Chapter 334: Single-Day 100 Million Votes Delivery

The next day, at dawn, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

Chen Yansen slowly opened his eyes, pulled back the corner of the blanket, put on his slippers, and walked to the living room, where a torn Avatar cosplay suit lay carelessly on the floor.

He sat at the desk, opened his laptop, and logged into the data backend; the Pinba Big Promotion had been running for only five hours, yet real-time sales had already exceeded 2 billion Hua Yuan.

Looks like the 5 billion target is easily within reach!

Chen Yansen glanced over and muttered softly.

Tiantao, Pinba, Jingdong, and other major e-commerce platforms have been staging a month-long show; whether it succeeds or fails depends entirely on today.

Meanwhile.

Meng Xin, founder of Afu Essential Oil, had not slept all night; the phone of the Jingdong Beauty Procurement Director was unreachable, so he tried sending a WeChat message to Liu Qiangdong, which likewise sank without a trace.

Even if he were dull, he had now realized the truth.

For adults, often not answering the phone or replying to WeChat sends a very clear message.

"Damn Liu Qiangdong! Even if you have a conflict with Ma Liyun, don't use me as a pawn!"

Meng Xin's face darkened, and he shouted through gritted teeth.

As a top internet beauty brand, Afu Essential Oil achieved 28 million in sales during the 2011 Taobao Double Eleven Big Promotion, ranking among the top five in its category; this year's 618 Promotion set a new high, with 37 million in sales, second only to Yunifang, P&G, and Proya.

Therefore, to increase corporate revenue, Meng Xin had no hesitation in joining Pinba and Jingdong, hoping to gain more traffic and orders.

Last night, just as he was preparing to get off work, Hu Li, Pinba Merchant Operations Manager, called to question why the promotional price for Pinba was 30% off the counter price, while Jingdong received a 50% discount.

Meng Xin was stunned at that moment!

Under his control, whether on Tiantao, Pinba, or Jingdong, or in self-operated stores and specialty stores, the promotional prices for Afu Essential Oil were kept consistent.

First, to avoid users comparing prices across the entire network;

Second, to reduce friction and conflicts between channels.

Otherwise, if Taobao got 69 yuan and Jingdong got 79, would the platform staff agree?

Upon hearing this, Meng Xin immediately went to verify, only to find that Jingdong, without any prior notice, had forcibly changed Afu Essential Oil's promotional price to 50% off, as low as 39 yuan, and even included free gifts.

At this moment, the same product was selling for 69 yuan at the main beauty venue on Tiantao and Pinba.

Meng Xin had no time to think much and urgently ordered operations to change the price.

"Boss, Jingdong has locked the merchant backend, prohibiting price changes!" Operations tried to modify the price, but he discovered he had absolutely no permission.

Meng Xin immediately felt his scalp go numb; Hu Li had given him only ten minutes, and if it wasn't resolved, Pinba would immediately delist all Afu Essential Oil products, including those in the Hundred Billion Subsidy channel.

Based on his projection for Pinba's Double Eleven output, Afu Essential Oil would lose over 20 million in performance.

So, he hurriedly ordered operations to contact the Jingdong Procurement Manager, but the other party neither answered the phone nor replied to messages, simply playing dead.

Meng Xin paced around in a panic!

Immediately after, the beauty staff member from Tiantao Shangcheng also urged: "Does Afu still want to participate in Taobao Double Eleven? Either lower the price or delist all Jingdong products across the board."

Delist?

I damn well need the permission to do that too!

For a moment, Meng Xin wished he could drive straight into the Jingdong headquarters building overnight to settle the score with Liu Qiangdong.

But then he thought, if Liangzaidong didn't give the order, would the procurement staff below dare to do this?

Meng Xin knew clearly that if the problem wasn't resolved soon, the company's Double Eleven promotion and Q4 performance would be ruined.

In just one hour, Afu Essential Oil generated 8 million in sales on Jingdong.

Although he explained the truth to the merchant operations teams at Pinba and Tiantao, Afu Essential Oil's products were still hidden.

For Hu Li, regardless of Meng Xin's reasons, Afu Essential Oil's actions had already harmed the interests of the company and its users.

Even though Afu is a top beauty brand, according to the contract, Pinba had the right to deduct part of the cash from the store deposit to compensate users who bought at higher prices.

Tiantao Shangcheng did not make Afu Essential Oil pay compensation, but the staff member's tone was far from polite: "Mama Ali can lift Afu Essential Oil up, and can also crush Afu Essential Oil to the bottom."

In the eyes of the Tiantao staff, Meng Xin was simply causing trouble; how critical was Double Eleven?

Boss Ma and Boss Zhang were both watching!

If the big bosses noticed, his year-end performance review would get a '3.25' (3.25 is lowest, 3.5 is average, 3.75 is highest); two consecutive times, and he would happily receive a resignation gift package.

As for Meng Xin's explanation, he couldn't be bothered to care!

Thus, Meng Xin had only two paths: either side with Jingdong, or side with Pinba and Tiantao Shangcheng.

From a business perspective, there was almost no comparison.

Although Jingdong was also a significant online sales channel, compared to Pinba and Tiantao Shangcheng, its performance output was seven or eight tenths lower.

Meng Xin decisively abandoned Jingdong; at 3:15 AM, in his capacity as Afu Essential Oil CEO, he posted on Weibo: "Effective immediately, Afu will withdraw from Jingdong; for Double Eleven orders on the Jingdong platform, Afu Essential Oil will not take responsibility, nor will it ship goods."

Liangzaidong had forced him into a dead end, so Meng Xin left Jingdong not a single shred of face.

The harsh words were spoken, but the contacts at Pinba and Tiantao Shangcheng had long since gone to rest.

Meng Xin sat alone in the office, cigarette after cigarette; until the matter was resolved, he simply could not sleep.

The time slot from midnight to 8 AM accounted for at least fifty percent of the promotion's orders and sales output.

In other words, due to Jingdong's reckless move, Afu Essential Oil's promotional performance was likely to be halved.

"You little rascal, you really are ruthless!"

Meng Xin glanced out the window, where a streak of dawn had just appeared; he couldn't help but yawn, then cursed.

Not until 9:30 AM did the resource slot displays for Afu Essential Oil on Pinba and Tiantao Shangcheng return to normal.

And as soon as netizens woke up, they feasted on a major e-commerce scoop.

Afu Essential Oil's founder had publicly 'fought' Liu Qiangdong, making netizens exclaim how satisfying it was, but users who had purchased Afu Essential Oil products on Jingdong, upon seeing Meng Xin's Weibo content, instantly felt terrible.

They thought they had snatched the lowest price on the entire network, only to find Afu wouldn't ship!

This group immediately contacted Jingdong customer service for verification, receiving only an ambiguous reply: "The platform is communicating with the brand; please wait patiently."

"Buzzzzz—!"

The phone on the table suddenly rang.

Meng Xin picked it up and saw that the caller was the lost-contact beauty procurement director.

"Director Chen, what's this about?" Meng Xin asked, pretending ignorance.

He'd already offended everyone, so what did he care? He'd spent years catering to these big shots, and now he was done pretending.

"Director Meng, as of 9:30, Afu's output on Jingdong was 12.7 million yuan, with 213,000 orders. Someone down the line made a mistake—moved Afu's products from the 30% discount pool into the 50% promotion. It's just a marketing bug. But you went off on Weibo. If this harms Jingdong's merchant recruitment, the company might just send you a lawyer's notice."

Beauty procurement director Chen Yongqiang subtly threatened.

Marketing bug?

Are you trying to fool me like a three-year-old?

Meng Xin sneered—he wouldn't believe a single punctuation mark of Chen Yongqiang's words. We're both foxes a thousand years old; are you trying to pull a Liaozhai on me?

"Lawyer's notice? Who are you trying to scare? You used me as a pawn—don't think I don't know! Jingdong's orders? Afu won't handle them. Go ahead and sue. Let's see who loses the most!"

Meng Xin shot back immediately.

He'd spent years in the rough-and-tumble world of business—did he fear lawyer's notices?

They traded words for minutes, awkwardly, until Chen Yongqiang awkwardly hung up and reported the matter upward.

Half an hour later, Jingdong began canceling Afu essential oil orders en masse, offering each account a 10-yuan no-threshold Jingdong coupon as compensation. The customer service department received instructions: for users emotionally agitated and preparing to complain to the Market Supervision Association, add another 10-yuan compensation, not exceeding 30% of the order amount.

Before the Double Eleven promotion was even halfway through, the first large-scale consumer rights protest erupted.

Afu essential oil and Jingdong were both trending on hot search!

In response, Jingdong stated: "Afu essential oil voluntarily joined the 50% discount promotion. Its sudden withdrawal was due to threats from a certain e-commerce platform and the acquisition of a better promotional position."

Then it released screenshots of Afu's electronic contract for participating in the Desert Storm event, proving its own innocence and accusing Afu of lacking contractual integrity.

When Meng Xin heard this, he nearly laughed in rage.

The contract was fine—but he'd agreed with the procurement clerk on a 30% discount, not 50%.

Yet the contract didn't specify it. Meng Xin was like a swallow swallowing bitter yellow lotus root—unable to speak his grievance.

Jingdong turned the tables, dumping the blame squarely on Tmall and Afu.

Soon after, Tmall replied: "We never forced merchants to choose. Merchants decide for themselves which platform to join and what promotions to run."

The implication: this matter had nothing to do with Tmall.

Netizens quickly flooded the official Weibo accounts of Huang Zheng, Chen Yansen, and Pinbei with questions, determined to get to the bottom of it.

"Pinbei never interferes with merchant choices," Huang Zheng replied simply, kicking the ball back.

Everyone was blameless—so was the user at fault?

In reality, the unwritten rule of "either-or" applied not just to Mama Ali but to Pinbei too.

It was something understood, never spoken aloud.

Ask? There's nothing!

Any brand that joined Tmall or Pinbei's major promotion main stage, if it dared to participate in Jingdong's Desert Storm event, would see its store traffic drop from 3,000 to single digits in the next second.

As soon as the brand canceled the Desert Storm event, traffic would instantly rebound to 3,000.

Though the three e-commerce platforms never competed head-on, their covert maneuvers never stopped.

By noon, Pinbei's cumulative sales had reached 3.7 billion Huayuan.

Leveraging over 3,400 pre-storage warehouses (converted from some courier outlets) and the instant delivery capability of KuaiPao couriers, Pinbei completed 500,000 parcel deliveries before the second half of Double Eleven even began.

The speed exceeded users' wildest imaginations!

Though Mama Ali published similar reports every year—some user received a parcel in just minutes—anyone with eyes could see it was pure theater.

Order volume was minuscule!

Pinbei was different: from 9 a. m. to noon, relying on advanced warehouse operations, YunSu's cloud logistics, and KuaiPao's delivery capacity, it effortlessly handled 500,000 parcel deliveries.

Because these items—shampoo, body wash, toilet paper, laundry detergent, phones, tablets, small appliances—had been delivered to the pre-storage warehouses half a month earlier.

From warehouse to buyer's doorstep, the farthest distance was no more than ten kilometers—efficiency was astonishing.

On the other side.

BaiShi Express, SF Express, Tian Tian, GuoTong—all courier companies were overwhelmed. Every station was piled high with parcels waiting to be dispatched, mountains of packages.

YunSu wasn't faring any better!

Liao Wei's eyes were bloodshot—he'd slept past 2 a. m. and woke at 7 a. m.

In Huadong, North China, Central China, South China, and Northeast China, the morning's pickup volume exceeded 20 million parcels.

Remember: YunSu Express's daily capacity was only 10–12 million parcels. At this pickup rate, today's total volume would hit 40 million.

Liao Wei exploded!

This was a massive challenge to YunSu's warehouse sorting and last-mile delivery scheduling!

Worse, rain and snow hit multiple areas in North and Huadong, blocking road transport and delaying flights—the busier it got, the more chaos erupted.

Liao Wei couldn't sleep—he personally took charge at Shanghai headquarters, coordinating nationwide logistics resources, and through Zheng Shengyu, he secured ties with Air China, integrating its air capacity into the transport system.

"We bought too few planes!"

Liao Wei slammed his thigh.

Earlier, YunSu had bought eight secondhand passenger planes from Air China, shipped them to Temasek, and converted them into cargo planes. They'd just been put into service when they were needed.

But compared to 40 million parcels, these eight cargo planes were like a drop in the ocean.

Useful—but barely enough.

That's why he had to rely on Air China's spare air capacity, but passenger planes and cargo planes had vastly different carrying capacities—only a temporary relief.

The 2012 Double Eleven output far exceeded everyone's expectations.

Pinbei's sales target was 5 billion!

Mama Ali sold 6 billion last year; this year's target is 10 billion!

JD's single-day target is 2 billion!

Platforms including Suning, Gome, Dangdang, Yixun, and Amazon all underestimated the explosive power of the Double Eleven promotion.

Goods began piling up massively at distribution centers across the country; sorters were replaced again and again, each drenched in sweat, collapsing the moment they stepped out of the delivery station.

Delivery companies even offered a high daily wage of 300 yuan to hire temporary sorters, but many quit after less than two hours, demanding to leave.

At the same time, buyers kept placing orders with loud clatters.

In 2012, the delivery industry still relied primarily on manual sorting—slow, error-prone, with almost no automated equipment; each sorting center handled only hundreds of thousands of packages per day on average, utterly overwhelmed by tens of millions of parcels.

Since the electronic shipping label technology became widespread, Liao Wei, under Chen Yansen's instructions, deliberately accelerated the deployment of automated sorting equipment; now, 40% of sorting warehouses use machines, with an error rate below 0.1%.

Even so, Liao Wei still faced immense pressure.

At 24:00 that day, Pinduoduo's promotional sales figure stabilized at 7.03 billion!

Order volume reached 23 million!

Upon hearing this news, Liao Wei let out a bitter laugh; it was easy to imagine that Mama Ali, as the e-commerce leader, would have no fewer than 40 million orders—possibly even surpassing 50 million.

Add to that dozens of other e-commerce platforms—Gome, Dangdang, Yixun, Paipai, Footwear, Jumei Youpin, Vipshop—and total business volume was estimated to surge past 100 million orders!

……

……

In Zhuxianzhuang Technology Park, under a silent, pitch-black night, Building Six suddenly erupted in deafening cheers.

A total sales figure of 7.03 billion meant every Pinduoduo employee's Q4 performance bonus would be multiplied by 1.4; what was originally 100,000 yuan instantly became 140,000 yuan.

Chen Yansen leaned back in his chair, watching the wild, howling youths, a faint smile curling at his lips.

You might make money, but I never lose!

(End of Chapter)