Optimal Pricing and Ordering Policies with Price Dependent Demand Linearly under Order-Size-Dependent Delay in Payments

In Korea, some pharmaceutical companies and agricultural machine manufacturers associate the length of the credit period with the retailer's order size. This kind of commercial practice is based on the principle of economy of scale from the supplier's point of view and tends to make retailer's order size large enough to qualify a certain credit period break. Also, the credit period allowed by the supplier makes it possible to reduce the retail price expecting that the retailer can earn more profits by the stimulating the customer's demand. Since the retailer's order size is affected by the end customer's demand, it is reasonable to determine the retail price and the order size simultaneously. In this regard, this paper analyzes the retailer's problem who has to decide his sales price and order quantity from a supplier who offers different credit periods depending on his order size. And we show that the retailer's order size large enough to qualify a certain credit period break. Also, it is assumed that the end customer's demand rate is represented by a linear decreasing function of the retail price.