Dan Biao was here to discuss closing down stores. On the way over, he had been mulling over what angle to approach it from.
Should he focus on the poor foot traffic, or the weak consumer spending?
He never expected to have the tables turned on him the moment he sat down.
"Manager Cheng, the overall retail environment isn’t great right now. From what I understand, many businesses are seeing a decline."
The corners of Cheng Jun’s eyes lifted slightly, her expression a cool, calculating gaze when she wasn’t smiling.
"Oh? And which businesses would those be? We constantly monitor the sales performance at all our plazas. If any tenant shows a sustained decline, we make it a priority to understand the situation and discuss countermeasures with them."
Dan Biao was at a loss for words. He was just making a general statement; how was he supposed to know whether other businesses were declining or growing?
"President Dan, let me provide you with some data. In May, our overall foot traffic increased by 10% and sales performance rose by 8% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the combined sales performance for all of your company’s brands dropped by 9%.
So, this doesn’t seem to have much to do with the overall environment. Perhaps you should be looking for problems within your own company."
Dan Biao was so thoroughly countered he was speechless. She had facts and figures to back her up, even if she was being a bit clever with them—for instance, using aggregate numbers for the entire market.
Some plazas might have seen growth exceeding the average, while others might have even declined.
But she was applying the same broad-strokes logic to Futong Commerce: your overall numbers are bad, therefore your management is poor. You need to find your own reasons, not run to the mall to play the victim.
Sheepishly, he found he couldn’t utter a single one of the arguments he had prepared on his way here.
"Oh, my, President Dan. Look at me, going on and on. I haven’t even asked why you’ve come today."
’You’ve already shut down everything I could possibly say, and now you ask my purpose?’ He glanced at Yang Hui, feeling like he had lost a tremendous amount of face.
He had originally planned to introduce Yang Hui to Cheng Jun, show off his professional network, and teach the younger man a thing or two about his negotiation style.
Instead, this was so awkward he wanted to curl up and die.
But since he was already here, he had to state his purpose. It would be even more humiliating not to.
He cleared his throat. "Manager Cheng, our Airex stores in several of your plazas are under immense operational pressure and are suffering severe losses. I’ve come to discuss if it might be possible to pull them out ahead of schedule."
She gave a cold laugh. "President Dan, if you’re here to talk about closing stores, you’ve come to the wrong person. You should be speaking with my colleagues in leasing, or with the store management, or perhaps you should have your President Li come speak with our leadership!"
Her response was exactly what Yang Hui had expected. Dan Biao knew this as well, but he didn’t have any contacts in leasing, and talking to the individual plaza managers came with its own problem: they would try to bundle all of his brands into the discussion.
As for asking Li Yang to come and beg the mall, he wouldn’t dare make such a request. If Li Yang shot back, "Then what do I have you for?" he would have no answer.
Dan Biao could only force a smile. "Could you help us by passing along the feedback? We’ll follow up with the plaza management and the leasing department on our end."
Cheng Jun gave a perfunctory nod, clearly not taking it seriously.
Dan Biao stood up. "Well, we won’t take up any more of your time!"
’Are you kidding me?’ Yang Hui glanced at him. ’We waited all this time just to leave without accomplishing a single thing?’
’If we just talked a little longer, an opportunity might have come up.’
It seemed this Dan Biao fellow was decent at operations, but not skilled in business communication.
’He got brushed off with just a few words. How is he going to explain this to Li Yang when he gets back?’
"Wait a moment. I have something else I need to discuss with Manager Cheng today."
Dan Biao froze for a second, then sat back down.
Hearing that Yang Hui had something to discuss with her, Cheng Jun, whose words had been as sharp as a knife just moments before, instantly softened.
"Go ahead~"
From an angle Dan Biao couldn’t see, she even gave him a playful wink.
Yang Hui, of course, wasn’t going to bring up the store closures again. For one, Cheng Jun truly didn’t have the authority to decide on it, and bringing it up again would just be asking for trouble.
Even if she could help, he couldn’t mention it. Wouldn’t that be a slap in the face to Dan Biao?
"The sales for the Airex brand have been in steady decline. We’re going to make some adjustments on our end, but we were hoping for some support from the mall as well.
I took a look, and Airex is part of the Xinyue Group’s online mall, but due to a lack of exposure, it generates almost no sales. I came today hoping to increase that exposure by getting an image link on the homepage."
Dan Biao was startled. ’He really has the guts to ask for that!’ The homepage exposure on the Xinyue Square online mall was fantastic, of course, but it came with sales performance requirements. The targets varied by store, with weaker locations needing to hit 5,000 yuan/day, while top-tier stores like the main Xinyue Square branch might require no less than 20,000 yuan per day in online sales.
Xinyue Square took a 10% commission on all online sales, and if a store failed to meet its target, the commission would be based on the minimum guaranteed sales figure.
In other words, if a store’s minimum requirement was 5,000 yuan/day, even if it didn’t make a single cent in sales, it would still have to pay a 500 yuan/day commission to the mall, calculated from that 5,000 yuan/day figure.
If you exceeded 5,000 yuan/day, the commission would be based on your actual sales.
Dan Biao knew these rules, which was why he felt Yang Hui was being naive and overconfident. Given Airex’s current brand strength, even with homepage exposure, it would never meet Xinyue Square’s minimum requirements. The company would just end up paying extra fees, and President Li would absolutely never agree to that.
"Sure, no problem!"
Cheng Jun’s reply was so swift and decisive that it made Dan Biao question reality. Even if Futong Commerce were willing to pay the minimum guarantee, the mall wouldn’t agree that easily.
After all, the minimum was just a safety net; the mall was obviously looking for brands that could generate much higher sales.
’Can Manager Cheng really make a decision like this without reporting it to her superiors?’ This was another of Dan Biao’s doubts. The homepage ad slots on the Xinyue Square online mall were coveted spots that countless businesses fought over.
He didn’t know that back when Yang Hui was with Ruijing Commerce, Cheng Jun had been the one responsible for implementing all the operational support Xinyue Group provided. She was well aware of President Tian’s attitude toward Yang Hui. A small favor like this was nothing.
"A Hui, about this homepage link, we still need to report it to the company before we can proceed. It involves a minimum sales guarantee. If we can’t meet it, the company’s losses will be huge!"
Dan Biao chimed in, afraid that Yang Hui didn’t understand the gravity of the situation. If he finalized the deal with her now and Li Yang rejected it later, things would get very awkward.
Yang Hui smiled. "Manager Cheng, as I said before, this would be a form of support for us. So, does that mean the minimum guarantee part is waived?"
Dan Biao was holding a cup of water and just about to take a sip. When he heard this, his hand trembled, and his entire chin plunged into the cup. He hurriedly tried to cover up his embarrassing predicament and started coughing loudly.
’Holy crap, Yang Hui has some serious nerve!’ he thought. ’No online mall for any single store would ever agree to a request like that, and he’s trying to get Cheng Jun to approve it for all of them at once?’
"Manager Cheng, A Hui is new here. He doesn’t know the rules of the game for the online mall..."
He was just about to try and smooth things over when Cheng Jun cut him off with a smile. "Of course we can."
The "mall" in Dan Biao’s sentence hadn’t even left his lips before it turned into, "Th-th-this?"
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