Research On The Channel Selection Strategies Of O2O Supply Chain In E-Commerce Environment

With the development of information technology and the popularity of the Internet,online and offline multi-channel distribution is used by retailers to achieve the integration of sales system.Online and offline are no longer two distinct fields.Only by combining them can the rapid development of e-commerce be promoted.In 2013,Tmall cooperated with Yintai group to conduct synchronous online and offline sales and explore the O2O(Online to Offline)model.In 2015,the merger of Meituan and Public Comment pushed O2 O to the forefront.Jingdong mall carries out in-depth cooperation with yonghui supermarket,a physical store,to achieve O2 O.After Tmall’s "Double Eleven" was bought wildly,followed by a large number of returns.Accordingly,in an O2 O supply chain system,how to bundle products and how to effectively reduce product returns between channels have been practical problems to be solved urgently in the business and academic circles.In the "online-to-offline" O2 O model,how to choose the sales channel to improve the supply chain performance through two-line operation is a new topic worth studying in the face of channel switching behaviors of demand shift.Suning and Haier Group sell new products through online shopping platforms,while selling remanufactured products through offline physical stores.So,it is of great practical significance to explore the quantity of new / remanufactured products as well as the economic benefits,environmental sustainability and consumer surplus.Uniqlo launched the online payment and offline pick up mode,which satisfies the consumer’s shopping experience and drives the offline passenger flow.GameStop sells processed remanufactured products through offline channel and provides the latest game software online.Based on this,around the practical background of e-commerce enterprises,the research in the field of O2 O supply chain channel selection is expanded by the comprehensive application of the principal-subordinate game theory,supply chain management theory and optimization theory.It is of great theoretical and practical significance to provide specific and operable technologies and methods for solving business channel sales problems.This dissertation is different from existing research,innovatively investigated the impact of bundling,consumer demand,product return,coordination mechanism and remanufactured product distribution cost on O2 O supply chain system,and carried out numerical analysis to verify the practicability of the model,and the research results provide theoretical basis and reference for business managers.The main innovative research work consists of four aspects,which are summarized as follows:(1)This dissertation studies a two-echelon supply chain system consisting of a supplier and a platform vendor,which sells two kinds of products independently or in a bundle through online and offline.Two different channel structure models are constructed,and the optimal wholesale price and retail price and the maximum profit of the players are derived by the reverse induction method.It is found that when the market size is not large,bundling is the dominant strategy;When the market size exceeds a certain range,independent sales is the dominant strategy.Regardless of who the Stackelberg leader is,the whole O2 O supply chain receive equal profit.For a market leader,independent sales or bundling decisions should be made according to market size.The self-price sensitivity coefficient and their profit decrease monotonously for both independent sales and bundling;For independent sales,as the cross-price sensitivity coefficient increases,the profit monotonically increases.(2)The mutual shift of offline and online demand becomes the norm,affecting the decision-making of the players.Research on the O2 O supply chain system consisting of a platform vendor,a physical store,and a product.The platform vendor adopts direct selling online,centralized decision-making of a self-operated store or the decentralized decision-making of a franchised store offline.The O2 O supply chain channel structure models under demand non-shift and shift are constructed,the coordination mechanism under decentralized decision-making is designed to optimize the O2 O supply chain.Research shows that whether the store is self-operated or franchised,the total profit of the system increases,and the online and offline price depends on a range of demand shift proportion;with an increased proportion of online demand shift,the offline selling price and the total profit of the system will increase,while the online selling price and the profit of platform vendor when decentralized decision-making will decrease.When the fixed transfer payment fee is within a certain range,the two-part-tariff contract can coordinate the supply chain effectively.(3)Customers like to "touch and feel" to experience whether the product matches,and providing this service level to customers must be considered when calculating the expected cost of handling returns for retailers.Based on different distribution channels,this dissertation discusses the impact of retailer’s expected cost of handling returns on the economic performance of game players.The O2 O supply chain channel structure models under a duopoly and monopoly are constructed to obtain the wholesale price and selling price,as well as the maximum profits of game players.The research shows that when the retailer’s expected cost of handling returns is within a certain range,the profits of the supplier and O2 O supply chain in the duopoly context(Model D)are higher than that of a monopoly context(Model O).However,regardless of the retailer’ expected cost of handling returns,the e-retailer’s profits are always higher than the sum of the two retailers’ profits.For consumer surplus,when the retailer’s expected cost of handling returns meets certain conditions,the consumer surplus is lower in the monopoly context(Model O)than the duopoly context(Model D).(4)Competition between online platform retailers and offline bricks-and-mortar retailers is widespread in business activities.Two different O2 O supply chain channel structure models are involved:(1)Model P: the manufacturer provides a product(both new and remanufactured)to two retailers,respectively.New products are sold through online platform(retailer R1),while remanufactured products are sold offline physical store(retailer R2);and(2)Model M: the manufacturer wholesales the product to a retailer(R)that operates both online and offline channels.This research show that from an economic perspective,compared with Model P,Model M improved the retailers’ financial performance,while cutting into the manufacturer’s and industry profits.Moreover,Model P is found to be greener than Model M from the viewpoint of environmental sustainability.From a social viewpoint,Model P has a higher consumer surplus than Model M,the higher the cost of distributing a remanufactured unit,the more disadvantageous the model is to the consumers.This dissertation innovatively conducts a systematic study on O2 O supply chain channel selection issues in an e-commerce environment,provides a new research perspective,and deepens the theoretical research in the field of O2 O supply chain channel selection.It is of theoretical frontier and exploratory,and provides theoretical basis and application guidance for managers to improve operational efficiency.