From Kenneth’s high-top shoes to MUJI’s minimalist lifestyle philosophy to Xiaola’s low-price strategy, these brands and platforms are meeting consumers’ pursuit of cost-effectiveness through transparent rules and efficient operating models. This article will delve into the rise of “common sense consumption” and how Xiaola Chuxing has opened up a new world in the mature ride-hailing market through strategies such as low commissions and transparent pricing, bringing a win-win situation to drivers and passengers.
Do you know that Xiaola travels?
“Do you know Xiaola (travel)?”
“Know, how do you say it?” I silently turned off Didi, and my friend told me that Guiyang is now popular to use small taxis, “cheap!” ”
Didi showed that the order was estimated to be more than 50 yuan, but it was actually “a fixed price” of 34 yuan? Xiaola commission 1%! This does make people feel a little rippled: the difference is a bit big?!
“Xiaola is a platform of conscience! The price is real, and the commission is small! He is now running a full-time job, and his net income can reach more than 10,000 yuan a month, which is much higher than running other platforms. Under his call, more than 10 friends have joined the Xiaola platform, “This platform is smooth, and the work is not tiring!” ”
The car is full of joy and a harmonious scene. As an old media person who studies the Internet, I am surprised: the common state is that drivers constantly diss the platform with high commissions, and the dispatch of orders is “inhumane”.
“The province should be flowery, hit Xiaola and go to the bar”, friends said that this is already a jingle of local young people, and Xiaola travel has been on fire in the local area.
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In the third day of Guiyang, Xiaola aroused my curiosity, can there be such potential energy in the highly mature field of travel? Can you see the driver and passengers singing “family” together? With such a low commission, what calculations is Xiaola making? ……
In the gradual in-depth understanding, as of February 2025, Xiaola’s ride-hailing business has covered 56 cities including Chengdu and Chongqing, with 242 four-wheeled small parts and 261 ride-hailing cars, and more than 1 million drivers have registered to join……
According to public information, the (Xiaola) four-wheeled small business can contribute more than 70% to drivers’ revenue in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and other places, and in smaller cities, the income supplement for drivers can also reach 10%~20%.
In addition to ordinary ride-hailing orders and four-wheeled small orders, on September 1, 2024, Xiaola Chuxing also expanded its ride-hailing business, and in April this year, Xiaola’s ride-hailing business opened 122 seats, and a total of 261 seats have been opened so far.
Two years ago, I saw the slogan “Xiaola travel, it is cheap” on the streets of Suzhou, and I tried it for the first time, and my feeling at that time was: it is really cheap! But waiting for the bus does have to wait. I remember that after waiting for more than ten minutes, the driver was late and drove the wrong route.
After three days of separation, the soldiers looked at each other with admiration.
In the field of online ride-hailing, which seems to be monolithic, there are still many “incremental opportunities”, combined with Pinduoduo tearing open the iron plate e-commerce field (in 2016, the famous saying in the investment circle is: do not invest in e-commerce), not long ago JD.com once again entered the field of takeaway, it seems that “things are changing”, and a wave of common sense consumption is surging.
The so-called “common sense consumption” refers to focusing on consumption itself, emphasizing “simplicity and practicality”, that is, emotional value for money, rather than brands, luxury or other non-highly related services attached to consumption.
The huge decline in revenue and profit in the luxury goods industry, the “low desire” of general consumer goods, and even the unit price data of catering customers released in various places are declining recently, an era of “common sense consumption” is coming, and suppliers who fit it are ushering in their own “golden age”.
In the three days in Guiyang, I thought a lot. But the earliest and most profound thing that reminds me of is the story of Kenneth and MUJI.
The story of Kenneth and MUJI
When I went to the United States to buy some “luxurious” things, I couldn’t avoid the vulgarity and bought a lot.
But what impressed me was a pair of Kenneth’s high-top shoes, the price was similar to Polo, I didn’t know this brand when I bought it, but when I wore it, it was “really comfortable!” ”
Needless to say, the quality has been worn for nearly ten years. The terrible thing is comfort, men’s habit of wearing shoes is to wear a pair of shoes “to death”, but they are not stinky feet and have good breathability.
So every time I go to the United States, I must look for this brand. It can indeed be described as a buy-and-love.
Then curious to explore the story of this brand.
As the ancient saying goes, “Pass, the stones of other mountains can be used to attack jade.”
Sun Zhengyi put it another way: the time machine can start over.
In the 70s of the last century, the United States and Europe entered a serious round of “stagflation crisis”, wages did not rise, prices rose, a large number of entities went bankrupt, and people did not dare to consume.
Kenneth didn’t take the usual path.
In 1982, young designer Kenneth Cole wanted to start a business, but he didn’t have much capital.
After inquiring about an Italian shoe factory in crisis, Kenneth Kohl had a “genius” plan, he first negotiated with the other party to cooperate in the form of “credit”, in layman’s terms, to win the shoe factory in the form of an “IOU”, and the shoe factory had to produce shoes for him.
The shoe factory is not stupid, and the chip offered by Kenneth Kohl is: underwriting! And it has the ability to bring these shoes into Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and into the mainstream.
Flicker, then flicker!
Kenneth Kohl solved the supply chain problem in one fell swoop, but sales was the fundamental problem. At that time, there were generally two ways to sell designer brands in the United States: one was to put the shoes in a large shoe exhibition in the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan, competing with thousands of shoes; The second is to invest heavily in the center of Manhattan to open a gorgeous flagship store.
None of them are simple, and they require huge capital investment behind them. Money is not a problem, the problem is no money.
Don’t take the usual path. This buddy didn’t want to play like this at all.
He took a different path and wanted to drive a truck into the downtown area to sell shoes. But the problem is that the Manhattan borough is closed to trucks.
But there is one exception, that is, film and television companies that make movies can drive trucks into downtown areas. Kenneth Kohl registered a film and television company, borrowed a large truck from a friend, entered the downtown area, sold shoes, and the camera was filming next to it, which was a great success!
Why is it a great success? Because this buddy not only sold out the shoes, but also made a movie called “The Birth of a Shoe Company”. It is said that this movie is still looping at the headquarters.
Later, Kenneth Cole created the Kenneth Cole brand group, shoes and clothing, cosmetics, bags, and even home furnishings.
Kenneshkohl’s philosophy is: disdain to do useless and boring skills, and the most important thing is that it is easy to wear and comfortable, can travel through time, and has no sense of obsolescence.
The slogan “Fame is better than clothing” has brought his company to the forefront of fashion. Kenny Jr., who became famous in one fell swoop, said, “Of course it’s good to be famous for the shoes you design, but it’s a good thing to be famous for your inner soul.” ”
The shoes he designed always have the toe of the toe raised upwards, while women’s shoes are not willing to be flat, and most of them have high heels.
The story of MUJI also came to mind.
Because of work, I often travel on business trips and often forget to bring my exercise clothes, so I have become a down-to-earth user of MUJI. A set of tens of yuan, washable and throwable, a must-have option for travel.
On February 2, 2024, MUJI opened its flagship store in Chaoyang Joy City, Beijing, and it is clear that it is expanding against the trend.
I paid special attention to its financial report, and its performance in China has been good, especially in recent years. MUJI has more than 200 stores in China, and only more than 100 in Japan. Those who are familiar with it know that one of its biggest features is minimalism, claiming that “no matter what the popular color is, it will never go beyond the design principles to develop products”.
MUJI’s story corresponds to the so-called “low-desire society”.
In the 80s of the 20th century, Masao Kiuchi opened a small grocery store in Japan, with the original slogan “value for money”, advocating a natural, simple and rustic lifestyle.
From 1990 to 1999, during the bursting of the Japanese economic bubble, companies that pursued “commodity substance” rose rapidly, with Uniqlo and MUJI being the leaders, whose revenue quickly climbed from 24.5 billion yen to 106.6 billion yen, and profits rose from 125 million yen to 13.36 billion yen.
“Good products without names”, Masao Kiuchi’s core philosophy is to provide high-quality products without unnecessary brand logos.
I have been to MUJI stores in Japan not only in clothing, shoes and hats, but also in the fields of clothing, household goods, food, and even home furnishings.
Not long ago, it was named the best mid-sized company in the world by Forbes.
Whether it is Kenneth Cole or MUJI, they are all widely considered to be in a highly competitive and mature market, but they have embarked on an “incremental road”.
“Only for people with real needs, not seeking to cut the cake”, they, like Xiaola Travel, claim that the company is an incremental factor in the market, rather than “building an empire and fighting for territory”.
If according to the judgment of IT Friends, Xiaola is without exception, targeting the “common sense consumption” group, although the times have strengthened this characteristic, but the original such a group has actually always existed, and it is widespread.
Magic weapon: transparent rules
Small pull travel is cheap.
Some people want to take advantage, and some people are really cheap.
Xiaola Travel probably wants to be “really cheap”, at least so far, at least it has achieved results. The target group is: people who don’t play often, Xiaola attracts them through low-price strategies, so that they can spend close to the cost of the subway and improve the convenience of travel.
But cheapness is not an idea, but a pattern.
The great man said that business model innovation is also a new quality productivity. Xiaola Travel has changed its business model: low subsidies for platforms, low commissions for drivers, and benefits for consumers.
This seemingly “impossible triangle (driver, passenger, platform)” is realized in Xiaola’s story, like Kenneth Cole: starting a business at a low cost, realizing brand proof and amplification in Lala’s cooperative support, and minimizing the cost on the operation side; the driver side focuses on differentiated markets, with low commissions and order grabbing systems, allowing drivers to earn money in the happiness of “part-time”; On the passenger side, low prices are achieved due to low operating costs and low commissions, especially long orders.
The path has changed.
After more than ten years of development, from the cruel price war to the aggregation platform, the traditional ride-hailing field has adopted the “money-burning model” without exception, and the winner is the king. What has not stopped so far is still the “three high model” of paying fares on the user side, taking commissions on the driver side, and subsidizing on the platform side.
That is, the ecology of high fares, high commissions, and high platform rates. According to public market data, the commission rate of each platform is at the level of 20%~30%, and how is the minimum commission of 1% achieved by Xiaola membership drivers?
Xiaola’s original “independent order grabbing mode”, when passengers send orders, the platform pushes peripheral orders to drivers in the order hall, and drivers can choose orders that suit them in the order hall according to their own time and preferences.
These orders do not have a complex and sophisticated algorithm design like the “mainstream” platforms, it is simple and certain: basically determined by mileage, the price per kilometer is almost constant.
The commission is also transparent, the total price is how much the commission is, the driver can see at a glance: compared with the high commission rate of other platforms, Xiaola’s low commission rate has been passed on by word of mouth to drivers, and word of mouth has brought in a large number of cars and drivers.
“Very humane!” Many drivers in Guiyang told me that the order grabbing system not only avoids the pressure brought by compulsory dispatch, but also has no restrictions on online time; And it brings the fun of “grabbing orders”, of course, drivers who can’t grab orders will increase their attention to the platform, and then go to “old drivers, take me.” ”
In the public report, Wang Su (pseudonym), the person in charge of Xiaola Travel, said, “Drivers can run Didi or AutoNavi most of the time, and then work part-time and ride to run Xiaola, so that they can use their time more efficiently and increase their income per unit of time, and the income of single superimposed drivers on the two platforms will naturally increase.” We have never wanted to compete for the first place in the industry, or even monopoly, but we want drivers to have more supplementary income channels. ”
Obviously, Wang Su is very low-key, and Xiao La is also very low-key. It is time and power.
Not to mention the traditional mainstream online car-hailing platforms where drivers have high commissions and passengers pay more, not to mention various aggregation platforms, various “reselling” that greatly exceed the industry’s 30% hidden commission rate, drivers are complaining, passengers are enduring it, and as soon as the driver and passengers check, the quintessence of the country is exported.
But it must be mentioned that even if the main force is like Didi, the platform company has been “losing blood” year after year, and the platform, drivers, and passengers are not satisfied?
How can this be an unbearable ecology? In addition to enduring all ends of “for life”, where can the happiness come from?
The core of the commission that cannot be reduced is nothing more than the huge cost and expense of the platform that cannot be reduced, not due to competition visible to the naked eye.
Later, we will talk about Xiaola’s way of reducing costs. And here, let’s talk about Xiaola’s “transparent ecology” first.
Transparent ecology is strictly speaking, Xiaola’s magic weapon. Xiaola does not have large-scale advertising, endorsement and traffic collection to gather the supply of cars and drivers, nor does it have massive expenses to subsidize and collect passengers, let alone join the aggregation platform to undertake traffic.
It adopts a “third model”: transparent rules allow drivers and passengers to get a very good “certainty”, and then get happiness in certainty.
When people are tired of blind box taxis, drivers struggle between algorithms, commissions and survival. The promise of “one bite price” offered by Xiao La becomes the cornerstone: transparency is not a cheap cloak, but the armor of an efficiency revolution.
Goods Lala Lala Goods Little Lala people
A friend of mine joined Xiaola Travel last year, and before that, she worked for Didi and Hello for many years and was considered an industry veteran.
There is a simple communication between us: very surprised, Xiaola’s product model is very good, and the scene of freight and solicitation does not conflict. After joining the company, the size of the company doubled, and there are infinite possibilities in the future.
“The company (management) is very simple, there is no big company like a pile of hammers hammering a nail, but emphasizing efficiency, like a ‘Whampoa Military Academy’!” Her words are full of love for the company, the company does not involute, encourages exercise and efficiency, unlike the previous model of 11 to 11, but leaves work on time at 6 o’clock.
“Lala Labrador”, the goods in the Sichuan joke, belong to the creditor’s investment relationship with Xiaola Travel. Xiaola Travel has benefited a lot from the Lala platform, which not only “shares” the travel system with Xiaola Travel, but also gives unlimited support on the technical side. More importantly, in the cities where Xiaola Travel has opened, Lala’s goods are displayed with “double stickers”; Lala’s brand activities in various places have brought the publicity of Xiaola, so as to increase the exposure of the Lala’s brand; The H5 window of Xiaola Travel is connected to the Lalala APP, and users who need to make a call can place an order directly on the Lalala platform; In March 2024, Xiaola Travel cooperated with Lalala in the “four-wheeled small piece” business.
On the two platforms of Lala and Xiaola, a system of recruiting drivers online has been formed, and there is almost no channel cost of “partners”. Backed by Lala’s mature operating model and technical support, Lala has also saved a lot of R&D costs.
It can be seen that the reason why Xiaola can achieve low-cost operation on the platform side is highly beneficial to Lala’s strong support.
Following the car sticker advertising model of Lala, accessing the Alipay port, Douyin port, and word of mouth between users and drivers, Xiaola has formed a strong “self-driven” system.
At the same time, business collaboration is also a good means to improve efficiency and reduce costs. In March last year, Xiaola Travel and Lalala cooperated in the “four-wheeled small piece” business, which not only made up for the dilemma of drivers lacking orders during peak travel, but also avoided unreasonable passenger prices during the trough of travel.
It is precisely because of the active and passive reduction of a large number of operating expenses, and the adoption of a complex time-sharing pricing model that is different from the mainstream online car-hailing platforms, that Xiaola Chuxing has been able to achieve a highly certain commission rate, and finally achieve a real “low price”, which perfectly meets the needs of common sense consumption.
Lala, like Kenneth borrowing a film and television company, pursues “service essence” like MUJI pursues “commodity essence”, and Xiaola Travel, like the first two, has stepped into the common track of good but not expensive, and jointly points to the rolling red dust of “common sense consumption”.
The last time he spoke like this was Huang Zheng in 2018, “We attract cost-effective people…… It is not yet capable of satisfying people like you in the Fifth Ring Road. ”
