Manufacturer's Wholesale Research Articles

Optimization modeling of vegetable pricing replenishment strategy based on machine learning

Fresh supermarkets are affected by commodity attributes and transaction time, and usually need to be replenished every day. It is of great significance to study the distribution law of sales volume of each category and single product, and to give replenishment and pricing strategies for the commercial supermarket to maximize its revenue. Based on the machine learning method, this paper analyzes the sales flow records of a supermarket in the past three years, obtains the sales rules of each category, and establishes a dynamic optimization model for subsequent pricing and replenishment decisions. The steps are as follows: Firstly, data preprocessing is carried out. Secondly, the kernel density estimation method is used to analyze the distribution law of the total sales volume of each category. With the help of correlation coefficient Screening feature selection method, neural network method and regression tree method, the first 33 single vegetable variables that have an important impact on the total sales volume of vegetables and meet the given constraints are comprehensively selected. Based on these 33 variables, the revenue function of single product sales, single product pricing, single product replenishment and single product wholesale price is constructed, so that the optimization problem of the revenue function is transformed into a constrained optimization problem of a quadratic function of the cost markup rate, and the specific pricing and replenishment strategy on July 1,2023 is obtained. The model established in this study can provide some new solutions to the vegetable pricing and replenishment strategy of supermarket.

Precision Management of Agricultural Products Wholesale Platform Based on Big Data Technology

Abstract In today’s big data-driven information technology development, the use of algorithms for platform management to achieve more accurate and efficient user services has become a trend. In this paper, from the two aspects of platform recommendation and route delivery of agricultural products wholesale, combining platform recommendation algorithms and delivery route optimization algorithms, the accurate management of the agricultural products wholesale platform is studied. Taking the dataset collected from the X agricultural products wholesale platform as the experimental sample, it can be seen by comparing the experimental results of this paper’s recommendation algorithm and the traditional collaborative filtering algorithm that this paper’s platform recommendation algorithm is more effective. Among them, the recommendation algorithm based on user similarity performs better than the recommendation algorithm based on user location in terms of accuracy, coverage, and recall, with optimal values of 36.42%, 50.84%, and 17.17%, respectively. Taking the route distribution study of 10 customers on the X agricultural products wholesale platform as an example, comparing the original planned distribution routes and the optimized routes, the total distance of the optimized routes is 84.97km, which is 21.29% less than that of the original planned routes under the condition of meeting the customer’s demand volume, distribution time and truck loading capacity, which verifies the effectiveness of the distribution route optimization algorithm. Effect validation shows that customer stickiness, relationship quality, and conversion cost are significantly correlated with platform recommendations and delivery route optimization.

Optimal strategies for green investment, sharing contract and advertisement effort in a supply chain coordination problem

The global environment is experiencing increasingly rapid pollution due to the presence of harmful products generated by human activities, the emissions from vehicular traffic, and the release of carbon dioxide from industrial sources. To save this beautiful earth as well as human beings, it is necessary to reduce pollution by producing eco-friendly products and reducing reckless carbon emissions from industry. Furthermore, advertising serves as a very efficacious strategy for promoting sustainable green products and encouraging customer engagement. In response to the current circumstances, a supply chain model including a manufacturer, a retailer, and customers is devised, incorporating investments in green practices and advertising. This study examines the relationship between client demand and three key factors: marketing effort, the product's green level, and the selling price. In addition, a sharing contract policy between the manufacturer and the retailer on green investment costs is applied in this model. The main focus of this study is to find the optimal values of advertisement effort, the product's green level, the manufacturer's wholesale price, the retailer's selling price and the sharing percentage of green investment that maximize the profits of the retailer and manufacturer, as well as the integrated supply chain system of the proposed model. In order to demonstrate the practical significance of the concept, a numerical example is solved and then a comparative analysis is conducted. Moreover, sensitivity studies are performed to assess the impact of different model parameters on decision factors and profitability. In conclusion, this study provides management insights and offers some closing observations, along with suggestions for future research directions. The findings indicate that the implementation of a sharing contract policy yields more earnings to the participants in the supply chain compared to a decentralized situation. The centralized strategy in supply chain management (SCM) results in higher joint earnings for the manufacturer and the retailer compared to the decentralized and sharing contract policies.

Signaling green capability with wholesale price or certification

With the rise of environmentally conscious consumers in the digital age, e-commerce platforms have a significant potential to promote green products through marketing. However, these platforms may face information asymmetry regarding the green production and operational capabilities of their manufacturing suppliers, which could hinder optimal marketing efforts. This study explores how manufacturers with high green capabilities can signal their private information to platforms to receive more green marketing support. We first analyze the traditional signaling mechanism using wholesale prices and then examine how the addition of green certification can facilitate the signaling process. We derive the supply chain equilibria under both signaling mechanisms. Our results show that a single wholesale price signal can substantially distort the manufacturer's wholesale price upward, leading to a significant deviation of the retail platform's pricing and marketing decisions from the optimal levels in a symmetric information scenario. However, adding green certification signals can mitigate this undesirable distortion and reduce the efficiency lost due to information asymmetry. Both signaling mechanisms can exacerbate the double marginalization effect, which can be mitigated to a smaller extent by adding green certification in the signaling contract. Our study highlights the signaling role of green certification in the supply chain and sheds light on the practical value of adopting green certifications.

Interaction between manufacturer's wholesale pricing and retailers' price‐matching guarantees

In practice, many retailers employ price‐matching guarantees (PMGs), committing to meet the price of an identical product at a competitor's outlet. Despite the profound linkage between retailers and manufacturers, existing literature has predominantly explored retailers' PMGs without contemplating the influence of manufacturers' wholesale pricing strategies. Employing a supply chain model comprising one manufacturer and two retailers, we scrutinize the implications of wholesale pricing—uniform or discriminatory—on supply chain members and consumers when retailers have the option to extend PMGs. Our analysis uncovers that retailers refrain from offering PMGs when the manufacturer is granted the discretion to set discriminatory wholesale prices—even if such offers align with the manufacturer's preferences. Conversely, under uniform wholesale pricing, PMGs thrive at equilibrium—even if the manufacturer opposes the practice—as long as the degree of demand or cost asymmetry between retailers and average hassle costs remains relatively modest. Although firms' preferences regarding PMGs vary, a Pareto zone exists where all entities prefer that either the efficient retailer under demand asymmetry or the inefficient retailer under cost asymmetry extends the PMG. Despite the potential advantages of PMGs for the more efficient retailer, the enforcement of uniform wholesale pricing diminishes supply chain profit, consumer welfare, and overall social welfare. The detrimental impacts on welfare owing to the imposition of uniform wholesale pricing persist, even amid the presence of hassle costs associated with price matching. Our findings thus instigate a dialogue for policymakers concerning the validity of regulating wholesale pricing when PMGs are in effect.

A dataset of the HP filter model-based research on price volatility of solanaceous vegetables in Beijing Xinfadi Market from 2012 to 2018

Solanaceous vegetables are popular dishes for residents, and they are also one type of the important cultivated vegetables in China. The price of solanaceous vegetables is non-steady with large fluctuations. Therefore, it is important to master the historical price trends and fluctuation laws, which can provide scientific guidance and support for ensuring the stability of vegetable supply prices and guiding the orderly operation of the market. Through data collection, stability test and HP filtering method decomposition, we formed a dataset of the HP filter model-based research on price volatility of solanaceous vegetables at Beijing Xinfadi Agricultural and Sideline Products Wholesale Market from 2012 to 2018. The varieties cover five kinds of solanaceous vegetables (eggplant, tomato, green pepper, bean and cucumber), including market, date, weekly/monthly average price, weekly/monthly average volatility, weekly/monthly maximum price, weekly/monthly minimum price, weekly/monthly average HP filter trend value, weekly/monthly average HP filter fluctuation value. The dataset can reflect the weekly and monthly changes of the trading prices of solanaceous vegetables in Beijing Xinfadi Market, and provide scientific data foundation for the research on as well as monitoring and early warning of the price fluctuation of solanaceous vegetables in Beijing.

Aligned porous Chitosan/Ti3C2 MXenes monolith as a high-performance fixed-bed separation medium toward globular albumin separation

Designing and tuning macropores into aligned structure is of considerable importance in promoting mass transfer, improving chromatographic performance and enhancing column efficiency. Herein, we have synthesized an innovative aligned porous Chitosan/Ti3C2 MXenes monolith via a facile, versatile and reproducible unidirectional “freeze-casting” method. Typically, the accumulation of Ti3C2 MXenes directs the formation of aligned structure during the unidirectional freezing process and thus aligned macropores are formed by a subsequent freeze-drying process. By various physical characterization, the distribution of aligned macropores, micropores and specific surface area are determined to be 21 μm, 2.53 nm and 103.09 m2·g−1, respectively. In addition, monolith bed permeability is calculated to be 1.94 × 10-12 m2, approximately 10 times than conventional monolith. Batch adsorptive experiments confirm that adsorptive capacities to bovine serum albumin and bovine hemoglobin are remarkably elevated on account of the high affinity of proteins onto those imbedding Ti3C2 MXenes. Meanwhile, continuous mass transfer equation describes the aligned macropores facilitate the film mass transfer factor ([kLa]f) in a separation process thus driving the global mass transfer factor ([kLa]g). It is expected that the aligned porous Chitosan/Ti3C2 MXenes monolith promises great potential for a continuous separation of proteins when a wholesale production is required.

Evaluation of the Wholesalers System in the Fishery Products Wholesale Market

Evaluation of the Wholesalers System in the Fishery Products Wholesale Market

Thermal-Recycling Technology of Waste from Small Wholesale Production of Multicomponent Materials and Adhesive Compositions

Thermal-Recycling Technology of Waste from Small Wholesale Production of Multicomponent Materials and Adhesive Compositions

Asymmetric Price Transmission and Market Power: A Case of the Aquaculture Product Market in China

In the aquaculture product market, the efficiency of vertical price transmission is an important manifestation, representing the marketization level of aquatic products. When the price of any sector in the aquatic product industry chain fluctuates slightly, the welfare of each sector will be affected accordingly. This study focuses on carp, the main freshwater fish in China, to explore the relationship between asymmetric price transmission and market power. We use the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model to simultaneously describe the short- and long-term asymmetric effects of wholesale-to-retail prices for carp, and apply the asymmetric autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model to analyze the differences in market power between wholesalers and retailers. The results confirm the evidence of a nonlinear cointegration between wholesale and retail prices in the carp market. There are also significant asymmetric effects in both the short- and long-term transmission speed and degree of price transmission from the wholesale to the retail market. It is evident that carp wholesalers have strong control over the price, resulting in an asymmetric effect in vertical price transmission, indicating a need to improve the development level and integration degree in the Chinese aquatic products market. Subsequently, the government should develop effective systems for aquatic product circulation, strengthen supervision over the aquatic product wholesale market, and establish a public aquatic product price platform to promote the healthy and stable development of China’s aquatic product market.

The Decision Strategy of Extended Warranty Service for Supply Chain with the Consideration of Vertical Fairness Concern

While the extended warranty services bring profits to the supply chain, they also have adverse unfair aversions in the game process of retailers or manufacturers, and affect supply chain stability and performance. With the consideration of vertical fairness concerns, a supply chain decision model that provides extended warranty services by manufacturers or retailers and considers the other party's fairness concerns is established, which is used to analyze the relationship between the vertical fairness concerns and supply chain performance (supply chain profit and supply chain equity concerns). Simulation experiments show that: under the two situations, manufacturers provide extended warranty services and consider retailers' fairness concerns and retailers provide extended warranty services and consider manufacturers' fairness concerns, the vertical fairness concern coefficient has an important impact on the decision of product wholesale price, retail price, and extension services price, as well as supply chain profit and supply chain fairness concern utility; in turn, supply chain companies can develop corresponding extended service strategies based on supply chain profit and supply chain performance optimization, and make a vertical equity concern strategy for providing extended warranty services based on expected supply chain profit or supply chain performance.

Pharmaceutical pollution: Prediction of environmental concentrations from national wholesales data.

The regulation and monitoring of pharmaceutical pollution in Europe lag behind that of more prominent groups. However, the repurposing of sales data to predict surface water environmental concentrations is a promising supplement to more commonly used market-based risk assessment and measurement approaches. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has since the 1980s compiled the Drug Wholesale Statistics database - covering all sales of both human and veterinary pharmaceuticals to retailers, pharmacies, and healthcare providers. To date, most similar works have focused either on a small subset of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) or used only prescription data, often more readily available than wholesale data, but necessarily more limited. By using the NIPH's product wholesale records, with additional information on API concentrations per product from, we have been able to calculate sales weights per year for almost 900 human and veterinary APIs for the period 2016-2019. In this paper, we present our methodology for converting the provided NIPH data from a public health to an ecotoxicological resource. From our derived dataset, we have used an equation to calculate Predicted Environmental Concentration per API for inland surface waters, a key component of environmental risk assessment. We further describe our filtering to remove ecotoxicological-exempt and data deficient APIs. Lastly, we provide a limited comparison between our dataset and similar publicly available datasets for a subset of APIs, as a validation of our approach and a demonstration of the added value of wholesale data. This dataset will provide the best coverage yet of pharmaceutical sales weights for an entire nation. Moreover, our developed routines for processing 2016-2019 data can be expanded to older Norwegian wholesales data (1974-present). Consequently, our work with this dataset can contribute to narrowing the gap between desk-based predictions of exposure from consumption, and empirical but expensive environmental measurement.

An Investment and Loan Financing Decision Equilibrium in Supply Chain

A financing model for bank loan financing, equity financing, and portfolio financing under the manufacturer's capital constraints is constructed, and the manufacturer's capital level and consumers are discussed in green preference on pricing, green input level, market demand for products, and selection strategies of financing methods. Finally, it is verified by numerical analysis. Consumers' green preference is positively correlated with retail prices, wholesale prices and the level of green investment efforts, market demand for products, and equity transfer ratios acceptable to both parties in equity financing; when the manufacturer's capital constraints are not financing, the manufacturer's initial capital level is positively correlated with manufacturer's wholesale price, and retailer's retail price are negatively correlated, but it is positively correlated with the level of green investment efforts; the greater the bank loan interest rate, the larger the manufacturer's acceptable share transfer ratio.

Pharmaceutical pollution: Prediction of environmental concentrations from national wholesales data

The regulation and monitoring of pharmaceutical pollution in Europe lag behind that of more prominent groups. However, the repurposing of sales data to predict surface water environmental concentrations is a promising supplement to more commonly used market-based risk assessment and measurement approaches. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has since the 1980s compiled the Drug Wholesale Statistics database - covering all sales of both human and veterinary pharmaceuticals to retailers, pharmacies, and healthcare providers. To date, most similar works have focused either on a small subset of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) or used only prescription data, often more readily available than wholesale data, but necessarily more limited. By using the NIPH’s product wholesale records, with additional information on API concentrations per product from, we have been able to calculate sales weights per year for almost 900 human and veterinary APIs for the period 2016–2019. In this paper, we present our methodology for converting the provided NIPH data from a public health to an ecotoxicological resource. From our derived dataset, we have used an equation to calculate Predicted Environmental Concentration per API for inland surface waters, a key component of environmental risk assessment. We further describe our filtering to remove ecotoxicological-exempt and data deficient APIs. Lastly, we provide a limited comparison between our dataset and similar publicly available datasets for a subset of APIs, as a validation of our approach and a demonstration of the added value of wholesale data. This dataset will provide the best coverage yet of pharmaceutical sales weights for an entire nation. Moreover, our developed routines for processing 2016–2019 data can be expanded to older Norwegian wholesales data (1974–present). Consequently, our work with this dataset can contribute to narrowing the gap between desk-based predictions of exposure from consumption, and empirical but expensive environmental measurement.

A Study on the Market Integration of Agricultural Product Wholesale Markets in Korea: A Focused Relation Analysis of Prices in Agricultural Product Wholesale Market

Purpose – In this study, we investigate the market integration function of agricultural product wholesale markets by analyzing the price determination power of individual markets that play a pivotal role in the distribution of agricultural products in Korea, and the relationship between prices among these markets. Design/Methodology/Approach – We analyzed nine central wholesale markets that play a key role in 32 agricultural product wholesale markets in Korea using the daily price data of six major items. For the analysis, the stability of time series data was reviewed through the Unit Root test, and the ability to determine their own prices was checked through variance decomposition, forecast error variance decomposition. Findings – The results show that the prices in the Garak Agricultural Product Wholesale Market, which accounts for 33.6% of all trade volume in all 32 agricultural products wholesale markets, have a remarkable impact on the prices in major central wholesale markets; thus, these markets, except for the Garak Market, lack their own price determination power for most items. Research Implications – Agricultural product wholesale markets in Korea are achieving market integration due to the relatively small land area, a trade method focusing on auctions in wholesale markets, and the real-time sharing of agricultural trade information owing to advancements in information and communication technology. Therefore, this study’s results are distinct from those of previous studies claiming that distance affects market integration.

Effects of regulatory policy mixes on traceability adoption in wholesale markets: Food safety inspection and information disclosure

The increasingly heavier burden of government spending on food safety supervision is a common problem faced by regulatory agencies in various countries. Traceability is an effective quality and safety management measure and plays an important role in food safety risk control in many developed countries. However, the agricultural product traceability system in wholesale markets has low coverage in China. This article investigates the effects of regulatory policy mixes, i.e., food safety sampling intensity and information disclosure, on vendors’ traceability adoption, theoretically and empirically based on a dataset containing the information of all aquatic product wholesale markets in three provinces of China. The results show that both sampling intensity and information disclosure positively influence the traceability adoption of vendors. However, the effect of food safety sampling intensity on traceability adoption relies on information disclosure. Specifically, an increase of 10 sampling tests enhances the probability that vendors adopt traceability by 4 percentage points in markets with information disclosure. These effects are heterogeneous across vendors with different business scales and with different supply chain distances from farms. The effects are larger for vendors with larger business scales and/or are closer to farms. The above results are robust after the inclusion of the instrumental variable into the models.

Pricing and assembly rate decisions for a prefabricated construction supply chain under subsidy policies.

Prefabricated construction has attracted worldwide concern and promotion due to its environmental friendliness, high quality, and high efficiency. In China, the application of prefabricated construction still lags due to its high cost. To improve prefabricated construction development, the Chinese government and provinces have launched subsidy policies for different objects that offer subsidies to the assembler, the manufacturer, or consumers. Subsidy policies for different subsidy objects have different impacts on the manufacturer wholesale price and assembler retail price and assembly rate and make their decisions more complicated. Therefore, this study uses game theory and builds three models to analyze the effects of government subsidies on manufacturer pricing, assembler pricing, assembly rate decisions, and profit. We find that government subsidy policies can bring more profit to prefabricated construction enterprises, reduce their costs, and benefit the promotion of prefabricated construction. Through comparison and numerical analysis, we also find that when the government subsidizes enterprises more, it is better to subsidize the assembler, because it is good for all three parties. First, consumers can obtain a lower retail price. Second, enterprises can obtain more profits. Finally, for the government, this approach can increase the demand for prefabricated construction and increase the assembly rate, which is conducive to the promotion of prefabricated construction. When the government subsidizes customers more, it is better for the assembler and the manufacturer to subsidize customers, because they can obtain more profits. It is better for the government and customers to subsidize the assembler or the manufacture, because consumers can get the lower retail price. Although the assembly rate and enterprises’ profits are not optimal, they have also been improved. In addition, when the government directly subsidizes enterprises, the enterprises will actively cooperate with the subsidy policy and are more willing to adopt prefabricated construction. This approach will benefit the promotion of prefabricated construction.

Study on Dual-channel Supply Chain Game Under Carbon Subsidy Policy

In this work, dual-channel supply chain price models and their optimal strategy were studied under government low-carbon innovative subsidies. The decision-making mechanism and complex dynamical characteristics of manufacturer's wholesale price and retailers’ sales commissions were discussed. The results showed that when the government implements low-carbon subsidy policy, the change of price adjustment coefficient of manufacturer, online and offline retailers will lead to the instability of system, and manufacturer has more influence on the price system than retailers. Consumers’ low-carbon preference is conducive for manufacturer and retailers to increase sales prices, but if consumers over pursue low-carbon products, the price system will also fall into chaos, which will cause fluctuations and losses in profits of supply chain members.

Application of Fuzzy Matter Element Analysis to the Evaluation of Circulation Efficiency of Agricultural Products

This article builds an evaluation indicator system based on the process of agricultural circulation and the balance of many-sided benefits. A new classification of indicator types was made from the perspective of benefit balance, and gross profit margin and inventory-sales ratio were classified as interval indicators, which enriched the indicator types. The matter-element analysis method is used to measure the circulation efficiency of agricultural product wholesale markets. The study found that in terms of geographical location, in the vertical direction of Aihui-Tengchong Line, the closer to the southeast, the higher the circulation efficiency; Since 2016, the overall circulation efficiency has almost stagnated, mainly because the wholesale industry has strengthened its ability to control upstream and downstream relationships, and the entry barriers of agricultural products have been continuously increased.

Game analysis of environmental cost allocation in green supply chain under fairness preference

Cost allocation is a way to promote enterprises to actively implement green supply chain management, and the behavior preference of decision makers will affect the process. This paper considers the situation that manufacturer has fairness preference and retailer is fair neutral, and constructs a secondary supply chain composed of a single manufacturer and a single retailer. We explore two models of cost allocation—based on the Stackelberg model, the impact of retailers’ nonparticipation/participation in cost allocation on supply chain is discussed, while through the Nash bargaining model, the range and optimal solution of the environmental cost allocation ratio are determined. And we show how product wholesale prices, retail prices, green innovation investment, and the optimal ratio of environmental cost allocation are influenced by fairness preference. The results show that retailers’ participation in environmental cost allocation will increase the level of product greenness and make the entire supply chain Pareto optimal. The strong fairness preference of manufacturer will weaken the positive effect of retailers participating in cost allocation on the supply chain. Therefore, the government and enterprises should adopt incentive measures to actively promote the collaboration between channel partners in order to share the environmental cost, and manufacturers should pay less attention to fairness.