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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，当阿里巴巴（Alibaba）在声势浩大的首次公开募股中筹得250亿美元时，美国的电子商务公司都很想知道，这家中国电商巨头准备何时拿这笔钱与它们展开竞争。
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.
没有人真正知道答案。阿里巴巴目前更注重在美国投资，而不是在美国运营。毕竟，中国市场本身就十分巨大。在上周中国的“双十一”购物狂欢日当天，阿里巴巴的销售额高达93亿美元。
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.
不过仔细观察，我们还是能够找到一些探究阿里巴巴战略的方法。比如，阿里巴巴的招股说明书中唯一提到的美国投资，是收购了ShopRunner 公司39%的股权。该公司的服务与亚马逊金牌会员服务（AmazonPrime）非常类似，其创始人曾经创建过亚马逊的竞争对手GSI Commerce公司，后者如今已被易趣(eBay)收购。去年，阿里巴巴在ShopRunner上投资了约2亿美元。该公司还投资了私家车搭乘服务应用Lyft和游戏制造商Kabam，不过招股说明书只提到了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.
为了进一步了解ShopRunner，我最近参观了它在加利福尼亚州圣马特奥的办公室，并对该公司首席执行官斯科特o汤普森进行了采访。你也许记得他曾经担任过雅虎（Yahoo）首席执行官，后来因为履历有水分而被迫在2012年离职。加入雅虎之前，他曾担任易趣支付平台贝宝公司（PayPal）总裁。
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.
事实证明，ShopRunner拥有一个有趣的小众市场。亚马逊金牌服务的顾客能够以每年99美元的价格，让买到的任何东西（后来还包括流媒体视频）送货上门。而ShopRunner顾客可选择的品牌经过了进一步筛选，也更系统一些。他们可以花79美元获得免费的两日内送货上门服务。此举不仅是为了吸引顾客，还试图吸引那些不愿意和亚马逊其他商品捆绑在一起的商家。
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.”
科技高管汤普森正学着像一个店主那样说话。“零售商会问：‘我在购物中心里会与谁为邻？’在零售业中，大量品牌毗邻而居。亚马逊的库存量很大，所以如果你非常在意自己的品牌，你就会发现自己被太多东西包围了。我们的看法是：如果你要买必需品，那就去找亚马逊金牌服务；如果你要真正喜欢的，对你有特殊感情的东西，那就来找我们。”
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将重点放在签约的名牌零售商上，比如美鹰傲飞（American Eagle Outfitters）、Diesel和内曼o马库斯（Neiman Marcus）。在亚马逊统治的这个全球市场，ShopRunner把赌注压在了顾客与品牌的关联性上。
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.
这个战略发展得很顺利，甚至吸引另一个重要品牌美国运通（American Express）参与其中。这家金融服务公司与ShopRunner达成协议，对所有运通卡持有人（不含公司卡用户）提供免费的两日内快递。与ShopRunner签约的美国证券交易所（Amex）数字合作部执行副总裁莱斯利o伯兰表示：“要提高在线购物的吸引力，免费快递和普通的运送服务都至关重要。”莱斯利和汤普森都没有透露这次合作究竟是哪方出钱。但美国证券交易所正在为它的客户提供一项免费福利，这项福利能够使ShopRunner从该公司促成的交易中获得一笔佣金。顺带提一句，美国证券交易所也投资了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，并未公开收入。Janney Capital Markets公司电子商务行业分析师肖恩o米尔恩猜测，该公司的销售额可能接近2亿美元，并有多达200万付费用户。他表示：“他们正在展现价值的原因之一在于，他们正在将一些有价值的新客户带到网上。”米尔恩预计，ShopRunner可以发展到1,000万用户的规模，不算是一个大众市场，但利润可观。对于一家寻求与亚马逊一较高低的电商巨头来说，它也是很有价值的。
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.
这就是阿里巴巴的切入点。到目前为止，这家中国巨头几乎没有在美国运营任何业务，但它是ShopRunner的最大股东。最近，ShopRunner与阿里巴巴旗下的支付宝（Alipay）签订了协议，将美国商业客户与中国顾客联系了起来。还值得一提的是，阿里巴巴不是零售商，而是在线商城运营商。但这一点是可以改变的。汤普森表示：“阿里巴巴没有类似亚马逊金牌计划或ShopRunner的服务，它不卖自己的东西。”至少，现在不卖。
