亚马逊零售巨无霸一往无前
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亚马逊（Amazon）网站打算提供即日送达服务，借此压垮本地商户。买家无需前往附近的商场，只要在网上下单，短短几小时后，就会有人将他们订购的芭比娃娃、设计师礼服和笔记本电脑送上门。 最近几周的一些文章指出，零售业可能最终被亚马逊垄断。它们称，亚马逊只需建造更多仓库，就能一统零售业江湖。 这种猜测在很大程度上忽略了重要的一点：亚马逊已经在包括纽约、凤凰城和华盛顿特区在内的10个城市提供即日送达服务。这个计划已经实行一段时间，尽管其是否成功还很难说。 亚马逊首席财务官汤姆·斯库塔克在上周的营收电话会议上就“即日送达”业务向分析师们表示，“更广泛地”推广即日送达服务在经济上并不划算。斯库塔克的解释并不十分清晰。 斯库塔克的意思指的是不是说，在边远的俄亥俄地区推行即日送达将耗资巨大？如果是这样，那么基本上说得通。不过，斯库塔克的话还可以理解成更有针对性的在更多人口稠密区推广即日送达。那么，更高的人口密度和更短的递送距离将让即日送达变得有利可图。 三年前，亚马逊在七个城市推出了即日送达服务——本地快递（Local Express Delivery）。不久后，其业务范围扩大到更多大城市。2009年，在即日送达服务发布会上，亚马逊物流部副总裁格里希·拉克什曼曾表示：“我们希望在线购物尽可能的便利。现在，如果客户最后一分钟才想起准备生日礼物，或是想在周末开始前购买一本读书俱乐部的书，他们可以从亚马逊上购买，不用在最后时刻心急火燎地杀向商店。” 如果要享受即日送达服务，用户必须在截止时间前订购符合要求的商品。截止时间在上午7点到12点之间，根据城市不同而变化。当地快递人员将负责递送，每件商品收取快递费9美元。亚马逊Prime会员享受4美元的折扣价。亚马逊还在西雅图测试了一项独立的食品即日送达服务，数额较小的订单每单收费8美元，数额较大则可免费送货。 到目前为止，亚马逊的即日送达服务并没有摧毁实体零售店。的确，亚马逊没有对即日送达展开猛烈地宣传攻势，以至于很少有人知道这项服务。 不过，即日送达服务最近突然引起了大家的注意，很大程度上是因为亚马逊正在大肆兴建配送中心。新的配送中心将让该公司在更多城市拥有立足点，而这至少将让即日送达服务有机会接触到数以百万计的新用户。 例如，在加利福尼亚，亚马逊已承诺在洛杉矶和旧金山附近投资5亿美元修建新的配送中心。在德克萨斯，亚马逊已许诺投资2亿美元进行物流设施升级。 要为大肆兴建配送中心扫清道路，亚马逊不得不在上缴销售税方面做出让步。多年来，亚马逊在很大程度上避开了收税员，因为该公司在大多数州都没有办事处或仓库。这个深思熟虑的战略使得亚马逊相比实体商户具有8％左右的价格优势。但它也限制了该公司可以建立大型配送中心的地点。 总之，亚马逊无疑是看到了苗头不对。许多州都颁布了法律，迫使亚马逊上缴营业税。同时对抗所有这些州令亚马逊不堪重负，而要让他们回心转意更是希望渺茫。通过与几个州达成协议，亚马逊至少能将征收营业税推迟几个月到几年的时间。 咨询公司BCG Partners公司分析师科林·吉利斯也认为，亚马逊的最佳策略是有针对性地提供即日送达服务，而不是在全美进行推广。吉利斯称，这可能是亚马逊开征营业税后仍然能够确保顾客满意的一种方法。“重新获得优势的方法之一是提供即日送达服务，”吉利斯称。“人们总是希望更快地收到商品。至于说光靠即日送达是不是就够了，且让我们拭目以待。” 译者：项航 |
Amazon.com intends to crush local businesses by offering same-day delivery. Instead of visiting the neighborhood mall, shoppers could have Barbie dolls, designer dresses and laptop computers delivered to their door just a few hours after placing an order online. Several articles in recent weeks raised the possibility of this ultimate Amazonifiation of retail. Construction of more warehouses is all that stands between the company and total domination, they suggested. Such conjecture largely ignored an important point: Amazon (AMZN) already offers same-day delivery in 10 cities including New York, Phoenix and Washington, DC. The plan is already well underway, although its success is far from certain. Asked about same-day delivery during an earnings call with analysts last week, Tom Szkutak, Amazon's chief financial officer, said that it isn't economical enough to offer on a "broad scale." What that means isn't exactly clear. Did he mean that it's too costly to make same-day delivery available in rural Wyoming? Almost certainly. But Szkutak's comments leave the door open to a more targeted version of the service for most metropolitan areas. Greater population density and shorter driving distances would make turning a profit easier. Amazon started its same-day delivery service, Local Express Delivery, three years ago in seven cities. Soon after, it added a few more metropolitan areas. "We want to make online shopping as convenient as possible," Girish Lakshman, vice president of transportation for Amazon, said in a press release when same-day delivery premiered in 2009. "Now, if a customer needs a last-minute present for a birthday or wants a copy of their book club book before the weekend starts, they can order from Amazon instead of the hassle of a last-minute trip to the mall." To get same day delivery, customers must place their orders for eligible items before the cut-off time. Deadlines vary between 7AM and noon, depending on the city. Local courier services handle the deliveries, which cost an extra $9 per item. Amazon Prime members pay a reduced rate of $4. The company is also testing a separate same-day grocery service in Seattle. Those deliveries can cost $8 for smaller orders and free for larger ones. So far, Amazon's same-day delivery hasn't exactly killed brick-and-mortar retailers. Granted, the services are not aggressively marketed and relatively few users know they exist. But the subject has nevertheless received ample attention recently, mostly because Amazon is on a warehouse building spree. The new distribution facilities will give the company a presence near a number of new cities, making it at least feasible to offer same-day delivery to millions of more customers. In California, for example, Amazon has promised to spend $500 million on new distribution facilities near Los Angeles and San Francisco. In Texas, the company has committed to spending $200 million on capital improvements. To clear the way for the building boom, Amazon has to capitulate on collecting sales taxes. For years, the company largely avoided the role of tax collector because it had no offices or warehouses in most states. It was a deliberate strategy that gave Amazon a price advantage of 8 percent or so over its bricks and mortar rivals. But it also limited where the company could set up its vast distribution centers. In any case, Amazon undoubtedly saw the writing on the wall. A number of states had enacted laws that compelled it to collect sales tax. Fighting them all was getting burdensome and the likelihood of winning them all was remote. By reaching agreements with several states, the company was at least able to postpone collecting the taxes for a few months to a few years. Colin Gillis, an analyst with BCG Partners, agreed that Amazon's best strategy is to keep its same day delivery service targeted rather than national. It may be one way, he said, for the company to keep customers happy after it starts charging them sales tax. "One way to get that advantage back is to do same-day delivery," Gillis said. "People always want goods faster rather than slower. We'll see if that's enough incentive." |
