好英语网亚马逊进军高端时尚界
SEATTLE — Amazon is so serious about its next big thing that it hired three women to do nothing but try on size 8 shoes for its Web reviews. Full time.
西雅图——亚马逊对接下来的大举措极其重视：他们雇来了三个女模特专门为网站评价版块试穿8号鞋。而且，这还是份全职工作。
The online retailer is shooting 3,000 fashion images a day in a photo studio using patent-pending technology.
这个网络零售商目前正在摄影棚里以每天3000张的速度拍摄时尚图片，该公司正在为这种拍摄技术正在申请专利。
杰夫.贝佐斯，亚马逊CEO，说他的公司是用设计师满意的价格在网上卖折扣衣服。
And it is happily losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year on free shipping — and, on apparel, even free returns — to keep its shoppers coming back.
为了招揽顾客，亚马逊推出了免费寄送服务，对服装甚至还可以免费退货，以至于每年因此损失数亿美元，但亚马逊还是乐此不疲。
Having wounded the publishing industry, slashed pricing in electronics and made the toy industry quiver, Amazon is taking on the high-end clothing business in its typical way: go big and spare no expense.
在重创出版行业，让电子产品大幅降价，并让玩具行业感觉到恐慌之后，亚马逊再次以其典型的方式进军高端服饰行业：不遗余力，做大做强。
“It’s Day 1 in the category,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, said in a recent interview. Though characteristically tight-lipped on bottom-line details, Mr. Bezos said the company was making a “significant” investment in fashion to convince top brands that it wanted to work with them, not against them.
“在这一领域我们刚刚起步。”亚马逊的首席执行官杰夫·贝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)在最近接受采访时说道。尽管一如他以往的风格，对盈亏细节守口如瓶，他还是透露说公司正在斥“巨资”投入时尚行业，让顶级的时尚品牌商相信亚马逊希望与之合作，而不是和它们作对。
The traditional retail world — and many major brands that want no part of Amazon — are gearing up to fight for their lives.
为求生存，传统的零售行业和那些不希望与亚马逊合作的大品牌正在加紧备战。
“It has the latitude to set prices and charge whatever it wants,” Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst for Forrester Research, said of Amazon. “That is a huge threat for brands.”
弗雷斯特研究公司(Forrester Research)的分析师苏查丽塔•马尔普鲁(Sucharita Mulpuru)评价说：“亚马逊具有随意定价的自由，这对品牌商来说是很大的威胁。”
Amazon has sold clothing for years. But recently it has focused on signing on hundreds of contemporary and high-end brands, including Michael Kors, Vivienne Westwood, Catherine Malandrino, Jack Spade and Tracy Reese, and it continues to prowl for more. On Monday, some of Amazon’s muscle was on display as the company sponsored, and live-streamed, the Costume Institute Benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the accompanying exhibit. Mr. Bezos, the event’s honorary chairman, said that he was advised by Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor, to wear a pocket square with his Tom Ford tuxedo (which is not available on Amazon). He did so.
亚马逊从事服装销售已有多年。但最近亚马逊把重心转向了高端领域，和上百家时尚与高端品牌签下了合同，包括迈克·柯尔(Michael Kors)，薇薇恩·韦斯特伍德(Vivienne Westwood), 凯瑟琳·玛兰蒂诺(Catherine Malandrino), 杰克·丝蓓(Jack Spade)和翠西·瑞斯(Tracy Reese)，并在继续搜寻更多目标。周一，亚马逊一展实力，出资赞助并在线直播了在大都会博物馆(Metropolitan Museum of Art)举行的时装学院慈善晚会(Costume Institute Benefit)和同期的展览。贝佐斯是活动的名誉主席，他说《时尚》主编安娜·温图尔给他的着装建议是汤姆·福特(Tom Ford)燕尾服配装饰方巾（这可在亚马逊上买不着）。他对此言听计从。
Amazon’s decision to go after high fashion is about plain economics. Because Amazon’s costs are about the same whether it is shipping a $10 book or a $1,000 skirt, “gross profit dollars per unit will be much higher on a fashion item,” Mr. Bezos said, and it already makes money on fashion. While its MyHabit site, started last year, uses a flash-sale model to compete with Gilt Groupe, Mr. Bezos says the company’s new effort is not about selling clothes at deep discounts but at prices that ensure that “the designer brands are happy.”
亚马逊进军时尚界纯粹是出于经济考虑。对亚马逊来说，不管是邮寄一本10美元的书还是一件1000美元的裙子，成本其实差不多。贝佐斯说，“时尚商品的单件毛利会高很多，”而且亚马逊已经在时尚领域赚到钱了。亚马逊旗下的MyHabit网站用限时抢购的模式和电子商务网站吉尔特(Gilt Groupe)竞争，但贝佐斯表示，公司最新业务并非销售低折扣衣物，它的价格可以“确保设计师与品牌商们都会开心”。
Amazon has not just size on its side but money. The company has about $5.7 billion in cash and marketable securities, and Mr. Bezos has long taken a stance that investing in the business is the best place to use it. The company can afford to do things that some competitors cannot, like hire a bevy of stylists for the Web site models or investigate replacing the plain brown shipping box with a fancier package for clothes.
亚马逊依赖的不仅是其巨大的规模，而且还有其雄厚的财力。公司拥有价值约57亿美元的现金和有价证券，且贝佐斯一直以来都认定对自己的网站扩大投资是利用这些资金的最佳方式。亚马逊公司有充裕的资金去做别的竞争者所做不到的事情，比如招聘一批设计师来打造网站模特，或是研究包装技巧，用更花俏的包装盒来替代朴实无华的装运盒。
Until now, fashion has been one of the few categories that Amazon has tried to dominate without success. In addition to its own site, Amazon bought the shoe site Zappos.com for more than $1 billion in 2009, started the shoe site Endless.com and MyHabit, and bought the boutique Shopbop in 2006.
到现在为止，时尚领域是亚马逊为数不多的未能成功占领的行业之一。 除了自己的网站，亚马逊还在2009年用逾10亿美元的价格收购了鞋类网站Zappos.com，成立了鞋类网站Endless.com和网站MyHabit，还在2006年收购了精品零售网站Shopbop。
But many brands stayed away because they said Amazon’s site often looked too commoditized. “It’s not a place where you look at it and are like, ‘Oh, my clothes look and feel really good,’ ” said Andy Dunn, founder of the men’s fashion brand Bonobos, which does not sell through Amazon.
但还有很多品牌拒绝加入，因为这些品牌认为亚马逊的网站常常显得过于商品化。“看到亚马逊网站上的商品你不会觉得‘啊，我的衣服看起来真的很好，感觉也很棒’。”男士时尚品牌Bonobos的创始人安迪•邓恩(Andy Dunn)说道。他的品牌就没有在亚马逊上出售。
Amazon hopes to fix that problem by going luxe. Mr. Bezos said Amazon.com’s initial forays into the high end had helped raise apparel sales by triple digits.
亚马逊希望通过走奢侈路线来解决这一问题。贝佐斯说亚马逊在高端领域的初次尝试已经让服装销售增加了三位数。
Amazon’s considerable computing capability, for example, has been turned to fashion and the analysis of enormous amounts of shopping data. The company has also made a “disproportionate” investment in photography, said Cathy Beaudoin, the president of fashion for Amazon. The photography studio, in Kentucky, can shoot more than two images a minute, allowing the company to post new items daily on the Web that were photographed hours earlier.
此外，亚马逊强大的计算能力已被用于时尚行业，并对庞大的购物数据进行分析。同时，据亚马逊的时装总监凯西· 博杜安(Cathy Beaudoin)说，公司在摄影上进行了“不成比例”的投资。位于肯塔基的摄影室每分钟可以拍摄两张以上的图像，这样公司每天都能把数小时之前拍摄的新品图像发布到网上。
Most of all, the company is working to improve its presentation, so far most evidently on MyHabit, which Mr. Bezos said represented where Amazon wanted to go with all of its Web design for fashion.
最重要的是公司正在努力改善网站外观，而最明显的就是MyHabit的网站设计，贝佐斯说亚马逊网站对时尚版块的网页设计会向MyHabit看齐。
Instead of static product images, for example, models spin and pose to show off the clothing. The model’s body measurements and the clothing measurements are provided to help with sizing. And shopper-friendly advice — does the size 8 shoe run big or small? — is prominent.
举例说明，网站不用静态的产品图像，而是展示模特们全方位多角度的穿衣形象。网站还提供模特的尺寸和衣服的尺寸来帮助顾客估量大小。为顾客着想的建议是很重要的，比如8号的鞋版型偏大还是偏小。
The ramp-up has created buzz as the company has hired models, stylists and makeup artists, started using customer data to personalize brand and size search results, and run the first advertisement campaign ever, in print and outdoors, for the Amazon clothing store.
亚马逊的大力举措已经产生了不小的反响，公司雇佣了模特、造型师和化妆师，并开始利用客户数据来对品牌和尺码搜索结果进行个性化设置，公司还开展了亚马逊史上的第一个广告活动，这些关于亚马逊网上服装店的广告同时包括平面广告和户外广告。
In the retail clothing world, fears are growing that few will be able to compete with a stepped-up Amazon.
在服装零售界，恐惧在滋生。人们担心一个崛起的亚马逊会所向披靡。
For some brands, the company’s size alone makes an overture from Amazon difficult to reject. “The amount of eyeballs and traffic and retail dollars that are generated through their Web site” is impressive, said Alex Bhathal, co-president of Raj Manufacturing, which makes licensed swimwear brands like Ella Moss.
对一些品牌来说，单单是亚马逊公司的规模就让它们难以拒绝。“网站吸引的眼球，网站的流量，以及网站零售额”大得惊人，泳装生产商Raj Manufacturing的联席总裁亚历克斯· 巴瑟尔(Alex Bhathal)如是说，这家公司生产诸如埃拉·摩斯 (Ella Moss)等授权泳装品牌。
Amazon can also offer brands more attractive terms than many other stores. For instance, Amazon does not ask for “markdown money” when items do not sell, or return unsold product to a brand, said Ron Friedman, an accountant at Marcum L.L.P. who advises brands like James Perse and American Rag.
亚马逊还可以开出比别的商店更有吸引力的条件。罗恩·弗里德曼(Ron Friedman)说亚马逊在商品未能售出的情况下不会要求“价格补贴”，也不会把商品退回厂家。弗里德曼是麦楷会计师事务所(Marcum L.L.P.)的会计师，他为詹姆士·珀思(James Perse)和美国雷格(American Rag)等品牌提供咨询。
And to woo brands, Amazon is willing to make big buys. Jason Cauchi, the creative director of Dallin Chase, had been selling some merchandise to Amazon’s Shopbop. Recently Amazon said it would buy items from the entire collection, which Mr. Cauchi said was a rare offer and difficult to refuse.
为了吸引品牌，亚马逊要进行一些大手笔的购买。Dallin Chase的创意总监杰森·卡西(Jason Cauchi)已经和亚马逊的Shopbop有过商品交易。最近亚马逊表示，会从其整个设计系列进行采购，这种难得一见的提议让卡西觉得难以拒绝。
A retailer like Amazon would typically pay brands a wholesale price for clothes, then set the retail price itself (although more powerful brands often mandate a minimum retail price).
像亚马逊这样的零售商通常会用批发的价格买下品牌服装，然后再自行定下零售价格（尽管实力较强的品牌通常会指定一个最低零售价）。
While brands sell some of the same items to different stores, they are increasingly developing exclusive colors or styles to avoid price-comparison issues. “A manufacturer does not want to kill a business, and the best way to kill a business is to have the same product selling for less on Amazon,” Mr. Friedman, the retail accountant, said.
品牌商会把一些同样的单品卖给不同的零售店，但是为了避免价格战，品牌商越来越倾向于设计生产专属颜色和款式。“生产商绝不愿意让生意走上死路，而死路一条的最佳方式就是相同的产品在亚马逊低价销售。”零售会计师弗里德曼说。
But Mr. Bezos said that, despite having taken a low-price approach in other industries, Amazon would not in fashion. “There’s a sophisticated markdown cadence in the fashion industry that we think makes sense and we’re basically following that established approach,” he said.
贝佐斯说，尽管亚马逊对其它行业采用了低价销售的方式，但对时尚行业绝对不会。“时尚行业有着成熟的降价节奏，我们认为这是有道理的，所以我们基本上会遵从既有模式。”他说道。
There are many disbelievers, given Amazon’s history in other industries. Mr. Bezos, moreover, has to deal with the fact that he is no fashion guy. Asked in the interview about the brands he was wearing, Mr. Bezos could not name the brands of his shirt or shoes, which he said he bought in New York years ago. The jeans, he said, were Prada (not available on Amazon); his blue “Jeff” security badge was dangling from them.
考虑到亚马逊在其它行业的历史，很多人会对它持怀疑态度。另外，贝佐斯还要直面他不是时尚专家这样的事实。当在采访中被问到身穿什么品牌的服装，贝佐斯不能说出他的衬衣或鞋的牌子，只是说是几年前在纽约买的。他说出自己的牛仔裤到是普拉达的（亚马逊上买不到），上面还吊着自己的蓝色公司门禁卡。