E-commerce Takes Off

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E-commerce is transforming business and daily life,mostly for the better.電子商務(wù)正在改變傳統(tǒng)的商業(yè)模式和人們的日常生活，總體而言前景樂觀。

In warehouses around the globe, they wait: toys, phones, dresses, televisions, blankets, trainers, laptops and much more.In China, online retailers are gearing up1gear up為……做準(zhǔn)備。for“Singles Day”, November 11th, the world’s busiest shopping day.Much of the rest of the world is preparing for the Christmas rush2rush搶購，搶訂。.Present-hunters used to wear themselves out tramping around3tramp around游走，造訪。crowded shops.Now, increasingly, they order from the comfort of their homes or offices.

[2]Over the past decade global ecommerce has been expanding at an average rate of 20% a year as bricksand-mortar shops have languished4languish衰弱無力；失去活力；受苦；憔悴。.In rich countries millennials who grew up buying goods online are moving into their prime spending years.In poorer ones, rising incomes and the spread of mobile phones will bring more shoppers online.In China, Goldman Sachs5高盛集團(tuán)成立于1869年，是全世界歷史最悠久及規(guī)模最大的投資銀行之一，總部位于紐約。expects online spending to more than double between 2016 and 2020, to make up nearly one-third of total retail sales.In America, Euromonitor6世界權(quán)威市場調(diào)查機(jī)構(gòu)。predicts that its share will rise from about one-tenth in 2016 to about one-sixth in 2021.In Britain the fi gure may rise to one-fifth.

[3]America and China, the world’s two biggest economies, have produced the two titans7titan巨人，巨頭。of the industry, Amazon and Alibaba.Both are relative youngsters.Amazon, started by Jeff Bezos as an online bookshop, had its initial public offering in 1997.Alibaba was founded by Jack Ma in 1999.Since then both have been growing at breakneck8breakneck極快的。pace, bringing large-scale disruption not only to retailing but to a range of industries spanning logistics, entertainment, advertising and manufacturing in their home countries.Both have also been expanding their empires abroad.Amazon already has e-commerce sites in 14 markets and is planning further growth.Alibaba’s foreign ventures range from South-East Asia to Brazil and Russia.

[4]The two giants do not have the field all to themselves.In America, Walmart remains the biggest retailer and is spending heavily on trying to fend off Amazon.It also has a stake in JD.com, an e-commerce firm based in Beijing that had 13% of the Chinese market in 2016.In China, Alibaba faces not just JD but also Tencent, a messaging and payment company that is now JD’s biggest shareholder.

在世界各地的倉庫里，玩具、手機(jī)、服裝、電視、毛毯、運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋、筆記本電腦等各類商品只待配送。在中國，網(wǎng)上零售商正備戰(zhàn)雙11“光棍節(jié)”——世界上最繁忙的購物日。而世界上的多數(shù)地區(qū)正為圣誕購物季做準(zhǔn)備。以往，人們穿梭于人頭攢動(dòng)的商店里挑選禮物，常常疲憊不堪；如今，人們更傾向于待在舒適的家里或辦公室網(wǎng)購。

[2]過去十年中，隨著實(shí)體店的衰落，全球電商份額以平均每年20%的速度增長。在富裕國家，千禧一代在網(wǎng)購中一路成長起來，現(xiàn)在正步入他們的黃金消費(fèi)期。而在人均收入較低的國家，收入增加和手機(jī)普及都會(huì)帶來更多網(wǎng)上消費(fèi)者。高盛預(yù)計(jì)，2016至2020年間，中國網(wǎng)上消費(fèi)額將增加一倍以上，占零售總額的近三分之一。歐睿國際預(yù)測，在美國，占比將從2016年的近十分之一上升到2021年的近六分之一；而在英國，該占比可能上升到五分之一。

[3]世界兩大經(jīng)濟(jì)體——美國和中國已經(jīng)誕生了亞馬遜和阿里巴巴這兩個(gè)年輕的行業(yè)巨頭。1997年，杰夫·貝索斯創(chuàng)辦的亞馬遜網(wǎng)上書店首次公開募股。1999年，馬云創(chuàng)立了阿里巴巴。之后，兩家企業(yè)高速增長，不僅極大地沖擊了傳統(tǒng)零售業(yè)，更對本國物流、娛樂、廣告、制造等諸多行業(yè)造成了影響。兩家公司都一直在擴(kuò)張海外市場：亞馬遜已在全球14個(gè)國家或地區(qū)擁有電商網(wǎng)站，并計(jì)劃進(jìn)一步開拓；阿里巴巴的海外業(yè)務(wù)更是從東南亞延伸到巴西乃至俄羅斯。

[4]然而這兩大巨頭并沒有完全占據(jù)零售市場。在美國，沃爾瑪仍是最大的零售商，正斥巨資抵抗亞馬遜。此外，它還持有京東（一家總部位于北京的電商公司，2 016年占據(jù)了中國市場的13%）的股份。在中國，阿里巴巴的競爭對手除了京東，還有騰訊（一家通訊和支付公司，如今是京東最大的股東）。

Data day

[5]Since retailing touches the economy and society in so many ways, ecommerce is already having broad effects well beyond the industry itself.It is also affecting the way that other kinds of firms do business.Logistics companies are trying out new ideas to meet everrising expectations of fast, free delivery.Small new manufacturers are able to challenge big, established ones, thanks to the ease of selling goods online.Mountains of consumer data, the most treasured commodity of 21st-century commerce, are helping manufacturers develop products and interact with shoppers, not just online but increasingly in physical shops as well.

[6]Amazon and Alibaba, the industry’s two most innovative companies,do not define themselves as retailers at all.Amazon does not just sell goods:it leases cargo planes, produces films and offers a voice assistant, Alexa.Its cloud-computing business, Amazon Web Services(AWS), powers its own operations along with those of many other firms and is a vital source of profits.Alibaba’s business is even broader than Amazon’s, including not just shopping,entertainment and cloud computing but payments and social media as well.Both companies’ activities generate cash and rich streams of data which can be used to improve their existing services and add more.Alibaba describes itself as providing the pipes and cables for all kinds of business.“To some extent we are a utility company,”says Daniel Zhang, its chief executive.“We are trying to provide an infrastructure for digital commerce.”

[7]Consumers have already gained much from all this, with more in prospect.They are enjoying a broader choice of goods and more price transparency than ever before.Instead of spending time travelling to shops, picking up goods and waiting in queues, they can now do other things.Companies no longer take them for granted but compete to offer them better products, greater convenience and improved service.■

數(shù)據(jù)時(shí)代

[5]由于零售業(yè)涉及經(jīng)濟(jì)、社會(huì)的諸多方面，電子商務(wù)的影響已遠(yuǎn)超行業(yè)本身，也在改變其他行業(yè)的商業(yè)模式。例如，物流公司就在免費(fèi)快捷配送方面嘗試新的想法，以滿足人們不斷增長的期望。由于在線銷售的便利，新的小型制造商能夠挑戰(zhàn)老牌大型制造商。電子商務(wù)迅速發(fā)展所產(chǎn)生的消費(fèi)大數(shù)據(jù)已成為21世紀(jì)最有價(jià)值的資源，幫助供應(yīng)商開發(fā)產(chǎn)品并與消費(fèi)者互動(dòng)，不僅有線上互動(dòng)，還有越來越多的線下互動(dòng)。

[6]作為業(yè)界最具創(chuàng)新力的兩家公司，亞馬遜和阿里巴巴并未將自己僅定義為零售商。亞馬遜的業(yè)務(wù)并不局限于銷售商品，還包括租賃貨機(jī)、制作電影以及提供語音助手Alexa。其云計(jì)算業(yè)務(wù)——亞馬遜網(wǎng)絡(luò)服務(wù)是公司利潤的重要來源，為其他公司和自身運(yùn)營助力。阿里巴巴的業(yè)務(wù)比亞馬遜更為廣泛，不僅包括購物、娛樂和云計(jì)算，還涵蓋支付和社交媒體。兩家公司的業(yè)務(wù)都會(huì)產(chǎn)生大量的資金和豐富的數(shù)據(jù)流，可用于改善現(xiàn)有服務(wù)并提供更多新服務(wù)。阿里巴巴自稱是在為各種業(yè)務(wù)提供“管道”和“電纜”。其首席執(zhí)行官張勇認(rèn)為：“在某種程度上說，我們是一家公共事業(yè)公司，正努力為數(shù)字商務(wù)提供基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施。”

[7]消費(fèi)者已從中獲益頗豐，且有望更多。如今他們享有更多的商品選擇和更透明的價(jià)格，無須花時(shí)間去商店挑選商品并排隊(duì)等候，可以去做其他事。零售商也不再將顧客的消費(fèi)視為理所當(dāng)然，而是競相提供更好的產(chǎn)品、更大的便利和更優(yōu)的服務(wù)。□