52teas Poll - Please chime in

So, in the past we’ve had a few requests for a way to subscribe on a recurring payment basis (ie signing up and paying every month as opposed to paying for a 3- 6- or 12-month subscription up front).

I think I have a way to accomplish this, but it will cost me a little extra and I wanted to see if I could get a headcount of folks still interested in this. The offer would be something like this:

You would get three weeks of tea delivered every three weeks for $24.99. Canadian/Overseas subscribers would get the same for $29.99.

The only way I could do it logistically would be to have folks sign up, and THEN hold 3-weeks worth of tea. Depending on when in the week you signed up (and how popular our tea was that week, your first shipment would go out in 2-3 weeks, but from then on, it would just be on auto-pilot. You would get three weeks worth of tea every three weeks. And your payment method (We would be using Paypal for this, so (I’m pretty sure) it could be your credit card, bank account or Paypal account) would be charged every three weeks.

Thoughts?

37 Replies

No one had any thoughts about this?

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Kittenna said

Why would you do 3 weeks instead of 4? Just curious. Also, $30 seems cheap for Canadians, with your new rates – am I missing something?

I thought $24.99-$29.99 sounded more manageable than a four week subscription. Also, three pouches keeps my international shipping under 8-ounces. Four pouches could push the package over 8-ounces with packaging, etc., which would mean I would have to pay for 12-ounces. (Just the way the shipping schedule works.) And yes, international customers would save about $2 in shipping.

Kittenna said

Ahh, if that works in favour of reducing postage, then that sounds like a very good idea! I’m going to have to take another look at the subscriptions…

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Kittenna said

Also, I didn’t see this topic at all previously. I wonder if it was lost in a Steepster-outage?

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Azzrian said

First I have seen of this myself.

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I actually really like the idea of this. Pay as you go is way nicer then a lump sum. I would sign up for this in about a month; as I still have one credit card I am almost done paying off. Otherwise count me in.

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BoxerMama said

I think that’s a great deal! If I wasn’t already subscribed to Verdant I’d jump on it. . . I may still, if I can convince the bread winner. . . lol

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I’m interested in it and understand why you would be sending the tea around the 3 week mark. The price sounds reasonable too for us INTL customers :)

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I don’t quite understand why everyone would have to wait the 3 weeks and you couldn’t send it out the following week. I understand logistics but think the wait provides a major insensitive against it and likely would be more of a trouble than its worth. Have you considered making better forecasts to gauge how much product you will need instead?

Personally it doesn’t bother me. He is probably doing it this way so it is cheaper for postage (1 big pack vs 3 smaller ones which require more packaging and more postage),and so he doesn’t have to blend more tea if there is already a lot of tea for a week still left over, thus reducing inventory and re-blending costs.

Either way I think this could end up being a good starting point. 52 Teas is a small artisan tea business so keeping cost low for customers is key; especially for international ones. I’m sure after this deal got popular enough and brought in more customers he could go to a tea a week shipment if needed.

I meant the motivation for having to wait the complete three weeks. That was done to know exactly how many he has to blend for subscription. Not to be combative but he already has a tea a week shipment and 52 teas isn’t so small. Also, while pricing is always important, low price certainly isn’t 52 tea’s USP (unique selling proposition). I was simply suggesting that perhaps with better forecasting 52teas could offer to begin the 2-3 week deliveries sooner than 3 weeks after signup by forecasting more reliably and that customers would likely be more apt to sign up if they didn’t have to wait so long.

Eh, I guess for me I like the idea of not having to pay a large lump-sum and opt for a pay as you go subscription. I can see your point on the disadvantage of the wait. I guess it doesn’t really bother me that much.

Plus if you are Canadian or International I can see this saving you a good bit of money. If you bought the current lump-sum 6 week subscription, plus the extra shipping charge it comes out to $80 ($95 for international). If you opt for the 3 week version they would only have to pay $60.

I can see your point though on the disadvantage of the wait, and how that might be a bad insensitive to sign up. I guess it just depends if the wait is an in-convinced to the costumer and if they would rather sign up for the lump-sum version.

I appreciate your input. The problem with better forecasts is that with offering a brand new product every week, it is impossible to know how popular it’s going to be. Some of the blends I create sell out in less than 24 hours. Others linger for months. If I get one of those blends that sells out immediately and then a bunch of people decide to subscribe, I’m sunk. I work really hard not to oversell my stock, but that would make it impossible.

Lala said

I might be a bit confused on why the wait is a big deal. On any other tea of the month club, you pay up front and then sometimes have to wait until the following month to get your tea shipment. I think you have to look at it as a tea of the 3 week club, not a tea of the week club.

Ah, very good point 52teas. Entirely forgot about selling out entirely based on individual sales. I suppose the remedy would be forecasting additional 3 week subscriptions and holding approximately that much and releasing excess. Then with subs you could say tea subs will start 1-2 weeks after subs based on demand. Again, just trying to help not be difficult.

Was giving input which is what was asked for.. thanks.

BoxerMama said

When I signed up for verdant’s it was almost 4 weeks before it shipped. Just like with a magazine subscription, you wont get it immediately just because you paid for it. If Frank were to ship immediately he would literally be the only company on the market to offer that, unless you signed up just before the cut off in a new month with another company.

Yes. however 52 teas has a weekly service. he asked for input. i gave a viable ‘solution’. i’m also a statistician so tend to think all thinks can be solved analyzing data.

BoxerMama said

All I’m saying is, if it were a viable solution, there would probably be at least one more company doing the same thing.

52 teas is one of the few companies which offers a weekly tea. Theres no reason to be rude. And your argument is ignorant and shows your lack of understanding of business as well as statistical analysis. He asked for input. I gave it. get over yourself. thanks.

BoxerMama said

The problem with the internet is that there is no way to take tone. My intent was to be witty or clever. I just now see this as another example of your outstanding negativity. Just, wow!

Hardly being negative to offer a suggestion for what would (likely) improve sales for a tea company. Others chiming in was a bit unnecessary as the responses were all negative and based largely on ignorance. You can take that as an example of my outstanding negativity or my lack of desire to deal with nonsense.

ugh

Insert Statistics joke here But seriously you are coming off negative and arrogant. You call us dumb and say we don’t know what we are talking about, even though most of use have tea subscriptions and understand why he has to have the wait. If you have actually read over his bio you would understand why he can’t do all the stuff that big companies do; but since his is a small business it has that artisan charm.

And yes we know he has a weekly tea subscription. What you are missing is that with that service it is a LUMP-SUM. This service is a pay as you go. Also since you haven’t noticed from my earlier comment, the main benefit and audience that he is trying to reach is international and Canadian costumers. This subscription would be way cheaper and more doable then the other pay up front lump-sum subscriptions he has right now. Here is my point on that again, since you didn’t get it the first time:

“Plus if you are Canadian or International I can see this saving you a good bit of money. If you bought the current lump-sum 6 week subscription, plus the extra shipping charge it comes out to $80 ($95 for international). If you opt for the 3 week version they would only have to pay $60.”

If you have ever gone on his site you would see that some of his teas as said before either sell out that day or stick around in large amounts for weeks. Ergo, THERE ARE TO MANY VARIABLES AND NOT ENOUGH CONSTANTS CONCERNING THE POPULARITY AND DEMAND OF A CERTAIN TEA HE MAKES EACH WEEK TO PRODUCE A STRONG AND USABLE CORRELATION TO PROJECT THE POPULARITY OF EACH TEA HE PUTS OUT, THERE BY MAKING IT DIFFICULT TO ACCURATELY ASSESS EACH TEAS RATE OF RETURN AND MAKING EACH NEW TEA BLEND EXTREMELY VOLATILE. THIS MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ALWAYS PRECISELY KNOW HOW BIG A BATCH OF TEA TO MAKE WHILE NOT SPENDING TO MUCH ON A TEA THAT ISN’T SELLING, THUS CAUSING HIS INVENTORY TO DROWN.

To end the point here is what he is trying to save money on buy doing this:
Postage, ex. packaging materials and stamps
and
Money on tea supplies to re-blend a tea when there is still a lot left over

Were not saying don’t give input and constructive criticism, were saying not to be arrogant and condescending about it. Otherwise statistics will show that people find you rude and negative.

Can’t we all just get along?

I just want to note here that THIS TIME, I didn’t start or encourage the argument. Just saying. =)

Ya – this is ridiculous. I was simply offering a suggestion and instead it degrading to this nonsense. You can think i’m negative or this that or the other. I don’t really care. Nor do I care to bother reading this nonsense thread anymore or even your post when all I cared to do was offer a suggestion to the distributor to improve sales.

Thanks Ze for your reply, it was intelligent and warranted :)
Made my day.

Are you seriously joining in late and baiting me to continue this trash DaisyChubb ? wow.

Oh my god just everybody stop. Go have a cuppa and stop being angry.

Lala said

@Michelle – Agreed!!!!!

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TeaLady441 said

I think it sounds like a pretty good idea, and the price is pretty reasonable, especially for us Canadians.

Shipping them out in groups makes sense, and while I’m sad I’d have to wait a few weeks after the first tea is released before I actually get to try everything, at least I’d have all the reviews on Steepster to read and get me excited in the meantime.

Sil select said

I usually let frank’s teas sit for a couple of weeks as well, so no issue here with the wait.

I agree, $30 for three weeks seems totally reasonable and I would consider doing this for a while if it was that price. And I agree that having to wait is not a big deal, seems standard to me.

Kittenna said

I’m so used to waiting to get tea, and not being the first to try things, that it doesn’t bother me in the slightest :D I so want a 52teas subscription…

I totally put it on my birthday list. But I’m pretty sure my family will be like what! She doesn’t need more tea….

TeaLady441 said

Oh good idea! This year I will totally ask for tea subscriptions! :O

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