Free Web NovelChapter 273: Chapter 231: 66,000 Employees, Spirit Power! 260 Billion in Projected Annual Sales
Chen Yansen tried letting go. The toothpick actually floated in mid-air, as if held by an invisible hand.
A dozen or so seconds later, Chen Yansen finally felt a sense of spiritual fatigue. ’Holding’ up this toothpick was more exhausting than doing hundreds of sets of squats with a 1000-kilogram barbell.
’Let’s try testing my perception!’ ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Chen Yansen spread out his Divine Sense and was pleasantly surprised to find that its influence on the raindrops outside the window had indeed lessened.
Right after that, he ’picked up’ the toothpick again and held it for a full sixty seconds.
The effect was obvious, but Chen Yansen quickly realized the trade-off wasn’t worth it. In less than two minutes, he was utterly exhausted.
’The side effects of interfering with reality are gone, but if I have to spend every day in my room, drained of energy, what’s the point of living?’
Shit!
’This damn system! It should at least give me a way to control this!’
’Fucking hell, it’s completely irresponsible!’
Chen Yansen couldn’t help but grumble to himself. He sighed helplessly and, clinging to his last shred of hope, let his mind wander.
’What should I visualize?’
’A phone?’
’A refrigerator?’
’A Tai Chi Diagram?’
Chen Yansen scoffed and shook his head. Then he closed his eyes. The stick-figure drawings in his mindscape refused to disappear, like some kind of instinct.
He could only force himself to concentrate, imagining a black hole above his head that devoured everything—all matter, light, and even his Spiritual Power.
But after trying for a long time, nothing changed at all.
A flash of inspiration struck Chen Yansen. He imagined his Spiritual Power itself becoming a black hole, fiercely devouring everything around it.
The moment this thought arose, the stick-figure outlines within his Divine Sense were instantly sucked into the black hole, as if drawn in by a vacuum cleaner.
His mind went pitch-black, leaving only the deep, spinning black hole.
’It worked!’
Chen Yansen was ecstatic!
He snapped his eyes open. As his gaze swept the area, he was surprised to spot an ant trying to crawl into the room from the crack under the living room door.
Keep in mind, ever since he’d awakened his ’biological suppression’ instinct, nothing dared to enter Room 418—not even a booklouse, let alone an ant.
Chen Yansen raised his wrist to check the time. Only half an hour had passed.
He opened his door, went downstairs, and left the faculty apartment building.
He got into the driver’s seat of the Gusteau and headed for the Science and Technology Park.
The Xuyuan students on Xue Lin Road were long used to the sight. The eight-million-yuan Rolls-Royce passed by like a used Chang’an, attracting no attention at all.
Arriving at the conference room in Building 8 at exactly 9:00 AM, Chen Yansen hadn’t even missed Pinbei’s morning meeting.
A short while later, the various department heads began to file in.
Xiong Li from HR suddenly looked up, studying Chen Yansen discreetly. She felt that the boss was a bit different today. The intimidating, oppressive aura he usually projected was gone, and he seemed more approachable.
"Hu Yun, report February’s data."
Once everyone had arrived, Chen Yansen said to Hu Yun.
A flicker of envy crossed Zhang Yifeng’s eyes. In February, the boss had appointed Hu Yun as Director of the Data Department, but the Director of Merchant Operations position that he coveted remained vacant.
"Yes, Boss. Pinbei currently has 270 million registered users and 41 million daily active users. In February, our average daily orders were 8.3 million, with a daily sales volume of 760 million yuan and an average order value of 91.6 yuan. That’s a 13.7% increase from January, month-over-month.
"Food, Home Goods, and Women’s Apparel are our Tier 1 categories. Mother & Baby, Lingerie, Men’s Apparel, and Digital Appliances are Tier 2. Beauty, Automotive Products, Bags & Accessories, and Footwear are Tier 3."
Hu Yun opened his laptop, connected it to the projector, and clicked open a PowerPoint to begin his presentation.
Chen Yansen nodded in satisfaction. In terms of sales data, Pinbei’s volume was nearly on par with Jingdong’s, but there was still a massive gap compared to Taobao.
Taobao C Store and Tmall Mall had a combined daily sales volume of at least 2.5 billion, possibly even 3 billion yuan.
He turned to Zhang Yifeng. "What’s the current situation with merchants on Pinbei?"
"Boss, including white-label factories from manufacturing regions and fruit vendors from agricultural areas, we have a total of 9,720 merchants. C-tier brands make up 47%, B-tier 31%, A-tier 19%, and S-tier 3%. In terms of output, B-tier brands contribute the most, and S-tier the least."
Zhang Yifeng quickly replied when the boss called his name.
S-tier brands offered smaller discounts, so their sales naturally suffered. B-tier brands, with their high production capacity and minimal brand premium, could afford to offer extreme discounts. In terms of pure sales ability, even A-tier brands couldn’t beat them.
"If I recall correctly, Yifeng, you’re one of the old guard from FoxTao. On the Investment Attraction team, your performance never dropped out of the top three," Chen Yansen said.
"I believe so," Zhang Yifeng said with a wide grin, his heart quickening.
"The Director of Merchant Operations for Pinbei is a much harder job than just hitting sales targets. You’ve spent a year and a half honing your skills as the leader of the investment attraction group. I have faith in your abilities. Don’t disappoint me."
Chen Yansen patted Zhang Yifeng’s shoulder.
"Boss, you can rest assured. I’ll make the Operations Department’s performance number one in the industry." Zhang Yifeng was overjoyed. ’After waiting for six months, the Director of Operations position is finally mine.’
"Number one in the industry? Then you’ll have to beat Taobao!"
Chen Yansen chuckled, then added seriously, "Brands, products, and data metrics are important, but you also need to have your finger on the pulse of market trends and competitor activities. Get out of the office. Talk more with the merchants in the industrial belts. Think about how to leverage our platform’s resources to create more success stories."
"Yes, Boss. I understand," Zhang Yifeng quickly promised.
Chen Yansen smiled faintly and turned his gaze to Wang Zihao.
"Total new customer acquisition in February was 87.13 million, averaging 3 million per day. Nela Xin accounted for 44%; QQ and WeChat’s primary traffic portals contributed 19%; external channel placements made up 28%; and organic traffic was 9%. Total ad spend last month was 170 million yuan..."
Wang Zihao reported methodically.
Chen Yansen glanced at the data visualization on the big screen. It was obvious the user acquisition team was struggling more and more, and the cost per acquisition (CPA) was steadily rising.
After all, there were fewer than six hundred million internet users in the country. Once you filtered out those who disliked online shopping, Pinbei’s 270 million registered users meant it was already approaching its traffic ceiling.
If they wanted to maintain their acquisition speed, they would have to penetrate channels in fifth-tier cities and below, or even rural markets.
"Zhuang Rui, we need to focus on user retention and engagement. Our acquisition costs are clearly up another 30% year-over-year. Traffic is only going to get more expensive, so retaining users is more important than ever."
Chen Yansen said, looking at Zhuang Rui.
"I’ve discussed this with Zihao," Zhuang Rui replied. "After the 10th, we’ll start sending re-engagement red packets worth five to ten yuan to inactive users."
Zhuang Rui then talked about the product optimization plan for March, which would primarily target users who had registered but never ordered, as well as those who hadn’t ordered in 15 days. They would use additional subsidies to win them back.
After he finished his report, the heads of the Key Account Investment Attraction, Technology, Customer Service, and HR departments also gave their respective summaries.
Pinbei’s growth rate had exceeded everyone’s imagination.
Based on the sales figures from January and February, Pinbei’s annual sales were projected to exceed 260 billion yuan, accounting for almost 25% of Ah Li’s market share.
Before adjourning the meeting, Chen Yansen had the Operations and Market Departments collaborate on early preparations for Pinbei’s 618 Grand Promotion.
「Meanwhile.」
Sunning announced it would hold an appliance shopping festival on April 18th, promising the absolute lowest prices online.
Liu Qiangdong immediately responded on Weibo: Jingdong’s appliance prices would definitely be lower than Sunning’s.
In an instant, these two e-commerce platforms, whose very lifeline was the digital appliance category, were once again embroiled in a price war.
Although Liu Qiangdong knew time was short, he still convened an overnight meeting with his procurement and sales managers from the East China, North China, and Southern China regions. They had to fight Sunning for traffic on 4/18.
’Seeing this, my previous decision was brilliant,’ Chen Yansen thought. By using Pinbei’s traffic to attract Sunning and Jingdong onto his platform, he had successfully avoided a direct confrontation.
The next morning, Gao Weilin returned from Yanjing. After a week of negotiations, he and his team had finally settled on the acquisition price and procedures for Quanfeng Express.
