This study examines a duopoly market comprising an online retail platform and a physical store, both of them selling experience-based products to consumers who are unaware of the products’ fitness. The platform could introduce artificial intelligence (AI) technology into retail operations to address consumers’ fitness uncertainty and then gain market share, while the physical store could exert a service effort to recapture the market, potentially facilitating showrooming behavior. Operational decisions including pricing, AI application, and service effort exertion are investigated in the cases where consumers are allowed and unallowed to return unsuitable products. We first develop a theoretical model of dual-channel retailing to determine the equilibrium operational decisions for the supply chain members, and then examine the interactions between these operational decisions and consumers’ showrooming behaviors. Subsequently, we perform numerical simulations to verify the robustness of the theoretical findings. Results indicate that both AI application and service efforts exertion will strengthen consumers’ showrooming effect, especially when the cost of AI application is relatively low. Moreover, regardless of whether the store implements the service effort or not, the platform prefers to apply AI technology when consumers are allowed to return products. Furthermore, the physical store will always exert a service effort, and with the service effort, the application of AI technology in the retail platform operation could effectively mitigate the impact of consumer return on supply chain members.

本研究考察了一个由在线零售平台和实体店组成的双头垄断市场，这两个平台都向不了解产品适用性的消费者销售基于体验的产品。该平台可以将人工智能（AI）技术引入零售业务，以解决消费者健身的不确定性，从而获得市场份额，而实体店则可以通过服务努力重新夺回市场，从而有可能促进陈列室行为。在允许和不允许消费者退回不合适产品的情况下，调查包括定价、人工智能应用和服务努力等在内的运营决策。我们首先开发双渠道零售的理论模型，以确定供应链成员的均衡运营决策，然后研究这些运营决策与消费者陈列行为之间的相互作用。随后，我们进行数值模拟以验证理论结果的稳健性。结果表明，人工智能应用和服务力度的发挥都会增强消费者的陈列效果，特别是当人工智能应用成本相对较低时。此外，无论商店是否实施服务，平台在允许消费者退货时都更愿意应用人工智能技术。此外，实体店始终会发挥服务力度，通过服务力度，人工智能技术在零售平台运营中的应用可以有效缓解消费者退货对供应链成员的影响。