Optimal Joint Assortment for an Omni-Channel Retailer
研究了零售商在实体店和线上渠道同时销售产品时，如何选择联合品类和定价，发现最优品类由定制产品和全渠道产品组合而成，并挑战了线上渠道只卖小众产品的传统观点。
With the growing popularity of e-commerce, nearly every prominent retailer is aiming to turn omni-channel. One crucial decision in this pursuit is the identification of the joint assortment. In this study, we contribute by examining joint assortment and product prices for a retailer that sells products through both brick-and-mortar and online channels. Our analysis indicates that the optimal assortment should be thought of as a portfolio of two types of products: customized and omni-channel. Customized products are priced in such a way that they are targeted toward customers who prefer to shop from the channel the products are sold through. In contrast, omni-channel products are priced attractively so that all customers consider buying them. The relative mix of these products depends on how flexible customers are in shopping from the channel they do not prefer and the number of customers who prefer each channel. Additionally, we investigate whether the conventional wisdom of selling niche products through the online channel is always optimal. We find that this suggestion may be sub-optimal when the online channel has greater cost of including a product in the assortment and fewer preferring customers compared with the brick-and-mortar channel.