Chapter 713: Frighten, Edward’s Return

Half an hour later, Jeanne sat in the middle of Lawrence Enterprise’s senior management meeting room and was having a meeting.

Jeanne went straight to the point. “The physical stores are the foundation of Lawrence Enterprise’s development. If it weren’t for these chain stores, our company would’ve declared bankruptcy 20 years ago. Therefore, with the physical store’s current sales situation, I think we should support them instead of abandoning them.”

“However, according to my statistics, the sales volume of the physical stores is less than one-tenth of our e-commerce platform. According to the number of stores that you want to support, President Lawrence, investing in their development might cost more than the revenue we get from them. In other words, Lawrence Enterprise will lose money developing these physical stores. Of course, I’m not against supporting physical stores. I’m just stating my analysis of the current situation for your reference, President Lawrence,” Eden expressed his stance without attacking anybody.

“It’s true that physical stores can’t compare to the e-commerce platform, but according to our statistics, 30 percent of people still buy things offline. Of course, I want more than that 30 percent, who are mostly low-end customers. However, the reason I want to keep our physical stores is to build on our services. What we want to achieve with the physical stores aren’t sales volume or performance but word of mouth.”

All the senior management was a little surprised by Jeanne’s point of view.

It was completely unexpected that Jeanne would make such a bold move to reposition the concept of the physical stores.

No one said anything, seemingly interested in Jeanne’s plan.

However, Eden’s expression darkened.

He had prepared a lot of accurate data to refute Jeanne’s plan to build the real economy. He was adamant that Jeanne’s plan would bring losses to Lawrence Enterprise, but he did not expect Jeanne to secretly change the concept. Profit was not the main purpose of a physical store, but reputation and service were.

As for reputation and service, it was very difficult to measure them in terms of value.

Eden’s face was gloomy, but he endured it and did not say a word.

Jeanne’s presence was intimidating as she spoke frankly, “We’ve done a survey on seasoned e-commerce customers. The survey shows that 80 percent of the customers prefer to be able to test out the products before buying them. However, because they’re too busy with work or unwilling to go out, many customers buy the goods directly after reading the reviews, which can be an unpleasant buying experience for many customers. This is based on the negative review and order returns I got from the customer service department. It accounts for 20 percent of our sales volume, and 10 percent of the customers reluctantly accept our products because they’re too lazy to return and exchange the goods.”

“It is much more convenient to buy things on the e-commerce platform, but it is undeniable that there are many disadvantages, which we can make up for with the physical stores. That’s why I’ve come up with a few plans for the physical store to discuss with all of you. First, the physical stores won’t be called Lawrence Electronics. Instead, we will change the name to Lawrence Electronics Experience Store. As the name implies, our store is for users to test out the products, and the services can even be graded into VIP experiences. The customer experience fees will go to the retail agents, so as to ensure market profitability. Second, after the store is changed to the experience store, their source of profit will no longer just be from selling the products. Even if the experience fee will allow them to operate normally, it can’t support their further income. The quality of service is proportional to the revenue. To truly serve the customer, I will deduct the rental fees from the physical stores–”

“The cost of that will be quite a lot,” Eden reminded.

As he had done research on the physical stores, he knew about a lot of data.

“The cost of that will take up 28 percent of the general cost of Lawrence Enterprise, which is a lot of money for the company. So today, I have prepared another plan to discuss it with everyone. I personally suggest that we develop our business in other industries now. If we focus on developing our e-commerce platform and just be an e-commerce brand, once this aspect of the economy changes, Lawrence Enterprise will face bankruptcy. In fact, everyone has experienced it before. If it weren’t for our transformation into an e-commerce platform, Lawrence Enterprise would be on the verge of collapse. However, not everything can be transformed successfully at the critical moment, so what we need now is to plan ahead.”

“What suggestion do you have, President Lawrence?” One of the senior management directors enquired.

“Invest in real estate.” Jeanne is straightforward.