Malls versus online shopping
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WHAT IS IT?
This is a model that explains online versus bricks and mortar purchasing. The agents choose between purchasing an item online or from a local mall or brick and mortar retailer (BMR). The agents also share their experiences with a social network.
HOW IT WORKS
Agents move according to the ratio of BMR /online experience. Online experience is governed by the purchase of something of Value less online risk. BMR experience is driven by value, immediate gratification and post sales service less overhead cost which is the number of customer required to breakeven / divided by current customers.
HOW TO USE IT
The model shows how a mall manager might want to invest in customer service and/ or entertainment and have a large offering of products in order to attract consumers. Convearsely, the online retailer should focus simply on value provided and online risk.
THINGS TO NOTICE
The model is quite senstive to changes in the mall conditions, rather than the online enviroment. The importance of customer service and entertainment in the mall is shown up well in this model.
THINGS TO TRY
You may want to move sliders to examine differing catergories of product of high and low value where buying products / services online may be risky. Also examine the importance of consumers waiting and customer service are examined in this model. Note that larger malls need to invest more in entertainment and customer service than small malls.
EXTENDING THE MODEL
You may want to consider adding in various retailing categories or perhaps develop a model that uses webgromming or mixed model retailing of visiting, comparing prices then deciding to shop online or in a store.
NETLOGO FEATURES
Dr. Duncan has allowed users to shift agents (customers) between the Bricks and Mortar retailer and online retailer.
RELATED MODELS
There is an additional model which takes into account different reasons for visiting a mall and includes wider categories which might make a person stay longer such as enteratainment and food and coffee. See Duncan, Roderick, Bossomaier, Terry, D’Alessandro, Steven and Murphy, Danny (2015) Clothes maketh the man and the regional mall, The 12th International Multidisciplinary Modelling and Simulation Multi-Conference, Bergeggi, Italy.
CREDITS AND REFERENCES
Duncan, Roderick, Bossomaier, Terry and D’Alessandro, Steven (2014) The defence of bricks and mortar retailing, 13th International Conference on Modelling and Applied Simulation, Bordeaux, France: 111-116, available online at http://www.msc-les.org/conf/mas2014/
Comments and Questions
globals ;;variables in the model [ retailing-patches residential-patches house-patches average-exp-bricks average-exp-online number-customers-bricks number-customers-online ] breed [customers customer] customers-own [ house-xcor house-ycor pref-distance gossip-weight exp-online exp-bricks new-exp-online new-exp-bricks shopping prob-choice-bricks ] breed [houses house] breed [retailer retailers] patches-own [ ] to setup clear-all setup-patches setup-agents setup-networks reset-ticks end to setup-patches ;; create the 'house patches' set residential-patches patches with [(pycor >= 0) and (pycor <= 31)] ask residential-patches [ set pcolor green ] ;; create the 'retailing patches' set retailing-patches patches with [(pycor >= 32) and (pycor <= 47)] ask retailing-patches [ set pcolor brown] set house-patches patches with [(pxcor mod 6 = 3) and (pycor mod 6 = 3) and (pycor < 31)] end to setup-agents set-default-shape customers "person" create-customers (initial-number-customers) [ set exp-online random-float 1 set exp-bricks random-float 1 set color 4 + ((exp-bricks - exp-online) * 10) set gossip-weight initial-gossip-weight move-to one-of residential-patches set house-xcor xcor set house-ycor ycor ] set-default-shape houses "house" create-houses (40) [ set color brown move-to one-of house-patches with [count houses-here = 0] ] set-default-shape retailer "building store" create-retailer (3) [ set color red set size 10 setxy 24 40 ] end to setup-networks ask customers [ if ((random-float 1) < prob-links) [ create-link-with one-of customers with [distance myself > 0] ] ] ask links [set color blue] end to layout wait 0.05 layout-spring customers links 0.2 5 1 ask customers with [[pcolor] of patch-here != green] [ move-to one-of patches with [(distance myself < 3) and (pcolor = green)] set house-xcor xcor set house-ycor ycor ] end to move-customers ask customers [ set prob-choice-bricks (exp (beta * (exp-bricks - exp-online))) / (1 + (exp (beta * (exp-bricks - exp-online)))) ;; Equation 1 Pr (i chooses BMR) ifelse (random-float 1 < prob-choice-bricks)[move-to one-of retailing-patches][setxy house-xcor house-ycor] ] end to update-experience set number-customers-bricks count customers with [[pcolor] of patch-here = brown] set number-customers-online count customers with [[pcolor] of patch-here = green] ask customers [ if ([pcolor] of patch-here = green) [ set exp-online (value - random-float online_risk) / 100 ;; Equation 1 online experience set shopping "online" ] if ([pcolor] of patch-here = brown) [ set exp-bricks ((value + random-float immediacy-importance + random-float post-sales-importance + random-float Mall_entertain - (Breakeven_custom) / number-customers-bricks)) / 400 ;; Equation 3 BMR experience set shopping "bricks" ] set new-exp-online exp-online set new-exp-bricks exp-bricks ] ask customers with [count link-neighbors > 0] [ ask link-neighbors [ set new-exp-online (1 - [gossip-weight] of myself) * exp-online + (([gossip-weight] of myself) * ([exp-online] of myself)) ;; agents shares gossip with linked agents set new-exp-bricks (1 - [gossip-weight] of myself) * exp-bricks + (([gossip-weight] of myself) * ([exp-bricks] of myself)) ;; agents shares gossip with linked agents ] set color 4 + (exp-bricks - exp-online) / 10 ] ask customers with [count link-neighbors > 0] [ set exp-bricks new-exp-bricks set exp-online new-exp-online ] end to mouse-move ;When enable by actived the button allows individual agents to be moved. if mouse-down? [ let candidate min-one-of customers [distancexy mouse-xcor mouse-ycor] if [distancexy mouse-xcor mouse-ycor] of candidate < 1 [ while [mouse-down?] [ ask candidate [ setxy mouse-xcor mouse-ycor ] ] ] ] end to return-customers-to-houses ask customers [ set xcor house-xcor set ycor house-ycor ] end ;;main routine to go move-customers update-experience set average-exp-online mean [exp-online] of customers * 100 ;;average satisfaction experience of online expressed as a percentage set average-exp-bricks mean [exp-bricks] of customers * 100;; average satisfaction experience with brick and mortar retailing expressed as percentage if number-customers-bricks = 0 [stop] if number-customers-online = 0 [stop] tick end
There is only one version of this model, created 2 days ago by Steven D'Alessandro.
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| File | Type | Description | Last updated | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malls versus online shopping.png | preview | Preview for 'Malls versus online shopping' | 2 days ago, by Steven D'Alessandro | Download |
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