With globalization, companies are facing fierce competition. Offering appreciation period has become a commonly adopted method to retailers in order to sustain competitive advantage. During the appreciation period, customers can make a request to return products for any kind of reason. In addition, retailers provide advance sales to attract more customers. The supplier usually provides the retailer a trade credit to attract more customers who consider it to be a type of price reduction. Price is viewed as an important vehicle to sell products and enhance revenues. Therefore, in this article, we establish an inventory model with price-dependent demand for a retailer who simultaneously receives trade credit from its supplier, and offers advance sales and appreciation period to its customers. We first establish a proper model, and then provide an easy-to-use method to obtain ordering policy for the retailer to achieve its maximum total profit. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the solution procedure.
關聯:
The 2014 International Conference in Management Sciences and Decision Making, Tamkang University, May, 2014.