Chapter 242: The Six Major Sects Gang Up on Jingdong! This Is How You Boost Morale

In late March, the weather in Shanghai was gradually warming up.

On the Jin Ling Road pedestrian street in the afternoon, one could often spot a few girls in ultra-short skirts passing by, swinging their fair, slender legs.

"President Chen, are they fair?" Song Yuncheng caught his gaze and asked through gritted teeth.

"So-so." Chen Yansen sat in the rest area, leaning back in his chair, saying "so-so" with his mouth, but his eyes never looked away.

If you don't look at legs in summer, how would you know if they're beautiful or not?

"Liu Qiangdong said on Weibo that Jingdong will maintain a zero-gross-margin strategy on home appliances for the next three years, guaranteeing prices at least 10% cheaper than Gome, Suning, and Pinduoduo."

Song Yuncheng unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and handed it to Chen Yansen, speaking softly.

"Anyone can talk tough. Tell Huang Zheng to respond — every single product on Pinduoduo will be 5% cheaper than Jingdong."

Chen Yansen snorted coldly and curled his lip in disdain.

The 1.5 billion USD Jingdong raised last year has all been squandered by that pretty-boy Liu.

The three-year zero-gross-margin slogan looks bold, but home appliances don't make up a large share of Jingdong's business.

Liu Qiangdong's play is still the same trick he used on Dangdang's Li Guoqing last year.

The underlying logic is: sacrifice gross margin on small categories and strike directly at the opponent's weak spot.

After all, Suning and Gome's core business is home appliances!

Although Pretty-boy Liu's main targets this time are Suning and Gome, since he named Pinduoduo.

If Pinduoduo stays silent, won't people think it's easy to bully?

"All products? Then we'd be making 40 million less per day." Song Yuncheng reminded him quietly.

"Suning's 418 sale is about to start. Liu Qiangdong is aiming right at Zhang Jindong's weak spot — really a case of old friends meeting and shooting each other in the back."

Chen Yansen said jokingly.

"Online they say one is from northern Jiangsu and the other from southern Jiangsu, so they don't really count as old friends." Song Yuncheng covered her mouth and giggled.

"..." Chen Yansen laughed helplessly, shook his head, and said: "Relax, everyone is in business to make money. Jingdong, Suning, and Gome won't hold out for more than a few days."

Pretty-boy Liu has already stirred up the buzz — whoever charges in first gets the first wave of traffic.

The other side wants to keep the battlefield limited to home appliances, but Chen Yansen is opening fire across all categories. He's betting Pretty-boy Liu doesn't have much ammo left and will pack up within two days at most.

Meanwhile.

Zhang Jindong was just about to fire back at Liu Qiangdong, but Pinduoduo CEO Huang Zheng beat him to it, @-ing Liu Qiangdong on Weibo: "The 418 Appliance Festival is coming up, and Pinduoduo wants to join the fun too! From today, any product purchased on Pinduoduo that is more expensive than Jingdong — contact customer service for a price-difference refund! Every single product on Pinduoduo will be 5% cheaper than Jingdong!"

Netizens pressed in the comments: "Jingdong is 10% cheaper than Pinduoduo, Pinduoduo is 5% cheaper than Jingdong — why don't you all just sell everything for zero yuan!"

"@Suning @Gome, come join the fight!"

"Whether I can buy a zero-yuan air conditioner depends on you guys! @Zhang Jindong @Han Pengde"

Netizens who loved watching the drama eagerly fanned the flames from behind.

Last time when Suning and Jingdong were trading barbs, plenty of netizens actually managed to buy home appliances at 10% or even 20% off — they certainly didn't want to miss out this time.

Zhang Jindong frowned, mulling over Huang Zheng's words, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration and laughed: "That's a great strategy — why didn't I think of that before?"

Jingdong always uses categories where its share is small — books or home appliances — to drag opponents into a quagmire.

In the past, Zhang Jindong had only two choices:

Fight and lose money; don't fight and lose all the users!

Now, opening fire across all categories looks like even bigger losses, but only this way can he really hurt Pretty-boy Liu.

Thinking of this, Zhang Jindong told the head of the marketing department to immediately announce publicly: "Every product on Suning. com will be priced lower than Jingdong — buy at a higher price and we'll pay double the difference!"

At the same time.

At No. 208 Anwai Street, Yanjing, Li Guoqing pushed his glasses up and chuckled: "Da Qiangzi, you hit me last year — now it's my turn to hit you."

In early March, Gome officially entered Dangdang through its partnership model with Pinduoduo, launching the Gome Appliance Mall, with delivery, installation, and after-sales service handled by Gome.

This way, Gome gained another online sales channel, and Dangdang enriched its home appliance categories — boosting both platform sales and stock price.

Now that Li Guoqing held the home appliance card in his hand, he could copy Liu Qiangdong's playbook and strike back hard.

After all, Jingdong's zero-gross-margin strategy on books last year had given Dangdang a really hard time.

Right after, Gome and Yixun also responded, joining the siege on Jingdong.

Liu Qiangdong sat in his office, his thick brows knitted together. Ever since Pinduoduo's Huang Zheng responded, this price war had taken on a different flavor.

Suning, Gome, Dangdang, Yixun, and Pinduoduo had all aimed their guns at Jingdong together — quite the scene of five sects laying siege to the Bright Summit.

Is this fair?

If you've got guts, fight one-on-one!

What skill is there in ganging up on someone!

"Damn it! I shouldn't have named Pinduoduo!"

Liu Qiangdong slapped his thigh, instantly regretting it.

Huang Zheng's move had struck Jingdong right at its weak spot. Suning, Gome, Dangdang, and Yixun followed suit, turning the home appliance price war into an all-category showdown.

Things had come to this point — not responding would mean he was a coward. That evening, at the Yanjing headquarters, Liu Qiangdong downed a glass of baijiu with the heads of purchasing and sales from each department, then said: "Brothers! Win this battle and everyone's year-end bonus doubles!"

All Jingdong headquarters employees threw themselves into preparing for the 418 battle!

The admin department posted slogans on every floor — things like "Suning Strike Command," "Pinduoduo Combat Division," "Crush Gome, Punch Dangdang."

The next morning, Jingdong responded again: "For the 418 Appliance Promotion, all products cut 30%."

"If any user finds a product cheaper at Gome or Suning offline than on Jingdong, Jingdong will immediately cut the price by another 10%."

In no time, the topic shot back to the top of the search rankings.

To make sure every subsidy reached real users, Pretty-boy Liu secretly recruited over 3,000 price intelligence agents across the country, planting them at Suning and Gome's offline stores to verify prices.

This drove Suning and Gome absolutely crazy!

The moment a customer walked in to buy something, a Jingdong person would immediately approach and say: "Buy it on the Jingdong Mall — another 10% cheaper."

Liu Qiangdong's strategy was: you guys turn the competition into an all-category brawl, and I'll fight from online to offline.

Let's see who dies first!

Mama Ali, who had been watching the battle, wasn't idle either. Using the price-comparison search engine of the new Fox Tao, she bluntly exposed the shortcomings, publicly releasing a price report that pointed out Jingdong's shady trick of "raising prices first, then cutting them," with the actual discount rate being only 4%-6%.

It didn't match the 30% they had advertised at all!

It made Liu Qiangdong so furious he started cursing, because Gome, Suning, Dangdang, Yixun, and Pinxi—everyone was doing the same thing, yet you only scold me. That's a seriously biased ass.

Mama Ali's attitude was very clear: she wouldn't enter the fray directly, but when it came to suppressing Jingdong, she absolutely wouldn't hold back either.

After some thought, Liu Qiangdong first had the tech department completely block Fox Tao's search. He had previously been reluctant to give up that bit of outside traffic, but now he had no choice but to abandon it.

Afterward, he had the operations department pull up price comparisons between dozens of Jingdong home-appliance products and those of Suning and Gome, mocking that Fox Tao's stance and data were both problematic.

This price war grew bigger and bigger, eventually evolving into a six-versus-one.

On March 30, Jingdong announced: twenty-one days later, it would shut down Pinxi's Jingdong Home Appliance Mall.

Twenty-one days—exactly seven days for delivery and fourteen days for after-sales. Once the time was up, the partnership would end.

An hour later, Sister Chengzi Mobile's Jingdong flagship store posted a notice: it would close twenty-one days later and exit the Jingdong platform.

The Honeymoon phase between Pinxi and Jingdong officially ended!

Half a year ago, Liu Qiangdong had still been calling Chen Yansen "little brother" at every turn. Now, after the two companies' partnership fell apart, they hadn't even made a phone call.

On the day before April, Chen Yansen finally returned to Xucheng, personally taking command at Pinxi, ready to fight this price war well.

If they lost, Pinxi's transformation path could only wait a few more years; if they won, they could leave users with the impression that "Pinxi home appliances are cheap and good."

An impression may seem vague and intangible, but it is the hallmark of any e-commerce platform.

For example, when users think of Taobao: full categories, but uneven quality; think of Suning: sells home appliances, good after-sales; think of Pinxi: social e-commerce, cheap prices, treats buyers like dear old dad.

You have to know, on Pinxi, if you buy counterfeit or shoddy goods, the minimum compensation is a refund plus three times the amount, the maximum a refund plus ten times—other platforms don't offer this kind of treatment.

Chen Yansen's purpose in taking up the challenge was: to make users associate home appliances with Pinxi.

At two in the afternoon, a Ghost painted in panda colors pulled into the tech park.

Chen Yansen pushed open the door and got out, heading straight for Building 8.

"Boss!" Huang Zheng, having gotten the news, came down on his own to greet him.

"Increase the product weight for digital and home appliances, and give the heads of KA brands a heads-up—anyone willing to support Pinxi on pricing will get double the store traffic in the second half of the year!"

Chen Yansen instructed as he walked.

"Boss, preparations are already underway. Shaokang, Aux, Chigo and Galanz are all willing to drop prices to the big-promo standard," Huang Zheng answered.

"Then Midea, Haier, and Gree—these ones, they won't support us?" Chen Yansen stopped walking, looking at Huang Zheng with a playful expression.

"Not exactly. The other major home-appliance brands are willing to offer promotional terms on par with Suning."

Being stared at by Chen Yansen, Huang Zheng felt his heart pounding—the boss's presence was so heavy.

"Old Hu! Come here!"

Chen Yansen ignored Huang Zheng and beckoned to Hu Yun.

Hu Yun quickly stood up and jogged over, saying: "Boss, your orders."

"What's our product overlap rate with Jingdong?" Chen Yansen asked.

"7%! But 24% of those products are out of stock at Jingdong, so the actual overlap is only 5.3%," Hu Yun answered.

"Not bad! Progress! Take the 200 best-selling SKUs at Jingdong and have the promo team build a dedicated campaign. We've got to hit Jingdong where it hurts!"

Chen Yansen said, patting Hu Yun on the shoulder.

He had never asked anyone to investigate the product overlap rate, yet Hu Yun had the data ready—showing that Hu Yun was increasingly considering actual business needs when handling data.

"Got it, boss," Hu Yun replied with a smile.

Whether it was Fox Tao or Pinxi, neither had actually gone head-to-head with another platform before—this was the first time.

Chen Yansen glanced around and suddenly saw, beneath the lampshade, banners hung up reading "Battle to Destroy Dong, Use Me and Win" and "When Pinxi Appears, Dong is Destroyed with a Snap."

The slogans were so cringey he wished he could dig a three-bedroom apartment out from under his feet.

So he said with a dark expression, annoyed: "Who put these up? Way too tacky."

"Boss, I had the admin department put them up, thinking it would boost morale," Huang Zheng said with a dry laugh. Of course, he could tell Chen Yansen was unhappy.

"There's only one move that truly boosts morale."

Chen Yansen said calmly.

After speaking, he had Zhang Junjie notify everyone: a company-wide meeting!

Ten minutes later.

The open ground on the first floor of the tech park was packed with people, well over a thousand.

Chen Yansen raised his hand, and the crowd instantly fell silent.

"For this 418 Home Appliance Festival, a total of six e-commerce platforms are participating. For the full-day performance output: first place gets the Q2 quarterly bonus coefficient multiplied by 1.5, second place by 1.3, third place by 1.1. We need to make users remember: Shangcheng also sells home appliances!"

Chen Yansen announced solemnly.

In other words, as long as the target is met, everyone's Q2 quarterly bonus will float up by 10% to 50%.

For those at the supervisor and director level, that's a 100,000 to 150,000 yuan bonus!

In an instant, the enthusiasm of Pinxi's employees was completely fired up!

The noise was so loud it startled people from the neighboring Sister Chengzi Tech, Today Tech, and Sister Chengzi Pay, who all poked their heads over to look.

After the mobilization ended, the merchant operations department immediately got busy, pulling out phones to discuss big-promo policies with the brands.

Air conditioners, TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, home theaters, DVDs, audio systems, range hoods and stoves, water heaters, and disinfection cabinets—all were added to the negotiation list.

Zhang Yifeng, Yuan Wei, Li Hui, and others led their teams, rushing overnight to Shunde, Foshan, Yongcheng, and Luzhou to meet with the brands face to face.

Digital and home appliances were Pinxi's weak spot. Without a real fight, there was no guarantee of cracking the top three in the market.

In his previous life, Pinxixi had spent four or five years without sorting this out. Chen Yansen didn't think that in just half a year, he could expand from FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) to all categories.

Build a name for itself, leave a deep impression on users — as long as you put in the effort, it doesn't count as a loss!

The next morning, Today's Headlines went live, simultaneously featuring on Sister Chengzi's app store, 91 Assistant, Wandoujia, and Tencent App Store homepages.

Promotional posters were put out simultaneously across Baidu, Youku, Sohu, NetEase, Sina, QQ, and other channels.

Exposure broke a hundred million!

Compared to the dire straits when Lingxi Browser launched, Today's Headlines' resource allocation was simply extravagant to the extreme.

Far away in Yanjing, Zhang Yiming, upon discovering this product, kept feeling that its design philosophy and recommendation engine technology were identical to those of his own Lingxi Browser.

Could there really be such a coincidence?

Zhang Yiming muttered, puzzled.

After some asking around, he learned that Today's Tech was also a subsidiary under Senlian Capital; when he saw Liang Bo's name in the company information, his head buzzed uncontrollably.

So when you said you were going to Hong Kong Island, you'd actually gone to Senlian!

And on top of that, you took Lingxi Browser's recommendation engine technology and used it to build a brand-new content distribution app — how can a person be this shameless!

Zhang Yiming didn't dare curse Chen Yansen, so he shifted all his resentment onto Liang Bo.

(End of chapter)