JP7723727B2 - Product provision control device, product provision control method, and product provision control program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a method for carrying out predetermined procedures for purchased products.

Conventionally, websites that allow online product ordering are known. Such websites generally allow buyers to purchase products without meeting the seller in person. However, some products require the customer to receive an explanation from the seller before purchasing. For example, when purchasing pharmaceuticals, the customer may need to be examined and prescribed by a medical institution, or may need to receive medication instructions from a pharmacist. Furthermore, when purchasing certain cosmetics, the customer may need to receive counseling from a doctor or other specialist. Systems that support products with such purchase conditions are also known. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a system that can accept purchase requests that include prescription information for prescription pharmaceuticals and purchase requests that do not include prescription information for non-prescription pharmaceuticals, and generates sales information for selling the pharmaceuticals based on the purchase requests.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2020-135278

However, there are cases where follow-up with the purchaser is required after purchasing a product. For example, when a medicine is purchased, follow-up monitoring may be conducted on the purchaser regarding their use of the medicine. With conventional technology, even if it was possible to handle the procedures leading up to the purchase of a product, it was insufficient for post-purchase support. Furthermore, even if the purchaser wishes to continue purchasing the product, it may be necessary to restrict the provision of the product depending on the purchaser's situation after purchase.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and one example of its objective is to provide a product provision control device, a product provision control method, and a product provision control program that are capable of storing information for restricting product provision depending on the purchaser's situation after purchasing the product.

(Application Example 1) Application Example 1 is a product provision control device, in which restriction information capable of specifying whether or not provision of a product to a customer is restricted for each combination of a customer and a product is stored in a predetermined storage means, and it is possible to specify from the restriction information that provision of the purchased product is not restricted to a purchaser of a purchased product, and a question information transmitting means for transmitting question information indicating a follow- up question about the purchased product to a purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser of the purchased product, and a circuit for receiving answer information indicating an answer to the question from the purchaser terminal device that has received the transmitted question information. This product provision control device comprises an answer information receiving means, an answer information acquisition means for acquiring answer information indicating whether or not the purchased product can be continued to be used based on the received answer information, and an answer information acquisition means for, when the acquired answer information indicates that the purchased product cannot be continued to be used, changing the restriction information stored in the storage means so that it is possible to identify from the restriction information that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted, wherein the change means does not restrict the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser if the answer information is not sent from the purchaser terminal device to the product provision control device .

According to this application example, follow-up questions about the purchased product are presented to the purchaser. Answer information indicating the answer to this question is received from the purchaser terminal. Based on this answer information, availability information indicating whether or not continued use of the purchased product is permitted is obtained. If continued use of the product is prohibited, the restriction information is changed. This makes it possible to identify from the restriction information that the purchaser is restricted from being provided with the purchased product. Therefore, by referencing the restriction information, processing can be performed to restrict the provision of the product to the purchaser. Therefore, information for restricting the provision of the product can be stored according to the purchaser's situation after purchasing the product.

(Application Example 2) Application Example 2 is a product provision control device further comprising: identification information acquisition means for acquiring selected product identification information indicating selected products selected by a customer for an order and customer identification information identifying the customer who selected the selected products; interview support means for, when the restriction information indicates that the provision of the selected products indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is restricted for the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information, assisting in an interview between the customer and a decision maker who decides whether or not to allow the customer to use the selected products; and confirmation means for confirming the order of the selected products after the interview supported by the interview support means, wherein the confirmation means confirms the order without the interview when the restriction information indicates that the provision of the selected products indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is not restricted for the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information.

According to this application example, if the provision of a product selected by a customer for ordering is restricted, a meeting between the customer and a decision maker who decides whether the product can be used is possible. After the meeting, the order for the selected product is confirmed. If the provision of the selected product to the customer is not restricted, the meeting between the customer and the decision maker is omitted and the order for the selected product is confirmed. Therefore, whether a meeting is required to confirm the order for the product depends on whether the provision of the product is restricted. Therefore, by setting conditions for ordering, the provision of the product can be appropriately restricted.

(Application Example 3) Application Example 3 is a product provision control device characterized in that the interview support means connects a customer terminal device used by the customer and a decision maker terminal device used by the decision maker to enable communication for the interview, and if it is determined from the restriction information that the provision of the selected product indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is restricted to the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information, the confirmation means confirms the order after the interview support means connects the customer terminal device and the decision maker terminal device, and if it is determined from the restriction information that the provision of the selected product indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is not restricted to the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information, the confirmation means confirms the order without connecting the customer terminal device and the decision maker terminal device by the interview support means.

In this application example, the customer terminal and the decision maker terminal are connected for communication, allowing for an online interview between the customer and the decision maker. After the online interview, the order is confirmed. Therefore, if product availability to a customer is restricted, the interview required to confirm the order for that product can be conducted online.

(Application Example 4) Application Example 4 is a product provision control device characterized in that the provision of the purchased product is in the form of regular shipping of the purchased product to the purchaser, and further comprising a cancellation means for canceling the next shipment of the purchased product to the purchaser when the change means makes a change that identifies a restriction on the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser.

According to this application example, if there are no restrictions on providing the purchased product to the purchaser, the product is shipped to the purchaser on a regular basis. If there are restrictions on providing the purchased product to the purchaser, the next shipment of the product is canceled. This stops the regular shipment of the product. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately restrict the provision of the product in a form in which the product is shipped on a regular basis.

(Application Example 5) Application Example 5 is a product provision control device that further includes a screen information sending means for sending to a customer terminal device screen information for displaying on the customer terminal device a screen related to electronic commerce that enables product ordering, the screen information including information about a requested product in response to a request from the customer terminal device used by the customer, wherein the screen information sending means sends the screen information for displaying the screen that accepts operations for selecting the requested product when it is determined from the restriction information that the provision of the requested product to the customer is not restricted, and sends the screen information for displaying the screen that does not accept operations when it is determined from the restriction information that the provision of the requested product to the customer is restricted.

According to this application example, a screen containing product information in response to a request from the customer terminal device is displayed on the customer terminal device. If the provision of that product to the customer is not restricted, the screen is displayed so that the operation to select the product is possible. As a result, the customer can order that product. If the provision of that product to the customer is restricted, the screen is displayed so that the operation to select the product is not possible. As a result, the customer cannot order that product. As such, it is possible to control the restriction on the provision of products depending on whether or not the screen related to e-commerce accepts the operation to select a product.

(Application Example 6) Application Example 6 is a product provision control device further comprising a release information acquisition means for acquiring release information indicating that the restriction on provision of the purchased product has been lifted after the change means has changed the restriction information so that it is possible to identify that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted, and when the release information acquisition means has acquired the release information, the change means changes the restriction information so that it is possible to identify from the restriction information that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is not restricted.

According to this application example, after the provision of a purchased product is restricted, the restriction may be lifted. In that case, the restriction information is changed again. This makes it possible to determine from the restriction information that there is no restriction on providing the purchased product to the purchaser. Therefore, by referencing the restriction information, processing can be performed to enable the provision of the product to the purchaser.

(Application Example 7) Application Example 7 is a product provision control device further comprising: a release information acquisition means for acquiring release information indicating the release of the restriction on provision of the purchased product after the change means has changed the restriction information so that it is possible to identify that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted; and a withdrawal means for withdrawing the cancellation of the shipment made by the cancellation means when the release information acquisition means receives the release information.

According to this application example, after the provision of a product that is regularly shipped to a purchaser is restricted, the restriction may be lifted. In that case, the cancellation of the next shipment of that product is canceled. This allows regular shipments of the product to resume.

(Application Example 8) Application Example 8 is a product provision control device further comprising result information transmission means for transmitting to the purchaser result information indicating the results of the follow-up, including whether or not the use can be continued as indicated by the acquired propriety information.

According to this application example, it is possible to inform the purchaser whether or not they can continue to use the purchased product.

(Application Example 9) Application Example 9 is a product provision control device in which the purchased product is a pharmaceutical product, and further comprising a connection means for connecting the purchaser terminal device and a doctor terminal device used by a doctor to enable communication for the doctor's examination, and a confirmation means for confirming the order of the product paid for through the examination after the connection means connects the purchaser terminal device and the doctor terminal device, and the question information sending means sends the question information about the product for which the order has been confirmed by the confirmation means.
(Application Example 10) Application Example 10 is a product provision control device characterized in that the change means does not restrict the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser if the answer information is not transmitted from the purchaser terminal device to the product provision control device within a predetermined period after the question information is transmitted by the question information transmission means.

In this application example, a communication connection between the purchaser terminal and the doctor terminal enables the doctor to conduct an online consultation. The medicine determined through this consultation is then purchased. Follow-up question information is sent regarding this purchased medicine. Therefore, information can be stored to limit the provision of medicines depending on the situation of the customer who has received a consultation and purchased the medicine.

(Application Example 11 ) Application example 11 is a computer-executed product provision control method, comprising: restriction information for specifying whether or not the provision of the product to a customer is restricted for each combination of a customer and a product, stored in a predetermined storage means; it is possible to specify from the restriction information that the provision of the purchased product is not restricted to the purchaser of a purchased product; a question information sending step for sending question information indicating a follow-up question about the purchased product to a purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser of the purchased product; a response information receiving step for receiving response information indicating an answer to the question from the purchaser terminal device that has received the sent question information; a availability information acquisition step for acquiring availability information indicating whether or not the purchaser can continue to use the purchased product based on the received response information; and a modification step for, if the acquired availability information indicates that the purchaser cannot continue to use the purchased product, changing the restriction information stored in the storage means so that it is possible to specify from the restriction information that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted; wherein the modification step is characterized in that, if the response information is not sent from the purchaser terminal device, the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is not restricted .

(Application Example 12 ) Application Example 12 is a product provision control program executed by a computer, wherein restriction information for specifying whether or not provision of a product to a customer is restricted is stored in a predetermined storage means, for each combination of a customer and a product, and it is possible to specify from the restriction information that provision of the purchased product is not restricted to a purchaser of a purchased product, and the computer includes a question information sending means for sending question information indicating a follow-up question about the purchased product to a purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser of the purchased product, and a response to the question from the purchaser terminal device that has received the sent question information. a modification means for modifying the restriction information stored in the storage means when the acquired propriety information indicates that the purchaser cannot continue using the purchased product, thereby making it possible to identify from the restriction information that the purchaser will be restricted from being provided with the purchased product; and a product provision control program that functions as an answer information receiving means for receiving answer information indicating an answer ; a propriety information acquiring means for acquiring propriety information indicating whether the purchaser can continue using the purchased product based on the received answer information; and a modification means for modifying the restriction information stored in the storage means when the acquired propriety information indicates that the purchaser cannot continue using the purchased product, thereby making it possible to identify from the restriction information that the purchaser will be restricted from being provided with the purchased product, wherein the modification means does not restrict the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser when the answer information is not sent from the purchaser terminal device.

This invention makes it possible to store information to limit the provision of products depending on the purchaser's situation after purchasing the product.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a communication system S according to an embodiment. 1A is a diagram illustrating an example of a one-time purchase, and FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating an example of a regular automatic purchase. 10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating an example of screen transitions on a customer terminal 4. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a sales management server 1 according to an embodiment. 3 is a diagram showing an example of information stored in a database of the sales management server 1. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of information stored in a database of the sales management server 1. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of information stored in a database of the sales management server 1. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of functional blocks of a system control unit 11 in a sales management server 1 according to an embodiment. FIG. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a product screen 1200. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a follow-up observation notification email. 10A to 10C are diagrams illustrating examples of timings for sending follow-up observation notifications. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of questions for follow-up observation. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a question sheet screen. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a follow-up observation screen. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a follow-up observation screen after inputting whether or not to continue the prescription. 10A to 10C are diagrams showing examples of a follow-up observation result email. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of updating the purchase right DB 14 g. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of restricting the provision of a product. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of restrictions on product provision in regular automatic purchases. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of processing in a communication system S according to an embodiment. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of processing in a communication system S according to an embodiment. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of processing in a communication system S according to an embodiment. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of processing in a communication system S according to an embodiment. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of processing in a communication system S according to an embodiment. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of processing in a communication system S according to an embodiment. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of processing in a communication system S according to an embodiment. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a product screen 1200. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of a product screen information transmission process executed by a system control unit 11 of the sales management server 1 according to an embodiment. 2 is a diagram showing an example of functional blocks of a system control unit 11 in a sales management server 1 according to an embodiment. FIG. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of processing in a communication system S according to an embodiment.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. In at least one embodiment, a seller may sell products to a customer. The products may be sold, for example, in a physical store or online. Products sold in a physical store may be handed over to the customer by the seller. Products sold online may be shipped to the customer by the seller. Examples of sellers include medical institutions, pharmacies, cosmetics stores, specialty stores, etc.

According to at least one embodiment, the follow-up control device (or product provision control device) may perform or assist in performing follow-up with a purchaser who has purchased a product. The follow-up may include, for example, confirming with the customer at least one of the purchaser's status after purchasing the product and the status of the product, and providing information to the purchaser as necessary based on the confirmed status. The information provided to the purchaser may include, for example, advice for the purchaser, or some kind of assessment result regarding the use of the product. The follow-up control device may send question information to the customer to confirm the customer's situation. The question information may be information indicating a question to confirm the purchaser's status or the status of the product. The follow-up control device may receive answer information from a purchaser terminal used by the purchaser. The answer information may be information indicating the purchaser's or product user's answer to the question indicated by the question information. The purchaser of a product and the user of the product may be the same person. Alternatively, the user may be a related party of the purchaser. The purchaser may purchase a product for a related party. Examples of related parties include family, relatives, and friends.

In at least one embodiment, the follow-up control device, upon receiving response information from the purchaser terminal device, may transmit follow-up result information indicating the results of the follow-up. As described above, the follow-up result information may include information to be provided to the purchaser. The follow-up control device may transmit the response information to a predetermined decision maker. The decision maker may be a person who decides the information to be provided to the purchaser. Examples of decision makers include an employee of the seller, a specialist in the purchased product, a doctor, a pharmacist, a consultant, etc. The follow-up control device may receive the follow-up result information from the decision maker. Alternatively, the follow-up control device may automatically determine the information to be provided based on the response information. For example, the response and the information to be provided may be associated in advance and stored in a predetermined storage means.

The information provided to the purchaser may include whether or not the purchased product can be continued. The decision maker or follow-up control device may decide whether or not to continue use. If the purchaser's response indicates that there is no problem with the purchaser continuing to use the product, a decision may be made to continue use. If the purchaser's response indicates that there is a problem with the purchaser continuing to use the product, a decision may be made to not continue use or to discontinue use.

In at least one embodiment, the same product may be continuously provided to a customer. For example, the purchaser may be able to reorder or repurchase the product, or the product may be continuously shipped to the purchaser. If a decision is made during follow-up to discontinue use of the purchased product, the follow-up control device may execute processing to restrict the provision of that product to the purchaser. Examples of restricting the provision of the product include making the product unavailable for purchase, allowing purchase only if the purchaser meets additional conditions, not shipping the product, canceling planned purchases or shipping of the product, etc.

All products sold by a seller may be subject to follow-up. Alternatively, only some of the products may be subject to follow-up. For example, products that become available for purchase by a customer (or related party) on the condition that a meeting between the customer and the decision maker has been held may be subject to follow-up. For example, a meeting may be required at the latest before the order for the product is confirmed. Examples of meetings include medical examinations, counseling, consulting, medication instructions, and information provision. The meeting may be conducted offline or online. During the meeting, the decision maker may explain the product to the customer. The decision maker may also confirm the customer's condition during the meeting. A customer may be able to purchase a product only if the decision maker gives permission for the customer to use the product during the meeting. Alternatively, a customer may be able to purchase a product without the decision maker's permission. The product to be purchased may be selected by the customer before the meeting with the decision maker, may be decided by the decision maker during the meeting, or may be decided by the customer or the decision maker after the meeting. Some products that do not require a pre-purchase meeting may be subject to follow-up. Additionally, even among products that require a pre-purchase consultation, there may be products that are not subject to follow-up.

If the decision maker is a doctor, the products that are subject to follow-up may include prescription drugs. A doctor's prescription is required for a seller to provide prescription drugs to a customer. In this case, the interview before the purchase of the product may be a medical examination. The follow-up in this case may also be observation. There may be drugs that are subject to follow-up among drugs other than prescription drugs. There may also be cosmetics that are subject to follow-up among cosmetics other than prescription drugs. If the decision maker is a pharmacist, the products that are subject to follow-up may include drugs. In this case, the interview before the purchase of the product may be medication instructions or information provided by the pharmacist to the customer.

The following describes an example in which the seller is a medical institution, the product subject to follow-up is a prescription drug, and the decision maker is a doctor. However, as mentioned above, this application is also applicable to situations in which the seller is different from a medical institution, the product subject to follow-up is different from a prescription drug, or the seller is different from a medical institution.

1. First embodiment
[1-1. Configuration of communication system]
First, the configuration and functional overview of a communication system S according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 1. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the schematic configuration of a communication system S according to this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system S may be configured to include a sales management server 1, at least one doctor terminal 2, at least one shipping terminal 3, and multiple customer terminals 4. The sales management server 1, doctor terminal 2, shipping terminal 3, and each customer terminal 4 are connected to one another via a network NW. The network NW is constructed, for example, from the Internet, a dedicated communication line (e.g., a CATV (Community Antenna Television) line), a mobile communication network (including base stations, etc.), and a gateway, etc.

The sales management server 1 may be a server device that performs various processes related to a specified pharmaceutical e-commerce (EC) platform. The pharmaceutical e-commerce platform may be a website that allows customers to purchase pharmaceuticals and other products online from specified medical institutions. Pharmaceuticals may be the main products sold on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform. The pharmaceuticals sold may include prescription pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. Prescription pharmaceuticals are pharmaceuticals provided based on a doctor's prescription. Over-the-counter pharmaceuticals are pharmaceuticals that do not require a doctor's prescription. The pharmaceutical e-commerce platform may also sell products other than pharmaceuticals. Examples of such products include cosmetics and health foods. The sales management server 1 may transmit content such as web pages included in the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform to the customer terminal 4 in response to a request from the customer terminal 4, for example. The sales management server 1 may also execute a process for accepting product orders from customers. The sales management server 1 may also execute a process for accepting appointments for consultations (or medical examinations) at medical institutions in order for customers to order prescription pharmaceuticals. This consultation may be online or offline. Furthermore, when an online consultation is scheduled, the sales management server 1 may execute processing to realize the online consultation. During the online consultation, audio and video communication may take place between the doctor terminal 2 and the customer terminal 4.

The doctor terminal 2 may be a terminal device used by a medical institution. This doctor terminal 2 may be a terminal device primarily used by a doctor. For example, the doctor terminal 2 may be used to display and input electronic medical records, input prescriptions, display questions and answers for follow-up monitoring, and input whether or not to continue prescribing a prescription for a prescription drug after purchase. The doctor terminal 2 may also be used for online consultations. Examples of the doctor terminal 2 include personal computers and tablet computers. The doctor terminal 2 may be equipped with a video camera for capturing images or may be connectable to a video camera. The doctor terminal 2 may also be equipped with a microphone for inputting audio or may be connectable to a microphone. Software such as a web browser or email client may be built into the doctor terminal 2. The doctor terminal 2 may be an example of a decision-maker terminal device used by a doctor as a decision maker who decides whether or not to continue using a purchased product.

The shipping terminal 3 may be a terminal device used primarily by medical institutions when shipping products. This shipping terminal 3 may also be a terminal device used by pharmacists or other employees. For example, the shipping terminal 3 may display information about the products being shipped and information about the delivery destination. Employees may ship ordered products based on the information displayed on the shipping terminal 3. Examples of the shipping terminal 3 include personal computers and tablet computers. The shipping terminal 3 may also be equipped with software such as a web browser and email client.

Each customer terminal 4 may be a terminal device used by a customer as a buyer of products that can use the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform. Each customer terminal 4 may receive and display content such as web pages from the sales management server 1, for example, based on operations by the customer. Examples of customer terminals 4 include mobile information terminals such as smartphones and tablet computers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal computers, and set-top boxes. Each customer terminal 4 may be equipped with a video camera for capturing video or may be connectable to a video camera. Each customer terminal 4 may also be equipped with a microphone for audio input or may be connectable to a microphone. Each customer terminal 4 may be equipped with software such as a web browser or email client. A dedicated app may be installed on a portable customer terminal 4. The dedicated app is an application for using the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform. The customer terminal 4 may send various requests to the sales management server 1 in accordance with the dedicated app, and receive and display content from the sales management server 1.

[1-2. Continued purchase of products and follow-up observation]
Next, a description will be given of a repeat purchase of a product with reference to FIG. 2 . The first purchase of a product is referred to as an initial purchase. A repeat purchase of a product may also refer to a customer repeatedly purchasing the same product after the initial purchase. From the seller's perspective, a repeat purchase may correspond to the continuous provision of the same product to a customer. In particular, in this embodiment, a repeat purchase may refer to a customer repeatedly purchasing the same product without the need for a specific or additional condition. Alternatively, a repeat purchase of a product may refer to a customer repeatedly purchasing a product that is the subject of follow-up after having purchased the product once. The specific or additional condition may be a condition that the customer must satisfy when purchasing the product for the first time. For example, if the product is a prescription drug, this condition may refer to seeing a doctor or having the product prescribed by a doctor.

A maximum prescription amount may be set for a prescription drug. The maximum prescription amount may indicate the maximum amount of prescription drug that can be prescribed per prescription or per prescription. The quantity of a product may be indicated, for example, by the length of the period during which the product is intended to be used, taken, or consumed. This length of period may be indicated, for example, in days, weeks, or months. In this embodiment, the number of months is used. For example, a one-month supply of a drug taken three times daily (morning, noon, and night) may correspond to 90 tablets. Examples of maximum prescription amounts include 6 months and 12 months. The maximum prescription amount may be set commonly for all prescription drugs, for example, within a pharmaceutical e-commerce platform. Alternatively, the maximum prescription amount may be set for each drug. Alternatively, the maximum prescription amount may be set for each drug category. Alternatively, the maximum prescription amount may be determined by a doctor at the time of prescribing. In this embodiment, the maximum prescription amount is assumed to be common to all prescription drugs.

A right of purchase is a right that a customer acquires, provided that certain conditions, such as seeing a doctor, are met, allowing the customer to make initial or continued purchases of a product. The amount of a prescription drug that a customer purchases in an initial purchase is determined within a range up to the maximum prescribed amount. For example, the customer may select the purchase amount, or the doctor may select the purchase amount. The customer may be able to continue purchasing the drug within a range up to the amount remaining after subtracting the amount of the drug purchased at the time of the initial purchase from the maximum prescribed amount. The main effect of a right of purchase may be that neither a new doctor's examination nor a new prescription is required for continued purchases.

For products for which a purchase right has been set, the total amount that the customer has already purchased or the total amount that the seller has shipped to the customer is referred to as the "already purchased amount." The purchase right may expire when the already purchased amount reaches the maximum prescribed amount. Furthermore, the purchase right may or may not expire when a period of time equivalent to the maximum prescribed amount has passed since the date the product was prescribed. In order for a customer to repurchase a product for which the purchase right has expired, the customer may need to fulfill certain conditions, such as seeing a doctor.

On the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform, recurring purchases of products may be made in two ways: serial purchases and automatic regular purchases. Customers may be able to choose whether to purchase products in serial purchases or automatic regular purchases. Alternatively, the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform may be configured so that only serial purchases or automatic regular purchases are possible. Alternatively, it may be predetermined for each product or product category whether serial purchases and automatic regular purchases are possible.

A serial purchase may be a form of purchase in which a customer selects and orders a product each time. Figure 2(a) shows an example of a serial purchase. For example, a customer first orders a product with a maximum prescription amount for six months. At this time, the customer consults a doctor and the doctor prescribes the product. As shown in Figure 2(a), the customer orders a one-month supply of the product. The one-month supply of the product is shipped from the medical institution to the customer. At this point, the customer has the right to purchase a five-month supply of the product. One month after the prescription, the customer orders a two-month supply of the same product. At this time, the doctor's consultation is omitted. The medical institution ships a two-month supply of the product to the customer. At this point, the customer has the right to purchase a three-month supply of the product. Three months after the prescription, the customer orders a three-month supply of the same product. At this time, the doctor's consultation is omitted. The medical institution ships a three-month supply of the product to the customer. At this point, the customer's purchasing right expires. Subsequent purchases of the product may be considered continuing purchases.

Regular automatic purchases may be purchases in which products are delivered to the purchaser on a regular basis. Regular product deliveries are also referred to as subscription deliveries. Figure 2(b) shows an example of a regular automatic purchase. For example, a customer places an initial order for a product with a maximum prescription amount for six months. The customer then sees a doctor, who prescribes the product. As shown in Figure 2(b), a one-month supply of the product is first delivered from the medical institution to the customer. Thereafter, a one-month supply of the product is delivered from the medical institution to the customer at monthly intervals. The sales management server 1 may automatically settle the purchase price for each month's supply of the product. Once a total of six shipments of the product, including the first shipment, have been made, the customer's purchasing rights will expire. Payments and shipments from the second time onwards may be considered recurring purchases. The amount of product delivered at one time and the interval between shipments are not limited to one month.

As an example of customer follow-up, follow-up observations may be conducted one or more times during the period during which the purchase right is valid or the period corresponding to the maximum prescribed amount. For example, in the examples shown in Figures 2(a) and 2(b), follow-up observations are conducted once a month. However, the follow-up observation interval is not limited to one month. If the purchase method is a serial purchase, the customer does not need to purchase the product until the amount already purchased reaches the maximum prescribed amount. The customer may discontinue continued purchases. If the purchase method is a regular automatic purchase, the sales management server 1 may be configured to allow the customer to cancel the regular automatic purchase midway. In these cases, follow-up observations may be conducted only during the period corresponding to the amount already purchased. Note that follow-up observations or follow-ups may also be conducted for products for which the customer does not need to meet specific conditions, such as a doctor's consultation, for the initial purchase.

During follow-up monitoring, the sales management server 1 may send question information indicating questions for the follow-up to the customer terminal 4. The customer may input answers to the questions. The sales management server 1 may send answer information indicating the input answers to the doctor terminal 2. The doctor may decide whether the customer can continue using the product based on the answers from the customer. For example, the doctor may decide whether to continue or discontinue the prescription. Continuing the prescription may indicate that the use of the product can be continued. Discontinuing the prescription may indicate that the use of the product should be discontinued. If a decision is made to discontinue the prescription, the purchase right established for the product may be extinguished or suspended. This may restrict the provision of the product from the medical institution to the customer. Restricting the provision of the product may correspond to restricting the customer's purchase of the product.

[1-3. Screen transition]
Next, an example of screen transitions on the customer terminal 4 from product selection to order completion on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform will be described with reference to FIG. 3 . The screens on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform may be screens related to e-commerce transactions that enable product ordering. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of screen transitions on the customer terminal 4. As described above, the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform sells prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, and products. A doctor's prescription is required to sell prescription drugs. A doctor must examine the customer to issue a prescription. Therefore, the screen transitions for ordering products differ between prescription drugs and other products. Each screen may be provided to the customer terminal 4 from the sales management server 1 as a web page, for example.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the customer terminal 4 accesses the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform, a product selection screen 1100 may be displayed first. The product selection screen 1100 may be a screen that allows the customer to select a product for which they want to view detailed information. The product selection screen 1100 may include multiple types of screens. For example, the product selection screen 1100 may include a search condition input screen, a search result screen, etc. The search condition input screen may be a screen for inputting or selecting product search conditions. Examples of search conditions include product categories and keywords. The search result screen may be a screen that displays a list of products that meet the input search conditions as search results.

When a customer selects a product from the search results, product screen 1200 may be displayed. Product screen 1200 may be a screen that displays detailed information about the selected product. On product screen 1200, the customer can select the product to order. For example, the customer may be able to add the product to a cart. The cart may be a virtual shopping container or list that each customer has in the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform. The customer can order the products in the cart.

Then, based on an operation by the customer, the cart screen 1300 may be displayed. The cart screen 1300 may be a screen that shows a list of products currently in the cart. On the cart screen 1300, the customer may be able to delete products to be ordered or change the quantity.

If there are no prescription drugs among the products in the cart, the order confirmation screen 2100 may be displayed next. The order confirmation screen 2100 may be a screen that shows the order details and indicates that the order should be confirmed with those order details. The order details shown on the order confirmation screen 2100 include the products in the cart. The customer confirms the order details on the order confirmation screen 2100 and performs an operation to confirm the order. In response to this operation, the order completion screen 2200 may be displayed. The order completion screen 2200 may be a screen that indicates that the order has been confirmed.

On the other hand, if the items in the cart include prescription drugs, an order confirmation screen 1400 may be displayed after the cart screen 1300. The order confirmation screen 1400 may be a screen for placing an order (or requesting acceptance of an order) for the items in the cart. The order confirmation screen 1400 may include the order details to be submitted. The order details may include the items in the cart.

When a customer places an order, a consultation appointment screen 1500 may be displayed. The consultation appointment screen 1500 may be a screen for selecting the date and time of the consultation to receive the prescription for the medical drug that the customer has placed an order for. At this point, the customer's order may not yet have been officially accepted.

When the customer selects the appointment date and time, the appointment confirmation screen 1600 may be displayed. The appointment confirmation screen 1600 may be a screen for confirming the details of the appointment.

When the customer confirms the appointment using the appointment details displayed on the appointment confirmation screen 1600, the appointment reservation acceptance completion screen 1700 may be displayed. The appointment reservation acceptance completion screen 1700 may be a screen indicating that the appointment reservation has been completed.

Next, a medical questionnaire screen 1800 may be displayed. The medical questionnaire screen 1800 may be a screen for the customer to fill out a medical questionnaire prior to their consultation.

After the appointment is confirmed, a consultation notification email may be sent to the customer. The consultation notification email may be an email notifying information about the scheduled appointment. The consultation notification email may include the date and time of the appointment, as well as a URL for an online consultation. When the customer selects this URL from the consultation notification email on the day of the appointment, the customer terminal 4 may access the sales management server 1 and the consultation waiting screen 1900 may be displayed. Alternatively, when the customer selects online consultation from a specified menu within the pharmaceutical EC platform, the consultation waiting screen 1900 may be displayed. The consultation waiting screen 1900 may be a screen indicating that the customer is on standby until the appointment begins.

Then, when the consultation start time arrives, the customer consultation screen 2000 may be displayed. The customer consultation screen 2000 may be a screen for the customer to talk with a doctor at a medical institution during an online consultation. On the customer consultation screen 2000, the customer can receive an explanation about prescription drugs from the doctor. The customer consultation screen 2000 may also display information about the products selected by the customer as products to be ordered. The order details may be changed by the doctor conducting the consultation.

Once the online consultation is complete and the doctor has prescribed medication, the order confirmation screen 2100 may be displayed. The order confirmation screen 2100 may display the final order details and may also be a screen that accepts operations to confirm the order with those details.

When the customer confirms the order, the sales server 1 may accept the order and process payment for the ordered product. Once payment is complete, the order completion screen 2200 may be displayed. The order completion screen 2200 may be a screen indicating that the order and payment have been completed. Once payment is complete, the ordered product may be shipped from the medical institution to the customer.

Note that if the drug selected by the customer is a medical drug, the sales management server 1 may be configured to provide a prescription to the customer rather than have the medical institution ship the drug. For example, when a doctor prescribes the drug, the sales management server 1 or the doctor terminal 2 may print the prescription. An employee of the medical institution may mail the prescription to the customer. Alternatively, the sales management server 1 may generate an electronic prescription. The sales management server 1 may send the electronic prescription via email to the customer. Alternatively, the sales management server 1 may make the electronic prescription available for download from a specified webpage of the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform.

Furthermore, if the drug selected by the customer is a prescription drug, the sales management server 1 may be configured so that the pharmacy ships the drug. For example, once the doctor has examined the customer, the medical institution may send a prescription to the pharmacy. For example, the medical institution may mail the prescription to the pharmacy. Alternatively, the sales management server 1 may send the electronic prescription to a pharmacy terminal (not shown), which is a terminal device used by the pharmacy. A pharmacist at the pharmacy who receives the prescription may provide medication instructions to the customer. Medication instructions may be provided online, for example. As with online consultations, online medication instructions may involve audio and video communication between the pharmacy terminal and the customer terminal 4. After medication instructions are completed, the pharmacy may ship the prescription drug to the customer.

Furthermore, among products other than prescription drugs, there may be products that customers can order on the condition that they are examined by a doctor. For example, products or product categories that require a doctor's examination may be predetermined by the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform or by each pharmacy.

[1-4. Configuration of sales management server]
Next, the configuration of the sales management server 1 will be described with reference to Figures 4 to 7. Figure 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the general configuration of the sales management server 1 according to this embodiment. As shown in Figure 4, the sales management server 1 includes a system control unit 11, a system bus 12, an input/output interface 13, a storage unit 14, and a communication unit 15. The system control unit 11 and the input/output interface 13 are connected via the system bus 12.

The system control unit 11 is composed of a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11a, ROM (Read Only Memory) 11b, RAM (Random Access Memory) 11c, etc.

The input/output interface 13 performs interface processing between the memory unit 14 and communication unit 15 and the system control unit 11.

The memory unit 14 is composed of, for example, a hard disk drive. This memory unit 14 may store databases such as a member DB 14a, a product DB 14b, a cart DB 14c, a consultation appointment DB 14d, a prescription history DB 14e, an order DB 14f, a purchase right DB 14g, a shipping schedule DB 14h, a follow-up period DB 14i, a question information DB 14j, a follow-up notification schedule DB 14k, a response DB 14l, and a follow-up result DB 14m. "DB" is an abbreviation for database. At least one database may be stored on a server device different from the sales management server 1. The sales management server 1 may be able to access the database via that server device.

Figures 5 to 7 are diagrams showing examples of information stored in the database of the sales management server 1. Member DB 14a may store member information related to each customer who can use the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform. For example, as shown in Figure 5, member DB 14a may store, as member information, customer ID, name, gender, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address, credit card information, etc., in association with one another. The customer ID may be identification information that identifies the customer. The credit card information may be information related to a credit card that the customer can use. For example, the credit card information may include the card number, expiration date, and the name of the credit card owner.

Product DB 14b may store product information for each product sold on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform. For example, product DB 14b may store product information such as a product ID, category information, a prescription drug flag, a product name, a generic name, a price, a product description, and a product image URL (Uniform Resource Locator), all associated with one another. The product ID may be identification information that identifies the product. The category information may be information indicating the category to which the product belongs. Examples of product categories include cosmetic oral medications, cosmetic topical medications, cosmetics, diet medicines, birth control pills, androgenetic alopecia (AGA) treatment drugs, and erectile dysfunction (ED) treatment drugs. The prescription drug flag may indicate whether the product is a prescription drug. The prescription drug flag may be used to determine whether the screen displayed on the customer terminal 4 should transition from the cart screen 1300 to the order application content confirmation screen 1400, as shown in FIG. 3. If a product whose prescription drug flag is set to TRUE is added to the cart, the sales management server 1 may transition the screen of the customer terminal 4 to the order confirmation screen 1400. The customer then schedules a consultation and confirms the order after seeing a doctor. On the other hand, if only products whose prescription drug flag is set to FALSE are added to the cart, the sales management server 1 may transition the screen of the customer terminal 4 to the order confirmation screen 2100. The customer then confirms the order for the product that does not require a doctor's consultation. As described above, there may be products other than prescription drugs that a customer can order only if they are examined by a doctor. In this case, the product DB 14b may store, for example, a consultation target flag. The consultation target flag may indicate whether the customer needs to see a doctor to confirm the order for that product. If a product whose consultation target flag is set to TRUE is added to the cart, the sales management server 1 may transition the screen of the customer terminal 4 to the order confirmation screen 1400. On the other hand, if the cart contains only products whose examination target flag is set to FALSE, the sales management server 1 may transition the screen of the customer terminal 4 to the order confirmation screen 2100. The product name may indicate the name of the product. If the product is a pharmaceutical product, the generic name may indicate the name of the product's main ingredient. The product image URL may be the URL of the data for the product's image.

Cart DB 14c may store cart information regarding products currently added to each customer's cart. For example, cart DB 14c may store cart information such as a customer ID and cart product information, which are associated with each other. The customer ID may indicate the customer who owns the card. The cart product information may be information regarding individual products added to the cart. If a single cart contains multiple products, cart DB 14c may store cart product information for each of the multiple products. Each cart product information may include a product ID, purchase type, quantity, a prescription drug flag, etc. The product ID may indicate the product added to the cart. The purchase type may indicate whether the product is purchased through a regular purchase or a regular automatic purchase. The quantity may indicate the purchase amount of the product in terms of months. The prescription drug flag may indicate whether the product is a prescription drug. As with product DB 14b, cart DB 14c may also store a medical examination target flag. Note that the sales management server 1 may store the cart information as an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) cookie on each customer terminal 4, rather than storing the cart information in the storage unit 14.

The consultation appointment DB 14d may store appointment information regarding each online consultation appointment. For example, the consultation appointment DB 14d may store appointment information such as the appointment number, consultation date, consultation start time, consultation end time, and customer ID, all associated with one another. The appointment number may be a number that identifies the appointment. The consultation date may indicate the date on which the scheduled consultation will take place. The consultation start time and consultation end time may indicate the start time and end time, respectively, of the time slot reserved for the consultation. The customer ID may indicate the customer who scheduled the consultation.

The prescription history DB 14e may store the history of prescriptions made by physicians at medical institutions. The prescription history DB 14e may store only history related to prescriptions made during online consultations, or may also store history related to prescriptions made during offline consultations. For example, the prescription history DB 14e may store, as a prescription log, the prescription number, prescription date and time, appointment number, customer ID, and prescribed drug information, etc., associated with each other, for each prescription. The prescription number may be a number identifying the prescription. The prescription date and time may indicate the date and time the prescription was made. The appointment number may be a number identifying the appointment for the consultation for which the prescription was made. The customer ID may indicate the customer to whom the prescribed drug is provided. In other words, the customer ID may indicate the customer examined by the physician. The prescribed drug information may be information related to each individual prescribed drug. If the dispensing of multiple drugs is ordered for a single prescription, the prescription history DB 14e may store prescription drug information for each of the multiple drugs. Each prescription drug information may include a product ID, purchase form, quantity, and a prescription drug flag, etc. The product ID may indicate the prescribed drug. The purchase type may indicate whether the drug is purchased through a regular purchase or a regular automatic purchase. The quantity may indicate the purchase amount of the drug in terms of the number of months. The prescription drug flag may indicate whether the product is a prescription drug. As with the product DB 14b, the prescription history DB 14e may also store an examination target flag.

Order DB 14f may store order information regarding orders accepted by the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform each time an order is confirmed. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, order DB 14f may store order information such as an order number, order date and time, customer ID, ordered product information, prescription number, payment amount, and delivery address information, all associated with one another. The order number may be a number that identifies the order. The order date and time may indicate the date and time the order was confirmed. The customer ID may indicate the customer who placed the order. Ordered product information may be information regarding the individual products ordered. When multiple products are ordered in a single order, order DB 14f may store ordered product information for each of the multiple products. Each ordered product information may include a product ID, purchase type, quantity, a prescription drug flag, a recurring purchase flag, and the like. The product ID may indicate the ordered product. The purchase type may indicate whether the product is purchased through a regular purchase or a regular automatic purchase. The quantity may indicate the purchase amount of the product in terms of the number of months. The prescription drug flag may indicate whether the product is a prescription drug. As with the product DB 14b, a medical examination target flag may be stored in the order DB 14f. The recurring purchase flag may indicate whether the purchase of the product is an initial purchase or a recurring purchase. The prescription number may be a number that identifies the prescription when the ordered product includes a prescription drug. The payment amount may be the total of the price of the ordered product and shipping fee. The delivery address information may be information indicating the delivery address of the ordered product.

Purchase right DB 14g may store purchase right information regarding the purchase right of prescription drugs for each drug for which an order has been confirmed after a doctor's examination. For example, purchase right DB 14g may store, as purchase right information, a purchase right ID, order number, set date, customer ID, product ID, maximum prescription amount, already purchased amount, and right status, all associated with one another. The purchase right ID may be identification information that identifies the purchase right. The order number may indicate the order corresponding to the purchase right. The set date may indicate the date on which the purchase right was set. The customer ID may indicate the customer who holds the purchase right. The product ID may indicate the product for which the purchase right is set. The maximum prescription amount may indicate the maximum amount that can be prescribed for the product. If the maximum prescription amount is the same for all prescription drugs, the maximum prescription amount need not be stored in purchase right DB 14g. The already purchased amount may indicate the amount of the product already purchased by the purchaser. The right status may indicate the status of the purchase right. For example, the right status may be set to one of "active," "expired," and "suspended." "Active" may indicate that the purchase right remains valid. "Expired" may indicate that the purchase right has been voided because the maximum prescribed amount of product has been provided to the customer. "Suspended" may indicate that the purchase right has been voided because the doctor has decided to discontinue prescribing the product.

Shipping schedule DB 14h may store shipping schedule information indicating the scheduled shipping of purchased products for each scheduled shipment. For example, shipping schedule DB 14h may store, as shipping schedule information, a shipping schedule ID, order number, customer ID, purchase type, shipping number, shipping destination information, scheduled shipping date, shipping date, and scheduled shipping product information, all associated with one another. The shipping schedule ID may be identification information that identifies the scheduled shipping. The order number may indicate an order that requires the product to be shipped. The customer ID may indicate the customer who ordered the product. The purchase type may indicate whether the product to be shipped was purchased as a one-time purchase or a regular automatic purchase. The shipping number may be valid when the purchase type is a regular automatic purchase. The shipping number may indicate which delivery in the regular delivery is the scheduled delivery, if the product is shipped as a regular delivery. The scheduled shipping date may indicate the date on which the product is scheduled to be shipped. The shipping date may indicate the date on which the product is shipped. The scheduled shipping product information may be information about individual products that are scheduled to be shipped. When multiple items are shipped in a single shipment, the shipping schedule DB 14h may store scheduled shipping item information for those multiple items. Each scheduled shipping item information may include a product ID, quantity, and shipping status. The product ID may indicate the item scheduled to be shipped. The quantity may indicate the purchase amount of the item in months. The shipping status may indicate the shipping status of the item. For example, the shipping status may be set to one of "not shipped," "shipped," and "cancelled." "Not shipped" may indicate that the item has not yet been shipped. "Shipped" may indicate that the item has already been shipped. "Cancelled" may indicate that the shipping of the item has been canceled. "Cancelled" may also be set for scheduled shipping for regular deliveries.

Follow-up period DB14i may store follow-up period information regarding the period until a notification prompting the customer to answer follow-up questions is sent, for each combination of product category and follow-up observation frequency. The follow-up observation frequency may indicate the number of follow-up observations since the initial purchase of the product. For example, follow-up period DB14i may store category information, frequency, and follow-up observation period length, each associated with the other, as follow-up period information. Category information may indicate the product category that is the subject of follow-up observation. The follow-up observation period length may indicate the length of the period from the shipping date of the product in that category following the initial purchase to the follow-up observation notification. The follow-up observation period length may be an example of product period length information that indicates the length of the period until the follow-up time. Examples of follow-up period length include the number of days, the number of weeks, and the number of months. In this embodiment, the follow-up observation period length is indicated in months.

The question information DB 14j may store question information indicating the content of follow-up questions for each product category. For example, the question information DB 14j may store category information and questionnaires in association with each other. The category information may indicate the category of the product that the question is about. The question information may indicate the content of one or more questions. For example, the question information may include, for each question, a question number, text indicating the question content, and text indicating selectable answer options. In addition to the question information DB 14j, the storage unit 14 may store question sheet screen display information associated with the category information for each product category. The question sheet screen display information may be information that causes a question sheet screen to be displayed on the customer terminal 4. The question sheet screen may be a screen that displays questions for follow-up monitoring and can accept input of answers to those questions. The question sheet screen display information may be an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) document or other information. The sales management server 1 may generate question sheet screen display information in advance based on the question information stored in the question information DB 14j.

The follow-up observation notification schedule DB 14k may store, for each follow-up observation, follow-up observation notification schedule information indicating a schedule for sending a notification prompting the customer to answer questions for follow-up observation. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the follow-up observation notification schedule DB 14k may store, in association with one another, a follow-up observation ID, a customer ID, category information, a product ID, and a scheduled sending date as follow-up observation notification schedule information. The follow-up observation ID may indicate the follow-up observation that is the target of the notification. The customer ID may indicate the customer to whom the notification is to be sent. The category information may indicate the category of the product that is the target of follow-up observation. The product ID may indicate the product that is the target of follow-up observation. If there are multiple products that are the target of follow-up observation, the follow-up observation notification schedule DB 14k may store the product IDs of each of these multiple products. The scheduled sending date may indicate the date on which the notification is scheduled to be sent.

Response DB14l may store response result information regarding responses to follow-up questions for each follow-up observation. For example, response DB14l may store a follow-up observation ID, a customer ID, question information, and response information, etc., associated with one another, as response result information. The follow-up observation ID may indicate the follow-up observation corresponding to the response. The customer ID may indicate the customer who provided the response. The question information may indicate the question to be answered. The response information may indicate the content of the response. For example, the response information may include, for each question, the question number, the option selected by the customer, the text entered by the customer, etc.

Follow-up result DB14m may store follow-up result information indicating the results of follow-up observations by a doctor for each follow-up observation. For example, follow-up result DB14m may store follow-up result information such as a follow-up observation ID, customer ID, prescription continuation information, and comments, all associated with one another. The follow-up observation ID may indicate the follow-up observation conducted by the doctor. The customer ID may indicate the customer who is the subject of the follow-up observation. The prescription continuation information may be information related to a determination of whether to continue the prescription. If there are multiple products that are the subject of follow-up observation, follow-up result DB14m may store prescription continuation information for each of these multiple products. Each prescription continuation information may include a product ID, a prescription continuation flag, etc. The product ID may indicate the product that was the subject of a determination of whether to continue the prescription. The prescription continuation flag may indicate whether the doctor has decided to continue or discontinue the prescription for that product.

The storage unit 14 may also store various programs such as an operating system, a database management system (DBMS), and a server program. The server program may be a program that causes the system control unit 11 to execute processing related to the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform. The server program may be obtained from another device via the network NW, or may be recorded on a recording medium such as a magnetic tape, optical disc, or memory card and read via a drive device.

The communication unit 15 is composed of, for example, a network interface card. The communication unit 15 connects to the doctor terminal 2, shipping terminal 3, or customer terminal 4 via the network NW, and controls the communication status with the connected devices.

[1-5. Functional overview of the system control unit of the sales management server]
Next, an overview of the functions of the system control unit 11 in the sales management server 1 will be described using Figures 8 to 19. Figure 8 is a diagram showing an example of functional blocks of the system control unit 11 in the sales management server 1 according to this embodiment. As shown in Figure 8, the system control unit 11 may function as a sales screen information transmission unit 111, a selected product identification information acquisition unit 112, a cart information management unit 113, a medical examination support unit 114, an order confirmation unit 115, a shipping schedule information management unit 116, a purchased product identification information acquisition unit 117, a follow-up observation notice transmission unit 118, a question information transmission unit 119, a response information reception unit 120, a use continuation permission information acquisition unit 121, a follow-up observation result information transmission unit 122, and a product provision restriction information management unit 123, etc., by the CPU 11a reading and executing various program codes included in the server program.

[1-5-1. Product selection and shipping]
The sales screen information sending unit 111 may send screen information to the customer terminal 4 to display various screens related to the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform on the customer terminal 4. The sales screen information sending unit 111 may send, for example, an HTML document of a webpage corresponding to a screen as screen information to the customer terminal 4. Alternatively, the sales screen information sending unit 111 may display the screen by sending, for example, information to be displayed on the screen to the customer terminal 4. Alternatively, the sales screen information sending unit 111 may simply send an instruction to display a specific screen to the customer terminal 4. The customer terminal 4 may display a screen in response to an instruction from the sales management server 1 based on information pre-stored in the customer terminal 4. The sales screen information sending unit 111 may display, on the customer terminal 4, a screen mainly related to product selection and ordering. For example, the sales screen information sending unit 111 may send screen information of a screen including information about a product in response to a request from the customer terminal 4. Examples of products in response to a request from the customer terminal 4 include products selected by the customer, products that satisfy conditions specified by the customer, products that are predetermined to be displayed on the screen requested by the customer, etc. Specific examples of products in response to a request from the customer terminal 4 include a search result screen, which is one of the product selection screens 1100, a product screen 1200, a cart screen 1300, an order application content confirmation screen 1400, an order content confirmation screen 2100, etc.

The sales screen information transmission unit 111 may cause the customer terminal 4 to display a screen that allows the user to select the product purchase method. The sales screen information transmission unit 111 may also cause the customer terminal 4 to display a screen that allows the user to select the product purchase quantity. This screen may be, for example, the product screen 1200.

Figure 9 is a diagram showing an example of a product screen 1200. As shown in Figure 9, the product screen 1200 may display information about the product, such as the product name, product category, product image, product description, and price. If the product information displayed on the product screen 1200 is a medical drug, the product screen 1200 may also display precautions. For example, it may display information indicating that a doctor's consultation is required to order the product, or a prompt to make an appointment for a consultation. The product screen 1200 may also include a purchase type/quantity selection button group 1210, an add to cart button 1220, and a cart icon 1230. The purchase type/quantity selection button group 1210 may include multiple buttons for selecting the purchase quantity and the purchase quantity. For example, the purchase type/quantity selection button group 1210 may include a regular delivery button 1211, a 1-month button 1212, a 3-month button 1213, a 6-month button 1214, etc. The regular delivery button 1211 is a button for selecting regular automatic purchase. If regular automatic purchase is selected, the purchase quantity may be automatically determined to be one month's worth. The one month button 1212, three month button 1213, and six month button 1214 are all buttons for selecting successive purchases. The one month button 1212 is a button for selecting the purchase of one month's worth of quantity. The two month button 1213 is a button for selecting the purchase of one month's worth of quantity. The three month button 1214 is a button for selecting the purchase of one month's worth of quantity. The add to cart button 1220 is a button for adding to the cart the product whose information is displayed on the product screen 1200. The cart icon 1230 is an icon that can be operated to display the cart screen 1300.

The selected product identification information acquisition unit 112 may acquire a product ID that identifies a product selected by a customer to order, and the customer ID of that customer. Selecting a product to order may, for example, involve adding that product to a cart. Alternatively, selecting a product to order may involve submitting an order for that product. For example, when a customer presses the add to cart button 1220 on the product screen 1200 shown in FIG. 9 , the selected product identification information acquisition unit 112 may cause the customer terminal 4 to transmit the customer ID of that customer and the product ID of that product to the sales management server 1. The pharmaceutical identification information acquisition unit 111 may acquire the transmitted customer ID and product ID.

The cart information management unit 113 may manage cart information for each customer. Furthermore, the cart information management unit 113 may execute a process to add pharmaceuticals selected by a customer to a cart based on the product ID and customer ID acquired by the selected product identification information acquisition unit 112. For example, the cart information management unit 113 may search the product DB 14b for a medical drug flag associated with the acquired product ID. The cart information management unit 113 may generate cart product information including the product ID, medical drug flag, and the purchase type and quantity corresponding to the selected button from the purchase type/quantity selection button group 1210. The cart information management unit 113 may add the generated cart product information to the customer's cart information stored in the cart DB 14c.

When the product indicated by the product ID acquired by the selected product identification information acquisition unit 112 is a medical drug, the medical examination support unit 114 may support the medical examination as an interview between the customer (or related party) and the doctor. The medical examination support may include at least one of allowing the customer to make an appointment for the medical examination and realizing an online interview. The appointment-available examination may be an online examination or an offline examination.

To enable the appointment, the medical examination support unit 114 may send appointment application screen information to the customer terminal 4. The appointment application screen information may be information for displaying an appointment application screen on the customer terminal 4. The appointment application screen may be a screen that can accept operations for requesting an appointment. This screen may be at least one of the appointment application screen 1500 and the appointment confirmation screen 1600. The appointment application screen information may be, for example, an HTML document, information to be displayed on the screen, or instructions for displaying the appointment application screen. The medical examination support unit 114 may also accept an appointment in response to an operation by the customer on the appointment application screen. The medical examination support unit 114 may then generate appointment information and store this appointment information in the appointment DB 14d. The medical examination support unit 114 may also send information regarding the appointment indicated by the appointment information stored in the appointment DB 14d to the doctor terminal 2. This allows the medical examination support unit 114 to notify the doctor that an appointment has been made.

To enable online consultations, the consultation support unit 114 may connect the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2 to enable communication for consultations. For example, the communication connection unit 115 may use a protocol used for video calls, video conferences, web conferences, etc. Examples of such protocols include H.323 and WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication). During online consultations, media data (or media streams) are transmitted and received between the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2. The media data may include at least audio data representing audio and video data representing video. The video may be either a still image or a video. The media data may be transmitted and received directly between the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2 in a peer-to-peer manner. Alternatively, the media data may be transmitted and received via a server device such as the sales management server 1 in a client-server system. Protocols for transmitting and receiving media data may include, for example, RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol), HLS (HTTP Live Streaming), MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP), and RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol). Examples of audio data formats include AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3). Examples of video data container formats include MPEG2-TS, MP4, and FLV (Flash Video). Examples of video formats include H.264 and MPEG-2.

During the online consultation, the medical examination support unit 114 may display a customer examination screen 2000 on the customer terminal 4 and a doctor examination screen on the doctor terminal 2. The doctor examination screen may display customer information. The doctor examination screen may also display information about the product selected by the customer. For example, the product name, purchase method, and quantity may be displayed. The doctor examination screen may also be capable of accepting input of information about the product prescribed by the doctor. For example, the product to be prescribed, purchase method, and quantity may be input. If the customer's order details are not to be changed, the doctor may input prescription information as selected by the customer. The doctor may also be able to prescribe by changing some or all of the customer's order details. Examples of changes to the order details include deleting, adding, or changing products, changing the purchase method, or changing the quantity. The card information management unit 113 may reflect changes to the order details in the cart DB 14c.

The medical examination support unit 114 may send an HTML document of the customer examination screen 2000 to the customer terminal 4. The medical examination support unit 114 may also send an HTML document of the doctor examination screen to the doctor terminal 2. These HTML documents may include information for realizing online medical examinations. For example, these HTML documents may include tags and scripts for connecting the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2, inputting and outputting video and audio, and sending and receiving media data. The customer terminal 4 may send session information of the customer terminal 4 to the doctor terminal 2 via the sales management server 1 in accordance with the script. The session information may include, for example, the IP address and port number of the customer terminal 4, information about available media, and information about routes available for sending and receiving media data. Similarly, the doctor terminal 2 may send its session information to the customer terminal 4 via the sales management server 1. The customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2, which have each received session information, may connect to each other based on the session information. Each connected terminal device may capture video using its video camera to generate video data, and collect sound using its microphone to generate audio data. Each terminal device then transmits the video data and audio data to the connected terminal device. Each terminal device may also display video on a display in accordance with the video data transmitted from the connected terminal device. Each terminal device may also output audio from a speaker in accordance with the audio data transmitted from the connected terminal device.

The medical examination support unit 114 may omit medical examination support if the product selected by the customer is not a medical drug. In this case, a medical examination may not be performed.

The medical examination support unit 114 may omit medical examination support if the product selected by the customer is a medical drug, but the customer has a valid purchase right for that product. In this case, the medical examination does not have to be performed. For example, it is possible to determine whether the purchase right is valid by referring to the right status stored in the purchase right DB 14g.

The order confirmation unit 115 may confirm an order for the product indicated by the product ID acquired by the selected product identification information acquisition unit 112. For example, the order confirmation unit 115 may generate order information in response to the customer's operation to confirm the order on the order confirmation screen 2100. The order confirmation unit 115 may store the generated order information in the order DB 14f. Here, if the product selected by the customer is a medical drug, the order confirmation unit 115 may confirm the order after a consultation supported by the consultation support unit 114. For example, the order confirmation unit 115 may confirm the order after connecting the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2, enabling communication for online consultation. If the product selected by the customer is not a medical drug, the order confirmation unit 115 may confirm the order without a consultation. Furthermore, even if the selected product is a medical drug, the order confirmation unit 115 may also confirm the order without a consultation if the customer has a valid purchase right for that product. For example, the order confirmation unit 115 may confirm the order without connecting the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2 via the examination support unit 114.

The order confirmation unit 115 may also execute payment of the purchase price for a confirmed order. For example, the order confirmation unit 115 may execute payment processing based on payment method information included in the generated order information. For example, if the payment method is credit card payment, the payment method information may include the card number, expiration date, and the name of the credit card owner. The order confirmation unit 115 may send a payment request to a payment server (not shown) managed by a credit card company. The payment server may be a server device that approves and controls payments using credit cards. The payment request may include information indicating the card number, expiration date, the name of the credit card owner, the payment amount, and the payee. The payee may be, for example, a medical institution or a business that manages a pharmaceutical e-commerce platform. If the payee is a business that manages a pharmaceutical e-commerce platform, the business may later pay the medical institution the sales proceeds equal to the payment amount minus a fee. Based on the payment request, the payment server may confirm the credit card information, expiration date, credit limit, etc. If the payment server determines that the customer is able to pay, it may approve the payment and send a notification of successful payment to the sales management server 1.

The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may manage product shipping schedule information. For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may generate shipping schedule information when an order is confirmed by the order confirmation unit 115 or when payment processing is completed. At this time, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may set the shipping status included in the shipping schedule product information for each ordered product to "not shipped." The order confirmation unit 115 may also set the scheduled shipping date to the order date or a date a predetermined number of days after the order date. If a delivery date is specified by the customer, the order confirmation unit 115 may set the scheduled shipping date to a date a predetermined number of days before the delivery date. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may store the generated shipping schedule information in the shipping schedule DB 14h.

The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may transmit the generated shipping schedule information to the shipping terminal 3. For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may transmit the shipping schedule information at the time the shipping schedule information is generated. Alternatively, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may transmit the shipping schedule information on the scheduled shipping date, or may transmit the shipping schedule information a predetermined number of days before the scheduled shipping date. Alternatively, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may transmit shipping schedule information for which the scheduled shipping date is within a period specified by an employee of the medical institution. The shipping terminal 3 may display the scheduled shipping of the product on its screen based on the shipping schedule information from the sales management server 1. For example, the shipping terminal 3 may display the name of the product to be shipped, the quantity of the product, shipping destination information, the scheduled shipping date, etc. An employee of the medical institution may ship the product based on the displayed shipping schedule.

The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may receive a shipping completion notification from the shipping terminal 3, indicating that the product has been shipped to the customer. For example, when the product shipping process is complete, an employee of the medical institution may enter at least one of the shipping date and the shipping slip number attached to the product's delivery slip into the shipping terminal 3. The shipping terminal 3 may send a shipping completion notification including, for example, the entered shipping date and shipping schedule ID to the sales management server 1. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may update the shipping schedule information stored in the delivery schedule DB 14h based on the shipping completion notification received from the shipping terminal 3. For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may change the shipping status included in the shipping schedule product information for each shipped product to "shipped." The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may also set the shipping date included in the delivery schedule information to the shipping date included in the shipping completion notification or the date the shipping completion notification was received.

If the purchased items include items for which the customer has selected regular automatic purchase, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may generate shipping schedule information for the second and subsequent regular deliveries. For example, when the shipping schedule information management unit 116 receives a shipping completion notification from the shipping terminal 3 and confirms that a certain delivery of items has been completed, it may generate shipping schedule information only for the next delivery. Alternatively, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may generate shipping schedule information in advance for all deliveries scheduled during a period equivalent to the maximum prescription amount. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may set the scheduled shipping date based on, for example, the shipping date of items in previous deliveries and the quantity of items to be shipped in one delivery. For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may calculate the scheduled shipping date by adding the length of the period equivalent to the quantity of items to the shipping date of the previous delivery.

If a customer cancels a regular automatic purchase, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may cancel subsequent shipments. For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may change the shipping status included in the shipping schedule information for each product for which the regular automatic purchase has been canceled to "cancelled." The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may also cancel subsequent shipments for a product for which a doctor has decided to discontinue prescriptions as a result of follow-up observation. For example, when sending shipping schedule information to the shipping terminal 3, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may delete the scheduled shipping information for a product for which shipping has been canceled from the shipping schedule information. As a result, the shipping terminal 3 does not display the product for which shipping has been canceled on the screen as a product scheduled to be shipped. Therefore, the product will not be shipped. Alternatively, the shipping terminal 3 may display on the screen that the shipping of the product has been canceled based on the fact that the shipping status included in the scheduled shipping information is set to "cancelled."

[1-5-2. Follow-up observation]
The purchased product identification information acquisition unit 117 may acquire purchased product identification information that identifies a purchased product from among multiple products designated as targets for follow-up observation. The purchased product identification information may be, for example, the product ID of the product, or category information of the category to which the product belongs. In this embodiment, the purchased product identification information is assumed to be the product ID. The purchased product identification information acquisition unit 117 may acquire the product ID at a predetermined timing after the order is confirmed by the order confirmation unit 115. For example, the purchased product identification information acquisition unit 117 may acquire the product ID from the order DB 14f, the purchase right DB 14g, or the shipping schedule DB 14h after the purchased product is shipped. The purchased product identification information acquisition unit 117 may also acquire the shipping date of the product from the shipping schedule DB 14h.

The progress observation notification sending unit 118 may send a progress observation notification for a product identified by the product ID acquired by the purchased product identification information acquisition unit 117. The progress observation notification may be information that prompts the purchaser of the product identified by the product ID to answer questions for progress observation of the product. For example, the progress observation notification sending unit 118 may send the progress observation notification by email or instant message to the purchaser. Alternatively, the progress observation notification sending unit 118 may send the progress observation notification by push notification to the customer terminal 4 of the purchaser.

Figure 10 is a diagram showing an example of a follow-up notification email. The follow-up notification email is an email that displays a follow-up notification. As shown in Figure 10, the follow-up notification email 3100 may include a product name 3110, prompt information 3120, and a response button 3130. The product name 3110 indicates the product that is the subject of follow-up monitoring. One or more products may be the subject of follow-up monitoring in one follow-up monitoring session. The prompt information 3120 may be text prompting the user to answer follow-up monitoring questions. For example, the prompt information 3120 may display text such as, "Check your health regularly to ensure safe use," or "If you have any problems, please provide details using the form below." Note that the prompt information 3120 may be any information that is included in the follow-up notification email 3100. The prompt information 3120 is not limited to text. For example, the prompt information 3120 may include at least one of the product name 3110 and the response button 3130. The answer button 3130 is a button that can be operated to display a question sheet screen on the customer terminal 4. The question sheet screen may be a screen that displays questions and can also accept input of answers to those questions.

The follow-up period notification sending unit 118 may determine the timing to send the follow-up period notification based on, for example, follow-up period length information. The follow-up period length information may include a follow-up period length indicating the length of the period until the follow-up period. The follow-up period length information may also be information that identifies the follow-up period length corresponding to each of multiple products specified as the subject of follow-up period monitoring. This may mean that when a certain product is specified, it is possible to obtain the follow-up period length corresponding to that product. The follow-up period length is not necessarily defined for each product. The follow-up period length information may be, for example, a database or table. For example, the follow-up period length information may be a combination of product DB14b and follow-up period DB14i. The category of the purchased product can be identified from the combination of the product ID and category information stored in product DB14b. The follow-up period length corresponding to that category can be identified from the combination of the category information and follow-up period length stored in follow-up period DB14i. If the follow-up period length is defined for each product, the follow-up period DB 14i simply stores the product ID and follow-up period length associated with each product. Since the follow-up period length can be defined for each product or each product category, follow-up notifications can be sent at a timing appropriate to the purchased product.

The progress monitoring notification sending unit 118 may send a progress monitoring notification after a period of the progress monitoring period length corresponding to the product has elapsed from a reference date related to the purchase of the product. The reference date related to the purchase of the product may be, for example, a date related to the act of purchasing the product or the purchase procedure. For example, the reference date may be the date on which the customer is deemed to have purchased the product, the date on which the customer's intention to purchase the product is deemed to have been confirmed, or the date on which the application to purchase or order the product is accepted. Examples of reference dates include the date on which the order is confirmed, the date on which payment is completed, the date on which the product is shipped, and the date on which the product is delivered. In this embodiment, the reference date is assumed to be the shipping date.

Multiple products may be purchased in a single order. The progress monitoring notification sending unit 118 may send a progress monitoring notification for each of the multiple products for which the timing of sending the progress monitoring notification (or the length of the progress monitoring period) is the same. For example, the progress monitoring notification sending unit 118 may send a progress monitoring notification for each product category.

As will be described later, the follow-up questions may differ depending on the product. When multiple products are purchased in a single order, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 may send a follow-up notification for each of the multiple purchased products that have the same questions. Alternatively, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 may send a follow-up notification collectively for the multiple purchased products, regardless of whether the questions are the same. Among the purchased products, there may be products that have the same questions but different timings for sending follow-up notifications (or follow-up period lengths). In this case, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 may send a follow-up notification for each product that has the same sending timing. Alternatively, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 may merge the timings for sending follow-up notifications for those products. The follow-up notification sending unit 118 may send a follow-up notification collectively for those products at the merged timing.

The length of the follow-up period may be defined to exceed the length of the period corresponding to the maximum prescribed amount. When an amount of product corresponding to the maximum prescribed amount is actually purchased, the purchase right set for that product expires. A customer must consult a doctor before they can repurchase a product for which the purchase right has expired. In this case, the purchase may be considered a special recurring purchase. The follow-up notification sending unit 118 may send a follow-up notification after the length of the follow-up period has elapsed from the shipping date of the product at the time of the initial purchase. Alternatively, the length of the follow-up period may not be defined to exceed the length of the period corresponding to the maximum prescribed amount. In this case, a repurchase of a product for which the purchase right has expired may be considered an initial purchase. The follow-up notification sending unit 118 may send a follow-up notification after the length of the follow-up period for the first follow-up has elapsed from the shipping date of the product at the time of the second initial purchase.

11(a), 11(b), and 11(c) are diagrams showing examples of the timing of sending follow-up notifications for products A, B, and C, respectively. As shown in FIG. 11(a), when product A is purchased, follow-up notifications may be sent every month. For example, the first follow-up notification is sent one month after the shipping date. Then, the second follow-up notification is sent two months after the shipping date. Then, the third follow-up notification is sent three months after the shipping date. Then, the fourth follow-up notification is sent four months after the shipping date. Similarly, the fifth and subsequent follow-up notifications are sent. As shown in FIG. 11(b), when product B is purchased, follow-up notifications may be sent every two months. For example, the first follow-up notification is sent two months after the shipping date. Then, the second follow-up notification is sent four months after the shipping date. Then, the third follow-up notification is sent six months after the shipping date. As shown in FIG. 11(c), when product C is purchased, follow-up notifications may be sent every two months for the first three months. For example, the first follow-up notification will be sent one month after the shipping date. Then, the second follow-up notification will be sent two months after the shipping date. Then, the third follow-up notification will be sent three months after the shipping date. Then, the fourth follow-up notification will be sent six months after the shipping date.

When the purchase type is a serial purchase, the progress monitoring notification sending unit 118 may send the progress monitoring notification on a day that is a predetermined number of days before N months after the shipping date, rather than exactly N months after the shipping date (N is an integer greater than or equal to 1). Alternatively, the progress monitoring notification sending unit 118 may send the progress monitoring notification on a day that is a predetermined number of days after N months. This allows the timing of the progress monitoring notification to be shifted from the timing of shipping of the product for a consecutive purchase.

The follow-up notification sending unit 118 may send follow-up notifications only during a period equivalent to the amount already purchased of the maximum prescription amount of the purchased product. For example, suppose a two-month supply of product C is purchased as a sequential initial purchase. In this case, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 may send follow-up notifications only one month and two months after the shipping date of the initial purchase. Suppose a four-month supply of product C is then purchased as a subsequent purchase. In this case, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 may send follow-up notifications three months and six months after the shipping date of the initial purchase.

After the follow-up observation notification sending unit 118 sends a follow-up observation notification, the question information sending unit 119 may send question information indicating a question for follow-up observation to the customer terminal 4 used by the purchaser to whom the follow-up observation notification was sent in response to a request from the customer terminal 4. The question information sending unit 119 may send question sheet screen information. The question sheet screen may be information for displaying the question sheet screen on the customer terminal 4. The question sheet screen information may include question information. The question sheet screen information may be an HTML document, information to be displayed on the question sheet screen, or an instruction to display the question sheet screen. The question information sending unit 119 may send question information in response to, for example, operating the answer button 3130 in the follow-up observation notification email 3100. When the answer button 3130 is operated, the customer terminal 4 may send a question sheet screen request to the sales management server 1. The question sheet screen request may include, for example, the product ID of the product to be followed up or category information indicating the category of that product.

The question information sending unit 119 may determine the question information to be sent to the customer terminal 4, for example, based on product question information. The product question information may be information that can identify questions corresponding to each of multiple products specified as the subject of follow-up observation. This may mean that when a certain product is specified, question information corresponding to that product can be obtained. Question information is not necessarily defined for each product. The product question information may include the question information itself. Alternatively, the product question information may include identification information for identifying the question information. Separate from the product question information, the memory unit 14 may store question information associated with each identification information. The product question information may be, for example, a database or table. For example, the product question information may be a combination of product DB 14b and question information DB 14j. The category of the purchased product can be identified from the combination of the product ID and category information stored in product DB 14b. The question information corresponding to that category can be identified from the combination of category information and question information stored in question information DB 14j. If question information is defined for each product, the question information DB 14j simply stores the product ID and question information associated with each product. Because question information can be defined for each product or each product category, questions appropriate to the purchased product can be presented to the purchaser.

Figure 12 is a diagram showing example content of follow-up questions. For example, as shown in Figure 12, assume that product categories include at least birth control pills, oral cosmetic medications, diet pills, and topical medications. Questions about birth control pills may include questions to confirm illness and use of other medications, questions to confirm changes in physical condition, questions to confirm digestive symptoms, questions to confirm irregular bleeding, questions to confirm weight gain or loss, questions to confirm high blood pressure, questions to confirm use of oral cosmetic medications, and questions to confirm other symptoms. Questions about oral cosmetic medications may include questions to confirm illness and use of other medications, questions to confirm changes in physical condition, questions to confirm use of birth control pills, questions to confirm skin problems, and questions to confirm other symptoms. Questions about diet pills may include questions to confirm illness and use of other medications, questions to confirm changes in physical condition, questions to confirm digestive symptoms, questions to confirm weight gain or loss, and questions to confirm other symptoms. Questions about topical medications may include questions to confirm illness and use of other medications, questions to confirm changes in physical condition, questions to confirm problems with skin condition, and questions to confirm the presence of other symptoms.

Multiple products with different question information may be the subject of a single follow-up observation. In this case, the question information sending unit 119 may merge the question information for those products. The question information sending unit 119 may send the merged question information to the customer terminal 4. Alternatively, the follow-up observation notification sending unit 118 or the question information sending unit 119 may function so that the subjects of a single follow-up observation are products with the same question information.

Figure 13 is a diagram showing an example of a question sheet screen. As shown in Figure 13, the question sheet screen 3200 may include one or more input forms 3210 and answer buttons 3220. Each input form 3210 may be a form for inputting an answer to a question. Each input form 3210 may include, for example, a question 3210 and a group of radio buttons 3212. The question 3210 is text indicating the question. The group of radio buttons 3212 may include multiple radio buttons that can be operated to select an answer to the question. At least one input form 3210 may further include an answer input field 3213. For example, if either "Yes" or "No" can be selected as the answer using the group of radio buttons 3212, the answer input field 3213 may be displayed. The answer input field 3213 may be an area for inputting text indicating the specific content of the answer if the answer to the question is "Yes." The answer button 3220 may be a button that can be operated to send the answer entered on the questionnaire screen to the sales management server 1.

The answer information receiving unit 120 may receive answer information indicating an answer to a question indicated by the question information transmitted by the question information transmitting unit 119 from the customer terminal 4. For example, when the answer button 3220 on the question sheet screen 3200 is operated, the customer terminal 4 may transmit the answer information to the sales management server 1. The answer information receiving unit 120 may store the answer information received from the customer terminal 4 in the answer DB 14l.

The continued use information acquisition unit 121 may acquire continued use information based on the response information received by the response information receiving unit 120. The continued use information may be information indicating whether the use of a purchased product can be continued. The continued use information may be, for example, prescription continuation information. The prescription continuation information may be information indicating whether the prescription of a purchased product can be continued.

The continuation of use information acquisition unit 121 may acquire prescription continuation information, for example, by sending response information to the doctor terminal 2. For example, the doctor terminal 2 may display the response information on a screen. The doctor may decide whether to continue the prescription based on the response information displayed on the screen. The doctor may input the determined whether to continue the prescription into the doctor terminal 2. The continuation of use information acquisition unit 121 may receive prescription continuation information indicating the input whether to continue the prescription from the doctor terminal 2. The system control unit 11 may also function as a continuation of use information receiving unit (not shown). The continuation of use information receiving unit may receive prescription continuation information from the doctor terminal 2.

The continued use permission information acquisition unit 121 may send the answer information to the doctor terminal 2 and may also send follow-up observation screen information to the doctor terminal 2. The follow-up observation screen information may be information that causes a follow-up observation screen to be displayed on the doctor terminal 2. The follow-up observation screen may be a screen for inputting the results of follow-up observation by the doctor. The follow-up observation screen may be a screen that can accept a selection of whether to continue the prescription of the purchased product. The follow-up observation screen information may be an HTML document, information to be displayed on the follow-up observation screen, or an instruction to display the follow-up observation screen. The continued use permission information acquisition unit 121 may include the answer information in the follow-up observation screen information that is sent. In this case, the answer may be displayed on the follow-up observation screen.

Figure 14 is a diagram showing an example of a follow-up observation screen. As shown in Figure 14, the follow-up observation screen 3300 may include question and answer information 3310, one or more input forms 3320, a comment input field 3330, and a send button 3340. The question and answer information 3310 may indicate the question presented to the customer and the answer entered by the customer. Each input form 3320 may be a form for inputting whether or not to continue the prescription for a product. In the example shown in Figure 14, an input form 3320 is displayed for each of products AAAAAAA, BBBBBB, and CCCCCC. Each input form 3320 may include the product name, purchase quantity, etc. of the product being followed up. Each input form 3320 may also include a prescription continuation selection menu 3321. The prescription continuation selection menu 3321 may be a pull-down menu operable to select the physician's decision to continue the prescription or discontinue the prescription. The comment input field 3330 may be an area for entering text indicating a comment for the customer. The send button 3340 may be a button for sending the follow-up observation result information to the sales management server 1. The follow-up observation result information may be information indicating the results of the follow-up observation. The follow-up observation result information may include prescription continuation information indicating whether or not to continue the prescription selected in the prescription continuation selection menu 3321.

Figure 15 shows an example of the follow-up observation screen after inputting whether or not to continue the prescription. As shown in Figure 15, "Discontinue prescription" has been selected for product AAAAAA. "Continue prescription" has been selected for products BBBBBB and CCCCCC. The reason for discontinuing the prescription for product AAAAAA is entered in the comment input field 3330.

The follow-up observation result information sending unit 122 may send the follow-up observation result information to the purchaser of the product. The follow-up observation result information may be information indicating the results of the follow-up observation. The follow-up observation result may include whether or not to continue using the product, as indicated by the continue-use propriety information acquired by the continue-use propriety information acquisition unit 121. The follow-up observation result information sending unit 122 may send the follow-up observation result information to the purchaser via email or instant message. Alternatively, the follow-up observation result information sending unit 122 may send the follow-up observation result information to the purchaser's customer terminal 4 via push notification. Alternatively, the follow-up observation result information sending unit 122 may send screen information to the customer terminal 4 in response to a request from the customer terminal 4, causing the customer terminal 4 to display a screen including the follow-up observation result.

Figures 16(a) to 16(c) show examples of follow-up result emails. The follow-up result email is an email that displays the follow-up results. Figure 16(a) shows an example of a follow-up result email sent when a doctor has decided to continue a prescription. As shown in Figure 16(a), the follow-up result email 3400 may include continued use information 3410, a comment 3420, and a consultation appointment link 3430. The continued use information 3410 may be text indicating that continued use of the product is permitted. For example, the continued use information 3410 may display, for example, "There are no problems with taking or using the medication." The comment 3420 indicates a comment entered by the doctor. The consultation appointment link 3430 may be a link operable to schedule an online consultation. When a customer selects the consultation appointment link 3430, the customer terminal 4 may display, for example, the consultation appointment screen 1500. As shown in Figure 3, a customer can schedule an online consultation and then receive the online consultation. In this state, no products to be ordered have been selected. During an online consultation, the doctor may decide on the product.

Figure 16(b) shows an example of a follow-up observation result email when a doctor decides to discontinue the prescription of a product purchased through serial purchase. In Figure 16(b), the same elements as in Figure 16(a) are assigned the same symbols. As shown in Figure 16(b), the follow-up observation result email 3400 may include discontinuation information 3440, product name 3450, comments 3420, and a link to schedule an appointment 3430. The discontinuation information 3440 may be text encouraging the discontinuation of product use. For example, the discontinuation information 3440 may display, for example, "Please stop taking your medication." The product name 3450 indicates the name of the product to be discontinued.

Figure 16(c) shows an example of a follow-up result email when a doctor has decided to discontinue the prescription of a product purchased through automatic regular purchase. In Figure 16(c), the same elements as in Figure 16(b) are assigned the same symbols. As shown in Figure 16(c), the follow-up result email 3400 may include discontinuation information 3440, regular delivery cancellation information 3460, product name 3450, comments 3420, and a consultation appointment link 3430. The regular delivery cancellation information 3460 may be text indicating that regular delivery to the customer will be canceled for the product for which discontinuation of prescription has been decided. For example, the regular delivery cancellation information 3460 may display, "If you are currently using regular delivery, payment and shipping will be canceled from the next instalment onwards at the doctor's discretion."

[1-5-3. Product provision restrictions]
The product provision restriction information management unit 123 may manage product provision restriction information. The product provision restriction information may be information that can identify, for each combination of a customer and a product, whether or not the provision of a product to the customer is restricted. The provision restriction that can be identified from the product provision restriction information may be a restriction on the provision of a product for which discontinuation of use or prescription has been determined during follow-up observation. A combination of a customer to whom the provision of a product is restricted and a product to whom the provision is restricted is referred to as a restricted provision combination. A combination of a customer to whom the provision of a product is not restricted and a product to whom the provision of a product is not restricted is referred to as an unrestricted provision combination. The product provision restriction information may include information indicating each restricted provision combination. All medical drugs handled on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform can be identified from the product DB 14b. Furthermore, all customers who can use the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform can be identified from the member DB 14a. Therefore, if a restricted provision combination can be identified from the product provision restriction information, it is necessarily possible to identify an unrestricted provision combination. Alternatively, the product provision restriction information may include information indicating each unrestricted provision combination. For the same reasons as described above, if an unrestricted provision combination can be identified, it is necessarily possible to identify a restricted provision combination. The product provision restriction information does not need to include information about all combinations of customers and products. For example, the product provision restriction information may include only information about each restricted provision combination, or only information about each non-restricted provision combination. The product provision restriction information may be, for example, a database or a table.

The product provision restriction information may be, for example, the purchase right DB 14g. Each piece of purchase right information stored in the purchase right DB 14g may indicate a purchase right that was previously established. The customer ID included in the purchase right information may indicate the customer who holds that purchase right. The product ID included in the purchase right information may indicate the product for which that purchase right is established. The rights status included in the purchase right information may indicate whether the provision of the product is restricted. For example, a rights status indicating "valid" may indicate that the provision of the product is not restricted. A rights status indicating "suspended" may indicate that the provision of the product is restricted. A rights status indicating "expired" may also indicate that the provision of the product is restricted. When the order confirmation unit 115 confirms an order, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may generate purchase right information for each ordered product. At this time, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may set the rights status included in the purchase right information to "valid."

The product provision restriction information management unit 123 may change or update the product provision restriction information when the continuation use permission information acquired by the continuation use permission information acquisition unit 121 indicates that continuation of use is not permitted. In this way, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may make it possible to identify from the product provision restriction information that provision of a product that has been determined to be unprovisionable to a purchaser of the product for which continuation of use is prohibited is restricted. For example, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may add information to the product provision restriction information that directly indicates that the combination of the purchaser and the product is a restricted provision combination. Alternatively, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may delete information from the product provision restriction information that indicates that the combination of the purchaser and the product is an unrestricted provision combination. Alternatively, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may change information included in the product provision restriction information that indicates the combination of the purchaser and the product as an unrestricted provision combination to information that indicates the combination of the purchaser and the product as a restricted provision combination.

Figure 17 is a diagram showing an example of an update to the purchase right DB 14g. Assume that the product provision restriction information is the purchase right DB 14g. For example, suppose a doctor decides to stop prescribing product A to customer X. In this case, as shown in Figure 17, the continuation of use information acquisition unit 121 acquires prescription continuation information indicating the prescription has been discontinued. In this case, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may change the right status included in the purchase right information indicating the combination of customer X and product A from "valid" to "suspended."

Restrictions on product availability may mean that a customer may only be able to purchase the product if they fulfill certain conditions. While product purchases are not restricted, the customer may be able to purchase the product without having to fulfill those conditions. The certain conditions may be, for example, seeing a doctor or having a doctor prescribe the product. Having a doctor prescribe the product may allow the customer to acquire new purchasing rights for the product.

For example, if the medical examination support unit 114 determines from the product provision restriction information that the provision of the product indicated by the product ID acquired by the selected product identification information acquisition unit 112 is restricted for the customer indicated by the customer ID acquired by the selected product identification information acquisition unit 112, the medical examination support unit 114 may support a doctor's examination of the customer. In this case, the order confirmation unit 115 may confirm the order after the examination. On the other hand, if the medical examination support unit 114 determines from the product provision restriction information that the provision of the product is not restricted for the customer, it does not need to support a doctor's examination of the customer. In this case, the order confirmation unit 115 may confirm the order without the examination.

As described above, if the product selected by the customer is a prescription drug but the customer has a valid purchase right for that product, the medical examination support unit 114 may omit medical examination support, and the order confirmation unit 115 may confirm the order without the medical examination. This indicates that the provision of the product is not restricted. At least one of the medical examination support unit 114 and the order confirmation unit 115 may function to confirm the order without a medical examination if the right status included in the purchase right information is "valid." For example, in the screen transition example shown in FIG. 3, after displaying the cart screen 1300, the order confirmation unit 115 may function so that the customer terminal 4 displays the order confirmation screen 2100. On the other hand, if the product selected by the customer is a prescription drug and the customer does not have a valid purchase right for that product, the medical examination support unit 114 may support the medical examination, and the order confirmation unit 115 may confirm the order after the medical examination. This indicates that the provision of the product is restricted. At least one of the medical examination support unit 114 and the order confirmation unit 115 may function to confirm an order on the condition that the customer has received a medical examination when the right status included in the purchase right information is "suspended." For example, in the example screen transition shown in FIG. 3 , the medical examination support unit 114 may function so that after the cart screen 1300 is displayed, the customer terminal 4 displays the order application content confirmation screen 1400. Thereafter, the medical examination support unit 114 may function so that these screens are displayed in the following order, for example: medical examination appointment screen 1500, medical examination appointment confirmation screen 1600, medical examination appointment acceptance completion screen 1700, medical questionnaire screen 1800, medical examination waiting screen 1900, and customer medical examination screen 2000. Thereafter, the order confirmation unit 115 may function so that the order content confirmation screen 2100 is displayed.

Figure 18 shows an example of product provision restrictions. For example, a customer attempts to purchase a one-month supply of a certain product. At this point, the purchasing right DB 14g does not store purchasing right information indicating the combination of the customer and the product. Therefore, the customer needs to undergo a medical examination by a doctor. If the customer purchases the product after the examination, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may store the purchasing right information in the purchasing right DB 14g. The purchasing right status at this time is set to "valid." Assume that follow-up observations are conducted monthly. The follow-up observation one month after the initial purchase determines that continued use is possible. Therefore, the right status remains "valid." Furthermore, one month after the initial purchase, the customer purchases a two-month supply of the product. Because the right status is "valid," the customer does not need to undergo a medical examination by a doctor. The follow-up observation one month after the initial purchase determines that use should be discontinued. Therefore, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 changes the right status to "suspended." Three months after the initial purchase, the customer purchases a three-month supply of the product. The entitlement status is "suspended" and the customer should seek medical advice.

When the purchase method is a regular automatic purchase, the restriction on the provision of a product may be to cancel subsequent deliveries in the regular delivery. For example, if the product provision restriction information management unit 123 changes the product provision restriction information so that it is possible to identify that the provision of a product to a purchaser of a product that has been determined to be ineligible for continued use is restricted, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may cancel subsequent deliveries of the product to that purchaser. For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may change the shipping status to "cancelled" for the shipping schedule information for subsequent deliveries corresponding to the combination of a customer and product whose rights status has been changed to "suspended" by the product provision restriction information management unit 123.

Figure 19 shows an example of product provision restrictions in automatic regular purchases. For example, a customer attempts to purchase a certain product through automatic regular purchases. At this point, the purchase right DB 14g does not store purchase right information indicating the combination of the customer and the product. Therefore, the customer needs to undergo a medical examination. If the customer purchases the product after the examination, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may store the purchase right information in the purchase right DB 14g. The purchase right status at this time is set to "valid." Then, a regular delivery containing, for example, a month's worth of products is sent. Assume that follow-up observations are conducted monthly. In a follow-up observation one month after the initial purchase, it is determined that continued use is possible. Therefore, the rights status remains "valid." Therefore, the product is shipped one month after the initial purchase. In a follow-up observation two months after the initial purchase, it is determined that continued use is possible. Therefore, the rights status remains "valid." Therefore, the product is shipped two months after the initial purchase. In a follow-up observation three months after the initial purchase, it is determined that use should be discontinued. Therefore, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 changes the rights status to "suspended." Because the rights status is "suspended," product shipments three months after the initial purchase are canceled.

Product provision restriction information for products purchased through regular automatic purchases may be stored, for example, in purchase rights DB 14g or shipping schedule DB 14h. When the product provision restriction information is stored in shipping schedule DB 14h, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may be the shipping schedule information management unit 116. Shipping schedule DB 14h stores shipping schedule information indicating the shipping schedule for the next delivery of products purchased through regular automatic purchases. The shipping status for each product included in the shipping schedule information may indicate whether the provision of that product is restricted. For example, a shipping status indicating "not shipped" may indicate that the provision of the product is not restricted. A shipping status indicating "cancelled" may indicate that the provision of the product is restricted. Alternatively, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may delete the shipping schedule product information for a product for which suspension of use has been determined from the shipping schedule information. This may restrict the provision of that product.

If response information is not sent from the customer terminal 4 to the sales management server 1, the provision of the product that is the subject of follow-up monitoring may not be restricted. A deadline for sending response information may also be set. If response information is not sent from the customer terminal 4 by this deadline, the provision of the product may not be restricted. If prescription continuation information is not sent from the doctor terminal 2 to the sales management server 1, the provision of the product that is the subject of follow-up monitoring may not be restricted. A deadline for sending prescription continuation information may also be set. If prescription continuation information is not sent from the doctor terminal 2 by this deadline, the provision of the product may not be restricted.

The system control unit 11 may perform processing to restrict the provision of products to customers without managing or referencing the product provision restriction information. For example, if the continuation of use information acquired by the continuation of use information acquisition unit 121 indicates that continuation of use is permitted, the system control unit 11 may skip the medical examination and confirm the order, or may not cancel the next regular delivery. If the continuation of use information acquired by the continuation of use information acquisition unit 121 indicates that continuation of use is not permitted, the system control unit 11 may confirm the order after the medical examination, or cancel the next regular delivery.

[1-6. Operation of communication system]
Next, the operation of the communication system S will be described with reference to Figures 20 to 26. Figures 20 to 26 are sequence diagrams showing an example of processing by the communication system S according to this embodiment. The order of processing is not limited to the order shown in Figures 20 to 26. Furthermore, at least one of the steps shown in Figures 20 to 26 may not be executed. The system control unit 11 of the sales management server 1 may execute the processing of the sales management server 1 shown in Figures 20 to 26 in accordance with various program codes related to the server program.

For example, the customer terminal 4 displays the product screen 1200 in response to a customer selecting a product from the product selection screen 1100. The customer operates one of the buttons included in the purchase type/quantity selection button group 1210 on the product screen 1200 to select a purchase type and quantity. Then, as shown in FIG. 20, the customer presses the add to cart button 1220 (step S101). The customer terminal 4, upon detecting this operation, sends a cart addition request to the sales management server 1 (step S102). The cart addition request may include the customer ID of the customer, the product ID of the selected product, and the selected purchase type and quantity. Upon receiving the cart addition request, the cart information management unit 113 of the sales management server 1 updates the cart information stored in the cart DB 14c in association with the customer ID of the customer (step S103). For example, the sales management server 1 may obtain, from the product DB 14b, a prescription drug flag associated with the product ID included in the cart addition request. The cart information management unit 113 may generate cart product information including a product ID, a prescription drug flag, a purchase type, and a quantity. The cart information management unit 113 may add the generated cart product information to the cart information.

The customer then selects the cart icon 1230 on the product screen 1200, for example (step S104). The customer terminal 4 detects this operation and sends a cart screen request to the sales management server 1 (step S105). The sales screen information sending unit 111 of the sales management server 1, which has received the cart screen request, sends an HTML document for the cart screen 1300 to the customer terminal 4 (step S106). At this time, the sales screen information sending unit 111 may generate a list of products currently in the cart based on the customer's cart information. The sales screen information sending unit 111 may also generate an HTML document including this list. The customer terminal 4 displays the cart screen 1300 based on this HTML document.

On the cart screen 1300 displayed on the customer terminal 4, the customer performs an operation to proceed to the next procedure (step S107). Upon detecting this operation, the customer terminal 4 transmits a request to proceed with the order procedure to the sales management server 1 (step S108). The order confirmation unit 115 of the sales management server 1, which receives the request, determines whether the products in the customer's cart include prescription drugs (step S109). For example, the order confirmation unit 115 may determine that the products in the cart include prescription drugs if the prescription drug flag for at least one cart product information item included in the customer's cart information is set to TRUE. If the products in the cart include prescription drugs (step S109: YES), the order confirmation unit 115 determines whether the customer has a valid purchase right for the prescription drug product (step S110). For example, the order confirmation unit 115 may search the purchase right DB 14g for purchase right information that includes a combination of the product ID and the customer ID of the product and that includes the most recent set date. If there is no corresponding purchase right information, the order confirmation unit 115 may determine that the customer does not have a valid purchase right. If the right status included in the searched purchase right information is "valid," the order confirmation unit 115 may determine that the customer has a valid purchase right. If the right status included in the searched purchase right information is "suspended" or "expired," the order confirmation unit 115 may determine that the customer does not have a valid purchase right. If the cart product information includes a medical examination target flag, the order confirmation unit 115 may determine, based on the medical examination target flag, whether the products in the customer's cart include products that require a medical examination by a doctor to confirm the order. If the products in the cart include products that require a medical examination by a doctor, the process may proceed to step S110.

If the customer does not have a valid purchase right (step S110: NO), the medical examination support unit 114 sends an HTML document of the order application content confirmation screen 1400 to the customer terminal 4 (step S111). At this time, the medical examination support unit 114 may generate a list of products currently in the cart based on the customer's cart information. The medical examination support unit 114 may also generate an HTML document including the generated list. The customer terminal 4 displays the order application content confirmation screen 1400 based on this HTML document.

The customer performs an operation to place an order on the order confirmation screen 1400 displayed on the customer terminal 4 (step S112). The customer terminal 4 detects this operation and sends the order application to the sales management server 1 (step S113). The examination support unit 114 of the sales management server 1, which receives the order application, sends an HTML document for the examination appointment screen 1500 to the customer terminal 4 (step S114). The customer terminal 4 displays the examination appointment screen 1500 based on this HTML document (step S115).

As shown in FIG. 21, the customer selects the consultation date and start time from the consultation appointment screen 1500 (step S201). The customer terminal 4 detects this operation and sends an appointment confirmation screen request to the sales management server 1 (step S202). The appointment confirmation screen request may include the selected appointment date and start time. The examination support unit 114 of the sales management server 1 that receives the appointment confirmation screen request sends an HTML document for the appointment confirmation screen 1600 to the customer terminal 4 (step S203). The customer terminal 4 displays the appointment confirmation screen 1600 based on this HTML document.

Note: On the consultation appointment confirmation screen 1600, the customer performs an operation to confirm the appointment (step S204). The customer terminal 4 detects this operation and sends a request to confirm the appointment to the sales management server 1 (step S205). The examination support unit 114 of the sales management server 1, which receives the appointment confirmation request, generates appointment information and stores it in the consultation appointment DB 14d (step S206). Next, the examination support unit 114 sends the HTML document of the consultation appointment acceptance completion screen 1700 to the customer terminal 4 (step S207).

On the scheduled consultation date, the customer displays the consultation waiting screen 1900 on the customer terminal 4. In response to the doctor at the medical institution operating the doctor terminal 2, the consultation support unit 114 sends an HTML document of the doctor consultation screen for the customer who has scheduled a consultation to the doctor terminal 2. Based on this HTML document, the doctor terminal 2 displays the doctor consultation screen as shown in FIG. 22 (step S301). On the doctor consultation screen, the doctor performs an operation to start a call for the consultation. Upon detecting this operation, the doctor terminal 2 sends a call connection request to the sales management server 1 (step S302). The call connection request may include, for example, the appointment number and the customer ID of the customer who scheduled the consultation. Upon receiving the call connection request, the consultation support unit 114 of the sales management server 1 sends an HTML document of the customer consultation screen 2000 to the customer terminal 4 of the customer identified by the customer ID (step S303). Based on this HTML document, the customer terminal 4 displays the customer consultation screen 2000 (step S304).

When the customer terminal 4 displays the customer consultation screen 2000, it sends session information to the doctor terminal 2 via the sales management server 1 based on the script included in the HTML document. The doctor terminal 2 also sends session information to the customer terminal 4 via the sales management server 1 based on the script included in the HTML document of the doctor consultation screen (step S305). The customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2 connect to each other based on the exchanged session information (step S306). Once the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2 are connected, media data is sent and received between the terminal devices, and an online consultation begins (step S307).

During the online consultation, the doctor refers to the information about the products in the customer's cart and inputs information about the product to be prescribed into the doctor consultation screen (step S308). For example, the doctor may select the product to be prescribed, the purchase method, and the quantity. A list of the products in the customer's cart is displayed on the doctor consultation screen. The doctor may input the prescription by referring to this list. Once the prescription is input, the doctor terminal 2 sends the input information to the sales management server 1 (step S309). The input information may include the product ID, purchase method, and quantity of the product selected by the doctor.

The medical examination support unit 114 of the sales management server 1, which has received the input information, updates the customer's cart information stored in the cart DB 14c based on this input information (step S310). For example, the medical examination support unit 114 may rewrite each cart product information included in the cart information with the input information. At this time, the medical examination support unit 114 may add a prescription drug flag for the product selected by the doctor to each cart product information. Steps S308 to S310 may be repeated as necessary.

The doctor then performs an operation to confirm the prescription contents (step S311). The doctor terminal 2 detects this operation and sends a prescription contents confirmation request to the sales management server 1 (step S512). The medical examination support unit 114 of the sales management server 1, which receives the prescription contents confirmation request, generates a prescription log based on the customer's cart information and stores it in the prescription history DB 14e (step S313).

After that, for example, when the customer or doctor performs an operation to end the call, the connection between the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2 is severed and the transmission and reception of media data is also stopped. The order confirmation unit 115 then sends the HTML document of the order confirmation screen 2100 to the customer terminal 4 (step S314). If the products in the cart do not include prescription drugs (step S109: NO) or if the customer has a valid purchase right (step S110: YES), the order confirmation unit 115 also sends the HTML document of the order confirmation screen 2100 to the customer terminal 4 (step S314). The customer terminal 4 displays the order confirmation screen 2100 based on this HTML document (step S315). On the order confirmation screen 2100, the customer performs an operation to confirm the order (step S316). The customer terminal 4 detects this operation and sends an order confirmation request to the sales management server 1 (step S317).

Upon receiving the order confirmation request, the order confirmation unit 115 of the sales management server 1 generates order information and stores this order information in the order DB 14f (step S401). The order confirmation unit 115 may generate order information based on the customer's cart information. For example, the order confirmation unit 115 may generate order product information corresponding to each cart product information included in the cart information. At this time, the order confirmation unit 115 may add a continuation purchase flag to the order product information for each product that is a medical drug. If the customer does not have a valid purchase right for the ordered product, the order confirmation unit 115 may set the continuation purchase flag to "first purchase." If the customer has a valid purchase right, the order confirmation unit 115 may set the continuation purchase flag to "continuation purchase." The order confirmation unit 115 may also generate a new order number. The order confirmation unit may also obtain the current date and time as the order date and time. The order confirmation unit 115 may generate order information including the order number, order date and time, the customer ID of the customer who placed the order, ordered product information, shipping destination information indicating the shipping destination specified by the customer, and the expected shipping date specified by the customer. Next, the order confirmation unit 115 executes payment processing (step S402).

Next, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 determines whether the ordered products include a prescription drug based on the prescription drug flag included in each generated order product information (step S403). If the ordered products include a prescription drug (step S403: YES), the product provision restriction information management unit 123 determines whether the purchase of the product is a first-time purchase based on the recurring purchase flag included in the order product information for the prescription drug product (step S404). If the purchase of the product is a first-time purchase (step S404: YES), the product provision restriction information management unit 123 generates purchase right information and stores the purchase right information in the purchase right DB 14g (step S405). For example, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may generate a new purchase right ID. The product provision restriction information management unit 123 may also set the setting date to today's date. The product provision restriction information management unit 123 may also set the previously purchased amount to 0 months. The product provision restriction information management unit 123 may also set the right status to "valid." The product provision restriction information management unit 123 may generate purchase right information including a purchase right ID, order number, the customer ID of the customer, the set date, the product ID of the product, the maximum prescription amount, the amount already purchased, and the right status. In this embodiment, the purchase right information is generated when payment is completed. However, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may also generate purchase right information when the doctor confirms the prescription or when the order is confirmed.

When step S405 is completed, if the ordered products do not contain prescription drugs (step S403: NO), or if the product purchase is a recurring purchase (step S404: NO), the shipping schedule information management unit 116 generates shipping schedule information and stores this shipping schedule information in the shipping schedule DB 14h (step S406). For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may generate a new shipping schedule ID. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may also obtain the order number, customer ID, information about each ordered product, shipping destination information, and scheduled shipping date from the generated order information. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may generate shipping schedule information for each purchase type, for example. If the purchase type included in at least one of the acquired order product information is "scheduled purchase," the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may generate shipping schedule information for products eligible for sequential purchase. If the purchase type included in at least one of the acquired order product information is "regular automatic purchase," the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may generate shipping schedule information for products eligible for regular automatic purchase. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may generate shipping schedule product information based on the information on each ordered product. At this time, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may set the shipping status to "not shipped." The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may also set the shipping time to 1. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may also generate shipping schedule information including a shipping schedule ID, order number, customer ID, purchase type, shipping time, shipping schedule product information, shipping destination information, scheduled shipping date, shipping status, etc. Next, the order confirmation unit 115 sends an HTML document of the order completion screen to the customer terminal 4 (step S407).

For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 of the sales management server 1 searches the shipping schedule DB 14h for shipping schedule information to be sent to the shipping terminal 3 at a specified time every day. For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may perform a search based on the current date and the shipping date included in the shipping schedule information. As shown in FIG. 24, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 sends the searched shipping schedule information to the shipping terminal 3 (step S501). At this time, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may delete from the shipping schedule information to be sent any product information scheduled for shipping whose shipping status is set to "cancelled." If the shipping status of all product information scheduled for shipping is "cancelled," the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may not need to send that shipping schedule information itself. The shipping terminal 3 displays the product shipping schedule on its screen based on the received shipping schedule information. After shipping the product according to the shipping schedule, an employee inputs at least one of the shipping date and the shipping slip number attached to the product's delivery slip into the shipping terminal 3 (step S502). In response to this input, the shipping terminal 3 sends a shipping completion notification to the sales management server 1 (step S503). The shipping completion notification may include the information entered by the employee and the shipping schedule ID of the shipping schedule.

The shipping schedule information management unit 116 of the sales management server 1 obtains the information entered by the employee and the shipping schedule ID from the shipping completion notification. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 searches the shipping schedule DB 14h for shipping schedule information including this shipping schedule ID. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 changes the shipping status of each product included in the searched shipping schedule information that is set to "not shipped" to "shipped" (step S504). The shipping schedule information management unit 116 also adds the shipping date to the shipping schedule information.

Next, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 updates the purchase right information stored in the purchase right DB 14g (step S505). For example, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may obtain the customer ID of the customer to whom the product is to be shipped and the scheduled shipping information of the shipped product from the searched shipping schedule information. The product provision restriction information management unit 123 may search for purchase right information that includes the combination of the customer ID and the product ID included in the scheduled shipping information, and that includes the most recent setting date. The product provision restriction information management unit 123 may update the already purchased amount included in the searched purchase right information by adding the quantity included in the scheduled shipping information to the already purchased amount. If the already purchased amount after the update reaches the maximum prescribed amount, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may change the right status included in the purchase right information to "expired." In this embodiment, the purchase right information is updated when shipping is completed. However, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may also update the purchase right information when the doctor confirms the prescription or order.

Next, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 determines whether the purchase type included in the searched shipping schedule information is "regular automatic purchase" (step S506). If the purchase type is "regular automatic purchase" (step S506: YES), the shipping schedule information management unit 116 determines whether the purchase right for the product remains valid based on the rights status included in the purchase right information for the product whose purchase type is regular automatic purchase (step S507). If the purchase right remains valid (step S507: YES), the shipping schedule information management unit 116 generates shipping schedule information for the next regular delivery and stores this shipping schedule information in the shipping schedule DB 14h (step S508). For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may generate a copy of the searched shipping schedule information. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may change the shipping schedule ID included in the copy. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may also update the shipping count included in the copy by adding 1 to the shipping count. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may also calculate the scheduled shipping date by adding the length of the shipping cycle for regular delivery to the shipping date included in the copy. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may update the scheduled shipping date included in the copy with the calculated scheduled shipping date. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may search the copy for shipping statuses that have been set to "shipped." The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may change the searched shipping status to "not shipped." The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may store this copy in the shipping schedule DB 14h as shipping schedule information for the next delivery.

When step S508 is completed, if the purchase type is "sequential purchase" (step S506: NO) or if the purchase right no longer exists (step S507: NO), the progress observation notification sending unit 118 determines whether the current shipment is a shipment of the second or subsequent delivery of products based on the purchase type and shipping frequency included in the shipping schedule information (step S509). If the current shipment is not a shipment of the second or subsequent delivery of products (step S509: NO), the purchase product identification information 117 acquires the product ID of the purchased product from the shipping schedule product information included in the shipping schedule information that has a shipping status of "shipped" (step S510). Next, the progress observation notification sending unit 118 acquires the follow-up period length for each purchased product (step S511). For example, the progress observation notification sending unit 118 may acquire category information associated with the product ID from the product DB 14b. The progress observation notification sending unit 118 may acquire one or more follow-up period lengths associated with the acquired category information from the follow-up period DB 14i. For products purchased through serial purchase, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 may acquire a follow-up period length equal to or shorter than the amount already purchased. For products purchased through regular automatic purchase, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 may acquire a follow-up period length equal to or shorter than the maximum prescription amount. Next, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 generates follow-up notification schedule information and stores this follow-up notification schedule information in the follow-up notification schedule DB 14k (step S512). For example, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 may generate follow-up notification schedule information for each combination of product and follow-up period length for which the same question is asked. In this embodiment, the question is the same for products belonging to the same category. The follow-up notification sending unit 118 may generate a new follow-up ID. The follow-up notification sending unit 118 may also calculate the scheduled sending date by adding the follow-up period length to the shipping date included in the shipping schedule information. As described above, the follow-up notification sending unit 118 may shift the scheduled sending date from exactly N months after the shipping date. If the purchase type is a serial purchase and the current purchase is a continuing purchase, the progress observation notification sending unit 118 may search the shipping schedule DB 14h for shipping schedule information at the time of the initial purchase. The progress observation notification sending unit 118 may calculate the scheduled sending date based on the shipping date included in the searched shipping schedule information. The progress observation notification sending unit 118 may generate progress observation notification schedule information including a progress observation ID, the customer ID of the customer to whom the product is to be shipped, category information, product ID, the scheduled sending date, etc.

As shown in FIG. 25 , for example, the follow-up observation notification sending unit 118 searches the follow-up observation notification schedule DB 14k for follow-up observation notification schedule information whose scheduled sending date is today at a predetermined time every day (step S601). Next, the follow-up observation notification sending unit 118 sends a follow-up observation notification email for each of the searched follow-up observation notification schedule information (step S602). For example, the follow-up observation notification sending unit 118 may obtain the product name of the product that is the subject of follow-up observation from the product DB 14b based on the product ID included in the follow-up observation notification schedule information. The follow-up observation notification sending unit 118 may add the product name to the body of the follow-up observation notification email. Alternatively, the follow-up observation notification sending unit 118 may obtain the email address of the customer to whom the follow-up observation notification email is to be sent based on the customer ID included in the follow-up observation notification schedule information. The follow-up observation notification sending unit 118 may set the recipient address of the follow-up observation notification email to this email address. The follow-up observation notification sending unit 118 may also generate the follow-up observation notification email so that, when the answer button 3130 included in the follow-up observation notification email is operated, a question sheet screen request is sent from the customer terminal 4 to the sales management server 1. The follow-up observation notification sending unit 118 may also cause the question sheet screen request to include a follow-up observation ID.

The customer terminal 4 receives and displays the follow-up observation notification email in response to the customer's operation (step S603). The customer presses the reply button 3130 (step S604). The customer terminal 4 detects this operation and sends a question sheet screen request to the sales management server 1 (step S605). The purchased product identification information acquisition unit 117 of the sales management server 1 acquires the follow-up observation ID from the question sheet screen request. The purchased product identification information acquisition unit 117 searches the follow-up observation notification schedule DB 14k for follow-up observation notification schedule information including this follow-up observation ID. The purchased product identification information acquisition unit 117 acquires category information from the searched follow-up observation notification schedule information (step S606). Next, the question information transmission unit 119 acquires the HTML document of the question sheet screen 3200 associated with the acquired category information from the memory unit 14 (step S607). The question information transmission unit 119 transmits the acquired HTML document to the customer terminal 4 (step S608). The customer terminal 4 displays the questionnaire screen 3200 based on this HTML document (step S609).

The customer enters an answer on the questionnaire screen 3200 (step S610). The customer terminal 4 transmits answer information indicating the entered answer and question information indicating the question displayed on the questionnaire screen 3200 to the sales management server 1 (step S611). The answer information receiving unit 120 of the sales management server 1 associates the received answer information and question information with the customer's customer ID and follow-up observation ID and stores them in the answer DB 14l (step S612).

The doctor selects a follow-up observation from the list of follow-up observations displayed on the screen of the doctor terminal 2. The doctor terminal 2 detects this operation and sends a follow-up observation screen request to the sales management server 1, as shown in FIG. 26 (Step S701). The follow-up observation screen request may include the follow-up observation ID of the selected follow-up observation. The continuation of use information acquisition unit 121 of the sales management server 1 acquires the answer information and question information associated with the follow-up observation ID from the answer DB 141 (Step S702). The continuation of use information acquisition unit 121 generates an HTML document for the follow-up observation screen 3300 including the acquired answer information and question information, and sends this HTML document to the doctor terminal 2 (Step S703). The doctor terminal 2 displays the follow-up observation screen 3300 based on this HTML document (Step S704). The doctor selects whether to continue prescribing each product on the follow-up observation screen 3300 (Step S705). The doctor also enters comments as necessary. When the doctor presses the send button 3340, the doctor terminal 2 sends the follow-up observation result information to the sales management server 1 (step S706). The follow-up observation result information may include the follow-up observation ID of the selected follow-up observation, the customer ID of the customer being followed-up, and comments. The follow-up observation result information may also include, for each product, the product ID and prescription continuation information based on the doctor's selection. The continued use information acquisition unit 121 stores the received follow-up observation result information in the follow-up observation result DB 14m.

The product provision restriction information management unit 123 of the sales management server 1 determines whether there are any products for which it has been decided to discontinue prescriptions, based on the prescription continuation information included in the follow-up observation result information (step S707). If there are any products for which it has been decided to discontinue prescriptions (step S707: YES), the product provision restriction information management unit 123 searches the purchase right DB 14g for purchase right information that includes the combination of the customer ID of the customer under follow-up observation and the product ID of the product for which it has been decided to discontinue prescriptions, and that includes the most recent setting date. The product provision restriction information management unit 123 changes the right status included in the searched purchase right information to "suspended" (step S708).

The shipping schedule information management unit 116 then searches the shipping schedule DB 14h for shipping schedule information that includes a combination of the customer ID of the customer under follow-up observation, the product ID of the product whose prescription has been discontinued, and a purchase type indicating "regular automatic purchase." At this time, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may search for shipping schedule product information for that product whose shipping status is "not shipped" included in the shipping schedule product information. Based on the results of this search, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 determines whether the purchase of that product is a regular automatic purchase (step S709). If the purchase of that product is a regular automatic purchase (step S709: YES), the shipping schedule information management unit 116 changes the shipping status of the shipping schedule product information for that product included in the searched shipping schedule information to "cancelled" (step S710).

When step S710 is completed, if there are no products for which prescription discontinuation has been determined (step S707: NO), or if the product purchase is not a regular automatic purchase (step S709: NO), the progress observation result information sending unit 122 sends a progress observation result email (step S711). Here, the progress observation result information sending unit 122 may generate the progress observation result email to be sent based on the progress observation result information. For example, if there are no products for which prescription discontinuation has been determined, the progress observation result information sending unit 122 may generate the progress observation result email shown in FIG. 16(a). If there are products for which prescription discontinuation has been determined and the purchase type is a regular automatic purchase, the progress observation result information sending unit 122 may generate the progress observation result email shown in FIG. 16(b). If there are products for which prescription discontinuation has been determined and the purchase type is a regular automatic purchase, the progress observation result information sending unit 122 may generate the progress observation result email shown in FIG. 16(c). The follow-up observation result information sending unit 122 may add the name of the product for which it has been decided to discontinue prescription to the follow-up observation result email. The follow-up observation result information sending unit 122 may obtain the email address of the customer to whom the follow-up observation result email is to be sent, based on the customer ID included in the follow-up observation result information. The follow-up observation result information sending unit 122 may set this email address as the recipient address of the follow-up observation result email.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the sales management server 1 may acquire the product ID of a purchased product among multiple products. The sales management server 1 may also send a follow-up monitoring notification for the purchased product. In this case, the sales management server 1 may send the follow-up monitoring notification after a period corresponding to the product has elapsed from a reference date related to the purchase of the product identified by the product ID, based on the product DB 14b and the follow-up monitoring period DB 14i. Furthermore, the sales management server 1 may send question information to the customer terminal 4 in response to a request from the customer terminal 4 used by the purchaser of the product after sending the follow-up monitoring notification. In this case, the sales management server 1 may send question information corresponding to the purchased product based on the product DB 14b and the question information DB 14j. The product DB 14b and the follow-up monitoring period DB 14i can be used to identify the length of the period from a reference date related to the purchase of the product to the follow-up monitoring time for each of multiple products. Therefore, even if the length of the period varies depending on the product, the follow-up monitoring notification can be sent after a period corresponding to the purchased product has elapsed. From the product DB 14b and question information DB 14j, question information about each of multiple products can be identified. Therefore, even if the questions vary depending on the product, questions about the purchased product can be presented to the purchaser. This eliminates the burden of monitoring the product purchaser's progress.

Here, the sales management server 1 may receive response information from the customer terminal 4. Furthermore, the sales management server 1 may obtain continued use information based on the response information. Furthermore, the sales management server 1 may transmit to the customer terminal 4 follow-up observation result information indicating the results of the follow-up observation, including whether or not continued use is possible as indicated by the continued use information. In this case, the results of the follow-up observation are presented to the purchaser of the product. This follow-up observation result includes whether or not continued use of the purchased product is possible. The continued use information is obtained based on the response information. Therefore, whether or not continued use of the product is possible can be presented to the purchaser, depending on the purchaser's situation.

Here, the sales management server 1 may transmit to the doctor terminal 2 the response information and screen information that causes the doctor terminal 2 to display a screen that can accept a selection of whether to continue using the purchased product. The sales management server 1 may also receive from the doctor terminal 2 continued use information indicating whether to continue using the product selected on the screen displayed by the doctor terminal 2 based on the screen information. In this case, the response information is transmitted to the doctor terminal 2. Therefore, the decision maker using the doctor terminal 2 can decide whether to continue using the purchased product based on the response information. Furthermore, the doctor terminal 2 displays a screen that can accept a selection of whether to continue using the purchased product. Therefore, the decision maker can select on the screen whether to continue using the product.

The sales management server 1 may also connect the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2 to enable communication for a doctor's consultation. After connecting the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2, the sales management server 1 may acquire the product ID of the product paid for during the consultation as the purchased product. In this case, the communication connection between the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2 enables the doctor to provide an online consultation. During this consultation, the medicine instructed by the doctor to be provided is purchased. A follow-up notification is sent for this purchased medicine. This eliminates the burden of follow-up monitoring for customers who have received a consultation and purchased the medicine.

The sales management server 1 may also receive a shipping completion notification from the shipping terminal 3. When the sales management server 1 receives the shipping completion notification, it may change the shipping status stored in the shipping schedule DB 14h from "not shipped" to "shipped." The sales management server 1 may also send a progress monitoring notification on the condition that the shipping status is set to "shipped." In this case, the sales management server 1 may send the progress monitoring notification after a period of time corresponding to the purchased product has elapsed since the shipping date of the purchased product. In this case, when the purchased product is shipped, a shipping completion notification is sent from the shipping terminal 3 used by the sender, and the shipping status of the product is changed from "not shipped" to "shipped." After the shipping status is changed to "shipped," a progress monitoring notification is sent. The progress monitoring notification is sent after a period of time corresponding to the product has elapsed since the shipping date of the purchased product. Therefore, progress monitoring can be performed at a time that corresponds to the purchased product and the shipping time of the product.

The sales management server 1 may also transmit question information to the customer terminal 4. The sales management server 1 may also receive answer information from the customer terminal 4 that received the question information. The sales management server 1 may also obtain continued use permission information based on the answer information. The sales management server 1 may also modify the purchase right DB 14g so that it is possible to identify from the purchase right DB 14g that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser will be restricted. In this case, a question for monitoring the progress of the purchased product is presented to the purchaser. Answer information indicating the answer to this question is received from the purchaser terminal. Continued use permission information indicating whether the purchased product can be continued is obtained based on this answer information. If continued use of the product is not possible, the purchase right DB 14g is modified. As a result, it is possible to identify from the purchase right DB 14g that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted. Therefore, by referencing the purchase right DB 14g, processing can be performed to restrict the provision of the product to the purchaser. Therefore, information for restricting the provision of the product can be stored depending on the purchaser's situation after purchasing the product.

Here, the sales management server 1 may acquire a product ID indicating the product selected by the customer for ordering and the customer ID of the customer who selected that product. Furthermore, if the sales management server 1 determines from the purchasing right DB 14g that the provision of the product indicated by the product ID is restricted for the customer indicated by the customer ID, it may support a consultation between the customer and a doctor. Furthermore, the sales management server 1 may confirm the order for the selected product after the consultation. Furthermore, if the sales management server 1 determines from the purchasing right DB 14g that the provision of the selected product indicated by the product ID is not restricted for the customer indicated by the customer ID, it may confirm the order without a consultation. In this case, if the provision of the product selected by the customer for ordering is restricted for that customer, a consultation between the customer and a doctor who will determine whether or not the product can be used is possible. After the consultation, the order for the selected product is confirmed. If the provision of the selected product is not restricted for that customer, the order for the selected product is confirmed without a consultation between the customer and a doctor. Therefore, whether or not a consultation is required to confirm the order for that product depends on whether or not the provision of the product is restricted. Therefore, by setting conditions for orders, it is possible to appropriately limit the availability of products.

Here, the sales management server 1 may connect the customer terminal 4 used by the customer and the doctor terminal 2 used by the doctor to enable communication for the consultation. Furthermore, if the sales management server 1 determines from the purchasing right DB 14g that the provision of the product identified by the product ID is restricted to the customer identified by the customer ID, it may connect the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2 and then confirm the order. Furthermore, if the sales management server 1 determines from the purchasing right DB 14g that the provision of the product to the customer is not restricted, it may confirm the order without connecting the customer terminal 4 and the doctor terminal 2. In this case, the communication connection between the customer terminal and the doctor terminal enables an online consultation between the customer and the doctor. After the online consultation, the order is confirmed. Therefore, if the provision of a product to a customer is restricted, the consultation as a condition for confirming the order for that product can be realized online.

Furthermore, if the sales management server 1 makes a change that identifies restrictions on the provision of a purchased product to a purchaser, it may cancel the next shipment of that product to the purchaser. In this case, if the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is not restricted, the product will be shipped to the purchaser on a regular basis. If the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted, the next shipment of that product will be canceled. This stops the regular shipment of the product. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately restrict the provision of products in a form in which products are shipped on a regular basis.

[2. Second embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to Figures 27 and 28. In this embodiment, the provision of products to customers may be restricted by restricting the operations required to order products. Except for the points described below, the second embodiment may be the same as the first embodiment.

As described above, the sales screen information transmission unit 111 transmits to the customer terminal 4 screen information for displaying a screen including information about a product requested by the customer terminal 4. If the product provision restriction information does not specify that the provision of the product requested by the customer using the customer terminal 4 is restricted, the sales screen information transmission unit 111 may transmit screen information for displaying a screen that accepts an operation to select the product. On the other hand, if the product provision restriction information specifies that the provision of the product to the customer is restricted, the sales screen information transmission unit 111 may transmit screen information for displaying a screen that does not accept an operation to select the product. The operation for selecting a product may be an operation that ultimately allows the customer to order the product. Examples of the operation for selecting a product include an operation for selecting a product from a list of products displayed on the search result screen, an operation for adding a product to a cart on the product screen 1200, an operation for placing an order for the product on the order application content confirmation screen 1400, and an operation for confirming the order for the product on the order content confirmation screen 2100.

Figure 27 is a diagram showing an example of a product screen 1200. In Figure 27, the same elements as in Figure 9 are assigned the same symbols. If there are no restrictions on the provision of products to a customer, a product screen 1200 such as that shown in Figure 9 may be displayed. In this case, the customer can operate the add to cart button 1220. This adds the product to the cart. If there are restrictions on the provision of products to a customer, a product screen 1200 such as that shown in Figure 12 may be displayed. As shown in Figure 12, the product screen 1200 may include a purchase type/quantity selection button group 1210, an add to cart button 1220, a cart access link 1230, etc., as well as a message 1240 and an appointment appointment link 1250. In Figure 12, the add to cart button 1220 is indicated by a dashed line. This indicates that the add to cart button 1220 is disabled. Therefore, the customer cannot operate the add to cart button 1220. Note that the add to cart button 1220 itself may be hidden. Since the product cannot be added to the cart, the customer cannot order the product. Message 1240 may indicate that the product is restricted from being provided to the customer. Appointment link 3430 may be an operable link to schedule an appointment for an online consultation. While a restricted product cannot be selected and ordered, the customer may be able to have the product re-prescribed by a doctor during an online consultation.

The system control unit 11 may perform processing to restrict the provision of products to customers without managing or referencing product provision restriction information. For example, if the continued use permissibility information acquired by the continued use permissibility information acquisition unit 121 indicates that continued use is permitted, the sales screen information transmission unit 111 may transmit screen information for displaying a screen that accepts operations to select the product. If the continued use permissibility information acquired by the continued use permissibility information acquisition unit 121 indicates that continued use is not permitted, the sales screen information transmission unit 111 may transmit screen information for displaying a screen that does not accept operations to select the product.

Figure 28 is a flowchart showing an example of a product screen information transmission process executed by the system control unit 11 of the sales management server 1 according to this embodiment. For example, a customer performs an operation to select one of the searched products from the search result screen. The customer terminal 4 detects this operation and sends a product screen request to the sales management server 1. The product screen request may include the customer ID of the customer and the product ID of the selected product. The system control unit 11 may execute the product screen information transmission process in response to the sales management server 1 receiving the product screen request from the customer terminal 4.

As shown in FIG. 28, the sales screen information transmission unit 111 acquires an HTML document of the product screen of the product selected by the customer (step S801). For example, the memory unit 14 may store, for each product, an HTML document of the product screen of that product associated with the product ID. The sales screen information transmission unit 111 may acquire an HTML document associated with the product ID included in the product screen request. Next, the sales screen information transmission unit 111 searches the purchase right DB 14g for purchase right information that includes the customer ID of the customer and the product ID of the selected product and that includes the most recent setting date (step S802). As a result of the search, the sales screen information transmission unit 111 determines whether or not there is corresponding purchase right information (step S803). If there is corresponding purchase right information (step S803: YES), the sales screen information transmission unit 111 determines whether or not the right status included in the purchase right information is "suspended" (step S804). If the rights status is not "suspended" (step S804: NO) or if there is no corresponding purchase right information (step S803: NO), the sales screen information transmission unit 111 sets information indicating the validity of the add to cart button 1220 in the HTML document of the product screen to "valid" (step S805). If the rights status is "suspended" (step S804: YES), the sales screen information transmission unit 111 sets information indicating the validity of the add to cart button 1220 to "invalid" (step S806). After step S805 or S806 is completed, the sales screen information transmission unit 111 transmits the HTML document of the product screen to the customer terminal 4 (step S807), and the product screen information transmission process ends. The customer terminal 4 displays the product screen based on this HTML document. If the information indicating the validity of the add to cart button 1220 is valid, the customer terminal 4 displays the add to cart button 1220 so that the add to cart button 1220 can be operated. If the information indicating validity is invalid, the customer terminal 4 displays the add to cart button 1220 so that it cannot be operated.

As described above, according to this embodiment, a screen containing product information in response to a request from the customer terminal 4 is displayed on the customer terminal 4. If the provision of that product to the customer is not restricted, the screen is displayed so that the operation to select the product is possible. As a result, the customer can order that product. If the provision of that product is restricted to the customer, the screen is displayed so that the operation to select the product is not possible. As a result, the customer cannot order that product. As such, it is possible to control the restriction on the provision of products depending on whether or not the e-commerce screen accepts the operation to select a product.

3. Third embodiment
Next, a third embodiment will be described with reference to Figures 29 and 30. In this embodiment, restrictions on the provision of products to customers may be lifted. Except for the points described below, the second embodiment may be the same as at least one of the first and second embodiments.

As explained above, even if a customer's provision of a product was once restricted, the customer could still purchase the product by having a doctor prescribe it again. This may be equivalent to the customer obtaining a new purchase right. In this case, the customer can purchase the product up to the maximum prescribed amount. In contrast, in this embodiment, lifting the provision restriction may be lifting the suspension of the purchase right, or restoring a lapsed purchase right. In this case, the customer may be able to continue purchasing the product up to the remaining amount calculated by subtracting the quantity already purchased by the customer from the maximum prescribed amount. If the customer had purchased the product through a regular automatic purchase, the suspended regular delivery may be resumed.

Figure 29 is a diagram showing an example of functional blocks of the system control unit 11 in the sales management server 1 according to this embodiment. In Figure 29, the same elements as in Figure 8 are assigned the same reference numerals. As shown in Figure 29, the system control unit 11 may function as a sales screen information transmission unit 111, a selected product identification information acquisition unit 112, a cart information management unit 113, a medical examination support unit 114, an order confirmation unit 115, a shipping schedule information management unit 116, a purchased product identification information acquisition unit 117, a progress observation notice transmission unit 118, a question information transmission unit 119, a response information reception unit 120, a continued use eligibility information acquisition unit 121, a progress observation result information transmission unit 122, and a product provision restriction information management unit 123, as well as a product provision restriction lifting information acquisition unit 124 and a product provision restriction lifting notice transmission unit 125.

The product provision restriction lifting information acquisition unit 124 may receive the product provision restriction lifting information after the product provision restriction information management unit 123 changes the product provision restriction information so that it is possible to identify that the provision of the product to the purchaser of the product is restricted. The product provision restriction lifting information may be information indicating that the restriction on the provision of the product to the purchaser will be lifted. The product provision restriction lifting information may include the product ID of the product for which the restriction on provision is being lifted. The product provision restriction lifting information may also include the customer ID of the customer for whom the provision of the product is being lifted. Alternatively, the product provision restriction lifting information may include the follow-up observation ID of the follow-up observation for which the restriction on the provision of the product was decided.

The product provision restriction lifting information acquisition unit 124 may acquire product provision restriction lifting information from the doctor terminal 2. For example, a doctor may decide whether or not to lift the restriction on the provision of a product to a customer. For example, the doctor may make the decision as a result of an exchange between the customer and the doctor. For example, whether or not to lift the restriction on the provision of a product may be determined through an examination. The doctor may make the decision during or after the examination. Alternatively, a follow-up may be conducted after the prescription is discontinued. During this follow-up, the customer may be presented with questions to confirm the customer's condition, assuming that the customer is not using the restricted product. During this follow-up, the doctor may decide to lift the restriction on the provision of the product.

When the product provision restriction information is acquired by the product provision restriction lifting information acquisition unit 124, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may change the product provision restriction information so that it is possible to identify from the product restriction information that the provision of the product to the purchaser of the product is not restricted. For example, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 may change the right status included in the corresponding purchase right information from "suspended" to "valid." This may lift the suspension of the purchase right. Lifting the suspension of the purchase right makes it possible to continue purchasing by successive purchases. For example, in the first embodiment, the customer can order the product without seeing a doctor. In the second embodiment, the customer can select the product.

When the product provision restriction release information acquisition unit 124 acquires product provision restriction information for a product purchased through regular automatic purchase, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may cancel the cancellation of subsequent deliveries. This may allow regular deliveries to be resumed. For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may change the shipping status of the product included in the shipping schedule information from "cancelled" to "not shipped."

When the product provision restriction removal information acquisition unit 124 acquires product provision restriction information, the product provision restriction removal notification sending unit 125 may send a product provision restriction removal notification to the purchaser. The product provision restriction removal notification may be information informing the purchaser that the restriction on providing the product to that purchaser will be lifted. The product provision restriction removal notification may include the name of the product for which the restriction on providing the product has been lifted. The product provision restriction removal notification sending unit 125 may send the product provision restriction removal notification to the purchaser by email or instant message. Alternatively, the product provision restriction removal notification sending unit 125 may send the product provision restriction removal notification to the purchaser's customer terminal 4 by push notification. Alternatively, the product provision restriction removal notification sending unit 125 may send screen information to the customer terminal 4 in response to a request from the customer terminal 4, causing the customer terminal 4 to display a screen including the product provision restriction removal notification.

Figure 30 is a sequence diagram showing an example of processing by the communication system S according to this embodiment. For example, a doctor operates the doctor terminal 2 to select a follow-up observation for which a prescription suspension was previously decided. In response to this operation, the doctor terminal 2 displays a screen showing the results of the follow-up observation, including the decision on whether to continue prescribing each product. This screen may also be able to accept a selection to cancel the suspension of prescription for a product for which the prescription has been suspended. As shown in Figure 30, the doctor selects to cancel the suspension of prescription for one of the products (step S901). Upon detecting this operation, the doctor terminal 2 transmits prescription suspension cancellation information to the sales management server 1 (step S902). The prescription suspension cancellation information corresponds to product provision restriction cancellation information. The prescription suspension cancellation information may include, for example, the follow-up observation ID of the follow-up observation, the customer ID of the customer who was the subject of the follow-up observation, and the product ID of the product for which the prescription suspension has been canceled.

Based on the prescription suspension resumption information, the product provision restriction information management unit 123 of the sales management server 1 searches the purchase right DB 14g for purchase right information that includes the customer ID of the customer who is the subject of follow-up observation and the product ID of the product whose prescription suspension has been resumed, and that includes the most recent set date. The product provision restriction information management unit 123 changes the right status included in the searched purchase right information to "valid" (step S903). Next, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 determines whether the purchase method for the product whose prescription suspension has been resumed is regular automatic purchase (step S904). For example, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may search the shipping schedule DB 14h for shipping schedule information that includes the customer ID of the customer who is the subject of follow-up observation and the product ID of the product whose prescription suspension has been resumed, and that includes the most recent scheduled shipping date. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may make the determination based on the purchase method included in the searched shipping schedule information. If the purchase type is regular automatic purchase (step S904: YES), the product provision restriction information management unit 123 changes the shipping status included in the searched shipping schedule information to "not shipped" (step S905). Note that when multiple products are shipped in a single regular delivery, it is possible that some of those products for which it has been decided that the prescription should be continued have already been shipped. In this case, the shipping schedule information management unit 116 may generate new shipping schedule information for the product for which the prescription suspension has been lifted. The shipping schedule information management unit 116 may also set a new shipping date.

When step S905 is completed, or if the purchase method is serial purchase (step S9904: NO), the product provision restriction lift notification sending unit 125 sends a product provision restriction lift notification email (step S906). The product provision restriction lift notification email is an email indicating a product provision restriction lift notification. For example, the product provision restriction lift notification sending unit 125 may obtain the product name of the product whose prescription suspension is being lifted from product DB 14b based on the product ID included in the prescription suspension lift information. The product provision restriction lift notification sending unit 125 may add this product name to the body of the product provision restriction lift notification email. The product provision restriction lift notification sending unit 125 may also obtain the customer's email address based on the customer ID included in the prescription suspension lift information. The product provision restriction lift notification sending unit 125 may set this email address as the recipient address of the product provision restriction lift notification email.

As described above, according to this embodiment, after the provision of a purchased product has been restricted, the restriction may be lifted. In that case, the purchase right DB 14g is updated again. This makes it possible to determine from the purchase right DB 14g that there is no restriction on providing the purchased product to the purchaser. Therefore, by referencing the purchase right DB 14g, processing can be performed to enable the product to be provided to the purchaser.

(Appendix 1-1) A follow-up control device comprising: a purchase product identification information acquisition means for acquiring purchase product identification information that identifies a purchased product among a plurality of products; a prompt information transmission means for transmitting prompt information that prompts the purchaser of the purchased product to answer a follow-up question about the purchased product identified by the acquired purchase product identification information; and a question information transmission means for transmitting question information indicating the question to the purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser in response to a request from the purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser after the prompt information has been transmitted; wherein the prompt information transmission means transmits the prompt information after the period of the length corresponding to the purchased product has elapsed from a reference date related to the purchase of the purchased product identified by the acquired purchase product identification information, based on product period length information indicating the length of the period until the follow-up time, the product period length information being capable of identifying the length corresponding to each of the plurality of products; and wherein the question information transmission means transmits the question information corresponding to the purchased product identified by the acquired purchase product identification information, based on product question information indicating the question information capable of identifying the question information corresponding to each of the plurality of products.

(Appendix 1-2) The follow-up control device described in Appendix 1-1 further comprises: a response information receiving means for receiving, from the purchaser terminal device, response information indicating the response to the question indicated by the transmitted question information; a propriety information acquiring means for acquiring propriety information indicating whether or not to continue using the purchased product identified by the acquired purchased product identification information based on the received response information; and a result information sending means for sending, to the purchaser terminal device, result information indicating the results of the follow-up, including whether or not to continue using the purchased product indicated by the acquired propriety information.

(Appendix 1-3) The follow-up control device described in Appendix 1-2 is characterized in that the availability information acquisition means includes: an answer information sending means for sending to the decision maker terminal device the received answer information and screen information for displaying on a decision maker terminal device used by a decision maker who decides whether to continue using the purchased product a screen that can accept a selection of whether to continue using the purchased product identified by the acquired purchased product identification information; and an availability information receiving means for receiving from the decision maker terminal device the availability information indicating whether to continue using the purchased product selected on the screen displayed by the decision maker terminal device based on the transmitted screen information.

(Appendix 1-4) The follow-up control device described in any one of Appendices 1-1 to 1-3 is characterized in that the purchased product is a pharmaceutical product, the follow-up control device further includes a connection means for connecting the purchaser terminal device and a doctor terminal device used by a doctor to enable communication for the doctor's examination, and the purchased product identification information acquisition means acquires the purchased product identification information that identifies the product paid for during the examination as the purchased product after the connection means connects the purchaser terminal device and the doctor terminal device.

(Appendix 1-5) A follow-up control device according to any one of Appendices 1-1 to 1-4, further comprising: a shipping completion information receiving means for receiving, from a sender terminal device used by the sender of the purchased item, shipping completion information indicating that the purchased item has been shipped to the purchaser; and a change means for changing, when the shipping completion information is received by the shipping completion information receiving means, the shipping status of the purchased item to the purchaser stored in a predetermined storage means from an unshipped status to a shipped completed status; wherein the reference date is the shipping date of the purchased item; the prompting information sending means sends the prompting information on the condition that the shipping status is set to the shipped completed status; and wherein the prompting information is sent after the length of time corresponding to the purchased item has elapsed from the shipping date.

(Appendix 1-6) A follow-up control method executed by a computer, comprising: a purchase product identification information acquisition step for acquiring purchase product identification information that identifies a purchased product among multiple products; a prompting information transmission step for transmitting prompting information to the purchaser of the purchased product to answer a follow-up question about the purchased product identified by the acquired purchase product identification information; and a question information transmission step for transmitting question information indicating the question to the purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser in response to a request from the purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser after the prompting information has been transmitted, wherein the prompting information transmission step transmits the prompting information after the period of the length corresponding to the purchased product has elapsed from a reference date related to the purchase of the purchased product identified by the acquired purchase product identification information, based on product period length information indicating the length of the period until the follow-up time, the product period length information being capable of identifying the length corresponding to each of the multiple products; and the question information transmission step transmits the question information corresponding to the purchased product identified by the acquired purchase product identification information based on product question information indicating the question information capable of identifying the question information corresponding to each of the multiple products.

(Appendix 1-7) A follow-up control program that causes a computer to function as: a purchased product identification information acquisition means that acquires purchased product identification information that identifies a purchased product among multiple products; a prompting information transmission means that transmits prompting information to the purchaser of the purchased product to answer a follow-up question about the purchased product identified by the acquired purchased product identification information; and a question information transmission means that transmits question information indicating the question to the purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser in response to a request from the purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser after the prompting information has been transmitted; the prompting information transmission means transmits the prompting information after the period of the length corresponding to the purchased product has elapsed from a reference date related to the purchase of the purchased product identified by the acquired purchased product identification information, based on product period length information that indicates the length of the period until the follow-up time and that can identify the length corresponding to each of the multiple products; and the question information transmission means transmits the question information corresponding to the purchased product identified by the acquired purchased product identification information, based on product question information that can identify the question information corresponding to each of the multiple products.

(Appendix 2-1) A product provision control device comprising: a question information sending means for sending question information indicating follow-up questions about a purchased product to a purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser of the purchased product; a response information receiving means for receiving response information indicating an answer to the question from the purchaser terminal device that has received the sent question information; a availability information acquisition means for acquiring availability information indicating whether or not use of the purchased product can be continued based on the received response information; and a modification means for, when the acquired availability information indicates that use of the purchased product cannot be continued, changing restriction information stored in a predetermined storage means that can identify for each combination of customer and product whether or not the provision of the product to the customer is restricted, so that it can be identified from the restriction information that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted.

(Appendix 2-2) The product provision control device described in Appendix 2-1 further comprises: identification information acquisition means for acquiring selected product identification information indicating the selected product selected by the customer for ordering and customer identification information identifying the customer who selected the selected product; interview support means for supporting a meeting between the customer and a decision maker who decides whether to allow the customer to use the selected product if the restriction information indicates that the provision of the selected product indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is restricted for the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information; and confirmation means for confirming the order of the selected product after the interview supported by the interview support means, wherein the confirmation means confirms the order without the interview if the restriction information indicates that the provision of the selected product indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is not restricted for the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information.

(Appendix 2-3) The product provision control device described in Appendix 2-2 is characterized in that the interview support means connects a customer terminal device used by the customer and a decision maker terminal device used by the decision maker to enable communication for the interview, and if the restriction information specifies that the provision of the selected product indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is restricted for the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information, the confirmation means confirms the order after the interview support means connects the customer terminal device and the decision maker terminal device, and if the restriction information specifies that the provision of the selected product indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is not restricted for the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information, the confirmation means confirms the order without connecting the customer terminal device and the decision maker terminal device by the interview support means.

(Appendix 2-4) The product provision control device described in any one of Appendices 2-1 to 2-3 is characterized in that the provision of the purchased product is in the form of regular shipments of the purchased product to the purchaser, and further comprises a cancellation means for canceling the next shipment of the purchased product to the purchaser if the change means makes a change that identifies a restriction on the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser.

(Appendix 2-5) A product provision control device according to any one of Appendices 2-1 to 2-4, further comprising a screen information transmission means for transmitting to the customer terminal device screen information for displaying on the customer terminal device a screen related to electronic commerce that enables product ordering, the screen including information about a requested product in response to a request from the customer terminal device; the screen information transmission means transmits the screen information for displaying the screen that accepts operations for selecting the requested product when it is determined from the restriction information that the provision of the requested product to the customer is not restricted; and transmits the screen information for displaying the screen that does not accept operations when it is determined from the restriction information that the provision of the requested product to the customer is restricted.

(Supplementary Note 2-6) The product provision control device described in any one of Supplementary Notes 2-1 to 2-5 further comprises a release information acquisition means for acquiring release information indicating that the restriction on provision of the purchased product has been lifted after the change means has changed the restriction information so that it is possible to identify that provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted, and when the release information acquisition means has acquired the release information, the change means changes the restriction information so that it is possible to identify from the restriction information that provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is not restricted.

(Supplementary Note 2-7) The product provision control device described in Supplementary Note 2-4 further comprises: a release information acquisition means for acquiring release information indicating the release of the restriction on provision of the purchased product after the change means has changed the restriction information so that it is possible to identify that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted; and a cancellation means for canceling the cancellation of the shipment made by the cancellation means when the release information acquisition means receives the release information.

(Appendix 2-8) The product provision control device described in any one of Appendices 2-1 to 2-7, further comprising a result information transmission means for transmitting to the purchaser result information indicating the results of the follow-up, including whether or not the use can be continued as indicated by the acquired propriety information.

(Appendix 2-9) The product provision control device described in any one of Appendices 2-1 to 2-8, wherein the purchased product is a pharmaceutical product, further comprising: a connection means for connecting the purchaser terminal device to a doctor terminal device used by a doctor to enable communication for the doctor's consultation; and a confirmation means for confirming the order for the product paid for during the consultation after the connection means connects the purchaser terminal device to the doctor terminal device, and the question information transmission means transmits the question information regarding the product whose order has been confirmed by the confirmation means.

(Appendix 2-10) A computer-implemented product provision control method comprising: a question information sending step for sending question information indicating a follow-up question about a purchased product to a purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser of the purchased product; a response information receiving step for receiving response information indicating an answer to the question from the purchaser terminal device that received the sent question information; a response information acquisition step for acquiring response information indicating whether or not use of the purchased product can be continued based on the received response information; and a modification step for, if the acquired response information indicates that use of the purchased product cannot be continued, changing restriction information stored in a predetermined storage means that can identify for each combination of customer and product whether or not the provision of the purchased product to the customer is restricted, so that it can be identified from the restriction information that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted.

(Appendix 2-11) A product provision control program that causes a computer to function as: a question information sending means that sends question information indicating follow-up questions about a purchased product to a purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser of the purchased product; a response information receiving means that receives response information indicating an answer to the question from the purchaser terminal device that receives the sent question information; a availability information acquisition means that acquires availability information indicating whether or not use of the purchased product can be continued based on the received response information; and a modification means that, when the acquired availability information indicates that use of the purchased product cannot be continued, modifies restriction information stored in a predetermined storage means that can identify for each combination of customer and product whether or not the provision of the purchased product to the customer is restricted, making it possible to identify from the restriction information that provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted.

1 Sales management server 2 Doctor terminal 3 Shipping terminal 4 Customer terminal 11 System control unit 12 System bus 13 Input/output interface 14 Storage unit 14a Member DB
14b Product DB
14c Cart DB
14d Medical appointment DB
14e Prescription history DB
14th floor order database
14g Purchase Rights DB
14h Shipping Schedule DB
14i Follow-up period DB
14j Question Information DB
14k Follow-up Notification Schedule DB
14l Answer DB
14m Follow-up observation results DB
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 111 Sales screen information transmission unit 112 Selected product identification information acquisition unit 113 Cart information management unit 114 Examination support unit 115 Order confirmation unit 116 Shipping schedule information management unit 117 Purchased product identification information acquisition unit 118 Progress observation notice transmission unit 119 Question information transmission unit 120 Answer information reception unit 121 Continued use OK/NG information acquisition unit 122 Progress observation result information transmission unit 123 Product provision restriction information management unit 124 Product provision restriction release information acquisition unit 125 Product provision restriction release notice transmission unit NW Network

Claims (12)

In the product provision control device,
Restriction information that can identify whether or not the provision of a product to a customer is restricted for each combination of customer and product is stored in a predetermined storage means, and it is possible to identify from the restriction information that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser of a purchased product is not restricted;
a question information transmitting means for transmitting question information indicating a follow- up question about the purchased product to a purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser of the purchased product;
an answer information receiving means for receiving answer information indicating an answer to the question from the purchaser terminal device that has received the transmitted question information;
a means for acquiring availability information indicating whether or not the purchased product can be continued based on the received response information;
a change means for changing the restriction information stored in the storage means when the acquired availability information indicates that the purchaser cannot continue using the purchased product, so that it is possible to identify from the restriction information that the purchaser is restricted from being provided with the purchased product;
Equipped with
The product provision control device is characterized in that the change means does not restrict the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser when the response information is not transmitted from the purchaser terminal device to the product provision control device. an identification information acquiring means for acquiring selected product identification information indicating a selected product selected by a customer for an order and customer identification information identifying the customer who selected the selected product;
an interview support means for supporting an interview between the customer and a decision maker who decides whether or not to allow the customer to use the selected product when it is determined from the restriction information that the provision of the selected product indicated by the selected product identification information is restricted for the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information;
a confirmation means for confirming the order of the selected product after the interview supported by the interview support means;
Further provided with
The product provision control device described in claim 1, characterized in that the confirmation means confirms the order without the interview if it is determined from the restriction information that the provision of the selected product indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is not restricted to the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information. The interview support means connects a customer terminal device used by the customer and a decision maker terminal device used by the decision maker so that communication for the interview can be performed;
3. A product provision control device as described in claim 2, characterized in that if the restriction information specifies that the provision of the selected product indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is restricted to the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information, after the interview support means connects the customer terminal device to the decision maker terminal device, the confirmation means confirms the order, and if the restriction information specifies that the provision of the selected product indicated by the acquired selected product identification information is not restricted to the customer indicated by the acquired customer identification information, the confirmation means confirms the order without connecting the customer terminal device to the decision maker terminal device by the interview support means. The provision of the purchased product is in the form of periodically shipping the purchased product to the purchaser,
2. The product provision control device according to claim 1, further comprising a cancellation means for canceling the next shipment of the purchased product to the purchaser when the change means makes a change that identifies a restriction on the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser. The system further comprises a screen information transmitting means for transmitting to the customer terminal device screen information for displaying on the customer terminal device a screen related to electronic commerce that enables ordering of products, the screen including information on requested products in response to a request from the customer terminal device;
The product provision control device described in claim 1, characterized in that the screen information sending means sends the screen information for displaying the screen that accepts operations for selecting the requested product when it is determined from the restriction information that the provision of the requested product to the customer is not restricted, and sends the screen information for displaying the screen that does not accept operations when it is determined from the restriction information that the provision of the requested product to the customer is restricted. The system further includes a release information acquisition means for acquiring release information indicating that the restriction on provision of the purchased product has been lifted after the restriction information has been changed by the change means so that it can be specified that provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted,
A product provision control device as described in any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that when the release information is acquired by the release information acquisition means, the change means changes the restriction information so that it is possible to identify from the restriction information that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is not restricted. a release information acquisition means for acquiring release information indicating that the restriction on provision of the purchased product has been lifted after the restriction information has been changed by the change means so that it can be identified that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser is restricted;
a cancellation means for canceling the cancellation of the shipment made by the cancellation means when the cancellation information is received by the cancellation information acquisition means;
5. The product provision control device according to claim 4, further comprising: The product provision control device described in any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a result information transmission means for transmitting to the purchaser result information indicating the results of the follow-up, including whether or not the use can be continued as indicated by the acquired propriety information. the purchased product is a pharmaceutical product,
a connection means for connecting the purchaser terminal device and a doctor terminal device used by a doctor so that communication for medical examination by the doctor can be performed;
a confirmation means for confirming the order of the product paid for through the medical examination after the connection between the purchaser terminal device and the doctor terminal device by the connection means;
Further provided with
6. The product provision control device according to claim 1, wherein the question information transmitting means transmits the question information about the product whose order has been confirmed by the confirmation means. A product provision control device as described in any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the change means does not restrict the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser if the answer information is not sent from the purchaser terminal device to the product provision control device within a predetermined period after the question information is sent by the question information sending means. A computer-implemented product provision control method, comprising:
Restriction information that can specify whether or not the provision of a product to a customer is restricted for each combination of customer and product is stored in a predetermined storage means, and it is possible to specify from the restriction information that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser of the purchased product is not restricted;
a question information sending step of sending question information indicating a follow-up question about the purchased product to a purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser of the purchased product;
an answer information receiving step of receiving answer information indicating an answer to the question from the purchaser terminal device that has received the transmitted question information;
a propriety information acquisition step of acquiring propriety information indicating whether or not the purchased product can be continued to be used based on the received response information;
a modification step of modifying the restriction information stored in the storage means when the acquired availability information indicates that the purchaser cannot continue to use the purchased product, so that it is possible to identify from the restriction information that the purchaser is restricted from being provided with the purchased product;
Including,
The merchandise provision control method is characterized in that the change step does not restrict provision of the purchased merchandise to the purchaser if the response information is not transmitted from the purchaser terminal device. In a product provision control program executed by a computer,
Restriction information that can identify whether or not the provision of a product to a customer is restricted for each combination of customer and product is stored in a predetermined storage means, and it is possible to identify from the restriction information that the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser of a purchased product is not restricted;
The computer
a question information transmitting means for transmitting question information indicating follow-up questions about the purchased product to a purchaser terminal device used by the purchaser of the purchased product;
an answer information receiving means for receiving answer information indicating an answer to the question from the purchaser terminal device that has received the transmitted question information;
a means for acquiring availability information indicating whether or not the purchased product can be continued based on the received response information;
a change means for changing the restriction information stored in the storage means when the acquired availability information indicates that the purchaser cannot continue using the purchased product, so that it is possible to identify from the restriction information that the purchaser is restricted from being provided with the purchased product;
It functions as
The product provision control program is characterized in that the change means does not restrict the provision of the purchased product to the purchaser when the response information is not transmitted from the purchaser terminal device.