Back to the prime of life

Chapter 179 New atmosphere

In any case, hiring online trolls to engage in small-scale online activities is different from the previous TV station, especially since this TV station is one of the larger ones.

Back then, it took Lu Changge a while to adapt to certain characteristics of this era. For example, the number of netizens was still less than a fraction of the total population, and everyone's mobile phones would lag when browsing the Sina News homepage. Even sending a lot of pictures while chatting on mobile QQ would make the data charges feel painful...

Ultimately, while traditional media are feeling the chill from the internet, a significant proportion of the Chinese population still primarily watches television.

The most direct difference between online and television advertising lies in sales volume.

At that time, people had not yet experienced the power of "boss public relations". After all, even the CEO who shouted "I speak for myself" did so in the fall of 2012, and his sudden rise to fame did not come until the beginning of 2013.

A good image from the boss will make consumers feel good about the brand; this is the simple nature of public sentiment in China.

As for the image that Lu Changge presented through that program...
Haha, at least Xu Qiuxue is satisfied with operating and managing the Lumang Tieba.

First of all, it was unpretentious. Throughout the entire interview, there wasn't a single boastful statement, nor any lofty or impractical motives. Instead, it was genuine and humorous.

Of course, the online environment is never perfect.

So Lu Changge didn't look at those things; he still focused on sales figures at the company.

This was also the biggest challenge when they first arrived in Lumang.

"You're not exactly being entrusted with a mission during a time of defeat, but being ordered to do something in a time of crisis is more fitting..." Lu Changge led her on a quick tour of the place, then found her a single table by the window.

There are no separate offices, not even for Lu Changge, the biggest boss.

"Your face is on TV, online discussions about you are booming, and the comments under your Taobao shop are so saccharine they make me cringe. Sales are skyrocketing. Is this what you call a crisis?"

Lu Changge gestured with his chin, looking at the somewhat messy office space, and said, "The people who used to work with me were just a few college students. But as the business grew, we suddenly recruited more than 30 people. And because of special reasons, although I did assign them responsibilities, in order to operate efficiently in the early stages, everyone was actually working together... Also, with the increase in exposure, it will definitely attract exclusion from our competitors, such as deliberately leaving bad reviews or canceling a large number of orders, which will increase the burden on our already fragile logistics information system."

To use an imperfect analogy, Lu Mang is like a wrecked ship. Suddenly a gust of wind comes along, and although it can travel a thousand miles a day, the vast ocean and its relentless waves make it a burden, don't they?

Chen Xiaohe couldn't refute it. "I can only say that every successful businessman has a strong sense of persecution complex. At least you have that condition."

Is this a compliment?
Lu Changge didn't know.

But he did have a strong sense of crisis, and there were some ideas he hadn't yet shared.

For example, what if you suddenly encounter a surge in orders or a logistics disruption?
What if a competitor suddenly uses deliberate marketing to highlight a product with significant quality issues?
……

Ultimately, he wasn't really 21 years old, so of course he wouldn't care about meaningless empty titles like early fame and wealth. After all, in the past few years, e-commerce startups have failed. Vancl failed, and its founder Chen Nian went from being at the height of his fame to being dejected in just two or three years. Jumei also failed, and its founder was even more regrettable.

His sense of risk and crisis even led him to consider whether it was time to sell Lumang Company.

This idea involves a fundamental framework.

It's about the size of the e-commerce market.

A few more words are needed here. Simply put, e-commerce platforms can be divided into general platforms and vertical platforms. The former sells everything, while the latter focuses on a specific type of product.

For example, JD.com started as a vertical e-commerce platform, selling only digital products and home appliances. It later expanded its product categories to become a comprehensive e-commerce platform.

There are also vertical categories, a typical example being Dangdang, which only sells books.

The former's advantage is its great potential and market imagination; if it succeeds, it will be a super company, if not a behemoth. However, its disadvantage is that it is extremely difficult to succeed.

These comprehensive platforms are essentially retailers; they buy goods, move them here, and sell them. They're like middlemen on the internet—who can't do that? But with such low barriers to entry, the competition becomes extremely fierce, and the difficulty naturally increases.

Ultimately, this line of work only earns you a meaningless, hard-earned living.

In response, Liu Qiangdong once said that such companies require high investment and are not very interesting, so there are not many big bosses who can afford to invest in them, and among those few, not many are interested in becoming internet middlemen.

The nationwide logistics and warehousing system, the hundreds of thousands of deliverymen... Lu Changge gets a headache just thinking about it.

Moreover, they already have JD.com. If they really want to have some influence in this field, putting aside money and just talking about influence... then why not just invest?
As for focusing solely on vertical e-commerce, it's not impossible, but the market would be quite limited. We can only console ourselves with terms like "small but beautiful." Even in the best years, the sales volume would be at most one or two hundred billion yuan.

Further breaking it down to the specific category of fast fashion brands like Lumang... it actually has subtle differences from e-commerce platforms and retailers, with its emphasis on the word "brand".

Well, whatever, that's just what he thinks.

Moreover, given the current financial crisis and the fact that Pulsego's efforts wouldn't show their full potential until at least 2010 and the following two years, what would allow it to make a dramatic turnaround in 2009 was simply to reveal its potential, and its immediate target remained the vertical market.

After all, there aren't many smartphones in the whole country, so how many users do you want for your app?

However, for Chen Xiaohe, if her boss can figure out these directional issues clearly, she will feel much clearer and more relaxed.

At the introductory meeting where she was formally invited to join the company, she also shared her thoughts.

"...I was still checking Lumang's store until last night. When I clicked in, I found that some items such as jeans and sweaters were out of stock. On the one hand, I was naturally surprised by everyone's achievements. Lumang is like a small whirlwind. Just now, President Lu told me that the daily sales have directly exceeded 3000. With this wave of discussion, it is not difficult to reach 4000. But on the other hand, being out of stock means a waste of sales opportunities. After all, marketing also has costs."

Looking at this woman, Lu Changge felt that she was remarkable.

Listening to her say that, she seemed like a veteran in the industry, at least her ideas were up-to-date, and she was confident and open, like a leader.

“I’ve had a detailed discussion with President Lu. I’m not here to bring my school management methods with me. Although there are students here, I won’t ask you to do calisthenics.” “Hahaha.”

"...I'm here mainly to do one thing, which is to build a company structure from scratch. When sales increase, someone will coordinate the supply chain to ensure sufficient goods. When complaints increase, someone will handle customer issues. Those who perform well will be promoted, and those who perform poorly will be punished. In short, it's about making everything orderly, nothing more."

"As for specific operations, I only have one suggestion: as a Taobao store with high sales volume, the platform will offer many preferential treatments. I am an outsider, but I am an online shopper. I know that Alibaba has a store credit rating system, dedicated advertising and traffic support, operational and training empowerment, and even commission discounts. In this regard, I understand that its potential may not have been fully explored yet."

No one can refute this statement.

This is probably because everyone is too busy, and of course, there is also the influence of the 'massive traffic' brought by Lu Changge himself. So, the things on the platform are either there or they aren't.

In short, starting today, someone will be taking action on this matter.

As the year draws to a close, the platform itself will fund themed promotions such as "Year-End Specials" and "Christmas Carnivals." In addition, the featured images and recommended spots on the platform's homepage are also excellent resources.

All of these factors contribute to a bias towards stores with high sales volume.

Lumang's daily sales are now over 3000, with an average transaction price of 48.57 yuan and a daily transaction volume ranging from 15 to 20 yuan, and it is still growing.

In December alone, monthly sales will definitely exceed 6 million.

Even now, we still have over 400 million in cash flow. It's just that the government guarantees the payments to suppliers, so we have more accounts payable.

In any case, operating cash flow is essentially a company's health check report.

When Xu Weiguo finally checked on things again, he would never have imagined that this small shop, which had only been around for two or three months, would have monthly sales exceeding 500 million yuan.

Doesn't that mean annual revenue exceeds 60 million?
No, with the added growth next year, annual sales will exceed 100 million!

As Director Cheng, the top leader, aptly put it, in order to stop the loss of overseas orders and the industry's decline, we must fight for even the smallest gains.

Well, Xu Weiguo initially treated Lu Changge like a mosquito's leg, but now it seems like a bullfrog's leg. In another three to five years, it will become a real elephant's leg!

People shouldn't be so short-sighted!
As a result, under his guidance, the district attached great importance to this newly emerging e-commerce company.

Needless to say, they will provide all the industry benefits they can, since it is a new internet industry and might even be considered a supported technology innovation enterprise.
These are minor details. On a larger scale, Lu Changge's meeting with Director Cheng, the top leader, has already been reported in official newspapers, with headlines like "On a certain day of a certain month, Cheng Jun, director of Jiangzhou Development Zone, met with Lu Changge, CEO of Lu Mang..."

This is how it is publicly announced.
In places the cameras couldn't reach, Lu Changge, introduced by Xu Weiguo, was already enjoying drinks with Director Cheng. Issues such as the warehouse site selection and construction that were being promoted, requiring each garment factory to make quality commitments, and further expanding the garment categories were all being personally coordinated by the top leader.

A former county official once roughly described the extent of his power. In any case, Director Cheng's coordination ability was extraordinary. To be honest, if it weren't for the financial crisis and his own "difficult situation," it would be very difficult to meet a startup boss like Lu Changge.

Of course, this wasn't the time for him to put on airs. Even when Xu Weiguo went to report to him, he was beaming.

In the management committee office, Xu Weiguo said, "I did know this Mr. Lu for a while and I know he has a good business sense, but to be honest, even I didn't expect that a newly established company like Lumang would have such great potential two months ago... Although the export volume of our district's garment industry is several billion, Lumang's small amount seems insignificant, but the absolute decline in quantity is not that big of a gap."

Exactly. The trend isn't good. It's not like it went from billions to zero. It's not like the Earth exploded. A drop of 20% is already quite alarming.

In response, Director Cheng waved his hand, "We still need to look at the growth trend. I just came back from a meeting in the city. The assessment from above is that the crisis will definitely deepen in 2009, and the main task of the district is to reverse the downward trend. So the trend is very important. At this time, the whole country and the world are the same. Let's not talk about growth for now. As long as it doesn't decline, that's outstanding."

“I have spoken with Lu Changge, and he is confident that he can achieve daily sales of over 10,000 units within six months.”

It's a good thing that 10,000 pieces of clothing are shipped out of the district's garment factory gate every day.

“Ten thousand won’t do, we need twenty thousand, or even thirty thousand.” Director Cheng stopped Xu Weiguo from complaining. “You said it yourself, he’s beyond your imagination. And, Director Xu, I think he seems to be your lucky star.”

Xu Weiguo was slightly taken aback. Was it a blue-green algae shortage incident?
He still remembers it, and now, there is a crisis.

Therefore, in his heart, it was really difficult for him to regard Lu Changge as just a junior or an acquaintance.

Director Cheng said earnestly, "Weiguo, you may not know about the internet industry, but I do. Once you get the right approach, its growth is explosive. Why can it exceed your imagination? It's because of this: today you see him as a small business owner, tomorrow he can become a guest of honor at a higher level."

He pointed upwards.

Xu Weiguo suddenly realized he was too close to Lu Changge. The closer they got, the less mysterious Lu Changge seemed. They were all just ordinary people with two eyes and two ears; naturally, they wouldn't imagine Lu Changge would become such a powerful businessman with nationwide influence. But this reminder…

For a moment, he was also somewhat dazed.

As for what Director Cheng said later about starting to envy him, he didn't really listen to it.

Instead, she was thinking about how to improve her relationship with Lu Changge at this time.

It was this unlucky thought of his that interrupted Lu Changge's exciting exploration of the secluded depths. He lay on Yin Anyan's body, slightly out of breath, as he dealt with the phone call.

Yin Anyan dared not utter a sound, even though she was drenched in sweat. Only after the phone call ended did she ask softly, "Why is Director Xu suddenly being so polite and asking so many questions? Is he still chasing after me to give me the loan?"

Lu Changge laughed and said, "There are times when he does chase after us, but he's not a bank salesman after all. I guess he saw that we're starting to gain traction and his mind has changed."

"Do you need the loan?"

"Of course I'll use it."

The impact of the financial crisis will gradually subside, and the overall trend of domestic economic growth remains unchanged. At this time, increasing leverage is just like investing in stocks back then: the larger the principal, the higher the return!
(End of this chapter)