Every year when we approach shopping festivals such as "Double 11", "Double 12" and "End of Year Promotion", we all warn ourselves in our hearts: consume rationally and not be confused by merchants' discount promotions.
However, he said he didn't want it, but his hands were very honest. Once he was not careful, he fell into the "big pit" of buying and buying. He really wanted to travel to ancient times and see if we can escape this "festival"?
Along the River During the Qingming Festival (partial) Ming · Qiu Ying
Is there anything in the ancient people’s shopping cart?
It’s a pity that even if we traveled through the ancient times, we still “can’t escape this festival”. After all, people who like to buy, buy, will never forget to buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, no matter when and where.
There were shopping festivals like "618 Promotion" and "Double 11" as early as ancient times, but these shopping festivals were uniformly called "double day festivals", such as New Year's Day on January 1, February 2, spring plowing, March 3 Shangsi , 4 April 4, 4 April 4 Dragon Boat Festival, 5 July 7th, 5 September 2nd Double Ninth... These festivals used to concentrate on shopping are also called "Chongqi", and have existed in the pre-Qin period.
episodes are usually in a designated trading place, such as "market", "ji", "ru", "field" and "street" are all products of episodes, which is the e-commerce platform we use now in the shopping festival.
Since there is a "platform", what exactly are there in the ancients' shopping carts?
For ancient rich people, shopping festivals are equivalent to luxury brands’ new product launch conferences. Then their shopping carts are naturally filled with luxury goods, and the most frequently appear are rare textiles, such as silk silk, brocade, silk, satin, etc., but the cost of these products does not lie in the product itself, but in the value-added service of the products.
In ancient times, rich people only wore high-end private customization. First choose the fabric, then design the corresponding style according to the body shape and season, and then match it with ingenious embroidery. There will definitely be no embarrassment of wearing the same clothes. You must not underestimate ancient designers. The bucket bag that was popular in LV last year was a model that was a match for the portable shoulder bag of Tang Dynasty painted maid!
Similarly, jewelry is also one of the most popular private custom items by the rich in ancient times. During the shopping festival, many businesses accept "customized incoming materials", consumers provide raw materials such as gold jewelry, and merchants then create a complete set of jewelry for consumers through design, with very exquisite craftsmanship.
Of course, the rich people in ancient times were not easily satisfied with food, clothing, and their spiritual pursuits were unlimited. There were often many works of art in their shopping carts, such as calligraphy and paintings, porcelain, out-of-print books, musical instruments, etc.
But what is even more shocking is that during the economic prosperity of the Tang and Song dynasties, during the shopping festival of Jiqi, ancient rich people even started shopping overseas!
As we all know, the favorite thing that the ancients liked the most was bathing incense. If anyone had unique spices, it would be a brilliant halo of rich people!
If there is demand, there will be a market. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a pirate named Feng Ruofang . After smelling the business opportunity, he professionally robbed Persian sea ships, specializing in spices, and captured the hearts of thousands of women with his unique salon perfume . From then on, he became rich and became an ancient "overseas shopping" crown seller. The original intention of this shopping festival is to "give the people of the world, gather the goods of the world, and get their own things after trading." If the rich people know how to play, we ordinary people must not forget their original intentions. In addition to ordinary markets in daily life, such as "morning market", "night market", " temple fair ", etc., there is also a market called "poor Han market", which is equivalent to the current second-hand goods trading platform, "9.9 free shipping zone", which is where the poor buy things.
Often, the shopping carts of poor people have a more lifelike atmosphere!
They also buy clothes, shoes, hats, daily necessities, but more of them are food. After all, the "Engel coefficient" of the poor is relatively high. In the Song Dynasty, Meng Yuanlao wrote in " Tokyo Menghualu ": In the first few days, the market will sell underworld boots and shoes, pork hats, golden rhinoceros fake belts, and colorful clothes. Sell it with paper paste racks. The east and west tiles of Panlou Bingzhou are like the Chinese Valentine's Day. There are also fruits and fruits in the playful places.
Interestingly, whether it is the rich or poor in ancient times, most of the owners of shopping carts were women. "The Drunken Old Man's Talk" once described the Qiqiao Market on the Qixi Festival indirectly. There were so many people that "cars and horses were angry" and "cars and horses were not allowed to pass through, and they were blocked one after another, and they were not allowed to come back until night." As expected, women always held up most of the sky when buying.
Pleader's picture (partial) Northern Song Dynasty Su Hanchen (biography)
Marketing methods of ancient merchants
Many times, we didn't really want to buy things, but we were often moved by the activities of merchants. From overwhelming advertising to discounts and promotions, to the current live broadcast, few consumers can "get out of here", but they don't know that the marketing methods of these merchants are all from the business practices of ancient people!
In ancient times, merchants engaged in promotions, and exaggerated advertisements were naturally indispensable. The most famous one was "Yingzhe", which was equivalent to our most popular live shopping this year. Especially the merchants of the Song Dynasty had a very good idea of "chanting". Gao Cheng once recorded in "The Legend of Things: Games and Playing": Anything that sells something in the capital must have sound and rhyme, and their chants are different. Therefore, the people in the market pick their tone and use their lyrics to make them playful. It is popular in the world now, and it is also called chanting.
In the capital, as long as there is a market, there will be a hawking sound. These hawking sounds have their own characteristics, paying attention to copywriting and rhythm. Compared with our "Five Box, Clearance Sale" and the brainwashing theme song of a certain group buying platform, the connotation and style have risen by many levels!
Of course, no matter how exaggerated the advertisements are, the price will not work without an advantage. After all, we all want to buy good-quality and inexpensive products in these promotions, which will live up to the dark circles we have grown from "shopping" late at night.
How could the ancients not know about these?
There is an old saying called "Greed in Three Integrity and Five Integrity", which comes from "Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of Merchants". It roughly means that as a merchant, people who are greedy for profits of can only earn 30% of the profits, while those who pay attention to small profits but quick turnover can earn 50%. Therefore, there was a long time ago "price cut", also known as "price cut".
"Father of Business" Fan Li When interviewed by a financial program, he pointed out the key points: expensive things are like dirt, and cheap things are like pearls and jade.
When the product is valuable, you must strengthen sales and make a move quickly. Once the product is out of date, it will only become worthless. Because of this, merchants’ discounts and discounts are so crazy!
Apart from marketing methods such as advertising and discounts, ancient merchants also had goals and tasks for themselves. It is not possible to rely on old customers alone. You must have continuous new customers so that merchants can have a future. There is a word on modern Internet e-commerce platforms called "new recruitment", which means using various promotional discount coupons or gifts to attract new customers. In order to make the purpose less obvious, new games will be designed every year. In addition to issuing "red tickets", the ancients also designed games. The most famous one is "Guanpu".
新全 is equivalent to our current lottery draw and draw prizes. Pre-sale products are used as the lottery header. According to the agreed method, such as turntables, copper coins, and trays, you can get the goods for free or at a low price as long as you win the bid. This marketing method just captures the public's greed for cheapness and is even addictive. Many people are addicted to this, and the degree of harm is extremely high. Therefore, the Song Dynasty government restricted this and only allowed it to be used on three days of "New Year's Day", "cold food" and "winter solstice". The rest of the time is considered "illegal gambling".
"No business is not traitor", ancient merchants were not ruthless when they played marketing.
People's Picture (Partial) Ming · Cui Zizhong (Biography)
Services of the Ancient Shopping Festival
In ancient times, clearing the shopping cart was not an easy task. After all, there were endless things to buy and limited wallets. In order to promote sales, ancient merchants also supported payment methods such as credit cards, Huabei, etc., which is the legendary credit.
In ancient times, like us, the credit limit and term of credit was determined by assessing individual asset income and other situations.Many wealthy people in ancient times did not have the habit of paying money when they went out because they were wealthy families, where they lived and what they did. The whole city knew that consumption was only closed. By the end of the month, the merchants sorted out the bills and provided door-to-door collection services. Therefore, for the rich, credit was also called monthly settlement.
. Ordinary people do not have strong financial resources, so they naturally cannot pay the monthly payment directly like the rich. They like big items during the shopping festival and cannot pay the full payment, so they chose bill installments. Discuss the installment number and interest on each installment, and then use valuable items that you don’t need for the time being as collateral to realize “spend tomorrow’s money and realize today’s dream.”
If you encounter a buyer not being able to do it during the shopping festival, ancient merchants also had a service called "revocation". Regardless of whether the buyer needs it or not, they will try it for free, which is equivalent to our current seven-day unconditional return and exchange. Due to cost reasons, such services are mostly used in food products.
Since the shopping cart is full, the promotional red tickets have been received, and the embarrassment of not having money to check out has also been solved. The rest is the delivery problem.
Do you need to think about the package after buying and buying during the ancient shopping festival? Of course,
is needed. After all, during the shopping festival, the area of and stalls were limited during the -day store. The goods may not be displayed, and the storage space is extremely limited. Therefore, ordinary merchants will have free door-to-door delivery services, which was also called "profits" in ancient times.
, a free door-to-door delivery service by merchants is mostly used in spot stocks in the ancient shopping festival, while more ancient people would choose futures , that is, they placed an order and paid a pre-sale deposit. Only after the merchant completes the goods, they can receive the goods.
often, such futures will be very expensive. As a merchant, he has to hand over this difficult task to a private express company, the legendary private escort agency, because the station is only allowed to be used by the official.
The ancient private escort agencies undertake a large number of express parcels for shopping festivals. Because the labor costs required to be invested are huge, the ancient private escort agencies only accept the transportation of valuables. In addition to knowing the way and contacting customers, the ancient couriers are more important to have high martial arts skills and able to fight!
After all, public security in ancient times was not as good as in our modern times. Robbers often appeared. If they could not fight, don’t mention the price protection and losses. It would be dangerous to save your life alone!
Do you still remember this sentence?
Dear, after receiving the product, remember to give me a five-star review!
After completing the shopping festival transaction, the buyer's evaluation is crucial to the merchant, which directly affects the merchant's profits in each shopping festival in the future. This was even more true in ancient times. After the crazy shopping festival, merchants need more praise and reputation. Compared with the common order-brushing and asking for praise, the ancient merchants' way of asking for praise is more low-key and connotative!
particularly pays attention to letting celebrities "endorse". From the entertainment industry to the literary world, and then to the political world, ancient businesses were particularly keen to let them write poems, paintings and plaques on the wall. If the ancestors emitted green smoke and met a big boss like the emperor, and then took a pen and waved a plaque like "the world's first floor" and "the world's first duck", it would be a great honor that all generations can enjoy!
After reading all the routines and procedures of the Ancient People's Shopping Festival, I have a little more understanding and comfort for myself who is about to buy and buy. After all, the ancient people's buying and buying is much more crazy than us modern people! Also, please stop talking about Internet thinking. The ancients have long been tired of these marketing strategies you want to do!
Jinling Xiaodai
["Xiaodai Reads History" is a column specially opened by Jinling Xiaodai for "Micro Records of the Grand Historian". Jinling Xiaodai is a Nanjing writer and author of the best-selling book "Stories in Cultural Relics" series. 】
proofreading Tao Shangong
