Touch screen cash register that displays merchandise keys based on sales

Abstract

Labelled item keys displayed on a touch sensitive display screen of a merchandise register (e.g., a POS terminal) are dynamically changed during operation of the register in accordance with a particular sale and/or previous sales. Information regarding all traded merchandise items is retained in a memory. Sales information relating to each merchandise item is updated and reorganized within the memory during the registration of each sale. After completion of each sales registration, merchandise items are ordered according to selected sales information associated with each merchandise item. In one example, a hierarchial ranking according to sales volume is created for all traded items. In addition, a key arrangement storing memory stores key arrangement data that specifies a particular positional arrangement or layout for displaying item identification indicia within a limited number of merchandise keys that are displayed on the touch sensitive display screen. A preferred positional arrangement for displaying various merchandise keys is based on the relative rankings of respective merchandise items. A key arrangement control process changes the key arrangement data in accordance with changes in the ranking of an item so that the relative display positions of item indicia on displayed merchandise item keys will reflect the updated hierarchial ranking of each item. A display control process then reads the updated key arrangement data and displays the new positions of item indicia on the merchandise item keys of the display.