假日時期零售商動態定價策略與退貨政策之設計：消費者搜尋與跨期差別取價

Abstract

本研究主要在探討零售商在假日時期最適的定價策略與退貨政策之設計。過去有關退貨政策的文獻大多都在研究是否要給予退貨權利，而甚少討論退貨期限長短對消費者及廠商的影響，因此本文嘗試分析在假日時期如何選擇退貨期限的長短以輔助廠商的定價策略之制定。我們建立一三期的賽局模型，假設零售商面對必須在假日前購買且有時間束縛的禮物購買者與無此限制之常態購買者，可擬定每期的價格策略與退貨期限的長短。研究發現廠商的定價策略與退貨政策之設計取決於販賣商品的性質以及假日時期禮物購買者高低需求的人口比例與對商品的願付價格。當高需求禮物購買者僅能於第二期購買的比例夠高，且高需求禮物購買者人數眾多時，市場上會出現與實証現象相符的價格先高後低且退貨期限延長情況。當禮物購買者對商品願付價格越高時，在假日後的折扣深度越深，而在禮物購買者異質性越低時，假日後的折扣幅度相較於假日前顯得越深。

We analyze the optimal pricing strategy and returns policy for a retailer during holiday seasons. Most of previous literature addresses whether the manufacturers or retailers offer full returns or not. Little attention is given to returns duration. We build a game-theoretic model for three periods where a firm chooses its price and returns policy every period during holiday seasons. The market consists of gift buyers with time constraints and regular buyers without time constraints. Our results show that the optimal pricing strategies and returns policy depend on product characteristics, and the proportion of gift-buyers. In particular, the following results are obtained. First, if the importance of gift buyers is sufficiently high relative to that of regular buyers, and if there are sufficiently many gift buyers who can only shop when the holiday gets very close, then there exists an equilibrium in which the price of the product first increases before the holiday and then decreases after the holiday.. This equilibrium is consistent with empirical evidences. Second, the higher the valuation of gift-buyers, the higher the depth of dealing after the holiday. When the heterogeneity of gift-buyers is low, the depth of dealing after the holiday relative to that before the holiday is high.