Chapter 163: 1.8 Million Orders in a Single Day, Sales Exceeding 100 Million (Subscribe Please)

One week later, November 18th.

Many QQ users suddenly noticed a new "Pinbei" entry had appeared in the menu bar.

"Pinbei? Is this some new game from the Penguin?"

In a dorm room at a university in Luzhou, Wang Minghao held his phone, muttering as he tapped into it.

Although Pinbei had briefly caught on in early October, not many people had paid attention—after all, it hadn't launched yet at the time.

Three seconds later, an H5 mini-page loaded. The first product was a 4-jin pack of navel oranges, priced at only 5.9 yuan, with free shipping!

"Oh, so it's an e-commerce site?"

Wang Minghao had bought things on Taobao before, so e-commerce wasn't unfamiliar to him.

Realizing it wasn't a game, Wang Minghao didn't close the page. Instead, he kept tapping, entering the product page to confirm whether the price really was just 5.9 yuan.

He glanced at the main image. When he tapped to buy, a pop-up appeared asking him to fill in his shipping address. Judging by the weight options, 4 jin of navel oranges really did cost only 5.9 yuan.

"Carton packaging, net weight 4 jin small fruit 【fruit diameter 6-7cm】."

Wang Minghao measured with his finger and felt these navel oranges were pitifully small. He scrolled down to keep looking.

"Carton packaging, net weight 3 jin small fruit 【fruit diameter 7-8cm】."

The fruit was one size bigger, the weight one jin less, and the price had risen to 8.9 yuan—also with free shipping.

"I'll buy a box to try it out, it's not much money anyway."

Faced with the low price of 5.9 yuan, Wang Minghao didn't think twice. He skillfully entered his address, linked his bank card to activate Sister Chengzi Pay, and transferred 6 yuan into the account via online banking.

*Ding! Congratulations on your successful payment! Please share this product with other users to complete the group buy! *

Seeing this message, Wang Minghao froze for a moment.

After carefully studying the activity page, he finally figured out how Pinbei worked: after placing an order, you had to invite friends to also place orders before the platform would ship it.

Damn it!

No wonder it was so cheap!

Wang Minghao was annoyed inside, but he'd already filled in his shipping address, linked his online banking, and activated Sister Chengzi Pay—the sunk cost was too high.

After a moment's hesitation, he still sent the group-buy link to the dorm group chat.

"@you guys, help me complete a group buy! When it arrives we'll eat them together."

"Bro Hao, what's this?"

"Holy crap! These oranges are way too cheap! I asked the fruit shop by the school gate yesterday, and it was 4 yuan a jin!"

"5.9 yuan for 4 jin with free shipping—could it be a scam site?"

His roommates were all a bit skeptical.

In 2011, e-commerce wasn't that cutthroat yet; 9.9 yuan with free shipping was already the cognitive limit most users could accept.

"It's an official QQ event, probably helping farmers sell produce. Stop yapping! Hurry up and help me complete a group buy!"

Wang Minghao urged in the group chat.

Pinbei didn't even have a shopping cart, so placing orders was especially convenient. If the Penguin hadn't refused to embed Sister Chengzi Pay, the shopping flow could have been even simpler.

Soon, one of his roommates completed a group buy with Wang Minghao.

Wang Minghao took a look and saw the order had entered the pending-shipment status.

"I also placed an order, sending it to my mom. Who's going to help me complete a group buy?"

At this moment, another roommate @-ed the others in the group chat.

Wang Minghao didn't have time to look at his phone and kept browsing the Pinbei interface.

Above the product waterfall flow, there were only filter buttons like "Featured, Fresh Produce, Food, Home, Digital Appliances, Women's Wear."

He tapped into the Men's Wear channel. The first product was a Meters/bonwe basic white T-shirt, available in 37 styles, all priced at 19.9 yuan.

That cheap?

For real?

Wang Minghao clicked in with doubts. On the product detail page, he could clearly see the words "Meters/bonwe Official Flagship Store," followed by a black-and-gold brand authentication badge.

A minute later, Wang Minghao sent another link to the dorm group chat: "Quick! Meters/bonwe base layers 19.9 yuan, hoodies 26.9 yuan, cargo pants 39 yuan—let's group buy together!"

At the same time.

Both the QQ desktop client and the WeChat mobile client navigation bars now had a Pinbei entry.

The homepages of Weibo, Tencent, NetEase, and Sohu News all carried advertising creatives from the Pinbei placement team.

Group A: a box of fresh, juicy navel oranges, paired with eye-catching text: "Western Guangdong Navel Oranges, 4 jin with free shipping, group-buy price 5.9 yuan."

Group B: a Meters/bonwe men's and women's wear poster, with the copy: "Buy autumn clothes on Pinbei! Meters/bonwe big brands straight discount, starting from just 19.9 yuan!"

Group C: Sister Chengzi phones direct from the manufacturer, starting from just 1989 yuan!

Based on the best-selling products provided by the merchant acquisition department, Wang Zihao produced a total of 16 sets of placement creatives.

First, small-scale testing, then pick out the best-performing ones and increase the placement budget.

The first rotating banner on the homepages of Sister Chengzi Shangcheng, Sister Chengzi Community, and the Sister Chengzi phone app store were all Pinbei download links.

Interstitial ads on Youku, Tudou, iQiyi, Tencent Video, and LeTV also featured Pinbei.

With the full promotional push from the marketing department and the placement team, Pinbei's registrations broke 3 million within 12 hours of launch!

Over 70% of those new users came from QQ or WeChat channels.

Order volume reached as high as 1.09 million!

Conversion rate approached 40%!

This was very different from traditional comprehensive e-commerce and guided e-commerce. The ultra-high conversion rate invigorated the colleagues in merchant acquisition and category management, who were now discussing today's final sales figure.

Everyone stayed at the company, watching the sales numbers climb crazily!

By midnight, Pinbei's total user registrations for the day froze at 4.7 million!

Order volume: 1.8 million orders!

Sales revenue: 107.52 million yuan!

The best-selling categories were mainly food, digital products, small appliances, and clothing, with Sister Chengzi phones contributing 60% of the sales revenue.

The technical security department of Pinbei had been watching closely all day, fearing that high concurrency would cause slow response times, reduced system throughput, or even server crashes.

Fortunately, contingency plans had been made in advance; load balancing technology was used to distribute traffic evenly across servers, and database performance was optimized.

By the end of the day, no unexpected incidents occurred.

"Brother Sen! Sales revenue has broken the hundred million mark!"

Wang Zihao rushed excitedly into the office and said, looking at Chen Yansen.

This was completely different from the time with Mama Ali; back then, the first-day sales revenue was only twenty or thirty thousand.

"Has Pinbei finished work yet?" Chen Yansen smiled faintly.

Today, the advertising cost alone exceeded ten million yuan; excluding Sister Chengzi phone sales, the actual sales revenue was less than fifty million yuan.

The performance could only be considered average, failing to meet expectations.

But Chen Yansen understood in his heart that once users accepted the group-buying model, placing orders would be like an addiction, completely unstoppable.

This wouldn't be considered rare more than ten years later, but in 2011, the impact on users was extremely great.

Oranges at 5.9 yuan for four jin with free shipping, brand-name short sleeves at 19.9 yuan, mini fans at 15.9 yuan, Midea electric kettles at 49 yuan, Joyoung rice cookers at 99 yuan...

These low-priced, high-quality goods were enough to attract users, making them pull in friends and family to ensure the group buy succeeded.

The speed of viral growth would be truly astonishing!

"Everyone is preparing to get off work; regarding customer service, rest assured, the Administrative Department has booked hotels for them."

Wang Zihao understood Chen Yansen's meaning and replied with a smile.

Apart from the sixty-plus customer service representatives, most of Pinbei were graduates or externally hired staff, living in the teachers' apartments or residential houses opposite Dongmen, so there was no need to worry about dormitory closures.

"It's getting late; go back and rest early," Chen Yansen said directly.

For the members of Pinbei, this was the first day their career set sail.

But for Chen Yansen, it was merely the launch of a new project.

A single-day sales revenue breaking one hundred million brought little surprise; after all, at this time, Mama Ali's daily sales revenue had long exceeded two billion!

"Brother Sen, I didn't book a hotel; can I crash at your place for the night?" Wang Zihao nodded, seeking Chen Yansen's opinion.

"If you didn't book one, then go book one; my place isn't convenient." Chen Yansen glanced at his phone messages and rejected Wang Zihao.

"Brother Sen, I can just sleep on the sofa; no need to waste money." Seeing Chen Yansen walk out, Wang Zihao hurriedly chased after him.

Chen Yansen ignored him and walked straight into the elevator.

His sofa had already been reserved by someone else; as for Wang Zihao, since they were brothers, it didn't matter where he slept.

Arriving at the first floor, Chen Yansen sat into the driver's seat of the Bentley and drove toward the Void Courtyard.

Just after driving two or three hundred meters south, he saw Song Yuncheng waiting by the roadside.

Chen Yansen parked the car in front of her.

"I booked a hotel; it would be a waste not to stay," Song Yuncheng muttered softly as she got into the car and fastened her seatbelt.

"What's the room number? I'll have Zihao go stay there." After Song Yuncheng closed the car door, Chen Yansen asked with a smile.

"Forget it; if the Administrative Department slips up, Zihao will definitely get suspicious," Song Yuncheng said softly.

"It's fine; take my phone and send the room number to Zihao."

Chen Yansen chuckled inwardly.

That kid Wang Zihao had known long ago.

Seeing Chen Yansen insist, Song Yuncheng picked up his phone, opened WeChat, found Wang Zihao's chat window, and sent the room number imitating Chen Yansen's tone.

After sending it, she intended to return the phone but noticed Meng Jie's chat window.

Song Yuncheng glanced up at Chen Yansen, who was concentrating on driving, and quietly tapped to enter.

She had only just read a few lines before her face fell.

"Stealing a look at my messages?"

Chen Yansen looked straight ahead and asked with a tone of certainty.

"How did you know... I wasn't looking." Song Yuncheng quickly denied it.

That dog man is truly promiscuous!

The content of his chat with Meng Jie made her face burn with heat.

"Is that so?"

Chen Yansen remained noncommittal and asked back with a smile.

Song Yuncheng gave an awkward smile, quickly changed the subject, and voluntarily began talking about the situation on Pinbei's first day of launch.

"At this rate, we'll have at least 40 billion yuan in sales revenue in a year!"

"40 billion? Is that a lot? Taobao is at 600 billion."

Chen Yansen said dismissively.

"They've been doing it for nearly ten years; we've just started," Song Yuncheng countered.

"Then work hard! When you get Pinbei's sales revenue to 600 billion, I'll promote you to Vice President."

Chen Yansen was painting a big pie.

"600 billion?" Song Yuncheng smiled bitterly, not believing at all that she could achieve it.

Regarding today's one hundred million yuan in sales revenue, she knew best how it came about.

First, there was traffic from QQ and WeChat; second, tens of millions were spent on advertising; third, the viral nature of group buying and the zero-yuan bargaining campaign; fourth, the merchant resources accumulated on Mama Ali last year.

Taobao claims to have five million merchants, but Pinbei has less than five hundred.

"Dreams still have to be had — what if they come true?" Chen Yansen borrowed Ma Yun's words, laughing as he teased.

On the other side.

Wei Yucheng, who had been glued to the computer, was stunned — ever since Pin Bei went live, his shop's orders had never stopped.

In just one short day, the transaction volume reached 130,000 orders, selling 260 tons of navel oranges.

In the past, he wouldn't have dared to even imagine it.

"Boss Wei, I downloaded all the orders for you from the data backend. The total sales for these 130,000 orders come to 2.197 million, and the gross profit is roughly 194,000."

Zhang Yifeng held up a cup of rice wine, took a sip, and said with a smile to Wei Yucheng.

This guy, afraid of losing money, had urged him to calculate the gross profit margin the moment orders hit 100,000.

"Calling me Boss Wei is too formal — just call me Brother Wei from now on." Wei Yucheng said warmly, throwing an arm around Zhang Yifeng.

In the corner, Li Hui's expression was odd as he glanced at Wei Yucheng, then at Yuan Wei, secretly amused.

For this single deal, the three of them had been busy for half a month in Xiyue, but thankfully everything went smoothly.

Although Wei Yucheng hadn't given much ground on price, when it came to shipping he hadn't played tricks either — the fruit diameters strictly followed the specs listed on the page.

"Brother Wei, today Yun Su took away 20,000 orders, and tomorrow's order volume might still be over a hundred thousand. We'll need to hire more packing workers."

Zhang Yifeng offered the reminder out of kindness.

"Don't worry, I'll arrange for people to go to town to recruit this afternoon. There won't be any problems."

Wei Yucheng was in great spirits — a net profit of 200,000 in a single day. This time, he'd bet right.

Far away in Yanjing, Liu Qiangdong, upon hearing that Pin Bei had gone live, thought: this kid Chen Yansen really knows how to make waves!

While making phones, he still had the energy to put together a new platform!

At this point, he hadn't yet realized that Pin Bei was aimed at him and Ma Liyun.

The night grew late, and in many QQ groups, WeChat groups, and BBS forums, large numbers of Pin Bei users were still actively sharing group-buying links, or sending out invitations for 0-yuan bargain-cutting.

This time, it was even fiercer than when Fox Tao rose to prominence last year.

(End of chapter)