Coordinate the Express Delivery Supply Chain with Option Contracts

In this paper, the authors study the capacity decision problem in an express delivery supply chain consisting of an online retailer and an express delivery provider where products sold by the online retailer are delivered by the express delivery provider to end customers. Unlike the case of the traditional manufacturer-retailer channels, the delivery capacity is a kind of “service product” that cannot be inventoried. To avoid the risk of unprofitable capacity, the delivery provider tends to build a limited delivery capacity which is smaller than the system-wide optimal capacity. To solve such a problem, the authors investigate the capacity coordination issue in this service supply chain using option contracts. By allowing the online retailer to reserve the capacity in advance, the delivery provider could rent a part of capacity which surpasses its self-owned capacity from a third party logistics. It is demonstrated that, compared with the benchmark based on a newsvendor model, option contracts can coordinate the delivery service supply chain. The authors also figure out the feasible option contracts that improve member's expected profit and show the degree of improvement that could be achieved.