財雄勢大－Amazon 日益增長導致其他零售商相繼閉店止蝕

零售經濟低迷是不爭的事實，單看香港近年來有多少店舖結業及沒有人承租便知道，偏爾走過旺區都是空空如也的舖位。但原來遠在美國的零售亦同樣，直至現時為止，2017 年內美國已關閉了 6,300 多家門店。當中最為熟悉的是 American Apparel，Kmart，American Eagle 等。而最近由 UBS 瑞銀銀行的調查結果顯示，球鞋零售商 Foot Locker 的第二季度業績令人沮喪，導致股價暴跌近 30％。當中的店舖銷售額同比下降了 6％，股票在過去三個月中亦暴跌了 57％，如此下去 Foot Locker 將有機會要關閉部分商店以止蝕。不過在 Foot Locker 的季度會議上，其董事長兼首席執行官 Richard Johnson 表示他們不擔心 Amazon 的威脅。

For our part, we will continue to invest in creating compelling experiences for our customers. At the premium end of the market, most of our customers don’t want to just buy a specific product they see on a screen. They want that product to have a connection to an experience they find meaningful and want to participate in. That experience could be a special event in a store, being notified of or discovering a video on our website or YouTube channel of an athlete or celebrity wearing or discussing the latest product, an interaction with their friends while touching and feeling the product, or simply a conversation about sneakers with one of our stripers or other store associates. For that reason, we do not believe our vendors selling product directly on Amazon is an imminent threat. There is no indication that any of our vendors intend to sell premium athletic product, $100-plus sneakers that we offer, directly via that sort of distribution channel.

但據 UBS 的分析師 Michael Binetti 的報告顯示，Foot Locker 着實在運動鞋零售行業上失去了市場份額，而現在 Amazon 亦已提供了 Nike 的鞋款販售，令到消費者選擇轉至 Amazon 消費並直送到家中，並不是到 Foot Locker 和 Finish Line 的實體店。另外 Michael Binetti 更提到現在連運動品牌自家都有開設了網店，喜歡購買的 Nike 的消費者亦轉移至網上消費，成為了零售商店的一大致命傷。