March 7th, 10 AM.
FoxTao, in conjunction with the China Telecom Online Mall, launched a mobile phone special sale. Although the phone prices were inflated, they remained consistent with the release prices of last year or the year before, but the commission rates were very attractive, with the final price far below the market price.
Within one hour of going live, sales reached 1.09 million!
Within four hours, five high-inventory flash sale items sold out!
On the first day, cumulative sales reached a staggering 4.76 million!
The second day was a special spring women's clothing festival, which significantly reduced the exposure of the mobile phone special sale. However, after three days of the event, the final sales still exceeded 6 million.
Chen Yansen originally thought that the success of the digital product category should attract the attention of Huawei, ZTE, and Coolpad, or at the very least, HTC, Sony, and LG.
Who would have thought that the cooperation calls received by the business development team were all from brands like Newman, Big Cola, and Big Pineapple.
These mobile phones have outdated operating systems and inferior configurations, making them increasingly difficult to sell due to competition from brands like Apple and Huawei.
Take the Gaoxinqi mobile phone brand in Shenzhen, for example; even with a famous singer as its spokesperson, it couldn't stop the decline of counterfeit phones in the domestic market.
Warehouses are piled high with flashing LED phones produced in 2010, 2008, and even 2007, which simply can't be sold in today's era of smartphones.
Expanding sales channels to smaller, less developed cities might offer a chance to clear inventory, but the costs far outweigh the profits, making it a losing proposition.
"Brother Sen, should we take on this brand?" Zhang Yifeng asked, sitting next to Chen Yansen, holding his laptop.
"Gaoxinqi H66, launched in November 2007, priced at 1080 yuan, 60% commission, 128MB RAM, supports 2GB expansion..."
Chen Yansen casually glanced at a product; the commission rate was indeed high, but the final price for the user would be around 500 yuan, and the configuration was even worse than a phone given away with a 300 yuan phone credit recharge from China Telecom.
"No way. If they had approached us three years ago, there might have been a chance of cooperation," Chen Yansen shook his head.
"What if the commission increased to 80%?" Zhang Yifeng pressed.
"Then we could give it a try. There are always some users who need products with the best price-performance ratio. A product that costs around 200 yuan can be used as an MP4 player or radio," Chen Yansen joked with a smile.
In 2011, the domestic mobile phone market was in the transition period from feature phones to smartphones. Counterfeit phones were gradually declining and eventually disappearing. Once Xiaomi phones were launched, the good days for counterfeit phones were over.
Those who could see the situation clearly could survive by transforming into OEM manufacturers; those who couldn't, struggling blindly, mostly ended up badly.
"Then I'll give it a try. These old machines are just gathering dust in the warehouse. I don't believe they aren't anxious." Zhang Yifeng chuckled.
Electronic products are updated and depreciate quickly. Gaoxinqi wanted to improve its cash flow, so it had to clear out these stockpiled goods in the warehouse.
Chen Yansen nodded slightly, signaling Zhang Yifeng to boldly negotiate. These counterfeit phone manufacturers want to use FoxTao as a "garbage dump" for clearing out their inventory, so they have to offer prices befitting their "garbage" status.
After the women's clothing festival, Meituan's group-buying specials followed. Since hiring event operations staff, FoxTao has been holding category days or brand-specific events every 3 to 5 days on top of its regular super cashback program. This enhances user stickiness and increases website revenue. After all, besides commission differences, one of FoxTao's core revenue sources is advertising fees; these high-exposure special events can sell ad space for higher prices.
In Q1, IDG Venture Capital introduced Chen Yansen to four cross-border e-commerce resources: eBay, Newegg, Macy's, and Walmart. Adding Amazon International, FoxTao wasn't lacking in cross-border B2C resources.
However, Chen Yansen discovered a problem through data reports: while these websites had decent click-through rates, the order rate was low.
"Zhuang Rui, come here for a second!" Chen Yansen called out to Zhuang Rui after a moment's thought.
"Brother Sen, what's up?" Zhuang Rui got up and quickly walked over.
"Have your product team done any research on cross-border e-commerce? Why is there such a big difference between click-through rate and conversion rate?" Chen Yansen asked softly.
"Our customer service team did some follow-up calls for us before. The difficulties users face are mainly related to language barriers, product specifications differences, payment methods, and logistics. For example, for a pair of size 42 sneakers, different brands have different sizes, and returns are troublesome, so the conversion rate is low," Zhuang Rui said slowly. He understood the problem, but he just couldn't think of an effective solution.
Chen Yansen frowned, recalling future successful solutions in his mind. There were only a few: one was browser translation plugins; two was logistics transit warehouses; and three was platform purchasing agents who then forwarded the goods to users.
In the future, 55haitao and Yangmatou were targeting this market. Unfortunately, after 2014, Alibaba, JD.com, and NetEase successively entered the cross-border e-commerce market, squeezing out many small cross-border e-commerce platforms.
"I understand," Chen Yansen replied.
Zhuang Rui hesitated. He really didn't have any good solutions in this regard. At most, he could recommend a translation plugin before users were redirected, but he couldn't help much else.
Chen Yansen thought for a moment, then picked up his phone and called Liao Wei of Yunsu Express.
"An overseas transit warehouse? Building a logistics warehouse in the US? Mr. Chen, that's no easy feat," Liao Wei replied, looking troubled.
"Difficulty means high barriers to entry, which makes the money easier. If you don't want to do it, I'll find another courier company to cooperate with," Chen Yansen said nonchalantly.
"Okay, I'll go to the US next week to check out warehouse operations and labor costs," Liao Wei agreed after a moment's thought. Chen Yansen was practically handing him business; if Liao Wei didn't take it, he might never have the chance to get resources from Chen Yansen again.
Hearing Liao Wei's agreement, Chen Yansen smiled slightly and hung up. The cross-border e-commerce market was a lucrative opportunity coveted by e-commerce giants; he wasn't going to let it slip away easily.
The key is to reduce obstacles for users shopping: translation plugins for language barriers, inaccurate sizing for actual measurements, and re-labeling clothing, shoes, and bags according to Chinese users' habits. Payment can be handled by purchasing agents, and logistics and delivery issues can be resolved with a transit warehouse.
After clarifying his thoughts, Chen Yansen called the business partner responsible for Amazon International and asked him to obtain several large warehouse addresses from Amazon so that Liao Wei could build a transit warehouse nearby, thereby reducing first-leg transportation costs.
Meanwhile, at OPPO headquarters in Dongguan, Wang Teng had just finished a meeting and was about to return to his workstation when his phone rang.
"Hello? Who is this?" Wang Teng saw it was an unfamiliar number and instinctively hung up, but the call came back, confirming he hadn't dialed the wrong number.
"Hello, is this Mr. Wang Teng?" the voice on the other end asked.
"Yes, where are you from?" Wang Teng asked back.
"Mr. Wang, this is Shangde Headhunting Company. We've been commissioned to invite you to join a new company. Are you planning to change jobs recently?" the headhunter explained with a smile.
A headhunter? Wang Teng was slightly taken aback. He'd worked at OPPO for three years and this was the first time he'd received a call from a headhunter. As for changing jobs, he had no intention of doing so. While OPPO wasn't a top-tier company in China, the work environment was decent, with two salary adjustments a year. His current monthly salary of 21,000 yuan was quite good in the current job market.
Just as he was about to refuse and politely hang up, the headhunter added, "The recruiter is offering very generous terms: a base salary of 30,000 yuan per month, two salary adjustments a year, a 20% housing allowance per month, plus meal allowances, quarterly bonuses, and holiday subsidies."
36,000? Wang Teng did a quick calculation—that's over 70%! What's the point of working? It's all about the money!
Wang Teng put down his computer, looked around, and quietly went to the balcony, inquiring with interest, "Which company is it?"
"FoxTao," the headhunter replied without hesitation.
"Uh, if I remember correctly, that's a shopping guide e-commerce website, right? It doesn't match my work experience," Wang Teng asked directly, looking puzzled.
He wanted to switch to a higher-paying job, but only if the project was reliable. As a product manager in the mobile phone industry, he would have to start from scratch at a new company. What if they thought he wasn't worth the price and fired him?
"The recruiter plans to expand into mobile, so they need to hire a group of Android and iOS developers. Product managers with rich project experience like Mr. Wang are exactly the kind of excellent talent that FoxTao urgently needs."
Headhunting is no different from sales; one sells people, the other sells products. Before arranging the interview, they naturally had to praise Wang Teng to give him confidence to go for the interview.
"Okay, let's add each other on WeChat, and I'll send you my resume." After weighing his options, Wang Teng decided to give it a try. He was 24 years old, the stage when men are most short of money, and he urgently needed money to buy a car and a house. OPPO was good, but he wanted to earn more money.
Three days later, Xu Dan conducted the first interview with Wang Teng over the phone.
Five days later, Cao Dahua found a PhD from the School of Software Engineering to conduct the second technical interview with Wang Teng.
Ultimately, all the other applicants named Wang Teng were eliminated, leaving only Wang Teng, who would be working at OPPO.
Before starting his job, Wang Teng felt he still needed to visit Xucheng to meet his future boss. So he took a day off, intending to talk to Chen Yansen first before deciding whether to switch career paths.
After getting off the train, Wang Teng took a taxi to Xucheng Academy, and was amazed along the way. The surrounding area was all farmland and villages. A near-unicorn company valued at 2.8 billion was born here? He casually took out his phone and took a few photos, intending to share them with his friends.
After getting out of the car, he explained his purpose to the gatekeeper, who waved his hand and said, "Go straight to the end, turn right at the library, there's a two-story building, that's the startup park." The gatekeeper had seen many job seekers like Wang Teng, and he gave directions with ease.
"Thank you!" Wang Teng, carrying his backpack, followed the gatekeeper's directions and successfully found the startup park.
On the second floor, he carefully examined the surroundings. FoxTao doesn't have many employees, probably less than 200. Each room has six desks, along with a meeting room and a sample room, but no individual offices.
Xu Dan saw Wang Teng standing there and greeted him with a smile: "I'm Xu Dan from HR. You must be Wang Teng? The boss is waiting for you inside. Please come with me."
"Thank you," Wang Teng replied politely.
He followed Xu Dan into a meeting room, where a young man in his early twenties sat. Although his clothes made him look mature, his face still had a youthful innocence. Wang Teng knew this was Chen Yansen, the founder of FoxTao; there were many photos of him online.
"How many people are needed to develop a customized system like Unique UI, and how long will the development cycle take?" Chen Yansen asked the first question after Wang Teng sat down.
Unique UI was OPPO's initial system and the predecessor to Color OS.
Wasn't the plan to develop FoxTao's mobile app? How did it suddenly become a mobile operating system?
Wang Teng looked bewildered, full of questions.