Selling tea online

[Charles]

Selling tea online

by Charles » Dec 7th, '09, 14:07

As a tea consumer, you have a multitude of online vendors to choose from. What would prompt you to give your business to a new e-Commerce tea site? (http://www.tearetailer.com/article_4.html)

[Victoria]

Re: Selling tea online

by Victoria » Dec 7th, '09, 15:31

What would prompt me? The first things that come to mind are:

Word of Mouth
Focus on whole leaf
Pictures of tea - dry leaf & brewed
Harvest dates
Descriptions and grower details
Tea by region
Rare, limited or new/special region tea
Paypal accepted
Ease of site navigation

What keeps me coming back:
#1 - The quality of the leaf. Without a doubt.

Good customer service. IE; knowledgeable and responsive, and
most importantly - a tea nerd.

Order history on file. I buy a lot of tea, I like to know what I've purchased.

[marlena]

Re: Selling tea online

by marlena » Dec 8th, '09, 17:29

Especially if they have something new to me and then what Victoria said except for Paypal - they always give me trouble. I read a lot of blogs and keep a file of teas on them that sound good from companies that treat you well.

I would keep returning if I got good service, good prices and they had unusual teas. It is also a big plus with me if they include a couple of samples so I can try something different. Just enough for 1 cup is fine

[teaisme]

Re: Selling tea online

by teaisme » Dec 8th, '09, 18:06

+1 to everything victoria said
esp paypal, (that is a big big thing for me, both for security and convenience) and a tea nerd (every store online or off would benefit from one)

I'm also a sucker for samplers, I find If a vendor sends me 2-3 good free samples the chances of another purchase in the future are high indeed esp if the samples are good

New entries usually start out with cheaper prices too, so that is a big draw factor, to get the good prices while they last because I expect them to rise after a while

[Oolonga]

Re: Selling tea online

by Oolonga » Dec 9th, '09, 14:34

Everything Victoria said plus samples, samples, samples.
If a vendor offers only xx oz bags of teas and doesn't sell samples I would not shop there.
Also RSS with product updates and special offers would be very nice to have.

[jazz88]

Re: Selling tea online

by jazz88 » Dec 10th, '09, 18:12

• A clear concept what they offer and why they are different from others.
I would not buy anything from a generic looking tea shop.
• Professional and well designed website. If your website looks like your neighbors son did it then why I would trust you with my credit card # ?

[kymidwife]

Re: Selling tea online

by kymidwife » Dec 11th, '09, 10:53

I would also add to all of the above... samples are wonderful. Low-cost sampler packages for organized tastings (as is recently being done by Lochan) is a great way to get some exposure on Facebook and to encourage customers to branch out into new areas of tea.

To repeat some of the other important factors...

-Easy to use, professional website with good security for online ordering
-STRONG customer service presence
-If something goes wrong, make it right, every time. Adagio already does this.
-Coupons for return customers... reward points... etc. Very good for promoting return orders.
-And of course, sell a quality product.

[Givequicheachan...]

Re: Selling tea online

by Givequicheachan... » Feb 2nd, '10, 11:11

I agree with most of the things listed by others. A professional presentation is very important. Pictures are vital, at least of the dry leaves, but a picture of the brewed tea would also be very welcome. I'm not a big fan of paypal, but I do shy away from giving my credit card info to small online retailers--you never know. And yes, samples are ESSENTIAL.

[entropyembrace]

Re: Selling tea online

by entropyembrace » Feb 3rd, '10, 01:48

What would prompt me? The first things that come to mind are:

Word of Mouth
Focus on whole leaf
Pictures of tea - dry leaf & brewed
Harvest dates
Descriptions and grower details
Tea by region
Rare, limited or new/special region tea
Paypal accepted
Ease of site navigation

What keeps me coming back:
#1 - The quality of the leaf. Without a doubt.

Good customer service. IE; knowledgeable and responsive, and
most importantly - a tea nerd.

Order history on file. I buy a lot of tea, I like to know what I've purchased.

+1 especially paypal, it´s the only online payment method I will use

also
Rare, limited or new/special region tea
Focus on whole leaf

are very important, I have good local shops available so the tea has to be really special to be worth ordering online.