????電子商務企業的生死存亡系于吸納客戶的成本，也就是它們為賺得一筆銷售收入而花費的資金。電商和實體店的最大區別是，一旦有人進入實體店，他們就更有可能購買東西。畢竟，這位顧客主動走進了店鋪，心甘情愿被俘虜。

????那么電商呢？一個更實惠、更好、更光鮮的選擇僅在一鍵之遙。電子商務網站投入大量金錢和精力來吸引訪客，但最終只能眼巴巴地看著他們一件東西也沒買，就切換到另一個標簽。

????據數字廣告公司HookLogic首席執行官喬納森?奧普戴克推測，在線轉化率充其量只能達到令人沮喪的3%。他說：“訪問這些網站的大多數人都沒有購買任何東西，他們只是在各個站點之間不停地研究。”

????但這并不意味著零售商費盡心機爭取而來的訪客就不能實現貨幣化。如今，越來越多的電商都在設法使用跟在線媒體相同的方式來實現受眾的貨幣化，那就是：打廣告。

????三年前，在電商網站銷售廣告還只是一個謹慎的實驗。零售商擔心，這些廣告會把訪客引向別的地方，而不是把他們轉換成自己的客戶。現如今，奧普戴克表示，從沃爾瑪(Wal-Mart)、塔吉特(Target)到西爾斯百貨( Sears )，再到Sports Authority和玩具反斗城(Toys R Us)，大多數先進的電子商務運營商都建立了一支媒體銷售和受眾貨幣化團隊。根據OC＆C戰略咨詢公司(OC&C Strategy Consultants)的一項最新研究，80%的美國零售商正在各自站點上使用背投廣告、特色產品和贊助商鏈接來宣傳商品。

????一種行之有效的方法是：零售商面向自身網上商店涵蓋的品牌銷售廣告位。這種做法跟各大品牌為自己的產品購買超市貨架里的顯眼位置非常類似。總部設在紐約的HookLogic公司已經為它開發的廣告產品募集了2,350萬美元的風投資金，能夠在零售站點內顯示獲得贊助的搜索結果。這家公司目前正在跟上述所有零售商合作，向利潔時公司(Reckitt Benckiser)這類客戶銷售廣告位。比如，訪客在沃爾瑪網站(Walmart.com)搜索清潔產品時，首先映入眼簾的或許就是利潔時旗下的產品Lysol，網站會提示這是獲得贊助的搜索結果——跟谷歌(Google)付費搜索廣告服務非常類似。

????與此同時，商務軟件公司Bazaarvoice也進入了這個行業，它2012年斥資4,300萬美元收購了電子商務網絡廣告公司Longboard Media。與沃爾瑪、eBay、達樂公司(Dollar General)和CVS連鎖藥店合作的Triad Retail Media公司聲稱，通過幫助零售商把品牌廣告整合到它們的網站，它已經成為全球首屈一指的“零售商貨幣化機構”。

????OwnerIQ公司則是在一家零售商的訪客離開網站后再向他們銷售品牌廣告。這樣一來，“即使我不買任何東西，塔吉特百貨也有錢可賺，”OwnerIQ公司首席執行官杰伊?哈貝格說。通過這種方式，在消費者離開一家電子商務網站之后，品牌商可以讓他們在互聯網上感受到無處不在的展示廣告沖擊。OwnerIQ公司目前擁有超過300家數據合作伙伴，計劃在今年實現70%的收入增幅。這家公司日前披露稱，它已經從現有投資人那里額外募集到了600萬美元的投資，從而使它募集的資本總額達到了3,900萬美元。這筆資金是這家公司今年初宣布的最新一輪總值500萬美元風投募集計劃的一部分。哈貝格表示，這家公司將使用現有資金加強技術和人才實力。

????訪客貨幣化對于電商而言是一筆增量收入：一家產品銷售額達到1億美元的零售商可能會賺到1,000萬美元的利潤。它們已經開始投入資金來吸引訪客。因此，如果它們銷售價值1,000萬美元的媒體廣告，它們就能夠賺取1,000萬美元的利潤。奧普戴克透露說，HookLogic公司客戶的年收入在10萬（小電商）到數千萬美元（大電商）之間。現在，網上那些只逛不買的訪客再也不會讓電商一籌莫展——無論他們買不買東西，大大小小的電商們都已經想出了在他們身上賺錢的辦法。（財富中文網）

????譯者：葉寒

????E-commerce businesses live and die by their customer acquisition costs — the amount of money they spent to bring in a sale. The big difference between that and physical stores is that, once someone enters a physical store, they’re far more likely to buy something. After all, the customer walked in, voluntarily making themselves into a captive audience.

????Online though? A cheaper, better, shinier option is just one click away. E-commerce sites pour tons of money and effort into attracting visitors, only to watch them toggle over to another tab without buying anything.

????Online conversion rates are a dismal 3% at best, according to Jonathan Opdyke, CEO of commerce advertising startup HookLogic. “Most people who visit these sites are not buying anything, they’re doing research, bouncing between sites,” he says.

????That doesn’t mean retailers’ hard-earned audiences can’t be monetized. Increasingly, e-commerce players are seeking ways to monetize their audience the same way online media businesses do: through advertising.

????Three years ago, selling ads on an e-commerce site was a cautious experiment. Retailers worried ads would simply send the shopper elsewhere, rather than converting them into a customer. Now, most sophisticated e-commerce operations – from Wal-Mart WMT -0.25% and Target TGT -0.77% to Sears SHLD 0.10% , Sports Authority, and Toys R Us, have a media sales and audience monetization team, Opdyke says. Eight out of ten US retailers now use display advertising, featured products and sponsored links to advertise the wares on their sites, according to a recent study by OC&C Strategy Consultants.

????One way it works: Retailers sell ad placements to the brands they carry in their online stores. It’s similar to the way brands pay for eye-level product placement on supermarket shelves. HookLogic, based in New York, has raised $23.5 million in venture funding for its ad product, which shows sponsored search results within retail sites. The company works with all of the aforementioned retailers to sell placements for clients like Reckitt Benckiser. So, a search on Walmart.com for cleaning products might list Lysol as the top result, with a note that the result is sponsored, similar to paid search ads on Google.

????Meawhile Bazaarvoice, a commerce software company, got into this business when it acquired Longboard Media, an on-site e-commerce advertising network for $43 million in 2012. Triad Retail Media, which works with Wal-Mart, eBay, Dollar General and CVS, claims it is the #1 “retailer monetization agency” in the world, by helping retailers integrate brand advertising into their sites.

????OwnerIQ sells brand ads to a retailer’s audience after they leave a retailer’s site. This way, “Target can make money even if I don’t buy anything,” OwnerIQ CEO Jay Habegger says. This way brands can hit shoppers with display ads across the Web after they’ve left a commerce site. With north of 300 data partners, OwnerIQ plans to grow revenue by 70% this year. The company today reveals it has raised $6 million in additional funding from its existing investors, bringing the total funds raised to $39 million. The funding is a part of the company’s most recent $5 million in new venture funding, announced earlier this year. Habegger says the company will use the existing funding to strengthen the company’s technology and staff.

????Audience monetization is incremental revenue for e-commerce players: A retailer selling $100 million worth of products might make $10 million in profit. They’re already paying to attract the audience, so if they sell $10 million worth of media, they make $10 million in profit. HookLogic customers can earn anywhere between $100,000 for a smaller site to tens of millions in new revenue per year for the bigger sites, Opdyke says. Now, online window-shoppers can browse away — stores have figured out a way to make money on them, regardless of whether they buy anything.