The impact of information sharing and bullwhip effects on improving consumer services in dual-channel retailing

Data sharing among the supply chain players can be an exceptionally significant factor for the retailing industry. In this consideration, an improved retailing methodology for a dual-channel supply chain with a single retailer and manufacturer is built under the bullwhip effect and asymmetric data sharing. Retailer provides asymmetric information to the manufacturer regarding demand to increase their profit. In this scenario, measuring the bullwhip effect is essential in retailing strategy. By adopting an online-to-offline retailing strategy, industries can earn more profit and increase the satisfaction level of customers. The present study focuses on dual-channel retailing, where the demand for the product in both channels varies with the selling price. Keeping in mind the goal of sustainable development, an advanced transportation strategy is utilized in this study, along with some carbon emission costs. Autonomated inspection is utilized to identify defective products. Finally, centralized and decentralized profit functions are formulated for this study. Several cases and numerical examples are provided to validate this study. It is clear from the numerical findings that information sharing within the players provides 1.26% more profit compared to a decentralized case. Due to asymmetric information, which leads to the bullwhip effect, the retailing system faces loss. Thus, information sharing is 0.19% beneficial for dual-channel retailing. Sensitivity analysis for key parameters ensures the findings' applicability in the real world.