Amazon 日益增长导致其他零售商相继闭店止蚀

零售经济低迷是不争的事实，单看香港近年来有多少店舖结业及没有人承租便知道，偏尔走过旺区都是空空如也的舖位。但原来远在美国的零售亦同样，直至现时为止，2017 年内美国已关闭了 6,300 多家门店。当中最为熟悉的是 American Apparel，Kmart，American Eagle 等。而最近由 UBS 瑞银银行的调查结果显示，球鞋零售商 Foot Locker 的第二季度业绩令人沮丧，导致股价暴跌近 30％。当中的店舖销售额同比下降了 6％，股票在过去三个月中亦暴跌了 57％，如此下去 Foot Locker 将有机会要关闭部分商店以止蚀。不过在 Foot Locker 的季度会议上，其董事长兼首席执行官 Richard Johnson 表示他们不担心 Amazon 的威胁。

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.

但据 UBS 的分析师 Michael Binetti 的报告显示，Foot Locker 着实在运动鞋零售行业上失去了市场份额，而现在 Amazon 亦已提供了 Nike 的鞋款贩售，令到消费者选择转至 Amazon 消费并直送到家中，并不是到 Foot Locker 和 Finish Line 的实体店。另外 Michael Binetti 更提到现在连运动品牌自家都有开设了网店，喜欢购买的 Nike 的消费者亦转移至网上消费，成为了零售商店的一大致命伤。