The effectiveness of manufacturer vs. retailer rebates within a newsvendor framework

This paper studies the impact of direct rebates to the end customer from the manufacturer and/or from the retailer upon the profitability and effectiveness of the policies of both channels. Effectiveness is measured by the ratio of the retailer’s to the manufacturer’s profits and by the sum of the profits for the two parties across scenarios wherein at least one of the parties offers a rebate. The main result is to prove analytically the conditions under which either all three scenarios are equally profitable or the retailer-only rebate policy is dominant. Another important result is to illustrate the likelihood that the manufacturer is able to coordinate the supply chain, by the appropriate choice of its pricing and rebate policies, thereby inducing the retailer to do likewise with its associated best pricing, ordering and rebate policies. Finally, numerical examples highlight the main features of the paper.