(本文选自《经济学人》20201107期)
背景介绍：
随着互联网的普及，以互联网为基础的网上购物也正在变得越来越普及。如今，我们身在家中便几乎可以买到我们想要的任何东西，但你是否相信，身在亚马逊流域热带雨林深处的人们也能开始在网上购物了。
How e-commerce works in the Amazon rainforest
When you behold the Lion of Judah you do not think “e-commerce”. Its lower decks have hooks for 467
hammocks
where passengers sleep on the three-day voyage up the Amazon river from Manaus, a city of 2m people, to Uarini, a manioc-growing town.
当你看到“犹大之狮”号渡轮时，你一定不会将它与“电子商务”联系起来。它的下层甲板设有467张吊床，可供乘客休息，人们从马瑙斯（一座拥有200万人口的城市）登船，沿亚马逊河航行3天便可抵达尤里尼（一个盛产木薯的小镇）。
Its upper deck has more hammocks, a bar for sinners and a chapel for saints. Its cargo hold stinks of fish. But when the Amazon’s largest department store, Bemol, started delivering to customers in the rainforest, three-decker passenger boats were its chosen means of transport.
轮船的上层甲板还设有更多的吊床、一个为赎罪者准备的酒吧，以及一个为教徒准备的礼拜堂。轮船的货舱里弥漫着鱼腥味。但当亚马逊流域最大的百货公司 Bemol 开始为热带雨林里的顾客提供商品配送服务后，这种三层式客船便成了它的送货工具。
Bemol was founded in 1942 by three grandsons of a Moroccan Jewish immigrant who arrived in Brazil in 1887. It sold fridges and televisions in the traditional way from its megastores in Manaus until 2018, when one of the founders’ grandsons, Denis Minev, took over. He suspected there were hundreds of thousands of customers up and down the Amazon and its
tributaries
that Bemol wasn’t reaching and decided to go to them.
1887年，一位摩洛哥犹太人移民至巴西，他的三个孙子于1942年创立了 Bemol 公司。Bemol 一直在玛瑙斯的大商场里以传统方式售卖冰箱和电视机，直到2018年创始人之一的孙子丹尼斯·米涅夫接手公司后才改变了经营模式。他认为，Bemol 的产品还未能触及亚马逊河及其支流上成千上万的顾客，于是他决定将公司业务拓展开来。
But delivering parcels in the rainforest is difficult and expensive. (Amazon the company barely serves its namesake river.) Consumers in far-flung places either had to pay up to 30% of the product’s price for shipping and wait a month or longer for the postal service to deliver it or spend money and time on shopping trips to Manaus. Mr Minev made what sounded like an impossible promise: to deliver an order placed online within a week for not a centavo more than the “Manaus price”.
但在热带雨林中送快递不仅难度大，而且成本高昂。（亚马逊公司因此几乎没有在亚马逊流域开展相关业务。）生活在偏远地区的人们要么选择需要支付高达产品价格30%的运费、等待一个月甚至更长时间的邮政服务，要么只得亲自前往玛瑙斯去购买。于是，米涅夫做了一个听起来不切实际的承诺：顾客只需以不超过“玛瑙斯市场价”的价格在网上下单，即可在一周之内收到产品。
Bemol calls its answer to those problems caboclo e-commerce. A term for Brazilians with both indigenous and European ancestry, caboclo has come to mean a mix of tradition and modernity.
Bemol 给出了解决这些问题的方案：caboclo 电商模式，“caboclo”一词本意是指既有土著血统又有欧洲血统的巴西人，在这里则意味着传统和现代的结合。
Mr Minev’s experience at a cooking-gas firm, also owned by his family, showed him how challenging the Amazon’s logistics could be. Rather than buy a fleet of boats, risking collisions, fuel theft and high debt, Mr Minev
outsourced
delivery to the brightly painted ferries that carry people and provisions around the region.
在家族旗下一家燃气公司工作的经历让米涅夫了解到，在亚马逊流域做物流是极具挑战性的。米涅夫没有选择收购船队来跑物流，因为这么做将会冒着发生碰撞、燃油被盗以及高额债务等风险，他选择将运输业务外包给外观鲜艳亮丽的渡轮（主要负责该地区人员及物资的运输）。
As the Lion of Judah lay at anchor in the port of Manaus on a recent Tuesday, deckhands stuffed its hold with hundreds of cases of beer, thousands of cartons of eggs, scores of frozen chickens and three
squawking
ones. Alongside them were near-identical mattresses, supplied by Bemol, to be left in different towns.
在最近的一个周二，当“犹大之狮”号渡轮抵达玛瑙斯港时，水手们将数百箱啤酒、数千箱鸡蛋、几十只冻鸡以及三只活鸡装载到船上。而这些货物旁则是 Bemol 公司发往各个城镇的几乎一模一样的床垫。
Contracts with boat owners are verbal, inventory is recorded with pen and paper and mix-ups happen. If merchandise goes missing—smartphones can disappear—Bemol swallows the loss. Just a few boats and their crews serve each route. “If I fight with all of them, there’s no one left to deliver our products,” says Fred Galvão, who runs logistics for Bemol.
Bemol 与各船主都是口头拟定合同的，进出库则是利用笔和纸进行记录的，因此难免会出现错误。一旦商品丢失（有时配送员直接失联），Bemol 就只能自行承担损失。每条航线上的渡轮及船员都十分有限，负责 Bemol 物流业务的弗雷德·加尔沃表示：“如果我们和所有人都闹掰了，就没人能帮我们送货了。”
To encourage Amazonians to place their first online orders, Bemol installed Wi-Fi in the plaza of every town where it launched caboclo e-commerce. It set its catalogue to pop up on users’ smartphones and grants free minutes to those who place orders. Like Amazon, Bemol sends customers adverts based on the data they provide.
为了鼓励亚马逊流域的人们尝试在线下单，Bemol 在每个实行 caboclo 电商模式的城镇的广场上都安装了Wi-Fi，向用户的智能手机上推送其商品目录，并为下单的用户提供免费的上网时长。和亚马逊一样，Bemol 也会基于用户数据向他们推送广告。
It invented some tactics to suit the region. Amazonians who lack savings or credit cards use zero-interest loans starting at 150 reais ($26) to finance their purchases; a whopping 85% of Bemol’s online sales are paid for this way.
Bemol 还实行了一些因地制宜的政策。对于一些没有储蓄卡或信用卡的人，Bemol 会向他们提供150雷亚尔（约合26美元）起的零息贷款用以购物；Bemol 线上销售额中的85%都是以这种方式支付的。
Shoppers who are uneasy about using the internet can place orders and lodge complaints with an attendant’s help at chemists and floating petrol stations. Bemol allows returns, but encourages customers to accept
vouchers
instead. “The traditional e-commerce model without a physical presence doesn’t work in the Amazon,” says Mr Minev.
对于不会上网的顾客，他们可以请药店或加油站的工作人员帮忙下单和投诉。Bemol 允许顾客退货，但通常鼓励顾客接受代金券形式的退款。米涅夫说：“在亚马逊流域，没有实体店铺做支撑的电商模式是行不通的。”
(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
本文翻译：Vinnie
校核：Vinnie
编辑：Vinnie
由于特殊的地理状况及其他因素，亚马逊流域的快递业务不仅难度大，而且成本高昂。正因如此，亚马逊公司都尚未在该地区开展相关业务。然而，本土企业 Bemol 却以一种创新的 caboclo 电商模式，让亚马逊流域的人们也能享受到网上购物的乐趣。
重难点词汇：
hammock
[ˈhæmək] n. 吊床；吊铺
tributary
