Multichannel retailing and price competition

Salma Karray, Simon Pierre Sigué

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Articlepeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We investigate the profitability of multichannel retailing for competing offline retailers. Each firm can sell a product both offline and online in a position of a first mover or follower in the online market. We find that, depending on the online market size and price competition levels across channels and retailers, the adoption of multichannel retailing may or may not enhance an offline retailer's profits in the first-mover position. If one retailer profitably expands online, the second can also improve its profit by introducing another online channel to the detriment of the pioneer. However, when offline retailers are given the possibility of selecting an equilibrium channel mix, multichannel retailing could be adopted strategically by the two retailers to maintain their market shares, resulting in a prisoner's dilemma situation. In such a context, it drives down retail prices, increases sales, and reduces the profits of the two competing retailers.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2002-2032
    Number of pages31
    JournalInternational Transactions in Operational Research
    Volume28
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jul. 2021

    Keywords

    • game theory
    • multichannel retailing
    • price competition

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