Oh man, this is hitting the spot right now. The nice thing about this CTC is that it is quite a bit more forgiving than most CTCs that I’ve had. I know I overleafed but it really doesn’t taste that way and in the past I certainly let the time go for 2min+ without repercussions. Some days you just need a nice CTC to push you out of exhaustion. The bready notes are especially present but I love how the chocolate notes peak through. Sometimes when a cup of tea is just perfect, I tend to let out a sigh. I notice this mostly with the Premium Taiwanese Assam but I definitely sighed when I had this cup.
I’m finally starting to catch up on some emails and random work that has been put off because of the sale. It feels good to have finally gotten every single order out and to be mostly caught up on other orders. During the sale we discontinued Strawberry Oolong & Premium Chai. Unfortunately, we also ran out of our Khongea Golden Tips. Khongea decided not to sell the golden tips this year which means that we have to rework Ruby Pie and Malty Irish Breakfast. I think this time around we will be making the Ruby Pie gluten-free, that way we will have only gluten-free products.
So, I have been thinking about Black Friday through Cyber Monday. I know it is months away but it is really important to prep in advance since it is so crazy. We typically do sales all 4 days. Each day is like our Birthday Bash with the buy certain level and get a certain amount in free tea. Plus each day there are special bonuses like buy $60 in tea and get a new exclusive tea or something like that. We also run contests. I’m trying to figure out if this year we should change the format to gaining a percentage off of the order instead. I waver back and forth. The percentage off would mean we would have to refund every order which would be a pain. This is because we use PayPal as our shopping cart which doesn’t allow for promo codes. Unfortunately, we trapped ourselves into this because changing the cart now with over a hundred products would be very time consuming and potentially expensive but it will have to be done at some point. I do like the idea of free teas because it maybe allows someone to splurge a little. Not really sure what would be preferred.
Also, been thinking about doing a Tea of the Week special. It wouldn’t necessarily be every week but at the beginning of a week I would do a blog about a tea, discuss why it is in our collection, take some more detailed pictures, brew it (western, gongfu, and grandpas style) with notes, and maybe answer some questions. Also, we would offer that tea at a discounted rated for the entire week. Not sure if there is any interest in this.
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I really like the Tea of the Week idea! :D
Personally, I am not a fan of the “buy this much and get this free” on anything because it forces me to spend a certain amount and I have a budget. For example, what if I want only $40 + shipping but the minimum amount to get free stuff is higher. I like sales where I get money off. Sadly, like you said, you can’t do promo codes. I think it’s the psychology of it. Some People like seeing -6.99 under the total.
I personally like discount coupons too, but that sucks about Paypal making it difficult. I’m surprised to hear it works like that!
And the tiered sale with free does work for me, but it does require a lot more planning than I’m used to. :P I’m not sure how else you could do it though, so I’ll just be happy that you’re able to offer some promo that I can take advantage of!
I like the tea of the week idea. I liked the birthday bash special with the tiers and getting something for free, but I know how much work that is for you, validating that the orders are right amounts, etc. You could do a spend X amount, get a tea from this list for free kind of special. Yes, it limits the options people have, but I think it would be easier for you.
I like the percentage off idea. I don’t really know about PayPal or running a website but would it be easier to do the percentage off of the teas each instead of the whole order? Also I like the idea of brewing teas in different ways it’s nice to get different perspectives from the same tea
Cavocorax-The problem is that PayPal is our sole shopping cart system. They don’t offer coupon codes at all. I do like them though because I feel like it is a more secure checkout system for our customers but it comes with a few problems. Another issue is that it allows previous purchases or saved orders to sit in the cart for a very long time. Great for the customer, nightmare for us and one of the reasons we don’t do sales as much anymore. We would have people buying things we no longer carry, items that had price raises at the old price, and shopping carts full of items on sale that haven’t been on sale for years.
So it seems like the tea of the week idea would work. Awesome! Now to think about which tea to do first. Maybe our Kenyan Silver Needles?
I think I might do a poll for the Black Friday Sale. Or maybe I mix it up. Maybe the first 2 days are a percentage off and the next 2 gets you free tea? Would still do a tier system. Maybe 20% off all order, orders over $40 25%, orders over $60 27% or something like that.
Krystal-Unfortunately, doing individual sales for every tea would be a nightmare the way our code is set up now.
I don’t have an issue with refunding the money but I think this could create 2 problems.
1. Not seeing the percentage off right there might allow people to misspurchase thinking they are getting off more/less then anticipated.
2. Influx of emails asking for the refund or questions about the refund, creating much more work when we won’t be able to get to all of the emails right away. Even if explicitly stated in rules, this could be an issue. Especially, if someone is worried that they won’t qualify for the refund.
I dislike the tea of The week idea because of the Canada factor…I preferred your sales of 1-3 things that could be encorporated into an order. I LOVE the blog idea through :)
I had no idea uncompleted purchases sat in the cart and caused headaches for you! I found tons of things before my last order that were still in my cart from previous orders I decided not to finish at the time. I cleared them all out and started again, but I’ll remember from now on to make sure to clear that cart as soon as I decide to wait on a wishlist!
Weighing in late on this one, but I love the tea of the week idea.
I do prefer a percent-off sale model. What if we all lobby PayPal to start allowing coupon codes?
Good to know! :)
I really like the Tea of the Week idea! :D
Personally, I am not a fan of the “buy this much and get this free” on anything because it forces me to spend a certain amount and I have a budget. For example, what if I want only $40 + shipping but the minimum amount to get free stuff is higher. I like sales where I get money off. Sadly, like you said, you can’t do promo codes. I think it’s the psychology of it. Some People like seeing -6.99 under the total.
I personally like discount coupons too, but that sucks about Paypal making it difficult. I’m surprised to hear it works like that!
And the tiered sale with free does work for me, but it does require a lot more planning than I’m used to. :P I’m not sure how else you could do it though, so I’ll just be happy that you’re able to offer some promo that I can take advantage of!
I like the tea of the week idea. I liked the birthday bash special with the tiers and getting something for free, but I know how much work that is for you, validating that the orders are right amounts, etc. You could do a spend X amount, get a tea from this list for free kind of special. Yes, it limits the options people have, but I think it would be easier for you.
I like the percentage off idea. I don’t really know about PayPal or running a website but would it be easier to do the percentage off of the teas each instead of the whole order? Also I like the idea of brewing teas in different ways it’s nice to get different perspectives from the same tea
Cavocorax-The problem is that PayPal is our sole shopping cart system. They don’t offer coupon codes at all. I do like them though because I feel like it is a more secure checkout system for our customers but it comes with a few problems. Another issue is that it allows previous purchases or saved orders to sit in the cart for a very long time. Great for the customer, nightmare for us and one of the reasons we don’t do sales as much anymore. We would have people buying things we no longer carry, items that had price raises at the old price, and shopping carts full of items on sale that haven’t been on sale for years.
So it seems like the tea of the week idea would work. Awesome! Now to think about which tea to do first. Maybe our Kenyan Silver Needles?
I think I might do a poll for the Black Friday Sale. Or maybe I mix it up. Maybe the first 2 days are a percentage off and the next 2 gets you free tea? Would still do a tier system. Maybe 20% off all order, orders over $40 25%, orders over $60 27% or something like that.
Krystal-Unfortunately, doing individual sales for every tea would be a nightmare the way our code is set up now.
I don’t have an issue with refunding the money but I think this could create 2 problems.
1. Not seeing the percentage off right there might allow people to misspurchase thinking they are getting off more/less then anticipated.
2. Influx of emails asking for the refund or questions about the refund, creating much more work when we won’t be able to get to all of the emails right away. Even if explicitly stated in rules, this could be an issue. Especially, if someone is worried that they won’t qualify for the refund.
I dislike the tea of The week idea because of the Canada factor…I preferred your sales of 1-3 things that could be encorporated into an order. I LOVE the blog idea through :)
I had no idea uncompleted purchases sat in the cart and caused headaches for you! I found tons of things before my last order that were still in my cart from previous orders I decided not to finish at the time. I cleared them all out and started again, but I’ll remember from now on to make sure to clear that cart as soon as I decide to wait on a wishlist!
Weighing in late on this one, but I love the tea of the week idea.
I do prefer a percent-off sale model. What if we all lobby PayPal to start allowing coupon codes?
Good to know! :)