Chapter 295 Chain Store Model
His uncle's teasing made Su Yuanshan feel slightly embarrassed. After all, this was his uncle's mall... and when they arrived, Su had noticed that everyone in the meeting room had their laptops open, notes densely filling their screens.
It was clear they were still in a meeting, summarizing the past two days' results and perhaps preparing for the final stages of the National Day sales.
Meanwhile, he had come in and immediately started looking at his own company's product data—
which, admittedly, felt a little out of place.
"Haha, I just have to check it myself to feel at ease," Su Yuanshan said with a chuckle, then focused on the vidoo phone sales figures.
Vidoo: 28,683
YX: 24,315
Zhongxin: 33,724
...
"These numbers include sales from secondary distributors—like the mobile phone stores on the streets," his uncle explained, pausing to add with a smile, "Have you been over to Jiangdu Building yet?"
"No, not yet."
Su Yuanshan quickly did some mental math.
Factoring in Jiamei and Anning malls, vidoo's total shipment should be approaching 60,000 units.
Feeling a bit reassured, he asked, "Is it selling well over there?"
"Yeah, pretty good.
Just on National Day alone, they sold over a thousand units."
Su Yuanshan was genuinely surprised.
"That good?"
At that moment, one of the vice presidents chuckled and said,
"President Shan, we were just discussing something—
Given how promising the communications market looks,
maybe we should set up a specialized communications mall that only sells mobile devices."
Su Yuanshan glanced at his uncle, who nodded.
"Exactly.
The way these phones are selling really surprised us.
We had predicted that the 'new three household essentials' would be the hottest products.
But it turns out..."
Su Yuanshan scanned the room.
Everyone seemed to agree, which made him frown thoughtfully.
Traditionally, Chinese people loved categorizing household essentials into "three major items."
The "old three" were watches, bicycles, and sewing machines.
The "new three" became refrigerators, TVs, and washing machines.
By the 1990s, a "newest three" emerged—air conditioners, computers, and VCD players.
But none of those lists ever included phones or pagers.
Su Yuanshan gently tapped his fingertips against the table and spoke slowly:
"It might have something to do with where the malls are located.
Right now, all the malls are in relatively prosperous cities—especially in the south.
And those places have tons of young migrant workers.
For people living in dorms or rented rooms, buying large appliances just isn't practical.
But a mobile phone can instantly improve their daily lives."
He paused, thinking of another factor—something different from his past life.
"Also, the mobile company slashing the activation fees has been a major help.
Plus, with our subsidies and promotions...
It all added up to this sales explosion during National Day."
Thanks to Yuanxin's "butterfly effect," mobile carriers had emerged earlier than in his previous life, and the pace of base station construction had more than doubled.
In this situation, choosing between growing the user base or increasing ARPU (average revenue per user) was crucial.
In his previous life, it had cost nearly 10,000 yuan just to activate a mobile line—
and even with that, user numbers had skyrocketed in 1994.
Now, thanks to Yuanxin's influence and the mobile company's aggressive expansion goals, activation fees had dropped dramatically.
Today, you could get a mobile plan for just 3,000 yuan—
and that even included 1,000 yuan in prepaid airtime.
All of these factors together had triggered a breakthrough year for China's mobile user base.
"So, since you're here," his uncle said with a smile,
"why don't you give us some advice—
should we seriously consider launching a dedicated mobile device mall?"
"Either we set up stand-alone flagship stores, like Jiangdu Building's Unit 1,
or we establish a smaller mall and invite various phone brands to open stores."
Su Yuanshan froze slightly.
Not bad.
His uncle really had some talent.
In his previous life, specialized mobile malls didn't emerge until much later, when China's domestic phone market was booming with hundreds of brands.
After years of brutal competition, small brands died off, and only major brands maintained flagship stores.
Later, online sales—especially the Xiaomi model—threatened to wipe out brick-and-mortar retail entirely.
Yet OPPO and VIVO would eventually prove everyone wrong,
showing that physical stores still had tremendous value.
In this life, Su Yuanshan had no rigid plan for Yuanxin's phone sales channels.
If anything, he intended to follow Apple's strategy:
flagship stores and experience centers offline,
a complete sales and service system online,
and a willingness to work with external channels when appropriate.
In short:
Focus on making great products.
Let distribution happen naturally.
Still, the idea of building specialized mobile malls now was genuinely forward-thinking.
Sometimes, being ahead of the curve was good.
But sometimes, it meant walking straight into a trap.
Su Yuanshan thought for a few seconds.
Then he noticed He Wei shaking her head slightly.
He smiled and said,
"Why don't we hear what He Wei thinks?"
"Huh? Sure!"
Zhang Ke turned to He Wei with a smile.
"Our former sales champion—what's your take?"
"Ah..."
He Wei hadn't expected to be called out by name and was momentarily nervous.
Just a few months ago, these executives were people she could only dream of meeting.
But she quickly steadied herself.
The situation was different now.
She wasn't just a "sales champion" anymore—
She was a mid-level manager in Yuanxin's marketing department.
Status changed everything.
He Wei cleared her throat lightly.
In a crisp voice, she said,
"President Shan, President Zhang, personally, I think...
now isn't the right time to open a dedicated mobile mall."
"Why not?"
"The reason's simple.
Even though President Zhang said Unit 1 at Jiangdu Building sold over a thousand units in a single day,
that store has a unique status."
"I used to work there.
We noticed that the bigger Yuanxin's influence grew,
the better Unit 1's sales became."
"Because, to a lot of locals,
Unit 1 isn't just a store—
it's a symbol.
People from the provincial capital are proud of Yuanxin.
If they want to buy a phone, of course they go to the 'oldest' store.
It's like how, when people choose a hotpot chain, they always prefer the original location."
"But if you want to build a dedicated mobile mall...
You'll need a lot of different models for customers to choose from."
He Wei shook her head.
"And right now, even combining all domestic and foreign models,
there are barely more than ten phones on the market."
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