第25届韩素音翻译比赛汉译英参考译文
汉译英竞赛原文：
传统百货会否成为“消失的行业”
数据显示，2011年中国电子商务市场整体交易规模达到7万亿元，同比增长46.4％。电商营销取得的成绩，对传统百货行业的市场占有率是极大的挑战。越来越多的人去网购，在需求短期之内没有大幅变化的情况下也就意味着相应的百货商场客源流失。业内人士表示，近年来百货业销售下滑较大的品类也正是方便网络购买的品类，比如家电、IT产品和纺织品，甚至是奢侈品。
同时，一些传统百货商场还面临沦为电商“试衣间”的尴尬。不少人去实体店确定了衣服等物品的款式、尺寸之后到网上支付购买，由此诞生了“抄号族”、“偷拍党”。随着网购市场的日益庞大，服装、化妆品和家居用品等都已经纳入涉猎范围，消费者线下选货线上购买。
电商侵占市场之外，行业之内的激烈竞争也不容小觑。传统百货商场之间同质化较严重，造成同业之间竞争激烈，近年来全国多个城市都在大力建设购物中心等大型商场，使本来就竞争激烈的百货商场经营更加困难。走在城市的商业街区，几乎所有的百货商场在销售内容、店面设计和产品布局等方面大同小异。一博士生说，从北京走到福州，看到各个城市的商场几乎是一样的。
“内忧外患”之下，传统百货是否会成为下一个“消失的行业”？多位受访专家表示，传统百货行业面临较大的竞争压力，但并非没有机会。依靠线上线下一体，差异化竞争，商业模式创新等方式，百货行业或可成功“逆袭”。
据了解，目前“触电”的百货商场并不在少数。2012年以来，北京的大型百货都相继上线了自己的电子商务平台。天津百货大楼的电子商务正在筹划实施中。
同时，百货商场应该针对目标客户群体走错位经营、差异化营销的路子。一博士生导师强调，尽管最近几年百货商场面临的商业环境更加严峻，来自电商和大型商业综合体的竞争更加激烈，但对百货商场的客户群体只是分流了一部分。百货商场应该深耕目前所占有的客户群体，完善售后服务，探索针对客户的个性化服务。
另外，传统百货应该借助购物中心的发展势头趁机转型。据了解，零售业的业态构成与人均GDP水平存在一定的对应规律。人均GDP处于3000美元至5000美元，以大型综合超市为主，在5000美元至1万美元则以购物中心、专卖店、专业店、便利店为主。而2011年我国人均GDP已经超过5000美元，传统百货业可以趁机向购物中心等方向转变。
25届韩素音 汉译英 参考译文
Will Traditional Department Stores Become the Next “Disappearing Trade”?
Statistics show that the trade volume of E-commerce of China in 2011 totaled 7 trillion RMB, with a growth of 46.4 percent on a year-on-year basis. This increase presents a tremendous challenge to the share of our traditional department stores. Given that the market demand remains relatively stable in a short period of time, when more and more people go shopping online, it means a loss of customers to traditional department stores. Some insiders have revealed that the types of goods that have recently suffered a sharp decline in sales at department stores happen to be those that can be easily purchased on the Web, such as home appliances, IT products, textiles, and even luxuries.
In the meantime, some traditional supermarkets have embarrassingly been reduced to “fitting-rooms” for E-commerce customers—many of them go to department stores to find out about the size and style of clothes among many other things they need and then purchase them online, thus becoming “fit-lifters”, so to speak. With the rapid growth of online market, clothing, make-up products, house-wares and so on, are all caught in this trend.
Apart from the pressure from the E-commerce, the severe competition within the department store business should also not be underestimated as a cause for their potential decline. Homogeneity among department stores has caused vicious competition within the trade, and, in recent years, a huge number of newly-built large shopping malls in many cities around the country have made the situation worse. Walking on those shopping streets, you can hardly tell the differences between department stores in terms of their layout, store design and goods. From Beijing to Fuzhou, as a PhD candidate put it, everywhere you go, you are likely to enter a similar kind of department store.
Under these pressures from within and without, will the traditional department stores become the next “disappearing trade”? A good number of the experts interviewed express the view that in spite of the challenges, there is still a chance for the traditional retail stores to survive and turn the situation around if they can synchronize their efforts both on and off the Web, optimize their competitive edge, and reform their business patterns.
Reportedly, quite a few retailers have opened their own online stores. Since 2012, mega department stores in Beijing have been vying to build their own E-commerce website and Tianjin Department Store is planning its own E-commerce.
Moreover, department stores should adopt a differentiated marketing strategy to attract their targeted customers. As a doctoral supervisor points out, although confronted with increasingly severe commercial competition in recent years, especially that from the E-commerce and conglomerate companies, only a part of their customer base has been diverted. Department stores should therefore work effectively to take care of their current loyal customers by improving their sales service and exploring into it with an individualized approach.
Correspondingly, traditional department stores should take a transformative lead in view of the recent shopping center surge. Research also suggests that there is a correlated pattern between the retail format and the GDP per capita of a population. Mega department stores mainly cater to a population with GDP per capita between $3,000 and $5,000, while shopping centers, especially retail stores, and convenience stores cater to a population with GDP per capita between $5,000 to $10,000. Since the GDP per capita of China exceeded $5,000 in 2011, it is time for traditional department stores to be transformed into shopping centers or other forms.
