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An Agent-Based Simulation of Payment
Behavior in E-Commerce
Axel Hummel
1
,HeikoKern
1
, and Arndt Dohler
2
1
Business Information Systems, University of Leipzig
Johannisgasse 26, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
{hummel,kern}@informatik.uni-leipzig.de
2
Intershop Communication AG
Intershop Tower, 07745 Jena, Germany
a.doehler@intershop.de
Abstract.
The optimal configuration of an online store is a challenging
task. Nowadays store managers decide on basis of their expert knowledge.
This decision making is insucient because their choices are often non-
transparent and the effects of their decisions are dicult to predict. An
example of this problem is the optimal configuration of payment methods
that should be offered in an online store. In this paper, we focus on the
problem of payment method configuration. We present an agent-based
simulation that enables the simulation of the customer's payment behav-
ior in order to support the decision-making process of store managers.
We validate this simulation model by using data from real online stores
and discuss the simulation results.
Keywords:
Agent-Based Simulation, E-Commerce, Payment Behavior.
1
Introduction
The electronic commerce (e-commerce) on the Internet is for many enterprises
an important channel of distribution in order to sell their products or to pro-
vide their services. Regarding the e-commerce between business and consumers
(B2C), business transactions are typical realized by online stores (e-shops). The
success of an online store depends among other on an optimal configuration of
different aspects such as the shop layout, business processes, marketing activities,
available payment methods, or the integration of third-party service providers.
The optimal configuration of an online store is a challenging task. The config-
uration requires precise knowledge about the interdependency between config-
uration parameters and the impact of these parameters within the e-commerce
ecosystem. This interdependency is often multidimensional nature and includes
dimensions such as technical, economics or social aspects. Today, store managers
are responsibility for an online store and decide on basis of their expert knowl-
edge about a configuration. Store managers have to configure in their (daily)
business the store on basis of current trends or business objectives. Hence, they
have to make decisions which might cause changes of the e-commerce system like
pricing or marketing actions. These modifications directly influence the consumer
