Manufacturer's And Retailer's Ecommerce Platform Introduction Strategies In Multi-channel Supply Chain

With the rapid development of ecommerce platform,many manufacturers and retailers have introduced the ecommerce platform channels to increase market sales and brand awareness.Although the introduction of ecommerce platform channel can attract more consumers,it may compete with the existing channels.In this paper,there are three research questions.Firstly,when the spillover effect exists,should the multi-channel retailer introduce the ecommerce platform and how to choose selling format? Then,under different logistics service choices,how does the manufacturer choose the quantity of ecommerce platform to introduce and the joint decision of the two? Finally,under differentiated pricing and uniform pricing strategies,the manufacturers and the retailer prefer who introduce the e-commerce platform,as well as the joint decision of e-commerce platform introduction and pricing strategy.This paper establishes the Stackelberg models and uses the optimization theory to obtain the optimal solutions.By comparing the model results,the paper analyzes the manufacturer's and retailer's ecommerce platform introduction strategies.In Section 1,the research background,the research questions,the research purpose,the research significance,the research content and innovation are illustrated.In Section 2,the paper summarizes and reviews the previous literature and shows the research gaps to support the innovation.In Section 3,the retailer with the self-established offline and online channels is considered as well as the spillover effect exists between channels.The paper analyzes the retailer's ecommerce platform introduction strategy and selling format preference.In Section 4,the manufacturer introduces two kinds of ecommerce platform selling formats in addition to the traditional retail channel.The paper analyzes the manufacturer's ecommerce platform introduction strategy and the joint decision of ecommerce platform's number and logistics service.In Section 5,the manufacturer sells products to the retailer and then the retailer resells products to consumers.The manufacturer and the retailer decide whether to introduce the ecommerce platform or not.Under differentiated pricing strategy and uniform pricing strategy,the paper analyzes the manufacturer's and the retailer's ecommerce platform introduction strategies and joint decisions.In Section 6,the main results are summarized and the research directions in the future are proposed.The research conclusions in this paper can provide reference and guidance for the enterprises about e-commerce platform introduction strategy in multi-channel supply chain.The main conclusions in the paper are as follows:(1)When platform agency fee rate is low,the retailer prefers MR to MA as channel competition increases;When platform agency fee rate is high,the retailer always prefers MR.(2)When logistics service choice in the agency selling channel is given,the manufacturer always prefers dual-platforms introduction strategy.When the manufacturer jointly chooses logistics service and ecommerce platform introduction strategy,in most cases,DL is the best choice;however,when the platform agency fee rate,channel competition and platform logistics service level are high,the best choice is DN.(3)Under differentiated pricing strategy,the manufacturer prefers MR but the retailer prefers R.Under uniform pricing strategy,for the manufacturer,when channel competition is low,MR is the best;when channel competition is high,M is the best if agency fee rate is low and R is the best if agency fee rate is high.Under uniform pricing strategy,for the retailer,when channel competition and agency fee rate are low,MR is the best;the retailer prefers R as both increase.When the agency fee rate is reasonable,(DP,MR)is the best joint choice for the manufacturer;the retailer's joint choice depends on the channel competition and the agency fee rate.