How does heterogeneous consumer behavior affect pricing strategies of retailers?

Abstract

This paper presents the latest progress on pricing and revenue management. Consumer's switching purchase behavior occurs frequently in perishable goods retail market, and we propose a two-period dynamic pricing model among online and offine retailers under heterogeneous purchase behavior of myopic consumers and strategic consumers. Through equilibrium solution and analysis, this study discusses the optimal pricing strategy under the infiuence of the service perception factor and the proportion of two kinds of consumers. Moreover, this paper analyzes the effect of three pricing strategies on profits to prove the effectiveness of price matching strategy implemented by offine retailers. The results show that the strategic behavior of heterogeneous consumers does not always have a negative impact on the profits of two retailers. The ofiine retailers can strategically choose to set higher prices to increase profits, and online retailers can also reduce the impact of heterogeneous consumer behavior by disclosing product attribute information. It is unwise for online retailers to take the initiative to match the price set by the offine retailers. In contrast, offine retailers can achieve a win-win situation for both retailers by matching the price of the online retailers actively.