亚马逊代发货物业务悄然发力

作为代发货物业务的一部分，电子商务巨头亚马逊2015年给商户提供的储仓、打包和运送服务涉及10亿件商品。

根据亚马逊公布的这一细节，这项并不知名的业务，其规模其实相当庞大。通过帮助第三方商户在亚马逊在线商城销售商品，公司赢得了额外的收入，还让消费者在购买亚马逊自营商品之外获得更多选择。

在过去两年中，随着更多商户加入，代发货项目也在迅猛增长。亚马逊称，使用这项服务的商家在2015年增长了50%，在前一年则增长了65%，但他们并未透露使用这项服务的商家的具体数目。

值得注意的是，亚马逊还表示，得益于这项服务，第三方商家的国际销量也有了突飞猛进的增长。他们的跨国贸易涵盖来自100多个国家的卖家和185个国家的买家，年均增长率超过100%。

这个项目简称为FBA，是Fulfillment by Amazon的缩写。它对商家的诱惑在于，只要加入了这个项目，就能把产品卖给大约5000万的亚马逊Prime用户。如果没加入项目，商家就没法接触到这些重度消费者。

Prime用户每年交纳99美元费用，就能让一切商品——从厕纸到尿布到图书——在两天之内送上门。此外，通过亚马逊的Prime Now服务，送货速度还可以缩短到几小时。

当然，亚马逊也在网上经营和储存自己的商品。不过该公司表示，第三方商家的销售量已经占据亚马逊总销售量的45%，自1月以来增加了5%。

值得一提的是，这项于2006年推出的代发货业务给亚马逊带来了高昂的成本负担。在去年第三季度，亚马逊的代发货业务成本提高了22%，达到32亿美元。根据货物的大小和重量，商家需要以每单1.5美元至100美元不等的价格向亚马逊购买这项服务，再加上一些标准费用。

随着越来越多的商家聚集到亚马逊市场来获取用户，想要区分他们的产品可能会出现困难。亚马逊正在努力给第三方卖家更多数据，帮助他们提升销量。2012年起，商家可以在亚马逊网站的搜索页和其他地方给产品打广告。从去年开始，该公司还允许商家在搜索结果的第一行或第一页，以及移动购物客户端打广告。

亚马逊表示，在2015年使用亚马逊广告服务的商家也翻了一倍有余。这些广告带来了价值15亿美元的直接销售额。

在亚马逊发布代发货业务数据的前一天，一名分析师因为这家电子商务巨头增长缓慢而调低了对它的评级。Monness Crespi Hardt经纪公司分析师詹姆斯•卡克马克认为，人们担心亚马逊发展云计算、为Prime视频订阅服务制作原创节目将导致成本上升，因此，该公司把亚马逊的评级从“购买”调低为“中立”。亚马逊的股价应声下跌了6%。

亚马逊必须向投资者证明，他们有许多领域具备高增长的潜力，足以弥补在云计算和优质内容上的投入。

很快，亚马逊就会公布确切的财务数字。在本月晚些时候，该公司将发布包含假日季的第四季度财报。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

审校：任文科

E-commerce giant Amazon handled the warehousing, packing, and shipping of 1 billion items last year for merchants that are part of its fulfillment program.

That detail, one of a number that Amazon revealed on Tuesday, shows the huge size of one of its lesser known services. Helping third party businesses sell in its online store generates extra fees and adds to the number of products available to shoppers beyond just what Amazon sells directly.

Over the past two years, the fulfillment program has seen a big growth spurt as more merchants join. The number of sellers using the service grew more than 50% in 2015 after a 65% rise a year earlier, according to Amazon, which did not disclose the number of merchants involved.

In particular, Amazon said that international sales for third-party merchants in the fulfillment program has been gaining steam. Their cross border trade, which involved sellers in more than 100 countries sending orders to 185 countries, has more than doubled year-over-year.

The allure for merchants to sign up for the program, known as FBA, short for Fulfillment by Amazon, is to be able to sell to Amazon’s estimated 50 million Prime members. If not in the program, the merchants get no access to this group of heavy Amazon shoppers.

Prime members pay $99 annually to get anything from toilet paper to diapers to books delivered to them in two days or less. Increasingly, they are being delivered in a matter of hours through Amazon’s Prime Now service.

Amazon, of course, sells and stocks its own goods to sell online. But outside sellers now account for over 45% of total number of items sold on Amazon, a 5% increase since January, said the company.

It’s worth noting that the fulfillment business, which debuted in 2006, is costly for Amazon. In the third quarter, Amazon’s fulfillment expenses increased 22% to $3.2 billion. Sellers pay Amazon anywhere from $1.50 to $100 per order, depending on size and weight, for the service — plus a standard fee.

As more sellers flock to Amazon’s marketplace to reach its users, it can be difficult to distinguish their products. Amazon has been working on giving merchants in its marketplace more data to help lift their sales. Amazon added the ability for sellers to advertise their listings in 2012 in search and other places on Amazon’s website. But last year, it started letting merchants advertise in the first row or the first page of search results and within its mobile shopping app.

In 2015, the number of sellers using Amazon’s advertising service more than doubled, the company said. Those ads brought in $1.5 billion in direct sales.

Amazon’s release of details about its fulfillment business comes a day after an analyst dropped his rating for the e-commerce giant over concerns about slower growth. Amazon’s shares fell nearly 6% on Monday after James Cakmak, with brokerage firm Monness Crespi Hardt, dropped Amazon’s rating from “buy” to “neutral,” citing concerns about the rising costs for its cloud computing business and for developing original shows to stream on its Prime subscription video service.

Amazon must prove to investors that it has multiple areas of high potential growth that will offset investments in cloud computing and premium content.

Soon, Amazon will put actual dollar numbers behind the performance of its business. Later this month, it will report fourth quarter earnings that include the all-important holiday season.