Abstract:

With the development of e-commerce and the change of people's consumption habits， more and more manufacturers have opened online sales channels， which include online distribution channel and online direct sales channel. Although the manufacturer can benefit from opening online sales channel， financial constraint has always been an important factor restricting the development of the manufacturer. In order to obtain more profits， some large e-commerce platforms began to involve in the field of supply chain finance， providing financing services for enterprises settled in their platforms. Consequently， the manufacturer is no longer limited to traditional bank financing， and e-commerce platform financing is also an important financing channel. Therefore， some key issues must be considered： When does the e-commerce platform provide financing service？ Which financing mode should the manufacturer choose when two financing modes are available？ Focusing on these questions， a supply chain consisting of one capital-constrained manufacturer and one e-commerce platform in which the manufacturer sells his product on the e-commerce platform through dual-channels is developed， i.e.， the online distribution channel and the online direct channel. In the online distribution channel， the manufacturer wholesales the product to the e-commerce platform who subsequently sells it to the end consumers. In the online direct channel， the manufacturer directly retails the product to the consumer on the e-commerce platform by paying a part of sales as the revenue share. To alleviate financial shortage， the capital-constrained manufacturer can choose internal financing （e-commerce platform financing） or external financing （bank financing）. To seek the financing strategy， the equilibrium pricing decisions and the optimal interest rate under two different financing strategies are obtained and compared. Analytical results show that： Firstly， when the relative interest rates set by the e-commerce platform and the bank lie in a certain range， the manufacturer and the e-commerce platform will select the same financing strategy by maximizing the individual profit， thereby achieving a “win-win” outcome. Secondly， when the interest rates are the same in the two financing strategies， the e-commerce platform financing enjoys a higher wholesale price and lower retail price of the distribution channel than the bank financing. Thirdly， when one of the parameters： E-commerce platform's revenue sharing ratio， cross price elasticity coefficient and proportion of consumers in distribution channel are relatively large， the manufacturer chooses e-commerce platform for financing under the optimal loan interest rate. Simultaneously， the manufacturer and the e-commerce platform are willing to charge lower retail prices to stimulate market demand under the e-commerce platform financing model. The results of this paper have important management significance for the enterprise and the e-commerce platform.

Key words: supply chain, online dual channel, e-commerce platform, financing strategy