| With the rapid development of the economy and technology, the traditional production and lifestyles have been changed hugely. In the past few years, duo to the customer’s demand to the individuation, diversification and internationalization, plus the customer’s curiosity and the cost-effective purchasing trend, the online retailing become very active on the market. The statistics data from the China Internet Information Center shows that transaction volume on online market with an average annual growth rate of112.2%in the Eleventh Five-Year period. In detail the transaction volume of the online market in2011amounted to784.9billion Yuan, which is50%higher than that in2010. The miracle of the online transaction is created one by one, for example because of the promotion, the order number of Taobao Mall on Nov11th,2011broke through200million and the corresponding transaction volume broke through3.36billion Yuan; if plus the volume in the taobao.com, the transaction volume would be more than the retail sales volume of six days in Hong Kong. The entire introduced phenomenon reveals the heat of online shopping and maybe it will replace the traditional transaction pattern as the main channel of product sales in future. In recent years, the statistics of online marketing products show that apparels, accessories, books and electronics have become the mainstream of the online transaction. More than70%online buyers bought apparels and accessories from the following representative brands, VANCL, ZARA, GAP, UNIQLO and so on in2010. This kind of product is called fast fashion product due to the acceptability of brand value, mid range of price, price decline with time and physical properties of stability.The fast fashion product is very popular. In contrast, the important support system of online transaction, logistics distribution system, is still far from meeting the demand. The main problems are the high distribution cost," Blasting warehouse " of third-party-logistics enterprises due to the promotion, and the low satisfaction level of logistics service. Therefore, how to build logistics distribution network with respect to main category in online transaction based on an existing logistics distribution system is an extremely urgent problem.Generally, in the BtoC context the main propose of optimization and design of logistics distribution network is providing high level of logistics service with reasonable cost and achieving fast and efficient product transfer from production area to terminal customer. Therefore, the logistics distribution network design should be based on analyzing the location of factory and demand distribution characteristics of customers, after which configures the logistics facilities level reasonably, determine the number, volume, process-time and production quantity of different level, and meanwhile choose the appropriate third-party-logistics enterprises. As for fast fashion product in online transaction in particular, due to the influence of the product characteristics, online retailers take various strategies to promote the sale in order to reduce the backlog of products and maximize the recovery funds. However, the variation of strategy not only brings wide demand fluctuations, but also has effect on the network structure. Thus there are both similarity and differences between traditional logistics distribution network and fast-fashion product logistics distribution network, which remains to be studied carefully.On the basis of review of domestic and foreign reference, it is stated that the pre-sale, the lead time control and the tie-in-sale strategies are should be adopted in different stages of life cycle of fast fashion product by analyzing the characteristics and the value change assessment model of fast fashion product in the corresponding stage. Moreover, structure, number, capacity, processing-time of logistics facilities, allocation and third-party-logistics selection of the logistics distribution network of fast fashion product are studied under different strategies. The main works of this paper as follows:1. The feature and value change rule of fast fashion product are studied. This chapter focuses on the general feature of fast fashion product based on product life cycle theory. The value change function and product life cycle curve are developed by analyzing the variation rule of the sale volume with time, and the value evaluation model of fast fashion product is proposed. A case study is conducted to reveal the logistics cost is a key factor to influence the value change of fast fashion product. Aiming at maximizing the profit of fast fashion product of logistics distribution network, it is suggested that the pre-sale, lead-time control and tie-in-sale strategies are respectively adopted in the introducing, the mature, and the degenerating periods of product life cycle. Meanwhile, the key design outline of logistics distribution network is introduced.2. The optimization and design of logistics distribution network with respect to fast fashion products under pre-sale strategy in the introducing period is studied. A discrete bi-level programming deterministic model capturing the common interests of the online retailer and the customer is proposed to analyse the influence of pre-sale strategy on logistics distribution network design. Theupper programming model with the minimum of the total cost of logistics distribution network for online retailer as the optimization objective is adopted to determine the allocation from factory to warehouse, the location of warehouse, the third-party-logistics enterprises selection. The lower programming model with minimum outsourcing cost of customer as the optimization objective is adopted to determine service plans of third-party-logistics enterprises. According to the characteristics of the model, an interactive fuzzy algorithm is used to solve the proposed model on the basis of the fact that the per-sale time, the saving cost of third-party-logistics enterprise and other critical parameters have been determined. Moreover, a case study is conducted to validate the feasibility of the proposed model and the used algorithm. The results reveal that the central warehouses should be located in a place close to dense demand areas and are used mainly for leasing, and the online retailers should provide a small amount of third-party-logistics enterprises and offer the national wide service for the customer selection.3. The logistics distribution network with respect to fast fashion products under the lead time control strategy in the mature period is studied. By analyzing the characteristics of fast fashion products and the customer’s sensitivity to the distribution time in the mature period, two kinds of lead time compression model considering product life cycle and compression stage relevance are presented to determine the best length and the best way for lead time compression in different stages of product life cycle. Meanwhile, because the mature period is long, a series of strategies should be adopted by online retailers, which induces the sale volume fluctuation become bigger with the strategies transformation. Therefore pickup spots in logistics distribution network should be added in the model to reduce the pressure of terminal distribution by considering strategies and lead time constraint. A non-liner mixed integer programming model for multi-periods is proposed, and the genetic algorithm is adopted to achieve the discount rate, the location, the allocation, the service plan of self-building or renting warehouse, the selection plan of third party logistics enterprise and the pickup spot. Through the case study, the sensitivity analysis is carried out to explain the influence of discount rate and gathering time to the logistics distribution network. The results verify the warehouse choice should first consider the processing capacity and building own warehouses paralleling with leasing warehouses in order to reduce dependence on third party, and then provide specific requests to e-commerce the gathering time and the discount rate.4. The logistics distribution network with respect to fast fashion products under the tie-in-sale strategy in degenerating period is studied. Since the assembling strategy has the features of promoting sales, reducing order and logistics processing cost, an assembling parameter is introduced. The method how to determine the assembling rate and the solution is studied. A non-linear mixed integer programming model with the characteristics of multi-product assembling and order-taking by customer is proposed to maximize the profit of logistics distribution network of fast fashion product. Simulated annealing algorithm is adopted to achieve assembling the warehouse location, selecting the third-party-logistics, selecting the pickup spot, and planning the allocation. Through the case study, the analysis is carried out to explain the influence of assembling rate to the profit of logistics distribution network, the logistics cost and gross sales. The results verify assembling rate increasing on the one hand can raise the total retail sales, on the other hand can reduce the total cost of the logistics and further increase the profit in logistics distribution network. In the logistics distribution network design, the location of assembling warehouse that is self built should consider processing capacity, the selection of third-party-logistics should prefer the location-service based enterprise, and some pickup spots should be closed. |
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