Study On Online Retailing Platform With Two-sided Markets Theory

As the Internet is widely used in economic activities,the e-commerce has sprung up and become the focus of the global economic development.Nowadays,more and more consumers pay close attention to online shopping,which is a new way of consumption,and the online retailing platform develops rapidly.The platform has typical characteristics of bilateral market,and bilateral user behavior has had a profound impact on the development of platform.On one hand,the online retailing platform has low barriers to entry,so sellers homogenize seriously and compete intensely.The excessive competition lead the efficiency of platform decline,and the seller competition affect the operation of online retailing platform.On the other hand,when buyers decide whether to access platform to purchase goods or not,they are in favor of bestselling and highly rated items.The bandwagon effect among buyers also affects the operation of the platform.So combining with the user behavior,the study aims to provide reference for the operation strategy of the online retail platform in China.In order to be closer to the current development of the online retailing platform in China,the paper distinguishes monopoly platform and competition platform according to the competition status of platform and studies the operational strategy in respective model through qualitative and quantitative methods combined with bilateral user behavior.Firstly,the paper analyzes current development,basic composition and structural features of the online retailing platform,and then describes the bilateral market characteristic of online retailing platform.Secondly,the paper analyzes the decision-making behavior of each primary participant,including the service behavior and capital operation behavior of the online retail platform,the service behavior and pricing behavior of the sellers,as well as shopping decision-making process,and then analyzes the factor influencing the decision-making behavior of buyers from three aspects.Thirdly,considering the users' behavior,the paper introduces the users' network externalities and the buyers'conversion rates,builds and solves the monopoly pricing model of the online retail platform under the social welfare maximization.Considering the users' heterogeneity and the sellers' sales promotion behavior,the paper introduces users' service evaluation on the platform and sellers' sales promotion effort,builds the game model between the seller and platform,and applies numerical simulation method to do verification.Finally,the thesis extends to the competitive environment,introducing the Hotelling model,considering users' multi-homing behavior,builds the competition pricing model of the online retail platform.Considering the service differences between competition platforms,the paper distinguishes the high quality service platform and the low quality service platform,builds the pricing model of the platforms,and applies numerical simulation method to do verification.The result shows that,the platform should take different operation strategy in different development stages.The competition effect and the promotion behavior of sellers,the bandwagon effect and the conversion rate of buyers,the service level of platform,the users' multi-homing behavior all affect the platform's pricing strategy.