Research On Omnichannel Retail Operations With Consumer Returns

With the rapid development of e-commerce and the continuous upgrading of consumer demand,the omnichannel retail model of online and offline integration is favored by more consumers.Consumers do not purchase from a single channel,but use multiple channels to purchase merchandise.To meet the emerging shopping needs of consumers,more and more retailers are implementing omnichannel retail strategies by integrating their online and offline channels to provide consumers with a seamless shopping experience.The omnichannel retail model not only affects consumers' purchasing behavior,but also affects their return behavior.In an omnichannel retail environment,companies offer consumers more return options.For example,some retailers adopt an omnichannel retail model of “return-to-store” to attract consumers.However,the existing research on consumer returns mainly considers the single-channel or dual-channel environment,and less scholars have studied the impact of omnichannel retail models on consumer returns.Therefore,taking two typical omnichannel retail models in practice as the research background,this dissertation studies the impact of the above omnichannel retail model on consumer purchase and return behavior as well as the retailer's optimal pricing and ordering strategies to identify the preconditions for retailers to implement omnichannel retail models.Considering consumer returns,this dissertation first explores the impact of the “reserve-online-pick-up-and-pay-in-store”(ROPS)option on the optimal pricing and ordering strategies of online retailers,and analyzes the circumstances under which retailers should implement an omnichannel retail strategy.Under the option ROPS,comparing and analyzing the game equilibrium solution of the single channel strategy and the omnichannel strategy,we find that the retail price under the omnichannel strategy is lower than the one under the single channel strategy.Additionally,the omnichannel strategy can decrease the consumer return rate and increase the consumer cancelation rate.What's more,when the cross-selling benefit is sufficiently high,the omnichannel strategy is always beneficial to the online retailer;when the cross-selling benefit is not high enough,if the unit inventory and procurement cost is small,the omnichannel strategy dominates the single channel strategy if and only if the market expansion effect brought by the omnichannel strategy is significant.Then,the dissertation further investigates the impact of the “return-to-store” option on consumers' purchasing and return behaviors as well as retailers' optimal pricing,ordering strategies and profits.We find that after implementing the “return-to-store” strategy,the optimal price of new products remains unchanged,while the price of refurbished products may decrease under certain conditions;secondly,the order quantity of online channel under the omnichannel strategy is larger than that under the dual-channel strategy,and the order quantity of the store is lower than that under the dual-channel strategy;in addition,through numerical analysis,it is found that in most cases,the implementation of the “return-to-store” strategy can achieve a win-win outcome.At present,most researches on omnichannel retailing focus on qualitative research and empirical research.Based on the utility of individual consumers,this dissertation uses game theory to study the impact of two typical omnichannel retail models on consumers' purchasing and return behavior and retailers' optimal decisions.The research content has an international frontier and enriches the research on omnichannel retail.In addition,this do identifies the preconditions for retailers to implement omnichannel retail strategies,and relevant research results can provide theoretical basis and decision-making reference for retailers.