Dynamic Pricing through Data Sampling

We study a dynamic pricing problem, where a firm offers a product to be sold over a fixed time horizon. The firm has a given initial inventory level, but there is uncertainty about the demand for the product in each time period. The objective of the firm is to determine a dynamic pricing strategy th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lobel, Ruben, Cohen, Maxime, Perakis, Georgia
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Operations Research Center
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2019
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/120722
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9428-7748
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0888-9030
Description
Summary:We study a dynamic pricing problem, where a firm offers a product to be sold over a fixed time horizon. The firm has a given initial inventory level, but there is uncertainty about the demand for the product in each time period. The objective of the firm is to determine a dynamic pricing strategy that maximizes revenue throughout the entire selling season. We develop a tractable optimization model that directly uses demand data, therefore creating a practical decision tool. We show computationally that regret-based objectives can perform well when compared to average revenue maximization and to a Bayesian approach. The modeling approach proposed in this study could be particularly useful for risk-averse managers with limited access to historical data or information about the true demand distribution. Finally, we provide theoretical performance guarantees for this sampling-based solution.