考虑顾客退货和固定成本的联合补货与定价策略

Joint Replenishment and Pricing Policy with Customer Returns and Fixed Costs

为了吸引更多顾客,许多电子商务零售商允许顾客在一定时间内退货,导致其利润明显减少。同时,在补货时不仅产生依赖补货量的变动成本,而且会产生与补货量无关的固定成本。基于此,以最大化电子商务零售商的利润为目标,建立考虑顾客退货和固定成本的联合补货与定价模型,其中顾客的退货量与满足的需求呈正比。在一般需求情形下,部分刻画多期问题的最优策略;在特殊需求情形下,证明(s,S,p)策略对单期问题最优,并对多期问题的最优策略进行严格刻画。根据已有刻画为多期问题构造启发式策略。数值结果表明启发式策略近似最优;当初始库存水平足够高/低时,最优补货水平和定价随退货率与固定成本单调变化。

To attract more customers,many e-commerce retailers allow their customers return goods within the specified time,which significantly reduces their profits.Meanwhile,the replenishment of goods incurs not only the variable cost depending on the replenishment quantity,but also the fixed cost independent of the replenishment quantity.Based on this,to maximize the e-commerce retailer’s profit,a joint replenishment and pricing model with customer returns and fixed costs is built,where the quantity of returns is proportional to satisfied demand.In the general demand case,the optimal policy is partially characterized for the multi-period problem.And in the special demand case,the optimal policy isan(s,S,p)policy for the single-period problem,anda strong characterization of the optimal policy is made for the multi-period problem.Based on the characterization,a heuristic policy is proposed.Numerical results show that the heuristic is close to optimal;andwhen the initial inventory level is low/high enough,both the optimal replenishment level andprice vary monotonically with the fixed cost and return rate.