Digitalization of Sustainable Retailing Under a Closed-Loop Supply Chain Management

Products can be sold in two ways: online and offline. The traditional procedure is to sell through offline mode. However, based on the necessity, customers prefer online mode to save time and cost. But which mode is time and cost saving? This is a big question to be asked by the researchers. In this direction, this study considers a three-echelon supply chain management with dual channels, considering the significant effect on pricing in both online and offline modes and the quality of products. This study utilizes the benefit of a third party in managing a cost-reduction strategy. The manufacturer is cautious about the reputation of the supply chain because the goodwill lost cost is utilized within the management system. The model is solved analytically with the help of a classical optimization approach. The theoretical results provide the global optimum results for the supply chain model. Numerical experiments are conducted based on the existing data and it is found the global optimum profit for the chain. Some graphical representations of optimality and sensitivity have been drawn, and several conclusions are obtained from them. Finally, the numerical results prove that the online mode is much better than the offline if the customer if the customer is aware of both modes at the time of order, purchasing, or others.