The Impacts of Internet and Customer Structure on the Optimal Channel Design of a Firm

• Main Authors: I-Ju Chen, 陳怡如
• Other Authors: Shan-Yu Chou
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/03458994418183479161

碩士 === 臺灣大學 === 商學研究所 === 98 === Internet channel let a firm access to foreign market without geographic limitation. It can also help a firm to reach the consumers who are not willing to purchase goods on the brick-and-motor channel. The existence of consumers who only purchase items online may affect the channel strategies of a firm. Some questions are addressed: What is the firms’ optimal targeting, channel, and pricing strategies when some customers only purchase online? How the online shoppers affect firms’ strategies? Should a firm change its marketing strategies when the proportion of online shoppers increases? This paper investigates how online shoppers affect channel strategies of companies which consider channel strategy as a differentiation method. Game theory is used as the methodology. Analysis shows that the optimal strategies hinge on the proportion of each customer groups and the relative degree of customers’ shopping cost toward different channel. The results are as the following. (1) As the existence of online shoppers, firms are often tending to retain Internet channel and discard traditional channel. (2) The firm may use the inefficient channel more or less, depending on the marketing environment. (3) The customers who are high valuation and purchasing at dual channels are always served by the firm, while those who are low valuation and only purchasing online are often abandoned. (4) The proportion of high valuation online shoppers has effect on the pricing strategies. This research depicts the influence of online shoppers and provides marketing management implications for firms to make better channel strategies.