Merchandise management is implemented by recognizing a piece of merchandise in an image on a video in real time. A piece of merchandise and m-number of first local feature which are respectively 1-dimensional to i-dimensional feature vectors are stored after being associated with each other, n-number of feature points are extracted from an image on a video captured by an imaging unit, n-number of second local feature which are respectively 1-dimensional to j-dimensional feature vectors are generated, a smaller number of dimensions of the number of dimensions i and the number of dimensions j is selected, and a recognition that the merchandise exists in the image on the video is made when it is determined that a prescribed proportion or more of the m-number of first local feature of the selected number of dimensions correspond to the n-number of second local feature of the selected number of dimensions.