这家公司有望成为阿里巴巴进军美国的桥头堡：ShopRunner

    ShopRunner将重点放在签约的名牌零售商上，比如美鹰傲飞（American Eagle Outfitters）、Diesel和内曼•马库斯（Neiman Marcus）。在亚马逊统治的这个全球市场，ShopRunner把赌注压在了顾客与品牌的关联性上。

    这个战略发展得很顺利，甚至吸引另一个重要品牌美国运通（American Express）参与其中。这家金融服务公司与ShopRunner达成协议，对所有运通卡持有人（不含公司卡用户）提供免费的两日内快递。与ShopRunner签约的美国证券交易所（Amex）数字合作部执行副总裁莱斯利•伯兰表示：“要提高在线购物的吸引力，免费快递和普通的运送服务都至关重要。”莱斯利和汤普森都没有透露这次合作究竟是哪方出钱。但美国证券交易所正在为它的客户提供一项免费福利，这项福利能够使ShopRunner从该公司促成的交易中获得一笔佣金。顺带提一句，美国证券交易所也投资了ShopRunner。

    ShopRunner是私人公司，并未公开收入。Janney Capital Markets公司电子商务行业分析师肖恩•米尔恩猜测，该公司的销售额可能接近2亿美元，并有多达200万付费用户。他表示：“他们正在展现价值的原因之一在于，他们正在将一些有价值的新客户带到网上。”米尔恩预计，ShopRunner可以发展到1,000万用户的规模，不算是一个大众市场，但利润可观。对于一家寻求与亚马逊一较高低的电商巨头来说，它也是很有价值的。

    这就是阿里巴巴的切入点。到目前为止，这家中国巨头几乎没有在美国运营任何业务，但它是ShopRunner的最大股东。最近，ShopRunner与阿里巴巴旗下的支付宝（Alipay）签订了协议，将美国商业客户与中国顾客联系了起来。还值得一提的是，阿里巴巴不是零售商，而是在线商城运营商。但这一点是可以改变的。汤普森表示：“阿里巴巴没有类似亚马逊金牌计划或ShopRunner的服务，它不卖自己的东西。”至少，现在不卖。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    Focusing on signing up name-brand retailers—a few include American Eagle Outfitters, Diesel, and Neiman Marcus—is ShopRunner’s bet on relevancy in a world dominated by Amazon.

    The strategy worked to the extent that it attracted another important brand, American Express. The financial services company cut a deal with ShopRunner to offer the two-day free delivery service to all of its cardholders, minus corporate card users. “Free shipping and shipping in general is critical to driving engagement online,” says Leslie Berland, executive vice-president for digital partnerships at Amex, who inked the deal with ShopRunner. Neither she nor Thompson says who pays whom in the Amex-ShopRunner relationship. But Amex is providing a free benefit to its customers that then enables ShopRunner to collect a commission on sales it facilitates for its customers. Amex, by the way, also invested in ShopRunner.

    ShopRunner is privately held and doesn’t disclose revenues. Janney Capital Markets analyst Shawn Milne, who follows e-commerce companies, guesses the company’s sales could be approaching $200 million on as many as 2 million subscribers. “One of the reasons they are showing value is that they are delivering new valuable customers to the network,” he says. Milne predicts ShopRunner could grow to as many as 10 million customers, not a mass-market business but a profitable one. It also could be valuable to an e-commerce giant looking to compete with Amazon.

    That’s where Alibaba comes in. So far the Chinese giant barely operates in the U.S. But it is the largest shareholder in ShopRunner, which recently signed a deal with Alibaba affiliate Alipay to connect its U.S. merchant customers with Chinese consumers. It’s also worth noting that Alibaba isn’t a retailer. It runs online marketplaces. That could change. “Alibaba doesn’t have a Prime-ShopRunner analogue,” Thompson notes. “It doesn’t sell anything on its own.” Not yet anyway.