DESC:Technical Field of Invention

The present invention relates to an electronic commerce system and method using videoconferencing, and more particularly, by providing a videoconferencing solution between the buyer and the seller to allow the customers to purchase items from a remotely located shop through video calling with its shopkeeper or its sales person thereby making it more practical and efficient.

Background of the Invention

In recent years, people have increasingly been using their electronic devices to communicate with one another. For example, people communicate using video conferencing services, which can enable users to see one another in real-time, and in some cases, share electronic files and such. In some cases, a person participating in such a video conference may include products in his/her outbound video stream for the other people participating in the video conference to view. However, users presented with these products in their inbound video conference streams are limited in obtaining additional information about such products using existing systems because existing systems are often unable to identify, provide more information about, or an option to purchase a product displayed in an impromptu manner by a person participating in the video conference.

Also, now-a-days many sectors of off-line commerce are being transferred to e-commerce on the Internet, and as a result, e-commerce on the Internet is rapidly increasing, leading to domestic B to B (Business to Business) and B to C (Business to Customer). The market is growing more than 300% annually.

As such, the reason for the growth of e-commerce is that the buyer can compare the products of many companies in the same category and select the best product that is suitable for them compared with the existing offline commerce without wasting labor and time. That's because you can get the product wherever you want. For this reason, e-commerce is becoming a vital tool for busy modern people.

However, despite the convenience that can be gained by utilizing e-commerce, when the delivered product differs from what was expected, the buyer's confidence in the e-commerce online is significantly reduced. Such a decrease in the reliability of e-commerce online gives buyers anxiety that there may be a difference between the expectation of the transaction and the actual result, which adversely affects the activation of the e-commerce and increases the return of the product. This results in substantially narrowing the buyer's choice of product.

Therefore, although the quantitative increase of e-commerce is important at the present time, quality improvement is emerging as an important issue. In particular, while maintaining the advantages of online commerce, a new concept of electronic commerce with a face-to-face transaction between buyers and sellers, which is an advantage of offline commerce, is required.

In view of the above, there exists need to develop an improved E-Commerce platform with zero inventory that empowers online shoppers to shop from real time or brick-and-mortar stores all across India via live video call, taking customer shopping experience to the next level.
Brief Summary of the Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile application based E-Commerce platform with zero inventory that empowers online shoppers to shop from real time or brick-and-mortar stores all across India via live video call/conferencing, taking customer shopping experience to the virtual platform.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ideal shopping bridge/platform between online customers and retailers, wherein the former can view, choose from a wide variety of products featured in stores from the comfort of their homes. Using the proposed shopping system/platform, the customers will get 3600 view of the products in real time/live from the seller through video conferencing.

It is yet another object of the present invention to enable the customers to discover the latest trends, thereby choose and shop directly from authentic real or brick-and-mortar stores located anywhere in India at the best possible price and get the product delivered on the same day or within a couple of hours.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the proposed computer implemented video shopping system for conducting Online 2 Online (O2O) marketplace where customers shop on a video call in a business-to-consumer (B2C) type business, wherein the system constitutes of at least one mobile application installed on users’ mobile devices to purchase, sell and/or delivery the products, a database storing data associated with the businesses and associated business users, a remote server coupled to the said computing system and configured to support different sales channels.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the system further comprises a logistics system for carrying out the delivery and the return/exchange functions, the mobile applications are configured to determine a location of the mobile device which in turn helps a computing device to show location specific businesses, consumers and services, the computing device on the remote server cause the mobile application to display the present content to the user based at least in part on the location and the communication with the smart shopping infrastructure.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the mobile applications through the computing device on the remote server is configured to have peer to peer video conferencing between the users while doing the said B2C type business remotely and the customers (110) can view the store and the products while on the video call and get a close 360-degree view of the product and buy the same by staying at the comfort of their homes or wherever they are.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the super admin controls the whole system through a web application and grants the secured permissions and access to the shop admin and associate shop users through a mobile app to get interacted with the customers regarding their desired products through video conferencing.

According to an aspect of the present invention, wherein the super admin portal comprises of tabs such as login module, shop registration, category & sub category management, brand management, list brands, add new brand, edit/delete brand, add brand during shop registration, user management, approval request page, orders page, dashboard, offer banners, finance details, refund request page and set time limit to serve the respective shopping services.

According to an aspect of the present invention, wherein the shop admin mobile application is developed to manage the customer calls, update shop profile and make deals with customer. The associate shop users are managed through corresponding shop admin mobile application with the permissions or modules of shop admin mobile are login module where the shop admins register their shop details using one time password (OTP) authentication method using their mobile number, profile management for updating the profile details of shop, images/videos of shop and add images/videos in profile to upload images and videos of shop and its products through shop admin mobile application.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the shop admin makes the entry or registration of the associate shop users also called salesperson app through their application. To register an associate user, shop admin needs to add a phone number with a name of the salesperson. After the registration of the salesperson they operate the system through the associate user application comprising the tabs such as shop & user status management, video call, deal making, notifications, order history and dashboard.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the customer mobile application is operated by the customers and the developed mobile application is made available both in iOS as well as Android OS. The said customer application will list all the shops based on their location wherein, customers can choose a shop of their interest and can initiate a video call to that shop and can make a deal with shop to purchase the product. Payment gateway is also integrated with the application so that customers can make the payment for an interested product from the application itself being at the comfort of their home.

in accordance with the aspect of the present invention, the customer mobile application contains the modules or tabs like login module for customer login, registration/sign up to register through mobile number, profile management to enter and update the basic details of customer including his name, profile picture, email ID, city etc from the profile page, home page wherein which all the shops are listed based on category in a sequence like shops which are online and shops within customer’s location will be listed at first, initiate video call to start a video call to any online shops, star rating for rating the service on a scale of 5, invitation (share) to share the application to friends ,relatives etc., interest button, buy now, cancel, add to cart, cart page, order history and cancel order for the action towards the products and tracking tab for live tracking of the ordered product.

In accordance with the aspect of the present invention, wherein the return facility of the delivered product is possible through the customer mobile application for a particular time period after the product delivery date and the refund is processed immediately to the customer when the product is returned from the customer.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 illustrates the block diagram with the users of the proposed video conferencing e-commerce system and method according to the embodiment of the invention.

Figure 2 illustrates the tree diagram depicting the major modules of the proposed system according to the embodiment of the invention.

Figure 3 illustrates the use case diagram with the actions performed by the different users of the system according to the embodiment of the invention.

Figure 4 illustrates the work flow of the proposed personalized video conferencing e-commerce system and method according to the embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

The present invention relates to a computer implemented video shopping system for conducting Online 2 Online (O2O) marketplace where customers shop on a video call in a business-to-consumer (B2C) type business E-Commerce system and method with zero inventory that empowers online shoppers to shop from real time or brick-and-mortar stores all across India via live video call/conferencing, taking customer shopping experience to the virtual platform, offering the customers a 3600 view of their selected product and get the same delivered.

Referring now to the figures,
Figure 1 illustrates the block diagram (100) depicting the users using the proposed video conferencing e-commerce system with the mobile applications installed on their mobile device according to the embodiment of the invention. As shown in Fig.1, the proposed computer implemented video shopping system (100) for conducting Online 2 Online (O2O) marketplace where customers (110) shop on a video call in a business-to-consumer (B2C) type business, wherein the system constitutes of at least one mobile application installed on the mobile devices to purchase, sell and/or delivery the products, a database storing data associated with the businesses and associated business users, a remote server coupled to the said computing system and configured to support different sales channels, a logistics system (120) for carrying out the delivery and the return/exchange functions, the mobile applications are configured to determine a location of the mobile device which in turn helps a computing device to show location specific businesses, consumers and services, the remote server is configured to communicate with a smart shopping infrastructure, the computing device on the remote server cause the mobile application to display the present content to the user based at least in part on the location and the communication with the smart shopping infrastructure, the mobile applications through the computing device on the remote server is configured to have peer to peer video conferencing between the users while doing the said B2C type business remotely and the customers (110) can view the store and the products while on the video call and get a close 360-degree view of the product and buy the same by staying wherever they are.

The users using the proposed system with mobile applications installed on their mobile devices are a super administrator (112), a shop administrator (114), an associate shop user (116), a product delivery (logistics handling) personal (120) and the customers (118) and the four applications are named as Super Admin Portal (Web application) (102), Shop Admin Mobile Application (104), Sales Person/Associate shop user Mobile Application (106) and Customer Mobile Application (108). These applications are installed by the super Admin User (112) for the registration and monitoring of the shops, shop Admin User (114) to register their shops under this system, associate shop users are the sales people (116) are responsible for interacting with the client via video conferencing and finally the customers (118) can download the customer mobile application (108) from their respective play stores, iOS stores etc.. to discover the latest trends, thereby choose and shop directly from authentic real or brick-and-mortar stores located anywhere in India at the best possible price and get the product delivered on the same day or within a couple of hours. All the aforementioned applications together form the system and the app users of their respective application work collectively in delivering the customers their desired products through video conferencing.

The super admin (114) controls the whole system from a web application and grants the secured permissions and access to the shop admin and associate shop users (116) to get interacted with the customers regarding their desired products through video conferencing. The super admin portal (104) comprises of tabs such as login module, shop registration, category & sub category management, brand management, list brands, add new brand, edit/delete brand, add brand during shop registration, user management, approval request page, orders page, dashboard, offer banners, finance details, refund request page and set time limit to serve the respective shopping services.

The shop admin (114) manages the customer calls, update shop profile and make deals with customer. The associate shop users are managed through corresponding shop admin application with the permissions or modules of shop admin are login module where the shop admins register their shop details using one time password (OTP) authentication method using their mobile number, profile management for updating the profile details of shop, images/videos of shop and add images/videos in profile to upload images and videos of shop and its products through shop admin application. The shop admin (114) makes the entry or registration of the associate shop users also called sales person app through their application. To register an associate user, shop admin needs to add a phone number with a name of the sales person. After the registration of the sales person they are operated through the associate user application (106) comprising the tabs such as shop & user status management, video call, deal making, notifications, order history and dashboard.

The customer (118) uses the modules or tabs of his dedicated application like login module for customer login, registration/sign up to register through mobile number, profile management to enter and update the basic details of customer including his name, profile picture, email ID, city etc from the profile page, home page wherein which all the shops are listed based on category in a sequence like shops which are online and shops within customer’s location will be listed at first, initiate video call to start a video call to any online shops, star rating for rating the service on a scale of 5, invitation (share) to share the application to friends ,relatives etc., interest button, buy now, cancel, add to cart, cart page, order history and cancel order for the action towards the products and tracking tab for live tracking of the ordered product.

Figure 2 illustrates the tree diagram (200) depicting the major modules of the proposed system according to the embodiment of the invention. As shown in Fig.2, the major modules and their functioning is now discussed wherein the shop registration (222) module is operated by the super admin (112) for the location based listing of the shops, shop user management (224) module enables the shop admin (114), category & subcategory (226) module enables the super admin (102) to arrange the product in the preferred sequence based on brands, nature of products etc. The offer banners (228) management page allows super admin to add, edit or delete offer banners of shops. These offer banners will show as a slider image in customer application dashboard page. Customer application will show slider images of 10 offer banners at a time. Each banner image has to be added under a city by super admin so that banner will be shown based on customer selected location. While adding a banner image, super admin has to choose start date and end date of banner so that the banner will be shown only in between these dates for customer application. After the end date banner will automatically vanishes from customer application. For each banner image a corresponding shop page can be tagged so that while clicking on each banner image, it’ll leads to corresponding shop page.

The buy product (230) module of the customer mobile application (108) redirects the customer to the payment gateway after clicking on buy product and same product will be delivered within couple of hours. The associate user management (236) is done by the shop admin (114) to register the sales persons with OTP authentication to provide customer interaction with the associate users/sales person while buying the product via. video call, orders management (238) tab monitored by the super admin for tracking the number of products sold and transaction data etc. product return/ refund (240) carried out by the logistics department under the administration of super admin (112), cart management (242) for managing orders placed in cart and video calling (246) through which the customers (118) interact with associate shop users (116) on a virtual platform and get the shopping done instantly.

Figure 3 illustrates the use case diagram (300) depicting the actions performed by the different users of the system according to the embodiment of the invention. As shown in Fig.3, the tasks of each person in the system (300) like super admin (312), shop admin (314), associate shop users (316) and the customers (318) are depicted. All the four group of people work collectively for the successful functioning of the proposed personalized video conferencing e-commerce system (100).

Figure 4 illustrates the work flow (400) depicting the method involved in the proposed personalized video conferencing e-commerce system according to the embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 4, the customer (418) calls from their provided customer mobile application (108) through the ‘initiate video call’ (422) module after selecting the shop in which they would like to purchase their desired product. The call then gets forwarded to the available associate shop user (416) of the selected shop and the shop admin user (414). The call gets connected and the video calling (422) will be activated. By clicking on the “interest” button (424), the shop user enters the product details (426) selected by the customer (418) after getting a 3600 view of their product through their associate shop user mobile application (106). The shop user then enters the product id (428), product name (430), takes the picture of product (432), product price (434) and number of products (436) and sends the details (438) to the customer through a pop-up message while the video call is going on.

After this process the customer can select three options like ‘buy now’ (440), ‘cancel’ (442) and ‘add to cart’ (444). After selecting buy now, a pop up window message (446) appears with two options, ‘proceed’ (448), ‘add to cart’ (450). After clicking on proceed, the on-going video call gets disconnected (452) and the customer (418) gets redirected to the payment gateway to process the payment (454) through various payment options. After the successful payment, the customer (418) receives the message and invoice details through a message from the shop and the product gets delivered the same day or within couple of hours (456). The customer (418) can add the product to cart and continue shopping multiple product and make the payment of all the products at once. The delivery of the required product is carried out by the third party logistics department which operates and monitored by and under the super admin’s web application. The customer can track the ordered product in real time using tracking tab of the customer mobile application.

,CLAIMS:1. A computer implemented video shopping system (100) for conducting Online 2 Online (O2O) marketplace where customers (110) shop on a video call in a business-to-consumer (B2C) type business, wherein the system constitutes of:
a. at least one mobile application installed on users’ mobile devices to purchase, sell and/or delivery the products;
b. a database storing data associated with the businesses and associated business users;
c. a remote server coupled to the said computing system and configured to support different sales channels;
d. a logistics system (120) for carrying out the delivery and the return/exchange functions;
e. the mobile applications are configured to determine a location of the mobile device which in turn helps a computing device to show location specific businesses, consumers and services;
f. the remote server is configured to communicate with a smart shopping infrastructure;
g. the computing device on the remote server cause the mobile application to display the present content to the user based at least in part on the location and the communication with the smart shopping infrastructure;
h. the mobile applications through the computing device on the remote server is configured to have peer to peer video conferencing between the users while doing the said B2C type business remotely; and
i. the customers (110) can view the store and the products while on the video call and get a close 360-degree view of the product and buy the same by staying wherever they are.

2. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the users using the system with mobile applications installed on their mobile devices are a shop administrator (114), an associate shop user (116), a product delivery (logistics handling) personal (120) and the customers (118) and the web application for the super administrator (112).

3. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the customer (118) can access the shopping list that is stored at a remote server, wherein the shopping list include user preferences.

4. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the selected products are displayed, explained, and recommended by direct live interaction between the parties.

5. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the associate shop users (116) interact with the customers and make deals with them through video calling platform.

6. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the customer communication device (108) displays all the shops based on category in a sequence like shops which are online and shops within customer’s location will be listed at first.

7. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user (118) can initiate a video call through the customer mobile application (108) to start shopping from any online shops.

8. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the associate shop users (116) manage the orders placed by the customer through the mobile application installed in their communication device.

9. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the delivery and return of the ordered products are carried out by the third-party logistics (120) which is integrated and administered by the super admin (102) in real time.

10. A method of purchasing online products from real time or brick-and-mortar stores through video call/conferencing include the steps of:
accessing, the system by customers (118) through their dedicated customer mobile application (108);
listing, nearby shops in an order and the user selects at least one among the said shops;
connecting, the selected shop with the customer when the customer selects the video calling tab of a particular shop;
interacting, the associate shop user or a sales person (116) with the customers (118) via. Live Video conferencing, for 3600 view of the product;
sending, the product price and details upon the customer (118) approval/selection through a pop-up message;
redirecting, to a secured payment gateway to make payment in many number of modes like UPI, Credit or debit cards, internet banking etc;
delivering, the product upon the successful completion of payment to the customer within couple of hours by the logistics system (120); and
if the customer is not satisfied with the delivered product, the same can be returned through the return tab of the customer application (108) and the amount gets refunded immediately to the customer (118).