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国领先的运动服装公司李宁有限公司(Li Ning Co.)正在下注，希望通过在网上销售运动鞋和服装而获得相对于耐克(Nike Inc.)和阿迪达斯(Adidas AG)等竞争对手的优势。这个例子说明，中国的成熟消费品牌在多年以来将电子商务拱手让给互联网新兴企业后，终于开始拥抱网络世界。
Bloomberg News
中国拥有世界上最庞大的互联网用户群，6月底达到3.38亿。但直到最近，中国网民用于网上购物的支出并不是很多。这种情况正在开始改变。
去年中国的在线交易占零售总额的1.2%，远低于美国逾5%的比例，但其增长速度比美国快很多。瑞士信贷(Credit Suisse)估计，今年中国的在线销售额可能将增长89%，达到356亿美元。
李宁公司电子商务部总监林砺说，虽然在线销售在公司总收入中的比重还不明显，但如果分析师对电子商务增长的预测是对的，这一比重在几年之内肯定会变得很大。
美国的Barnes & Noble Inc.和苹果(Apple Inc.)等成熟品牌很早就采取了措施吸引网上客户，但中国的情况有所不同，这里的零售商和消费品牌基本忽略了互联网。相反，这一领域被新兴企业占据，其中最突出的莫过于淘宝(Taobao)。淘宝网是中国互联网巨头阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group)下属企业，该集团旗下还有香港上市商务网站阿里巴巴网络有限公司(Alibaba.com Ltd.)。
淘宝创立于2003年，刚开始是一个让消费者互相售卖物品的拍卖网站。由于不向买家或卖家收费等原因，淘宝赢得了大批用户，几年前其销售量就超过了易趣(eBay Inc.)的中文网站。
今天，淘宝还在它的网站上为零售商和品牌企业开辟页面，像中国的电脑生产商联想集团(Lenovo Group Ltd.)，还有宝洁(Proctor & Gamble Co.)。瑞士信贷估计，现在中国的在线销售额有78%都是通过淘宝实现的。
李宁是中国国内最大的运动装品牌，这一地位在去年8月份北京奥运会上得到了承认。当时其创始人及董事长李宁吊着钢丝在鸟巢体育场顶上绕场一周，点燃了奥运主火炬。2008年，李宁公司在中国77亿美元的运动装销售总额中占到11.1%的份额，较2004年的8.7%上升。咨询公司Frost & Sullivan认为，这主要是挤占了规模更小的中国品牌的份额。但李宁仍然落后于耐克和阿迪达斯，这两家公司在中国市场中的份额分别为18.8%和14.9%。
李宁的产品由NBA明星奥尼尔(Shaquille O'Neal)代言，主要是通过全国6800多家店铺销售。去年4月份，它在淘宝网开辟了自己的频道，这有助于它学到一些策略，去处理在中国进行在线销售碰到的一些障碍。比如，许多中国消费者担心受骗或货品有问题，因而不愿意在网上购物。另外，信用卡也用得很少，中国人网上购物往往都是到货时支付现金。
淘宝网用支付宝(AliPay)处理了这些问题。支付宝是一个跟贝宝(PayPal)类似的在线支付服务系统，但有一个很大的不同：它先托管货款，直到买家收到物品并确认满意后再支付给卖家。支付宝已经成为中国占统治地位的在线支付系统，注册用户达2亿，日均交易额达人民币10亿元（约合1.464亿美元）。
李宁在去年6月份开设了自己的商务网站，在这个网站上采用支付宝作为主要的支付方式。它同时仍然在淘宝上销售产品，但表示自己网站上的销售额已经与淘宝上的持平。
阿里巴巴集团一位发言人表示，李宁的新网站显示出，像李宁这样的大品牌正把电子商务作为业务扩张的一个重要组成部分，也标志着李宁在淘宝的店铺的成功。
在李宁的新网站上，IBM通过把李宁处理库存与供应链问题的系统整合进一个新的平台，帮助解决了旧网站存在的订单处理与发货问题。
2010年晚些时候，李宁计划推出一些功能，让中国用户能够通过手机在网站上购物，或通过手机短信把打折券发给其他客户。李宁公司拒绝透露该项目的投资金额。
Aaron Back
Li Ning Co., China's leading sportswear company, is betting that selling sneakers and clothing online will give it an edge against giant rivals like Nike Inc. and Adidas AG, an example of how established consumer companies in China are finally starting to embrace the Web after years of ceding electronic commerce to Internet upstarts.
Li Ning, founded nearly 20 years ago by a former champion gymnast of the same name, opened its first Web site for selling direct to consumers last year. While still a small share of total sales, traffic on the site has grown so quickly that Li Ning has hired International Business Machines Corp. to help it build a new site, expected to launch in March, that will be able to handle more volume and will include a new features like wireless services.
China has the largest population of Internet users in the world, with 338 million at the end of June. But until fairly recently, they didn't spend much buying things on the Web. That is starting to change.
Online transactions accounted for 1.2% of total retail sales in China last year, compared with more than 5% in the U.S., but they are growing much faster: the value of goods sold online is likely to grow 89% this year to $35.6 billion, estimates Credit Suisse.
While online sales don't yet make up a significant portion of Li Ning's revenue, 'if analyst projections about the growth of e-commerce are correct, it will surely become significant within a few years,' said Shelly Lin, director of e-business at Li Ning.
Unlike in the U.S., where established companies like Barnes & Noble Inc. and Apple Inc. moved early to woo online customers, retailers and consumer brands in China largely ignored the Internet. Instead, new companies have dominated the sector -- none more so than Taobao, a unit of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group, which also runs Hong Kong-listed business site Alibaba.com Ltd.
Taobao started in 2003 as an auction site where consumers could sell goods to each other. It gained a huge following in part by not charging buyers or sellers and surpassed eBay Inc.'s Chinese site in sales volume several years ago.
Today, Taobao also hosts sections of its site for retailers and brands like Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. and Proctor & Gamble Co. Credit Suisse estimates that 78% of online sales in China by value now go through Taobao.
Li Ning is China's top domestic sportswear brand -- a status recognized at the Beijing Games last August, when founder and Chairman Li Ning, suspended by wires, mimed a slow-motion run around the roof of the Bird's Nest stadium to light the Olympic flame. In 2008, its share of China's $7.7 billion in total sportswear sales rose to 11.1%, from 8.7% in 2004, mostly at the expense of smaller Chinese rivals, according to consultancy Frost & Sullivan. But Li Ning still trailed Nike, which had 18.8% of the China market, and Adidas, which had 14.9%.
Li Ning, whose products are endorsed by NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, sells mainly through its more than 6,800 stores across China. In April of last year, it opened its own channel on Taobao's site, an experience that helped it learn strategies to address obstacles to online sales in China. For example, many Chinese consumers have resisted buying goods online out of concern about scams or faulty merchandise. Also, credit cards are rare -- when someone buys something online in China, they typically pay cash upon delivery.
Taobao has addressed those issues through AliPay, an online payment service like PayPal but with one big difference: AliPay holds payments in escrow until after the buyer has received the item and confirmed they are satisfied with it. AliPay has become the dominant online payment system in China, with 200 million registered users and an average of one billion yuan ($146.4 million) in transactions a day.
Li Ning started its own commerce site in June last year. It uses AliPay as the main payment method on its site. It also is continuing to sell through Taobao but says sales on its own site are now just as big.
A spokeswoman for Alibaba Group says Li Ning's new site 'is a sign of how major brands like Li Ning are viewing e-commerce as a key component in expanding their businesses' and of the success Li Ning has had with its Taobao store.
For Li Ning's new site, IBM has helped address problems the old site had with processing and delivery of orders by integrating Li Ning's systems for handling inventory and supply chain issues into a new platform.
Later in 2010, Li Ning plans to roll out features that enable Chinese users to shop the site with their celphones or to send discount coupons to other customers through mobile messaging. Li Ning won't say how much it has invested in the project.
Aaron Back
Li Ning, founded nearly 20 years ago by a former champion gymnast of the same name, opened its first Web site for selling direct to consumers last year. While still a small share of total sales, traffic on the site has grown so quickly that Li Ning has hired International Business Machines Corp. to help it build a new site, expected to launch in March, that will be able to handle more volume and will include a new features like wireless services.
China has the largest population of Internet users in the world, with 338 million at the end of June. But until fairly recently, they didn't spend much buying things on the Web. That is starting to change.
Online transactions accounted for 1.2% of total retail sales in China last year, compared with more than 5% in the U.S., but they are growing much faster: the value of goods sold online is likely to grow 89% this year to $35.6 billion, estimates Credit Suisse.
While online sales don't yet make up a significant portion of Li Ning's revenue, 'if analyst projections about the growth of e-commerce are correct, it will surely become significant within a few years,' said Shelly Lin, director of e-business at Li Ning.
Unlike in the U.S., where established companies like Barnes & Noble Inc. and Apple Inc. moved early to woo online customers, retailers and consumer brands in China largely ignored the Internet. Instead, new companies have dominated the sector -- none more so than Taobao, a unit of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group, which also runs Hong Kong-listed business site Alibaba.com Ltd.
Taobao started in 2003 as an auction site where consumers could sell goods to each other. It gained a huge following in part by not charging buyers or sellers and surpassed eBay Inc.'s Chinese site in sales volume several years ago.
Today, Taobao also hosts sections of its site for retailers and brands like Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. and Proctor & Gamble Co. Credit Suisse estimates that 78% of online sales in China by value now go through Taobao.
Li Ning is China's top domestic sportswear brand -- a status recognized at the Beijing Games last August, when founder and Chairman Li Ning, suspended by wires, mimed a slow-motion run around the roof of the Bird's Nest stadium to light the Olympic flame. In 2008, its share of China's $7.7 billion in total sportswear sales rose to 11.1%, from 8.7% in 2004, mostly at the expense of smaller Chinese rivals, according to consultancy Frost & Sullivan. But Li Ning still trailed Nike, which had 18.8% of the China market, and Adidas, which had 14.9%.
Li Ning, whose products are endorsed by NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, sells mainly through its more than 6,800 stores across China. In April of last year, it opened its own channel on Taobao's site, an experience that helped it learn strategies to address obstacles to online sales in China. For example, many Chinese consumers have resisted buying goods online out of concern about scams or faulty merchandise. Also, credit cards are rare -- when someone buys something online in China, they typically pay cash upon delivery.
Taobao has addressed those issues through AliPay, an online payment service like PayPal but with one big difference: AliPay holds payments in escrow until after the buyer has received the item and confirmed they are satisfied with it. AliPay has become the dominant online payment system in China, with 200 million registered users and an average of one billion yuan ($146.4 million) in transactions a day.
Li Ning started its own commerce site in June last year. It uses AliPay as the main payment method on its site. It also is continuing to sell through Taobao but says sales on its own site are now just as big.
A spokeswoman for Alibaba Group says Li Ning's new site 'is a sign of how major brands like Li Ning are viewing e-commerce as a key component in expanding their businesses' and of the success Li Ning has had with its Taobao store.
For Li Ning's new site, IBM has helped address problems the old site had with processing and delivery of orders by integrating Li Ning's systems for handling inventory and supply chain issues into a new platform.
Later in 2010, Li Ning plans to roll out features that enable Chinese users to shop the site with their celphones or to send discount coupons to other customers through mobile messaging. Li Ning won't say how much it has invested in the project.
Aaron Back
