Lou Wensheng still left Sun Tongyu's house, but Lou Wensheng achieved his goal. Sun Tongyu promised Lou Wensheng that he would return to work tomorrow.
"What is this guy thinking in his head?" Lou Wensheng couldn't understand Sun Tongyu's thoughts. He only told Sun Tongyu that after the boss allowed these merchants to list on the Jiangnan Group's Gouhuasuan platform under a different name, Sun Tongyu hesitated for a moment and then directly changed his tune, agreeing to return to work.
The reason he gave was that he wanted to help the boss make a final gamble.
Alright, Lou Wensheng himself felt that this reason was somewhat inexplicable, but since Sun Tongyu was willing to return to work, it wasn't a bad thing. After all, the people who had been operating the two websites in place of Sun Tongyu were far less capable than him. These two websites still needed Sun Tongyu to lead them.
What Lou Wensheng didn't know was that after he left, Sun Tongyu, who had stated he would return to work, sat back down blankly.
"Boss, are you planning to force Huang He to cut off his own arm by using these merchants at a critical moment?" Sun Tongyu whispered to himself. "But you don't know, doing so will only cut off our own arm."
"Forget it, this ship probably can't hold me anymore, but I have to find a way to get back what I deserve!"
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Sun Tongyu's return brought a warming atmosphere to the entire Forty Thieves. After all, Sun Tongyu was the second-in-command of the Forty Thieves, as well as the developer and operator of the Forty Thieves.
If Lao Ma was the emperor, then Sun Tongyu was equivalent to the grand marshal under the emperor's command.
The emperor might have a better grasp of the overall picture and foresight in terms of major national strategies than the marshal, but when it came to actual warfare, ten emperors combined couldn't defeat one marshal. During the time Sun Tongyu was acting up, there had already been quite a few operational problems with the Forty Thieves.
With Sun Tongyu's return, these problems were quickly resolved, and the morale of the entire Forty Thieves was boosted.
However, Lao Ma naturally welcomed Sun Tongyu's return, as it could solve some problems. At a time when the company was about to go to war, the presence of such a grand marshal was very necessary.
But Lao Ma didn't know what ulterior motives Sun Tongyu had. Even if he did, he wouldn't care, because he didn't believe he would lose. Although Jiangnan Group was a formidable opponent, large companies also had their weaknesses. Throughout history, countless large companies had their markets taken away by smaller ones, and there were many dynasties that collapsed overnight, with countries falling into the hands of the common folk. Lao Ma was such a commoner.
The company now had a large amount of capital, had attracted over a thousand shops, and had a complete set of promotional activities. It was obvious to anyone that the Forty Thieves were about to embark on their glorious journey.
Indeed, on October 12th, advertisements appeared in many major national newspapers with the title: "Unprecedented Super Promotion, China's Black Friday, Gouhuasuan Mall's 1020 Shopping Festival Grandly Arrives, Igniting the Entire Winter!"
The title of this advertisement had a bit of the essence of Japanese light novel titles, but the content of the advertisement was quite astonishing.
This was because there were indeed many activities for this shopping festival.
The first was the "deposit 10 yuan and get 20 yuan" activity. As long as you bought a 10 yuan discount coupon on the Gouhuasuan Mall before the 20th, this coupon would become a 20 yuan cash coupon from October 20th, when the activity started, until October 31st, when the activity ended. As long as the value of the item was over 20 yuan, it could be used for purchase, which was equivalent to no threshold.
To demonstrate that this coupon was indeed very valuable, the advertisement directly listed some items that could be used with the coupon.
For example, you could buy 20 jin of rice, 4 jin of pork, 10 pairs of socks, or a Sanken Walkman, a brand lipstick, or an electric fan worth 25 yuan which, after use, would only cost five yuan, and so on. In total, over 40 items were listed, all of which were everyday necessities that were within reach in daily life and sounded affordable.
And this was just one of the activities. In addition, there were three other promotional activities.
They were: registered users could receive ten discount coupons, including 2 yuan coupons with no threshold, 5 yuan coupons that could be used for 20 yuan purchases, 20 yuan coupons for 100 yuan purchases, 40 yuan coupons for 200 yuan purchases, 200 yuan coupons for 1000 yuan purchases, 400 yuan coupons for 2000 yuan purchases, 1000 yuan coupons for 5000 yuan purchases, 2000 yuan coupons for 10000 yuan purchases, and the most exaggerated one: a 30000 yuan coupon for purchases over 100000 yuan.
It could be said that these ten discount coupons were quite good, and the last 30000 yuan coupon for purchases over 100000 yuan was truly impressive.
Wouldn't it be a huge profit if these coupons were used to buy cars or houses?
Of course, Gouhuasuan Mall did not sell cars or houses, and even did not have items priced over 10000 yuan, otherwise, it would truly be a massive loss due to subsidies.
In fact, according to Lao Ma's calculations, the probability of actually using the last three discount coupons was less than 0.01%, and they were only there to enhance the promotional effect.
However, to be fair, the promotional discounts for the 2003 1020 Shopping Festival were definitely more practical than the Double 11 coupons in 2021. After all, such straightforward full-reduction coupons were very rare. The current Double 11 forced you to be a top student in mathematics.
The third activity was a lucky draw. Users could get a chance to spin the big wheel for every 100 yuan spent during the festival.
Some people might say that this lucky draw activity is definitely a scam and that you'll never win.
However, although one-third of the wheel was "Thank you for your patronage," another third was 1 to 5 yuan no-threshold consumption coupons, and the remaining third had slightly better rewards, with the most valuable being a Lenovo laptop.
But when users actually spun the wheel, they found that they basically never drew "Thank you for your patronage." Instead, they had a high chance of getting 1 yuan and 2 yuan no-threshold coupons, which could genuinely save money.
There was also a high chance of getting a 50 yuan coupon, but it could only be used when the total settlement amount exceeded 500 yuan, which was equivalent to a "full 500 minus 50" reduction coupon.
As for rewards like laptops, no one seemed to have won them. Perhaps there were such lucky winners, but it definitely wouldn't be you.
The last activity was related to Youqianhua and Zhuanqianbao. As long as Youqianhua was used for payment during the activity period, a 5% discount would be directly enjoyed at the time of payment, but it was only valid for the first transaction.
The activity for Zhuanqianbao was even more exaggerated, claiming that as soon as Zhuanqianbao was activated, 10,000 yuan of "semi-cash" would be directly deposited into all users' Zhuanqianbao accounts. This 10,000 yuan would last for a month, and users could watch their Zhuanqianbao balance increase every day.
Of course, the reason for calling it "semi-cash" was that this cash was not entirely real cash, only half of it. According to the rules, users needed to deposit 10,000 yuan of cash into Zhuanqianbao themselves and could not transfer this fund for at least one year.
Of course, even if they deposited 100,000 yuan, this semi-cash would not become real cash, but the income from the semi-cash could become real cash, but it would only last for one month.
Currently, Zhuanqianbao's annualized rate of return is 3%. For 10,000 yuan of cash for one month, the interest earned would be about 25 yuan.
In fact, to put it plainly, this activity was essentially encouraging you to deposit 10,000 yuan into Zhuanqianbao, and then rewarding you with 25 yuan after one month, while occupying your 10,000 yuan cash for a year.
Overall, these four activities were quite sincere, at least much more practical and simpler than the various peculiar full-reduction and bundle-purchase tactics of future Double 11 events.
As long as participants took part in the activities and bought items worth around 200 yuan, buyers would generally receive about 30 yuan in discounts, which was very practical.
As for the activities for Youqianhua and Zhuanqianbao, they reeked of "pay-to-win."
Youqianhua's activity offered a 5% discount on the first transaction, which was only 5 yuan cheaper for every 100 yuan. The benefit seemed less than that of the discount coupons.
However, Youqianhua's settlement was done at the time of payment. This meant that users could first settle with discount coupons and then apply the 5% discount, which was quite practical.
But the most important tactic was the 5% discount only for the first order. This meant that your first order had to be large enough, and the larger it was, the greater the discount. Coupled with the various lucky draw activities, it would subconsciously lead users to want to spend a large amount to get more discounts and then buy a lot of unplanned items, allowing Gouhuasuan Mall to earn a significant platform fee from this.
However, Youqianhua's tactics still provided some benefits, as it was a real 5% discount. As long as users rationally chose the items they wanted to buy, they could still get some good deals.
But the activity for Zhuanqianbao could be considered shameless.
Although Zhuanqianbao genuinely provided about 25 yuan in cash, it was actually a loss for users. This was because Zhuanqianbao required users not to transfer the money within one year, otherwise, they would not receive any interest.
This was essentially the same as a bank's fixed deposit. In 2004, the interest rate for a one-year fixed deposit in banks was 3.6%. This means that for 10,000 yuan, the annual interest earned would be 360 yuan.
However, Zhuanqianbao's current interest rate was 3%. Even with the additional 25 yuan income, the annual interest would only be 325 yuan, which was 50 yuan less than depositing directly into a bank's fixed deposit.
This was a blatant way of ripping off users' money.