Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

In the first quarter, the IDG Venture Capital Fund had introduced Chen Yansen to four international retail partners: eBay, Newegg, Macy’s, and Walmart. Combined with Amazon’s international site, FoxTao was hardly lacking in cross-border B2C resources.

However, upon reviewing the data reports, Chen Yansen noticed something: while traffic to these sites was decent, the conversion rate was low.

”Zhuang Rui, come here for a second!”

Chen Yansen thought for a moment, then called out to Zhuang Rui.

”Brother Sen, what’s up?” Zhuang Rui stood up and walked over quickly.

”About the international shopping section,” Chen Yansen asked quietly, ”has your product team looked into it? Why is there such a large gap between click-throughs and conversions?”

”The customer service team did some follow-up calls for us,” Zhuang Rui said slowly. ”The main pain points for users are language barriers, differences in product specifications, payment methods, and logistics. For example, a pair of size 42 sneakers can vary between brands, and returns are a hassle. That’s why the conversion rate is stuck.”

He was well aware of the problem but couldn’t come up with an effective solution.

Chen Yansen frowned, mentally reviewing the solutions that would prove successful in the future. ’There are only a few ways,’ he thought. ’One, browser translation plug-ins. Two, logistics transit hubs. Three, a platform-run proxy purchasing service that forwards items to the user.’

In the future, companies like 55haitao and Yangmatou would be the ones to target this exact market.

Unfortunately, after 2014, giants like Ah Li, Jingdong, and NetEase would successively move into cross-border e-commerce, crushing many of the smaller platforms.

”I see,” Chen Yansen replied.

Zhuang Rui looked like he wanted to say more but held his tongue. He truly had no good solutions for this. The most he could do was recommend a translation plug-in before the user was redirected; he couldn’t help with anything else.

After a moment of thought, Chen Yansen picked up his phone and called Liao Wei at Cloud Speed Express.

”An overseas transit hub? Build a logistics warehouse in the Lighthouse Country? President Chen, that’s no easy task.”

Liao Wei replied, a troubled look on his face after hearing Chen Yansen out.

”Difficulty means a high barrier to entry, and that’s where the real money is,” Chen Yansen said nonchalantly. ”If you don’t want to do it, I’ll just find another courier to partner with.”

”Alright. I’ll take a trip to the Lighthouse Country next week and start by investigating warehouse operations and labor costs.”

After a moment’s thought, Liao Wei gritted his teeth and agreed.

Chen Yansen was handing him this business on a silver platter. If Liao Wei refused, he likely wouldn’t get another opportunity to get business from Chen Yansen again.

Hearing Liao Wei’s agreement, Chen Yansen smiled faintly and hung up.

’The e-commerce giants were all drooling over the massive pie that was international online shopping. How could he possibly let it go?’

’The key is to eliminate the hurdles for shoppers. Language barriers can be solved with translation plug-ins. Inaccurate sizing can be solved by physically measuring the items and re-labeling clothes, shoes, and bags according to domestic standards.’

’Payment issues can be handled by a proxy service, and logistics and delivery problems can all be solved with a single transit hub.’

Having organized his thoughts, Chen Yansen called over the business manager responsible for the Amazon international account. He told him to get the addresses of a few of Amazon’s major warehouses so that he could have Liao Wei build the transit hub nearby, thereby reducing first-mile transportation costs.

「Meanwhile.」

At OPPO’s headquarters in Dongguan, Wang Teng had just finished a meeting. As he was about to head back to his desk, the phone in his pocket started ringing.

”Hello? Who is this?”

Seeing it was an unfamiliar number, Wang Teng instinctively hung up. But the person called back immediately, making him realize it wasn’t a wrong number.

”Hello, is this Mr. Wang Teng?” the person on the other end asked.

”Yes. Who’s calling?” Wang Teng asked.

”Mr. Wang, I’m with the Shangde Headhunting Company,” the headhunter said with a smile, explaining their purpose. ”I’ve been retained to invite you to join a new company. I was wondering if you’ve been considering a job change recently?”

’A headhunter?’