主管:中国科学院
主办:中国优选法统筹法与经济数学研究会
   中国科学院科技战略咨询研究院

   

Pricing and Coordination Strategy of Fresh Supply Chain under the Integration of New Retail Channels

  

  • Received:2019-07-15 Revised:2019-11-17 Published:2020-02-19

Abstract: With the occurrence of the new retail era, online and offline integration has become an inevitable trend in the development of fresh product retail. "Online ordering, offline distribution " is an emerging O2O model combining online and offline resources, retailers are gradually adopting price integration based on logistics cooperation. Channel integration, on the one hand, can directly affect consumer utility and stimulates consumer demand; on the other hand, it can improve the utilization of channel resources and reduce distribution costs. Therefore, how to coordinate the supply chain through contracts, how to influence the supply chain members individually and the entire supply chain system in different levels of channel integration, and how to make optimal pricing and coordinated strategies, have great theoretical and practical significance. For fresh products where product freshness affects market demand, this paper studies three kinds of channel integrations in the dual-channel supply chain. From the perspective of consumer purchasing behavior as well as channel competition and cooperation, using the wholesale price contract and the revenue-sharing contract to coordinate, a pricing and coordination model before and after integration is established, and the corresponding optimal strategies of the supply chain are gained. The results show that: 1) With the achievement of the "online ordering and offline distribution" logistics cooperation, the traditional retailers dominate in the compensation agreement and have an advantage in the profit distribution of the supply chain, while the supplier's profit will be slightly lower. 2) In the logistics cooperation mode, online and offline companies will maintain price differences, which can guide consumers to purchase products online, thereby expanding the market size and ultimately inclining towards online sales (known as the New Retail mode). 3) For fresh products with higher timeliness requirements, traditional retailers are willing to carry out a further price integration strategy, and the suppliers will only adopt it otherwise; 4) If the price integration strategy is adopted, online and offline firms may guide consumers to purchase offline exclusively to reduce distribution costs; 5) In a lot of conditions, the pricing and logistics integration can expand the consumer group and increase the total profit of the supply chain. The contribution of the paper is divided into two parts. First, it is an attempt to establish a new pricing and coordination model in dual-channel research field. Secondly, by comparing the optimal profits of supply chain members individually and systematically under three different levels of integration, this paper provides insights into how suppliers and retailers should operate online and offline channels.

Key words: channel integration, online order, offline distribution, revenue-sharing contract, wholesale price contract, pricing strategy