摘要
本文通过构建双渠道零售商和合作履行线上订单的第三方物流企业的博弈模型,研究零售商应何时采取BOPS策略以及该策略对第三方物流服务定价和利润的影响。研究表明,第三方物流服务水平、消费者门店提货的不便利程度以及BOPS渠道的运营成本是影响零售商是否采取BOPS策略的关键因素。具体而言,当零售商运营BOPS渠道的成本较低时,消费者向BOPS渠道转移的行为对零售商有利。当第三方物流服务水平越高和消费者去门店提货越便利时,就会有越多的消费者向BOPS渠道转移,零售商实施BOPS策略越有利。然而,当零售商运营BOPS渠道的成本较高时,消费者的渠道转移行为反而会增加零售商的运营压力,因此,零售商只有在第三方物流服务水平和消费者门店取货不便利程度都较高,即向BOPS渠道转移的消费者较少时,才可以从实施BOPS策略中获利。只有在BOPS渠道运营成本和消费者门店自提的不便利程度都较高时,服务水平较高的物流企业才会降低服务价格;此外,BOPS策略总会损害第三方物流企业的利益。
Consumers′requirements for online order fulfillment services are increasing as e-commerce develops further.Thus,discovering how best to fulfill consumers′online orders as quickly as possible has become an urgent issue for retailers.The traditional method retailers have used to fulfill online orders is to cooperate with third-party logistical firms(e.g.,express firms).Third-party logistical firms ship products from the retailer to the consumer and charge the retailer a fee for that service.Recently,with the acceleration of online and offline channel integration,many retailers have begun to take advantage of new or existing brick-and-mortar stores to fulfill consumers′online orders;that is,retailers allow consumers to buy online and pick up in-store(BOPS)to improve consumers′shopping experience.This opportunity directly impacts the demand and pricing of any third-party logistical firm that provides s online order fulfillment services for the retailer.However,current literature on BOPS strategies has largely ignored potential pricing decisions of third-party logistical firms in response to retailers′adoption of BOPS strategies.Such changes might lead to losses for the retailer.Thus,investigating the interaction between BOPS strategies and the pricing decisions of third-party logistical firms provides managerial insights for the development of e-commerce supply chains in an omnichannel retailing environment.For example,a supply chain includes a dual-channel retailer that sells the exact same products through the online and offline channels and uses the services of a third-party logistical firm;then,the retailer′s optimal online order fulfillment strategy in the presence of heterogeneous consumers in two dimensions should be investigated-the product valuation and the hassle cost of offline shopping.Specifically,in addition to fulfilling the online orders through the third-party logistical firm,the retailer should decide whether to implement a BOPS strategy that will allow customers to buy online and pick up in-store.To determine the impacts of the BOPS strategy on the retailer and third-party logistical firms,as well as the conditions under which the retailer should adopt this strategy,we develop a basic model in which the retailer does not adopt a BOPS strategy and a pricing game model of the retailer and the third-party logistical firm when the retailer does adopt the BOPS strategy.First,by comparing the retailer′s equilibrium profits before and after the implementation of the BOPS strategy,we discover that the logistics service level,the operation cost of the BOPS channel,and the degree of convenience for consumers to pick up products in the store are the important factors influencing whether a retailer should adopt the BOPS strategy or not.When the unit operating cost of the BOPS channel is low,customers′channel transfer behavior is beneficial to the retailer.The lower the level of logistics services and the greater the convenience of an in-store pickup are,the more customers will transfer to the BOPS channel.This experience demonstrates that the adoption of the BOPS strategy is more favorable to the retailer.However,when the unit operating cost of the BOPS channel is high,any significant amount of customers′channel transfer behavior increases the operations and cost pressure on the retailer.Therefore,the retailer will profit from implementing a BOPS strategy only if the third-party logistical firm offers high-level lowcost logistics services and picking up in the available bricks-and-mortar stores is highly inconvenient for consumers leading to fewer customers transferring to additional BOPS channels.Second,we analyze the impact of a BOPS strategy on equilibrium prices and the volume of online orders through several numerical examples.When adopting the BOPS strategy,the retailer raises the product price because BOPS generally improves the willingness to pay for products.Increasing product prices and switching consumers to the BOPS channel lead to a decrease in the number of online orders fulfilled by the third-party logistical firm.Only when the level of third-party logistics service is high,the cost of operating the BOPS channel is low,and the inconvenience of picking up the online order in the local store is high,the retailer will reduce the product price to induce new customers and expand the use of BOPS.In other words,at least initially,the third-party logistical firm can fulfill more online orders.Finally,we analyze how the BOPS strategy can affect the third-party logistical firm′s pricing of its services and its profitability.When the retailer adopts a BOPS strategy,the third-party logistical firm increases its service prices to compensate for the loss caused by a decrease in the number of fulfilled online orders.As the degree of the inconvenience of picking up online orders in the store increases,that is,the overall advantage of the BOPS strategy is weakened,the third-party logistical firm with high-level services would be less likely to increase its service price.When the costs of operating the BOPS channel and the inconvenience of picking up the online order in the store are high,the third-party logistical firm offering a high level of logistics service will decrease the service price after the retailer′s implementation of the BOPS strategy.The retailer can avoid excessive service prices from the third-party logistical firm by increasing investment in running the BOPS channels.Additionally,we find that the third-party logistical firm′s profit is damaged by the retailer′s BOPS strategy.This damage can be reduced by improving logistics service levels or cooperating with retailers with low advantages in implementing BOPS strategies.
作者
邱菊
赵菊
房晓艺
李天心
QIU Ju;ZHAO Ju;FANG Xiaoyi;LI Tianxin(School of Management,Hefei University of Technology,Hefei 230009,China;Key Laboratory of Process Optimization and Intelligent Decision-making,Ministry of Education,Hefei 230009,China;Ministry of Education Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Decision-Making&Information System Technologies,Hefei 230009,China)
出处
《管理工程学报》
CSSCI
CSCD
北大核心
2023年第3期169-177,共9页
Journal of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management
基金
国家社会科学基金资助项目(18BGL265)。
作者简介
通讯作者:赵菊(1979-),女,安徽怀远人,合肥工业大学管理学院教授、博士生导师,研究方向:供应链管理。
