How a Calamity Necromancer Retires - How a Calamity Necromancer Retires chapter 93
The result of introducing skeleton delivery, which delivers in the shortest period of time, regardless of day or night, from large cities where Formi’s warehouses are located, has been great.
Let’s take a deficit and spread the service, but it’s free anyway, and they give out coupons, so people who signed up with the idea to try it out started to sit down, satisfied with the speed.
“The share is going up.”
“What percentage?”
“Now it is 3.8 percent.”
The current share of Formi is 3.4 percent.
One might say that a 0.4 percent increase is a big deal, but considering the number of customers, it was amazing to have tens of thousands of people flock to it in such a short period of time.
Even in a few large cities where skeleton delivery is applied, this amount of people was attracted, and when the warehouse is completed and nationwide delivery is started in earnest, the share will rise even more steeply.
“Are your employees adjusting well?”
“It was my first time working with Skeleton, so there was a lot of trial and error, but thanks to the large number of programmers, everyone is doing well now.”
“It’s good.”
Now that you have the foundation to attract customers, you need to display products that will make customers open their wallets.
“Did all the products from our partners come in?”
And in that respect, Seron had an overwhelming advantage compared to other Internet commerce companies.
Consumer goods are the most popular products that people buy on the Internet.
Although fresh products are now being traded a lot, many people still prefer to buy them directly from the mart, while consumer goods such as electronic products do not have expiration dates and all products are uniform, so they are optimized for sale on the Internet.
And Seron has more than a thousand partners that make various consumer goods from electronic products.
“Everyone is in.”
“okay.”
At first, I came in just for the money, but when I did it, the synergy with the existing businesses was enormous.
For Seron, which has grown mainly in the manufacturing industry, Formie has been a good market for displaying our products and the products of our partners.
“We will cut commissions from our partners, so ask them to sell at a lower price.”
Unlike other companies that have to pressure the manufacturer to make it at the lowest price, we make everything ourselves, so it’s much easier.
“All right.”
“In my heart, I would like to take down everything that has been uploaded to other companies and sell it exclusively to Formi, but… it will be difficult right now.”
To go all-in on Formie, which only has a 4% market share, is like giving up the remaining 96% of the market.
“I don’t know if Formie grows enough to give up other markets, but not right now.”
“I’m just saying that, I’m sorry.”
“Furthermore, the FTC may intervene.”
“ah. Fair Trade Commission.”
That’s right.
You could intervene by saying that you used Seron’s superior position to pressure your partners.
That doesn’t work.
The Fair Trade Commission is a government organization called the economic police. It is a police force as it is called, but if it is limited to the economy, it has powerful authority to play the role of the police, prosecutors, and courts.
“In the end, raising formi is the key.”
However, such an FTC will eventually have no basis to intervene if Formi becomes an exclusive supplier after reaching a dominant position in the market.
As far as anyone can see, if it is advantageous for our partners to exclusively deliver to us, that is part of a fair trade.
However, forcing Formie to exclusively deliver products is definitely an unfair deal.
“This is a dilemma.”
To grow our share, we need to have something of our own.
However, it is ironic that the market share must be high to do something.
“So that’s why you poured so much money into it.”
After all, Internet commerce competition in which the share is the alpha and omega no matter what.
Now you can roughly see the flow of this market.
I said with a smile.
“Good. The more difficult it is, the more difficult it is to say that once you go up, you won’t come down easily.”
good.
let’s do it right
“It doesn’t matter how much money it costs, run ads indefinitely.”
I’ll show you exactly what money sucks.
*
Formi actively promotes itself to the extent that it is said that if you turn on the TV, Formi advertisements will appear.
Up to this point, people may criticize you for posting advertisements, but when you actually use it, wow! As people were satisfied with the skeleton delivery, Formie’s market share gradually increased through word of mouth.
However, there were people who didn’t like this formi’s move.
It was Kim Won-cheol, the CEO of Bugs, the number one Internet commerce company in Korea.
“Whoa. Seron.”
The competition between Internet commerce companies was literally reminiscent of the Warring States Period.
The days when various commerce companies in Oman were crowded and competed like crazy to beat each other.
This competition was like a marathon.
It is also a marathon without an end point where everyone has to run and run until they collapse.
In such crazy competition, the Bucks kept running.
Bugs has been holding on so far with only the expectation that they will be left alone someday by gaining more strength whenever laggard companies collapse.
The competition intensified as even large companies entered the middle, but Bugs ran only looking ahead, and thanks to this, it was able to compete for the top spot in the Korean Internet commerce company without realizing it.
Of course, there was still anxiety as it was the first place by a narrow margin from the second and third place companies, but the title of first place was proof that it was the most superior in this competition, so Bucks CEO Kim Won-cheol gave more strength.
But suddenly, a formidable opponent appeared in this competition.
That’s Seron.
“Running a warehouse with skeletons and delivering goods? Then you won’t even have to pay nightly allowances, so the distribution cost will be drastically reduced. sh*t.”
Not to mention financial power, the company Seron has a cheat key called a skeleton worker.
In addition, Seron has numerous manufacturing companies as partners, so it was more threatening to Bucks, which specializes only in distribution, than the advances of existing conglomerates.
“What should I do?”
The best way is to kill it for sure now that Formie’s market share is still poor, but given Seron’s financial power and Han Ji-hyeok’s direct lead in the acquisition, there was no easy way to back down.
That means you have to prepare for a long-term battle like a marathon race.
Kim Won-chul said with a firm expression.
“First of all, we need to reduce logistics costs as much as possible.”
As the battle progresses, it is obvious that the distribution cost gap between Seron, which uses skeletons, and Bugs, which uses human employees, will widen more and more.
“Robot Logistics Systems.”
And the only alternative is to introduce a logistics system using robots.
This system, which has already been introduced in many developed countries with high labor costs, has been in the limelight because it increases distribution efficiency and speed and has low maintenance costs, but it has been hesitant to introduce it because of the initial cost.
In order to introduce the robot system, the entire distribution center must be overhauled, but Bugs owns thousands of distribution centers nationwide, both large and small.
Of course, it was clear that it would cost a lot of money to replace all of these distribution centers with robot systems.
In the meantime, I was hesitant because the cost was burdensome and I had already won first place, but now that Seron started running, the Bucks had no choice but to take out this card.
“I thought I would start making profits and reduce the deficit a bit…”
We have been able to reduce the deficit a lot thanks to diligently improving the rate of return by utilizing economies of scale, but if a huge amount of money is invested in the introduction of the robot system, the improved deficit will inevitably rise again.
Woncheol Kim stood up from his seat and said.
“good. let’s do it. It was something I had to do someday anyway. It just came sooner than expected.”
Kim Won-cheol called the secretary’s office.
– Yes, Mr. Representative.
“Please schedule a meeting with investors. We need to secure the funds.”
*
Unlike other Internet commerce companies who were hesitant about how to deal with the appearance of Formie, Bugs, the number one player, was clearly agile.
“Introducing a robot logistics system?”
Bugs attacks with a skeleton, and Bugs responds with a robot.
I said while watching Bucks’ investment announcement.
“By the way, it is said that over 10 trillion won will be invested in building a robot system over the next five years. Does Bugs have this much money?”
In the meantime, Bugs, which has been in countless bloody competitions and suffered from chronic deficits, suddenly invests 10 trillion won. Is this possible?
“We have funds secured through listing, and we have decided to attract additional investment.”
“Did you invest?”
Deokbae Kim nodded and said.
“yes. Aren’t they investors who have already poured a lot of money into Bucks? Of course you don’t want the Bucks to take a hit.”
Investors who venture to reinvest even for the money they have already invested.
I said with an intrigued look.
“Anyway, it’s fun. Somehow, it ended up being a robot versus a skeleton.”
A battle between Bugs’ state-of-the-art robot logistics system and Seron’s skeleton logistics system.
Of course, even if the robot system is introduced, delivery will still have to be done by humans, so skeleton delivery will still have the upper hand, but if the logistics cost is drastically reduced, it will be worth a try with Seron.
However, skeletons have another strong point that is distinctly different from robots.
That’s the introduction rate.
“You mean it took 5 years to introduce robot systems to all warehouses?”
“you’re right. However, according to experts, the five year period was pretty tight.”
“It’s a race against time.”
If Bugs introduces a robot system before Seron builds a national distribution network, the competition will be even more difficult.
Conversely, if Seron completes the establishment of a nationwide distribution network that introduced skeletons before Bugs completes the robot system, Bugs will have to suffer the double whammy of the cost of building the robot system and the loss of market share due to competition.
“Make your distribution center faster. We will also announce our investment plans.”
“How much should I announce?”
“We are also 10 trillion. Instead, set the period for one year only.”
“All right.”
I said with a sad expression.
“Anyway, if the robot system is introduced, Formi needs to further enhance its competitiveness.”
Now that Skeleton’s opponent has appeared, we need to secure our own selling point in other areas.
“It’s a pity that the partner company’s monopoly is too bad.”
After all, the best thing is to secure exclusive items that can only be purchased in Formy.
I thought about it for a while, then opened my eyes and said.
“for a moment. You don’t necessarily have to sell the existing product lineup, right?”
After all, the distribution market is a series of copying and copying.
Right now, isn’t Bugs benchmarking American distribution companies and bringing them into Korea and applying them?
A way to tie customers together by signing up for a membership that gives many benefits and increase the share based on that.
Then, Formie should just follow the proven marketing that existing distribution companies have done so far.
“PB products. Yes, this is it.”
Large marts that cooperate with manufacturers to create and distribute their own branded products.
This PB product was a kind of bait product to attract customers with a low price.
“If you make PB products and sell them only on Formie, the FTC won’t be able to say anything, right?”
“I don’t think it would matter if it wasn’t for the existing lineup.”
“Good. Then ask your partners to develop a PB product, one with appropriate performance.”
Large marts usually work with manufacturers to guarantee sales, but instead make PB products by drastically lowering the price of goods.
But Seron can go a step further here.
“I will subtract the cost of the skeleton, so ask me to make it as cheap as possible.”
Instead of making things using skeletons, the partners were operating the company by paying the skeleton rental fee to Seron.
If you subtract the rental cost here, you can make things at a price that other companies can’t even imagine.
“All right.”
I said with my eyes shining.
“Then, what if word of mouth spreads and there is a sell-out crisis? nice. There is nothing like this for publicity.”
This is because the publicity effect of this out-of-stock crisis is much more natural and clear than hitting advertisements.
I thought about it for a while and said.
“Doesn’t it really have to be insanely cheap to go viral?”
“That’s right.”
“If we select a few products that people often use and sell them at cost without making a single penny of real margin, wouldn’t the probability of word-of-mouth spread increase?”
Originally, it is common for word of mouth to spread naturally.
However, wouldn’t it be possible to artificially induce word-of-mouth for cost-effectiveness by designating a few items and offering them at insanely low prices?
Deokbae Kim said with a smile.
“If that’s the case, I think we should focus on Seron’s own products rather than partner companies.”
“Yes! Who says we sell our own products cheaply?”
This competition is a fight that wins when the opponent runs out of exhaustion first.
That’s why everyone is taking a loss and growing in size.
Then we have to move in step with each other.
Deokbae Kim looked at me and said.
“First of all, I will prepare PB products such as clothes and socks for Seron shoes, and I will give instructions to develop PB products for SR Electronics.”
“great. Instead, if you make too many, it may affect the sales of existing products, so please adjust accordingly. Can you take care of that?”
“of course.”
“great.”
I said with a bright smile.
“In the age of high prices, we will protect your wallet. nice! good! It shows the king of cost performance! Absolutely the lowest price!”