Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

On October 15, the second day of Jingdong’s presale event, three new coupon portals appeared on the main event page for digital products and home appliances: ”300 off 2,000,” ”800 off 5,000,” and ”1,200 off 10,000.”

In the coupon center, 10,000 no-minimum-spend 20 Hua Yuan Jing Vouchers were also released every hour from 8:00 a.m. to midnight, keeping users glued to the platform for sixteen hours straight.

The head of Jingdong’s event planning team had a simple idea: ’Whether they buy anything or not, I want them opening the Jingdong website or app on the hour, every hour.’

Over the course of the day, the various promotional subsidies amounted to as much as 20 million Hua Yuan, and the results were, naturally, remarkable.

On October 14, Jingdong’s presale sales reached 810 million Hua Yuan.

On October 15, Jingdong’s presale sales reached 1.07 billion Hua Yuan.

They had easily surpassed the one-billion mark!

”Damn it all!” Zhang Jindong couldn’t help but curse when he heard the news.

Jingdong and Sunning had a considerable overlap in both their products and customer bases. Since the repurchase frequency for digital products and home appliances is low, any customer who placed an order on Jingdong would almost certainly not shop at Sunning again.

”Launch the ’Zero-Cost Shopping’ event ahead of schedule.”

With a grim expression, Zhang Jindong summoned the head of Sunning’s e-commerce division and gave the order. He couldn’t stand seeing Liu Qiangdong act so arrogantly.

According to the original plan, the event was supposed to be teased on October 18 and launched on October 25.

The rules were brutally simple: for every 1,000 Hua Yuan spent, the customer would receive a 120 Hua Yuan voucher in return. These vouchers could be stacked, and the rebate was uncapped.

It primarily targeted categories like mobile phones, digital products, computers, and home appliances, covering brands such as Haier, Hisense, Mountain Star, Lenovo, and Apple.

In other words, customers could enjoy an effective 12% discount on purchases like the Surface tablet, Apple iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, Orange C3, Haier refrigerators, and Lenovo laptops.

In reality, although Sunning’s rebate vouchers were advertised as having no minimum spend, they came with category restrictions. They could only be used to purchase small home appliances and high-margin products like snacks, alcohol, and cosmetics.

To put it bluntly, there was a catch.

But it was also the first time Sunning had run a promotion with identical online and offline pricing across all categories. So, despite the clever caveats, there was also a good deal of genuine effort.

The selection of small appliances included hot commodities like rice cookers, microwave ovens, electric fans, and air fryers, but the inventory was limited.

Customers who were too slow could only use their vouchers on overpriced snacks and alcohol.

Back in 2012, buyers were far more naive. As soon as they saw what looked like a 12% discount on Apple and Orange mobile phones, they immediately placed their orders and paid.

The first wave of customers all managed to buy the small appliances they wanted and began posting guides on Weibo, BBS forums, campus networks, and online discussion boards.

This was partly to show off, but also because on October 9, Sunning had launched ”Sunning Pushers,” a CPS (Cost Per Sale) advertising affiliate program similar to Ali’s Mother and the Pinbei Alliance. Users could share rebate links on social media, and if someone clicked the link and placed an order on Sunning, the original user would earn a commission.

After all, how many truly kind-hearted people are there in the world?

They either want to take your money, or they want you to make money for them!

Zhang Jindong’s ”Zero-Cost Shopping” event caught Liu Qiangdong completely off guard. Jingdong’s sales in the large home appliance and digital product categories took a major hit.

Facing his old rival’s offensive, Liu Qiangdong immediately counterattacked by launching the ”Desert Storm” event. It featured 50% direct price drops on small appliances, a ”100 off for every 200 spent” deal, and a 1,010 Hua Yuan coupon bundle for spending just 99 Hua Yuan. The goal was to preemptively satisfy customers’ demand for small appliances.