Back to the prime of life

Chapter 174 Guarantee of Margin Call Agreement
Zhu Yong said that he wanted to record it live, which meant that Lu Changge had to go to Jinling again.

By the way, Wang Hongcheng has been back to Jinling for a few days, and I don’t know how he is doing with that matter.

Besides, appearing on TV is a big deal, especially for people like Lu's father and mother. Seeing their son on TV is definitely an exciting thing for them.

After the younger aunt found out, she was ready to mobilize all the aunts and uncles, but was stopped by Lu Changge. He never wanted to show how successful he was in front of his relatives.

No one likes their relatives who keep showing off how rich they are.

Of course, things weren't that complicated between him and Xu Qiuxue. He shared the news with her and also arranged for her to watch the program being recorded.

This kind of experience is not common, so it can be considered as a glimpse into what it is like to record a TV program.

Because the leader wanted to see results quickly, Xu Weiguo pressed the issue too hard.

In order to comfort him, Lu Changge took Qin Jun to the office of the Development Zone Management Committee the afternoon before going to Nanjing.

Lu Mang's marketing strategy is not just to let Lu Changge use his face and hire a group of internet trolls to post good reviews on the forum. In fact, it is a multi-dimensional strategy that even includes setting keywords on Taobao, buying traffic to increase exposure, etc. All of these methods are used.

In addition, Lumang has contacted the two magazines "Reader" and "Yilin" and decided to place some advertisements in them.

Just write a few soft articles to introduce Lu Changge and his Lu Mang.

Because of the government's endorsement, Lumang's financial pressure on the procurement side can be effectively solved, and it has more money to spend on marketing.

In a word, before he appeared on the show, Lu Mang had actually gained a certain degree of exposure. The indirect evidence was that Lu Mang's orders began to increase day by day.

According to the materials Lu Changge brought to Xu Weidong, the daily sales volume has exceeded 2000 orders, and this is just over a week.

"...I asked the team to compile all the daily data so we can have a more intuitive view of the growth trend. Sometimes the absolute number is increasing, but the growth rate is slowing down, which is also worth paying attention to in advance. For now, Lumang's sales are growing rapidly, and the internet industry has a characteristic: once the right path is found, the growth will explode in a very short period of time."

Xu Weiguo doesn't care how much revenue these sales bring to Lumang. Even if it's hundreds of thousands a day, he doesn't care. He still cares about how many downstream manufacturers can survive.

Seeing this data, he felt a little relieved. "Two thousand orders is not a small number. You should be considered a relatively large store, right?"

Lu Changge said modestly, "It's not that big. Industry leaders can handle tens of thousands of orders a day. Their logistics are so tight that they can't even handle them. We're still a little behind. However, our repurchase rate is significantly higher than the industry average, thanks to Jiangzhou's deep roots in the clothing industry. Uncle Xu, don't worry. Lumang's momentum is strong. Next year, the number of clothing factories closing down in the development zone will definitely be less than you think."

Xu Weiguo sighed in his heart, thinking that with such an important platform, Lu Changge would probably have a lot of weight in Director Cheng's eyes.

and also……

He joked, "Don't be satisfied with just the size of our development zone. We have a saying here: 'learn from the experience of our peers.' If you really stand out and attract more attention, you'll probably hear people tell you that it's never a good thing for a development zone to be the only one doing well."

Lu Changge paused. The reason behind this was very simple. He understood that, to put it bluntly, the development zone was also under the leadership of the Jiangzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, and he must obey them on major issues.

However, he has been in contact with Xu Weiguo and has ignored other districts.

Now that he has said this, there might be some rumors.

But it’s not a bad thing for him. People always strive to make progress step by step.

Of course, he still said politely: "Other places definitely don't have such a good environment as the development zone. I can't take care of it at the moment. I can't care so much."

Xu Weiguo felt somewhat relieved after hearing this. Perhaps he didn't realize that he might not be able to catch Lu Changge soon.

"We'll talk about the future later. Do you have any difficulties at the moment?"

"Yes." Lu Changge nodded. "Shipping, that is, logistics. Currently, there's a unified platform for selling goods, but shipping is handled by each manufacturer independently. For now, this is a good thing for our company, because we've just been established and don't have the capacity to handle the daily shipping demand of 2,000 orders, and this demand is still growing.

But if we look at it from a six-month perspective, there are problems. First, once it's dispersed, it's hard to control the spread. For example, if a manufacturer is slow to ship, this can lead to customer complaints. How can I resolve this? There's no way.

Furthermore, if I were to speculate with a sly eye, would some manufacturers, in a critical moment, deliberately ship inferior goods? I have no way of knowing. But in this internet age, if such an incident were to occur, it would severely damage our brand image if it were to spread.

Also, I'm preparing for the worst-case scenario. If Lumang really starts experiencing a surge in orders, the surge in orders could very well paralyze logistics. With a little influence from our competitors, people would suspect that our startup brand doesn't understand business operations, leading to a wave of refunds.

Xu Weiguo asked: "Then how do you want to solve it?"

"To completely solve the problem, we must build distribution centers in major cities across the country. As for the initial solution, Lumang will first establish a preliminary logistics distribution system. All goods cannot be sent directly by manufacturers. They must first pass through one or two checkpoints before entering our warehousing system. Then I will find one or more express delivery companies to sign a guarantee agreement in case of warehouse overflow."

Winter is coming. The country is so big that it will be impossible to deliver goods to some places if the roads are blocked by heavy snow.

Moreover, it was 2008, and logistics was not as developed as it is now. STO Express had not yet fully emerged, and EMS still occupied 35% of the market share.

In fact, Vancl experienced the pain of warehouse explosion in its early days. The situation was very simple. Orders surged, and then 5 items were piled up for more than a week. Finally, there was no other way, and the boss took the lead in sleeping in the warehouse to sort.

Lu Changge said this matter was simple, but it was actually very difficult.

It requires selecting a location, recruiting a large number of people, and building an information system, but it is extremely difficult to accomplish this in a short period of time.

Xu Weiguo frowned upon hearing this. "The goods will be put into your warehouse first. I can coordinate this. But what do you mean by a margin agreement?"

It seems that in the early stages of e-commerce development, many concepts were not deeply rooted in people's minds.

Luckily, Lu Changge was a time traveler. He explained, "A warehouse overflow guarantee agreement is an emergency guarantee contract signed between e-commerce companies and courier companies. Its purpose is to prevent logistics paralysis when orders surge. Formally, we specify an 'order volume threshold' in the contract. Once our order volume exceeds this threshold, the courier company must immediately implement emergency measures according to the agreement. These measures include increasing temporary transportation capacity, activating backup warehouses, and prioritizing our products. It even includes risk transfer. If the courier company fails to comply, compensation will be paid."

“Does anyone sign this kind of agreement?”

"Uncle Xu, haven't you heard that? Every entrepreneur is a risk-taker. If they can take on a large number of orders, why not? For those of us who have chosen to start a business, we are born to take risks."

When talking about these things, Xu Weiguo really couldn't think of Lu Changge as a young man in his early 20s. Fortunately, he was used to it. Now he was no longer curious about how Lu Changge knew so many things. He just regarded it as a gift.

"Okay. Let's divide the work. You negotiate the agreement, and I'll coordinate the goods for your warehouse."

"I also need help finding a place." Lu Changge's smile was truly bitter. "I'm really too busy."

Xu Weiguo laughed, "I thought you were so powerful that you could run several companies by yourself."

Oh, what a mistake. I accidentally turned the leisurely college life into a tough entrepreneurial experience.

After leaving here,
Lu Changge said to Qin Jun, "With orders at this scale, it's completely different from the hundreds of pieces we used to sell. We can't rely on just a few of us. I have to find some management staff."

Qin Jun had no objection and was even impatient. "Honestly, every time you propose something new for us to implement, we have to study it for a while first. For example, that guarantee agreement just now, I can't stand it anymore. You should find it quickly. If it goes on like this, not only you, but we will all collapse! And you said you wanted to raise funds, but we don't even know how to start that yet."

Financing is something that always needs to be prepared.

To some extent, announcing a large capital injection is itself a form of marketing.

Lu Changge felt that he had to be prepared, at least not be caught off guard.

So, it is really not possible without hiring people. He has to coordinate with Xu Weiguo, negotiate logistics agreements, prepare financing, and recruit company personnel. Oh, yes, plus this trip to Nanjing, he has to take care of everything.

However, he still had a company on the 8th floor, and the Americans would call him for conference calls. There was also something going on at the swimming pool; he had to take care of it. Lately, he hadn't been attending classes at school; it was too late.

As for the candidate for this manager, he already has one in mind.

(End of this chapter)