Abstract

With the expansion of the Internet and the proliferation of e-businesses, many manufacturers have chosen to distribute products through online retail channels in addition to brick-and-mortar retail channels. In this paper, we consider a dual-channel supply chain in which a manufacturer considers selling a product through a conventional retail channel and an online channel. Considering two common procurement and order fulfillment policies for online retailers (etailers), conventional batch ordering and drop-shipping, we investigate the impact of supply chain power structure in terms of market power and retail channel dominance on a manufacturer’s optimal distribution channel strategy. We analyze and compare the two procurement models with respect to the etailer’s order fulfillment policies. We find that a manufacturer never prefers a drop-shipping etailer as the first mover in a sequential pricing game with a batch ordering traditional retailer. The manufacturer prefers to award the power of retail channel dominance to a batch ordering retailer with relatively high market power even if the etailer also follows a batch ordering policy. Drop-shipping benefits both the manufacturer and the etailer when the etailer has relatively low market power.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.