2021年经济学人 电子商务巨头亚马逊向实体零售业发展（1）（在线收听）

Business

商业

Amazon gets physical

亚马逊实体化

Jeff & Andy’s

杰夫和安迪的

The e-commerce giant wants to build department stores.

这家电商巨头想要建造百货商店。

“The world wants you to be typical… Don’t let it happen,” Jeff Bezos warned in April in his last annual shareholder letter as CEO of Amazon.

今年4月，杰夫·贝佐斯在担任亚马逊首席执行官期间的最后一封年度股东信中警告称：“这个世界希望你是典型性的……不要让这种事发生。”

Hence bewilderment that his e-empire is to adopt a retail format that is very typical indeed: the department store.

因此，令人困惑的是，他的电子帝国将采用一种非常典型的零售模式：百货商店。

Having helped drive many chains out of business, it is now eyeing the format to boost its own retail fortunes.

在致使许多连锁店倒闭之后，它现在正着眼于用这种模式来增加自己的零售财富。

As a company, Amazon is entering a more mature phase.

作为一家公司，亚马逊正进入一个更加成熟的阶段。

Now with a new chief executive, Andy Jassy, it is being forced to recognise that pure e-commerce has limits.

如今，在新任首席执行官安迪·雅西的带领下，亚马逊被迫承认，纯粹的电子商务有其局限性。

It is also facing fresh competition from conventional retailers like Walmart and Target that are belatedly showing that they, too, can do the internet well.

它还面临着来自沃尔玛和塔吉特等传统零售商的新竞争，这些零售商姗姗来迟地表明，他们也可以把互联网做得很好。

Amazon’s high-street presence is small.

亚马逊在商业街上的存在规模很小。

Since 2015 it has opened 24 bookshops in America.

自2015年以来，它已经在美国开了24家书店。

Its 30 “4-star” shops, which stock items customers rate highly, function like a walk-in website.

它的30家“四星级”商店，售卖客户评价很高的商品，运行模式像一个步入式网站。

Whole Foods, an upmarket grocer it bought in 2017, contributes the bulk of its physical-store revenues, which accounted for just 4% of Amazon’s total sales in the most recent quarter.

亚马逊在2017年收购的高端食品商全食超市贡献了其实体店收入的大部分，而全食超市在最近一个季度的销售额仅占亚马逊总销售额的4%。

Its new Amazon Fresh grocery chain and Amazon Go cashierless stores barely chip in.

新成立的亚马逊生鲜连锁超市和亚马逊Go无收银员商店几乎都没有贡献。

So the new 30,000-square-foot (2,800-square-metre) retail spaces it is reportedly envisaging mark a departure.

因此，该公司据说正在设想的3万平方英尺(2800平方米)零售空间标志着一种颠覆。

Amazon has neither confirmed nor denied its plans.

亚马逊既没有证实也没有否认其计划。

But leaked details on the stores’ size and locations suggest substance behind the reports.

但泄露出的有关门店规模和位置的细节表明，这些传闻背后确有其事。

The first are to open in California and Ohio.

第一批将开在加州和俄亥俄州。

If they go well, Amazon is expected to roll out more.

如果进展顺利，亚马逊预计将开设更多门店。

Why invest in the high street just as covid-19 has lifted e-commerce?

为什么要在新冠疫情推动电子商务发展的同时投资商业街呢？

The growth rate of sales on Amazon’s platforms, including third parties, had slowed before the crisis, from nearly 30% a year to below 20%.

亚马逊平台(包括第三方平台)的销售额增速在疫情危机前就已经放缓，从每年近30%降至20%以下。

The trend reasserts itself as people return to shops.

随着人们重返商店，这一趋势再次显现。

In the past quarter Amazon’s own online sales grew by only 16%, short of investors’ (muted) expectations.

上个季度，亚马逊自己的在线销售额仅增长了16%，低于投资者(本就不高的)预期。