If you’re reading this from your brick-and-mortar tea shop, congratulations! You made it through the pandemic pandemonium to thrive. Perhaps you initiated delivery or curbside pickups, revamped the web site to garner more e-commerce, and/or got on the phone to call or text your favorite customers and remind them that you have their beloved teas and accessories back in stock.

Like-minded retailers who did these pivots are doing well, but what about the future?

Think Local

Now that more institutions are re-opening even if on a limited basis, they need you to make the openings exceptional. By working with local B&Bs and hotels, offer beautifully curated gift baskets that welcome guests while promoting your goods and services. Hotels and B&Bs, including Airbnbs, can order on an as-needed basis and you can fill the baskets with seasonal products and teas. (Don’t forget to put your business cards in the basket!) P.S. Remind hoteliers that customers love gifts, and are quick to tell their friends, making this offering an inexpensive way to increase their brand in the most positive way.

For museums, theatres, or galleries staging welcome-back openings, suggest a more intriguing alternative to the mundane wine-and-cheese service. Offer a demo in the lobby or even outside to enjoy the summer temperatures, of a gungfu tea service with fine tea poured into thimble cups. This becomes both a tasting sample and the cup is a small gift that visitors can take home. Take it a step further: for each participant in the tasting, give them a ticket for a gift of teas and a small teapot as a prize.

This is a win-win for all three participants: Visitors get a tea treat, Gallery/Museum/Theater managers get kudos for originality, and Your Tea Shop connects with a plethora of potential new customers!

P.S. Have at least two assistants to answer questions, pass out tea samples to take home, and of course, any paper promotional materials or business cards.

Think Beyond Your Region

No matter what size community your shop is in, staying profitable means reaching beyond your town’s borders. What better way than the Subscription Box Model?

Every business imaginable from arts & crafts, wine & beer, and personalized clothing shoppers have followed the fastest-growing retailer category, the subscription box model. Just look at the humungous success of grocery delivery companies who offer weekly/bi-weekly groceries or prepared foods.

This model can work online or in-store; include set products, or offer a build-your-own choice from store inventory. Best of all, it can generate multiple sales when customers buy the program both for themselves and as gifts for friends and family members.

This model goes much further than tea-of-the-month programs which pretty much stick to teas only. In this model, each month is a surprise in the box, showcasing not just teas but tea-related products made locally such as tea cozies, tea napery and linens; hand-crafted cups, tea bowls, and teapots; candles and candlesticks, and your own proprietary blends using locally-sourced herbs, flowers, and plants. In fact, the possibilities are endless and supporting local businesses extends your reach, and brand, throughout the community. The reciprocal possibilities are endless.

Packaging and promotion should capitalize on a new logo tied in with the name you choose; recyclable boxes (if possible) that give customers a reason to return them to you and have them refilled, and you can always add a sample or two to entice further sales.

Pricing can be a challenge, so factor in time and materials to package the items; cost of the items; and the often-inevitable oops factor to cover rising costs or errors. Providing a discount for multiple boxes or choosing 3, 6, and 12-month deliveries makes it easier for customers to experiment and to extend their participation.

As for shipping and handling, it is what it is, and most customers understand that. Still, it is a great selling point to offer discounted or free shipping for those who opt for multiple box purchases.

Be Efficient, Yet Experiment

At the moment, there’s no need to convince the public that ordering online is comfortable and easy; they love it! Sales are double and triple over previous years for all areas of retail.

Still, some consumers long for a more personal shopping experience and, as your community opens up, you can segue from limited visitors to whatever the traffic brings into your shop. You might side with caution and with employees being masked and, as possible, ask the same of your customers. Keep those bottles of sanitizers all around the store and make sure your employees are observing hygiene protocol. If nothing else, we’ve discovered frequent hand washing or sanitizing reduces colds and flus, as well as protecting us from the much more serious virus.

The bottom line is to be efficient and safe while experimenting with new ideas. Efficiency means sticking with the services that worked the best, and experimentation means building on what excites customers: tasting and smelling samples of new teas, learning about new electric tea kettles or other tea preparation products, and being nudged to check out your other inventory whether it’s books, stationery, beauty and health items, or specialty foods packaged or made by you.

Two More Ways to Experiment: Use a QR Code

If you’d think your products are perfect for the next generation of tea-drinkers, get your techy on create a QR code for your tea biz.

What’s a QR code? It’s an easy way to drive traffic to your website, tearoom, or tea shop. Once you have it displayed, anyone with a smartphone can point their camera to the square containing the QR code and auto-link directly to your business.

Another advantage is that the small digital files are resizable, easy to post on any social media platform (or email), and ideal for business cards, flyers, window signs or anywhere you’d like to track new, and old, customers. And, not to worry, your current group of customers will easily learn how to point-and-shoot their phone cameras to use the QR Code.

The gizmos that create these magic squares, are QR Code Generators, and they’re free online or downloadable from a free app from any App Store. Even better, you only have to do this once. If you use a third party seller (like Etsy) check if they have pre-made ones just for you.

Re-consider Delivery Protocols:

Have you added Grubhub and DoorDash, Lyft, Alto, and Uber (who recently acquired Postmates) to your delivery services list? Great. They’re easy for you and for your customer, and despite the fee, are probably less costly than your in-house delivery service because you save on insurance, labor, and maintenance costs.

If nothing else, we encourage you to sustain or add curbside delivery. This gives your staff an opportunity to connect, even briefly, with consumers face to face (masked or not), offer promotional materiel or tea samples, and deliver the orders quickly and without the added costs of professional door-to-door services. It also helps those who want to visit you can do so, while sustaining safe protocol.