Channel Strategies for the Two-Period Closed-Loop Supply Chain with E-Commerce

The aim of this paper is to choose the effective selling channel and reverse channel for a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) with the e-commerce. The authors formulated six single-selling and dual-selling channel two-period CLSC models in which the manufacturer manufactures new products in the first period and then collects used products by itself, outsourcing to or cooperating with the retailer in the second period. Some interesting and new insights obtained from comparison analysis and numerical experiments are as follows: (1) The leading manufacturer ought to add e-commerce channel, and customers’ e-commerce preference can increase the market demand, collecting rate, and manufacturer’s profit. (2) With the e-commerce channel and the retail channel, dual-collecting channel is the best for the manufacturer and system while the manufacturer collecting channel becomes the best when the collecting competition is relatively large. When the collecting competition exists, retailer collecting channel is the best for the retailer. (3) The market demand, collecting rate, the profits of all members and system will rise by increasing the remanufacturing level and discount coefficient.