Free Tea for Your Feedback!

Hi there!
Well, I have always LOVED the colors you have chosen for your site…I have been there several times over the last few weeks, actually.

It’s nice and clean and easy to read!

I LOVE the photographs you chose…especially the one on the side on the page titled SHARING A CUP OF CULTURE. I always like to see health/benefits info and you have that as well!

Your labels and tins look very nice, too! I hope to add some to my stash some day soon!

I also like the ‘translation’ of the tea names – that always nice to see in both languages, too! The Tea Descriptions are awesome!

I’d love to see some more green teas, but I am thinking that will all come with time, am I right!? And I was wondering about black and flavored teas as well or are you shying away from those on purpose? Just curious.

I also like the info on the right side of each tea/product page! Great job there, too!

I think your site is really user friendly and I can wait to see more Tea Valley Reviews, chatter, and hopefully, soon, try some for myself!

As for suggestions…I think you have a lot of great stuff covered already…maybe just continue to build on your “culture” side of things…keep that branding going! Maybe tell us more about the tea farmers you know and deal with or their lifestyles. Or maybe related charities or ways to help support the regions you support – that sort of thing.

Thanks for connecting with us Steepsterities!

I really like your introduction on the home page. I don’t know how many people actually read those kinds of things… but I do, because it reveals to me the kind of person that I’d be buying from – what tea means to them. I like to purchase tea from people who respect tea as much as I do.

The colors of the site are very nice. You have good photos – they show the products but they are also visually interesting (not just a pile of tea).

You have a decent selection of teas. I like that your “sidebar” has a lot of pertinent information about the teas including brewing parameters, as this is something that some tea companies overlook.

I love that you use Paypal, because that is my personal favorite way to purchase online.

I don’t know that I have a lot of suggestions… I think that your website defines the type of tea company you are, and I like that. It is visually a very beautiful site, and it seems to be very user friendly.

First off let me say that I really like the layout of your site, it appears to be very well put together in a seamless fashion. Which I think is awesome for a brand new site!

Now the only negative thing that I could see was that under the FAQ link, this topic line: “What is the appropriate way to story tea?” “story” should be “store”. Other than that, I honestly don’t see any other glitches.

One other thing that I had a question on was if you carry white teas and if so where is it located at? If not, is there a reason? Do you concentrate specifically on greens/oolongs/pu-erhs mainly?

Aside from those two things above, I love your color scheme… I feel warm and cozy while searching your site. Your pictures are greats and of good quality and I like that I can see the tin that my tea would be arriving in (I have a thing about tea tins).

I also like that I can easily navigate around your site with ease, any questions I may have are all right there and in easy view. (Major plus! Some are really hard to find certain things, like the companies return policy or contact info).

I also like how you gave your customers the ability to get to know you through your “Our Story” link. I think this makes people more comfortable and feel as though they can “connect” with the seller better.

Kudos, for the new site! Congrats! ;-)

I will work on writing a detailed review this evening once I have put my daughter to bed for the night. Much easier that way. :-)

Thanks for the opportunity!
I’m going to critique your website all with a view to help you guys (as much as I can, which I’m no expert, simply a customer!) bring in sales as much as possible.

I. Information/Content you deem important that we should include on our site:
I have found that the tea companies who provide lots of information about the teas they carry, brewing instructions, tea history, recipes, and other bits of information, have the best websites and the ones I’d most likely buy from. Two websites that come to mind are www.hibiki-an.com and www.denstea.com. Both share stories about the harvest that year, about how their teas are grown, brewing suggestions, and more (they include brewing instructions on the page of each tea like you guys do, but they also have whole sections on brewing tea which are fun and very helpful to read). http://www.hibiki-an.com/readings/how-to-enjoy-green-tea.html or http://www.denstea.com/index.php?main_page=page_5#brewingmain .

Other content that is helpful is direction if you are new to tea. If you have a link where people who are new to (Chinese) teas can go and be directed as to what they should try out based on their tastes. (Example: http://www.denstea.com/index.php?main_page=tea_navigator). For me, being able to sample something before buying is HUGE! It shows a company is so confident in their product that they will give a little free because they know the customer will come back for more.

In each full page where you can select an individual tea and find out more about it (example http://www.theteavalley.com/Selection/Oolong_Tea/TGY-HX.aspx), on the right you have “brewing instructions” that aren’t very precise. Everyone enjoys tea differently, but perhaps you could say “Boiling Water, or 170 degree water” and generally use more precise measurements to help people who are newer to tea have a basic idea of what works.

II. FAQ questions that you would like to see addressed
As I mentioned above, you should have a few questions that explain the differences between the teas you carry to help people decide which they might like best (ie “Choosing a Tea”).

III. Influencing factors that lead to purchases
1. Being able to sample teas before buying. Either an initial sample(s) provided to try, or a free sample(s) included with orders.
2. Reduced or free shipping for orders over certain values (example, if shipping was reduced for orders over $20, or free if the order was over $60, or whatever numbers work best for you).
3. Coupons, discounts, and promotions (getting something like this on a monthly basis, even if it is a 15% discount, or free shipping or something like that), especially if you send those things out via email for people who sign up. That generates excitement (at least for me) and gets me to look at the website again.
4. The impression that the tea you get is limited, that it only comes around once/yr, or that the promotion you are offering is only available for a limited time. I know I have been influenced by this, because then I want to take advantage of a product or a discount while it is available.

IV. Tea selection/suggestions
I think the tea selection you have looks good, and as others have said, I’m sure you’ll expand it as you grow. I too would like to see more Chinese green teas available. I would also make it clearer on your website the quality of your various teas. I can somewhat tell by the price, but if you included a symbol, rating system, or name “Regular, Superior, Premium, etc” to indicate the quality more clearly. In the mini-description (here: www.theteavalley.com/Selection/Green_Tea/Green_Teas.aspx ) you do mention quality, but if you had a system of some kind, that would more clearly indicate which teas are of high, middle, and standard quality.

V. Product names, price points and sizes (general feeling, suggestion, comparisons, etc.)
I like too, that you use the pin-yin Chinese name for your teas. However, I think you should also include the english translation subtitle as well. Having an “english” name that people can associate with the tea can help so that it doesn’t seem as intimidating. For example, your Hangzhou Shi Feng Long Jing could have a subtitle “Lion’s Peak Dragonwell” (on this page is where you could insert subtitles http://www.theteavalley.com/Selection/Green_Tea/Green_Teas.aspx).
Regarding sizes, they do seem a little small. I would almost never buy 1 oz, as that wouldn’t be worth the shipping to me, because I will use it up quickly. I know you are probably trying to keep your prices low, and therefore send smaller quantities, but 25 grams hardly seems worth it. Maybe you have found it to be popular, but it seems better to have a very small amount (say 10 gram sample) for a low cost of $1-$3, and then to have the smallest order size be 50 grams (or larger of course).

VI. Layout, navigation and design
Like others have said, I love the colors you’ve used, the photos, and the name of your company, logo (the Chinese character above the valley) and the main photo of the valley as well. It definitely leaves an impression and I really liked what I saw.
I would say two things about the layout that could be improved (in my opinion only!). :) First, I think you should increase the size of the website frame, so that the brown border with leaves is smaller. On the home page this doesn’t make a big difference, but on this page especially http://www.theteavalley.com/Selection/Oolong_Tea/Oolong_Teas.aspx it would help to be able to see ALL of the teas together and to not have to scroll up and down. So if the overall window took up more space (the border was smaller), then there would be more space to display all of the teas in that category, and thus no need for a mini scroll bar. The window that displays all of your Oolong teas just feels too small, and it would be nice if you could see everything easier.

VII. Typos and errors
First paragraph, last sentence of home page, " While offering tea may just seem like a simple gesture, the act provided an environment for my family and their friends to indulge in sincere conversations and interrelate on human level." – this needs to probably say, “interrelate on a human level.” Instead of “on human level.”

I hope this helps!
Overall, I would say I really like your website, themes, and the ‘purpose’ of your company – “rediscover something we have long took for granted, the art of conversation. Join us in our journey. Invite your friends and share a cup of tea with them. Disconnect from your distractions and reconnect with those around you.”
Good luck and God bless!

You’re welcome!
Yeah, wow, I hadn’t thought about the fact that it would be a lot more difficult to package 10 grams of loose tea! I’ve seen it done, but didn’t think about the mechanics involved.

I thought of two other things I wanted to mention:
1) One the home page or tea selection page, you might consider having a list of all of your teas on a sidebar for quick and easy access (for example, see on this page the links to all the teas on the left http://www.denstea.com/ ). I can see why you wouldn’t choose to do that (especially on the home page) for style reasons, but it could be helpful on the Tea Selection Page.
2) I noticed another thing—on ‘Our Story’ at the end you wrote: “Soon after my realization, my fiancé and I decided to establish The Tea Valley Company.” For male, you use “fiancé”, and for female the spelling is “fiancée.”

Wow, everyone covered most of it!
-I also love the colors
-I do not like your use of iframes (see FAQ page, oolong page, benefits page) as i expect to use the browser scroll bar not one on the page
-I want a way to get to the other tea types if I decide i made the wrong choice (for example i am on oolong and want green) without having to go back to the main tea type selector
-ditto on the fabulous photos
-I like the our story and homepage opening introduction, it makes it less corporate and more “local shop” feeling
-i love all the information on the “learn more” pages
-I like the paypal checkout

Hey Everyone,

Thank you for the overwhelming number of great replies and suggestions! Just want to remind everyone that the contest will end this week Saturday so be sure to get your two cents in if you haven’t already done so. It is ok if your opinion is similar to what others have said. It just reiterates to us that the mentioned issues are something that need to be addressed.

Thanks again guys!

Jian

Well i’m kinda a novice here, so i’m not sure how helpful my suggestions will be but here goes.
I love the look of the site. It feels really cozy. And the photographs are beautiful, I wish i could get some of these in a picture form and hang em on my wall.
I really like the information that you included with the teas. The descriptions are very thorough. As a novice on alot of tea sites I feel that they already assume you’re a tea conniseur, and know what everything should taste like by the name. So i really like that you included a description of the taste. The way the description is written makes it sound like a friend recommending a favorite tea, rather than a store listing a product. All the information about how to store the tea is great for begginer tea drinkers like myself. That being said the long chinese names get kind confusing trying to remember a tea I wanted to try. I think english translations under the chinese would make it easier to go back to a tea i was thinking about later.
Some of the sizes seemed different going from different teas, some were 60 grams, some were 40, 80, others 125. I don’t know why that is, perhaps you are remarketing prepackaged teas from another company idk. If that’s the case you can ignore this paragraph. But if i were going to order a bunch of different teas, personally I don’t want to sit and figure out which size for each tea will work for me.
Best sellers list’s are always awesome. And i’m sure you’re going to expand your range of products later.
I think you should advertise about your shipping more, rather than on the FAQ page. I don’t think flashy advertisements on the side would suite you very well for your site. Would seem to commercial and ruin some of the beauty of it. Maybe you could have a small banner across the top under your company logo. You could have it change as people are surfing, and have interesting facts about tea as well as special promotions, and your shipping deals. Although i have no idea the computer programming involved in this so that may be ridiculous.
On the oolong page where you have alot of teas on one page, having the scroll bar in the middle of the page is kinda annoying. Especially cause their is so much more white space to work with. I don’t know how else to describe it, but I hate using a scroll in a page, i’d rather scroll down the whole page.

Typos/Spelling Errors
On the Dong Ting Bi Luo Chun-Don’t be fooled the tea’s color. Should be Don’t be fooled by the tea’s color perhaps.

That’s all I’ve got for now, Hope that helps.

Beautiful site, first of all. I love the picture on the front page.

- The front page doesn’t really look like a shop… more like an informative site. It may be nice to have something on the front (a best seller, or a deal, etc). that catches the eye. When I first went to the site it took me a moment to figure out where the teas were.

- Being from Canada, one of the first things I want to know is does a shop ship here, and how much is it. This information would be nice in a separate page, rather than buried in the FAQ.

- There may be a few too many “clicks” to get to actually buying a tea. For example, when I click on green tea, it would be nice to be taken directly to a page that shows prices/weights for all the different varieties. It makes it easier for me to compare.

- As someone said above, English translations for the tea names would be useful for us beginners who do not recognize the Chinese names.

- The tea pictures are BEAUTIFUL, and I love the sidebar with the instructions (especially the shelf life!)

- You only take paypal? This may be a problem for some that do not use it.

- Overall, it is a beautiful site, and I am sure you will tweak it many times. Good luck!