Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 526 Sailing Through the Business World

"Originally, the membership card service required ten gold coins, but as part of our grand opening promotion and customer appreciation event, you can enjoy a 30% discount by purchasing any item in our store, getting a membership card for just three gold coins!"

"Almost free, only available after this period!"

By this time, the shoppers, already quite excited, would scan the entire store with their wandering eyes, glancing over the expensive clocks, pausing briefly on the novel bicycles, and finally settling on the shelves displaying soaps.

Compared to the former two, which cost hundreds of gold coins, the latter, which uses silver coins as its unit of account, is undoubtedly the best choice in terms of both quality and price.

A bar of soap costs only a few dozen taels of silver, yet it can be exchanged for a discount worth seven gold coins.

What a steal!
Buy, buy, buy! How can you not buy?
The powerful weapon of issuing credit cards was ultimately unleashed by this despicable outsider, Mr. Zhang. Putting aside everything else, its effectiveness in draining wallets was truly outstanding.

After only one month of operation, the accounts showed that the soap business, relying on the strategy of "small profits but quick turnover," had a net profit of thousands of yuan per month. This was already a huge profit. However, what the White Tower Chamber of Commerce never expected was that the sales of membership cards would far exceed this!
Nearly double the sales revenue means nearly two thousand golden cuties have been earned. More importantly, this is not just a matter of making a lot of money, it's a matter of making a lot of money with no investment!
A beautifully designed little card, along with your name and address, and you get three little golden dragons—even robbery wouldn't be as quick a way to make money.

The members of the Chamber of Commerce saw the brilliance of his money-making methods and were therefore filled with admiration for the mage lord, whom they had initially thought was an outsider.

However, their perspective only scratches the surface; they fail to grasp the significance of brand building and consumer engagement behind it.

The small discounts and rebates point to a highly profitable market worth a fortune.

It means literally "ten thousand pieces of gold".

The clocks, which were already of superior quality and were marketed as magical artifacts, generated a frenzy thanks to the celebrity effect that even exceeded the expectations of their instigators.

The sales of watches alone exceeded 10,000 gold in that month, reaching a very auspicious number: 18888 gold.

This is the bulk of the business's profits. Adding the revenue from the other two items and membership card sales, the total figure is already a staggering 23,000 gold.

Of course, such huge profits do not belong entirely to Mr. Zhang. Taxes must be paid, the operating costs of the chamber of commerce must be deducted, and a considerable portion of the profits must be distributed to the partners.

In the end, he only received a little over 12,000 yuan, which was almost half of the sales revenue.

But this insane money-making effect was enough to make everyone on the cliffs gasp in astonishment.

This speed is incredible! If they continue to amass wealth at this rate, they won't even need a second year; they can accumulate enough wealth to become a powerful nobleman in just one year.

In fact, if the other noble lords knew the actual revenue that Gaoya made in this operation, they would probably be green with envy.

Unfortunately, while the market can be expanded, it is not a gold mine that can be withdrawn indefinitely, especially for products like watches that are only targeted at high-spending consumers. The booming sales in the first month were largely due to pre-sales marketing.

Because the consumption potential of this group had already been tapped, the sales of watches during the following month's special sales period not only failed to increase, but actually experienced a slight decline. Fortunately, sales of bicycles and soaps increased, perhaps because their efficacy was gradually recognized through word of mouth, and these new items even became trendsetters in the Cambridge Bay elite circle.

In just one month, the noble families in the Sword Coast city-states of Nowinter, Deepwater, and Bodø made a leap forward in personal hygiene, and this tangible improvement gave these guys a new way to show off their superiority.

Nowadays, nobles and wealthy merchants would never dare to go out for visits or meetings without using the soap produced by the White Tower Merchant Guild for bathing and changing clothes. If they encountered someone they were close to, it would be fine, but if they encountered someone mean-spirited, they would deliberately make mocking gestures such as wrinkling their nose and wiping their hands.

That would be utterly humiliating, leaving one utterly ashamed.

Meanwhile, on the cobblestone streets of the city and along the winding paths inside and outside the manor, a completely new mode of transportation began to emerge.

They have a simple structure at first glance, but are quite ingenious upon closer inspection. They have bells that make pleasant sounds and bright magic lights. More importantly, they are completely different from traditional animal-drawn vehicles in terms of maneuverability.

The riders skillfully maneuvered their vehicles, letting the breeze from their rides caress their hair, enjoying the surprised or envious glances from those around them, as they sped off.

While the dignified and reserved nobles would certainly not forgo displaying their luxurious carriages on the streets, the younger generation and merchants were less concerned with such things; they wanted to stand out. Besides, this thing was much smoother than riding a horse, and it didn't bounce their backsides.

Even with the increase in sales of soap and bicycles, the revenue in the following month did not decline significantly.

However, Zhang Yuan also knew that the good days were over.

With the exclusivity period over, the other workshops and even the magical artifact shops that had acquired the patented technology and were thinking about digesting and absorbing it were not blind. Having witnessed the booming sales of the new products that had emerged during this period, they were quite aware of the enormous profits behind them.

It's not pleasant to have a gold mine that you can't mine. Hungry crocodiles are waiting for the two-month protection period to rush into the market and feast. It's not hard to guess how fierce the battle will be in this blue ocean market afterwards.

The consumer market, which had already benefited from the initial boom, is now facing another blow. Even the Baita Chamber of Commerce, with its first-mover advantage and brand reputation, will find it difficult to enjoy the same days of easy money as before.

Of course, if Mr. Zhang were to grit his teeth and resolutely wage a price war, with his free labor and enchanting factory, he would be confident that he could ultimately triumph over his competitors. However, this would be a blatant act of overturning the table and monopolizing the profits.

I really want to, but I really don't dare.

On the contrary, soap, a special chemical product, is not easily cracked due to the special nature of its manufacturing process, and its profit per unit is not as attractive as the other two, so it has not been registered as a patent technology.

In other words, this delicious little cake is enough for Gao Yaling to enjoy alone for a while longer, and in the long run, it will be a considerable source of income.

However, these subsequent commercial benefits were secondary. After completing the expansion of trade markets and successfully accumulating massive amounts of capital, Gao Yaling was finally able to unleash his potential and push his industry, especially the military industry, onto the fast track of development!
Master Zhang's ambition was never to be a dragon guarding his treasures.

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(End of this chapter)