Saturday on the second floor of the startup park was as bustling as ever. Dozens of people were gathered, making final preparations for the upcoming launch of the Metersbonwe brand team event.
"Hu Li, you're in charge of women's wear. Xu Kun, men's wear. Try everything on. What's the difference between an operations person who doesn't understand their product and a chef who can't cook?" Chen Yansen stood at the door of Room 206, calling instructions to the next room.
"Got it, Brother Sen! Should we cut open the down jackets to check if the filling is real?" Xu Kun asked seriously, holding up a men's vest.
Damn, so thorough?
Chen Yansen paused, glanced at Xu Kun, and after a moment's thought replied, "There's a tailor at the West Gate. Go invite her over. She can check the fabric without damaging the clothes."
Xu Kun had a point. The supplier might use black duck down to pass for white, or white duck down for goose down. Any issues would hurt FoxTao's user experience.
"Alright, I'll go as soon as I finish sorting this sample batch," Xu Kun nodded.
Outside the door, four packages each half a person's height were piled up, all samples sent by Metersbonwe. Dozens of items were scattered around, completely blocking the entrance to Room 208.
Chen Yansen grunted in acknowledgement, turned back to his seat, and called out to Wang Zihao. "Ad sets A, B, and C. Which one did you decide on?"
"Brother Sen, let's go with set B. It has the highest click-through and conversion rates. The cost is a bit higher, but the ROI is definitely the best," Wang Zihao said, pointing at the data on his advertising backend.
"Set B it is! If daily active users don't hit one million on the 28th, your bonus is getting docked," Chen Yansen threatened without mercy.
"Relax! We've added four new product categories to the '0 Yuan Bargain' these past few days. Daily new user growth is already at 500,000. I'll handle the other 500,000." Wang Zihao spoke confidently.
Recently, with the buzz from Chen Yansen's interview video, FoxTao had gained a lot of organic users. Their existing user base had also surpassed 200,000. Subtracting the growth from referrals, Wang Zihao's pressure was much lower. With a budget of over a million, how could he not attract users?
"Bobo, how's the order system? Any bugs affecting import/export efficiency? If so, get Zhuang Rui to fix it immediately." Chen Yansen nodded slightly and waved Meng Xibo over.
"There is an issue. Might be a spreadsheet compatibility problem. I've talked to Brother Rui; we'll fix it tomorrow." Meng Xibo stood up to answer.
"Good, thanks for the hard work," Chen Yansen replied casually.
The number of participants in the "0 Yuan Price Cut" was growing daily, and successfully "cut" orders were rising too—from a few hundred to over 4,000 per day.
Although most successful cuts were for low-value items like tissues, milk, and cooking oil, the daily cost was approaching 150,000 yuan.
The task of exporting and importing orders had shifted from operations to customer service. Thankfully, the order system had launched in time; otherwise, even ten more customer service reps would have been overwhelmed.
Finishing his rounds, Chen Yansen leaned back in his chair to rest. He wasn't joking with Min Jie; he really would deliver a million users. He wanted the "Brand Group" launch to be a resounding success.
He wanted other brands and distributors to see it and get jealous, making it easier to expand FoxTao's merchant and supply chain resources later.
Song Yuncheng, sitting across from him, looked down and could only see Chen Yansen's profile. His sharply defined jaw was shadowed with dark stubble, a sign he'd overslept and forgotten to shave.
She didn't know when it started, but Song Yuncheng found herself glancing at Chen Yansen whenever she had a spare moment. Seeing him made her angry, but not seeing him left her feeling strangely empty.
After a short nap, Chen Yansen strolled into Cao Dahua's office. The two drank tea and chatted, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Over this time, their relationship had grown as close as father and son.
Chen Yansen often spoke without regard for seniority, sometimes scolding Cao Dahua like a son, but Cao Dahua didn't mind. Instead, he found Chen Yansen unique, mature, and steady.
If he weren't over twenty years older, he might have seriously considered becoming sworn brothers.
"Old Cao, you've got a sweet gig. Drinking tea and slacking off every day, living the dream," Chen Yansen chuckled, taking a sip.
"Haha, jealous, kid? Money's just about having enough. Those billionaires don't live as comfortably as I do. Seeing all these beautiful college students every day, I'll live to at least ninety-nine."
With the door closed, Cao Dahua dropped his teacherly demeanor, slung an arm around Chen Yansen, and joked freely.
The two—one not quite a proper teacher, the other not quite a proper student—got along famously.
"Meters sent over a batch of samples. Go pick a few for my niece later," Chen Yansen suggested.
"You rascal! My daughter's a year older than you! You really want to be her uncle?!" Cao Dahua scolded with a laugh, his face stern.
"Sigh, Lao Cao, you're breaking my heart. We're friends despite the age gap, right? Why can't your daughter be my niece? Or should we split it—you call me brother, and your daughter calls me brother too?" Chen Yansen crossed his legs, sipped his tea, and continued the joke.
"I give up with you! Fine, I'll go check later." Cao Dahua laughed, amused, and reluctantly accepted the kindness.
Chen Yansen smiled. In relationships, there's always give and take. Offering small favors now might lead to pleasant surprises later.
He checked his watch—ten minutes left. He had a movie date with Meng Jie that afternoon, so he got up to leave.
On his way out, he even snagged a box of Zhan's Peach Shortbread from Cao Dahua's desk.
He didn't like it, but Meng Jie did.
Cao Dahua pretended to spit at Chen Yansen's retreating back, thinking, This kid really treats me like an older brother, taking food and drinks without a second thought.
With other students, he wouldn't care. But with Chen Yansen, he found everything about him agreeable.
"He's a lot like I was at his age. Though his looks are a bit worse than mine back then," Cao Dahua sighed softly, adding casually.
Five days later.
Users on FoxTao noticed a new banner above the homepage product feed: "Metersbonwe 11.28 Brand Special Sale Day." Its red and yellow color scheme was impossible to miss.
Clicking into the event page left them stunned.
Their first thought: The platform must have messed up the pricing and cashback rates!
A short-sleeved T-shirt, listed at 79 yuan, with a 71.1 yuan cashback. Final price: 7.9 yuan — Limited to 2,000 pieces!
A fleece-lined sweatshirt, listed at 159 yuan, with a 143.1 yuan cashback. Final price: 15.9 yuan — Limited to 1,000 pieces!
A down jacket, listed at 299 yuan, with a 269.1 yuan cashback. Final price: 29.9 yuan — Limited to 1,000 pieces!
The discounts on the second row weren't as jaw-dropping as the top sellers, but a 99 yuan shirt for 49 yuan was still a steal.
Scrolling down, the page was categorized into sections: coats, T-shirts, sweaters, casual pants, jeans, cotton jackets, down jackets... over a dozen categories, each featuring 20 curated items.
On the far right of each section, hyperlinks led to secondary activity pages with even more products.
Every single item was 50% off.
While Metersbonwe was no longer a mainstream fast-fashion brand in first- and second-tier cities, its status in third-tier cities and below remained strong.
Coupled with the popularity of the hit drama "Meteor Shower," many still considered it a premium brand.
Now, FoxTao's collaboration with Metersbonwe, offering discounts from 10% to a staggering 50%, shattered users' perception of value.
In their eyes, these prices were practically free.
"Damn it! Why can't I buy it?!" In a small inland town, Li Wei, who ran a Taobao purchasing agent service, frantically clicked his mouse, but the links wouldn't open.
After a moment, he finally noticed the countdown timer on the product image.
"Holy crap! It doesn't go on sale until Sunday! Will I even be able to grab one? This is a goldmine, I can't miss it!"
Li Wei's eyes lit up, and an idea formed.
He took a screenshot of the FoxTao promotion page, saved it, and then edited the cashback amount and final price. The original 50% off item became 60% off in his version.
After editing, he rushed to a print shop and asked the owner to blow up the image tenfold. He planned to display it at his shop entrance.
"Wow! Mr. Li, what kind of promotion is this? The clothes are dirt cheap. Metersbonwe is a big brand... this 60% off price, is it counterfeit?" The print shop owner offered him a cigarette and asked familiarly.
Li Wei, of course, wouldn't reveal his money-making secret. Smiling, he accepted the cigarette. "The official Metersbonwe flagship store selling fakes? Who would buy the real stuff then?"
"Oh! That's great! My son loves this brand. Mr. Li, could you buy a few items for me?" Hearing this, the shop owner was instantly reassured.
"Sure, since we're neighbors, I won't charge you a service fee," Li Wei said, feigning generosity.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Li. I'll give you a discount later," the shop owner said with a satisfied smile.
Little did he know, Li Wei earned a 10% cut on every 100 yuan spent. He didn't care about a tiny service fee.
Unscrupulous resellers like Li Wei were already gearing up to make a fortune before the sale even began.
Online, savvy scalpers were also preparing to buy items they didn't need and resell them on secondhand platforms for profit.
Of course, regular users were FoxTao's core.
Seeing such a sincere brand event subconsciously elevated their perception of FoxTao.
If users only bought 9.9 to 19.9 yuan items on the platform, they'd see it as low-end and wouldn't think of it for cosmetics, appliances, or similar purchases.
But if the platform elevated its product image, showcasing high-quality, branded goods, user trust would skyrocket.
This was Chen Yansen's transformation strategy.
Running a low-end shopping guide site was meaningless—its potential was limited. Only with its own merchant resources and clear product positioning could FoxTao become a true e-commerce player.
Two days passed in a blink.
At 10 AM on the 28th, the three heavily discounted items sold out in just three minutes.
"Hu Li, release the hottest items for tomorrow at 10 AM to keep attracting users," Chen Yansen instructed, leaning against a desk.
"Brother Sen, ten minutes in, order count is 8,743. Excluding the 4,000 limited hot items, the rest are all regular half-price products," Hu Yun reported promptly.
"Buyers these days are so easy to fool... no, I should say, so trusting."
Chen Yansen was slightly taken aback, then a smile spread across his face.
Over a decade later, for brands like Metersbonwe, 50% off would be the regular price. You'd need 70-80% off to even attract attention.
On the other side, Min Jie and his operations team were also glued to their screens, the constant ding-dong—ding-dong— of order notifications filling the air.
"President Min! FoxTao orders as of 11 AM: 26,137 orders. Total sales: 3.607 million yuan!" someone from the ops team shouted, staring at the backend.
"He actually did it? 3.6 million in one hour... He'll sell at least 20 million for the day!"
Min Jie was dumbfounded, muttering to himself.
During Taobao's Double Eleven festival, Metersbonwe's total sales had only been 750,000 yuan, not even making the top ten clothing brands.
"Set up the SKUs and inventory! Replenish stock as needed!"
Min Jie excitedly pulled out his phone to call Chen Yansen while shouting reminders to his team.