O2O Platform Research Articles

Pricing Strategies for O2O Catering Merchants Considering Reference Price Effects and Unconditional Coupons

Coupon marketing is an important promotion model for the O2O catering supply chain. As a well-known catering O2O platform in China, Meituan provides its members with the opportunity to buy unconditional coupons at low prices, and it is very popular with consumers. It is worth studying how catering merchants develop pricing and promotion strategies considering consumers’ reference price effects in two scenarios: participating and not participating in coupon stacking (S-PICS/S-NPICS). In order to explore the pricing mechanism of meals, two models using Stackelberg games are established considering some exogenous variables, such as commission rate, reference price, and sensitivity of consumers to coupon prices. The results show that (1) the reference price has a great influence on the maximum profits of catering merchants, varying in different scenarios; (2) in S-NPICS, the merchants’ maximum profit increases with an increase in the reference price, while, in S-PICS, an increase in the reference price leads to a decrease in merchants’ maximum profit; (3) the profit of merchants in S-PICS is higher than that in S-NPICS, indicating that merchants can benefit from coupon stacking; (4) when the commission rate of the coupons increases, the merchants in both S-PICS and S-NPICS should raise their online meal prices to obtain higher profits. This study provides a balanced reference for pricing strategies and coupon promotion strategies in different scenarios through the use of deduction and simulation methods, which is conducive to the sustainable development of the O2O catering supply chain. As consumers enjoy using these coupons, including unconditional ones, it is suggested that merchants and Meituan should focus on coupon promotion and develop better dining pricing strategies.

Unveiling barriers to O2O technology platform adoption among small retailers in India: insights into the role of digital ecosystem

Purpose This study aims to delve into the intricate world of small retailers in India, seeking to understand the impediments/barriers they encounter when trying to embrace online-to-offline (O2O) platforms. It also investigates the potential impact of the digital ecosystem in moderating these barriers. Design/methodology/approach Data from 426 Indian retailers was collected, and structural equation modelling was used to validate the conceptual framework. Findings The findings highlight the importance of addressing distrust and technological anxiety as key barriers to O2O platform adoption. Psychological risk, low-tech orientation, privacy risk, financial risk and social risk were also identified as barriers. Interestingly, performance risk and infrastructure were found to be insignificant in this study. The study indicates that the digital ecosystem does moderate the relationship between psychological risk, performance risk, distrust and technological anxiety with attitude. Research limitations/implications This research holds significant implications for technology adoption, retail management and aggregator platform development in developing nations, notably India. This research draws upon a conceptual framework to deepen the understanding of the O2O technology platform by providing an all-inclusive overview. Originality/value This study breaks new ground by investigating the distinctive obstacles to O2O adoption faced by small retailers in India. By validating the digital ecosystem’s moderating effect, this research yields insights that are context-specific and particularly relevant to the Indian retail landscape. Valuable guidance is offered for researchers, practitioners and policymakers navigating O2O strategy implementation in emerging markets.

중국 O2O 서비스 사용자의 오프라인 외식업체 플랫폼에 관한 연구

The development of O2O services is only about 10 years old, and there is no company that monopolizes the O2O platform in each field yet. Regarding these problems, O2O platform managers can succeed only when they are accurately aware of the nature of O2O and the company's future development. This study is a study on offiine factors that affect offiine satisfaction and reuse intention using China's offiine O2O delivery platform as a research model. The factors affecting oftline satisfaction were studied by dividing them into oftline service quality and delivery company quality. Oftline service quality was divided into delivery quality and menu quality. Oftline delivery company quality was divided into product quality and environmental quality. A total of 152 valid questionnaires (160 issued in total) were collected through an online survey in China, and basic statistics (SPSS 23.0) and hypothesis testing (Smart PLS 4.0) were used after data research. The results of the study are as follows. In oftl ine service quality, delivery quality had a positive effect on offiine satisfaction, but menu quality did not. In offiine delivery company quality, product quality had a positive effect on offiine satisfaction, but environmental quality did not have a positive effect. Offiine satisfaction had a significant positive effect on intention to reuse. In conclusion, we tried to improve the oftline platform and customer's reuse intention by breaking away from the online platform that is continuously being studied in the O2O delivery service. In O2O, we propose a strategy to strengthen the offiine platform to increase the securing of sustainable customers for delively services.

How to Retain My Consumers? Investigating Incumbents’ Promotional Strategies Upon New Business Entry in the Online-to-Offline Context

ABSTRACT The online-to-offline (O2O) business mode has on-demand features to offer consumers instant fulfillment from a local store upon their online order. The O2O mode has attracted many more consumers recently. Using empirical evidence from a leading O2O platform in China, our study focuses on the market entry issue in the O2O context. Upon the new entrant entering the market, existing listed sellers implement a higher overall promotion to their consumers by enlarging the direct promotion extent but reducing the other types of promotions, including coupon, bundle, quantity, and gift promotions. However, the O2O platforms reduce the promotions level to the consumer orders from the existing listed sellers. The platform’s and existing listed sellers’ promotions increase consumers’ purchase frequency but lower their purchase amount per order. The extent of these impacts depends on the geographic location of the new entrant. Our findings provide guidelines for the O2O platforms and listed providers to implement appropriate promotion strategies to attract consumers when considering the impact of certain new providers entering the O2O market.

Application of Harvard Analytical Framework to O2O Platforms of Generation Z: Take Meituan as an Example

The development of O2O platforms has led to changes in people's lifestyles, in which Generation Z is gradually becoming the main consumer in the market, which has a profound impact on O2O platforms. Given the advantages of the Harvard analytical framework, this paper aims to explore the application of the Harvard analytical framework in the O2O platform of Generation Z, taking Meituan, a leading O2O company in China, as an example. Using the Harvard analytical framework, this paper analyzes Meituan's financial data from four aspects: strategy, accounting, finance, and prospect, identifies problems, and gives corresponding optimization suggestions. The analysis finds that Meituan has problems such as business homogenization, limited profitability of the existing business, negative net profit, declining inventory turnover, increasing competitors, and changing consumer demand. In this regard, recommendations were made to launch new products and services, explore new business areas, optimize marketing and R&D expenditures, optimize inventory management, and gain a deeper understanding of the needs of Generation Z consumers.

A Drone-Driven Delivery Network Design for an On-Demand O2O Platform Considering Hazard Risks and Customer Heterogeneity

Nowadays, the online-to-offline (O2O) retailers provide on-demand delivery service for online orders by their own fleets and riders. An intelligent delivery network lays an important foundation to support cost-effective delivery service in the long run. Drones have great potential to revolutionize the instant delivery industry regarding cost and timeliness, while the hazard risks to humans and the environment should be seriously considered through sophisticated network design. In this paper, we propose a framework for a drone-driven intelligent delivery network design problem with the consideration of the multi-dimensional risk map, which needs to determine store location, drone fleet size and allocation, customer assignment, customer delivery mode selection, and delivery routing. A bi-objective non-linear programming model is formulated to maximize profit and minimize integrated risks as well. To tackle large instances, a modified NSGA-III algorithm is developed, which is incorporated with problem-specific search operators and Pareto local search to obtain Pareto solutions efficiently. Real-world data-based numerical experiments are conducted to verify the performance of the modified NSGA-III algorithm compared to the modified NSGA-II. A case study based on the geographical information in Shanghai is analyzed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Moreover, sensitivity analysis is presented to evaluate the effects of multiple parameters on the drone delivery service network design. Some managerial insights are obtained for the O2O retailer who offers on-demand delivery service through online platform.

O2O 플랫폼 품질이 자영업자의 디지털 전환에 미치는 영향

Purpose - With the increase of non-face-to-face activities due to the spread of COVID-19, O2O industry has grown rapidly which reduces contact points between suppliers and consumers. O2O platform is now recognized as an indispensable channel of distribution, but the voice is getting louder that it is necessary to check how it contributes to the performance of suppliers or how its fee system or contract terms affects the expansion of O2O industry as the leading companies tend to monopolize the market. Design/methodology/approach - In this study, the scope was limited to the restaurant industry in which transactions are the most active among the O2O industry and a regression analysis was done on 775 businesses that had used guarantor service from the Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation. Findings - Analysis on the impact of O2O platform system, information, and service quality on the business performance of the sole proprietors revealed that the system quality represented by ease of use and the information quality determined by level of timely, accurate and reliable information provided to the consumers have a statistically significant effect on the improvement of business performance. In addition, the effect of business performance on the loyalty measured by the likelihood of users continuing to use the service as well as recommending it to others was moderated by the satisfaction with contract terms, not by the fee system. Research implications or Originality - Although the number of O2O platform providers has increased manyfold, the membership rate is no more than 20%, which means that the small business owners are still struggling with digital transformation. In order for the O2O industry, which is now commonplace, to form a healthy ecosystem that satisfies both suppliers and consumers, the standard contract guidelines that are acceptable to both parties must be established and the O2O providers must offer services that help suppliers to improve performance.

Examining Online and Offline Service Quality Impacts on O2O Platform Reuse Intentions

Examining Online and Offline Service Quality Impacts on O2O Platform Reuse Intentions

Resistance to O2O technology platform adoption among small retailers: The influence of visibility and discoverability

Research on Online-to-offline (O2O) platforms is witnessing significant growth. However, the actual utilization of O2O platforms by small retailers is still in its early stages. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that lead to small merchants' reluctance to O2O platforms as well as the impact of the platform's visibility and discoverability on the retailer's usage intention. To achieve this, the study utilized innovation resistance theory (IRT) with three novel constructs: perceived vulnerability to privacy, information smog and inertia to formulate the conceptual model. To evaluate the conceptual model, the study used data from 409 small retailers using a single cross-sectional approach. The data were analyzed using structural equation modelling, and the results of the study revealed that the most significant factor leading to resistance towards O2O platforms' attractiveness and usage intention was the usage barrier, followed by the Image barrier, perceived vulnerability to privacy, and Inertia. However, the study did not find statistically significant evidence for the value barrier and information smog. Further findings showed that visibility and discoverability moderate the relationship between O2O platform attractiveness and usage intentions. Overall, the study enriches the academic literature on O2O platforms, especially regarding resistances, visibility, and discoverability, addressing a significant gap in the context of small retailers in India.

Determinants of Business Resilience in the Restaurant Industry During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Textual Analytics Study on an O2O Platform Case

Understanding the resilience capabilities of restaurant operations and the determinants affecting these capabilities is critical to helping restaurants overcome the hardships owing to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This article adopts a textual analytics approach to scientifically measure consumption trends and identify the shock to restaurant sales using online customer review data from Dianping.com (an O2O platform in China). Moreover, the article proposes a theoretical model of business resilience for the restaurant industry in the context of the pandemic. Then, an empirical investigation on how the determinants in our theoretical framework affect the resilience of restaurant business operations using the panel logit model is conducted. Our findings indicate that the pandemic has severely disrupted the full-service restaurants as compared to the quick-service restaurants. We identify four determinants of resilience, namely social capital (i.e., restaurant rating), physical capital (i.e., contactless service), economic capital (i.e., chain operation), and natural capital (e.g., location), which are significantly associated with the resilience of restaurant business during the pandemic. These four determinants play different roles in the resilience of full-service and quick-service restaurants. The findings of this study have theoretical contribution and generate some important managerial implications for helping the restaurant industry recover from disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

확장된 기술수용모형(UTAUT2)을 적용한 O2O 외식 플랫폼 서비스 품질이 재 사용의도에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

This study employs the UTAUT2 model, an extension of the TAM model, to examine how O2O platform services influence customer reuse within the food industry. Service quality variables such as online information quality of the food platform and offline delivery service quality of delivery companies are set as preceding variables of the UTAUT2 model. Employing a structural equation model, the study analyzes the relationship’s influence on customer intention to use UTAUT2 as a parameter. The results of the analysis indicate that platform service variables had a statistically significant effect on all variables (effort expectations, performance expectations, social influence, and hedonic motivation) of UTAUT2 (extended technology acceptance model 2). Meanwhile, according to the analysis of the effect of delivery service quality on UTAUT, social and hedonic factors did not seem to have an effect. The research implies that consumers encounter many negative factors, such as price burden and delivery delays, regarding the delivery service itself. In addition, the anticipation of the order and the time spent waiting act as negative factors, while failing to influence pleasure.

How does apology matter? Responding to negative customer reviews on online-to-offline platforms

Online customer review is one core component of online-to-offline (O2O) commerce. Negative customer reviews are evitable and threaten O2O business performance. How O2O business responds to negative reviews is highly visible to potential customers and has the potential to mitigate the detrimental effect of negative customer reviews. In this study, an experimental research was conducted by setting up a scenario of a failed restaurant service booked through an O2O platform. By analyzing data from 1,062 participants, we revealed that apology increases potential customers’ affective and cognitive trust, which results in increased purchase and recommendation intention. Interestingly, the reduced perceived risk caused by apology increases potential customers’ recommendation intention but does not affect their purchase intention. The findings are discussed from both theoretical and managerial perspectives.

외식 O2O 플랫폼 지출결정요인에 관한 연구: Tobit모형의 적용

As the restaurant industry becomes a major channel of the O2O platform, its area is gradually expanding and diversifying. There are various factors that can affect the spending behavior of O2O platform service users. Demographic characteristics and usage behavior characteristics are important variables that can explain potential consumers. The purpose of this study is to identify the dining out expenditure of users of the dining out O2O platform service and to estimate the determinants. To this end, the Tobit model was applied to set a theoretical background and analyze the sample. It is expected that by conducting an empirical analysis on the determinants of consumption expenditure, a new framework for evidence for the effectiveness of O2O platform services in the restaurant industry can be presented. Through the results of the study, we tried to present marketing strategies and practical implications for the development of O2O platform services for dining out. As a result of the analysis, explanatory variables that significantly affect consumption expenditure on the O2O platform for dining out were gender, presence or absence of children, occupation, income, household type, period of use, decision-makers, preferred menus, convenience factors, and marketability factors.

Multi‐attribute group decision‐making based on linguistic Pythagorean fuzzy copula extended power average operator

AbstractThis paper aims to propose a novel multi‐attribute group decision‐making (MAGDM) method based on linguistic Pythagorean fuzzy copula extended power average operator. Existing researches under linguistic Pythagorean fuzzy environment lack of the ability to handle with extreme values and the flexible operational rules. To fill these two gaps, this paper first provides the definition of Archimedean copula and co‐copula operational rules under linguistic Pythagorean fuzzy environment, which can reflect the connection among arguments and provide more choices for experts to express their preferences. Then, we gather the extended power average (EPA) operator to present some new aggregation operators, which can reduce the negative influence of extreme evaluation values. To show the application of the proposed method to MAGDM problems, we apply it to handle a case of takeout O2O platform assessment problem. The numerical case and comparative analysis with other existing methods illustrate that our proposed method is more scientific and flexible.

O2O 플랫폼 외식 서비스 품질이 행동의도에 미치는 영향 : 리뷰 수용성과 만족의 이중 매개효과를 중심으로

O2O platform foodservice industry has been increased so quickly during the Pandemic era, this study was performed to identify the effect of O2O platform food service quality on behavior intention by verifying the sequential mediating effect of the review acceptance and customer satisfaction between the relationship of food service quality and behavior intention. The survey was conducted for those using O2O platform foodservice, and 364 valid responses were used for analysis. According to the analysis results, it has been confirmed that O2O platform foodservice quality, review acceptance, customer satisfaction and behavior intention were significantly related to each other. Second, review acceptance and customer satisfaction in the relationship between O2O platform foodservice quality and behavior intention have been found to be partial-mediated and sequential mediated. Specifically, the factors of ‘delivery’, ‘response’, ‘information’, ‘trust’ from O2O platform foodservice quality had the significant effect on the behavior intention. Therefore O2O platform foodservice business should be focused on this results so that they can use them for more effective service marketing strategies. Specially, the platform business must have more weight on the education and management for both(personal and technical service) sides.

Two‐Stage Game‐Based Pricing Strategy for the Duopoly Online Freight Platform

The online freight platform, also called freight resource sharing platform or freight O2O platform, developed rapidly lately, has gradually become the leaders in China’s road freight market in recent years, especially in the intracity freight market. The platform’s revenue mainly comes from the registration fee and commission, of which the commission is extracted from the freight rate. Therefore, how to determine the registration fee and freight rate becomes a key issue for the platform. Our research focuses on analyzing the pricing strategy by considering the charging mode, game model, and affecting factors. Based on the two‐sided market theory and the classic Hotelling model, a tripartite game model of online freight platform‐carrier‐consignor is constructed. Furthermore, a game model of consignor and alternative carriers is built by introducing the platform user’s psychological pressure and satisfaction priority into the model. Finally, through mathematical derivation and numerical experiment, we analyze the effects of various factors on platform profits, platform registration fees, and freight rate, and propose some suggestions to promote the orderly development of online freight platforms for the intracity freight market.

The Effects of Service Quality of Medical Information O2O Platform on Continuous Use Intention: Case of South Korea

Digital transformation of the healthcare industry is being accelerated due to the evolution of digital intelligence information technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and big data. As online-to-offline (O2O)-based consumption life, based on platforms, becomes routinized along with the COVID-19 pandemic, the O2O platforms on medical activities are gaining attention. This study targeted the medical information O2O platform users and aimed to verify the effects of service quality factors on the platform users’ continuous use intention with the mediation of perceived usefulness and perceived convenience. Based on previous studies, four such factors: context-based affordability, immediacy of connection, reliability, and safety were defined as the medical information O2O platform service quality components. This study targeted 369 users of medical information O2O platforms with market dominance in Korea and conducted a questionnaire survey. According to analysis results, context-based affordability and immediacy of connection had a positive (+) effect on perceived usefulness and convenience, and they were confirmed to affect continuous-use intention with the mediation of the perceived usefulness and convenience. Meanwhile, reliability did not affect the perceived usefulness and convenience, whereas safety had a positive (+) effect on perceived usefulness but did not have the same effect (+) on perceived convenience. Consequently, it was ascertained that context-based affordability and immediacy of connection are more important factors to the medical information O2O platform consumers than reliability and safety.

Preparing an exhibition in the post-pandemic era: Evidence from an O2O-based exhibition of B2B firms

This study investigates an O2O-based exhibition, and specifically examines how the perceived trust toward the online exhibition affects the offline exhibition based on the trust transfer theory. To solve this research question, a survey was administered in the Korea Machinery Fair (KOMAF) exhibition from October 22 to October 25, 2019. A total of 205 responses from the participants of B2B firms were analyzed, and the results indicated that participants' perceived trust from the online influencers, including the O2O platform, organizer, and exhibitors, positively influenced online satisfaction. An increased online trust-satisfaction also positively affected offline value-satisfaction toward the exhibition consisting of reduced perceived risk as well as utilitarian, hedonic, and social value. Finally, the online and offline satisfaction of B2B firms toward the exhibition helped increase O2O loyalty in the Exhibition.

What Influences Online Sales Across Different Types of E-Commerce Platforms

ABSTRACT The prosperity of the platform economy has facilitated online sales. This study investigates the influential factors of online sales across the online-to-offline (O2O) on-demand and traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) platforms. Our empirical evidence is based on data with a large sample size on two of the largest e-commerce platforms in China: an O2O on-demand platform and a traditional B2C platform. We find that the influencing mechanism and magnitude of the various factors are different between the O2O and B2C platforms. In detail, product rating and market share positively affect online sales, and the relative magnitude of market share impact is higher for the B2C platform than for the O2O platform. Clickstream positively affects online sales. Both the short- and long-term magnitude of impact are higher for the O2O platform than for the B2C platform. The long-term impact of clickstream in the O2O platform is higher than that in the short term. In addition, a price increase negatively affects online sales, especially for the O2O platforms. Our findings offer insights for various platforms to implement appropriate marketing strategies and post effective information to attract consumers and increase online sales.

The value of personalized dispatch in O2O on-demand delivery services

In online-to-offline (O2O) on-demand services, customers place orders online and the O2O platform delivers products from stores to customers within a prescribed time. The platform usually hires crowd-sourced drivers as a cost-effective option owing to their flexibility. However, the delivery speed and delivery capacity of the crowd-sourced drivers vary considerably. This service inconsistency brings challenges in precisely matching the delivery supply and customer demand, which may significantly decrease the delivery efficiency. This study aims to address the challenges by proposing a personalized dispatch model, which integrates the order and driver’s characteristics in the order assignment and routing decisions. To achieve this objective, two machine learning-based models are proposed to forecast the delivery speed of individual drivers in real time and customize their delivery capacity dynamically to develop a portrait of each driver’s behaviour. Next, a personalized O2O order assignment and routing model is proposed with the integration of the two aforementioned models. We validate our model with a real dataset of one mainstream O2O platform in China. We run a comprehensive simulation to show the improvement in terms of on-time ratio and average delay time brought by the personalization of each characteristic, namely, delivery speed and delivery capacity. We then show that the proposed personalized model can reduce the average delay by 21.60% through comparison with actual routing decisions by the drivers,. The theoretical and numerical results shed light on the delivery management of the O2O on-demand services.