雙11購物狂歡挑戰(zhàn)中國物流業(yè)極限

Alibaba and Others Push to Improve Delivery, on Singles’ Day in China

雙11購物狂歡挑戰(zhàn)中國物流業(yè)極限

HANGZHOU, China — It’s the biggest shopping day of the year in China and the discounts are steep. But Jiang Shan waited to buy some of what she wants.

中國杭州——這是一年之中中國最大的購物日，折扣相當(dāng)可觀。但姜閃并沒有急著購買自己想要的一些東西。

On Tuesday, tens of millions of Chinese like Ms. Jiang bought more than $9 billion worth of products online in honor of Singles’ Day, China’s de facto e-commerce holiday, and the world’s largest Internet shopping event. But buying is one thing. Delivery is another.

周二，為了慶祝“光棍節(jié)”，上千萬中國人在網(wǎng)上購買了價值超過90億美元的商品。這一天實(shí)際上已經(jīng)成為了中國電商的節(jié)日，也是世界上最大的網(wǎng)購狂歡。不過，購物是一回事，配送則是另一回事。

Ms. Jiang, who owns a bakery in the western Chinese city of Urumqi, spent 2,000 renminbi on a water purifier and kitchen supplies, and would have spent even more, she said, were she confident the products she ordered would get to her quickly and undamaged.

姜閃在中國西部的烏魯木齊市經(jīng)營著一家烘培店。她花2000元在網(wǎng)上購買了一臺凈水器和一些廚房用品。她說，要不是擔(dān)心自己的訂單無法快速無損地送達(dá)，她還會花更多的錢。

“I tend not to buy things on Singles’ Day because the logistics just worry me too much,” she said. “If I get the stuff I ordered this year in 10 to 15 days I’ll be happy.”

“我一般不在光棍節(jié)網(wǎng)購，因?yàn)樘珦?dān)心物流了，”她說。“如果今年我買的東西10到15天能送到，我就很高興了。”

China has caught the e-commerce bug. An underdeveloped retail sector and a flourishing network of online merchants offering huge selections at cheap prices has led the Chinese to look to the web first to buy everything from shoes and ovens to toilet paper and toothbrushes.

中國人熱衷網(wǎng)購。由于零售業(yè)尚不發(fā)達(dá)，加上以較低價格提供大量購物選擇的電商網(wǎng)絡(luò)的蓬勃興起，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)成為了中國人購物的第一選擇。他們在網(wǎng)上購買所有商品，從鞋子、爐灶，到衛(wèi)生紙和牙刷。

The Chinese e-commerce market is already bigger than the United States, and by 2020, is projected to be the size of the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan and France combined, according to a KPMG report.

根據(jù)畢馬威(KPMG)的一份報告，中國電子商務(wù)市場的規(guī)模已超過美國，預(yù)計2020年將達(dá)到美國、英國、德國、日本和法國電商市場規(guī)模的總和。

But the country struggles with delivery, largely because of decades of underinvestment in inland logistics infrastructure and inefficient local regulation. Goods are slow to arrive in the interior of the country, and damage is a persistent problem — affecting both consumers and small businesses.

不過，訂單配送卻讓中國不堪重負(fù)。這主要是因?yàn)?，幾十年來中國?nèi)陸物流基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施一直投資不足，而且地方監(jiān)管效率低下。內(nèi)陸地區(qū)的送貨速度緩慢，商品損壞的問題也長期存在——消費(fèi)者和小企業(yè)都會因此而蒙受損失。

“Imagine having 30 N.B.A. teams but only a few high school gyms to play in — that was China’s logistics infrastructure when e-commerce took off,” said Shen Haoyu, chief executive of the Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com’s business-to-consumer website.

“想象一下，有30支NBA球隊(duì)，但只有幾所中學(xué)體育館供他們使用——這就是電子商務(wù)迅速發(fā)展之后，中國物流基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施的現(xiàn)狀，”中國電商巨頭京東旗下的B2C網(wǎng)站首席執(zhí)行官沈皓瑜說。

Deliveries within China are so inefficient that the country spent 18 percent of its gross domestic product on logistics in the 2013, 6.5 percent above the global average and 9.5 percent above developed countries like the United States, said Fox Chu, director of Asia Pacific infrastructure and transportation at the consulting firm Accenture.

咨詢公司埃森哲(Accenture)的亞太基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施與交通運(yùn)輸業(yè)總監(jiān)朱景豐(Fox Chu)稱，中國國內(nèi)的商品配送效率低下，以致于2013年中國18%的GDP都花在了物流上，比國際平均水平高了6.5個百分點(diǎn)，比美國等發(fā)達(dá)國家高了9.5個百分點(diǎn)。

“Shipping goods from Fujian to Beijing can be more expensive than shipping something from Beijing to California,” he said, referring to the roughly 1,200 mile trip between the southern Chinese province and the country’s capital.

“把商品從福建運(yùn)到北京，要比從北京運(yùn)到加州還貴，”他說。福建省位于中國南部，到北京約有2000公里的路程。

Recently, both Alibaba, China’s main e-commerce company, and its smaller rival, JD.com, have tried to make things more efficient, especially inland.

近段時間以來，中國大型電商集團(tuán)阿里巴巴和規(guī)模較小的競爭對手京東，都在努力讓物流更迅捷，尤其是在中國內(nèi)陸。

Alibaba has pledged to invest 100 billion renminbi ($16.3 billion) in an initiative to link up third-party companies that deliver its shipments. The idea is to form an alliance that uses Alibaba’s consumer and shipment data to better anticipate orders and make delivery more efficient.

阿里巴巴已經(jīng)宣布，將投資1000億元人民幣(約合163億美元)，讓配送貨物的第三方公司聯(lián)系起來。阿里巴巴的設(shè)想是利用消費(fèi)者和快遞數(shù)據(jù)組建一個聯(lián)盟，從而更好地為訂單做預(yù)判，讓配送更迅捷。

JD.com, on the other hand, is building its own warehouses and shipping its own goods. Currently, the company can manage same-day deliveries in 100 cities and next-day deliveries in 600 others, said Mr. Shen, the JD.com executive.

另一方面，京東高管沈皓瑜則表示，公司正在建設(shè)自己的倉庫，從而為旗下的商品提供配送服務(wù)。目前，京東可以在100個城市實(shí)現(xiàn)當(dāng)日送達(dá)，在另外600個城市實(shí)現(xiàn)次日送達(dá)。

As with most things in China, the state of logistics can be broken down by geography and wealth. In the largest and most affluent cities on the country’s eastern coast, just about anything can be delivered within a day.

就像中國的許多事情一樣，物流的效率因?yàn)榈乩砗徒?jīng)濟(jì)狀況的不同而有天壤之別。在東部沿海的最富裕的大城市，幾乎所有快遞都可以在一天之內(nèi)送達(dá)。

Zhang Rui, an information technology salesman who lives in Beijing, doesn’t even buy small daily necessities at stores anymore.

在北京居住的張睿是一名IT銷售人員，如今，就連小的日常用品他也不在實(shí)體店購買了。

“Just about anything I need at home I buy online, whether it’s groceries, toilet paper, rice, cooking oil, salt, a toothbrush or shampoo,” he said.

“我在家需要的所有東西都在網(wǎng)上買，生鮮食品、衛(wèi)生紙、大米、油、鹽、牙刷，還有洗發(fā)水，”他說。

For Ms. Jiang, living inland, it’s another story. She recalled when a courier refused to help her carry a heavy parcel up the stairs to her apartment. Some won’t wait for her to open the package to ensure the goods she ordered are all there and undamaged. Her friends who live on the east coast and use Alibaba question how she survives out west.

對于住在內(nèi)陸城市的姜閃來說，情況則完全不同。她記得有一次，快遞員拒絕幫她把一個大包裹搬到樓上的家中。有些快遞員甚至不會等她打開包裹并確保商品完好無損就離開。她的一些朋友住在東部沿海地區(qū)，并在阿里巴巴的網(wǎng)站購物。他們對姜閃在西部城市的這些遭遇感到不可思議。

“When the package comes, I don’t expect it to be pretty,” she said. “Even if there’s a few scratches on something I don’t care anymore.”

“包裹到的時候，我并不指望它完好無損，”她說。“就算有些東西上有幾道劃痕，我也不在乎了。”

Safety has also become an issue. In late 2013 one person was killed and seven hospitalized after a toxic liquid sent by a chemical company leaked onto other parcels being delivered. In 2012 a China Southern Airlines plane caught fire when weatherproof matches left inside a parcel ignited.

安全也成為了問題。2013年末，一家化學(xué)品公司委托運(yùn)輸?shù)挠卸疽后w泄露到了同時運(yùn)送的其他包裹里，導(dǎo)致1人死亡，7人入院。2012年，中國南方航空公司的一架飛機(jī)起火，原因是遺留在一個包裹內(nèi)的耐風(fēng)火柴發(fā)生了自燃。

China’s delivery problems are highlighted on Singles’ Day, which was originally conceived as a way for the unmarried of China to shop away their loneliness. Beginning on Tuesday night, items from the 278.5 million orders placed on Singles’ Day at Alibaba’s e-commerce sites will be shipped, largely by truck, across a land mass the size of the United States and crisscrossed by dizzying mountain ranges.

中國的配送問題在“光棍節(jié)”得到了突顯。這個節(jié)日起初是用來讓中國的單身人士通過購物來排遣孤獨(dú)。從周二夜間開始，消費(fèi)者在光棍節(jié)期間在阿里巴巴的電子商務(wù)網(wǎng)站上下的2.785億個訂單將開始發(fā)貨，運(yùn)輸工具主要是卡車。這些貨物將穿過一片與美國大小相當(dāng)?shù)纳綆n遍布的陸地。

The trucks will shuttle the packages from warehouses to smaller distribution centers, paying costly tolls and running into traffic jams along the way. After dropping off the goods, many vehicles can’t bring packages back because of convoluted local regulations.

卡車將把包裹從倉庫運(yùn)送到規(guī)模較小的配送中心，支付昂貴的通行費(fèi)，并加入沿路的堵車隊(duì)伍。在卸下物資之后，因?yàn)榱钊速M(fèi)解的地方監(jiān)管規(guī)定，許多車輛都不能再把包裹帶回去。

From the distribution centers, equipped only with shelving to hold the deluge of packages, hundreds of thousands of deliverymen will begin the slow process of bringing each parcel to recipients spread out across distant Himalayan hamlets, eastern Chinese megacities and jungle towns on the South China Sea.

配送中心只有一些用來放置大量包裹的架子。從那里開始，大批大批的送貨員將開始把每個包裹送到收件人手中的緩慢過程。這些收件人遍布在中國各地，從偏遠(yuǎn)的喜馬拉雅小村莊，到中國東部的大都市，再到南海的叢林小鎮(zhèn)。

Part of Alibaba’s plan to improve things is to establish warehouses at critical choke points to help streamline deliveries. “China is too big, so we cannot buy a lot of land for warehouses,” said Alibaba’s chief operating officer, Daniel Zhang. “Instead, we will choose key areas, very strategic locations where resources are quite limited.”

為了改善目前的局面，阿里巴巴打算在關(guān)鍵的瓶頸處建立倉庫，以提高配送效率。“中國太大了，我們沒法買下大片土地來建倉庫，”阿里巴巴首席運(yùn)營官張勇表示。“相反，我們會選擇一些關(guān)鍵地區(qū)、一些資源十分有限而具有重要戰(zhàn)略意義的地點(diǎn)。”

The company will share the new warehouse space with logistics partners like YTO Express.

公司將與圓通速遞等物流合作伙伴共享新倉庫。

As an early partner of Alibaba, YTO grew huge by delivering the millions, and then billions, of goods ordered on the company’s e-commerce sites. Last year, just 13 years after it was founded, YTO’s 130,000 employees filled 1.5 billion orders across China.

作為阿里巴巴的早期合作伙伴，圓通得到了極大的發(fā)展，從運(yùn)輸消費(fèi)者在阿里巴巴的電商網(wǎng)站上購買的數(shù)百萬件貨物，增長到后來的數(shù)十億件。去年，在成立僅13年之后，圓通的13萬名員工就完成了中國各地的15億個訂單。

For the jump in orders on Singles’ Day orders, YTO hired 30,000 temporary workers. Next year it plans to buy its first airplane.

為了應(yīng)對“光棍節(jié)”突增的訂單，圓通聘請了3萬名臨時工。它還計劃明年購買公司的第一架自有飛機(jī)。

This year for the first time, Alibaba is hoping to track the location of every item ordered during Singles’ Day.

今年，阿里巴巴頭一次希望追蹤消費(fèi)者在“光棍節(jié)”購買的每件商品的位置信息。

JD.com’s 538,000-square-feet warehouse in southern Beijing, the largest in the city, shows the advantages it gets by building its own delivery service.

京東則在北京南部設(shè)有一座5萬平米的倉庫。這里體現(xiàn)了它建立自己的配送系統(tǒng)的好處。

The huge structure is ergonomically organized and employees run full speed, pushing carts loaded with goods in lanes segmented for those going at different speeds. A screen displays how many orders each employee has processed.

這個巨大的建筑物井然有序，員工們都在全速工作，在各條通道上推著滿載貨物的小車。根據(jù)運(yùn)貨速度不同，通道被劃分為不同的區(qū)域。有一塊屏幕顯示了每名員工已處理多少訂單。

It’s a far cry from most warehouses in China, which are often open-air and exposed to the elements, seemingly organized to cause traffic jams.

它與中國的大多數(shù)倉庫迥然不同。后者往往是露天的，暴露在各種環(huán)境之下，似乎不可避免地要造成擁堵。

To help reduce the backlog during Singles’ Day, JD.com has run promotions the week before and brought in temporary workers from around the country for extra help. The warehouse can process more than 200,000 orders a day.

為了減輕“光棍節(jié)”的配送積壓問題，京東在一周前開始促銷，而且還從全國各地請來臨時工幫忙。這座倉庫每天可以處理20多萬個訂單。

Though it has proved costly to build up what is effectively its own FedEx, the strategy enables JD.com to process orders more quickly than rivals, even as its scale lags.

雖然建立自己的快遞系統(tǒng)成本不菲，但通過這種策略，京東能夠以比競爭對手更快的速度來處理訂單，盡管它的規(guī)模較小。

Most critically, it’s able to train the couriers that Mr. Shen calls “literally the face of JD.com.”

更關(guān)鍵的是，京東能夠培養(yǎng)一些被沈皓瑜稱作“京東臉面”的快遞員。