Optimization of Pricing and Freshness-Keeping Effort in Fresh e-Commerce Supply Chain considering Online Comments

Abstract

Considering that online comments play an important role in operational decisions of a fresh e-commerce supply chain, we construct single-stage and two-stage models for fresh produce supply chain consisting of a supplier and a fresh e-commerce platform. Utilizing the Stackelberg game and two-stage repeated game, the profit functions of the supplier and platform are established, and then, the optimal retail price and freshness-keeping effort are derived. In addition, to improve the accuracy of models in describing practical problems, we construct an extended two-stage model and a third-party logistics model. Furthermore, we compare the optimal strategies under different models. Our results show that, firstly, the optimal retail price and freshness-keeping effort of supplier and platform vary in different models and online comments play a positive effect on supplier and platform’s profits. Secondly, compared with the single-stage model, the fresh e-commerce supply chain grabs more market share and profits under the two-stage model. Lastly, online comments vary in different dominance scenarios and may cause competition between supplier and platform for supply chain dominance.