一些網絡零售商大膽嘗試實體店模式
KIDDICARE wants to be as disruptive as the little monsters who use its products. Traditional sellers of baby gear, laden with too many stores and creaky technology, have all the perkiness of sleep-deprived parents. Internet-based Kiddicare should run rings around them. So it seemed odd last year when the British merchant took over ten “superstores” from Best Buy, itself an erstwhile disrupter (in electronics). Far from weighing Kiddicare down like overstuffed nappy bags, the shops will give customers “a true multichannel experience”, the retailer vowed.
Kiddicare （網絡兒童用品銷售商）想要和使用其產品的小怪物們一樣搗蛋。傳統兒童用品銷售商，由於店鋪過多技術落後，讓本已睡眠不足的父母們更加無精打采。相較之下，網絡銷售商Kiddicare優勢顯著。然而奇怪的是，這個英國網絡零售商去年從百思買接手十家“超級商鋪”（大型實體商鋪），巧合的是百思買在電子零售業也曾極具顛覆性。Kiddicare確信這項舉動不僅不會讓自己像塞滿東西的破袋子一樣不堪重負，還會爲消費者提供 “真正的多渠道購物體驗”。“Multichannel” (or even better, “omnichannel”) is something almost every self-respecting retailer wants to be. It means letting customers shop with smartphones, tablets, laptops and even in stores as if waited upon by a single salesman with an unfailing memory and uncanny intuition about their preferences. Pure-play internet vendors are good at this. But most resist the idea that actual stores, with their rents, payrolls and security cameras, ought to be one of those channels. The thought of having the same costs as bricks-and-mortar competitors “scares the living daylights out of me,” says Charles Hunt, owner of Duvet and Pillow Warehouse, a fast-growing online retailer.
“多渠道”（或者更高級的“無處不在的渠道”）是幾乎每個有追求的零售商夢想擁有的。這意味着可以讓消費者通過智能手機，平板電腦，筆記本電腦，甚至實體商鋪購物，同時由一個銷售人員專門陪同，而這個銷售人員對顧客的喜好了如指掌。這是單純網絡銷售商的拿手好戲。但大多數網絡銷售商無法接受開設實體店鋪，因爲需要支付租金，員工工資，以及電子監控設備費用。查爾斯.亨特，一家快速成長的網絡零售店Duvet and Pillow Warehouse的老闆，說道，想到和實體競爭者們一樣的花銷，“我就嚇得六神無主”。Yet Kiddicare, owned by Morrisons, a British grocer, is not the only retailer to shed its online purity. Screwfix, a British supplier to plumbers and electricians, has opened 270 shops since 2005. Bonobos, which sells men’s clothing online, has opened several “Guideshops” in America. Zalando, a German online fashion store, opened a physical outlet in Berlin last year. Even Amazon has installed lockers in shopping malls where customers can pick up deliveries: a first step, perhaps, towards bricks-and-mortardom. All this suggests that online and traditional retailers are “migrating to a middle ground”, believes Matt Truman of True Capital, a fund that invests in consumer companies.
然而，英國零售商莫里森斯旗下的Kiddicare並非唯一開設實體店鋪的網絡銷售商。Screwfix， 一家英國電工水管工器材供應商，從05年起已開設了270家實體店鋪。Bonobos, 一家網絡男裝銷售公司，已在美國開設了幾家“導購店”。Zalando, 一家德國網絡時裝店，去年在柏林開設了一個實體店。甚至連亞馬遜也購物中心開設店面，供消費者選購商品，這也許是邁向實體店鋪的第一步。來自True Capital零售公司投資基金的馬特.楚曼相信，所有這些都預示着網絡和傳統零售商將“相互融合”。
Don’t try this on at home
別在家裏試穿For wares that do not have to be displayed in a showroom, online retailers are hard to beat. They killed Borders, an American bookstore chain, and Britain’s Comet, an electronics retailer. But it is easier to judge a shoe’s fit or an apple’s crispness in a real store. Shoppers who crave instant gratification will not get that online. Tradesmen are last-minute shoppers, which is why Screwfix, part of the Kingfisher DIY group, has so many shops. Car seats must be fitted and parents like to handle baby equipment before they buy it; hence Kiddicare’s expansion beyond a single flagship store.
對於無需在實體店鋪展示的商品，網絡銷售商穩操勝券。他們打敗了美國連鎖書店Borders, 和英國電子零售商Comet。然而，想要確定鞋是否合腳，蘋果是否脆，還是在實體店更方便。網絡購物無法讓消費者得到即時滿足。電工水管工對器材總是隨用隨買，這也是Screwfix （翠豐集團DIY項目的一部分）開設那麼多實體店的原因。車座椅要大小合適，父母們喜歡買之前先操作嬰兒器材，這也是kiddicare除了一家旗艦店還要開設許多實體分店的原因。Pure online retailers do not pay rent but their variable costs eat up much of that advantage, says Sophie Albizua of eNova Partnership, a consultancy. Without storefronts to lure in customers they shell out to buy ads linked to Google search results. Delivery, especially of bulky goods, is a headache. Couriers show up at empty houses, and fees often fail to cover the full cost. Shoppers return a quarter or more of clothing they buy, another big expense.
純粹的網絡零售商無需付租金,但各種額外費用抵消了大部分優勢, eNova Patenership諮詢公司的索菲.奧比祖阿如是說。他們沒有實體店面來吸引顧客，不得不花重金購買谷歌搜索結果界面的廣告。運送，尤其是大宗貨物的運送，也是令人頭疼的問題。快遞員送達貨物，而收貨人卻不在，這樣成本常常超出所收費用。另外，顧客退回四分之一或更多的商品，這也是一大開銷。All this looks easier if you have real shops. With “click and collect” customers can order with, say, a smartphone but pick up the item at a convenient outlet. Often, they linger to shop more. Britons pick up something extra about 40% of the time, says Ms Albizua.
如果擁有實體店，所有問題都會變得簡單些。顧客可以使用智能手機在線選訂商品，但提貨是在方便到達的實體店。通常他們會逗留併購買更多東西。奧比祖阿稱英國人十次中大概有四次都會選購額外商品。Happily hybrid John Lewis, an upmarket department-store chain, says that on- and offline shopping spur each other on. When a new shop opens, online sales in the vicinity can jump by 20-40% “overnight”, says Noel Saunders, the manager of the branch near London’s Olympic Stadium. New products can be tested online and stocked in store if they do well. Nearly a third of customers who order online pick up their wares in stores. Britons are among the world’s most avid online shoppers, but 65% still prefer buying in-store, according to a survey by Hitachi Consulting.
成功混合網絡和實體經營的高檔連鎖店Lewis稱，線上和線下銷售是相互促進的。新開一個實體店，其周圍的線上銷售會一夜之間暴漲20%到40%，Lewis倫敦奧林匹克體育館分店店長諾爾.桑德斯這樣說。新產品可以先在線試銷，如果反響好再轉入實體銷售。幾乎三分之一在線訂貨的顧客會在實體店提貨。日立諮詢的一項調查顯示，儘管英國人是世界上最愛網上購物的人羣之一，但65%的人仍傾向於在實體店消費。The question for envious e-tailers is how to pluck the benefits of physical stores without incurring the costs. Most proceed gingerly, armed with high-tech weaponry. “Pop-up shops” generate buzz and then vanish. EBay has tried them, and Winser London, a fashion website, plans to. Amazon’s ghostly high-street presence helps make delivery cheaper and more convenient, but so far it offers nothing more. Kiddicare plans 15 stores at most in Britain, a fraction of the number operated by its struggling competitor, Mothercare. They will be nimbler than traditional stores. Prices will appear on electronic labels and change with the push of a button.
嫉妒的網絡零售商面臨的問題是如何攫取實體店的利益而免除花銷。多數都小心進行，並用高科技武裝自己。“彈出式商店”曾引起反響，但只是曇花一現。EBay曾嘗試使用彈出式商店，時尚網站Winser London計劃使用。亞馬遜詭異存在的實體店使運送更便宜方便，但也僅此而已。Kiddicare計劃最多在英國開15家實體店，這與其有力競爭者Mothercare的店面數量還相差甚遠。網絡零售商開設的實體店比傳統店鋪更靈活。他們的價格顯示在電子標籤上，並會隨着觸動按鈕而變化。Bricks-and-mortar merchants are likewise paring space and bulking up on technology. In Britain the number of outlets a retail chain needs to have national coverage has dropped from 200 in the pre-online era to 50-80, says Adrian D’Enrico of AXA Real Estate, an investment manager. House of Fraser is experimenting with shops that are little more than a changing room and rows of screens to order clothes. Hointer, a Seattle start-up, provides just enough space to display a sample of each type of jeans it sells; robots fetch the right size from the stockroom. On today’s high street, shopkeepers who stand still are unlikely to survive.
實體店商也在爭取市場並依靠科技發展壯大。 AXA地產公司的投資經理Adrian D’Enrico稱， 網絡銷售出現之前，連鎖零售商要覆蓋全國市場需要開設200家分店，而現在只需要開50到80家。House of Fraser (英國著名精品連鎖百貨)嘗試的不過是一個更衣室和幾排選購衣服的屏幕。西雅圖的初創品牌Hointer提供的空間剛好夠展示每一件牛仔褲樣品；由機器人從倉庫提取正確尺碼的褲子。如今的實體店，不求新求變就很可能被淘汰。
