Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

The next day, at the crack of dawn, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

Chen Yansen slowly opened his eyes, threw back the corner of his blanket, and slipped on his slippers before walking out to the living room. A torn Avatar cosplay costume was tossed carelessly on the floor.

He sat down at his desk, opened his laptop, and logged into the data backend. Just five hours after Pinbei’s major promotion had started, real-time sales had already surpassed two billion Hua Yuan.

’Looks like hitting the five-billion target will be a piece of cake!’

Chen Yansen muttered under his breath after a quick glance.

Major e-commerce platforms like Tmall, Pinbei, and Jingdong had been setting the stage for a month. Whether it all paid off would be decided today.

「Meanwhile.」

Meng Xin, the founder of Ah Fu Essential Oil, hadn’t slept all night. He couldn’t get through to the director of beauty procurement and sales at Jingdong, so he tried sending a WeChat message to Liu Qiangdong, but that too vanished without a trace.

Even someone as slow on the uptake as him had figured it out by now.

For adults, not answering calls and not replying to messages often made one’s attitude perfectly clear.

”Son of a bitch, Liu Qiangdong! If you’ve got a problem with Ma Liyun, don’t use me as your damn weapon!”

Meng Xin cursed, his face dark as he gritted his teeth.

As a leading online beauty brand, Ah Fu Essential Oil had sold 28 million in the 2011 Taobao Double 11 promotion, ranking it in the top five for its category. This year, it set a new record during the 618 promotion, achieving an impressive 37 million in sales, second only to Yu Nifang, Procter & Gamble, and Perlaia.

Therefore, to increase company revenue, Meng Xin had unhesitatingly opened stores on Pinbei and Jingdong, hoping to gain more traffic and orders.

Last night, just as he was about to leave work, he received a call from Hu Li, Pinbei’s merchant operations manager. She was demanding to know why the promotional price for Pinbei was 30% off the retail price, while Jingdong was getting a 50% discount.

Meng Xin was completely dumbfounded.

Under his strict control, the promotional prices for Ah Fu Essential Oil were supposed to be consistent across all platforms—Tmall, Pinbei, and Jingdong—as well as their own official stores and specialty shops.

For one, this prevented customers from price-shopping across the internet.

For another, it reduced friction and conflict between the different sales channels.

Otherwise, if they sold it for 69 on Taobao and 79 on Jingdong, did they really think the platform representatives would agree to that?

Upon hearing this, Meng Xin immediately went to verify it. To his surprise, Jingdong, without a word of warning, had forcibly changed Ah Fu Essential Oil’s promotional price to a 50% discount, bringing it down to 39 Hua Yuan, and was even throwing in free gifts.

Meanwhile, the same product was selling for 69 Hua Yuan in the main beauty sections of Tmall and Pinbei.

Without a moment to think, Meng Xin urgently told his operations team to change the price back.

”Boss, Jingdong locked the merchant backend! We’re blocked from changing the price!” The operations staff member tried to adjust the price, only to find he had no permission at all.

A chill ran down Meng Xin’s spine. Hu Li had given him only ten minutes. If he couldn’t solve the problem, Pinbei would immediately delist all of Ah Fu Essential Oil’s products, including those featured on the Ten Billion Subsidy Channel.

Based on his projections for the Double 11 event on Pinbei, Ah Fu Essential Oil stood to lose over 20 million in sales.

He hurriedly had his operations team contact the Jingdong procurement and sales manager, but the person wouldn’t answer their phone or reply to texts, simply playing dead.

Meng Xin was frantic, pacing back and forth!

Immediately after, the beauty representative from Tmall Mall also began pressing him. ”Does Ah Fu still want to participate in Taobao’s Double 11? Either lower your price or delist all your products from Jingdong.”

’Delist?’

’I’d f*cking love to, if only I had permission!’

For a moment, Meng Xin wanted nothing more than to drive through the night, storm the Jingdong Headquarters Building, and demand an explanation from Liu Qiangdong.

But on second thought, ’would the procurement and sales team dare to pull a stunt like this without Handsome Dong giving the order?’