The road for Luoxi has been paved and everything is ready, except for the east wind. As long as Hengying Finance handles New Century's loan business well, it will take off.
At this time, the year is coming to an end and the company is on holiday.
Xiaoyanzi still has to open a cram school during the winter vacation, and makes money like crazy while she has free time. She said she will return to Jianglan three days before the New Year.
Unable to wait that long, Su Zelin and the others had to leave first.
There's nothing to do when I get home. Apart from hearing my mother's nagging and eating my favorite home-cooked meals, I'm bored as hell.
During this period, Zhao Mingxuan attended a high school reunion. He has completely come out of the shadow of his first heartbreak and has regained his former confidence. It can be seen that he is quite satisfied with his new relationship.
My girlfriend is gentle and virtuous, and she doesn’t have the temper of a princess. She is much better than my ex.
Zhao Mingxuan suddenly realized that his ex had no advantages other than being a girl from Beijing, which gave him something to brag about. Even her name was ugly. He couldn't understand why he could tolerate her for so long.
I arrived leisurely on New Year's Eve.
Willow Lane, Su family.
After eating the New Year’s Eve dinner, the family watched the Spring Festival Gala as usual.
The exclusive sponsor of this year's Spring Festival Gala is Ali.
Ahri also sends red envelopes, but the amount is 9999.
Last year, New Century’s model was 8888, so it has to be upgraded a bit.
The red envelopes are distributed in the form of gold rush red envelope codes, and can only be used by mobile phones bound to a Zhifubao account. Lao Ma hopes to take this opportunity to let more people know about gold rush and Zhifubao.
Uncle Benshan’s skit “Talking about Things” in the 2006 Spring Festival Gala was also changed and replaced by “Online Shopping”.
But this was not a hasty change. CTS estimated that the sponsor would definitely want customization, so they launched a bidding process before the Spring Festival Gala program schedule came out.
Having said that, whether it is "Buying a Cell Phone" or "Online Shopping" customized by New Century, they are actually more in line with the times. For example, in 2005, cell phones were no longer a luxury item and had entered the homes of ordinary people. Many uncles and aunts in the countryside began to buy cell phones.
Online shopping is also a big trend in later generations, but because of Ali’s sponsorship this time, ordinary people learned about this new thing in advance.
"Online shopping is amazing. You can sit at home, without leaving home, just click the mouse in front of the computer, and the things you want will be delivered to your home in a few days. You can also pay your phone bills and water and electricity bills without leaving home. You can use a thing called Zhifubao to do it. Technology has really changed our lives so much!"
Zhao Lixia sighed.
She has no doubt about the convenience of online shopping because Su Jianjun now buys things online all day long.
"You know what, gold mining is fun. It sells almost everything, and it's cheap. It's like a huge online supermarket. I think this way of shopping will become popular sooner or later!"
Lao Su can be considered a trendsetters of the times. He is always the first to try new things that many young people dare not try. Once he becomes an addict, he cannot look back and spends his free time just buying things.
"but… "
Su Jianjun changed his tone and said, "Son, will this gold rush have an impact on New Century?"
Lao Su has been doing online shopping for half a year, and he found that most of the things online, including the postage, are cheaper than offline, and sometimes much cheaper, so he has this concern.
“There’s an impact!”
Su Zelin nodded affirmatively without even thinking: "It's not just for New Century, it has a big impact on many companies, but this is the tide of the times and it's unstoppable!"
At this point, he paused and asked, "Dad, do you know why things on the Internet can be sold so cheaply?"
"It's cheaper to open a shop online, and I don't have to rent a shop, and I can save on decoration costs!"
Su Jianjun quickly thought of the first reason.
Su Zelin nodded: "That's right, online stores only need to rent a warehouse at most. Some sellers even run an empty store to make a profit. After buyers buy things from their own stores, they will ship the goods from other stores. It's a completely zero-cost business."
"Also, there is no need to hire so many shopping guides, only one or two customer service staff will be enough."
Lao Su thought of a second reason.
"That's right. If you run a physical store with considerable sales and an online store, the number of people you need to employ in the latter is likely to be only two-thirds of the former, or even less. The savings in labor also reduce costs!"
Su Zelin first gave his father's analysis a thumbs up, and then continued: "In addition, many online store sellers sell directly from the factory and do not need middlemen, so many of them will directly return this part of the money to consumers in the form of prices to improve their competitiveness. This is why such products are sold at super low prices, even so cheap that people can't believe it!"
"More than that, online shopping has many advantages, such as no sales radius restrictions. In other words, if you open a store online, anyone in the country can come to buy, unlike a physical store in a city, whose customers are mostly local people; it can also operate 24 hours a day, and orders can be placed at any time; the same product can be compared at will to avoid being cheated; after a new product is launched, such as a new mobile phone, you can buy it online at the fastest speed, while some digital stores in small places may not be able to stock it in the first time..."
After Su Zelin said this, Su's mother also became worried and lost the mood to watch the Spring Festival Gala, so she joined the discussion.
"Son, if buying things online is so convenient and more cost-effective, and if it becomes popular in the future, how will New Century continue to do business?"
"Mom, don't worry, we have already considered this issue."
Su Zelin smiled and said, "Online shopping has many advantages, but it does not mean that it can completely replace physical stores, because it also has many disadvantages. The quality and after-sales service of things bought online may not be well guaranteed."
"Indeed!"
Su Jianjun was deeply touched because he was a victim: "I bought a pair of jeans online a few days ago. When they arrived, I found a small hole in the back. When I contacted the seller, he refused to admit it and insisted that I had torn it. I was so angry that I immediately contacted customer service to complain!"
"Haha, anyone can open a store online, there is almost no barrier to entry, which means there are good and bad people mixed together!"
"The reputation mechanism of gold rush can limit the bad behavior of sellers to a certain extent, but it is difficult to avoid the existence of unscrupulous merchants, and there will not be a small number of them."
"When it comes to digital products, it's easy to buy defective products, second-hand products, or even knockoff products."
"In reputable offline stores like New Century, we can try to avoid this kind of situation."
"At the same time, our after-sales service is more convenient. If a computer you buy has a problem, you have to send it back and forth, which is very troublesome. But at New Century, you only need to make a phone call and someone will come to your door to handle it."
Su Zelin said slowly: "These two are the core competitiveness of offline physical stores! As long as they are done well, this wave of online shopping will eliminate only those businesses with mediocre or poor reputation for quality and service, especially small businesses, because they still have to purchase goods through middlemen, and their profit margins are further compressed."
Zhao Lixia perked up: "Son, what you mean is that although some consumers have turned to the Internet, the number of physical businesses will also decrease, so those businesses that are doing well don't have to worry?"
"Mom, that's the truth. The cake has become smaller, but there are fewer people eating it!"
Su Zelin nodded.
This process, to use a more popular Internet term in later generations, is "I would rather die than let my fellow Taoist die."
"So, although we at New Century will be impacted by the online shopping trend, we don't have to worry about not having room to survive, because we are big enough and have paid great attention to product quality and service from the beginning, thus establishing an excellent reputation."
"Especially in terms of service, I dare say no one can do better than New Century. This has even surpassed the merchants of the brand itself. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the ceiling of the industry!"
"At least the number of after-sales outlets is on a different level. Many brands don't even have after-sales outlets in small counties, but we do, and in more than a year, all towns across the country will have them!"
New Century’s profits do not just come from selling digital products, but also from after-sales agency services.
As this digital chain store opened more and more stores throughout the county, and after learning that Xinshiji would soon have plans to enter the town-level market, many digital brands simply handed over the after-sales agency rights to it.
After all, it takes a lot of money to set up a huge after-sales network across the country, covering counties and towns, and you also have to maintain these stores and those people. For most brands, the money earned from after-sales service is not enough to cover expenses.
If there are too few after-sales outlets, your own products will lack competitiveness. In this case, it would be better to hand over the after-sales agency rights to a third party.
Many brands will recruit agents, especially in small places. However, compared to those small stores, why not hand it over to a third-party unified agent with a better reputation and stricter after-sales management
New Century's attitude towards service has impressed many brands.
In the second half of last year alone, after the county-level market layout was completed, until before the New Year holiday, New Century had successively reached after-sales agency cooperation with seven digital products. This business made a lot of money and became another major advantage for the company's survival.
When the online shopping boom arrives, New Century’s profit margin will be affected, but it will definitely survive. After those small stores are eliminated, the profit margin will rebound and finally settle at a certain balance point.
But that is many years later. At least the impact of online shopping will not be very obvious until the Internet and smartphone businesses develop to a certain extent. In this life, Ma's pace is faster than in his previous life, but it can't be much faster.
By that time, I had already retired and was enjoying life as a happy little salted fish.
The other side.
"Dad, Mom, I'm going to go check on Zelin."
Qin Shiqing accompanied her parents to watch the Spring Festival Gala until 8:30, when she became restless and ran downstairs.
"Hey, girls can't be kept at home when they grow up!"
Qin Daqing sighed.
Don’t say that a married daughter is like spilled water. A daughter who has a boyfriend is already half spilled.
The daughter is a father’s little cotton-padded jacket. Although she has not yet married, Old Qin is already feeling a little sad.
"Shiqing and Zelin live together in Lin'an and work together in New Century. When they come back, they live next door to each other. They see each other every day. Why are they still so attached to each other?"
Liu Sufen glared at him and said, "What do you know? Only young people with a good relationship would be so annoying. We should be happy for the children!"
"That's right!"
Qin Daqing nodded.
Thinking that my little girl will marry next door in the future, I feel a little comforted. I am just afraid that she will marry far away and it will be difficult to see her.
Su family.
As soon as Qin Shiqing appeared and greeted the two elders, Su Zelin stood up and dragged her towards the room.
"Wife, shall we go play poker?"
Tonight he paid attention to the way Ali sent out red envelopes, as well as the skit "Online Shopping". After watching them, he felt that there was nothing interesting and it would be better to do something else.
When Qin Shiqing heard this, her pretty face turned red instantly.
Playing poker is the code word between her and Su Zelin.
After entering the bedroom, she pinched Su Zelin and said, "What are you doing? How can you do that at this time? Your parents are outside, and the door is not closed!"
"Wife, what are you thinking? You have such evil thoughts. I really mean to play poker!"
The guy laughed, walked to the computer and logged into the board game.
Qin Shiqing then realized that she had misunderstood, but she felt that the gangster must have intentionally misled her, so she pinched him a few times to vent her anger.
Nowadays, Su Zelin plays chess and card games on Penguin Games. Two years ago, he only played Lianzhong.
At the beginning, Lianzhong was really awesome. In 2003, it had more than 200 million registered users and 15 million monthly active users, accounting for 85% of the market share.
In August of the same year, Penguin followed the example of Ourgame and launched Penguin Games.
When it was first launched, 联众 scoffed at it, thinking it was just a lousy copycat.
However, Lianzhong soon found out that he was wrong.
Tencent simply added a game entrance to the QQ interface, and the contact interface would also prompt your friends which game they were playing, giving it a social attribute. As a result, one year later, the number of people in the QQ game hall caught up with that of Lianzhong. By 2006, few netizens were playing Lianzhong anymore.
But whether it is 联众 or 鹏群游戏, it makes no difference to Su Zelin. He can go crazy playing chess and cards. Take the Landlord, which he is most accustomed to, for example. In his previous life, many players would wait eagerly to receive beans at a certain time, and even spend money to play. But Hunzi never needs to recharge, and he still has so many beans that he can't count them.
Qin Shiqing couldn't help but admire her boyfriend's extraordinary skills. Sometimes he clearly had a bad hand and if it were someone else, they would just have to wait for the next hand, but he just managed to win.
After watching for a while, I found that the losers always won, which was boring.
The girl's heart moved, and she suddenly thought of something. She opened the drawer of the desk and took out a Chinese textbook from the bottom. It was the book that she helped to make a handmade book cover for, and the one that Su Zelin was reluctant to sell after graduating from high school.
"Look, the evidence is irrefutable. Someone pretended to be indifferent at first, but it's a pity that he was found out!"
He took the Chinese textbook and shook it proudly in front of Su Zelin.
The scoundrel's heart was instantly unstable, and he accidentally lost the game of Landlord. He quit the game and said with a straight face, "Bullshit, I just wanted to leave a keepsake from my high school days, and this one happened to look good, so I left it behind."
"Tsk, you're so obsessed with face. Then why did you take that photo of us to the Finance College after you went to college?"
Qin Shiqing smiled mischievously.
Uh, how did she know
Su Zelin was a little confused.
"During the winter break of my freshman year, I came to your house on the first day of the break and discovered that the photo was missing from your album. Apart from the fact that you took it to the School of Finance, is there any other possibility?"
The girl turned into Sherlock Holmes and analyzed the situation in detail.
The gangster was dumbfounded.
I was careless. I didn't expect Qin Shiqing to be so delicate.
I thought I had covered it up well, but I accidentally exposed my chicken feet in so many places.
"How dare you tease me? I'll whip your butt 100 times as punishment!"
Su Zelin was so angry that he wanted to carry out a cruel flogging immediately.
Qin Shiqing quickly jumped off his legs and giggled, "No, help me, this is indecent assault!"
The young couple in the room were making a lot of noise.
Su Jianjun and Zhao Lixia outside heard the sound and smiled at each other.
It seems that the day when Qin Shiqing becomes his official daughter-in-law is not far away.