An optimal coalition formation algorithm for electronic group buying

Abstract

Group buying is a form of electronic commerce that is growing quickly. Group buying is a commercial transaction in which a buyer can purchase goods at a low price if many buyers participate in group buying. But buyers are often distributed among these group-buying sites non-optimally. If we can optimally allocate buyers to several group buying sites, all buyers can buy a good at a lower price. The aim of this paper is to solve this optimal allocation problem by a genetic algorithm.