A Study On The Development Of Brand Manufacturer's Online Channel Strategies

With the development of electronic commerce,adopting the dual-channel composed of online channel and offline channel to sell products has become an inevitable choice for manufacturers.However,they are faced with many problems in the process of implementing online channel,among of these problems,the selection of online sales mode and online product position are the two important problems that manufacturers should solve firstly.In view of these,we research the famous brand manufacturer's online channel development strategies from the perspectives of channel sales mode selection and product position.Firstly,we research manufacturer's online sales mode choice.This paper is focused on the situation that the manufacturer implements his online channel through the third-party platform.Based on the third-party platform,the manufacturer can choose platform distribution sales mode or platform direct sales mode.Considering that the dual-channel supply chain consists of two competing manufacturers,we discuss the impacts of manufactures' competition,online channel's negative external effect and online channel operating cost on manufacturer's optimal decision.The results show that if the manufacturer's online channel operating cost is lower than or equal to the distributor's,only when the cost gap is small enough and manufacturers tend to complete competition,the manufacturer's optimal strategy is platform distribution sales mode,otherwise,his optimal strategy is platform direct sales mode.If the manufacturer's online channel operating cost is higher than the distributor's,when the cost gap is small,if both the online channel's negative external effect and the manufacture's competition are within a low range,his optimal selection is platform direct sales mode,otherwise,his optimal strategy is platform distribution sales mode.The higher the manufacturer's online channel operating cost than the distributor's,the more likely the manufacturer's optimal strategy is platform distribution sales mode,at this time,as to the manufacturers' competition and online channel's negative external effect,when the influence degree of any one of them is above a certain range,the manufacturer's optimal strategy is platform distribution sales mode.Secondly,we research the manufacturer's online channel product position in the competitive online market.Considering two kinds of online channel product position strategies: online and offline integration strategy and online and offline differentiation strategy.At the beginning,we analyze the impact of online and offline integration strategy on manufacturer's profit,the result shows that adding an online channel and adopting this strategy can improve the manufacturer's profit.Then,we compare the manufacturer's profit under these two strategies and discuss the optimal online product position when online and offline differentiation strategy is better.The results indicate that when the competition between the manufacturer's offline product and his competitor's product is low enough or beyond a certain range,his best strategy is online and offline integration strategy;when the competition is within a low range,his best strategy is online and offline differentiation strategy,and the online product should be positioned closer to the offline product.