阿里巴巴投資折扣連鎖超市

Alibaba has bought a stake in a discount grocery store chain, as China’s biggest ecommerce group broadens its focus from online to offline retail as part of its expansion strategy.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)收購了一家折扣連鎖超市的股份，這家中國最大電子商務集團正將關注點從線上拓寬至線下零售，作爲其擴張戰略的一部分。

In a sign of how Alibaba’s approach to ecommerce has changed, the Hangzhou-based company said the main reason it bought a 32 per cent stake in Sanjiang Shopping Club was its “extensive offline network and experience running retail stores”.

突顯阿里巴巴電商戰略發生變化的一個跡象是，這家總部位於杭州的公司表示，其收購三江購物俱樂部(Sanjiang Shopping Club) 32%股權的主要原因是後者“擁有佈局廣泛的線下門店網絡及豐富的實體零售門店運營經驗”。

Alibaba yesterday said it had agreed to pay Rmb2bn ($290m) for the stake in Sanjiang, which is based in Zhejiang province where it operates 160 discount grocery stores. Sanjiang said it had more than 1m members.

阿里巴巴昨日表示，其已同意支付20億元人民幣（合2.9億美元）買下上述三江股份，三江購物的總部位於浙江省，在那裏經營着160家折扣連鎖超市。三江購物稱，它有超過100萬會員顧客。

Since the summer of 2015, Alibaba has made a number of investments in bricks-and-mortar retail as growth in ecommerce begins to slow.

自2015年夏季以來，隨着電子商務的增長開始放緩，阿里巴巴對實體零售進行了多筆投資。

In August 2015, Alibaba bought a 20 per cent share of Suning for $4.6bn. The electronic retailer has 1,600 outlets in 298 cities across China, selling appliances, books and baby products.

2015年8月，阿里巴巴斥資46億美元收購電器零售商蘇寧(Suning) 20%的股份。蘇寧在中國各地298個城市擁有1600個零售網點，銷售家用電器、書籍和嬰兒用品。

Alibaba and its payment affiliate, Ant Financial, also announced last year that they would each invest Rmb3bn to develop a food-delivery service called Koubei.

阿里巴巴及其旗下支付公司螞蟻金服(Ant Financial)去年還宣佈，它們將分別投資30億元人民幣發展“口碑”(Koubei)送餐服務。

Experts see this as evidence of a new hybrid commerce model that combines physical stores with mobile internet, known as “online to offline” or “combined channel” commerce. Its rise reflects an emerging consensus in the industry that pure ecommerce will not completely displace bricks-and-mortar stores to the extent once envisaged.

專家們認爲，這是一種新的混合商業模式的證據，它將實體店與移動互聯網結合在一起，稱爲“線上到線下”(O2O)或“複合渠道”商務。它的興起反映了一個新的行業共識，即純電子商務將不會以人們一度設想的程度完全取代實體店。

Beijing-based consultancy iResearch predicts that pure ecommerce has started to hit the era of declining growth. From 70 per cent growth registered in 2011, it predicts that from 2018 growth will be at 16 per cent annually.

總部位於北京的諮詢公司艾瑞諮詢(iResearch)預測，純電子商務已開始進入增長放緩的時代。該公司預計，從2018年起，年增長率將爲16%；相比之下2011年的增長率達到70%。

Cao Lei, director at China e-Business Research Centre, said 80 per cent of China’s sales were still made offline and the trend of ecommerce groups buying physical stores was now “very firm and likely to continue”.

中國電子商務研究中心(China e-Business Research Centre)主任曹磊表示，中國80%的銷售仍然在線下進行，因此電商集團收購實體店的趨勢現在“非常穩固，很可能會延續下去”。

Other companies that have placed bets on pure ecommerce have also begun to invest in physical stores, in recognition that pure ecommerce may have hit its growth limits.

曾經押注於純電子商務的其它公司也開始投資於實體店，認識到純電子商務可能已經觸及增長極限。

These include Xiaomi. It was the top-selling smartphone in China and relies on ecommerce sales, but it has recently seen its lead eaten away by competitors such as Oppo and Vivom, which have more offline distribution.

其中包括小米(Xiaomi)。這是中國最暢銷智能手機的製造商，依賴電子商務銷售，但最近看到其領先地位被競爭對手如Oppo和Vivo縮小，後兩者有更多的線下經銷。