括号里的是注解，不是原文

An army of Chineseshoppers dictates the fate of Australian brands

（中国代购大军决定着澳洲品牌的命运，很喜欢经济学人的这种戏谑风格，an army of）

How firms Down Undercame toembrace daigou

（embrace 用法）

THE first daigou, meaning someone who makes purchases on another’s behalf, were Chinese students studying abroad, whohauleddesirable products home on behalf of family and friends. Adding a commission helped them pay their tuition fees. The spread of social-networking apps such as WeChat, China’s most popular, brought the business online. Daigou could then offer their services to friends of friends, and promote items they thought might appeal to their network. But whereas daigou in America and Europeprocure mainly luxury goods for their customers—a function of high Chinese tariffs—in Australia they buy mainly vitamins, food and beauty products.And whereas luxury brands see daigou as a menace, undercutting sales in China, Australian firms have come to embrace them.

（haul：to pull or drag something with effort

欧洲代购的都是奢侈品，澳洲新西兰代购则是一些维生素、食品和护肤品）

There are perhaps 50,000 daigou, stalking the aisles of Australian shops and periodically stripping them bare.The small fry alone post 60,000 parcels to China every day. The biggest have grown into organised export businesses which funnel goods through China’s free-trade zones. Express delivery services to China haveproliferated, and some 1,500 stores in Australiacater mainly to daigou. One such chain, AuMake, recently listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its bilingual sales staff can arrange for a purchase to be posted to China as soon as it has been rung up.

（澳洲5万中国代购大军！

stalking 和 stripping 这里用的超级妙，学起来

proliferate: to increase in nummber or amount quickly

cater to:  这个用法记起来）

The appeal for the customers is simple: the products daigou post are guaranteed to be genuine. After Chinese firms were found to have been selling contaminated milk powder in 2008, many anxious Chinese parents turned to foreign brands.But websites peddling foreign goods are riddled with counterfeits, while Chinese shops charge a fortune for the real thing.

（peddle：to sell something usually in small amounts and often by travelling to different places

riddle: to fill with something that is bad or unpleasant）

The odd sales channel works for companies, too. Daigou allow young Australian firms to build their brands in China much more cheaply and easily than if they tried to market their products directly, argues Keong Chan, the chairman of AuMake. A firm called the a2 Milk Company doubled its profit in the year to June thanks tosoaring Chinese demand. Daigou account for more of those sales than Chinese retailers or e-commerce sites, according to Peter Nathan, who heads its Asia-Pacific unit. Businesses fall over themselves to win the favour of the most influential daigou, offering discounts and Chinese marketing materials. “It’s like having a 50,000-strong sales force,” says Andrew Cohen, chief executive of Bellamy’s, a listed manufacturer of infant formula.

（两个澳洲知名代购品牌：A2奶粉和贝拉美Bellamy）

Bellamy’s learned the hard way. It used to worry aboutentrustingso important a market tosquads of anonymous intermediaries. Daigou had earned a bad press in Australiaforcreating shortages of certain goods andforfailing to pay tax on their commissions. Worse, the Chinese authorities began talking last year about demanding import duties on personal packages, a move that the firm feared might undermine sales through daigou.

entrust: to give someone the responsibility of doing something or of caring for someone or something

squad: a group of people who are involved in a particular activity

So Bellamy’s decided to funnel its wares to Chinese retailers and e-tailers, who in turn offered big discounts to customers, undercutting the daigou.This approach backfired completely, as daigou abandoned Bellamy’s products.Salesplunged. The firm’s share price collapsed;heads rolled. Bellamy’s recently cut back sales to other distributors, restoring daigou to prime position once again.

（plunge: to fall or drop suddenly in amount,value etc.  =plummet

贝拉美想砍掉代购这个不正规的渠道，惹怒了代购们，然后销量大减后又重新把代购放回最重要的销售渠道）

这篇文章的蓝思值是在1100-1200L， 适合英语专业大三的水平学习，应该是经济学人里属于最简单的一列。

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