A Superior Sales Mode for a Two-Echelon Supply Chain of Perishable Products
摘要
This paper considers sales mode selection issues for a two-echelon supply chain of perishable products involving a supplier and a retailer. Consumers' purchase desire is assumed to be positive correlation with the freshness of the product. First, the traditional sales mode is examined, in which the supplier and the retailer play a Stackelberg game. We propose a three-layer decision model for this situation, and obtain dynamic pricing strategies and selling cycle length. It is shown that the retailer has little motivation to order many perishable products so as to avoid a long selling cycle length. Second, the commission-charge mode is analyzed, in which the retailer declares its decision first. In this mode, we demonstrate that the perishable product will be on sale during the whole shelf life under a certain condition. The correlation between the sales price of each stage and the remaining shelf-life length is analyzed. Third, the superiority analysis for the two sales modes is conducted. We show the relation between the selling cycle lengths of the two modes. By our analysis, it is shown that both the supplier and the retailer gain more profits when the commission-charge mode is adopted and the commission rate locates in a certain open interval. Finally, a numerical illustration is presented to visualize the discussed models, and some supplements are made for the acquired conclusions by the illustration.