The paper considers the problem of choosing optimal strategies for agents in the e-commerce market. In this market, retailers interact with buyers through marketplaces, therefore, the agents are retailers and marketplaces. An analysis of the structure and dynamics of the e-commerce market in the Russian Federation demonstrates the significance of this problem due to the outstripping growth of sales via the Internet compared to the dynamics of traditional sales channels. We study the e-commerce business process for the leading marketplaces Wildberries and Ozon, and develop the decision-making models of marketplaces and retailers for choosing the best sales channel. We prove the optimal mechanisms for calculating sales volumes that maximize the utility functions of marketplaces and retailers. The method for estimating ranges of mutually beneficial values of the agents’ sales volumes based on compromise areas is proposed. Statistical analysis of smartphones sales in the Russian e-commerce market leads to the demand function and the agents’ cost functions. On the basis of the functions we develop the utility functions of agents and calculate the compromise areas. An investigation of the compromise areas justifies the practical recommendations for choosing the agents’ optimal strategies in the smartphone e-commerce market.

retailer, marketplace, e-commerce platform, mathematical model, optimization, optimal mechanism.