Chapter 453: The Bigger the Storm, The Pricier the Fish

When Nuomi got wealthy, Lashou Network faced a business downturn, and the group buying, sharing the same market, suffered too.

Despite holding a large number of quality merchants after a market shuffle, no high-quality assets really mattered under the temptation of real money.

Upon hearing this news, Lashou Network felt quite relieved.

It’s unclear when it started, but the internal atmosphere at the Shanghai branch began to change.

It turned into “Look, even group buying is sucking big time, so it’s normal if we do too!”

Rest, Slack off!

What they didn’t know was although the transaction volume of group deals was indeed plummeting, the browse numbers on sections like Gourmet List and Good Products List barely decreased.

Just like dealing with the second and third-tier markets, everyone still prefers checking reviews on group buying before cashing coupons for Nuomi.

This ensured the basic daily active users of the site.

Most importantly, Pine Group’s own section, Pine Selected, saw an increase in transaction volumes instead of a decline.

With group buying sales exploding, markets heated up and numerous fake product channels flooded in, introducing fake clothing, shoes, mobiles, computers, cosmetics, and daily goods everywhere, making them almost impossible to guard against.

However, the essence of group buying is swift deals; a minor manager might have signed hundreds of stores or channels, but has only five or six employees at most.

They lacked manpower and energy for background checks and didn’t want their sales to dip.

At the grassroots level, the idea was to ensure constant growth in sales volumes, while the higher-ups aimed to quickly consume competitors’ territories.

Regarding fake products, they let the market do the filtering for them.

What is market filtering?

It starts when a consumer reports, “Damn it, I bought a fake!” then they’ll follow the supply chain to eliminate the source.

Letting customers filter for them meant low cost and effort even if fake products required a three-times refund, making it cheaper than comprehensive background checks.

To put it in a proverb, they hoped consumers could pull out the radish bringing out some mud too, thereby reducing their workload.

Linchuan Business Group’s strategic cooperation plans worked similarly on the group buying market.

If there were no issues, nobody wanted to fire their top salesman during a market battle, so even if someone found out they were from Linchuan Business Group, it wouldn’t change anything.

Such alliances exist in every city; they don’t have an omniscient perspective or the capability to seek evidence with definite answers.

Amidst the rampant fake products, the slogan “Buy actual goods on Pine Selected” spread far and wide.

Thus, Jiang Qin took advantage of the still high daily interaction rates to allocate resources from the main market to develop the Pine Selected business.

Thirty percent of this segment’s channels came from Linchuan Business Group, and seventy percent from Wanzhong Mall.

Prior to reform, Wanzhong was a pure sales-focused mall with numerous high-quality supply channels and deep relationships with various distributors, and He Yijun was a businessman who greatly valued trust and maintained good relations with everyone.

With Mr. He mediating, negotiations became quite smooth.

Additionally, he reassigned some personnel from business to specifically negotiate electronic product supply channels.

On January 11, the task list for all managers at the Shanghai branch was updated, making Pine Selected the key business goal in a market dominated by Nuomi.

“We can deal with domestic phone brands, but no shoddy knock-offs.”

“Cheap channels are okay, but avoid those barely altering a letter and posing as genuine.”

“As for exclusive store channels, we can subsidize them ourselves, but quality must be ensured.”

“This task doesn’t emphasize sales volume, but the genuine image must be established during this phase. Xuemei has already released a lot of Pine Group material; we need to make Pine Selected synonymous with authentic goods.”

Controlling the channels could reduce the influx of counterfeits, but opportunistic tactics couldn’t be completely stopped.

Because sometimes even goods in exclusive stores might not all be genuine.

Hence, Jiang Qin requested that if fake products were sold, they must offer home swaps within an hour, strictly ensuring the final mile of genuine product sales.

Thus, under the market competition initiated by Nuomi’s early financing, three outcomes emerged.

Nuomi took up nearly ninety percent of the business, Lashou’s market went into severe decline, Pine Group’s in-store business kept falling, but Pine Selected carved out an image of genuine products, gaining far-reaching influence.

“Nuomi’s deals are indeed huge, but I ended up with a lot of fake and unbranded products, now waiting for exchange news, not sure how to handle it.”

“I’ve always said it, buy electronics from Pine Group.”

“Pine Group has fakes too, but very few, and_once detected, they immediately offer home returns and even provide a subsidy coupon if it takes over an hour.”

“I’m fine using Nuomi for leisure, but for shopping, I stick with Pine Group.”

“…”

【Direct Sales of Genuine Channels, Excluding Brand Premiums—Pine Selected】

After New Year’s Day, during Shanghai’s first light snow, Yang Xueyu stood on the street gazing at a Pine Selected poster, speechless for a moment.

Meanwhile, Cui Yiting crossed the street wearing a long black down jacket, her face lightly made up, handing Yang Xueyu a cup of hot coffee.

They drank their coffee, viewing the intermittent light snow, not speaking for a long time until Yang Xueyu initiated a conversation.

“Are you familiar with Jiang Qin?”

“Not particularly, but we’ve dined together.”

Yang Xueyu turned to her, “What’s your impression of him?”

Cui Yiting paused briefly, “At that time, I thought he was just a lucky college student with some guts and a bit of money, one of those lucky types.”

“Do you ever think, maybe luck is something he creates for himself?”

“？”

Yang Xueyu pointed at the Pine Group poster, “Pine Selected was launched on New Year’s Day. Back then, President Luo hadn’t left, and we discussed this. It seemed a strange endeavor because everyone wanted to unify the market, but he opted to play with channels.”

Cui Yiting pulled her left hand into her sleeve, “I heard President Luo say, you had sent a report to headquarters at that time.”

“Right, although I didn’t understand why they started Pine Selected while the market was still unstable, I knew how crucial a genuine image was for group buying, so I wanted to handle it personally.”

“Headquarters didn’t agree?”

Yang Xueyu shook his head, “Not exactly, they just asked us to wait, saying they’d consider it after financing was secured. I thought waiting wasn’t an issue since establishing a genuine image isn’t a short-term task—it could take three to five years.”

Cui Yiting quietly listened, gazing at the poster.

“But I hadn’t considered that this market is distorted.”

Yang Xueyu sighed, “The more aggressively Nuomi plays, the more rampant the fakes. Sometimes establishing a genuine image doesn’t take three to five years; it just requires the competition to sell fakes while you don’t. How noble, right?”

Cui Yiting pursed her lips slightly, “So you mean, Pine Group suddenly launched Pine Selected during the New Year sales rush just for today?”

“That’s what I believe.”

Yang Xueyu turned to her, “Whether it’s Lashou or Nuomi, anyone who secures funding first will disrupt the market, you know it, I know it, Jiang Qin knows it too. But the difference between us is, he will use it, but we won’t.”

“Facing Nuomi’s offensive, what can we do? We can only slack off because we can’t compete.”

“Pine Group’s disadvantage is nearly the same as ours; they can’t block Nuomi’s frontal assault, their users are also dwindling, but they suddenly shifted their focus, riding on Nuomi’s frenzy to establish their image.”

“When the news of Nuomi’s financing came out, all of us panicked, but that day, Jiang Qin… must have been very excited.”

After hearing this, Cui Yiting fell silent for a long time, staring at the poster in deep thought.

After New Year’s, Lashou was exhaustively harried by Pine Group, with everyone having just one thought: to take a break and stop the chaos.

But there’s a simple truth, wealth has to be sought amidst risks, the bigger the storm, the pricier the fish.

“When I first joined the company, everyone said I was a theorist because I liked strategizing on paper. But if we still think burning money can determine victory in group buying development, then we’re surely doomed.”

“I regret coming to Shanghai. Nuomi physically crippling me is one thing, but Pine Group has been mentally wrecking me. I still remember President Luo’s expression when he bolted.”

Yang Xueyu finished speaking and walked away from the street, while Cui Yiting watched his departing figure for a long time, remaining silent.

At this moment, she couldn’t help but wonder if Jiang Qin was calculating something again, if he had laid down some plots, if he felt everyone was fish on his chopping board, then he with a kitchen knife in hand was unveiling a cold smile.

Cui Yiting felt a chill colder than the weather, a sense of helplessness growing within her.

In fact, at this very moment, Jiang Qin was sitting in a classroom, fervently studying his review materials.

The exam week was approaching, and Dean Zhang had assured he wouldn’t fail, but the condition was he couldn’t hand in his paper early or sleep during exams, he must appear seriously engaged until finished.

The whole world knows you don’t attend classes, giving a tough act, but if you doze off during an exam and still don’t fail, what about the university’s credibility?

So even if it’s just acting, you must show them that although you don’t attend classes, you know every… single… question.

Jiang Qin felt his head was going to explode after hearing this, for a student who barely understood the questions, how hard it is to seriously endure an exam?

But no choice, to ensure he doesn’t fall asleep, he still had to learn a bit.

“Old Jiang, you’ve been hugging that book day in day out recently, do you understand any of it?”

Cao Guangyu couldn’t resist poking him with a pen, arrogantly unstoppable.

He was very serious about his studies this semester, mainly to secure a graduate spot then spend another two years of romantic times with Ding Xue, so the final exams were really under his control.

Jiang Qin glanced at him, “To be honest, I really don’t understand.”

“You don’t understand and yet you keep reading?”

Jiang Qin put down the notebook bearing Feng Nanshu’s notes, couldn’t help but laugh, “Though I don’t understand, I do have a villa.”

Cao Guangyu: “……”