قیمت گذاری بهینه وسیاست های منظم با بازده های محصول B2B برای محصولات مد

We study optimal pricing and order policies in supply chain management of fashion products (e.g., a fashion apparel category) with consideration of product returns between supply chain partners (B2B). In order to study channel performance and optimal policies, two stochastic models for centralized channel and decentralized channel are, respectively, developed to handle new fashion and off-season product sales. In the centralized channel, closed-form solutions for optimal order and pricing decisions are proposed for new fashion products. Further, in a decentralized channel, the Stackelberg game model is proposed to derive the optimal Stackelberg equilibrium solution, and then a buy-back contract is designed to coordinate the channel. We also perform parameter analysis on performance of the two channel models. Numerical analysis is finally presented to validate our theoretical results and compare channel performances.

In recent years, product returns management is receiving growing attention. Manufacturers have started to integrate reverse logistics into their enterprises' logistics management. In product reverse flow, products may be returned by consumers or other companies in the distribution chain. Retailers may return products for a variety of reasons, including damage in transit, expired date code, product discontinuation or replacement, product off-season, retailer's inventory too high, etc. (Tibben-Lembke, 2002). Especially for fashion products, an appropriate quantity of product returns from retailers/distributors to manufacturers has been a popular means of improving coordination in forward supply chains (Savaskan and Corbett, 2001). For example, in catalog sales of clothes, the total return rate of fashion apparel is up by 35% (Dowling, 1999). Some manufacturers, for example, the Guangzhou DiDi Apparel Trade Co., Ltd, provide drop shipping service for their retailers to deal with the headaches of handling goods, warehouse space, shipping and product returns. Compared with traditional product returns from consumers, the main characteristic of B2B returns is that the returns time is fixed, the returns quantity is much large, and the returns quality is generally the same as that of new products except that the returns are off-season. Generally, when the manufacturer receives returns, they may mark these products down and resell them to reduce the loss of profit. However, the manufacturer needs to consider how to sell new and returned products simultaneously, and which channel to use to dispose of off-season products. In this paper, we will study the supply chain channel with the returns of fashion products, where optimal pricing of the new and off-season products and order quantity decision for the new product will be discussed in different logistics channels that are made up of forward and reverse logistics. Our study is motivated by the clothing industry, which is designed by season and fashion (Johansen and Riis, 1995). Clothing manufacturers are now suffering from high inventory levels (Warburton et al., 2003 and Lowson, 2003) and high channel return rate (up to 35% (Dowling, 1999)). There are many reasons that lead to this type of situation, two of which demand more attention: (1) the clothing manufacturer is overly concerned with distribution and marketing, but not concerned enough with the product returns problem in the clothing channel and (2) the price, quality and marketing factors are all interrelated with the channel factor, so the channel factor is the most important among the four factors. In the clothing industry, channel return is pervasive, and the decisions in different channel modes are different. Therefore, it is significant to study how to sell new and off-season products coordinately in different supply chain channels after B2B product returns of fashion products, such as clothing. Based on the above situation, we will consider supply chain channel management problems with fashion products based on clothing industrial practice, where product returns occur among supply chain partners, i.e., B2B returns. The optimal joint pricing-order decision of new products will be discussed with consideration of simultaneous discount sales of off-season products. We will study the centralized channel and decentralized channel modes with product returns, respectively. In practice, both modes often deal with returns through using traditional distribution channels and selling off-season and new products in the same market. We develop two models with respect to the above channel modes. The first one is a centralized model, for which we prove the existence and uniqueness of optimal pricing and order polices through a two-step optimization method, and then derive closed-form formulation of the optimal solution. It is a basic model to be used as a benchmark in numerical analysis. For the decentralized model, the Stackelberg game model is proposed and then the optimal Stackelberg equilibrium solution is derived. In order to conduct further analysis of the models, numerical examples are provided to show the correlation between some key parameters. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we briefly overview related literature and point out the difference between our work and other studies. The basic assumptions and definitions of the model formulation are given in Section 3. Then the model formulation and solution approach are proposed in Section 4 and the model analysis can be found in Section 5. Numerical analysis is presented in Section 6. Finally, conclusions and future research directions are addressed in Section 7.

Motivated by the actuality of supply chain channel issues in the fashion product industry, especially in the clothing industry, we consider optimal pricing and order policies in two supply chain channel modes: the centralized channel mode and the decentralized channel mode. In both modes, we consider new product orders (production) and pricing and off-season product discount sales with random market demands. We mainly focus on off-season product returns and processing under the closed-loop channel situation. Mathematical models are addressed for both channel modes. For the centralized model, we prove the existence and uniqueness of optimal pricing and order (production) polices through a two-step optimization method and then derive closed-form formulation of the optimal solution. Moreover, for the decentralized model, the Stackelberg game model is built and then the optimal Stackelberg equilibrium solution is derived. Further, a buy-back contract is designed to coordinate the channel. Finally, numerical examples are also provided to validate the theoretical results, make sensitivity analysis, and more importantly, compare channel performances between the channel modes, in order to derive managerial insights for potential practical applications. When referring to future research directions, three issues are valuable to be considered further: (1) The first is to study the channel models while jointly considering production, sales and inventory policies. If the inventory issue is integrated into the model, new results are expected to be obtained. Furthermore, shortage cost can also be further considered in the extended model. (2) In practice, deep discounts will destroy brand equity. So, when selling off-season products, forming a reasonable discount strategy would be the other interesting problem. (3) The manufacturer of fashion products faces more uncertainty due to the fashion and season factors, especially demand uncertainty. If we cannot observe stochastic information (e.g., the probability distribution of the demand) completely or partially, then how to formulate the optimal model and solve it would be another important and interesting research direction.