Yao Qianshan now finally understood why Liu Yutong had achieved such success at such a young age. Just looking at this company made it clear why—it was certainly easier to succeed here than for ordinary entrepreneurs.
Gradually recovering from her shock, Yao Qianshan took a deep breath to steady herself after hearing Yang Xin's resolute words and then voiced her own opinion: "I support General Manager Yang's decision. If this were my previous company, I would never have endorsed such an aggressive strategy. After all, my former employer had already built a solid reputation, which allowed for a more stable development path."
"But the situation here is different. Our Wanlong Supermarket hasn’t yet established enough of a reputation to rely on it to fend off malicious competition from rivals. In this case, our only option is to eliminate nearby competitors first and crush them. Once we’ve built a strong enough reputation, we won’t have to fear price wars in the future."
"Besides, I think our promotional efforts need to keep up. Before establishing a good reputation, foot traffic is equally important. Only by increasing our visibility and attracting more customers can we leverage our high-quality service and products to build a positive reputation. This will create a virtuous cycle, steadily improving the supermarket’s business."
"However, there’s one drawback."
"What drawback?"
"Right now, we only have one store in Bright Pearl City. If we promote too aggressively, it’ll lead to wasted marketing resources since a single store has limited capacity."
"General Manager Yang previously discussed the supermarket’s expansion plans with me—to build a local brand strong enough to withstand external competition and even drive rivals out of Bright Pearl City. But one store alone isn’t enough. While ramping up promotions, we also need enough branches to handle the increased foot traffic..."
Listening to Yao Qianshan’s well-reasoned analysis, Liu Yutong nodded inwardly.
This store manager not only had practical experience but also sharp strategic insight. Yang Xin had truly struck gold this time.
Bright Pearl City was Wanlong Supermarket’s home base, so the scale of operations here had to expand.
At the very least, four or five more supermarkets needed to open in the city to achieve a meaningful economies-of-scale effect.
Moreover, the commercial complex needed to be completed sooner rather than later.
With the commercial complex in place, Wanlong would effectively have its own shopping mall. Only then would the supermarket truly be on the right track, capable of competing with major retail giants.
But achieving this goal would require an enormous amount of funding...
Once the discussion reached a natural conclusion, Liu Yutong glanced around the room and made the final decision.
"First, we must continue opening branches. At the very least, we need one in each district to expand our market coverage and strengthen brand influence. We can leverage the reputation and momentum from our flagship store’s initial success to gradually roll this out."
"Second, we need to focus on promotion. Store Manager Yao, do you have any ideas on this front?"
"Aside from conventional marketing methods, I don’t have any particularly innovative suggestions at the moment," Yao Qianshan admitted honestly.
She wasn’t a marketing specialist, so her ideas in this area were limited. Most of her energy was usually spent on daily operations and management.
"Then let’s set the promotional plan aside for now."
In this era, without emerging channels like short videos or live-streamed sales, marketing options were largely confined to traditional methods—newspapers, radio ads, and straightforward flyer distribution.
Online promotion was also possible, through blogs or forums, but without eye-catching topics, the impact would pale in comparison to even the most basic offline methods.
"For now, let’s discuss how to compete with Mingcheng Supermarket. Yang Xin, is our membership card system ready?" Liu Yutong turned her gaze to Yang Xin.
Yang Xin nodded. "Yes, Young Miss. We’ve already completed it—the system was developed by an experienced company in Magic City, and testing has gone smoothly. We plan to launch the membership cards tomorrow. The standard discounts will remain unchanged, and we’ll offer bonus credits for prepaid top-ups. This is expected to bring in millions in the short term, giving us enough capital to wage a price war against Mingcheng Supermarket..."
"Stop." Liu Yutong cut him off. "You can offer top-up bonuses, but not direct cash credits. Also, cancel all existing discounts."
"Cancel the discounts? Young Miss, we’ll lose all our competitive edge!" Yang Xin instantly grew anxious. "Young Miss, didn’t you just support competing with Mingcheng? Why suddenly change strategies? This completely contradicts our earlier plan!"
"Don’t panic yet. First, answer a few questions for me." Liu Yutong remained calm.
Suppressing his frustration, Yang Xin replied, "Of course, Young Miss. Please go ahead."
"You’re familiar with the concept of equity financing, correct?"
"That’s when you raise funds by selling shares, and investors receive dividends based on their ownership stake?"
"Can our supermarket’s POS system track sales in real time, down to the minute?"
"Yes, it can."
"And can the membership system categorize customers based on their daily spending amounts?"
"That’s also possible."
Yang Xin had no idea why the Young Miss was asking these questions—neither did anyone else in the room.
First, equity financing, then POS and membership systems...
Of course, they knew Liu Yutong never spoke idly. There had to be a deeper purpose behind her questions.
"Yang Xin, what if we let customers become temporary micro-shareholders of the supermarket? For example, allocating 10% of daily sales to be split among these micro-shareholders, while displaying real-time sales figures on a big screen for transparency. What do you think would happen?"
The room fell silent as everyone processed this idea.
Yang Xin was the first to react, slamming the table in excitement. "Young Miss, this is absolutely brilliant!"
"Young Miss, you’re incredible! A single insight from you is worth ten years of study! This strategy is sheer genius!"
Seeing Yang Xin’s sudden enthusiasm, Ma Da and Yun Cheng grew curious. They still hadn’t grasped the meaning behind Liu Yutong’s words.
Giving away 10% of sales to customers? That sounded downright foolish.
"What’s the point? Are we just handing out free shares and dividends to customers? If that’s the case, I might as well just take out Mingcheng Supermarket myself—it’d be more efficient."
Yang Xin: "Brother Ma, we’re a legitimate company."
Yao Qianshan also understood the boss’s intention and explained, "Actually, Ma… Manager Ma, think of it this way—giving customers 10% of sales is essentially offering a 10% discount, just phrased differently."
"Ah, but Bright Pearl City Supermarket is offering a 15% discount. Not only are we not matching it, but we’re reducing ours even further. Isn’t that a bad move?" Ma Da still didn’t quite understand.
"This is exactly where Miss Yao Qianshan’s strategy shines," Yang Xin stood up and began drawing on the whiteboard. "Bright Pearl City’s discount is fixed, but at our Wanlong Supermarket, even though the discount is also set, the outcome will be completely different.
Imagine this: if you spend 200 yuan today, you automatically become a 'micro-shareholder' tomorrow. Say the supermarket’s revenue the next day is 1 million yuan, and 100,000 yuan is allocated for dividends. If there are 100 'micro-shareholders,' each gets 1,000 yuan. But if there are only 10, each gets 10,000 yuan!"
"In this scenario, Brother Ma, think about it—if your spending needs were higher, which supermarket would you choose?"
