Chapter 1255 Don't Let Them Muddy the Water

There is no doubt that informatization will enhance and support traditional industries. Almost any industry will undergo earth-shaking changes after informatization, and the same is true for the logistics and express delivery industry.

Before Li Mu started to build the logistics hardware, he first started the road of informatization. At present, the logistics management system of Taobao Logistics is not only the first logistics informatization management system in China, but even the level is higher than that of the previous life around 2010. Not weak at all.

Brother Liu has always been in the front line of Taobao logistics, so he has a special understanding of Taobao's logistics management system. In his opinion, this system is simply an artifact. Every link from receipt to transportation to delivery can be very clearly recorded on the server, which improves the overall logistics efficiency by no means.

At this time, Li Mu asked Senior Brother Liu: "In addition to our own land transportation network, how are the current aviation resources?"

Brother Liu said: "I have already started to cooperate with Ms. Lin Lin, and all China Southern Airlines' belly cargo storage resources have been exclusively contracted by our joint venture company, and we have also taken the belly cargo storage resources of several other airlines. A lot, and the proportion is getting more and more.”

Li Mu nodded and asked Senior Brother Liu, "What is the current time limit for Taobao Express?"

Brother Liu said: "At present, if there are airline support from trunk-line cities to trunk-line cities, we can already deliver within 24 hours, usually before 6:30 p.m., and after sorting and packing are completed at 9-12 p.m. , unified installation, basically it will land in the destination city before 12 noon the next day, and the delivery will be completed before 6:30 pm the next day."

"From trunk-line cities to non-trunk-line cities, if there is airline support, it will be delivered within 36 hours. The first half is the same as what I said before, first to the trunk-line distribution center within 24 hours, and then within the remaining 12 hours through the trunk line to the branch line. Land transportation Served and delivered."

"From a non-mainline city to a non-mainline city, if there is airline support, the delivery will be within 48 hours. Basically, it is a non-mainline city to a mainline city, then from a mainline city to a mainline city, and then the mainline to the branch destination."

"From non-mainline cities to non-mainline cities, if there is no airline support, within 1,000 kilometers, delivery within 48 hours, and more than 1,000 kilometers, delivery within 72 hours can basically be guaranteed."

"If it is very remote southwest and northwest, users have two choices. The timeliness of air transportation is also within 48 hours, but the price will be higher, and land transportation will be much cheaper, but the time will be a little longer. Generally, we promise 5 Delivered on the same day.”

Li Mu nodded and said, "This timeliness is already very good, and it deserves praise."

In the future, the tailwind of the first place in the domestic express delivery industry,

The domestic express delivery time is basically the same, so in terms of time limit, Taobao Express has basically been able to be flush with the future tailwind, but the difference is in the capacity.

Although the national express throughput scale has been greatly improved, it has not yet entered the golden period of e-commerce. Taobao express can guarantee this kind of timeliness under the current market demand, but if the shipping volume is doubled, it will definitely not work In the future, Shunfeng will have the largest express cargo fleet in China, but in the face of huge market demand, even Shunfeng will not guarantee the timeliness, so Taobao Logistics still has a long road ahead.

Thinking of Shunfeng, Li Mu asked Senior Brother Liu, "How's the Shunfeng Express in Guangdong Province?"

Li Mu once gave an order to Senior Brother Liu, and he must fight hard for Shunfeng, a small enterprise that relies on express delivery from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, because although it has not yet grown in size, it has developed a stable profit without loss. The gold mine of China, if it is not destroyed, as its capital accumulation becomes stronger and stronger, one day it will accumulate and bring about an impact on the entire industry.

Brother Liu said: "We have previously acquired several fleets in Hong Kong that are qualified to transport between the two places, plus we have been poaching downwind employees and fighting price wars with them, and now they have been dragged to death. At present, Our express delivery in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau is faster than Shunfeng, and the overall treatment of our couriers in Guangdong Province is at least 30% higher than that of Shunfeng. At the same time, it is also equipped with stronger welfare support. More importantly, our pricing on the market side The pressure is also very low. At present, our Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao express is made at a loss, and Shunfeng does not dare to fight with us on price. Now it should be in the stage of zero-profit operation. Two days ago, I heard that they can no longer support it and are seeking financing. "

"Financing?" Li Mu snorted and said disdainfully, "A local express delivery company still wants to raise money, so do you want to raise money to fight a price war with us? With Taobao Logistics and Taobao Technology here, which investor will invest in it? This dream is also a little too unrealistic.”

Brother Liu nodded and said, "I think they are basically out of the game. If they persist for a month or two at most, they will almost break up. There is no market and no profit. They have no advantage in front of us."

Speaking, Brother Liu said again: "Actually, with our current operation model, in the domestic express logistics industry, it has become an existence that all companies can't reach, not only the tailwind, but also other express companies. There is a huge whirlpool. Although they also want to launch an automatic sorting system, a logistics management system, an efficient fleet and aviation resources like us, they simply do not have enough capital to operate such a huge project. This threshold is really It is too high, so they can only desperately lower the price, and the profit margin of the pressure has been extremely low, almost on the edge of the limit.”

Li Mu asked him, "Is our overall cost higher than theirs?"

"Yes." Brother Liu said: "Our overall cost is at least 30% higher than that of ordinary express delivery companies, mainly due to the large investment in hardware in the early stage, high depreciation rate, and high personnel costs."

Li Mu was silent for a moment, then said, "In other words, because our overall cost is high, we basically cannot cut the blade of other express companies to the end, and we will leave a little living space for the other party."

Brother Liu said: "Yes, for example, the same route, the same weight, other express companies can reduce the cost to 10 yuan, but our unit price can only be reduced to 13 yuan, the three yuan. The space is the living space left for them.”

Li Mu smiled slightly: "That's fine, after all, we want to let the industry develop as a whole, it is impossible to squeeze all the express delivery companies out, and neither the government nor the law will allow us to have a monopoly in this industry, but we can pass Our own means to achieve a hierarchical monopoly."

Brother Liu asked curiously, "What does hierarchical monopoly mean?"

Li Mu said: "For example, we only monopolize the mid-to-high-end express delivery market, leaving the low-end express delivery market blank for other companies. From the perspective of the entire express delivery industry, we are not in a monopoly position at all, nor do we involve any monopoly operations, but from the perspective of the entire express delivery industry, we are not in a monopoly position at all. From the user's point of view, all the mid-to-high-end express delivery needs will be eaten by us."

Senior Brother Liu nodded: "I understand what you mean, this is indeed the most suitable for our current overall situation. With such a huge asset-heavy operation model, it is difficult to minimize costs and go to the bottom to fight those companies. The sea is very deep, and there is a place where we can't go down."

Leader Lei, who has not spoken much, said at this time: "President Li, Lao Liu, I think it is not enough for us to only consider the mid-to-high-end market. Judging from the domestic national conditions, no matter any industry, the mid-to-high-end market will always be in the high-end market. It cannot become the mainstream. Take the clothing market as an example. More than half of the domestic market volume is supported by the low-end market. The same is true for home appliances, mobile phones, and fast-moving consumer goods. I have investigated the market share of daily chemical products before. , Although the daily chemical brands we see on TV and shopping malls in Yanjing are all well-known brands, we only know after the investigation that most of the market is supported by those small brands that we do not know, and the market The volume is huge, covering almost the vast majority of the rural population of 8.9 billion, and also covering a small part of the urban population. The sales volume of a large bottle of shampoo produced in Guangdong Province for five yuan is higher than that of well-known brands such as Pantene and Head & Shoulders. If we sell all the low-end express delivery market to these companies, it is very likely that we will also sell more than half of the market volume to them in the future, which is a huge loss!"

Leader Lei's words made Li Mu wake up instantly.

I am indeed a little too superstitious about Shunfeng in my previous life. I always feel that Shunfeng can achieve that scale, service, and timeliness. Its market share is far less powerful than its reputation. There are a large number of cheap courier companies operating at low cost in China. Three links and one delivery are only a few of the larger ones, but there are countless courier companies that cannot be named. In terms of industry share, if you only want to make Taobao Express a tailwind, then the imagination space is very limited. The market value of tailwind is only 200 billion yuan at the highest, but the market value of top giants such as UPS has long been floating in the segment of 600 to 700 billion yuan.

If you want to become a world-class logistics company, you must have sufficient market share. Only in the mid-to-high end, there are obvious deficiencies. Li Mu recalled his previous life, and at least 80% of the orders on Taobao did not use Shunfeng Express. , that is because on the one hand sellers are reducing costs, and on the other hand buyers are reducing expenses. Many sellers have long-term cooperative relations with a certain ordinary express delivery company. The starting price of express delivery for major customers is as low as three or four yuan, which is equivalent In this case, the price of the tailwind is probably twice as high, so most sellers will not choose the tailwind. If the user insists on choosing the tailwind, the extra cost will be borne by the buyer himself.

A lot of times when buying a thing for tens of yuan, the seller will provide ordinary express, but the buyer needs to add an extra 15-20 yuan, so that if most buyers are not very anxious, they will never specify the express, this is the Downwind's lack of control over the low-end market.

Li Mu has never really played in the industry and does not understand the meaning of the low-end market. Brother Liu is obsessed with the self-built logistics system, so he also ignores the low-end market, but Lei is different. The reason why he can make Xiaomi bigger and stronger, It relies on a keen sense of smell in the mid-to-low-end market. Whether it is a pure low-priced, pure low-end model, or a low-cost, high-end cost-effective model, Xiaomi phones are very popular on the product line. 6. Many "Mijia" products derived from Xiaomi basically rely on these two dimensions to fight against their opponents.

Li Mu got this very important inspiration from his words. To do it at the middle and high end, and also at the middle and low end, this is the direction of all-round development. Otherwise, the tailwind of the previous life is the future of Taobao Express, and there is no bigger pattern.

Immediately, Li Mu said sternly: "Old Lei is right, we can't completely give up the mid-to-low-end market, otherwise it's very easy to be muddy the water by this rabble, if we don't have the ability to fish in muddy water, or don't want to. If you fish in muddy water, then you have to hold down these guys, once they muddy the water, we will have no fucking food!"

Speaking, Li Mu recalled Xiaomi's path, and said to Brother Liu, "Brother Liu, I'll give you two tasks. First, reduce our costs and lower the blade. You just said that they can do it. 10, we can only do 13, which is inaccurate, because once they really start struggling to survive, they can continue to go down on the basis of 10, and maybe play a wild way for them , it might be possible to squeeze this value to 5 in one breath, by that time, we are at 13, they are at 5, and the space left for them in the middle is too big!"

Senior Brother Liu also realized the seriousness of the problem, and nodded again and again: "I understand, and then I will find a way to further reduce our operating costs."

Li Mu said: "Operating cost and service timeliness are higher than others. Although we can provide users with the highest timeliness now, we do not rule out that many users will choose the former when they choose between cost and timeliness in the future. The same express delivery costs 20 yuan within 24 hours, 15 yuan within 48 hours, and only 10 yuan within 72 hours. There are always many users who will choose the 10 yuan stall, so you not only need to find a way To reduce operating costs, we must also do a better integration of our logistics system, not only to improve timeliness, but also to allow them to play a role in reducing costs.”

After speaking, Li Mu asked again: "In order to ensure the timeliness of express delivery, how much space and capacity can we use for each packaged express, or container, belly cargo warehouse?"

Brother Liu thought about it and said, "Except for the very popular routes that can reach about 90%, most of the others are around 70%. For example, tonight we are going to send a trailer from Yanjing to Jinling. Departure on time, then even if it is only 50% loaded, we have to send it out on time.”

Li Mu nodded: "This is the problem. From the cost point of view, the more full the car is, the more money it will make, but if you want to wait for it to be full, you will waste time. , so that we have a lot of wasted capacity, then we will simply create a low-end product line in the future. The package of this product line will automatically reduce its timeliness in the system from the moment of sorting. It is a package from Yanjing to Jinling. The goods that choose fast products will be dispatched if they are not full within the specified time, but the goods that choose slow products will be stranded in the sorting center and wait, when will they be full, or almost full When will it be issued again, in this way, the overall cost of this batch of slow-moving products will naturally drop a lot."

Senior Brother Liu immediately nodded and said, "OK, I will start working on this matter immediately. I will go to Fang Xudong at night to discuss the needs in this area and upgrade our system."

"It must be as soon as possible!" Li Mu said: "In addition to this, we have to further improve the cost-effectiveness of our products. The so-called cost-effectiveness, on the one hand, is the performance, on the other hand, the price. I just mentioned the price, and then let's talk about the performance. Think about how we can reduce the price while raising the performance!”