KIDDICARE wants to be as disruptive as the little monsters who use its products. Traditional sellers of baby gear, laden with too many stores and creaky technology, have all the perkiness of sleep-deprived parents. Internet-based Kiddicare should run rings around them. So it seemed odd last year when the British merchant took over ten “superstores” from Best Buy, itself an erstwhile disrupter (in electronics). Far from weighing Kiddicare down like overstuffed nappy bags, the shops will give customers “a true multichannel experience”, the retailer vowed.
Kiddicare （网络儿童用品销售商）想要和使用其产品的小怪物们一样捣蛋。传统儿童用品销售商，由于店铺过多技术落后，让本已睡眠不足的父母们更加无精打采。相较之下，网络销售商Kiddicare优势显著。然而奇怪的是，这个英国网络零售商去年从百思买接手十家“超级商铺”（大型实体商铺），巧合的是百思买在电子零售业也曾极具颠覆性。Kiddicare确信这项举动不仅不会让自己像塞满东西的破袋子一样不堪重负，还会为消费者提供 “真正的多渠道购物体验”。
“Multichannel” (or even better, “omnichannel”) is something almost every self-respecting retailer wants to be. It means letting customers shop with smartphones, tablets, laptops and even in stores as if waited upon by a single salesman with an unfailing memory and uncanny intuition about their preferences. Pure-play internet vendors are good at this. But most resist the idea that actual stores, with their rents, payrolls and security cameras, ought to be one of those channels. The thought of having the same costs as bricks-and-mortar competitors “scares the living daylights out of me,” says Charles Hunt, owner of Duvet and Pillow Warehouse, a fast-growing online retailer.
“多渠道”（或者更高级的“无处不在的渠道”）是几乎每个有追求的零售商梦想拥有的。这意味着可以让消费者通过智能手机，平板电脑，笔记本电脑，甚至实体商铺购物，同时由一个销售人员专门陪同，而这个销售人员对顾客的喜好了如指掌。这是单纯网络销售商的拿手好戏。但大多数网络销售商无法接受开设实体店铺，因为需要支付租金，员工工资，以及电子监控设备费用。查尔斯.亨特，一家快速成长的网络零售店Duvet and Pillow Warehouse的老板，说道，想到和实体竞争者们一样的花销，“我就吓得六神无主”。
Yet Kiddicare, owned by Morrisons, a British grocer, is not the only retailer to shed its online purity. Screwfix, a British supplier to plumbers and electricians, has opened 270 shops since 2005. Bonobos, which sells men’s clothing online, has opened several “Guideshops” in America. Zalando, a German online fashion store, opened a physical outlet in Berlin last year. Even Amazon has installed lockers in shopping malls where customers can pick up deliveries: a first step, perhaps, towards bricks-and-mortardom. All this suggests that online and traditional retailers are “migrating to a middle ground”, believes Matt Truman of True Capital, a fund that invests in consumer companies.
然而，英国零售商莫里森斯旗下的Kiddicare并非唯一开设实体店铺的网络销售商。Screwfix， 一家英国电工水管工器材供应商，从05年起已开设了270家实体店铺。Bonobos, 一家网络男装销售公司，已在美国开设了几家“导购店”。Zalando, 一家德国网络时装店，去年在柏林开设了一个实体店。甚至连亚马逊也购物中心开设店面，供消费者选购商品，这也许是迈向实体店铺的第一步。来自True Capital零售公司投资基金的马特.楚曼相信，所有这些都预示着网络和传统零售商将“相互融合”。
Don’t try this on at home
别在家里试穿
For wares that do not have to be displayed in a showroom, online retailers are hard to beat. They killed Borders, an American bookstore chain, and Britain’s Comet, an electronics retailer. But it is easier to judge a shoe’s fit or an apple’s crispness in a real store. Shoppers who crave instant gratification will not get that online. Tradesmen are last-minute shoppers, which is why Screwfix, part of the Kingfisher DIY group, has so many shops. Car seats must be fitted and parents like to handle baby equipment before they buy it; hence Kiddicare’s expansion beyond a single flagship store.
对于无需在实体店铺展示的商品，网络销售商稳操胜券。他们打败了美国连锁书店Borders, 和英国电子零售商Comet。然而，想要确定鞋是否合脚，苹果是否脆，还是在实体店更方便。网络购物无法让消费者得到即时满足。电工水管工对器材总是随用随买，这也是Screwfix （翠丰集团DIY项目的一部分）开设那么多实体店的原因。车座椅要大小合适，父母们喜欢买之前先操作婴儿器材，这也是kiddicare除了一家旗舰店还要开设许多实体分店的原因。
Pure online retailers do not pay rent but their variable costs eat up much of that advantage, says Sophie Albizua of eNova Partnership, a consultancy. Without storefronts to lure in customers they shell out to buy ads linked to Google search results. Delivery, especially of bulky goods, is a headache. Couriers show up at empty houses, and fees often fail to cover the full cost. Shoppers return a quarter or more of clothing they buy, another big expense.
纯粹的网络零售商无需付租金,但各种额外费用抵消了大部分优势, eNova Patenership咨询公司的索菲.奥比祖阿如是说。他们没有实体店面来吸引顾客，不得不花重金购买谷歌搜索结果界面的广告。运送，尤其是大宗货物的运送，也是令人头疼的问题。快递员送达货物，而收货人却不在，这样成本常常超出所收费用。另外，顾客退回四分之一或更多的商品，这也是一大开销。
All this looks easier if you have real shops. With “click and collect” customers can order with, say, a smartphone but pick up the item at a convenient outlet. Often, they linger to shop more. Britons pick up something extra about 40% of the time, says Ms Albizua.
如果拥有实体店，所有问题都会变得简单些。顾客可以使用智能手机在线选订商品，但提货是在方便到达的实体店。通常他们会逗留并购买更多东西。奥比祖阿称英国人十次中大概有四次都会选购额外商品。
Happily hybrid John Lewis, an upmarket department-store chain, says that on- and offline shopping spur each other on. When a new shop opens, online sales in the vicinity can jump by 20-40% “overnight”, says Noel Saunders, the manager of the branch near London’s Olympic Stadium. New products can be tested online and stocked in store if they do well. Nearly a third of customers who order online pick up their wares in stores. Britons are among the world’s most avid online shoppers, but 65% still prefer buying in-store, according to a survey by Hitachi Consulting.
成功混合网络和实体经营的高档连锁店Lewis称，线上和线下销售是相互促进的。新开一个实体店，其周围的线上销售会一夜之间暴涨20%到40%，Lewis伦敦奥林匹克体育馆分店店长诺尔.桑德斯这样说。新产品可以先在线试销，如果反响好再转入实体销售。几乎三分之一在线订货的顾客会在实体店提货。日立咨询的一项调查显示，尽管英国人是世界上最爱网上购物的人群之一，但65%的人仍倾向于在实体店消费。
The question for envious e-tailers is how to pluck the benefits of physical stores without incurring the costs. Most proceed gingerly, armed with high-tech weaponry. “Pop-up shops” generate buzz and then vanish. EBay has tried them, and Winser London, a fashion website, plans to. Amazon’s ghostly high-street presence helps make delivery cheaper and more convenient, but so far it offers nothing more. Kiddicare plans 15 stores at most in Britain, a fraction of the number operated by its struggling competitor, Mothercare. They will be nimbler than traditional stores. Prices will appear on electronic labels and change with the push of a button.
嫉妒的网络零售商面临的问题是如何攫取实体店的利益而免除花销。多数都小心进行，并用高科技武装自己。“弹出式商店”曾引起反响，但只是昙花一现。EBay曾尝试使用弹出式商店，时尚网站Winser London计划使用。亚马逊诡异存在的实体店使运送更便宜方便，但也仅此而已。Kiddicare计划最多在英国开15家实体店，这与其有力竞争者Mothercare的店面数量还相差甚远。网络零售商开设的实体店比传统店铺更灵活。他们的价格显示在电子标签上，并会随着触动按钮而变化。
Bricks-and-mortar merchants are likewise paring space and bulking up on technology. In Britain the number of outlets a retail chain needs to have national coverage has dropped from 200 in the pre-online era to 50-80, says Adrian D’Enrico of AXA Real Estate, an investment manager. House of Fraser is experimenting with shops that are little more than a changing room and rows of screens to order clothes. Hointer, a Seattle start-up, provides just enough space to display a sample of each type of jeans it sells; robots fetch the right size from the stockroom. On today’s high street, shopkeepers who stand still are unlikely to survive.
实体店商也在争取市场并依靠科技发展壮大。 AXA地产公司的投资经理Adrian D’Enrico称， 网络销售出现之前，连锁零售商要覆盖全国市场需要开设200家分店，而现在只需要开50到80家。House of Fraser (英国著名精品连锁百货)尝试的不过是一个更衣室和几排选购衣服的屏幕。西雅图的初创品牌Hointer提供的空间刚好够展示每一件牛仔裤样品；由机器人从仓库提取正确尺码的裤子。如今的实体店，不求新求变就很可能被淘汰。