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Any Rodinhood doing e-commerce of Tea?I’m looking for Tea e-commerce industry insights and how to start a Tea e-commerce venture.

By Angshuman Adhikari on 10 Comments / 1536 views

I am from Assam and I want to start a tea e-commerce company. As a local I have a good base of tea suppliers but have no experience in e-commerce specially shipping to overseas locations.I need a good insight into the Tea e-commerce industry and very curious on the following points:-

1)How to ship our products into any country outside inside. To be specific US, UK, Russia, Iran, Germany and France(as per my research these are the potential markets)? How to find the shipment companies?

2)What type of payment gateway do I need for the specific currencies of countries that I listed above can accept?

3)What are the merchant charges for international payments?

4)How to work on dispute resolution?

5)What type of website theme do I need for e-commerce?What type of online security do I need?What are the yearly website maintenance charges?(I already have a coder)

6)cash on delivery does it can be implemented for Tea e-commerce?(national/international)

7)What are the legal paperwork that I have to do before opening the venture?

8) Is there any specific government regulations for e-commerce companies?

and anything that is necessary to know for opening a Tea e-commerce.

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10 Comments

  1. Hey Angshuman

    Connect with me 

    https://facebook.com/ibunkerz

    email: talehelp@yahoo.com

    tring tring : +91 970 621 5257

    I think I can help. 🙂

    I am from Guwahati

  2. Thanks Kamal for your Reply

  3. A few of your questions answered:

    1. Use something like FedEx.  You can’t go in for a cheaper service coz you need to project high brand value as well as timely delivery with minimal risk of shipment damage.

    2. Paypal is the easiest to integrate.  Some Indian gateways support international payments.

    3. Charges are what they are, bundle it into your price.  Don’t be driven by charges but keep an eye on it, card companies are notorious for shafting the unsuspecting merchant especially on international transactions.

    4. Customer disputes?  Give them a free replacement.  Yes, I know sounds crazy, but it works and you gain a customer for life.  Only a dedicated scammer will abuse that.  You can ban those who abuse the privilege.  

    5. Use a hosted ecommerce site like shopify kartrocket etc.  Don’t invest in your own hosting setup just yet.  Will take too long and will eat into your cashflow like crazy.

    Most importantly though: Have a very strong differentiator in your product offering.  High end tea is almost a commodity these days. 

  4. Thanks Abey for your valuable opinion

  5. All the best!

  6. Check out “TeaBox (http://www.teabox.com)” This young guy from Siliguri is already creating waves. You would find good number of write ups on his venture on different forum. Who knows – if you get in touch with him – he would be able to give you some tips. Straight from the horse’s mouth!!

    Cheers,

    Vivek

    P.S. They got funding of $1MM from Accel Partners!!!

  7. Thanks Vivek for your reply. I already read the TeaBox story and got inspired from it but this time I will consider to get in touch with them. Thanks again.

  8. Kaushal Dugar CEO & Founder at Teabox got featured in New York Times 🙂

  9. Would like to answer your question based on my experience with eCommerce. If you need help in setting up an eCommerce Store with payment solution I can help you. For details visit https://www.72interactive.in to know more about our services, offering and packages.

    1)How to ship our products into any country outside inside. To be specific US, UK, Russia, Iran, Germany and France(as per my research these are the potential markets)? How to find the shipment companies?

    I guess you would be shipping small qty, like 250grms, 500grms or 1 kg packs. Hence you can tieup with logistic partners like FedEX, DHL, UPS.

    2)What type of payment gateway do I need for the specific currencies of countries that I listed above can accept?

    If you are exclusively looking for international marketing, consider PayPal, since it is trusted world wide. If you are looking for international, don’t consider Indian payment gateways since they might not be trusted by international customers.

    3)What are the merchant charges for international payments?

    The average TDR is close to 3 to 5%.

    4)How to work on dispute resolution?

    You need to set standard dispute policies with clear return policies. If you are not comfortable to accept return, you can put in upfront on your website, we have some client who don’t accept returns and they are doing well. Additionally you would get into this stage when you start receiving approx 1000+ orders/day.

    5)What type of website theme do I need for e-commerce?What type of online security do I need?What are the yearly website maintenance charges?(I already have a coder)

    Don’t work with a Coder, instead hire a team/company which has experience to handle eCommerce. You can look for launching a standard eCommerce Store with clean design. The technology company can easily help you with security etc, you should look at hiring a good technology partner.

    Look at some of our packages – https://www.72interactive.in/packages/ecommerce-website-packages.html

    6)cash on delivery does it can be implemented for Tea e-commerce?(national/international)

    Depends, if you don’t want COD, you need not enable it. COD is only applicable in India. Internationally there is not COD option, I have never heard in 14yrs of my career.

    7)What are the legal paperwork that I have to do before opening the venture?

    Speak to a CA, they would be able to provide you more details on it. But if you are talking about company type you can look at PVT. LTD.

    8) Is there any specific government regulations for e-commerce companies?

    No, I have not heard so far (until you are looking for international funding). Just be fare in your dealing.

    and anything that is necessary to know for opening a Tea e-commerce.

    Couple of things you should know:

    1. You should understand the Tea Trade very well.

    2. You should decide what kind of packing are you looking. Will you be building your own brand or will you sell others on your store.

    3. Ensure you have good marketing budget, i suggest at least 1,00,000 a month for at least 6 months.Though you will be able to recover these cost if marketing is well planned.

    4. You can add recipes, this would help you bring additional traffic to website.

    5. Make sure your price is competitive since you might be competing with brands like Taj, Brooke Bond etc.

    6. Education Material – Have education material, helping people understand about tea, history etc. this would again help you bring additional traffic to website.

    7. Plan it well. 

    I hope I had been helpful to you. Take a look at some of eCommerce store build by us

    https://www.printawallpaper.com

    https://www.theboxerstore.co.in

    https://www.kapoorlampshade.com

    https://www.michelleryandesigns.com/

  10. Hi Angshuman, 

    Did you get what you were looking for ?  At BizResearchLabs, we are into all sorts of business research, infact have also done one study for tea industry in past.  Would love to help you gather insights on it, if you are still looking for it. 

    You can let me know at gaurav@bizresearchlabs.com 

    Thanks,

    Gaurav

    BizResearchLabs.com

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