Chapter 104: Crazy Group Buy, Queue-Jumping Fees

On the way back home that evening, Wang Zihao suddenly said, “I just saw Zhou Yuwén.”

“Who?”

Chen Yansen paused slightly, feeling the name was familiar but unable to recall it immediately.

“Liu’s former fiancé,” Wang Zihao explained.

“So what if you saw him?” Chen Yansen shifted his posture, leaning back comfortably in his seat, indifferent.

“Will he tell Liu that he saw me at Galaxy Star?” Wang Zihao asked anxiously.

“Didn’t you have a good time just now?”

Chen Yansen spat and shot back.

“I regret it. Places like Galaxy Star aren’t suited for a pure-hearted little guy like me,” Wang Zihao said, face full of regret.

Chen Yansen rolled his eyes and ignored him.

This bad habit will cure itself after a few more visits to the bar.

Twenty minutes later, the car stopped under the faculty apartment building. Chen Yansen got out, took the car keys from Wang Zihao, and said, “See you tomorrow.”

“Sigh, if only I could be as cool as Sen-ge,” Wang Zihao muttered under his breath, watching Chen Yansen’s back.

The next morning.

Chen Yansen walked into Room 206 and had barely sat down when Zhao Maolin brought good news: the cooperation with the online mall was looking promising.

Telecom had purchased a batch of phones last year, and now there was some leftover inventory—multiple brands, mixed models, estimated value over eight million yuan.

These phones originally sold well, but after the New Year, Huawei, Shanxing, Coolpad, and Motorola all launched new spring models, far surpassing last year’s versions in screen, system, memory, and camera performance.

As a result, these older models became unsalable.

The headquarters originally planned to bundle phones under a thousand yuan with phone credit top-ups, and those over a thousand yuan with 59-yuan or 79-yuan credit packages, selling them half-price, half-gift.

Now Zhao Maolin had volunteered to handle it, and headquarters didn’t hesitate—they handed him the rapidly depreciating inventory.

“We agreed on a 60% discount off retail price, but some bastard messed with it, and now it’s 70%. Can you handle it? If not, I’ll turn it down.”

Zhao Maolin probed cautiously.

For example, the Huawei C8600 telecom-customized phone, retail price 1499 yuan, already on the market for a year, now sold at 70% off—even if Chen Yansen returned his entire commission, the final price would still be 1050 yuan.

Honestly, a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, 320×480 resolution, 256MB RAM, 512MB storage—no real value for money.

“Zhao-ge, do you have a product list?”

Chen Yansen didn’t decide immediately—he wanted to understand clearly first.

At the same time, he wasn’t sure if this was Zhao Maolin’s trick.

“Yes, I had Wenwen send it to your email. Check it when you’re free. Today, let’s just go over the contract.”

Zhao Maolin replied carelessly—he was only concerned right now about connecting the phone credit top-up interface.

“Fine, I’ll set up a group later,” Chen Yansen agreed readily.

Ten minutes later, he opened the email from Gu Wenwen and saw a dense list of over sixty items—all 2009 and 2010 models, stock ranging from dozens to several hundred units each.

Chen Yansen calculated based on Super Return’s commission payout ratio and found the net price offered little discount—no more than thirty to fifty yuan cheaper than offline phone stores.

But those offline phone stores’ listed prices were already inflated.

Chen Yansen thought for a moment, told Zhao Maolin he couldn’t do it.

Fox Tao users aren’t fools. A phone worth 1100 yuan on the market, listed at 1499 yuan but with almost no reduction in final price, would easily upset users and damage their trust in Super Return.

Not worth it!

“Good you’re not doing it. Saves us from letting those idiots take advantage. Could’ve negotiated another 10% off, but they had to be jerks.”

Zhao Maolin sighed in relief and laughed as he cursed.

Chen Yansen smiled but said nothing. After hanging up, he handed Telecom’s deal over to the Major Client Acquisition Department.

After the New Year, Fox Tao held a campus recruitment drive before the spring hiring season, recruiting many outstanding talents from various departments and adding five new members through social recruitment.

Most had worked in the industry for seven to eight years, even over a decade—all seasoned veterans with extensive brand and platform resources.

In this environment, Song Yuncheng grew rapidly. Every day, besides pushing forward B2C platform onboarding, he found time to discuss marketing plans with brands.

In the afternoon, after finishing a call, Song Yuncheng returned to his desk and excitedly reported to Chen Yansen: “Boss Chen, the Chery deal is settled. We’ll sign the contract this week—four million yuan in advertising fees, plus 15% commission.”

“Any ROI requirement?”

Chen Yansen looked up, asking casually.

In 2011, for a company to advertise on a Daogou site was a bold strategy.

Even though Fox Tao performed well in home improvement, major appliances, and digital goods—with average order values near a thousand yuan—the gap compared to cars costing tens of thousands was still obvious.

“It’s not mandatory in the contract, but their expectation is 1.5. The final ROI ratio will affect future cooperation.”

Song Yuncheng explained slowly.

“Get Zhuang Rui and Wang Yunxia from the Events Team to draft a plan. Also, consider the entire user experience—order processing, car pickup, after-sales issues. Understand?”

Chen Yansen instructed.

“Got it,” Song Yuncheng said, seeing him nod, then stood up to find product and event planners.

Though she lacked confidence in the campaign, she had taken the client’s money—she had to deliver an effective plan.

Chen Yansen walked around the second floor—sixteen offices, all rented by him, with a total staff count exceeding 160, where customer service and acquisition remained the largest departments.

As the number of partnered merchants increased, Xu Dan hired seven more female editors from the Literature and Communication Academy—just like before, except Li Bin, the entire editing team was all women.

At this stage, Fox Tao ’s teams had clearly defined responsibilities.

Acquisition primarily handled merchants on Taobao, JD, Suning, and Gome, serving sellers through brand group buys, category days, and flagship promotions.

The Major Client Acquisition Department focused on onboarding B2C platforms, implementing flagship marketing plans, and negotiating special category partnerships.

The Editing Team handled merchant coordination, checked commission rates, and updated front-end titles and main images.

Li Bin handled price comparisons and user experience control.

The Category Operations Team reviewed merchant applications and increased the variety of Super Return products and categories.

In addition, there were the Tech Department, Events Team, Design Team, Administration, Product Team, Legal and Finance.

Each department performed its role, ensuring the project ran at high speed.

Over a hundred brand group buys went live daily. Even with traffic spread thin, output didn’t drop—because daily active users had grown 50% compared to last year, and user retention and repurchase frequency were steadily rising.

Three days later, Lashou launched its first brand group buy on Fox Tao , copying Gao Peng’s model exactly.

Clearly, Lashou, which had just secured fifty million U.S. dollars last year, was spending much more lavishly.

The selected products had commission rates around 40–50%. Within thirty minutes, they sold ten million yuan in sales.

Total sales for the day: fourteen million yuan!

Chery’s advertising on Daogou sites might not make waves, but group buying naturally fits Daogou .

Their user bases overlapped heavily—both were netizens who loved discounts.

Once the industry learned Lashou sold fourteen million yuan in one day on Fox Tao , they immediately halted TV and outdoor ad spending.

Compared to Fox Tao ’s visible, measurable CPS ads, those commercial placements with untrackable exposure were pure waste of time and money.

After the three-day campaign, Lashou’s total sales reached thirty-one million yuan—nearly half a month’s revenue—and brought nearly 100,000 new users to the site.

Chen Yansen made a lot too—just the new user fees from Lashou amounted to four million yuan, not counting the gross profit from brand group buys.

As Lashou went offline, QQ Group Buy took over.

This made Wang Xin, who had been hesitating about increasing Daogou channel investment, regret it bitterly—he slapped his thigh.

Tens of millions in revenue had shaken the group buying market share.

With Gao Peng and Lashou both Ruzhu Fox Tao ’s mall rebate module, group buying users now habitually redirected through Fox Tao before placing orders.

After all, spending thirty extra seconds to save three to five yuan on a hundred-yuan food group buy was very worthwhile.

Meituan, 24 Coupons, and WoWo Group Buy, not yet Ruzhu , were desperate to get in first—some even bribed acquisition staff with “queue-jumping fees” of fifty or a hundred thousand yuan.

Chen Yansen immediately stepped in, strictly forbidding acquisition staff from accepting any “queue-jumping fees” from group buying platforms, threatening to report violators to police—and this calmed the greedy acquisition staff.

“These bastards really are willing to throw money around.”

Chen Yansen cursed under his breath.

He recalled his past life—just a few years into the industry, to partner with top-selling livestreamers, he had to bribe acquisition staff with ten thousand yuan just to get a chance to view samples.

Yes, just to view samples!

Want to schedule direct livestreaming? Sorry, you pay again!

Having experienced this himself, Chen Yansen knew exactly how to eliminate such chaos.

After his cleanup, order was quickly restored, and all major group buying platforms became much more restrained.

(End of Chapter)