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)收购了一家折扣连锁超市的股份，这家中国最大电子商务集团正将关注点从线上拓宽至线下零售，作为其扩张战略的一部分。

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”.

突显阿里巴巴电商战略发生变化的一个迹象是，这家总部位于杭州的公司表示，其收购三江购物俱乐部(Sanjiang Shopping Club) 32%股权的主要原因是后者“拥有布局广泛的线下门店网络及丰富的实体零售门店运营经验”。

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20亿元人民币（合2.9亿美元）买下上述三江股份，三江购物的总部位于浙江省，在那里经营着160家折扣连锁超市。三江购物称，它有超过100万会员顾客。

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年夏季以来，随着电子商务的增长开始放缓，阿里巴巴对实体零售进行了多笔投资。

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，阿里巴巴斥资46亿美元收购电器零售商苏宁(Suning) 20%的股份。苏宁在中国各地298个城市拥有1600个零售网点，销售家用电器、书籍和婴儿用品。

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蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)去年还宣布，它们将分别投资30亿元人民币发展“口碑”(Koubei)送餐服务。

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.

专家们认为，这是一种新的混合商业模式的证据，它将实体店与移动互联网结合在一起，称为“线上到线下”(O2O)或“复合渠道”商务。它的兴起反映了一个新的行业共识，即纯电子商务将不会以人们一度设想的程度完全取代实体店。

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.

总部位于北京的咨询公司艾瑞咨询(iResearch)预测，纯电子商务已开始进入增长放缓的时代。该公司预计，从2018年起，年增长率将为16%；相比之下2011年的增长率达到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”.

中国电子商务研究中心(China e-Business Research Centre)主任曹磊表示，中国80%的销售仍然在线下进行，因此电商集团收购实体店的趋势现在“非常稳固，很可能会延续下去”。

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.

曾经押注于纯电子商务的其它公司也开始投资于实体店，认识到纯电子商务可能已经触及增长极限。

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)。这是中国最畅销智能手机的制造商，依赖电子商务销售，但最近看到其领先地位被竞争对手如Oppo和Vivo缩小，后两者有更多的线下经销。