E-tailer's procurement strategies for drop-shipping: Simultaneous vs. sequential approach to two manufacturers

Guo Li, Xuefeng Zhang, Mengqi Liu*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    30 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This paper examines the effect of drop-shipping on the procurement strategy of an e-tailer who sells products for two upstream competing manufacturers. The e-tailer is powerful and determines her approach sequence, thereby resulting in simultaneous and sequential structures. Given an approach structure, we investigate the e-tailer's choice between the pure batch ordering (BO) and hybrid shipping (HS) modes. Interestingly, the e-tailer prefers simultaneous structure over sequential structure in the BO mode, while in the HS mode she chooses sequential structure. In the HS mode, the e-tailer prefers the batch ordering manufacturer to move first.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)108-127
    Number of pages20
    JournalTransportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
    Volume130
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2019

    Keywords

    • Competition
    • Decision structure
    • Drop-shipping
    • E-Commerce
    • Procurement strategy

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