Founder of Zhongtu Network Live Streams Sales to "Save Books from Fire and Water", Billions of Books Blow Away Netizens | Huang Ping | Books
"Good reading takes huge risks." There is a slogan hanging on the wall of the Zhongtu Network warehouse, with two long banners below the slogan "Zhuozhou City's' Book Fragrance Zhuozhou · National Reading 'Series Activities Entering the Zhongtu Network Warehouse Taoshu Fair". As the line of sight moves further down, the warehouse floor is no longer visible, replaced by water below human knees.
This is the appearance of China Library Network's nearly 20000 square meter warehouse in the Zhuozhou flood. In recent days, heavy rainfall has continued in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and other areas, and the largest book logistics and warehousing base in China, located in Zhuozhou, Hebei, has been flooded. China Library Network is also among them. Speaking of the stories of rescuing books and rescuing employees in the past few days, Huang Ping, founder and CEO of Zhongtu Net, choked up several times.
On August 4th from 16:00 to 18:00, Huang Ping conducted a live broadcast on Taobao's "Zhongtu Net Bookstore". From the establishment and vision of Zhongtu Net to everything that Zhongtu Net has experienced in the past few days, he introduced the books hanging in the links one by one, mixed with vague Q&A questions such as "What should we do in the future?".
Founder of Zhongtu Network's First "Sales Promotion"
This is Huang Ping's first live broadcast in his life, and the trailer poster before the broadcast reads "Saving Books through Water and Fire".
In the past few days, Zhongtu Network has received a lot of attention. Among the many book companies affected by the Zhuozhou flood, Zhongtu Network is almost the most severely affected. Huang Ping predicts that more than 4 million books will be lost in the water, with losses exceeding 300 million yuan.
"In order to save the books, everyone placed them high and lifted them layer by layer, but the efficiency was very low. Later, the power outage and elevator couldn't be used, so it was even lower. They were all experiencing floods and couldn't be hired temporarily." Speaking of the scene in the warehouse of Zhongtu Net when the water level rose, Huang Ping still felt powerless. They bought two thousand sandbags in advance and bought all the sandbags they could buy at that time, but still couldn't stop the flood from invading the books.
Although the CEO personally livestreamed, there are actually not many books that can be sold in the Taobao store of Zhongtu Network today. Previously, the Zhongtu website had taken down books from flooded storage areas and temporarily suspended the launch of its Taoshu group channel. "When the flood recedes, we are still at a loss as to what books are left for sale and whether we need to repurchase them all. This is the most devastating loss and blow that China National Library has suffered in 25 years." On August 2nd, China National Library's official Weibo account mentioned that the company cannot guarantee that all books currently on sale can be stocked normally, especially the orders that have not been processed in the past few days. It is feared that many books have been flooded and cannot be stocked.
All the products in this live broadcast are in the form of pre-sales. Fortunately, the details page of "Fortunately, the bookstore is still here" states that it is expected to be shipped in late September. The books in the China National Library's fuel kit will mainly be newly adjusted after the disaster, with surviving books as a supplement to ensure that there is no foaming water in the books. It is also expected to be shipped in late September.
Huang Ping stated that the reason for choosing to open Taobao live streaming is due to the encouragement of many enthusiastic book enthusiasts. In recent days, the daily sales of the Taobao store of "Zhongtu Net Bookstore" have exceeded normal levels by tens of times. The backend has received many messages saying "cheer" and "hold on". Some netizens have expressed their willingness to purchase books soaked in water and suggested "opening a special live broadcast" and "if you can sell them, I will buy them". During the live broadcast, many netizens have also expressed in bullet comments that "there is no rush to ship" and expressed gratitude to book enthusiasts for Huang Ping's idea of "not giving books as gifts, but collecting money". Previously, pre-sale fuel packs on Zhongtu Network were selling well, and the website was temporarily unable to open. In response to a Weibo post, Zhongtu Network reminded readers to make rational purchases, and the future is long.
According to data from the Taobao page, nearly 90000 people watched the live broadcast. The blind box of the "China National Library Refueling Kit" priced at 99 yuan showed monthly sales of over 3000 yuan before the start of the live broadcast, and one hour after the end of the live broadcast, the monthly sales had reached over 5000 yuan. On the evening of August 4th, "Zhuozhou Disaster stricken Book" rushed to the top of Taobao's hot search.
In this live broadcast, Huang Ping also promoted products to his peers and listed several books from other book companies. "The first live broadcast may not sell much, but I hope the book industry can unite and warm up," Huang Ping said during the live broadcast. Another "Zhongtu Network Fuel Pack - Cultural and Creative Edition" priced at 99 yuan will also use 10% of the sales funds to support peers in resuming production.
The book industry in urgent need of "rescue"
Huang Ping revealed during the live broadcast that this morning, he specifically went to check the situation of the warehouse of China National Library. The water level has dropped to a certain extent, but he cannot grasp the specific situation at the moment. The flood has not yet receded, and the soaked books and stagnant production and operation have become the top priorities that book companies cannot bear.
There are many book companies affected by the Zhuozhou flood this time. In addition to "Zhongtuwang Bookstore", the official store of Tmall's "Unread" flagship store announced that all soaked books have been destroyed, with an estimated loss of over 100 million yuan in value. The reporter learned that nearly 3.6 million books were flooded and 220 million yuan were lost in the Tmall store of "Time Chinese Book Franchise". Currently, it is organizing the printing of some books, and the new warehouse will soon be put into use.
The survival of disaster stricken book enterprises is particularly concerned by the public. In the era where the crisis of physical book extinction persists, the survival environment of book enterprises is already not optimistic. Open book data shows that the scale of China's book retail market in 2022 was RMB 87.1 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 11.77%. The number of new book varieties in the book retail market in 2022 is about 171000, a year-on-year decrease of about 11.4%. On August 2nd, in response to the "trapped" hot search on Weibo, Zhongtu Network also wrote: Just a few days ago, due to the serious decline in performance this year, we were struggling with how to spend less and promote effectively. We hope to make some "noise" to be seen by everyone.
The launch of the broadcast by the founder and CEO of Zhongtu Network was a helpless move during a special period, but the enthusiastic book enthusiasts who flooded into the live broadcast room may bring a touch of warmth and vitality to the stormy book industry.
The 2022 Annual Report on the Book Retail Market, released in an open book, shows that in 2022, physical retail channels for book e-commerce decreased by 37.22% year-on-year, platform e-commerce decreased by 16.06% year-on-year, and short video e-commerce achieved positive growth, with a year-on-year increase of 42.86%. The sales share of online retail, especially live streaming e-commerce channels, in the book market is significantly increasing. How to create more high-quality and informative live streaming rooms, open up a new situation for book sales, and avoid price disorder competition in online channel book sales may be a challenge and opportunity worth considering for book companies.
At present, several top Taobao anchors have started offering free sales to book merchants affected by the disaster. On August 4th, Taobao urgently launched the "Zhuozhou Book Special Session" to help disaster stricken merchants in Zhuozhou reduce operating costs and resume operations as soon as possible. According to information released by Taobao, all the products in the venue were urgently stocked by businesses affected by the disaster in Zhuozhou. They are books and peripheral products that can be sold normally. Consumers can enter the venue by searching "I bought a book for Zhuozhou".
The typhoon dealt a heavy blow to the book industry, but the consumer enthusiasm attracted by trapped book companies entering live streaming rooms is also worth paying attention to. The storm will eventually pass, but there will always be people who need books.
