電商反攻實體店零售業務

????時尚網站BaubleBar在過去兩年建立了忠實的用戶群，這些人已習慣于在BaubleBar上購買款式多變、價格合理的珠寶。BaubleBar計劃在10月17日邀請顧客前往曼哈頓總部后的THE BAR體驗店親自佩戴珠寶，這座體驗店的面積足有500平方英尺之大。

????它意味著現代營銷方式向傳統回歸：自互聯網誕生以來，傳統實體零售店紛紛開設網上商店。據咨詢公司eMarketer統計，在線服飾和配件的銷售額增長率要遠遠高于其它電子商務產品類別，有望在2012年達到409億美元，高于2011年的409億美元。不過到目前為止，電商們還鮮有涉足實體店的。【你還記得上次開車前往本地的亞馬遜（Amazon）實體店買T恤是什么時候嗎？】

????然而，這一趨勢如今正在發生改變。許多新近成立的數字品牌都在大力發展線下業務。他們知道，互聯網市場滿是大好機會，但與傳統實體市場相比，前者仍稍顯稚嫩。據統計，目前80%的商品交易仍在線下進行。

????所以時尚眼鏡制造商Warby Parker最近也開設了一家名為SoHo的體驗店，還將一部校車改造成了流動商店，計劃在未來半年內前往美國9座城市。此外，Warby Parker計劃在洛杉磯、芝加哥和費城等9座城市的商場內開設體驗店。

????另一個例子是互聯網時尚男裝品牌Bonobos。去年秋天，這家公司在切爾西總部附近開設了名為Guideshop的精品店。今年4月，Bonobos獲得了由諾德斯特姆百貨公司（Nordstrom's）牽頭的1,640萬美元投資【還有風險投資加速合伙公司（Accel Partners）和光速創投（Lightspeed Venture Partners）】，而且還與其達成了協議，將在后者超過69家零售店中銷售服裝。一年后，Bonobos在波士頓和帕洛阿爾托開設了Guideshop精品店，而其芝加哥店也將于10月15日開張。

????咨詢公司弗雷斯特研究公司（Forrester）分析師蘇卡利塔?穆爾普魯表示，這樣的策略合情合理。因為房地產價格目前相對較低，而電商們也已大幅降低了庫存成本。（許多電商在顧客從實體店選購好商品后，仍使用在線快遞方式發貨。）穆爾普魯補充說：“這只是一些小動作而已。一旦奏效，他們就會推廣到其它地方。”

????BaubleBar希望遵循這一模式。該公司創始人達妮埃拉?亞科博夫斯基以及艾米?賈恩今年都是30歲。幾年前，兩人同在哈佛商學院（Harvard Business School）讀二年級時，產生了創辦珠寶公司的想法，該公司出售的項鏈、耳環和手鐲價格一般在20到120美元之間。他們發現，與服裝或鞋子相比，大多數消費者對珠寶商的品牌沒那么在意。因此，百貨商場競爭憑借的是利潤率，而非銷量：他們壓低價格，從許多規模較小的設計師那里采購珠寶，然后以高得多的價格將產品賣出。

????見過數百名設計師之后，亞科博夫斯基與賈恩轉向了互聯網，以繞開中間商環節，使消費者能享受到更低的價格，而同時設計師能比以前多賺些錢。她們向朋友們發出BaubleBar邀請后，于2011年1月正式啟動了網站。至今，BaubleBar的增長主要是靠口耳相傳。該公司擁有560萬美元的資金，每周大概上線100款新品。BaubleBar能夠迅速行動——這是互聯網的典型優勢，并使產品本地化。

????Fashion site BaubleBar has spent two years building an avid group of fans who turn to the site to sift through a fast-changing array of hip jewelry sold at reasonable prices. On October 17, the company will invite customers to try on that jewelry in person -- at THE BAR, a 500 square-foot showroom that will open in the back of the company's Manhattan corporate headquarters.

????Consider it a modern twist on an old trend: since the birth of the web, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers have been creating digital storefronts. Web sales of apparel and accessories, in particular, are growing far faster than any other e-commerce product category and are expected to reach $40.9 billion in 2012, up from $40.9 billion in 2011, according to eMarketer. But until recently, digital retailers rarely took to the streets. (When's the last time you drove down to your local Amazon (AMZN) to pick up a skirt?)

????Now that's changing as a new crop of entrepreneurs are developing digital brands that migrate to physical locations. They know that the online opportunity may be big, but it is still dwarfed by more traditional shopping experiences; 80% of transactions still occur offline after all.

????Thus trendy glasses-maker Warby Parker recently opened a SoHo showroom, and the company has retrofitted a school bus to be a pop-up store-on-the-go that will travel to nine cities over the next six months. It has also launched showrooms within existing retail spaces in nine US cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

????Another example: Last fall Bonobos, an Internet fashion brand that peddles trendy pants to affluent men, opened a storefront it called "Guideshop" in the company's Chelsea headquarters. In April, the company took a $16.4 million investment led by Nordstrom's (JWN) (along with Accel Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners) and struck a deal with the retailer to sell its clothes in more than 69 physical stores. A year later, Bonobos has "Guideshop" boutiques in Boston and Palo Alto and a Chicago store will open October 15.

????It's a strategy that makes sense, says Forrester (FORR) analyst Sucharita Mulpuru, because real estate is relatively cheap right now and online retailers have drastically reduced the price of inventory. (Many still mail the inventory online after customers have reviewed the products in the store.) "They're small bets," Mulpuru adds. "If it ends up being successful they can extend it to other places as well."

????That's the model BaubleBar hopes to follow. Founders Daniella Yacobovsky and Amy Jain, both 30, developed the idea for the jewelry company, which sells necklaces, earrings and bracelets for an average between $20 and $120, a few years ago when they were classmates in their second year of Harvard Business School. They noticed most shoppers had no brand affiliation with jewelers the way they might with clothing, say, or shoes. Thus department stores competed on margins, not volume: they bought from many smaller designers without care-taking relationships and then marked the jewelry way up.

????After meeting with hundreds of designers, Yacobovsky and Jain turned to the Internet to cut out the middlemen, bringing prices down for consumers while at the same time paying designers more. They launched officially in January 2011 after issuing BaubleBar invitations to friends, and have grown mostly by word-of-mouth. With $5.6 million in funding, the company, which adds roughly 100 new products to the site every week, is also able to move very fast -- a classic Internet advantage -- and to localize products.