上周四，沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）亮出了吸引网购爱好者的最新武器Shopycat——使用这款社交应用软件，用户可为朋友、家人或Facebook上任何通过个人兴趣或其它背景联系起来的人挑选礼品。

    零售商之间在实体店销售领域的战争早已结束，沃尔玛轻松取胜。但在争夺电子商务市场的战役中，沃尔玛最大的对手可能就是它自己。目前，它正试图让旗下3,800家美国门店和几百万雇员同沃尔玛的网站Walmart.com并肩作战。虽然沃尔玛的方向是正确的——Shopycat的推出便是朝着这个方向迈出的最新一步，但是距离胜利还有很长的路要走。

    虽然网购市场销售额总体呈现激增态势，但沃尔玛的购物者并未大规模移师网络。德银证券（Deutsche Bank Securities）的数据显示，网购仅占沃尔玛销售额的2%，约80亿美元。相比之下，2011年亚马逊（Amazon）的营收较上年跃升40%，已经达到342亿美元。

    这就是为什么沃尔玛要重新定位，依托强大的实体店网络来拓展网络业务。消费者可以前往沃尔玛门店自取网上订单，将网络销售业绩归于门店团队，让他们成为数字销售力量，并使得从本地门店派送网上购买商品成为可能，这样就能在发货速度上打败亚马逊和其他网络零售商。这意味着网络应用软件和数字工具的集成，但同时也离不开实体店。

    “网络销售很有价值，实体店也很有价值，我们希望最终在这两个领域都能做到最好，”领导@WalmartLabs的沃基•哈里那亚安说，“而不只是其中某一个渠道。”

    说到沃尔玛的未来，大多数人都会想到哈里那亚安负责的@WalmartLabs。这块数字业务依托于4月份沃尔玛耗费3亿美元收购的社交广告公司Kosmix。目前，工程师们正在马不停蹄地开发类似Shopycat这样的社交购物应用软件，挖掘Facebook上的个人信息数据、做出礼物推荐。其次是一系列的社交应用软件，消费者藉此可以相互联系，也可以联系沃尔玛员工。当然，顾客身处沃尔玛实体店时也可以藉此寻找产品或寻求建议。

    但即便@WalmartLabs非常成功，单凭社交应用软件也不能使沃尔玛成为网购市场的强大竞争者。如果沃尔玛想在网购市场获胜，它获胜的根本应该是其实体店，而不仅仅只是拥有这些实体店。

    Wal-Mart launches its latest weapon today in the battle to win online shoppers -- Shopycat, a social app that makes gift selections for friends, family or anyone connected through Facebook based on their interests and profile.

    Certainly the war of the Big Box retailers is over and Wal-Mart won, hands down. But in the war for online sales, Wal-Mart's greatest adversary may be itself as it attempts to get its 3,800 U.S. stores and millions of employees working together with Walmart.com. Although the retailer is taking steps in the right direction -- Shopycat its latest -- it still has a long way to go.

    As online sales have soared overall, Wal-Mart (WMT) shoppers have failed to flock to the web in any sizeable number – online sales are estimated to account for just 2% of its revenue according to Deutsche Bank Securities, or about $8 billion. By comparison, Amazon's revenue leapt 40% in 2011 from the year prior to $34.2 billion.

    That's why Wal-Mart has a renewed focus on leveraging its massive bricks-and-mortar presence to re-invent itself online. That means pushing customers to pick up online orders at Wal-Mart's stores, crediting store teams with online sales to turn them into a digital sales force and potentially delivering items purchased online from the local Wal-Mart, hitting Amazon and other e-tailers on their speed of delivery. And it also means a hybrid of online apps and digital tools -- but only when they fold in with offline too.

    "There's a lot of value that we get online and a lot of value in the physical store, and at the end of the day we expect the best of both worlds," says Venky Harinarayan, who heads @WalmartLabs. "It's not going to be one channel."

    Harinarayan's division, @WalmartLabs, is what most people think about when they consider Wal-Mart's future. The Wonka-esque digital outpost launched from Wal-Mart's $300 million purchase of a social advertising hybrid Kosmix in April. There, engineers are busy churning out social shopping apps, such as Shopycat, which makes gift recommendations by data-mining Facebook profiles. Next up are a raft of social apps that will let customers connect with each other and to Wal-Mart staff, as well as find products or ideas when they are physically in a Wal-Mart store.

    But even if @WalmartLabs is wildly successful, social apps alone won't make Wal-Mart an online contender. If the retailer wants to win online, it will happen because -- and not in spite of -- its physical boxes.

    “沃尔玛拥有遍布全美的几千家实体店，这就是它的优势，”德银证券驻纽约的零售分析师查尔斯•格罗姆表示。“我认为它没有太多时间来实验@WalmartLabs，它需要行动得更迅速一些。”

    沃尔玛要实现网络收入增长，电子商务必须居于优先地位，这意味着沃尔玛必须对一直以来的经营模式作出重大调整。

    “过去，我们的门店根本想不到网络销售，”接任Walmart.com 总裁一职不到四个月的乔尔•安德森称。他过去曾是沃尔玛北部大平原业务的高级副总裁。“但现在得把这个放到首要位置。店里缺货时，我们接下来要对顾客说的就是，我们可以在网上为您采购。一旦它成为激励性薪酬和奖金的一部分，就会改变（实体店雇员）的行为模式。”

    从今年2月份开始，沃尔玛将在门店自提以及在门店配送范围内派送的网络订单销售额都计入门店团队的销售业绩。安德森称，现在有一半的网络订单都是从门店自提。配送可以将网络和门店更紧密地结合起来，这样，沃尔玛的门店实际上转变成了配送中心。网络订单可免费运至沃尔玛门店或联邦快递（FedEx）的营业点，然后再送到顾客家中，还有些商品可以当天从门店提货。“快，更快，最快”成了沃尔玛的最新政策。

    想象一下，内布拉斯加州埃尔克霍恩的一位顾客早上订购的全棉床单，下午就到了几英里外的奥马哈购物中心。当天送货是网上购物的终极梦想，只有为数不多的商家，如诺德斯特龙（Nordstrom）和巴诺（Barnes & Noble）在特定城市尝试过这种做法。安德森称，沃尔玛正在考虑这样做，但还不会承诺这一点。至少现在不会。

    他说：“我们正在试验这种方式，但不会全面铺开。只能说有这种可能性。”

    免运费同样也是消费者希望看到的，但沃尔玛还没有完全做到。波士顿网络行为研究公司Compete的数据显示，如果订单免运费，3/4的消费者将增加网购。但沃尔玛在这个问题同样摇摆不定。

    安德森说：“运至家中不是100%（免运费），但已经非常接近这个水平。我知道免运费对客户很重要。”

    沃尔玛已经做好了准备，迎接超大购物中心时代的逝去。虽然沃尔玛仍然计划在美国开设更多的新店，但即使是沃尔玛自身也坦承，这些商店“比我们过去建的大型综超规模都要小”，Wal-Mart Realty的总裁凯伦•罗伯茨在10月份的股东和分析师电话会议上如是说。与此同时，纯网络零售商亚马逊今年秋季在纽约长岛开出了首家实体店Beauty Bar。虽然这家店没有冠以亚马逊品牌，但它是迈向整合销售模式的一次试水，因此引起了华尔街投资界的密切关注。

    "What Wal-Mart has is thousands of distribution points around the country with their stores, and that's their advantage," said Charles Grom, a retail analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities in New York. "I don't think they have a lot of time to experiment with @WalmartLabs and they need to move quicker than they are."

    To grow its online revenues, e-commerce needs to be prioritized into the Big Box culture. But that will be a huge shift from the way Wal-Mart has been run up until now.

    "We didn't talk about dot-com in the stores," says Joel Anderson, who took the helm as president of Walmart.com less than four months ago after serving as SVP of Wal-Mart's northern plains division. "And you've got to make it top of mind, so when we're out of stock in the store, the very next sentence is we can get that for you online. When that's part of incentive pay and bonus, it changes [store employees] behavior."

    Starting in February, Wal-Mart will credit team members with online sales picked up in stores, and also online sales delivered within a store's set physical area. Anderson says half of online orders are now picked up in stores. Shipping also integrates online and stores more, by effectively turning Wal-Mart stores into distribution hubs. Web orders can be shipped to a store or a FedEx location for free, shipped to a home, or, on eligible items, picked up that day from a store. "Fast, faster, fastest," is the new policy.

    Imagine cotton sheets ordered by a customer in Elkhorn, Ne. in the morning, arriving that afternoon from one of its Omaha Supercenters just a few miles away. Same day shipping is the Mecca of online commerce – only a few brands, such as Nordstrom (JWN) and Barnes & Noble (BKS), have tried it in select cities. Anderson says the retailer is looking at that option -- but still won't commit. At least for now.

    "We're experimenting with that, but it's not in a rolled-out format," he says. "It's a possibility."

    Free shipping is another service that consumers want, but Wal-Mart has yet to adopt completely. Still, three out of four customers would make more purchases online if their orders were shipped free, according to the Boston-based online behavior research firm, Compete. But Wal-Mart is still hesitating on that as well.

    "To the home isn't 100% [free shipping,] but it's getting darn close," says Anderson. "I get that free shipping is important to the customer."

    Wal-Mart is preparing for the end of the Big Box era. Although it still plans to open more stores in the U.S., even Wal-Mart notes these "are smaller than the larger Supercenters we've built in the past," said Karen Roberts, president of Wal-Mart Realty during its shareholder and analyst call in October. And this comes as pure-play etailer Amazon (AMZN) launched its first storefront called Beauty Bar in Long Island, NY this fall. While not branded Amazon, it's a toe in the water towards a hybrid model that Wall Street is eyeing closely.