沃尔玛进军中国电子商务市场 Walmart finds online ally in China

China’s rapidly expanding e-commerce market has caught the attention of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. Walmart has is one of six companies investing a total of $500m in 360buy.com, reportedly China’s largest online seller of consumer electronics. Walmart’s individual investment has not been made public.

中国快速扩张的电子商务市场吸引了全球最大零售商沃尔玛(Walmart)的注意。有6家公司将向据称是中国最大在线电器销售商——京东商城(360buy.com)投资5亿美元，沃尔玛就是其中之一。不过，沃尔玛的具体投资金额尚未公开。

Walmart, which will have around 300 stores in China when it completes its takeover of the Trustmart chain, entered the country’s e-commerce business on its own account last month. It launched www.samsclub.cn, linked to the handful of Sam’s Club discount warehouses that it operates in southern China.

在完成对好又多(Trustmart)连锁店的收购后，沃尔玛在中国的门店数量将达到300家左右。该公司上月进入了中国的电子商务市场，推出山姆会员网上商店(www.samsclub.cn)，可以链接至其在中国南方经营的几家山姆俱乐部(Sam’s Club)仓储式折扣店。

The Sam’s Club site is the first to be rolled out using a new global e-commerce platform that has been under development at Walmart’s digital headquarters in San Francisco for over two years. So it would be relatively easy for the retailer to follow up with a Walmart – or Trustmart – branded parallel site, after ironing out any glitches under the smaller Sam’s Club business. Distribution, however, represents a larger challenge.

山姆会员网上商店将率先使用沃尔玛旧金山数字总部开发了两年之久的新式全球电子商务平台。因此，在解决了规模较小的山姆俱乐部业务的所有小故障后，沃尔玛要继续开发沃尔玛或好又多品牌的平行网站就会相对容易一些。然而，分销是一个更大的挑战。

But the investment in 360buy.com also suggests that the retailer sees potential for a repeat of the kind of mutually beneficial partnerships it has developed with digital businesses in the US. Since 2008, it has been working with 1-800-Contacts, the largest online contact lens business, in a deal that involved shifting its own online and in-store contact lens business over to its partner, and sharing costs. It is also a minority investor in Green Dot, an internet based payment and financial service, that it uses to support its pre-paid store payment cards.

但投资京东商城也表明，沃尔玛认为复制它与美国数字企业形成的那种互利合作关系是有潜力的。自2008年以来，沃尔玛一直在与全球最大的在线隐形眼镜企业1-800-Contacts合作，内容包括将自己的在线和店内隐形眼镜业务转交给合作伙伴，双方分摊成本。此外，沃尔玛是基于互联网的支付和金融服务公司绿点(Green Dot)的少数股东，沃尔玛利用该公司为其预付费门店支付卡提供支持。

The CEO of 360buy.com reportedly told a news conference last week that the company wants to invest the $500m raised in new distribution centres – while Walmart is very interested in the in-store pick-up model it has developed in the US for online orders. So perhaps one day a Chinese consumer could shop on 360buy.com and pick the item up at the local Walmart? Or 360buy could fulfill online electronics orders for Walmart.com in China?

京东商城首席执行官刘强东上周在新闻发布会上表示，该公司希望将筹得的5亿美元资金投资于新的分销中心，而沃尔玛对于其在美国开发的在线订单到店提货(in-store pick-up)模式非常感兴趣。因此，或许有一天，中国消费者可以在京东商城购物，在当地的沃尔玛店取货？或者，京东商城可以为沃尔玛网站Walmart.com在中国执行在线电子产品订单？

In the bricks-and-mortar world, the retailer now generally prefers to form partnerships with local partners when entering a new market – as it has done recently in Central America and Chile, and as it plans to do in South Africa with its ongoing Massmart deal. With Alibaba’s Taobao, Amazon’s Joyo.com and others already established in China’s online market, it looks like Walmart has opted for another local ally.

在实体领域，当进军新市场时，沃尔玛现在一般倾向于与当地伙伴合作，就像它最近在中美洲和智利所做的那样。在南非正在进行的Massmart交易中，沃尔玛也打算这样做。由于阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的淘宝(Taobao)、亚马逊(Amazon)的卓越网(Joyo.com)等网站已在中国的在线市场占据了一席之地，沃尔玛似乎选择了另一个地方盟友。