Abstract: To study the strategy selection of manufacturers between traditional single retail and online retail channels in a market environment where consumers are sensitive to both carbon emission and delivery time, this paper constructs two supply chain structures: a traditional single retail channel and a dual channel of online direct sales, composed of manufacturers and traditional retailers. The equilibrium pricing strategies and the optimal profits of supply chain members of the two models are compared and analyzed, exploring channel preferences between retailers and manufacturers in the context of consumer dual sensitivity. Results indicate that the carbon reduction level of dual-channels is always higher than that of single-channels. When consumers prefer online direct channels and both consumer dual sensitivity and channel competition in dual channels are low, retailers are willing to accept a higher wholesale price and prefer traditional single retail channels; otherwise, they prefer dual channels of online direct sales. When consumers prefer online direct channels, manufacturers prefer the dual-channel model of online direct sales; however, when consumers do not prefer online direct channels and both consumer dual sensitivity and channel competition in dual channels are low, manufacturers prefer the model of traditional single-retail channels; otherwise, even if consumers do not prefer online channels, manufacturers prefer dual channels of online direct sales when either consumer dual sensitivity or competition is high. Numerical analysis further confirms the conclusions of this paper.

Key words: carbon emission, delivery time, channel selection, dual-channel supply chain