這家公司有望成爲阿里巴巴進軍美國的橋頭堡 ShopRunner

When Alibaba raised $25 billion in its blockbuster I.P.O. in September, U.S.-based e-commerce companies were curious to know when the Chinese giant planned to begin spending that money to compete against them.

今年9月，當阿里巴巴（Alibaba）在聲勢浩大的首次公開募股中籌得250億美元時，美國的電子商務公司都很想知道，這家中國電商巨頭準備何時拿這筆錢與它們展開競爭。

The answer is that no one really knows: Alibaba has been focused more on investing in the U.S. than in operating there. The China market, after all, is huge. Witness the $7-billion “Singles Day” shopping orgy the country celebrated on Tuesday.

沒有人真正知道答案。阿里巴巴目前更注重在美國投資，而不是在美國運營。畢竟，中國市場本身就十分巨大。在上週中國的“雙十一”購物狂歡日當天，阿里巴巴的銷售額高達93億美元。

Look more closely, though, and there are ways to discern Alibaba’s strategy. For instance, the only U.S. investment it discussed in its I.P.O. filing was the 39% stake it took in ShopRunner, an Amazon Prime-like service founded by the same team that started an Amazon competitor called GSI Commerce, now part of eBay . Alibaba invested about $200 million in ShopRunner last year. It also has invested in taxi-killer Lyft and game maker Kabam, but only ShopRunner earned the prospectus mention.

不過仔細觀察，我們還是能夠找到一些探究阿里巴巴戰略的方法。比如，阿里巴巴的招股說明書中唯一提到的美國投資，是收購了ShopRunner 公司39%的股權。該公司的服務與亞馬遜金牌會員服務（AmazonPrime）非常類似，其創始人曾經創建過亞馬遜的競爭對手GSI Commerce公司，後者如今已被易趣(eBay)收購。去年，阿里巴巴在ShopRunner上投資了約2億美元。該公司還投資了私家車搭乘服務應用Lyft和遊戲製造商Kabam，不過招股說明書只提到了ShopRunner。

To learn more about ShopRunner I recently visited its offices in San Mateo, Calif. and the company’s CEO, Scott Thompson. You might remember him as the one-time CEO of Yahoo who left after reports that his resume wasn’t altogether accurate. He left Yahoo in 2012 and before that had been a top PayPal executive at eBay.

爲了進一步瞭解ShopRunner，我最近參觀了它在加利福尼亞州聖馬特奧的辦公室，並對該公司首席執行官斯科特o湯普森進行了採訪。你也許記得他曾經擔任過雅虎（Yahoo）首席執行官，後來因爲履歷有水分而被迫在2012年離職。加入雅虎之前，他曾擔任易趣支付平臺貝寶公司（PayPal）總裁。

ShopRunner, it turns out, has an interesting niche. Whereas Amazon Prime customers can get anything under the sun—and then some, including streaming videos—delivered to them for $99 a year, ShopRunner customers get a more select, slightly more curated collection of brands. They pay $79 for free, two-day delivery. It’s a deal designed to attract consumers but also merchants, who see the value of not being glopped together with everyone else over at Amazon.

事實證明，ShopRunner擁有一個有趣的小衆市場。亞馬遜金牌服務的顧客能夠以每年99美元的價格，讓買到的任何東西（後來還包括流媒體視頻）送貨上門。而ShopRunner顧客可選擇的品牌經過了進一步篩選，也更系統一些。他們可以花79美元獲得免費的兩日內送貨上門服務。此舉不僅是爲了吸引顧客，還試圖吸引那些不願意和亞馬遜其他商品捆綁在一起的商家。

Thompson, the technology executive, is learning to talk like a merchant. “Retailers ask, ‘Who is my neighbor in the mall?’ There’s a lot of brand adjacency in retailing. Amazon has a lot of SKUs. So if you’re someone who is very thoughtful about your brand, you’re in the middle of a lot of stuff. Our attitude is, if it’s something you need, go with Amazon Prime. If it’s something you want and have an emotional connection to, that’s us.”

科技高管湯普森正學着像一個店主那樣說話。“零售商會問：‘我在購物中心裏會與誰爲鄰？’在零售業中，大量品牌毗鄰而居。亞馬遜的庫存量很大，所以如果你非常在意自己的品牌，你就會發現自己被太多東西包圍了。我們的看法是：如果你要買必需品，那就去找亞馬遜金牌服務；如果你要真正喜歡的，對你有特殊感情的東西，那就來找我們。”

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.

ShopRunner將重點放在簽約的名牌零售商上，比如美鷹傲飛（American Eagle Outfitters）、Diesel和內曼o馬庫斯（Neiman Marcus）。在亞馬遜統治的這個全球市場，ShopRunner把賭注壓在了顧客與品牌的關聯性上。

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.

這個戰略發展得很順利，甚至吸引另一個重要品牌美國運通（American Express）參與其中。這家金融服務公司與ShopRunner達成協議，對所有運通卡持有人（不含公司卡用戶）提供免費的兩日內快遞。與ShopRunner簽約的美國證券交易所（Amex）數字合作部執行副總裁萊斯利o伯蘭表示：“要提高在線購物的吸引力，免費快遞和普通的運送服務都至關重要。”萊斯利和湯普森都沒有透露這次合作究竟是哪方出錢。但美國證券交易所正在爲它的客戶提供一項免費福利，這項福利能夠使ShopRunner從該公司促成的交易中獲得一筆佣金。順帶提一句，美國證券交易所也投資了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.

ShopRunner是私人公司，並未公開收入。Janney Capital Markets公司電子商務行業分析師肖恩o米爾恩猜測，該公司的銷售額可能接近2億美元，並有多達200萬付費用戶。他表示：“他們正在展現價值的原因之一在於，他們正在將一些有價值的新客戶帶到網上。”米爾恩預計，ShopRunner可以發展到1,000萬用戶的規模，不算是一個大衆市場，但利潤可觀。對於一家尋求與亞馬遜一較高低的電商巨頭來說，它也是很有價值的。

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.

這就是阿里巴巴的切入點。到目前爲止，這家中國巨頭幾乎沒有在美國運營任何業務，但它是ShopRunner的最大股東。最近，ShopRunner與阿里巴巴旗下的支付寶（Alipay）簽訂了協議，將美國商業客戶與中國顧客聯繫了起來。還值得一提的是，阿里巴巴不是零售商，而是在線商城運營商。但這一點是可以改變的。湯普森表示：“阿里巴巴沒有類似亞馬遜金牌計劃或ShopRunner的服務，它不賣自己的東西。”至少，現在不賣。