Store Employee Terminal for Product Location Assistance

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing techniques for assisting sales operations in retail environments are inefficient, as they either fail to notify store employees about customer desires or require customers to manually search for products, leading to labor inefficiencies and reduced customer convenience, especially when products are not available.

Innovation Solution

A sales operations assistance system comprising a medium with stored product information and a store employee terminal that communicates with the medium to acquire and output relevant product information, such as location and availability, to the employee, enabling labor savings and improved customer convenience.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If a customer manually checks product information on a selection screen to find desired products, then the customer can identify product locations, but the process becomes time-consuming and inconvenient, especially when products are out of stock

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecustomer convenienceVSAvoidtime to find product

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables automatic detection and notification by having the store employee terminal automatically read product information from the medium and query the server, eliminating the need for manual customer searching and stock verification

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The store employee terminal acts as an intermediary between the customer's medium and the server, automatically processing information retrieval and stock verification, thereby resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and time loss

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Loss of information

If product information is only displayed on customer-facing selection screens, then customers can view available products, but store employees cannot efficiently locate products or check stock availability

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveproduct availability informationVSAvoidemployee efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The store employee terminal is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as a customer service interface and an internal tool for product location and stock verification, allowing single device to perform multiple functions

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback loops where the terminal reads product information, queries the server for stock status, and receives real-time feedback on product availability and location, enabling employees to efficiently respond to customer requests

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS11816723B2Sales operations assistance device, sales operations assistance method, and sales operations assistance non-transitory computer readable medium

Publication Date: 2023.11.14 NEC CORP

AI summary

A sales operations assistance system (1) is configured including a store employee terminal (10) operated by a store employee and a medium (12). The medium (12) has a storage area that stores first information that indicates a type of a product. The store employee terminal (10) includes a communication unit (102) and a notification unit (104). The communication unit (102), by communicating with the medium (12), reads the first information stored in the storage area of the medium (12). The notification unit (104) acquires second information (additional information related to the product corresponding to the first information), using the first information read by the communication unit (102), and outputs the second information to a first output apparatus (1042) for use by the store employee.