“双十一”预售又开始了？

听说，今年双十一的预售时间又提前了，今晚10月20日八点开启第一轮预售，大家不用再熬夜等待了。

借（cèng）此（gè）机（rè）会（diǎn），我们来看看打折促销对消费者真的有影响吗，促销策略真的有用吗？

无注释原文：

Do deep promotional discounts work? New study sheds light on strategy

Science Daily

September 26, 2017

Summary: Promotional discounts increase store traffic and lead to higher overall profits, especially if the advertised products are staples – items such as meat and produce that are purchased frequently and by many customers.

Many retailers employ discounts to attract customers, but it can be difficult for businesses to know what effect these discounts have on overall store performance, and few studies have analyzed store-level data to know for sure whether this strategy works.

A new study published in the Journal of Retailing shows that promotional discounts increase store traffic and lead to higher overall profits, especially if the advertised products are staples -- items such as meat and produce that are purchased frequently and by many customers.

"Our results validate the widespread use of price promotions supported by feature advertising, such as those found in newspaper circulars," said Dinesh Gauri, professor of marketing in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. "These featured promotions provided a beneficial impact on several key performance metrics, including store traffic, sales and profits."

Over a 49-week period, Gauri and co-authors Brian Ratchford at the University of Texas at Dallas, Joseph Pancras at the University of Connecticut, and Debabrata Talukdar at the University of Buffalo analyzed data on 27 product categories from 24 branches of a popular Northeastern grocery chain. Each week, the authors compiled data on overall traffic, sales per transaction, and profit margin for each store.

They examined the impact of so-called "loss leader" strategies -- the practice of deep promotional discounts to attract customers who will buy other items -- on several product categories, including penetration (items bought by many people), frequency (frequently purchased items), storability (items that can be stored, such as paper napkins or plates), impulse items and national brand items.

Their analysis of about 677,000 transactions, with an average value of $15.44 per transaction, showed that deep discounting, accompanied by a blitz of advertising promotions, achieved retailers' goal of attracting more customers into stores and increasing overall profits. But the researchers' main finding came with several caveats, Gauri said.

Promotional discounts on both high-penetration, high-frequency items (staples such as meat and produce) and low-penetration, low-frequency items (beer and condiments) led to increased traffic but lower sales per transaction.

"This suggests that these promotional discounts tend to attract small-basket customers," Gauri said.

However, discounts in these same categories were associated with higher overall profit margins, especially in the low-penetration, low-frequency category. Gauri said this suggests that the smaller transactions generated by the discounts contained an above average number of high-margin items, in addition to the discounted items.

"We think this result was driven mainly by beer, which was featured almost every week," Gauri said.

These other findings can also give retailers an edge, the researchers said:

· Broad discounting in one category may lead to diminishing returns.

· On average, discounts on national brand items had a stronger impact on per-transaction sales than discounts on non-brands.

· Consumers who took advantage of deep discount promotions on impulse products tended to buy products in more profitable categories.

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为机器翻译仅供参考，并非一一对应

含注释全文：

Do deep promotional discounts work? New study sheds light on strategy

Science Daily

September 26, 2017

Summary: Promotional discounts increase store traffic and lead to higher overall profits, especially if the advertised products are staples – items such as meat and produce that are purchased frequently and by many customers.

概要：促销折扣增加了商店的客流量，并带来了更高的总利润，尤其是当推广产品是基本食物的时候--诸如肉类和农产品等经常被许多顾客购买的商品。

shed light on

cast/shed/throw light on sth 表示“使（问题等）较容易理解；为…提供解释；使…较容易理解；阐明；使…清楚地显出”，英文解释为“to make a problem, etc. easier to understand”举个🌰：

As an economist, he was able to shed some light on the problem.

作为经济学家，他能解释这个问题。

traffic

熟词僻义，traffic一词除了熟知的“交通”的意思，还有“流量”的含义，英文解释：the movement of messages and signals through an electronic communication system，如“数据流量”：data traffic。

此外，作为动词，还有“贩卖（人口）”的意思，to illegally buy or sell people, or make money from work they are forced to do, such as sex work. 如：人口贩卖 human trafficking.

📍注：traffic (v.) 过去式 trafficked 过去分词：trafficked 现在分词：trafficking.

staple

staple表示“基本食物；主食；主要产品；某物的主要部分”（a basic type of food that is used a lot；a main product or part of something），如：a table-top staple 可以理解为饭桌上必备的食物，举个🌰：

Aid workers helped distribute corn, milk and other staples.

救助人员协助分发谷物、牛奶及其他必需的食物。

produce

熟词僻义，不可数名词，表示“产品，（尤指）农产品”，英文解释为“Produce is fruit and vegetables that are grown in large quantities to be sold.”举个🌰：

We manage to get most of our produce in farmers' markets.

我们设法在农贸市场弄到大部分我们需要的农产品。

Many retailers employ discounts to attract customers, but it can be difficult for businesses to know what effect these discounts have on overall store performance, and few studies have analyzed store-level data to know for sure whether this strategy works.

许多零售商采用折扣来吸引顾客，但商家可能很难知道这些折扣对商店的整体业绩有什么影响，而且很少有研究分析商店层面的数据来确定这种策略是否有效。

employ

熟词僻义，表示“使用，利用”，英文解释为“If you employ certain methods, materials, or expressions, you use them.”举个🌰：

The group will employ a mix of tactics to achieve its aim. 

该团体将运用混合策略来实现其目标。

A new study published in the Journal of Retailing shows that promotional discounts increase store traffic and lead to higher overall profits, especially if the advertised products are staples -- items such as meat and produce that are purchased frequently and by many customers.

发表在《零售杂志》（The Journal of Retailing）上的一项新研究表明，促销折扣增加了商店的客流量，并带来了更高的总利润，尤其是当推广产品是基本食物的时候--诸如肉类和农产品等经常被许多顾客购买的商品。

"Our results validate the widespread use of price promotions supported by feature advertising, such as those found in newspaper circulars," said Dinesh Gauri, professor of marketing in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. "These featured promotions provided a beneficial impact on several key performance metrics, including store traffic, sales and profits."

“"我们的结果证实了在专题广告中价格促销广泛使用的价值，例如在报纸通告中发现的那些，”山姆·沃尔顿商学院营销学教授迪内希·高里（Dinesh Gauri）说。“这些特色促销活动对几个关键业绩指标产生了正向影响，包括商店的客流量、销售额和利润。”

validate

1）表示“证实”，英文解释为“To validate something such as a claim or statement means to prove or confirm that it is true or correct.”举个🌰：

This discovery seems to validate the claims of popular astrology.

这一发现似乎证实了流行占星术的一些观点。

2）表示“证实…有价值”，英文解释为“To validate a person, state, or system means to prove or confirm that they are valuable or worthwhile.”举个🌰：

The Academy Awards appear to validate his career.

这些奥斯卡金像奖看来证实了他的职业生涯的价值。

circular

circular /ˈsɜːkjʊlə/ 1）作形容词，表示“圆形的”，英文解释为“Something that is circular is shaped like a circle.”如：a circular hole 圆洞。

2）作形容词，表示“（旅行或路线）环行的”，英文解释为“A circular journey or route is one in which you go to a place and return by a different route.”举个🌰：

Both sides of the river can be explored on this circular walk. 

沿着这条环形步行道走，河的两边就都可以看得到了。

3）作名词，表示“（同时发给很多人的）通知，通报，传单”，英文解释为“A circular is an official letter or advertisement that is sent to a large number of people at the same time.”举个🌰：

The proposal has been widely publicized in press information circulars sent to 2,345 newspapers.

通过向2345份报纸发送新闻通告，这项提议得到了广泛地宣传。

metrics

表示“衡量标准，度量指标”，英文解释为“a set of figures or statistics that measure results”。

Over a 49-week period, Gauri and co-authors Brian Ratchford at the University of Texas at Dallas, Joseph Pancras at the University of Connecticut, and Debabrata Talukdar at the University of Buffalo analyzed data on 27 product categories from 24 branches of a popular Northeastern grocery chain. Each week, the authors compiled data on overall traffic, sales per transaction, and profit margin for each store.

在49周的时间里，高里和共同作者得克萨斯大学达拉斯分校（The University of Texas at Dallas）的布莱恩·拉奇福德（Brian Ratchford）、康涅狄格大学（University of Connecticut）的约瑟夫·潘克拉斯（Joseph Pancras）和布法罗大学（University of Buffalo）的德布拉塔·塔鲁克达（Debabrata Talukdar）分析了来自东北一家受欢迎的杂货连锁店24家分店的27种产品的数据。每周，作者都会汇编每家商店的总体客流量、每笔交易的销售额和利润率的数据。

compile

表示“汇编；编纂；编辑；编制”，英文解释为“to collect information from different places and arrange it in a book, report, or list”举个🌰：

We're compiling some facts and figures for a documentary on the subject.

我们正在为一部有关这个主题的纪录片汇编资料。

transaction

表示“交易”，英文解释为“an occasion when someone buys or sells something, or when money is exchanged or the activity of buying or selling something”。

profit margin

表示“利润率，利润幅度”，英文解释为“the difference between the total cost of making and selling something and the price it is sold for”举个🌰：

Many small companies operate on very narrow profit margins.

许多小公司靠非常微薄的利润率维持经营。

They examined the impact of so-called "loss leader" strategies -- the practice of deep promotional discounts to attract customers who will buy other items -- on several product categories, including penetration (items bought by many people), frequency (frequently purchased items), storability (items that can be stored, such as paper napkins or plates), impulse items and national brand items.

他们研究了所谓的“损失领导物”策略的影响--通过大幅促销折扣来吸引顾客购买其他商品的做法--对几个产品类别的影响，包括渗透率（许多人购买的商品）、频率（经常购买的商品）、耐贮性（可储存的商品，如纸巾或盘子）、冲动型消费品和全国性品牌商品。

loss leader

损失领导物（Loss Leader）是一种刻意将商品的价格订得比成本还低的促销手段。其原理是是透过低价来吸引顾客，再透过顾客购买的其他商品来增加利润。A loss leader (also leader) is a pricing strategy where a product is sold at a price below its market cost to stimulate other sales of more profitable goods or services. With this sales promotion/marketing strategy, a "leader" is any popular article, i.e., sold at a normal price.

📍另一种将商品价格订得比成本还低的手段是掠夺性订价（Predatory pricing）。即以本伤人，是指产品厂商或服务提供者刻意地以低于生产成本的价格来销售该产品或服务，以期能排挤市场上的其他竞争对手，并达成控制市场的目的，然后再提高价格。

penetration

常见含义表示“穿透；渗透；进入”，英文解释为“the act or process of making a way into or through sth”，如：the company's successful penetration of overseas markets 公司对海外市场的顺利开拓，举个🌰：

The floor is sealed to prevent water penetration.

地板加了密封涂料防止渗水。

📍此处表示，市场渗透（率），Penetration defines how many users are there for a product. It is one of the measures of a company or industry's success in getting consumers to use their products. The penetration numbers for India are very low in most products, like telephones (tele density) or shampoos, soaps, cosmetics and so on.

napkin

表示“餐巾；餐巾纸”，英文解释为“a small square piece of cloth or paper, used while you are eating to protect your clothes or to clean your mouth or fingers”。

impulse

此处可以解释为“心血来潮的；一时的念头”，英文解释为“An impulse buy or impulse purchase is something that you decide to buy when you see it, although you had not planned to buy it.”举个🌰：

The books were an impulse buy.

这些书是一时心血来潮买下的。

Their analysis of about 677,000 transactions, with an average value of $15.44 per transaction, showed that deep discounting, accompanied by a blitz of advertising promotions, achieved retailers' goal of attracting more customers into stores and increasing overall profits. But the researchers' main finding came with several caveats, Gauri said.

他们对大约677,000笔交易进行了分析，每笔交易的平均价值为15.44美元，结果显示，大幅折扣伴随着大型促销活动，实现了零售商吸引更多顾客进入商店和增加总利润的目标。但研究人员的主要发现还有几点提醒，高里说。

blitz

blitz /blɪts/ 表示“集中力量的行动；闪电式行动”，英文解释为“a lot of energetic activity”举个🌰：

The car was launched with a massive media/advertising blitz, involving newspapers, magazines, television and radio.

该车投放市场时做了大量宣传/广告，投放媒介包括报纸、杂志、电视和广播。

📍此前在双十一这个千亿大项目，你贡献了多少呢？一文中提到了“双十一购物狂欢节”，BBC用了the 24-hour shopping blitz，来表示。

caveat

caveat /ˈkeɪvɪˌæt/ 表示“（进一步行动前的）警告，告诫；限制条款”，英文解释为“a warning to consider something before taking any more action, or a statement that limits a more general statement”举个🌰：

He agreed to the interview, with the caveat that he could approve the final article.

他答应接受访问，条件是访问稿刊登前须经他同意。

Promotional discounts on both high-penetration, high-frequency items (staples such as meat and produce) and low-penetration, low-frequency items (beer and condiments) led to increased traffic but lower sales per transaction.

对高渗透率、高频率的商品（如肉类和农产品等主食）和低渗透率、低频率的商品（啤酒和调味品）进行促销折扣，导致客流量增加，但每笔交易的销售额降低了。

condiment

condiment /ˈkɒndɪmənt/ 表示“调味品”，英文解释为“a substance, such as salt, that you add to food to improve its taste”。

"This suggests that these promotional discounts tend to attract small-basket customers," Gauri said.

高里说：“这表明，这些促销折扣倾向于吸引小客户。”

However, discounts in these same categories were associated with higher overall profit margins, especially in the low-penetration, low-frequency category. Gauri said this suggests that the smaller transactions generated by the discounts contained an above average number of high-margin items, in addition to the discounted items.

然而，这些相同类别的折扣与较高的总利润率有关，特别是在低渗透率、低频率的类别中。高里说，这表明由折扣产生的销售额较小的交易，除了折扣商品外，还包含了高于平均数量的高利润商品。

句子解析

Gauri said (that) [this sugests (that) {the smaller transactions generated by the discounts contained an above average number of high-margin items, in addition to the discounted items.}]

📍高里说什么？[这表明了{xxx}]。连续两个宾语从句嵌套。

📍第二个宾语从句中，从句主语：the smaller transactions；从句谓语：contained an above average number of high-margin items；

📍其中，generated by the discounts 过去分词作定语，修饰transactions，什么交易？由折扣产生的那些交易，也可以理解为定语从句省略了[that were]，还原：the smaller transactions (that were) generated by the discounts.

"We think this result was driven mainly by beer, which was featured almost every week," Gauri said.

“我们认为这一结果主要是由啤酒驱动的，它几乎每周都有啤酒，”高里说。

These other findings can also give retailers an edge, the researchers said:

研究人员说，这些其他发现也能给零售商带来优势：

· Broad discounting in one category may lead to diminishing returns. 在一个类别中范围过广的折扣可能会导致收益递减。

diminish

1）表示“减少；（使）减弱，缩减；降低”，英文解释为“to become or to make sth become smaller, weaker, etc.”举个🌰：

His influence has diminished with time.

随着时间的推移，他的影响已不如从前了。

2）表示“贬低；贬损；轻视”，英文解释为“to make sb/sth seem less important than they really are”举个🌰：

I don't wish to diminish the importance of their contribution.

我并不想贬低他们所作贡献的重要性。

return

作名词，表示“收益；利润；收入”，英文解释为“the profit that you get from an investment”。

· On average, discounts on national brand items had a stronger impact on per-transaction sales than discounts on non-brands. 平均来说，全国性品牌商品的折扣比非品牌的折扣对每笔交易销售额的影响更大。

· Consumers who took advantage of deep discount promotions on impulse products tended to buy products in more profitable categories. 利用冲动型产品的大幅折扣促销的消费者倾向于购买利润更高的类别的产品。

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