Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chapter 49: Chapter 48: Sales Exceed 500,000

At 6:00 PM the next day, the voting event ended.

A total of 137,000 users participated. The prize pool was continuously increased to 460,000 yuan, and the product name with the most votes was ”FoxTao,” which received 85,000 votes.

In other words, the final prize pool of 460,000 yuan was split among 85,000 people, with prizes ranging from 2.8 yuan to 888 yuan.

Although 99% of users only won 2.8 yuan, the remaining 1% still amounted to several hundred people. Many received 88 yuan prizes, and some even won the grand prize of 888 yuan in cash.

In just three hours, ”FoxTao Vote Winnings” started trending. In the comments section, many lucky winners posted screenshots of their 888 yuan withdrawals, and there were countless posts showing 88 yuan winnings.

FoxTao had completely made a name for itself among college students.

Combined with Chen Yansen’s status as a freshman, he and FoxTao became the focus of media attention. For a time, their fame grew, and they became the very model of a successful student startup.

However, back in Room 206 of the Innovation Park, the mood was a bit down.

After the voting ended, although FoxTao had trended, it hadn’t converted many users. The growth rate of real-time user registrations had plummeted from a peak of 2,500 per hour to just 50 per hour.

Chen Yansen glanced at the data, unconcerned.

He knew full well that FoxTao was essentially an intermediary platform for buying and selling traffic; it couldn’t acquire a large amount of organic traffic on its own.

Being able to acquire the first batch of seed users at an extremely low cost and achieve a perfect cold launch for the product had already far exceeded his expectations.

To increase the first-order conversion rate for prize winners, Chen Yansen specifically pulled in Zhuang Rui and Song Yuncheng to plan a special event section for new users on a secondary page of the website. They selected fast-moving consumer goods under 20 yuan and kept the cashback amount above 2.2 yuan.

This way, users who won 2.8 yuan only needed to place one order to make their first withdrawal, allowing them to experience FoxTao’s core user journey.

”Zhuang Rui, is the product requirement document for the price-slashing feature finished yet? Send it to me as soon as you can.”

Chen Yansen had been selecting products at his desk for a while and felt a bit tired. He slowly stood up, stretched, and asked Zhuang Rui.

”Brother Sen, I’ll get it to you before the end of the day. I still need to iron out some details,” Zhuang Rui looked up and replied.

”Okay. When Wenbo and Pengfei get back, we’ll all sync up. Let’s aim to launch it in October.”

Chen Yansen nodded and added.

The price-slashing model, while annoying, was a powerful tool for user acquisition. He was short on funds. Even with the low acquisition costs of 2010, he couldn’t afford to burn through money unless he secured angel investment.

But as things stood, FoxTao had fewer than 140,000 registered users and less than 10,000 daily active users. Its profit model was no different from competing websites, making it difficult to attract investor attention.

Only by breaking into the top three in the industry would capital come knocking on their door with money.

「Meanwhile.」

In a junior male dorm room at Lucheng Academy, Zhang Wei was browsing FoxTao’s event page.

”These denim shorts are 39.9 yuan, and I can get 4 yuan back. Doesn’t that mean they’re only 35.9 yuan?”

Zhang Wei muttered to himself. After carefully reading the product details and reviews and seeing no issues, he took out his USB security key to make the payment.

The other items on the page were also very appealing to him. A 9.9 yuan T-shirt gave 1 yuan back, a 299 yuan MP4 player gave 30 yuan back, and a 399 yuan pair of sneakers gave 40 yuan back. This novel way of getting discounts online seemed to open up a whole new world for him.

Back then, the most common way for many online shoppers to get a discount was to haggle directly with the online Shopkeeper.

This method was time-consuming and difficult, and it wasn’t suitable for introverts. Most people would just accept the price listed on the page.

The arrival of FoxTao strongly challenged their previous notions.

Watching the order numbers steadily climb in the backend, Chen Yansen couldn’t be bothered to rest. Using pre-developed event templates, he added eight themed event pages to the homepage in one go, categorized by product type, such as ”Snack Spree,” ”Beauty Bonus,” ”New Wave in Sportswear,” and so on.

He chose products with prices closely aligned with the average order value and specifically selected high-quality items with high commission rates, which greatly boosted the purchasing motivation of retained users.

Over the course of a day, the conversion rate for a single event page once exceeded 30%.

In other words, for every 10 users who clicked on an event page, 3 ended up placing an order—an astonishing conversion rate.

October 2nd: FoxTao’s daily order count was 2,745, with a total sales volume of 89,212.5 yuan and a profit of 13,292.6 yuan.

October 3rd: FoxTao’s daily order count was 6,123, with a total sales volume of 194,099.1 yuan and a profit of 28,144.3 yuan.

October 4th: FoxTao’s daily order count was 4,169, with a total sales volume of 151,706.3 yuan and a profit of 23,673.2 yuan.

In just three days, FoxTao’s total site-wide sales volume broke the 500,000 yuan mark!

”Brother Sen, the data’s in. So far, a total of 12,471 orders have come from users who won the 2.8 yuan prize. The gross margin is 1.3%, which means we still made a profit of 5,300 yuan.”

Hu Yun chuckled and reported the data to Chen Yansen.

”That’s about what Zhuang Rui predicted. The final cost of this voting event will probably be less than forty thousand, but the results are comparable to spending four hundred thousand.”

Chen Yansen smiled, then instructed Zhuang Rui, ”We’ve made a solid first step. Next, focus more on user retention. Increasing the first-order rate and purchase frequency is your most important job from here on out.”

”Okay, Brother Sen. I’ll mull it over for the next few days and come to you with a plan after the holiday.”

Zhuang Rui took a deep breath and replied seriously.

Chen Yansen grunted in acknowledgment. He turned to look at Wang Zihao, who was still busy with his head down. He wanted to ask him to go out and relax, but he held back the words on the tip of his tongue.

He left the Innovation Park by himself and wandered aimlessly along Liu Xi.

The sky was dim, a streak of golden twilight gradually sinking below the horizon. The gentle breeze carried a hint of chill, rustling the willow branches.

After working around the clock for a month, even someone as energetic as him felt a trace of exhaustion creep into his heart.

Ultimately, Chen Yansen still didn’t dare to fully entrust the project to this group of eighteen and nineteen-year-olds.

His experience from his past life had taught him that in the world of business and the workplace, the only person you can truly trust is yourself.

You never knew when someone else might stab you in the back, and you wouldn’t even know how you died.

Chen Yansen reached the riverbank and, not minding the dirt, plopped down and stared blankly at the water.

FoxTao was essentially a shopping guide e-commerce platform. Its future was destined for one of three outcomes: first, being acquired; second, going public on the main board; third, making some quick money on the rise of e-commerce before slowly declining into obscurity.

Chen Yansen had no intention of scaling up FoxTao. He mainly saw it as a springboard to first accumulate industry connections and resources, then take the capital and team to forge a more promising path.

As for which path to choose?

He hadn’t decided yet.

”Squad Leader Chen, spacing out all by yourself?”

As his mind was wandering, a playful, lighthearted voice came from behind him.

Chen Yansen turned his head and smiled slightly. It was Xu Xingxing, whom he hadn’t seen in days.

She was carrying a six-pack of beer and a bag of snacks. She wore a baseball cap, a white tank top that exposed the pale skin of her shoulders and neck, and a pair of green athletic shorts.

At all of Xucheng Academy, her outfit was considered quite trendy and bold. Most girls would, at most, wander around outside in their pajamas.

”You didn’t go home?” Chen Yansen asked casually.

”You didn’t either, did you?” Xu Xingxing sat down next to him and handed him a bottle of beer.

Xu Xingxing had a strong impression of Chen Yansen. They had sung a duet of ”Bad Girl” at karaoke before. She had assumed that afterward, Chen Yansen would add her on QQ and then follow the usual script of a guy pursuing a girl: ask her out to eat, go shopping, confess his feelings. But none of that happened.

He seemed to have forgotten she existed. If she hadn’t taken the initiative to contact him, their only interaction might have been that one trip to karaoke a month ago.

Later, she heard that Chen Yansen was busy with his startup, that his project had received the attention and support of the university president, and that it was even being reported on by the media. Compared to other guys, it was as if Chen Yansen was on a completely different level.

While others were staying up all night playing video games, his startup already had over a hundred thousand users.

On top of that, Chen Yansen was tall and handsome, so quite a few girls had a crush on him. But very few actually dared to say they would pursue him.

Most girls knew the score. They understood that even if they confessed to a guy like Chen Yansen, who was both handsome and capable of making money, they might not get the response they wanted.

”My roommate, Secretary Su, is always thinking about you. Don’t you have any thoughts on that?”

Xu Xingxing took a sip of beer and casually tested the waters.

”I don’t like girls who are too well-behaved. They’re boring.” Chen Yansen gently clinked his bottle against hers and said with a light laugh.

”What about a bad girl like me, then?”

Xu Xingxing puffed out her chest and asked boldly.

”Oh? And how bad are you? How many boyfriends have you had?” Chen Yansen asked with a sly grin.

”Do you want to know the exact number, or do you want to know about my past?”

Xu Xingxing cupped her chin in her hands and stared straight at Chen Yansen.

Those were the words Chen Yansen had said to her last time. Now, she was giving them right back to him.

”So, did you bring your ID this time?” Chen Yansen dodged the question, leaning in closer to ask.

”What do I need an ID for? We can go to my dorm. I’m the only one there, anyway. Do you dare?”

Xu Xingxing narrowed her eyes, looking at him with a grin.

A girl’s dorm room?

’That’s a scene I haven’t unlocked yet.’ He couldn’t help but feel a little tempted!

Suddenly, his phone vibrated.

Chen Yansen pulled out his phone and saw it was a text from Meng Jie. It turned out she had come back early to surprise him.

”Maybe next time. My girlfriend’s back, I have to go pick her up.”

Chen Yansen stood up, ready to leave.

’Next time?’

’Going to pick up his girlfriend now?’

Xu Xingxing paused for a moment, thinking to herself, ’Chen Yansen, you really are a scumbag, and you don’t even try to hide it.’