محسن دولتیاری

Human beings have various needs, including the essential, daily need for food. Edible goods, such as many other products, reach customers through supply chains. However, due to the nature of food items, quality deterioration is unavoidable for this group of products throughout the supply chain. This decline in quality can result from factors such as time and environmental conditions. In any case, this quality deterioration affects customers' willingness to purchase the product. The resulting decrease in demand increases product accumulation, leading to increased product spoilage. Some sellers use increasing discounts to stimulate demand and prevent product spoilage. The extent of encouragement and hesitation created can aid the organization in making better decisions. The present study aims to examine the impact of discounts on changing the level of customer encouragement and hesitation. An integrated decision-making method for calculating the changes in these coefficients is proposed and solved using Microsoft Excel 2016 software. The research results indicate that increasing discounts simultaneously increases customers' encouragement and hesitation toward purchasing the product. However, it sustains customers' willingness to purchase the goods at approximately 48%, in stark contrast to the nearly negligible willingness observed in the no-discount scenario.