Spring had already passed by in the blink of an eye, and finally, down jackets could be put away.
Xu Musen liked to stroll around the campus whenever he had free time, and the female students at Huhai were always at the forefront of the trends of the times.
Although the temperature hadn't fully warmed up yet, many people were already sacrificing warmth for style.
Those legs in black stockings and the short skirts and hot pants were a delightful sight to behold.
And as the temperature rose, the milk tea business also entered its peak season, with Xu Musen maintaining the pace of opening at least two or three new stores each month in Huhai.
The delivery business was also booming. Initially, the delivery service was definitely a cash burner, requiring the issue of various coupons and payment of red packets and other promotions to customers.
Plus, free exposure for the merchants on the platform, and things like providing disposable tableware had to be offered.
And concessions had to be made for the average order value of the riders as well.
I remember in my last life, a few of the big delivery platforms were fighting to the death, burning cash by the tens and hundreds of billions.
Xu Musen couldn't afford to burn that much.
Fortunately, there weren't any significant competitors now, and he had applied for numerous patents and business protections, so even if big companies took notice of him later on, if he couldn't withstand them, he could be directly recruited and still make a nice sum of money.
After all, Musen remembered many of the future trends very clearly in his mind.
Like Virtual Coin, the shared economy, new energy, short video marketing, the medical industry, and such...
A casual investment and early involvement in any of these could make enough money to last several lifetimes.
Of course, Xu Musen still hoped for continuous development.
Moreover, the delivery business undoubtedly had tremendous potential, certainly more than the milk tea shop. The main point was that Musen was preparing to create a comprehensive service platform using the delivery model.
He was also planning early for things like payment systems.
With the future domestic economic situation, the real industry struggled to move forward, while various internet platforms made a killing without much actual investment.
Like live streaming sales, where manufacturers worked hard to produce goods but had to pay a placement fee to get featured on short video platforms. After making a sale, they had to pay a commission that started at no less than 30%, with income almost halved despite no significant tangible input from these platforms.
No wonder in the coming years, a large number of physical stores closed down, and even state intervention couldn't do much against it.
After all, the tide of the internet is unstoppable.
Right now, Xu Musen's delivery business was hardly making any money, and most of the orders were still from promotions at the milk tea shop.
But Musen was happy to support it and even specifically had Ma Yaxing select a few skilled IT students from the university, working on optimizing the Kangaroo Delivery APP every day.
As the user base grew, Musen could slowly extend his reach to things like online ride-hailing, group buying, online payments, internet merchandising, Kangaroo Loans, and the like, aiming to create a comprehensive national software.
The idea was beautiful, but it wasn't easy to implement.
Zhou Hangyu and the others wandered around the city center every day when they had nothing to do, inspecting the situation of the various milk tea shops.
They reported back regularly.
"Boss! Today I found a milk tea shop called "Uncle of Shanghai," right next to ours!"
"Don't even mention it, I saw one called "Auntie of Huhai." When I asked if it was the authentic Huhai flavor, their reply was just "can't be that bad!" They spoke with such a strong accent of ice crystals; it cracked me up."
Zhou Hangyu and Li Rundong talked about what they saw today, and both found it amusing.
Xu Musen couldn't help but smile as well.
It was normal, just like in the small shops back home that sometimes sold "Sprite" and "Coca Cola," it proved that his store already had some brand effect.
"Boss, should we deal with these knockoffs? We've registered all these trademarks, a lawsuit would easily win."
Musen thought for a moment, then shook his head, "Don't rush it, these small individual shops won't cause much of a stir, rather they're advertising for us."
Musen wasn't worried about these small shops, after all, Auntie of Shanghai Milk Tea was pursuing a high-end fruit tea path.
These small shops were undoubtedly individuals who followed the trend; they couldn't match the price and could only target the lower end of the market.
It's like selling cars, those selling Rolls-Royces certainly wouldn't conflict with those selling Wuling magic cars.
"We're not on the same track, so don't worry. Moreover, our biggest advantage isn't the store name or products, but the supply chain. Our suppliers offer the lowest prices; we sell twenty yuan a cup and make a profit, they wouldn't dare sell for twenty yuan or they might not even cover their costs."
Musen smiled, "By the way, how's the onboarding process for the delivery merchants?"
"It's okay, but a lot of merchants think the commission is too high. They said they won't join unless we reduce it.
And many of them unanimously insist on it; it seems like they're colluding."
Zhou Hangyu was a bit troubled; the delivery business wasn't very profitable to begin with, and lowering the commission might even lead to losses.
After thinking for a moment, Musen spoke up: "We can't lower the commission, not even by a bit."
Zhou Hangyu scratched his head, "So, are we preparing to play hardball?"
Musen shook his head with a smile, "It's a bottom line. Once a price is established, it's very hard to raise it later. Let me ask you, if one day the price of a large bottle of iced black tea suddenly went from four to five yuan, would you still buy it?"
"Damn! Five yuan for an iced black tea? Four yuan is already steep, five is just horse piss!"