'Fulfilled by Amazon': A Strategic Perspective of Competition at the E-commerce Platform

Guoming Lai, Huihui Liu, Wenqiang Xiao, Xinyi Zhao
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引用次数: 38

Abstract

Problem definition: This paper examines the economic effects of the fulfillment services offered by Amazon (FBA) to the third-party sellers on its retail platform. Academic/practical relevance: Logistics is critical for e-commerce. It is intriguing that the third-party sellers that use FBA may directly compete with Amazon. By FBA, their service levels are substantially improved and so is their competitiveness. Such a phenomenon has been little investigated in prior literature. Methodology: We develop a strategic competition model where Amazon and a representative third-party seller engage in both price and service competition. Results: Interestingly, we find that although FBA may intensify the service competition between Amazon and the third-party seller, it can mitigate their price competition besides the direct revenue Amazon collects from the service. The latter effects dominate the former when the cross-service sensitivity of the consumers is either sufficiently low or sufficiently high. Therefore, not only the third-party sellers but also Amazon may benefit from FBA. Moreover, because the sales of Amazon’s products may increase because of FBA, its OEM (original equipment manufacturer) supplier may gain from FBA also. These findings extend to the settings where the third-party seller is Amazon’s OEM supplier, cross-price and cross-service sensitivities are correlated, or the parties set their retail prices sequentially. Managerial implications: Our analysis provides insights about when FBA is more likely to be beneficial and when it can be harmful. They are useful for understanding the impacts of FBA on both Amazon and the third-party sellers.
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“被亚马逊满足”:电子商务平台竞争的战略视角
问题定义:本文考察了亚马逊在其零售平台上向第三方卖家提供配送服务(FBA)的经济效应。学术/实践相关性:物流对电子商务至关重要。有趣的是,使用FBA的第三方卖家可能会直接与亚马逊竞争。通过FBA,他们的服务水平大大提高,竞争力也大大提高。这一现象在以往文献中鲜有研究。方法论:我们建立了一个战略竞争模型,其中亚马逊和一个有代表性的第三方卖家进行价格和服务竞争。结果:有趣的是,我们发现虽然FBA可能会加剧亚马逊与第三方卖家之间的服务竞争,但除了亚马逊从服务中获得的直接收入外,FBA还可以缓解他们之间的价格竞争。当消费者的跨服务敏感性足够低或足够高时,后者的影响支配前者。因此,不仅仅是第三方卖家,亚马逊也可以从FBA中受益。此外,由于亚马逊的产品销售可能会因为FBA而增加,它的OEM(原始设备制造商)供应商也可能会从FBA中获益。这些发现延伸到第三方卖家是亚马逊的OEM供应商,交叉价格和跨服务敏感性是相关的,或者双方按顺序设定零售价格的设置。管理启示:我们的分析提供了FBA何时更有可能是有益的,何时可能是有害的见解。它们有助于理解FBA对亚马逊和第三方卖家的影响。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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