Since we are both reborn, of course I would choose the rich woman!

Chapter 137 You can do whatever you want? (6k subscription required)

Rong Nianqing has been paying close attention to the business performance of Huasheng Life Plaza. She even takes some time in the morning and evening to carefully read the changes in public opinion on the Internet.

After returning from camping in Xicheng, Rong Nianqing discovered that a lot of favorable information about Huasheng Life Plaza had been circulating on the Internet recently.

There are accounts on Weibo, WeChat official accounts, Toutiao accounts, and Baijiahao accounts that are promoting Huasheng Life.

There are even posts that list the good products of Huasheng Life to make it easier for netizens to find good products.

In the first two days, Rong Nianqing felt that the reputation of their brand was beginning to ferment online, and he thought it was a good thing.

But she soon received feedback from her subordinates that some of the popular products on the shelves of Huasheng Life were sold out as soon as they were put on the shelves, and many customers came here for sweeping purchases.

After follow-up by the management of Huasheng Life, it was discovered that these people were actually purchasing agents, who would send the purchased goods to online buyers through WeChat business channels in their circle of friends.

Most of these buyers are from Shangnan or other provinces. After seeing the promotion of Huasheng Life online, they can only find "purchasing agents" if they cannot come here themselves.

This situation was very common during this period in 2014.

In order to generate income for their families, many mothers with a keen business sense discovered a business opportunity in their circle of friends.

These mothers first purchased some overseas goods on behalf of others, such as cosmetics, unused products, food, and luxury goods.

After this group of mothers made their first pot of gold in their circle of friends, more and more mothers began to join in, and the direction of purchasing on behalf of others began to gradually shift from overseas to a variety of products, ranging from local specialties to all kinds of high-end luxury products.

After more than a year of rapid development, WeChat businesses in the circle of friends have gradually begun to have a multi-level agency model.

Although the sales level is becoming more and more formalized, there is no guarantee for the products sold by WeChat merchants. They only rely on violent screen-sweeping to sell goods, and various three-no products are common in the market.

In this case, Huasheng Life, which is endorsed by many marketing accounts, has become a guaranteed source of goods.

Many out-of-town buyers would rather pay more to purchase products selected by Huasheng Life from scalpers, especially medicines, milk powder, health care products and other products that are related to their own safety.

The aftermath of the milk powder incident six or seven years ago has not yet been cleared. Many mothers initially bought milk powder from overseas before embarking on the path of purchasing on behalf of others.

Now that the milk powder selected by Huasheng Life has a good reputation and is more affordable, it has naturally become the first choice for many mothers. This also leads to a bunch of purchasing agents rushing to grab the milk powder every time it is put on the shelves at Huasheng Life Plaza.

Even friction and disputes arose because of this.

This hot buying scene was photographed by some "netizens" and posted online, once again boosting the popularity of Huasheng Life Plaza.

But Rong Nianqing was not carried away by this booming prosperity. She realized that there were big problems here.

Those purchasing agents come to buy goods under the guise of Huasheng Life, but who knows if they will bring in a batch of counterfeit and shoddy products to sell after they go out with the goods?
If something goes wrong, the money will be earned by these scalpers, but the blame will be borne by Huasheng Life Plaza.

Then there are the original customers of Huasheng Life Plaza. Every time they come to shop, they have a very bad experience. Many of the things they want to buy are simply not available to them, especially baby products, health care products for the middle-aged and elderly, and some inexpensive medicines.

The crazy and bandit-like buying sprees of purchasing agents and scalpers have prevented many customers who really need the goods from purchasing them at the original price, causing a certain degree of dissatisfaction.

In order to deal with this situation, Rong Nianqing also took many measures.

The first is purchase restrictions.

For some in-demand products, individuals can only purchase a specified amount at a time.

The next step is to standardize the order of purchase. In some popular commodity sales areas, customers are required to queue up in an orderly manner to enter the store for purchase. In order to compensate for the customers' waiting time, the mall will give certain coupons to customers waiting in line.

The last is the appointment purchase channel. Customers who are in urgent need of products can explain the situation to the salesperson and then reserve the product. The delivery staff from Huasheng Life Plaza will then deliver the product directly to their door.

After this series of new regulations came out, the originally chaotic purchasing scene was indeed brought under control, but while Huasheng Life set up high walls, scalpers set up ladders.

Some scalpers who purchase goods on behalf of others not only invite all the relatives they can find, but also pay passers-by to come and help them purchase.

The additional costs incurred in this process are borne by out-of-town buyers.

What if foreign buyers don’t want to buy? If you don’t buy, there are plenty of people who will!
Only truly good products are in such short supply. Would you feel comfortable letting your baby eat unreliable milk powder?

The purchase restriction measures of Huasheng Life Plaza have given scalpers an excuse to raise prices, causing out-of-town buyers to complain about Huasheng Life. The public opinion online has also quietly changed under this circumstance.

In addition to the instigation of various purchasing scalpers, some complaints about the difficulty of buying things at Huasheng Life and sarcastic remarks began to ferment.

It would be very dangerous to continue like this.

In order to protect the rights and interests of buyers, Rong Nianqing also used the official Weibo of Huasheng Life to appeal to non-local buyers online not to purchase Huasheng Life products through purchasing agents to prevent counterfeit and shoddy products.

But once the official Weibo post was released, it attracted more complaints.

"Is Huasheng Life really that good? I don't believe it! Unless he opens one here and tries it out!"

"What is going on with Huasheng Life? How come they can't even keep up with selling goods?"

"Do you want us to go directly to the source manufacturer? That's quite a trick!"

Faced with so much public opinion, Huasheng Life really has no way to defend itself.

Why is there so much supply shortage of products from Huasheng Life?
That's because Huasheng Life has many and strict product inspection procedures. Even if the products are from the same manufacturer, the product standards supplied to different channels may be different.

Especially for products related to infants and young children and medicines, Huasheng Life has also established a very complete after-sales accountability plan.

Because of Huasheng Life's complicated and strict inspection procedures, many manufacturers do not cooperate with Huasheng Life. Many infant and toddler products are selected by Huasheng Life after it personally visits and investigates them, and it even helps manufacturers upgrade and expand production lines before it can supply them.

Under such circumstances, the supply of goods on the shelves of Huasheng Life will certainly not keep up.

Rong Nianqing also asked Huasheng Life’s official Weibo account to explain this information to the public, but the more this was done, the more enthusiastic out-of-town buyers became.

Rong Nianqing, who was a little overwhelmed, then found Lu Yao.

Lu Yao has been paying close attention to the situation of Huasheng Life recently. As soon as Rong Nianqing opened her mouth, Lu Yao knew what was going on.

But he actually didn't have any good solution.

Lu Yao made a video call to Rong Nianqing and said, "There is actually no particularly good solution to this problem, especially for scalpers."

Scalpers’ purchasing agency has always been a very difficult problem to solve, because scalpers are a group of completely profit-driven professionals who will do anything to make money.

So whether you are buying tickets, local specialties, or even doing annual vehicle inspections, you can encounter scalpers. The more popular something is, the more scalpers it attracts.

Rong Nianqing frowned, thinking that if this continued, there would definitely be trouble.

Seeing this, Lu Yao asked, "How is the preparation of our online shopping platform going?"

An idea suddenly flashed in Rong Nianqing's mind!

Yup!

How could you forget about the online shopping platform?

When Huasheng Life began to prepare, the e-commerce department's online sales platform was being built simultaneously. The specifications adopted in all aspects of the construction of the online shopping platform were very high and could withstand large traffic flows.

By now, Huasheng Life's online shopping and delivery system has become relatively mature, and goods can be purchased through online ordering within a radius of 15 kilometers.

Next, we can guide out-of-town customers to purchase some of the in-demand commodities on our own online shopping platforms.

When Lu Yao saw Rong Nianqing suddenly realize what was going on, he said, "I originally wanted to quit the online shopping platform later, but after the recent turmoil at Huasheng Life, its reputation has grown, and a single offline entity can no longer handle more customer traffic."

"In this case, we can only put it on the shelves first."

Rong Nianqing smiled and said, "Don't worry, I will supervise everyone and make sure that we don't damage the reputation of Huasheng Life."

Lu Yao reminded: "Scalpers will also keep up with the times. They will even spend money to develop software specifically for grabbing goods. You have to think about sales strategies and prevent people from maliciously shopping online."

Human nature is a very dark thing, and this is more vividly reflected on the Internet.

Even ten years later, when people's cultural literacy has greatly improved, there are still a lot of users who buy things on Pinxixi and ask for a refund.

Users with low awareness or even simply malicious intentions can cause many problems.

After Lu Yao explained the pros and cons, he reminded Rong Nianqing: "You must be mentally prepared and take the best possible after-sales measures."

Rong Nianqing's eyes were firm: "Don't worry, I never thought everything would go smoothly when I came out to do things."

Lu Yao added: "We can get in more contact with Boss Yu. Some of the in-demand products will definitely be in short supply after they are sold nationwide. It will take time to expand production. We can work together with Boss Yu."

Rong Nianqing: "Okay, I'll push it forward. I'll go get busy first."

After saying this, Rong Nianqing hung up the video call in a swift and decisive manner.

Seeing this, Lu Yao smiled.

Maybe she can really do what Pang Donglai can't do.

……

After talking with Lu Yao, Rong Nianqing held an emergency meeting with the senior management of Huasheng Life, and everyone worked together to establish a complete online shopping and sales plan.

For this purpose, Rong Nianqing made a special video call to Boss Yu, hoping that he could also give some valuable suggestions.

Boss Yu was pleased to see this happen and enthusiastically discussed the matter with the senior executives of Huasheng Life.

Three days later, Huasheng Life’s official Weibo account released a notice.

This notice calls on netizens from all over the country not to find scalpers to purchase products on their behalf. Huasheng Life will open an online shopping platform before the end of this month and try its best to ensure the supply of goods. At that time, everyone can purchase products through Huasheng Life's online shopping platform, which is safer and more secure.

As soon as this announcement was released, it immediately caused a stir. In 2014, the domestic e-commerce online shopping environment was actually very mature. Alibaba's Tmall and Taobao directly occupied nearly 20% of the online shopping market. Among the remaining e-commerce platforms, only JD.com occupied % of the online shopping market share, which could compete with Alibaba.

In the following years, Alibaba was almost the only online shopping platform in China. During this period, Ma Jieke was a real celebrity, even the most popular one.

Even Amazon, the originator of e-commerce platforms, was defeated by Alibaba after spending $7500 million to acquire Joyo.com.

Of the remaining market share, Yixun, Dangdang, and Vipshop basically only account for 1% to 2% of the market share.

Under such circumstances, Shangnan’s Huasheng Life, an offline supermarket company, is actually going to enter the online shopping platform?

Many Internet tycoons just treated this news as a gust of wind blowing past their ears.

Little Washington is not worth a single cent.

Huasheng Life officials are not very interested in the field of e-commerce and online shopping. They launched the e-commerce platform purely to help out-of-town customers solve the problem of not being able to buy products and having to buy products at a higher price from scalpers.

It can be said that Washington Life comes without any murderous intent and appears to be pure and harmless.

Therefore, none of the existing e-commerce giants took Huasheng Life’s entry into online shopping sales seriously.

Even because of the boss behind Huasheng Life, many Internet e-commerce giants came to congratulate under their real names and help build momentum for Huasheng Life.

For a while, the Internet was as joyous as the Spring Festival Gala, with everyone celebrating with brothers and sisters.

Lu Yao actually found this scene a bit amusing.

At this point in 2014, vertical Internet companies such as Meituan, Ele.me, Didi, and Kuaidi were engaged in a crazy money-burning war, and the two main financial backers behind them were Alibaba and Penguin.

These two Internet giants will decide the winner in a few years, and then be caught off guard by the sudden rise of Tik Tok. The combination of entertainment content and sales will become the new e-commerce track.

Then, while these two giants were busy encircling Douyin, they were secretly overtaken by Pinxixi. The group-buying economy became the main consumption mode after the economic downturn.

Just when everyone thought that the Internet landscape was going to stabilize, the issue of food safety was brought to a whole new level thanks to the Alchemist and a snack bar. Pang Donglai, which had been trapped in Yuzhou Province, began to break out of its circle and began to enter the e-commerce platform.

The development of the Internet is truly full of ups and downs.

Huasheng Life Plaza does not have much market share now, but what will the situation be like when the wind blows in the future?
As long as Huasheng Life can maintain its original intention and continue to dig deep, it will eventually rise to the top of its own trend.

Lu Yao is looking forward to this.

Huasheng Life proposed a solution to scalpers’ purchasing agents relatively early on. Users who have demand for Huasheng Life’s products have not yet turned their demand for them into resentment, so there have been a lot of cheers online.

Scalpers, sensing that something was not right, began to sell off their stockpiled goods in an effort to clear out their inventory before the end of the month.

Yes, scalpers also hoard goods, and sometimes the quantities they hoard are very large.

This operation is actually very common, just like the graphics card dealers before 2022. During that period, the prices of graphics cards skyrocketed, and the graphics card dealers clearly stockpiled a large number of graphics cards, but they just refused to sell them.

The same is true for the group of scalpers who are hoarding Huasheng Life’s goods. They all think that by controlling the sales of goods, they can keep the prices rising.

For this purpose, they will even purchase goods from other scalpers at high prices.

Gradually, the products of Huasheng Life are almost becoming "tulips".

Now Huasheng Life has suddenly done this and promised to increase the supply of goods as much as possible.

This is equivalent to a deep blow to the scalpers.

As a result, many scalpers began to sell off the products in their hands, allowing out-of-town buyers who had been waiting to purchase to get a taste of the sweetness in advance.

In this wave of selling, the ones who suffered the most were naturally the initiators of this wave of purchasing and speculation, Tao Sixing of Xinbai Plaza and his female staff.

Tao Sixing's female aide Tang Jingjing held her forehead and sighed, "Huasheng Life's move is a bit unconventional."

An offline supermarket is going to enter the e-commerce industry?

This isn't even a race track!

At present, almost all domestic e-commerce platforms are C2C and B2C models. The market share of officially operated e-commerce platforms is very small. In comparison, the platform promotion, maintenance, and after-sales expenses will far exceed the profits earned.

In this situation, the e-commerce field has become a game of bargaining among oligarchs, and the final outcome is that the winner takes all, while the rest will fight for a piece of the pie.

Therefore, without absolutely strong funds and a sufficiently precise track, it will be difficult to break through the siege.

But Huasheng Life Plaza is quite special. Its e-commerce platform was created after much clamor from users from all over the country through the Internet. First of all, the promotion of the platform saved a lot of money.

Tang Jingjing looked back at this time. Why did she feel like she had fallen into a trap?

Strange!
Tang Jingjing twisted her neck and said, "Boss Tao, I have already started selling off a large amount of the goods we stockpiled. The loss now just offsets the profit we made before."

Tao Sixing was busy with his work. After hearing Tang Jingjing's report, he said calmly, "That's great. You have transferred Huasheng Life's energy, manpower and financial resources to the bottomless pit of e-commerce without spending any money. You have done a great job."

Tang Jingjing immediately raised her eyebrows: "Is that how you understand it?"

Tao Sixing raised his head and said, "What else? The human and financial resources that a company can mobilize are limited. If Huasheng Life wants to engage in e-commerce, even the projects they have planned before will be affected."

This has slowed down Huasheng Life's actions, which is more important than profit and loss.

Tang Jingjing asked curiously, "Aren't you afraid that Huasheng Life will be far ahead of the rest in this year's e-commerce business?"

Tao Sixing smiled and said, "The domestic e-commerce landscape has basically taken shape. If Huasheng Life's e-commerce platform really becomes big, some people will be more anxious than me."

By then, the giant giant entrenched in Hangzhou will take action.

Tao Sixing put down his pen and sighed, "Now that I think about it, I'm actually looking forward to Huasheng Life's e-commerce platform becoming bigger and stronger."

Tang Jingjing asked expectantly: "Then should we give them another push?"

Tao Sixing shook his head and said, "Our human and financial resources are limited. It would cost too much to help Huasheng Life's e-commerce business."

In the past two years, Didi and Kuaidi started to burn money against each other with the support of two Internet giants. Penguin once said at an Internet exchange meeting that at their peak, they burned 4000 million yuan a day. However, no one dared to stop burning money against each other, otherwise all their efforts would be wasted.

The resources currently available to Tao Sixing do not allow for such a large pure investment.

Tao Sixing waved at Tang Jingjing: "Come and take a look."

Tang Jingjing twisted her waist and came to Tao Sixing, deliberately leaning over him to create an ambiguous atmosphere.

On Tao Sixing's computer is a planning proposal. In this proposal, Tao Sixing invited internationally renowned brands such as Hermes, LV, Gucci, Dior, Chanel, etc. to settle in Xinbai Plaza and prepare a high-end luxury brand show next month.

The show will showcase the new products that these big brands are launching this year. Invitations will be sent out on an invitation-only basis, inviting celebrities from all walks of life to attend.

Tao Sixing said: "I want to spread this news, not only in Shangnan, but also in the entertainment industry and the fashion industry."

“I want this show to become a check-in spot for celebrities.”

Fashion has always been conveyed from the top down. People in the upper class gain spiritual pleasure and superiority by showing off their extraordinary lifestyles, which arouses the envy and jealousy of the lower class.

Then the middle class with some wealth will flock to follow suit, as if owning these high-end luxury brand products will make them the real upper class, thus distinguishing themselves from the lower class.

Therefore, luxury brand advertisements are never made for the rich, because the rich are too busy to watch that kind of stuff.

Luxury goods advertisements are made for the poor to watch. The purpose is to let the poor know how expensive those things are. In this way, when the middle class or rich people go out with their luxury goods, they will receive envious glances from the poor.

Tang Jingjing smiled and said, "Don't worry about that. I will make it the fashionable provincial capital of the year."

Tao Sixing followed up by saying, "How is the expansion of the big screen outside Xinbai Plaza going?"

Tang Jingjing said: "It will be completed within this week."

There was originally a huge external display screen outside Xinbai Plaza, but the first thing Tao Sixing did after taking over Xinbai Plaza was to spend a lot of money to replace the external display screen.

It has been replaced with a clearer and more high-end curved display, and its size is also larger than before.

The effect displayed on this screen is extremely amazing!
The purpose of this screen is to display the show.

Tao Sixing lay down in the recliner and imagined: "By then, Xinbai Plaza will become the focus of the entire Shangnan, the entertainment industry, and the fashion industry. The entire Shangnan group with spending power, and even the group with spending power from other places, will flock here."

Since we want to make money, what's the point of earning just a few dollars from ordinary people?
It’s interesting to make money from the middle class and the slightly wealthy.

The spending power of a mistress is equivalent to the spending potential of a thousand ordinary women.

Tao Sixing raised his hand and slowly touched Tang Jingjing's raised curves, and said with a smile: "Rong Nianqing chose the wrong direction. It is difficult to make up for the gap in consumption levels simply by quantity."

Soon, the news that Xinbai Plaza was about to host a new product show of high-end luxury brands spread in Shangnan and on the Internet.

A list of high-end luxury brands with a luxurious lineup almost blinded the eyes of most netizens!

Rich people who like to pursue high-end luxury brands and have some wealth are very interested in the activities of Xinbai Plaza, and then invitations to Xinbai Plaza's high-end new product shows become hot and rare commodities.

Seeing the scene at Xinbai Plaza, Lu Yao, who had been silent for a long time, finally became happy.

"After holding it in for so long, you're finally willing to show your true colors!"

Lu Yao also agreed with Xinbai Plaza's strategy, and if the event was really successful, the sales revenue they would generate would be far beyond the reach of Huasheng Life Plaza.

But can you do such a big thing just because you want to?

(End of this chapter)