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W14473

MAPLE TREE ACCESSORY SHOP

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Yuran Zeng and Jacob W. Hill wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate
either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other
identifying information to protect confidentiality.

This publication may not be transmitted, photocopied, digitized or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the
permission of the copyright holder. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights

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organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Business School, Western
University, London, Ontario, Canada, N6G 0N1; (t) 519.661.3208; (e) cases@ivey.ca; www.iveycases.com.

Copyright © 2014, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: 2014-09-22

In 2013, in Canton, South China, Ivon Ho had been working for a large-scale state-owned enterprise for
15 years. As a manager of the channel management office1 in the firm’s marketing sector, he had an
annual income of about RMB240,000. 2 Working for a state-owned enterprise was quite routine and
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standardized, so it did not fit with his personal style. He loved challenge. In his spare time, he often went
hiking with a group of outdoorsmen who explored mountains rarely visited by humans. However, he
needed money to pay for his mortgage and his son’s education. This was a full-time job, and he had to go
to work at 8 a.m. and would arrive home around 7p.m. Obviously, he worked very hard. However,
starting his own business had always been Ho’s dream. He had been waiting for a chance.
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It was a summer afternoon when Ho got back from work and went to a commercial street near his home
to buy some daily necessities. He saw a shop notice on the front door of a takeout restaurant. This street
was adjacent to a university with more than 12,000 students. It was nearly 200 metres long and was lined
with small businesses, most of which were small shops with an area of 10 to 40 square metres, selling
food, clothing, stationery and accessories. Among them were an economy-priced hotel and two
convenience stores (see Exhibit 1).The closest large shopping mall was over 20 minutes away by car,
which made the commercial street very busy, especially at mealtimes, when students were eating out. The
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operator of the takeout restaurant was a third-year student at the university. She had been running the
store for more than a year and the profit was respectable, averaging RMB25,000 per month. However, she
wanted to spend more time on her thesis writing, as she would become a senior in September. Thus, she
wanted to sublet the store to someone else.

Ho recognized this as a good opportunity, which could not be missed. He contacted the store operator
immediately. After several rounds of discussions, they signed a sublet contract. The sublet fee 3 was
RMB58,000. On June 15, 2013, he also signed a rent contract with the owner of the property. The rent per
month was RMB3,300 and the due date was June 14, 2015. As Ho was a channel manager, he considered
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his background to be an advantage in operating an accessory shop. He believed that the key
characteristics of running a successful accessory shop were to have a decent source of goods and reliable
purchasing channels.
1
The main responsibility of the office was to design, build and control the market channels of the enterprise.
2
CNY1 = US$0.1609.
3
It was very common in China to pay a fixed amount of money as a sublet fee to the previous lessee as a payment for the
intangible assets of the store.

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Once the contract was signed, he wanted to open the doors sooner rather than later; otherwise, Ho would

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be paying rent every day without revenue coming in. However, the preparation was beyond his
imagination. The first step was to find a shop-fitting designer. The place had to be changed from a takeout
restaurant to an accessory shop. One day, when he was trying to search for a design company on the
Internet, his cell phone rang. It was his friend Bin calling.

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“Morning, buddy. How are you?”
“Morning.”
“Do you have time to go mountain biking this weekend? We have not done it for years!” (When
Bin said “years,” he actually meant “weeks.”)
“Sorry, buddy. I’m planning to open a shop. There is a lot of work to do. I’m afraid I cannot make
it this weekend.”
“Oh, a shop! Congratulations!”

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“Not yet. Actually, I’m looking for a designer for shop fitting.”
“How large is your shop?
“It is only 15 square metres.”
“It is a piece of cake.” Bin laughed. “Guess what? I will do it for you. And my designs will be
free. A gift to your new shop.”
“Well, what can I say?” Ho knew that it could cost him RMB4,000 if he hired out the work.
“You should say, ‘Thank you.’”
“All right, buddy, thank you.”
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It normally took a designer less than one week to finish a design drawing. This was a very small shop,
with an area of only 15 square metres, which made things even easier. But June to October was a high
season for interior decoration, which made Bin very busy. Ten days passed and Ho was still expecting the
blueprint. Another 10 days passed; there was not one fragment of a design coming in. As the service was
for free, Ho regarded it as inappropriate to push Bin. When July 15th came, Bin sent a copy of a drawing
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to Ho. Finally, the construction began, which lasted for a month and cost RMB25,000.

In the following days, Ho was very busy. He stocked goods from the wholesale centre, placed
advertisements online and bought a cash register, which cost him RMB500. It seemed as if everything
was ready. But Ho neglected some “trivial” details, which could affect the entire process — he did not
know how to use the cash register, which he had thought would be very easy. He did research on the
machine for several days and, finally, was able to get barcodes for goods to print out.
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September 16, 2013, was a beautiful day. After three months of preparation, the shop was open to
consumers. Ho felt like he was starting his dream journey. The store was named Maple Tree Accessory
Shop and sold shoulder bags, earrings, scarves, necklaces and stuffed animals. Along the commercial
street, there were three or four accessory shops selling similar goods. But what made Maple Tree
Accessory Shop special was that its products followed the national style, which was difficult to find in the
other stores. Another advantage was that the quality of interior decoration was much higher than that of
his competitors (see Exhibit 2). Consequently, for similar types of products, Maple Tree charged a
slightly higher price, about 15 per cent over the average, which created a gross profit4 of 50 per cent. As it
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was a small shop, Ho decided to hire only one full-time salesperson, responsible for the shop’s daily
operation, with two days off every week. He still needed to hire some part-time employees for the
weekend.5 Ho paid a fixed salary of RMB2,000 per month to Flower Chan, the full-time employee, plus
three per cent of sales revenue as commission. For the part-time employees, he hired two students from

4
Here, gross profit means sales revenue minus purchase cost.
5
The shop was open for 360 days per year, during which there were 52 weekends.

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the university and paid them RMB10 per hour plus three per cent of sales revenue as commission. The

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shop opened at 11a.m. and closed at 9 p.m.

The first day was a big day and the sales volume was RMB1,200. But the next day was not so lucky, and
neither was the day after. On average, the daily sales were about RMB600, which could not make ends
meet. When Ho received the first month’s bill for water and electricity, he saw a larger number than

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expected — RMB150. He knew that it was time to have a look at the operational condition of the shop.

One day, Ho did a routine check of the shop and saw the worried face of Chan.

“What happened? Anything wrong?” asked Ho.

“You know, our shop is kind of special and attractive from the outside. We do have a lot of
visitors every day and most of them are university students. They like our style, but few of them

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spend money in our shop.”
“Why?”
“They are asking for a discount. They say they can get the same goods in other shops with a
lower price.”
Noticing no answer from Ho, Chan continued. “Have you noticed the street stalls6 nearby? [See
Exhibit 3.] There are a lot of them and only several minutes away by walk. Their items are similar
to ours, but the price is 20 to 40 per cent lower. And they sell twice the number!”
“We are not competing in the low-end market.” Ho did not agree with Chan.
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While the same feedback was made by the two part-time employees, they added some new information:
“Students like change But their budgets are tight. So they would prefer three items to two with the same
amount of money.”

But Ho was quite confident with the market positioning of his shop. He believed that as long as he kept
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higher price levels, the shop could attract high-end consumers, which guaranteed a high gross profit rate.

As Ho had no business partner, he had to do the purchasing himself. He had his routine job to attend to on
weekdays; he had to sacrifice his weekend for the restocking of new goods. It took him one hour to drive
from home to the wholesale centre and another hour to get back. Sorting and selecting goods was a time-
consuming task; it always took Ho three hours or more in the wholesale centre seeking goods and
bargaining, which left him no time to have lunch with his family. Even on weekdays, after dinner with his
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family, he had to rush to his shop to check the daily sales. Normally, he spent one hour per day in the
shop, talking with Chan and planning how to raise revenue. After several months of operation, Ho felt
exhausted. He needed to find a balance between his office job, shop and family life. Also, he began
recalling the past, when he did some part-time work with a software company and earned extra money7 of
RMB200 per hour. It was quite flexible and he could do it online.

At the end of another exhausting day, Ho arrived at home. It was 10 p.m. His family was sleeping. He
slipped into his son’s room, watching his boy’s sleeping face. He was only three years old and needed
more time with his father. But Maple Tree was another baby, and needed care as well. “Is it worthwhile to
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operate this shop? Should I close it down?” Ho asked himself. But there was an inner voice telling him
that there was always a way out.

6
Street stalls here are a kind of gray business, with goods spread out on the ground for sale. There is no fixed booth for the
stalls. Articles for sale are displayed on the sidewalk and it is very easy for the stall owners to move from one place to
another. The stall owners do not pay any rent or tax.
7
At the same time, he worked as a full-time employee for the state-owned enterprise.

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EXHIBIT 1: STREET VIEW OF THE SHOP

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Source: Provided by Maple Tree.

EXHIBIT 2: MERCHANDISE DISPLAY AND INTERIOR DECORATION

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Source: Provided by Maple Tree.

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EXHIBIT 3: STREET STALLS

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Source: Provided by Maple Tree.

This document is authorized for educator review use only by Usman Ehsan Ehsan Ullah, University of Management and Technology until Mar 2021. Copying or posting is an infringement of
copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860