Car retailing
IF THERE was ever an industry vulnerable to technological change, it would have to be selling cars in America. For decades a franchise network made up of thousands of dealers has peddled ordinary cars as though they were exotic goods in a Moroccan souk. Each dealer seems to have his own opaque pricing scheme, consumers have to endure endless haggling and the financing is murky at best. Small wonder, then, that the shifty car salesman has became such a stereotype.
A decade ago a few brave souls tried to use the emerging power of the internet to modernise this fragmented and frustrating business. Scott Painter, a Californian entrepreneur, founded CarsDirect in an attempt to sell vehicles direct to consumers online. But the business failed to work as he had hoped, and he eventually left the company.
Hope springs eternal, at least where the internet is concerned. This week Mr Painter is launching Zag, his latest attempt to modernise automobile retailing using the internet. His first big customer is Capital One, a financial giant that is one of the country’s biggest providers of car loans. Meanwhile, AutoNation, the country’s largest car retailer (with over 300 dealerships), is launching Smart Choice, its own internet marketingscheme, in June.
So is the time finally ripe? Glenn Mercer of McKinsey, a consultancy, believes that internet sales efforts, even fixedprice schemes, will not save customers much money because the internet firms by law cannot buy cars directly from manufacturers; they must get them from dealers. Brian Reed of Capital One retorts: “It’s true, we may not offer the lowest pricebut we will offer a fair price with a lot less pain.”
But the pain is not always so easy to escape. Visit many online sites to research a car, and they will sell your name immediately to local dealerships which will then harass you in the oldfashioned way.
Still, there are reasons to think that conditions may finally be favouring online sales. J.D. Power and Associates, a research firm, reckons that twothirds of new car customers use the internet for research, up from a quarter in 1998. AutoNation reports that car sales originating on the internet have increased from 14% of its total in 2002 to about a quarter last year.Because price transparency is squeezing margins, argues Sid DeBoer of Lithia, one of the country’s biggest car retailers, dealers are now desperate to find ways that the internet can help them. He is convinced that online sales of new cars will soar from nothing to a quarter of Lithia’s total within a decade.
So will all this mean the death of the salesman? Do not count on it says Mike Jackson, the boss of AutoNation. His firm has already cut in half the time taken to buy a car, and it wants to cut it in half again by automating various bits of paperwork. But Mr Jackson is convinced that consumers will always want to kick the tyres on their new car, before they sign on the dotted line: We’ll put the distasteful parts online, and leave the fun part—it’s like going to a candy store.
endure［in5djuE］
v.忍受，持久，持續(xù)
［真題例句］ “In Japan,”says educator Yoko Muro, “its never a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure.” ［2000年閱讀4］
［例句精譯］ “在日本，”教育家 Yoko Muro說，“問題絕對不是你是否喜歡自己的工作和生活，而是你能承受多大的負(fù)荷?！?BR> eventually［i5ventjuEli］
ad.終于，最后
［真題例句］ Over billions of years, the gas was compressed by gravity into galaxies, stars, plants and eventually, even humans.［1998年翻譯］
［例句精譯］ 數(shù)十億年來，這種氣體受引力的壓縮形成星系、恒星，甚至產(chǎn)生人類。
attempt［E5tempt］
v.（to）嘗試，試圖；n.（at）企圖，努力
［真題例句］ Their methods do not attempt (v.) to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time.［2006年閱讀3］
［例句精譯］ 他們的方法不是試圖估計出在特定海洋區(qū)域中實際的單位魚類生物數(shù)量，而是這一數(shù)量隨著時間有什么變化。
squeeze［skwi:z］
v.壓榨，擠；n.榨取，勒索
［真題例句］ On the other hand, oilimporting emerging economies—to which heavy industry has shifted—have become more energyintensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed (v.).［2002年閱讀3］
［例句精譯］ 另一方面，進(jìn)口石油的新興國家由于轉(zhuǎn)向了重工業(yè)，消耗能量更大，因此可能會受到石油危機(jī)的強(qiáng)烈影響。
soar［sR:］
v.高飛，驟升，劇增；n.高漲程度
［真題例句］ Theyre all groaning about soaring (v.) health budgets, the fastestgrowing components of which are pharmaceutical costs.［2005年新題型］
［例句精譯］ 他們抱怨高漲的健康預(yù)算，藥價太高是其中非常重要的一個方面。
convince［kEn5vins］
v.（of）使信服，使確信
［真題例句］ The measure passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10.［1997年閱讀1］
［例句精譯］ 這一法案以令人信服的15票對10票通過。
最初那些關(guān)于在線零售的種種錯誤觀念現(xiàn)在被完全摒棄了。人們曾經(jīng)認(rèn)為，在線零售能消除中間商，無需倉庫和存貨就可以將商品直接銷售給顧客，這也是CEO們宣稱它將取代傳統(tǒng)零售業(yè)的主要原因。幾年前，絕大部分的在線零售商都是建立在這種模式之上的。那些具有網(wǎng)絡(luò)、商店和目錄銷售的多渠道零售公司將是在線零售的贏家。也就是說，網(wǎng)絡(luò)將只是作為多渠道銷售策略中的一個部分，而不會取代傳統(tǒng)銷售渠道。許多顧客在通過電話或到商店購物之前都習(xí)慣先到網(wǎng)站上去查詢相關(guān)的產(chǎn)品和價格信息。只有那些具有多個銷售渠道的公司才能夠從這種趨勢中獲益。不動產(chǎn)銷售和汽車銷售商這些似乎和在線零售沒有任何關(guān)系的企業(yè)正在獲益匪淺。研究表明，在美國，76％的顧客在購買新車時都先在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上瀏覽相關(guān)信息，然后再到代理商處購買汽車，但很少有人會直接在網(wǎng)上購買汽車。
汽車零售業(yè)
如果說有哪個行業(yè)很容易為技術(shù)革新所損害，那么這個行業(yè)無疑就是美國的汽車銷售業(yè)了。經(jīng)過幾十年的發(fā)展，一個由數(shù)千名經(jīng)銷商所組成的特許經(jīng)營網(wǎng)絡(luò)已經(jīng)成熟到可以像商人在摩洛哥露天廣場兜售異域商品一樣銷售普通汽車。每個經(jīng)銷商看上去都有自己的暗箱定價策略，消費(fèi)者只能忍受無休止的討價還價而且不要讓銷售者知道他們的籌資渠道。正因如此，難怪“不值得信賴”會成為汽車經(jīng)銷商在人們心中根深蒂固的形象。
大約十年前，一些勇敢的先行者嘗試?yán)眯律木W(wǎng)絡(luò)力量來使這個支離破碎和令人沮喪的行業(yè)趕上現(xiàn)代化的班車。一位加拿大企業(yè)家Scott Painter 建立了一個名為CarsDirect的網(wǎng)站，希望能直接通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)將汽車賣給消費(fèi)者。但事情并未如他所設(shè)想的那么順利，最后他只好離開了他所在的公司。
希望總是無窮盡的，至少對網(wǎng)絡(luò)來說是如此。本周Painter先生將發(fā)布他用來推進(jìn)汽車銷售現(xiàn)代化的最新網(wǎng)站Zag，他的第一個大顧客是Capital One公司，該公司是美國從事汽車消費(fèi)信貸的公司之一。同時，美國的汽車零售廠AutoNation（有超過300個品牌的代理權(quán)）也將在六月公布了他們自己的網(wǎng)站Smart Choice,作為他們的網(wǎng)上銷售策略。
時機(jī)終于成熟了嗎？麥肯錫咨詢公司的Glenn Mercer認(rèn)為即使是固定價格，通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)所達(dá)到的銷售成果也不能為消費(fèi)者省多少錢，因為根據(jù)美國的法律，網(wǎng)上公司是不能夠直接從汽車廠商那里提貨的，他們所得到的車只能是通過汽車經(jīng)銷商的渠道。Capital One公司的Brian Reed反駁說：“的確，我們很難做到，但是我們會使消費(fèi)者不必經(jīng)歷多少苦惱便能獲得一個公平的價格”。
但是這種苦惱不總是那么容易就能逃避的。消費(fèi)者通過訪問大量的網(wǎng)站去尋找一部車，當(dāng)找到一部合適的車后，網(wǎng)站就會把你引導(dǎo)到當(dāng)?shù)氐慕?jīng)銷商那里，這又會讓你重回到以前那種購車模式所帶來的痛苦中去。
不過，仍然有理由相信情況最終將會趨向于對網(wǎng)絡(luò)銷售有利的方向發(fā)展。一個名為J.D. Power&Associates的調(diào)研公司，通過統(tǒng)計得出了三分之二的新車購買者通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)研究有關(guān)資料的結(jié)論。而這個數(shù)字在1998年只有四分之一。AutoNation公司也稱現(xiàn)在的汽車銷售總額中有四分之一是來源于網(wǎng)絡(luò)，相比之下，這個數(shù)字在1998年也只有14%.
Lithia公司（美國的經(jīng)銷商之一）的Sid DeBoer認(rèn)為，價格的透明化會把經(jīng)銷商的邊際利潤擠干，所以現(xiàn)在經(jīng)銷商正在不顧一切地從網(wǎng)絡(luò)尋找對他們有利的方法改進(jìn)。他深信新車網(wǎng)上汽車交易在十年內(nèi)將會由近乎零提升到接近公司銷售總額的15%.
這些是否都意味著經(jīng)銷商將日薄西山呢？別指望那會發(fā)生，AutoNation的老板Mike Jackson說。他的公司已經(jīng)把購買一輛汽車的時間縮短了一半，而且還在打算通過使各種文書工作自動化來把時間再縮短一半。但是Jackson先生確信消費(fèi)者總是想在最終決定簽下買車協(xié)定之前用腳踢一下他們的新車的輪胎，引用車主的話說就是：“我們把令人不快的部分留在網(wǎng)上，而把有趣的部分留下來——就像去糖果店一樣”。
IF THERE was ever an industry vulnerable to technological change, it would have to be selling cars in America. For decades a franchise network made up of thousands of dealers has peddled ordinary cars as though they were exotic goods in a Moroccan souk. Each dealer seems to have his own opaque pricing scheme, consumers have to endure endless haggling and the financing is murky at best. Small wonder, then, that the shifty car salesman has became such a stereotype.
A decade ago a few brave souls tried to use the emerging power of the internet to modernise this fragmented and frustrating business. Scott Painter, a Californian entrepreneur, founded CarsDirect in an attempt to sell vehicles direct to consumers online. But the business failed to work as he had hoped, and he eventually left the company.
Hope springs eternal, at least where the internet is concerned. This week Mr Painter is launching Zag, his latest attempt to modernise automobile retailing using the internet. His first big customer is Capital One, a financial giant that is one of the country’s biggest providers of car loans. Meanwhile, AutoNation, the country’s largest car retailer (with over 300 dealerships), is launching Smart Choice, its own internet marketingscheme, in June.
So is the time finally ripe? Glenn Mercer of McKinsey, a consultancy, believes that internet sales efforts, even fixedprice schemes, will not save customers much money because the internet firms by law cannot buy cars directly from manufacturers; they must get them from dealers. Brian Reed of Capital One retorts: “It’s true, we may not offer the lowest pricebut we will offer a fair price with a lot less pain.”
But the pain is not always so easy to escape. Visit many online sites to research a car, and they will sell your name immediately to local dealerships which will then harass you in the oldfashioned way.
Still, there are reasons to think that conditions may finally be favouring online sales. J.D. Power and Associates, a research firm, reckons that twothirds of new car customers use the internet for research, up from a quarter in 1998. AutoNation reports that car sales originating on the internet have increased from 14% of its total in 2002 to about a quarter last year.Because price transparency is squeezing margins, argues Sid DeBoer of Lithia, one of the country’s biggest car retailers, dealers are now desperate to find ways that the internet can help them. He is convinced that online sales of new cars will soar from nothing to a quarter of Lithia’s total within a decade.
So will all this mean the death of the salesman? Do not count on it says Mike Jackson, the boss of AutoNation. His firm has already cut in half the time taken to buy a car, and it wants to cut it in half again by automating various bits of paperwork. But Mr Jackson is convinced that consumers will always want to kick the tyres on their new car, before they sign on the dotted line: We’ll put the distasteful parts online, and leave the fun part—it’s like going to a candy store.
endure［in5djuE］
v.忍受，持久，持續(xù)
［真題例句］ “In Japan,”says educator Yoko Muro, “its never a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure.” ［2000年閱讀4］
［例句精譯］ “在日本，”教育家 Yoko Muro說，“問題絕對不是你是否喜歡自己的工作和生活，而是你能承受多大的負(fù)荷?！?BR> eventually［i5ventjuEli］
ad.終于，最后
［真題例句］ Over billions of years, the gas was compressed by gravity into galaxies, stars, plants and eventually, even humans.［1998年翻譯］
［例句精譯］ 數(shù)十億年來，這種氣體受引力的壓縮形成星系、恒星，甚至產(chǎn)生人類。
attempt［E5tempt］
v.（to）嘗試，試圖；n.（at）企圖，努力
［真題例句］ Their methods do not attempt (v.) to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time.［2006年閱讀3］
［例句精譯］ 他們的方法不是試圖估計出在特定海洋區(qū)域中實際的單位魚類生物數(shù)量，而是這一數(shù)量隨著時間有什么變化。
squeeze［skwi:z］
v.壓榨，擠；n.榨取，勒索
［真題例句］ On the other hand, oilimporting emerging economies—to which heavy industry has shifted—have become more energyintensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed (v.).［2002年閱讀3］
［例句精譯］ 另一方面，進(jìn)口石油的新興國家由于轉(zhuǎn)向了重工業(yè)，消耗能量更大，因此可能會受到石油危機(jī)的強(qiáng)烈影響。
soar［sR:］
v.高飛，驟升，劇增；n.高漲程度
［真題例句］ Theyre all groaning about soaring (v.) health budgets, the fastestgrowing components of which are pharmaceutical costs.［2005年新題型］
［例句精譯］ 他們抱怨高漲的健康預(yù)算，藥價太高是其中非常重要的一個方面。
convince［kEn5vins］
v.（of）使信服，使確信
［真題例句］ The measure passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10.［1997年閱讀1］
［例句精譯］ 這一法案以令人信服的15票對10票通過。
最初那些關(guān)于在線零售的種種錯誤觀念現(xiàn)在被完全摒棄了。人們曾經(jīng)認(rèn)為，在線零售能消除中間商，無需倉庫和存貨就可以將商品直接銷售給顧客，這也是CEO們宣稱它將取代傳統(tǒng)零售業(yè)的主要原因。幾年前，絕大部分的在線零售商都是建立在這種模式之上的。那些具有網(wǎng)絡(luò)、商店和目錄銷售的多渠道零售公司將是在線零售的贏家。也就是說，網(wǎng)絡(luò)將只是作為多渠道銷售策略中的一個部分，而不會取代傳統(tǒng)銷售渠道。許多顧客在通過電話或到商店購物之前都習(xí)慣先到網(wǎng)站上去查詢相關(guān)的產(chǎn)品和價格信息。只有那些具有多個銷售渠道的公司才能夠從這種趨勢中獲益。不動產(chǎn)銷售和汽車銷售商這些似乎和在線零售沒有任何關(guān)系的企業(yè)正在獲益匪淺。研究表明，在美國，76％的顧客在購買新車時都先在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上瀏覽相關(guān)信息，然后再到代理商處購買汽車，但很少有人會直接在網(wǎng)上購買汽車。
汽車零售業(yè)
如果說有哪個行業(yè)很容易為技術(shù)革新所損害，那么這個行業(yè)無疑就是美國的汽車銷售業(yè)了。經(jīng)過幾十年的發(fā)展，一個由數(shù)千名經(jīng)銷商所組成的特許經(jīng)營網(wǎng)絡(luò)已經(jīng)成熟到可以像商人在摩洛哥露天廣場兜售異域商品一樣銷售普通汽車。每個經(jīng)銷商看上去都有自己的暗箱定價策略，消費(fèi)者只能忍受無休止的討價還價而且不要讓銷售者知道他們的籌資渠道。正因如此，難怪“不值得信賴”會成為汽車經(jīng)銷商在人們心中根深蒂固的形象。
大約十年前，一些勇敢的先行者嘗試?yán)眯律木W(wǎng)絡(luò)力量來使這個支離破碎和令人沮喪的行業(yè)趕上現(xiàn)代化的班車。一位加拿大企業(yè)家Scott Painter 建立了一個名為CarsDirect的網(wǎng)站，希望能直接通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)將汽車賣給消費(fèi)者。但事情并未如他所設(shè)想的那么順利，最后他只好離開了他所在的公司。
希望總是無窮盡的，至少對網(wǎng)絡(luò)來說是如此。本周Painter先生將發(fā)布他用來推進(jìn)汽車銷售現(xiàn)代化的最新網(wǎng)站Zag，他的第一個大顧客是Capital One公司，該公司是美國從事汽車消費(fèi)信貸的公司之一。同時，美國的汽車零售廠AutoNation（有超過300個品牌的代理權(quán)）也將在六月公布了他們自己的網(wǎng)站Smart Choice,作為他們的網(wǎng)上銷售策略。
時機(jī)終于成熟了嗎？麥肯錫咨詢公司的Glenn Mercer認(rèn)為即使是固定價格，通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)所達(dá)到的銷售成果也不能為消費(fèi)者省多少錢，因為根據(jù)美國的法律，網(wǎng)上公司是不能夠直接從汽車廠商那里提貨的，他們所得到的車只能是通過汽車經(jīng)銷商的渠道。Capital One公司的Brian Reed反駁說：“的確，我們很難做到，但是我們會使消費(fèi)者不必經(jīng)歷多少苦惱便能獲得一個公平的價格”。
但是這種苦惱不總是那么容易就能逃避的。消費(fèi)者通過訪問大量的網(wǎng)站去尋找一部車，當(dāng)找到一部合適的車后，網(wǎng)站就會把你引導(dǎo)到當(dāng)?shù)氐慕?jīng)銷商那里，這又會讓你重回到以前那種購車模式所帶來的痛苦中去。
不過，仍然有理由相信情況最終將會趨向于對網(wǎng)絡(luò)銷售有利的方向發(fā)展。一個名為J.D. Power&Associates的調(diào)研公司，通過統(tǒng)計得出了三分之二的新車購買者通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)研究有關(guān)資料的結(jié)論。而這個數(shù)字在1998年只有四分之一。AutoNation公司也稱現(xiàn)在的汽車銷售總額中有四分之一是來源于網(wǎng)絡(luò)，相比之下，這個數(shù)字在1998年也只有14%.
Lithia公司（美國的經(jīng)銷商之一）的Sid DeBoer認(rèn)為，價格的透明化會把經(jīng)銷商的邊際利潤擠干，所以現(xiàn)在經(jīng)銷商正在不顧一切地從網(wǎng)絡(luò)尋找對他們有利的方法改進(jìn)。他深信新車網(wǎng)上汽車交易在十年內(nèi)將會由近乎零提升到接近公司銷售總額的15%.
這些是否都意味著經(jīng)銷商將日薄西山呢？別指望那會發(fā)生，AutoNation的老板Mike Jackson說。他的公司已經(jīng)把購買一輛汽車的時間縮短了一半，而且還在打算通過使各種文書工作自動化來把時間再縮短一半。但是Jackson先生確信消費(fèi)者總是想在最終決定簽下買車協(xié)定之前用腳踢一下他們的新車的輪胎，引用車主的話說就是：“我們把令人不快的部分留在網(wǎng)上，而把有趣的部分留下來——就像去糖果店一樣”。