China’s tech groups are redefining shopping with stores where you can buy, eat, pick up or take home delivery of, say, Alaskan crab¹ — experimenting with retail² in ways that blur³ the physical and virtual boundaries of shopping.

中国科技公司正用实体商店重新定义购物：你可以到这些商店现场购买比如阿拉斯加蟹之类的生鲜商品，然后带走、或是交由店家现场加工后堂食，你也可以选择送货上门。这些公司正在以一种模糊实体店购物和线上购物界限的方式，在零售领域做实验。

Ecommerce companies and retailers⁵ across the globe are integrating online shopping more deeply into bricks-and-mortar⁶ stores. That drive has seen China’s Alibaba buy physical spaces and Amazon offer $13.75bn to acquire Whole Foods. It has also prompted traditional retailers such as Walmart to ramp⁷ up their online offerings, and internet groups such as Google to enter the fray⁸.

全球的电商公司和零售商正推动线上购物与实体商店更深入地结合在一起。在这种趋势下，中国的阿里巴巴(Alibaba)购买实体店面，亚马逊(Amazon)以137.5亿美元收购Whole Foods。此外，沃尔玛(Walmart)等传统零售商加大线上攻势，谷歌(Google)等互联网公司也加入这场竞争。

But while Amazon’s main move at Whole Foods has been to cut prices and introduce Prime membership — for which subscribers receive perks⁹ in exchange for an annual fee — Alibaba, which runs two of China’s biggest ecommerce platforms, has launched a 20-strong chain of Hema hybrid¹⁰ grocery stores. The shops allow customers to take their purchases away with them, have them delivered, or eat them on the premises¹¹.

亚马逊对Whole Foods采取的主要举措是降低价格和引入Prime会员制度——缴纳年费的Prime会员可以获得各种优惠——而运营中国最大的两个电商平台的阿里巴巴开起了盒马鲜生，目前已有20家门店。在盒马，顾客可以将购买的商品带走、选择送货上门，或者直接在店内享用。

Uses of tech include self-scanning tills and an ability to scan products on the shelves rather than pluck them off and put them in a trolley¹². The final “virtual cart” can be paid for — via mobile payment — at the till and the goods will be delivered to your home.

盒马应用了各种技术，顾客可以通过自助扫描收银机付款，可以扫描货架上的商品，无需把商品放入购物车。在收银处，顾客通过移动支付方式为“虚拟购物车”中的所有商品付款，随后这些商品将由配送员送到你家中。

Alibaba has sought to take the lead in what it calls new retail. It began buying stores in 2014, initially¹³ using the blended model to provide warehousing for inventory¹⁴ and cross-fertilising data analytics: items selling well online, for example, can be more prominently displayed in physical stores.

阿里巴巴试图成为其所谓的新零售的领军者。阿里巴巴从2014年开始购买商铺，最初，采用这种线下与线下混合的模式既是为了给货物提供库房，又是为了让数据分析结果在线下派上用场：比如，可以将线上畅销商品摆在实体店中更显眼的位置。

It is also piloting pop-up shops and other stores that allow shoppers to try electronic goods, clothes and cosmetics¹⁵. The last two can be done purely¹⁶ by mirrors: at a Clinique pop-up in Shanghai, customers select lipstick¹⁷ colours on screen and appear in the mirror wearing their chosen shade.

阿里巴巴还试营了快闪店和其他允许购物者试用电子产品、服装和美妆产品的商店。后两类产品可以完全通过一种镜子实现：上海的一家倩碧(Clinique)快闪店中，顾客可以在屏幕上选择口红的颜色，镜子里就会出现顾客涂上自己所选颜色口红的样子。

Ecommerce groups are now focusing their sights on the grocery sector¹⁸, projected to see $1.3tn in sales in 2017 according to research group IDG, for which only 2-3 per cent of total sales are online. Overall, ecommerce accounts for 18 per cent of retail sales in China.

电商集团现在将目光聚焦于生鲜杂货，据研究集团IDG预测，2017年的生鲜杂货销售额将达到1.3万亿美元，其中在线销售额只占2%到3%。总体上，电商占中国零售销售额的18%。

“The focus for [Chinese] online retail to start with was electronic appliances and fashion. The most recent growth area has been grocery food, and that’s a huge growth area. Supermarkets are really having to work out ecommerce now,” said Matthew Crabbe, an analyst¹⁹ at Mintel, a consultancy.

“（中国）在线零售的重点最开始是电器和时装鞋帽。最近的增长点是生鲜食品，这是一个增长潜力巨大的领域。现在超市真的必须搞定电商。”咨询公司Mintel的分析师马修?克拉布(Matthew Crabbe)说。

With the grocery market traditionally dominated by “mom and pop” stores and wet markets, online companies are handicapped by low ticket prices and high logistic costs, say analysts²⁰ at Goldman Sachs, adding that the online-to-offline business model “still heavily relies on subsidies²¹”.

高盛(Goldman Sachs)分析师表示，生鲜杂货市场传统上由“夫妻店”和菜市场主导，低门槛和高物流成本对电商不利；此外，线上到线下(O2O)商业模式“依然严重依赖补贴”。

The latest iteration, however, involves takeaway and delivery options. Alibaba’s 20 Hema stores serve upmarket food and drink from around the world, and include tanks containing live seafood²² from the US, Australia and Japan. Purchases can be delivered within a 3km radius²³ within half an hour of making a selection.

然而，对O2O模式的这种最新实践包含了外带和送货上门选项。阿里巴巴的20家盒马门店提供来自世界各地的高端食品和饮料，水箱里养着来自美国、澳大利亚和日本的鲜活海产。在门店3公里的范围内，顾客购买的商品可在半小时内送达。

Meituan-Dianping, an online retailer⁴ with platforms offering a range of services from food delivery and travel to beauty and movie tickets, has also moved into the world of bricks and mortar, setting up a pilot store in Beijing.

拥有提供从外卖、旅游、美容到电影票等各种服务平台的在线零售商美团点评(Meituan-Dianping)也踏入了实体店领域，在北京试营了首家实体店铺。

“Our model is a new way of doing business,” says Shaohui Chen, senior vice-president for corporate²⁴ development. “We want to test stores purely customised to work with online?.?.?.?The fundamental goal is still to bridge the gap between online and offline.”

美团点评高级副总裁陈少晖说，我们的模式是一种新的经营方式，我们希望试营纯粹为配合线上而设计的店铺……最根本的目标依然是搭建连通线上与线下的桥梁。

JD.com is ramping²⁵ up its co-operation with shareholder²⁶ Walmart, the US retailer, targeting customers in store and online with promotions²⁷.

京东(JD.com)正在加强与股东美国零售商沃尔玛的合作，在实体店和线上进行促销活动。

It is also rolling out a physical presence via franchisees²⁸ for electronics stores, of which it aims to have 300 this year; franchised²⁹ convenience stores stocking JD.com products; and staff-free stores such as Amazon Go.

京东也在进军实体店，开设了加盟模式的实体电子产品体验店（目标是今年内开300家）、从京东线上渠道进货的加盟京东便利店，还有类似Amazon Go的无人商店。

Everyone is learning from everyone,” says Mr Chen.

陈少晖说，现在就是你学我、我学你。