從亞馬遜 Go到盒馬鮮生,自動化商店熱潮來襲大綱

SEATTLE — To see what it is like Inside stores where sensors and artificial intelligence have replaced cashiers, shoppers have to trek to Amazon Go, the internet retailer’s experimental convenience shop in downtown Seattle.
西雅圖——想看看用傳感器和人工智能取代了收銀員的商店裏是什麼樣的，購物者必須前往網絡零售商亞馬遜(Amazon)在西雅圖市中心開設的試驗性無人便利商店亞馬遜 Go。

Soon, though, more technology-driven businesses like Amazon Go may be coming to them.
不過，更多像這樣由科技驅動的商店很快就會來到購物者身邊。

A global race to automate stores is underway among several of the world’s top retailers and small tech startups, which are motivated to shave labor costs and minimize shoppers’ frustrations, like waiting for cashiers. They are also trying to prevent Amazon from dominating the physical retail world as it does online shopping.
一些世界最頂級的零售商和小型科技初創公司正在全球範圍內進行自動化商店的競爭，這些初創公司希望削減勞動成本，把購物者的不滿——例如排隊結賬——降到最低。它們還在試圖阻止亞馬遜像控制網絡購物一樣掌控實體零售市場。

Companies are testing robots that help keep shelves stocked, as well as apps that let shoppers ring up items with a smartphone. High-tech systems like the one used by Amazon Go completely automate the checkout process. China, which has its own ambitious e-commerce companies, is emerging as an especially fertile place for these retail experiments.
這些公司正在測試填充貨架的機器人，以及讓購物者通過智能手機錄入商品的應用。包括亞馬遜 Go這樣的高科技系統會把顧客結賬的過程完全自動化。擁有衆多志向遠大的電商公司的中國，尤其成了進行這些零售實驗的沃土。

If they succeed, these new technologies could add further uncertainty to the retail workforce, which is already in flux because of the growth of online shopping. An analysis last year by the World Economic Forum said 30-50 percent of the world’s retail jobs could be at risk once technologies like automated checkout were fully embraced.
如果它們取得成功，這些新技術可能會進一步增加零售業勞動力市場的不確定性，這個市場已經因爲網絡購物的增長變得不穩定。世界經濟論壇(World Economic Forum)去年的一項分析指出，一旦像自動結賬這樣的技術完全被接受，全球30％-50％的零售業工作可能面臨消失的風險。

In addition, the efforts have raised concerns among privacy researchers because of the mounds of data that retailers will be able to gather about shopper behavior as they digitize their locations. Inside Amazon Go, for instance, the cameras never lose sight of a customer once he or she enters the shop.
此外，這些努力引起了隱私研究者的擔憂，因爲零售商在數字化他們的店鋪時可以採集大量有關購物者行爲的數據。例如，在亞馬遜 Go內部，購物者一旦進入商店，店內攝像頭會無時無刻監視他們。

Retailers had adopted technologies in their stores long before Amazon Go arrived on the scene. Self-checkout kiosks have been common in supermarkets and other stores for years. Kroger, the grocery chain, uses sensors and predictive analytics tools to better anticipate when more cashiers will be needed.
早在亞馬遜 Go出現之前就已經有零售商在店內使用自動化技術。多年來，自助結賬機在超市和其他商店中已經變得很常見。雜貨連鎖商店克羅格(Kroger)使用了傳感器和預測分析工具來更好地預測何時需要更多收銀員。

But the opening of Amazon Go in January was alarming for many retailers, who saw a sudden willingness by Amazon to wield its technology power in new ways. Hundreds of cameras near the ceiling and sensors in the shelves help automatically tally the cookies, chips and soda that shoppers remove and put into their bags. Shoppers’ accounts are charged as they walk out the doors.
然而，亞馬遜 Go在一月開業令很多零售商感到緊張，它們看到亞馬遜突然願意以新的方式運用其技術力量。天花板上的數百攝像頭和貨架上的傳感器可以自動記錄購物者取出並放入他們包中的餅乾、薯片和汽水。購物者走出商店時，他們的帳戶會自動結賬。

Nowhere are retailers experimenting more avidly with automating store shopping than in China, a country obsessed by new tech fads.
在癡迷於新科技時尚的中國，零售商格外熱衷於進行自動化商店實驗。

One effort is a chain of more than 100 unmanned convenience shops from a startup called Bingo Box, one of which sits in a business park in Shanghai. Shoppers scan a code on their phones to enter and, once inside, scan the items they want to buy. The store unlocks the exit door after they have paid through their phones.
其中一項努力是一家名爲繽果盒子的創業公司，他們開了一百多家無人連鎖便利店，其中一家位於上海的一個商業園內。購物者可以用手機掃描二維碼進入商店，然後在店內掃描他們想要購買的物品。通過手機付款後，商店將打開出口。

Alibaba, one of China’s largest internet companies, has opened 35 of its Hema automated grocery stores, which blend online ordering with automated checkout. Customers scan their groceries at checkout kiosks, using facial recognition to pay electronically, while bags of groceries ordered by customers online float overhead on aerial conveyors, headed to a loading dock for delivery to shoppers.
中國最大的互聯網公司之一阿里巴巴開設了35家名叫盒馬鮮生的自動化食雜店，將在線訂購和自動結賬融爲一體。顧客到結賬機掃描商品，使用面部識別進行電子付款，在他們的頭頂，由顧客網購的食雜貨物正通過空中傳送帶送往一個裝貨點，準備遞送給顧客。

Not to be outdone, JD, another big internet retailer in China, said in December that it had teamed up with a developer to build hundreds of its own unmanned convenience shops. The businesses put readable chips on items to automate the checkout process.
中國另一家大型互聯網零售商京東也不甘示弱，它在去年12月表示已經與開發商合作建造了數百家無人便利商店。這家企業在商品上安裝了可讀芯片，從而實現自動化結賬。

At its huge campus south of Beijing, JD is testing a new store that relies on computer vision and sensors on the shelves to know when items have been taken. The system tracks shopping without tagging products with chips. Payment, which for now still happens at a kiosk, is done with facial recognition.
在其位於北京南邊的一棟大樓裏，京東正在測試一種新型商店，它依靠貨架上的計算機視像和傳感器來得知商品什麼時候已被買走。該系統無需使用芯片標記商品就可以跟蹤購物過程。結賬目前還需要在收銀機，是通過面部識別完成的。

JD and Alibaba both plan to sell their systems to other retailers and are working on additional checkout technologies.
京東和阿里巴巴都計劃將自己的系統賣給其他零售商，並且都在研發其他結賬技術。

Back in the United States, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is testing the Bossa Nova robots in dozens of its locations to reduce some tedious tasks that can eat up a worker’s time. The robots, which look like giant wheeled luggage bags, roll up and down the aisles looking for shelves where cereal boxes are out of stock and items like toys are mislabeled. The machines then report back to workers, who restock the shelves and apply new labels.
在美國，全球最大的零售商沃爾瑪(Walmart)正在數十個地方測試Bossa Nova機器人，以減少一些單調乏味、耗費工人時間的任務。這些看似巨型輪式行李箱的機器人在過道里來來回回，尋找麥片脫銷和玩具等物品被貼錯標籤的貨架。然後這些機器向工人反饋，他們會補貨並貼上新的標籤。

At 120 of Walmart’s 4,700 U.S. stores, shoppers can also scan items, including fruits and vegetables, using the camera on their smartphones and pay for them using the devices. When customers walk out, an employee checks their receipts and does a “spot check” of the items they bought.
在美國4700家沃爾瑪門店中，120家店的顧客可以用智能手機上的攝像頭掃描水果和蔬菜等商品，並用智能手機付賬。顧客離開時，會有一名工作人員檢查他們的小票，並對他們購買的商品進行“抽查”。

Kroger, one of the country’s largest grocery chains, has also been testing a mobile scanning service in its supermarkets, recently announcing that it would expand it to 400 of its more 2,700 stores.
作爲美國最大的食品雜貨連鎖之一，克羅格一直在自己的超市裏測試一項移動掃描服務，並在最近宣佈將把它擴大到其2700家門店中的400家。

New startups are seeking to give retailers the technology to compete with Amazon’s system. One of them, AiFi, is working on cashierless checkout technology that it says will be flexible and affordable enough that mom-and-pop retailers and bigger outlets can use it. In the United States, venture capitalists put $100 million into retail automation startups in each of the past two years, up from about $64 million in 2015, according Pitchbook, a financial data firm.
新的初創公司正在爭取給零售商提供與亞馬遜的系統競爭的技術。其中，AiFi正在研究無收銀員結賬技術。該公司稱這種技術靈活、經濟，夫妻店和較大的零售店都能使用。據金融數據公司Pitchbook稱，在美國，風險投資人過去兩年每年向零售自動化初創公司投資1億美元，而2015年這個數字約爲6400萬美元。

“There’s a gold rush feeling about this,” said Alan O’Herlihy, chief executive of Everseen, an Irish company working with retailers on automated checkout technology that uses artificial intelligence.
“這有一種淘金熱的感覺，”愛爾蘭公司Everseen的首席執行官艾倫·歐赫利希(Alan O 'Herlihy)說。該公司正在與零售商合作開發使用人工智能的自動結賬技術。

While such technologies could improve the shopping experience, there may also be consequences that people find less desirable. Retailers like Amazon could compile reams of data about where customers spend time inside their doors, comparable to what internet companies already know about their online habits.
這類技術雖然可能會改善購物體驗，但也可能產生人們不那麼喜歡的後果。像亞馬遜這樣的零售商可以收集大量有關顧客到店後把時間花在了哪裏的數據，類似於網絡公司對人們上網習慣的瞭解。

“It’s combined with everything else Amazon might know about you,” said Gennie Gebhart, a researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties organization. “Amazon knows what I buy online, what I watch and now how I move around a space.”
“它同亞馬遜可能瞭解到的你的其他所有信息結合起來，”在線公民自由組織電子前沿基金會(Electronic Frontier Foundation)的研究員基妮·格布哈特(Gennie Gebhart)說。“亞馬遜知道我在網上買什麼，看什麼，現在又知道了我在一個地方的移動軌跡。”

In China, there is less public concern about data privacy issues. Many Chinese citizens have become accustomed to high levels of surveillance, including widespread security cameras and government monitoring of online communications.
在中國，公衆對數據隱私問題不那麼關注。很多中國公民習慣了高度的監視，包括廣泛存在的監控攝像頭和政府對網上交流的監視。

Depending on how heavily retailers automate in the years to come, job losses could be severe in a sector that has already experienced wave after wave of store closings by the likes of Macy’s, Toys “R” Us and Sears.
這個行業已經經歷了梅西百貨(Macy's)、玩具反斗城(Toys “R” Us)和西爾斯(Sears)之類一波又一波關店潮，今後失業現象可能會很嚴重，這具體取決於零售商在接下來幾年裏的自動化程度會有多高。

Retailers are playing down the threat to jobs. Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, says that it does not anticipate automation will lead to job losses, but rather that the new technologies are meant to redirect employees to spend more time helping customers find what they need.
零售商正在淡化自動化對就業的威脅。作爲美國最大的私人僱主，沃爾瑪稱，它預計自動化不會導致裁員，並表示新技術的本意是重新讓員工把更多時間用在幫助顧客找到他們需要的東西上。