Retail Strategies for Extended Warranty Sales and Impact on Manufacturer Base Warranties
研究了两家竞争制造商通过同一零售商销售产品时，零售商销售延长保修对制造商基础保修设定的影响，发现这种互动会压低制造商保修，且零售商可受益于让消费者同时考虑产品和延长保修特性。
ABSTRACT Consider two competing manufacturers selling their products through the same retailer. If this retailer derives profits from extended warranty sales, the manufacturers face a dilemma in setting their base warranties. Although they have incentive to increase their warranties to make their products attractive to consumers, the retailer might prefer selling lower‐warranty products to enhance extended warranties sales. We develop a stylized model to determine and analyze optimal manufacturer and retailer strategies in this setting. Consistent with the ongoing decline in warranties for products that are sold through independent retailers, we show that these interactions exert downward pressure on manufacturer warranties. Rather than pitching the extended warranty at the checkout after customers have selected a certain product, we find that retailers can often benefit from inducing simultaneous consideration of product and extended warranty characteristics, for example by posting extended warranty information right on the product shelf.