amaotonovel Chapter 978: Inspiration from a Pancake
Chapter 978: Inspiration from a Pancake
Chapter 978: Inspiration from a Pancake
For college students, what kind of things can attract their attention most? One is cheap and affordable, and the other is novel.
And Yiguo’s group buying model has both of these.
In addition to spreading the word by word of mouth, students from Peking University and Tsinghua University also shared Yigoo on the Internet.
Overnight, hundreds of posts about "Yiguo" and "group buying" appeared on Shuimu Beiqing. Many Beiqing students shared their group buying experiences. Some even made a list of the most worthwhile items to buy on "Yiguo", which attracted many people to leave comments and replies.
In the Beiqing cafeteria, Xie Qiao, Xu Lin and Wang Ying came to Qin Chuan's pancake stall and found that the business was pretty good.
"Of course. With Dalong's craftsmanship and the special pancakes we secretly developed, everyone who has eaten them says they are good." Qin Chuan said, patting his chest.
Seeing his smug look, Xu Lin couldn't help but pour cold water on him: "No matter how good your pancakes are, you can only make this much money from them in a day. Look at Lao Qin, we both have the same last name, but the gap between you two is a bit too big."
Qin Chuan scratched his head: "Then you can't compare me with Lao Qin. Let alone me, among all the top students in Peking University and Tsinghua University, there is only Lao Qin. I can at least support myself, so I can barely be considered a Little Qin."
Wang Ying sneered: "You are Xiao Qin, do you know how much Yiguo's sales were yesterday? Hundreds of thousands, it's only been open for one day, today will be even more."
Qin Chuan blinked when he heard this: "What the hell is Yiguo?"
It was Xie Qiao who patiently explained to Qin Chuan how Yigoo operated.
Xu Lin shook his head as he watched: "Qin Chuan, you are at least a student at Peking University and Tsinghua University, but you didn't even know about this hot news."
"I've been too busy lately, making pancakes all day long." Qin Chuan's eyes suddenly lit up, he untied his apron, and said to Dalong, "I'm going to go to Lao Qin's place, you hold on for a while."
"No, Boss, I'm busy right now, why are you going?"
Xie Qiao and Xu Lin looked at each other and followed him, wanting to see what Qin Chuan was up to.
Wang Ying hesitated for a moment and rushed to the Yigoo store.
Qin Chuan ran very fast all the way, but when he arrived at the Yigoo store, he found that there was already a long queue outside. Just as he rolled his eyes and was planning to find an opportunity to cut in line, he happened to see Qin Hao and Xiao Qianxi serving meals to Yigoo employees, so he hurried over.
"Lao Qin, is this your new business? Business is pretty good."
Qin Hao didn't know why, but he always felt that Qin Chuan was smiling in a sneaky way: "You don't come to see me for no reason. If you have anything to say, just say it. I'm busy."
"Hehe, Lao Qin still understands me." Qin Chuan moved closer and said to Qin Hao, "Lao Qin, your Yiguo is so popular, can you also do a group buying event for my pancakes?"
Xiao Qianxi coughed twice when he heard this: "Qin Chuan, don't mess around. How can we do group buying of pancakes?"
"Why can't we do group buying? I can also sell at a discount."
"But your pancakes are only delicious when they are fresh out of the pan. If you leave them here and wait for customers to line up, they will go bad."
This sentence stumped Qin Chuan. This was a question he had never thought about before.
At this time, Xie Qiao and Xu Lin also came over, and they also felt that Qin Chuan was unreliable.
However, when Qin Hao heard what Qin Chuan said, his eyes lit up.
“It’s not that we can’t buy pancakes in bulk.”
After receiving Qin Hao's affirmation, Qin Chuan immediately shook off his gloomy mood and proudly puffed out his chest: "So, I said my idea is good, right?"
Xu Lin was a little unconvinced: "How can Lao Qin buy this pancake in bulk?"
"It's actually very simple. I can create a separate backend for the pancake shop. After the user places an order, I will generate a redemption code with several digits. After the user consumes at the pancake shop, he can present the redemption code to pick up the goods. Qin Chuan can then use this redemption code to settle the bill, and then come to Yiguo to settle the bill afterwards."
After listening to Qin Hao's words, Xiao Qianxi's bright eyes were full of admiration.
Xie Qiao and Xu Lin had an expression that said: This is not bad.
Wang Ying carefully pondered the plan Qin Hao had just proposed. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that it was highly feasible. She looked at Qin Hao with a little more appreciation.
Just when Qin Chuan was overjoyed, Qin Hao poured cold water on him: "But it will take some time to build this background, at least one or two months."
"Huh? Why is it taking so long?"
"It's like I have to redesign an exe software for you. Do you think it's that easy? Software of this scale must have at least several thousand lines of code, and the testing alone will take half a month."
Qin Chuan stuck out his tongue when he heard this: "It turns out to be so troublesome."
Xie Qiao quickly said, "Qin Chuan was just saying that casually. Old Qin, you don't have to worry about him. There are only two people in his pancake shop. If so many people really place orders, they won't be able to handle it."
Qin Hao smiled at the two of them and said, "It's okay. This was originally part of my group purchase plan. Actually, I have to thank Qin Chuan for reminding me. Otherwise, I might have to wait two or three years before launching this plan."
There are two types of group buying. One is the online group buying that Yigoo is currently doing. Although Qin Hao has made certain improvements, allowing users to pick up goods directly offline and saving the delivery process, it still belongs to online group buying.
What Qin Chuan proposed was the offline group purchasing model.
Online group buying has many advantages, such as being small and flexible and not restricted by service radius, but it also has a fatal disadvantage, which is that it has a low threshold and is easy to imitate.
Relatively speaking, offline group buying is limited by its service radius because it requires services to be received in offline stores, but it also has its own advantages. That is, the threshold is high, and once a scale is formed, it is difficult for latecomers to pry open the basic base. This is also the main reason why Meituan was able to survive the "Thousands of Group Wars".
Of course, doing offline group buying in 2002 was certainly not easy. After all, a common computer cost three to four thousand yuan, plus the high network access fee, which was enough to discourage many store owners.
However, as the saying goes, those who start first often get to eat the crabs first.
Qin Chuan winked at Xie Qiao proudly: "Look, Lao Qin said he wanted to thank me."
"Come on, it's just an accident." Xie Qiao knew how much stuff his childhood sweetheart had in his belly.
In the following month, Yigoo has become the first choice for shopping for Peking University and Tsinghua University students. Except for some commodities that need to be used immediately, most Peking University and Tsinghua University students will choose to place orders on Yigoo in advance because it is so cheap.
There is a very interesting phenomenon. For some popular commodities, as the number of users buying increases, Yiguo's purchasing department gets bigger and bigger discounts. According to Qin Hao's requirements, the prices of these commodities have been reduced to discounted prices, and some are even 70% off the price of the school supermarket.
After figuring out Yiguo's pricing rules, some students posted on the forum, calling on their classmates at Peking University and Tsinghua University to buy some less popular products and lower the prices of these products.
The key point is that these people have actually successfully lowered the purchase prices of many commodities. Although the prices will rise again after a period of time due to the decrease in the number of orders, these students still enjoy doing it.
Of course, as a result, Yigoo has become a thorn in the eyes of supermarkets and convenience stores around the school. Since Yigoo opened, their business has plummeted, especially the supermarkets inside the school, whose turnover has dropped by 6%.
The supermarket owner once arranged employees to block the entrance of Yigoo to prevent students from entering. There was also a physical conflict between the two sides, which made students even more reluctant to go to the school supermarket to buy things.
In the end, the school stepped in to mediate and the supermarket owner was forced to transfer the store.
After one month of development, Yiguo already has 4.3 registered users, most of whom are students, teachers, and employees of Peking University and Tsinghua University, and a small number are students from other universities.
Because students from Peking University and Tsinghua University kept posting news about Yiguo on the Internet, students from some nearby colleges and universities became envious. At first, they came to take a look with the mentality of giving it a try, but when they got there, they found that the things were so cheap that they basically couldn't live without them after using them once.
"Boss Qin, I think the current number of registered users has reached saturation. Should we consider expanding our coverage?"
The director in charge of Yigoo’s daily operations reminded.
Qin Hao nodded. Over the past month, Yigoo's operating model and employee quality have basically matured. It is indeed time to consider expansion.
However, the reason why Yiguo had the green light all the way in Peking University and Tsinghua University was that Qin Hao himself was a student of Peking University and Tsinghua University, and he was also an entrepreneurial model set by Dean Li, which saved him a lot of trouble.
Expanding to other institutions involves much more complicated issues.
For this purpose, Qin Hao specifically asked Dean Li for advice.
"You know more about business than I do. As for policy, the higher authorities have been encouraging college students to start their own businesses, especially high-tech companies like yours."
Qin Hao understood: "With your words, I feel relieved."
Just as Principal Li said, he later contacted leaders of several nearby universities. Although they did not take care of him as well as President Li, they did not make things difficult for Qin Hao.
As for the student level, there is even less problem.
Originally, many of Yiguo’s user groups included students from nearby universities. Now that Yiguo was finally coming to their own schools, many of them even organized themselves to help promote it.
With Qin Hao investing heavily, by the beginning of May, Yigoo's stores had expanded from one to five, covering five higher education institutions. The number of users also quickly increased from less than 50,000 to over 300,000.
This is the almost abnormal development speed of Internet companies.
In mid-May, after visiting some logistics companies and even working as an "undercover" at ZTO Express for a week, Liu Qiangdong finally made up his mind to set up his own logistics company.
Qin Hao also kept his promise and signed a logistics and transportation contract for the Beijing area with Liu Qiangdong, which was valid for five years.
I have to say that Dong Ge is indeed a man who gets things done. Before the World Cup started at the end of May, he set up a logistics company with ten trucks.
The logistics problems were basically solved, and Qin Hao also increased the pace of Yiguo's expansion. It was no longer confined to schools, but began to enter the capital's bustling commercial districts and office buildings.
That’s right, Qin Hao’s second target group is white-collar workers working in office buildings.
These people have some knowledge of computers, are Internet users themselves, and young white-collar workers are more receptive to new things.
Qin Hao only needs to cultivate their habit of online shopping.
In this regard, Qin Hao’s method is relatively simple and crude - coupons.
New users who have just registered will be given a five-yuan coupon that can be used when spending six yuan or more.
With just this one move, 80% of white-collar workers can’t resist and have to register an account and place an order.
After these 80% of users received the goods and found that they were not counterfeit, more than 20% of the remaining 15% joined in this wool-grabbing campaign.
As for the remaining 5%, they are basically stubborn elements. Only time and environment can change their ideas, so Qin Hao will not force them.
Of course, simply giving coupons to new users who register is not enough to retain all users. Qin Hao had someone design a system that would give coupons every now and then to users who had not placed an order for a while.
Not to mention, the repurchase rate increased a lot.
However, Qin Hao also encountered some problems. For example, white-collar workers and students have different demands for products. Students only care about the cheap price and the ability to use it, while white-collar workers have higher requirements for products and also have certain pursuits for brands.
Due to threats from the Yang family, some dealers refused to supply goods to Yigoo. Qin Hao had to visit them one by one with the head of the purchasing department, and also took out Yigoo's sales volume in the past few months.
At first, these dealers were reluctant to meet Qin Hao, until they saw Yiguo’s sales volume and inspected Yiguo’s stores, they gradually relented.
When Yang Cheng heard the news, he cursed these dealers as ungrateful people.
This completely offended the dealers. They were originally dissatisfied with the Yang family for hindering their ability to make money. Although they could not defeat the Yang family because of its power, if the Yang family dealt with so many dealers one by one, it would not only be time-consuming and laborious, but also earn them a reputation for being tyrannical and domineering.
"Beibei, don't worry about business matters from now on. Just focus on your studies. You will go abroad to study in two years." Mother Yang had no choice but to call Yang Cheng over and gave him instructions.
Yang Cheng was indignant: "So he's just going to let it go like this?"
Mother Yang sighed, put a magazine on the table, pointed at the cover and said, "He is now on the cover of Peking University and Tsinghua University's school magazine. It is better to resolve a feud than to create one. Our family is in business. You must remember that there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests."
Yang Cheng angrily tore the school magazine into pieces, then slammed the door and walked out.
"This child still hasn't grown up!" Mother Yang sighed and shook her head.
At the same time, ever since Qin Hao appeared on the cover of Peking University and Tsinghua University magazine, he has attracted many people's attention wherever he goes, including many beautiful women, which has doubled the pressure on Xiao Qianxi.
Over the years, Xiao Qianxi found that no matter where she went, there would be people secretly pointing fingers at her.
Just when Xiao Qianxi was wondering, Xu Lin found a very popular post on the Shuimu Beiqing Forum.