America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 476 Everything is Ready

"The funds from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund have been successfully transferred to the company's designated account." As soon as Selena finished speaking, the meeting room fell silent.

Not only Ernst, but all the senior executives of Flashbuy Company were stunned and looked astonished.

In typical corporate financing, after both parties formally sign the agreement, the funds will be transferred to the financing party's account within about two weeks.

However, this is not absolute. For large-scale financing projects, the process of receiving funds is often more complicated. Investors may negotiate with the financing party to transfer funds in multiple installments over a longer period of time, depending on their own fund allocation plan, risk control requirements, and other factors. In some projects, the fund arrival period may even be extended to more than six months.

The financing that Flashbuy has received this time undoubtedly falls into the category of large-scale financing.

The entire flash sale team had high expectations for the funds to arrive, and they thought that if the funds were deposited into the flash sale account within half a month, that would be considered fast.

According to the financing agreement signed by both parties, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund will transfer the funds to Flashbuy's designated account within one month. The fact that the funds arrived in half a month is already considered incredibly fast.

But who could have imagined that the money would come much faster than they expected?

"Based on this timeline, both parties should still be in the execution phase of the signing process, right?" Darzel subconsciously raised his hand to look at the watch on his wrist, his tone tinged with doubt.

As a former executive in charge of global operations at Walmart, Dahlzel is very familiar with time differences in different parts of the world.

Everyone says Middle Easterners are rich, but I didn't expect them to be so efficient.

"Never mind that, what we should be concerned about right now is the platform's launch," Ernst said, steering the conversation back on track.

His gaze swept over every executive present. "There are less than 48 hours left until our platform goes live. Each department, please share your situation."

The group exchanged glances, and then Mar, the technical director, stood up first and spoke first: "To ensure the platform can run stably after its launch, our technical team completed the second round of real-time stress testing yesterday."

"During the testing process, we simulated scenarios where 100,000, 200,000, and 400,000 users accessed the platform simultaneously to test the system's capacity under different access volumes."

As she spoke, Mar took out a stack of data tables from the folder in front of her and distributed them to everyone present.

"Based on the test data, the database's data processing time for 100,000 and 200,000 users was below the normal range, and the overall system performance was good. However, when the number of simulated users exceeded 310,000, the webpage began to experience delays."

"When the number of visits reached a peak of 400,000 users, the latency reached 2.4 seconds, which is 0.6 seconds higher than our preset threshold of 1.8 seconds."

Seeing Ernst frown, Mar explained, "After the technical team worked through the night to investigate, we have located the core cause of the delay problem, which is mainly in the character encoding processing of non-English languages. Specifically, some special characters in German and Japanese trigger the database index reconstruction mechanism during transmission and parsing. The activation of this mechanism significantly increases the time spent on data retrieval, thus causing the overall page loading delay."

Ernst stared down at the data table in his hand, his fingers tapping lightly on the table. After a moment, he looked up and said in a serious tone, "I remember emphasizing before that for e-commerce platforms, users' patience is extremely limited. A loading delay of more than two seconds can lead to a large number of users being lost."

"Currently, the latency reaches 2.4 seconds when 400,000 users access the platform. What will happen if the actual number of visits increases further after the platform goes live?"

This is not caused by insufficient hardware performance, but by a technical defect at the software level, which must be resolved as soon as possible.

"I'm giving your tech department 36 hours to resolve this issue," Ernst said firmly. "You have two choices: either optimize the algorithm to completely solve the index reconstruction problem caused by non-English language character encoding, or temporarily disable support for less common languages ​​and prioritize ensuring the stable operation of the platform's core functions."

"But I must remind you that Japan and Germany are among the key target markets for our flash sale platform. Support for less common languages ​​is crucial for the user experience in these two markets, and cutting this feature would carry a huge market risk."

Mar wanted to roll her eyes. After all that talk, there's only one option: to solve it through algorithm optimization.

"Don't worry, I'm confident I can resolve this within 36 hours," Mar assured her.

"I don't need confidence, I only care about the final result." Ernst appeared more serious than ever before.

"I understand." Mar nodded solemnly, then continued, "Regarding the payment gateway integration, we have reached an agreement with PayPal. PayPal has provided strong support to our flash sale platform. Within 72 hours of the platform's official launch, they will set up a dedicated night shift emergency team to ensure that someone is on standby 24 hours a day to handle any payment-related issues that may arise and ensure a smooth payment process for users."

Ernst's brow relaxed slightly. He nodded gently, and after Mar finished his report, he turned his gaze to Ake, the marketing director.

"Regarding the establishment of the customer service system, we have commissioned a professional research company to complete a market research report." As he spoke, Ak took out several research data reports from his briefcase.

Normally, as the core department that directly contacts users, the customer service center is usually set up as a separate department and is staffed with a chief customer service officer or a director of the customer service department.

Especially for e-commerce companies, which require a large number of customer service representatives, the importance of the customer service department has increased once again.

However, Ernst rejected the idea and instead had Ake from the sales department temporarily take charge of this part of the business.

For customer service, Ernst prefers outsourcing, that is, letting Indian companies do it.

Regardless of whether consumers find the curry-accented English awkward, what he values ​​is the 60% cost-saving benefit.

"The survey shows that 40% of respondents' concerns about online shopping are related to electronic payments, and another 30% said they might inquire about return and exchange policies."

"So I divided our customer service staff into two groups. One group of 30 people handles other issues, while the rest are dedicated to handling payment and return/exchange issues."

"What's the point?" Ernst asked, frowning.

Ak replied, "We currently have 120 people in our customer service department. I'm not sure if there will be a situation where the customer service staff can't keep up with the demand."

"If additional staff is needed, this arrangement can shorten the training time for new employees, allowing them to get up to speed and get into their roles more quickly."

Seeing that Ernst did not speak, Ake continued, "The publicity is proceeding according to our previously established plan. Once the flash sale is launched, all kinds of promotional activities will be rolled out in full force."

After Ak finished speaking, Ernst looked at Dahlzel. With the launch of Flash Sale approaching, his biggest concern was warehousing, logistics and distribution.

Problems in other departments can be remedied and will not significantly affect the overall situation.

But if something goes wrong here, then it will be a big problem.

This could lead to recipients not receiving their goods or receiving the wrong goods, while orders appearing unexpectedly at addresses that did not have any orders.

Misdelivered goods are quite common; this happens almost every day, whether it's Amazon or Walmart.

However, the error rate must be considered. If the error rate is too high, it is not acceptable to Ernst.

"How is the warehousing and logistics distribution going? This is the lifeline of the platform's launch, and there's no room for error." Ernst's tone was serious, showing how much he valued this segment.

Darzel is also well aware of the importance of the department he leads: "Regarding warehousing, logistics and distribution, we have already taken a number of measures to ensure smooth operation after the launch."

"In terms of warehouse management, in order to improve the efficiency of goods scanning and inbound/outbound operations, we have equipped each warehouse with additional mobile scanning devices to ensure that the inbound, outbound, and inventory count processes can be completed quickly and accurately."

"At the same time, in order to deal with possible equipment failures, we have also coordinated with the technical department and stationed a dedicated technician in each advance warehouse to be responsible for the daily maintenance and emergency repair of the equipment, so as to avoid the warehousing operation being interrupted due to equipment problems."

"Secondly, in the address verification process, we have connected the platform's address verification system with the official database of the United States Postal Service in real time, which is equivalent to adding a double layer of protection. When users place an order on the platform, the system will automatically compare the address entered by the user with the standard address in the United States Postal Service database. If there is a discrepancy, it will promptly notify us, and we will check the address information of the order again and remind the user on the platform."

"Regarding inventory, all products planned for initial launch on the platform have been received and stored in our pre-established forward warehouses. To address potential stockouts, we have reached emergency replenishment agreements with various brands and regional distributors. If the inventory of a particular product in a forward warehouse falls below the warning threshold, our partners will prioritize transferring goods from the nearest warehouse."

"As for the delivery personnel issue you are concerned about, although this is also my first time dealing with this model, we have conducted several rounds of simulation experiments, so there shouldn't be any major problems."

"Items purchased from local brick-and-mortar stores can be delivered within an hour at the latest. However, once the flash sale mall is launched, there will definitely be a surge in orders in some areas at certain times, so delivery time will increase."

That doesn't really matter. In America, it's reasonable for food delivery to take two hours. Those who have ordered food before should be used to it by now.

"By the way, how's the hot-selling product we arranged going?" Ernst suddenly asked.

Vidal from the purchasing department looked up and replied, "I've already spoken with the manufacturers in China, and they're unwilling to do business on a 'goods first, payment later' basis."

"What's the reason?" Ernst asked.

"From what I've gathered, on the one hand, our order volume is very large, and the cash flow of the manufacturers in Huaxia is relatively tight, making it impossible for them to bear such a large amount of production upfront costs. On the other hand, it cannot be ruled out that some manufacturers have doubts about the market credibility of our flash sale platform."

Perhaps the real reason is distrust? American companies face relatively high legal risks and communication costs in cross-border cooperation, and if problems arise, they don't know who to turn to.

"What's your solution?" Ernst continued, more concerned with how to move the problem towards a solution than with the reasons behind it.

Vidal put down his pen, having already devised a plan: "I'm communicating with local banks in China, hoping to cooperate with them under the name of Flash Sale Company, and have them act as third-party guarantors."

"And we need to open Flashbuy's bank accounts in China and the accounts of supply chain-related companies in these banks that provide guarantees."

"Companies can use our orders to apply for bank loans. The banks get the business, and our cash flow is relieved. However, we need to pledge 30% of the payment to the bank account, and the remaining balance must be paid in full within six months."

Paying only 30% of the purchase price and the remaining balance within six months is already very good.

"What about logistics?" Ernst asked again.

"Ten days ago, I placed an order with these suppliers for more than $12 billion, and I estimate that products will be shipped out within a week."

"Too slow." Ernst was dissatisfied with the pace. "Tell them they must reach the American port within two weeks."

"Isn't this a bit too rushed?" Vidal asked, looking troubled.

The sea freight time from China to the west coast of the United States is 15 to 18 days, and it takes half a month to arrive. Even if you ship today, you may not be able to catch up.

"Just tell them that," Ernst said firmly. "Tell these suppliers that I don't care about the problems, I just want results."

The order was placed ten days ago, and I estimate that quite a bit has already been produced. There should be no problem loading some of the goods onto the ship.

As for sea freight, Ernst is pressuring customs to give the green light to flash sales.

The shipping time is 15 days, but two to three days will be spent stuck at customs. We must shorten this time and speed up the transportation process.

In the two months that followed, Flash Sale ordered more than $60 billion worth of goods from various factories in China, which is almost as much as Walmart's annual procurement volume.

These companies approached the local government, and the government dared to lead a protest at the customs office.

Who is responsible if orders are delayed?

Now everything is focused on the economy.