无理由退货政策下的在线定价及补偿优化策略

Optimal online pricing and compensation strategy in MBG returns policy

在传统零售行业,质量越好退货越少,退货政策的慷慨程度通常被用作消费者识别商家质量水平的一个依据.一般理论认为,无理由退货通常是质量水平高的商家采用的慷慨退货政策.但在如今的在线零售领域,绝大多数的在线零售商都承诺无理由退货,显然基于传统零售的退货政策理论已不适用于新环境下的在线零售.为了找到在电子商务环境下,无理由退货在哪些情况下能更大程度地增加销售利润和社会福利,文中建立了一个由垄断制造商和异质偏好消费者组成的在线零售模型.通过这一模型,发现无理由退货政策的盈利能力取决于商品质量水平,退货残值大小及消费者退货麻烦成本等因素.通过探讨质量风险与提供无理由退货的在线零售商利润间的关系,得到在特定技术成本和退货损失下,无理由退货是中等质量水平在线零售商的最佳退货处理策略.另外,在承诺无理由退货基础上增加一个策略性补偿,以使消费者接受商品而取消退货,通常是质量水平较低的在线零售商行为.

The generosity of returns policy is usually a sign of quality that consumers receive in traditional ＂bricks-and-mortar＂, where high quality is defined as a low likelihood of product return. Existing literature, based on signaling theory, suggests that money-back guarantees （MBGs） will be utilized by high-quality firms. But nowadays, almost all the e-tailers offer MBGs, that is to say, the story of ＂clicks-and-mortar＂ goes not the same way as the traditional ＂bricks-and-mortar＂. To understand this phenomenon, we develop a stylized two-segment market setting, to find in which situation MBGs can greatly improve the profit. Our model captures important features of MBGs sales including demand uncertainty, consumer valuation uncertainty, consumer returns and so on. We show that selling with MBGs increases e-tailers＇ sales and profit. Furthermore, MBGs is the best returns policy for mid-quality e-tailers under certain technical cost and returns hassle. In addition, adding compensation for MBGs returns policy is usually the strategy of low-quality e-tailers to reduce returns rate.