Research on cashback mode selections of e-commerce platform under different payment rules
Nowadays many e-commerce platforms cooperate with third-party cashback web-sites or establish official cashback websites to make cashback promotions to boost sales.This paper constructs a game-theoretic model to investigate the optimal cashback mode selection of the e-commerce platform and the optimal participation strategy of the merchant under different cashback payment rules.The research reveals:At first,under the payment rule that the cashback provided by the merchant for the cashback website is fixed,when the fixed cashback payment is low,the e-commerce platform should establish an official cashback website and the merchant will participate in the platform's cashback promotion.Second,under the payment rule that the cashback provided by the merchant for the cashback website is decided by itself,only when the commission rate is high and the cashback channel utility discount factor is low while the propor-tion of customers who know the cashback website and are sensitive to the cashback that they can obtain from the cashback website is high,the platform should cooperate with a third-party cashback website,otherwise it should establish an official cashback website,and the merchant is always willing to participate in the platform's cashback promotion under this payment rule.Third,regardless of the payment rules,it is feasible for the e-commerce platform to operate the official cashback website at a loss under certain conditions.In the extension,this paper considers that two cashback modes coexist under different cashback payment rules.