Research On Online Sales Format Choice Under The E-commerce Environment

With the rapid development of online retailing,more and more manufacturers sell goods to online consumers through e-commerce platforms.Under the e-commerce environment,the online sales format of manufacturers or e-commerce platforms has two options: the reselling format and agency selling format.For simplicity,online sales format referred to as sales format.Due to the different ownership of market price decision-making power under different sales formats,the different choice of sales format will affect market price and service level,thus affecting the profits of e-commerce platforms and manufacturers.Therefore,the choice of sales format has become an important problem to be solved urgently for e-commerce platforms or manufacturers.Although scholars have identified many factors affecting the choice of sales format,such as downstream competition and information asymmetry,the research is still insufficient.Based on the above reasons,considering three factors respectively,i.e.,the introduction of other typical online channel by manufacturers,the impact of online sales on offline sales,and logistics services as an important support for online sales,this paper mainly investigates the sales format choice of both manufacturers and e-commerce platforms by game theory.The details are as follows:Firstly,considering the manufacturer introducing the direct channel to participate in online competition,this paper mainly investigates the impact of the direct channel on the sales format choice of both the manufacturer and e-commerce platform,studies whether the manufacturer should always operate(or introduce)direct channel under the two sales formats,and examines how the e-commerce platform should set platform fee rate(Chapter 3).The results show that when the efficiency of the direct channel is high,regardless of the platform fee rate,the manufacturer should choose the agency selling format,while the e-commerce platform should choose the reselling format;when the efficiency of the direct channel is in a moderate level,even if the platform fee rate is very small,the manufacturer should choose the reselling format,whereas the e-commerce platform should choose the agency selling format;when the efficiency of the direct channel is low,the impact of the direct channel can be ignored.Furthermore,regardless of the choice of the sales format,the manufacturer should always operate(or introduce)the direct channel.In addition,under the agency selling format,the e-commerce platform should decrease the platform fee rate in the presence of the high efficiency of the direct channel.Secondly,considering that the manufacturer may introduce the third-party online channel on the same e-commerce platform,this paper investigates the introduction strategy of the third-party online channel under different sales format,mainly studies the impact of the third-party online channel on the sales format choice of both the manufacturer and e-commerce platform,and analyzes the improvement strategy of the third-party retailer(Chapter 4).The third-party online channel refers to the channel in which the third-party retailer on an e-commerce platform purchases products from the manufacture,and then sells them to online consumers by paying a platform usage fee to the e-commerce platform.The results are listed as follows.Under the reselling format,although the introduction of the third-party online channel brings about downstream competition,in turn,benefitting the manufacturer,the large platform fee rate can alleviate the competition and thus the manufacturer will not introduce such channel when the platform fee rate is large;however,under the agency selling format,the manufacturer always prefers to introduce the third-party online channel,which can reduce the disbursement of platform usage fees and the losses caused by the manufacturer’s inefficiency in the direct sales.When the manufacturer introduces the third-party online channel under both formats and the sales efficiency of the manufacturer is not at two extremes,with a high efficiency of the third-party online channel,the e-commerce platform always chooses the reselling format,which the manufacturer also prefers.In case the third-party online channel is introduced only under the agency selling format and the sales efficiency of the manufacturer is not at two extremes,even if the platform fee rate is very large,the e-commerce platform will choose the reselling format,which the manufacturer also prefers.Under other conditions,the impact of the third-party online channel on the sales format choice is limited.Under the agency selling format,the third-party retailer should always improve the utility achieved from purchasing through the third-party online channel to increase its profits;however,under the reselling format,it should keep the utility at an appropriate level.Thirdly,considering the e-commerce platform also self-operating secondhand products,this paper studies the impact of the spillover effect(the spillover effect refers to the impact of online sales on offline sales)on the sales format choice of both the manufacturer and e-commerce platform(Chapter 5).The results demonstrate that the secondhand products can offset the manufacturer’s efforts to protect or promote the offline sales.Furthermore,the platform fee rate can change the level of the offset under negative spillover.From the manufacturer’s perspective,the choice of the sales format is as follows: when the platform fee rate is very small,if the spillover effect coefficient is small(large),it should choose the reselling format(agency selling format);when the platform fee rate is relatively small,if the spillover effect coefficient is small or large(moderate level),it should choose the agency selling format(reselling format);when the platform fee rate is relatively large,the choice is the same as that under the condition in which the platform fee rate is very small;when the platform fee rate is very large,it always chooses the reselling format.From the e-commerce platform’s perspective,it should always choose the reselling format when the platform fee rate is small.However,when the platform fee rate is large,the choice is affected by spillover effect coefficient.If the spillover effect coefficient is very large or small,it should choose the reselling format,otherwise,vice versa.Finally,considering the logistics service as an important support for online sales,this paper investigates the strategy of undertaking the logistics service under different sales format.Based on the above strategy,we focus on the impact of the logistics service on the sales format choice of both the manufacturer and e-commerce platform.In addition,this paper also studies how the e-commerce platform should set platform fee rate(Chapter 6).The results show that under the reselling format,both prefer the e-commerce platform to undertake the logistics service;however,under the agency selling format,it benefits both that the manufacturer undertakes the logistics service.The above decisions make the level of the service higher than other scenarios.From the e-commerce platform’s perspective,when the service efficiency is high,regardless of the platform fee rate,it should choose the reselling format;when the service efficiency is moderate,it should choose the agency selling format even if the platform fee rate is very small;when the service efficiency is low,the impact of the logistics service can be ignored.From the manufacturer’s perspective,when the service efficiency is low,it should choose the agency selling format;when the service efficiency is high,it should choose the reselling format.When both choose the agency selling format,the e-commerce platform should reduce the platform fee rate if the service efficiency is high.