Chapter 68: Mr. Min, I'm Here to Help You! (33k Monthly Votes Request)

As Chen Yansen was about to return to his seat to rest, Zhang Yifeng led a middle-aged man over: "Brother Sen, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Min Jie, General Manager of Online Channels for Metersbonwe. Mr. Min, this is my boss, Mr. Chen Yansen, founder of Li Tao."

"Mr. Min, a pleasure to meet you!" Chen Yansen extended his right hand and shook hands with the other man.

Min Jie was in his thirties, wearing a royal blue jacket with a neat short haircut. His expression was resolute, yet a trace of worry showed between his brows.

"Mr. Chen, I heard from Yifeng that Li Tao achieved 20 million in sales during this Double Eleven. Congratulations! Truly a young talent. At your age, I didn't even know what a computer was."

Min Jie said this while holding Chen Yansen's hand, his words subtly revealing flattery and a desire to curry favor.

"Mr. Min, you flatter me. You entered the industry early and have ample experience. Being able to chat with you is a blessing for us young people."

Chen Yansen narrowed his eyes, pondered for a moment, then gestured for the other man to find a place to discuss matters in detail.

In 2010, Metersbonwe was having a hard time. Blind expansion, combined with a late winter this year, caused inventory pressure to surge dramatically. Thirty percent of the company's total assets were nothing but clothes piled up in warehouses.

To alleviate inventory pressure, headquarters deployed over 300 people to build their own online e-commerce platform—Meigou. com. Min Jie was in charge of this new project and attended the channel conference primarily to secure external traffic for the platform.

Just as he heard Zhang Yifeng mention that Li Tao's daily active users exceeded one million, he immediately became interested and voluntarily proposed to meet Chen Yansen.

The group left the hall and walked into a private room.

"Mr. Chen, our group's self-operated e-commerce platform is scheduled to launch in mid-next month. At that time, we wish to integrate your company's CPS interface..."

As soon as they sat down, Min Jie got straight to the point.

At that time, for a shopping guide e-commerce website to cooperate with a B2C platform, it first had to integrate the CPS interface to achieve ad link redirection, order data transmission, and performance statistics, thereby ensuring accurate commission settlement.

"Mr. Min, opening the CPS interface is no problem, but have you decided on the base commission rate for the Shangcheng? Different commission rates mean Li Tao will allocate different traffic resources."

Chen Yansen readily agreed, then asked a counter-question.

Regarding requests for shopping cooperation, he naturally welcomed them. This fast-fashion clothing brand had once, from Jin Ling Road in Hu City, become popular down to eighteen-tier towns. Although it now showed signs of decline, it still had many fans in cities below the third tier.

But every pot needs its own lid. If Min Jie was unwilling to concede profits, Chen Yansen would at most place the shopping redirection entry on a secondary page and would not tilt extra resources toward it.

"All categories, I'll give you a universal commission of 10%."

After hearing this, Min Jie remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking.

"Mr. Min, we can change the cooperation model. Clothing is a visual product; sufficient exposure is needed to boost order volume. Why not take your Taobao flagship store and jointly launch a brand special event? I will directly inject million-level traffic for you."

Regarding the price Min Jie offered, Chen Yansen smiled without speaking, instead changing the subject and proposing a completely new cooperation method.

Million-level traffic?

Brand special event?

Min Jie frowned, pondering seriously. Chen Yansen's proposal was very tempting, but he knew clearly that there was no such thing as a free lunch; the other party definitely had harsh conditions.

"What are your requirements, Mr. Chen?" Min Jie raised his head and looked directly at Chen Yansen, asking.

"Yuncheng, show Mr. Min the supporting resources for the Brand Group." Chen Yansen did not answer directly but instead instructed Song Yuncheng.

Song Yuncheng nodded, took a laptop out of his bag, opened a PPT file on the desktop, and introduced the Brand Group's supporting resource package to Min Jie one by one.

Website pop-up window, once a day, average daily exposure PV 1 million, average daily clicks 300,000, list price 600,000 yuan;

Website dynamic floating window, displayed all day, average daily exposure PV 800,000, average daily clicks 240,000, list price 400,000 yuan;

Brand professional activity page, displayed all day, average daily exposure PV 800,000, average daily clicks 240,000, list price 500,000 yuan;

... In addition, there were resource positions on the search page, personal center, and secondary pages. Adding all the miscellaneous items together, the total advertising cost came to 2 million.

Min Jie sucked in a sharp breath, his face turning ugly. He hadn't expected Chen Yansen to be so ruthless, actually quoting a price of 2 million.

"Mr. Chen, Meigou. com is in its infancy; money is needed everywhere. We can come up with 2 million, but you must make me believe that this 2 million can bring 10 million in sales."

Min Jie deliberated for a while and said calmly.

"I can waive this 2 million. Consider it making friends with Mr. Min, but regarding the intensity of the event, I want to see Mr. Min's sincerity." Chen Yansen waved his hand generously and said.

"I understand the gameplay of the Brand Group. For the commission on 10 limited-edition products, I can give 90%, and the remaining 10% will be made up with cash payments, totaling a value of 2 million; for the remaining ordinary products, the commission rate will be set at 30%."

After hearing his words, Min Jie was stunned first, then responded.

Li Tao's brand special event activities, to put it simply, were about throwing traffic onto the activity page. The special page was divided into best-selling products and ordinary products; the best-sellers were responsible for driving traffic, while ordinary products relied on the long-tail effect to help brand merchants profit.

"For ordinary products, I want a 70% commission."

Chen Yansen shook his head, obviously not very satisfied with Min Jie's answer.

He had come down to negotiate personally, even waiving the 2 million advertising fee; what was the use of only asking for a 30% commission?

If they only sold two or three million in the end, it would be a loss of face for Li Tao, and the Brand Group project might even fail.

"70% is too high. Including inventory, labor, and logistics costs, we can't even recover our production costs. We can give at most 40%."

Min Jie shook his head vigorously but did not speak absolutely.

"Mr. Min, I am here to help you! Clothes piled in the warehouse are just unwanted waste. Selling them for cash is the only way Metersbonwe can survive."

Chen Yansen leaned back, speaking lightly and casually.

Metersbonwe's inventory pressure was almost approaching a brand's life-or-death line. In the following ten-plus years, Metersbonwe went downhill and never rose again.

He was counting on this very point of Metersbonwe!

Through this cooperation, he wanted to make the gameplay and model of the Brand Group fully established.

Min Jie remained silent, pondering with his head down for a long time. Finally, he sighed deeply and said, "New products definitely cannot get a 70% commission; older styles might be possible, but I cannot make this decision myself."

"Mr. Min, styles from three to five years ago are fine; I'm not picky, but the clothing quality and tidiness must be guaranteed." Chen Yansen expressed understanding and stated his requirements.

"Please wait a moment; I'll go make a phone call." Min Jie suddenly stood up, apologized, and left with his assistant.

After everyone from Metersbonwe left, Zhang Yifeng asked impatiently, "Brother Sen, do you think Metersbonwe's boss will agree? A 70% commission is equivalent to a 30% discount on all products in the store."

"I originally wanted an 80% commission rate, but considering Mr. Min's rank and authority, I didn't say it. Rest assured, for clothing brands with such high inventory like theirs, if they don't cut the flesh, there is only the road to death." Chen Yansen smiled slightly and said confidently.

"Before, when I watched 'Meteor Garden', I thought Metersbonwe was some international big brand." Chen Xu chuckled.

"A skinny camel is still bigger than a horse. They still had annual sales of several billion. If not for the management's decision-making errors that created so much inventory, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them the leading enterprise in domestic casual wear." Chen Yansen commented objectively.

If the other party didn't dig their own grave, how could he pick up the scraps?

Users wanted to buy high-quality products from big brands at good prices; inventory goods were the best choice.

No one knew how much time had passed before Min Jie returned with people again.

"President Chen, here's to a pleasant cooperation! The higher-ups have approved your commission request." Min Jie raised his hand, palm facing up.

"Pleasant cooperation! Choosing Fox Tao is absolutely the wisest decision you'll make this year."

Chen Yansen gripped his hand and said with considerable confidence.

Min Jie smiled, then called over the operations manager in charge of the Taobao flagship store, along with Chen Xu, Zhang Yifeng, and others, to reconfirm matters such as product selection, launch time, launch pace, after-sales service, payment terms, and deposit.

After all, the commission settlement for the b2c mall relies entirely on the finance department's bookkeeping; if the other side defaults on payment, Fox Tao can only sue, and dragging things out for a year or more is commonplace. On the other hand, the rebates to users still have to be paid, and the more capital is fronted, the easier it is to be utterly screwed.

On top of that, the projected order volume for this brand event is huge; without a deposit, if Meters temporarily changes prices, changes prices after the event goes offline, or product quality issues arise, the user experience would be seriously damaged.

Therefore, despite Min Jie's prolonged arguments, Chen Yansen refused to budge an inch, insisting on an 800,000 deposit; if the other side attempted any deceit, he would, according to the contract details, use that money to compensate users.

"President Chen, I really can't out-stubborn you. Then the event is set for November 28th; everything after that is in your hands."

Min Jie let out a soft sigh and agreed with a helpless look.

"President Min, I know the Taobao-affiliated platforms have lots of events, but price protection must be handled properly, or I really won't be polite—I'll deduct the price difference from your deposit to compensate users."

Chen Yansen stood up and walked and chatted with Min Jie and the others.

"Don't worry, I'll arrange it properly." Min Jie immediately assured him; from Chen Yansen's expression, he could tell the other man wasn't joking.

"Once the event is over, President Chen must come to Hucheng and let me fulfill my duties as host. Let's have a good drink together." Min Jie said warmly.

"Then it's settled! Don't be unreachable by phone when the time comes!" Chen Yansen said with a teasing smile.

Min Jie laughed heartily, threw his arm around Chen Yansen's shoulder, and the two walked back to the banquet hall chatting and laughing.

That evening, Fox Tao, as Taobao's biggest external channel for Double Eleven, took home an Annual Best Partner Award.

Chen Xu, Zhang Yifeng, and Song Yuncheng held the trophy, grinning foolishly as they took photos for the memory.

"So stingy, not even a single practical policy." Chen Yansen stared at Zhang Yong and Hu Zhilong on stage and muttered a curse under his breath.

Fortunately, the trip wasn't entirely fruitless; the cooperation deal with Meters instantly reignited his entrepreneurial passion.

The next day, the four split up in Hangcheng. Chen Xu and Zhang Yifeng followed Min Jie's group back to Hucheng—first, to select products offline; second, to control product quality; third, to learn industry experience.

The two were quite perceptive, but to develop deeply in the industry, they had to go to the source of the supply chain; the material, price, and quality of fabrics and other issues all had to be figured out.

Chen Yansen took Song Yuncheng to a hot spring hotel in Jin Ling for a day of fun; after two consecutive days of business trips, it was only natural to enjoy themselves a bit.

Too bad Song Yuncheng flatly refused to put on a swimsuit—that became a major regret of his trip.

Late on the 17th, the two only just returned to Xucheng Academy.

"The dorm's been locked up for ages. What are you going to do? Crash at my place for the night?" Chen Yansen suggested.

"Boss, can I stay at a hotel instead?" Song Yuncheng asked cautiously, pushing her suitcase.

"Sure, then I'm heading home first." Chen Yansen waved his hand and turned to leave.

"Huh?! Boss, you won't reimburse me?" Song Yuncheng clattered after him in a hurry.

"In your dreams! The business trip is already over, and you still want to fleece the company?"

Chen Yansen shot her a look and said irritably.

Song Yuncheng stood in place; after a brief internal struggle, she still followed Chen Yansen.

Having her pay for a hotel out of her own pocket would be killing her!

7,000 words delivered, gentlemen, toss me some monthly tickets~

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(End of chapter)