Chapter 380: The Era of Group Buying Has Arrived

March 6th marks the third solar term, Awakening-Insects, when the spring thunder awakens the dormant insects, signifying the revival of all things as spring returns to Earth.

In Linchuan, temperatures start to warm up and precipitation increases, signaling the time for spring plowing and planting along with continuous spring rains.

During this period, Wei Lanlan has selected a core team from the business department, and Su Nai’s application for an off-campus internship has been approved; a group of sixteen sets off for the capital.

Wei Lanlan is dealing with a GIS company called Gaode, while Su Nai is in contact with a freight company named Oceania Supply Chain.

Both sides are launching their businesses, working independently yet cooperatively.

Before arriving, both of them had only a vague idea of their boss’s intentions. Jiang Qin reassured them, “It’ll make sense once you’re there.”

And indeed, once they saw and studied, they understood exactly what they needed to do.

Negotiating with Gaode was to add an online navigation feature to the group buying, making the location of stores clearly visible to customers when choosing a store.

This avoids the hassle of calling to ask for directions and allows customers to quickly understand the distance between themselves and the target store.

It is said that the Expo Center in Shanghai currently uses this system, and Jiang Qin came specifically for it.

On the other hand, Su Nai discovered something quite interesting at Oceania Supply Chain.

This company handles import and export trade, owns a vast logistics park, and manages goods in various sectors with a wide variety of categories.

Despite the complex steps of receiving, inspecting, packing, and transporting, the logistics park should be chaotic but isn’t.

Su Nai found that it wasn’t the case.

They have their own freight management system. The upstream department inputs data, and the downstream department checks and receives it, saving both time and labor costs.

After observing for about three days, Su Nai realized that the boss wanted her to develop a similar goods management system for group buying.

Once this system goes online, merchants can independently list and update their products or services, inventory, seats, and trading hours via the group buying commercial backend.

Previously, the store information for group buying was handled by the tech department.

New group buying sites also follow this model, actively collecting merchant information and manually helping merchants list on their platforms.

Managing a few dozen or a hundred stores is manageable, but as the market grows, the workload will double.

How many merchants are there in one city? Ten cities? A hundred cities?

How many people will you need nationwide to keep merchant information updated at all times?

But once the group buying follows the Oceania Supply Chain’s goods management system and develops its own version, the originally complicated processes will be delegated to the merchants.

Letting merchants be the upstream and directly showcase their information to downstream customers via the group buying backend is truly a win-win scenario.

“When did the boss plan all these? I am kind of shocked.”

“I suddenly understand why the boss wasn’t in a rush to enter the battlefield.”

At the Hilton Hotel in the capital, Su Nai and Wei Lanlan discussed their discoveries from the past few days, feeling utterly astounded.

Yes, both the location service and the goods management system are still just conceptual. However, even a fool can see that once realized, they could radically transform the field.

Suixin Group imitated the group buying model and boasted on the national market, but they didn’t know that they copied only the initial version of the group buying.

Over the past year, the boss has been holding back the development of the group buying, only now revealing its true potential.

They couldn’t imagine the despair of group buying sites like Suixin Group when the group buying enters the battlefield.

“There’s too much information. Should we report back?”

“Yeah, we should give a report.”

Wei Lanlan pulled out her phone and dialed Jiang Qin’s number: “Hello, boss…”

But then her expression slightly startled: “Ah, it’s the boss’s wife. I miss you so much, boss’s wife. We left in such a hurry, didn’t get to see you.”

“…”

“Yes, I needed to report to the boss about work.”

“…”

“Oh, okay, I’ll wait then.”

Su Nai glanced at Wei Lanlan: “What’s up?”

Wei Lanlan lowered her voice: “The boss took the boss’s wife out for a spring outing, they are currently in a tree.”

“In a tree?”

“Yeah, the boss’s wife wanted to eat the sour dates from the tree, so the boss climbed up,” Wei Lanlan said, turning on the speakerphone.

Suddenly, a rustling sound came through, followed by an “ouch damn,” and it seemed as if the world stood still.

Wei Lanlan and Su Nai held their breath, hardly daring to breathe, wondering if they still had a chance to join the feast.

Soon, Jiang Qin’s voice came through the phone: “Lanlan, what’s up?”

“Boss, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, just a bit of scraped skin. What’s up, just speak.”

Then Wei Lanlan and Su Nai shared their observations and explained the concepts of merchant location and goods management systems.

Jiang Qin fully acknowledged what they had found and instructed them to keep it confidential, wrap up the cooperation, and return immediately; Su Nai should grasp the system and return to the post quickly.

After ending the call, Jiang Qin looked around at the beautiful scenic mountains around.

This was a small mountain next to the western suburbs, beautiful in the spring. He especially took Feng Nanshu out today to enjoy the scene, which would have been perfect if he hadn’t fallen from the tree.

But when he turned to the little rich girl, he saw her tearfully looking at Jiang Qin’s arm, gently covering his wound.

“Does it hurt?”

“It does. Your greed for dates got you. Still want them?”

Feng Nanshu shook her head vigorously, tears shimmering in her eyes: “Never again.”

Jiang Qin opened his hand, showing a handful of small sour dates: “Too bad, I already picked them.”

“Jiang Qin, you are a good man.”

“Try one and then tell me if I’m good.”

Feng Nanshu took a sour date, tasted it, and immediately spit out her cute pink tongue, obviously too sour for her.

Jiang Qin chuckled, thinking to himself, who would’ve guessed the last victor in the fiercely competitive group buying market would be leisurely climbing trees, teasing his dear friend, as if nothing was at stake?

What’s called a grand strategy? Probably when the closer you are to war, the more serene you appear.

“Did you get any thorns in your feet from that spot earlier?”

Feng Nanshu looked confused and shook her head: “No.”

“Are you sure? Maybe we should check just in case.”

“?”

Jiang Qin seriously unbuckled the little rich girl’s shoelaces, took off her sneakers, revealing a cute little foot wrapped in a white cotton sock, his expression as grave as a doctor’s.

A millionaire boss not into golf, horseback riding, or yachts, just damn this simple pleasure.

As Wei Lanlan and Su Nai deepened their work, Tan Qing, leading the marketing department, also sent teams to major cities, rehiring people who had previously done ground promotions for Zhihu, signing official agreements.

They also hired a batch of combat coaches to train these people daily.

The training includes weighted marching, grappling practice, and both one-on-one and group combat exercises.

The recruits were perplexed, wondering why they were learning to fight. Surely they wouldn’t need to fight in the future?

One-on-one fighting didn’t seem too hard, even flailing could knock down an old master. But what about one-against-many? Was this gearing up for a brawl?

You should know, each city’s ground promotion team starts with at least ten people, with one-against-many meaning each has multiple opponents, a scene of 11N.

Is this even a real job?

Despite doubts, getting paid just to work out made the gig irresistibly appealing, so everyone trained intensely.

After half a month of continuous training, the team improved rapidly. Defeating many opponents was hypothetical, but handling two seemed feasible.

Moreover, many even developed notable muscle, improving both physically and mentally.

By late March, at six in the morning, it was only 12 degrees in Hangcheng. The cold morning wind whipped as the local promo team was doing a weighted five-kilometer march. Passing a bridge, they heard a splash.

Thirteen of them rushed to see, discovering a girl trying to drown herself. They immediately dove in to save her, later receiving commendation and making local news.

Once Jiang Qin heard about this, he called to express his condolences and rewarded the rescuers.

Everything smoothly moved forward, with occasional incidents, but mostly positive developments.

Meanwhile, the national group buying market continued its dynamic shifts.

Suixin Group had laid their foundations in Shanghai post-New Year and was now firmly established, starting to expand to the capital as planned by Ye Ziqing.

However, at this moment, Suixin Group wasn’t the only one making waves in the group buying market.

Lashou Network launched in mid-March before Suixin could react, quickly targeting the capital as its market and securing a famous endorser, rapidly gaining traction.

Wowo Network followed, establishing an online mall and signing over a hundred merchants in Shanghai within three days.

Then came 24Coupon, Gaopeng Network, FullSeating Network, First Group Buying, Discount Gathering, WowTeam, Daily Deals, Helping You Save and over a hundred other group buying sites sprouting up like bamboo shoots after a rain, with more internet companies on their way to setting up.

The era of group buying has arrived.