《经济学人》精读10：E-commerce

An experiment within-home deliveries is underway

Amazon and other firms want people to trade a little privacy and security in return for online shopping ease

Dec 19th 2017

After staying at home one afternoon for a delivery of discounted toilet disinfectant that never came, Valentin Romanov, a Stockholm IT manager, installed a special lock on his flat’s entrance. When no one is in, delivery men unlock the door and slip packages inside. Four months on, Mr Romanov has doubled his spending online and says he cannot imagine life without in-home deliveries. These are sweet words for delivery firms and online retailers, Amazon included, that are setting up partnerships with lock manufacturers to overcome a big hurdle for e-commerce.

disinfectant: a chemical substance that is used to kill harmful germs and bacteria

国外网购正在缓慢发展，家里没人的时候没法收快递怎么办？这个竟然是big hurdle！ 真的是超级难题，我就受够了新西兰的快递，从不打电话问你在不在家，不在就给你扔一张card to collect，然后你得开车10几分钟去它快递中心取件，无fuck可说！

Conventional deliveries fail so often that a parcel is driven to a home an average of 1.5times in the Nordic region, says Kenneth Verlage, head of business development at PostNord, a logistics giant operating in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. It is an expensive inefficiency made worse, he says, by the fact that recipients have still often had to wait for a failed delivery. Some couriers leave packages on doorsteps,but this invites theft.Of 1,000 Americans surveyed this year by Shorr, a packaging firm, nearly a third had been victims of“porch piracy”,as this is known. Two-fifths avoid certain online purchases for fear of it.

快递放门口招贼：invite theft! 真的用词精准加妙

porch：an entrance to a building that has  a separate roof

porch piracy: 屋檐下的海盗

A number of firms now sell wirelessly connected locks which a courier’s delivery staff can open using a passcode or smartphone app after the resident has issued a temporary authorisation, before leaving home or remotely. Deliveries are filmed with an indoor security camera paired with the lock. The short videos are sent to parcel addresses and typically end, comically in Mr Romanov’s view, with a jiggle of the door handle from outside to show that the departing deliveryperson has locked up.

没人在家收快递步骤： 先花199美元买一个锁和摄像头，然后快递来了就给他一个密码让他打开门，把快递放家里，再锁上离开。这个也是建立在相信快递员不会偷东西的基础上

Amazon began offering in-home deliveries in 37 American cities in November. Shoppers who have had a special lock and camera installed (costing $199) can select in-homedelivery at checkout. Like most firms offering the service, Amazon is tightlipped about user numbers.The boss of August Home, a San Francisco maker of in-home delivery locks, says that already hundreds of thousands of delivery drivers, dog-walkers, cleaners and Airbnb guests use its app keylessly to enter others’ homes.

tightlipped: not willing to speak about something

卖这种锁的公司老板说，很多快递司机、养狗的、商业清洁和 airbnb客人都用这种密码锁进入别人的家了~

Offerings are multiplying. In 2018 August Home will go to Australia and Britain, and Post Nord will launch in-home delivery in four Nordic countries. Walmart and Sears have tried it; Sears even tested unattended appliance repairs. Five logistics firms and two Swedish supermarket chains are trying or using locks from Glue, a firm based in Stockholm, for in-home deliveries.

Sceptics reckon these efforts will not amount to much. Plenty of consumers will be fearful about theft.Rhino Security Labs, a Seattle computer-security firm, claims it hacked into and shut off the video in one Amazon lock-and-camera system.In-home deliveries are incompatible with burglar alarms. And what if an improperly fenced-off dog or cat slips outside? Or an heirloom on display gets knocked over? These are tricky questions. But e-commerce firms have unlocked harder ones.

multiplying: to increase greatly in number or amount: to become much more numerous

这个锁还不能和家里的防盗系统配套...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Results

Lexile®Measure: 1300L - 1400L

Mean Sentence Length: 16.97

Mean Log Word Frequency: 3.02

Word Count: 492

使用kindle断断续续地读《经济学人》三年，发现从一开始磕磕碰碰到现在比较顺畅地读完，进步很大，推荐购买！点击这里可以去亚马逊官网购买~