Superlative Comments & Tea Prices?
Do superlative comments, such as the following, correlate with tea price increases?
- “This tea is AMAZING!!”
- This is the finest _____ (type of tea) I’ve EVER tasted!
- I enoyed this tea so much I purchased a tong! (or plan to)
- A tasing score of 90 or 95 points (and above)
- Etc.
In other words, when joyfully sharing our best tasting discoveries with other Steepster members (and the rest of the world too), are we inadvertently “shooting ourselves in the foot” by potentially encouraging price increases – how quickly &/or often prices rise?
Topic Update / Clarification
It’s understandable that:
- All companies need to make a profit to stay in business. If a supplier’s costs go up, prices will also need to increase.
- Annual cost of providing proper long-term puerh storage is necessary and fair. Aging puerh under the correct conditions can improve flavor and thus adds value.
This topic just focuses on if there is a correlation between superlative comments and how quickly &/or often prices rise?
I don’t know about other vendors, at least I won’t raise my price just because of the positive comments could bring me more customers. I think the price of the tea is supposed to be set depends on the price you got not because how popular it is. Puerh is another story.
I don’t think vendors raise prices based on comments. What could happen perhaps is that certain teas run out of stock quickly and perhaps you won’t find discounts deals on them as often as teas with more stock.
To assume that tea vendors are going to raise prices because of one or two positive reviews here shows a lack of understanding of the global tea market. Reviews on this site can certainly effect the sales of a vendor from American and Western European customers to some extent. But the majority of the global tea market doesn’t read Steepster. So only the English speaking group of buyers may be effected. As many companies in China for instance sell more to Russia than to America I don’t see it effecting them. I do think there are a few vendors who might raise prices due to comments here but only a very few that heavily get their business from Steepster members. Any vendor whom the US market is only 10% of their business is not going to raise prices. And some of the bigger US vendors don’t pay attention to Steepster at all such as Simpson and Vail, Lupica, Teavana, Puerhshop, and not to mention Davids Tea, a Canadian company. These are just a few big companies people buy from here who could seem to care less about Steepster.
Allan, Please notice in my OP, I didn’t say there was a correlation. Rather I asked if superlative comments might affect prices?
Certainly you make a very good point that the US is only a fraction of the world tea market. It would be very interesting to know how far the world reach of Steepster may be especially among English-speaking tea suppliers including those that are active on Steepster.
Sorry, I was not paying quite close enough attention to what you wrote but giving some thoughts on the subject. I can think of one sort of instance where a tea having a lot of really good reviews on Steepster might cause a price increase. If the tea company was a small company that depended heavily on Steepster to drive it’s sales. There are a few that fit this profile, Whispering Pines and Mandala Tea to name two that come to mind. And by this I am not saying that either person would actually raise prices because of this because they might see that the good will of the community is worth more than making a little more on one tea.
Hmmm… The only time we raise a price is if our costs start to go so high on a product that we need to increase. As a smaller vendors, we have to work even harder and at a lower margin than larger places in order to stay competitive and generate sales. All costs have gone up significantly for us all in the last few years. Shipping (to us and from us), credit card/paypal processing fees, biz space rental, material costs, tea.- nothing has gone down. We have seen increases across the board.
If an item we sell gets great reviews, we aren’t going to raise the price. We are happy for good reviews because it means we might sell more of the product which can help make up for the margin loss. Maybe make up low margin with higher volume of sales.
Some prices that may be raised is pu’er tea. The longer it is stored properly, the more value is added to the tea. In essence, an increase in pu’er price is a storage/aging fee. It’s lots of money sitting on shelves in the form of tea. Wine, if it’s good, continues to go up in value as it ages. Pu’er is the same. And as a particular vintage begins to disappear, the price goes up due to supply/demand. Why shouldn’t a dealer make more for their investment and their time and space?
Us smaller vendors have a passion for the product and we love to get it into as many hands/cups as we can and still make something of a living while doing so. We can’t give it away and we sure don’t want to stick it to anyone, either.
Thanks! Wishing all a very very good night and an enjoyable weekend. Keep praying for CA! And Puerto Rico and heck, might as well just pray for us all :)
I can only speak for myself here, but I don’t raise my prices when I get a positive review. I’m grateful to the people on Steepster who take the time to write a tasting note for my teas – that feedback helps me grow as a blender.
Theoretically, they could. Consider some basic economics. You have a tea which has a very limited quantity. People are willing to pay a wide range of prices for this tea. The term is elasticity. The price of the tea is highly elastic.
Typically the price of a tea would be influenced by:
1. Cost of growing.
2. Cost of refining.
3. Wholesale costs.
4. Retail costs
These are all input costs which determine the basic price of a tea.
So then on top of this price, you have the price that demand creates.
A good example is a National tea competition. Let’s say one is won by a particular tea.
There is a limited quantity and a huge amount of positive publicity (similar to good reviews).
The question is whether or not the grower / wholesaler / retailer is going to stick it to the customer.
Interesting topic. I have also seen some discussion about this lately. Some websites seems to increase their prices based on what tea sells the best or receives the most praise online.
Price is pretty much supply and demand. If a tea becomes so popular that it becomes scarce, then higher prices result. This has to be a global response, so Steepster would be small potatoes. For most vendors, high ratings on steepster means they go back to their suppliers, buy more tea, and sell more. This would probably be the best route to profits.
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