An Online Supply Chain Equilibrium Model In Competitive Condition

The growth of intercontinental multi-channel distribution,containerization and direct to business and direct to customer shipping has led to the birth of online shopping supply chain.Online shopping has many advantages,but there are also many problems.For example,online shopping consumers can not personally check and feel the goods,resulting in a high return and replacement rate of online shopping.This paper develops an online shopping supply chain under competitive environment,uses the game theory and variational inequalities,and analyzes the behavior of the decision-makers.Based on the traditional supply chain,introducing transportation service providers forms an online shopping supply chain network model,which includes multiple raw materials suppliers,manufactures and transportation service providers who competing on price and quality.Suppliers,manufacturers and transportation service providers maximize their profits while considering the competitors’ prices and quality levels.Using two examples illustrate the applicability and validity of the model.We found that competitiveness of the supply chain depends on the efficiency of the chain members.Transportation providers with high quality will win in the fierce market competition.Furthermore,a closed-loop online shopping supply chain which considers the return and replacement of goods is investigated.A game theory model for online supply chain network competition in dynamic environment is developed in which includes multiple competing manufacturers,online retailers,freight service providers and demand markets.Using a simple periodic function states that the demand of online supply chain is also seasonal.Because of the importance of freight service providers and the particularity of online shopping consumers,the express speed is a necessary factor in the competition.By using Nash equilibrium and variational inequality,the competitive equilibrium solutions of each tier are given.It is also concluded that the efficiency of freight providers play an important role in the online supply chain compe--tition.Through analyzing the proportion of replacement,online retailers should reduce the return of consumers,in order to increase the profit and competitive ability of the whole supply chain.Finally,a numerical example is used to illustrate the correctness and rationality of the model.