"No, it's freezing cold on New Year's Day. I've been waiting in line for two hours and it's finally my turn. You said it's out of stock?"

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm really sorry. There are only a hundred of these products in the store, and they were all sold out just now."

The festive atmosphere on the streets has not yet faded, and the sound of fireworks and firecrackers can be heard from time to time in the city, just when everyone is still immersed in the joy of the New Year.

However, a not-so-pleasant conflict occurred in the lobby on the first floor of Jiangcheng Qingyun Electronic Image Exhibition Hall.

The cause of the incident was very simple. The Panda and Honor series products under Qingyun Electronic Technology were out of stock on a large scale. Compared with the overwhelming publicity, the actual supply delivered to the market was pitifully small.

Consumers come from far away and queue for hours, but they can't buy the products even though they have money. Anyone would be angry.

"I don't care. I spent money to buy things, so you have to sell them. No matter where you go, you have to find me one, otherwise I will file a complaint against you for deceiving consumers."

The consumer, who had been fooled several times in a row, learned his lesson this time. "Don't try to fool me. The person in front of me got the phone this way last time. You must have an internal quota."

The people queuing behind also started to make a fuss.

"That's right, these people are so bad. They hold on to the goods and refuse to sell them. They wait for the price to go up before selling them. They just want to make more money."

"My neighbor next door was tricked by them last time and ended up spending 500 more to buy the unit. This time, he was determined to get one so that he could sell it and make a profit even if he didn't need it."

Seeing that more and more people were following suit, the clerk who was maintaining order at the front could no longer hold back and had to call the customer service manager of the image store to try to calm everyone down.

“I’m very sorry, I understand your desire to buy your favorite products as soon as possible...

When the supply of offline stores is limited, you can also try to buy through the Pinxixi group buying platform..."

But at this time, no matter what she said, no one believed her, especially after seeing the Honor P9 in her hand, everyone became even more excited.

"You said there's no stock, then what are you holding in your hand?"

"There are obviously still goods on the counter, why don't you sell them to us!"

"The shady business, the unscrupulous businessmen who make money, the broken website Pinxixi, if the product is out of stock in a second, there is no point in grabbing it."

"Sorry, this is for work..."

Before the customer service manager could finish his words, the increasingly excited crowd at the back seemed to be collectively pushed forward and took a big step forward. The situation was somewhat out of control.

Soon after, more people broke through the store clerks' obstruction and rushed to the booth. Those who were quick-eyed and quick-handed had already grabbed the mobile phones used for image display.

"This is a demonstration phone, please don't..."

The customer who finally managed to grab a phone didn't care about anything else and just threw a stack of bills over. "No need to change the three thousand. Haha, I finally got a Honor phone!"

"I got one too, damn, it's a model!"

Before the confused clerk could react, the customer dove into the crowd and disappeared completely.

"Your charger and box."

At this point, the clerk was completely at a loss and could only let him take the phone. However, before she could give him the accompanying equipment, he disappeared.

"Did you take the photo? Such a wonderful photo must be taken. It is simply a perfect promotional material."

"I took six photos in a row, capturing the customer's ferocious face. You can see that even the details of the clerk's bewildered look around were captured.

I said it’s okay to ask me to take the photo, I’m absolutely professional in this area.”

"Very good. There will definitely be extra rewards for reporting this back to the headquarters. Just wait for the bonus."

The second and third floors, which have not yet been renovated, are hidden behind the pillars. Liu Shanben, the Jiangcheng regional manager of Qingyun Electronic Technology, who occasionally looks out, is very happy that the task assigned by the headquarters has been perfectly accomplished.

I clapped my hands and couldn't help recalling, "The details of the extra just now were very well captured, especially his ecstasy in getting the phone and his generosity in spending money. It was not artificial at all, it was very natural.

Arrange a lunch with an extra chicken drumstick for him as encouragement."

The photographer was confused. "What extras? All the part-timers who lined up during the New Year holidays have gone home. Where did the extras come from?"

Liu Shanben was even more confused, "Didn't you arrange this?"

The photographer was speechless, "I thought you arranged it."

"It's over. The goods on the display stand."

Liu Shanben slapped his thigh and quickly ran downstairs.

God bless him, he is still applauding today's "play" and is preparing to sign a long-term contract to book the entire theater for the dedicated extra and arrange for a tour around the country.

He never thought that it was actually a customer. He was doomed. When he went downstairs to take a look, he felt dizzy.

"It's over. How do I explain this to the company?"

The nine Honor P9s in three colors and three models, and the six Panda Z10s in six colors and low-end models on display on the display stand have all disappeared, along with the specially customized headphones, chargers and other high-end accessories. Not a single one is left.

Even if more than half of the mobile phones are models and only the lowest-configuration ones are real ones, the loss will be huge, at least tens of thousands.

Fortunately, the clerk and the security guard came to their senses and worked together to control the situation. After a final count, they actually received more than 20,000 yuan in cash.

It's really black humor that there is an extra model machine for sale.

One Honor phone that was pre-ordered by a consumer was missing; someone took it away in the chaos.

"God damn it, how am I supposed to explain this to the consumers?"

Liu Shanben wanted to cry but had no tears. Even though he was a regional manager, he didn't have any stock. All the units were sold out...

Out-of-stock has become the biggest problem Qingyun Electronic Technology has faced since its establishment. It is so frustrating to see that you can’t get the money you want.

Guo Xinyi was anxious, but Zhou Shouyuan was quite calm. On the one hand, he arranged for the OEM factory to keep enough staff during the New Year and work overtime to catch up with the work, and on the other hand, he coordinated internal sources of goods and allocated them in advance.

In short, under the joint management of the two of them and the remaining team, there were no major problems, but small problems continued to occur. During the Chinese New Year, an Honor employee was blocked when going out, and two work phones were lost.

It is common for image experience stores in various places to have their windows smashed. The most serious thing is that it was discovered that the management of the OEM factory colluded with the production line to attempt to intercept 9 Honor Ps.

The market situation is like this now. As long as there are unactivated products in stock, it is easy to increase the price by three to five hundred yuan. Money is attractive to people, so many people take risks for this.

This forced Li Zehua to transfer He Li back to Dongguan to take charge in order to avoid greater chaos. He even seriously considered whether to transfer Fu Yujie back to take charge of the overall situation.

He was out on an inspection trip and stayed in Sichuan Province for a long time. Many of the company's accumulated problems finally broke out, especially in the smartphone business, which had the most problems and the deepest contradictions.

If we have to blame someone, we should blame the entire group for underestimating the current market and its pursuit of high-quality products. In addition, in terms of publicity and public opinion, the group has done its utmost and spared no effort in publicity.

Even an irresponsible newspaper published a shocking headline:
《Intoxicated all night, just to have it! 》

Then it is accompanied by a very tempting picture, covering two of the three key points, highlighting that the main point is the Honor P9 which appears very frequently.

They talk as if they are superior to others by getting the honor. Some editors even exposed their underwear for money and prepared to compile a news report about live organ harvesting in a medical clinic in the east.

As for kidneys, two are not too many, one will do. If you can replace it with a Panda/Honor, that's not a bad idea.

Under this overwhelming and popular marketing, stock control, shortages and supply restrictions have added fuel to the fire of real sales.

At the beginning, it was 30:70, but by the beginning of February, it had become 20:80, because the group's top management found that smartphone apps could significantly improve work efficiency.

In the past, you had to manually record the order on site and make up the order afterwards, and receive phone or text message notifications. Now, you can complete all operations with just a tap on the phone screen.

The improvement in grassroots management is even more obvious. A station manager/store manager cannot call thirty salesmen at the same time, but he can arrange work for a certain employee anytime and anywhere through the communication software on his smartphone.

Under the dual efficiency improvement situation, the market share or the internal needs of the company became the focus of the contradiction. Zhou Shouyuan, Guo Xinyi and He Li were tied together, but they could not stop the anger of the brother companies and could only repeatedly reduce the production capacity that should have been supplied to the market, causing a further imbalance between market supply and demand.

Hunger marketing has been taken to the extreme by these people. It's a pity for those consumers who have to queue for hours in the snow and ice but can't get the products.

But now things have gone out of control. No one expected that a big brother with a hot temper would come up and stun everyone. A photo went viral all over the country, and the Pinxixi group buying platform completely "exploded".

Li Zehua, who had just returned to Shanghai, was stunned. How could such an operation be possible after all this time?
A large group of Pinxixi executives including Sun Tongyu and three core figures of the Electronic Technology Group arrived at the scene as soon as possible.

Sun Tongyu, on behalf of the online shopping platform, first conducted a profound self-examination, "...the management team was careless and negligent in management, which led to such a big mistake...

I bear the primary responsibility for this matter.”

Li Zehua suppressed his anger and said, "Your main focus is on e-commerce and sinking market construction. This matter is not your fault. Who is the vice president in charge of the group buying platform management?"

One person stood up and raised his hand cautiously, "Chairman, I'm sorry, it's my fault."

"If saying sorry can solve the problem, what's the point of me raising you?"

Seeing that they were Sun Tongyu's direct subordinates, Li Zehua resisted the urge to curse and said, "Demote him one level, rotate to the grassroots level for three months, deduct all bonuses for this quarter, and come back after you have figured out the problem.

In addition, all the people directly responsible for management should be fired, leaving no one behind!"

Who the hell could have thought that the serial number rewards and discount backend left for the group buying platform in the beginning could help these people to have such a great time.

Thinking of this, he scolded Zhou Anquan, Feng Mingcheng, and Ye Feng from the technical department, "Whoever applies to use this backend in the future must report it in advance, and resolutely prevent similar incidents from happening again."

Ye Feng suffered an unexpected disaster, but he was the one who developed this thing, and left such a big loophole without assessing the risks in advance. He could only leave with a bitter face and get scolded.

"I don't want to repeat the story a second time. All the direct participants in the incident will be handed over to the judicial authorities for handling, one by one."

It was Chinese New Year, and Li Zehua really didn’t want to say anything too harsh, especially since these were all his most trusted people. “All funds involved in the case must be recovered.

Mr. Sun, you are the general manager of Pinxixi, please tell us how to prevent similar incidents in the future."

Before he came back, an internal investigation had already begun. The Administration Department and the Compliance and Supervision Department intervened at the first opportunity, and the Decision-making Committee also held a collective discussion.

Sun Tongyu had a plan in mind, and said quickly: "The group purchase pre-sale system is the core and cannot be changed. There are two solutions to the current situation. The first is to cancel the group's internal distribution sales model and no longer link it with online sales...

The second is to strictly regulate the internal procurement process, and after activation, confirm each order on the internal enterprise WeChat to avoid fraudulent subsidy behavior..."

After all, it's still the internal distribution that's to blame.

At the beginning, the first batch of smartphones were distributed directly from the OEM factory to various branches. Later, someone discovered that this thing could also be used to increase sales on the Pinxixi group buying platform.

It is conducive to improving the financing valuation of group buying platforms. Don't underestimate a small smartphone. Ten thousand units can mean 30 to 40 million yuan, and one hundred thousand units can mean hundreds of millions of yuan in sales, which can increase the financing amount by tens of millions.

Originally, this part of sales should be included in the group's financial statements. Both the Electronic Technology Group and the Pinxixi group buying platform can enjoy a share of local tax reductions. By increasing the financing amount through group buying, it is a guaranteed profit.

Driven by practical interests, the management quickly formulated a plan and issued an execution order. From now on, all companies that apply for internal shares of smartphones will purchase goods through group purchasing platforms, and the distribution process will remain unchanged.

There is a problem here. That is, Panda Honor is currently selling very well in the market, and it is 100% impossible for it to be sold on the platform to consumers across the country. What should we do?
Don’t worry, there is a pre-sale period for group buying. In order to promote sales and create a hot sales atmosphere, the group buying platform has created a serial number for early purchase.

To put it simply, the technology is quite simple. During the pre-sale period, you just need to enter the serial number on the corresponding product page and use the coupon to place an order in advance.

Through this technology, the group buying platform always uses the gimmick of buying 1,000 or 500 smartphones in the same city to attract a large number of consumers and take the opportunity to drive traffic to other group buying projects on the website.

Using the serial numbers and coupons obtained in advance, those within Qingyun Group who needed smartphones placed orders in the name of the branch and snapped up all the few available phones.

The effect is really good, but the problem is also really big!

In just over a month, these people turned this process into an underground industrial chain.

Didn’t I say before that many real consumers can’t buy it, so they try their best to find the source of supply, and among them there is a big brother who has no idea where he got the perseverance from, but he just has to buy it?
I chased it from Xingcheng in Hunan Province, to Yangcheng, and then to Pengcheng. Finally, I heard that there was a way in Shanghai. I joined the group and spent more than ten days to finally get what I wanted and bought an Honor P9.

This guy was furious. What he wanted to buy was the Panda Z10 classic model. What was the point of giving him an Honor model? Were they bullying him because he couldn't afford it?

Then they found the group leader to argue. I don't know how the conversation went on, but the eldest brother got so angry that he reported it directly, or he went straight to the Qingyun headquarters industrial park to block the door and hold up banners, and summoned all the journalists. The news spread all over the country in no time.

Fortunately, the internal purchase matter was not exposed, otherwise the outside world would have thought that Panda Honor’s mobile phones could not be sold and needed to be purchased internally.

But those so-called group owners are basically internal staff.

The method is simple: inflate the number of internal purchases within the company, hoard the supply, and then sell it at a high price for profit.

Not every Qingyun employee buys a smartphone right away. Some people simply don’t have enough money. Although this thing can increase their income from work, they just don’t have the money for the time being.

Some people simply don't want to buy it because it's too expensive. They are waiting for the cheaper Roewe series. There have been rumors within the group that Roewe will be launched in the second half of the year and will only cost a little over a thousand yuan.

This gives some management room to maneuver, as there are vacancies for part-time employees and there are also purchases commissioned by friendly businesses.

The branch actually needed 500 units, but reported units. As for the extra units, they had already sold out through QQ groups and other channels.

You can make money on both ends, it’s a sure win!
For example, Honor, which is publicly priced at 2998 yuan, also has internal subsidies ranging from 200 to 600 yuan. The specific amount is based on the purchaser's job level and the number of people reported by the branch.

Due to the shortage of products in the market, the unilateral market took the opportunity to increase prices by 200-1000 yuan. The net profit of a mobile phone is at least yuan.

With such a price difference, who can resist the temptation?

Previously, the management of the OEM factory colluded with the assembly line to deliberately conceal the truth, falsely reported the defective rate, and reported the originally qualified products as losses, attempting to conceal the truth and enrich themselves. Fortunately, He Li's old subordinates at Chaoxu Electronics found out and all the responsible persons were transferred to the Six Gates.

Now there is a branch management company that takes advantage of loopholes in the group buying platform’s promotional activities to resell products on a large scale, causing a wider and more severe impact.

After the incident fermented, the group urgently conducted an internal investigation and asked every employee who signed up to buy a smartphone to confirm it using internal software. The group found that there was a shortage of more than 1.5 units, accounting for more than % of the total production and sales in more than two months.

The amount of fraudulent subsidies and price increases involved was as high as more than three million yuan. The loss was small, but the consumers felt cheated, which was a big deal.

Fortunately, the public relations department responded quickly and controlled the fermentation of public opinion at the first time. They also provided subsidies to the customers who caused trouble at the first time on a small scale, which brought the situation under control.

In line with the principle of treating funerals as happy events, Wu Yibin was very busy during the Spring Festival, putting out fires everywhere. Through his accumulated connections, he shifted the focus of public opinion to the shortage of products.

This has added fuel to the already hot sales, and consumers are really looking forward to it. However, the market supply is still like squeezing toothpaste, with goods being released little by little, and whether you can buy it depends entirely on luck.

Those who embezzled the money will not be so lucky, and they will be severely punished by law.

Zhou Shouyuan and Guo Xinyi also took the opportunity to change this distribution model, and as soon as the big boss came back, they would immediately expose the matter.

"From now on, each person will have a code, which will be activated on the spot upon receipt of the goods and completed through corporate WeChat registration. If a manager is found to have made false reports or concealed information, he will be fired on the spot, and the group purchase platform sales strategy will continue to be implemented unchanged."

Li Zehua first appeased the sales channels, and then said to Guo Xinyi, who jumped the most, "Smart phones have a significant effect on the growth of the group's various businesses. The established policy cannot be changed for the time being."

Guo Xinyi was an old man around him after all, so he didn't dare to refute directly, but Zhou Shouyuan was different, he was not afraid, "The domestic market doesn't matter, but in the whole month, the Southeast Asian market only got 4000 units.

Especially since the Lijiaopo market, which had high hopes, only had 1500 units. I don’t know whether General Manager Lin and General Manager Wu were aware of this, but the Lijiaopo branch was almost unable to hold on.

Temasek alone cannot meet the 6000 custom-made workstation orders it ordered out of commercial support, and together with the products ordered by other friendly companies, the shortage is more than 4 units..."

Li Zehua was confused. "No, you made it clear, didn't you? Large-scale shipments will have to wait until May or June. The first batch of orders totals only 50 units. Where can I find the supply?"

“It is not necessarily the case that if the domestic market needs the goods, there will be no need for them overseas?”

Zhou Shouyuan was even more anxious than him, "Don't forget that in the big plan, the smartphone is just a supplement."

Li Zehua understood it immediately. With the help of HTC, the WeChat software integrated with Samsung has been promoted in Southeast Asia, and the effect is quite good. Because the allies have greater interests in it, the motivation for promotion is very strong.

The key is to seize time to build brand awareness and provide a solid foundation for future major plans. Honor and Roewe are just pawns in this plan, and the ultimate goal is to ultimately gain control and influence over public opinion.

What to do if the product is in short supply? (End of this chapter)