Research On The Competitive Strategy And Consumer Preference Of Self-owned Online Malls And Third-party Online Platforms

The Internet has facilitated people’s lives.Chinese government and enterprises pay more attention to using the Internet to promote the continuous evolution of economic patterns.The retail industry,like other industries,has accelerated the pace of integration with the Internet.More and more enterprises regard online channels as important information,service and product sales channels,such as self-owned online malls(SOMs)and third-party online platforms(TOPs).In practice,on the one hand,enterprises want to develop SOMs due to brand and strategic considerations;on the other hand,they have to face up to the important influence of third-party online platforms in the marketplace.In this case,how to make a good position and a good development strategy of SOMs and TOPs is very important.Therefore,it is of great significance for enterprises and third-party online platforms to understand the actual role played by the SOM and the TOP and grasp the regularities of user behavior in the SOM and the TOP.From the context of research,the above-mentioned practical problems can draw on the existing results of related research on channels.However,through the review of relevant literature,this paper finds that the focus of previous research is on the relationship between the offline channel and the online channel,and the relationship between the SOM and the TOP has not been fully studied.Therefore,in view of the limitations of previous research,this paper takes SOMs and TOPs as the research subject.Based on the social exchange theory and the service output theory,this paper comprehensively uses the research methods and theories of operational research,computer science,behavior science,psychology science and management science to study the positioning of SOMs and TOPs and the regularities of consumer behavior in SOMs and TOPs.The main research contents and conclusions are as follows:First,this paper models price and service competition between the SOM and the TOP,and studies the price and service strategies of supply chain participants with three power structures,i.e.,the enterprise Stackelberg game,the third-party online platform Stackelberg game,and the Nash game.Considering the difference of shopping experience between the SOM and the TOP,the research in this section models price and service competition between the two kinds of online channels,and uses game theory to study the service and price strategies of supply chain participants.The results show that:(1)The channel service level and the consumer sensitivity to channel service positively affect the channel price.(2)The channel service level and the consumer sensitivity to channel service positively affect the channel demand.The profits of channel participants increase first and then decrease with the increasement of their own service levels.(3)When the wholesale price is low,the price of both the SOM channel and the TOP channel under the Nash game is lower than that of both the enterprise Stackelberg game and the third-party online platform Stackelberg game,which is beneficial to maintain the competitive advantage of the supply chain.When the wholesale price is high,the price of both the SOM channel and the TOP channel under the enterprise Stackelberg is lower than that of both the Nash game and the third-party online platform Stackelberg game.If the third-party online platform insists on improving its position,the price of both the SOM channel and the TOP channel will increase.(4)The differentiated services can improve the supply chain participants’ profits and the system profit compared with the same service under three power structures.Second,this paper studies consumer choice of SOMs and TOPs in the two stages of information search and product purchase.The research in this section uses the method of text analysis to compare and analyze the smartphone review information and the clothing review information in the SOM and the TOP.Based on topics consumers pay attention to in the two types of online channels,we extract two factors,i.e.,review quality and service quality.On this basis,the experimental research method is used to explore the influence mechanism of review quality and service quality on consumer channel selection,focusing on the two stages of information search and product purchase.The results show that:(1)From the perspective of the topics extracted by the LDA topic extraction model,smartphone consumers in the TOP focus on price,hardware configuration,software and functions,merchant logistics and customer service.In the SOM,smartphone consumers focus on gifts,relationship maintenance,overall evaluation,business logistics and customer service.On the other hand,clothing consumers in the TOP focus on price,appearance,quality,merchant logistics and customer service.In the SOM,clothing consumers focus on integrity,giving gifts,overall evaluation,business logistics and customer service.(2)The online review quality of the TOP is higher than that of the SOM in terms of relevance,integrity and objectivity,and the seivice quality provided by the TOP is also higher.(3)Both review quality and service quality have a positive and significant impact on consumers’ willingness to use online channels to search information and purchase products.(4)There is no significant interaction effect between review quality and service quality on consumers’willingness to use online channels to search information,but there is significant interaction effect between them on consumers’ willingness to use online channels to purchase products.The above research conclusions provide theoretical support for consumers’ choice of SOMs and TOPs during the shopping process.Third,it is verified that there are differences in the formation mechanisms of consumers’ e-loyalty to the SOM and the TOP.The research model in this section is based on social exchange theory and service output theory.This study explores the relationship between perceived value,trust and e-loyalty under different online channel types,focusing on the moderation effect of channel type on the relationship between trust and e-loyalty.A questionnaire survey is used to collect data.Structural equation modeling was employed to test the research model.The results show that:(1)The perceived hedonic value is positively associated with e-loyalty in both the TOP context and the SOM context.(2)Perceived utilitarian value has a significant impact on e-loyalty in the TOP context.But,perceived utilitarian value has no significant impact on e-loyalty in the SOM context.(3)Trust partially mediates the relationship between perceived utilitarian value and e-loyalty in the TOP context,while trust does not play an intermediary role in the SOM context.(4)Online channel type moderates the relationship between trust and consumer e-loyalty.Trust has a direct and significant impact on e-loyalty in the TOP context,while the relationship between trust and e-loyalty is not significant in the SOM context.This paper makes four specific contributions:First,this paper studies the supply chain equilibrium issues from the perspective of the enterprise and the third-party online platform providing services and pricing independently.We develop a price and service competition model of dual channel supply chain.It responds to the academic view that there are few literatures considering the price and service competition at the same time,making up the deficiency of the previous research and expanding the research on price and service decision-making of supply chain.Second,this paper finds that there is a significant difference in the review content between the SOM and the TOP through exploratory research on the review information in the two types of online channels,which is specifically reflected in the distinction of consumer discussion topics in the two types of online channels.In addition,as far as the research subject are concerned,the previous research focuses on the difference of the review content among different TOPs,but the difference between the SOM and the TOP is rarely involved.Therefore,this paper also enriches and opens up the scope of the research subject.Third,based on topics consumers pay attention to in the SOM and the TOP,two factors are extracted,i.e.,review quality and service quality.This paper not only explores the direct impact of review quality and service quality on consumers’ willingness to use online channels in the two stages of information search and product purchase,but also further expands the existing research by focusing on the interaction effect between review quality and service quality on consumer decision-making.Specific patterns of interaction effect between review quality and service quality are found.Next,this paper explains the reason why the interaction effect between review quality and service quality on consumers’ willingness to use online channels to search information is not significant with the help of the dual coding theory,which further enriches the theory.Finally,this paper empirically supports the view that the information consumers pay attention to will change according to the different stages of shopping decision-making.Therefore.It further expands the consumer shopping decision-making model.The above research conclusions finally provide theoretical support for consumer choice of the SOM and the TOP in the two stages of information search and product purchase.Fourth,this paper links consumer e-loyalty with multi-channel context from the perspective of transaction and relationship.By considering the cognitive and emotional factors that affect the consumer e-loyalty in the SOM versus in the TOP,this paper establishes and expands the loyalty model based on the perspective of transaction and relationship.Next,this paper also finds that perceived utilitarian value has a significant impact on e-loyalty in TOP context,while perceived utilitarian value has no significant impact on e-loyalty in SOM context.Finally,online channel type moderates the relationship between trust and consumer e-loyalty.That is to say,trust has a significant impact on e-loyalty in TOP context,while trust has no significant impact on e-loyalty in SOM context.This paper explains this finding with the help of service output theory.The practical implications of this paper consist of the following three aspects:First,in terms of price and service strategies.Enterprises and third-party online platforms should tailor price and service strategies to consumers with different preferences according to their own positioning.It is necessaiy for them to develop targeted service strategies according to the different stages of online channel establishment.A series of means should be adopted to influence online consumers’ attention to service.Enterprises and third-party online platforms should provide differentiated services based on their respective advantages in order to ensure the effectiveness of supply chain services.Second,in terms of building customer relationships.Enterprises and third-party online platforms can use different factors to stimulate consumers to use their own online channels.Enterprises should focus on promoting corporate culture,publicizing corporate social responsibility and shaping corporate brand image so as to improve their reputation and social status and increase customer recognition through SOM.In the face of the objective fact that the review quality in the SOM is low,enterprises can improve consumers’ willingness to use the SOM by improving service quality.The third-party online platforms need to strengthen the management of online reviews and provide consumers with high-quality review information.Third,in terms of maintaining customer relationships.SOM managers should focus on enhancing consumers’ perceived hedonic value.On the other hand,TOP managers should focus on strategies and actions to enhance consumers’ perceived utilitarian value and trust.