Has the Pandemic affected physical retail store’s prominence to a large extent or has it made the future of physical retail store become clearer?
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過去⼗年來，『虛擬通路取代實體通路』是個⼤眾的普遍認知，然⽽，伴隨著疫情的發⽣，也加速養成了在家消費的習慣。根據近期商用地產顧問所發佈的零售市場調查 （1），2020四⽉疫情最嚴重之時，實體零售業的營業額出現了極罕⾒的兩位數衰退，有五成的店家被迫要暫停原定的拓點計畫。
Over the past few years, "on-line ecommerce taking over physical retail store" has never been an ending debate among all of us. However, with the outbreak of Covid-19 and the following lockdown in many countries, it has accelerated most consumers’ habit of shopping online from home. According to a recent retail market survey issued by one of international commercial real estate consultants, the turnover of the physical retail store sales globally experienced an extremely rare double-digit decline when the Pandemic reached at its worst in April 2020, and 50% of the physical stores were forced to suspend its original expansion plans.
不過，隨著台灣防疫有成，第三季第四季消費者恢復信⼼所產⽣的報復性消費，讓2020年度的零售業營業額來到了歷史新⾼3.86兆元。
But in Taiwan, with the success of its preemptive measures against the spread of Covid-19 in advance, it was witnessed consumers quickly resumed a retaliatory consumption later in the year of 2020, bringing the total retail sales in the year to a historic high of TWD 3.86 trillion.
So what has happened?
過去存在於各⼤⾦店⾯地段的店家也漸漸的將服務數位化，知名旅遊業者雄獅、易遊網等也在疫情前即開始推廣線上訂房、預定旅程；知名服飾品牌GAP、Uniqlo更是在疫情前積極⿎勵消費者線上下單，致⼒於數位轉型。
In the past few years, some famous brands that were originally present in various physical stores have gradually digitized their services to their on-line platform. Well-known local travel agency such as Lion and Yiyou.com begun to promote online travel reservations way before the Pandemic occurred ; prominent international clothing brands GAP and Uniqlo also actively diverted some of their offline customers to place online orders , leading to the first wave of digital transformation for those leading consumer industry brands.
⽽疫情加速了⼀切的發展。
Then, the Covid-19 accelerated those trends to a further extent.
的確，線上消費成為了當今多數顧客的主要購買渠道，但從上述的市場研究報告 (1) 可以發現，卻有六成五的店家正準備在2021重啟原先的展店計畫。從這樣的趨勢不難看出，大多數的品牌正在從不同銷售通路的優劣勢中，不斷尋找平衡點以制定最合適的銷售策略．
Right after the Covid-19 occurs, online consumption has become the main stream of shopping for most consumers today. However, from the above-mentioned market research report , it is worth noting that 65 percent of consumer product brands are still preparing to resume their original expansion plans in 2021. It is not difficult to find from this trend that most brands are constantly looking for a balance between online and offline channels with an view to the advantages and disadvantages of different sales channel to formulate the most appropriate sales strategy. 就銷售成本而言，廣告成本與租金成本的取捨通常為店家最主要的課題，線上通路的架設成本通常較實體店面的租金成本低，價格也能因此具有⼀定的優勢，但若無一定規模的網路廣告投放或本身品牌具備一定知名度，其能⾒度不一定優於⼀個⼈來⼈往的交通要地；然而位處精華地段的店面卻也可能⾯臨著租⾦居⾼不下的龐⼤壓⼒。另一方面，從消費者體驗的角度來看，因為僅有照片與文字說明，並無實際接觸嘗試，電商可能讓消費者顧慮著送來的商品品質不符預期，不確定產品的使⽤體驗也影響著下單的可能性。
As far as online and offline sales costs are concerned, the trade-off between advertising costs and rental costs is usually the most pressing issue for many consumer product brands. The setup cost for online store is usually lower than that of offline store, i.e. the logistics over the rental cost, in which the price of on-line store can therefore have a competitive edge over off-line. However, for most online stores, if there is no significant scale of online pageviewtraffic diverted into their websites or its own brand does not have a high degree of popularity, then its sales performance would not be any better than that of a major physical retail store. Nevertheless, a physical retail store located in a prime location may also be facing an ever increasing rent leading to higher operation cost. On the other hand, from the perspective of consumer online shopping experience, since there are only photos and text descriptions, and no actual proactive sales interaction on those online platforms, e-commerce may cause concerns to some consumers over the product quality who are not sure about the experience of using the products, in which it may affect those consumer’s willingness to place an order online.
因此在沒有⼀個通路具有絕對的優勢的情況下，『全通路⾏銷』、『新零售』等想法因應⽽⽣。不管是作為主要銷售渠道、注重消費者體驗的服務場所或是以廣告為目的快閃店，許多店家開始重新審視實體店面在銷售通路中的定位，當疫情加速整合了線上線下的供應鍊體系，完整了網路通路的消費習慣。這不僅僅是為了疫情⽽做的緊急應變措施，更是為後疫情時代揭開序序幕 。現在零售業所⾯臨的問題不再是過往的虛擬取代實體，取⽽代之的是虛擬該怎麼與實體結合呢？
Therefore, there’s no one channel has an absolute advantage over the other, ideas such as "Omni-Channel" and "New retail" should be addressed to. Whether it is a major sales channel, a service place that focuses on consumer experience, or a pop-up store for advertising, many stores have begun to re-examine the positioning of physical retail stores in their sales channel strategy. When the Pandemic accelerates the integration of online and offline supply chain, it helps to complete the consumer’s buying process. This is not merely an responsive measure to the Pandemic, but also a prelude to the post-Pandemic era. Hence, the core problem facing the retail industry is no longer that the virtual store replaces the physical one. Instead, how can both the virtual and physical store be integrated to best meet consumer’s needs?
虛實整合下的新常態正在改變未來的零售產業
The “new norm” of integrating both virtual and physical retail store channels is changing the future retail industry
如同前段所述，虛實整合已經成為未來零售業的主要課題，而實體店面也會因為各品牌銷售策略不同而扮演著不同的角色。
As mentioned above, integrating virtual with physical store channels has become a major topic for the retail industry, and physical store channel will need to play a different future role to meet ever changing branding sales strategy.
首先以台灣量販超市全聯為例，不像⼀般的零售業極⼒推廣電商平台，全聯的本業是服務在地居民的生活超市，因此全聯的第⼀步是從實體零售的消費者流程進⾏優化：推出⾏動⽀付軟體PXPAY，解決了過往店內因找銅板⽽產⽣的排隊⼈龍；『⼀⼈⼀卡』也更能將每個⼈的會員資料跟消費數據在網路上做結合，進⽽精準⾏銷每個⼈適合的廣告。
Take Taiwan's largest supermarket PX Mart as an example, unlike the common approach retail stores normally take, PX Mart promotes its own e-commerce platforms, and its primary marketing positioning is to become a life style supermarket serving local residents needs. Therefore, PX Mart’s first step is to optimize the consumer’s buying process in physical retail store : the launch of the mobile payment software PXPAY, which solves the long que problem resulting from constant changing cash during the transaction in the store; "One person One Card" plan can also better integrate each member's membership information and store data on the Internet. The advertisement can be more precisely tailor-made to meet each consumer’s needs.
隨之⽽來的是推出PXGO的⾏動電商，搭上⼿機消費這個習慣，『線上下單，線下取貨』成為了全聯 的下⼀步，也因為其據點眾多，讓客⼈可以⼀次下單分批取貨，甚⾄是透過線上轉贈，讓消費體驗更多元，⽽『線下取貨』也有望帶來第⼆波的店內消費，讓線上線下消費進⼀步整合。未來，全聯也預計推出實體電商平台，也就是讓消費者可以線上看到店內的庫存，避免在線下撲空。
Followed by the launch of PXGO’s mobile e-commerce stores, in order to catch up with the consumer’s habit of consumption via mobile payment, "order online, pick up offline" has become the next weapon of PX Mart , and because of its wide spread physical store network, consumers can easily place an order at once and pick up the goods in batches, even for buying online gifts for friends / relatives so as to make the consumption experience more diverse, and "offline pickup" is also expected to further bring the second round of consumer’s in-store consumption, allowing online and offline consumption to fully integrated with each other. In the future, PX Mart also expects to launch a physical e-commerce platform, which means that its customers can see the inventory in the store online and avoid coming to the physical store in vain.
從全聯⾝上，我們看到了⼀個 OMO (Online-Merge-Offline) 的整合模式，線上下單並查看店內庫存，線下推出⾏動⽀付累積消費者資訊，進⽽讓廣告達到最⼤效益，讓線上線下成功整合，打破時間與空間的限制，讓消費者在哪，品牌就在哪的全通路⾏銷。
From PX Mart, we have seen an OMO (Online- Merge- Offline) integration model, placing orders online and checking in-store inventory, launching offline mobile payment and accumulating consumer information, so as to maximize advertising effectiveness, with great benefits such as enabling successful online and offline integration, going beyond the constraints of time and space, and allowing omni-channel sales – brands exist where consumers are located.
另一方面，以廣告或服務為目的的實體店面也成為一些網路品牌的銷售策略中不可或缺的一部份，以知名飾品品牌Vacanza為例，在2019年與Facebook合作開發線上AR試戴，盡可能消除線上消費者擔⼼飾品不適合⾃⼰的疑慮，提⾼線上下單的轉換率，成功製造網路上的話題，並在疫情嚴峻之時插旗各⼤百貨及東區商圈的出⼿扶梯第⼀個櫃位，將線上的熱度導流⾄線下，讓僅有2-4坪的⼩攤位，能造成眾多女孩簇擁櫃位的奇觀。除了能夠近距離服務顧客外，也因為其店面精華的位置，讓品牌能因為網路所帶來的人潮，吸引更多周邊經過的消費者．
On the other hand, physical storefronts for advertising or service purposes have also become an indispensable part of the sales strategies for some online brands. Take the well-known accessory brand Vacanza as an example. They cooperated with Facebook to develop online AR tryouts in 2019. To eliminate as much as possible online consumers’ concerns over the fact that accessories may not be suitable for them, Vacanza increases the conversion rate of online orders by successfully creating online topics, taking the first counter next to the escalator in a department store to divert the heat from online to offline, and allowing a small booth with only 2-4 square feet attracting female customers to the counter, etc. Such strategy can service customers nearby, and easily attract more passing-by consumers.
從前面兩個案例可以看出，實體店面的定位其實在虛實整合的趨勢下更加的明確，實體店面的需求並非一定是減少，更多的是類型的轉變．零售通路的整合，除了影響品牌銷售策略層面的思考之外，更直接的是影響業者對於店面空間的需求，除非是作為主要銷售管道，有許多品牌業者將店面視為單純廣告或是提供消費者服務的空間，以往需要⼀個店⾯與倉庫兼具的⼤空間實體店⾯，但隨著消費線上化，許多店⾯不再需要存放大量的存貨，僅需要展示的空間．這樣的轉變也是開發商針對零售產品定位規劃時，需要思考的課題。
It can be seen from the previous two cases that the positioning of physical stores is actually more clear with the integration of virtual with physical retail stores. The demand for physical stores may not be necessarily reduced, but is more associated with a change in the role it plays. The integration of different retail channels not only affects brand sales strategy, but also directly affects the industry's demand for physical store location requirements. Unless it is the main sales channel, many brand owners treat the physical store as pure advertising or provide the services to consumers . In the past, the service space required a large physical store with both a store and storage room. However, with online consumption, many stores no longer need to store a large amount of inventory, and only need space for product display. Such a change is also a topic that developers need to start thinking when planning their retail product for potential consumer brands.
疫情僅是新零售型態的催化劑，更重要的是，我們要怎麼適應『新常態』的⽣活，因應疫情所做的轉變會在未來持續發生。疫情加速改變了商業模式，因應著不同的商業模式，品牌端也有了不同的空間需求，業主們要怎麼妥善地進行空間規劃來讓自己的資產在市場中產生最大的價值也就成為一個值得思考的議題。
The Pandemic is only a catalyst for the new retail model. More importantly, how do we adapt to the "new norm" and the changes in response to the Pandemic will continue to roll in the future. Covid-19 has accelerated the change of retail business models. In response to such change, brands may have different space requirements. For asset owners, one of the lessons learnt from the Pandemic regarding the retail product would be how to design a suitable retail space with a foreword thinking will eventually help to maximize their assets value in the market in the long run.
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1 資料來源：世邦魏理仕https://www.cbre.com.tw/zh-tw/about/media-centre/retail-flash-twn