Research On The Pricing Of Near-Shelf-Life Commodities Considering Consumer Risk Preference And Reference Price Effect

With the progress of the times,the scientific concept is deeply rooted in people’s minds,and consumer behavior tends to be rational.The inferior label of near-shelf-life commodities is slowly replaced by high-cost performance,and an increasing number of people are now paying attention to and purchasing nearshelf-life commodities.Therefore,the scientific sale of near-shelf-life commodities can satisfy consumers’ pursuit of cost performance and make retailers profit,which is a win-win situation for both,and it is also important for saving social resources.However,in practice,consumers are frequently risk-averse,and they are growing"smarter" and more strategic in their purchasing behavior.In particular,consumers are more likely to evaluate the prices of full-priced goods before making a purchase,which has an impact on merchants’ pricing strategies and earnings.In this context,it is necessary to incorporate consumers’ risk preferences and reference price effects into the pricing management of near-shelf-life commodities and explore the pricing of near-shelf-life commodities considering risk preferences and reference price effects.In view of this,this study explores how retailers can develop optimal pricing strategies and maximize profits in the face of consumers with risk appetite or reference price effects,or both,from the perspective of consumers.The core of this paper is divided into three parts:First,for a monopoly market where strategic and short-sighted consumers coexist,the optimal pricing model of the retailer is constructed from the perspective of profit maximization,focusing on the riskaverse behavior of consumers,and further analyzing the impact of each parameter on the optimal pricing.Second,the optimal pricing of full-priced and near-shelflife goods and the profitability of retailers when consumers have the reference price effect are considered and explored in two cases based on the magnitude of the valuation discount factor.Third,based on the prior two parts,we further analyze the pricing of near-shelf-life goods considering both the reference price and consumer risk preferences,taking into account the influence of their interaction.Theoretical analyses and numerical experiments were conducted regarding the above three research elements.According to the study’s findings,the riskaverse behavior of consumers is detrimental to retailers’ business,and retailers can only increase their profits by setting lower prices to attract consumers to buy goods when they are in the face of consumers with high-risk aversion.Retailers might take advantage of strategic consumers’ waiting behavior by lowering the price of full-priced items and boosting the price of intermediate goods in order to stimulate sales of full-priced goods.When consumers have high reference price dependence,retailers can increase inventory holdings appropriately to satisfy increased consumer demand.When the devaluation is obvious,strategic consumers will only buy full-priced goods and the optimal pricing strategy is to keep the price of both goods the same.When the devaluation is less obvious,retailers need to analyze the problem comprehensively by combining consumers’ risk preferences and reference price effects.