Development of Reward Mechanism for Proxy Marketers Engaged in E-Commerce Platforms

Abstract

A reward model/mechanism for proxy marketer-based e-commerce/e-shopping system was developed in this work. The system comprised of two modules, the shopping module which has an online shop and virtual warehouse; and the reward module. The online shop and virtual warehouse are used to manage the products on the e-commerce system, the reward mechanism is used to manage the reward paid to the proxy marketer. Proxy marketers have been introduced into online shopping to extend their market reach and increase their market share. The proxy marketers are organized in a unilevel multilevel market structure. The work offers three types of rewards: transaction reward which is paid to three generations from the proxy marketer who made the transaction; trust reward which is based on the trustworthiness rating of proxy marketer for a transaction; and turnover reward which is paid for transaction that is up to the amount stipulated for the reward. The various levels of reward were designed to total fifty percent of the profit made per transaction in order to attain sustainability of the network. The work proves that with a sustainable reward mechanism, proxy marketers can be incorporated into an e-commerce platform in a way that betters the profitability of such e-commerce platforms as compared to standalone e-shopping ones.