PDLP Chapter 29 Struggle
Chapter 29 Struggle
Oh, what a pity!
Yang Xiaofang quickly replied to each buyer's message, apologizing for oversleeping, and then answered all their questions. Afterward, she checked the statistics in the merchant's backend and discovered that even while she was asleep, there had been naturally completed orders.
Her final result on the first day was selling twelve orders.
Yang Xiaofang did the math in her head: she could earn about four yuan per order, so twelve orders would be forty-eight yuan. A surge of joy filled her heart, and the corners of her eyes unconsciously turned upwards.
That means you can earn 1,500 yuan a month! Although the average salary in Hangzhou in 2008 was also around 1,500 yuan.
However, this money is different from what I earn working; this is money I earned as my own small business owner. And this is only the first day of opening the shop. What if business gets better and better, and I can sell a hundred orders a day? Then I can earn four hundred yuan a day, and twelve thousand yuan a month!
Ah, no, no, no.
Yang Xiaofang quickly shook her head, feeling that she was being too impetuous and arrogant, and that she should be more down-to-earth and take things one step at a time.
Next, Yang Xiaofang began working tirelessly day and night.
She works a very busy job every day, working as a customer service representative in front of the computer, a packer in the warehouse area, and then delivering packages to the courier station to fill out courier forms.
During this process, she made many mistakes in the rush.
While packing a package, she was cutting tape with scissors when, in her haste, her hand slipped and the scissors cut her hand, leaving a gash.
While delivering packages, she also made a mistake on the waybill, filling in customer B's address instead of customer A's address for the package.
Customer B was a repeat customer who had bought stockings before, and unexpectedly received another pair. Fortunately, customer B was kind and willing to return the goods, only asking Yang Xiaofang to pay for the shipping.
What's most frustrating is that Yang Xiaofang has also encountered unreasonable buyers. One customer insisted on returning the stockings after wearing them. How could such intimate stockings possibly be resold?
Helpless, she requested Taobao customer service intervention, but the customer service representative blindly sided with the buyer and ruled in favor of the buyer. Yang Xiaofang not only lost the payment for the order but also felt extremely aggrieved and angry.
What's most heart-wrenching is when, in the dead of night, the Wangwang chat suddenly starts beeping incessantly, startling her so much that she breaks out in a cold sweat and rushes to her computer to reply to the buyer's message.
What's infuriating is that after she finally managed to get up and reply in time, the other person's profile picture went gray and then disappeared without a trace.
Honestly, why ask if you're not going to buy? Every time this happens, Yang Xiaofang gets so angry that her chest feels tight.
However, thanks to Yang Xiaofang's tireless efforts day and night, the store's traffic increased day by day, and the number of orders also grew daily. She also accumulated dozens of loyal customers who would keep making repeat purchases.
After two weeks of dedicated operation, the store's daily order volume gradually increased from 10 orders to 20 orders, and is still on the rise towards 30 orders.
Yang Xiaofang did the math and figured that if this trend continued, selling five or six hundred orders a month wouldn't be a problem, and her monthly profit could be two to three thousand yuan.
This is because some customers don't just order one item, but several pairs at once, and these kinds of buyers bring her extra profit.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Yang Xiaofang saw that her skin was much oilier and she had deep bags under her eyes. She smiled bitterly to herself. Was it really worth working so hard just to earn two or three thousand yuan?
I clearly agreed that I wouldn't take over my mom's job or do hard work to earn money. I wanted to live a carefree and cool life and make money. But now, it's not cool at all. In fact, it's much more tiring than helping my mom with her wholesale business.
But Yang Xiaofang touched her face and knew in her heart that the hard work and exhaustion of the past two weeks had quietly changed her thoughts.
The feeling of building a business from scratch, transforming an empty new store into a thriving hit shop, is truly amazing and addictive. This sense of accomplishment is irreplaceable.
Just then, a beeping notification sound suddenly rang out.
Yang Xiaofang's heart nearly skipped a beat. She rushed from the warehouse area to the computer and stared at the Wangwang interface—no new messages. She looked closer and realized it was QQ flashing.
On QQ, Director Mao sent her a message.
Factory Manager Mao typed: "Xiao Fang, I recommend a channel to you, Alibaba Mama. I've already boosted my order volume by several hundred orders through this channel, you can try it too."
Alibaba Mama? What's that?
Immediately, Yang Xiaofang opened Baidu and searched for Alimama. After spending some time, she finally figured out the platform.
This is an online promotion platform created by Alibaba, specifically for connecting with Taobao businesses. Sellers can post product links on it, set commission rates for affiliate marketers, and then affiliate marketers will use their skills to promote these products on their personal websites or blogs.
Yang Xiaofang first went to see the commission rate given by the factory manager.
The stockings at Factory Manager Mao's place are priced at 36 yuan, with a 10% commission. This means that for every order that a Taobao affiliate helps sell, they can get a commission of 3.6 yuan.
Yang Xiaofang immediately started calculating her own accounts, weighing in her mind how much commission she should take.
Factory Director Mao sells them for 18 yuan a pair, with a minimum order of two pairs; while here she retails them for 16 yuan a pair, and can ship just one pair.
So, by this calculation, her profit margin is naturally smaller than that of Factory Manager Mao. However, her prices are lower, so her products sell better.
Yang Xiaofang did the math: if she also took a 10% cut, then for each order sold on Alibaba's Alimama platform, she would first have to deduct the wholesale cost of 10 yuan, then the 1.6 yuan cut, plus the 0.2 yuan cost of the express box, and then have to cover rent, utilities, and her own labor costs. So, she would only earn 2.4 yuan per order.
But this deal is definitely feasible.
In business, the speed of capital turnover is crucial. Although the profit per unit is lower, having an additional stable sales channel allows for faster inventory clearance.
Moreover, the biggest advantage of this promotion model is that no channel fees need to be paid in advance. The commission is only settled when the order is actually sold, which means zero cost and zero risk.
Having figured this out, Yang Xiaofang immediately added product links on Alibaba's Alimama platform and set the commission rate at 10%.
……
Guo Xiaomei is the owner of a personal website that focuses on clothing and styling, and she occasionally shares the latest fashion trends and tips from both China and abroad.
Her website is very well done, with tens of thousands of daily visits, and she has also accumulated thousands of fans in QQ groups.
However, Guo Xiaomei also has her own difficulties. Operating a personal website requires costs, and the monthly server rental fee is not cheap. She has been struggling to find a suitable way to monetize her large amount of traffic.
It wasn't until the emergence of Goodye.com that her anxiety was somewhat alleviated.
Goodye.com handles Google Play requests from major domestic and international companies. She only needs to add a few Google banners and promotional images to her website, and she can earn commissions from Goodye.com based on the number of Google Play impressions. This income barely covers her server costs.
But new problems arose one after another. She had broken even on the costs, but she wanted to earn more money to improve her life, so she had to find new ways to make a profit.
Until Alibaba's Alimama appeared, it perfectly solved her monetization pain point.