From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 116 Double 11 Preparations

Chapter 116 Double 11 Preparations

After some communication, Shen Wei agreed to allow the newly established vivo brand to be launched on Tmall, and to clear out a batch of slow-moving products on Singles' Day.

After speaking with Shen Wei, Lao Ma said, "Lin Mu, it's a waste of your talent for you to stay in the P series. Would you be interested in transferring to the M series as a management position by the end of this year?"

"I'm running a new department that sells domestic products overseas. The product project team is called AliExpress. Would you be interested in switching to that role at the end of the year to gain an international perspective?"

To be honest, Lin Mu was actually a little tempted. Why not use Alibaba's money to gain experience?

However, in terms of internationalization, the current market environment is not yet mature, and national policies have not yet shifted towards internet companies going global.

Moreover, after Jiang Fan was sent to develop overseas business, Alibaba's business in this area has not made much progress, and Lin Mu did not want to waste time here.

Lin Mu said sincerely, "I'll think about it."

Old Ma laughed heartily.

I'm thinking about it, but I just don't want to go.

He mentally assessed Lin Mu: This kid lacks self-motivation.

He said, "Okay, then think about it carefully. When you've figured it out, send an email to Zhang Yong and ask him to help you plan it out. That old guy is really good at finance."

Next, he asked, "Xiao Lin, you've been working at Alibaba for two years now. What suggestions do you have for the Alibaba Group? Tell me about them."

"Oh ho, this is showing respect to the virtuous and seeking advice from subordinates, and it's also a very obvious way to win people's hearts." Lin Mu pondered for a moment; he didn't think he could offer any constructive suggestions.

People like Lao Ma, who are in a high position, have access to a lot of information that they can't control on their own. Often, what you see as a problem is not actually a problem, but rather a price that companies have to pay for growth.

Lin Mu spoke candidly about some of the most frequently discussed issues, such as corporate culture. He noted that a group of parasites who completely disregard Alibaba's culture have infiltrated the company, rapidly eroding its cohesion.

There's also the issue of KPIs. Alibaba's current KPI setting is too stringent, which inevitably leads employees to pursue short-termism.

In addition, there are other issues such as the common problem of departmental protectionism, which do exist but have certainly been raised by many people.

After listening, Old Ma nodded repeatedly and explained to Lin Mu in detail why these problems had occurred.

They ate and chatted, and the meal eventually came to a satisfactory end.

To be honest, the food at this private restaurant was really delicious. After the meal, Lin Mu asked, "Mr. Ma, is this restaurant by reservation only, or open to the public? The cooking is truly excellent."

Old Ma said, "The owner of this restaurant used to be a chef for the leaders."

Lin Mu suddenly realized, no wonder.

After Lin Mu left, Lao Ma gave Lin Mu an evaluation: He was a genius in operations, but he lacked in organizational management and had little comprehension.

Old Ma couldn't help but smile smugly. This was just a specialist, unlike him when he was young, when he was already a leader capable of building platforms.

Time passed slowly, and the Tmall project team steadily acquired new merchants.

Thanks to Tolinmu's phenomenal performance, compared to the previous life when there were only about 200 merchants on Tmall before Singles' Day, in this life in 2009, in just over half a year, the number of merchants on Tmall soared to more than 800, a fourfold increase compared to the previous life.

-

The number of merchants willing to participate in Double Eleven has surged from around 20 in the previous year to over 100, a fivefold increase.

Times.

Of course, the people in the Tmall project team were unaware of these performance increases at the moment.

Inside the meeting room, General Manager Zhang Yong wrote a number on a small blackboard: 80 million to 100 million. He then gave a concluding speech: "With only 10 days left until the Double Eleven sales battle, I hope that on Double Eleven, our sales can reach this figure. Please, everyone, work even harder."

Looking at the numbers on the whiteboard, Lin Mu thought to himself: In the first Double Eleven in his previous life, this number was 5500 million. With me in this life, the target has almost doubled. He couldn't help but feel a little proud; the Tmall project team really couldn't do without him.

Soon, Lin Mu began to immerse himself in his busy work.

First, we contacted Sanfeng's technical department and asked them to work overtime all day on Singles' Day. We also transferred a technical team from Taobao to ensure that the server would not be overwhelmed by traffic and crash on that day.

Secondly, the operations department is preparing. Lengyue has already prepared the copywriting and all the materials. On Singles' Day, Taobao will launch a special entrance. Clicking the entrance will directly redirect you to the Tmall interface, and then a pop-up window will appear.

The pop-up window displays images of various household items such as mobile phones, clothes, shoes, and washing machines. These icons are carefully chosen; each category shown in the image has corresponding products available for sale on Singles' Day, all at a 50% discount.

The washing machine category was negotiated by Lin Mu with an established manufacturer. Of course, the model of the older single-tub washing machine is being offered in the promotion, and it is limited to 10 units.

Next comes the work of connecting with the merchants.

In the previous life, because no one expected Singles' Day to be so popular, many of the products participating in the event were quickly sold out on the day it went live. The operations staff left on the merchant's side had to call the boss back in the middle of the night in order to continue restocking.

Now that Lin Mu has the "answer" in hand, he has already made preparations in advance, instructing all the bosses participating in Double Eleven to issue inventory operation permissions to the operations staff on the day, or to try not to turn off their mobile phones.

Secondly, there's the preparation of the customer service department. In the previous Double Eleven, because the first wave of activities went live in the middle of the night, the merchants' nighttime customer service teams were overwhelmed with inquiries, resulting in many lost orders and failing to maximize traffic conversion.

Lin Mu suggested that merchants participating in Double Eleven should allocate resources in advance, establish a special Double Eleven team, and reserve sufficient manpower on Double Eleven day to be specifically responsible for pre-sales and after-sales issues related to the Double Eleven event.

Finally, there's the promotion and pre-event phase of the Double Eleven campaign, which the publicity department is already working on.

Thanks to Lin Mu's excellent performance, the Tmall project team's status within Alibaba Group is much higher than it was in 2009, and it has become much easier to break down departmental barriers.

External traffic has not yet been deployed, but internal traffic has been significantly boosted. Needless to say, Alibaba issued the highest-level pop-up notification on Singles' Day. Lin Mu also instructed merchants participating in Singles' Day to notify and warm up in advance through the Shopkeeper's Talk and Qianniu member groups so that users would not miss the Singles' Day event.

With that, all preparations are complete, and we eagerly await the arrival of Singles' Day.