Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”Cumulative registered users are at 99 million, with 21.6 million daily active users and 6.9 million single-day orders. Our conversion rate has slipped a little, but user retention is 14% higher compared to FoxTao.”

Hu Yun reported, looking at Chen Yansen from his seat in the conference room.

Besides the two of them, the room of over thirty square meters also held Cai Qiming from the Design Department; Zhang Wenbo and Xiang Pengfei from the Technology Department; Song Yuncheng, Zhang Yifeng, Li Hui, and Yuan Wei from the Business Development Department; Wang Zihao from the Ad Placement Department; and Zhuang Rui from the Product Department.

In front of each person was barbecue and beer, their gazes fixed on the large screen behind Chen Yansen.

As of 11:00 PM, Pinbei’s daily unique visitors (UV) had reached 27.8 million, with 10.2 million orders and a sales volume of 1.17 billion yuan.

Of this, Orange Mobile Phone contributed 280 million in sales, Jingdong’s self-operated section brought in 170 million, and the rest represented Pinbei’s true performance for the Double Twelve event.

Chen Yansen turned to look. The average order value was 114.7 yuan. Excluding the Orange Mobile Phone and Jingdong self-operated sections, it dropped to 83.3 yuan.

Though this was a far cry from Jingdong’s AOV of 300 to 400 yuan, compared to Taobao Mall’s AOV of 99.7 yuan during Double Eleven, Pinbei’s performance wasn’t low.

The Technology Department used two different algorithms for brand and product displays.

Products under 10 yuan were displayed through search, the product waterfall feed, and sub-category pages. Products over 10 yuan and popular items from major brands were gradually being moved to the ”Ten-Billion Subsidy” channel.

This strategy allowed them to capture the lower-tier market while also satisfying the demands of mid-range consumers.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK—!

A knock came from the door.

After hearing Chen Yansen’s response, Xu Xingxing pushed the door open, carrying a bag of red envelopes. She peeked her head in and asked, ”Boss, the red envelopes are all ready.”

”Come on, everyone, let’s do the drawing first! The envelopes have amounts ranging from 100, 600, 800, to 1000 yuan. It’s all up to luck.”

Chen Yansen stood up, grabbed a handful of red envelopes from the bag, and gestured for everyone to pick one.

Tonight’s overtime perks included a late-night meal, overtime pay, and hotel rooms, as well as random cash-filled red envelopes.

”Sister Yuncheng, you first!”

”Yeah, yeah! Director Song is Pinbei’s employee number one. She should go first!”

”Sister Yuncheng, pull a 1,000-yuan one and show us!”

Everyone laughed and egged her on.

”Then President Song will go first!” Chen Yansen said with a smile, walking over to Song Yuncheng.

Song Yuncheng casually picked one from the dozens of envelopes, tore it open, and found just a single banknote inside. She had clearly drawn the lowest amount.

Zhang Wenbo and Xiang Pengfei first teased Song Yuncheng for her bad luck, then each grabbed an envelope. They both ended up with 100 yuan as well.

”Xu Xingxing, you didn’t fill all of these with just 100-yuan bills, did you?” Zhang Wenbo joked, his face falling in mock disappointment.

”Don’t blame me for your bad luck! Brother Hao, quick, you try!” Xu Xingxing replied with a grin.

”I’ll definitely get the 1,000. Just watch,” Wang Zihao said with a smug grin. He took an envelope from Chen Yansen’s hand and gave it a squeeze. Judging by the thickness, he knew he had it in the bag.

He tore it open and counted. It was 800 yuan.

No one in the conference room really cared about a few hundred yuan; it was all for good luck.

In the end, out of the dozen or so people, only Cai Qiming from Taiwan drew the 1,000-yuan grand prize. The others clamored for him to treat them to milk tea tomorrow, and Cai Qiming laughingly agreed.

Carrying the bag of red envelopes, Chen Yansen started on the second floor, giving one to every employee all the way up to the fourth floor.

Pinbei Technology had just over 300 employees, so the three floors of office space were less than half full.

By the time he returned to the second-floor conference room, it was three minutes to midnight.

”1.26 billion. Looks like we won’t hit 1.3 billion,” Hu Yun said, slightly disappointed.

”I wonder how much Jingdong sold?” Wang Zihao muttered to himself.

Jingdong’s sales during Double Eleven were 1.06 billion. Although the promotions for this Double Twelve event were strong, it would be difficult to surpass the Double Eleven numbers after consumers had already gone on one spending spree.

”Jingdong’s self-operated products sold 190 million on Pinbei. I estimate their total will be at least 1 billion this time,” Hu Yun replied casually after a glance at the data.

”For the Market Department, get a performance report out tomorrow. Select ten case studies each for both branded and white-label merchants, and have the Ad Placement Department prepare the promotional materials.”

Chen Yansen said, looking at Yang Pinglun, the manager of the Market Department.

”Yes, Boss,” Yang Pinglun quickly replied.

He was a former key member of Zhuoyue Network and had worked at Amazon for three years, making him one of the first-generation e-commerce pioneers—experienced and highly capable.

”It’s getting late. Everyone, head home and get some rest.”

After speaking, Chen Yansen led the way out.

After all, if the boss didn’t leave, the employees would feel awkward about leaving.

Although working overtime is usually a miserable experience, it was completely different at Pinbei.

Today was Sunday, which meant double pay. They worked from 9:00 AM to midnight, and after deducting two hours for meals and a lunch break, the average employee put in 13 hours of overtime.

Take a regular part-time customer service rep, for example. At an hourly wage of 12 yuan, they earned 338 yuan for the day. Combined with the random red envelope of 100 to 1,000 yuan, this was almost a month’s worth of living expenses for many students from average-income families.

For people like Wang Zihao, Song Yuncheng, and Cai Qiming, their overtime pay alone amounted to five or six thousand yuan for the day, so they couldn’t care less what time they got off work.

Chen Yansen went down to the first floor, got into the driver’s seat of his Bentley, and drove toward Xuyuan.

Some of the others drove home, while some took the company shuttle back to the hotel at the East Gate of Xuyuan to rest.

Chen Yansen returned to the faculty apartments, but after parking his car, he didn’t go upstairs. Instead, he walked off campus and entered a hotel.

The next morning, the three major web portals and Weibo were all buzzing with news about the Double Twelve sales results for Taobao, Jingdong, and Pinbei.

In 2011, the various e-commerce platforms had no idea what the word ”understated” meant!

They all wished they could add an extra zero to their own battle reports just to look more impressive.

Taobao’s single-day sales: 4.18 billion!

Jingdong’s single-day sales: 1.39 billion!

Pinbei’s single-day sales: 1.27 billion!

Sunning, Yihaodian, and Yixun Network also participated in the major promotion, but with single-day sales of only 200-300 million, they were too embarrassed to compare results directly. Instead, their reports only mentioned things like their year-over-year sales growth percentage and the number of brands whose individual stores broke the 5 million yuan mark.

In reality, both consumers and e-commerce industry insiders had their attention fixed on Pinbei.

After all, Pinbei had been online for less than a month and had already nearly matched Jingdong’s sales event results, which was truly shocking.

Looking at brand performance:

Orange Mobile Phone: 290 million!

Jingdong Self-Operated Sales: 190 million!

Chery: 56.93 million!

AUX: 23.2 million!

Haier: 13.5 million!

Midea: 12.7 million!

...

There were 9 brands with single-store sales exceeding 10 million and 17 brands exceeding 5 million.

Additionally, the Pinbei Market Department released a ”Pinbei New Force Sales Chart,” which featured ”C-brands” (white-label brands and fruit shops from Xiyue).

First place went to a small home appliance factory from Cixi, with sales of 6.1 million!

Second place was a home textiles factory from Nantong, with sales of 5.3 million!

Third place was a furniture factory from Foshan, with sales of 3.9 million!

Fourth place was a fruit production base in Xiyue, with sales of 3.7 million!

This phenomenon quickly spread throughout the e-commerce circle.

Pinbei had actually bypassed distributors and agents to partner directly with source factories, and had even achieved staggering single-day sales in the millions.

For a time, many factory bosses in various industrial belts were tempted.

Although they didn’t understand how e-commerce worked, they figured that as long as they were willing to spend money, they would have no trouble hiring good operators.

Suddenly, factory bosses from production zones all across the country began to develop online sales channels, and their first stop was Pinbei!

Cloud Speed Express’s special discount service for small e-commerce parcels took the opportunity to make a name for itself in the industry. The starting price for packages under 1 kg was just 2.2 yuan, and for packages under 2.5 kg, just 2.8 yuan.

It was greatly favored by the factory bosses!

「Meanwhile.」

Liao Wei lay in bed, directing Cloud Speed’s mid- and high-level management to launch a frenzied attack on Speed Peak Express by poaching their staff, stealing their clients, and buying press releases to expose scandals.

This forced Chen Feikang, who had just taken over Speed Peak, to directly lower his rates for packages under 2.5 kg and 1 kg to 2.5 yuan and 2 yuan, respectively.

Instantly becoming the lowest prices in the entire industry!

The bosses of the ”Three Passes and One Reach” companies were so furious they started cursing. Cloud Speed was already creating cutthroat competition, and now they had driven Speed Peak mad as well.

Neither of those two brothers was sane!

Shentong’s boss, Chen Dejun, joined forces with the other three companies to file a complaint with the Postal Association, demanding a stop to this malicious competition.

In response, the Association simply gave a dismissive reply: ”This is a market activity; the Postal Association has no jurisdiction.”

Shentong, Yuantong, Zhongtong, and Yunda had no choice but to accept their defeat and lower their prices once again.

Immediately afterward, Cloud Speed also announced a price drop, and together, the companies drove the starting fee for packages under 1 kg down to 2 yuan.