Interactive bundle pricing strategy for online pharmacies

Online retail pharmacies usually price their products differently from traditional drugstores. Based on real-time consumer behaviors, this paper proposes a dynamic bundle pricing strategy to maximize the pharmacy’s profit. Given free shipping thresholds and consumer budgets, we propose a mixed-integ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transportation research. Part E, Logistics and transportation review Vol. 177; p. 103223
Main Authors: Li, Jianbin, Liu, Lang, Luo, Xiaomeng, Zhu, Stuart X.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2023
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ISSN:1366-5545, 1878-5794
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Online retail pharmacies usually price their products differently from traditional drugstores. Based on real-time consumer behaviors, this paper proposes a dynamic bundle pricing strategy to maximize the pharmacy’s profit. Given free shipping thresholds and consumer budgets, we propose a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model and a heuristic to sequentially price customized bundles. We further conduct a numerical study using the data from a leading e-pharmacy in China. Our computational results indicate that the proposed model not only improves the e-pharmacy’s profit by attracting more customers but noticeably contributes to consumer surplus. Through sensitivity analysis, our model is proved to be robust under various scenarios. •We study a dynamic bundle pricing strategy to maximize the e-pharmacy’s profit.•We develop a mathematical model and a heuristic to price customized bundles.•We conduct a numerical study using the data from a leading e-pharmacy in China.•Our model improves the e-pharmacy’s profit and increases consumer surplus.
ISSN:1366-5545
1878-5794
DOI:10.1016/j.tre.2023.103223