Abstract:

In recent years， online shopping， mode of “Internet + service”， mode of online and offline integration are becoming the dominate trends of new consumption industry， whose thriving development are playing an important role in safeguarding people's livelihood， unleashing consumption potential， stabilizing economic growth， and becoming one of the most important accelerators for high-quality economic development. As online shopping is increasingly preferred by consumers， the offline retailers tend to provide retail services in response to the competition among those online direct selling platforms. Therefore， this research aims to examine how the customers’ preference for online shopping and retail services affect selling and recovery strategies in close-loop supply chains. Moreover， a decision model is built for a close-loop supply chain with dual-channels of offline retailing and online direct selling by applying consumer utility theory for a close-loop supply chain in which regarding the activity of managing used products for remanufacturing by retailers and manufacturers respectively as targets. By comparing the calculation results of different close-loop supply chain decision models， the optimal sales and recovery strategies are derived， and then the correctness of the results is verified by empirical analysis. It is found that： （1） The customers’ preferences for online purchase behavior is one of the main factors that would lead to a huge impact on the sales strategy of those manufacturers in the close-loop supply chain， which is known as its dual selling strategy on the retailer recycling and manufacturer recycling. For example， when consumers have a high willingness and preferences to purchase online， then the manufacturers would be more likely to choose the offline retailing strategy. Under this strategy， the profits of manufacturers collected in both channel of online direct selling and the dual-channel would increase， leading the manufacturers to set up online direct-selling channel after selection. When consumers' preferences for online shopping reach to a certain level， manufacturers would be more likely to close down the channel of offline retail and set up the channel of online direct selling only. Manufacturers' profits would increase gained from both channels of offline retailing and dual selling regardless of whether an increase or decrease of the sensibility of service quality to serviceability. More specifically， Low sensitivity will lead the manufacturer to choosing the dual-channel selling strategy. On the contrary， when the consumers are less preferring online shopping， high sensitivity would lead the manufacturer to choosing the offline retail strategy. On the other hand， when the customers prefer to shop online， the manufacturers would prefer the strategy of online direct selling accordingly. （2） When the offline retail channel is set up independently， the manufacturer will tend to choose a retailer recycling strategy. On the contrary， when a dual-channel of selling and operating or channel of online direct selling is set up， the manufacturer will tend to choose its own recycling strategy. It can provide a theoretical basis and important inspiration for the selling and recovery strategies and contractual coordination issues in close-loop supply chains with dual selling channels in this paper.

Key words: closed-loop supply chain, shopping preference, retail service, channel strategy, coordination