"Mr. Rob Walton, it is a pleasure that you are willing to deepen our cooperation. As for the several cooperation opinions you have proposed, I can give you an answer right now!"
"First of all, for point 1, we are very happy to cooperate with Walmart in this way. However, there is one condition: besides the US market, where Oriental Amazon and Walmart can carry out exclusive cooperation, Walmart can become the preferred partner of our Jiangnan e-commerce platform in other countries' markets, but not the sole partner. We will warmly welcome other supermarkets that are also willing to cooperate with us!" Huang He said lightly.
It was a joke to expect Jiangnan Mall to cooperate only with Walmart. What if Walmart arbitrarily offered high shipping prices? Wouldn't that cause Jiangnan Group to suffer huge losses?
Moreover, this would directly cut off the path for the rise of domestic Chinese supermarket chains. After all, with the disruptive power of e-commerce, if other supermarkets were not given opportunities for cooperation, it would be difficult for them to rise again.
"Okay!" Rob Walton pondered for a moment before nodding in agreement. He had not really expected Jiangnan Group to provide exclusive cooperation services in other markets. As long as he could gain a first-mover advantage, it would be enough.
Rob Walton understood the habits of other multinational supermarkets very well. These supermarkets were no longer managed by the founder's family but were all handed over to so-called professional managers.
The most feared thing for these professional managers was a decline in performance. Therefore, they would instinctively resist all changes and try their best to maintain the existing state, as this would reduce performance fluctuations and allow them to receive more stable bonus income.
Rob Walton estimated that within the next three years, other multinational supermarkets should not have the courage to keep up with him. And after three years, the situation would be settled, and other supermarkets could only trail behind Walmart.
"As for your second request, I must first point out that Jiangnan Group does not have a large variety of electronic products. Previously, only Tianxing mobile phones and Zhizhi had entered the market as electronic products. We are more focused on providing mature component services to global partners!"
"Therefore, at most, we can provide Walmart with an intermediary liaison service. As for whether the two parties will carry out specific cooperation, it will be decided by each company. This is not something that Jiangnan Group can decide!" Huang He said.
"But, can't Jiangnan Group provide us with more services?" Rob Walton clearly found Huang He's answer difficult to accept.
After all, if Jiangnan Group merely acted as an intermediary, Walmart, with its connections and status, would not need Jiangnan Group to act as a liaison to find the heads of these companies for discussions.
The truly crucial matter was how to force these companies to reduce their wholesale prices and bring them into their own supermarkets. This was the most critical issue.
"I'm sorry, sir. Imagine if we forced Walmart to give up some of its own profits for the benefit of another partner. Would Walmart still cooperate with us closely?" Huang He said decisively. "However, if you feel it is very necessary to add a special counter for electronic goods in the supermarket, then I suggest you might as well sell Walmart's own electronic products?"
"Walmart's own electronic products!" Rob Walton's expression shifted.
"That's right. The reason why most electronic companies refuse to cooperate with Walmart is because Walmart will seize a large amount of profit. Even if the two parties still cooperate in the end, it will be a superficial cooperation, which cannot last long, nor can it achieve the task objectives effectively."
"Therefore, it would be better for Walmart to create its own electronic product brand and sell it in its own supermarkets. In this way, all the profits belong to Walmart, and it can further improve the Walmart brand, allowing Walmart to break free from the label of a supermarket and have more possibilities. Isn't that a better choice?" Huang He said with a smile.
"But Walmart doesn't have any design and production capabilities in this area!" Rob Walton said softly. Although the prospect described by Huang He was very attractive, Rob Walton was still somewhat fearful of letting Walmart jump directly into a market it had never contacted before.
"This is actually very easy to handle. Walmart only needs to use mature designs and find mature contract manufacturers for OEM production!" Huang He said with a smile. "Our China Electronics Industry Alliance has recently launched a service called 'Completely Custom.'"
"The alliance will act as a liaison to connect product design companies, technology patent providers, various component suppliers, and product integrators within the alliance. The companies that are actually responsible for electronic product manufacturing will serve all enterprises interested in providing custom cross-border products from start to finish!"
"For example, we recently received a cooperation request from a well-known international beauty brand. They want to launch an electronic cosmetic mirror that allows users to get professional beauty knowledge while using their mirror for makeup, and at the same time promote their products!"
"So, our China Electronics Industry Alliance contacted three companies that own relevant patents and allowed them to grant exclusive authorization for relevant products at a low price. At the same time, we contacted professional product design companies under the alliance to conduct in-depth communication with the international brand regarding the product's appearance, functional requirements, and final circuit board design. Finally, we delivered products that met the client's needs and a complete set of design and production drawings."
"Finally, our alliance is responsible for distributing orders for various components involved in the production drawings to various enterprises under the alliance. These components will then be uniformly sent to Foxconn, also an enterprise under the alliance, for the assembly of the entire machine. Ultimately, 1 million sets of products were delivered to this international beauty brand on time!" Huang He said with a smile. "Throughout the entire process, apart from some communication regarding product design, this beauty brand did not need to manage any other aspects and could directly receive products that met their requirements." xxs1
"The product you are talking about isn't that makeup mirror launched by Maybelline recently, is it!" Rob Walton said in shock. This was a product that had exploded in sales in the world market recently.
Originally, this was just a promotional and customer maintenance product for Maybelline. Customers who spent more than 2,000 yuan on a single purchase would receive a free makeup mirror.
As a result, this makeup mirror became incredibly popular, becoming an object of fervent pursuit for countless women and even celebrities. It even generated enormous buzz online, causing this makeup mirror, which was originally given away for free with a purchase of 2,000 yuan, to be resold on second-hand sales websites for around 1,000 yuan.
Even many people specifically went to Walmart to inquire if Walmart had such makeup mirrors for sale. This led to the staff urging Walmart's procurement department to stock them, but the procurement department didn't even know who produced this mirror.
Because the mirror was printed with Maybelline's merchandise and Maybelline's address from beginning to end, it seemed like Maybelline's own product. But the problem was that everyone knew Maybelline couldn't possibly produce such a makeup mirror.
Now the mystery was solved. It turned out that the China Electronics Industry Alliance was behind it.
"Chairman Huang, do you mean that Walmart can also use the same method, through the completely custom service of the China Electronics Industry Alliance, to produce its own electronic products?"
"Exactly!" Huang He nodded. "Although due to some technical reasons, the alliance cannot produce some of the top-tier electronic products currently available, medium-configuration electronic products are almost all possible, and we guarantee that there will be no technical authorization or cultural intellectual property disputes."
"However, products sold in supermarkets are definitely high-volume products, which are basically unrelated to the industry's top products. This perfectly matches the needs of our completely custom service."
"At the same time, the alliance will take responsibility for guaranteeing the quality of these products. If these products have serious quality problems, the alliance will be responsible for compensation and other matters first, and then the alliance will find the actual manufacturers to be responsible, ensuring that perfect quality assurance service can be provided in the first time!"
"Mr. Rob, you can be completely at ease about these matters. There will be no problems!" Huang He said confidently. Rob Walton was thoroughly impressed.
"What about the price?" Rob Walton asked.
"The price is not fixed but changes flexibly according to the total order volume. For example, for the batch of 1 million cosmetic mirrors I mentioned earlier, our supply price is $26.78 per piece."
"But if the client can increase the order from 1 million pieces to 10 million pieces, our supply price can be reduced to about $23 per piece. And if this demand can be amplified by another 10 times, we can even reduce the supply price to below $20. As long as there is a product, the cost can continue to decrease!"
"Yes! In a few days, I will send a special delegation to discuss the relevant details of this cooperation with the China Electronics Industry Development Alliance!" It must be admitted that Rob Walton was completely moved. Others might worry about not being able to sell, but Walmart never worried about it. After all, Walmart never had a single product with sales less than 10 million.
This was exactly what Walmart needed. Even if this cooperation did not come to fruition, Walmart was bound to cooperate with the China Electronics Industry Development Alliance.