食品电商仍在苦苦探索成功秘方

    这家公司目前正在运行其第九版运营系统，而最新的模式似乎运行良好。Good Eggs正在扩张。该公司已在布鲁克林和新奥尔良运营，下一步将扩张到洛杉矶。

    配送也是FreshDirect盈利能力的关键。与普通的食品杂货店（它们依靠多家中间商，从而可能导致食品腐坏和浪费问题 ）不同，FreshDirect使用一个温控的配送中心，以此减少食品浪费量。据利曼称，这种模式使该公司能够“在采购优质生鲜食品时向农场主支付一个公平的价格，而在销售时则向消费者收取一个合理的价格，同时还能确保赚到比其他食品杂货销售模式更高的利润。”

    因此，就在线购买非易腐特色食品而言，以前在Gilt Taste购物的消费者如果不住在FreshDirect、Good Eggs或类似公司的服务覆盖区域，他们就无福消受了吗？不完全如此。2012年8月推出、并在全美提供配送的社交食品购物网站Delicious Karma可能随时准备填补这一空白。和Gilt Taste一样，这家网站提供难以找到的精选食品，但它用日常必需品与这些精选食品达成均衡，并以较低的营运成本进行运营。

    同时，Delicious Karma联合创始人米歇尔•里奇正在设法利用食品本身的社交特性，她的做法是在食品购物服务中增加社交媒体元素，比如该网站类似Pinterest的渴望告示板（Craves board）。她说：“食物是人们用以分享的东西。我们款待客人，走访朋友，进行社交活动时，食品总是其中一个重要组成部分。”然而，这个网站目前的6,000名成员对这个理念的认同程度是否能足以保证该公司避免遭遇Gilt Taste的停业厄运？这个问题目前还不明朗。（财富中文网）

    翻译: iDo98

    The company is currently on its ninth iteration, and the latest model seems to be working. Good Eggs is expanding. It's got operations in Brooklyn and New Orleans, with Los Angeles next in line.

    Distribution is key to FreshDirect's profitability as well. Unlike regular grocers, whose reliance on multiple middlemen can lead to spoilage and waste, FreshDirect uses one, temperature-controlled distribution center to cut the amount of wasted food. According to Leeman, this model allows the company "to pay a fair price to farmers and charge consumers a fair price for superior quality fresh food and be more profitable than other grocery models."

    So are former Gilt Taste shoppers out of luck when it comes to buying specialty, non-perishable food items online, if they don't live in an area with FreshDirect, Good Eggs, or a similar business? Not quite. Delicious Karma, which launched in August 2012 and offers nationwide delivery, may be poised to fill that gap. Like Gilt Taste did, it offers curated, hard-to-find food, but it's balancing such items with day-to-day necessities and operating with lower overhead costs.

    And by adding a social media component to food shopping, for example with its Pinterest-like Craves board, Delicious Karma co-founder Michelle Ritchie is trying to capitalize on the social nature of food itself. "Food is something that people share," she says. "When we entertain, see our friends, and socialize, food is always such a big part of that." Whether the site's current 6,000 members will share it enough to escape Gilt Taste's fate, though, is unclear.