Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 377: War is imminent! (Ask for a guaranteed ticket at the beginning of the month)

November 2007, 11, which happened to be a Sunday, was also the first day that "Homeland" was officially released. The long queues at bookstores across the country shocked the media.

The news of the "Homeland" press conference was still lingering on the newspapers delivered to newsstands in the early morning, and reporters had to rub their sleepy eyes and start running around the bookstores to interview readers waiting in line and bookstore employees.

"I'm from the Yanshi University Literature Club. I've been lining up since 4am! Our club is planning to read "Homeland" as a shared reading for this month."

"I specialize in collecting Zhang Chao's signed editions! His last signed first edition of 'Star Chaser' is now 20 times more expensive. This 'Homeland' first print run is 150 million? Oh, wait and see, it will definitely be sold at a sky-high price in half a year!"

"We waited in line all night and treated it as a date! He likes science fiction, and I like local literature. Zhang Chao's book is tailor-made for us... After reading it, we can decide whether to bring each other to meet our parents!"

……

A manager of Yenching Book Building put it more bluntly: "There were people squatting at the door at 800 a.m.! We urgently transferred 1 books from the warehouse and opened the door an hour earlier, but they were sold out in two hours... Now each person is limited to buying one book, and I drove away all the scalpers holding 'buy on behalf of others' signs.

Zhang Chao's book is not about selling books, it's about selling houses that are in urgent need!"

Since the sales peak came much earlier than expected, although the first print of 150 million copies were all "real books", most of them were still in the warehouses of various channels and could not be delivered to terminal bookstores immediately for the time being.

There is also a regional supply imbalance, so it is difficult to meet the needs of all readers. Even in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, there is a shortage of supply.

At one time, the first print run of 150 million copies of "Homeland" was so intense that it was hard to find a copy - remember, this was 2007, and China's printing industry was no longer what it was back then.

Looking back more than 20 years ago, publishers even had quotas on paper every year, and if they wanted to reprint a best-selling book, they had to go through layers of approval...

Readers who bought the books were overjoyed, while those who didn’t were naturally dejected. If you ask a bookstore when the next batch of books will be available, the answer you get is usually: “I don’t know.”

Some people who bought "Homeland" resold it for three or even five times the price, and they were all cheated.

After all, among young literature lovers in China, being able to read "Homeland" earlier than others has almost become something to brag about.

At this time, a piece of news began to circulate on the Internet - there is a place where you can buy "Homeland" at the original price!
However, this "place" is not an address, but a web link: "Dangdang.com·"Hometown" exclusive sales page"

On this page, readers can not only buy "Homeland" at the original price of 29 yuan, but the website also promises "order on the same day, ship on the same day" and "Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, will arrive the next day."

At the same time, it also provides convenient payment services such as "online consumption, offline card swiping" and "cash on delivery", which benefit consumers in all aspects!
The entire internet was in an uproar at that time - next-day delivery, which means that the item can be received on the third day after placing the order? What kind of speed is this!

You have to know that in this era of express delivery, if it is not within the same city, let alone "next-day delivery", three days of delivery is considered fast, five days of delivery is normal, and don't worry if it arrives in a week.

Therefore, the "Dangdang.com "Hometown" exclusive sales page" encountered a huge traffic test on the first day of its launch. Many netizens placed orders not to buy books, but to see if the courier could deliver the goods the next day.

Li Guoqing of Dangdang.com was directly in charge of the Dangdang Yanjing logistics center which had just been built on that day, and he was fully focused on supervising the express delivery and shipment of "Homeland".

As a CEO with a lot of things to do every day, Li Guoqing also had to take care of other businesses, so he simply put a few important official seals on his waist. In this way, when his subordinates brought documents that needed stamping, they could do it on the spot without running back and forth.

At this moment, he suddenly thought of the scene when he met Zhang Chao at the "Southern Book Festival" a few years ago...

This time, Dangdang.com purchased 10 copies of "Homeland" in one go. This was an order that Li Guoqing signed against all odds at the board meeting.

In addition to being confident in Zhang Chao's marketing ability, he also wanted to take this opportunity to break through the blockade of Taobao and EachNet on Dangdang, and at least give people the impression that "Dangdang delivers goods very quickly."

I didn’t expect Zhang Chao’s marketing effect to be so good. I thought it would take at least one or two months to sell the 10 copies of “Homeland”, but more than half of them were sold in the evening of the day the website was launched.

This also made Li Guoqing sweat - if the promise could not be fulfilled, then Dangdang.com would not be "out of the circle" but would be "making a fool of itself".

But this is also an opportunity. Once seized, Dangdang.com can be given a new positive label in the minds of consumers in addition to being an "online bookstore."

So on the one hand, Li Guoqing was anxiously directing the employees at the logistics center to pack and ship the goods, and on the other hand, he placed an order for 10 copies with Lu Jinbo's "Guomai Culture".

The success of the "Dangdang.com "Homeland" exclusive sales page" immediately attracted the attention of "Taobao.com" and "Ebay".

Taobao is a marketplace for merchants. It does not have its own book warehouse like Dangdang.com, so it is impossible for it to purchase books and sell them itself. However, it still responded quickly and temporarily launched a "Taobao·Homeland" specialty page, which brought together a few Taobao bookstores for display.

In order to compete with Dangdang.com, Taobao.com provides "express delivery subsidies" for all "Homeland" orders. Consumers only need to pay 1.99 yuan on top of the book price to enjoy the home delivery service.

This was also a groundbreaking move in 2007. You should know that at that time, the official price of a courier package was 10 yuan, and an additional 5 yuan was charged for overweight.

The price of 1.99 yuan means that Taobao has to pay 7-8 yuan for each order. Even if it can get some discounts from the courier companies because of its big customers, it will never be as low as 1.99 yuan.

Even if "Homeland" is a single product, no matter how much sales it has, it is unlikely to affect the cash flow of Taobao.com, but it has already subtly shown that it wants to compete with Dangdang.com in this category.

eBay also quickly launched the "eBay · Hometown" special sales page, but its gameplay is different from Taobao. eBay's support policy for the sale of Hometown is "three copies free shipping", that is, if you buy three copies from a certain merchant at one time, eBay will subsidize the postage.

This is because of the best-selling nature of "Homeland". Consumers who want to buy it can easily find friends with the same needs in real life. If everyone buys together, they can enjoy the discount of free postage. Why not?
After seeing these tactics of his competitors, Li Guoqing's eyes widened. He almost threw the official seal on his waist as a hidden weapon to hit people. He could not help but roared in the roar of the machines in the logistics center: "Shame on you!"

You should know that he has already used most of the profits from "Hometown" to subsidize the delivery costs. Consumers who buy "Hometown" on "Dangdang.com" can have "SF Express" deliver the goods to their door by paying an additional 6 yuan.

This is currently the most expensive courier company in the country! It is the only one that can deliver to major cities “next day”.

But I didn't expect that Taobao and EachNet would spend money to suppress Dangdang's momentum.

But he soon calmed down and realized that it was not the right time to get angry. Although the other party was burning money - but who is not burning money in the current e-commerce competition?
Burning money is the main theme. E-commerce companies that are unwilling or afraid to burn money will not be looked at by investors. At this time, the operation department also reported the data. After the two rival companies launched the "Hometown" exclusive sales page, the number of orders on Dangdang.com dropped sharply, and more and more users chose to cancel their orders.

Li Guoqing immediately said to the operations department: "Modify the webpage immediately. Our "Homeland" will be free shipping within three copies!"

The person in charge of the operations department who made the decision broke out in sweat on his back. He was stunned for a moment and asked in disbelief, "Mr. Li... are you sure? How much... do we have to pay?"

Li Guoqing said angrily: "If you do it now, you will only lose some money. If you don't do it now, you may even lose your life! Hurry up and do as I say! For customers who have already placed an order, the backend can directly modify the order amount and waive the courier fee."

The operations director still asked cautiously, "Should we ask Mr. Yu?"

Li Guoqing asked coldly: "I'm the CEO, what do you think? As for her... I'll explain later."

The operations director didn't dare to say anything more and could only say, "Okay, right away!" Then he hung up the phone and went to coordinate work with the technical and financial departments.

Li Guoqing slammed his phone against the table, making a loud "smack" sound. Fortunately, he was using a Nokia, so the only thing that was damaged was the table.

After a while, someone asked, "Mr. Li, why don't you follow Taobao's policy and offer free shipping for three books, or free shipping for 1.99 yuan?"

Li Guoqing sneered: "These are all baits they set to lure us into the trap!"

The subordinate who asked the question was puzzled: "...I still don't quite understand, can you explain it?"

Li Guoqing, who had gained a sense of superiority in intelligence from his subordinates, was almost no longer angry at this time. He turned around and looked at the other person. He found that he was a handsome young man. He liked him more and more, so he patiently explained:

"How many bookstores are there in these two malls? How many books are sold? Even if they pay for the postage, it won't cost them much. The reason they have the '1.99 yuan, get 'Hometown' delivered to your home' and 'three books free shipping' policy is to get us to follow the same policy.

Think about it, if we also offer a policy of 1.99 yuan for three books and free shipping, and they immediately change it to 0.99 yuan for two books and free shipping, should we follow suit? If we don’t, the money we spent before will be wasted, but if we do, won’t we become a joke?
So at this time we must burn our boats and spend money quickly and all at once. This way we can concentrate on fighting without having to worry about what they will do next.

When doing business, you must not be led by the nose by the enemy! Today, Dangdang.com lost some money, but the reputation it created cannot be replaced by any amount of advertising money!

We just want to let consumers know who is more sincere!"

Li Guoqing's words won applause and cheers from his subordinates.

But then someone asked an inopportune question: "What if they not only offer free shipping, but also subsidize the price of the book?"

The applause and laughter suddenly stopped...

"So, this is also in his plan? Is this the reason why he thinks "Homeland" has not reached its sales limit yet?" Lu Jinbo looked at the report in the newspaper "The three major e-commerce companies launched a "free shipping war" just for this novel" and didn't know what to say. He could only repeat what he said last night in his mind.

In fact, Zhang Chao himself did not expect that due to the hot sales of "Hometown", the "free shipping era" of online shopping would arrive two years earlier...

With the unprecedented popularity of "Homeland", almost all of Guomai Culture's recent work revolves around it, and many marketing activities that were not originally planned have been put on the agenda.

What with the "live book signing event", "reader meeting", "work seminar"... They wish they could tie Zhang Chao to their waist like Li Guoqing tied the official seal, so that he would not miss any of them.

However, apart from participating in a book signing at Yenching Book Building, Zhang Chao turned down almost all other activities.

It is normal for him to make such a choice.

Book signings, meetings, discussions... all essentially serve to increase book sales. Now that "Homeland" is sold out, even if Zhang Chao's hands break signing, sales will not increase any more.

Then participating in these activities is equivalent to advertising for "Guomai Culture", the organizer.

It was already very kind of Zhang Chao to give "Homeland" to Lu Jinbo. He was really not interested in letting the other party waste his time and reputation.

This made everyone at Guomai Culture extremely anxious. After all, they were trying to use this opportunity to further enhance the company's status in the minds of readers across the country.

Looking at his subordinates' eager eyes, Lu Jinbo sighed inwardly and could only shamelessly call Zhang Chao, hoping that he would agree to participate in a few more activities.

The first time, I was hung up.

The second time, I was hung up.

Lu Jinbo's face was as black as coal, but for the sake of the company's development and the expectations of his colleagues, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and call Zhang Chao for the third time. However, he also made up his mind that if Zhang Chao refused to call again, he would absolutely... definitely... try his best not to call for the fourth time!
Fortunately, after a while of "beep" sound in the receiver, the connection sound was heard, and then Zhang Chao's familiar voice came.

Lu Jinbo ignored etiquette and quickly expressed his request for him to participate in more activities.

The other employees of Guomai Culture were all staring at Lu Jinbo's face, hoping to see something from it.

But within a minute, Lu Jinbo put down the phone with a strange expression. He didn't look disappointed, nor did he look happy because his wish had come true. Instead, he looked speechless and indescribable...

Two days later, the "Homeland" book signing and work seminar was officially held in the activity hall on the fourth floor of Yenching Book Building. The scene was crowded and lively.

Sitting in the center of the venue, having just signed autographs for hundreds of readers and chatting with the host, wasn’t he talking about the novel “Homeland”…

The author of the preface, Yu Hua?
(End of this chapter)