stores any information used in the operation of the information processing device 10. In addition, for example, the storage unit 12 may store system programs, application programs, and embedded software. For example, the information stored in the storage unit 12 may be updatable with information obtained from a network via, for example, the communication unit 11.

[0017] The control unit 13 includes at least one processor, at least one programmable circuit such as an FPGA (field-programmable gate array), at least one dedicated circuit such as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), or any combination thereof. The processor is a general-purpose processor such as a CPU (central processing unit) or GPU (graphics processing unit), or a dedicated processor specialized for a specific process. The control unit 13 controls each part of the information processing device 10 and executes processes related to the operation of the information processing device 10.

[0018] (Operation flow of the information processing device) Referring to Figure 2, the operation of the information processing device 10 according to this embodiment will be described.

[0019] S100: The control unit 13 of the information processing device 10 detects customer information of customers who have visited the store using one or more sensors installed in the store.

[0020] The "one or more sensors" may include, for example, but are not limited to, surveillance cameras capable of imaging inside the store and microphones capable of recording conversations inside the store, and may include any sensors capable of detecting customer information of customers inside the store. Note that the one or more sensors are not provided in the store, but may be devices held by store staff, etc. For example, the one or more sensors may include a camera and / or microphone provided in a terminal device used by the staff, and may include a microphone worn by the staff on their body, but are not limited thereto.

[0021] "Customer information" may include, for example, the in-store behavior of customers detectable by surveillance cameras, such as the movement path of customers inside the store and the time customers view products, and may also include conversation voices inside the store detectable by microphones.

[0022] S101: The control unit 13 determines the attribute information of the customer from the detected customer information.

[0023] "Attribute information" may be information regarding any attribute that can be estimated from the in-store behavior and conversation voices of customers. For example, the attributes may include, but are not limited to, the age of the customer, family composition, clothing, budget, purpose of visit to the store, degree of interest in products, etc., and may include any information that can estimate the degree of purchase intention of the customer.

[0024] For example, when the one or more sensors include a microphone, the control unit 13 may determine the attribute information by performing natural language processing and keyword detection processing on the conversation voices inside the store. Specifically, the control unit 13 may estimate the age, family composition, budget, purpose of visit to the store, etc. of the customer by performing natural language processing and keyword detection processing on the conversation voices.

[0025] For example, when the one or more sensors include a surveillance camera, the control unit 13 may determine the attribute information by performing image recognition processing on the camera images captured by the surveillance camera. Specifically, the control unit 13 may estimate the clothing, in-store behavior, etc. of the customer by performing image recognition processing.

[0026] S102: The control unit 13 estimates the degree of the customer's willingness to purchase the store's products based on attribute information.

[0027] For example, the control unit 13 may store statistical values ​​of the degree of purchase intent for each age group of customers in the storage unit 12, and estimate the statistical value corresponding to the estimated age group of the customer as the degree of the customer's purchase intent. Alternatively, the control unit 13 may estimate that the higher the estimated customer's budget, the higher their purchase intent. Alternatively, the control unit 13 may estimate that the more specific the estimated customer's reason for visiting the store, such as considering a purchase by March, the higher their purchase intent. Alternatively, the control unit 13 may estimate that the more formal the estimated customer's attire, the higher their purchase intent. Alternatively, the control unit 13 may estimate that the more time and how often the customer stays near the product display location, the higher their purchase intent for that product.

[0028] The "degree of customer purchase intent" may be expressed, for example, as "high," "medium," and "low" in descending order of purchase intent, or as an integer within any range such as 5 to 1, or as an alphabet such as S, A, B, C, D, but may be expressed in any other manner not limited to these.

[0029] Alternatively, for example, the control unit 13 may use AI to analyze attribute information of customers with a high purchase intent, store the analysis results in the storage unit 12, and estimate the degree of purchase intent of those customers based on the analysis results.

[0030] While this disclosure has been described based on the drawings and embodiments, it should be noted that those skilled in the art may make various modifications and alterations based on this disclosure. Therefore, it should be noted that these modifications and alterations are within the scope of this disclosure. For example, the functions, etc., included in each component or step can be rearranged in a logically consistent manner, and multiple components or steps can be combined into one or divided into two.

[0031] For example, in the embodiment described above, it is also possible to distribute the configuration and operation of the information processing device 10 to multiple computers that can communicate with each other. For example, if the information processing device 10 is composed of a terminal device and a server, the terminal device may perform some operations, and the server may perform operations that the terminal device does not perform.

[0032] Furthermore, for example, in the embodiment described above, the control unit 13 may display information indicating the estimated degree of the customer's purchase intent. Specifically, the control unit 13 may display the degree of the customer's purchase intent estimated in S102 on the display of the terminal device used by the user.

[0033] Furthermore, for example, in the embodiment described above, the control unit 13 may perform the operations from S100 to S102 at regular intervals and notify the user if the degree of the customer's purchase intent changes. The notification to the user may be, for example, by displaying a message on the display of the terminal device used by the user, but any method is not limited to this and can be adopted. Alternatively, instead of notifying the user, the control unit 13 may show the degree of the customer's purchase intent to the user, for example, by displaying a graph on the display of the terminal device.

[0034] Furthermore, "a certain period of time" includes any period of time, such as 10 minutes or 1 hour. The certain period of time may be changeable. Also, the control unit 13 may perform the operations from S100 to S102 in real time.

[0035] Furthermore, it is also possible to implement an embodiment in which a general-purpose computer functions as the information processing device 10 according to the above embodiment. Specifically, a program describing the processing content that realizes each function of the information processing device 10 according to the above embodiment is stored in the memory of the general-purpose computer, and the processor reads and executes the program. Therefore, this disclosure can also be implemented as a program that can be executed by a processor, or as a non-temporary computer-readable medium that stores the program.

[0036] Furthermore, in the embodiments described above, the control unit 13 may control a conversational AI that outputs a response to text or voice input by a user, who is a store staff member, into the terminal device, based on the estimated degree of the customer's willingness to purchase. For example, the control unit 13 may input the estimated degree of the customer's willingness to purchase in addition to the question text or voice input by the user, and control the conversational AI to output a response that takes that degree into consideration. With such a configuration, the user can refer to the response and conduct appropriate business negotiations or make proposals according to the customer's willingness to purchase. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0037] 10 Information Processing Devices 11 Communications Department 12 Storage section 13 Control Unit

Claims

1. A method executed by an information processing device, To detect customer information of customers who visit the store using one or more sensors installed in the store. Determining the customer's attribute information from the detected customer information, and Based on the attribute information, estimate the degree of the customer's willingness to purchase the store's products. Methods that include...

2. The method according to claim 1, To display information indicating the estimated degree of the customer's willingness to purchase, Methods that further include the above.

3. The method according to claim 1, The one or more sensors mentioned above include a microphone capable of detecting conversational sounds within the store. The aforementioned information includes the aforementioned conversation audio, The aforementioned method, Perform natural language processing and keyword detection processing on the aforementioned conversational audio. It further includes, The information processing device is a method for determining attribute information from the results of the natural language processing and the keyword detection processing.

4. The method according to claim 1, The one or more sensors mentioned above include a surveillance camera capable of capturing images inside the store. The information includes camera images captured by the surveillance camera, The aforementioned method, Performing image recognition processing on the aforementioned camera image, It further includes, The information processing device is a method for determining attribute information from the results of the image recognition process.

5. The information processing device performs the method according to claim 1 at regular intervals, If the customer's level of purchase intent changes, the user will be notified. Methods that further include the above.

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