中國電商巨頭積極備戰(zhàn)“雙十一”

Alibaba and JD.com are taking the battle for shoppers’ wallets to everything from the seasonal delicacy hairy crabs to luxury labels as China’s ecommerce titans prepare to face off on Singles Day.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和京東(JD.com)的銷售大戰(zhàn)全線鋪開——從季節(jié)性美味大閘蟹到奢侈品牌。眼下，中國電商巨頭們正準備在“光棍節(jié)”(Singles Day)一較高下。

The brainchild of Alibaba, Singles Day turned the anti-Valentine’s Day on November 11 into the biggest frenzy of consumption in the retail calendar. It worked: last year consumers spent $18bn, triple the $5.9bn spent on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Thanksgiving combined in the US.

阿里巴巴首創(chuàng)的“雙十一”將年輕人慶祝單身的11月11日變成了零售日歷表上最大規(guī)模的消費狂歡。效果顯著：去年“雙十一”，消費者支出了180億美元，是美國“黑色星期五”(Black Friday)、“網(wǎng)購星期一”(Cyber Monday)和“感恩節(jié)”(Thanksgiving)合計59億美元消費額的三倍。

“It has tremendous staying power,” says Alibaba vendor John McPheters, co-founder and chief executive of streetwear retailer Stadium Goods. “I think we’ll see much more 11.11 Singles Day activity in the US as it continues to grow.”

“它一直很受歡迎，”入駐阿里巴巴的街頭服飾零售商Stadium Goods的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官約翰•麥克菲特斯(John McPheters)說，“我認為，隨著這個購物節(jié)越做越大，我們將在美國看到更多的‘雙十一’促銷活動。”

The day is one of the biggest engines in China’s economy. Shoppers spent $750bn online last year, roughly equivalent to the annual economic output of the Netherlands. Goldman Sachs reckons that will double to $1.7tn by 2020. Chinese consumers are responsible for almost half of all online shopping, according to research consultancy eMarketer.

“雙十一”是中國經(jīng)濟中最大的引擎之一。去年，中國購物者在線支出了7500億美元，大致相當于荷蘭一年的經(jīng)濟產(chǎn)值。高盛(Goldman Sachs)估計，到2020年，這一數(shù)字將翻番至1.7萬億美元。研究咨詢公司eMarketer的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，中國消費者占了全球網(wǎng)購的幾乎半壁江山。

JD.com has sought to counter rival Alibaba’s superior clout — with more than 500m shoppers it has roughly double JD.com’s 258m — by stitching up data-sharing deals with some of China’s biggest tech groups.

京東試圖通過與中國最大的一些科技集團達成數(shù)據(jù)共享協(xié)議，來抗衡競爭對手阿里巴巴更強大的影響力。阿里巴巴擁有逾5億用戶，差不多是京東2.58億用戶的兩倍。

These include Tencent, the social media group with almost 1bn users on its WeChat service; Baidu, which runs China’s dominant search engine; news aggregator Toutiao; Tencent-backed search engine Sogou, and NetEase.

這些科技集團包括旗下微信(WeChat)擁有近10億用戶的社交媒體集團騰訊(Tencent);在中國占主導地位的搜索引擎百度(Baidu);新聞?wù)仙探袢疹^條(Toutiao);騰訊支持的搜索引擎搜狗(Sogou);網(wǎng)易(NetEase)。

JD.com has some 50 such deals, allowing it to target individual customers. For example, someone reading news about young children on Toutiao can be targeted with nappies.

京東達成了約50項此類協(xié)議，使它可以精準地向個人消費者推送廣告。例如，京東可以向在今日頭條上閱讀有關(guān)幼兒新聞的消費者推送紙尿褲廣告。

Both companies are also offering subsidies to merchants and couriers. Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao is spending Rmb1.5bn ($226m) on subsidies, while JD.com is reportedly shelling out Rmb2.1bn.

兩家公司還向商家和快遞員提供補貼。阿里巴巴旗下物流公司菜鳥(Cainiao)拿出了15億元人民幣(合2.26億美元)用于補貼，而京東據(jù)稱砸了21億元人民幣。

“The scale of the face-off with JD.com needs watching,” writes Bhavtosh Vajpayee, analyst at Bernstein Research in a report. “Small discounts across Alibaba’s 500m-plus customer base can start adding up quickly if the competitive jostling gets out of hand.”

“這場對決的規(guī)模有待觀察，”伯恩斯坦研究公司(Bernstein Research)分析師巴夫托什•瓦杰帕伊(Bhavtosh Vajpayee)在一份報告中寫道，“如果這場促銷大戰(zhàn)失控的話，阿里巴巴5億多用戶享受的小額折扣將迅速膨脹。”

An earlier battle over hairy crabs demonstrated the lengths to which the duo go. JD.com set up warehouses to shorten the supply chain, while one of Cainiao’s partners kitted themselves out with 40 refrigerated trucks to ensure multiple deliveries. Both promised to reimburse customers if the crustaceans were dead on arrival.

之前的大閘蟹之戰(zhàn)顯示出這兩個對手都使出了渾身解數(shù)。京東自建倉庫以縮短供應(yīng)鏈，而菜鳥的一家合作伙伴準備了40輛冷鏈車以確保完成眾多投送服務(wù)。兩家公司都承諾，如果大閘蟹在送達時死亡，它們將賠償消費者。

Similarly, the two companies are pushing into the luxury sector, with JD.com setting up a standalone “white gloves” service and buying into cultish ecommerce site Farfetch. “Mass-market categories such as consumer products are already saturated on these sites, so they are branching out into other sectors such as luxury,” says Liz Flora, who heads up Asia Pacific Research at digital agency L2.

此外，兩家公司都在進軍奢侈品領(lǐng)域，京東推出了“白手套”高端派送服務(wù)，并入股了奢侈品電商Farfetch。“這些網(wǎng)站上的消費品等大眾品類早已飽和，因此，它們正向奢侈品等其他領(lǐng)域拓展，”數(shù)字咨詢機構(gòu)L2亞太研究部門負責人利茲•弗洛拉(Liz Flora)表示。

Platforms are also making a play for top-performing merchants, wooing them with incentives such as site placements and discounts. This year 40-odd brands have reportedly ditched JD.com to sell exclusively on Alibaba’s platforms.

各電商平臺還在設(shè)法吸引經(jīng)營表現(xiàn)最優(yōu)秀的商家，利用網(wǎng)站布置和折扣等激勵手段招攬它們。據(jù)報道，今年有40多個品牌撤離了京東，只在阿里巴巴的平臺上進行銷售。

While Alibaba is widely expected to reveal a figure that comfortably surpasses last year’s Singles Day sales figure, “the number itself is not the primary objective”, says Jason Ding, a partner with consultancy Bain & Co.

咨詢公司貝恩(Bain & Co.)合伙人丁杰(Jason Ding)表示，雖然人們普遍預(yù)計阿里巴巴今年“雙十一”的銷售額將輕松超過去年，“但數(shù)字本身并不是首要目標”。

The controversial criteria used to measure sales on the day are the subject of a long-running probe by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

用于計算“雙十一”當天銷售額的有爭議的標準，是美國證券交易委員會(SEC)長期以來調(diào)查的對象。

Analysts have also questioned the numbers, suggesting they have been inflated by “brushing” — the practice of merchants sending out empty packages to boost their rankings.

分析人士也對這些數(shù)字提出了質(zhì)疑，認為這些數(shù)據(jù)被“刷單”——商家發(fā)送空包裹來提高交易量排名的做法——做大了。

Mr Ding points to Alibaba’s move from ecommerce to “new retail” — a blend of online and offline shopping. “That will be the new trend going forward, so 11.11 in the original format is not that relevant any more,” he says.

丁杰指出，阿里巴巴正在從電子商務(wù)轉(zhuǎn)向“新零售”——線上和線下購物的融合——轉(zhuǎn)型。他說：“這將是未來的新趨勢，因此，原始形式的雙十一不再那么重要了。”