It is hard to imagine that the corner of a car park on the outskirts of Leeds could help determine the future of Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer. But that is just what is happening at the Pudsey outpost of Asda, Walmart’s UK arm.

很难想象，位于利兹(Leeds)市郊的停车场一隅，能帮助决定全球最大零售商沃尔玛(Walmart)的未来。但在沃尔玛英国子公司阿斯达(Asda)的帕德西门店(Pudsey)，这样的事情恰恰正在发生。

It is the first Asda supermarket to allow customers to pick up their shopping from temperature-controlled lockers. After submitting their order online, shoppers collect their goods from the bright-turquoise storage units, which are unlocked when they enter their order number or scan a “QR” code sent out after payment. Inside the lockers, their goods are divided into three zones: chilled on top, frozen on the bottom and ambient in the middle.

这是阿斯达第一个允许消费者从温控储物柜中提货的门店。在网上提交订单后，消费者可以从亮眼的青绿色储物柜内提货，须输入订单号码或者扫描支付后收到的二维码才能开锁。在储物柜内部，他们的商品被分放在3个区域：顶部是冷藏商品，底部是冷冻商品，中间是常温商品。

Walmart is watching the Pudsey “click and collect” experiment to see whether it could be a useful innovation for its vast grocery operations in the US, which are today overwhelmingly reliant on customers driving out to stores and picking goods off the shelves themselves.

沃尔玛正关注帕德西门店的“点击鼠标然后提货”（click and collect，以下简称“点击提货”）尝试，以确定这项创新能否适用于沃尔玛在美国的庞大食品杂货业务。目前，沃尔玛在美绝大多数食品杂货业务依赖于消费者开车到门店、自己取走货架上的商品。

“Click and collect is an interesting idea,” says Neil Ashe, who runs Walmart’s global ecommerce centre. While acknowledging that the US and UK are very different markets, he thinks it could have an appeal for Walmart domestically as it experiments with a move into online grocery ordering. It is already trialling lockers for non-food items at several Walmart stores outside Washington DC. “If [click and collect] turns out to be popular with customers, it could definitely make a big difference.”

沃尔玛全球电商中心负责人尼尔•阿什(Neil Ashe)表示：“‘点击提货’是一个有趣的点子。”尽管他承认，美国和英国是两个迥异的市场，但他认为，这一方式在美国本土对沃尔玛可能具有一定吸引力，因为该公司正尝试进军食品杂货在线订购业务。沃尔玛已开始在华盛顿特区周边的几家门店尝试设置非食品类商品的储物柜。“如果事实证明（点击提货方式）受到消费者欢迎，那么它肯定会大有所为。”

Asda’s importance to Walmart in this regard reflects the fact that the UK is much more advanced than the US in shifting grocery shopping on to the internet. In the UK, about 5 per cent of grocery sales are through the web, compared with less than 1 per cent in the US. Click and collect is also forecast to grow much faster than home delivery in the UK, according to strategy consultants OC&C. It predicts a 60 per cent compound annual growth rate for non-food click and collect volumes between 2012 and 2017, against 5 per cent for home delivery. “Click and collect is every retailer’s biggest growth opportunity,” says Michael Jary, a partner at OC&C.

阿斯达在这方面对于沃尔玛的重要性反映出，在食品杂货购买方式向网购转移方面，英国要比美国先进得多。在英国，约5%的食品杂货通过网络销售，而美国的这一比例则不到1%。根据OC&C战略咨询公司的数据，在英国，预计“点击提货”业务的增速将远远快于“送货上门”业务。该公司预测，2012年至2017年，非食品类商品“点击提货”业务量的年复合增速为60%，而同类商品“送货上门”业务量的这一增速为5%。OC&C合伙人迈克尔•雅里(Michael Jary)表示：“‘点击提货’是所有零售商面临的最大增长机遇。”

The shift towards click and collect can be partly explained by shopper impatience. As online shopping has gathered pace, so customers have become more demanding. Waiting in for an order is no longer acceptable.

消费者缺乏耐心可在一定程度上解释“点击提货”方式的流行。随着在线购物的发展势头加快，消费者变得要求更高。他们已不再能接受在家里等待订单送达。

“One of the great myths about home delivery is that it is convenient. It is only convenient if you happen to be at home,” said Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco, at a recent industry conference.

乐购(Tesco)首席执行官菲利普•克拉克(Philip Clarke)最近在一个行业会议上表示：“人们对‘送货上门’的一大误解就是认为它方便。只有当你恰好在家时，这种方式才称得上方便。”

But there is another reason why retailers are embracing click and collect. Since the earliest days of online shopping, the last mile of fulfilling the delivery has been challenging – particularly for food.

然而，“点击提货”方式受到零售商欢迎的原因还有一个。自在线购物诞生初期以来，商品送达前的“最后一英里”一直是个挑战，尤其是对于食品而言。

In a traditional supermarket, the customer does much of the work – driving to the store, picking goods off shelves, then driving them home again. When an order is placed electronically, all this must be done by the supermarket. And cut-throat competition means they struggle to recoup the cost of delivery.

在传统超市，很多工作由消费者完成：驱车到店、将商品从货架上取走，然后再驱车回家。如果电子下单的话，所有这些都必须由超市完成。而激烈的竞争意味着，超市很难收回递送成本。

While grocery click and collect is usually free to the customer, the fulfilment costs are much lower. Staff must still physically pick the products from the shelves, and put them in the car or the locker, but the last-mile costs are minimised.

尽管消费者选择“点击提货”方式购买食品杂货不需支付额外费用，但超市完成订单的成本要低得多。超市员工仍需要亲自从货架上取下商品，然后将其装入汽车或储物柜，但“最后一英里”的成本被降到了最低。

“[Click and collect] is more profitable than home shopping,” says Mark Ibbotson, retail director at Asda, although he points out that the supermarket is making money from its grocery home shopping operation.

阿斯达零售主管马克•伊博森(Mark Ibbotson)表示：“‘点击提货’比‘HS’（home shopping，指通过电话或网络在家下订单、然后等待货物送上门的购物方式，包括电视购物和网络购物——译者注）更有利可图。”不过，他指出，超市的食品杂货HS业务仍是盈利的。

Asda has also been rolling out a drive-through click and collect system. In York, less than 30 miles away from Pudsey, customers drive up to a collection point and scan their QR codes.

阿斯达还在推出免下车“点击提货”系统。在距离帕德西不到30英里的约克(York)，消费者可以驱车到一个提货点，然后扫描二维码。

Immediately, the order flashes up on a screen inside. Already picked from the shelves, it is assembled from its ambient, frozen and chilled constituents, and an Asda employee delivers it to the car. The aim is for the whole process to take less than five minutes. Tiny sensors under the floor detect the car and start the clock ticking.

订单马上就会出现在提货点里面的屏幕上。然后，已经备好的订单商品就会从常温、冷冻和冷藏区被合并到一起，一名阿斯达员工会将全部商品送至消费者的汽车上。超市的目标是确保整个过程用时不到5分钟。设在地下的微型感应器会检测到汽车，然后开始计时。

“Most customers don’t get out of the car, and a colleague puts [the order] in the boot,” says Mr Ibbotson.

伊博森表示：“多数消费者不必下车，员工会将（订单上的商品）放入他们的后备箱。”

Asda already has 110 drive-through collection points, where customers can also pick up non-food items. This is expected to increase to half of its 600-strong estate by the end of the year, with grocery click and collect points in the remainder of its stores.

阿斯达已设立110个免下车提货点，在这里消费者还可以提取非食品类商品。预计到今年年底其600多家门店有一半都将设置这种提货点，其他门店也将设置食品杂货类商品的“点击提货”点。

Mr Ibbotson says Asda plans to have 1,000 remote click and collect locations “where people live and work”, by 2018. Drive-throughs are already being installed in petrol stations.

伊博森表示，到2018年，阿斯达计划在“人们生活和工作的区域”设立1000个远程“点击提货”点。该公司已经开始在加油站设立免下车提货点。

Lockers could go in offices, high streets, schools, universities, petrol and train stations, even airports. Asda is trialling pick-ups from London Underground stations, although at the moment this is served by a van outside the station. At Pudsey, the busiest time is between 2pm and 4pm, as parents pop in around the time of the school run.

储物柜可设在办公室、商业街、学校、大学、加油站以及火车站，甚至机场。阿斯达设在伦敦地铁站的提货点正在试营业，不过目前是由停在地铁站外的一辆货车提供提货服务。在帕德西，最忙碌的时段是下午两点至4点，因为家长们会在学校放学前后顺道过来提货。

Rival Tesco is also increasingly active in click and collect, creating pick-up “pods” in car parks and drive- throughs.

其竞争对手乐购也在加紧提供“点击提货”服务，该公司在停车场设立了提货“舱”(POD)，还设置了免下车提货点。

One valuable benefit is that customers often buy extra items when they pick up their orders. Asda estimates that a third of the customers using its drive-through service and lockers come into the store.

一个重要好处在于，消费者通常会在提货时顺便购买一些其他商品。阿斯达估计，在使用免下车服务和储物柜提货的消费者中，有三分之一会进入超市店内。

Another advantage is that it could help retailers reach customers where the economics of home delivery do not make sense. Drive-through grocery points began in France, where journeys can be very long and populations sparse outside urban areas. Coles, the Australian supermarket chain, has installed lockers with three temperature zones at petrol stations and supermarkets.

另一个好处在于，这能帮助零售商接触到那些为他们提供“送货上门”服务不划算的消费者。食品杂货免下车提货点最早出现在法国，在那里城区以外人口稀疏、距离超市可能路途遥远。澳大利亚超市连锁Coles也在加油站和超市设置了具有3个温区的储物柜。

Theoretically, using drive-throughs or lockers could help Walmart crack grocery home-shopping in the US. It is trialling drive-throughs at 29 of its US superstores in only its second foray into online food in its home market.

从理论上来说，沃尔玛或许能借助设置免下车提货点或储物柜提货点，解决美国食品杂货HS业务面临的难题。沃尔玛正在美国的29家超市试行免下车提货，这仅是该公司第二次在其本土市场上试水食品在线订购业务。

In the meantime, Walmart and Asda are collaborating closely. Insiders joke that Asda staff used to be constantly flying to Walmart’s HQ in Bentonville, Arkansas. Now the demand is for flights to and from San Francisco, to visit Mr Ashe’s global ecommerce team in Silicon Valley.

同时，沃尔玛和阿斯达正密切合作。内部人士开玩笑说，阿斯达员工曾频繁飞往沃尔玛位于阿肯色州本顿维尔(Bentonville)的总部。现在他们需要的是飞往旧金山和从那里起飞的航班，以访问阿什领导的位于硅谷(Silicon Valley)的全球电商团队。

But Mr Ibbotson points out that Asda also has an eye on developments outside the UK. Indeed, inspiration for the drive-throughs came from a visit to France. “We scan the world, and [Walmart operations in other countries] scan our world,” he says.

然而，伊博森指出，阿斯达还在关注英国以外的动向。事实上，免下车提货服务的灵感来自一次法国之行。他表示：“我们在全世界搜寻，（其他国家的沃尔玛业务）则在我们的世界里搜寻。”