April 25, 2004.

When Lao Ma gets up every morning, he first goes to a nearby park to do a set of Tai Chi.

After exercising, I went home, took a shower, and then went to a nearby tea restaurant to have breakfast. After breakfast, I drove to the company.

He has been in Shenzhen City for more than half a year and has become accustomed to the life here.

"Good morning, Mr. Ma." The female clerk passing by said hello immediately when she saw Lao Ma.

Lao Ma nodded and then left.

The first thing Lao Ma does when he comes to the office every day is to open Kirin Taobao.

He will check Kirin Taobao as a customer so that he can better dig out problems on the platform.

However, he discovered that the stores of two merchants he had recently followed were closed.

In his opinion, these two businesses are not bad. If they can survive for another half year, these two businesses will definitely take off.

"Could it be that I can't stand it any longer?" Lao Ma shook his head helplessly.

Then Lao Ma opened the platform backend to check the recent data and found that the recent store closing data on the platform was a bit abnormal.

Lao Ma immediately dialed Sun Wensheng's internal number and asked him to come to his office immediately.

Less than three minutes.

Sun Wensheng pushed open the office door.

Sun Wensheng sat down and asked: "Mr. Ma, I wonder what you want to see me for?"

Lao Ma put down his work, turned to look at him and asked: "There is something abnormal about the last store closing data. What is going on?"

Sun Wensheng also noticed this matter, but most of the closed stores were not doing well, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

He didn't expect Lao Ma to come to him because of this matter.

"The data on most businesses that have closed their stores is not very good. The specific reasons are still under investigation by me," Sun Wensheng replied.

Ahem.

Sun Wensheng's so-called investigation is actually not yet under investigation.

But you can't tell your boss that I don't know. I'm going to investigate what's going on right now.

Because these two different ways of answering bring different results.

The first answer will only make the boss think you are incompetent, or he is already considering whether to replace you at this time.

The result of the second answer is different. The boss will think that you have a very keen sense of smell and do a good job in the details of the work. They can consider training you and supporting you.

However, this method is not 100% feasible. You have to look at what kind of person your boss is.

If you encounter a boss who likes to ask questions to the end, use the second method to answer the boss.

Then the consequences can be imagined.

"Get the results of the investigation out as soon as possible. You can go about your work first," Lao Ma said.

After Sun Wensheng returned to his office, he sent a message to the channel work group, asking the people below to quickly investigate the matter.

...

I have to say that Natalia’s tricks are very effective. She has unknowingly poached many small and medium-sized brands from Kirin, and also strived for a certain living space for eBay.

However, Lao Ma also has a very keen sense of smell. He can detect clues based on such a small amount of data, but other people would not notice it at all.

If you think about this issue according to ordinary people's thinking, it is normal for the store to close due to poor business.

But they ignore one thing. Once an online store is established, the cost will not be too high even if the sales volume is not large.

The labor cost of operating an online store is linked to sales. The greater the sales volume, the higher the labor cost.

But when the sales volume is average, one or two people can usually handle it, and there is no need for a full-time person to handle the matter.

These small and medium-sized manufacturers are not large in scale, and they cannot afford to pay wages. Since they can afford to pay the wages of one or two people, why should they close their own online stores?

No matter how bad the business is, there is still hope hanging on it, so there is no need to close the online store.

After receiving the news from Sun Wensheng, the staff of the channel department picked up the phone one by one and made calls to customers.

"Mr. Li, I am Xiao Li from Qilin Taobao. Why did your store close down... No matter how bad Mr. Li's business is, you can still afford to support two or three people in a factory as big as yours..."

"Mr. Zhang, I am Xiao Chen from Qilin Taobao. For the sake of us being fellow villagers, can you tell me the reason why you closed the store..."

"Brother Chen is my Qilin's Yuhuatian...Brother Chen, we are old friends. Can you tell me why you closed Qilin's store..."

"Mr. Zhang, it's me, Qilin's Chen Laoshi... Yes, yes, it's me, my brother is like this..."

In less than half an hour, a manufacturer finally revealed the news because they signed an exclusive agreement with eBay.

After Sun Wensheng learned the news, he immediately ran to Lao Ma's office. This kind of thing can be considered a big deal or a small matter.

If the report is not reported in time, it is likely to affect the company's business strategy. If something happens then, he, the channel manager, will definitely be responsible.

"Mr. Ma, we have found out the reasons why those businesses closed their stores." Sun Wensheng said after sitting down.

"What is the specific reason?" Lao Ma asked.

"Ebay gives merchants..." Sun Wensheng told Lao Ma the reason.

"The CEO of eBay is really a talent." Lao Ma praised.

The other party actually came up with this method.

At this moment, Lao Ma also realized the gap between himself and the other party. It seems that there is still a certain strength gap between himself and the other party in terms of brand operation.

After all, Natalia has a PhD in marketing.

He, Lao Ma, is just an ordinary English teacher, so it is normal for him to be outmatched in strategy.

"You go and do your work first," Lao Ma replied.

After Sun Wensheng left, Lao Ma dragged his chin and fell into deep thought.

eBay is now focusing on differentiation and seeking survival points from this differentiation.

In fact, it is not difficult to solve eBay, as long as the logistics company blocks eBay, but Cao Mang will not allow it.

If Qilin adopts this method to deal with eBay, it will definitely bring endless trouble to Qilin.

Lao Ma thought about it for an hour, but couldn't find a way to deal with eBay.

So he picked out a cake of aged Pu'er from the cabinet and carried the cake and old tea to Cao Mang's office.

"There are at least five CTs in area b. Don't go through area b. There are two snipers over there..."

At this time, Cao Mang was engaged in a full-scale firefight. He had just been shot in the head in Area B when Lao Ma came with tea leaves.

"Boss, a friend sent me cakes made of 20-year-old Pu'er. Are you interested in tasting them together?" Lao Ma said with a smile.

As the saying goes, you don't go to the Three Treasures Hall if you have nothing to do. Cao Mang knew that Lao Ma had something to do, otherwise he wouldn't have brought the tea here.

So Cao Mang turned off the game and walked to the tea table.

"Did you encounter any difficulties?" Cao Mang asked with a smile.

Cao Mang took the tea leaves from the old horse, picked up the awl on the tea table to pry the tea leaves, and put the pried tea leaves into the teapot.

"Over eBay..." Lao Ma told Cao Mang Natalia's methods.

At this time, Lao Ma was much more humble than in later generations.

no way.

Lao Ma was not as smooth as later generations. After being severely beaten by Cao Mang, he learned to behave and knew what it meant that there was heaven and earth.

"Competition is always inevitable. Don't always think about killing your enemies. If eBay disappears, there will be other companies.

We have no way to influence our customers' choices. The only thing we can do is to be ourselves, provide customers with better and more complete services, and let customers know who is the best choice.

I predict that in the next two years, new online shopping platforms will definitely appear. They will spring up like bamboo shoots, and the competition will become more intense by then.

We should take advantage of this gap period to build the foundation of Kirin Taobao, and then we can make Kirin Taobao in an invincible position." Cao Mang said while making tea.

The changes caused by the butterfly effect are unpredictable, and Cao Mang has no way to predict what will happen next.

Vipshop, Rebate.com, Dangdang.com, Jumei.com...

No one knows whether these online shopping platforms will appear, or it is possible that there will be new online shopping platforms.

However, the competition among online shopping platforms will definitely be bloody.

When capital completely enters the online shopping industry, it will become a subsidy war. Whoever has the most money will survive to the end.

Cao Mang didn't want to do such stupid things, so he asked Lao Ma to build a logistics platform. Kirin Taobao will use its services to defeat them.

When Lao Ma heard Cao Mang's words, he suddenly came to his senses.

I am too attached to the things in front of me, why don't I take a longer view?

eBay is just stealing chickens and trying to survive. There is no need for Qilin to regard it as an opponent. Besides, eBay also has its opponents.

It's just that these opponents haven't appeared yet. When these opponents appear, eBay will probably be too busy.
To be continued...