dognovel Chapter 84: Riding the Wave: Business Opportunities from the Olympics
Chapter 84: Riding the Wave: Business Opportunities from the Olympics
The following days.
Lin Bei focused all his energy on the online store.
After getting his driver's license, he no longer needed to go to the driving school every day. Apart from eating and sleeping, he spent all his time in front of the computer.
I spend half an hour in the morning processing the previous day's orders and after-sales messages.
Then, adjust the day's promotion budget and spend another hour or so studying the copy for the new product detail page.
After lunch, Lin Bei would go to Boss Wu's factory to feel the texture of the new fabrics and discuss the direction of the next batch of styles with the designers.
In Linbei's shop, erotic lingerie accounts for more than 70% of the shop's total revenue.
The repurchase rate for stockings and underwear, in particular, is astonishingly high.
Many customers place orders almost every month, buying more frequently than sanitary napkins.
To this end, Lin Bei also added a "Buyer Show Collection with Prizes" section to the store.
Customers who post photos of themselves trying on the clothes in the comments section will receive a five-yuan red envelope.
Five yuan in 2008 was a considerable sum.
So, the comments section exploded as soon as the event was launched.
The number of buyer reviews skyrocketed from a few per day to dozens in an instant.
The store's activity level ranks among the top three in its category on Taobao.
By the end of July, Linbei's store had officially surpassed 1,000 orders per day.
The store's rating on Taobao's backend was changed from three red hearts to five diamonds, and the store's closing function was permanently disabled.
The Olympics are coming on the last day of July.
National flags and Olympic rings flags were hung in front of shops on the streets and alleys, and the slogan "One World, One Dream" was painted on the walls along the roadside.
The Coca-Cola bottles sold in convenience stores were printed with the Fuwa mascots, and the televisions were showing the Olympic countdown and torch relay footage.
The whole country seemed to be immersed in the excitement of a grand festival.
Song Qingning recently acquired a set of five Fuwa plush toys from somewhere, which she neatly arranged on her bedside table.
She takes a photo with the Fuwa mascots every day and posts it on her QQ space, with captions like "Beibei is so cute" or "Jingjing was very well-behaved today."
When Lin Bei opened QQ Space and saw these photos, his lips twitched, and he quickly closed the page.
But less than two minutes later, he couldn't resist opening it again to take a look.
Then I quietly saved the photo to my phone's photo album.
As for why we need to save it?
He didn't think about it, nor did he want to delve into it further.
……
Early August.
The temperature in the city has risen to its most scorching level of the year.
The asphalt road surface gleamed from the sun, and cicadas chirped from morning till night in the roadside trees.
With just one week to go before the opening of the Olympics, the entire city has already entered a state of celebration.
The shops along the street were all adorned with national flags and Olympic rings.
The bus was painted with a huge "One World, One Dream" slogan.
The Coca-Cola bottles sold in convenience stores all have the image of the five Fuwa mascots printed on them.
Even the old man repairing bicycles on the street corner had tied a small national flag to his radio antenna pole.
At this juncture, Lin Bei's online store experienced a surge in growth.
He had previously commissioned Mr. Wu's clothing factory to produce a batch of T-shirts printed with Olympic-related designs.
Instead of directly printing the Olympic rings, they redesigned the images of the five Fuwa mascots into cartoon-style T-shirt prints, and also made several T-shirts with the words "Go China!" and "Pride of the Chinese People" printed on them.
As soon as this batch of goods was put on the shelves, it was snapped up immediately, with daily sales jumping from 1,000 orders to 3,000 orders.
Lin Bei also posted a pre-sale link for the Fuwa plush toys on the store's homepage.
He bought these figurines wholesale from a toy factory in Dongguang.
Officially licensed, each item cost 35 yuan to buy, but he sells them for 68 yuan. The profit margin isn't high, but the sales volume is enormous. Just the two designs, Beibei and Jingjing, have already sold over 2,000 units through pre-sales.
After Song Qingning found out about this.
He rushed to Lin Bei's house immediately to confront him.
She stood in the center of the living room, hands on her hips, holding up the pre-sale link for the Fuwa doll on her phone screen in front of Lin Bei, her tone filled with a betrayed anger:
"That wretched Lin Bei!"
"Why didn't you tell me you were selling Fuwa mascot dolls?"
"My baby's tags are still on, and you've already started selling it."
"I don't care, just leave me one set, unopened, five in total!"
Lin Bei leaned back in his computer chair, turned to look at Song Qingning, and held the mouse in his hand.
"Don't you already have a set on your bedside table?"
"Why do you want more!"
"That's different!" Song Qingning scoffed. "I bought that one myself, but you sold this one. The meaning is different."
Lin Bei laughed and said, "What's the difference in meaning?"
"I think you're just trying to get something for free."
Song Qingning blushed and hesitated for a long time before saying, "Anyway, it's different. Are you staying or not?"
Looking at Song Qingning's expression, Lin Bei shook his head helplessly and put down the mouse in his hand.
He took out a complete set of Fuwa mascots gift boxes from the drawer, which were still unopened, and handed them to Song Qingning.
"Here you go, it's still unopened."
When Song Qingning saw the gift box, her eyes widened instantly. She hurriedly reached out and took the gift box, then looked down at the plastic seal on the packaging.
Then, forcing a smile, she said, "That's more like it."
Before Lin Bei could reply, Song Qingning took the gift box and went back.
That evening.
Song Qingning updated her QQ space status with a picture of her placing the old and new sets of Fuwa dolls together.
The old one was placed on the left, the new one on the right, and a business card of Linbei's shop was placed in the middle.
The caption consisted of only one line of Martian text: 【My collection has grown again!】
When Lin Bei saw this post, he was eating instant noodles in his bedroom and almost choked on the noodles and vomited them.
During this period, Lao Gao did not take a driving test, but instead went to the city sports center to serve as an Olympic volunteer.
He wears a fluorescent green vest every day, giving directions under the 38-degree sun, and has gotten even darker from the tan.
Every time Lin Bei invited Lao Gao to dinner, he would always say he was busy, that he had training today, drills tomorrow, or moving supplies the day after.
They finally managed to arrange a night together, and the two of them sat down at a roadside barbecue stall.
Lao Gao immediately ordered twenty skewers of lamb and five skewers of kidney.
After the barbecue was served, Lin Bei and Lao Gao chatted and drank together.
Lao Gao took a big gulp of beer and said, "I get more exercise every day now than I used to do all night at internet cafes."
"Not only did my appetite double, but I also lost four pounds."
"Moreover, this volunteer experience has been quite an eye-opener."
"There was an African journalist in our area, as black as charcoal. When he walked towards the volunteer service station, the entire station was stunned for three seconds because his teeth were so white they shone in the night."
After finishing his story, Lao Gao chuckled and took a few sips of beer: "When I went to greet this African uncle, I was so nervous that I couldn't even speak English fluently."
"And guess what happened?"
"The other person spoke fluent Chinese and said, 'Young man, don't be nervous, I'm from Beijing Foreign Studies University.' I almost knelt down in front of him on the spot."