Reborn in 08, a heretical cultivator starting a business

Chapter 124 Vipshop sets another record! (Seeking monthly votes)
"I have 1000 yuan in my WeChat Wallet, which should be enough. I don't know what categories it has."

"I looked at the promotional materials, and they have big domestic and international brands, and the prices seem to be very cheap."

"Brand discounts are definitely cheaper, and the key is that they're genuine."

"Yes, Taobao and Paipai are cheaper, but they are full of counterfeit goods, and they are mostly third-party sellers, so I don't dare to buy from them."

"Don't even mention it! I bought San Niu on those two platforms, and my child is still in the hospital!"

"They're not even on the same level. Vipshop is a new platform and not as big as Taobao or Paipai, but it guarantees authenticity."

"Yes, we don't need too many merchants who can't distinguish between genuine and fake products. We need official self-operated stores and brand direct-operated stores."

"I like Vipshop's model. All products are genuine, so you can buy them without hesitation."

"It is said that Vipshop operates eight warehouses and ships from the nearest location, and some cities can even deliver the next day."

"Impossible! Taobao takes five days."

"Why not? The city has warehouses, and SF Express can ship on the same day and deliver the next day."

"Oh, SF Express? That's fine then, it's really fast! Vipshop is really generous, other platforms charge an extra 20 yuan for SF Express!"

“Hong Kong Island, Shenzhen, Binhai, Jeju Island, Nandu, Wucheng, Tianjin, and Chang’an are all fortunate to have next-day delivery.”

"Our brothers in Shandong Province are so lucky, with two central warehouses in one province."

"There's nothing we can do; one is Mr. Wang's hometown, and the other is where YouTuan Technology is located."

"Wait a minute, isn't Vipshop's headquarters in Beijing? Why isn't there a Beijing warehouse? The nearest ones are all in Tianjin?"

"I heard they're planning to acquire land in Beijing to build their own international warehouse, a level above the central warehouse!"

……

Paipai.com headquarters.

Xu Tiannian was so angry that he slammed his fist on the table:
"What a Wang Junshan! Just a few days ago he was saying our Paipai.com was worthless, and today he's going to launch on Vipshop!"

"They also focus on brand-specific sales!"

"That's really impressive!"

"I strongly suspect that Wang Junshan is trying to create his own e-commerce platform, which is why he speaks so negatively about Paipai.com!"

"That guy is so wicked, wicked to the point of being rotten!"

The other senior executives also had complicated expressions.

Huo Siying frowned: "Putting everything else aside, his model of self-operated + brand flash sales is very similar to Taobao Mall. It's just that he goes even further, completely ignoring C2C third-party merchants and fundamentally rejecting counterfeit goods!"

Xu Tiannian strongly agreed: "Wang Junshan is very shrewd. He directly rejected all the merchants who were unwilling to pay the deposit or accept commission, and only did brand sales. This also proves that our Paipai.com reform is correct!"

"We have to take a clean cut!"

"Capable businesses should obediently pay the deposit and commission. Incapable businesses should close down as soon as possible; we don't need to worry about them!"

"Only by eliminating those counterfeit merchants can Paipai.com become standardized and develop well!"

"This..." The expressions on everyone's faces became complicated.

This line of thinking sounds reasonable, but is it really appropriate to do it this way?

More than half of the merchants on Paipai.com are small and medium-sized individual sellers!

If half of the sellers close their stores due to deposit and commission fees, Paipai.com will also lose users!
Once users are severely lost, even brands that are willing to pay deposits and commissions will see a sharp decline in revenue!
When these brands see their revenue declining month by month, they will also run away and turn to other platforms such as Dangdang and Vipshop to cooperate!
Wouldn't that cause problems for Paipai.com?
Many high-level executives have figured this out!
Since President Xu Tiannian had already said so, no one else dared to say anything more.

Especially recently, Xu Tiannian has been quite irritable, and no one dares to provoke him.

Even Huo Siying didn't dare to say more, and could only sigh inwardly:

"Sigh, Paipai.com was first treated as a discarded pawn by the group and almost merged into YouTuan.com."

"Wang Junshan criticized me again, saying I was worthless."

"After experiencing all this, it's normal for Mr. Xu to be a little irritable."

I could only ask tactfully, "Mr. Xu, do you think the emergence of Vipshop will impact our Paipai.com?"

Xu Tiannian smiled faintly: "It's unrealistic to say there's no impact at all. But the impact is really not that big!"

"Vipshop is aiming to compete with Taobao Mall, but Vipshop is too small to make much of a splash."

“QQ has 8 million users, and even after deduplication, there are still 3 million unique users, but only 5000 million of them are converted to Paipai.com, resulting in a real user conversion rate of 6:1! So many of our merchants have seen their daily transaction volume decline sharply recently, now only 500-1000 million.”

"WeChat only has 2700 million users. Considering the actual conversion rate of 6:1 between QQ and Paipai.com, Vipshop only has a little over 400 million users. With the new platform, it probably won't even have 200 million users. With only 100 partner brands, how many orders and how much transaction volume can they generate?"

"Don't worry!"

"To put it bluntly, YouTuan International's success initially relied on selling grey market iPhone 3Gs at low prices, but later it was due to the collapse of Sanniu and the boom in imported baby products!"

"It was a completely unorthodox approach, but they got incredibly lucky."

"But what about Vipshop? It sells the same regular products that are available on other platforms, so consumers don't necessarily have to buy from Vipshop!"

"Whether Vipshop can survive until the end of the year is a question!"

"Don't worry about it!"

"This..." Huo Siying fell silent.

Although Xu Tiannian's analysis made some sense, something still felt off.

Vipshop can't be that bad, right?
"Forget it, let's check it out at midnight."

As everyone eagerly awaited, midnight arrived.

Many waiting users updated to version 2.0.

The page is still familiar, but when you open YouTuan.com, there have been huge changes.

Originally, when you open YouTuan.com, the interface of YouTuan International appears directly, with a prominent YouTuan group buying entrance on the left side of the search box.

But now when you open YouTuan.com, Vipshop's interface appears directly.

The search box has prominent entrances to U-Tuan International and U-Tuan Group Buying on the left.

If you want to go to YouTuan International or YouTuan Group Buying, just click to jump to the page.

If you want to access Vipshop, the homepage is the link.

Below the search box, product categories, recommendations, 3% off flash sales, everyday low prices, luxury goods, women's clothing, men's clothing, shoes and bags, electronics, jewelry, food, 3C products, beauty products, etc., are all listed in a row.

Below that are the promotional activity matrix, brand matrix, autumn best-seller matrix, women's fashion matrix, men's fashion matrix...

Each matrix is ​​exquisitely crafted.

Brand names are listed, discounts are available, starting at 30%, 3.5%, 40% off...

It's so captivating that you can't help but want to click on it.

Whether it's Adidas, Nike, Li-Ning, Skechers, Anta, Semir, Tang Lion, or Hongxing Erke, there are significant discounts available.

Vipshop spent more than a month preparing before its launch, mainly working with various brands.

The first launch alone attracted more than 100 brands!

They are all very interested in Vipshop's business model and are willing to participate in Vipshop's discounts.

The apparel industry, in particular, is the most proactive.

All brands have a lot of clothing that they can't sell.

September, in particular, is a very significant month.

Summer is over, and all brands need to clear their summer clothing inventory as soon as possible, otherwise it will be pushed to next year.

Even if it's difficult to handle later, the annual warehousing costs alone will be substantial.

With Vipshop's launch, even Nike and Adidas summer clothes rushed to participate in the 30% off promotion, hoping to clear their summer clothing inventory as soon as possible.

We need to sell the autumn clothes as soon as possible, and the winter clothes will be available in October!

As a result, the autumn clothes that are currently selling well are all participating in Vipshop's 50% off promotion!

Other products are also on sale with discounts.

Whether it's self-operated stores or brand flagship stores, they're all having a major promotion.

The prices at the brand's flagship store are even lower than on other platforms. For self-operated products, Vipshop offers additional subsidies, making the prices even lower!

30% off, 50% off, 70% off – excellent value for money!
With such a low price, all consumers are tempted!
Decisive and frantic buying spree!

The first Double Eleven shopping festival was held in 2009.

The first 618 shopping festival was held in 2010!

But in 2008, who had ever seen such a massive promotion?
It's easy to imagine that Vipshop became an instant hit by offering big brand discounts.

Female users are buying discounted cosmetics and clothing from brands.

Male users are buying discounted brand-name shoes and 3C products.

They have laptops, graphics cards, and desktops, all at discounted prices, much cheaper than other platforms.

In an instant, everyone went crazy.

For example, the ASUS F8H laptop is priced at 5999 on other platforms' flagship stores, but Vipshop offers a 10% discount, making it 5499!

It's 500 cheaper all at once, it's hard not to be tempted.

The same applies to other products; they are all priced according to the Double Eleven promotion.

Profit margins on electronics are limited, so a 10% discount is already quite good.

Branded clothing and cosmetics are all 30-40% off.

Once users enter Vipshop, they can't leave.

Everything looks cheap, and I want to buy everything I see.

I originally planned to buy only one item, but before I knew it, I had bought several.

I originally planned to buy only 500, but I ended up spending 2000!

It's not enough for me to buy things myself; I have to get everyone around me to buy them too!

Then a very interesting scene unfolded:

"Honey, I accidentally bought something worth 1500 yuan."

"What! How did we spend so much? Earning money isn't easy, and even though we're well-off, we can't just squander it like this! We need to be more frugal!"

The husband stormed over.

“But it’s so cheap, all 30%, 50%, 70% off. I also bought you a Nike hoodie. It was over 500 yuan on Taobao a while ago, but you thought it was too expensive and didn’t buy it. Now it’s 270 yuan on Vipshop, so I got it.”

"How much? 270? How is that possible? It must be a fake!"

"Vipshop operates its own stores and is authorized by Nike."

"Let me see."

The result was astounding: "Holy crap, it's really 50% off! Autumn clothes are all 50% off! Cheap, incredibly cheap!"

"This T-shirt is also nice, and it's only 30% off, I'll buy it!"

"These pants are nice too, half price, I'll buy them!"

"I've had my eye on these shoes for a long time, but they were too expensive at over 800 yuan. Now they're only 400 yuan, so I bought them!"

"This one is great too. I liked it last year, and it's 30% off this year, so I bought it!"

After some maneuvering, another 1500 were built.

"Honey, we agreed to be frugal, you can't be so wasteful!" his wife said with a smile.

"Sigh...sigh...isn't this a good opportunity to sell more during Vipshop's first day of promotion? It's so cheap, buying it is like making a profit!"

"And peanut oil is so much cheaper than in the supermarket."

"Wow, it's almost 20 yuan cheaper, and it's delivered to my door by SF Express! I'll buy it!"

"Buy two more buckets, get more diamonds back, I'm playing WeChat Farm!"

……

Similar scenes are unfolding across the country.

Prices that are 30%, 50%, or 70% off are just too good to pass up; it's impossible to resist.

Despite the low price, Wang Junshan still made a considerable profit!
These clothes are all off-season products or clearance items from major brands.

It's troublesome and costly for brands to handle this themselves.

Wang Junshan then signed an inventory consignment agreement with the brand, buying out the stock at an extremely low price and then selling it on Vipshop at 30% or 50% off.

Those that don't sell out will be sold at a 90% discount!

Especially this summer's new products, all of which are out-of-season items.

The store's autumn clothes arrived early, but the summer clothes just aren't selling. We can't afford to jeopardize our reputation by offering a 30% discount in a physical store.

I simply sold them all to Vipshop and disposed of them in a package.

There are also autumn clothes, and winter clothes will be coming soon. We need to clear out the inventory of autumn clothes as soon as possible, otherwise they will have to be stored until next year. By then, they will be out of fashion and will not fetch a good price!

I simply consigned them all to Vipshop at a low price, and Vipshop offered them at a 50% discount!

Of course, Vipshop does not require prepayment for goods. Brands first pack and consign their off-season or surplus goods to Vipshop's eight warehouses.

Vipshop will sell the goods at 30-50% of the listed price. After the goods are sold, the first batch of goods will be settled in a periodic manner with T+15 days. Starting from the next month, the settlement will be in a periodic manner with T+30 days!
This model allows brands to quickly clear inventory, recoup costs, and reduce warehousing expenses.

Vipshop's strategy of low profit margins and high sales volume has led to soaring transaction volume, allowing them to still profit from the price difference!

Consumers feel it's a great deal to buy big brands at 30-50% off, as they feel they've gotten a huge bargain.

I can only say perfect!
In addition, clothing and shoes from last year and the year before were also consigned to Vipshop by major brands and sold at 30% or even 20% off!
It's no surprise that Vipshop sold out completely tonight!

The number of users is surging and the number of orders is soaring.

Fortunately, YouTuan.com's servers were significantly upgraded after the last surge in orders for mother and baby products; otherwise, they simply wouldn't have been able to handle it.

Of course, there are also advantages in algorithm architecture.

YouTuan.com's architecture is not a single-machine architecture, but a distributed architecture personally designed by Wang Junshan!

Under this model, even if hundreds of millions of orders are processed in a single second, there will be no problem at all.

No matter how high the trading volume is right now, it won't collapse.

This distributed architecture became more common a decade or so later.

But in 2008, it was absolutely unparalleled in the world.

In just one hour, Vipshop's order volume exceeded 15 orders, and the transaction amount exceeded 700 million!
"700 million RMB in sales in the first hour, Vipshop is in a strong position!"

Wang Junshan felt relieved and went back to the hotel to sleep.

Tang Jinghe arranged for him and Shen Huaijin to stay in star-rated hotels.

"Boss, when are we going to buy a house?"

Shen Huaijin couldn't help but say that he was not used to staying in hotels.

"No rush, let's wait and see. I don't think the global economic situation is very good; something big might happen."

"You mean... the global economic crisis?"

Shen Huaijin was startled: "No way?"

"That's hard to say, especially over there in the US, which is like a powder keg that could explode at any moment."

"Ah! That's terrifying." Shen Huaijin was speechless. "But if that's the case, once a financial crisis breaks out and housing prices plummet, it will indeed be a good time to buy at the bottom."

"Correct."

Wang Junshan didn't rush to buy a courtyard house or a villa in Beijing. He even only rented the Vipshop headquarters for three months, waiting for the financial crisis!
Once the financial crisis breaks out, housing prices in Beijing will have to drop by another 30%!

Office rents will also drop by 30%!

The months following the financial crisis are the best time to buy at the bottom!

(End of this chapter)