基于消费者评论的网络预售定价策略研究

Advance Selling Strategies for E-retailers in the Presence of Online Consumer Reviews

在线消费者评论成为影响消费者购买行为的重要因素。本文构建两阶段销售模型(预售期、正常销售期),通过刻画预售期消费者评论对正常销售期需求的影响,探究消费者评论如何影响商家定价策略以及商家如何利用消费者评论调节竞争。结果表明,无论在垄断或竞争市场情形下,若忠实消费者选择等待至正常销售期购买产品,商家均会采取折价预售策略,即通过降低预售期价格提升消费者评论,刺激正常销售期的产品需求。在竞争市场情形下,若普通消费者的产品偏好成本非常低且预售期购买量较小,商家的折价预售策略能通过提升消费者评论以阻止竞争者进入市场;随着普通消费者产品偏好成本增大,商家会将重心转向忠实消费者,进而缓解商家之间的竞争。

Advance selling is increasingly adopted by online retailers to encourage consumers’early purchases.Since consumers in online markets have high valuation uncertainty about product quality,online consumer reviews have become an important factor that affectstheir purchasing decisions and thus has impacts on online retailers’advance selling strategies.This study aims to examine online retailers’optimal advance selling strategies by incorporating the effects of online consumer reviews.To address such challenging question,a theoretical model is developed and it is considered that an online retailer sells a new product to the market over two periods(i.e.,the advance period and the regular period).Consumers in the market are composed of two types:the loyal consumers and the common consumers.Online reviews generated by loyal consumers in the advance period will affect the purchasing decisions of common consumers in the regular period.To further examine the impacts of online consumer reviews on the effectiveness of advance selling,two market scenarios are considered:the monopoly market and the competitive market.Through theoretical analysis,it is found that,in both monopoly and competitive markets,if loyal consumers choose to wait until the regular period to buy products,it is beneficial for the online retailer to provide a discounted advance selling price to enhance consumer reviews,and thus lead more consumers to buy in the regular period.It is noteworthy that in the competitive market,if the preference cost of common consumers is very low and the purchasing proportion of loyal consumers in the advance period is small,advance selling at a discount can prevent competitors to enter the market by enhancing online reviews.With the increase of common consumers’preference cost,it is beneficial for the online retailer to focus on loyal consumers,which can mitigate the competition between the online retailer and its competitor.This study enriches extant literature on advance selling by incorporating the effects of online consumer reviews,and the obtained results can provide practical managers with some valuable suggestions.