Reborn: Billionaire in College

Chapter 96 Here Comes a Money Gift

He Zhiyu nodded: "That's true, but now the competition in large supermarkets is quite fierce. Although we are a local company in Dongjiang, our brand awareness is not as good as those of multinational companies. Therefore, we can only sell slightly cheaper than our peers, otherwise we have no advantage at all."

Liu Cheng was very tactful and smoked on the side without saying a word. As an outsider, it was not convenient for him to talk at this time, and it would not be good to lean towards either side in his words.

Chen Pingjiang nodded with deep feeling: "It's all difficult, but that's why we need to find new sales channels. Large volumes can lead to small profits but quick turnover, and only then will we have enough capital to negotiate with suppliers. I'm sure you understand this principle."

He Zhiyu also agreed with Chen Pingjiang's words, but even so, business is business, friendship is friendship, and when doing business, you still have to negotiate the price.

Chen Pingjiang changed the subject at this point: "I have a feeling that our physical industry will be impacted by the huge wave of the Internet in the next few years. If we don't embrace new channels and new retail methods now, we are likely to sink in this tsunami."

The rise of the Internet economy is not a new argument. The emergence of Taobao has added new retail methods.

"Appreciate further details."

Even Liu Cheng, who was standing by, felt that Chen Pingjiang's words were a bit alarmist.

Chen Pingjiang smiled and said to the two of them, "The latest mobile phones on the market can do many things now, such as chatting on QQ, reading news and even watching videos. Compared with the Nokia phones that could only make calls and were as heavy as bricks a few years ago, it has made significant progress. Have you ever thought about this? If technology continues to develop, in the near future, mobile phones will be able to do more and more things. We can browse and order products on Taobao through our mobile phones, pay with our mobile phones, and of course we can also order takeout or products from the supermarket with our mobile phones, and have them delivered to our homes."

Liu Cheng and He Zhiyu looked at each other and saw deep agreement in each other's eyes.

“This is indeed possible, but how do we solve the payment problem?”

"What's so difficult about this? You all know Alipay, right? Everyone has an independent account and can transfer money to anyone, but through the U-Shield. If technology continues to develop, the U-Shield is replaced, and Alipay moves from the computer to the mobile phone, do you think this will solve the payment problem?"

After clearing away the fog of the future, Chen Pingjiang knew that the first generation of iPhone would be officially released in just two months.

People in later generations generally think that the iPhone is an epoch-making product, but in fact the first generation iPhone is. Its appearance redefined the mobile phone, truly opened the era of smart phones, and was hailed as a revolutionary product.

With the advent of the 3G era, the concept of mobile Internet has become known to more and more people. In 09, with the emergence of Alipay on mobile phones, the route of mobile payment has become clearer.

He and Liu used to focus on offline business and didn't know much about the Internet. Chen Pingjiang's perspective gave them a sense of clarity and the more they thought about it, the more they felt that the picture he described was very likely to be realized in the future.

Seeing that the two were interested, Chen Pingjiang continued, "Developing online sales will not take away offline traffic. Instead, it will complement offline sales. The Yuanfang Supermarket brand will be more deeply rooted in people's hearts. When consumers have consumption needs in the future, they will naturally think of Yuanfang Supermarket first."

At this time, He Siyu stood up and stretched his legs, then said with a smile: "Xiao Chen, don't accuse me of being slow. From a business perspective, I personally prefer to cooperate with Renren.com. It's still the same question, can the commission be lower?"

Chen Pingjiang smiled bitterly. He Siyu would not release the eagle until he saw the rabbit. Even if he PUA for a long time, this cunning businessman would not be moved.

"The commission is really not cheap." Chen Pingjiang finally decided to use his ultimate move: "However, I can give you a plan for the future operation of Yuanfang Supermarket, which will at least enable Yuanfang Supermarket to be invincible in future market competition."

"Oh?" Chen Pingjiang said this in a big way, which surprised He Zhiyu. "Tell me what the difference is first."

Chen Pingjiang did not hold back. "Let me give you a more eye-opening view. If Yuanfang Supermarket does not reform, it will gradually disappear from the public eye."

Seeing He Zhiyu trying to interrupt, Chen Pingjiang waved his hand, motioning for him to listen to him: "Rent increases, wage increases and the impact of the Internet economy may seem superficial, but in fact, there are problems with the profit structure of large supermarkets. The profits from selling vegetables and packaged snacks are extremely limited, but in order to attract customers, supermarkets not only have to purchase a wide range of categories, but also need to sell some products below cost price. However, at the same time, the loss rate of fresh seasonal vegetables is still high.

Every store has a traffic-driving section and a profit section, but in fact, your profit-making products are being eroded step by step by your competitors. Your competitors are not other supermarkets. For example, for home appliances, they will go to Suning, Gome, and Five Star stores, where the prices are lower than yours, the professionalism is stronger than yours, and the selection is more than yours. "

He Zhiyu said unconvincedly: "If we don't sell home appliances, we can still sell profitable products."

Chen Pingjiang raised his eyebrows and asked, "Really? Pots, pans, cosmetics, and daily necessities, I think you have been affected by the rise of Taobao, right? Don't worry, this is just the beginning. The rapid development of online shopping will block the last road of Yuanfang Supermarket. The price is lower than yours, and the quality is not worse than yours, why buy from you?"
Being big and comprehensive is not always an advantage. Small and beautiful stores can eat into your market share by relying on their cost advantage. The bigger the plate, the more losses you will suffer, and the faster you will die.”

Now, He Zhiyu finally stopped being stubborn. If it was someone else who said this, He Zhiyu would definitely smile contemptuously and say, "How much do you know?" But he couldn't ignore Chen Pingjiang. At such a young age as a freshman, he had already made a name for himself. It was obvious that he had real talent and knowledge.

We know our own business. Although Yuanfang Supermarket has a certain brand reputation in Dongjiang and has several branches, it has been increasingly difficult to do business recently. In the past, it was surrounded and blocked by large supermarkets such as Carrefour and Tesco. The rise of online shopping has indeed led to a decline in Yuanfang Supermarket's turnover. Its single product cannot compare with supermarkets that focus on a certain channel.

Now we can still make ends meet by selling at low prices and high volume, but as Chen Pingjiang said, if we don’t change, we will die!
Thinking of this, He Zhiyu let out a long breath, smiled and raised his hand to invite.

"It's very noisy here, Mr. Chen, let's go to the tea room and have a cup of tea while we talk in detail."

Instead of calling him Xiao Chen, he changed his address to Mr. Chen. Although it seemed distant, it was actually respect. After sitting down in the teahouse, the three of them brewed a pot of the best Biluochun tea.

“The solution is simple. No matter how the market changes, as long as we firmly grasp the hearts of customers and ensure that supermarkets have enough traffic, we will be invincible.”

Liu Cheng runs a private restaurant and he has a lot of experience in this: "It's easier said than done. There will always be someone cheaper than you, someone with more dishes than you, someone with more variety than you, and customers will vote with their feet."

He Zhiyu also sighed, "What Lao Liu said is right. This is a common problem faced by all types of stores. Big brands are okay because customers recognize the brands, but small brands are really difficult."

After taking a sip of the charming and fragrant Biluochun, Chen Pingjiang put down the teacup with a smile, "You all seem to have overlooked a key point."

"What's the point?"

"Serve!"

Liu Cheng was a little puzzled, "Aren't the services all pretty much the same?"

Chen Pingjiang looked at He Zhiyu and asked, "Does Mr. He think so too?"

Seeing that He Zhiyu didn't say anything, Chen Pingjiang chuckled, "This may be a common problem for most businesses. They always think that they provide quite good service, or that the service in their store is not worse than that of other stores, but you really don't understand what the ultimate service is. Whether it's a supermarket or a private restaurant, they actually serve old customers, so the quality of service directly determines whether they will come again. Harvard Business Magazine did a study, '70% of a company's profits come from old customers, and the factors that attract them to come back are first service, then the product itself, and finally price.'

Good service is not just about giving a smile to customers or serving them tea or water.

Instead, we should return the product if we are not satisfied, provide free services, respond to every request, and resolve every complaint, etc. We should truly understand and grasp the saying that customers are God. "

He Zhiyu did not realize the importance of service and smiled and waved his hands: "You may not have run a physical business. What you said is easier said than done. First, it will greatly increase operating costs. Second, it is difficult for employees to control service standards. Sometimes many customers are quite difficult to deal with. We are just selling goods. Products and prices are the decisive factors."

Chen Pingjiang drank water by himself, smiling without saying a word.

This is the arrogance that is unique to the current physical industry. The future Internet economy will teach them how to behave. Only when Yuanfang Supermarket can no longer survive and Pang Donglai attracts the public's attention with its high-quality services will they lose their arrogance.

Lao He is not a bad person, but like his wife Qin Han, he has a unique arrogance and stubbornness, and this arrogance will only disappear when he has nothing.

The atmosphere suddenly became a little awkward. As if Liu Cheng had sensed that Chen Pingjiang was unhappy, he quickly ran up to smooth things over.

"Have some tea, have some tea. Lao He, you too, just listen to what Xiao Chen has to say."

He Zhiyu also showed an embarrassed expression, "Xiao Chen, please continue."

In a private setting, everyone was familiar with each other, so Chen Pingjiang couldn't turn his face away, so he had to continue patiently: "In the short term, it will increase operating costs, but in the long term, it will attract more customers, so it's profitable no matter how you calculate it. It's difficult to control the service standards on the employee side, so we should increase training and let the fittest survive. Yuanfang Supermarket is not an electronic product with technical barriers. Others also sell what you sell, and your price can be matched by others, so the only breakthrough is service and embracing online sales. Excuse me, Brother Liu's private dishes can still rely on the taste of the dishes, but Yuanfang Supermarket doesn't have the capital."

"Xiao Chen, can you elaborate on what kind of service is considered humanized and refined? What you just said is quite general."

Liu Cheng is also a shrewd man. He seems to have sensed that there is some tension between Chen Pingjiang and He Zhiyu, and has been trying to fix it.

"Parking is free, pets can be stored, umbrellas and raincoats are provided at the service desk, ice is provided in the fresh food area to ensure the freshness of the goods, inventory is cleared by real-time discounts, candies and toys are provided to children, priority services are provided to special groups, and there are three days for no-reason returns, even if you simply don't want them anymore, etc. There are too many details to explain in a short time. In short, we think about what customers want and provide high-quality services to different groups of people.

In addition, we need to improve the service awareness of service staff, reward staff with good service quality, instill in them the concept that service is their lifeline, and give terminal sales a certain degree of autonomy, etc. I will write all these into the plan later. "

Liu Cheng listened and smacked his lips secretly, "How can this be called service in a broad sense? You are simply treating the customer like your father. Oh, no, I am not that nice to my father." Then he said to He Zhiyu, "Old He, I think we can give it a try. If I were a customer and I had to choose, and the products were the same price, I would definitely choose this one."

He Zhiyu was also quite interested after hearing this. He didn't expect that there were so many service details.

After turning the teacup in his hand for a long time, He Zhiyu made a decision: "Mr. Chen, our Yuanfang Supermarket is willing to establish a deep partnership with Renren's food delivery platform, and the commission will be based on your request. I only have one request. In addition to giving us a detailed plan, I also hope that you can serve as our Yuanfang Supermarket's reform consultant, with the same monthly salary as our Yuanfang Supermarket's senior management. Don't worry, I know you are very busy, and you don't need to work in the office."

Chen Pingjiang naturally couldn't refuse the unexpected surprise. It wouldn't take much time anyway. Besides, the executives of Yuanfang Supermarket should have an annual salary of hundreds of thousands, right?
What Chen Pingjiang lacks most now is money.

(End of this chapter)