I've been reborn, I'm definitely going to become an internet celebrity!

Chapter 117 [What's this all about e-commerce?]

"This is ResourceDocumentManagement, our internal resource document management system."

On the video call screen, the site administrator was sharing his computer desktop, gesturing with the mouse across the page: "I've currently drawn up an area, which will be used temporarily for internal communication and coordination."

Liu Zhuohao looked at the four windows on the screen. Besides the station manager Fang, there were also several people from the Chen family.

However, on the Chen family's side, Chen Youyin and Chen Jianye were clearly not very familiar with computer operation. A young man was sitting next to them, who was probably hired to help operate the computer, most likely Chen Youyin's son.

The other window is Liu Zhuohao himself.

There was another window that linked to the computer page that the website administrator was demonstrating.

"At that time, when users click the link below Boss Liu's video, they will be automatically redirected to a QQ friend request and contact our frontline customer service staff."

The station manager's voice was calm and clear: "They will communicate directly with customers, and for now they are only responsible for recording contact information, address, purchase amount, and completing payment on the interface."

"If our frontline customer service representatives need to help answer some sales-related questions later, then we will need to communicate with them separately, since labor costs are also a considerable expense."

"Afterwards, our customer service will upload the payment records and customer information to this RDM system and record it as a project."

He paused, making sure everyone understood: "You can log in to this RDM using the account and password we provide to check the customer information recorded on it at any time, so as to confirm shipments and handle subsequent after-sales service."

Liu Zhuohao listened quietly.

The station manager explained it in great detail, breaking down each step in detail.

He strives to make the transaction process as transparent as possible to avoid loopholes in any stage that could harm the interests of any party and thus affect the foundation of trust in the entire cooperation.

"Um, Station Master Xu," Chen Youyin's voice came cautiously from the window, "Will the chat history from this order placement process be saved?"

"We'll save it as much as possible," the site administrator explained. "But message logs contain too much complex information and take up too much server space. We'll clean up the data regularly."

He paused, then added, "But actually, I think the whole process is clear enough with us providing the transaction details."

"After all, we, Mr. Liu, and the other party are all very clear about the pricing, and we also know exactly how much the customer will pay during the transaction."

"The entire process, from the money being transferred to the recipient in the account, to the final settlement and profit sharing after taxes are paid, is very transparent —"

He is very patient.

Liu Zhuohao stared at the screen without saying a word from beginning to end.

Chen Youyin and Chen Jianye's attitude towards the station chief was completely different from their attitude towards themselves; they were more polite and trusting, as if the other party's words naturally carried a certain unquestionable weight.

This is understandable, since the site owner did indeed provide an "internal resource document management system" to support the credibility of the transaction.

All we seem to have to offer is a promise.

An issue that had been overlooked by all three parties when it was stipulated in the contract has now come to the fore.

Compared to their own "contributions," the "contributions" of the platform and suppliers seem to be more concrete and visible.

The platform has a system, processes, a customer service team, resource and document management, and streaming capabilities.

The factory has production lines, workers, cold chain storage, and decades-old craftsmanship.

And what do I have?

It has over 200,000 followers.

There are videos that have already been broadcast.

A name.

These are all real, yet also intangible.

Liu Zhuohao leaned back in his chair, his gaze fixed on the RDM interface on the screen that the site administrator had swiped the mouse over.

He didn't say anything.

This was something he had known for a long time, and now all he had to do was sit here shamelessly.

In any case, from the supplier's perspective, they are on the same side as the platform.

From the platform's perspective, it is in cahoots with the suppliers.

"Is it enough to just register a few QQ accounts?"

In the video, Chen Jianye suddenly spoke up, "If it's just registering a few QQ accounts, it doesn't seem necessary to do any registration. We can take over the initial coordination work here. Our labor costs are definitely much cheaper than in Shanghai."

"————That definitely won't work."

The station manager paused for a moment, then replied with a smile, "If you guys are the ones doing all the frontline work of liaising with customers in the early stages, then neither I nor Boss Liu will know anything about the actual sales figures. That won't do."

In the video, the Chen family members remained silent.

"Besides the records we need to keep, you also need to keep the project system updated regularly."

The station manager then reminded them, "After we record the customer information, it looks like this now."

He created a work order, which included several fictitious names and addresses, phone numbers, the quantity and total price of the beef balls he wanted to buy, and attached a screenshot of the payment receipt from the backend system.

"Once this project is recorded, when you refresh the website page and see the new work order, you need to start arranging the shipment. You need to update the information under this work order, such as the shipment time, the courier platform, the tracking number, and the shipping cost."

"This update wasn't edited on the original post, but rather in the reply below. Yes, it's like posting on a forum; it's not edited on the original post, but updated in the second post below."

"Afterwards, whether the customer receives the goods and signs for them, or there are any after-sales communications, updates need to be made below so that we can be more clear when we assess profit sharing and assign responsibilities."

This explanation is spot on, and the Chen family members nodded in agreement.

Chen Youyin, in particular, spoke in a deep voice, "That's good. If something really happens, we'll be able to see where things went wrong."

He paused, then added, "However, once you've created a work order, how long will it take for us to see it?"

The young man next to him fiddled with the computer for a bit, looked at the screen, and muttered something. Chen Youyin nodded and then asked, "Is it possible that customers have already placed orders half a day ago, but we haven't seen the work orders yet? Or perhaps you missed some information when registering the work orders, causing us to miss sending them, or even that the work orders you created simply disappeared?"

"Theoretically, no."

The website administrator brought up another page, "After you log in, there's a refresh button here. Normally, when we submit something, you can see it in real time."

"If you're still worried, we can provide you with daily transaction details. This is retrieved directly from the bank, so there's almost no chance of anything being missed."

"You can use the transaction details to check if any work orders have been missed. Of course, we will also conduct regular checks."

The Chen family members exchanged glances and did not ask any further questions.

After that, they went back and forth between questions and answers.

The Chen family wasn't very familiar with the internet and showed a lot of doubt about the entire transaction process, asking many questions.

Liu Zhuohao remained silent, though he naturally had his own questions.

His problem wasn't with the transaction process itself, but rather that he felt the site administrator was taking the matter too seriously.

Or rather, they made a mountain out of a molehill.

Even though the exact number of beef ball sales is still uncertain, he brought out this internal management system to facilitate communication and handover.

They even set up a customer service team.

This is far too much—

Does this mean that Bilibili already had the concept of membership-based shopping during this period?

Liu Zhuohao couldn't help but mutter to himself.

—E-commerce.

From now on, Xiaopo Station has the concept of doing e-commerce.

However, compared to traditional platforms like Taobao and JD.com, its e-commerce system relies on the website's users, meaning that the products sold are more geared towards anime and related merchandise.

Such as figurines and related merchandise, comics, comic convention tickets, 3C digital products, collaboration clothing, shoes and bags, blind boxes —

Even during holidays, they will launch limited-time products such as "mooncakes", "zongzi" (sticky rice dumplings) and "New Year's snack gift packs" with Bilibili (Bilibili is a Chinese online marketplace) elements.

This is Bilibili's own e-commerce platform.

Other products are mostly based on a "cooperation" approach, which means that bloggers can paste purchase links from third-party platforms such as Taobao and JD.com in the comments section to redirect them to the shopping page.

However, when I came into contact with Membership Shopping, it was already a period when Bilibili's e-commerce department had been established. Perhaps there were some periods I missed in that process.

Liu Zhuohao thought, "But it might be because of me that some of the decisions made within the station have been changed?"

At least in 2014, there was no blogger on Bilibili's entertainment channel with more than 200,000 followers who could consistently top the charts with every new post.

During this period, the traffic to the entire entertainment channel was extremely low, even less than that of dance and cover songs.

It wasn't until the end of 15 that things began to improve, and traffic to the entire entertainment section started to rise.

But now, less than a few months after its rebirth, Bilibili's traffic share in the entertainment section has already shown an upward trend.

The meeting didn't last long. It was just a demonstration of the procedures agreed upon in the contract, simply transferring the paperwork to the screen and running it through live.

"Alright, let's leave it at that for now." Chen Youyin nodded to the camera. "Station Chief Xu, Boss Liu, we'll discuss any further news later."

"Okay, okay," the stationmaster replied with a smile.

The windows of the Chen family's house went dark.

Just as Liu Zhuohao was about to close his window, the site administrator spoke up: "Boss Liu, is it convenient for us to chat for a bit more?"

Liu Zhuohao's finger rested on the mouse.

"Okay," he said.

Only two windows remain on the screen.

The stationmaster leaned back in his chair, picked up his thermos, took a sip, and looked much more relaxed than before.

The background of his office was still the same as during the last video call, clearly indicating that their workplace was still there.

"I noticed you weren't saying anything during the meeting," the station manager said, putting down his cup with a hint of probing in his voice. "So, what are your suggestions regarding the integration system the platform has built?"

He couldn't help but feel a touch of pride as he said this.

"Does the platform want to do e-commerce?" Liu Zhuohao didn't answer, but asked in return.

From what the station manager just said, he could basically confirm one thing.

That is, the construction of this docking system is not limited to the revenue sharing of the beef balls in this cooperation.

Bilibili wants more!

This collaboration is just a starting point.

"I have that idea."

The website owner did not deny it, saying, "It depends on the outcome of this collaboration. If it goes smoothly, we plan to use a more professional approach, such as purchasing a batch of marketing QQ accounts to handle frontline consulting services."

Liu Zhuohao was somewhat surprised; the website's investment in e-commerce was higher than he had imagined.

Marketing QQ is a common service product that some companies purchase.

Especially during this period when online call forwarding systems were not yet fully developed, customers could directly search for the corresponding number on QQ for inquiries, which was very convenient.

However, this service requires a purchase.

Liu Zhuohao recalls that the price of a single marketing QQ account was determined by the size of the customer database, ranging from two to three thousand or even tens of thousands of yuan per year.

If you really want to do business, you'll definitely need more than one account; you'll likely need four or five. The service and labor costs involved are not low.

"————"

Liu Zhuohao hesitated, not answering immediately, but pondering what he should and shouldn't say.

The station manager waited in front of the camera.

"What's wrong?"

He seemed puzzled. "You think we're not suited for e-commerce?"

"Yes."

Liu Zhuohao, who was still considering his words, followed up with, "I don't know why you're considering doing e-commerce now. Is it because there are many users who seem willing to pay in the comments section of my videos?"

He had to remind him.

He was afraid that the little website might accidentally be blown to death by its own wings.

Although Liu Zhuohao does not intend to limit himself to a single platform, once he has built up his traffic, he will definitely try to develop across multiple platforms and establish a media operation company.

But right now, Bilibili is definitely the best choice.

If it accidentally goes astray, it won't be able to leverage its rapid development to accumulate its own traffic more quickly.

"If you were to expand into e-commerce on this platform, what products would you plan to sell?"

Liu Zhuohao asked, "Bilibili is doing e-commerce? And now!"

You'll die!

It's sealed shut!

Even a few years from now, when commercialization has been gradually adapted to by some new users, the membership-based shopping project will still be opposed by most people.

There were even sarcastic remarks like, "Making money from anime and manga is easy."

If Bilibili were to switch to e-commerce and membership-based shopping now, it would be a clear case of going down the wrong path.

"—It's just an experiment."

The station manager's pride subsided slightly, and he gave this reply: "Sell some simple peripheral products, like 2233-chan's merchandise."

Liu Zhuohao breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he didn't have any plans to completely switch sides. If he was just selling some merchandise from the site, the impact shouldn't be too great.

Perhaps such an arrangement already existed within the original timeline.

However, regarding Mr. Li's side—

'

But then the station manager suddenly spoke up, "She thinks we could try building an internal e-commerce platform to keep up with the trend of online shopping."