To Compete or to Collaborate? Logistics Service Sharing and Retailers’ Resale in Competitive Online Channels

Abstract

The prosperity of e-commerce has made more and more businesses willing to enter the e-commerce market, which has also brought a series of strategic collaboration between firms. This study considers game models with and without collaboration between the platform and the retailer. An e-commerce platform has relative logistics service sharing advantages while the retailer has relative procurement advantages. We formulated a multichannel supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and two retailers to explore the feasibility of the above strategic collaboration model. We utilized the Stackelberg game and Nash game approaches to obtain equilibrium solutions under both cooperative and noncooperative scenarios. Through a further analysis, we determined the impacts of the logistics sensitivity, the cost of the unit logistics service effort, the price of shared logistics service per unit, and the price competition intensity on optimal prices, the logistics service efforts, and the profits. Moreover, the collaborative exchange of advantages between the platform and the retailer needs to consider the interests of participating manufacturers in the game. Our extension suggests all three firms should actively promote deeper collaboration.

Predicting the Use of Chatbots for Consumer Channel Selection in Multichannel Environments: An Exploratory Study

“…High-channel involvement is generally associated with proactive behaviour, while low involvement results in more reactive behaviour based on exogenous stimuli. More and more consumers are intensively using various multimedia information channels, especially in the information phase, before purchasing or concluding a contract [1,49,50]. The reasons for choosing a channel are based on the personal characteristics of the consumer and the product or service to be purchased, while the online shopping options available are determined by market conditions and the quality characteristics of relevant retailers.…”

“…However, there are also counterarguments that suggest that chatbots cannot completely replace human representatives, might not be suitable for all types of businesses, and are unable to provide a seamless customer experience, as some customers may prefer to interact with human representatives for sensitive issues [57,68]. As a result, chatbots may not be able to integrate seamlessly into all multichannel environments [1,22]. Chatbots may also not be able to provide the same level of service quality across all channels.…”

“…Online platforms are increasingly characterised by high-customer and -competition dynamics, including faster product life cycles, mixed product ranges, and the spread of omnichannel or cross-channel concepts [1,2]. The extent of this change in online customer behaviour is most accurately depicted by the following statistic: 15 years ago, only around 7% of customers used more than four touchpoints when making an online purchase; by contrast, the current number stands at nearly 50% [3].…”

“…The extent of this change in online customer behaviour is most accurately depicted by the following statistic: 15 years ago, only around 7% of customers used more than four touchpoints when making an online purchase; by contrast, the current number stands at nearly 50% [3]. In this context, given the increasing differentiation in interactions between global corporations and consumers, the Internet has emerged as an essential channel, encouraging the development of multichannel management as an individual corporate function [1][2][3].…”

“…Channel selection (CMS) [1,54,55] CMS 1 I use channels to learn about the products/services offered before buying online.…”