Agent-based modeling and simulation in the analysis of e-commerce market

A paradigm shift from physical to e-commerce market demands a prudent marketing strategy for online brands to survive in a vying environment. A newbie must be aware of challenges, they may face while introducing their brand in virtual market. With evolution of technology and introduction of fairly powerful computers, modeling and simulation techniques have become very popular to envision upcoming challenges. Many techniques have been introduced to model different real-world problems to date. Agent-based modeling has become vastly used technique in scenarios where autonomous entities interact with each other. This paper examines different marketing behavior and challenges for tenderfoots in online market based on audience and customers. Agent-based modeling is used to develop a simulation model for virtual market. Effect of customers’ behavior and advertisements on sellers’ ratings and sales volumes is analyzed using NetLogo simulations. Analysis depicts that getting knowledge of different aspects through simulations significantly reduces investment risk in e-commerce market.