The next morning, Old Ma, who hadn't secured any financing, rushed back to Hangzhou. He summoned all the company's executives and announced a significant decision.
"I announce that the company will implement a new policy: all merchant payments must be transferred to the seller's account one month after the buyer confirms receipt of the goods!" Old Ma declared this decision in front of everyone, which immediately stunned them into silence.
However, they soon understood Old Ma's intentions.
Although the Forty Thieves' account was nearly empty, in reality, a large amount of funds flowed into their accounts daily. After all, the funds for buyers purchasing products were first remitted to the Forty Thieves' account, and then transferred to the seller's account through them.
Originally, according to the previous rules, as long as the buyer confirmed receipt of the goods, the Forty Thieves would transfer the buyer's payment to the seller's account. If any issues arose in between, they would be deducted from the buyer's deposit.
This rule was reasonable, but there was a supplementary clause: seven days after shipment, regardless of whether the buyer clicked to confirm receipt, unless the buyer filed a complaint through the system stating there was a problem with the goods, the Forty Thieves would directly transfer the funds to the seller's account.
Upon careful examination, this rule was not entirely reasonable. After all, the rules set by Jiangnan Mall stipulated that payment would only be transferred to the seller's account three days after the buyer confirmed receipt and no complaint was filed.
This was the most sensible approach. Otherwise, if a seller engaged in sending empty packages and then absconded, the situation would be dire.
However, this rule had encountered numerous problems in its actual implementation. One of the most significant issues was that many buyers consistently failed to click to confirm receipt. Furthermore, because the logistics and express delivery systems at the time were untraceable, it was impossible to obtain information from the delivery service about whether the buyer had received the goods.
This made it impossible to implement a setting where the system would automatically confirm receipt after a certain number of days once the logistics successfully delivered the package, even if the buyer did not click to confirm.
Of course, this problem did not exist for Jiangnan Mall because Jiangnan Mall exclusively used its own logistics. Jiangnan Express possessed an extremely robust delivery system, enabling it to provide immediate feedback on whether delivery was successful. Consequently, they could establish a rule where if delivery was successful and the buyer did not confirm receipt within three days, the system would automatically confirm receipt.
Jiangnan Express typically delivered goods within 1 to 5 days. Therefore, as long as there were no complaints, the seller on Jiangnan Mall would have to wait at least 4 days and at most 11 days from shipment to receive payment.
However, this speed still dissatisfied many merchants. An 11-day waiting period meant that a substantial amount of their capital would be held by someone else.
Online store owners were generally small business operators. If a particular online store became very popular, it could lead to many merchants experiencing a cash flow crisis.
Therefore, when attracting merchants to Gouhuasuan Mall, these merchants proposed a condition: once goods were shipped, if the buyer clicked to confirm receipt, the payment should be transferred to them immediately.
If the buyer did not click to confirm receipt after seven days, the money should also be transferred to them.
In response to this demand from the merchants, the Forty Thieves engaged in very intense discussions at the time.
Many believed this was unacceptable, as it would allow merchants to employ tactics like sending empty packages and deliberately delaying logistics so that buyers would only receive the goods after seven days. In this scenario, the merchants could directly abscond with the money, leaving the buyers to deal with the repercussions.
However, Old Ma ultimately made the decision to agree to this condition.
This was primarily because Gouhuasuan Mall needed these advantages to attract more sellers. Secondly, Old Ma believed that the risks associated with this could be mitigated.
Firstly, there would be strict verification of merchants' qualifications and personal information. The saying goes, "The monk may run away, but the temple cannot."
Secondly, when receiving goods for delivery, they could require the express company to inspect the goods first. Only after confirming that genuine goods were being shipped would it be considered successful shipment.
With these two restrictions in place, large-scale empty package fraud could be avoided. While small-scale incidents could not be prevented, the company itself could absorb such losses.
Furthermore, this rule would only be in effect for a short period. According to the contract set by the Forty Thieves, the company had the right to change the contract terms at any time. Once the platform was established, the rules could be amended to ensure the interests of the buyers.
In essence, the strategy was to first entice the sellers and then scale up the mall's operations.
At this point, it was November 2, 2003, the 12th day since the campaign began. According to the rules, even though most of the express deliveries had not yet left the warehouses, the Forty Thieves had already disbursed the payments for goods held for the first five days to the merchants.
This was precisely why Lou Wensheng had tearfully informed Old Ma yesterday that there was no money and the company was on the verge of collapse.
As of November 2nd, the total sales for the entire campaign had reached 9 billion RMB. Of this, 7 billion RMB was sold before October 28th, and this amount had exceeded the seven-day period. The Forty Thieves had already disbursed this 7 billion RMB in payments to all the merchants.
However, the critical issue was that nearly 2 billion RMB in payments were still pending.
Moreover, the Forty Thieves had only received 5 billion RMB in payments from sellers. Coupled with the over 2 billion RMB from Zhuanqianbao, they had barely managed to pay the 7 billion RMB, and were then completely out of funds.
Some might wonder, since 9 billion RMB had been sold, how could the Forty Thieves have only received 5 billion RMB?
The reason was simple. First, of this 9 billion RMB, about 2 billion RMB consisted of various subsidies, which were expenses borne by Gouhuasuan Mall.
As for the remaining 2 billion RMB, it was paid by buyers using Youqianhua. These buyers had not actually paid, and this amount was also borne by the Forty Thieves.
This resulted in all the funds on the Forty Thieves' books being depleted, yet there were still 2 billion RMB in pending payments and a deficit of 2 billion RMB in Zhuanqianhua that needed to be covered.
The situation was in disarray, which was why Old Ma needed to urgently go to Hong Kong to borrow money to survive.
However, with the campaign still ongoing, Old Ma had preemptively revised the rules, extending the payment period to one month. This meant that for the next month, and very likely the next two months, the Forty Thieves would not need to pay any cash to the buyers.
After all, with the backlog of express deliveries, most buyers would not receive their goods until after a month.
Since all payments would be held by the Forty Thieves for two months, during this period, they would accumulate a very substantial amount of capital.
Take this campaign for example: in half a month, there were already over 9 billion RMB in sales. If all payments were delayed by two months, then in the next two months, there would be at least 7 billion RMB in buyer payments. With such a massive amount of campaign funds in the hands of the Forty Thieves, their funding problems would be completely resolved, allowing them to continue operating extravagantly.
Furthermore, since this rule could be maintained indefinitely, they could consistently hold at least one month's worth of seller funds without fear of a liquidity crisis.
Upon realizing this, the enormous weight that had been hanging over everyone's hearts suddenly lifted. It seemed they wouldn't need financing at all; the Forty Thieves had truly come back to life!
However, some still expressed concern. For instance, Lou Wensheng asked Old Ma, "Boss, if we do this, the merchants will surely disagree. They will be very angry. What if they revolt?"
"Don't worry, they absolutely won't dare to revolt!" Old Ma smiled faintly. He couldn't help but recall the dejected laborers he had seen in Hong Kong yesterday, his facial muscles twitching slightly, but he quickly regained his composed and steady demeanor.
"For the sake of the great cause, they can only endure some hardship for now!"
The afternoon of that day, Gouhuasuan Mall issued an announcement to all its sellers. The content was as follows:
[
Dear valued seller partners:
We have made a difficult decision. According to feedback from logistics providers, due to warehouse backlogs and express personnel working under extreme load, many delivery personnel are unable to perform the pre-shipment verification of goods as required by the previous rules.
Concurrently, logistics providers have discovered a large number of empty packages during the parcel sorting process. This indicates that many merchants may be sending empty packages to defraud buyers of their funds.
According to statistics, our company has been defrauded of at least 500 million RMB through empty packages, which severely infringes upon the interests of buyers and gravely jeopardizes the company's operations. The company will pursue legal action to severely punish the relevant sellers.
However, due to logistical reasons, our company is unable to verify the subsequent packages. If we continue to allow empty packages to harm the company's interests, the resulting losses in the future will be insurmountable for our company.
Therefore, we have made a difficult decision to suspend all seller payment disbursements. All payments will be disbursed immediately once the buyer confirms receipt of the goods and no complaint is filed within one month, ensuring the authenticity and quality of the goods, and that the buyer's interests and the company's normal operations are not disturbed.
All of this is to protect the interests of all buyers and ensure their property safety. We bear this responsibility without hesitation!
We hope everyone is aware and understands.
Thank you!
Forty Thieves Group
November 2, 2003
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