The Zhuo sisters set an excellent example!

Once someone took the first bite of the “crab,” it spread quickly from one to ten, ten to a hundred, as others began to try it too.

After trying it, they discovered the “crab” was delicious, and they couldn’t stop themselves.

However, those who chose to load 200 yuan on their shopping cards were still considered aggressive customers. Most remained conservative, preferring to load 50 or 100 yuan. The 100 yuan denomination was particularly popular since its benefits weren’t much less than the 200 yuan option and was a price point many could accept.

Some customers, planning to buy large appliances, even complained that the loading amounts were too small:

“If loading 200 yuan gets me 150 yuan extra, what about 300 yuan… or 1000 yuan? One shopping card isn’t enough for my purchase!”

“We apologize, but since Asia Department Store’s shopping card system is still in its trial period, 200 yuan is the maximum denomination eligible for bonus credits. If you wish to load 1000 yuan, we can process it as five separate 200 yuan cards. With 1000 yuan, you’ll receive a total spending amount of 1750 yuan.”

You encounter all kinds of customers.

Good service means anticipating customers’ needs, considering what they might request, and preparing how the store should respond.

For unexpected situations you couldn’t anticipate, you must make the correct on-the-spot decision as quickly as possible.

With such a good attitude, even angry customers would feel embarrassed about their behavior, realizing they were being unreasonable.

1000 yuan for 750 yuan in bonus credit?

That was an acceptable discount.

However, the television he was interested in was priced at 2200 yuan. Loading 1000 yuan plus the bonus wouldn’t be enough… Loading 1400 yuan would get 1050 yuan in bonus, totaling 2450 yuan – would there be money left after buying the TV?

1400 yuan for a television originally priced at 2200 yuan was quite a deal.

The same brand of television at Shangdu Department Store during their big appliance sale was priced at 1780 yuan. You wouldn’t find a price lower than 1780 yuan anywhere in Shangdu, or even in other provinces!

At the Asia Department Store, he could get it for 1400 yuan, saving 380 yuan. For such a discount, forget about just coming to Asia to buy a loading card – it would be worth carrying the TV back from another province. No, he wouldn’t even need to spend 1400 yuan, since there would be money left on the card.

But should he load 1400 yuan?

That would give him 2450 yuan on the card, leaving 250 yuan after buying the TV – what should he buy with that?

Customers who weren’t good at math got stuck on this problem.

The well-trained Asia card staff solved his dilemma:

“Why don’t you load 1300 yuan instead? We can split 1200 yuan into six 200-yuan amounts, giving you 900 yuan in bonus, and the remaining 100 yuan will get you a 70 yuan bonus. That totals 2270 yuan, enough for the TV you want, with 70 yuan left over. This is the most economical loading configuration. What do you think?”

Surprisingly, when the customer was ready to load 1400 yuan, the store suggested only 1300 yuan, not pushing for a higher amount!

This level of thoughtfulness seemed excessive.

If it were a fraudulent store, they would want customers to load as much as possible.

More people decided to buy shopping cards at that moment.

Ah, these simple citizens were no match for Xia Xiaolan. Why were 200 yuan set as the maximum for cashback? Because the 57.1% discount was the limit Asia could bear, calculated carefully by Xia Xiaolan.

Going higher would raise questions: how much bonus for 300 yuan?

How much for 1000 yuan?

With each increment, by the time you reach 1000 yuan, the bonus would exceed the original 1000 yuan investment, and Asia would lose everything!

If the state-owned department stores were more devious, they could send people to load large amounts, using the bonus credits to empty Asia’s inventory with minimal investment.

The more Asia sold, the more they would lose.

Then Xia Xiaolan would truly have shot herself in the foot, unable to complain. She’d either have to emergency stop the promotion, losing customer trust and giving the state-owned stores ammunition for attacks, or endure it and become the first department store to go bankrupt from promotional discounts.

The 200 yuan cap eliminated these concerns.

Larger amounts could be split into multiple 200 yuan portions, limiting the discount to 57.1%. Customers using this discount for appliances would certainly cause Asia to lose money.

But not every customer coming to Asia was buying appliances!

Like the Zhuo sisters, who mostly selected clothing and accessories – wallets, scarves, and shoes. Selling these items at a 57.1% discount wouldn’t result in losses; there would even be a small profit.

Xia Xiaolan planned to use profits from profitable items to subsidize unprofitable ones, making the “load and cash back” promotion sustainable overall.

In the office, Xia Xiaolan was teaching this concept to Song Minglan, Second Aunt, and Hu Liangcai:

“Moreover, not every customer chooses to load 200 yuan. Many opt for 50 or 100 yuan. With 50 yuan loads, our loss exposure is even smaller, just a 62.5% discount. Given Asia’s pricing structure for various goods, we won’t lose money… It’s simply a math problem.”

Song Minglan, who had studied in New York, felt embarrassed before her former professors.

Her professional knowledge seemed worthless.

As for Xia Xiaolan, this architecture student… never mind, she had long understood that people have different capabilities.

While Song Minglan could understand, Second Aunt was completely confused.

However, Second Aunt grasped the key point and summarized:

“200 yuan with 150 yuan bonus is the threshold – beyond this line, Asia can’t bear the losses, but below it, Asia can roughly break even?”

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “Yes, for Asia, the more customers load, the more we subsidize, so I don’t encourage them to load more. Customers loading 10,000 yuan aren’t my favorite – Asia doesn’t need their money for inventory. For me, those loading 100 yuan are quality customers. The amount loaded doesn’t matter fundamentally; the goal is to get them holding Asia shopping cards, ensuring they’ll choose to shop in Asia in the future!”

Hu Yongcai unconsciously reached to pat his round belly, only realizing when his hand touched his stomach that after two months of traveling nationwide, his belly had flattened.

Although his wife expressed concern about his weight loss, her nighttime reactions were more honest – her loving gazes clearly showed she found him more handsome.

Hu Yongcai patted his flat stomach and chuckled coldly:

“By not letting suppliers profit, we’ve reduced our procurement costs. Although the market prices haven’t changed, even with customers using shopping cards, our losses aren’t as big as imagined after the adjustments. What’s worrying is that when the state-owned stores see Asia’s customer flow increasing again, they’ll find other ways to scheme against us!”

By the end of Hu Yongcai’s statement, everyone in the office except Xia Xiaolan looked troubled.

They weren’t criticizing Hu Yongcai’s way of speaking; they knew his concerns were very likely to materialize!