Dual-channel Supply Chain Synchronization with Deterministic and Stochastic Demand under Cost-sharing Contract

Due to the globalization of markets and the advancements in communications, such as the Internet and e-commerce, consumers are directly linked to manufacturers. Consumers can search a product in an offline store, and then they buy it in an online store. This paper investigates the influence of channel synchronization on the supplier, the retailer and the entire supply chain in the dual-channel supply chains. Contracts are valuable tools used in both theory and practice to coordinate various supply chains among synchronization mechanisms. This study presents a hybrid model with a new demand function and surveys the effects of free riding on sales effort in a dual-channel supply chain comprising of one manufacturer and one offline store. To achieve beneficial outcomes, this paper considers a cost-sharing contract to synchronize a dual-channel supply chain. Finally, we focus on the expansion of the model in the stochastic demand solved by the genetic algorithm.