Information processing device, information processing method, and program

Abstract

To provide users with more appropriate recommendations regarding the purchase of goods. [Solution] An information processing device having an acquisition unit that acquires account data including sales price data relating to the price of goods, inventory data of goods owned by the user, purchase intent data relating to desired goods that the user wishes to purchase, and payment data of the user; a management unit that manages the at least one data and the account data; and an output unit that outputs recommendation information to the user based on the at least one data and the account data.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program.

Background Art

[0002] In recent years, there are services that visualize the movement status of funds such as income and expenses using so-called accounting software, household account books, etc., and support users' fund management. Such services have a function of automatically recording the movement status of funds in cooperation with the systems of bank accounts and credit cards owned by users, and this function is also called "account aggregation". For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an accounting processing apparatus that acquires web detail data provided by a financial institution or a credit company retrospectively instead of on a daily basis, identifies the web detail data for each transaction, and displays the status of fund movement such as the transaction occurrence date, the transaction counterparty, or the transaction amount of each identified transaction.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] However, in conventional account aggregation, although the movement status of funds can be grasped, it is not possible to appropriately give advice regarding the purchase of goods.

[0005] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program that enable more appropriate output of recommendation information regarding the purchase of goods to a user.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] An information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention includes an acquisition unit that acquires account data including sales price data relating to the price of goods, inventory data of goods owned by the user, purchase intent data relating to desired goods that the user wishes to purchase, and payment data of the user; a management unit that manages the at least one data and the account data; and an output unit that outputs recommendation information to the user based on the at least one data and the account data. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program that enable the output of more appropriate recommendation information regarding the purchase of goods to the user. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1] This figure shows an example configuration of the information processing system according to this embodiment. [Figure 2] This figure shows an example of the hardware configuration of the information processing device 10. [Figure 3] This figure shows an example of the functional block configuration of the information processing device 10. [Figure 4] This flowchart shows an example of a processing procedure performed by Information Processing System 1. [Figure 5] This is a diagram illustrating the structure of the management DB100a. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings. In each drawing, components denoted by the same reference numerals have the same or similar configurations.

[0010] <System Configuration> Figure 1 is a diagram showing an example configuration of an information processing system according to this embodiment. As shown in Figure 1, the information processing system 1 includes an information processing device 10, one or more user terminals 20, one or more inventory management devices 30, one or more financial service device 40, and one or more sales service device 50.

[0011] The information processing device 10 consists of one or more servers and collects and stores account data including user payment data, sales price data regarding the price of goods, inventory data of goods owned by the user, and purchase intent data indicating the items the user wishes to purchase. The information processing device 10 also analyzes the account data, sales price data, inventory data, and purchase intent data, and based on the analysis results, outputs recommendation information (advice) regarding the purchase of goods to the user.

[0012] For example, items that a user frequently purchases are presumed to be items that the user is interested in buying. Therefore, the information processing device 10 can identify items that a user frequently purchases from account data, and if it detects from sales price data that the sales price of the identified items has decreased since the last purchase, it can output recommendation information to encourage the user to purchase those items.

[0013] "Goods" are not limited to items in the user's home, but also include goods intended for sale to third parties (i.e., merchandise). "Account" is an account that manages transactions at a predetermined value, and examples include bank accounts, prepaid money accounts, credit card accounts, electronic money accounts, code payment (two-dimensional code payment, QR code payment) accounts, cryptocurrency accounts (wallets), securities accounts, etc. "Account data" is data related to an account. "Payment" may include payments of a predetermined value, credit card payments, debit card payments, prepaid card payments, electronic money payments, code payments, various remittances (remittances to bank accounts, international remittances, inter-wallet remittances, P2P (Peer to Peer) remittances, etc.), and value transfers (value exchange between money, cryptocurrencies, crypto assets, NFTs, stablecoins, and digital currencies). "Payment data" may include the amount of the predetermined value paid, information about the recipient of the payment (item name, item identifier, service name, and other information that can identify the item or service), and the date and time of payment. "Account data" may include not only payment data but also balance data showing the balance of a predetermined value held by the user. Furthermore, the balance data may include the balance value and the date and time the balance was updated.

[0014] In this embodiment, the information processing device 10 is assumed to output recommendation information regarding the purchase of goods by processing data primarily based on account data. Therefore, in this embodiment, some of the sales price data, inventory data, and purchase intent data collected and stored by the information processing device 10 may be omitted. That is, the information processing device 10 may collect and store account data and sales price data, and output recommendation information based on the account data and sales price data. Alternatively, the information processing device 10 may collect and store account data and inventory data, and output recommendation information based on the account data and inventory data. Alternatively, the information processing device 10 may collect and store account data and purchase intent data, and output recommendation information based on the account data and purchase intent data.

[0015] The user terminal 20 is a device used by the user, and may be, for example, a smartphone, tablet, personal computer, smartwatch, etc. The user terminal 20 displays recommended information output by the information processing device 10. The user terminal 20 may have a payment transaction application installed, and a payment transaction may be executed using the payment transaction application. The user terminal 20 also receives the items that the user wishes to purchase and transmits information indicating the received items as purchase intent data to the information processing device 10. The "purchase intent data" may include the name of the item the user wishes to purchase, the quantity of the item, the desired purchase price, etc. The purchase intent data may also be called purchase intent data.

[0016] The inventory management device 30 is a device that manages the inventory of goods at the user's home or store. The inventory management device 30 includes, for example, a device equipped with sensors for counting inventory, an IoT (Internet of Things) terminal, a smart home appliance, etc. The inventory management device 30 transmits inventory data indicating the inventory quantity of the goods managed by the inventory management device 30 to the information processing device 10.

[0017] The financial institution device 40 is a device used by payment service providers such as banks, credit card companies, and electronic payment service companies. The financial institution device 40 manages user accounts. User accounts are managed in association with balance data, deposit data, and / or settlement data (which may also be called payment data and transaction data) of a predetermined value held by the user, along with the balance update date and time, deposit date and time, and settlement date and time. The financial institution device 40 transmits the various data associated with the user account as account data to the information processing device 10.

[0018] The sales business operator device 50 is a device used by business operators (retail stores, wholesalers, manufacturers, etc.) who operate actual stores and e-commerce trading systems. The sales business operator device 50 transmits the sales price data of the items sold by the business operator to the information processing device 10. The sales price data may be associated with the type of item, the item name, the quantity, and the sales price. Also, the sales business operator device 50 may transmit the expiration date information and sale information of the items to the information processing device 10.

[0019] Here, the sales price data, inventory data, and purchase intention data managed by the information processing device 10 do not necessarily have to be data obtained from the user terminal 20, the inventory management device 30, and the sales business operator device 50. For example, the information processing device 10 may obtain the data input by the user to the user terminal 20 as inventory data. Also, the information processing device 10 may infer the inventory data by analyzing the settlement data included in the account data. For example, when the settlement data includes data indicating that the user purchased 2 units of item A, the information processing device 10 may add 2 to the inventory quantity of item A included in the inventory data. Also, the information processing device 10 may obtain the data input by the user to the user terminal 20 as sales price data. Also, the information processing device 10 may obtain the item price data from the settlement data. For example, when the settlement data includes data indicating that the user purchased item A for 500 yen, the information processing device 10 can obtain the item price data stating that the sales price of item A is 500 yen.

[0020] Also, the information processing device 10 may infer the user's purchase intention data by analyzing the settlement data included in the account data. For example, when the settlement data records that the user purchases 2 units of item B every week, the information processing device 10 may infer that the user wishes to purchase item B.

[0021] <Hardware Configuration> FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus 10. The information processing apparatus 10 includes a processor 11 such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), a memory (for example, a RAM (Random Access Memory) or a ROM (Read Only Memory)), a storage device 12 such as a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and / or a SSD (Solid State Drive), a communication IF (Interface) 13 that performs wired or wireless communication, and an input / output device 14 that receives input operations and outputs information. The input / output device 14 is, for example, a keyboard, a touch panel, a mouse and / or a microphone, a display, a touch panel and / or a speaker, etc.

[0022] <Functional block configuration> FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the functional block configuration of the information processing apparatus 10. The information processing apparatus 10 includes a storage unit 100, an acquisition unit 101, a management unit 102, and an output unit 103. The storage unit 100 can be realized by using the storage device 12 included in the information processing apparatus 10. Also, the acquisition unit 101, the management unit 102, and the output unit 103 can be realized by the processor 11 of the information processing apparatus 10 executing a program stored in the storage device 12. Further, the program can be stored in a storage medium. The storage medium storing the program may be a non-transitory computer-readable medium (Non-transitory computer-readable medium). The non-transitory storage medium is not particularly limited, but may be, for example, a storage medium such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory or a CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory).

[0023] The storage unit 100 stores the management DB 100a.

[0024] The acquisition unit 101 acquires account data including sales price data related to the price of goods, inventory data of goods owned by the user, purchase intent data related to desired goods that the user wishes to purchase, and the user's payment data. Alternatively, the acquisition unit 101 may acquire all of the sales price data, inventory data, purchase intent data, and account data.

[0025] The management unit 102 manages at least one of the following: sales price data, inventory data, and purchase intent data, as well as account data. Alternatively, the management unit 102 may manage all of the following: sales price data, inventory data, purchase intent data, and account data.

[0026] The output unit 103 outputs recommendation information to the user based on at least one of the sales price data, inventory data, and purchase intent data, as well as account data. Alternatively, the output unit 103 may output recommendation information to the user based on the sales price data, inventory data, purchase intent data, and account data.

[0027] <Processing Procedure> Figure 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure performed by information processing system 1.

[0028] In step S10, the information processing device 10 acquires user inventory data from one or more inventory management devices 30. In this embodiment, the user may be an individual user or a corporate user (such as a store or company). For example, in the case of an individual user, the inventory data may include data showing the names and quantities of items (foodstuffs, daily necessities, etc.) stocked in the refrigerator or home. In the case of a corporate user, the inventory data may include data showing the names and remaining quantities of items in stores and warehouses. The inventory data may also include data on items, their types, effects, and benefits.

[0029] In step S11, the information processing device 10 obtains account data from one or more financial service devices 40. The account data includes payment data and / or balance data. For example, the information processing device 10 may obtain user payment data from a financial service device 40 that processes payments such as credit card payments. Alternatively, the information processing device 10 may obtain user balance data from a financial service device 40 that manages various accounts held by the user.

[0030] In this embodiment, the information processing device 10 itself may operate as a financial service provider device 40. In this case, the information processing device 10 may have a wallet for managing user accounts internally. A wallet refers to a tool for managing one or more accounts associated with a user.

[0031] The information processing device 10 may also acquire payment data from the store system of the store where the user made a transaction. Alternatively, it may acquire payment data by reading the receipt issued when the user made a transaction using an OCR function or the like.

[0032] In step S12, the information processing device 10 obtains sales price data from one or more sales business devices 50. For example, the information processing device 10 may obtain sales price data by accessing an e-commerce (EC) server or an EC site. Alternatively, the information processing device 10 may obtain sales price data from electronic flyer information, payment service provider and store payment data, etc. Furthermore, the sales price data may include not only the price of an item at a specific point in time, but also price trend data showing price fluctuations over time. In addition, the sales price data may include data showing the price of an item for a limited time, such as sale items or special offers.

[0033] In step S13, the information processing device 10 obtains purchase intent data from one or more user terminals 20. For example, the user enters the name and quantity of the items they intend to purchase on the screen of the user terminal 20. The user terminal 20 sends the entered data to the information processing device 10 as purchase intent data. The screen of the user terminal 20 may also display a questionnaire asking about the items and quantities to be purchased. The information processing device 10 may also access an e-commerce site, etc., to obtain items that the user has registered as items for regular purchase or items that the user has registered as favorites, and register them in the management DB 100a as purchase intent data. Furthermore, if the user is a corporation or other entity, the user terminal 20 may accept input of items that the user is currently selling or plans to sell, and send it to the information processing device 10 as purchase intent data.

[0034] In step S14, the information processing device 10 stores the inventory data, account data, sales price data, and purchase intent data acquired in steps S10 to S13 into the management DB 100a. The information processing device 10 may periodically execute steps S10 to S13 to update the inventory data, account data, sales price data, and purchase intent data in the management DB 100a with new data.

[0035] Furthermore, the information processing device 10 may compare the account data acquired in step S11 with the previously acquired account data and execute the processing procedures in steps S10 and S12 if there is a change in the account data. In other words, when the account data is updated, the information processing device 10 may acquire the sales price data and inventory data again, and the storage unit may update the stored sales price data and inventory data with the newly acquired sales price data and inventory data. This way, the sales price data and inventory data are updated when a settlement is made or when there is a change in the balance, thus reducing the processing load on the information processing device 10 compared to a method that updates these data regardless of whether a settlement has been made or whether there has been a change in the balance.

[0036] Here, the structure of the management DB 100a will be explained using Figure 5. As shown in Figure 5, the management DB 100a includes account data, inventory data, sales price data, and purchase intent data. The information processing device 10 may update the inventory data based on the account data (F1). For example, the information processing device 10 may identify items purchased by the user from the account data (payment data) and update the inventory data for the identified items. For example, suppose the payment data contains data indicating that four cartons of milk were purchased at a supermarket. In this case, the information processing device 10 may add four cartons of milk to the inventory data.

[0037] Furthermore, the information processing device 10 may generate purchase intent data indicating the items that the user wishes to purchase based on account data (F2). The functional unit that performs the generation process may be called the generation unit. Also, the acquisition unit 101 of the information processing device 10 may acquire the generated purchase intent data. For example, the information processing device 10 may identify items that the user has purchased more than a predetermined number of times in the past from payment data and add the identified items to the purchase intent data. Alternatively, the information processing device 10 may identify items that the user has purchased more than a predetermined number of times in the past from payment data, consider the identified items to be items that the user is likely to purchase in the future, and add those items to the purchase intent data. Furthermore, the information processing device 10 may input the identified items into a learning model that has learned the purchase trends of items among a large number of users, and add the items output from the learning model to the purchase intent data.

[0038] In step S15, the information processing device 10 generates recommendation information to output to the user by referring to the management DB 100a. For example, the information processing device 10 may output recommendation information based on at least one of the sales price data relating to the desired item and the inventory data relating to the said desired item. For example, if the sales price of a desired item included in the purchase intent data that a user wishes to purchase falls below a predetermined amount, the information processing device 10 may output recommendation information stating that the sales price of the desired item has decreased and that the user should proceed with the purchase.

[0039] Furthermore, the information processing device 10 may obtain past purchase prices of desired items that the user wishes to purchase from account data, and output recommendation information based on the comparison result between the sales price data and the past purchase price of the desired items. For example, if the current sales price of a desired item included in the purchase intent data falls below the past purchase price, the information processing device 10 may output recommendation information stating that the sales price of the desired item has fallen below the previous purchase price and that the user should proceed with the purchase.

[0040] Furthermore, the information processing device 10 may output recommendation information if the inventory quantity of the desired item that the user wishes to purchase, as included in the inventory data, is below a predetermined number. For example, the information processing device 10 may output recommendation information suggesting that the user should purchase the desired item because the inventory quantity of the desired item is decreasing. Alternatively, the information processing device 10 may output recommendation information suggesting that the user should replenish the inventory of the item in the store because the inventory quantity of the item is decreasing.

[0041] In step S16, the information processing device 10 sends the generated recommendation information to the user terminal 20.

[0042] In step S17, the user terminal 20 displays the recommended information received from the information processing device 10 on its screen.

[0043] (Supplementary information regarding recommendations) The timing at which the information processing device 10 outputs the recommended information may be set arbitrarily. If the timing for outputting the recommended information is set, the information processing device 10 outputs the recommended information at the set timing.

[0044] For example, the timing for outputting recommendation information may be set to at least one of the following: when new payment data is acquired, when there is a change in account data, when there is a change in inventory data, when there is a change in sales price data, when the sales price of an item falls below the user's desired purchase price, or when the user shows a strong intention to purchase. When the user shows a strong intention to purchase, for example, the user may input on the screen of the user terminal 20 that they want to purchase an item immediately, when they perform a store search, or when they search for an item on a website.

[0045] Furthermore, it may be possible to set the type of recommended information output by the information processing device 10. The type of recommended information may include, for example, the timing of purchasing the item (immediately, in one month, etc.), the place of purchase, and the number of items to purchase. In addition, the type of recommended information may include suggestions for even more advantageous purchasing conditions (for example, a suggestion to purchase in one month instead of now), a suggestion for the store with the lowest selling price of the item among multiple stores, a suggestion that it is better not to purchase the item because there is an excess of stock, or a suggestion that it is better to purchase the item because the stock is below a certain number.

[0046] Furthermore, the information processing device 10 may output recommendation information when account data is updated. For example, the information processing device 10 may output recommendation information suggesting the purchase of desired items when the user's balance data increases.

[0047] <Summary> According to the embodiment described above, the information processing device 10 outputs recommendation information to the user based on sales price data, inventory data, purchase intent data, and account data. This makes it possible to output more appropriate recommendation information regarding the purchase of items to the user. In addition, in this embodiment, the information processing device 10 generates inventory data from account data, generates purchase intent data from account data, and outputs recommendation information when account data is updated. In other words, the information processing device 10 performs various processes centered on account data. This makes it possible to provide various services based on account data.

[0048] The embodiments described above are provided to facilitate understanding of the present invention and are not intended to limit its interpretation. The flowcharts, sequences, elements, and their arrangement, materials, conditions, shapes, and sizes described in the embodiments are not limited to those exemplified and can be modified as appropriate. Furthermore, configurations shown in different embodiments can be partially substituted or combined. [Explanation of symbols]

[0049] 1 Information processing system, 10 Information processing device, 11 Processor, 12 Storage device, 14 Input / output device, 20 User terminal, 30 Inventory management device, 40 Financial business device, 50 Sales business device, 100 Storage unit, 100a Management DB, 101 Acquisition unit, 102 Management unit, 103 Output unit

Claims

1. An acquisition unit that acquires account data including sales price data relating to the price of goods, inventory data of goods owned by the user, purchase intent data relating to goods the user wishes to purchase, and payment data of the user. A management unit that manages the at least one piece of data and the account data, An output unit that outputs recommended information to the user based on the at least one piece of data and the account data, An information processing device having

2. The acquisition unit acquires the purchase intent data generated based on the account data, The output unit outputs the recommendation information based on at least one of the sales price data relating to the desired item and the inventory data relating to the desired item. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1.

3. The acquisition unit acquires the past purchase price of the desired item from the account data. The output unit outputs the recommendation information based on the comparison result between the sales price data and the desired item's past purchase price. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2.

4. The output unit outputs the recommendation information if the number of the desired item in the inventory data is less than or equal to a predetermined number. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2.

5. The management unit identifies the items purchased by the user from the account data and updates the inventory data for the identified items. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1.

6. When the account data is updated, the acquisition unit acquires the sales price data and the inventory data again. The management unit updates the sales price data and inventory data with the newly acquired sales price data and inventory data. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1.

7. The output unit outputs the recommended information when the account data is updated. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1.

8. The steps include obtaining account data that includes sales price data relating to the price of goods, inventory data of goods owned by the user, purchase intent data relating to goods the user wishes to purchase, and payment data of the user. A step of managing the at least one piece of data and the account data, A step of outputting recommended information to the user based on the at least one piece of data and the account data, Information processing methods including

9. The steps include obtaining account data that includes sales price data relating to the price of goods, inventory data of goods owned by the user, purchase intent data relating to goods the user wishes to purchase, and payment data of the user. A step of managing the at least one piece of data and the account data, A step of outputting recommended information to the user based on the at least one piece of data and the account data, A program that causes a computer to execute something.

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