“Mm?” Wun Fan seemed shocked out of his wits by Wun Tung’s reaction and hastily stopped him from bowing any further. He was a sharp person. There had to be a good reason for Wun Tung's sudden shift into such agitation. Wun Fan asked, “Uncle Tung, slow down. Has someone said the same thing to you before?”
“Forgive me, young master, this old servant lost his bearings for a moment,” Wun Tung knew his reaction was inappropriate. He immediately brought out his composure as the supervisor of the market. He then tried his best to appear calm as he explained, “The clan master said the exact same thing that you did, down to the very word. However, the clan master did not explain what he meant and it was not in my place to ask.”
“What?” Wun Siu Lan was surprised as well. Even her father also thought the same way. Wun Siu Lan quickly set aside her bias against the Hundred Treasures Hall and started to carefully examine the layout of the Hundred Treasures Hall. She tried to analyse the hidden secrets and intricacies behind them. Unfortunately, no matter how she pondered the problem, she could not think of anything. Wun Siu Lan thought herself to be stupid.
She tried to put herself in the shoes of a customer. If she was going to buy something, why would she want to walk around the shop and look for that thing by herself? Wasn’t she just paying money to do extra work if she did that?
Wun Fan saw Wun Siu Lan’s expression of frustration and deep thought and knew that she had stepped into the wrong line of thinking. A rather comical scene had emerged now, where a young boy not more than eleven years old was explaining things to a young girl and an old man.
“Sigh, it is a tragedy when both the young and the old are uneducated,” Wun Fan shook his head and sighed. The other two people were embarrassed to hear this. Wun Tung was doing fine. He had lived for several decades now and had probably eaten more grains of salt than Wun Fan had eaten grains of rice. He coughed a little and moved past his embarrassment. Wun Siu Lan, on the other hand, had very thin skin. She quickly covered her face. She could feel how hot her cheeks were.
Seeing as the two of them were so eager to learn, Wun Fan decided out of the kindness of his heart that these cute little kids should get the education they deserved. He was going to be a guest lecturer this one time. In truth, most modern people would have the same knowledge. Wun Fan just systematically arranged them and explained them in more detail to the two of them.
“First of all, I need to explain the concept of ‘consumption’ to the two of you. Consumption is the act of spending money to purchase goods. There are a few types of consumption. The first is necessity goods, items that you need to buy and want to buy. The second is secondary necessity goods, items that you need to buy but don’t want to buy. The third is luxury goods, items that you don’t need to buy but want to buy. Lastly, you have undesired goods, items that you don’t need to buy and don’t want to buy, but happened to buy for no particular reason.”
The two of them were still confused and perplexed even after hearing Wun Fan’s explanation. Wun Fan had to resist the urge to punch them.
“Here’s an example; if you are a customer and you just want to buy giant purplebee honey at the market, would you buy any other things once you’ve asked for the honey from the clerk?”
The two of them shook their heads and said no.
“That’s it. Once you’ve purchased your necessities, you will absolutely not consider the other three kinds of goods. Look at this shop’s layout, however. Almost every necessity good is arranged with secondary necessity goods, luxury goods, and ordinary goods all around them. An ordinary person who sees this would subconsciously be more prone to buying more things.”
“Even if you don’t want to buy those things now, the next time you need them, you will think of the Hundred Treasures Hall first and foremost. That is because you already know where the product is placed and how much it costs.”
Wun Siu Lan still looked confused, while Wun Tung seemed to have a vague idea. Both of them were trying their best to process this massive amount of new information. After all, the words coming out of Wun Fan’s mouth had never been heard of or even thought of in Heaven’s Martial World.
Wun Fan continued explaining, “Secondly, I also saw the price of products elsewhere before I entered the Hundred Treasures Hall and memorized them. Compared to other shops, certain products in the Hundred Treasures Hall are slightly more expensive, but the most common items are slightly cheaper. If most people are always seeing the slightly cheaper common products while they shop here, they will subconsciously begin to believe that the Hundred Treasures Hall has lower prices. As such, they will start purchasing more things from the Hundred Treasures Hall. As for the slightly more expensive products? Those are just a means to balance out the ledger and make up for the profit lost by selling cheaper items. Overall, the Hundred Treasures Hall won’t make much of a profit margin on each individual item, but they will have effectively increased the number of sales of the entire shop. Small profits but large sales easily account for the Hundred Treasures Hall's successful business.”
Wun Siu Lan and Wun Tung once again endured the barrage of information from Wun Fan, but they were starting to understand how ingenious the layout of the Hundred Treasures Hall truly was.
“Moreover, the way in which the Hundred Treasures Hall handles customers paying is different from your usual store. They make you line up and check out. There are some common goods and products placed nearby where they line up, often cheaper items. Consumers will check these items out while they are in line to distract themselves and pass the time. These cheaper products will often entice people to purchase them out of impulse, which will result in additional revenue.”
Wun Tung’s eyes gleamed. He once again examined the layout of the shop around him carefully and finally understood what the clan master said last time.
Wun Fan continued, “Moreover, apart from the systematic and strategic placement of the items, the items are often also organized based on their function. For instance, medicine for swelling, infection, and painkillers will often be placed nearby medicine used to stop bleeding. Pills used to recover soul energy, on the other hand, will have pills that aid in absorbing soul energy sold right next to them. This is the shopping basket effect.”
Wun Fan had tried his best to simplify the theories he was explaining. There were still a lot of things he hadn’t explained, such as the benefits of the Hundred Treasures Hall providing bamboo baskets for shoppers, sales employees standing by, and things like the left-digit effect or the halo effect. It was too much trouble to explain everything.
It was unthinkable that the Hundred Treasures Hall had such original ideas in a feudal world. It seemed like the person who managed this place was a genius in their own right. Wun Fan wanted to get to know them.
Perhaps they might be someone from Earth?
“Shopping basket effect?” Wun Siu Lan and Wun Tung fell silent after hearing Wun Fan’s explanation. They tried their best to understand and digest Wun Fan’s words. Wun Tung even had a feeling that if he could understand Wun Fan’s ideas, he would be able to ascend to a new level of thinking, which would help him greatly in managing the Wun Market.
Clap. Clap. Clap. Just as Wun Fan was done explaining all that, clapping rang out nearby. The person approaching them was dressed in a slim-cut long-sleeved white blouse, paired with a black silk dress. It was a very modern fashion that differed from the mainstream fashion of Nap-Lan Empire. She clapped her palms together lightly as she walked over, exuding pride, yet putting on a friendly and courteous expression at the same time.
It was none other than the person in charge of this place, fifteenth lineage daughter of the Chan Clan, Chan Chi Yuet.
Chan Chi Yuet had long since left her room and arrived at the great hall. He had silently observed this third young master. She didn’t think much of it initially when Wun Fan simply praised the Hundred Treasures Hall. He was just an eleven-year-old kid, after all, just a boy. What great theories could he possibly come up with?
Chan Chi Yuet might be born in Heaven’s Martial World, but she was bright, intelligent, and well-read. Pair that with her daring imagination and original thinking and she was able to come up with the incredible layout of the shop. The Hundred Treasures Hall used to be arranged the same way as your average shop, just grander and more luxurious. However, Chan Chi Yuet couldn’t help but wonder why a shop had to be so passive in selling its products, waiting for customers to purchase goods only when they needed something. That was why she started thinking, researching and planning ever since she was twelve. After four years of hard work, she came up with this ingenious layout for the shop.
Even her father only understood her plans after she personally explained them to him. Moreover, it took her a great deal of trouble to convince the elders of the clan to approve. Chan Chi Yuet was proud of her own brilliance because of this. She believed that no one of the same generation could compare to her when it came to intelligence.
She was a proud, proud goose.
However, upon seeing Wun Fan’s logical analysis which matched all of her own ideas perfectly, Chan Chi Yuet’s confident smile vanished and was replaced with a never-before-seen solemnness. Chan Chi Yuet had a feeling that she could not underestimate her opponent this time, as she always did, or she would suffer a terrible loss.
Chan Chi Yuet’s expression turned even more solemn with every additional line of analysis provided by Wun Fan.
However, her curiosity only grew, This was the Wun Clan’s cripple that the rumors talk about?
Indeed, some rumors were better off not trusted. Wun Fan spent most of his time in the Wun Mansion and rarely went out. It was hard to get reliable information about him. This was the perfect chance to test if Wun Fan was a dragon or a worm; if his incompetence had been for show, or for real.308Please respect copyright.PENANAIkdEXEnMV3