中國(guó)引領(lǐng)食品零售發(fā)展趨勢(shì)

The sight of shoppers pushing supermarket trolleys among a crowd of Shanghainese chowing down seafood at a communal table is somewhat jarring. But this is a branch of Hema — one of 20 stores opened by Chinese ecommerce pioneer Alibaba in an effort to reimagine food shopping as more than a weekly chore carried out under the glare of fluorescent lights in a retailing shed.

一群上海人在公共餐臺(tái)上吃著海鮮，旁邊是推著超市手推車的購(gòu)物者，這一幕似乎有點(diǎn)不協(xié)調(diào)。但這是盒馬鮮生(Hema)的一家分店，是由中國(guó)電子商務(wù)先驅(qū)阿里巴巴(Alibaba)開設(shè)的20家店鋪之一，目的是重構(gòu)食品購(gòu)買，使其不只是每周在零售棚的熒光燈下完成的雜事。

“Is it a store? Is it a restaurant?” asks Bruno Monteyne, a former executive at Tesco, the international grocery retailer, who now follows the retail industry for Wall Street brokerage Bernstein. “I’m not sure, but it’s food experience at its best.”

國(guó)際食品零售商樂(lè)購(gòu)(Tesco)前高管、如今在華爾街經(jīng)紀(jì)商伯恩斯坦(Bernstein)追蹤零售業(yè)的布魯諾•蒙泰尼(Bruno Monteyne)問(wèn)道：“它是商店嗎?它是餐廳嗎?我不確定，但它是一種極致的食品體驗(yàn)。”

Hema is a hybrid of ecommerce and physical shopping, calculated to appeal to a generation of Chinese consumers who live life through their smartphones. Visitors can pull live crabs out of a large tank before browsing the aisles for packaged goods. They scan items as they go and pay for them via the Alipay app that has become a popular alternative to cash in China.

盒馬鮮生是電子商務(wù)和實(shí)體購(gòu)物的混合體，目的是吸引日常生活離不開智能手機(jī)的一代中國(guó)消費(fèi)者。顧客們可以從一個(gè)大水缸取出活蟹，然后在過(guò)道中瀏覽包裝商品。他們掃描商品，并通過(guò)支付寶(Alipay) App支付——支付寶在中國(guó)已成為高人氣的現(xiàn)金替代品。

Many customers never set foot inside the store at all. They visit vicariously, using apps or the web platform to choose from the same wide range of branded products and fresh items, for delivery within a 3km radius. The store is fitted out with technology including a vertical conveyor, which helps staff serve the online orders without clogging up aisles or getting in the way of walk-in customers.

許多顧客從來(lái)不去店里。他們以間接方式訪問(wèn)，使用App或web平臺(tái)從同樣琳瑯滿目的品牌產(chǎn)品和新鮮食品中選擇，這些商品在3公里范圍內(nèi)可快速送貨上門。商店配備了包括垂直輸送機(jī)在內(nèi)的技術(shù)，可以幫助員工在不堵塞過(guò)道或者妨礙店內(nèi)客戶的情況下履行在線訂單。

Analysts say the future of food shopping can be glimpsed in prosperous Chinese cities, where a surge in mass-market retail has coincided with the mobile internet’s coming of age.

分析師們表示，從繁華的中國(guó)城市可以窺見食品購(gòu)物的未來(lái)——在那里，大眾市場(chǎng)零售的大發(fā)展正好趕上移動(dòng)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)趨于成熟。

The world’s most populous nation already spends about 8.5 per cent of its annual grocery budget online, according to analysts at Bernstein, who reckon the proportion could reach 20 per cent by 2022. That compares with just 6.2 per cent in the UK — the most advanced western market, where chains such as Tesco have offered online shopping for two decades.

伯恩斯坦分析師表示，在這個(gè)世界上人口最多的國(guó)家，在線完成的食品支出已經(jīng)占到年度食品總支出的大約8.5%，預(yù)計(jì)到2022年，該比例可能達(dá)到20%。相比之下，在最發(fā)達(dá)的西方市場(chǎng)英國(guó)(樂(lè)購(gòu)等連鎖店提供在線購(gòu)物已有20年)，這一比例只有6.2%。

Part of the reason that online innovation has been faster in China, says Mr Monteyne, is that the country has fewer “incumbent, lethargic retailers doing everything they can to protect their legacy assets and slowing down the transition”.

蒙泰尼表示，中國(guó)在線創(chuàng)新速度更快的部分原因在于，在這個(gè)國(guó)家，“死氣沉沉的老牌零售商較少，而正是這類企業(yè)會(huì)竭力保護(hù)自己的傳統(tǒng)資產(chǎn)，減緩轉(zhuǎn)型”。

Many western supermarket executives have been slow to embrace ecommerce. Some complain about the thin margins of a model that burdens their staff with the work of picking products off the shelves and delivering them. Others argue that online shoppers are more analytical and harder to seduce with eye-catching promotions.

許多西方超市的高管們遲遲不接受電子商務(wù)。一些人抱怨說(shuō)，這種模式利潤(rùn)率太低，要讓員工們從貨架上揀貨，然后還要送貨。其他人認(rèn)為，網(wǎng)上購(gòu)物者更具分析能力，更難使用吸引眼球的促銷方式來(lái)引誘他們購(gòu)買。

The US has been particularly resistant to change. Of the 2.1 per cent of American grocery spending that takes place online, a large chunk involves specialist items such as vitamin pills, bought via general-purpose platforms such as Amazon or eBay rather than through specialist grocery websites.

美國(guó)尤其不愿變革。美國(guó)人的在線食品雜貨支出比例只有2.1%，而且有很大一部分涉及維生素藥丸等特殊商品，而且往往是通過(guò)亞馬遜(Amazon)或eBay等通用平臺(tái)(而非專業(yè)的食品超市網(wǎng)站)購(gòu)買。

Still, if retail executives were once reluctant to meddle with a business model that yielded healthy profits, they are beginning to see caution as riskier than change.

話雖如此，如果說(shuō)零售業(yè)高管曾經(jīng)不愿攪亂一個(gè)產(chǎn)生健康利潤(rùn)的商業(yè)模式，那么他們正開始認(rèn)識(shí)到，謹(jǐn)慎比應(yīng)變的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)更大。

When Amazon bought Whole Foods, an upmarket grocery chain, in June, the ecommerce group’s market value increased by more than the $13.7bn it had offered to pay, in what was by far the company’s largest acquisition to date.

今年6月亞馬遜收購(gòu)高檔連鎖食品超市全食(Whole Foods)后，這家電商集團(tuán)的市值增加額超過(guò)了它開出的137億美元收購(gòu)報(bào)價(jià)。這是該公司迄今為止遙遙領(lǐng)先的最大收購(gòu)。

Meanwhile, shares in rivals such as Kroger, Target and Sprouts Farmers Market suffered sharp percentage declines. The financial fallout reached as far as Europe, where Tesco, J Sainsbury and Carrefour also suffered.

與此同時(shí)，克羅格(Kroger)、Target和Sprouts Farmers Market等競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手的股價(jià)大幅下跌。金融沖擊甚至波及歐洲，那里的樂(lè)購(gòu)、森寶利(J Sainsbury)和家樂(lè)福(Carrefour)股價(jià)也紛紛下跌。

While Amazon has long dabbled in grocery sales — launching Amazon Fresh in Seattle in 2007 and expanding to other large American cities over the past decade — the Whole Foods deal appeared to signal a change of pace, and prompted grocery chains to look for quick ways to adapt.

雖然亞馬遜早就試水食品銷售——2007年在西雅圖推出亞馬遜生鮮(Amazon Fresh)，并在過(guò)去10年里擴(kuò)張進(jìn)入美國(guó)其他大城市——但全食交易似乎預(yù)示著步伐出現(xiàn)變化，促使各食品連鎖超市設(shè)法快速適應(yīng)。

In the US, many retailers are turning to Instacart, the venture-capital backed start-up that puts supermarkets’ product ranges online and dispatches personal shoppers to deliver the goods to customers’ doors.

在美國(guó)，許多零售商轉(zhuǎn)向Instacart，這家風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本支持的初創(chuàng)公司將超市的產(chǎn)品系列放在網(wǎng)上，并由揀貨員將商品送到客戶家門口。

Others, such as Walmart, prefer to make their own way online. America’s largest retailer now allows customers to order groceries online and pick them up quickly in store. Ahold Delhaize, the owner of Food Lion and Stop & Shop, offers its Peapod home shopping app in 24 US cities, and lets customers order food by dictating commands via Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa.

沃爾瑪(Walmart)等其他零售商更喜歡自己發(fā)展在線銷售業(yè)務(wù)。美國(guó)最大零售商現(xiàn)在允許客戶在線訂購(gòu)食品雜貨，然后在店內(nèi)快速提貨。Food Lion和Stop & Shop的所有者Ahold Delhaize在美國(guó)24座城市提供Peapod居家購(gòu)物App，并讓客戶通過(guò)亞馬遜的語(yǔ)音助手Alexa發(fā)出購(gòu)買食品的指令。

Despite the shifts in behaviour that are likely to take shape as consumers move to food shopping online, few retail experts expect an assault from Amazon to sound the death knell of major supermarket groups, as it did for independent bookstores.

盡管隨著消費(fèi)者轉(zhuǎn)向網(wǎng)上購(gòu)買食品，購(gòu)物行為可能逐漸轉(zhuǎn)變，但很少有零售專家預(yù)計(jì)亞馬遜將會(huì)敲響大型超市集團(tuán)的喪鐘，就像當(dāng)年它壓垮獨(dú)立書店那樣。

Mr Monteyne says that established supermarkets have formidable advantages in buying fresh food at scale and shuttling it around the country cheaply and quickly enough to turn a profit, despite low margins and short shelf lives.

蒙泰尼表示，盡管利潤(rùn)率低和保質(zhì)期短，但老牌超市有著令人生畏的優(yōu)勢(shì)，它們善于大規(guī)模購(gòu)買新鮮食品，然后在全國(guó)范圍低成本而快速地配送這些食品，確保盈利。

Tesco’s chief executive Dave Lewis agrees. Amazon, he says, has recognised “that food through a central distribution model doesn’t seem to be working, having tried it for more than a decade in [their] hometown, Seattle”.

樂(lè)購(gòu)首席執(zhí)行官戴夫•劉易斯(Dave Lewis)對(duì)此表示同意。他說(shuō)，亞馬遜認(rèn)識(shí)到“食品似乎不適合中央配送模式，它們?cè)诶霞椅餮艌D已經(jīng)嘗試了10多年”。

The way he sees it, the newcomers in internet groceries are the ones playing catch-up. “They are trying to buy things that we, as Tesco, already have,” he says.

在他看來(lái)，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)食品零售業(yè)的新入行者正在追趕。他表示：“他們正試圖購(gòu)買我們樂(lè)購(gòu)已經(jīng)擁有的東西。”