For Cainiao Network, the biggest advantage of the franchise system is that it can use the funds and connections of franchise stores to quickly expand.

Taking advantage of the huge customer resource conversion of Taotao merchants, and with the Ali Iron Army going to various places, they used their own existing resources to pave the way for the company's investment, and even mobilized their relatives to join directly.

Throughout August, Cainiao first completed the construction of its initial channel network in East China, signing contracts with more than ten companies per day on average.

With a deposit of 3 yuan, a brand channel construction fee of 2 yuan (refundable), and other miscellaneous expenses, each Cainiao franchise store was successfully opened.

It's just a simple storefront facing the street, with almost no decoration. Just hanging a sign is enough to prepare for business.

Those with sufficient financial resources open their shops at the entrance of the residential community, while those without such financial resources simply set up shop in a rental house on the first floor of a residential building.

Some Taotao merchants even joined in and simply used the warehouse originally prepared for Taotao shipments, made some minor modifications, and created a piece of open space.

We started to do business in commercial areas and industrial parks. It was just a matter of collecting money and making a few phone calls. All we needed was hands.

Taotao's own company, EMI Express, and some express delivery companies that subsequently invested in it, responded immediately and handed over most of their collection and delivery business to local Cainiao franchisees.

As for the consumer experience?

Who cares?

Since there is no need for last-mile service and consumers can store and pick up items at the door, the cost saved is naturally used by Taotao to improve the e-commerce online shopping experience.

What is experience?
The most intuitive feeling is the reduction in express delivery costs. EMI directly reduced the price of express parcels sent to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai from 8 yuan to 6.5 yuan.

As for the price adjustment for shipments to other regions across the country, further negotiations are needed.

Although it is the starting price for the first order and the first weight, it is also great news for Taobao merchants and consumers.

In a short period of time, EMI's shipment volume has increased significantly, and the vast majority of small and medium-sized merchants are extremely sensitive to cost control.

If you save 1.5 on one order, the accumulated amount of money from ten or a hundred orders will be terrifying.

Taotao took the opportunity to start negotiations with Tongda Express and SF Express, and strongly demanded that the express delivery companies hand over the collection and delivery business to Cainiao.

And provide an additional commission of 0.5-1 yuan per order.

On the one hand, the price of Taobao orders dropped from 8 yuan to 6.5 yuan, and on the other hand, the additional expenditure was 0.5-1 yuan. It was a double loss. Although the order volume increased, the profit margin plummeted.

SF Express was the first to turn hostile. Are you kidding? It doesn’t rely on Taotao for its livelihood.

On the contrary, some of the goods sold in Taotao stores have particularly high requirements on timeliness, or are of high value and need to ensure safety, so they can only be delivered by post or SF Express.

More than 80% of the business relies on its own channels, and 20% is given to Taotao merchants. This is the confidence of SF Express to turn against it. Does Taotao still want to beg for food with a clear conscience?

Bad habits?
But they never expected that this time they were not the bravest one.

The Tongda Group rushed out collectively, each of them seemed to be possessed by Tian Wenjing, and came up to greet the little cutie first.

Of course, the scene was definitely not that intense.

But the attitude has been expressed. Who gave you the face to lower your standards so much in one breath?

Still have to choose one of the two?

It is impossible to lower the price, but it is possible to release goods to Cainiao Network, but Taotao must first open the option of express delivery/Cainiao pick-up in the background.

For door-to-door service, you can naturally deliver the goods to Fengniao, and pick them up by yourself to Cainiao, so as not to offend either party.

Needless to say, this must have been Li Zehua's idea behind the scenes, but his words are effective, as Qingyun Group is a common shareholder of Tongda Group.

The increase in whole-truckload transportation and same-city business in the past two months has given the Tongda Group more confidence to say no.

It is impossible to stop Cainiao's expansion unless Pinxixi can achieve the same sales volume as Taotao, which is 500 to 600 million yuan per day.

Otherwise, Taotao, with its annual sales of 200 billion, would definitely be able to succeed with its determined support for Cainiao.

But if you want to unify the downstream express delivery industry chain, forget it.

The first negotiation ended unpleasantly.

But everyone knows that both parties must reach a final agreement, and it will not benefit either side to fall out.

It is impossible for Taotao to find a replacement for the Tongda series in a short period of time. Can it rely on EMI?

The situation in East China is a mess, and the distribution network below is the main target of Hummingbird.

After poaching Mr. Li, Zhou Shaoning would always speak sweetly in every meeting and greet Mr. Li's entire family warmly. It was just a business, but it was unheard of for him to be scolded like this.

Coupled with the strong competition from the Tongda Group for its transportation capacity, many individual drivers fled with their own trucks overnight.

Taotao's huge wealth almost brought down EMI's distribution network in East China. He didn't have the skills, so he had to take on jobs that required a lot of effort, and he almost ate himself to death.

The way to deal with it is very simple, but EMI is unwilling to use it, which is to increase the wages of drivers and couriers.

It is very strange that capitalists would rather spend countless billions to grab market share and expand sales channels than increase the wages of grassroots employees by tens of millions.

The logic is simple, because once they have gained market share and seized a monopoly position, they can plunder it back in a thousand ways.

But increasing employees’ salaries is pure expenditure and it will be difficult to reduce it in the future.

Fortunately, Li Zehua did not join Taotao, otherwise, he would have just said hello. What would he be afraid of? The salary would have been raised, raised as much as possible. In the later stage, there would have been more points for performance assessment, and severe fines would have been imposed if the performance was not met. For example, if the salary was 10,000, a fine of 6,000 would have been imposed.

All problems have been solved.

The pressure of reality forced Taotao to first dismantle the temporary alliance between the Tongda Group and SF Express, and to increase SF Express's order-taking channels in exchange for the latter's concession.

Qingyun Group has effectively blocked a blow for the King of SF Express. This blow was dealt to the King of SF Express in history, because the Tongda Group at that time were all obedient sheep, and they believed whatever Taotao said.

After the Qiantang talks, Jack Ma publicly praised the King of SF Express, calling him a business leader he admired. However, he smiled on the surface but acted ruthlessly towards SF Express.

What kind of restrictions are there on accepting orders? Similar orders will be transferred to the post office, and letters will be sent to merchants to hint at them, guiding consumers to use other couriers instead.

The process of charging extra for designated logistics has become cumbersome, creating an unfriendly experience for consumers and forcing them to abandon designated logistics.

Of course, the King of SF Express was not to be trifled with. He went back and set up SF Express Premium to compete with him, and at one point created a fresh fruit e-commerce platform with annual sales of billions.

Things are different now. After appeasing SF Express, Taotao turned around to deal with the Tongda Group. This time, it did not propose a choice between the two and tried to lower the express delivery price first.

But the Tongda Group has become more powerful, especially after seeing EMI's poor market performance, and has made it clear that the 8 yuan price means door-to-door service, while the 6.5 yuan price is only for self-pickup.

In the EMI and Cainiao systems, most store owners don’t even have computers, and they hire a clerk to manually copy order numbers.

They are not even qualified to be a gatekeeper. In the past half month, EMI has been constantly losing items and receiving complaints. It is truly notorious.

Do not laugh!

In the past, everyone was a similar makeshift team, and things like lost orders, missed deliveries, and complaints were commonplace.

The meeting has reached a deadlock and no results will be reached in the short term.

The Tongda Group turned around and forced Hummingbird to improve its service quality and quickly implement the full automation it mentioned earlier.

They are also afraid of losing their competitiveness and being completely eliminated by Taotao.

Because Hummingbird is only slightly better than Cainiao, fortunately it has a large number of direct sales people and lost orders can be handled immediately. In short, there was no fully computerized office and professional apps for smartphones.

We are all fooling each other. We blame the lost order on bad luck, and if we complain, we will be compensated for the shipping cost. It is common to argue for a lost express delivery for a month or so.

The experience is fine for the sender, but there is almost no experience on the delivery side. Before, when they were all franchisees, the service of the Tongda system was something that only those who used it would know.

After changing to Fengniao Express for terminal services, the number of people has increased, but the system software remains the same. At most, the front-line business people make phone calls more frequently, and the delivery efficiency has been improved.

However, damage and loss during transportation were common. In the beginning, Hummingbird had arguments with the Tongda Group, and there were quarrels and verbal abuses every day. As these incidents happened more and more, they simply came up with a label.

Every time the number of parcels collected from the operation center is reported in advance, the number is printed according to the station's serial number and affixed. If the number does not match, it must be reported immediately. Defective and damaged outer packaging is recorded one by one, and finally registered in the paper account book before being handed over to the Fengniao deliveryman, and the courier signs the work number to confirm.

In short, it was very troublesome, the process was relatively cumbersome, the subordinates complained a lot, and the site was perfunctory in its execution. Finally, after several severe fines, the situation improved slightly.

But once the people from the Compliance and Supervision Department leave, they can just go about their business. Who would be willing to do this every day if they have nothing to do?
After cooperating with JD Logistics, Hu Zhiyuan led a team to Yanjing to get a full set of scanning and input equipment and learn supermarket cashier settlement.

Each site was equipped with a purchase, sales and inventory system and a professional one-dimensional barcode scanner. They scanned each site one by one. With the help of this system, which was gradually promoted from Yanjing to the whole country, the situation began to change.

In fact, it was just a lonely scan. Because of the inherent limitations of the barcode, the best you know is that the serial number representing this express package has come in.

But has it been delivered to the customer? When was it delivered? Where did it come from? What is inside? Who is the shipper? Is it an insured high-value product? Are there any other special requirements?

I can't tell at all.

For example, when the customer service department at headquarters receives a complaint and needs to check the status of a certain serial number, they have to make a round of phone calls to inquire about the specific site.

The construction of a nationwide networked purchasing, sales and inventory management system cannot be accomplished overnight, and Fengniao Express does not have the funds to improve it.

Because every express delivery, from the station to the distribution operation center, to the transportation stage, into the distribution center and then to the destination station, is missing the two most important links.

That is the collection and final delivery. There is no way to achieve real-time data transmission. It is useless for everyone to have a scanner because there is no way to connect each device to the Internet in time.

All of them have to return to the site to read and upload data, so the most important purpose of distributing equipment cannot be achieved, and a complete data industry sharing network cannot be established.

At least it is unrealistic before smartphones are widely promoted.

Especially with the emergence of QR codes, spending hundreds of millions to build a barcode data sharing network is undoubtedly a losing business.

But how to build an information network with QR codes and how to carry out supporting projects? Even though the top management of the company keeps talking about big data and information automation, when it comes to really doing it, no one has the experience.

We can only grope our way forward step by step. Li Zehua has no way to guide us. If you ask him to point out the direction of development and what it should look like, he has a complete picture of the effect in his mind.

But how to realize it, how many technical difficulties need to be overcome, how many factories are needed to provide supporting services, and how to finally implement it, I’m sorry!
I just felt a black screen in front of my eyes and my head was about to explode.

He is not a god, he can only tell what he knows.

After intense demonstration and discussion, the engineers responsible for the development of the entire system optimistically estimated that the entire project can be completed within three to five years.

A more pessimistic view is that it will take more than ten to twenty years to replace an industrial chain with an annual output value of 300 billion US dollars (barcode commercial market).

Without mandatory promotion by the state and continuous investment of tens of billions of funds, don’t even think about it.

Li Zehua didn't bother to pay attention to this and forcibly ordered the formation of a team to start research.

A group of coders just need to do software development as required.

The subsequent application promotion work will be done by professionals, so why bother talking about three, five or twenty years?

Please call him the chosen one with cheating skills!
I remember that with the development of smart phones, especially the promotion of 3G networks, and the patent for scanning QR codes, everything will become super simple.

As long as everyone has a terminal device carrier (mobile phone), and develop the app and server well, everything will not be a problem.

However, he was the only one who traveled through time, and the others had not seen it with their own eyes, so they felt uneasy.

For example, according to the news from the Tongda Group, they contacted professional digital information equipment manufacturers to customize and develop special QR code scanning equipment, but the price was shockingly high.

Just like the sets that Li Zehua customized at the beginning, each one costs less than ten thousand yuan. Who can afford such a cost?
After the Tongda Group integrates its resources, it plans to have thousands or tens of thousands of outlets in the future, in addition to individual equipment, software R&D and operation, server rental, information services, etc.

Even with tens of billions, it is not certain that you will succeed.

In addition, large-scale digital automation equipment is used in warehousing and logistics centers and sorting centers that cover tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of square meters, and can easily cost hundreds of millions.

If we get several sets in one area, the courier company wouldn’t be able to make enough even if they pawned their pants.

"They're complaining even before they've even started. They don't even have the determination. Their direct sales are just superficial. No wonder they can't beat SF Express."

After showing his contempt, Li Zehua happily took on all the R&D, operations and procurement work. It was just a few billion yuan, and Qingyun had invested.

They turned back to the Tongda Group and brought JD.com to establish an Internet technology research and development company that specializes in serving the logistics industry, taking the opportunity to gain control of the upstream voice in the industry.

The negotiations are still ongoing. After all, the digital transformation and upgrading of the warehousing and logistics center is the core focus project. Qingyun has spent money, so there must be extra returns.

The Tongda Group has no objection. They just hope that some sucker will take the initiative to pay to fill the hole. With more than one billion yuan, wouldn't it be nice to use it to buy thousands of heavy trucks and semi-trailers, increase transportation capacity and make easy money?

However, out of first-hand business experience, the Tongda Group wooed JD.com in terms of share distribution and subsequent specific technology licensing cooperation, requiring that the new company's cooperation framework must be a partnership system.

The company's board of directors is fairly allocated one seat per company, and when it comes to major project cooperation, board members vote and the minority obeys the majority.

To put it bluntly, he didn't want to spend more money, but he also wanted to get a bargain. After pretending to be hesitant for a long time, Li Zehua reluctantly agreed.

There are seven seats in total, two for Qingyun, and five for Tongda Group and JD.com. However, major projects are limited to the logistics and express delivery industry. When the new company authorizes cooperation with other industries, voting will be based on shares.

The Tongda Group did not object either. After all, one should be grateful to the person who helped them. It is a good idea to spend the least money to enjoy the best service and make money without doing anything.

Qingyun also makes money without doing anything!

Providing software and hardware technical support to warehousing and logistics centers also requires charging fees, so even if you make less profit, you will not suffer a loss.

The most important thing is to seize the opportunity to master the core data. After that, the automated sorting of hundreds of billions of express parcels every year will involve more big data resources than you can consume even if you just sit back and do nothing.

Not to mention the individual terminal equipment that only exists in theory, isn’t it just a smartphone?

After everyone sat together and discussed, based on the current incremental market calculations of the logistics and express delivery industry, perhaps within ten years, the number of people working in the express delivery industry will exceed millions (actually exceeding tens of millions).

What a huge domestic demand market this is!

Given the strategic partnership between Qingyun and Tongda, it’s not excessive to give priority to purchasing Honor’s brands, right?
Anyway, the company doesn’t have to pay.

These big guys would never imagine that the so-called individual terminal equipment is not only a means of production for work and production, but also a necessity in life.

Well, one person invests less than ten thousand, and millions of people are involved in tens of billions of investments, which instantly becomes a domestic demand market worth tens of billions. If the Tongda Group knew the result, it would probably regret it.

The massive amount of user data generated every day is aggregated through terminal devices and, once screened, it turns out to be the daily consumption behaviors of high-quality users!

No matter how powerful Qingyun is, it cannot directly invade the backend of Taotao, JD.com, Dangdang and other e-commerce companies to grab and download data information.

However, user behavior analysis data can be easily obtained through express delivery companies and is of no use to ordinary people.

But for precise advertising, traffic monetization, and even for all manufacturing companies and sales companies across the country, it is priceless!
For example, if you have some money and want to start a business, you may choose the catering industry. The big data of the Chimei Catering Group will tell you which city you are in, the specific location, what cuisine you sell, and what the price range is.

You will definitely make money.

If you want to run an industrial factory, choose hardware manufacturing, agricultural machinery, or OEM, or do other industries, Qingyun Group always has a professional data suitable for you.

Large enterprises want to transform and open up new industries. Do they want to know more about user demand information?
Isn’t the so-called enterprise-level service market here?

Before you even do anything, Qingyun Group can use massive amounts of professional data to assess investment risks, future returns and target customers.

This is the first step of precise harvesting, and the second step is to contact counterpart companies to provide professional equipment, hardware and software support, and even professional talent recommendations.

A butcher knife becomes sharper the more you use it. Don’t worry, there is a third way to place advertising resources to targeted customers, and the fees are very favorable.

There are countless other follow-up service projects. When the entrepreneurs have spent all the money in their pockets, if there is a prospect, they can invest and take control. If there is no future, don’t worry, Qingyun Microfinance is here to help.

Overdraw your life for thirty years and entrust your future to Qingyun System, which will ensure clear arrangements.

Thanks to Taotao, their strength has pushed the Tongda Group over. This is a constant source of nutrients, nourishing the development and growth of Qingyun Group bit by bit.

Li Zehua wished he could fly to Qiantang in person and give Jack Ma a big medal in person!

To express his outstanding contributions in the delivery of grassroots personnel, express delivery industry orders and other aspects. (End of this chapter)