"Brother-in-law, won't this be too harsh? I'm worried that many merchants will be scared away if we impose this. And withholding funds for a month, many merchants won't accept this clause!" Leng Zhiruo said worriedly.
"That's true!" Huang He scratched his head. If this policy were announced directly, it would indeed greatly affect the merchants' willingness to settle in.
"Do you have any good ideas then?" Huang He suddenly turned to ask Leng Zhiruo. While he could think of solutions, Leng Zhiruo was now in charge of the entire Jiangnan Mall business.
As a crucial part of Jiangnan Group's Heaven, Earth, and Human realms, the Jiangnan Mall was of utmost importance. Huang He couldn't possibly entrust it to anyone else. After much consideration, his wife was naturally the most reliable.
Moreover, through her experience with the Jiangnan Blind Box business, Leng Zhiruo had been tempered. She was at least much stronger than Leng Zhimeng, who was still somewhat naive and childlike.
Therefore, Huang He transferred Leng Zhiruo to be in charge of the Jiangnan Mall. As for Jiangnan Commerce, it was jointly managed by Liu Xiangjiang and Zhang Yingguo.
These two were among the original Four Great Vajras. Speaking of which, the lives of these Four Great Vajras were now all different. Shen Yuequn, unable to leave his hometown, was responsible for most of Jiangnan Group's businesses in the Northeast. Huang He had originally planned to transfer Shen Yuequn to be the vice president of Jiangnan Commerce, but Shen Yuequn refused.
Liu Xiangjiang had always been Huang He's confidant and was currently Huang He's most trusted outsider. After Leng Zhiruo transferred to manage the Jiangnan Mall, he was officially promoted to become the president of Jiangnan Commerce.
Zhang Yingguo had always been in charge of the southern business. After receiving the order to transfer to be the vice president of Jiangnan Commerce, he very readily handed over his original responsibilities to others and came to serve as this vice president.
As for Jia Sangu, he had already partially detached himself from Jiangnan Group. When the Jiangnan Blind Box business expanded, Jia Sangu chose to pursue his own ventures, becoming a distributor under Jiangnan Blind Box. Later, he gradually established other industries of his own and became a boss.
Although he had been a general distributor for a province, he was considered to have disengaged from Jiangnan Group.
Liu Xiangjiang and Zhang Yingguo actually did not get along well and couldn't stand each other. Therefore, Huang He felt very relieved to hand over the company to these two.
In his previous life, when reading various historical stories, whenever he saw an emperor placing two incompatible individuals together to handle affairs, resulting in complete failure and even the downfall of the entire country, Huang He found it extremely foolish. Wasn't it better to have two people who could cooperate work together? This was putting the cart before the horse.
However, after building such a vast enterprise as Jiangnan Group, Huang He understood that he absolutely could not let two people who were on good terms be the main and vice leaders, otherwise, the entire company would soon become their people.
This wasn't to say that Liu Xiangjiang or Zhang Yingguo would steal company assets, but everyone had ambitions and wanted to build their own careers.
If, one day, Liu Xiangjiang rallied support and decided to start his own business, taking almost all the core personnel of Jiangnan Commerce with him, although they hadn't embezzled any company assets, once these core personnel were gone, Jiangnan Commerce would essentially be crippled.
Therefore, it was necessary to place two incompatible individuals in charge, so that the company would not be controlled by a single person.
As for whether the struggle between these two incompatible individuals would destroy the entire company, that would depend on Huang He himself.
In the hands of a wise ruler, like Zhu Yuanzhang, even if various factions under him were in constant conflict, he could firmly grasp the reins of power and kill anyone he pleased. Even if he executed tens of thousands of officials at once, it was as easy as picking something up.
Of course, if such a situation fell into the hands of a foolish ruler, it would naturally lead to perpetual turmoil in the country. Whether it was Sun Chengzong, Sun Chuanfang, or Hong Chengchou, they were all completely ruined by their incompetent teammates, and ultimately the entire country was lost.
Cough cough, I've gone a bit off track.
"I've got it!" Leng Zhiruo suddenly said, startling Huang He.
"How many months have you had it?" Huang He asked with a smile.
"No, I mean I have a solution!" Leng Zhiruo's expression changed slightly, but she quickly concealed it and said, "My idea is that we should give the right to evaluate to the buyers!"
"What do you mean?" Huang He's expression shifted slightly. Could this Leng Zhiruo be about to unleash that ultimate weapon?
"Here's what I think: when a buyer completes a purchase, they can evaluate the goods sold by the seller. The evaluation will be divided into positive and negative reviews. If it's a positive review, we can give the seller a nice title or something similar, and then display it, letting all customers know that this is a store with many positive reviews."
"If it's a negative review, we can use it as an excuse to lower the merchant's ranking, reduce their exposure and recommended opportunities, and so on."
"Of course, if the merchant is willing to negotiate with the buyer and provide satisfactory service, making them cancel the negative review, then it can be restored!" Leng Zhiruo said.
"This girl, she actually came up with the good and bad review system!" Huang He muttered to himself. He had already prepared this system, and unexpectedly, Leng Zhiruo voiced it.
Well, let's consider this Leng Zhiruo's credit. She needs credit and achievements to assert her authority.
However, her idea was still too simple. Huang He just asked faintly, "What if someone deliberately gives negative reviews, or if stores engage in malicious competition and try to give negative reviews to their opponents, how would you solve this problem?"
"This..." Leng Zhiruo was stunned for a moment, then thought hard for a long time but couldn't come up with a solution. After all, even Taobao couldn't come up with a perfect solution for "negative review attackers" in later generations, and merchants had to deal with it themselves.
However, at that time, Taobao was a massive enterprise. It didn't matter how badly merchants were treated, as Taobao wasn't short of merchants. But now, Jiangnan Mall was just starting, so it couldn't be so harsh on merchants.
However, it also couldn't let merchants disregard buyers and lower the buyer's shopping experience.
"Actually, it's enough to go back to the withholding of funds I mentioned earlier!" Huang He said lightly. "The existence of positive and negative reviews is necessary, but the impact of negative reviews should make merchants hurt, but not to the extent that they cannot operate."
"So, once there's a negative review, the payment will be delayed by one day. This time can accumulate indefinitely. With 1000 negative reviews, the payment will be made after 1000 days."
"This has an advantage: it's like boiling a frog in warm water. At first, it's just a delay of one or two days in payment, and merchants won't feel anything, so they won't be scared away by this sudden good and bad review policy."
"When the merchant's payment delay accumulates for more than ten days, they will experience the hardship of having a large amount of funds withheld. At that time, these merchants will do everything they can to eliminate negative reviews, and naturally, they will understand how to cater to buyers."
"In addition, the stores themselves should establish a credit rating system. Customers should be able to understand that it's a highly credible online store just by looking at the store's credit rating icon. Negative reviews will also affect the credit rating, further making sellers understand the importance of maintaining positive reviews."
"As for the situation of large-scale fake reviews, we will need to intervene. If merchants feel they have been maliciously targeted with negative reviews, they can complain to us, and our customer service will specifically inquire with these customers who gave negative reviews to investigate whether they actually received a bad shopping experience."
"With this dual approach, we can essentially maintain the credibility of Jiangnan Mall among buyers, while also not directly scaring away most sellers!" Huang He integrated the experience from later generations and presented this plan.
Well, Huang He would never admit that he was coveting the funds in the accounts of Jiangnan Mall that would be delayed in payment in the future. Well, he wasn't greedy for this money at all.
——————
Starting from mid-April 2003, the public found their lives increasingly filled with two things: the fight against SARS, and the TV series "Liang Jian" (Soldiers Sortie).
During the days of fighting SARS, many people relied on "Liang Jian" to get by. Every day, they would wait by the TV for Li Yunlong. Some people watched the last few episodes of "Liang Jian" on CCTV the day before, and then turned around to watch the first few episodes of "Liang Jian" on Hunan TV, as long as they were watching "Liang Jian."
However, this kind of life quickly passed. As Xu He had analyzed before, due to various reasons, CCTV's broadcast progress was gradually caught up by Hunan TV, so everyone unified their viewing time and switched to Hunan TV to watch "Liang Jian," as not everyone was willing to stay up until midnight.
This made everyone at CCTV very depressed. When the ratings were tallied, although they were the first to broadcast and the largest platform, their ratings were actually lower than Hunan TV.
After their broadcast progress was surpassed, the ratings directly began to plummet, quickly being completely surpassed by Hunan TV, which achieved a rating of over 18%. This rating was an unimaginable ratings miracle in the 21st century.
Everyone at Hunan TV laughed like fools.
This achievement also made more television stations feel eager. Thus, new television stations actively approached them. Xu He was still the one responsible for reception, and the price was still 300,000 yuan per episode.
"But 300,000 yuan per episode is too much. I heard Hunan TV bought it at this price. It's the second round for them, and I'm the third round. I should at least get a discount!" the representative from Dragon TV said with distress.
"Brother, we both understand the rules of the circle. Only the first round is the first round. All broadcasts within a year are considered the second round, so the prices are naturally the same."
"However, since you are so sincere, I will give you a discount. If you are willing to pay 700,000 yuan for one episode, I will sell you the unlimited broadcast rights for this drama, and you can replay this TV series indefinitely in the future. What do you think?" Xu He said with a smile.
"250,000 yuan per episode. If you don't sell, I'm leaving!" The representative from Dragon TV said through gritted teeth. If "Liang Jian" wasn't so popular, so popular that all the prime-time viewers were watching TV on Hunan TV, causing Dragon TV's advertisements to go unsold, he would absolutely not have come to be fleeced.
"Deal!" Xu He said very decisively, and then signed a contract with the representative from Dragon TV. Thus, when Hunan TV reached episode 20, Dragon TV began broadcasting the first episode of "Liang Jian" in prime time.
Unexpectedly, when the ratings survey report came out the next day, although Hunan TV still dominated the same time slot with a 18.9% rating, Dragon TV's rating directly soared to 10.2%.
Who would have thought that a TV series being replayed for the second time would achieve a terrifying rating of 10.2%, still outperforming all other TV series in the 21st century?
——————
"Bastard! You idiot, how could I have such a stupid employee!" Wang Hai was scolding one of his employees in the office.
Because Wang Hai had been slow to act, the people who had paid him to debunk fakes became impatient and began to accuse Wang Hai, demanding their money back, which gave Wang Hai a headache.
In addition, Wang Hai himself did not believe that Jiangnan Mall was truly perfect and free of counterfeit goods. He believed that there must have been some problem last time, so Wang Hai began to carefully review every detail. Finally, when he saw the waybill clearly stating "Beijing Dahai Business Consulting Company," his company's address, and that the courier personally delivered it, Wang Hai finally understood where his problem lay.
Thus, the scene above occurred, with Wang Hai scolding the unfortunate employee for a whole day before calming down.
Afterward, Wang Hai decided to learn from his mistakes and start over.
So, he asked the employee who made the mistake to contribute his rental address, and then planned to order more than 100 items under this employee's name and address.
However, on second thought, ordering more than 100 items by one person seemed a bit too strange. At the same time, Jiangnan Group must have already noticed that he was investigating them. If the same situation occurred again, it would inevitably arouse suspicion.
Therefore, Wang Hai decided to mobilize all the employees of his company, asking them to use their own addresses and names to purchase about 5 items each, and then consolidate them for inspection. This way, there would be no risk.
As soon as he decided, Wang Hai immediately took action. And when Wang Hai was watching episodes 1 and 2 of "Liang Jian" on Dragon TV, the new batch of more than 100 items finally arrived.
Wang Hai immediately gathered all the express packages in his company and, as before, started unpacking while filming.
He had expected that this time, since his address wasn't exposed, he would be able to discover many tricks. However, the results were somewhat disappointing, as most of the goods were similar to the previous ones. Although there were many extremely poor-quality items among them, there were indeed no counterfeit or shoddy goods.
However, at this stage of online shopping, and with many merchants taking chances to make big money, Wang Hai did find two problematic items.
One was a battery that claimed to be Nanfu battery. Upon arrival, it was discovered that it was not Nanfu battery at all, but something called "Genuine Battery." Wang Hai had someone test the power of this "Genuine Battery" and found that it was less than 1/10 of that of a Nanfu battery. This was undoubtedly a counterfeit and shoddy product.
There were also two pounds of beef jerky, claiming to be Inner Mongolian yak beef jerky. However, when it was mailed to Wang Hai, he found that the beef jerky was simply packed in a plastic bag, without even vacuum sealing.
In addition, there was no production date, production address, manufacturer information, ingredient list, or anything similar. This was undoubtedly a product with no three-noes (no production date, no quality certificate, no manufacturer name).
Upon discovering this, Wang Hai was overjoyed. This was a solid piece of evidence. So, he immediately took this bag of yak beef jerky to the relevant departments and contacted reporters, preparing to expose the matter.
However, Wang Hai also understood that it would be difficult to shake Jiangnan Mall with just two counterfeit and shoddy products. He still needed to find a way to obtain evidence of Jiangnan Mall's terrible attitude in not resolving issues.
Therefore, Wang Hai immediately contacted Jiangnan Mall's customer service via QQ to complain about the two counterfeit and shoddy product incidents he had encountered.
Soon, Jiangnan Mall's customer service QQ replied, asking him to contact the seller first, and if the seller was unwilling to compensate, then apply for customer service intervention, which was the normal procedure.
"They're starting to pass the buck!" Upon seeing this reply, Wang Hai showed an expression of "just as I expected."
As an expert in debunking fakes for many years, Wang Hai understood very well that "passing the buck" was a common trick used by many relevant merchants, and even relevant units. They would use various excuses to push things back and forth, basically not taking responsibility. When you got tired of chasing the ball, you would naturally give up.
For example, in Wang Hai's first complaint case, which involved Sony headphones, he visited several relevant agencies 23 times in half a month before finally completing the compensation claim.
Theoretically, Wang Hai should have only needed to go once to complete the complaint.
"Next, the customer service will definitely claim that I misunderstood, or delay the time, or say that the manufacturer is responsible, or simply push it back to the platform's customer service, in short, they will push it around!" Wang Hai said with an expression that he had seen through everything, and then ordered his subordinates to record all of this with a DV.
These people had no idea that every time they pushed the responsibility, they were pushing the entire Jiangnan Mall closer to the brink of death!
Thinking of this, Wang Hai's face showed a smile, because he had found that familiar working state again.
The other party was fast. When Wang Hai submitted his claim to customer service, the customer service replied, "Dear customer, hello. We deeply regret the inconvenience caused to you. Regarding the issue you raised, we need to explain that we are selling genuine batteries, not Nanfu batteries!"
"You're lying with your eyes open. You clearly stated that you were selling Nanfu batteries!" Wang Hai typed. Although Wang Hai wanted to get angry, seeing the other party's good attitude, he couldn't get angry.
"No, dear. Please carefully examine our product page. It says 'Genuine Nanfu Technology Battery.' Also, if you scroll to the very bottom of our details page, it clearly indicates that the battery we sell is called 'Genuine Battery'!" the seller replied. Wang Hai was stunned for a moment, then carefully looked at a picture and found that...
The front of this picture had "Nanfu Battery" written on it, and a large "Genuine" was added to the upper left corner, while two extremely small "Technology" characters were in the lower right corner. Therefore, the other party could indeed say that they were selling "Genuine Battery," but it only used Nanfu technology.
Thus, this put Wang Hai in a very awkward position. According to the other party's explanation, this was indeed not related to counterfeit goods. However, Wang Hai was unwilling to give up. He had already paid to have the battery tested and even called the reporters, so how could he return empty-handed?
Therefore, Wang Hai replied, "I don't care. You at least deceived consumers like me. I don't want this battery anymore, I want to return it!"
Wang Hai thought the other party would refuse, but he didn't expect them to reply immediately, "Okay, dear. We will arrange the return for you immediately. The refund will be credited to your Jiangnan Wallet within 24 hours. Please check it."
"Ah!" Wang Hai was dumbfounded. They agreed to refund so easily? This script was wrong! How could he make a fuss now?
"No, this is a counterfeit and shoddy product. I demand a refund and double compensation according to consumer law!" Wang Hai immediately changed his demand, wanting more compensation. The other party must be unwilling now, right?
As expected, the other party was indeed unwilling. He replied, "Dear, we are deeply guilty for causing you such great trouble, but we are definitely not selling counterfeit and shoddy products, otherwise, the platform would close our store. Therefore, if you still have doubts about our genuine batteries, please submit our batteries to the relevant departments for testing."
"If the relevant departments confirm that these are counterfeit and shoddy goods, we will immediately refund you double the amount according to the relevant legal provisions. So, please click the complaint button now and complain that we are selling counterfeit and shoddy goods, so that the order will immediately enter the relevant procedures to ensure your usage experience."
"Oh!" Wang Hai found that he couldn't say anything except "Oh!" because the other party's words were very clear. A refund was possible, but for double compensation, a written certificate was needed. This was a reasonable and legitimate request, and Wang Hai had nothing to say.
"Boss, the target is actually Jiangnan Mall, so the seller's attitude doesn't matter. What matters is the attitude of Jiangnan Mall's customer service. If Jiangnan Mall's customer service is vague, it can also be used to attack them!" his subordinate suggested. Wang Hai thought it made sense, so he was about to complain to customer service again to get more evidence of their inaction. At that moment...
The QQ of the customer service he had previously contacted suddenly remembered something. Wang Hai clicked on it and found that the customer service had sent a message: "Dear user 'Waves Rolling,' you have complained about the product you purchased: Genuine Nanfu Technology Battery, with the reason being counterfeit and shoddy goods."
"The platform is currently verifying the information. We will protect all funds for the order and record it. You can submit the product for appraisal to the relevant institutions. The contact number is: xxxxx"
"As long as it is confirmed that the other party is selling counterfeit and shoddy products, we will immediately close their store, impose a fine of 10 times the sales amount, and deduct all their deposit."
"We solemnly promise all users here that once any merchant is found selling counterfeit and shoddy products on the platform, we will respond immediately and impose a permanent store closure penalty. We will not allow any counterfeit and shoddy products to appear on our Jiangnan Mall platform."
"Thank you for your complaint suggestion. If you have any other needs, you can contact our customer service specialist Xiao Wei. We will serve you 24 hours a day!"
"Perfect!" Wang Hai clapped his hands somewhat blankly. This response was too perfect. He didn't know how to blacken it.