Multiple Buyers Research Articles

EXPRESS: Joint Assortment and Price Optimization with Multiple Purchases

In this paper, we incorporate the effects of multi-unit purchases into consumer choice models and investigate the associated joint assortment and pricing problems. Under the proposed two-stage choice framework, consumers first form a consideration set, and then select a product with the optimal quantity from the consideration set to maximize their utility. For the joint assortment and pricing problem with homogeneous consumers, we find that a multi-purchase-willingness-ordered assortment is optimal under certain technical conditions, and propose a polynomial-time algorithm to find the optimal assortment and prices for general cases. We further show that the optimal prices and assortment size are not monotone in multi-purchase preference and multi-purchase resistance. For the joint assortment and pricing problem with heterogeneous consumers, we first prove that this problem is NP-hard. We then consider a scenario with discrete prices and we develop a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme by considering a finite number of consumer segments and nested consideration sets. We conduct an empirical study on the JD.com dataset and show that the new choice framework can improve model fitting and prediction accuracy compared with existing choice models with multiple purchases. We reveal that our model is especially suitable for datasets exhibiting a strong diminishing marginal effect for product variety. We further extend our analysis to price competition and establish the existence and uniqueness of a Nash equilibrium. For the joint optimization with fixed costs, we develop an algorithm that can find a solution guaranteeing at least half the optimal expected profit.

Repeated Trading: Transparency and Market Structure

We analyze the effect of transparency of past trading volumes in markets where an informed long-lived seller can repeatedly trade with short-lived uninformed buyers. Transparency allows buyers to observe previously sold quantities. In markets with intraperiod monopsony (single buyer each period), transparency reduces welfare if the ex ante expected quality is low but improves welfare if the expected quality is high. The effect is reversed in markets with intraperiod competition (multiple buyers each period). This discrepancy in the efficiency implications of transparency is explained by how buyer competition affects the seller’s ability to capture rents, which, in turn, influences market screening. (JEL D40, D82, D83, G14, L15)

Retailers' Compliance with Federal Age of Cigarette Sales Policies -- Pitt County, North Carolina, January-March 2022.

Tobacco use remains a leading cause of preventable morbidity and premature mortality. In December 2019, the federal age of sale for tobacco products increased from 18 to 21 years of age. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of federal tobacco 21 policies in Pitt County, North Carolina (NC), by conducting multiple purchase attempts for cigarettes. Stores in Pitt County that sold cigarettes were randomly sampled and visited by up to six different underage (18-20) buyers who attempted to buy cigarettes from January-March 2022. Buyers made a total of 217 cigarette purchase attempts from 49 Pitt County retailers. Analyses were conducted using SPSS Complex Samples (v.28/Macintosh) and estimate retailer prevalence of requesting identification (ID) and selling to underage buyers across multiple purchase attempts. On average, retailers failed to request ID in 15.4% of purchase attempts (95% CI: 9.4%-21.3%) and sold to an underage buyer 34.2% of the time (95% CI: 27.0-41.4%). Additionally, 75.5% (95% CI: 63.4%-84.6%) of retailers sold to an underage buyer at least once. This study is limited to a single county in NC and to underage buyers aged 18 to 20. There is widespread non-compliance with federal age of sale policies for tobacco products in Pitt County, NC. State enforcement is warranted, and NC's youth access law should be amended to match the federal age of sale. Changes to the law should allow research involving underage purchases.

Bargaining and Exclusion With Multiple Buyers

A seller trades with q out of n buyers who have valuations a 1 ≥ a 2 ≥ ⋯ ≥ a n > 0 via sequential bilateral bargaining. When q < n, buyer payoffs vary across equilibria in the patient limit, but seller payoffs do not, and converge to maxl≤q+1[(a1+a2+⋯+al−1)/2+al+1+⋯+aq+1]. If l * is the (generically unique) maximizer of this optimization problem, then each buyer i < l * trades with probability 1 at the fair price a i /2, while buyers i ≥ l * are excluded from trade with positive probability. Bargaining with buyers who face the threat of exclusion is driven by a sequential outside option principle: the seller can sequentially exercise the outside option of trading with the extra marginal buyer q + 1, then with the new extra marginal buyer q, and so on, extracting full surplus from each buyer in this sequence and enhancing the outside option at every stage. A seller who can serve all buyers ( q = n) may benefit from creating scarcity by committing to exclude some remaining buyers as negotiations proceed. An optimal exclusion commitment, within a general class, excludes a single buyer but maintains flexibility about which buyer is excluded. Results apply symmetrically to a buyer bargaining with multiple sellers.

Auction-based single buyer energy trading framework in grid-tied microgrid with distributed energy storage and demand response using a multi-agent approach

This paper presents a modified single-buyer energy trading model for a grid-tied microgrid that uses a multi-agent system (MAS) approach in a two-stage market auction for multiple sellers and multiple buyers (MSMB).Additionally, a new linear bidding algorithm (LBA) is made available for use by stakeholders (sellers and buyers) in order to select the quote prices for day-ahead trade. By utilising available distributed generation (DG), distributed storage systems (DSS), and demand response (DR) in the first stage (local) market, if not forwarded to the second stage (global) market, this strategy seeks to reduce peak demand and maximise cost benefits for stakeholders and aggregators. The suggested market framework is simulated using MATLAB and Simulink. The simulation results of a test system, which indicate the differences before and after DR and DSS (DRaDS) are taken into consideration, are used to emphasise the effects of DRaDS on market clearing prices from the proposed two-stage market auction.

Double auction for trading perfect complements

AbstractFor a trading problem where a buyer is interested in an aggregate resource with fragmented ownership, the individually owned resources are perfect complements in trade. A double auction, chosen in accordance with a value alignment principle which we formulate, is shown to be strategy proof for owners. Since it also values the aggregate resource correctly, it mitigates the holdout problem by changing the source of inefficiency from complementarity on owners' side to lack of competition on buyer side. The value alignment principle implies that this double auction has a majority trading rule. With multiple buyers, a suitable modification makes the double auction strategy proof even for the buyers, thus mitigating the holdout problem by achieving approximate ex post efficiency when the number of owners is large.

Enhanced environmental and economic sustainability of VMI-CS agreement-based closed-loop supply chain for deteriorating products

The present study aims to enhance the environmental and economic sustainability of any supply chain, where a single vendor collaborates with multiple buyers following a vendor-managed inventory-based consignment stock policy for deteriorating products. In contrast to the prevailing literature, a distinctive feature of this research is that each and every chain partner invests in green equipment initially, in compliance with the carbon cap-and-trade regulation of the Paris Accord. Incorporating sequential remanufacturing of used products transforms the supply chain into a closed-loop system, significantly diminishing the reliance on fresh raw materials. Albeit traditional, this study classically determines the optimal values of six major decisions that minimize the total cost of the proposed model. In terms of results, the vendor’s sequential production process of new and remanufactured items substantially reduces total cost and raises green investments for all chain partners. This study pleads to employ advanced demand forecasting tools that shall mitigate the impact of fluctuating demand. Also, this study proposes to uphold equitable partnerships between vendors and buyers in any sustainability endeavors, including emissions control. Investing upfront in the efficient collection of used items is a crucial element of sustainability.

The Dominant Factors Influencing Consumers to Buy Blind Boxes -- The Product Itself versus Consumer Emotion

In recent years, the blind box as a trendy toy, leads the development of trendy play. Blind boxes have cut into the market of young consumers precisely, and many "blind box +" business models such as archaeological blind boxes, stationery blind boxes, beauty blind boxes, snack blind boxes, etc. have emerged rapidly. The purpose of this study is to investigate the dominant factors that influence consumers to purchase blind boxes. The research method used in this study was both hypothetical and comparative, with preliminary data obtained from a questionnaire. 30 valid questionnaires were collected. The main population was 15-25 years old (24 people, accounting for 80%). The proportion of monthly consumption between 101 and 300 yuan per month is 33.3%. Men were more likely to purchase hand-held blind box products (8, accounting for 57.2%), and women were more likely to purchase album cards (7, 43.8%). The findings revealed that for single/few-time purchasers of blind boxes, the dominant factor that influenced them to start buying blind boxes was the type of items inside the box. For multiple purchasers of blind boxes, the dominant factor that influenced them to start repeated purchases of blind boxes was gambling mentality.

Multiple-purchase choice model: estimation and optimization

Although multiple-purchase behavior is typical in retail practice, the choice model to portray such behavior is limited in existing research. This paper presents a new multiple-purchase (MP) choice model based on the multinomial logit (MNL) choice model, which allows customers to purchase more than one item in a single visit. We first prove that the log-likelihood function based on our MP choice model has a nice concave property such that we can efficiently estimate the parameters in the model with data. Next, we present an equivalent mixed-integer program for the multiple-purchase assortment optimization, which can be solved by state-of-the-art commercial solvers. Finally, we conduct extensive numerical experiments to evaluate the benefits from the MP choice model in both estimation and optimization problems. We first conduct a case study on a real-world dataset. The numerical results show that our MP choice model performs better in three estimation metrics and one revenue metric than the MNL choice model. Then, we demonstrate the advantage of the MP choice model on simulated data. Our model can provide significant realized revenue improvement compared with that obtained by the single-purchase MNL choice model in numerical results.

Proposed Marketing Strategy to Increase Sales of Kudimon Healthy Food

Kudimon Healthy Food is one of the MSMEs in Bandung that focuses on healthy snacks. After the pandemic subsided, based on internal data and information from management, Kudimon Healthy Food also faced problems related to sales 6 months ago. After conducting an in-depth interview with one of the owners of Kudimon Healthy Food, lack of knowledge about proper marketing strategies is one of the main problems faced by Kudimon Healthy Food. This could be due to limited time, resources, or accessibility to the information needed. Lack of access to a wide number of marketing platforms and mediums such as large markets and potential customers. This can be caused by limited capital, knowledge, and/or limited human resources. In this paper, the author conducts quantitative research by conducting preliminary surveys and indepth interviews with various parties as a new potential market segment for Kudimon Healthy Food to achieve sales, Kudimon Healthy Food only conducts Business to Consumer (B2C) sales. The author also analyzes the factors that influence the buying interest of new market candidates Kudimon Healthy Food. The analysis was conducted internally using: Segmenting, targeting and positioning, Marketing mix, VRIO Framework and Business Model Canvas, as well as external analysis consisting of Porter 5 forces, PESTEL analysis, Competitor analysis and Consumer analysis. The results of the author’s research, Kudimon Healthy Food can expand its promotion and increase sales ratings in the market place, create a strong online presence and engage with potential customers, Develop an effective content marketing strategy by creating engaging and informative content for websites and social media platforms, Discounts or incentives can be given to customers who make multiple purchases or refer friends to the brand and offer samples it’s free to customers, in-store or online, which is likely to increase their trust in your product.

Integrated optimization of inventory, replenishment, and vehicle routing for a sustainable supply chain utilizing a novel hybrid algorithm with carbon emission regulation

An integrated approach of making supply chain decisions has been proven to be more cost-effective compared to the strategy of taking supply chain decisions sequentially. It has influenced researchers to break the norm and focus on integrated supply chain decision-making. Considering this an integrated sustainable supply chain network for a single vendor and multiple buyers is formulated along with trade credit policy. The vendor offers a trade credit policy to its buyers. Emissions generated from production, vehicle routing, and storage are taken into account. To minimize carbon emissions, a cap & trade policy is applied. The buyers are served by a fleet of vehicles available at the vendor location. Considering the aforementioned scenario, a mathematical formulation is developed so as to minimize the overall total cost subject to a set of constraints. The integrated decisions regarding production, inventory management, vehicle routing, and carbon emissions are taken. Besides this, a unique metaheuristic technique is also suggested to solve the proposed problem. The solutions obtained through the process of well-known genetic algorithm are further improved during the ruin and recreate phase of the hybridized algorithm named as GA-RR. An in-depth empirical examination of GA-RR algorithm is also done through a quantitative analysis of exploration and exploitation. To better illustrate the proposed mathematical problem, two numerical examples are also demonstrated. It is followed by an extensive sensitivity analysis of the various input parameters so as to highlight important results. It can be concluded that GA-RR outperforms other existing metaheuristic techniques for the proposed mathematical problem.

The Effect of Building Perceived Value on Increasing Customer Purchase Intention in the Internet Celebrity Economy

Based on the statistics report of Double 11 shopping festival, the sales volume of live-streaming E-commerce which consist of Internet celebrity economy as a main part has reached 181.4 billion yuan with a year-on-year growth of more than one hundred percent. The purpose of the research is to figure out some important aspects towards building perceived value and how perceived value takes effect to increase customer purchase intention in the Internet celebrity economy, especially for Chinese Internet celebrity economy. Social media influencers in platforms like TikTok have made great contribution to the growth of E-commerce. Internet celebrity economy has advantages such as cheaper price or multiple purchase channels. Besides, perceived value also plays a significant role in the booming development of Internet celebrity economy. The research would introduce the main marketing methods of Internet celebrity economy and illustrate some important aspects for Internet celebrities in attracting fans' attention and building perceived value. Subsequently, the research would compare different aspects to find out more effective factors on building perceived value and increase customer purchase intention. Finally, the research gives some suggestions about how to improve the self-influence based on the review of the research on foreign social media influencers. The conclusion of this study is that strengthening the emotional connection between Internet celebrities and customers is the key to improve customers' purchase intention.

Chinese University Female Students’ Consumption Tendency towards Different Product Promotion Ways on New Media Platforms

In an era when various new media platforms are widely entering people's lives, the content on these new media platforms is becoming more and more extensive. Various product merchants are also aiming at this trend, using the influence of netizens and bloggers to put more of their own product promotion on such platforms. Female college students, as a kind of customer group with strong willingness to consume and more exposure to new media platforms, have naturally become the target customers of many product merchants. The purpose of this study is to analyze the consumption tendency of female college students towards the existing mainstream new media platforms, and provide some reference and ideas for customers, product merchants, and new media platform operators. This study collected the familiarity, acceptance and consumption frequency of 150 female college students on five types of new media platforms’ common marketing modes by means of questionnaires. After analyzing their responses, it is concluded that female college students are more familiar with the product marketing forms placed by well-known and female-targeted new media platforms and are more likely to accept more subtle marketing strategies with a smaller ratio of advertisements to the content itself, and to make multiple purchases under the marketing platforms and marketing styles that have easier and complete shopping channels and more emotional appeal.

Two-Stage Community Energy Trading Under End-Edge-Cloud Orchestration

The end-edge-cloud orchestration of the virtual power plant (VPP) enables the edge server to timely serve community users. By deploying the community energy storage system (CESS) and the community peer-to-peer (P2P) market, prosumers can form energy communities to achieve self-sufficiency of energy and independence from fuel-based power generators. This article proposed a two-stage community energy trading model under end-edge-cloud orchestration. The community P2P trading is the first stage where the edge server can execute the automatic bidding process for multiple buyers and sellers based on the real-time users’ energy profiles and the Bayesian-game-based pricing mechanism. The trading between the retailer and energy communities is the second stage where the edge server can dynamically update the optimal operation of the CESS based on the dynamic pricing mechanism. An original centralized optimization problem is decomposed into subproblems for each stakeholder and solved through the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). Considering ADMM needs multiple information exchanges, a general form of the communication-censored ADMM for sharing problems is proposed to decrease the communication cost. Numerical simulations prove that the proposed mechanism can effectively increase transaction efficiency, avoid the new demand peak brought by the utilization of the CESS, and decrease the communication cost.

A two-phase combinatorial double auction and negotiation mechanism for socialized joint reserve mode in emergency preparedness

Natural disasters seriously threaten the safety of human life and property. In order to provide sufficient emergency supplies instantly after disasters, it is necessary to reserve them in advance. The socialized joint reserve mode (SJRM) for emergency supplies has increasingly become a meaningful way to improve emergency preparedness capacity. Aiming to establish a market-oriented trading method of reserve services and allocate them efficiently, this research designs a two-phase combinatorial double auction and negotiation mechanism. The specific objective of this mechanism is to determine the transaction relationship, quantity, and price. In the first phase, the government, humanitarian relief organizations (HROs), enterprises and supermarkets constitute reserve service transaction's demand and supply sides. Their benchmark bidding strategy is given, and winners are determined by maximizing social surplus. In the second phase, the winners hold negotiations to discuss the supply priority of emergency materials and determine the trade quantity and price of the future. The negotiation contains two situations: oversupply and short supply. The decision-making results of the buyer and the seller are given respectively. A numerical example and sensitivity analysis are proposed to show the process and results of the auction and negotiation. The research shows that the mechanism designed in this paper can achieve the cooperation of multiple buyers and sellers in multiple periods. It proves that applying auction theory to emergency management practice has good feasibility and applicability.

Construction of an evaluation index system for power market considering economic-environmental multi-objectives

At present, China's electricity market has been initially built, direct trading of electricity continues to increase, and the mode of "multiple purchase and multiple sale" has emerged in the market, which enables the electricity market to compete effectively and make the optimal allocation of resources. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the operation of the electricity market. The article firstly studied the indicators of power market operation from three aspects: economic value, green value and security value; secondly, established a three-level evaluation index system of power system; on this basis, proposed a comprehensive evaluation model of power market based on fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. It provides a reference basis for the evaluation of China's power grid operation and is of great significance to promote the healthy development of China's power market.

Optimal finite horizon bargaining mechanisms with refusal cost

This paper considers a bargaining problem under asymmetric information between a seller and multiple buyers for selling given perishable items over a finite period. It is assumed that the seller faces a refusal cost if the item does not get sold. The problem is modelled as a Markov decision process that endogenises the marginal inventory valuation of the seller. This paper compares four bilateral bargaining mechanisms namely seller posting price, buyer posting price, difference splitting between seller's and buyer's valuation, and negotiation. For low refusal cost, the seller prefers posting price and splitting the difference between both valuations when he is in strong and weak positions, respectively. For high cost, the seller is indifferent between negotiation and buyer's posting. Also, this paper compares bargaining mechanisms and dynamic pricing with and without the refusal cost. This paper conducts simulation experiments to validate the findings of the model.

Three-Echelon Supply Chain Management with Deteriorated Products under the Effect of Inflation

A business can be properly managed globally when it is under a supply chain. When it is a global supply chain, inflation has a huge effect on supply chain profit. Another important factor is the deterioration of products. Products can deteriorate during storage or transportation, which badly affects each supply chain player. This study develops a three-echelon supply chain model through which products can be delivered to customers easily. In this model, one producer and multiple buyers are considered, and each buyer has a separate group in which multiple suppliers have been taken. Inflation is also added to the model for inflationary fluctuations. To understand this model in real life, a numerical example is discussed and the total profit from the supply chain is extracted. Sensitivity analysis is also shown at the end of the model to find out the effect on the model due to changes in some parameters that affect this model highly. After developing this model, it was found that if the inflation rate falls, then the total profit will increase continuously. On the contrary, if the inflation rate increases, then, in this situation, the total profit will decrease continuously. At present, vaccine makers’ total profit can support the economy of any country, and in this model, the inflation rate decreases as profit increases.

Matching markets with middlemen under transferable utility

This paper studies matching markets in the presence of middlemen. In our framework, a buyer–seller pair may either trade directly or use the services of a middleman; and a middleman may serve multiple buyer–seller pairs. For each such market, we examine the associated TU game. We first show that, in our context, an optimal matching can be obtained by considering the two-sided assignment market where each buyer–seller pair is allowed to use the mediation services of any middleman free of charge. Second, we prove that matching markets with middlemen are totally balanced: in particular, we show the existence of a buyer-optimal (seller-optimal) core allocation where each buyer (seller) receives her marginal contribution to the grand coalition. In general, the core does not exhibit a middleman-optimal allocation, not even when there are only two buyers and two sellers. However, we prove that in these small markets the maximum core payoff to each middleman is her marginal contribution. Finally, we establish the coincidence between the core and the set of competitive equilibrium payoff vectors.

A multi-attribute double auction and bargaining model for emergency material procurement

Emergency material procurement (EMP) is not only a significance segment of the emergency preparedness, but also an important guarantee for disaster relief. The emergency materials have the different quality attributes towards ordinary commodities, so attribute requirements need to be considered in the procurement activity. This research designed a two-stage MADA-B mechanism to study the supply-demand matching of emergency materials with multiple attributes. In the first stage, considering the differentiated needs of multiple buyers (the government and non-governmental organizations) and the differentiated capacity of multiple suppliers, a multi-attribute double auction (MADA) model was constructed. We analyzed the benchmark bidding strategy of buyers and sellers, and then proposed a winner determination model whose objective is maximizing the total bid-ask spreads. In the second stage, considering the buyer's and the seller's discount rate as private information, an infinite bargaining model was established. We analyzed the bargaining process and gave the method to determine the transaction price and quantity. After that, we designed a numerical example to simulate the practice under the background of purchasing multi-attribute emergency ration package (ERP). The research shows that the auction-bargaining mechanism can not only match the attribute between buyers and sellers, but also can scientifically determine the transaction price and quantity according to the wishes of both sides. It has good feasibility and applicability in the emergency management practice. • A multi-attribute double auction and bargaining mechanism is proposed. • It aims to solve the participant matching problem in emergency material procurement. • It can reach an equilibrium on attribute matching, transaction price and quantity. • The strategies of participants in both auction and bargaining stages are given. • The bargaining has no period restriction and is under incomplete information.