Sales simulation of a movie rental shop with customer agents

Abstract

Customer interaction with a movie rental business can be modeled with a multi-agent simulation consisting of customer, rental shop, and rental transaction models. A customer model is an agent that has independent purchase behaviors. The customer model is described by several properties called customer indicators. A rental shop model is a virtual shop with video stocks and services. The rental shop model is described by several properties called business indicators. A rental transaction model is composed of a series of virtual transactions between customer agents and the rental shop model. The rental transactions are simulated using the day-by-day time-marching method for one year. The results of the simulations are the sales figures of the rental movie shop and the consumption ratios of leisure time and money spent watching rental movies for each customer. Example results demonstrate the dependence of sales results on indicator values, and the potential for these simulations to benefit business management.