Abstract:

In the e-commerce market， many product suppliers and e-commerce platforms can provide the logistics service to consumers. It is commonly known that different logistics service modes have their pros and cons， which meets the diversified development needs of e-commerce enterprises but meanwhile leads to some problems， including the low efficiency and poor quality of e-commerce logistics service. To improve the quality of e-commerce logistics service and enhance the efficiency of e-commerce supply chain， it is of great importance to select the proper logistics service mode. Meanwhile， the rapid development of e-commerce also attracts more and more suppliers to sell their products through different types of e-commerce platforms. Many suppliers even sell products with same or similar functions on the same platform. The fierce competition among suppliers will undoubtedly influence the efficiency of different logistics service modes， and further change the firms’ logistics service mode choices. Therefore， it is necessary to explore the optimal logistics service mode for e-commerce supply chain under the scenario with suppliers’ competition.By constructing a supply chain consisting of two competing suppliers， one e-commerce platform and a continuum of heterogeneous consumers， a game-theoretical model is developed to explore the optimal logistics service mode for e-commerce supply chain considering suppliers’ competition and further examine the impact of the platform’s selling mode choice on the optimal logistics service strategy. The results show that if the e-commerce platform adopts the reselling mode or marketplace mode， the two suppliers and the platform all prefer the strategy that the platform only provides the logistics service for one product and the corresponding supplier offers the logistics service to another product when the competition is intense and the logistics service’s cost performance is high. By contrast， if the e-commerce platform adopts the hybrid mode， the two suppliers’ logistics service mode preferences are highly differentiated but the e-commerce platform always prefers to provide the logistics service for both suppliers’ products.

Key words: logistics service mode, e-commerce supply chain, e-commerce platform, suppliers’ competition, selling mode