

TaaS: Tea as a Service - We've launched a monthly tea subscription service - fadys

My friend and I are launching teapeat.com. Please let me know what you think.<p>We've used Stripe for the recurring payments and it's made things a lot easier than past attempts with other gateway APIs.<p>We'll be A/B testing different copy, images, and buttons, so expect a blog post soon with those results.
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ryduh
Clickable: <http://teapeat.com/>

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jonnycowboy
Check out graze.com, very similar service in the UK (though with healthy
snacks instead of tea). They deliver weekly and manage to get cheaper postage
by declaring themselves as a 'magazine'. For graze, you say which snacks (tea
types/sources in your case) you like and which you don't like. Then they
deliver a new one on your 'like' list every week. Every week it's 4 different
snacks that are mailed to you.

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dfc
Peets has a similar service for tea. How do you expect to distinguish
yourself?

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helen842000
I think it's a really good idea that craft coffee lets you order a tasting
box.

Maybe that would be something that would give you a higher margin and show
users the quality of your service?

Also I think if you subscribe to teapeat it would be great to get access to
some associated content.

Either a little video, podcast showing how to brew it, details about it. That
would build a great community that keeps coming back to the site which would
result in better upselling opportunities.

Currently you get people to sign up and the only time they might come back is
to cancel!

Build a community of tea lovers & hold onto them!

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latch
Suggestion:

1-

The site doesn't seem to mention anything, but you should consider posting
brewing instructions on the website for each tea you send out as well as in
the package. Different teas are supposed to be brewed differently. Some long,
some short, some in hot water, some in warm water. So with each package you
could include the tea name (I assume you do already), with a link,
teapeat.com/instructions/<teaname>.

2-

I'd put more focus on the "enough to brew a cup every day for the entire
month". I think that makes the service, but it was buried. I'd stick it on the
homepage, on the main image.

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laxk
Who will create Coffee as a Service? :)

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littledude
<http://craftcoffee.com/>

:)

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TheDahv
This is pretty awesome. I really like the site as well; the layout and
information is all pretty clear. I really like that the subscription form
tells you in clear terms when you will be charged and when your tea will ship.

I think my wife and I are going to try it out. What is the coupon thing about?

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fadys
Thanks. We tried really hard to make sure that the site was clear and that any
questions were answered before subscribing.

I included the coupon field because it's an option within Stripe. I just
wanted to be thorough from the gate. I may issue coupon codes in the future
for various events.

If I do, you'd be able to use one and it'll adjust your subscription price
moving forward (there's a field in the billing section of the user dashboard
that would allow you enter it in).

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AznHisoka
Is there a way to get more than 1 type of tea in 1 month? Say a sampler of 3-6
types of teas?

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fadys
I'm thinking of giving the option of a monthly sampler of 4 teas (1 per week).
I'd have to charge a little more for that because of the extra packaging and
other associated costs. It is on my list, however.

I also want to create a "gift" option to make it easy for users to give yearly
subscriptions as gifts.

Any other ideas?

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lewisflude
I love tea, but I'm in the UK. Stripe is a cool service, bro.

Hope the A/B testing goes well and everything.

:)

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pchew
Unless you plan on solely targeting entry level tea drinkers, you really need
to provide more information about your tea. Give a preview of what you plan to
ship for the next few months, the tea, the region it's from, when it was
picked, etc. For all I know you're going to send me a box of Tazo loose leaf
every month.

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fadys
Yeah, I think you're right. I'll add a page listing the types of tea likely to
be sent (with a description of each, as you've suggested).

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pchew
Sounds good. Sorry if that came off as harsh, I meant to expand on the 'you
really need to' because there are similar services being offered by
established tea retailers that do include all of that information, and such
information is important to most tea-junkies. Even though I think it's clear
that your service is aiming for a more frugal, less picky market than most of
those, it's definitely better not to alienate them.

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fadys
I wouldn't say that I am targeting a frugal, less picky market. I think those
buyers just get a box of tea from their grocery store every week.

I plan on sending teas like the organic Long Jing Dragonwell tea. Depending on
the number of subscribers that month, I'll likely take a loss on many of those
teas since the tea and associated shipping costs may exceed the $24 monthly
price.

I have to reach a certain threshold of monthly subscribers (with a fixed
churn) to reach profitability.

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md1515
This is a pretty neat idea. I am not sure if something similar exists (the
model is becoming popular, but with tea I do not know).

From a technical standpoint I do not have a whole lot to say. The site is
straight-forward easy to share via social media and is pleasant.

In terms of the business model, I worry about a few things. Targeting tea
drinkers is fine and even going so far as to targeting organic lovers is
good/profitable too. You limit yourself (in my opinion) with the amount of
tea. Not everyone who likes tea will like it every single day. Typically this
would be fine, but the amount is reflected in the price which is, in my
opinion, kind of high. Determine if your margins are too high here because the
cost might put some people off. Just my two cents...good luck with it.

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fadys
Margins vary from tea to tea and are generally slim. There are some teas that
I expect to lose money on and others that have slim margins. I'm assuming that
marketing the service as less than a dollar a day will go a long way in giving
the "affordable" signal.

Since all tea is shipped on the same day and bought in bulk, I'll have to rely
on volume to make it a profitable business.

With respect to the amount of tea, I, as a tea drinker, drink multiple cups of
tea per day. I figured one cup per day for subscribers would be the ideal way
to go.

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md1515
Okay, well in that case let us both hope there are more people like you than
me! :)

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fadys
I hope so too.

I know there are passionate people for all types of products. I think it was
bemmu (an HNer) who started Candy Japan, a subscription service for Japanese
candy, of all things. I'd think tea would have a larger market :)

Thanks for your well-wishes.

