A big fire burned all of my company's down jackets, and also burned my orders and credibility. How to save the factory on the verge of bankruptcy, get out of trouble, and turn danger into safety. Related articles can refer to this one: The two great secrets of successful Taobao entrepreneurship...
I am a bit confused and hesitant to post this thread, but after returning to China for three years of business, I have many feelings. In 2007, with an MBA diploma in hand and full of ambition, I gave up the opportunity to work for a large foreign enterprise and returned to the embrace of my motherland; thinking about the prospect of being able to show my skills and achieve something made me very excited. The next day after getting off the plane, I started preparing, applying for a company, then applying for a foreign trade type company, and then setting up a cosmetics factory. In August 2007, when I received the first batch of orders, my employees and I were happy for a whole month; adhering to the principles of integrity and quality, everything went quite smoothly from the first batch of orders until September 2010; however, as the saying goes, unexpected misfortunes can happen. This July, after receiving a large order for down jackets from an old customer, as usual, since I couldn't complete it within the contract period myself, I subcontracted it to a small processing plant that had been cooperating with us. Since this order was shipped in three batches, each time a container, the first two containers went smoothly. Two weeks before the delivery of the last container, a small processing plant caught fire, burning all the almost completed clothes. I urgently bought raw materials and let the workers work day and night, but there was no way to catch up. The delivery deadline passed half a month without the completion of the clothes, so the foreign client refused to accept them.
What to do? What to do? Where are the secrets to success? Every day when I wake up, I think about the problem. There are still nearly ten thousand down jackets left, plus the burned raw materials (the compensation from the small processing plant is delayed), totaling three or four million yuan. Although these years have been relatively smooth, I can't afford so much inventory! Sell them! How to sell them? I've never done the domestic market before, and it's already the end of October now. What to do? Finally, everyone came up with a plan, to find wholesalers at the wholesale market for consignment sales, but after running around for a few days, it didn't work. The reason is that our price is too high. Indeed, the normal wholesale market down jacket ex-factory price is only 80 yuan, while our cost has reached 220 yuan. Why? Because they use low-grade down, each kilogram of down costs only three to fifty yuan, some even use cotton down, each piece contains only 150 grams, the workmanship is rough, the processing fee is low, and the cap strips used are 3-5 yuan cap strips, some don't even have cap strips; while we use high-grade down, each kilogram of down costs 280 yuan, each piece contains 270 grams, just the down cost per piece is 80 yuan, the cap strip uses imported raccoon cap strip, costing 48 yuan, their processing fee is only necessary dozens of yuan, while our processing fee is 55-68 yuan, fabric auxiliary material zipper consumption etc., added together, isn't the cost per piece over 220 yuan? It's indeed difficult to wholesale them out. Then we thought of another way, to set up a clearance counter at the mall entrance. After running around for a few days, we finally rented a stall at the entrance of a wholesale market in Muxiyuan. We enthusiastically started selling the next day, only selling at the cost price of 220 and 240 yuan, but not a single piece was sold all day. Why? The employees said when they came back, they all said it was too expensive. I said that buying a down jacket in the mall might not be as good as ours and costs more than 400 yuan, they said that's because it's a mall, and we are essentially a street stall. I was speechless, took a day to go and see and sell myself. No one believed in our goods. I was so angry that I cut open a piece of clothing with a knife right there, letting them see if it was good down. Hardly sold a few pieces, I was very happy. I told the employees to hang this piece of clothing there, to see if they believe in the quality of our clothes. Two days later, they said it still didn't work. I asked why, they said people don't believe every piece is like this, maybe you only have one good piece, others are not necessarily. Yes, they have a point. After all, we belong to the street stall form, there's no guarantee: besides, we can't cut open a piece of clothing for each guest to let them see, right!
I really have no idea what to do. That night, a friend said, you can try to clear them out on Taobao! To be honest, although I'm not old and have studied abroad, I'm a bit dull and don't quite trust the Internet; but having no other choice, I'll give it a try. I priced the down jackets with a cost of 220 yuan at 299 yuan; those with a cost of around 240 yuan at 329 yuan, then gave an 85% discount, offered a 10-yuan shopping voucher for purchases over 200 yuan, and included free shipping; I also put other clothes and various clothes and pants produced by friends' factories on Taobao Mall. Unexpectedly, within a few days of putting them on Taobao Mall, I actually sold more than a dozen pieces, better than expected. However, the employees reported that some customers still doubt our quality, saying why are they so cheap! I don't know what to say, but I believe as long as we persist, customers will know us eventually, and the mall offers seven-day no-reason return, which will definitely make dear customers feel assured to buy. If they're not satisfied, they can return or exchange anytime. I specially hired a few employees to handle it, firmly believing that good wine needs no bush. I firmly believe that I can definitely find a successful secret path on Taobao, and I will definitely persist on Taobao Mall.
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