網際網路與消費者結構對廠商通路策略之影響

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

網際網路使廠商得以低成本接觸到跨地理區域的消費者，也能夠服務時間受限或因其他購物成本過高只願意至網路通路購物的消費者（網購族）。本文嘗試分析網購族的存在，對獨占廠商通路策略和定價策略之影響。我們假設市場上存在網購族和可同時在兩種通路購物的雙棲族，各族群內再依消費者使用產品效用的高低，區分為高端和低端，兩型消費者對於售前服務的需求相異。研究結果如下：(1)即使網購族存在使網路成為必備通路，廠商仍然可能設置較不效率的實體通路，以利用不同通路區隔消費者；(2)對雙棲族的目標策略受限於不同雙棲族對售前服務需求的相對大小，例如：當高端雙棲族對於售前服務的需求低於低端雙棲族時，廠商才能在網路通路與實體通路分別服務高端雙棲族和低端雙棲族。(3)對雙棲族的目標策略會影響通路間的價格差距。由於網購族的存在，使得廠商可能為了減緩通路間的競蝕，而引導對產品使用效用較高的高端雙棲族至較不效率的網路通路，以便在實體通路對產品使用效用較低的低端雙棲族收取較高的價格。(4)最後，當高端消費者對於售前服務有較多需求，且在網路的願付價格較低端消費者高時，高端網購族的人數相對於低端網購族越多，廠商差別取價的利益越大，也因此增加捨棄低端網購族的可能性。

The Internet makes marketers can reach consumers in different geographic areas at a low cost. Furthermore, some consumers (henceforth online shoppers) only consider purchasing online due to their time constraints or prohibitively high shopping cost. This paper attempts to analyze how the existence of online shoppers influences the channel and pricing strategies of a monopolistic firm. Following previous research, the online channel allows consumers to save their shopping cost while the traditional channel allows the firm to provide presale services at point of sales. We assume there are two segments of consumers: the segment of online shoppers, and that of multichannel shoppers, who consider purchasing through both channels. Furthermore, each segment consists of high-valuation (highs) and low-valuation consumers (lows), who differ in their valuations to the firm’s product, and in their needs for presale services. We obtain the following results. First, although the existence of online shoppers makes the online channel become a necessary distribution channel, the traditional channel allows the firm to implement price discrimination and hence may be chosen despite its inefficiency. Second, the targeting strategies for multi-channel shoppers are restricted by the relative importance of presale services to the highs and to the lows. In particular, serving multi-channel shoppers in the high segment online and those in the low segment offline is feasible only if the highs have lower needs for presale services than the lows. Third, the targeting strategies for multi-channel shoppers also influence the price differential across distribution channels. For this reason, the firm may sacrifice efficiency for better screening. For example, to alleviate the cannibalization problem across channels, the firm may induce multi-channel shoppers of the highs to purchase through an inefficient online channel so that it can charge a higher price at the traditional channel to the lows. Finally, when the highs need more presale services and have the higher willingness to pay online than the lows, the higher the fraction of online shoppers in the high-valuation segment relative to that in the low-segment, the higher the benefits of price-discrimination, thus increasing the likelihood of giving up low-valuation online shoppers.