Coming from the land of chai, here’s how you can sell tea online

In India, tea forms a part of the country’s culture that is often synonymous to happiness and relaxation. While there are thousands of Indian tea drinkers who couldn’t imagine starting their day without their strong cup of morning chai, there are those others who are slowly adapting to the taste of specialty teas. Owing to the geography and growing demand in the market, India has been amongst the largest producers of tea in the world where 75%* of the produce is consumed locally and the rest is exported across the globe.

Imagine being part of a market that caters to the demands of a nation with a population of approximately eight billion. There will always be a taker for that one extra cup of chai.

So, how can you set up a tea store online?
The simplest and the quickest way might be to set up your online tea store with Amazon. All you need are the following four things to set up the base of your business:
>Contact Details – Name, Phone Number, Email Address & Postal Address
>GST number/ID – Visit the A-to-Z GST guide to learn how to acquire one.
>PAN (Permanent account number) number for business
>Bank Account Details to receive your payment

Selling tea on Amazon requires you to list it under the Grocery & Gourmet Foods category. To ensure that customers are able to buy with confidence, there are a few requirements that all Amazon sellers must fulfil before listing their products under this category. You can access the entire list of requirements from the Seller Central portal by logging in with your Seller Account username and password. If you don't have a Seller Central account yet, you can quickly register and sign up for one. Once you are confident that you meet the criteria, you can click on the Request Approval button. You can also go through a step-by-step guide that will help you through the entire process.

As you get an approval to sell tea on Amazon, you can simultaneously create catalogues for your entire range of products. Since there are different varieties of tea that you can sell, from the regular masala chai, to the different variants of green tea and the latest novelty that is the fruit and flower flavoured tea. An excellent quality catalogue with proper images and accurate product description will help you get your first order really quickly and also simplify the process of listing them to your online store.

For a quick overview of all the steps required to launch your online tea store on Amazon post registration, please refer the checklist mentioned below:

>Go through the eligibility criteria and requirement list thoroughly
>Create a catalogue and identify all the required product fields to be added
>Request for approval to add and list products
>Once the approval is received, you can upload the catalogue flat file and list your products

That’s it, and you are ready to launch your online tea store as you sip on your own cuppa.

Source:
Tea Board India; Government of India Website
India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF.org)