Online Channel Selection For Manufacturers And The Impact Of Different Power Structures On The Dual-channel Supply Chain

In the era of e-commerce,adding online channels has become a standard for many brand manufacturers or brick-and-mortar retailers.Meanwhile,with the implementation of B2C e-commerce platform opening strategy,brand manufacturers are faced with a variety of choices in adding online channels.Facing online direct selling mode,B2C e-retailer agency sales mode and B2C e-commerce wholesale sales mode,etc.how brand manufacturers choose the online channel model suitable for their own development is crucial to enterprise development.And then,after the online channel mode is determined,how to make an effective pricing strategy is another decision-making challenge for brand manufacturers or retailers according to their power position in 020 dual-channel supply chain.To address above issues,we use the game theory,case analysis and numerical simulation to investigate what kinds of online channel could be introduced by manufacturers when selling a single product,what kinds of online channel structure could be introduced by manufacturers when selling multiple products,how different power structures affect 020 dual-channel supply chain by analyzing the contributions and deficiencies of the existing researches.The contributions of this research are summarized as follows:(1)In order to obtain intuitive and easy-to-understand applicable conditions of each online channel,we propose a single-product online channel operation decision-making model considering the direct channel cost and the platform revenue sharing ratio.Considering a marketing system composed of a manufacturer and a B2C e-retailer,we construct three sales modes from the perspective of a manufacturer,online direct channel mode,agency sales mode and wholesale sales mode.We discuss the decision-making bases of sales mode selection for a manufacturer through comparing the profits of every two kinds of sales mode.The results show that,when the price elasticity of demand is large,the manufacturer chooses the direct channel mode under the condition that the direct channel's unit sales cost is very small;otherwise.it will choose the B2C e-comm erce agency sales mode or wholesale mode.When the service elasticity of demand is large,the manufacturer chooses the B2C e-commerce agency sales mode or wholesale sales mode regardless of the size of direct selling cost.When the transaction fee ratio of the B2C e-commerce platform is small as well as the price elasticity of demand is large,the manufacturer should choose the B2C e-commerce agency sales mode,or choose the wholesale mode if the service elasticity of demand is large.Finally,we verify the validity of the decision method proposed in this paper through case analysis.(2)In order to study the manufacturer's choice of multi-product online channel supply chain operation strategy,we propose a multi-product online channel operation strategy selection model for the manufacturer considering customers' preference for old and new products.Based on the B2C e-retailer's retail and online marketplace platform attributes,we build four online channel supply chain operation modes for new and old products from the perspective of a manufacturer,namely,online reselling mode for new and old products,online hybrid sales mode ?(online agency selling mode for new product,online reselling mode for old product),online hybrid sales mode ?(online reselling mode for new product,online agency selling mode for old product)and online agency selling mode for new and old products,simultaneously,establish the demand model of the new and old products considering the customer value and the customer acceptance of old product,analyze the supply chain members' optimal pricing under four types of sales channel structure,and provide the decision basis for the channel selection of the manufacturer's new and old products.Research results are as follows:when the revenue sharing ratio agreed between the B2C e-retailer and the manufacturer is small,the manufacturer should choose the online agency selling mode to sell new and old products no matter how much the customer acceptance of old product is.Otherwise,the manufacturer should choose the online reselling mode to sell new and old products.In addition,when the revenue sharing ratio agreed between the B2C e-retailer and the manufacturer and the customer acceptance of the old product are simultaneously large or small,the online hybrid sales mode ? is superior to the online hybrid sales mode ?.When the value of the revenue sharing ratio agreed between the B2C e-retailer and the manufacturer is opposite to the customer acceptance of old product,the online hybrid sales mode ? is superior to the online hybrid sales mode ?.Finally,we verify the validity of the decision method proposed in this paper through numerical simulations.(3)In order to explore the influence of different power structures on the manufacturer 020 dual-channel supply chain,we establish a dual-channel demand model for the manufacturer based on the theory of consumer surplus in a supply chain composed of a manufacturer with an offline wholesale channel and an online direct channel and a retailer.Then,we analyze the impact of three power structures on supply chain participants' pricing decisions,demands,and profits through constructing the manufacturer Stackelberg game,retailer Stackelberg game and Nash game models.The results show that the impacts of three games on manufacturer's online direct channel price are identical;the impacts of the two Stackelberg games on the retail price and demand of the offline traditional wholesale channel,demand of the online direct channel and supply chain's total profits are identical.In Nash game,the retail price of the offline traditional wholesale channel and the demand of the online direct channel are the minimum,however,the demand of the offline traditional wholesale channel and the supply chain's total profits are the maximum.The manufacturer's wholesale price and profits and the retailer's profits decrease with the decline of the game dominance in the three games.Finally,through numerical simulations,it is found that under different game power structures,the members' income of the manufacturer dual-channel supply chain and the total income of the supply chain first decreases and then increases with the increase of the customer acceptance of the manufancturer online direct channel.At the same time,the correctness of the part of the conclusions is also further verified.(4)In order to analyze the influence of different game power structures on the retailer O2O dual channel supply chain,we study the impact of different power structures on the supply chain participants' pricing decisions,market demands and profits considering the O2O dual-channel retail mode of a retailer.We firstly discuss the retailer's dual-channel pricing decision through comparing the profits under centralized and decentralized pricing modes.And then,we analyze the impact of three power structures on supply chain participants'pricing decisions,demands and profits through constructing manufacturer Stackelberg,retailer Stackelberg and Nash game model.The results show that:the impact of the two Stackelberg games on the retailer's online and offline channel prices and demands and the supply chain's total profits is identical;the impact of three games on offline channel demand is identical,while in Nash game,online channel demand and supply chain's total profits are the biggest;the manufacturer's wholesale price and profits and the retailer's profits decrease with the decline of the game dominance in the three games.Finally,through numerical simulations,it is found that under different game power structures,the members' income of the retailer O2O dual-channel supply chain and the total income of the supply chain first decreases and then increases with the increase of the customer acceptance of the retailer online channel.At the same time,the correctness of the part of the conclusions is also further verified.The strategy selection method of multi-product and multi-online channel supply chain operation proposed in this paper provides a decision-making method for multi-product marketing channel selection.The theory of the influence of different power structures on the dual-channel supply chain of manufacturers and retailers can promote the application of economics utility theory and game theory in the field of multi-channel supply chain management,and further enrich and expand the traditional supply chain management theory.