In e-commerce, consumers’ return of unwanted goods is a growing logistical problem for retailers. Research by HKUST’s Man Yu and collaborators shows how third-party insurance for the cost of product return promises to make the process more sustainable as the volume of online sales continues to increase. Products bought online are returned more often than ... 閱讀更多

Return insurance is an innovative return policy recently emerging on major Chinese shopping platforms, such as Taobao.com and JD.com. It is underwritten by an insurer and can be purchased by either a retailer or a consumer. Under such insurance, the insurer partially compensates consumers for their hassle costs associated with product return. We analyze the ... 閱讀更多

Counterfeiting costs companies as much as US$600 billion a year, and the situation is rapidly becoming worse. How does counterfeiting affect global supply chains, and how can it best be combated? These were the questions explored by Man Yu and Ki Ling Cheung of HKUST and their colleague—with rather surprising results. They found that the threat of ... 閱讀更多

Shopkeepers and store managers should base decisions on whether to discount or destroy leftover perishable goods on consumer behavior, an innovative new study has found. While marking down prices can provide welcome revenue for foodstuffs that would otherwise go to waste, this can also result in “intertemporal cannibalization”—a reduction in full-price sales ... 閱讀更多

Before deciding to purchase a product, a consumer can access information via consumer reviews by customers who have already purchased the product. Consumer reviews are a form of customer feedback, but this information can also benefit firms. However, consumer-generated quality information (consumer reviews) relies on the volume of consumers who share their ... 閱讀更多

在消費者實際使用前就銷售產品對賣方和消費者都有好處。這有助賣方做好預先規劃，減少需求變數；消費者則能確保自己得到產品，或許價格還比平時低。 預售還讓賣方有機會利用消費者對其購物估值的不確定性，因為這種估值一般都要他們將所購物品拿到手的“現貨”期才會實現。這衍生一些問題：賣方何時應採用預售？預售數量應以多少為宜？哪些產品最適合預售？ 研究學者於漫、Roman Kapuscinski和Hyun-Soo Ahn認為，賣方在作出決定時應考慮消費者估值間的相互關係。一些估值將是特異反應，由每位消費者的品味、情緒和情形決定。例如，如果消費者不確定自己會喜歡迪士尼供應的食物，則預售時購買的餐飲不一定會讓他們喜歡。 但是，其他估值由外部情況決定，可能在消費時對每個人同樣產生影響 ... 閱讀更多

法國葡萄酒和電子遊戲似乎鮮有共同之處，但兩者都會預售，即在產品品質廣為人知之前就向顧客銷售。這可以讓顧客受惠：供貨有保證，又能享受價格折扣。而對賣方也有好處，因為他們可以增加總銷量和利潤。新的研究表明，可能還有一個益處：預售這一做法本身就能預示產品品質的優劣。 於漫、Hyun-Soo Ahn和Roman Kapuscinski等研究人員認為，某些商品或服務的賣方僅拿出少量產品預售，比如，高檔葡萄酒的灌瓶商在生產流程結束前預售，音樂節的組織方在演員陣容公佈前預售門票。是什麼促使他們作出這樣的決定？ 為了尋找答案，研究人員制定了一個對比優質產品賣方和低質產品賣方的模型，說明資訊不對稱是優質產品賣方限制預售量的原因所在。 賣方掌握的資訊比顧客的多，比如葡萄酒賣方知道葡萄的生長條件和影響當季葡萄品質的其他因素，這時 ... 閱讀更多