Chapter 661 Electronics Sales Industry Expansion Plan
Chapter 661 Electronic Retail Industry Expansion Plan
Even if the mainland reforms and opens up in a few years, in the short term, the core of global technology will still be in the United States, so he will naturally make full use of the talent advantage of the United States;
In addition, Britain was also one of his plans, and if Thatcher could make large-scale educational investments in the field of electronics, it would be of great help to his cause, but this would have to wait until at least 1975;
Originally in history, Thatcher became the leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, and then ran for prime minister in 79. The existence of Yang Wendong should not have any butterfly effect on this matter, so relying on her can only be said to be a distant long-term plan.
After arranging the talent plan for the electronics industry, Yang Wendong came to a Best Buy supermarket in East Los Angeles;
At this moment, many customers are visiting different electrical appliances, just like shopping in the streets. The number and variety of electrical appliance brands in the mall far exceeds that of ordinary small shops.
"It looks very good. There are so many electrical appliances, it's dizzying. I don't know what many of them are used for." After taking a look around, Yang Wendong said with a smile.
The person in charge of Best Buy is a chubby American named William, who is also following Yang Wendong at the moment. He immediately replied to his boss: "Yes, before us, there was no such large-scale shopping mall dedicated only to electrical appliances in the United States, Europe, or anywhere else in the world. The general supermarkets or the recently popular supermarkets also have limited electrical appliances inside."
"Well, I know. Keep providing good service." Yang Wendong nodded, and then asked, "Can our mall itself make a profit at the moment?"
The earlier the era, the fewer the types of electrical appliances. Even before the emergence of the chip industry, various electrical appliances appeared gradually, and the technological progress of early electrical appliances was relatively slow, so customers also updated slowly;
For example, a refrigerator from 1950 may be similar to a refrigerator from 1960. So if the refrigerator in your home is not broken, you will naturally not replace it unless there are special circumstances such as moving or having new needs.
Therefore, in any early retail venue, no matter what its characteristics were, electrical appliances were only a part of it, and most of these products had a long replacement period, which was far less than other consumer daily necessities. Naturally, there would not be much sales space, and the categories were also very limited. This led to various home appliances and electrical appliance brands scrambling for prime locations in retail terminals.
William replied: "It is still a loss at present. The flow of people and the transaction volume have not reached the balance point of no loss. However, now through some advertising effects, more and more people are coming. Maybe after a while, it will be much better.
In addition, according to the requirements of the headquarters, because our stores have their own after-sales teams, many domestic and foreign brands have contracted their after-sales services to us, even if the products are not sold in our stores. This way, we have more profit points. "
"That's great. If we can control the after-sales service of many brands in a city, it will naturally become Best Buy's future moat." Yang Wendong nodded, and then saw an after-sales staff member, and asked: "Are the clothes of the after-sales staff ordinary work clothes?"
William was a little confused about his boss's question, but he still replied: "Yes, whether it is in-store sales or after-sales, there are special work clothes. This is the case in American retail stores, unless they are small stores."
Yang Wendong said, "I know this, but the gray clothes with black words are a bit inconspicuous. Let's change them to red."
"Red?" William asked in confusion, "Boss, can I ask why? Gray clothes don't get dirty easily, and this is also a color that many after-sales service staff like."
Yang Wendong smiled and said: "Red clothes can attract more people's attention. I hope they can often travel around the city and indirectly advertise our brand so that more people can know our brand.
In addition, their cars also need to change the exterior color, within the scope of the law, the change should be able to attract people's attention, so that everyone knows that if they buy our products, they will have after-sales service in a very short time."
In the past, the deliverymen of Meituan and Ele.me were, to a certain extent, advertisements. They shuttled through the streets and alleys, and anyone who saw them would think of these two companies.
The number of after-sales staff at Best Buy is naturally not as large as that of the deliverymen in his previous life, but if these people are noticed by people in society, they will also know that the after-sales service of the Best Buy brand is truly guaranteed.
The construction of after-sales channels is the core moat for Best Buy and Honor Electronics to enter the US and even European markets in the future. When it comes to high-tech products, after-sales service is the top priority and the largest investment cost. If there is no Best Buy, it would be extremely costly for Honor Electronics to build this after-sales service alone.
William thought about it and felt that it made some sense, so he agreed: "Okay, boss, I will arrange to buy the red work clothes immediately." "William, how many Best Buy stores are there in the United States now?" Yang Wendong asked again.
William replied, "A total of 32 stores have opened, and 9 are under construction. They are mainly located in California. As you know, California is the richest state in the United States, and the acceptance of new appliances here is the highest."
"32 stores? That's a bit slow. You should negotiate with other subsidiaries to expand faster." Yang Wendong said, "In addition to California, we also need to build new stores in the western and eastern United States. Can we support this expansion in terms of personnel training?"
Although opening a supermarket or a shopping mall may seem simple, and anyone with any capital can open such a store, but because of this, there is so much competition, and it is definitely very difficult to be the best;
The success of supermarkets like Wal-Mart and Auchan is definitely not due to luck or early start, but because of their real strength and fighting their way out of a bloody sea;
The most important thing, apart from the founder, is the high-quality team from top to bottom. When Carrefour first expanded in Hong Kong, the biggest limitation to its expansion was not capital, but people, especially those who were able to manage, not only the internal affairs of the stores, but also warehouses, logistics, etc. In the era without the Internet, these were all very cumbersome. Even Walmart often had some products out of stock.
Relatively speaking, Best Buy is a supermarket that is mainly leased out, and the transportation of goods is the responsibility of each brand. This aspect is much simpler, but the after-sales team, brand promotion, timely response, etc. also require a professional team and training.
William replied, "I have been training after-sales personnel. According to the headquarters' regulations, we mainly recruit Chinese people from Hong Kong. However, we often encounter Chinese people leaving our jobs, which has a big impact. There are no major problems in other aspects."
"Resigned? Also went undercover?" Yang Wendong immediately thought of those people from Intel;
William said, "Some of them are, but some of them were poached by other American companies. These companies can poach people legally by just sending an invitation letter, but the employees need to return to Hong Kong first and then go through the formalities again."
"You want to poach people at such a high cost?" Yang Wendong asked back.
William said: "Yes, it may be because we have trained our after-sales staff very well, and they are very hardworking and diligent, which just makes up for many of the company's shortcomings."
"So that's how it is. Forget it. Since it's legal, let's not bother with it. If these American companies are really willing to pay for our training, that's fine." Yang Wendong didn't want to pursue it too much.
Everything is legal, and there is nothing to investigate. After-sales service is important, but there are too many people who can be trained. Unlike the people sent to Intel, they are really carefully selected talents in Hong Kong.
William went on to say, "However, we can alleviate this problem a little by transferring more people from Hong Kong. But even if we expand faster, we can only expand rapidly in the western United States. We need to start all over again in the eastern and central parts of the country. It's not possible to transfer people from the western part of the country before we even have our first store. American employees generally won't go there."
"Then we should expand in the west first, and not explore the central market yet. We should give priority to the east. The first eastern store should be in New York." Yang Wendong thought about it and said, "How about the funding?"
William replied: “In terms of funds, we have a lot of our own funds, but when building so many supermarkets, we generally try to use bank funds as much as possible;
But the problem is that our supermarkets are currently losing money, and none of them are profitable, which has caused banks in the United States to be reluctant to lend us money;
If we can only use our own funds to build new stores, the cost will be very high, and the expansion speed will certainly not be fast, unless you mobilize funds from overseas to the United States. "
"The bank won't lend money?" Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Our stores are all losing money, so this is normal. Is it the same for Citibank?"
This really can't be blamed on the bank. If a business model that I don't understand and is still losing money is approached by this person to invest, I will most likely refuse.
Although in history many companies have missed out on many future top companies because of this kind of thing, such as Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance in the past, many investors were not optimistic about them in the early days, but we cannot say that they did something wrong. After all, there are very few cases of success despite being difficult to understand, and most of these companies eventually go bankrupt.
William nodded and said, "Yes, it's the same with Citibank. They were very supportive of us in the early days because you have cooperated with them in many other industries. But after a long time, they knew our accounts and were not very happy, unless you were willing to add other collateral."
"Other collateral? Okay, I'll negotiate with Citibank." Yang Wendong finally agreed.
PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)