Numerical examples for Case 3 where .

Consider a retailer selling a seasonal item, new items are stocked at the beginning of sale season and no inventory replenishment is permitted. Assuming the initial price is exogenous and the information about demand becomes more accurate as the sales season progresses, the retailer is allowed to make an in-season price adjustment after conducting a review. After the review time, if the price is adjusted to be lower than the initial price, demand increases more quickly with price decreasing which reflects the promotional effect of discount. Given the initial inventory, an optimal price adjusting model is proposed to maximize the retailer’s revenue. Taking decisions on inventory into account, the proposed model is extended to maximize the retailer’s profit rather than revenue. Numerical examples are also illustrated to test the proposed model. The results show that the optimal in-season price mainly depends on the proportion of the remaining demand, the price sensitivity, and the effect of sales promotion. An important managerial implication is that the retailer should gather the demand information about the price and raise the in-season price as soon as possible to gain more revenue when the price elasticity is small enough. Otherwise, when the price elasticity is larger, the retailer should maintain or decrease the price to gain more revenue.

考虑一家销售季节性商品的零售商：商品于销售季初备货，且不允许补货。假设初始价格为外生给定，且随着销售季推进，需求信息的准确度逐步提升；零售商可在完成复盘后进行季中价格调整。复盘后若将价格调低于初始售价，需求随降价的增速将更快，这体现了折扣的促销效应。基于初始库存，本文提出最优季中调价模型以最大化零售商的营收。考虑库存决策后，本文将所提模型拓展为最大化零售商利润而非仅营收。通过数值算例对所提模型进行验证。结果表明，最优季中价格主要取决于剩余需求占比、价格敏感度以及促销效应。一项重要的管理启示为：当价格弹性足够小时，零售商应收集价格相关需求信息，并尽快上调季中售价以获取更高营收；反之，当价格弹性较大时，零售商应维持或下调售价以获取更高营收。