dognovel Chapter 52 New Items
Chapter 52 New Items
After communicating with the two, Lin Mu took a car to the Three Little Bees Company.
Boss Gu personally came out to greet him, saying, "President Lin, the packaging and logistics line modification you mentioned in your post is so useful! After I made the modifications as you suggested, the packaging efficiency has improved a lot, and the rate of lost and incorrect orders has also decreased significantly."
"With so many orders, our customer service team is overwhelmed. Mr. Lin, when would you have some free time to write a guide on customer service strategies?"
Lin Mu thought to himself that the history of Taobao customer service was actually quite interesting, and he could indeed write about it when he had time. He said, "I've been too busy lately, so I probably don't have the energy to write a textbook. If you want to learn, I can teach you right now."
Next, Lin Mu explained in a reasoned and logical manner: how to divide customers into pre-sales and after-sales categories, how to uncover users' real needs, how to improve positive review rates... a series of practical tips were thrown out one after another.
Mr. Gu listened with rapt attention and said, "President Lin, it's a real pleasure to talk to you. By the way, President Lin, I'd like to discuss something with you."
Lin Mu glanced at him sideways and asked, "What?"
Boss Gu chuckled and asked, "President Lin, do you like soaking your feet?"
……
Some time later, inside the spa.
Mr. Gu explained his needs to Lin Mu: "Mr. Lin, I'd like to get on the e-commerce bandwagon, but my personal capabilities are limited, and I don't have the energy to manage both online and offline channels at the same time."
"So I would like to ask Mr. Lin to help introduce a skilled operator to manage the store. I can offer them shares and pay them a salary."
Lin Mu thought to himself, these business owners are indeed shrewd one by one. Boss Gu specially invited me to the spa club, probably to gain my trust.
Here, everyone is naked, making it less likely to be recorded.
He immediately replied, "Sure, I actually know an operations expert who I can introduce you to."
Afterwards, Gu Ming signed an agency operation contract with the person introduced by Lin Mu.
按照合同约定：一年之内，年流水达到200万给2%的提成，达到500万给6%的提成，年流水1000万给10%提成。
After the signing, Lin Mu approached Boss Gu and said, "Boss Gu, I'll try to help you clear out those slow-selling items in your warehouse. Also, have you considered transforming the company? Stop selling those old-fashioned childhood breads; are you interested in the breakfast bread market?"
Mr. Gu quickly replied, "I'm very interested! I just don't know the specifics of how to do it. Mr. Lin, could you explain it to me?"
Lin Mu pondered: The most popular product on the market right now is Panpan French mini bread, with annual sales of several hundred million yuan. Even during the financial crisis, it can still maintain an annual growth rate of 40%.
If you find a manufacturer that manufactures Panpan products and negotiate a partnership, repackage them, and sell them on Taobao, you can sell them well with your own marketing skills, but the potential is too limited.
He then thought of the mature sliced bread launched in 2009, a single product that directly made Taoli a success, bringing in 3 million yuan in revenue every year.
But now it's October 28, 2008. If we try to compete with Taoli for this opportunity, we definitely won't be able to win. We need to plan ahead.
Are there any bread categories that were launched after 2009, became wildly popular, and have a significant long-tail effect?
Lin Mu searched his mind for a moment and quickly settled on a category—pocket probiotic bread. This bread features a portable and compact design with a probiotic filling, directly creating the pocket bread category and becoming the benchmark for this category.
In later years, it was proven on Tmall, leading in sales for five consecutive years and generating hundreds of millions in revenue annually. Lin Mu remembered it so clearly because it became a top-selling item on Tmall in later years, and his colleagues in the operations department talked about it every day, making it hard for him not to remember.
However, there were two challenges in launching this product in 2008: first, we had to popularize the concept that "lactic acid bacteria are good for health" among the public; second, the research and development was difficult, and it was really unreasonable to ask Mr. Gu to invest hundreds of thousands or even millions in research and development before we had even achieved any results for him.
How about that soft milk crust white bread?
Lin Mu recalled its glorious history: with "a loaf of bread, a glass of milk, and high protein" as its selling point, its sales exceeded 1000 million yuan in 60 days after its launch, and its cumulative sales reached 3 million yuan in 2024.
The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed: firstly, the success of this bread relied on marketing, and the research and development was not difficult; secondly, the milk market was currently very competitive, with various brands frantically marketing "milk is good for health," so he could ride the wave of publicity.
Lin Mu clarified his strategy: first, operate the soft milk skin white bread business, achieve results to prove himself, and then get Boss Gu to invest in the research and development of probiotic bread.
Once the probiotic bread is developed, Three Little Bees will have two blockbuster products.
He estimated that, driven by these two blockbuster products, Three Little Bees' annual revenue would reach hundreds of millions by around 2012 or 2013.
By then, I will probably have left Taobao and be ready to start Pinduoduo. The three little bees will be able to seamlessly connect with Pinduoduo and become original sellers, helping me get through the most difficult early stages.
Lin Mu explained his idea in detail—to focus on soft milk crust white bread.
After hearing this, Boss Gu's eyes lit up and he said, "President Lin, give me some time to study this. I'll find some researchers to develop this bread."
Lin Mu suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, does your shop have three diamonds yet?"
Boss Gu was taken aback for a moment, then replied, "Yes, the shop is almost at four diamonds."
Lin Mu said, "Since it's a three-diamond store, we can activate the membership system now."
Go to the backend and apply for activation later. If all goes well, it will be activated smoothly after the review department approves it.
"I'll teach you a trick. There's a bug in this membership system. You can set it up like this: as long as you make 3 purchases or accumulate 50 yuan in spending, you can become a member of our store."
"We offer discounts to members to clear out inventory, so we can be quite aggressive with discounts, like 25% off."
"The bug in Taobao's membership system is that orders in the shopping cart that are pending payment can automatically become members as long as they meet the membership threshold, without needing to click to buy. In other words, if a user buys something worth 50 yuan in your store, they only need to pay 35 yuan."
"Since this bug exists, we can leverage it for marketing: go to various channels, pretend to discover it by accident, and encourage everyone to take advantage of the opportunity."
Lin Mu continued explaining his plan: "Clear out all the old bread we have now, creating the illusion that we're selling at a loss due to an operational error, losing everything. Then, we'll empty the shelves of our Taobao store, and then..."
Lin Mu explained in detail how the Three Little Bees brand transformed from an old brand into a new one.
Lin Mu rattled off a bunch of tricks used in live-streaming e-commerce in later generations, leaving Boss Gu quite astonished.