零售巨头家得宝逐鹿互联网

    我和家得宝公司（Home Depot）的首席执行官弗兰克•布莱克外出闲逛了一番，说是散步，其实更像是远足，因为我们要穿越公司新建的一栋光彩夺目的直供中心，该中心位于乔治亚州麦克多诺，面积达110万平方英尺（约合10.2万平方米）。这座名为洛卡斯特•格罗夫中心（Locust Grove center）的建筑实质上是一个巨大无比的货仓，但同时也是一座向一群特殊客户表达敬意的教堂式建筑，这是一个被这家年营收高达790亿美元的公司长期忽略的客户群体，即那些喜欢在家中采购原材料，而不是长途跋涉至家得宝某家门店（该公司共有2,200家门店）去选购商品的DIY（自己动手）一族。

    闲逛途中，我们穿过一排排巨大的箱子，这些箱子堆得足有50英尺（约合15米）高，里面装满了重达340磅（约合154公斤）的洗面台。随后，我们看到小至门牌号码大到坐便器等各式各样的商品沿着巨大的传送带向前推送，这些商品被直接传送至身着橘色工作服，正严阵以待的员工操控的卡车上。这些卡车基本上都不会开往家得宝门店，而是径直驶往你我的家中。布莱克说:“我们希望以客户期望的方式向他们提供贴心服务。”

    人们越来越喜欢在线购物，这早已不算是什么新闻了。施蒂费尔金融（Stifel Financial）预计，2014年零售商整体销售增长中的一半份额将来自于网络购物。虽然在布莱克担任首席执行官的七年半时间里，出众的业绩表现使得家得宝公司幸运地躲开了一条新规则，即无数拥有过多店面的实体零售商希望售出过多商品，但在网络购物发展的大潮中，他们一直被远远地抛在了后面。“这是大实话，”现年六十四岁的布莱克苦笑着承认。

    不过，就在不太长时间以前，就连家得宝能否实质性地进军电子商务也是一个问题。

    2007年的1月3日，当布莱克接替鲍勃•纳尔德里（Bob Nardelli），出任家得宝首席执行官的时候，这家公司正陷于危局，销售额停滞不前，客户服务糟糕透顶，供应链破败不堪。公司的2,000多家门店几乎处于彼此封闭的状态，更不用说迎合网购顾客们的需求了。“要是放在七年之前，我们真的不可能盖起这座中心，”他说。

    面对危机，布莱克决定停止开设门店——这在零售商们看来简直就属于离经叛道的行为——转而将精力放在改善现有门店的购物体验上。结果，他获得了成功。从布莱克担任首席执行官之时到2014年的6月底，公司股票的收益率为145%（包含股息再投资），而相比之下，标准普尔 500指数 (S&P 500.)的同期收益率仅为60%。按年率计算（仅考虑股价变化），家得宝公司也以9.7%的收益水平远超标准普尔 500指数的4.3%。去年，家得宝公司同一门店的销售增长创下了自上世纪九十年代末以来的最佳水平。“不再发展新门店让我们如释重负，节省了大量资本开支，”布莱克表示。

    在家得宝能够将注意力放在互联网上之前，公司的整体供应链必须得进行全面调整，负责供应链和产品开发的执行副总裁马克•霍利菲尔德（Mark Holifield）在过去几年中一直在领导这方面的工作。分析师表示，眼下家得宝正在迎头追赶通行标准，如果你认真考虑该公司的网络销售潜力，以及截至目前的发展轨迹，你就会发现，一些曾经的拖累因素正在演变为一种资本。2013年，网络销售仅占公司总销售额的3%。虽然这听起来微不足道，但相比前一年已经是翻了一番。

    随着乔治亚州直供中心的落成（家得宝今年还将在加州和俄亥俄州各建一座直供中心），家得宝公司不仅可以运送多达70万个不同的库存单元（即各式各样的产品类型），还能够在接受订单的当天发送10万件单品。相比之下，一般的门店只拥有3.5万个库存单元。这样的转变相当惊人，这使得家得宝在面对亚马逊 (Amazon)这样的竞争对手时更有底气。如果客户更喜欢在线下自己挑选商品，直供中心也可以向门店直接供货。

    Frank Blake, the CEO of the Home Depot HD -0.04% , and I are out for a stroll—really, it’s more of a hike—across the company’s sparkling new, 1.1 million sq. ft. direct fulfillment center in McDonough, Ga. The Locust Grove center, as it’s known, is a humongous warehouse, yes, but it’s also a cathedral built in homage to a customer that the $79 billion-in-revenues company ignored for a very long time; the do-it-yourselfer who orders his or her stuff from home rather than trudging to one of Home Depot’s 2,200 stores.

    We pass row and rows of enormous boxes stacked 50 feet high, full of 340-lb. vanities. Then we watch items as small as house numbers and as large as toilets travel down massive conveyor belts, where they are trafficked directly into bays holding trucks by orange-apron wearing employees. Almost none of those trucks are bound for a Home Depot store. Instead, they’ll be heading directly to your house or mine. “The idea,” says Blake, “is that we want to be able to serve our customers how they want to be served.”

    The fact that customers increasingly like to buy online is not exactly news. Stifel Financial estimates that in 2014, fully half of retailers’ overall sales growth will come from online orders. And while Home Depot’s stellar performance under Blake’s seven-and-a-half-year tenure has made the company the happy exception to the new rule—that there are too many physical retailers taking up too much space in hopes of selling too much stuff—it has been for far too long behind the online curve. “That’s fair to say,” admits Blake, 64, with a wry smile.

    Whether Home Depot could even have pulled off a substantive e-commerce push much before now is another matter.

    When Blake succeeded Bob Nardelli as CEO on Jan. 3, 2007, the company was in crisis, with stagnant sales, poor customer service and an antiquated supply chain. Home Depot’s 2,000-plus stores could barely communicate with each other, let alone cater to online buyers. “Seven years ago we really could not have done this facility,” he says.

    Blake decided to stop opening stores—anathema for any retailer—and focus on simply making the store experience better. He did. The stock has returned 145% (with dividends reinvested) from when Blake assumed the CEO mantle to the end of June 2014, compared with a total return of 60% for the S&P 500. On an annualized basis (share-price change only) Home Depot stock clocks the S&P, 9.7% to 4.3%. And last year, Home Depot’s same store sales growth was the best it has been since the late 1990s. “Not having to build the stores has freed us up to make significant capital expenditures,” he says.

    Before Home Depot could focus on the Internet, the company’s entire supply chain needed to be overhauled, a process led over the past several years by Mark Holifield, EVP of supply chain and product development. But now the company is catching up to the prevailing standard, analysts say, and what was once a huge liability is beginning to become an asset if you consider its online potential—and the trajectory so far. In 2013, the company received just 3% of its sales from online purchases. Meager, yes—but that was double the share from the previous year.

    With the opening of the direct fulfillment center in Georgia (two more DFCs will open this year—one in California, another in Ohio), the company is able to ship up to 700,000 different SKUs (types and variations of products) online—and ship 100,000 of these items the same day an order is received. An average store, by comparison, has about 35,000 SKUs on hand. That’s a huge shift, and one that makes Home Depot much more competitive with the likes of Amazon AMZN 1.90% . The DFCs will also be used to ship items directly to stores, if customers prefer to pick up products themselves.