食品電商仍在苦苦探索成功秘方

????2011年5月，電商網站Gilt Groupe推出了旗下最新的銷售網站——美食網站Gilt Taste。就在此前數周，Gilt Groupe剛剛從包括高盛集團（Goldman Sachs）在內的投資者手中籌集到1.38億美元的投資資金，此輪融資給予該公司的估值大約為10億美元。

????當時，美食家們都在慶祝露絲?雷切爾的回歸。2009年11月，康泰納仕公司（Condé Nast）關閉了旗下的《美食家》雜志（Gourmet），雷切爾被迫放棄了雜志主編的寶座。聘請雷切爾擔任評論顧問的Gilt承諾，美食網站Gilt Taste為飲食倫理主義者（指一個人僅食用符合一定道德準則的食物,特別是有機食品和人道飼養的肉類、家禽和魚類——譯者注）提供“難以找到的手工食物”（他們獲得這些食物的機會有限）——比如“住在紐約市以外地區的人”，同時提供給雷切爾帶來名望的那類評論內容。

????Gilt Groupe賴以成名的是大幅打折而限量庫存的實時閃購模式，借此把紐約風格的樣品銷售帶到全世界。跟它不同的是，Gilt Taste自稱建立的目的是成為一個 “奢侈品牌”，以高端價格銷售高端食品。然而這個模式并沒有奏效，今年5月24日，Gilt Taste悄然停業了。

????但正如一批已經成立、正在增長以及前景有望的食品-科技初創公司所表明的那樣，Gilt Taste的失敗并不能證明地方食品經濟無法在年銷售額高達2,250億美元的電子商務產業中分到一杯羹。然而，Gilt Taste的滑鐵盧的確表明，在線銷售食品與兜售名牌手袋完全不同，而理解這些差異至關重要。

Gilt犯了什么錯誤？

????Gilt Taste的消亡，以及諸如早期在線食品雜貨零售初創公司Webvan和在線食品市場與訂付服務網站Foodzie等電子商務網站的失敗存在多方面的原因。

????食品的根本特性——至少食品電商運動所理解的食品特性，是直接與其初創模式不一致的。任何農場、城市、地區或國家，都不會有相同的地方食品體系，因此相關標準無法以一種簡單——或者甚至不是那么簡單——的算法來加以估算。Lifestyle Zen是一家為包括食品-科技初創公司在內的創新企業家提供服務的律師事務所。這家律師事務所的老板帕特里斯?帕金斯認為這是期望進軍食品領域的技術型人才當中普遍存在的一個誤解?！按蠹艺J為，只要擁有一個能干的程序員團和創意人才，找到合適的團隊，差不多很快就可以把某個創意從構思階段推進到執行階段?！钡?，她進一步表示，很多時候，“人們并沒有進行充分的市場調研，無法真正保證自己所提供的產品一定有市場需求?！?/p>

????Gilt當時還面臨著其他挑戰。盡管它的網站流量頗為可觀——平均每月吸引10萬名獨立訪問者，但它的評論內容并沒有拉動銷售。美食家可能很樂意如饑似渴地閱讀有關新鹽或者最美味的意大利熏火腿的文章，但是，這并不意味著她會購買這些產品。與食品雜貨不同，手工食品通常被認為是一個利基市場。它們可以作為很不錯的禮物，以及偶爾的美味享受，但大多數人——即便是美食家——也不會過于頻繁地購買高檔松露油。而有意購買這些產品的客戶通常會在他們可以看到、聞到以及品嘗這些產品的某個地方采購，比如：在農貿市場、在全食超市（Whole Foods），或者在食品手工制作者自己的實體店。

????In May 2011, just weeks after raising $138 million in financing from investors including Goldman Sachs (GS) and scoring a valuation of "roughly $1 billion," Gilt Groupe unveiled its latest sale site, Gilt Taste.

????Foodies celebrated the return of Ruth Reichl, who had been forced to abdicate her throne as editor in chief of Condé Nast's Gourmet when the magazine folded in November 2009. With Reichl as editorial advisor, Gilt promised a site offering "artisanal hard-to-find foods" for ethical eaters with limited access to such products -- e.g. "people who live outside New York City" -- as well as the kind of editorial content that made Reichl famous.

????But unlike the heavily discounted, limited inventory, real-time flash sales that brought New York-style sample sales to the world -- and made Gilt Groupe famous -- Gilt Taste was built to be a self-described "luxury brand," selling high-end food at high-end prices. This model, it turned out, didn't work, and Gilt Taste quietly folded on May 24 this year.

????But as a bevy of established, growing, and up-and-coming food-tech startups are making clear, Gilt Taste's failure is not proof that local food economies can't get a piece of the $225 billion e-commerce industry. It is a sign, though, that selling food online is different than peddling designer handbags, and understanding those differences is key to success.

What went wrong at Gilt?

????There are a number of explanations for Gilt Taste's demise, as well as failed e-commerce food sites like Webvan, an early online grocery startup, and Foodzie, an online food marketplace and subscription service.

????The very nature of food, at least as the food movement envisions it, is directly at odds with the startup model. No farm, city, region, or state is going to have the same local food system, so scaling can't be computed with a simple -- or even not so simple -- algorithm. Patrice Perkins, owner of Lifestyle Zen, a law firm for creative entrepreneurs including food-tech startups, sees this as a common misunderstanding among tech types looking to jump into the food space. "You have a team of talented programmers and creative people, and if you have the right team in place, you literally can get something from ideation to execution overnight." But, she adds, very often, "there's not enough market research to really make sure there's a need for the product that you offer."

????Gilt faced other challenges as well. Despite its respectable site traffic -- averaging 100,000 unique visitors every month -- editorial content did not translate into high sales. A foodie may happily gorge herself on articles about new salts or the best prosciutto, but that doesn't mean she is going to buy those products. Unlike groceries, artisanal foods are generally considered a niche market. They make great gifts, as well as delicious occasional treats, but most people -- even foodies -- aren't buying high-end truffle oil too often. And the customers who are in the market for these products are usually buying them somewhere they can see, smell, and taste the goods first: at the farmers market, at Whole Foods, or at the artisan's own brick-and-mortar shop.