Flash Sale Mode

Chapter 518 Flash Sale Mode

Before we knew it, it was already mid-October.

"How tedious!"

Looking at Massim who had arrived in Los Angeles, Ernst was utterly speechless at the efficiency of these old-money people, his tone laced with mockery.

It took the other party more than a month of haggling before they finally acquired all the shares held by the Wood family.

There was already a contract as evidence, the FDA also found pork in Wawa's factory, and there were witnesses lying in the hospital, so the evidence was conclusive.

But these guys were too cautious, so cautious that they only started showing their fangs after they put Gallup Wood in a mental hospital.

"It's always better to be careful. This contract involves more than just us; it affects many interests," Massim replied, sounding somewhat helpless.

Standing up, admiring the villa's completely renovated style, she clearly didn't want to dwell on the topic. "Speaking of which, aren't you afraid someone will come to your house and rob you of everything?"

He pointed vaguely to a Picasso painting hanging on the wall. Although he wasn't an expert, he was certain that the painting was worth at least two million dollars on the art market.

This was the first time Massim had ever seen antiques displayed like this; someone who didn't know better would have mistaken them for decorative items.

"These collections are bought to be displayed, aren't they?" Ernst waved his hand dismissively. "There's no other way. The mansions in Malibu are at least three to four years away from being habitable. I can't just let these shareholders who bought them eat dirt in bank vaults, can I?"

Massim was speechless.

Are antiques meant to be viewed?

This was the first time he had ever heard of it.

Shouldn't it be more accurately described as something for collection?

Even if you show it to others, shouldn't you keep it safe?

He had never seen or even heard of anything like Ernst, who so casually hung it on the wall as a decoration.

And it wasn't just one painting; in this living room alone, he saw four paintings, all by famous artists.

Aren't you afraid of oxidation?

Massim really wanted to say, "If you don't like it, give it to me."

Or you can smash me, you can kill me with these paintings and calligraphy, I really like them.

"Aren't you afraid that if you just leave it like this, your little girl will tear it to shreds?"

Ernst's illegitimate daughter was not deliberately hidden; it was basically an open secret in Hollywood, let alone the fact that the Boston Consortium knew about it.

"Just tear it up and buy it again, it's not much money anyway." Ernst seemed nonchalant, but his expression was very unnatural.

Just two weeks ago, when the mother and daughter came from Australia, Kathy actually tore up a masterpiece by José Van Tulleri.

This person is a painter of the South American school, but he has a very deep connection with China and lived in China for a long time.

Therefore, his paintings are a true fusion of Chinese and Western styles, combining oil painting and ink painting.

Although he is not well-known, he is considered one of the masters of the South American school.

Listening to Ernst's incomprehensible remarks, Massim was speechless and didn't know what to say.

I sat back down on the sofa.

This topic.

Too.

He was afraid his heart couldn't take it.

"I heard that Flash Sale is planning to enter the restaurant industry?" After taking a sip and calming himself down, Massim asked casually. This was his main purpose for coming to Los Angeles today.

In just over a month, Flash Sale achieved an astonishing result, something that even he himself hadn't anticipated, let alone outsiders.

The number of registered users exceeded 2380 million, the daily order volume exceeded 1700 million, and the highest daily turnover reached US$5.5 million.

Major American media outlets have given it special coverage, and the buzz has never stopped.

The Wall Street Journal even reported that "flash sales are turning the entire United States into a giant e-commerce laboratory, changing American consumers' spending habits in a disruptive way."

"Online shopping, once considered a niche activity, has now become a mainstream consumption method thanks to flash sales. The wave of e-commerce has fully taken off in the United States."

"There's no other way; the enemy is closing in too fast, so Flash Sale must accelerate its development."

What does it mean to be the first to know when the river warms in spring?

Previously, the media questioned whether the flash sale subsidy campaign could be sustained for three months, since such a large-scale subsidy would mean bearing huge financial pressure.

Amazon and Walmart have publicly stated in the media that flash sales are a bluff, an attempt to grab attention, and a manipulation of consumers' emotions.

He bluntly stated that such a cost-insensitive subsidy model could not last, and the ultimate fate of flash sales would inevitably be a broken financial chain, leaving behind a mess.

Jeff Bezos even stated in an interview that the flash sale subsidy strategy was suicidal and would eventually collapse on its own.

But Wall Street doesn't see it that way, especially when the Flash Sale GG team frequently appears at the headquarters of consumer goods giants such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Nike. Their keen capital sense makes them realize the secret behind it.

Soon, a report titled "In-depth Analysis of the Flash Sale Business Model" was placed on the desks of major investment institutions and fund companies on Wall Street.

The report is said to be over fifty pages long, but Ernst never read it.

However, this did not prevent Wall Street from being shocked; everyone who saw the document had only one thought in their mind.

Who knew the internet could be used like this?

First, attract a massive number of new users through huge subsidies to quickly accumulate user base and consumer behavior data.

Then, using this user data as leverage, they negotiated with brands to transform the platform's homepage into a super GG carrier.

Is the flash sale homepage a real homepage? Isn't it just a bunch of random bullet points?

In the past, internet companies used this tactic because their goal was capital; their aim was to make money.

The current flash sale model is similar, and the goal is still to make money, but the objective has changed.

I don't just want money, I want to stand up and ask for money.

Not only do they stand there asking for money, but they also make the people giving them money kneel down.

In particular, Coca-Cola was the first to recognize the business opportunity and make a decision regarding the top scrolling Google Ads spot on the homepage, paying $2000 million annually for it.

Then Coca-Cola's stock price took off, surging 21.5% in a week.

The Coca-Cola president now praises flash sales whenever he sees the media, making Afei blush with embarrassment.

The main reason is not because they secured the top spot, but because of the revenue that this top spot brought to Coca-Cola.

Because of the flash sale subsidies, buying a Coca-Cola online through a flash sale is about 15% cheaper than in supermarkets, even including shipping costs.

Although Coca-Cola is not an essential commodity, its low price still stimulated consumers' desire to buy, resulting in an explosive increase in orders. In just three days after its launch, Coca-Cola orders on the flash sale platform exceeded 100 million, which directly caused Coca-Cola's warehousing system to be overwhelmed and completely collapsed in the early morning of the fourth day.

Coca-Cola also knew that this wave of designated failures would inevitably lead to a surge in sales.

Transporting products from various locations to Flash Sale's warehouse is not only troublesome, but Flash Sale may also be unable to handle the workload.

Therefore, Flash Sale and Coca-Cola changed their cooperation model to direct warehouse connection. Orders from the Flash Sale platform would be directly synchronized to Coca-Cola's SAP warehouse management system, and Coca-Cola would ship the goods directly.

This integrated online and offline model was a completely new attempt for Coca-Cola, and the sudden surge in orders caught the company completely off guard.

The warehouse system was down for eight hours, and there was a severe shortage of warehouse staff. Even the warehouse area manager at the Atlanta headquarters had to step in to help print waybills and pack goods.

FedEx, which partnered with Flash Sale, urgently allocated resources, stationing transport vehicles 24 hours a day outside Coca-Cola's regional warehouses, loading and hauling away each truckload to barely cope with the flood of orders.

Coca-Cola's success story shook the entire American consumer goods industry, causing immediate unease.

We complained about your high prices before, but it's not our fault. Your flash sale didn't mention how amazing your pinned Google link was.

According to the data they obtained, Coca-Cola's product sales increased by 730% year-on-year within a week of partnering with Flash Sale.

This is no longer a question of how much stock to sell, but rather how many slots to occupy.

My sales went up in a short period of time, and even if they declined later, the entire industry declined along with me, which meant that I had sucked the blood out of my competitors in advance.

The problem now is, if I don't suck this blood, someone else will suck mine.

Then they swarmed in, vying for the remaining GG slots.

PepsiCo was the first to approach them, offering a hefty $4500 million annually for one of the top scrolling homepage slots, but Flash Sale promptly rejected the offer.

Afeier adopted the model of Olympic sponsors, implementing a category-exclusive entry strategy, allowing only one brand to occupy the top spot on the homepage for each product category.

If you want to display "GG" on the Pepsi homepage, you can only select from the category recommendations below.

This one move increased the value of the top-ranked GG spot by another 50%.

Then Budweiser secured the exclusive top spot in the alcohol category for $3800 million per year.

Nike acquired exclusive top-of-the-line GG rights for the sportswear category for $4200 million per year.

The most generous was Procter & Gamble, which offered a staggering $5500 million annually to gain an advantage in the fiercely competitive daily chemical products category and signed a two-year cooperation agreement in one go.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that the US consumer goods market has long been monopolized by the three giants Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Johnson & Johnson, and the competition may seem small, the market pressure is actually enormous. For Procter & Gamble, flash sales, as an online traffic portal, are of greater strategic significance.

After this success, Flashbuy's revenue from GG fees alone exceeded $4 million in one year.

It's worth noting that there are many places on its homepage where merchants can join, such as adding an electronics product recommendation section where electronics brands that have paid a recommendation fee can scroll through the page.

This is so imaginative, it's making Wall Street's jaws drop, they're practically drooling.

Goldman Sachs is incredibly efficient. On the last day of September, Amazon completed a new round of financing and announced its official entry into the offline delivery field.

Therefore, time is running out for Flash Sale. Before Amazon's offline delivery service officially launches, Flash Sale must complete its expansion into as many areas as possible.