scholarly journals Optimal Channel Strategy for a Fresh Produce E-Commerce Supply Chain

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6057
Author(s):  
Qian Zheng ◽  
Manman Wang ◽  
Feng Yang

As an increasing number of firms move to omnichannel operation for business sustainability, it is also necessary for fresh produce firms to adopt an omnichannel model by integrating online and offline channels. We focus on a fresh produce supply chain consisting of a supplier who sells online directly and a physical store retailer. The purpose of this paper is to explore the optimal channel selection strategy considering the fresh-keeping efforts of supply chain members. Specifically, we examine the conditions under which the supply chain members should cooperate to adopt the deliver-from-store (DFS) model and further investigate the impact of consumers’ freshness sensitivity and offline hassle cost on supply chain members’ sales model options. Several important conclusions are shown as follows. First, the retailer’s profit increases with the increasing freshness sensitivity in the dual-channel model, while it decreases if consumers are sufficiently sensitive to freshness in the DFS model. Second, if adopting the DFS model, online demand and total market demand expand, and the performance of the supplier and the retailer heavily depends on the size of the commission rate. Third, there always exists a win–win situation with an appropriate range of commission rate when the consumer’s hassle cost is large. This paper contributes to the omnichannel strategy research of fresh produce supply chain management and the results provide management insights for the sustainable development of the fresh produce industry in the omnichannel retailing environment.

Symmetry ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zilong Song ◽  
Shiwei He ◽  
Baifeng An

This paper investigated, for the first time, the game and coordination of a dual-channel, three-layered, green fresh produce supply chain, with regard to its economic, social, and environmental performance. Considering that the market demand is dual-channel priced and sensitive to the degree of greenness and the freshness-level, four game models, under different scenarios have been established. These included a centralized scenario, a decentralized scenario, and two contractual scenarios. The equilibrium solutions under the four scenarios were characterized. From the perspective of a sustainable development, the economic, social, and environmental performance of the supply chain was analyzed. To enhance the supply chain performance, two contract mechanisms were designed and the conditions for a multi-win outcome were obtained. Accordingly, many propositions and management implications were provided. The results showed that, (1) compared to the centralized supply chain case, the performance of the decentralized supply chain case is inferior; (2) in addition to increasing the concentration of the supply chain decisions, the two contracts proposed can effectively coordinate the green supply chain and improve its sustainable performance; and (3) the performance of the supply chain is positively driven by the consumers’ sensitivity to greenness degree and the freshness level of fresh produce. This paper fills a research gap and helps the participants of the channel recognize the operational decision principle of a complex green supply chain, in order to achieve a higher and a long-term sustainable-development performance.


Author(s):  
Chong Zhang ◽  
Yaxian Wang ◽  
Lifan Zhang

Though it is an important means for enterprises to increase market demand and boost profits, trade credit can carry risks. Besides, risks also result from uncertain market demand. Decision-makers' attitude towards risk will influence the decisions of enterprises, so it is meaningful to study the impact of risk preference on supply chain performance. This paper explores the effect of risk-averse preferences of the manufacturer or retailer on their delayed payment periods decision and utility when the dual-channel structure is adopted. Customer demands are uncertain and depend on the delayed payment periods that the manufacturer and the retailer may offer to them. Mean-variance model is used to describe the risks due to uncertain demand, and establishes supply chain utility models under four decision-making situations (both are risk-neutral; only the retailer is risk-averse; only the manufacturer is risk-averse; both are risk-averse). According to our study, supply chain members with higher risk aversion are more inclined to prolong delayed payment period. The retailer’s risk aversion is adverse for her utility, but beneficial to the manufacturer’s utility, thus a new coordination mechanism is proposed to achieve coordinate when only the retailer is risk averse. We prove that the contract can effectively improve the utility of the whole supply chain. This paper conduces to enrich the emerging literature on relating risk aversion preferences to trade credit period decision and coordination behavior under dual-channel environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Hu ◽  
Xun Xi ◽  
Rongjian Yu ◽  
Rong Xiang ◽  
Yueyue Zhang ◽  
...  

Evaluating the price policy of raw milk is of great significance to the sustainable development of an industry supply chain. In this context, our study used the multi-period difference-in-difference method to systematically examine the impact of the policy implementation on product price and profit distribution in the supply chain. The results showed the following: (1) the price of raw milk in the implementation area of the price support policy is 13.54% higher than that of the unimplemented area; (2) the effect of price increase in the western region (15.5%) is higher than that in the eastern region (13%), and the central region (10.73%); (3) furthermore, the purchase price guidance policy of raw milk drives price increase or price suppression in the links of the supply chain to promote a balanced distribution of profits among the participants in the chain. These conclusions all have good stability and have reference significance for further improving and adjusting the price support policy of raw milk to realize the sustainable development of the Chinese dairy industry. This will enhance the production confidence of Chinese raw milk producers and improve Chinese consumers’ expectations and consumer psychology regarding domestic dairy products.


2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (01) ◽  
pp. 1240004 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUN H. NIU ◽  
XUAN ZHAO ◽  
IGNACIO CASTILLO ◽  
TARJA JORO

The Internet is becoming increasingly important as a sales channel. Thus, most large retail firms have adopted a multi-channel strategy that includes both web-based channels and pre-existing offline channels. In this paper, we consider joint pricing and inventory/production decision problems for members in a monopoly two-stage dual-channel retailer supply chain. For a dual-channel retailer, pricing in one channel will affect the demand in the other channel. This subsequently affects the retailer's replenishment (ordering) decisions, which have an impact on the producer's inventory/production plans and wholesale price decisions. It is clear then that pricing decisions and inventory/production decisions are interacting in each member of the supply chain and among the members in the chain as well. In this paper, we analyze joint pricing and inventory/production problems under three scenarios by incorporating intra-product line price interaction in the EOQ model. We show that a unique equilibrium exists under certain realistic conditions. We also provide numerical results that offer insights for pricing strategies for the dual-channel retailer supply chain and for product design for different channels.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3045 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianjun Yu ◽  
Dan Zhu

In the supply chain financing (SCF) system composed of a capital-constrained retailer, a supplier and a commercial bank, we design two different limited financing modes (internal financing and external financing) based on the retailer’s collateral assets. A newsvendor-like retailer has a single opportunity to order goods from a supplier to satisfy future uncertain demand. In the presence of bankruptcy risk for the retailer, we model their strategic interaction as a Stackelberg game with the supplier as the leader and analyze the optimal decisions for each participant. Regardless of which financing mode is chosen, the capital-constrained retailer orders fewer goods if the financing cost is relatively high. In addition, when the market demand obeys the uniform distribution, if the retailer possesses more collateral assets, he will enjoy a lower loan interest rate and increase order quantity gradually. Moreover, compared with the internal financing mode, each participant obtains the larger expected profits under the external financing mode.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Wenhan Xu ◽  
Hongguang Bo ◽  
Yinglian Chen

In order to explore the impact of the system-driven supply chain, collaborative operations, and organizational characteristics on supply chain operational performance, this paper based on the system dynamics method to simulate the established information collaborative supply chain model, analyze market demand data, inventory before and after the supply chain sharing The changes of inventory fluctuations in the supply chain and related calculations are compared with the simulation results under the current model to prove the importance of implementing information collaboration in the supply chain of a large retailer-led supply chain. The research in this paper shows that with the supply chain information collaboration model, the average value of the manufacturer’s order quantity has dropped by 30.4%. Affected by this, the dispersion coefficient has also dropped from 0.76 to 0.6, and the average number of orders in the distribution center has also dropped by 12.2%; With the supply chain information synergy model, the average value of the raw material inventory of manufacturers has dropped significantly, from 3400 in the current model to 2500 in the information synergy model, a decrease of 27%, the standard deviation has also decreased by 57%, and the dispersion coefficient has dropped from 0.98 to 0.50; The standard deviation rate of the inventory of the distribution center is 30%; from the perspective of the overall retail supply chain, the inventory has fallen by 14%, the standard deviation has fallen by 34%, and the dispersion coefficient has dropped from 0.76 in the current model to the information collaboration model. 0.6, it can be seen that the mode of supply chain information coordination has a great effect on reducing supply chain costs and improving supply chain efficiency.


Author(s):  
Di Wu ◽  
Juhong Chen ◽  
Ruyu Yan ◽  
Ruijun Zhang

The fierce competition in the recycling industry and the rapid development of internet technology has prompted recycling centers to develop a dual-channel reverse supply chain with both offline and online recycling channels. After the introduction of online channels, recycling centers and third-party recyclers (TPR) have paid attention to the division of profits in supply chain systems and the behavior of fairness concerns. Therefore, it is necessary to help recycling enterprises make pricing decisions in consideration of fairness concerns. This paper is aimed at answering the following two main questions: (1) When the recycling center or TPR have fairness concerns, how does the optimal pricing and revenue of supply chain members change when both sides are neutral? (2) When the fairness concern coefficient changes, how does the overall revenue of the supply chain system change? How should supply chain members adjust their pricing decisions to maximize their own profits? In order to solve the above problems, Stackelberg game models were made from three aspects: both sides are neutral, only the TPR has fairness concerns, and only the recycling center has fairness concerns. Based on the results of the example analyses for the model, we found that when only the TPR has fairness concerns, the profit of the recycling center and the transfer price of offline channels will decrease, while the profit of TPR is the opposite. Furthermore, when only a recycling center has fairness concerns, it will lead to the reduction of not only the recycling price and transfer price of offline channels, but also the profits of the entire supply chain system. Specially, whether it is for a recycling center or TPR, a lower level of fairness concern coefficient has a stronger impact on pricing and revenue than at high levels.


Author(s):  
Yanhong Hou ◽  
Fan Wang ◽  
Zhitong Chen ◽  
Victor Shi

With the continuous development of Internet, online pharmaceutical channels in many countries have seen rapid expansion. As a result, pharmaceutical supply chain participants can adopt dual channels, namely, both online channels and offline channels. As online channels compete with traditional offline channels, it is of great relevance to study the potential conflicts and coordination between them, which is the focus of this paper. Specifically, this article develops a susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic model of the dual channels for a pharmaceutical supply chain. Our main findings are that in a competitive situation, there is a positive stable equilibrium. Furthermore, increasing the rate of influence of offline transmission, online transmission, and cross transmission will improve sales. Moreover, improving the transmission influence rate will turn more potential customers into purchasers, increase channel sales, and achieve dual channel coordination. We then conduct numerical analysis to illustrate and complement the findings from the model. Finally, we provide managerial insights for implementing successful dual-channel pharmaceutical supply chains.


Complexity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Jie Jian ◽  
Huipeng Li ◽  
Nian Zhang ◽  
Jiafu Su

The increasing homogeneous product market has made more competition among companies to focus on improving customers’ experience. In order to get more competitive advantages, companies often launch discount products to attract consumers. However, stimulated by discount products, the perception of anticipated regret is becoming stronger, which is an inevitable issue in front of companies with price discount strategy. Considering the impact of anticipated regret for discount products, this paper quantitatively describes the utility functions and deduces the demand functions of original price products and discount products. The theoretical analysis and numerical simulation are used to analyze centralized and decentralized models of supply chain for discount products. On its basis, the revenue-sharing contract is designed to optimize the profits of supply chain. This paper finds that the price of products increases first and then decreases with the increase of regret sensitivity coefficient and consumer heterogeneity. When the regret sensitivity coefficient and consumer heterogeneity are lower, companies in the supply chain can adopt the “skimming pricing” strategy in order to obtain more profits. When the regret sensitivity coefficient and consumer heterogeneity increase, companies in the supply chain can adopt “penetrating pricing” strategies to stimulate market demand. For high regret consumers, manufacturers can adopt a “commitment advertising” strategy to promise price and quality, and retailers can adopt a “prestige pricing” strategy to reduce consumer perception of regret. In response to products with higher differences in consumer acceptance, manufacturers can adopt a “differentiated customization” strategy to meet different types of consumer demand and retailers can adopt a “differential pricing” strategy for precise marketing.


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