Optimal dynamic pricing for perishable assets with nonhomogeneous demand

We consider a dynamic pricing model for selling a given stock of a perishab le product over a finite time horizon. Customers, whose reservation price d istribution changes over time, arrive according to a nonhomogeneous Poisson process. We show that at any given time, the optimal price decreases with inventory. We also identify a sufficient condition under which the optimal price decreases over time for a given inventory level. This sufficient cond ition requires that the willingness of a customer to pay a premium for the product does not increase over time. In addition to shedding managerial ins ight, these structural properties enable efficient computation of the optim al policy. Numerical studies are conducted to show the revenue impact of dynamic price policies. Price changes are set to compensate for statistical fluctuations of demand and to respond to shifts of the reservation price. For the forme r, our examples show that using optimal dynamic optimal policies achieves 2 .4-7.3% revenue improvement over the optimal single price policy. For the l atter, the revenue increase can be as high as 100%. These results explain w hy yield management has become so essential to fashion retailing and travel service industries.