Gone are the days when the option of buying tea was just limited to offline, in retail stores. Now, it has become significantly convenient for customers to buy tea online from the comfort of their home.
But when it comes to comparing both shopping options, which is better for regular customers? We have compared both options in this post for various scenarios, check them out below:
Convenience of Shopping
For the convenience of shopping, shopping tea online is better in most cases when compared to the hassle of having to travel short or long distances to visit a retail store for which customers have to spend extra time and money.
Shopping tea online is significantly convenient during hot summers and wet monsoons when many customers do not want to travel in the sweltering heat and water-logged roads in monsoon months.
Tea Product Options
When it comes to comparing offline and online shopping options for tea varieties, online shopping option takes the throne. This is mainly due to the fact that retail stores usually stock only the mainstream tea products that customers buy on a regular basis.
On the contrary, online tea brands offer a variety of options, such as regular tea products, premium tea products, premium long leaf tea varieties, speciality teas, imported tea varieties, and more.
Tea Product Quality
Mainstream tea products available on offline retail stores and supermarkets have regular quality of tea leaves. For premium tea quality, customers can get better options in online tea stores.
In fact, many new online tea brands source their teas directly from the tea estates and gardens. By avoiding middle men like tea resellers, such tea brands are able to offer superior tea quality while keeping the prices in check.
Offers and Discounts
For offers and discounts in the offline tea shopping option, supermarkets are a good option as they have monthly offers, such as buy 2 get 1 free sale. But small-sized independently owned retail shops do not provide customers with such offers.
Online tea stores also have great offers on regular tea products as well as premium tea products. Ocassional sale and monthly offers, such as buy 1 get 1 free are the trend in tea ecommerce stores. Also, many online tea brands offers free tea accessories with qualifying purchases that can elevate the tea drinking experience for a lot of customers.
Ease of Payment
Payment can be challenging topic to compare offline with online tea shopping. It is obvious that paying in cash for tea packs at retail stores is simple. However, many customers pay through debit/credit cards and UPI at supermarkets which is more or less the same as paying through card or UPI at online tea stores.
In fact, many payment technology companies in India, such as Razorpay, have made it effortless and secure for customers to make their payments in online stores through multiple options, such as debit and credit cards, UPIs such as Google Pay, pay later platforms, and more.