通道费的规制失灵:基于双边市场的研究

文章认为,大型零售商在信息技术和组织创新的共同作用下,已经演化为双边市场中的平台型企业.通道费规制的水床效应表明:<零售商供应商公平交易管理办法>通过限制零售商的各种交易行为来抑制买方势力,对通道费问题的解决不会有实质性意义.文章将双边市场的分析框架引入通道费问题的研究,由此发现通道费是零售商平衡双边用户需求、内部化用户间网络外部性的市场规则,其制定和协调是通过零售商之间的渠道竞争而实现的.     

基于服务溢出效应下的弱势零售商竞争策略研究

考虑了市场中同时包含一个制造商、一个传统渠道零售商与一个网络渠道零售商的情形,在考虑传统渠道零售商服务对网络渠道零售商需求具有溢出效应的情况下,通过数值仿真进行了灵敏度分析及收益对比,给出了网络渠道零售商从传统零售商与制造商的合作关系中获益的条件等。研究发现,只有在价格竞争水平较低时,制造商才会选择与传统零售商进行合作,零售商之间可以通过提供差异化的价格与服务来实现"双赢",渠道间服务差异对需求的影响程度与服务溢出效应的相互作用是网络渠道零售商能否从这种合作中获益的关键。     

基于博弈的自主网络零售商与产品供应商的竞合关系研究

随着电子商务快速发展,网络零售商的影响力逐步加大,供应商通过网络零售商销售其产品已成为电子商务时代的必然选择。供应商与网络零售商在渠道控制、利益分配等方面根本分歧,造成双方之间存在既合作又竞争的关系。笔者通过模仿者的动态形式,与不存在对称性的矩阵进行融合,对自动网络零售点和产品供应商之间合作竞争博弈的演化趋势,并据此趋势提出相关建议。     

考虑消费者搭便车行为的零售商定价策略分析

在传统零售商和网络零售商之间存在价格竞争情形下,考虑消费者进行渠道转换的成本,从消费者在传统零售商和网络零售商并存渠道结构中存在搭便车行为出发,分析混合渠道零售商定价策略以及搭便车行为与零售商的收益,探析零售商采取较多的定金膨胀策略和产品差异化策略对零售商定价决策、利润以及搭便车行为的影响。研究表明,搭便车行为给传统零售商和网络零售商带来了利润损失;尽管传统零售商采取的定金膨胀策略减少了搭便车消费者的数量,但并未提升市场份额,只是靠提升价格来盈利;产品差异化策略不仅能促进传统零售价格的提升,而且能够扩大市场份额、减少搭便车消费者的数量,但不利于网络零售商是显而易见的。     

跨国零售商在华市场优化管理供应商问题研究

本文在实地调查基础上,阐明跨国零售商在华市场优化管理供应商的基本模式,表明在华跨国零售商过度优化管理供应商的"过激"行为,分析由此引发制造商的短视效应与发展效应;零售业的竞争效应与互补效应;市场环境的失衡效应与整合效应,并针对我国中小供应商、本土零售商以及政府职能管理部门提出应对建议.     

零售商买方势力对供应商的影响分析

现代零供关系中,供应商对零售商具有更高程度的经济依赖性,促成了零售商买方势力。短期内零售商行使买方势力会阻碍供应商获取利润、扭曲供应商间的竞争,但以动态的视角分析,零售商买方势力的存在有利于上游市场保持竞争性、激励供应商进行创新,相关部门应综合考虑零售商买方势力对供应商的影响从四个方面进行规制。     

基于差异化战略的中国零售企业竞争策略研究

差异化战略的经营,使零售企业得到巨大利润的同时,也在市场中获得了巨大的竞争优势。而在国内,发展差异化品牌还仅仅处于起步阶段,没有发挥出应有的优势效应。零售商可以从差异化营销来塑造竞争优势、打造自有品牌,在经济全球化的背景下,零售企业实施差异化竞争战略势在必行。     

双边议价框架内主导零售商买方势力及政府规制取向

在双边议价框架内,外部选择价值决定纵向关系中交易双方各自的议价势力。规模以及作为产品进入市场的"守门人"角色是主导零售商自身所具备的影响外部选择价值的因素,是主导零售商买方势力的主要来源。在对称性寡头竞争的零售市场,主导零售商的买方势力产生有益的"抵消效应",而在非对称性寡头竞争的零售市场,主导零售商的买方势力可能产生有害的"水床效应"。"水床效应"既可能会加剧零售市场垄断化趋势,又可能损害消费者福利。因此,政府规制应高度关注主导零售商的市场兼并行为,高度关注主导零售商剥削中小供应商的行为,高度关注主导零售商过度低价促销行为。     

我国电子零售市场结构评价

较高的进入退出壁垒、产品同质化和简单的价格竞争,以及网络效应共同导致我国电子零售市场的集中度逐年上升,进而导致消费者和供应商与大型电子零售商在分享信息技术效率或效果时处于比较弱势的境地;又由于网络效应的阻滞作用,使得渐进改良的商业模式或技术可能无法有效参与竞争,从而造成资源配置的次优。总的来看,我国电子零售市场是一种竞争性垄断结构,即少数的寡头与大量的小企业并存,竞争较为激烈,但市场效率仍存在改进的空间。     

从博弈论视角看零售商与供应商之间合作关系的构建

传统的零售商与供应商之间的关系总是处在敌对竞争的零和博弈状态,彼此都以牺牲对方的利益为自身攫取更多利润的手段。但从博弈论角度来看,零售商与供应商之间只有进行合作才能得到最大的利益。本文指出要构建零售商与供应商之间的合作博弈关系需采取一定的策略消除阻碍零售商与供应商合作的障碍。随着市场由卖方市场向买方市场的转变,供应商与零售商之间的博弈关系也发生了变化,零售商逐渐提高竞争优势。在买方市场的情况下,零售商拥有销售终端的优势,能及时掌握消费者的需求情况。他们据此对供应商提出较为苛刻的要求,通过侵占供应商的利益来追求自己的利益最大化。     

Quality-based Price Discrimination: Evidence from Internet Retailers’ Shipping Options

This paper tests various implications of quality-based price discrimination theory in the context of internet book retailers’ shipping menus. Many internet retailers create quality variants of a homogeneous good by bundling it with several shipping options that differ by delivery time. This practice can allow retailers to extract further surplus from consumers through quality-based price discrimination. We find that the design of shipping menus offered by large retailers is consistent with main implications of quality-based price discrimination theory. Fringe sellers, however, do not appear to engage in price discrimination based on quality.     

Winning the new channel war on Amazon and third-party platforms

The top online marketplaces in the world, including Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay, sold $2.7 trillion in 2020, or 62% of global web sales that year. Despite the promise of unfettered access to customers, the reality is that most sellers struggle with unprecedented and unauthorized rogue resellers. These often anonymous, third-party individuals and firms may not provide the quality experiences aligned with customers’ expectations of a brand and often market their goods in competition with trusted partners. This requires a systematic battle plan to effectively protect the seller’s brand equity, service promise, and authorized distribution network. We describe the channel war that is at work and the forces fueling its development. We explain how rogue reseller activities drive down pricing, increase channel competition and conflict, impact the customer experience, and harm brand equity. We recommend revising product policies, procedures, and agreements to begin to differentiate products from those sold by unauthorized parties. We also recommend a legal strategy to complement these efforts. Critical steps include regular and active enforcement as well as implementing services, benefits, and quality controls for the brand’s products that cannot be replicated by unauthorized sellers and requiring authorized distributors and retailers to maintain those benefits and controls.     

The Effects of Retail Banner Standardization on the Performance of Global Retailers

Global retailers often face an important decision about the extent to which they should standardize or adapt their retail banners, a choice that the authors refer to as retail banner standardization (RBS). Drawing on the international marketing and retailing literatures, this study investigates how RBS affects the performance of global retailers in a longitudinal sample of 69 global retailers from multiple countries and sectors, across ten years. Findings indicate that the role of banner standardization in the successful performance of global retailers depends on retailer and market-level characteristics. Specifically, the results demonstrate that RBS improves retailer profitability as retailers increase their global penetration and emphasize status-based differentiation. Findings also suggest that banner standardization has stronger effects on profitability as retailers increase their focus on emerging markets and e-commerce. However, the authors also find that while RBS increases profits at low levels of global diversity, this effect becomes non-significant as retailers expand to highly diverse foreign markets. As such, the study provides important implications for global retailers while also filling the gap in banner/brand standardization/adaptation research that lies at the intersection of retailing and international marketing.     

Factors That Affect the Probability That a Food Retailer Sells a Specialty Food Product,Hybrid Striped Bass

ABSTRACT

Survey data from grocery retailers are analyzed to determine if sellers of hybrid striped bass have different socioeco-nomic and demographic characteristics than nonsellers. The results indicate that sellers are more likely to be chain stores, have larger seafood sales per customer, and have upper income clientele. Probit and logit analyses indicate that the probability that a retailer is a seller of hybrid striped bass increases as the firm sells more aquaculture products. The probability also increases if the retailer is a chain store whose average seafood sales per customer exceed $10, and whose annual seafood sales per store exceed $100,000.     

Acquiring customers through online marketplaces? The effect of marketplace sales on sales in a retailer's own channels

Online retailers are increasingly using third-party online marketplaces (e.g., Amazon, Taobao) as an alternative sales channel to their website. While cross-channel sales elasticities have been established for many sales channel combinations (e.g., adding bricks to clicks), we lack an understanding of whether the use of third-party marketplaces grows or cannibalizes a retailer's sales. Practitioners argue that firms can build their e-commerce business through acquiring customers by selling on the marketplace. Indeed, a marketplace could complement a retailer's offering (e.g., acquiring new customer segments), although inventory effects might mitigate this complementarity. Alternatively, cannibalization might occur from losing customers from one's website to the online marketplace. The present research investigates which of the two opposing forces prevails using a time series of category sales data from one of the largest global marketplace sellers. The authors use vector autoregressive modeling to show that marketplace sales increase sales on a retailer's website (0.014% for every 1% in marketplace sales). This effect is strongest for categories with large choice and low product prices. Acquiring customers through the marketplace might be cheaper than through other sources (estimated at 24% of initial sales). However, online retailers should be aware that this strategy strengthens the marketplace and may have potential negative long-term consequences (e.g., through marketplace control of the customer relationship).     

Retailer selection compulsion in the subsistence markets

Although enduring relationships between buyers and sellers encourage subsistence market consumers to shop at a particular retailer, these relationships have a negative side. This study focuses on the issue of ‘retailer selection compulsion’ existing in the subsistence market, which refers to the negative side of these relationships. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors driving the retailer selection compulsion in the subsistence market. This study adopted a qualitative phenomenological approach. Sixty interviews were conducted with subsistence consumers in two areas: Kolkata and Kharagpur, in the Indian state of West Bengal. The findings have demonstrated that subsistence consumers are compelled to stick to their neighbourhood retailers due to convenience, social capital, and obligations, as well as social identities resulting from a sense of social compulsion, and the value-added services provided by retailers that help overcome the consumers' financial and cognitive constraints. This study contributes to the literature on customer behaviour and retailing. These findings deepen the current understanding of the social capital theory, social identity theory, and bounded rationality theory in the context of subsistence marketplaces. Practically, the findings of this study will contribute to the practice of marketers who target subsistence markets. The findings will also help further entrepreneurial activities in subsistence areas, improve the retailing operations of subsistence retailers, and address exploitative practices of subsistence retailers on poor customers.     

Price matching and product differentiation strategies considering showrooming

Showrooming, a phenomenon in which customers use brick-and-mortar stores to assess products and then purchase them from online retailers (o-retailers) for lower prices, is considered a great threat to traditional retailers (t-retailers). To combat showrooming, many t-retailers have executed price matching which enables customers to pay o-retailers' lower prices for the identical product. To avoid direct competition with t-retailers who execute price matching, many o-retailers have begun to sell differentiated products from t-retailers, which weakens the information advantage to customers from practicing showrooming. Motivated by these observations, we construct a duopoly game, where a t-retailer and an o-retailer sell products in a same category, to study the profitabilities of product differentiation and price matching in the context of showrooming. The results show that in the scenario without price matching, the o-retailer is likely to benefit from product differentiation only when the o-retailer's differentiated product is more popular with customers than the t-retailer's product. However, in the price matching scenario, the o-retailer also has the opportunity to benefit from product differentiation when the o-retailer's differentiated product is less popular with customers than the t-retailer's product, and product differentiation can be a win-win strategy for the two retailers under certain conditions. Considering the o-retailer's product differentiation decision, the t-retailer is only likely to execute price matching if the non-digital attributes of the product category sold by two retailers are not very obvious.     

Technology and Competition Economics

Abstract

Advances in technology are creating new business models. The internet means that consumers can access a wide variety of potential suppliers. Those suppliers may have extensive data on individual consumers, and the interactions between buyers and sellers may be moderated by large, potentially dominant, platforms such as Google and Facebook. Competition authorities and policy makers are grappling with the issues raised by technology. However, the tools available to regulators are often laws that were designed for a pre-internet world. It is not clear if these laws can adapt. This article briefly surveys three areas of particular concern for both economic researchers and competition authorities: the competitive implications of two-sided markets; price restrictions imposed by internet platforms on retailers; and the use of personalized data by sellers.     

Pricing practices: A critical review of their effects on consumer perceptions and behaviour

With the present challenge to compete on price or product assortment, retailers and manufacturers are increasingly focusing on state-of-the-art pricing strategies which have their roots in behavioural economics and psychology. The current review is an empirical investigation on the relative effectiveness of various pricing practices on consumer perceptions and behaviour. Six pricing strategies were reviewed; drip pricing, reference pricing, the use of the word ‘free’, bait pricing, bundling and time-limited offers. The review shows that the former three have received a significant amount of attention and have a robust impact on consumer perceptions and behaviour. There is less research on the latter three; however, the available evidence does suggest that they, too, may be capable of influencing consumers’ choices. Finally, it is also clear that the effects of pricing practices can be moderated by a variety of factors. Overall, the current review indicates that sellers are able to influence perceptions and purchase decisions of consumers based on the manner in which prices are displayed. The implications of these findings for retailers, policy makers and researchers are discussed.     

The role of the brand in driving online loyalty for multichannel retailers

Multichannel retailers offer shoppers the possibility to cross channels to complete their shopping process. Multichannel retailers, unlike pure online sellers, offer shoppers multiple contact points to experience the brand. Also, multichannel retailers can leverage the trust and attachment to their brands that has been built with their offline presence to drive customers to buy online. Our paper explores the role of the customer relationship with the brand, with variables such as brand trust, brand attachment and length of brand relationship, as drivers of loyal behaviours towards the online channel. We compare the impact of these variables with those of the technology acceptance model. Multiple linear regression analysis is applied to data collected through a survey answered by 1533 multichannel retail shoppers in two product categories (apparel and consumer electronics) in two countries (UK and Spain). Our findings show that both brand trust and brand attachment have a positive impact on loyal behaviours towards the online channel, and that different loyalty behaviours, i.e. purchase intentions, word of mouth and electronic word of mouth are explained by different variables.