Reborn in 08, a heretical cultivator starting a business

Chapter 203 Five devastating news, the sky has fallen for her!
Fang Bo dreamt that he was in the workshop, sweating profusely while enthusiastically encouraging everyone:
"You all need to step up your efforts! As long as production capacity keeps up, Midea washing machines will surpass Haier and become number one!"

I also dreamed that with Midea's help, Alibaba was defeating Vipshop one after another.

In the end, even Wang Junshan had to back down and apologize at Midea's headquarters, and he granted Midea many privileges before Fang Bo reluctantly agreed to let him off the hook.

Midea thus achieved legendary status, becoming the only company that even e-commerce platforms had to bow down to!

In the future, all e-commerce platforms will have to grant Midea exclusive privileges, far exceeding those granted to Gree and Haier.

Fang Bo was awakened by his phone ringing the next day, and groggily grabbed the phone: "Hello?"

Lu Zexin, president of Midea's washing machine division, hesitated before speaking:
"Chairman, which would you like to hear first, the good news or the bad news?"

"Bad news..." Fang Bo's lips twitched, then he instantly perked up: "What happened?"

"Chairman, let me share some good news first."

He feared the bad news was too cruel for Mr. Fang, who had just woken up, to bear.

Fang Bo's lips twitched: "..."

"The good news is that yesterday, sales of Midea washing machines on Taobao Mall surged by 35%, from 1000 units to 1350 units."

"I know that. What other good news is there?" Fang Bo couldn't help but ask.

"That's all, that's the only good news."

"And what about the bad news?"

"The bad news is that sales of Midea washing machines on Vipshop have plummeted by 70%, from 4000 units to just 1200 units!"

"what?"

"How did so much fall down!"

Fang Bo was completely devastated.

Sales on Taobao Mall were low, and even with a 35% surge, only 350 units were added.

Vipshop, on the other hand, suffered a much more severe blow, dropping by 70%, a reduction of 2800 units.

"All things considered, our Midea series washing machines not only did not increase, but actually decreased by 2450 units?"

"Doesn't that mean that online channels have lost more than 40%, almost half?"

Fang Bo was terrified.

Currently, the total daily sales of Midea washing machines, Rongshida washing machines, and Little Swan washing machines nationwide are only around 2 units.

70% of them are sold offline, while the combined daily sales of the major online platforms are only around 6000 units.

Vipshop had the most, with 4000 units.

Taobao Mall originally had 1000 units, JD.com had 700 units, and other platforms combined had several hundred units.

These days, the main market for these big brands is still offline.

Aside from oddballs like Little Duck, many offline distributors have gone bankrupt in recent years, but Wang Junshan, through his masterful marketing, has made Little Duck a bestseller online.

"That's right, offline sales haven't changed much, but online sales have decreased by more than 40%. This resulted in a 10% drop in total online and offline sales yesterday!"

"How could this happen?" Fang Bo was completely dumbfounded.

It feels like you've given it your all, worked incredibly hard, only to end up with nothing and suffer a series of defeats!
This is ridiculous!
"Isn't Vipshop's sales quite stable? With the support of the rural appliance subsidy program, even if Little Duck's sales surge, our sales will at most stagnate, but they won't plummet by 70%!"

Fang Bo couldn't understand it; his head was spinning.

Vipshop's horrific drop in sales has made the slight increase on Taobao Mall seem like a joke.

After all, Taobao Mall has a very small customer base. If it sells 1000 units a day, even a 35% increase would only result in 350 units sold.

However, Vipshop has a large customer base. Originally, it sold 4000 units per day. A 10% fluctuation would mean 400 units sold, let alone a 70% drop!

"Chairman, this is the second piece of bad news I have to tell you."

Lü Zexin said helplessly, "Vipshop has made a move against us."

"We just officially announced a promotional event with Taobao Mall yesterday, helping Alibaba to suppress Vipshop."

"Vipshop acted quickly and soon canceled all subsidies for Midea, selling everything at the original price."

"!!!" Fang Bo was shocked: "No wonder, before, Midea washing machines were mostly sold at a 10% or even 20% discount with subsidies from Vipshop. Plus, with the rural appliance subsidy program, the prices were very cheap, and 4000 units were sold every day."

"Now that the prices have all been restored to the original levels, the higher prices have naturally led to a 70% drop in sales!"

"Have the subsidies for Midea, Rongshida, and Little Swan washing machines all been cancelled?"

“Yes.” Lü Zexin sighed.

"Good, good, good! Wang Junshan is ruthless; he acted so decisively. This is truly beyond my expectations!"

Fang Bo was both angry and furious: "Isn't he afraid that Midea will completely turn against us and remove all our products from Vipshop, and never cooperate with us again, by targeting our washing machines like this?"

“Um…” Lu Zexin hesitated, then said, “Chairman, you may have misunderstood something.”

"What I said before about Vipshop canceling all subsidies for Midea products does not only apply to Midea's washing machine products."

"Subsidies have been cancelled for all Midea products, including Midea air conditioners, Midea refrigerators, Midea water heaters, Midea induction cookers, Midea microwave ovens, Midea kettles, and so on."

"They even targeted Midea hair dryers."

"What! All canceled!" Fang Bo sat up abruptly, completely flustered.

"Doesn't that mean that the sales of these products on Vipshop have all plummeted?"

"That's right, this is the third piece of bad news."

"Yesterday, offline sales of all Midea products increased, and sales on Taobao Mall also increased, but online sales plummeted due to Vipshop canceling subsidies, with less than 30% remaining."

"crazy!"

"Wang Junshan has gone mad!"

"He...he...how dare he!"

Fang Bo broke out in a cold sweat and felt his scalp tingling.

It wasn't until this moment that he realized he had gone too far.

I thought that Midea was a huge and powerful company, the number one giant in white goods, and no platform would dare to disrespect it.

No platform dares to break ties with Midea!

As the leading white goods giant, Fang Bo believes that no e-commerce platform can function without Midea!

Even Vipshop is not an option.

Even if they join forces with Alibaba to slap Vipshop in the face and give Wang Junshan a warning, Wang Junshan will have to endure it and bear it!

They need to reflect on themselves and ensure that they don't act as both judge and player again in the future.

After all, if Midea turns its back and completely stops cooperation, Vipshop will suffer heavy losses.

Unexpectedly, Wang Junshan didn't buy into it at all.

They don't even care about Midea, the white goods giant.

Even without Midea ceasing cooperation, Vipshop took direct action, completely canceling all subsidies and wiping out 70% of Midea's sales on Vipshop!

This is absolutely outrageous!

Users like to shop on Vipshop because they want cheap prices.

The same Midea air conditioner costs 4000 offline, 3700 on Taobao Mall and JD.com, and 3300-3600 on Vipshop.

It's unrealistic for consumers not to go on a shopping spree.

But now, Vipshop has raised the price to 4000, with no discounts whatsoever.

In short, take it or leave it.

What's worse, the Gree, Haier, and AUX air conditioners next door are still on sale with discounts of 10%, 15%, or even 20%.

With Midea air conditioners of the same class being more expensive than Gree air conditioners, who would still buy Midea?

I promptly bought Gree products.

As a result, Midea air conditioner sales on Vipshop plummeted by 70%!

This applies to all of Midea's other products as well.

"The situation is out of control. Wang Junshan really doesn't care about our Mei, and might even want to smash our Mei to pieces." Fang Bo was a little panicked.

It's even more of a headache.

Wang Junshan's fighting style is too wicked; it doesn't look like a warning at all, but rather a brutal beating.

"Yes, Chairman. We must come up with a solution, otherwise Midea's future will be very bleak," Lu Zexin couldn't help but say.
"The top executives from all business units have arrived at the company and are waiting for you to convene an emergency meeting."

"Okay, I'll go over right now!"

Fang Bo quickly got up, not even bothering to wash up, called the driver, and headed straight for Midea's headquarters.

meeting room.

Most of the senior executives from Midea's various business units were present.

With such a major incident, many high-ranking officials who were on business trips flew back to Foshan overnight.

This is a huge issue with far-reaching consequences.

Basically, all of Midea's business units have been affected.

Looking at Chairman Fang's disheveled hair, the room full of executives hesitated, unsure of how to begin.

Finally, Fang Bo broke the silence:
"I'm sure everyone is aware of the situation."

“Previously, Wang Junshan acted as both referee and player, so we accepted Alibaba’s invitation to launch a joint campaign to suppress Vipshop, warn Wang Junshan, and make him follow the rules.”

"But Wang Junshan turned out to be a barbarian who had no sense of martial ethics or rules."

"Instead of reflecting on their own problems, they directly took action and forcefully attacked Midea!"

"Currently, other appliance brands sold directly by Vipshop are still on sale at 20% or 10% off, except for Midea, which is sold at the original price across the board."

"This resulted in our Midea's sales dropping to less than 30%, with the entire product line plummeting by 70%, which can be described as a heavy loss."

"Even if Taobao Mall increases by 35%, it won't make a difference. Its scale is too small to compensate for Vipshop's sharp decline."

"If this continues, Gree and Haier's sales on Vipshop will surge rapidly, while Midea will decline completely."

"This is something we cannot accept."

Everyone nodded in agreement: "Yes, although it's true that 70% of large appliance sales are currently done offline, that's not the case. The proportion of online sales will definitely increase in the future."

"Yes, I estimate that in just one year, the online-to-offline ratio will reach 40/60."

"By the end of next year, it will most likely be split 50/50."

"It won't be that fast. By the end of next year, it will be at most 40-60%, with 40% online."

"Even so, the online market is still very important. Vipshop alone accounts for more than 60% of our online sales. Taobao Mall, JD.com and other platforms combined only account for 40%."

"If we completely break with Vipshop, Vipshop can bear the consequences, but we cannot."

"Yes, without Midea, Vipshop can sell other brands of large and small appliances, but without Vipshop, Midea's online market will be dead!"

“Taobao Mall and JD.com simply can’t make up for Midea’s lost sales on Vipshop.” Fang Bo nodded: “You’re right. But now Vipshop has canceled subsidies for Midea’s self-operated products. But isn’t our own flagship store operated by Midea?”

"We can subsidize it! We can offer a 10% discount, or even a 20% discount!"

Lu Zexin shook his head: "It's difficult. First of all, there's the issue of the price range."

"If Midea's flagship store personally participates in a 20% or 10% discount promotion on Vipshop, should it also offer similar 20% or 10% discounts on other platforms? If so, what will happen to offline distributors?"

"They also want a 20-30% discount, how should we deal with that?"

"Yes. Vipshop's self-operated 20% and 10% discounts can be presented as official subsidies from Vipshop, and have nothing to do with our Midea brand. Other platforms can maintain the original price."

“But if Vipshop stops subsidizing, and we have to subsidize ourselves, we won’t be able to explain it to other platforms, offline distributors, and specialty stores.”

"If all of them are subsidized, it would be equivalent to Midea's entire product line being on a massive sale, with all products discounted by 10% or 20%. This would drive distributors crazy and completely disrupt the price lines."

Lu Zexin sighed: "More importantly, Midea is now like an unregistered entity on Vipshop, with absolutely no traffic."

"You can't find any Midea products on the YouTuan.com homepage at all."

"Even if users actively search for air conditioners, the first few pages of results are all Gree, Haier, Aux, Chigo, Panasonic... you can't see Midea at all unless you scroll down many more pages."

"Even if you actively search for Midea air conditioners, the top results are all Midea air conditioners sold directly by Vipshop at the original price, while products from our Midea flagship store are ranked lower."

Fang Bo's face turned ashen: "To put it bluntly, Midea has been completely sidelined by Vipshop, with its traffic being restricted in every way. This is one of the consequences of helping Alibaba suppress Vipshop!"

"This is the fourth major piece of bad news."

"Under these circumstances, with all-round traffic restrictions, Midea's future is bleak."

Lu Zexin nodded: "What's even more worrying is that this may not be all. Who knows if Wang Junshan has any other big moves planned!"

Fang Bo's face turned ashen: "..."

"Who knows if there will be a fifth, or even a sixth, major piece of bad news?"

Everyone was terrified: "!!!"

For a moment, the atmosphere in the whole room became extremely oppressive.

However, what you fear most is what happens.

At that moment, the deputy head of the marketing department rushed in:

"Chairman, presidents, something terrible has happened. Vipshop's self-operated platform has cancelled all subsequent purchase orders for Midea products!"

"what!"

Fang Bo was shocked: "What does Wang Junshan mean by canceling the subsequent purchases?"

"Is he trying to completely distance himself from the US?"

"Completely blacklist America?"

"Will Vipshop no longer sell Midea products directly through its own platform in the future?"

"This is insane! It's absolutely insane!"

"Aren't we just teaming up with Alibaba to give him a warning?"

"Isn't this just Taobao Mall targeting Vipshop?"

"Is it really worth Wang Junshan trying to destroy America?"

Fang Bo was shocked and furious, but didn't know what to do.

The cancellation of all subsequent orders, this fifth piece of bad news, truly made Midea feel terrible and Fang Bo feel the pinch.

The marketing director couldn't sit still any longer: "This year, Midea's total sales target for washing machines is to reach 850 million units."

"500 million units for Little Swan, 200 million units for Rongshida, and 150 million units for Midea."

"Of these, 300 million were sold online, with Vipshop alone accounting for 150 million, and Vipshop's self-operated group purchases accounting for at least 100 million."

"Now look what's happened. Vipshop has cut all subsequent orders, resulting in a million fewer sales. Does that mean Midea is doomed?"

"We won't be able to achieve our sales target of 850 million this year!"

"We're in big trouble!"

All the senior executives nodded in agreement:
"Yes, this is a critical issue. How can we make up for the loss of 100 million in sales?"

"What's even more critical is that Vipshop's self-operated order for 100 million units from Midea will inevitably lead to increased procurement of other brands such as Haier and Little Duck washing machines."

"Without Vipshop's large-scale bulk purchasing, Midea's washing machine sales dropped by 100 million units, while competitors such as Haier increased by 100 million units. This has a huge impact."

"Yes, it's really unbearable. I suggest we negotiate."

"Yes, we shouldn't have colluded with Alibaba in the first place, otherwise, why would things have come to this?"

“Midea and Alibaba have allied to help Alibaba suppress Vipshop. It would be abnormal if Wang Junshan didn’t take action against us for targeting Vipshop. But we can’t accept such an outcome.”

"We thought that Midea, the number one white goods giant, had some trump card that would make Wang Junshan hesitate. But Wang Junshan didn't care at all and was determined to completely break off relations and crush Midea."

"Yes, in the end, Vipshop will most likely suffer very little loss, while Midea's online performance will plummet by 7% overall."

"We cannot afford such a price. It's okay to back down if necessary. The overall situation is the priority."

Fang Bo's expression was extremely complicated: "What you said makes sense. I had oversimplified things."

"Although Vipshop is a new platform, it has monopolized 60% of the online market for white goods. It is indeed a bit impulsive for Midea to go head-to-head with Vipshop and help Alibaba suppress Vipshop."

"Wang Junshan's series of retaliations came swiftly."

"But it's still within our means!"

"Midea is, after all, a super giant. If it were to bow down so easily, wouldn't it be finished?"

"Don't we, the beauty industry, have any pride?"

"This..." Everyone fell silent.

Many people believe that substance is more important than appearance.

Someone else spoke up: "Chairman, it's just a matter of saving face for a moment, it's really nothing."

"But after being thoroughly defeated by Wang Junshan, the online sales of all Midea appliances plummeted by 70%, which is really too serious."

"I suggest that we prioritize the overall situation and sales volume."

Fang Bo waved his hand and said, "Don't just focus on the 70% drop in sales on Vipshop's online platform. You also need to look at the growth on Taobao Mall and the overall offline market."

"Even if Vipshop's sales drop by 70%, compared to our overall sales, it's only a 14% drop!"

"If sales on Taobao Mall surge rapidly, the drop in volume can be reduced to 10% or even 5%."

"Although the losses are still severe, we can afford them."

"This..." Many high-level executives didn't know what to say.

However, some people expressed their support: "That's right, brands and platforms are inherently both cooperative and competitive, and there is a constant game of strategy between them."

"Especially for a leading giant like Midea."

"If we easily give in to Wang Junshan and Vipshop in this game, we will only be manipulated by them in the future."

"Yes, Vipshop is likely to take advantage of us in the future, forcing Midea to make concessions step by step, and even other platforms want to exploit us."

"But conversely, if we win this battle and force Vipshop to back down, then Midea can demand special privileges in the future, force Vipshop to make concessions step by step, and get other platforms to continuously give us special privileges!"

Fang Bo nodded: "That's right. This kind of game is all about composure and inner strength. Whoever can't hold on first will lose."

“We at Midea absolutely cannot back down first, unless Vipshop cancels the unfair treatment first.”

"Moreover, Taobao's daily increase is 35%, and it is entirely possible for the increase to be even greater in the future."

"If we can make up for half of Vipshop's sales drop, then we've won. Vipshop will suffer the most, and Wang Junshan will be the one to back down."

"If Wang Junshan doesn't offer Midea sufficient compensation and sincerity, then there's no point in discussing this matter!"

"Chairman, what if Taobao Mall's growth is limited, and it doesn't even reach half or one-fifth of Vipshop's decline?"

"This..." Fang Bo fell silent for a long time before finally sighing.

"Let's take it one step at a time. This game has only just begun, and we absolutely cannot admit defeat."

"Moreover, I still have great faith in Taobao Mall. As long as we convert Taobao users to Taobao Mall, crushing Vipshop will be a piece of cake!"

"If Midea's products maintain a 35% daily growth rate on Taobao Mall, they may be able to make up for the drop in sales on Vipshop!"

After speaking, Fang Bo remained calm, but the other senior executives all looked worried and anxious.

How likely is this?
Everyone knows it!

How can Taobao Mall, which can only compete with small platforms like JD.com, possibly rival Vipshop?
They're not even in the same league!

Wang Junshan did not pay attention to Midea's response.

He had already planned his next heavy blow!

Instead, they went to Jeju to attend the award ceremony for the Shandong Province University Student Entrepreneurship Competition in preparation for the Olympics.

It was originally scheduled to take place in early January.

However, the Shandong Provincial Competition and the previous Binzhou University Entrepreneurship Competition were too close together.

Even a small event like the Binzhou University Entrepreneurship Competition attracted a media frenzy and went viral online because of Wang Junshan's presence.

This forced the postponement of the provincial entrepreneurship competition awards ceremony.

After all, the two ceremonies were too close together, so their influence was actually much smaller.

In addition, due to the impact of the exam month, Shandong Province ultimately decided to postpone it until before the Spring Festival.

Treat it as the biggest event before the Spring Festival, to bring a perfect end to the past year.

The provincial entrepreneurship competition is much more prestigious than the Binzhou University entrepreneurship competition.

The top-ranked projects weren't exactly amazing, but they were still quite commendable.

However, the media reporters remained uninterested.

When Wang Junshan finally took the stage, all the media got excited and set up their cameras and microphones.

After receiving the award, the host, Zhou Mengman, began to speak:

"Chairman Wang, in the early stages of the entrepreneurship competition, you filled in e-commerce group buying. It seems that you had your eye on the group buying sector from the very beginning. Could you share with everyone why?"

Wang Junshan nodded:

"Traditional e-commerce platforms can certainly grow bigger, stronger, and more prosperous, but they need certain foundations, such as convenient and timely logistics."

"Many consumers buy things because they need them urgently."

"Currently, our competitors' logistics take a week from order placement to delivery, which is simply not enough time and is too inconvenient."

"Our group buying deals are different. For example, campus group buying deals allow you to place an order the night before and receive the goods the next day. The main feature is speed."

"Now, we have launched community group buying, which has now covered more than a dozen provinces and 27 cities."

"We fully support same-night orders, with delivery the next day, and the prices are just as cheap and affordable as online shopping."

"This year, we will fully promote and strive to launch community group buying in 150 cities!"

(End of this chapter)