Most tea retailers organize their catalogs by tea type: one section for green tea, one for oolong, one for herbal tea. This arrangement is convenient for inventory but useless for sales, because no one walks into a store to buy an oxidized tea. People buy it to brew every morning, to give as gifts to their bosses, to sell in their shops, or to brew for their mothers to help them sleep. An effective catalog should therefore be built by customer group: each group has a complete product set with specific specifications, pricing, and consulting methods. This article describes six product sets for six common customer groups and how to assemble them into a working catalog.
1. Why can’t a product serve all customer groups?
The biggest temptation when starting a business is to find a really good product and sell it to everyone. In reality, the same high-quality Thai Nguyen green tea will fail to please at least three groups of customers. Tea connoisseurs will complain because it lacks depth and specific information about the growing region. Shop owners will reject it because the 100-gram portion is too small and the price per cup is too high. Gift-buyers will ignore it because the packaging isn’t elegant enough.
What differs between groups is not just the quality of the tea, but also three accompanying variables: specifications, packaging, and price. Using the same raw materials, simply changing these three variables results in three different products serving three different groups. This is the principle behind building a product catalog without increasing the number of product codes.
2. Household product range
This group generates the most stable revenue and experiences minimal seasonal fluctuations. Their needs are simple: tea for daily consumption, familiar flavors, reasonable prices, and a single purchase lasting several weeks. A suitable product line would include two to three different green tea varieties at three different price points for customers to choose from according to their budget, a lightly flavored tea like jasmine tea for those who prefer a milder taste, and a tea bag option for younger family members.
Common packaging options include 100-gram and 200-gram packs, with 500-gram bags available for long-term regular customers. The packaging should be simple, airtight, and have a zip lock for easy storage. The group’s top priority is consistency: the tea must taste the same each time. An unannounced change in flavor is enough to lose a regular customer who’s been buying for two years.
3. A product set for tea connoisseurs.
This group is small in number but determines the professional reputation of the distributor. They buy small amounts at a time but consistently, ask detailed questions, and make very discerning comparisons. The product range needs depth rather than breadth: one or two specialty green teas from specific regions like Tan Cuong or La Bang, one ancient Shan Tuyet tea from Suoi Giang, Hoang Su Phi, or Ta Xua, one Cau Dat Oolong tea, and if possible, add one Shan white or black tea.
The sample sizes should be small, from 50 to 100 grams, because they like to try many different types. What this group pays for is not just the tea itself, but the information: growing region, variety, harvesting time, processing method, suggested brewing ratios and water temperatures. A sample set of three to four small types is the most effective sales tool for this group.
4. Product range for bars and HORECA establishments.
For beverage shops, tea is an input ingredient, not a finished product. Their criteria are cost per cup, consistency between batches, and the ability to deliver on time. The product range should include black tea as the base for milk teas, jasmine and green tea for fruit teas, oolong tea in raw form for more upscale drinks, and possibly loose black tea leaves for machine-brewed beverages.
The products are packaged in large bags ranging from one to five kilograms, sealed, and clearly marked with the production and expiration dates. Prices are calculated per kilogram, resulting in a thinner profit margin compared to smaller quantities, but the production volume is consistent and predictable. What sets this group apart isn’t the price, but the service: detailed mixing formulas with specific ratios, free samples for restaurants to try new dishes, and a commitment to maintaining a consistent supply of ingredients throughout the partnership.
5. Product sets for corporate gifts
This group makes purchases in batches, focusing on the fourth quarter and leading up to Tet (Lunar New Year). The order value is large, but requires months of advance preparation. The product range should be designed with three distinct price tiers to allow customers to easily choose according to their budget: a standard tier for large-scale employee gifts, a mid-range tier for regular partners, and a high-end tier for important clients.
Each box typically contains two to four types of tea in jars or foil pouches, possibly combining specialty green tea with oolong or Shan Tuyet tea for a more diverse experience. The packaging and the ability to print the company logo, along with a personalized greeting card, are key factors in securing an order. The quantity and box design should be finalized at least six weeks before peak season, as the time required for ordering and printing boxes is often a major bottleneck, even more so than the tea supply.
6. A product line for health-conscious customers.
This is a fast-growing group with less price competition than others, as buyers look for benefits rather than comparing every thousand dong. The product range includes single herbal teas such as chamomile, artichoke, pagoda flower, lotus leaf, ginger, lemongrass, and centella, along with some blended options with a real tea base combined with herbs or dried fruits. Tea bags are the most suitable format due to their convenience and pre-measured quantities.
A crucial requirement for this group is discipline in communication. No promises of cures, and no language resembling medicine. A safer and more persuasive presentation involves describing the ingredients, their origin, usage instructions, and appropriate timing. Complete product documentation is a minimum requirement, especially if intending to sell in pharmacies or supermarkets.
7. Product suite for online channels
Online selling has its own set of requirements that product categories must adhere to. Products must withstand shipping, remain undamaged, and have a reasonable weight so that shipping costs don’t eat up all the profit. Attractive but bulky hard boxes are often less effective than tin foil bags or flat cardboard boxes. 100-gram packages and sample sets are the two best-selling formats, as new customers often want to try products before buying in larger quantities.
The online catalog should be concise, around eight to twelve items, each with clear photos of the tea leaves, tea infusion, and packaging, along with a detailed description to help customers make a decision without asking. There should be at least one low-priced item as a lead product, and higher-priced items should appear in suggested add-ons, ensuring the average order value isn’t at its lowest.
8. Bait products, profit products, and retention products
Each product line should have three distinct roles. The seed product is an easily accessible, low-cost, low-risk option for first-time buyers: a 100-gram pack of common green tea, a small box of tea bags, or a sample set of three. Its role isn’t to generate profit, but rather to build relationships and create customer data.
Profitable products are those with high margins: oolong tea, flavored tea, gift boxes, and products with clear packaging and compelling stories. This is where real profit is generated. Retention products are those that customers buy repeatedly as a habit, often everyday teas with consistent quality across seasons. A product line lacking retention will always have to seek new customers, and the cost of acquiring new customers is always higher than the cost of retaining existing ones.
9. Using the same base material, differing in specifications.
The key to controlling the number of product codes when serving multiple customer groups is to separate the concept of raw materials from the concept of finished products. A fairly high-quality Thai Nguyen green tea base can be transformed into four different products: a 200-gram zip bag for households, a 100-gram jar in a gift box for customers to give as gifts, a one-kilogram bag for shops, and a 50-gram sample set for first-time online customers.
This approach keeps the amount of raw materials imported low while maintaining a sufficiently wide range of products for sale. Focusing capital on fewer tea varieties allows for better price negotiations and easier quality control. The increased costs are mainly in packaging, which is significantly cheaper than stocking a new tea variety.
10. Assemble the components into a fully functional system.
No dealer should serve all six groups right from the start. The practical approach is to choose the two groups with the largest market share in their area, build complete product lines for them, and then add a third group once the first two have a steady stream of repeat customers. The choice of which group to target depends on the characteristics of the area, not on the stated profit margin.
When assembling the units, three things need to be checked: whether there is a shared code between the units to save capital, whether each unit fulfills the three roles of bait, profit, and retention, and whether there are price conflicts between the units. Price conflicts are the most common risk: wholesale customers discover that online retail prices are lower than their purchase price, and trust is lost much faster than it takes to build.