Outside the factory, Wang Anquan muttered to himself, "Brother Zhu is just spouting nonsense."
They had only just graduated high school. In Wang Anquan's eyes, Cheng Zhu had absolutely no e-commerce experience.
He didn't even have a store, let alone any so-called customer bad reviews.
When the factory owner asked how old he was, he even made things up, claiming he was born in 1992.
Wang Anquan suspected, "If you asked him what animal 1992 corresponds to in the zodiac, Brother Zhu probably wouldn't be able to answer at all."
But strangely enough, after just the time it took to smoke another cigarette, the factory owner's attitude toward Cheng Zhu changed completely.
Cheng Zhu called him boss, and now he started calling Cheng Zhu boss as well.
And the factory owner even complained bitterly, "Boss, there really aren't many people who slash prices like you do."
"How could that be? Just that model we talked about earlier—at the price I quoted, you definitely still have profit," Cheng Zhu said immediately.
He was quite satisfied with this factory.
The reason was simple. This factory really met his requirements—good texture, poor durability.
Cheng Zhu had always felt that products like these should be treated the same way as stockings.
Do they look premium? Do they feel silky smooth to the touch?
As long as the visuals and the feel met expectations, that was enough.
As for durability, the bad review he mentioned earlier said it all.
"Sometimes you have to treat this kind of thing as a consumable," Cheng Zhu thought to himself.
For clothing products, the return rate was relatively high.
Many customers would even return items after using them.
For example, wearing a piece of clothing once, then returning it within the return window.
But these kinds of "battle-damaged items" weren't so easy to return.
Even if you were shameless enough to return your girlfriend's or wife's used item, the premise was that it had to be intact.
If it was already this battle-damaged and you still wanted a refund, there was seriously something wrong with your head.
That was one of the reasons why return rates for this kind of product were low.
"Of course, the quality can't be outrageously bad either," Cheng Zhu knew this well.
It couldn't be too good, and it couldn't be too bad.
At this moment, seeing that the factory owner refused to lower the price any further, Cheng Zhu immediately stubbed out his cigarette and walked back into the factory, picking up the product he liked.
"Then I won't bargain on price anymore. Can you add a zipper to this part of the pants?"
The factory owner visualized the design and blurted out, "That's brilliant!"
Wang Anquan glanced at where Cheng Zhu was pointing and immediately turned his head away. As he imagined the usefulness of the zipper, his heart started racing uncontrollably.
How does Brother Zhu manage to talk about this so seriously? It's killing me!
His mouth suddenly felt dry, while Cheng Zhu kept talking nonstop.
The reason was simple. Guanyun at this stage hadn't yet developed into a complete industrial ecosystem like it would later.
In the future, a single small town would support half of the nation's—or even the world's—QQ-style apparel market.
But right now, Guanyun just had a handful of representative factories that had made money producing these items, causing many others to follow suit.
After negotiating the price down, Cheng Zhu wanted the factory owner to help with dropshipping.
The owner was a bit reluctant and said he'd never done that before.
"I'd still need manpower to ship for you, and coordination would be a hassle," he said, not expecting that after driving the price so low, this young man would push his luck even further.
So Cheng Zhu started painting big pictures again, saying that many domestic factories were already doing this, that it improved competitiveness, and so on.
In reality, dropshipping was indeed, in some sense, a service born out of increasingly intense competition between factories.
Products had been competed on. Prices had been competed on. Everything else had been competed on.
So what was left to compete on? Service.
For Cheng Zhu, this saved time, effort, and costs. More importantly, it reduced inventory pressure and capital pressure.
Honestly, he didn't think his experience would result in unsold stock anyway.
"These days, Taobao merchants can still run black-hat traffic through Zhitongche."
Cheng Zhu was an expert in this area.
He could spend the least on promotion and get the greatest return.
But since the business was just starting, any benefits he could fight for were worth fighting for.
And don't forget—when you're just starting out, negotiating good shipping rates with courier companies is difficult.
Factories were different. They shipped nationwide year-round and had long since negotiated favorable rates with couriers.
That price difference alone was significant money.
After listening to him for a long while, the factory owner actually found some of it convincing.
Dropshipping really did provide strong competitive advantages for factories, especially for attracting startups.
"Young people these days aren't simple," he said, looking at Cheng Zhu with a sigh.
"I'll think about it, alright?" He didn't shut the door completely.
"That works," Cheng Zhu said, adding him on WeChat and exchanging phone numbers.
Only after that did he point at the products he'd picked out and casually add, "Boss, the samples should be free, right?"
…
…
In the taxi, Wang Anquan hugged a bag full of samples.
He was completely convinced by Brother Zhu now.
After hearing that the boss agreed to give samples, Brother Zhu had even picked out a few extra items.
At this moment, the boy glanced down at the contents of the bag and felt his blood boiling and heart racing.
Someone like him couldn't possibly handle this.
Unlike Cheng Zhu, who was already sick of these old styles.
He planned to first secure a reliable manufacturing partner, then design new styles himself.
The second factory Cheng Zhu chose wasn't far—only about a ten-minute drive away.
As they were nearing it, Wang Anquan felt the samples in his hands were burning hot and asked, "Brother Zhu, is it bad to carry these into another factory? Should I put them in my bag?"
"It doesn't matter. Comparing suppliers when sourcing goods is normal. Let the boss see them," Cheng Zhu raised an eyebrow. "We're here to give him a chance to make money. What's there to be embarrassed about?"
Students were just too thin-skinned.
He scolded Wang Anquan, "Don't you dare turn into one of those people-pleasers."
These days, there were more and more people with people-pleasing personalities.
"Huh?" Wang Anquan froze for a moment, then quickly replied, buoyed by his skyrocketing admiration for Cheng Zhu, "O-okay."
Honestly, he really wanted to be like Brother Zhu.
Just today, there had been several moments where he thought Cheng Zhu was damn handsome.
That posture, that presence—damn, he wanted to learn.
It was like going shopping with your mom. Watching her haggle over a tiny amount of money might even embarrass you.
But if someone your own age could bargain until the merchant was left speechless, you'd think:
"Holy shit, that's kind of impressive."
Human psychology was just like that—complicated as hell.
At that moment, Wang Anquan saw Cheng Zhu take out his phone and suddenly snap a photo.
He was photographing the samples.
"Brother Zhu, who are you sending those to?" Wang Anquan panicked immediately.
Not that he dared to control Cheng Zhu—he was just worried that the leader might have photographed his face.
Still thin-skinned.
"Relax, I didn't get you in the shot," Cheng Zhu said at a glance, seeing through his thoughts. "I'm looking for models. I'm sending the samples to show someone."
"If we're doing e-commerce next, we definitely need seller photos," Cheng Zhu said matter-of-factly.
Hearing this, Wang Anquan couldn't help lowering his head to look at the samples in the bag—items that could only be described as 'ragged.'
"Looking… for models?"
"T-taking photos?"
—Brother Zhu, you're my god!
At that moment, Wang Anquan's phone rang again. Chen Rongrong had sent another message.
It said: "What are Cheng Zhu and you doing?"
If it were before, Wang Anquan would've chatted enthusiastically, completely missing the implications and attitude behind that line.
And even now, he didn't notice anything extra.
But for some reason, when he glanced at the samples in his arms, his interest in chatting with Chen Rongrong suddenly waned.
Instead, he started actively talking with Cheng Zhu about shooting buyer-show photos.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup