Research On Manufacturer-led Dual Channel Supply Chain Pricing Decision Considering Freeriding And Returns

In recent years,China’s Internet + has developed rapidly.The modern logistics industry is facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges.Many retailers have begun to try online sales.Most manufacturers have also added offline sales channels,forming a dual-channel and Multi-channel structure.While the new channel structure sales model brings convenience,it also brings some new problems.On the one hand,offline channels provide customers with in-store experience and convenient return and exchange services.Therefore,higher pricing is adopted.However,because online channels do not provide services and product prices are lower,consumers are hitchhiking,shifting demand and triggering channel conflicts.On the other hand,due to the characteristics of online channels,products do not match consumer preferences,resulting in consumer returns.However,traditional channels reduce this uncertainty by increasing service levels,reducing the occurrence of returns,causing a secondary shift in demand in the dual-channel supply chain structure,which has a certain impact on pricing and service strategies in the dual-channel structure.Therefore,the pricing decision of dual-channel supply chain after considering the influence of consumer behavior has become a hot issue that scholars and entrepreneurs pay close attention to.This article first considers the consumer service hitchhiking behavior in the dual channel supply chain demand modeling,and then studies the pricing decision of a manufacturer-led retailer’s dual-channel supply chain and a manufacturer’s dualchannel supply chain that take into account consumer service free-riding and return behavior.Mainly carried out the following two aspects of work:(1)Considering the impact of consumer service hitchhiking behavior on channel demand,relevant parameters such as service level,service demand elasticity coefficient,and consumer hitchhiking factor are considered in the demand model.The models for the two-channel supply chain of the retailer and the dual-channel supply chain of the manufacturer under the control of the manufacturer are constructed,and the Stackelberg game model is solved using reverse induction.Finally,numerical examples are used to simulate the relevant variables,and analyze how the upstream and downstream entities in the dual-channel supply chain should set prices under the influence of consumer service hitchhiking.(2)Considering the mixed impact of consumer service free-rider behavior and return behavior in demand modeling.Parameters related to return behavior such as return rate and return cost are introduced to build the Stackelberg game model of the manufacturer-led retailer’s dual-channel supply chain and the manufacturer’s dualchannel supply chain,respectively.After the solution,numerical examples are used to simulate and analyze the mixed impact of consumer service hitchhiking and return behaviors on service levels,profits,demand and pricing decisions in different dual-channel structures.And a vertical comparison analysis is made with the twochannel supply chain decision variables considering only the impact of consumer service hitchhiking.The dual-channel supply chain demand modeling considering consumer service free-riding behavior and return behavior provides theoretical basis for modeling research considering the dual influence factors of consumer behavior and expands the practical significance.The conclusions finally obtained through numerical examples lay a scientific theoretical foundation for the establishment of pricing strategies for enterprises,which has certain theoretical and practical significance.