FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The present disclosure relates to a point of sale (POS) system, a computer program and a method for supporting merchants in decisions relating product pricing, product assortment, or merchant establishment location. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a POS system, a computer program and a method for product pricing.

BACKGROUND

Product assortment and pricing are key features in nearly any business. There are different types of sales support systems for facilitating product assortment and pricing strategies at merchant establishments. Nevertheless, analysis and evaluation of product assortment and pricing strategies are often performed manually through sales trend analysis.

Evaluating and deciding on product assortment and pricing strategies are non-trivial and time-consuming tasks, and merchants are at risk of revenue loss if the product selection and pricing at the merchant establishment is not properly adapted to the demand and purchase pattern of potential customers in the geographical area of the merchant establishment.

Another problem is that decisions on product assortment and pricing strategies are often made from sale trend analyses that are based on an insufficient amount of sales data, sales data not truly reflecting the circumstances of the sales, or both. In particular for small merchant establishments and merchants offering durable goods, the amount and reliability of available sales data may be insufficient to allow any conclusions to be drawn from sale trend analysis.

Another challenge, which may be particularly relevant to merchants running mobile merchant establishments, is the challenge of deciding on where to set up the merchant establishment in order to maximise revenue. Today, most merchants address this challenge by observing the geography, the presence of other business establishments, and the population of different geographical areas, and guessing on where the merchant establishment will generate the most revenue based on the observations.

It is thus a need for tools that can support merchants in decisions relating to product pricing, product assortment and merchant establishment location.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present disclosure to present means for supporting merchants in decisions relating to product pricing, product assortment and/or merchant establishment location.

It is also an object of the present disclosure is to present means for eliminating or at least mitigating one or more of the above mentioned shortcomings of the prior art.

These and other objects, which will become apparent in view of the detailed description following hereinafter, are achieved by a point of sale (POS) system, a POS terminal, a method, and a computer program as defined by the appended claims.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a POS system for supporting merchants in decisions on product pricing, the POS system comprising: at least one database storing financial transaction data on products purchased by customers at different business establishments, the financial transaction data comprising, for each of a plurality of financial transactions, a product type indicator indicating a type of product purchased, a purchase price indicator indicating a purchase price of the product purchased, and a geographical position indicator indicating a geographical position of the business

establishment from which the product was purchased;

a POS terminal for use by a merchant offering products for sale at a merchant establishment, the POS terminal being configured to:

o obtain information on a product to be priced; o identify, in the at least one database, financial transaction data related to products of a same or similar type as the product to be priced; o determine a suggested price for the product to be priced, based on the purchase price indicators and the geographical position indicators of the identified financial transaction data, and

o present the suggested price to the merchant.

Accordingly, the POS terminal may automatically suggest a price for a product to be offered for sale at a merchant establishment, based on the purchase prices of same or similar products purchased from other business establishments, and the geographical positions of the other business establishments. Putting it differently, the POS system is configured to present a price suggestion for a product based on historical and geo-tagged purchase prices of same or similar products. Thereby, the POS terminal enables the merchant to optimise product pricing at the merchant establishment based on purchasing and consumption behaviours in specific geographical areas.

An important feature of the proposed POS system is the accessibility to the database storing financial transaction data on products purchased by customers at different business establishments by the POS terminal. The database enables the POS terminal to use data related to sales at business establishments other than the merchant’s own business establishment, thus offering the price suggestion to be based on a large set of statistical data. This is particularly important for small merchant establishments and merchant establishments offering durable goods, because, in these types of establishments, the amount of financial transaction data originating from own sales is often insufficient to serve as a basis for sale trend and pricing analysis. Another advantage of the proposed POS system is the use of financial transaction data on completed financial transactions, reflecting the actual purchase price of purchased products. Existing tools for use by merchants in the pricing process, such as sale trend analysis tools, often take the list prices of purchased products as input parameters. By using the actual purchase price instead of a list price, the price suggestion provided by the proposed POS system is based on data more accurately reflecting the true value of the product to the paying customer. This is particularly important when considering small merchant establishments and merchant establishments offering durable goods, because, in these types of establishments, the purchase price of a product may deviate substantially from the list price of the product.

The POS terminal may further be configured to use a geographic location of the merchant establishment in the determination of the suggested price.

This enables the POS terminal to determine the suggested price based on purchase prices of the same or similar products purchased from business establishments in the geographical area of the merchant establishment. This is advantageous in that the suggested price can be optimised in relation to the price of same or similar products offered by nearby competitors.

The POS software application may, for instance, be configured to calculate an average purchase price of the same or similar products purchased in the

geographical area of the merchant establishment, and to determine the suggested price based on the calculated average price

The POS terminal may comprise a geographical positioning device, such as a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, configured to determine the geographical position of the POS terminal. The POS terminal may be configured to use the geographical position determined by the geographical positioning device as the geographic location of the merchant establishment.

Alternatively, the POS terminal may be configured to receive user input indicating a geographical position, e.g. via a user interface of the POS terminal, and to use the indicated geographical position as the geographic location of the merchant establishment.

The POS terminal may further be configured to take a sales volume of the products of the same or similar type into account in the determination of the suggested price. This may allow for even more precise price optimisation. Preferably, the POS terminal is configured to determine a sales volume of the products of the same or similar type in a particular geographical area, e.g. the geographical area of the merchant establishment, and to use the calculated sales volume in the

determination of the suggested price.

Another advantage of the proposed POS system is that the geo-tagged purchase prices comprised in the financial transaction data may provide information on the level of price sensitivity in different geographical areas. This information may be used by the POS terminal to suggest a product price that is adapted to the level of price sensitivity of a particular geographic area, and thus tailored to a specific market or customer category.

Accordingly, the POS terminal may be configured to use the financial transaction data in the at least one database to determine a level of price sensitivity for one or more geographical areas, and to use the determined level of price sensitivity in the determination of the suggested price. The level of price sensitivity in the one or more geographical areas may be determined by the POS terminal from purchase prices of a reference product that is different than the product to be priced. Preferably, the POS terminal is configured to determine a level of price sensitivity in the

geographical area of the merchant establishment, and to use the determined level of price sensitivity in the geographical area of the merchant establishment in the determination of the suggested price.

As understood from the above, the POS terminal may be configured to derive statistical data from the financial transaction data in the at least one database, and present the statistical data, or suggestions or recommendations that are

automatically generated by the POS terminal, based on the derived statistical data, to the merchant. Non-limiting examples of statistical data that may be presented to the merchant are:

product type/geolocation correlation data, indicating what products are purchased in different geographical areas, or at least the geographical distribution of purchases of a particular type of product; product type/time correlation data, indicating what products are purchased on different times, or at least the distribution in time of purchases of a particular type of product.

Non-limiting examples of suggestions or recommendation that may be presented to the merchant by the POS terminal based on the derived statistical data are:

a suggested price for a product to be offered for sale at the merchant

establishment;

a recommendation on whether or not a particular product should be offered for sale at the merchant establishment, and

a suggested geographic location for the merchant establishment.

In some embodiments, the POS terminal may be configured to present the statistical data with reference to a digital map that is displayed on a display of the POS terminal. The digital map may be a density map illustrating the geographical distribution of purchases of a particular type of product by indicating different geographical areas in the map in different ways in dependence of the number of products of the particular product type purchased in the respective geographical area.

The POS terminal may further be configured to display a time control, such as slide bar, in association with the digital map. The time control is configured to enable the user (i.e. the merchant) to change a time for which the geographical distribution of purchases of the particular product type should be displayed in the map.

The product type/geolocation correlation data typically comprises the number of products of a particular type purchased from business establishments within different geographical areas. This data may be used by the POS terminal to present any or both of a recommendation on whether or not a particular product should be offered for sale at the merchant establishment and a suggested geographic location for the merchant establishment. Consequently, according to another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a POS system for supporting merchants in decisions on product assortment or merchant establishment location, comprising:

at least one database storing financial transaction data on products purchased by customers at different business establishments, the financial transaction data comprising, for each of a plurality of financial transactions, a product type indicator indicating a type of product purchased, and a geographical position indicator indicating a geographical position of the business establishment from which the product was purchased;

a POS terminal for use by a merchant offering products for sale at a merchant establishment, the POS terminal being configured to:

o derive statistical data from the financial transaction data in the at least one database based on the product type indicators and the geographical position indicators of the financial transaction data, and

o present the statistical data to the merchant, or

o present a recommendation to the merchant relating to any of a product assortment or a geographical location of the merchant establishment, based on the statistical data.

The at least one database of the POS system typically comprises a product database and a financial transaction database, where the product database and the financial transaction database are designed to associatively store the product type indicators, the purchase price indicators and the geographical position indicators such that each of a plurality of financial transactions stored in the financial transaction database is associated with at least one purchased product and a purchase price of said product, which purchase price has been paid through the financial transaction.

The POS terminal of the POS system may be configured to, upon completion of a financial transaction involving a purchase of at least one product at the merchant establishment, associatively store financial transaction data in the at least one database, the financial transaction data comprising:

a product type indicator identifying the purchased product; a purchase price indicator indicating the purchase price of the purchased product, and

a geographical position indicator indicating a geographical position of the merchant establishment.

By storing the above mentioned data in the at least one database, the proposed POS terminal enables other POS terminals that are equipped and devised in a same or similar manner to use the financial transaction data in accordance with the principles described herein.

The proposed POS system may be a partially cloud-based POS system where the at least one database is comprised in one or more servers that are accessible to POS terminals of different merchant establishments via a network, such as the Internet. By having the POS terminals upload the above mentioned financial transaction data upon completion of financial transactions, a large amount of financial transaction data that can be used by the respective POS terminal to offer the proposed functionality is made available.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for product pricing in a POS terminal for use by a merchant offering products for sale at a merchant establishment, the POS terminal being capable of retrieving information from at least one database storing financial transaction data on products purchased by customers at different business establishments, the financial transaction data comprising, for each of a plurality of financial transactions, a product type indicator indicating a type of product purchased, a purchase price indicator indicating a purchase price of the product purchased, and a geographical position indicator indicating a geographical position of the business establishment from which the product was purchased. The method comprises:

obtaining information on a product to be priced;

identifying, in the at least one database, financial transaction data related to products of a same or similar type as the product to be priced;

determining a suggested price for the product to be priced, based on the purchase price indicators and the geographical position indicators of the identified financial transaction data, and presenting the suggested price to the merchant.

The method may comprise using a geographic location of the merchant

establishment in the determination of the suggested price.

The method may comprise determining a geographical position of the POS terminal by means of a geographical position device of the POS terminal, and using the geographical position of the POS terminal as the geographic location of the merchant establishment.

Alternatively, the method may comprise receiving user input indicating a

geographical position, and using the indicated geographical position as the geographic location of the merchant establishment.

The method may further comprise determining a sales volume of products of the same or similar type for a particular geographical area from the identified financial transaction data, and using the determined sales volume in the determination of the suggested price.

For example, the method may comprise determining a price sensitivity level of a geographical area in which the merchant establishment is located, and taking the price sensitivity level of the geographical area of the merchant establishment into account in the determination of the suggested price.

The method may further comprise a step of associatively storing, in the at least one database, financial transaction data comprising a product type indicator indicating the type of the purchased product, a purchase price indicator indicating the purchase price of the purchased product, and a geographical position indicator indicating a geographical position of the merchant establishment. The step of associatively storing the financial transaction data may be performed upon or following confirmation of a financial transaction involving a purchase of at least one product at the merchant establishment. The above described method is typically a computer-implemented method that is carried out by a computerised POS terminal through execution of a computer program, hereinafter referred to as the POS software. To this end, the POS terminal may comprise at least one memory for storing the POS software, and at least one processor for execution of the POS software.

Consequently, according to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program for a POS terminal for use by a merchant offering products for sale at a merchant establishment. The POS terminal is capable of retrieving information from at least one database storing financial transaction data on products purchased by customers at different business establishments, the financial transaction data comprising, for each of a plurality of financial transactions, a product type indicator indicating a type of product purchased, a purchase price indicator indicating a purchase price of the product purchased, and a geographical position indicator indicating a geographical position of the business establishment from which the product was purchased. The computer program comprises computer-readable code segments which, when executed by a processor of the POS terminal, causes the POS terminal to:

obtain information on a product to be priced;

identify, in the at least one database, financial transaction data related to products of a same or similar type as the product to be priced;

determine a suggested price for the product to be priced, based on the purchase price indicators and the geographical position indicators of the identified financial transaction data, and

present the suggested price for the product to be priced to the merchant.

The computer program may further comprise computer-readable code segments for causing the POS terminal to perform any of, or any combination of, the method steps described above.

More advantageous features of the proposed POS terminal, method and computer program will become apparent in view of the detailed description following hereinafter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description provided hereinafter and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only. In the different drawings, same reference numerals correspond to the same element.

Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate a POS system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 illustrates a POS terminal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates a product registration view of a POS software application running on the POS terminal, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates a product database table of a database of the POS system, according to an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 6 illustrates a checkout view of a POS software application running on the POS terminal, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates a financial transaction database table of a database of the POS system, according to an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for business support, according to an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method for automatic product pricing, according to an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present disclosure relates to a point of sale (POS) system through which a merchant can get support in decisions relating to product pricing, product assortment and merchant establishment location.

A POS system may comprise a computer, monitor, cash drawer, receipt printer, customer display, barcode scanner, and one or more readers for reading payment- facilitating information from a portable payment device, such as a credit card or a mobile wallet of an electronic communication device, e.g., a mobile phone. The computer that processes the payment-facilitating information and facilitates the payment of the products to be purchased may be referred to as the payment processing unit, or the POS terminal. To facilitate payment, most POS terminals are connected to a backend payment system, typically including a payment gateway, a payment processor, a credit card network, an acquiring bank and an issuing bank.

Most POS terminals include card readers for processing chip cards that are inserted into the card reader. Some POS terminals also process magnetic stripe cards that are swiped through a slot in the card reader. The customer is often required to enter a Personal Identification Number, PIN, on a keypad of the POS terminal for the purpose of user authentication. Recent POS terminals also provide support for contactless payments using a short distance wireless technology, such as Near Field Communication (NFC) or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), for communicating with the credit card.

Fig. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a POS system 1 for use by a merchant 3 that permanently or temporarily has set up a merchant establishment 5 at a geographical location represented by a geo pin 7. The POS system 1 comprises a POS terminal 9 that is communicatively connectable to a server 11 via a network, such as the Internet. The POS terminal 9 comprises a reader (not shown) for reading payment-facilitating information from a payment card or a mobile wallet, and is connectable to a backend payment system (not shown) for facilitating payment of products purchased at the merchant establishment 5. The server 11 may or may not form part of the backend payment system. The POS terminal 9 may be any known type of POS terminal for facilitating card, cash, mobile and/or invoice payments and may be a stationary POS terminal or a mobile POS terminal. In the illustrated example, the POS terminal 9 is a mobile POS terminal. A mobile POS terminal may be any type of mobile computing device, such as a tablet computer or a mobile phone. In this exemplary embodiment, the POS terminal 9 is a tablet computer running a POS software that will be described in more detail below.

With reference now simultaneously made to Fig. 2, the server 11 is configured to collect financial transaction data both from the POS terminal 9 of the merchant establishment 5 and from POS terminals 9A-9E of other business establishments 5A- 5E, established at different geographical positions 7A-7E. The financial transaction data is stored in at least one database 12. As will be described in more detail below, the financial transaction data includes data on confirmed purchases of products at the various business establishments 5A-5E, which data can be used by the POS terminal 9 of the merchant establishment 5 to support the merchant 3 in decisions relating to product pricing, product assortment and even in decisions on where to set up the merchant establishment 5 geographically.

The logic for providing the above mentioned functionality is typically implemented by means of a POS software that is run on the POS terminals of the merchant establishment 5 and the other business establishments 5A-5E. The POS software may be realised in form of a POS software application that may be customised to different types of POS terminals.

With reference now made to Fig. 3, the POS terminal 9 of the merchant establishment 5 will be described in more detail.

The POS terminal 9 comprises a processor 13, such as a micro-processor, and a non volatile memory 15 storing the POS software application. The POS terminal further comprises a communication module 17 for communicating with the server 11 and a backend payment system for facilitating payment of products registered for purchase by the POS terminal 9. The POS terminal 9 further comprises a display 19, such as a touch-screen, for the display of information to a user of the POS terminal, i.e. the merchant 3. Yet further, the POS terminal 9 comprises means for receiving user input, e.g. a keyboard, keypad, computer mouse, or the like. In the exemplary embodiment where the POS terminal 9 is a tablet computer, the touch-screen of the tablet computer constitutes means for receiving user input. The POS terminal 9 may further comprise or be connected to known POS peripherals (not shown), including but not limited to a reader for reading payment facilitating information, such as credit card data, from a payment card or a mobile wallet, and a receipt printer for the printing of receipts.

The POS software application, which is launched upon execution by the processor 13 of the POS software stored in the memory 15, comprises several functional blocks or modules providing different functions or features of the POS software application. For example, the POS software application may comprise modules for:

product library management, including a module for product registration (i.e. registration of products that are to be offered for sale at the merchant

establishment),

cash register management, including a module for checkout and payment of products purchased at the merchant establishment, and

sale trend analysis and statistics, including modules for presenting sales statistics and trends to the merchant.

Fig. 4 illustrates a schematic view of a graphical user interface (GUI) for a product registration module of the POS software application. Before offering a product for sale at the merchant establishment 5, the merchant 3 registers the product in the product library of the POS software application by entering product data in a product registration view of the POS software application. As illustrated in the drawing, the merchant may be prompted to upload or select a product picture, e.g. by taking a photo of the product with a camera 21 (see Fig. 3) of the POS terminal 9, and to enter a product name (“product name”), a product category (“category”), a product sub category (“sub-category”) and a list price (“price”) for the product to be registered. Upon confirmation of the entered product data, e.g. by the click of a confirmation button (“Register”) in the product registration view, the product data are sent to the server 1 1 for storage in the database 12. The product category and sub-category may be selected from a pre-defined selection of product categories and sub-categories, as indicated by arrows illustrating drop-down menus from which the category and sub category can be selected. If a suitable product category or sub-category of the product to be registered cannot be found in the drop-down menus, the merchant may be given the option to define a new product category and/or product sub-category. The merchant may, for instance, be given the opportunity to define new product categories and sub-categories via links in the category and sub-category drop down menus.

The product data may be stored in different ways in one or more database tables of the database 12. Fig. 5 shows an exemplary database table“DB_Products” 25 of the database 12 in which the product data may be stored. The registered product may be assigned a unique product identifier 27 (“pjd”). The product identifier 27 is stored in the database together with a product name indicator 29 (“p_name”), a product category indicator 31 (“p_cat”), a product sub-category indicator 33 (“p_sub_cat”) and a product list price indicator 35 (“p_l_price”), each of which is assigned a value based on the information given by the merchant in the product registration view, and a picture link 37 (“p_picture”) to the uploaded or selected product picture.

Now turning to Fig. 6, illustrating a schematic view of a GUI for a checkout module of the POS software application. When a customer wants to purchase one or more products at the merchant establishment 5, the merchant 3 is prompted to indicate the products to be purchased (“Products”) in a checkout view of the POS software application. The indication or selection of products to be purchased may be made in different ways. For example, the merchant 3 may manually select the products to be purchased from a drop down menu (not shown) of the GUI, listing all products that are registered in the merchant’s product library. According to another example, each product may be associated with a barcode upon product registration, whereby the products to be purchased may be selected through barcode scanning.

Upon selection of a product to be purchased, the registered list price 35 of the product is retrieved from the database 12 or a local product database of the POS terminal 9 and displayed (“Price”) in association with the product name 29 in the checkout view. The list price of each product may be manually changed by the merchant to a purchase price that is different than the list price, if, for instance, an occasional discount is to be given to the customer. Likewise, the total purchase amount (“Total amount”) may be changed by the merchant in the checkout view, in which case the POS software application may be configured to automatically change the list price of each product to a purchase price making the sum of the purchase prices for the products to be purchased correspond to the changed total purchase amount, e.g. on a percentage basis.

Once the selection of products to be purchased is made, the merchant 3 may select how the purchase receipt is to be provided to the customer (e.g. via e-mail or traditional printout of a paper receipt), and how payment is to be made (e.g. via payment card, mobile wallet, cash or invoice). When all selections are made, the merchant may click a checkout confirmation button (“Checkout”). In response to the checkout confirmation, the POS software application may, e.g. in case the products are to be paid by card, initiate an electronic payment process via the backend payment system. Once the POS terminal 9 has received a confirmation of payment from the backend payment system, indicating that the total purchase amount has been paid or reserved for subsequent payment, a confirmation of payment may be displayed on the POS terminal 9 and data relating to the financial transaction, i.e. the actual purchase of the products, is sent to the server 1 1 for storage in the database 12. In case payment is made through a process where successful payment cannot be automatically verified, e.g. through cash payment, the POS terminal 9 may be configured to prompt the merchant 3 to confirm payment manually, e.g. by clicking a payment confirmation button.

Once the payment has been automatically or manually confirmed, the POS software application sends data relating to the financial transaction, i.e. the purchase of the products, to the server 11 for storage in the database 12. These data are herein referred to as financial transaction data. The financial transaction data may be stored in different ways in one or more database tables of the database 12.

The financial transaction data comprises, for each of the products purchased through the financial transaction, at least a product identifier indicating the type of the product purchased, a purchase price indicator indicating the purchase price of the product, and a geographical position indicator indicating a geographical position of the merchant establishment at which the product was purchased. Furthermore, the financial transaction data may comprise a transaction identifier that is unique for each financial transaction, a merchant identifier indicating the merchant establishment at which the product was purchased, a date indicator indicating the date of the financial transaction, and a time indicator indicating the time of the financial transaction.

Fig. 7 shows an exemplary database table“DB_Fin_Trans” 39 of the database 12, in which the financial transaction data may be stored. The financial transaction is assigned a unique transaction identifier 41 (“ftjd”). For each product purchased through the financial transaction, the product identifier 27 of that product is stored together with the transaction identifier 41 , a merchant identifier 43 (“mjd”) indicating the merchant establishment at which the product was purchased, a purchase price indicator 45 (“p_p_price”) indicating the purchase price of the product, a geographical position indicator 47 (“ft_geo”) indicating the geographical position of the merchant establishment at which the product was purchased, a date indicator 49 (“ft_date”) indicating the date of the financial transaction, and a time indicator 51 (“ft_time”) indicating the time of the financial transaction. This means that the product identifier 27, the purchase price indicator 45 and the geographical position indicator 47 are associatively stored in the database 12 and may be subsequently used together with the stored product data to retrieve information on where and at which price various products have been purchased. The product identifier 27 that is associatively stored with, i.a., the purchase price indicator 45 and the geographical position indicator 47, serves as a product type indicator as it enables the POS software application to derive the product type of the purchased product, as indicated by the parameters“p_cat” 31 and/or“p_sub_cat” 33, from the product database table 25.

The geographical position indicator 47 may be obtained by the POS software application through manual input of a geographic location of the merchant establishment 5. For example, the POS software application may be configured to prompt the merchant 3 to indicate the geographic location 7 of the merchant establishment 5 during a setup process of the POS software application, e.g. by entering a postal address for the merchant establishment or indicating the location of the establishment on a digital map. However, considering there are mobile merchant establishments, it may be advantageous if the geographical position indicator 47 is obtained by the POS software application at or close to the point in time of the financial transaction. Therefore, the POS terminal 9 may advantageously comprise a geographical position device 23 (see Fig. 3), such as a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, and the POS software application may be configured to obtain the geographical position indicator automatically from the geographical position device. Alternatively, the merchant 3 may be prompted by the POS software application to indicate or confirm the geographic location 7 of the merchant establishment upon confirmation of checkout, before the financial transaction data is stored in the database 12. According to yet another alternative, the merchant may be prompted by the POS software application to indicate or confirm the geographic location 7 of the merchant establishment 5 upon initiation of the POS software application, typically at start-up of the POS software application before opening the merchant establishment for daily business.

The product identifier 27 may be obtained by the POS software application from the product database table 25 upon selection of the product to be purchased. Alternatively, the product identifier 27 may be obtained by the POS software application from a local product database residing in the POS terminal 9, storing essentially the same information as the product database table 25 in Fig. 5. The merchant identifier 43 may be obtained by the POS software application from a merchant database table (not shown) storing merchant information entered by the merchant during a preceding merchant registration process through which the merchant is registered as a user of the POS software application. The purchase price indicator 45 may be obtained by the POS software application as the product price stated in the checkout view upon confirmation of checkout. As mentioned above, the purchase price that is displayed in the checkout view may initially be set to correspond to the list price of the product, e.g. as indicated by the list price indicator 35 in the product database table 25. If, in the checkout view, the list price is changed into a purchase price that is different than the list price, the purchase price may be stored in a temporary data holder during the checkout process, for subsequent storage as purchase price indicator 45 in the financial transaction database table 39 upon confirmation of payment. The date indicator 49 and the time indicator 51 may be obtained from a real-time clock (not shown) of the POS terminal 9 or the server 11 and may, for instance, be set in the financial transaction database table 39 as the date and time at confirmation of payment of the purchased product. As appreciated by a person skilled in the art of databases, the database tables 25, 39 in Figs. 5 and 7 are shown only for illustrative purposes and are not necessarily optimally designed to store the above-mentioned data parameters in the most functional and storage-efficient manner. As will be understood by the skilled person, the database 12 of the POS system 1 may be designed in many different ways in order to create data parameter relations required for the POS system to function in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure.

With reference again made to Fig. 2, it should be appreciated that the POS terminals 9A-9E of all business establishments 5A-5E are configured to upload product data and financial transaction data in accordance with the principles described above with reference to the POS terminal 9 and the merchant establishment 5. This means that the database 12 will contain a large amount of data on products purchased from different business establishments 5A-5E at different geographical positions 7A-7E and at different points in time. This statistical data, or sales data, may be used by the POS software application of the POS terminal 9 to present useful information to the merchant 3, which information is intended to support the merchant in business critical decisions.

For example, the POS software application of the POS terminal 9 may be configured to derive statistical data from the financial transaction data in the database 12, and present the statistical data or suggestions or recommendations that are automatically generated based on the derived statistical data to the merchant, via the GUI of POS software application. The statistical data may comprise any of, or any combination of: product type/geolocation correlation data, indicating what products are purchased in different geographical areas, or at least the geographical distribution of purchases of one particular type of product;

product type/time correlation data, indicating what products are purchased at different points in time, or at least the distribution in time of purchases of a particular type of product;

sales volume/geolocation correlation data, indicating sales volumes of different products in different geographical areas, or at least sales volumes of a particular product in different geographical areas, and sales volume/time correlation data, indicating sales volumes of different products at different points in time, or at least sales volumes of a particular product at different points in time.

The POS software application may further be configured to use the derived statistical data to automatically present suggestions or recommendations relating to the merchant’s business. For example, the POS software application may be configured to present:

a suggested price for a product to be offered for sale at the merchant establishment;

a recommendation on whether or not a particular product should be offered for sale at the merchant establishment, or

a suggested geographic location for the merchant establishment.

In some embodiments, the POS software application may be configured to present the statistical data with reference to a digital map that is displayed on the display 19 of the POS terminal 9. For example, the POS software application may be configured to present a digital map comprising at least an indication of a

geographical hot spot area in which a certain product type is more frequently purchased than in other geographical areas. The digital map may be a type of density map illustrating the geographical distribution of purchases of a particular type of product by indicating different geographical areas in the map in different ways in dependence of the number of products of the certain product type purchased in the respective geographical area. For example, a geographical area in the map may be displayed in a colour that is selected in dependence of the number of products of the certain product type purchased in the geographical area.

The POS software application may further be configured to display a time control, such as slide bar, in association with the digital map. The time control enables the user (i.e. the merchant 3) to change a time for which the geographical distribution of purchases of the certain product type should be displayed in the map. For example, the time control may be configured to enable the user to view the geographical distribution of purchases of the certain product type for different hours of the day, different months of the year, different years, etc. Preferably, the digital map is an interactive map in which the geographical distribution of purchases of the certain product type is continuously updated on the map during manipulation of the time control by the user. In this way, both the geographical distribution and the distribution in time of purchases of the certain product type may be presented to the merchant in a comprehensible and intuitive manner, allowing the merchant to study the purchasing behaviour in relevant geographical areas.

The geographical distribution of purchases of a particular type of product may be determined by the POS software application by determining, based on product type indicators and geographical position indicators of the financial transaction data in the database 12, the number of products of the particular type purchased from business establishments 5A-5E within different geographical areas.

This data may further be used by the POS software application to present a recommendation on whether or not a particular product should be offered for sale at the merchant establishment 5, and/or to present a suggested geographic location for the merchant establishment.

For example, the POS software application may be configured to identify financial transaction data relating to purchases of a particular product type in the

surroundings of the merchant establishment 9, and to use the number of products purchased in the surroundings of the merchant establishment as a basis for the recommendation. Thereby, the POS terminal may assist the merchant 3 in optimising the product assortment of the merchant establishment 9, e.g. by recommending the offering for sale of product types not offered for sale elsewhere in the geographical area of the merchant establishment, or recommending the offering for sale of product types that are frequently purchased and hence apparently popular in the geographical area of the merchant establishment.

Alternatively, the POS software application may be configured to identify financial transaction data relating to purchases of a particular product type in a geographical area other than the geographical area of the merchant establishment. For instance, the particular geographical area may be a neighbouring geographical area accommodating a shopping centre. In this instance, the POS software application may recommend the offering for sale of product types that are frequently purchased in the neighbouring geographical area. Alternatively, the particular geographical area may be a geographical area that is similar to the geographical area of the merchant establishment 5 with respect to geography and/or population. In this case, the POS software application could recommend the offering for sale of product types that are popular in the similar geographical area.

The POS terminal may be configured to determine the particular geographical area from positional data obtained by the geographical positioning device 23 of the POS terminal 9, or from information obtained from manual input on the POS terminal.

The one or more product types to which the recommendations or statistical data relates may be selected by the merchant 3 through manual input of information on the POS terminal 3. For example, the POS software application may be configured to obtain information on the product type by prompting the merchant 3 to enter a product name or product type in a text field, or prompting the merchant to select a product name, product type or product picture from a displayed list of predefined product names, product types and/or product pictures. Relevant product type indicators for the selected product may then be obtained by the POS software application by matching the product name, product type or product picture with the product data in the database 12. The POS software application may also be configured for image recognition, allowing the merchant 3 to take a photo of a product and submit the photo to the POS software application, whereby the POS software application may be configured to obtain the information on the product type through a matching process where the product image of the photo is matched with product pictures in the database 12.

In accordance with these principles, the POS system 1 may comprise:

at least one database 12 storing financial transaction data on products purchased by customers at different business establishments 5A-5E, the financial transaction data comprising, for each of a plurality of financial transactions, a product type indicator 27 indicating a type of product purchased, and a geographical position indicator 45 indicating a geographical position of the business establishment from which the product was purchased; a POS terminal 9 for use by a merchant 3 offering products for sale at a merchant establishment 5, the POS terminal being configured to:

o derive statistical data from the financial transaction data in the at least one database 12 based on the product type indicators 27 and the geographical position indicators 47 of the financial transaction data, and o present the statistical data to the merchant 3, or

o present a recommendation to the merchant relating to any of a product assortment or a geographical location of the merchant establishment 5, based on the derived statistical data.

As described above, the statistical data may comprise product type/geolocation correlation data, indicating the geographical distribution of purchases of a particular type of product, which data may be presented with reference to a digital map that is displayed on the display 19 of the POS terminal 9. In order data on the purchase distribution in time, as also described above, the derived statistical data would have to be based also on the date indicators 49 and/or the time indicators 51 of the financial transactions data.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for business decision support, in accordance with the above described principles. The method is carried out in a POS terminal 9 for use by a merchant 3 offering products for sale at a merchant establishment 5. The POS terminal is part of a POS system 1 further comprising at least one database 12 storing financial transaction data on products purchased by customers at different business establishments 5A-5E, where the financial transaction data comprises, for each of a plurality of financial transactions, a product type indicator 27 indicating a type of product purchased, and a geographical position indicator 45 indicating a geographical position of the business establishment at which the product was purchased. In a first step, S81 , statistical data is derived by the POS terminal 9 from the financial transaction data in the database 12. The selection of data is based on the product type indicators 27 and the geographical position indicators 47 of the financial transaction data. Depending on the configuration of the POS software application of the POS terminal 9, and/or depending on a request by the merchant 3 for sales statistics or sales recommendations, the method may proceed to either of a step S82A or a step S82B.

In step S82A, the derived statistical data, i.e. the sales statistics, is presented to the merchant on the display 19 of the POS terminal 9.

In step S82B, a recommendation relating to any of a product assortment or a geographical location of the merchant establishment 5 is presented to the merchant on the display 19 of the POS terminal 9, which recommendation is based on the derived statistical data.

According to one particular aspect of the present disclosure, the POS terminal 9 is configured to automatically suggest a price for a product to be offered for sale at the merchant establishment 9, based on the purchase prices of corresponding products purchased from other business establishments, and the geographical positions of the other business establishments, as indicated by the financial transaction data stored in the database 12.

To this end, the POS terminal 9, through the execution of the POS software application, may be configured to obtain information on a product to be priced, identify financial transaction data related to purchases of products of the same or similar type in the database 12, analyse the identified financial transaction data with respect to the purchase prices and the geolocations of the purchases, and present a suggested price for the product to be priced based on the result of the analysis.

The information obtained by the POS terminal 9 on the product to be priced may be any information allowing the POS software application to identify the type of the product. For instance, the POS software application may be configured to prompt the merchant 3 to indicate the product type of the product to be priced, preferably by selecting a product type from a predefined list of product types. Alternatively, the POS software application may be configured to prompt the merchant 3 to enter a product name via the POS terminal 9, whereby the POS software application may be configured to automatically determine the product type of the product to be priced based on the product type (e.g. as defined by the product category indicator 31 or product sub-category indicator 33) of one or more products having a same or similar product name, stored in the database 12. According to yet another alternative, the merchant may submit a photo of the product to be priced to the POS software application, whereby the POS software application may identify the type of the product to be priced through image recognition technology, as described above.

The financial transaction data identified in the database 12 will contain data from a number of financial transactions involving a purchase of a same or similar product as the product to be priced. For each transaction, a purchase price of the purchased product and a geographical position of the merchant establishment from which it was purchased are made available to the POS software application for subsequent analysis. The POS software application may be configured to analyse the identified financial transaction data in various ways in order to determine an optimal product price to be suggested to the merchant.

The suggested product price may be presented to the merchant 3 in different ways and in different views of the POS software application. For example, a suggested product price may be presented by the POS software application in response to a request for product price suggestion from the merchant 3, or be automatically presented by the POS software application upon indication of a product name or product type by the merchant 3 during the product registration process. The merchant 3 may, for instance, request the POS software application for a price suggestion by clicking a GUI object, such as a button or link. In the exemplary embodiment of a product registration view illustrated in Fig. 4, the GUI object labelled“suggest price” may be clicked by the merchant 3 to have a price suggestion presented in the price field above. Alternatively, the POS software application may be configured to automatically display an amendable price suggestion in the price field upon indication of the product type by the merchant 3 through the selection of product category (“Category”) or sub-category (“Sub category”). In an exemplary embodiment, the POS terminal 9 may be configured to determine the suggested price for the product to be priced based on purchase prices of the same or similar products purchased from business establishments in the

surroundings, e.g. in the geographical area of the merchant establishment. In this way, the suggested price can be optimised in relation to the pricing of same or similar products offered by nearby competitors.

The geographic location 7 of the merchant establishment 5 may be obtained by the POS software application through manual input by the merchant 3 on the POS terminal 9 or from a geographical positioning device 23 of the POS terminal 9, as described above. The geographical area of the merchant establishment 5 may be automatically defined by the POS software application as a geographical area surrounding the merchant location 7. Alternatively, the POS software application may be configured to enable a user, i.e. the merchant, to define the geographical area of the merchant location 3 through manual input of information on the POS terminal 9, e.g. by allowing the user to indicate a geographical area on a digital map that is display to the user on the POS terminal 9.

The POS software application may, for instance, be configured to calculate an average purchase price of the same or similar products purchased in the

geographical area of the merchant establishment, and to determine the suggested price for the product to be priced based on the calculated average price. In an exemplary embodiment, the POS software application may be configured to set the suggested price to correspond to the calculated average price.

The POS software application may further be configured to take a profit margin of the product to be priced into account in the determination of the suggested price. To this end, the POS software application may be configured to obtain information on the cost price of the product to be priced, e.g. through manual input by the merchant during product registration, and to use the cost price information in the determination of the suggested price. In this way, the POS software application can suggest a competitive price for the product while ensuring that the product is not sold at a loss. The POS software application may further be configured to take a sales volume of the same or similar product into account in the determination of the suggested price. Preferably, the POS software is configured to determine a sales volume of the same or similar product in a particular geographical area, and to use the calculated sales volume in the determination of the suggested price. For example, the POS software application may be configured determine a sales volume of same or similar products in the geographical area of the merchant establishment and, if same or similar products have been frequently purchased in the surroundings of the merchant establishment 5, the POS software application may be configured to suggest a product price that is relatively high in relation to an average purchase price of the same or similar products purchased in the surroundings of the merchant

establishment. If, on the other hand, same or the similar products have been rarely purchased in the surroundings, the POS software application may be configured to suggest a product price that is relatively low in relation to the average purchase price of the same or similar products purchased in the surroundings of the merchant establishment.

The POS software application may further be configured to use the financial transaction data in the database 12 to determine a level of price sensitivity for one or more geographical areas, and to use the determined level of price sensitivity in the determination of the suggested price.

The level of price sensitivity for a specific geographical area is typically not determined by the POS software application from financial transaction data relating to the product to be priced. Instead, the POS software application may be configured to use a frequently purchased product type, such as milk or coffee, as a reference product in the determination of the level of price sensitivity in a specific geographical area. For instance, the POS software application may be configured to identify financial transaction data relating to financial transactions involving the purchase of the reference product in different geographical areas, and to determine a level of price sensitivity for each geographical area based on an average purchase price of the reference product in that geographical area. In this way, the POS software application may be configured to determine a price sensitivity index for each of a plurality of geographical areas. Once the level of price sensitivity has been determined for one or more geographical areas, the POS software application may be configured to use the level of price sensitivity in the determination of the suggested price for the product to be priced. Putting it differently, the POS software application may be configured to use purchase prices of a reference product (that is different than the product to be priced) to determine a level of price sensitivity in one or more geographical areas, and to use the determined level of price sensitivity in the determination of the suggested price. For example, if the POS software application concludes, from the identified financial transaction data, that the product to be priced has been frequently purchased even in price sensitive areas, it may be configured to suggest a price that is relatively high in relation to an average purchase price of the same or similar product in the price sensitive areas. Likewise, if the POS software application concludes, from the financial transaction data, that the product to be priced is rarely purchased even in non-price sensitive areas, it may be configured to suggest a price that is relatively low in relation to an average purchase price of the same or similar product in the non-price sensitive areas. Consequently, as illustrated by this example, the feature of determining the suggested price based on the level of price sensitivity in one or more geographical areas may be advantageous even without knowing the level of price sensitivity in the geographical area of the merchant establishment.

Nevertheless, the POS software application is advantageously configured to determine also a level of price sensitivity in the geographical area of the merchant establishment, and to use the determined level of price sensitivity in the

geographical area of the merchant establishment in the determination of the suggested price. The POS software application may be configured to define the geographical area of the merchant establishment in accordance with the principles described above. Once the relevant geographical area of the merchant

establishment has been defined, the level of price sensitivity in the area may be determined from the average purchase price of a reference product, as described above. In some embodiments, the POS software application may be configured to determine the suggested price based on the level of price sensitivity in the geographical area of the merchant establishment 5, the price sensitivity levels in the geographical areas of other business establishments 5A-5E at which the same or similar product have been purchased, and the purchase prices of the same or similar products purchased at the other business establishments. For example, the POS software application may be configured to determine the suggested price based on the price sensitivity indexes of the geographical areas of the other business establishments, the price sensitivity index of the geographical area of the merchant establishment, and the average purchase prices of the same or similar product in the geographical areas of the other business establishments. In this way, the suggested price can be made to correspond to a weighted average purchase price of same or similar products, weighted based on the level of price sensitivity in the relevant geographical area.

Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method for automatic product pricing in accordance with the above described principles. The method is carried out in a POS terminal 9 for use by a merchant 3 offering products for sale at a merchant establishment 5. The POS terminal is part of a POS system 1 further comprising at least one database 12 storing financial transaction data on products purchased by customers at different business establishments 5A-5E, where the financial transaction data comprises, for each of a plurality of financial transactions, a product type indicator 27 indicating a type of product purchased, a purchase price indicator 45 indicating a purchase price of the product purchased, and a geographical position indicator 45 indicating a geographical position of the business establishment from which the product was purchased.

In a first step, S91 , information on a product to be priced is obtained by the POS terminal 9, e.g. through manual input of information on the POS terminal by the merchant 3.

In a second step, S92, financial transaction data relating to products of a same or similar type as the product to be priced is identified in the database 12. In a third step, S93, a suggested price for the product to be priced is determined based on the purchase price indicators and the geographical position indicators of the identified financial transaction data. In a fourth and final step, S94, the suggested price is presented to the merchant 3 on the display 19 of the POS terminal 9.