要反击亚马逊，沃尔玛必须这样做

世界最大零售商沃尔玛最近公布，美国可比销售额连续第八个季度实现增长，轻松击败了塔吉特、梅西百货等对手。此外，沃尔玛的电子商务业务甚至也再次实现了加速增长——此前已九连跌的电商业务增速上个季度提高到了12%。

不过，尽管取得了这样的进步，但沃尔玛依然远远落后于主要对手亚马逊。140亿美元的年度线上销售额足以让沃尔玛居于行业次席，但这个数字只是最大竞争对手亚马逊的六分之一左右。

上周，沃尔玛首席执行官董明伦对华尔街分析师表示，得益于沃尔玛采取的多项措施，比如增加walmart.com上的商品种类以及在数百家沃尔玛店铺增设食杂提货点，该公司电商业务增速有望回升到20%-30%之间。几周前，沃尔玛还收购了小而灵的竞争对手jet.com。

上周四，董明伦在位于阿肯色州本顿维尔市的沃尔玛总部告诉分析师：“我们公司将逐渐变得像一家电商。”

为了让沃尔玛实现这个目标，华尔街知名机构Cowen & Co制定出了一套方案。鉴于亚马逊的Prime业务已经拥有4900万家庭用户，而且正以每年30%的速度增长，情况对沃尔玛来说变得更加紧急。不过，42%的Prime用户也在walmart.com上购物，也就是说，沃尔玛仍是亚马逊用户的首要选择之一。

1. 继续加速为顾客提供便利：今年夏天，沃尔玛在所有美国店铺启用了移动支付app，并改善了自助结账业务

Cowen & Co分析师奥利弗·陈在本周一发表的研究报告中写道：“基本原则是除了让顾客省钱，还要省时间。”他所说的是沃尔玛兄弟公司山姆会员商店推出的“Scan & Go”服务。有了这款app，会员就可以用手机扫描他们购买的商品，然后结账离开，不需要和收银员打交道。陈认为沃尔玛需要采取更多类似措施。

2. 让亚马逊做不到的业务发挥更大的优势，以便吸引线下客流，比如药品（美国排名第四）、医疗保健和汽车服务。

3. 利用自己的店铺。约九成美国人从家开车到沃尔玛的时间都不超过15分钟，这就形成了一个由数千家店铺构成的网络，可供在线下单客户提货，或者可以协助递送在线订购的商品。分布在100个市场的约600家沃尔玛店铺已经推出了在线订单送货上车服务，到年底这个数字将增至1000家。

4. 食杂、食杂、食杂：食品约占沃尔玛美国销售额的55%，其食杂业务规模远远超过其他食杂零售商。Cowen & Co估算，22%的亚马逊Prime用户在网上购买食品。但沃尔玛可以大力反击，原因是Cowen & Co认为“沃尔玛的食品供应链和食品合规工作很优秀”，而且是老牌食杂零售企业。

5. 整合jet.com。借助这家网络零售商及其特有技术，沃尔玛就可以接触到较年轻而且较富裕的城镇顾客。这一点，再加上上述因素，将使沃尔玛得以更快地改善在线商品定价，扩展商品种类并为顾客提供更多便利。

陈写道：“否则，我们认为沃尔玛的市场份额将继续流入亚马逊手中。”（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：詹妮

The discount retailer, which recently reported its eighth straight quarter of comparable sales growth in United States, handily beating rivals like Target and Macy’s . And Walmart even managed to show a re-acceleration in its e-commerce growth, the pace of which had slipped for nine straight quarters until last quarter, when they jumped 12%.

Yet despite that progress, Walmart remains very far behind arch-rival Amazon.com, with annual online sales of $14 billion, good enough to be #2 but only about one-sixth of its largest competitor’s.

Last week, Wal-Mart Stores CEO Doug McMillon told Wall Street analysts that e-commerce growth could rise back up to the 20% to 30% range thanks its many initiatives, which range from expanding the assortment available on walmart.com to having grocery pick up at hundreds more stores. And a few weeks ago, Walmart bought a small, nimble rival in jet.com.

“This company over time will look like an e-commerce company,” he said to analysts gathered last Thursday at Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.

One prominent Wall Street firm, Cowen & Co laid out a plan for Walmart to reach that objective. That’s all the more pressing given that Amazon’s Prime service has 49 million household members and is growing 30% a year. Still, 42% of Prime customers also shop at Walmart.com, meaning Walmart is still very much top of mind for Amazon’s shoppers too.

1. Continue to accelerate customer convenience: the retailer rolled out its mobile payment app this summer across its U.S. store fleet and improved its self-checkout

“The underlying principle is having ‘time’ for customers in addition to money,” Cowen analyst Oliver Chen wrote in an a research paper published Monday. He pointed to sister retailer Sam’s Club’s “Scan & Go,” an app lets members scan items they buy on their phone and checkout without dealing with a cashier as an example of what Walmart needs more of.

2. Take fuller advantage of Walmart’s “un-Amazonable” services, like its pharmacy (the 4th largest in the U.S.), health clinics, auto service, etc. that draw people into stores.

3. Use the stores. Some 90% of Americans live within a 15-minute drive of a Walmart store, giving it a network of thousands of stores at which customers can pick up online orders, or which can facilitate the shipping of e-commerce orders. There are about 600 Walmart stores in 100 markets that offer curbside pickup for online orders, and that will rise to 1,000 by year-end.

4. Grocery, grocery, grocery: Walmart gets about 55% of its U.S. sales from food, making it by far the largest grocer. Cowen estimates that 22% of Prime members buy food online. But Walmart can fight back aggressively, because of what Cowen calls its “excellence in food supply chain and food compliance” and its well established position in grocery.

5. Integrate Jet.com: The online retailer and its specialized technology will allow Walmart to reach younger, urban and more affluent customers. That and the other items above will allow Walmart to speed up its online pricing improvements, expand its assortment and improve the customer convenience.

“Otherwise, we believe the company (Walmart) will continue to lose market share to Amazon,” Chen wrote.