Shoppers in India Step From Neighborhood Bazaars to the Web
印度人購物 市集轉網路
By Max Bearak

At first, Kunal Bahl and his high school buddy Rohit Bansal had modest ambitions for their online shopping site, Snapdeal.
巴赫爾與他的中學好友班沙爾共同創辦了購物網站Snapdeal，最初不敢抱太大指望。

Online retailing was still a largely unproven endeavor in 2010, particularly in India, a country where most people don’t have bank accounts, let alone credit cards to make purchases on the Internet. When an angel investor offered $200,000 as seed money, they took only half and aimed for just 100 transactions a day.
2010年，網路零售還只是大抵而言尚待考驗的事業，尤其是在印度，當地多數人並無銀行帳戶，更不必說可用於網路購物的信用卡。一名天使投資人為巴赫爾與班沙爾提供20萬美元的資金時，他們只收下一半，而且只設定一天完成100筆交易的目標。

Snapdeal is now on track to handle more than $1 billion in sales this year for over 30,000 merchants across more than 500 categories of goods and services.
如今，Snapdeal今年可望為3萬多商家的500多種商品及服務帶來超過10億美元的營業成績。

“We sell a sari every 12 seconds,” Mr. Bahl said.
巴赫爾說：「我們平均每12秒賣出一件莎麗服。」

The rise of Indian e-commerce has captured the attention of international investors.
印度電子商務的興起，已經引起國際投資人的注意。

This year, Snapdeal has raised $233 million, with about half coming from the American Internet company eBay.
Snapdeal今年已經籌得2.33億美元，其中大約半數來自美國線上拍賣與購物網站電子海灣公司。

At least half a dozen other leading Indian shopping sites have announced major fund-raising deals in recent months. Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce company, said recently that it had raised $1 billion from investors, including American firms like Tiger Global and Accel Partners.
近幾個月，至少另有六家印度知名的購物網站相繼宣布已達成重要的籌資協議。印度最大的電子商務公司Flipkart最近表示，它已經向幾個投資人籌得10億美元，其中包括美國的「老虎環球」投資公司與知名風險投資公司「阿塞爾伙伴」。

The investment surge reflects the changing landscape in India. Internet access has rapidly expanded, mostly through mobile devices, and Indians are now shifting daily activity online.
投資大增反映印度面貌已經開始改變的事實。網路普及率已迅速擴大，大多透過各種行動裝置為之，許多印度人則已將日常活動轉移到網路上。

But online shopping remains a largely untapped market. Most analysts figure that it accounts for less than 1 percent of the country’s $500 billion retail market.
然而網路購物還是一個大致有待開發的市場。多數分析家認為，它在印度全國5000億美元零售市場中，所占比例不到1%。

By and large, India remains a bastion of the “kirana,” or neighborhood general store, as well as the roving hawkers, whose voices advertise their wares through narrow lanes. Most people tend to shop with sellers they know personally, running grains of rice through their fingers and inspecting the stitch count of shirts to determine quality. These habits, combined with the newness of the Internet and credit cards, have led to a trust gap between online retailers and their customers.
整體而言，印度仍然是個以社區雜貨店及沿街叫賣小販為主的國家。這些小販在小巷叫賣各種製品。多數的人只會向他們認識的商販購買各種商品，讓米粒在指間流動，還會檢查襯衫的針縫數，以確定品質的好壞。這些習慣加上網路、信用卡仍屬新奇事物，已使網路零售商與消費者之間出現一條互信鴻溝。

Looming large over the industry is last year’s entrance in India of Amazon. Huge American online retailers like Amazon and eBay own marketplace platforms here, which, like Snapdeal and Flipkart, connect merchants with consumers. But the country’s regulations prevent Amazon and other overseas players from selling directly to consumers. Currently, foreign investment in multi-brand retail is limited to 51 percent.
對這個產業構成陰影的一大因素是購物網站亞馬遜去年進入印度。亞馬遜與電子海灣等美國大型網路零售商在印度擁有市場平台。它們與Snapdeal、Flipkart一樣，可以連結商家與消費者。然而印度法律禁止亞馬遜與其他外國玩家直接向消費者銷售。在印度，外資對多品牌零售的投資比率限制於51%。

There are hints that the system may be changing. The current government is perceived as backing small business owners who fear that opening retailing to foreign behemoths will put them out of business. But Narendra Modi, India’s new prime minister, urged the industry to embrace change during his election campaign. “There is no need to fear global challenges,” Mr. Modi said, adding, “This is the age of online marketing, so accept modern science and make use of it.”
跡象顯示，現有的體系可能即將改變。印度小商人擔心，如果印度對外國大企業開放零售市場，他們必遭排擠出局。一般認為印度現政府支持印度小商人。不過新任總理莫迪在競選期間鼓勵印度人勇於迎接改變。他說：「不必害怕全球的挑戰。這是網路交易的時代。所以，讓我們接受現代科學，善加利用。」

原文參照：
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/the-new-bazaar-online-shopping-catches-on-in-india-with-buyers-and-global-investors/

2014-08-26聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報八版下